1 00:00:02,793 --> 00:00:03,793 A routine landing... 2 00:00:03,896 --> 00:00:04,965 Ladies and gentlemen, 3 00:00:05,068 --> 00:00:06,448 we are starting our approach to DFW. 4 00:00:06,551 --> 00:00:08,068 You're in good shape. 5 00:00:08,172 --> 00:00:10,448 ...turns into a sudden fight to the death. 6 00:00:10,551 --> 00:00:12,862 You're going to lose it all of a sudden. 7 00:00:12,965 --> 00:00:13,862 There it is! 8 00:00:15,793 --> 00:00:18,586 A passenger jet mysteriously falls from the sky 9 00:00:18,689 --> 00:00:20,896 and rockets towards a busy highway. 10 00:00:22,724 --> 00:00:24,931 Push it up. Push it way up. 11 00:00:25,034 --> 00:00:26,586 Delta, go around! 12 00:00:26,689 --> 00:00:28,034 Hang on! Son of a... 13 00:00:28,827 --> 00:00:29,724 It's gonna crash! 14 00:00:32,862 --> 00:00:35,413 A mysterious force brings down a plane, 15 00:00:35,517 --> 00:00:38,310 claiming 137 lives. 16 00:00:38,413 --> 00:00:42,034 In the wreckage lies the one clue that can stop it from killing again. 17 00:01:06,482 --> 00:01:08,689 August the 2nd, 1985. 18 00:01:10,448 --> 00:01:11,793 Dallas, Texas. 19 00:01:18,206 --> 00:01:20,965 It's a very hot day, even by Texas standards. 20 00:01:23,586 --> 00:01:25,068 See you all tomorrow. 21 00:01:25,172 --> 00:01:28,000 Temperatures soar to 101 degrees. 22 00:01:31,275 --> 00:01:32,206 Rain coming. 23 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:35,517 Should cool things down a bit. 24 00:01:35,620 --> 00:01:36,896 In the late afternoon, 25 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,068 William Mayberry is heading home from work. 26 00:01:42,758 --> 00:01:45,689 The day's heat and humidity are having an effect on traffic 27 00:01:45,793 --> 00:01:49,310 at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, DFW. 28 00:01:53,068 --> 00:01:57,758 Roughly the size of Manhattan, DFW is the biggest airport in the world. 29 00:01:57,862 --> 00:01:59,379 It's also one of the busiest. 30 00:02:11,551 --> 00:02:14,827 The heat has triggered some afternoon thunderstorms at the airport, 31 00:02:16,931 --> 00:02:20,379 creating a backlog of planes waiting to take off. 32 00:02:20,482 --> 00:02:22,448 American 631, you are cleared for takeoff. 33 00:02:22,551 --> 00:02:25,586 Air traffic controller Gene Skipworth is in the tower today. 34 00:02:26,965 --> 00:02:29,000 He's been working there for 14 years. 35 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:32,689 With him, his controller, Mike Porter. 36 00:02:33,965 --> 00:02:36,241 Skipworth was not asking for help. 37 00:02:36,344 --> 00:02:38,310 Nothing seemed unusual other than the fact that 38 00:02:38,413 --> 00:02:41,586 we were starting to get busy 39 00:02:41,689 --> 00:02:44,551 and aircraft were starting to pile up. 40 00:02:51,275 --> 00:02:54,310 One of the many planes heading towards Skipworth's control 41 00:02:54,413 --> 00:02:57,827 is Delta Airlines Flight 191. 42 00:02:57,931 --> 00:03:01,137 Weather is 6,000 scattered to 1,000 scattered. 43 00:03:01,241 --> 00:03:06,034 Visibility, 1-0. Temperature, 101. Wind, calm. 44 00:03:06,137 --> 00:03:10,689 - A hundred and one? - A hundred and one degrees. Yes, sir. 45 00:03:10,793 --> 00:03:13,965 Captain Ed Connors and First Officer Rudy Price 46 00:03:14,068 --> 00:03:16,862 are two of Delta Airlines' most experienced pilots. 47 00:03:18,931 --> 00:03:22,206 Second Officer Nick Nassick is the other member of today's crew. 48 00:03:25,275 --> 00:03:28,862 The crew is flying a six-year-old L-1011 TriStar. 49 00:03:30,310 --> 00:03:33,862 The L-1011 is billed as one of the safest planes in the sky. 50 00:03:36,724 --> 00:03:40,724 There are 152 passengers and 11 crew members on board. 51 00:03:42,655 --> 00:03:45,620 They're scheduled to land in Dallas just before 6:00 in the evening. 52 00:03:48,620 --> 00:03:50,000 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. 53 00:03:50,103 --> 00:03:52,379 This is your captain speaking. 54 00:03:52,482 --> 00:03:54,068 Hope you're enjoying your flight so far. 55 00:03:55,137 --> 00:03:57,655 Traffic is backing up at Dallas. 56 00:03:57,758 --> 00:04:02,896 All total, we'll be about 10-15 minutes late getting to the gate. 57 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,896 Please let us know if there's anything we can do to make your flight more comfortable. 58 00:04:07,724 --> 00:04:10,344 The delay bothers Chris Meier. 59 00:04:10,448 --> 00:04:12,793 He's a frequent business traveler who's in a hurry 60 00:04:12,896 --> 00:04:15,482 to get home to his family for the weekend. 61 00:04:15,586 --> 00:04:17,758 I'd been down in Florida, Fort Lauderdale 62 00:04:17,862 --> 00:04:19,827 for the last two weeks, 63 00:04:19,931 --> 00:04:22,034 and it was a Friday afternoon, 64 00:04:22,137 --> 00:04:24,448 and I was due to go home on Flight 191. 65 00:04:27,413 --> 00:04:30,758 One of IBM's best known executives is also on the flight. 66 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,551 Don Estridge led the development of the IBM PC. 67 00:04:37,655 --> 00:04:40,517 He and his wife are traveling to Dallas for a family visit. 68 00:04:46,137 --> 00:04:48,344 963 turn right, heading 620. 69 00:04:50,310 --> 00:04:52,275 En route from Florida to Texas, 70 00:04:52,379 --> 00:04:54,689 Delta 191 will be in communication 71 00:04:54,793 --> 00:04:56,000 with several controllers. 72 00:04:56,103 --> 00:04:58,275 ...turn you into Blue Ridge, it'll be about zero-one... 73 00:04:58,379 --> 00:05:01,103 Every aircraft is guided along its flight path 74 00:05:01,206 --> 00:05:05,448 by a series of regional air route traffic control centers. 75 00:05:05,551 --> 00:05:07,793 They direct each plane's speed and altitude. 76 00:05:10,620 --> 00:05:13,793 One-Niner-One, descend and maintain one-zero-thousand. 77 00:05:13,896 --> 00:05:16,827 Join the Blue Ridge, 010, radial and inbound. 78 00:05:17,965 --> 00:05:20,275 We have a good area there to go through. 79 00:05:20,379 --> 00:05:22,344 Captain Connors has some concerns 80 00:05:22,448 --> 00:05:24,551 about the route he's been given. 81 00:05:24,655 --> 00:05:27,448 He sees a storm cell along that path, 82 00:05:27,551 --> 00:05:30,103 and he doesn't want to fly through it. 83 00:05:30,206 --> 00:05:34,551 Well, I'm looking at a cell at about a heading of 2-5-5. 84 00:05:34,655 --> 00:05:35,655 It's a pretty good-sized cell, 85 00:05:35,758 --> 00:05:37,275 and I'd rather not go through it. 86 00:05:37,379 --> 00:05:39,655 I'd rather go around it, one way or the other. 87 00:05:39,758 --> 00:05:43,896 I've had about 60 aircraft go through this area out here. 10-12 miles wide. 88 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,620 They're getting a good ride. No problem. 89 00:05:46,724 --> 00:05:50,931 Well, I can see a cell now, about heading 240. 90 00:05:51,034 --> 00:05:52,758 When I can, I'll turn you into Blue Ridge. 91 00:05:52,862 --> 00:05:54,827 It'll be about the 0-1-0 radial. 92 00:05:55,655 --> 00:05:56,827 0-1-0. Roger. 93 00:05:57,758 --> 00:05:58,758 We're going to hold you to that. 94 00:05:59,931 --> 00:06:01,896 Captain Connors gets his way. 95 00:06:03,275 --> 00:06:06,482 He's given permission to fly around the storm. 96 00:06:06,586 --> 00:06:10,896 Once past it, he'll line up for a landing on Runway 17 Left. 97 00:06:12,655 --> 00:06:14,896 I'm glad we didn't have to go through that mess. 98 00:06:22,137 --> 00:06:25,413 Friday afternoons are a busy time at airports. 99 00:06:25,517 --> 00:06:28,620 The afternoon rain is making this Friday even busier. 100 00:06:29,758 --> 00:06:32,689 Twenty three-niner, down to 6-18-96. 101 00:06:32,793 --> 00:06:35,137 The main priority for the controller on duty 102 00:06:35,241 --> 00:06:38,344 is to keep the incoming planes a safe distance apart. 103 00:06:40,034 --> 00:06:42,862 He wants them at least 4.5 kilometers from each other. 104 00:06:45,034 --> 00:06:50,103 That distance allows enough time for the violent air turbulence behind one plane 105 00:06:50,206 --> 00:06:53,068 to die down before the next plane touches down. 106 00:06:56,448 --> 00:06:59,103 Right now, Connors and Price are getting too close 107 00:06:59,206 --> 00:07:00,931 to the plane just ahead of them, 108 00:07:01,034 --> 00:07:02,310 a corporate Lear jet. 109 00:07:04,068 --> 00:07:07,275 Delta 191 heavy, turn left ten degrees. 