1 00:00:03,310 --> 00:00:06,517 A 747 plummets towards the Pacific Ocean. 2 00:00:06,620 --> 00:00:13,275 People just popped up like popcorn. 3 00:00:13,379 --> 00:00:18,931 Engines 1, 2 and 3 have lost thrust! 4 00:00:19,034 --> 00:00:21,931 This airplane is totally out of control. 5 00:00:22,034 --> 00:00:23,137 It is going to crash. 6 00:00:23,241 --> 00:00:30,827 In two minutes, China Airlines Flight 006 drops 7 00:00:30,931 --> 00:00:33,827 10 kilometers through the clouds. 8 00:00:33,931 --> 00:00:38,137 Airspeed 2-seventy... 2-eighty... 2-ninety. 9 00:00:38,241 --> 00:00:40,655 The plane begins to tear itself apart 10 00:00:40,758 --> 00:00:42,724 as it spirals toward the sea. 11 00:00:42,827 --> 00:00:51,034 I closed my eyes. I thought I was gone. 12 00:00:51,137 --> 00:00:59,758 Altitude 15-thousand feet... 12-thousand feet... 13 00:00:59,862 --> 00:01:01,413 10-thousand feet... Emergency... Emergency. 14 00:01:26,137 --> 00:01:27,862 February the 19th, 1985. 15 00:01:29,586 --> 00:01:30,896 A China Airlines flight 16 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,965 cruises across the Pacific to Los Angeles. 17 00:01:34,068 --> 00:01:37,000 At 12-thousand metres, it's racing towards the dawn. 18 00:01:39,137 --> 00:01:41,862 For the passengers and crew on board, it's past midnight. 19 00:01:45,862 --> 00:01:48,655 A two-man relief crew is in charge of the plane... 20 00:01:48,758 --> 00:01:51,275 as it sails above the ocean on autopilot. 21 00:01:53,034 --> 00:01:56,206 The main crew get several hours off in the middle of the trip 22 00:01:56,310 --> 00:01:57,793 so they're rested for the landing. 23 00:02:02,137 --> 00:02:04,275 But Captain Mmyuan Ho is restless. 24 00:02:04,379 --> 00:02:08,931 Good morning gentlemen. 25 00:02:09,034 --> 00:02:12,724 Even though he's not officially on duty yet, 26 00:02:12,827 --> 00:02:14,689 Captain Ho returns to the cockpit. 27 00:02:14,793 --> 00:02:19,517 Thought I'd keep you company. 28 00:02:21,586 --> 00:02:24,931 The Captain isn't the only one up. 29 00:02:25,034 --> 00:02:26,793 Best friends Seksan Caniyo 30 00:02:26,896 --> 00:02:28,965 and Alex Noll have something to celebrate. 31 00:02:29,068 --> 00:02:31,517 I feel like I'm in first class. 32 00:02:31,620 --> 00:02:33,379 It's Seksan's 30th birthday. 33 00:02:33,482 --> 00:02:36,344 I had the longest birthday 34 00:02:36,448 --> 00:02:38,413 because I just gained my twelve hours back. 35 00:02:40,482 --> 00:02:44,000 We'd been drinking champagne, celebrating, 36 00:02:44,103 --> 00:02:46,551 forty-one thousand feet in the air. 37 00:02:46,655 --> 00:02:48,000 You know, not too many people get to do that. 38 00:02:48,103 --> 00:02:52,137 Bill Peacock is in first class. 39 00:02:52,241 --> 00:02:54,965 He's traveled all over the world for the American government. 40 00:02:55,068 --> 00:02:56,931 There was nothing special. 41 00:02:57,034 --> 00:02:59,206 It was a routine commercial flight. 42 00:02:59,310 --> 00:03:01,551 I had a very nice first class seat. 43 00:03:01,655 --> 00:03:04,551 Sat there and read some books. Went to sleep. 44 00:03:04,655 --> 00:03:12,965 By now, the plane is nearing the coast of California. 45 00:03:13,068 --> 00:03:20,896 Good morning ladies and gentlemen. 46 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,310 We will shortly be serving you breakfast. 47 00:03:24,413 --> 00:03:25,896 For those of you who wish to adjust your watches, 48 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,758 the local time in Los Angeles is now seven a.m. 49 00:03:31,862 --> 00:03:32,689 Sleep well? 50 00:03:32,793 --> 00:03:34,034 Very well, sir. Thank you. 51 00:03:34,137 --> 00:03:35,655 Good morning captain. 52 00:03:35,758 --> 00:03:37,965 After their five-hour break, 53 00:03:38,068 --> 00:03:40,034 the flight crew is reunited in the cockpit. 54 00:03:45,137 --> 00:03:47,965 Soon after, the plane runs into some stiff winds. 55 00:03:48,068 --> 00:03:52,793 Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. 56 00:03:52,896 --> 00:03:55,275 We're experiencing some light air turbulence. 57 00:03:55,379 --> 00:03:56,310 Please fasten your seat belts. 58 00:03:56,413 --> 00:03:58,172 The autopilot is set to keep the plane 59 00:03:58,275 --> 00:04:01,758 flying at 4-hundred and 70 kilometres an hour. 60 00:04:01,862 --> 00:04:03,517 But with the wind blowing hard, 61 00:04:03,620 --> 00:04:06,000 it's increasingly difficult to maintain the speed. 62 00:04:08,034 --> 00:04:11,172 For the crew, the bumpy ride suddenly gets more worrying. 63 00:04:11,275 --> 00:04:13,413 Engine four is giving us weak thrust. 64 00:04:13,517 --> 00:04:16,551 There's a problem with one of the engines. 65 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,206 The flight engineer throttles up the engine. 66 00:04:23,517 --> 00:04:27,137 But it doesn't respond. We're losing speed. 67 00:04:27,241 --> 00:04:31,172 Back in economy, 68 00:04:31,275 --> 00:04:33,586 Seksan Caniyo has also noticed something. 69 00:04:33,689 --> 00:04:35,517 You notice the light on that wing 70 00:04:35,620 --> 00:04:36,689 isn't flashing anymore. 71 00:04:36,793 --> 00:04:38,413 So what? 72 00:04:38,517 --> 00:04:40,379 I thought there was some light 73 00:04:40,482 --> 00:04:42,758 blinking at the tip of the wing. 74 00:04:42,862 --> 00:04:44,448 It looked like a cone. 75 00:04:45,896 --> 00:04:50,793 But when I looked back this time, I didn't see no cone. 76 00:04:50,896 --> 00:04:52,482 Well, the light on that wing is still flashing. 77 00:04:53,620 --> 00:05:00,931 I think you've had a few buddy. Have a seat. 78 00:05:01,034 --> 00:05:02,034 In the cockpit, 79 00:05:02,137 --> 00:05:05,000 the strange situation suddenly gets much worse. 80 00:05:05,103 --> 00:05:07,344 Engine four flamed out. 81 00:05:07,448 --> 00:05:11,448 The fourth engine stops working completely. 82 00:05:11,551 --> 00:05:15,000 Take a look at the engine out procedures. 83 00:05:15,103 --> 00:05:17,206 Work out a 3-engine cruise altitude. 84 00:05:17,310 --> 00:05:18,689 The problem with the fourth engine 85 00:05:18,793 --> 00:05:20,241 isn't a complete surprise. 86 00:05:22,620 --> 00:05:25,137 At the pre-flight briefing, Captain Ho was told that 87 00:05:25,241 --> 00:05:28,000 a repair crew had worked on engine four before the flight. 88 00:05:31,482 --> 00:05:33,827 Perhaps the engine still wasn't working properly. 89 00:05:33,931 --> 00:05:38,655 We had a SNAG Advisory on engine four 90 00:05:38,758 --> 00:05:41,068 before we took off - maybe that's it. 91 00:05:41,172 --> 00:05:43,241 Without the fourth engine, 92 00:05:43,344 --> 00:05:45,241 the plane continues to slow down. 93 00:05:45,344 --> 00:05:48,862 Airspeed 2-forty. 94 00:05:48,965 --> 00:05:53,793 Call Oakland Center and request a lower altitude. 95 00:05:53,896 --> 00:05:59,620 Oakland Center. Dynasty 006. 96 00:06:00,793 --> 00:06:04,758 Requesting new altitude. 97 00:06:04,862 --> 00:06:06,758 Dynasty 006. Standby. 98 00:06:12,379 --> 00:06:15,103 Re-ignite engine four. Yes captain. 99 00:06:15,206 --> 00:06:18,068 At this altitude, there isn't much oxygen, 100 00:06:18,172 --> 00:06:20,793 so the chances of a successful relight are slim. 101 00:06:28,310 --> 00:06:29,482 No response captain. 102 00:06:32,793 --> 00:06:35,551 As the crew try to restart their engine, 103 00:06:35,655 --> 00:06:38,068 their plane slowly begins to roll to the right. 104 00:06:38,172 --> 00:06:42,827 Dynasty 006, you are cleared to Flight 2-forty. 105 00:06:42,931 --> 00:06:45,862 We're banking right, captain. Airspeed 2-thirty. 106 00:06:45,965 --> 00:06:49,172 As the plane continues to turn and slow down, 107 00:06:49,275 --> 00:06:50,620 it's in danger of stalling. 108 00:06:50,724 --> 00:06:54,965 Altitude, hold off. Nose down. 109 00:06:55,068 --> 00:06:57,586 Hoping to increase his speed, 110 00:06:57,689 --> 00:07:00,448 Captain Ho tries pushing the plane's nose down. 111 00:07:02,896 --> 00:07:04,896 Nothing the crew does seems to help. 112 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,241 Their jet is banking more and more steeply. 113 00:07:07,344 --> 00:07:11,241 Dynasty, Flight 006. Oakland Center. 114 00:07:11,344 --> 00:07:13,517 How do you hear me? Air speed 2-twenty! 115 00:07:13,620 --> 00:07:16,413 We're banking right captain! I'm disengaging autopilot. 116 00:07:22,758 --> 00:07:24,482 For the first time, 117 00:07:24,586 --> 00:07:26,896 Captain Ho takes manual control of the plane. 118 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:32,758 Seatbelts! 119 00:07:32,862 --> 00:07:35,068 He struggles with the controls. 120 00:07:35,172 --> 00:07:38,000 But the plane has veered into thick cloud. 121 00:07:38,103 --> 00:07:41,206 And he can't see the horizon as he tries to keep his jet level. 122 00:07:42,551 --> 00:07:43,965 I've lost ADI! 123 00:07:44,068 --> 00:07:45,379 The ADIs have malfunctioned! 124 00:07:45,482 --> 00:07:47,862 It's going out of limits! 125 00:07:47,965 --> 00:07:53,862 Just minutes after their fourth engine stopped 126 00:07:53,965 --> 00:07:57,241 working, the China Airlines flight suddenly stalls 127 00:07:57,344 --> 00:07:59,068 and begins falling from the sky. 128 00:07:59,172 --> 00:08:18,275 People just popped up like popcorn, hitting the cabin. 129 00:08:18,379 --> 00:08:23,896 And all the tray was flying, hot teapot, noodles... 130 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,379 And all the luggage from the compartments was hitting people. 131 00:08:27,482 --> 00:08:29,655 You could hear rivets popping. 132 00:08:29,758 --> 00:08:31,931 It sounded like bullets were hitting 133 00:08:32,034 --> 00:08:33,137 the outside of the aircraft. 134 00:08:33,241 --> 00:08:35,068 Which, you know, we're out in the middle of the ocean. 135 00:08:35,172 --> 00:08:39,517 Nobody's shooting at us. 136 00:08:39,620 --> 00:08:41,275 At that time, we didn't know 137 00:08:41,379 --> 00:08:42,620 if we were gonna live or die. 138 00:08:42,724 --> 00:08:48,241 China Airlines flight 006 is out of control, 139 00:08:48,344 --> 00:08:49,931 and hurtling towards the ocean. 140 00:08:50,034 --> 00:09:01,896 A China Airlines jet is tumbling out of the sky. 141 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:03,586 After losing power to one engine, 142 00:09:03,689 --> 00:09:05,413 the jet is spinning out of control. 143 00:09:10,068 --> 00:09:12,931 It's dropping fast, straight towards the Pacific Ocean. 144 00:09:13,034 --> 00:09:20,551 You can see the stewardesses, all these 145 00:09:20,655 --> 00:09:23,586 people who didn't have their seatbelts on, they were flying. 146 00:09:46,413 --> 00:09:48,931 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, how do you hear me? 147 00:09:49,034 --> 00:09:50,379 The crew are stunned - 148 00:09:50,482 --> 00:09:53,000 blind-sided by their jet's bizarre behavior. 149 00:09:53,103 --> 00:09:54,965 Engines one, two and three have lost thrust! 150 00:09:59,931 --> 00:10:02,551 No response captain! 151 00:10:06,758 --> 00:10:08,172 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, how do you hear me? 152 00:10:10,103 --> 00:10:14,896 Air speed 2-seventy... 2-eighty... 2-ninety! 153 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,448 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, how do you hear me? 154 00:10:16,551 --> 00:10:21,793 Struggling against the plane's wild motion, 155 00:10:21,896 --> 00:10:25,137 the flight engineer tries again to restart his fourth engine. 156 00:10:32,482 --> 00:10:33,724 Ignition negative! 157 00:10:36,103 --> 00:10:37,896 The G-forces are so powerful 158 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:40,931 that the flight engineer is pinned to the control pedestal. 159 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:44,655 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, do you copy? 160 00:10:44,758 --> 00:10:47,137 You need to see this. 161 00:10:47,241 --> 00:10:49,758 In Oakland, Air Traffic control spots 162 00:10:49,862 --> 00:10:51,068 the plane's sudden descent. 163 00:10:52,724 --> 00:10:53,827 In a matter of seconds, 164 00:10:53,931 --> 00:10:56,862 the plane falls almost three thousand metres. 165 00:10:56,965 --> 00:11:03,931 Altitude, 3-7-0... 3-6-0... 3-5-0! 166 00:11:04,034 --> 00:11:06,275 In the cabin, the G-forces are punishing. 167 00:11:14,724 --> 00:11:18,241 I closed my eyes. I thought I was gone. 168 00:11:18,344 --> 00:11:20,310 I thought the plane just blew up in the mid-air. 169 00:11:20,413 --> 00:11:24,655 The plane is about to exceed its maximum speed. 170 00:11:24,758 --> 00:11:28,137 Approaching VMO! 171 00:11:28,241 --> 00:11:30,241 Tumbling madly through the clouds, 172 00:11:30,344 --> 00:11:33,655 the 747 finally starts to pull out of its nosedive. 173 00:11:38,137 --> 00:11:41,862 As the plane rights itself, the G-forces change direction. 174 00:11:41,965 --> 00:11:43,758 The passengers are pressed to the floor, 175 00:11:43,862 --> 00:11:45,896 feeling five times their normal weight. 176 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:52,241 I remember looking over at this dignified older 177 00:11:52,344 --> 00:11:55,413 Chinese gentleman who was sitting across the aisle 178 00:11:55,517 --> 00:11:59,000 from me and his face was being contorted like this, 179 00:11:59,103 --> 00:12:02,827 like he was lying on his side in a wax museum in a fire. 180 00:12:02,931 --> 00:12:04,965 I mean his face was just all contorted. 181 00:12:05,068 --> 00:12:07,137 As the crew struggles to regain 182 00:12:07,241 --> 00:12:09,586 control of the plane, it begins to slow down. 183 00:12:09,689 --> 00:12:11,586 Airspeed 1-eighty knots and falling. 184 00:12:11,689 --> 00:12:14,344 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, how do you read me? 185 00:12:16,655 --> 00:12:17,965 Airspeed 1-forty knots and falling. 186 00:12:18,068 --> 00:12:23,862 The jet is still dropping - but not as fast. 187 00:12:23,965 --> 00:12:26,586 This could be the crew's chance to regain control. 188 00:12:26,689 --> 00:12:29,103 I knew we were in real trouble, 189 00:12:29,206 --> 00:12:33,482 because the G-forces instead of being horizontal started 190 00:12:33,586 --> 00:12:37,413 moving around to the vertical. 191 00:12:37,517 --> 00:12:39,862 So we were being pushed down into our seats 192 00:12:39,965 --> 00:12:41,172 instead of sideways. 193 00:12:41,275 --> 00:12:45,103 As their speed continues to fall, 194 00:12:45,206 --> 00:12:47,103 the Flight Engineer reaches desperately 195 00:12:47,206 --> 00:12:48,275 for the engine throttles. 196 00:12:48,379 --> 00:12:49,862 Airspeed eighty knots and falling! 197 00:12:49,965 --> 00:12:51,724 But the engines don't respond. 198 00:12:53,896 --> 00:12:55,000 There's no response. The engines have flamed out. 199 00:12:55,103 --> 00:13:00,448 After tumbling three thousand metres in 30 seconds, 200 00:13:00,551 --> 00:13:03,344 the jumbo jet plunges again into another freefall. 201 00:13:12,655 --> 00:13:16,758 The second time, when it went down, this time it plunged. 202 00:13:18,034 --> 00:13:19,344 I mean, it went down. 203 00:13:19,448 --> 00:13:25,206 The change is swift. 204 00:13:25,310 --> 00:13:27,275 Once again, the passengers feel pulled 205 00:13:27,379 --> 00:13:28,793 towards the nose of the plane. 206 00:13:28,896 --> 00:13:35,413 You know, this airplane is totally out of control. 207 00:13:35,517 --> 00:13:36,620 It is going to crash. 208 00:13:41,103 --> 00:13:45,068 Stuff was falling around and flying around. 209 00:13:45,172 --> 00:13:48,034 Shoved to one side then stuffed to one side. 210 00:13:48,137 --> 00:13:52,068 So it was kind of like being on a boat that the gear has 211 00:13:52,172 --> 00:13:53,586 broken loose and it's just 212 00:13:53,689 --> 00:13:57,482 going back and forth with the waves. Ugly! 213 00:14:06,241 --> 00:14:08,586 My stomach was up to my throat. 214 00:14:11,517 --> 00:14:16,758 The smell of people urinating in their pants. 215 00:14:19,068 --> 00:14:23,275 I really made peace with the Lord. 216 00:14:23,379 --> 00:14:29,172 And I said to myself, I've really had a wonderful life. 217 00:14:29,275 --> 00:14:32,000 And if this is the end, I'm ready to do it. 218 00:14:32,103 --> 00:14:38,034 Altitude, 2-5-0! Airspeed 2-ninety! 219 00:14:38,137 --> 00:14:40,275 As the plane spins toward the ocean, 220 00:14:40,379 --> 00:14:42,310 the airspeed increases rapidly. 