110 00:07:07,379 --> 00:07:09,482 Reduce speed to 1-8-0. 111 00:07:09,586 --> 00:07:12,172 To put some distance between the two planes, 112 00:07:12,275 --> 00:07:16,448 the controller asks the Delta crew to slow to 180 knots. 113 00:07:16,551 --> 00:07:17,586 Delta 191... 114 00:07:18,517 --> 00:07:20,655 330 kilometers an hour. 115 00:07:20,758 --> 00:07:21,655 Wilco. 116 00:07:24,275 --> 00:07:25,586 Ten degree flaps, please. 117 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:32,034 You're listening to Dallas 105 FM. 118 00:07:32,137 --> 00:07:34,551 It's a wet one out there, folks, so drive carefully. 119 00:07:34,655 --> 00:07:37,586 Heading home along Highway 114, 120 00:07:37,689 --> 00:07:40,758 William Mayberry will soon be passing DFW. 121 00:07:45,862 --> 00:07:50,551 Flight 191 is now just 50 kilometers from the foot of the runway. 122 00:07:50,655 --> 00:07:51,551 Ladies and gentlemen, 123 00:07:51,655 --> 00:07:54,310 we are starting our approach to DFW. 124 00:07:54,413 --> 00:07:56,586 Please make sure your seats are in the upright position 125 00:07:56,689 --> 00:07:58,310 and your seat belts are securely fastened. 126 00:08:03,862 --> 00:08:07,862 The crew begins their final descent into the Dallas Fort Worth area. 127 00:08:07,965 --> 00:08:10,000 Attention, all aircraft listening. 128 00:08:10,103 --> 00:08:12,310 There's a little rain shower just north of the airport... 129 00:08:12,413 --> 00:08:14,793 Connors now switches radio frequencies 130 00:08:14,896 --> 00:08:18,344 and contacts a local DFW airport traffic controller 131 00:08:18,448 --> 00:08:19,620 for approach instructions. 132 00:08:22,448 --> 00:08:26,482 As the passengers and crew of Flight 191 prepare for their landing, 133 00:08:26,586 --> 00:08:29,931 a deadly force takes shape in their path. 134 00:08:30,034 --> 00:08:35,000 Critical decisions and missed information conspire against them. 135 00:08:35,103 --> 00:08:39,379 The crew will soon be engaged in a 47-second struggle, 136 00:08:39,482 --> 00:08:41,965 which will become one of the most important moments 137 00:08:42,068 --> 00:08:44,000 in the history of modern aviation. 138 00:08:47,310 --> 00:08:50,172 August the 2nd, 1985. 139 00:08:50,275 --> 00:08:53,103 The crew of Delta Airlines Flight 191 140 00:08:53,206 --> 00:08:55,310 has been skirting a line of heavy storms 141 00:08:55,413 --> 00:08:58,206 between Florida and their destination, Texas. 142 00:08:59,965 --> 00:09:03,241 Thirty kilometers from the Dallas Fort Worth airport, 143 00:09:03,344 --> 00:09:06,241 First Officer Rudy Price notices rain ahead. 144 00:09:06,344 --> 00:09:08,000 We're going to get our airplane washed. 145 00:09:09,206 --> 00:09:10,034 What? 146 00:09:11,586 --> 00:09:12,724 We're going to get our airplane washed. 147 00:09:15,344 --> 00:09:18,172 It seemed like the closer we got in to DFW, 148 00:09:18,275 --> 00:09:20,137 the worse the weather got. 149 00:09:20,241 --> 00:09:23,000 And we was turning in to the... 150 00:09:23,103 --> 00:09:25,172 the rain instead of going around it. 151 00:09:27,068 --> 00:09:29,689 and the pilots never said anything about the bad weather. 152 00:09:33,655 --> 00:09:37,241 Delta 191 is still closing in on the Lear jet ahead of it. 153 00:09:39,827 --> 00:09:42,448 Price and Connors need to slow down even further 154 00:09:42,551 --> 00:09:45,413 to put some distance between the two planes. 155 00:09:45,517 --> 00:09:49,000 Delta 191 heavy, reduce speed to 150. 156 00:09:49,862 --> 00:09:51,482 Speed to 150. 157 00:09:53,689 --> 00:09:56,655 Nine kilometers from Runway 17 Left, 158 00:09:56,758 --> 00:10:00,000 Delta 191 is handed over to another controller, 159 00:10:01,413 --> 00:10:04,344 Gene Skipworth, for final approach and landing. 160 00:10:04,448 --> 00:10:07,413 Zero-nine-zero, at five... Gusts to one-five. 161 00:10:11,379 --> 00:10:14,137 Tower, Delta 191 heavy, out here in the rain. Feels good. 162 00:10:14,931 --> 00:10:15,896 Delta 191... 163 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:17,310 Skipworth tells the crew 164 00:10:17,413 --> 00:10:20,896 to expect a manageable crosswind of up to 15 knots. 165 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:25,517 Winds, 090 at five, gusts to 15. 166 00:10:26,551 --> 00:10:28,620 Thank you, sir. 167 00:10:28,724 --> 00:10:31,896 First Officer Price will be at the controls for the upcoming landing. 168 00:10:34,482 --> 00:10:37,655 Pilots and co-pilots routinely alternate flying duties. 169 00:10:39,827 --> 00:10:42,689 As Flight 191 is coming in to land, 170 00:10:42,793 --> 00:10:46,344 William Mayberry is just north of the airport. 171 00:10:46,448 --> 00:10:49,172 He's caught in the same storm that Price and Connors 172 00:10:49,275 --> 00:10:50,793 are just beginning to fly through. 173 00:10:57,137 --> 00:10:58,758 Before landing check. 174 00:10:58,862 --> 00:11:01,689 - Landing gear? - Down. Three green. 175 00:11:01,793 --> 00:11:03,206 Flaps? Slats? 176 00:11:03,310 --> 00:11:05,862 Thirty-three. Thirty-three. Green light. 177 00:11:05,965 --> 00:11:08,068 The crew suddenly notices that they'll be flying 178 00:11:08,172 --> 00:11:09,448 into more than a bit of rain. 179 00:11:11,344 --> 00:11:12,241 Lightning coming out of that one. 180 00:11:13,137 --> 00:11:14,517 What? 181 00:11:14,620 --> 00:11:16,448 There's lightning coming out of that one. 182 00:11:16,551 --> 00:11:18,551 - Where? - Right ahead of us. 183 00:11:21,344 --> 00:11:23,275 A thousand feet. I'll call them out to you. 184 00:11:23,862 --> 00:11:24,689 All right. 185 00:11:32,827 --> 00:11:34,620 We're not getting any bad warnings 186 00:11:34,724 --> 00:11:37,379 from the weather, or from 187 00:11:37,482 --> 00:11:40,103 other pilots, which we rely on as they come through it. 188 00:11:40,206 --> 00:11:41,172 Uh... 189 00:11:41,275 --> 00:11:42,482 They... 190 00:11:42,586 --> 00:11:45,655 They need to report to us, and they do, if they have... 191 00:11:45,758 --> 00:11:47,862 turbulence, or they have trouble 192 00:11:47,965 --> 00:11:50,068 on final, or ran into anything abnormal. 193 00:11:53,413 --> 00:11:56,482 The Lear jet ahead of Flight 191 lands safely. 194 00:11:58,586 --> 00:12:01,137 Connors and Price are now less than a minute behind. 195 00:12:04,344 --> 00:12:07,862 Without warning, the intensity of the storm increases. 196 00:12:07,965 --> 00:12:11,172 The L-1011 is being pounded by a driving rain. 197 00:12:12,275 --> 00:12:14,103 I knew we was getting ready to land. 198 00:12:14,206 --> 00:12:15,413 But at the same time, 199 00:12:15,517 --> 00:12:17,758 you felt a surge. 200 00:12:17,862 --> 00:12:20,172 Like the pilots was revving up the engine for something. 201 00:12:21,965 --> 00:12:25,310 The plane's air speed is increasing for no apparent reason. 202 00:12:26,310 --> 00:12:28,793 Watch your speed. 203 00:12:28,896 --> 00:12:32,000 Price pulls back on the throttles to slow the plane down 204 00:12:32,103 --> 00:12:35,137 and maintain it at the requested 150 knots. 205 00:12:38,206 --> 00:12:40,931 The plane is just 180 meters from the ground. 206 00:12:42,241 --> 00:12:43,172 You're gonna lose it all of a sudden. 207 00:12:44,827 --> 00:12:45,896 There it is. 208 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:47,965 Then the plane drops rapidly. 209 00:12:51,827 --> 00:12:54,689 It's as though an invisible force is pushing it to the ground. 210 00:12:56,068 --> 00:12:57,379 Push it up! 211 00:12:57,482 --> 00:12:58,896 Push it way up! 212 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,655 Way up! Way up! Way up! 213 00:13:02,758 --> 00:13:06,275 The crew is pushing the plane's jet engines to their full power, 214 00:13:06,379 --> 00:13:09,413 but can't get more speed, or get the plane to climb. 215 00:13:11,758 --> 00:13:13,862 So I pulled my seat belt tight as I could, 216 00:13:13,965 --> 00:13:17,000 but at the same time, you could hear a pin drop. 217 00:13:17,103 --> 00:13:17,965 Nobody was talking. 218 00:13:19,758 --> 00:13:22,275 But I mean, you got dead silence. 