221 00:14:50,896 --> 00:14:53,586 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, do you hear me? 222 00:14:53,689 --> 00:14:56,241 With the crew struggling to control the plane, 223 00:14:56,344 --> 00:14:59,482 six separate calls from air traffic control go unanswered. 224 00:15:02,896 --> 00:15:04,034 The stress of the dive 225 00:15:04,137 --> 00:15:06,344 tears the landing gear doors off the plane. 226 00:15:08,068 --> 00:15:10,655 In less than a minute, the plane drops six kilometers. 227 00:15:10,758 --> 00:15:15,482 Hold on! Let's link arms. 228 00:15:15,586 --> 00:15:16,655 He said, 'I love you man.' 229 00:15:16,758 --> 00:15:17,758 And I told him, 'I love you man.' 230 00:15:17,862 --> 00:15:20,275 And we said goodbye to our wife. 231 00:15:20,379 --> 00:15:22,655 And he said something about his belonging, 232 00:15:22,758 --> 00:15:25,379 he give all his belonging to his wife. 233 00:15:25,482 --> 00:15:27,758 And, and that's when we just 234 00:15:27,862 --> 00:15:30,275 start pushing our chair back together. 235 00:15:30,379 --> 00:15:34,344 Altitude, 15-thousand feet. 236 00:15:34,448 --> 00:15:38,068 With no visible horizon line, 237 00:15:38,172 --> 00:15:40,103 Captain Ho doesn't know which way is up. 238 00:15:40,206 --> 00:15:41,931 We passed VMO. 239 00:15:42,034 --> 00:15:43,068 Without a reference, 240 00:15:43,172 --> 00:15:44,827 he can't stop the plane from spinning. 241 00:15:44,931 --> 00:15:48,517 Emergency... emergency! 242 00:15:48,620 --> 00:15:56,482 After blindly plunging thousands of metres, 243 00:15:56,586 --> 00:15:58,965 the plane finally breaks free from cloud. 244 00:15:59,068 --> 00:16:01,655 When this thing was falling down, 245 00:16:01,758 --> 00:16:03,310 it looked like you had a magnifying glass 246 00:16:03,413 --> 00:16:04,379 and you went like that. 247 00:16:04,482 --> 00:16:06,206 And, all of a sudden, the white water break 248 00:16:06,310 --> 00:16:09,827 coming closer and closer and faster and faster. 249 00:16:09,931 --> 00:16:12,310 It's like incredible. We thought we were gonna die. 250 00:16:13,655 --> 00:16:15,448 Altitude, 12-thousand feet. 251 00:16:15,551 --> 00:16:17,586 As he struggles for control, 252 00:16:17,689 --> 00:16:19,655 Captain Ho has only thirty seconds 253 00:16:19,758 --> 00:16:22,206 before his crippled plane smashes into the ocean. 254 00:16:30,517 --> 00:16:32,551 I can see the horizon! 255 00:16:32,655 --> 00:16:34,137 Altitude, 10-thousand feet! 256 00:16:34,241 --> 00:16:37,620 For the first time 257 00:16:37,724 --> 00:16:40,517 since beginning his harrowing descent, the Captain can 258 00:16:40,620 --> 00:16:44,758 now use the horizon line as a reference in leveling the plane. 259 00:16:44,862 --> 00:16:47,379 As he tries to pull the plane out of its dive, 260 00:16:47,482 --> 00:16:48,965 the passengers pay the price. 261 00:16:51,103 --> 00:16:53,034 Their bodies are forced into their seats, 262 00:16:53,137 --> 00:16:55,655 battered by another dramatic change in direction. 263 00:16:55,758 --> 00:17:00,137 The G-force was so strong. 264 00:17:00,241 --> 00:17:02,448 And I weigh 2-hundred pounds, 265 00:17:02,551 --> 00:17:05,103 so my weight was almost twelve hundred pound. 266 00:17:05,206 --> 00:17:11,482 It's a race against time, 267 00:17:11,586 --> 00:17:13,103 and the plane starts to win. 268 00:17:16,793 --> 00:17:17,758 ADI is coming back! 269 00:17:17,862 --> 00:17:20,482 As the plane finally begins to level, 270 00:17:20,586 --> 00:17:22,793 the attitude indicators return to normal. 271 00:17:22,896 --> 00:17:24,137 ADI is coming in. 272 00:17:24,241 --> 00:17:26,793 More importantly, as mysteriously as the incident 273 00:17:26,896 --> 00:17:29,689 began, three of the plane's engines regain power. 274 00:17:29,793 --> 00:17:32,103 Engines one, two and three are coming back. 275 00:17:34,172 --> 00:17:38,724 Engine four is still negative. Re-ignite engine four. 276 00:17:38,827 --> 00:17:39,758 Yes, captain. 277 00:17:39,862 --> 00:17:47,137 Once again, the flight engineer 278 00:17:47,241 --> 00:17:50,586 tries to re-ignite the fourth engine - but this time... 279 00:17:50,689 --> 00:17:52,172 Engine four re-ignited. 280 00:17:52,275 --> 00:17:58,275 For the first time in minutes, 281 00:17:58,379 --> 00:18:00,206 the plane is flying under control. 282 00:18:00,310 --> 00:18:02,413 They saved the airplane. 283 00:18:02,517 --> 00:18:05,034 They pulled the aircraft out of this acrobatic 284 00:18:05,137 --> 00:18:09,827 maneuver at an altitude of 9500 feet. 285 00:18:09,931 --> 00:18:12,931 They popped out of the clouds at 11000 feet 286 00:18:13,034 --> 00:18:16,034 and they had the plane in stable level flight 287 00:18:16,137 --> 00:18:18,344 by nine thousand five hundred feet. 288 00:18:18,448 --> 00:18:20,137 That was a masterpiece of flying. 289 00:18:20,241 --> 00:18:23,068 Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. 290 00:18:25,068 --> 00:18:28,241 Is anyone hurt? Do we have a doctor on board? 291 00:18:28,344 --> 00:18:35,793 This gentleman sitting behind me... 292 00:18:35,896 --> 00:18:40,275 he was all splattered in blood from hitting the compartment. 293 00:18:40,379 --> 00:18:42,034 So we kept flying. 294 00:18:42,137 --> 00:18:46,551 And next thing I knew that the whole plane 295 00:18:46,655 --> 00:18:49,241 was quiet, real quiet. 296 00:18:50,517 --> 00:18:52,344 Nobody talked very much. 297 00:18:52,448 --> 00:18:54,379 If they talked they were whispering 298 00:18:54,482 --> 00:18:57,758 because we still do know if we're going to live or die. 299 00:18:57,862 --> 00:19:02,241 Dynasty 006 fell off my screen, but she's back. 300 00:19:02,344 --> 00:19:04,551 A new controller, Brian Campbell, 301 00:19:04,655 --> 00:19:06,931 has taken over control of Dynasty 006. 302 00:19:07,034 --> 00:19:10,379 Dynasty OO6, Oakland Center, do you hear me? 303 00:19:12,137 --> 00:19:16,620 Can you fly the plane? 006, we are flamed out. 304 00:19:16,724 --> 00:19:23,862 We, ah... emergency. We are niner thousand, niner thousand. 305 00:19:23,965 --> 00:19:28,241 Roger, roger. We have radar contact. 306 00:19:28,344 --> 00:19:32,586 Oakland Center. Dynasty 006. We can control the aircraft. 307 00:19:32,689 --> 00:19:33,931 Roger, roger. 308 00:19:34,034 --> 00:19:35,448 Less than ten minutes after 309 00:19:35,551 --> 00:19:38,551 the start of their problems, everything seems normal again. 310 00:19:38,655 --> 00:19:41,517 Oakland Center request radar vectors to return to course. 311 00:19:41,620 --> 00:19:45,103 There really is nothing I can do to assist. 312 00:19:45,206 --> 00:19:47,793 He's the pilot, he's flying the airplane. 313 00:19:47,896 --> 00:19:50,827 I'm going to give him a safe altitude to descend to. 314 00:19:50,931 --> 00:19:52,344 I'm giving him a destination. 315 00:19:52,448 --> 00:19:56,827 It appeared to me that he was well in control of his aircraft. 316 00:19:56,931 --> 00:20:00,000 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center. 317 00:20:00,103 --> 00:20:02,241 Are you declaring an emergency? 318 00:20:02,344 --> 00:20:04,724 Do you want to divert to San Francisco? 319 00:20:04,827 --> 00:20:08,586 Negative Oakland Center. Condition normal now. 320 00:20:08,689 --> 00:20:11,379 We will continue to Los Angeles. 321 00:20:11,482 --> 00:20:13,517 Air Traffic Control clears the plane 322 00:20:13,620 --> 00:20:16,137 to climb to 10-thousand 5-hundred metres. 323 00:20:16,241 --> 00:20:19,034 But a new problem soon arises. Roger Oakland Center. 324 00:20:19,137 --> 00:20:23,724 Captain, our landing gear is down and locked. 325 00:20:23,827 --> 00:20:29,689 Can you bring them up? Negative. 326 00:20:29,793 --> 00:20:31,793 The hydraulic fluid in system one is empty. 327 00:20:31,896 --> 00:20:36,000 For some reason, the plane's landing gear is down. 328 00:20:36,103 --> 00:20:38,137 Hydraulic fluid, which controls the gear 329 00:20:38,241 --> 00:20:41,241 and many other parts of the plane, is also leaking away. 330 00:20:41,344 --> 00:20:45,310 Oakland Center, Dynasty 006. 331 00:20:45,413 --> 00:20:48,379 Request new clearance to maintain flight level 2-7-0. 