219 00:13:22,379 --> 00:13:26,034 As suddenly as it began, the crisis seems to end. 220 00:13:26,137 --> 00:13:28,551 The plane stops falling and begins to pick up 221 00:13:28,655 --> 00:13:31,275 some of the speed Connors and Price have been fighting for. 222 00:13:31,379 --> 00:13:34,586 That's it. 223 00:13:34,689 --> 00:13:38,275 But before the crew can take another breath, the plane drops again, 224 00:13:40,620 --> 00:13:42,965 rocking violently from side to side. 225 00:13:44,241 --> 00:13:47,689 And then, it dips wildly to the right. 226 00:13:47,793 --> 00:13:51,000 And I just knew we shouldn't be that close to the ground that soon. 227 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:53,206 Hang on to the son of a-- 228 00:13:57,172 --> 00:14:00,379 About two kilometers from the runway, it plows into a field 229 00:14:00,482 --> 00:14:03,137 and rockets towards Highway 114. 230 00:14:05,241 --> 00:14:09,034 When we hit the ground, it felt like you was in a car 231 00:14:09,137 --> 00:14:12,172 running over railroad tires. It was real bumpy. 232 00:14:12,275 --> 00:14:16,551 The crew somehow manages to get the plane back in the air. 233 00:14:16,655 --> 00:14:20,310 At that moment, Gene Skipworth catches sight of Delta 191. 234 00:14:21,034 --> 00:14:22,034 He's gonna crash! 235 00:14:23,241 --> 00:14:24,482 Delta, go around! 236 00:14:26,517 --> 00:14:27,827 But it's too late. 237 00:14:29,758 --> 00:14:32,758 The plane's engines slam into William Mayberry's car 238 00:14:32,862 --> 00:14:34,310 on Highway 114. 239 00:14:36,206 --> 00:14:37,586 He is killed instantly. 240 00:14:40,068 --> 00:14:42,275 The plane hits the ground again north of the runway. 241 00:14:44,482 --> 00:14:47,620 It's traveling more than 350 kilometers an hour. 242 00:14:54,965 --> 00:14:58,068 I must have caught sight of him just at the last millisecond, 243 00:14:58,172 --> 00:15:00,517 and he cartwheeled into the tank in just an instant. 244 00:15:00,620 --> 00:15:02,034 And then, of course, there was... 245 00:15:02,137 --> 00:15:05,034 Fire. Not a ball of fire, but a wall of fire. 246 00:15:09,931 --> 00:15:13,137 It seemed like it was only a few seconds. Five seconds at the most. 247 00:15:13,241 --> 00:15:14,517 I don't know how long it was. 248 00:15:15,448 --> 00:15:17,034 We was... Everything was stopped. 249 00:15:19,655 --> 00:15:22,379 The resulting explosion is so powerful 250 00:15:22,482 --> 00:15:25,482 that the rear section of the plane is blasted backwards, 251 00:15:25,586 --> 00:15:27,620 away from the fireball. 252 00:15:27,724 --> 00:15:29,517 Then all of a sudden you look up, 253 00:15:29,620 --> 00:15:31,482 and it's just nothing there. 254 00:15:31,586 --> 00:15:32,724 It's... Everything's gone. 255 00:15:32,827 --> 00:15:34,965 You just see the whole big picture outside. 256 00:15:35,068 --> 00:15:37,344 Like the plane just opened up. 257 00:15:56,172 --> 00:16:00,137 Remarkably, the tail section containing the last ten rows of seats 258 00:16:00,241 --> 00:16:01,758 is relatively intact. 259 00:16:08,206 --> 00:16:11,517 People just thrown around on the ground. 260 00:16:11,620 --> 00:16:15,103 Some with clothes on, some without clothes on. Some were burned. 261 00:16:15,206 --> 00:16:16,724 It was something that 262 00:16:16,827 --> 00:16:19,827 you can't describe unless you were there to see it. 263 00:16:19,931 --> 00:16:23,517 It is something that you will never get out of your mind. 264 00:16:26,103 --> 00:16:28,931 Help! Over here! 265 00:16:29,034 --> 00:16:31,724 Hang in there. Help's on the way. 266 00:16:31,827 --> 00:16:35,379 Then, as suddenly as it had started, the rain stops. 267 00:16:41,551 --> 00:16:44,586 It takes firefighters less than a minute to get to the crash. 268 00:16:45,724 --> 00:16:47,758 And when I arrived on the scene, 269 00:16:47,862 --> 00:16:50,758 I truly believed that there wasn't anybody 270 00:16:50,862 --> 00:16:52,310 that had survived this plane crash, 271 00:16:52,413 --> 00:16:54,275 'cause there was just devastation everywhere. 272 00:17:04,551 --> 00:17:06,448 What I hadn't pulled up on at the time, 273 00:17:06,551 --> 00:17:09,172 was the wing section, which is the portion 274 00:17:09,275 --> 00:17:11,206 of the aircraft that carries the fuel. 275 00:17:11,310 --> 00:17:15,137 So there was a large amount of fuel and a large amount of flames. 276 00:17:15,241 --> 00:17:17,586 The front of the plane has all but disintegrated. 277 00:17:18,793 --> 00:17:20,344 I knew I had to get out there. 278 00:17:20,448 --> 00:17:24,034 At the time, I was a stringer for Time magazine. 279 00:17:24,137 --> 00:17:26,310 Worked with them on a part-time basis. 280 00:17:26,413 --> 00:17:29,551 Called their Atlanta headquarters for this portion of the country. 281 00:17:29,655 --> 00:17:31,206 They said one word. "Go." 282 00:17:36,896 --> 00:17:38,862 Firefighters need only a few minutes 283 00:17:38,965 --> 00:17:42,000 to get the raging fire under control. 284 00:17:42,103 --> 00:17:45,551 They then turned their attention to pulling survivors from the plane. 285 00:17:49,965 --> 00:17:52,896 It wasn't until the fire started to subside a little bit 286 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:54,586 that I saw the tail section 287 00:17:54,689 --> 00:17:56,448 where there was some hope of some people surviving. 288 00:17:59,137 --> 00:18:02,448 There were these two women that were walking through the smoke. 289 00:18:02,551 --> 00:18:04,827 Ladies! Ladies, clear the area. 290 00:18:07,172 --> 00:18:08,793 Get out of the way. Clear the area. 291 00:18:08,896 --> 00:18:10,551 And it kind of surprised me. 292 00:18:10,655 --> 00:18:13,137 So I knew that there was hope and that there were people out there. 293 00:18:15,965 --> 00:18:18,448 Only 27 people survived the crash. 294 00:18:20,206 --> 00:18:23,724 I had seen death before as a medic in Vietnam. 295 00:18:23,827 --> 00:18:26,206 But it had never been aimed at civilians, 296 00:18:26,310 --> 00:18:28,965 and certainly not on a mass casualty situation. 297 00:18:29,068 --> 00:18:30,689 And certainly not this suddenly. 298 00:18:32,517 --> 00:18:34,655 I could tell how bad it was. 299 00:18:34,758 --> 00:18:37,551 You could see and smell and feel the death. 300 00:18:44,310 --> 00:18:47,034 We felt like we did everything that we could, and we were just, 301 00:18:47,137 --> 00:18:49,034 you know, we were just pleased that there were survivors. 302 00:18:57,241 --> 00:19:01,793 I was scheduled to sit on... off Seat 15A. 303 00:19:01,896 --> 00:19:03,448 And I told them that wouldn't be no good, 304 00:19:03,551 --> 00:19:05,137 'cause that was a non-smoking section. 305 00:19:05,241 --> 00:19:07,206 I was a smoker, so I had to be in back. 306 00:19:10,793 --> 00:19:12,206 That probably saved my life. 307 00:19:14,896 --> 00:19:16,068 Captain Connors, 308 00:19:17,103 --> 00:19:18,241 First Officer Price, 309 00:19:19,482 --> 00:19:22,862 and Second Officer Nassick are killed. 310 00:19:22,965 --> 00:19:27,068 So are five other crew members and 128 passengers. 311 00:19:29,172 --> 00:19:32,448 IBM's Don Estridge and his wife are among the dead. 312 00:19:35,896 --> 00:19:40,137 In the tower, there was silence for probably one to two minutes. 313 00:19:40,241 --> 00:19:43,517 Of the... Except for just an occasional transmission. 314 00:19:43,620 --> 00:19:46,379 But basically it's just quiet 315 00:19:46,482 --> 00:19:50,413 and you just sit there stunned, 316 00:19:50,517 --> 00:19:53,517 and wishing you could do anything to take it back. 317 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:00,862 This is a monumental crash. 318 00:20:08,482 --> 00:20:11,517 Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board 319 00:20:11,620 --> 00:20:14,931 arrive at DFW, determined to find the cause. 320 00:20:17,206 --> 00:20:20,206 One of our field investigators would have been on scene 321 00:20:20,310 --> 00:20:22,310 trying to locate the flight data recorder 322 00:20:22,413 --> 00:20:23,689 and the cockpit voice recorder, 323 00:20:24,379 --> 00:20:25,758 which is a... 324 00:20:25,862 --> 00:20:30,137 you know, very important part of the investigation. 325 00:20:33,103 --> 00:20:36,379 Investigators begin looking for evidence of mechanical failure. 326 00:20:38,241 --> 00:20:41,517 They examined the wreckage for clues that the plane was not responding 327 00:20:41,620 --> 00:20:42,827 to the pilot's command. 328 00:20:44,482 --> 00:20:46,275 It's essential... 329 00:20:46,379 --> 00:20:50,137 in any approach, or departure accident 330 00:20:50,241 --> 00:20:52,724 to establish what the airplane's configuration was. 331 00:20:52,827 --> 00:20:56,137 To assure that it was not a factor in the accident. 332 00:20:56,241 --> 00:20:58,241 But everything was normal on this aircraft. 333 00:21:01,275 --> 00:21:04,206 Investigators turn their attention away from the plane... 334 00:21:06,241 --> 00:21:07,241 and to the skies. 335 00:21:11,172 --> 00:21:12,689 After any accident 336 00:21:12,793 --> 00:21:17,448 in commercial aviation, there are theories galore. 337 00:21:17,551 --> 00:21:20,241 A couple of them prevalent that evening... 338 00:21:20,344 --> 00:21:23,206 First, that lightning had struck the airplane. 339 00:21:23,310 --> 00:21:25,793 Secondly, that it had been hit by a mini tornado. 340 00:21:31,655 --> 00:21:32,724 There's lightning coming out of that one. 341 00:21:32,827 --> 00:21:34,931 Where? Right ahead of us. 342 00:21:36,689 --> 00:21:40,068 15 different witnesses including flight crews 343 00:21:40,172 --> 00:21:44,379 report seeing lightning as Flight 191 was descending towards the runway, 344 00:21:46,758 --> 00:21:49,103 The investigators have to consider the possibility 345 00:21:49,206 --> 00:21:51,655 that Flight 191 was hit by lightning. 346 00:21:53,344 --> 00:21:57,517 Lightning is always something that you have to investigate 347 00:21:57,620 --> 00:22:01,689 to determine the possibility that lightning disabled 348 00:22:01,793 --> 00:22:02,965 some part of the airplane. 349 00:22:05,103 --> 00:22:09,000 In 1963, a Boeing 707 was struck by lightning. 350 00:22:10,310 --> 00:22:12,931 The lightning ignited the fuel in the plane's tank. 351 00:22:14,137 --> 00:22:15,206 The plane crashed. 352 00:22:15,896 --> 00:22:18,413 Eighty-one people died. 353 00:22:18,517 --> 00:22:21,103 There had been a handful of similar crashes since then. 354 00:22:23,586 --> 00:22:26,275 Key pieces of wreckage from Flight 191 355 00:22:26,379 --> 00:22:29,551 are taken to the NTSB lab in Washington, D.C. 356 00:22:35,068 --> 00:22:39,241 Bud Laynor is the investigator in charge of examining the wreckage, 357 00:22:39,344 --> 00:22:42,793 as well as the data from the plane's cockpit voice recorder. 358 00:22:42,896 --> 00:22:45,551 Sometimes to might be very difficult to find, 359 00:22:45,655 --> 00:22:48,310 to, to determine where the airplane 360 00:22:48,413 --> 00:22:51,586 might have been struck by lightning and where the exit point was. 361 00:22:51,689 --> 00:22:53,103 Lightning coming out of that one. 362 00:22:53,206 --> 00:22:54,827 Where? Right ahead of us. 363 00:22:56,517 --> 00:22:58,482 If the plane was hit by lightning, 364 00:22:58,586 --> 00:23:00,517 there would be evidence left behind. 365 00:23:02,758 --> 00:23:05,068 A device called a static discharge wick 366 00:23:05,172 --> 00:23:09,000 is attached to the trailing edge of an airplane's wings. 367 00:23:09,103 --> 00:23:12,620 It redirects static electricity into the outside air 368 00:23:12,724 --> 00:23:15,482 instead of into the plane, where the charge could cause a fire. 369 00:23:20,655 --> 00:23:22,896 If the plane was hit by lightning, 370 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,379 one of the pieces that would be visibly damaged 371 00:23:25,482 --> 00:23:27,068 is the static discharge wick. 372 00:23:31,241 --> 00:23:33,103 Nothing there. 373 00:23:33,206 --> 00:23:36,758 With lightning ruled out, investigators go looking elsewhere. 374 00:23:40,931 --> 00:23:42,896 They would soon discover the real culprit. 375 00:23:44,103 --> 00:23:46,241 It had actually been caught on tape. 376 00:23:50,482 --> 00:23:55,172 A Delta Airlines L1011 crashes after entering a storm near Dallas. 377 00:24:02,241 --> 00:24:04,586 One hundred and thirty-seven people die. 378 00:24:06,448 --> 00:24:09,551 Investigators rule out mechanical problems and lightning 379 00:24:09,655 --> 00:24:10,965 as causes of the crash. 380 00:24:12,827 --> 00:24:13,793 Nothing there. 381 00:24:13,896 --> 00:24:15,655 The NTSB's Bud Laynor 382 00:24:15,758 --> 00:24:19,172 turns his attention to the plane just ahead of Delta 191, 383 00:24:20,448 --> 00:24:21,724 the corporate Lear jet. 384 00:24:24,206 --> 00:24:26,379 He learns that it was less than a minute ahead, 385 00:24:27,862 --> 00:24:29,793 and flew through the very same storm. 386 00:24:31,310 --> 00:24:33,206 After we had passed about 5 miles 387 00:24:33,310 --> 00:24:34,655 from the end of the runway, 388 00:24:34,758 --> 00:24:36,896 we entered a rain shower. 389 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:38,931 What we thought was a light rain shower, 390 00:24:39,034 --> 00:24:41,586 it had turned out to be the heaviest rain. 391 00:24:41,689 --> 00:24:44,000 I've ever seen before, or since. 392 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:46,551 In spite of the rain, 393 00:24:46,655 --> 00:24:50,655 Rufus Lewis managed to land his plane safely on Runway 17 Left. 394 00:24:52,517 --> 00:24:55,862 When we broke out of the clouds, we were high and hot. 395 00:24:56,862 --> 00:24:59,862 So we had to use all of the runway 396 00:25:00,517 --> 00:25:02,862 at DFW Airport. 397 00:25:02,965 --> 00:25:06,482 We landed, we're able to turn off at the end of the runway. 398 00:25:07,793 --> 00:25:10,689 So why was the much larger L-1011 399 00:25:10,793 --> 00:25:12,896 unable to land just moments later? 400 00:25:16,206 --> 00:25:19,241 Delta 191 Heavy, reduce speed to 150. 401 00:25:19,344 --> 00:25:23,413 To put some distance between Delta 191 and the Lear jet 402 00:25:23,517 --> 00:25:27,137 the controller had asked Price to slow his plane several times. 403 00:25:28,655 --> 00:25:30,827 When Laynor plots the bigger plane's speed... 404 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:33,413 Then down to 150. 405 00:25:33,517 --> 00:25:36,655 ...he finds that it was coming in to land at 150 knots. 406 00:25:43,620 --> 00:25:47,000 Delta 191 heavy, reduce speed to 150. 407 00:25:47,103 --> 00:25:49,103 Investigators consider the possibility 408 00:25:49,206 --> 00:25:53,310 that Flight 191 had been traveling too slowly for a safe landing. 409 00:25:54,862 --> 00:25:57,068 If you don't have a lot of extra energy, 410 00:25:57,172 --> 00:26:00,034 you don't have anything to trade in case you get in trouble. 411 00:26:00,137 --> 00:26:04,344 So it's... A lot of times, in adverse conditions, 412 00:26:04,448 --> 00:26:05,827 the pilots should... 413 00:26:05,931 --> 00:26:08,482 they add another ten knots for mom and the kids. 414 00:26:09,931 --> 00:26:12,896 Crews don't have to follow 415 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:14,275 a controller's speed request if they think it's unsafe. 416 00:26:15,482 --> 00:26:17,068 Price did reduce his speed. 417 00:26:18,137 --> 00:26:20,965 He knew this plane extremely well. 418 00:26:21,068 --> 00:26:25,448 He had actually helped to rewrite the L-1011's operating manual. 419 00:26:25,551 --> 00:26:29,172 If the captain decided that 150 knots was too slow, 420 00:26:29,275 --> 00:26:30,862 they would have told the controller it was too slow 421 00:26:30,965 --> 00:26:31,862 and they wouldn't have flown it. 422 00:26:33,413 --> 00:26:35,931 Laynor consults the airplane's manufacturer 423 00:26:36,034 --> 00:26:38,620 and interviews other L-1011 pilots. 424 00:26:39,793 --> 00:26:41,827 He concludes that neither the controller 425 00:26:41,931 --> 00:26:45,413 nor First Officer Price made any errors regarding speed. 426 00:26:45,517 --> 00:26:49,620 Delta 191 heavy, reduce speed to 150. 427 00:26:49,724 --> 00:26:53,172 This plane should have been able to land at 150 knots. 428 00:26:53,275 --> 00:26:54,620 Speed to 150. 429 00:26:58,758 --> 00:27:00,482 Bud Laynor still doesn't know 430 00:27:00,586 --> 00:27:04,241 what slammed Flight 191 into the ground. 431 00:27:04,344 --> 00:27:08,275 But soon he finds the clues he needs on the plane's flight data recorder. 