332 00:20:48,482 --> 00:20:53,137 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center. Do you have injuries? 333 00:20:53,241 --> 00:20:58,827 Standby Oakland Center. Sir, are you okay? 334 00:21:01,896 --> 00:21:05,724 One passenger has suffered serious injuries, 335 00:21:05,827 --> 00:21:08,206 and two-dozen others have cuts and bruises. 336 00:21:08,310 --> 00:21:09,655 Oakland Center, Dynasty 006. 337 00:21:09,758 --> 00:21:11,689 We have at least two injuries on board. 338 00:21:11,793 --> 00:21:14,551 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center. 339 00:21:14,655 --> 00:21:16,689 Are you declaring an emergency? 340 00:21:16,793 --> 00:21:19,068 Do you want to divert to San Francisco? 341 00:21:19,172 --> 00:21:20,413 Standby, Oakland Center. 342 00:21:27,724 --> 00:21:30,551 Oakland Center, Dynasty 006. 343 00:21:30,655 --> 00:21:32,724 We are declaring an emergency. 344 00:21:32,827 --> 00:21:35,896 We request a direct route to San Francisco. 345 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,413 They cleared all the other airplanes out of the way. 346 00:21:38,517 --> 00:21:42,206 They give him clear runway. So nobody was waiting. 347 00:21:42,310 --> 00:21:44,000 He didn't have to wait for anybody else. 348 00:21:44,103 --> 00:21:45,482 He went straight in for a landing. 349 00:21:45,586 --> 00:21:50,137 Dynasty 006, Oakland Center. You are now cleared. 350 00:21:50,241 --> 00:21:52,689 You are free to descend at pilots' discretion. 351 00:21:52,793 --> 00:22:00,310 Captain Ho not only has injuries on board, 352 00:22:00,413 --> 00:22:03,448 the plane itself has been severely damaged. 353 00:22:03,551 --> 00:22:05,448 His rear elevators, which help control 354 00:22:05,551 --> 00:22:08,827 the altitude of the plane, don't seem to be working. 355 00:22:08,931 --> 00:22:11,172 Without them, landing his jet safely 356 00:22:11,275 --> 00:22:12,586 will be extremely difficult. 357 00:22:12,689 --> 00:22:16,793 The problem is it's a very big airplane, 358 00:22:16,896 --> 00:22:18,758 and it responds very slowly. 359 00:22:18,862 --> 00:22:21,689 And you just might not do it before you run out of air. 360 00:22:21,793 --> 00:22:27,448 You might hit the ocean. What you need is a very cool head. 361 00:22:27,551 --> 00:22:30,793 Captain Ho must now land using varying 362 00:22:30,896 --> 00:22:33,103 amounts of engine thrust. 363 00:22:33,206 --> 00:22:36,103 After pulling the plane out of its terrifying dive, 364 00:22:36,206 --> 00:22:41,517 if he makes one mistake, Flight 006 could still end in disaster. 365 00:22:41,620 --> 00:22:50,379 Nearing the end of a trip across the Pacific 366 00:22:50,482 --> 00:22:55,172 ocean, China Airlines flight 006 falls suddenly from the sky. 367 00:22:55,275 --> 00:23:01,344 No response... The engines have flamed out! 368 00:23:01,448 --> 00:23:03,517 Emergency! Emergency! 369 00:23:03,620 --> 00:23:05,275 After a terrifying plunge, 370 00:23:05,379 --> 00:23:08,620 the crew manages to wrestle the plane level again. 371 00:23:08,724 --> 00:23:12,896 But the jet is badly crippled. The elevators aren't working. 372 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:14,896 Without them, Captain Ho has to land 373 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,000 mostly by reducing power to his engines. 374 00:23:18,103 --> 00:23:20,655 It's a controlled fall towards the runway. 375 00:23:20,758 --> 00:23:24,758 As we came in, we flew over the house in Atherton 376 00:23:24,862 --> 00:23:28,206 where I had lived with my kids and been born. 377 00:23:28,310 --> 00:23:30,034 And I looked down and said boy this if fitting. 378 00:23:30,137 --> 00:23:33,689 If we don't make it down or if this plane explodes 379 00:23:33,793 --> 00:23:39,172 on landing because it's been so badly torqued and ruptured. 380 00:23:39,275 --> 00:23:39,689 You know, at least I got to see that. 381 00:24:03,103 --> 00:24:05,724 He made one of the best landings I've ever seen. 382 00:24:05,827 --> 00:24:08,448 I mean, it was just a perfect touchdown. 383 00:24:08,551 --> 00:24:13,206 Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Ho speaking, 384 00:24:13,310 --> 00:24:14,344 wishing you a safe journey. 385 00:24:14,448 --> 00:24:18,620 I hope you enjoyed our, uh, an eventful flight. 386 00:24:19,965 --> 00:24:22,241 Thank you for flying China Airlines. 387 00:24:22,344 --> 00:24:24,758 I thought he was a hero. He saved our lives. 388 00:24:24,862 --> 00:24:29,413 I mean, how can, we fell, very, 389 00:24:29,517 --> 00:24:31,793 we didn't know how far we fell at that time. 390 00:24:32,965 --> 00:24:35,068 We thought he was a hero and everything was fine. 391 00:24:35,172 --> 00:24:46,586 On the ground, 392 00:24:46,689 --> 00:24:49,344 the full extent of the damage to the plane can be seen. 393 00:24:49,448 --> 00:24:55,379 I saw this enormous piece of extremely complicated 394 00:24:55,482 --> 00:24:59,241 machinery that is much larger than most buildings, 395 00:24:59,344 --> 00:25:03,241 sitting there on the tarmac with bits ripped off it. 396 00:25:05,793 --> 00:25:07,896 Parts of the entire tail plane at the end, 397 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,344 were ripped off as if a tornado had come through or a crane 398 00:25:12,448 --> 00:25:15,103 had been in and ripped pieces out of it. 399 00:25:15,206 --> 00:25:17,103 It was a very sobering experience. 400 00:25:17,206 --> 00:25:19,965 It's clear why the crew 401 00:25:20,068 --> 00:25:23,000 had such a hard time landing the plane. 402 00:25:23,103 --> 00:25:25,965 Enormous chunks of the tail are missing - 403 00:25:26,068 --> 00:25:28,655 either torn off by the stress of the dive, 404 00:25:28,758 --> 00:25:31,379 or crushed when the landing gear doors broke loose. 405 00:25:37,275 --> 00:25:39,172 If the damage had been much more severe, 406 00:25:39,275 --> 00:25:42,172 the crew wouldn't have been able to regain control of their jet. 407 00:25:46,241 --> 00:25:49,275 Two dozen passengers have minor injuries. 408 00:25:49,379 --> 00:25:51,689 Only one requires hospitalization - 409 00:25:51,793 --> 00:25:52,931 but is soon released. 410 00:25:55,379 --> 00:25:57,931 A near disaster was avoided - 411 00:25:58,034 --> 00:25:59,862 but what had gone wrong in the first place? 412 00:26:02,137 --> 00:26:04,551 The National Transportation Safety Board arrive 413 00:26:04,655 --> 00:26:07,344 that very day - and launch their investigation. 414 00:26:09,482 --> 00:26:12,896 The cockpit voice recorder is sent to Washington. 415 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,689 But it's designed to tape over itself every thirty minutes. 416 00:26:16,793 --> 00:26:18,413 None of what happened in the cockpit 417 00:26:18,517 --> 00:26:21,172 during the terrifying plunge from the sky remains. 418 00:26:21,275 --> 00:26:24,068 Without a cockpit voice recorder, we had to 419 00:26:24,172 --> 00:26:28,689 reconstruct what the crew, uh, said and how they interpreted 420 00:26:28,793 --> 00:26:31,275 things and what was going on in the cockpit, to the best 421 00:26:31,379 --> 00:26:34,275 of our abilities, with the other data that was available to us. 422 00:26:34,379 --> 00:26:37,241 A record of the plane's instrument 423 00:26:37,344 --> 00:26:39,379 activity during the flight has been captured 424 00:26:39,482 --> 00:26:40,931 by the flight data recorder. 425 00:26:43,344 --> 00:26:45,448 But, again, the team runs into a problem. 426 00:26:46,758 --> 00:26:49,413 The flight data recorder experienced unprecedented 427 00:26:49,517 --> 00:26:51,758 stress during the dive. 428 00:26:51,862 --> 00:26:54,413 There were electrical interruptions too - 429 00:26:54,517 --> 00:26:56,103 which cause gaps in the recording. 430 00:26:57,896 --> 00:27:00,551 The FDR information will have to be recovered using 431 00:27:00,655 --> 00:27:02,758 painstaking techniques of reconstruction. 432 00:27:04,448 --> 00:27:06,896 It's a frustrating start to the investigation. 433 00:27:08,586 --> 00:27:11,448 Investigators begin with what they do have. 434 00:27:11,551 --> 00:27:14,448 Passengers and crew report that just before the failure 435 00:27:14,551 --> 00:27:16,103 of the jet's fourth engine, 436 00:27:16,206 --> 00:27:18,551 the plane flew through unexpected turbulence. 437 00:27:21,310 --> 00:27:23,103 Had this caused the engine to fail? 438 00:27:28,310 --> 00:27:31,206 Satellite weather maps reveal that there was indeed heavy 439 00:27:31,310 --> 00:27:32,827 air turbulence over the Pacific. 440 00:27:34,344 --> 00:27:37,103 But it wasn't severe enough to cause engine failure. 441 00:27:39,137 --> 00:27:41,689 The jet's four engines are tested and studied. 442 00:27:43,241 --> 00:27:45,724 Even after the horrific dive through the sky, 443 00:27:45,827 --> 00:27:47,241 they're found to be in working order. 444 00:27:51,517 --> 00:27:53,793 However, given the previous history of problems 445 00:27:53,896 --> 00:27:56,965 with engine four, it receives particular scrutiny. 446 00:27:57,068 --> 00:28:03,034 They had an anomaly with one of the engines. 447 00:28:03,137 --> 00:28:06,034 They believed that the engine had flamed out 448 00:28:06,137 --> 00:28:08,551 or that there was something seriously wrong with the engine. 449 00:28:08,655 --> 00:28:10,413 The wear on a small 450 00:28:10,517 --> 00:28:12,931 throttle valve trimmer is measured. 451 00:28:13,034 --> 00:28:16,551 It's worn down by only 4 one-thousandths of an inch. 452 00:28:16,655 --> 00:28:19,551 But that's enough to restrict the fuel flow to engine four. 453 00:28:19,655 --> 00:28:22,896 Engine four is giving us weak thrust. 454 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,896 Investigators determine 455 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,000 that at 12-thousand meters engine four did indeed 456 00:28:28,103 --> 00:28:30,172 deliver weaker than normal thrust. 457 00:28:30,275 --> 00:28:31,931 It's known as a hung engine. 458 00:28:35,482 --> 00:28:37,931 The aircraft logbook reveals that engine four had been 459 00:28:38,034 --> 00:28:41,137 written up on two previous occasions just the week before. 460 00:28:42,793 --> 00:28:45,275 Perhaps the engine wasn't properly fixed-- 461 00:28:45,379 --> 00:28:47,379 which led to the China Airlines mishap. 462 00:28:51,103 --> 00:28:53,827 The NTSB decide to dig deeper into the history 463 00:28:53,931 --> 00:28:56,413 of maintenance on engine 4. 464 00:28:56,517 --> 00:28:57,793 We had a SNAG Advisory on engine four 465 00:28:57,896 --> 00:29:00,103 before we took off - maybe that's it. 466 00:29:00,206 --> 00:29:04,586 But after weeks of investigation, the NTSB 467 00:29:04,689 --> 00:29:07,206 concludes that the engine didn't need to be replaced. 468 00:29:08,965 --> 00:29:11,586 All the repairs were done according to the book. 469 00:29:11,689 --> 00:29:14,310 A faulty engine was not the cause of the accident. 470 00:29:16,310 --> 00:29:18,724 And even with the loss of one engine the plane shouldn't 471 00:29:18,827 --> 00:29:20,241 have been in immediate danger. 472 00:29:20,344 --> 00:29:21,793 Engine four flamed out. 473 00:29:21,896 --> 00:29:26,137 A 747 is designed to fly on only three engines. 474 00:29:26,241 --> 00:29:30,724 The loss of thrust on a four-engine airplane 475 00:29:30,827 --> 00:29:32,896 is a minor event. 476 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:34,724 It's an event, you have to take care of it 477 00:29:34,827 --> 00:29:37,310 but the airplane is easily re-trimmed and the airplane 478 00:29:37,413 --> 00:29:40,655 will fly on three engines with, with no difficulty. 479 00:29:40,758 --> 00:29:44,103 We're banking right, captain. Air speed 2-thirty. 480 00:29:44,206 --> 00:29:46,448 The airplane is perfectly capable of flying, 481 00:29:46,551 --> 00:29:49,655 it's not as efficient because it has this big round, 482 00:29:49,758 --> 00:29:54,034 drag producing device out there not producing any thrust 483 00:29:54,137 --> 00:29:56,586 but given that it's not going to get quite so many 484 00:29:56,689 --> 00:29:59,103 miles per gallon otherwise it's perfectly flyable. 485 00:29:59,206 --> 00:30:02,413 Take a look at engine out procedures. 486 00:30:02,517 --> 00:30:04,172 Work out a three-engine cruise altitude. 487 00:30:04,275 --> 00:30:05,275 Yes, captain. 488 00:30:05,379 --> 00:30:08,310 There are standard procedures to follow 489 00:30:08,413 --> 00:30:10,482 in the case of an engine failure. 490 00:30:10,586 --> 00:30:12,448 But the crew of the China Airlines flight 491 00:30:12,551 --> 00:30:13,931 hadn't followed them. 492 00:30:14,034 --> 00:30:15,689 They tried to re-ignite the engine 493 00:30:15,793 --> 00:30:17,482 immediately instead of descending. 494 00:30:17,586 --> 00:30:20,896 Re-ignite engine four. Yes captain. 495 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:26,862 They attempted to re-start much too high. 496 00:30:26,965 --> 00:30:28,827 You are supposed to attempt to re-start an engine 497 00:30:28,931 --> 00:30:30,965 only below 30-thousand feet. 498 00:30:31,068 --> 00:30:32,344 They were at 41-thousand. 499 00:30:34,241 --> 00:30:36,034 What is a little curious to me 500 00:30:36,137 --> 00:30:41,586 is why they didn't use the normal relight procedure. 501 00:30:41,689 --> 00:30:43,586 They were starting to try to relight 502 00:30:43,689 --> 00:30:48,586 the engine at altitude and that would likely not relight. 503 00:30:48,689 --> 00:30:50,275 No response, Captain. 504 00:30:50,379 --> 00:30:52,482 It's a mistake. 505 00:30:52,586 --> 00:30:54,724 But it shouldn't have led to the plane spiraling 506 00:30:54,827 --> 00:30:58,551 out of control... So how had a manageable problem 507 00:30:58,655 --> 00:31:00,241 turned into a near disaster? 508 00:31:00,344 --> 00:31:02,206 I've lost ADI. 509 00:31:02,310 --> 00:31:03,793 The ADIs have malfunctioned. 510 00:31:03,896 --> 00:31:06,896 It's going out of limits. 511 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:08,896 To get more information on what was 512 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:10,448 happening in the cockpit, 513 00:31:10,551 --> 00:31:12,413 investigators interview the flight crew. 514 00:31:12,517 --> 00:31:16,793 I heard the captain report the ADI was lost. 515 00:31:16,896 --> 00:31:20,310 And then I saw the standby ADI was also going out of limits. 516 00:31:20,413 --> 00:31:24,482 The crew tell investigators that their ADIs - 517 00:31:24,586 --> 00:31:27,275 which measure how level the plane is - weren't working. 518 00:31:27,379 --> 00:31:33,241 They could have said, this can't possibly be right. 519 00:31:33,344 --> 00:31:36,379 And looking at their indicators, can't possibly be right. 520 00:31:36,482 --> 00:31:38,137 And therefore they must have failed. 521 00:31:38,241 --> 00:31:43,068 The attitude indicator had indicated a position 522 00:31:43,172 --> 00:31:45,965 so implausible that it looked like 523 00:31:46,068 --> 00:31:48,413 it had to be a failed instrument. 524 00:31:48,517 --> 00:31:50,448 This couldn't be what the plane was really doing. 525 00:31:50,551 --> 00:31:57,482 But, in fact, when the ADI's are studied 526 00:31:57,586 --> 00:32:01,034 by the NTSB-- they're all found to be perfectly normal. 527 00:32:01,137 --> 00:32:06,758 When we started banking right engine four 528 00:32:06,862 --> 00:32:07,931 was already flamed out. 529 00:32:09,413 --> 00:32:12,344 We started to descend faster and engines 1,2 and 3 also failed. 530 00:32:12,448 --> 00:32:15,965 Engines one, two and three have lost thrust. 531 00:32:16,068 --> 00:32:20,931 NTSB investigators are even more confused 532 00:32:21,034 --> 00:32:23,827 when the crew tells them that all of their engines had failed. 533 00:32:26,517 --> 00:32:28,379 With the exception of engine 4, 534 00:32:28,482 --> 00:32:30,620 the flight data recorder indicates that the other 535 00:32:30,724 --> 00:32:32,931 three engines were working the entire flight. 536 00:32:37,896 --> 00:32:39,896 If the engines had all failed, 537 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,000 there would have been a host of other problems-- 538 00:32:42,103 --> 00:32:45,517 such as cabin de-pressurization-- but that didn't happen. 