432 00:27:11,448 --> 00:27:15,034 It logs every adjustment pilots make to the plane's controls. 433 00:27:18,827 --> 00:27:21,310 The device also records external elements 434 00:27:21,413 --> 00:27:25,655 like temperature, wind speed, altitude, and air pressure. 435 00:27:25,758 --> 00:27:28,000 Whatever Connors and Price were fighting, 436 00:27:28,103 --> 00:27:33,034 there's a good chance it left its fingerprints on the flight data recorder. 437 00:27:33,137 --> 00:27:38,448 This flight data recorder gave us several parameters we didn't have before. 438 00:27:38,551 --> 00:27:41,862 Engine power, longitudinal acceleration... 439 00:27:41,965 --> 00:27:44,137 And those kinds of parameters 440 00:27:44,241 --> 00:27:48,034 really enabled us to do a more in-depth analysis. 441 00:27:49,448 --> 00:27:51,758 The plane's data recorder has documented 442 00:27:51,862 --> 00:27:54,448 a combination of rapidly shifting winds. 443 00:27:54,551 --> 00:27:55,827 Then it shifts to a down draft. 444 00:27:57,724 --> 00:27:59,068 In a matter of seconds, 445 00:27:59,172 --> 00:28:01,965 the plane was hit with strong winds from the front, 446 00:28:02,068 --> 00:28:04,206 then from above, and then from behind. 447 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:06,965 There you have it. 448 00:28:07,068 --> 00:28:10,068 For Bud Laynor, that sequence could only mean one thing. 449 00:28:10,758 --> 00:28:13,344 A microburst. 450 00:28:13,448 --> 00:28:17,758 A microburst is a violent shaft of air falling from a storm cloud. 451 00:28:17,862 --> 00:28:21,000 Back in 1985, few people knew more about encounters 452 00:28:21,103 --> 00:28:24,137 between microbursts and airplanes than John McCarthy. 453 00:28:24,241 --> 00:28:27,931 If you're at the kitchen sink and you turn on the water 454 00:28:28,034 --> 00:28:31,275 and it goes straight down and it splashes out in all directions. 455 00:28:31,379 --> 00:28:34,103 And that's kind of what a microburst is, 456 00:28:34,206 --> 00:28:37,379 except that it is extremely bad news 457 00:28:37,482 --> 00:28:41,034 if you're an airplane flying through it at low altitude. 458 00:28:41,137 --> 00:28:45,206 A plane first faces a strong headwind, which lifts the plane skyward. 459 00:28:45,310 --> 00:28:48,241 Then a downdraft, which slams it towards the ground. 460 00:28:48,344 --> 00:28:52,724 Finally, the microburst delivers its most dangerous punch, the tailwind. 461 00:28:52,827 --> 00:28:55,862 And you would get a rapid descent, 462 00:28:55,965 --> 00:28:58,034 a loss of lift and a rapid descent towards the ground, 463 00:28:59,068 --> 00:29:02,241 and easily crash the airplane. 464 00:29:02,344 --> 00:29:05,896 A plane's wings need a steady flow of air moving over them. 465 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,137 That's what gives them their lift. 466 00:29:08,241 --> 00:29:11,241 By inhibiting that flow, the tailwind reduces lift. 467 00:29:15,551 --> 00:29:18,137 There's no better recipe for a microburst 468 00:29:18,241 --> 00:29:20,551 than the weather conditions at Dallas Fort Worth 469 00:29:20,655 --> 00:29:22,448 on the day of the crash. 470 00:29:22,551 --> 00:29:24,758 It had been extremely hot all day, 471 00:29:24,862 --> 00:29:26,758 and hot air rises. 472 00:29:26,862 --> 00:29:30,862 When that hot air meets the cold moisture in the storm clouds, 473 00:29:30,965 --> 00:29:34,310 it cools instantly and rushes violently back to earth. 474 00:29:34,965 --> 00:29:35,931 A microburst. 475 00:29:37,896 --> 00:29:39,862 It is a tiny thing. 476 00:29:39,965 --> 00:29:43,275 Meteorologically speaking, compared to a... a big storm, 477 00:29:43,379 --> 00:29:47,655 or a snowstorm or a hurricane, it's just a... like a needle in a haystack. 478 00:29:48,862 --> 00:29:50,551 At its maximum strength, it's... 479 00:29:50,655 --> 00:29:53,655 It's no more than two miles across. 480 00:29:53,758 --> 00:29:55,482 And it lasts no more than 15 minutes. 481 00:29:58,172 --> 00:30:01,896 So, if you look at that little space and time window, it's very small. 482 00:30:03,172 --> 00:30:05,448 And so the probability of hitting one is low. 483 00:30:08,034 --> 00:30:11,862 The odds may be slim, but planes do fly into microbursts. 484 00:30:13,068 --> 00:30:15,896 In 1975, an Eastern Airlines flight 485 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,344 landing in New York flew into a microburst. 486 00:30:19,448 --> 00:30:23,275 It slammed the plane into the ground, killing 113 people. 487 00:30:26,551 --> 00:30:31,275 Then, in 1982, a microburst killed another 153 people 488 00:30:31,379 --> 00:30:35,275 when it struck a Pan Am 727, taking off from New Orleans. 489 00:30:40,034 --> 00:30:44,034 It was clear that 136 people on Flight 191 490 00:30:44,137 --> 00:30:46,965 had become the latest victims of a microburst. 491 00:30:49,965 --> 00:30:51,758 Investigators had their culprit. 492 00:30:52,827 --> 00:30:54,517 Unbelievable. 493 00:30:54,620 --> 00:30:57,827 And thanks to Flight 191's advanced data recorder, 494 00:30:57,931 --> 00:31:00,344 they could paint a remarkably accurate picture of it. 495 00:31:01,655 --> 00:31:03,862 The killer had essentially been caught on tape. 496 00:31:05,413 --> 00:31:07,724 But what the flight data recorder doesn't explain 497 00:31:07,827 --> 00:31:11,103 is how such an experienced crew fell victim to a killer... 498 00:31:11,206 --> 00:31:12,241 You're in good shape. 499 00:31:12,344 --> 00:31:13,965 ...they were all trained to overcome. 500 00:31:15,310 --> 00:31:17,448 When Laynor compares the pilot's actions 501 00:31:17,551 --> 00:31:19,034 to the actions of the microburst, 502 00:31:19,689 --> 00:31:20,965 Watch your speed. 503 00:31:22,965 --> 00:31:25,206 He uncovers details of a fight to the death. 504 00:31:26,586 --> 00:31:29,068 A fight that the Delta pilots almost won. 505 00:31:29,172 --> 00:31:30,206 ...lose it all of a sudden. 506 00:31:31,724 --> 00:31:32,586 There it is. 507 00:31:33,896 --> 00:31:35,758 He seemed to know what he was going to hit. 508 00:31:36,862 --> 00:31:38,344 Watch your speed. 509 00:31:38,448 --> 00:31:40,689 The increase in air speed prompted First Officer Price 510 00:31:40,793 --> 00:31:44,068 to reduce power to his engines. 511 00:31:44,172 --> 00:31:47,482 Power that he would desperately need in just a few seconds. 512 00:31:49,310 --> 00:31:51,103 You're going to lose it all of a sudden. There it is. 513 00:31:51,206 --> 00:31:53,931 When Price and Connors entered the downdraft... 514 00:31:54,034 --> 00:31:55,413 Push it up. Way up. 515 00:31:55,517 --> 00:31:58,103 ...they were less than 250 meters from the ground. 516 00:31:58,206 --> 00:32:00,862 The captain knew the characteristics of a microburst. 517 00:32:00,965 --> 00:32:04,862 He'd obviously been given an introduction to wind shear 518 00:32:04,965 --> 00:32:08,793 and microburst characteristics in his flight training. 519 00:32:08,896 --> 00:32:12,310 When Connors and Price encountered the microburst tailwind, 520 00:32:12,413 --> 00:32:14,551 there was very little they could do. 521 00:32:14,655 --> 00:32:17,551 They had insufficient speed and altitude with which to maneuver. 522 00:32:19,206 --> 00:32:22,827 If a pilot encounters a strong tailwind at 3,000 meters, 523 00:32:22,931 --> 00:32:26,758 he can point his nose down and dive to pick up speed and generate lift. 524 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:29,965 It's called trading altitude for airspeed. 525 00:32:31,724 --> 00:32:34,689 But that trade wasn't available to Price and Connors. 526 00:32:34,793 --> 00:32:39,758 They were just 150 meters off the ground when the tailwind struck. 527 00:32:39,862 --> 00:32:42,655 The only way for them to gain airspeed was from their engines. 528 00:32:42,758 --> 00:32:44,827 Push it up! Way up! 529 00:32:44,931 --> 00:32:48,000 Co-pilot responds, the airplane stabilizes. 530 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,551 I can say that most pilots would say, 531 00:32:51,655 --> 00:32:53,620 "Well, we're through with that," and... 532 00:32:53,724 --> 00:32:56,137 it's going to... Rain's going to stop. We're gonna land. 533 00:32:56,241 --> 00:32:59,068 Momentarily, their efforts seem to pay off. 534 00:32:59,172 --> 00:33:03,034 Their air speed increases, their plunge is halted. 