539 00:32:45,620 --> 00:32:48,965 Engines one, two and three are coming back. 540 00:32:49,068 --> 00:32:54,137 Finally when we descended lower in altitude, one, two and 541 00:32:54,241 --> 00:32:58,413 three came back and we were able to re-ignite engine number four. 542 00:32:58,517 --> 00:33:00,517 Engine four, re-ignited. 543 00:33:00,620 --> 00:33:04,655 At the end of the dive, the crew had 544 00:33:04,758 --> 00:33:08,241 the plane under full power - it was a remarkable recovery. 545 00:33:10,310 --> 00:33:12,551 But to investigators, it's a puzzle. 546 00:33:12,655 --> 00:33:14,275 The story the crew is telling doesn't 547 00:33:14,379 --> 00:33:16,344 match up with the evidence they've uncovered. 548 00:33:23,137 --> 00:33:25,172 After months of investigation, 549 00:33:25,275 --> 00:33:28,379 the NTSB team slowly piece together a reenactment 550 00:33:28,482 --> 00:33:30,862 of the plane's near catastrophe over the Pacific. 551 00:33:33,034 --> 00:33:36,551 It includes information from the reconstructed flight recorder, 552 00:33:36,655 --> 00:33:40,000 personal interviews, and the air traffic control transcript. 553 00:33:41,413 --> 00:33:44,965 When the work is complete, there's only one conclusion. 554 00:33:45,068 --> 00:33:48,137 Apart from a problem with a small valve, there was 555 00:33:48,241 --> 00:33:52,620 nothing wrong with the 747 before it plunged from the sky. 556 00:33:52,724 --> 00:33:55,724 In fact, it was the crew that made a series of fateful 557 00:33:55,827 --> 00:33:58,034 decisions that almost crashed the plane. 558 00:34:03,482 --> 00:34:05,965 Just after ten o'clock Pacific time, 559 00:34:06,068 --> 00:34:07,896 engine four starts to lose thrust. 560 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,103 Engine four is giving us weak thrust. 561 00:34:10,206 --> 00:34:13,931 The flight engineer struggles to fix the problem. 562 00:34:16,206 --> 00:34:18,379 But investigators discover that he doesn't take 563 00:34:18,482 --> 00:34:21,551 one of the most basic steps he should have. 564 00:34:21,655 --> 00:34:25,103 He leaves the engine's bleed air valve on. 565 00:34:25,206 --> 00:34:27,896 The bleed air valve takes air generated by the engine 566 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,172 to help cool the plane. 567 00:34:30,275 --> 00:34:31,965 When an engine isn't working properly, 568 00:34:32,068 --> 00:34:34,034 the valve is supposed to be closed, 569 00:34:34,137 --> 00:34:36,862 so the engine can use all available air to restart. 570 00:34:36,965 --> 00:34:40,551 It's a little puzzling that the flight engineer 571 00:34:40,655 --> 00:34:43,413 didn't shut off bleed air. 572 00:34:43,517 --> 00:34:45,827 And in my mind the most likely 573 00:34:45,931 --> 00:34:48,344 reason for it is that he didn't expect to be 574 00:34:48,448 --> 00:34:51,620 told to re-start the engine at forty one thousand feet. 575 00:34:51,724 --> 00:34:54,000 And so when the captain instructed him to try some 576 00:34:54,103 --> 00:34:58,275 re-starts he just wasn't ready with his checklists. 577 00:34:58,379 --> 00:35:01,310 He was doing something out of order. 578 00:35:01,413 --> 00:35:02,862 And that's why it didn't occur to him 579 00:35:02,965 --> 00:35:04,689 to shut down the bleed air. 580 00:35:04,793 --> 00:35:07,413 The end result is that the engine, 581 00:35:07,517 --> 00:35:09,517 which is slow to start, won't start at all. 582 00:35:09,620 --> 00:35:13,413 Unwittingly the flight engineer 583 00:35:13,517 --> 00:35:15,034 has started a ticking clock. 584 00:35:17,655 --> 00:35:20,689 Engine four is slowly losing its ability to stay lit. 585 00:35:20,793 --> 00:35:22,482 We're losing speed. 586 00:35:22,586 --> 00:35:26,103 With more engine power on the left wing 587 00:35:26,206 --> 00:35:30,000 than the right, the China Airlines flight begins turning. 588 00:35:30,103 --> 00:35:31,862 In order to keep it from turning to the right, 589 00:35:31,965 --> 00:35:33,931 the proper thing to do would have been to step on the rudder. 590 00:35:34,034 --> 00:35:39,655 That would have produce a twisting force so to speak 591 00:35:39,758 --> 00:35:42,517 that would have overcome the imbalance of the engines. 592 00:35:42,620 --> 00:35:46,241 But instead of adjusting the rudder himself, 593 00:35:46,344 --> 00:35:49,482 Captain Ho continues to let the autopilot fly the jet. 594 00:35:54,034 --> 00:35:57,655 The autopilot is designed not to move the rudder. 595 00:35:57,758 --> 00:35:59,724 The autopilot can adjust the ailerons 596 00:35:59,827 --> 00:36:01,965 and spoilers on the plane's wings. 597 00:36:02,068 --> 00:36:04,206 But these flaps aren't strong enough to overcome 598 00:36:04,310 --> 00:36:07,344 the imbalance that the plane is experiencing. 599 00:36:07,448 --> 00:36:08,965 Without the help of the rudder, 600 00:36:09,068 --> 00:36:11,551 the plane's turn becomes steeper and steeper. 601 00:36:11,655 --> 00:36:13,793 Now, it's possible that he'd forgotten 602 00:36:13,896 --> 00:36:16,241 that the autopilot didn't use the rudder. 603 00:36:16,344 --> 00:36:18,379 He may have been assuming all along that the autopilot 604 00:36:18,482 --> 00:36:20,827 was just flying the airplane the way a human being would have, 605 00:36:20,931 --> 00:36:21,655 which it wasn't. 606 00:36:21,758 --> 00:36:23,896 Engine four flamed out. 607 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,379 Investigators discover that after losing 608 00:36:26,482 --> 00:36:28,068 power to his fourth engine, 609 00:36:28,172 --> 00:36:31,413 Captain Ho continues to leave the autopilot on. 610 00:36:31,517 --> 00:36:33,827 He doesn't take complete control of the plane. 611 00:36:35,793 --> 00:36:38,448 He doesn't adjust the plane's rudder with his left foot. 612 00:36:38,551 --> 00:36:40,896 Airspeed 2-forty. 613 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,310 He didn't use the rudder to compensate 614 00:36:44,413 --> 00:36:47,275 for the lack of thrust on the right outboard engine. 615 00:36:48,758 --> 00:36:50,931 The airplane started to lose speed 616 00:36:51,034 --> 00:36:53,862 and one thing led to another and, in the end, 617 00:36:53,965 --> 00:36:57,896 it was really that little error of airmanship, 618 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,931 the failure to step on that left rudder pedal 619 00:37:01,034 --> 00:37:02,206 that triggered everything else. 620 00:37:02,310 --> 00:37:07,482 Re-ignite engine four. Yes, captain. 621 00:37:07,586 --> 00:37:11,689 Rather than taking control of flying the plane, 622 00:37:11,793 --> 00:37:13,931 Captain Ho's attention seems to be focused 623 00:37:14,034 --> 00:37:15,551 on his engine problem-- 624 00:37:15,655 --> 00:37:17,137 something that his flight engineer 625 00:37:17,241 --> 00:37:18,413 could handle on his own. 626 00:37:18,517 --> 00:37:21,517 No response, Captain. 627 00:37:21,620 --> 00:37:24,931 It's really critical that attention be paid 628 00:37:25,034 --> 00:37:27,206 to flying the airplane. 629 00:37:27,310 --> 00:37:30,758 But, it's happened over and over again in aviation that, uh, 630 00:37:30,862 --> 00:37:34,862 the crew gets focused on a problem with a system, 631 00:37:34,965 --> 00:37:37,517 in this case an engine but it could have been a light bulb, 632 00:37:37,620 --> 00:37:41,586 it could have been any uh other malfunction. 633 00:37:41,689 --> 00:37:45,344 And if everybody's focused on that and nobody is flying, 634 00:37:45,448 --> 00:37:47,413 then they're not prepared for 635 00:37:47,517 --> 00:37:48,896 what's happening to the airplane. 636 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,172 The plane enters a critical moment. 637 00:37:52,275 --> 00:37:56,034 It's about to flip on its side and enter a nosedive. 638 00:37:56,137 --> 00:37:58,896 The NTSB believes that the captain was concentrating 639 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,448 on his airspeed indicator, but seemingly fails to notice 640 00:38:02,551 --> 00:38:05,689 the instrument directly beside it, his attitude indicator. 641 00:38:09,034 --> 00:38:10,586 This instrument would have warned him 642 00:38:10,689 --> 00:38:13,448 that his plane was starting to roll alarmingly to the right. 643 00:38:13,551 --> 00:38:17,448 They concentrated on one part of the phenomenon 644 00:38:17,551 --> 00:38:19,137 and lost the full picture. 