535 00:33:03,137 --> 00:33:07,034 But with Flight 191 less than 150 meters from the ground, 536 00:33:07,137 --> 00:33:10,068 this particular microburst delivered the ultimate blow. 537 00:33:12,103 --> 00:33:16,000 A fierce crosswind that forces their plane to bank dangerously to the right. 538 00:33:17,379 --> 00:33:18,827 Turn the son of-- 539 00:33:18,931 --> 00:33:22,068 Combined with the microburst's other winds, the crew was defenseless. 540 00:33:26,517 --> 00:33:27,379 TOGA! 541 00:33:29,241 --> 00:33:30,896 TOGA is Take Off, Go Around mode. 542 00:33:31,724 --> 00:33:34,034 And what it means to a pilot 543 00:33:34,137 --> 00:33:36,655 in that regime of flight 544 00:33:36,758 --> 00:33:38,379 is, first, abandon the approach. 545 00:33:38,482 --> 00:33:41,000 We're no longer going to try to to land this airplane. 546 00:33:41,103 --> 00:33:44,689 We want to do everything we can now to survive 547 00:33:44,793 --> 00:33:47,379 the wind condition that we've entered. 548 00:33:47,482 --> 00:33:49,448 The skill and experience of the pilots 549 00:33:49,551 --> 00:33:51,448 were no match for this microburst. 550 00:33:52,137 --> 00:33:53,310 It was too big, 551 00:33:53,413 --> 00:33:56,275 it's winds too powerful and unpredictable. 552 00:33:56,379 --> 00:33:59,310 The entire fight lasted only 47 seconds. 553 00:34:00,517 --> 00:34:02,620 The pilots of Delta Flight 191 554 00:34:02,724 --> 00:34:04,620 did their very best to recover from this situation. 555 00:34:05,862 --> 00:34:08,310 And it didn't work out. 556 00:34:08,413 --> 00:34:12,517 Investigators were left with one perplexing question. 557 00:34:12,620 --> 00:34:16,275 Why had Connors flown into the storm in the first place? 558 00:34:16,379 --> 00:34:19,896 Prior to 1985, the radars on board the aircraft 559 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:21,758 were built to detect thunderstorms. 560 00:34:21,862 --> 00:34:22,862 191... 561 00:34:22,965 --> 00:34:25,689 Essentially, heavy areas of precipitation. 562 00:34:25,793 --> 00:34:28,931 They were not effective, they were not even designed to detect a microburst. 563 00:34:29,034 --> 00:34:32,137 So those radars were essentially useless at low altitudes 564 00:34:32,241 --> 00:34:33,655 for looking into microburst phenomena. 565 00:34:35,758 --> 00:34:37,724 Microbursts are invisible, 566 00:34:37,827 --> 00:34:40,586 but they generally emerge from storm clouds. 567 00:34:40,689 --> 00:34:44,448 That's why pilots are trained not to fly into storms if they see lightning. 568 00:34:47,896 --> 00:34:49,137 It's a pretty good sized cell. 569 00:34:50,241 --> 00:34:51,482 And I'd rather not go through it. 570 00:34:51,586 --> 00:34:53,448 I'd rather go around it one way or the other. 571 00:34:53,551 --> 00:34:55,103 When I can, I'll turn you into Blue Ridge. 572 00:34:55,206 --> 00:34:57,413 It will be about 010 radial. 573 00:34:57,517 --> 00:34:59,000 010. Roger. 574 00:34:59,103 --> 00:35:01,655 Captain Connors was not a risk taker. 575 00:35:01,758 --> 00:35:04,482 He was known as a cautious pilot. 576 00:35:04,586 --> 00:35:06,172 I'm glad we didn't have to go through that mess. 577 00:35:06,275 --> 00:35:07,965 It's hard to blame the air crew. 578 00:35:09,103 --> 00:35:11,586 Their job is to avoid thunderstorms, and... 579 00:35:11,689 --> 00:35:15,517 There's probably a forecast for thunderstorms every day at Dallas in the summertime. 580 00:35:16,931 --> 00:35:18,724 Which ones do you avoid? 581 00:35:18,827 --> 00:35:21,068 And it's, you know... It's a very difficult problem. 582 00:35:23,344 --> 00:35:26,344 Earlier in the flight, Connors had flown around bad weather, 583 00:35:27,965 --> 00:35:31,103 Investigators can only conclude that he underestimated 584 00:35:31,206 --> 00:35:34,275 the storm in his path at the foot of Runway 17 Left. 585 00:35:35,793 --> 00:35:38,206 When you're in a landing sequence 586 00:35:38,310 --> 00:35:41,896 at an airport like Dallas or Atlanta, or Chicago, 587 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,793 and you see other airplanes ahead that are landing uneventfully, 588 00:35:45,896 --> 00:35:48,448 you might get the impression that there's a thunderstorm there, 589 00:35:48,551 --> 00:35:50,793 but I'm going to pass through it very quickly 590 00:35:50,896 --> 00:35:53,724 and it's not gonna be a factor for me. 591 00:35:53,827 --> 00:35:55,689 Airports like DFW 592 00:35:55,793 --> 00:35:59,724 have sophisticated systems in place to provide weather information to pilots. 593 00:36:01,793 --> 00:36:03,793 A thunderstorm at the end of a runway 594 00:36:03,896 --> 00:36:06,448 is the kind of threat they were designed to identify. 595 00:36:08,620 --> 00:36:11,689 But this deadly storm managed to foil those systems. 596 00:36:14,482 --> 00:36:17,620 As Flight 191 was approaching the airport, 597 00:36:17,724 --> 00:36:20,689 the weather at DFW was changing very quickly. 598 00:36:24,586 --> 00:36:26,275 Attention, all aircraft listening. 599 00:36:26,379 --> 00:36:28,793 There's a little rain shower just north of the airport. 600 00:36:28,896 --> 00:36:31,689 Captain Connors heard that part of the message, 601 00:36:31,793 --> 00:36:33,965 but then he switched his radio frequency 602 00:36:34,068 --> 00:36:36,793 for his final landing instructions. 603 00:36:36,896 --> 00:36:40,896 The Delta crew never heard the last part of this message about weather ahead. 604 00:36:44,172 --> 00:36:46,620 There's a little bitty thunderstorm sitting right on the final. 605 00:36:49,103 --> 00:36:52,275 There was an observation two minutes before the accident 606 00:36:52,379 --> 00:36:56,068 that there was a wall of water at the threshold of the runway. 607 00:36:56,172 --> 00:36:59,034 It's been my contention that that information 608 00:36:59,137 --> 00:37:00,724 would have been very important to the flight crew. 609 00:37:02,551 --> 00:37:05,413 Radar readouts from the day of the crash indicate 610 00:37:05,517 --> 00:37:08,206 that the storm cell Connors and Price flew into 611 00:37:08,310 --> 00:37:10,620 grew out of nothing in a matter of minutes. 612 00:37:13,172 --> 00:37:15,517 This is two minutes before the accident. 613 00:37:15,620 --> 00:37:18,379 The readout shows the beginnings of a weather cell 614 00:37:18,482 --> 00:37:20,620 at the foot of Runway 17 Left. 615 00:37:23,827 --> 00:37:27,517 This is three minutes after the accident, 616 00:37:28,310 --> 00:37:30,000 that we have a new cell 617 00:37:30,103 --> 00:37:32,586 right at the threshold of the runway 618 00:37:32,689 --> 00:37:35,137 that wasn't evident in the previous picture. 619 00:37:39,034 --> 00:37:42,758 This explains why Rufus Lewis was able to land his Lear jet. 620 00:37:44,551 --> 00:37:48,103 The microburst was just beginning to form when he was approaching the runway. 621 00:37:50,344 --> 00:37:53,482 Many people think that there was a huge vertical development 622 00:37:53,586 --> 00:37:55,689 that the pilots recognized, and they just decided 623 00:37:55,793 --> 00:37:57,206 to go fly through it anyway, 624 00:37:57,827 --> 00:37:59,448 and I maintain, 625 00:37:59,551 --> 00:38:01,068 and I think the evidence proves it, 626 00:38:01,172 --> 00:38:03,275 that that was not the case. 627 00:38:04,344 --> 00:38:05,758 They didn't recognize this, 628 00:38:05,862 --> 00:38:07,689 this new developing cell. 629 00:38:07,793 --> 00:38:10,931 They did get into the storm beneath the cell. 630 00:38:11,034 --> 00:38:13,275 But it was heavy rain. They weren't worried about that. 631 00:38:14,448 --> 00:38:15,586 Then the hammer fell. 632 00:38:15,689 --> 00:38:16,689 It was too late. 633 00:38:18,517 --> 00:38:23,068 It's small, it's the length of a runway, roughly, 634 00:38:23,172 --> 00:38:24,448 and it doesn't last very long. 635 00:38:24,551 --> 00:38:28,310 So, it's something that can happen so quickly 636 00:38:28,413 --> 00:38:31,310 that many accidents have occurred because nobody knew it was there. 637 00:38:33,724 --> 00:38:38,793 The storm arrived at the foot of Runway 17 Left virtually unannounced, 638 00:38:38,896 --> 00:38:42,724 but once there, it attracted a lot of attention. 