645 00:38:21,344 --> 00:38:22,965 And, as they lost the full picture, 646 00:38:23,068 --> 00:38:26,172 they lost apparently a very important part of any 647 00:38:27,482 --> 00:38:29,896 instrument flying, which is the scan. 648 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,241 You look at all the primary instruments one after 649 00:38:33,344 --> 00:38:39,172 another and whatever is going on you look at them all constantly. 650 00:38:39,275 --> 00:38:41,931 During the plane's nosedive, 651 00:38:42,034 --> 00:38:44,482 it flies through thick cloud. 652 00:38:44,586 --> 00:38:46,655 With no visual horizon as a reference, 653 00:38:46,758 --> 00:38:49,551 the flight crew must trust their instruments to level the plane. 654 00:38:50,965 --> 00:38:51,793 I've lost ADI! 655 00:38:51,896 --> 00:38:54,551 Instead, what investigators believe 656 00:38:54,655 --> 00:38:58,137 happened is that the crew became spatially disoriented. 657 00:38:58,241 --> 00:39:00,275 They decided that their instruments were failing. 658 00:39:00,379 --> 00:39:03,172 They simply didn't believe what they were seeing, 659 00:39:03,275 --> 00:39:07,172 and they thought they had lost their attitude instruments. 660 00:39:07,275 --> 00:39:09,275 They hadn't lost their attitude instruments. 661 00:39:09,379 --> 00:39:11,482 The airplane was in fact embarking on 662 00:39:11,586 --> 00:39:12,758 an aerobatic maneuver. 663 00:39:12,862 --> 00:39:15,793 The most probable reason for all three crew members 664 00:39:15,896 --> 00:39:19,275 believing something so unlikely as that all attitude 665 00:39:19,379 --> 00:39:21,448 indicators could malfunction in the same way at the same 666 00:39:21,551 --> 00:39:24,586 time is that the way in which they malfunctioned was 667 00:39:24,689 --> 00:39:27,965 so unexpected and strange that it didn't seem to correspond 668 00:39:28,068 --> 00:39:31,275 to any possible thing that the airplane could be doing. 669 00:39:31,379 --> 00:39:33,482 The airplane had in fact rolled over on to its back 670 00:39:33,586 --> 00:39:35,000 and gone into a vertical dive. 671 00:39:35,103 --> 00:39:38,275 And that's something that Boeing 747's don't typically do. 672 00:39:38,379 --> 00:39:41,172 As the plane begins tumbling toward the ocean, 673 00:39:41,275 --> 00:39:44,482 another critical lapse in judgment occurs. 674 00:39:44,586 --> 00:39:46,413 The standby ADI was also going out of limits. 675 00:39:47,517 --> 00:39:48,793 I tried to restart... 676 00:39:48,896 --> 00:39:51,137 During interviews, the flight engineer told 677 00:39:51,241 --> 00:39:55,413 the NTSB that all three of the plane's working engines failed. 678 00:39:55,517 --> 00:39:59,034 We started to descend faster. 679 00:39:59,137 --> 00:40:03,206 And engines one, two and three also failed. 680 00:40:03,310 --> 00:40:05,137 But the flight data recorder shows that, 681 00:40:05,241 --> 00:40:07,724 in fact, they were still working. 682 00:40:07,827 --> 00:40:09,068 In the heat of the crisis, 683 00:40:09,172 --> 00:40:11,620 the engineer had made an enormous mistake. 684 00:40:11,724 --> 00:40:14,034 Engines one, two and three have lost thrust! 685 00:40:14,137 --> 00:40:16,724 The investigation reveals that, as the plane fell, 686 00:40:16,827 --> 00:40:19,931 the thrust in each engine was indeed reduced dramatically. 687 00:40:21,275 --> 00:40:23,724 But the cause wasn't engine trouble. 688 00:40:23,827 --> 00:40:26,448 The engine throttles had been lowered to idle - 689 00:40:26,551 --> 00:40:29,137 in an attempt to slow the furious fall of the jet. 690 00:40:32,034 --> 00:40:34,965 It was something the engineer missed in the chaos of the dive. 691 00:40:35,068 --> 00:40:40,620 You can understand why the Flight Engineer might 692 00:40:40,724 --> 00:40:43,551 have been confused about this situation if he had not 693 00:40:43,655 --> 00:40:49,241 seen the captain pull the power to idle on the engines. 694 00:40:49,344 --> 00:40:52,517 He would reasonably assume that the fact that they 695 00:40:52,620 --> 00:40:56,206 went to idle was a problem, rather than intentional. 696 00:40:56,310 --> 00:40:59,758 Investigators also believe that they know why 697 00:40:59,862 --> 00:41:01,827 the engines didn't give the crew more power 698 00:41:01,931 --> 00:41:04,655 when the engineer tried to throttle them up. 699 00:41:04,758 --> 00:41:07,206 The cold temperatures at 9-thousand meters would 700 00:41:07,310 --> 00:41:08,827 stop them from responding quickly. 701 00:41:08,931 --> 00:41:11,517 No response, Captain! 702 00:41:11,620 --> 00:41:12,931 But in the heat of the moment, 703 00:41:13,034 --> 00:41:14,655 the engineer could have taken their slow 704 00:41:14,758 --> 00:41:17,034 response as another indication that they failed. 705 00:41:20,379 --> 00:41:23,586 The NTSB discovers that indeed gauges in the generator 706 00:41:23,689 --> 00:41:25,482 panel behind the engineer showed that 707 00:41:25,586 --> 00:41:27,137 the three engines were still firing. 708 00:41:28,448 --> 00:41:29,655 Ignition, negative! 709 00:41:29,758 --> 00:41:32,448 But the gravitational force became so powerful-- 710 00:41:32,551 --> 00:41:34,137 the engineer couldn't look back. 711 00:41:39,620 --> 00:41:42,862 After months of painstaking recreation, 712 00:41:42,965 --> 00:41:46,448 the NTSB investigators believe they understand what happened 713 00:41:46,551 --> 00:41:50,034 inside the cockpit of China Airlines flight 006. 714 00:41:52,034 --> 00:41:54,137 But what they don't understand is why. 715 00:41:55,551 --> 00:41:58,275 The crew's medical records are examined. 716 00:41:58,379 --> 00:42:00,310 Was there something wrong with the captain that might 717 00:42:00,413 --> 00:42:02,793 explain the bizarre behavior? 718 00:42:02,896 --> 00:42:03,931 Nothing turns up. 719 00:42:04,034 --> 00:42:07,310 You know it wasn't just the three stooges who, 720 00:42:07,413 --> 00:42:09,931 you know, won a trip on a seven forty seven or something. 721 00:42:10,034 --> 00:42:13,310 It was a trained crew, highly experienced, thousands of hours. 722 00:42:13,413 --> 00:42:15,931 How could an experienced crew make 723 00:42:16,034 --> 00:42:17,931 so many fundamental mistakes? 724 00:42:22,551 --> 00:42:24,482 The investigators find the answers 725 00:42:24,586 --> 00:42:27,275 in the hours before the incident. 726 00:42:27,379 --> 00:42:29,862 What they uncover is a potential danger 727 00:42:29,965 --> 00:42:31,965 that affects pilots around the world. 728 00:42:32,068 --> 00:42:45,931 In 1985 a series of small pilot errors 729 00:42:46,034 --> 00:42:48,310 lead to a terrifying plunge from the sky. 730 00:42:53,793 --> 00:42:57,482 Spinning wildly out of control, a China Airlines flight 731 00:42:57,586 --> 00:43:00,344 tumbled ten kilometers towards the Pacific ocean. 732 00:43:04,172 --> 00:43:06,482 By the time the crew regained control, 733 00:43:06,586 --> 00:43:08,931 the plane was badly damaged. 734 00:43:09,034 --> 00:43:11,758 Amazingly, everyone on board survived. 735 00:43:14,137 --> 00:43:17,275 Investigators have uncovered a series of mistakes which nearly 736 00:43:17,379 --> 00:43:21,103 led to the death of everyone on board China Airlines Flight 006. 737 00:43:22,517 --> 00:43:24,931 But how could an experienced, well-trained 738 00:43:25,034 --> 00:43:27,310 and healthy crew make so many mistakes? 739 00:43:30,275 --> 00:43:33,689 The NTSB team decides to examine all of the factors affecting 740 00:43:33,793 --> 00:43:37,000 human behavior, including a new field of research. 741 00:43:37,103 --> 00:43:43,413 For the first time as far as I know in a report, 742 00:43:43,517 --> 00:43:46,034 the circadian rhythms, the bio-rhythms, 743 00:43:46,137 --> 00:43:49,724 the day and night functioning of the body was seriously 744 00:43:49,827 --> 00:43:53,965 taken into account as a possible explanation of why 745 00:43:54,068 --> 00:44:00,310 an extremely experienced Boeing 747 captain didn't notice 746 00:44:00,413 --> 00:44:04,827 things that to other pilots might have seemed obvious. 747 00:44:04,931 --> 00:44:07,655 Such as the fact that his airplane was busy flipping on 748 00:44:07,758 --> 00:44:11,448 its back when he was attempting to deal with an engine problem. 749 00:44:11,551 --> 00:44:14,931 Although Captain Ho had the required 750 00:44:15,034 --> 00:44:17,655 fifteen hours off-duty before flying that day, 751 00:44:19,172 --> 00:44:21,586 the NTSB investigators take a closer look 752 00:44:21,689 --> 00:44:24,206 at the captain's schedule before the night of the flight. 753 00:44:24,310 --> 00:44:28,310 I do not think I was fatigued. 754 00:44:28,413 --> 00:44:32,724 I can't say I slept well during the flight. 755 00:44:32,827 --> 00:44:35,689 This accident occurred at what would be 2 am local time. 756 00:44:36,965 --> 00:44:38,379 And that's pretty significant. 757 00:44:38,482 --> 00:44:41,172 Most people are asleep at two am. 758 00:44:41,275 --> 00:44:45,103 So this incident occurred at a point in his what is were 759 00:44:45,206 --> 00:44:47,931 called circadian rhythms, his body clock, 760 00:44:48,034 --> 00:44:50,931 where he would be at his deepest sleep. 761 00:44:53,310 --> 00:44:56,551 I remember also he had gone back, 762 00:44:56,655 --> 00:44:57,758 there is a crew rest area on 747's 763 00:44:57,862 --> 00:45:00,655 and he said he rested for five hours and slept for two. 764 00:45:00,758 --> 00:45:02,482 But the other thing I remember from his interview is 765 00:45:02,586 --> 00:45:05,551 he said, uh, 'You never really sleep well on the airplane.' 766 00:45:05,655 --> 00:45:08,034 A captain never sleeps well during a flight. 767 00:45:10,103 --> 00:45:12,827 I worked many years for this airline. 768 00:45:12,931 --> 00:45:15,206 But I never had this problem before. 769 00:45:15,310 --> 00:45:18,068 It seemed like a very true statement. 770 00:45:18,172 --> 00:45:21,620 It's hard to get a really solid sleep on the airplane. 771 00:45:21,724 --> 00:45:24,965 Particularly if you are the person in command, as he was. 772 00:45:25,068 --> 00:45:27,827 So putting it all together, we saw that this was 773 00:45:27,931 --> 00:45:30,379 an experienced crew, a qualified crew. 774 00:45:30,482 --> 00:45:34,586 And they were flying a schedule that would make them susceptible 775 00:45:34,689 --> 00:45:38,275 to some of the negative or adverse affects of fatigue. 776 00:45:38,379 --> 00:45:42,965 During six flights in the previous six days, 777 00:45:43,068 --> 00:45:46,448 Captain Ho had covered a total of 18 time zones. 778 00:45:46,551 --> 00:45:51,896 I thought I'd keep you company. 779 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,793 The NTSB research suggests that 780 00:45:55,896 --> 00:45:59,310 de-synchronosis, or jet lag, may have been a cause. 781 00:45:59,413 --> 00:46:04,344 And I think all of these factors certainly would 782 00:46:04,448 --> 00:46:08,827 have contributed to his performing at less 783 00:46:08,931 --> 00:46:10,310 than his full potential at the time. 784 00:46:10,413 --> 00:46:14,724 Investigators also take a closer 785 00:46:14,827 --> 00:46:17,206 look at the very machinery that is supposed to make 786 00:46:17,310 --> 00:46:18,793 long-distance flying easier. 787 00:46:18,896 --> 00:46:22,517 Take a look at engine out procedures. 788 00:46:22,620 --> 00:46:24,827 Work at three-engine cruise altitude. 789 00:46:24,931 --> 00:46:25,827 Yes, captain. 790 00:46:25,931 --> 00:46:29,034 We have people in the front of airplanes 791 00:46:29,137 --> 00:46:31,034 because we believe that, 792 00:46:31,137 --> 00:46:35,827 in circumstances that nobody has foreseen, the human being 793 00:46:35,931 --> 00:46:39,034 in front of the airplane can react creatively, 794 00:46:39,137 --> 00:46:42,517 can solve a problem that nobody has thought about before, 795 00:46:42,620 --> 00:46:43,448 in real time. 796 00:46:44,793 --> 00:46:48,344 And automation can't solve problems that no-one has 797 00:46:48,448 --> 00:46:51,931 thought of before in real time, in quite the same way. 798 00:46:52,034 --> 00:46:54,206 The NTSB concludes that, 799 00:46:54,310 --> 00:46:55,965 possibly fatigued from air travel, 800 00:46:56,068 --> 00:46:58,310 and bored by the monotony of his tasks... 801 00:46:58,413 --> 00:47:00,068 We're banking right, captain. 802 00:47:00,172 --> 00:47:04,241 I'm disengaging auto-pilot. 803 00:47:04,344 --> 00:47:07,827 ...the Captain relied on his auto-pilot for too long. 804 00:47:07,931 --> 00:47:10,862 When he should have taken direct control, he hesitated, 805 00:47:10,965 --> 00:47:12,172 trusting his systems. 806 00:47:12,275 --> 00:47:14,793 That is obviously a failure. 807 00:47:14,896 --> 00:47:17,413 The crew didn't behave as they should have behaved. 808 00:47:17,517 --> 00:47:18,724 Pilot error. 809 00:47:18,827 --> 00:47:22,482 As a result of the China Airlines near mishap, 810 00:47:22,586 --> 00:47:24,827 and other incidents around the same time, 811 00:47:24,931 --> 00:47:27,344 aircraft manufacturers began to rethink 812 00:47:27,448 --> 00:47:29,206 the design of their automated systems. 813 00:47:29,310 --> 00:47:32,724 The idea of the automation 814 00:47:32,827 --> 00:47:37,068 is that it is going to help the human do the human's job. 815 00:47:37,172 --> 00:47:40,827 It's going help the human take the airplane from the gate 816 00:47:40,931 --> 00:47:42,448 to the gate at the other end. 817 00:47:42,551 --> 00:47:43,827 And it's going to help along the way. 818 00:47:43,931 --> 00:47:47,551 Boeing makes use of this particular incident to say 819 00:47:47,655 --> 00:47:50,413 we still want the crew to have full authority 820 00:47:50,517 --> 00:47:52,689 so that they can move the controls as far 821 00:47:52,793 --> 00:47:55,482 as it is physically possible to move them. 822 00:47:55,586 --> 00:47:59,448 And to manage the airplane even if it may bend the airplane. 823 00:47:59,551 --> 00:48:03,068 Because it is better to do than rather than to restrict 824 00:48:03,172 --> 00:48:06,137 the pilot's authority then have him guess 825 00:48:06,241 --> 00:48:08,896 whether or not he's in charge or the computer's in charge. 826 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:14,965 Whatever mistakes the flight crew made that day 827 00:48:15,068 --> 00:48:17,310 they did succeed in their ultimate task. 828 00:48:17,413 --> 00:48:20,620 They flew the airplane well. 829 00:48:20,724 --> 00:48:23,586 They did an excellent job of the approach afterward. 830 00:48:23,689 --> 00:48:26,517 They were careful with the airplane, 831 00:48:26,620 --> 00:48:28,241 they knew the airplane had been damaged. 832 00:48:28,344 --> 00:48:30,275 They didn't know the severity of it. 833 00:48:30,379 --> 00:48:35,206 They were gentle with the maneuvering and yet tested 834 00:48:35,310 --> 00:48:37,275 enough to make sure they wouldn't get themselves 835 00:48:37,379 --> 00:48:39,862 into further trouble as they made the approach to landing. 836 00:48:39,965 --> 00:48:44,310 The one big thing they did right, and one only 837 00:48:44,413 --> 00:48:48,758 ever needs to do one big thing, is they saved the airplane. 838 00:48:51,413 --> 00:48:55,482 And, in principle, that's all you ever need to do right, 839 00:48:55,586 --> 00:48:57,379 when something happens to your airplane. 840 00:48:57,482 --> 00:48:58,862 You need to save the airplane 841 00:48:58,965 --> 00:49:00,413 and you need to save the passengers 842 00:49:00,517 --> 00:49:01,482 and that's what they did. 843 00:49:01,586 --> 00:49:10,620 How can you forget something like that. 844 00:49:10,724 --> 00:49:12,793 That I survived through that. 845 00:49:12,896 --> 00:49:17,620 So it's hard for me to forget that I was lucky 846 00:49:17,724 --> 00:49:19,034 and it wasn't my time yet. 847 00:49:19,137 --> 00:49:22,862 The pilot saved our lives. 848 00:49:22,965 --> 00:49:27,758 He got us into it, but he got us out of it. 849 00:49:27,862 --> 00:49:31,034 And perhaps there was one other hero that day. 850 00:49:31,137 --> 00:49:34,068 The Boeing 747 itself. 851 00:49:34,172 --> 00:49:35,517 It was put through maneuvers 852 00:49:35,620 --> 00:49:39,034 and stresses that far-outweighed its known limits. 853 00:49:39,137 --> 00:49:41,103 And yet, despite it all, 854 00:49:41,206 --> 00:49:44,000 the aircraft survived and landed safely.