639 00:38:42,827 --> 00:38:45,689 Pilots on the ground, as well as trained weather observers, 640 00:38:45,793 --> 00:38:47,034 saw the worsening storm, 641 00:38:48,965 --> 00:38:52,862 but they all saw it too late to warn the crew of Delta 191. 642 00:38:55,965 --> 00:38:58,034 The storm did show up on a radar screen 643 00:38:58,137 --> 00:39:00,482 at the Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center. 644 00:39:01,551 --> 00:39:03,448 But at the time of the crash, 645 00:39:03,551 --> 00:39:06,379 the meteorologist on duty was in the cafeteria, 646 00:39:06,482 --> 00:39:07,482 on a meal break. 647 00:39:08,931 --> 00:39:11,413 If the flight crew had had any idea 648 00:39:11,517 --> 00:39:14,551 that there would be a severe event in front of them, 649 00:39:14,655 --> 00:39:15,482 they would have missed the approach. 650 00:39:16,931 --> 00:39:19,517 Investigators conclude that the Delta crash 651 00:39:19,620 --> 00:39:21,448 was caused by the pilot's decision 652 00:39:21,551 --> 00:39:24,724 to continue their approach into the storm. 653 00:39:24,827 --> 00:39:28,068 A decision that was made because the crew wasn't warned about the hazard. 654 00:39:29,586 --> 00:39:32,724 In 1985, there were basic systems at airports 655 00:39:32,827 --> 00:39:34,965 that could detect dangerous winds, 656 00:39:35,068 --> 00:39:37,655 but they could not reliably detect a microburst. 657 00:39:37,758 --> 00:39:39,310 On the ground, there were systems 658 00:39:39,413 --> 00:39:41,379 called low level wind shear learning systems, 659 00:39:41,482 --> 00:39:43,517 that primarily looked for differences of wind speed 660 00:39:43,620 --> 00:39:45,379 around the airport, on the airport. 661 00:39:45,482 --> 00:39:48,344 Unfortunately, these sensors tend to be spaced so far apart 662 00:39:48,448 --> 00:39:51,000 that a microburst could actually exist in between them 663 00:39:51,103 --> 00:39:52,793 and escape detection, or at least detection in time 664 00:39:52,896 --> 00:39:54,448 to warn a pilot of a threat. 665 00:39:55,758 --> 00:39:57,689 But a microburst detection system 666 00:39:57,793 --> 00:40:00,517 to overcome this problem had been developed. 667 00:40:00,620 --> 00:40:03,862 It was being tested in Denver and working very well. 668 00:40:04,862 --> 00:40:07,620 What we found out is that Doppler radar, 669 00:40:07,724 --> 00:40:11,655 which is on the ground, is incredibly effective 670 00:40:11,758 --> 00:40:14,000 in detecting microbursts, and in fact, it can detect 671 00:40:14,103 --> 00:40:17,275 about 98% of a microburst. 672 00:40:17,379 --> 00:40:22,000 Conventional radar uses radio waves to measure precipitation inside a storm. 673 00:40:23,034 --> 00:40:25,758 Doppler also sends out radio waves. 674 00:40:25,862 --> 00:40:28,448 But by measuring the frequency of returning waves, 675 00:40:28,551 --> 00:40:31,827 Doppler can also calculate the movement of the winds inside a storm. 676 00:40:33,931 --> 00:40:35,379 And if you look through the Doppler radar, 677 00:40:35,482 --> 00:40:37,862 you see a part of it that's going away from the radar, 678 00:40:37,965 --> 00:40:40,344 and a part that's coming towards the radar. 679 00:40:40,448 --> 00:40:44,000 And if it's small, It's absolutely a microburst. 680 00:40:44,103 --> 00:40:45,586 It can be nothing else. 681 00:40:45,689 --> 00:40:47,344 So it has what we call 682 00:40:47,448 --> 00:40:51,896 an unambiguous signature of a microburst, 683 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,241 which means we got it. 684 00:40:54,344 --> 00:40:57,413 Since Doppler radar could see a microburst, 685 00:40:57,517 --> 00:41:01,068 controllers could use it to warn crews of their presence. 686 00:41:01,172 --> 00:41:04,724 The Denver research resulted in an important new system at airports. 687 00:41:06,310 --> 00:41:08,000 Terminal Doppler Weather Radar. 688 00:41:13,172 --> 00:41:15,793 When the system detects dangerous conditions, 689 00:41:15,896 --> 00:41:18,344 it relays a warning to air traffic controllers... 690 00:41:20,551 --> 00:41:22,551 who can then alert pilots. 691 00:41:22,655 --> 00:41:24,689 Flight 236, microburst alert. 692 00:41:24,793 --> 00:41:27,448 Five-zero knot loss, one mile final. Say intentions. 693 00:41:27,551 --> 00:41:30,241 After the crash of Delta 191, 694 00:41:30,344 --> 00:41:33,379 The Federal Aviation Authority, the FAA, 695 00:41:33,482 --> 00:41:37,413 hurried to install Terminal Doppler Weather Radar at high risk airports. 696 00:41:39,931 --> 00:41:42,793 Dallas Fort Worth was one of the first. 697 00:41:42,896 --> 00:41:45,586 The domes containing the specialized radar 698 00:41:45,689 --> 00:41:48,448 are now a common fixture at major airports around the world. 699 00:41:53,689 --> 00:41:58,379 But radar on the ground can't get the warning to the pilots fast enough. 700 00:41:58,482 --> 00:42:01,103 We also have an issue of ground-based systems in that 701 00:42:01,206 --> 00:42:04,344 it takes time to communicate the threat to the crew. 702 00:42:04,448 --> 00:42:06,448 The system has to detect it on the ground. 703 00:42:06,551 --> 00:42:08,620 It would typically go to a control position 704 00:42:08,724 --> 00:42:11,620 in the control tower, and be relayed by voice to the pilot, 705 00:42:11,724 --> 00:42:16,275 which can introduce a delay of 10, 15, 20 seconds, which could be very critical. 706 00:42:16,379 --> 00:42:19,344 Planes also needed on-board microburst detection. 707 00:42:21,310 --> 00:42:24,413 A team from NASA began developing such a system 708 00:42:24,517 --> 00:42:27,620 by flying into the most dangerous microbursts, they could find. 709 00:42:27,724 --> 00:42:29,137 LANGLEY CO-PILOT: Here we go. Here we go. 710 00:42:33,620 --> 00:42:35,517 By risking their own lives, 711 00:42:35,620 --> 00:42:37,827 they would eventually save thousands of others. 712 00:42:46,896 --> 00:42:49,482 Delta Airlines Flight 191 713 00:42:49,586 --> 00:42:53,517 is the latest in a string of crashes attributed to a microburst. 714 00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:57,655 Since 1964, 715 00:42:57,758 --> 00:43:01,379 microbursts were shown to be the cause of 26 accidents 716 00:43:02,413 --> 00:43:04,655 claiming more than 500 lives. 717 00:43:07,379 --> 00:43:09,379 The public is unnerved. 718 00:43:09,482 --> 00:43:11,931 Politicians are demanding answers. 719 00:43:12,034 --> 00:43:13,758 The killer has to be stopped. 720 00:43:17,586 --> 00:43:19,310 The body count is building, 721 00:43:19,413 --> 00:43:23,551 and this ca... this particular crash tipped the scales 722 00:43:23,655 --> 00:43:26,620 as far as the federal government was concerned. 723 00:43:26,724 --> 00:43:30,206 The crash of Delta 191 showed that seconds count 724 00:43:30,310 --> 00:43:31,896 when planes encounter a microburst. 725 00:43:36,620 --> 00:43:37,862 We're gonna lose it all of a sudden. 726 00:43:37,965 --> 00:43:39,655 There it is. 727 00:43:39,758 --> 00:43:41,172 Increasing alert times... 728 00:43:41,758 --> 00:43:42,758 Push it up! 729 00:43:42,862 --> 00:43:44,344 ...could save more lives, 730 00:43:44,448 --> 00:43:48,137 especially if a microburst detector was mounted right on the plane. 731 00:43:49,965 --> 00:43:52,620 If you can provide the airplane with 10, 15, 20 seconds 732 00:43:52,724 --> 00:43:55,482 of advanced warning, pilots push the throttles up, 733 00:43:55,586 --> 00:43:57,931 they build air speed, they build altitude, they build energy. 734 00:43:58,034 --> 00:43:59,517 It's like money in the bank. 735 00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:01,103 By the time they get to the microburst 736 00:44:01,206 --> 00:44:03,689 during a recovery, they can survive. 737 00:44:03,793 --> 00:44:07,000 Aviation experts had to find a way to give all pilots 738 00:44:07,103 --> 00:44:09,413 those critical 20 seconds. 739 00:44:09,517 --> 00:44:11,241 To develop that technology, 740 00:44:11,344 --> 00:44:15,689 they would embark on a high-risk, unprecedented research project. 741 00:44:15,793 --> 00:44:20,931 They would fly a 737 into the most severe microbursts they could find. 742 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:24,413 We did a very careful risk analysis 743 00:44:24,517 --> 00:44:27,413 of all the possible dangers that could occur. 744 00:44:27,517 --> 00:44:30,379 And initially, you know, the first reaction was, 745 00:44:30,482 --> 00:44:31,482 "You want to do what with an airplane? 746 00:44:31,586 --> 00:44:32,620 "You want to fly it through a microburst?" 747 00:44:34,827 --> 00:44:37,103 In the summer of 1991, 748 00:44:37,206 --> 00:44:39,758 NASA modified a Boeing 737 749 00:44:39,862 --> 00:44:41,931 and went hunting for microbursts. 750 00:44:44,310 --> 00:44:46,931 The idea was to identify onboard technology 751 00:44:47,034 --> 00:44:50,137 that could warn pilots of a microburst in their path. 752 00:44:53,655 --> 00:44:57,034 The airborne solution brings detection right into the cockpit, 753 00:44:57,137 --> 00:44:59,862 so the pilot sees exactly what's in front of the aircraft, 754 00:44:59,965 --> 00:45:01,965 and when the alert is given, there's no time delay. 755 00:45:02,068 --> 00:45:04,517 230... Ground speed 234... 756 00:45:04,620 --> 00:45:07,965 The NASA researchers were testing three separate systems 757 00:45:08,068 --> 00:45:10,275 for detecting microbursts. 758 00:45:10,379 --> 00:45:14,413 Modified Doppler Radar housed in the 737's nose, 759 00:45:14,517 --> 00:45:17,586 a laser radar under its forward cargo bay. 760 00:45:17,689 --> 00:45:19,793 and a side-mounted infrared device 761 00:45:19,896 --> 00:45:22,689 to measure changes in air temperature. 762 00:45:22,793 --> 00:45:26,862 Each of those systems was wired to banks of computers in the plane's cabin. 763 00:45:28,137 --> 00:45:30,655 A spotter on the ground could find a microburst 764 00:45:30,758 --> 00:45:32,586 and quickly direct the plane towards it. 765 00:45:34,965 --> 00:45:36,379 Roger, Control, 515. 766 00:45:37,275 --> 00:45:38,275 We're rolling. 767 00:45:40,137 --> 00:45:41,241 Roger, we understand your roll. 768 00:45:41,344 --> 00:45:43,034 C-D-W-R NASA Control. 769 00:45:46,275 --> 00:45:48,482 - Range. - Range, 45 miles. 770 00:45:48,586 --> 00:45:50,379 Ground speed, 240. 771 00:45:50,482 --> 00:45:52,724 - Here we go. - Take it straight ahead. 772 00:45:52,827 --> 00:45:57,034 Take it up left about 10 degrees, 15 degrees. 773 00:45:58,758 --> 00:46:01,137 Well, when you spot a microburst, it was all business. 774 00:46:01,241 --> 00:46:03,482 It was, "How do we get there? How do we get to the right altitude, 775 00:46:03,586 --> 00:46:05,413 "the right airspeed, the right position? 776 00:46:05,517 --> 00:46:06,620 "When to begin data collection?" 777 00:46:06,724 --> 00:46:08,724 So people were quite busy during these flights. 778 00:46:08,827 --> 00:46:10,931 Yeah, it was exciting. We wanted to find them. 779 00:46:11,034 --> 00:46:12,206 We wanted to penetrate them. 780 00:46:13,310 --> 00:46:14,758 With every microburst, 781 00:46:14,862 --> 00:46:18,551 the three onboard detection systems were put to the test. 782 00:46:18,655 --> 00:46:20,965 Researchers on the plane could instantly see 783 00:46:21,068 --> 00:46:24,793 which instrument was doing the best job of picking up the microburst ahead. 784 00:46:26,482 --> 00:46:27,965 Behind the flight deck, 785 00:46:28,068 --> 00:46:29,862 we had palettes of equipment 786 00:46:29,965 --> 00:46:31,000 where the radar engineers, 787 00:46:31,103 --> 00:46:33,827 the laser engineers, the data recording engineers 788 00:46:33,931 --> 00:46:37,413 could sit and ensure that each system was performing as expected. 789 00:46:37,517 --> 00:46:40,241 Ground speed, 234. 790 00:46:40,344 --> 00:46:43,275 Dead ahead, maybe one degree to the left. 791 00:46:43,379 --> 00:46:45,103 - Let's go straight through this one. - Here we go. 792 00:46:45,206 --> 00:46:46,827 Take it straight ahead. 793 00:46:49,310 --> 00:46:51,551 We started with very, very weak microbursts. 794 00:46:51,655 --> 00:46:53,172 Again, we had the ground-based radar 795 00:46:53,275 --> 00:46:55,068 telling us what we were about to go into. 796 00:46:55,172 --> 00:46:57,206 So we started with very weak microbursts, gained experience, 797 00:46:57,310 --> 00:46:59,827 then gradually worked up to stronger and stronger ones. 798 00:46:59,931 --> 00:47:03,482 You would see the rain begin to fall and you would feel a sinking feeling. 799 00:47:03,586 --> 00:47:06,310 It'd be a little settling, a little like an elevator starting down. 800 00:47:06,413 --> 00:47:08,275 A few minutes here before we touch down, what you see... 801 00:47:08,379 --> 00:47:12,000 So any apprehension that the crew may have had initially about going through them, 802 00:47:12,103 --> 00:47:15,517 was actually replaced later with joy at finding them. 803 00:47:15,620 --> 00:47:17,137 LANGLEY CO-PILOT: Here comes the center of the target, right... 804 00:47:19,172 --> 00:47:20,000 now. 805 00:47:21,275 --> 00:47:22,724 Two hundred and forty-two on the ground speed. 806 00:47:22,827 --> 00:47:24,517 Wind's gone away. Look for a tailwind. 807 00:47:24,620 --> 00:47:25,482 I'm watching. 808 00:47:26,482 --> 00:47:28,931 Lost some altitude there, too. 809 00:47:29,034 --> 00:47:31,000 There. The wind's gone around the tail at 10 knots. 810 00:47:34,241 --> 00:47:35,689 Good, strong, downdraft in the middle of it. 811 00:47:35,793 --> 00:47:37,758 Just sucked 100 feet in almost no time at all. 812 00:47:37,862 --> 00:47:39,689 A good performance decrease, too. 813 00:47:39,793 --> 00:47:43,068 We were about 850 and we dropped to 750. Beautiful. 814 00:47:45,551 --> 00:47:48,413 The Langley researchers flew into dozens of microbursts 815 00:47:48,517 --> 00:47:49,965 over the course of their research. 816 00:47:52,103 --> 00:47:53,482 The project proved 817 00:47:53,586 --> 00:47:56,310 that the forward-looking Doppler Radar was the only system 818 00:47:56,413 --> 00:48:00,551 that could consistently give pilots advanced warnings of a microburst ahead. 819 00:48:02,655 --> 00:48:05,172 What we found was that the Doppler radars 820 00:48:05,275 --> 00:48:07,931 could detect an extremely wide variety of microbursts. 821 00:48:09,034 --> 00:48:11,551 Lightning coming out of that one. 822 00:48:11,655 --> 00:48:16,344 If the crew of Delta 191 had a system to warn them of microbursts, 823 00:48:16,448 --> 00:48:19,586 they could have boosted power to their engines and started climbing 824 00:48:19,689 --> 00:48:20,827 before they encountered it. 825 00:48:22,448 --> 00:48:23,586 That might have given them 826 00:48:23,689 --> 00:48:26,034 the speed and the altitude which they sorely lacked 827 00:48:26,137 --> 00:48:28,034 when they began their battle with the storm. 828 00:48:32,034 --> 00:48:36,034 The Langley flight tests had, in effect, tamed the microburst menace. 829 00:48:37,206 --> 00:48:38,724 After the NASA tests, 830 00:48:38,827 --> 00:48:42,620 the FAA certified a Doppler-based warning system for planes. 831 00:48:44,275 --> 00:48:48,000 Today, Forward Looking Doppler Radar is standard equipment 832 00:48:48,103 --> 00:48:49,931 on commercial flights around the world. 833 00:48:52,827 --> 00:48:56,000 The good news out of all of this tragedy is 834 00:48:57,068 --> 00:48:59,827 so many things have now happened, 835 00:48:59,931 --> 00:49:02,758 from radar to ground-based systems, to airborne systems 836 00:49:02,862 --> 00:49:05,931 and especially to training for pilots, 837 00:49:06,034 --> 00:49:08,034 we think that microburst accidents 838 00:49:08,793 --> 00:49:10,827 are a thing of the past. 839 00:49:15,310 --> 00:49:19,689 If there is one crash that we can look back on now 840 00:49:19,793 --> 00:49:24,448 and say, "This made things safer, because we learned from it." 841 00:49:25,275 --> 00:49:26,448 It was Delta 191. 842 00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:31,310 The changes made after the crash of Delta 191 843 00:49:31,413 --> 00:49:33,620 have saved countless lives. 844 00:49:33,724 --> 00:49:35,965 Captain Connors and First Officer Price 845 00:49:36,068 --> 00:49:38,689 lost their fight against a microburst. 846 00:49:38,793 --> 00:49:42,413 But their struggle did manage to expose and disarm 847 00:49:42,517 --> 00:49:43,862 an invisible killer.