All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S20E08.Deadly.Confusion.1080p.SMIT.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Nothing's working!

NARRATOR: A confused John F.
Kennedy Jr. is lost on his way

to Martha's Vineyard.

Disorientation
can quickly lead

to the airplane getting into
an uncontrollable situation.

NARRATOR: High over
the Red Sea, a pilot

can't understand why
his passenger jet

is plummeting toward the water.

We're at top power.

We're at top power!

Over a dark ocean without
a defined visual horizon,

the pilot may not be able to
perceive whether he was flying

up, down, left, or right.

Pull up, pull up!

NARRATOR: And off the
coast of Indonesia--

Don't change it.

This is our heading.

NARRATOR: --a Boeing
737 flies off course.

We're going to get lost
if it stays like this.

In all of these cases, we
see pilots disoriented as

to which way's right side up.

NARRATOR: It's a terrifying
cause of airplane accidents,

a pilot lost in space.

WOMAN: Ladies and gentlemen,
we are starting our approach.

MAN: We lost both engines.

WOMAN: Put the mask
over your nose.

Emergency decent.

Brace for impact!

MAN: He's going to crash!

NARRATOR: It's a
warm summer evening

at Essex County Airport.

Less than an hour from the
busy streets of Manhattan,

the small airfield serves many
of New York's wealthy citizens.

Preparing to pilot his own
plane, a man who in many ways

is the elite of the elite--

John F. Kennedy Jr.

He was breathtakingly
handsome.

He was such a crown
prince, people

kept waiting for
the moment when he

would run for office publicly.

NARRATOR: Kennedy is waiting
for Carolyn Bessette, his wife

of three years, to arrive.

And hitching a ride
on Kennedy's plane

is his sister-in-law,
Lauren Bessette.

At 8:20 PM, Carolyn
arrives two hours late.

All right, ladies, hop in.

I just have to do a walk-around,
and then we can get going.

NARRATOR: Though John F. Kennedy
Jr. has had his pilot's license

for more than a year, he hasn't
flown solo since breaking

his ankle six weeks ago.

Still limping, he makes
a final pre-flight check

of his new plane,
a Piper Saratoga.

John plans to drop Lauren
off at Martha's Vineyard

and continue on with his wife
to the Kennedy family compound

in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

Seatbelts on, please.

All right.

Battery on, fuel pump on,
and propeller is clear.

NARRATOR: At 8:40 PM, more
than two hours behind schedule,

the flight gets underway.

75 knots.

Oh, yeah.

NARRATOR: Like many
private pilots,

Kennedy is flying under
visual flight rules, or VFR.

You stay clear of clouds.

You have to have
good visibility.

You're always looking outside,
able to see the horizon,

and orient the airplane
using your visual cues.

NARRATOR: Kennedy cruises
at just 5,500 feet,

a typical altitude
for small planes.

Around 9:30 PM, he leaves
the mainland coast behind.

Just leaving
Montauk over there.

I don't see a thing.

His flight path was
following the coast,

so he would want to go south
over the Long Island Sound

to line up and set up for a long
straight end for the runway.

NARRATOR: He expects to
reach their first destination

in about half an hour.

We'll have you on the
ground by 10:00 for sure.

NARRATOR: But by 10 o'clock--

[phone ringing]

Martha's Vineyard Tower.

MAN (ON PHONE):
Airport security here.

NARRATOR: The air
traffic controller

at Martha's Vineyard
Airport has had no contact

with Kennedy's plane.

MAN (ON PHONE): Any
word on that flight?

Negative.

I haven't been notified
of that arrival.

NARRATOR: Around
Martha's Vineyard,

weather can change quickly,
and overdue flights

are not uncommon.

But as the hours pass with no
sign of the Piper Saratoga,

a chilling reality sets in.

John F. Kennedy Jr., his
wife, and sister-in-law

have vanished without a trace.

The Coast Guard launches
a search for John F.

Kennedy Jr.'s Piper Saratoga.

At first light, the US military
and local law enforcement

agencies join the search effort.

The scale of the effort to
search for the aircraft, it

was massive.

This was JFK Jr. And
it captured the eyes

of the country and the World.

NARRATOR: News that one
of America's favorite sons

is missing stuns the nation.

We watched this
adorable little child

playing in the Oval Office.

We watched him of course at
that one terribly tragic and sad

moment when the small child
in a little short knee coat

saluted his father's
casket as it came by.

NARRATOR: The public
wants answers.

It seems like every news,
major news organization had

a presence in our parking lot.

NARRATOR: With no
aircraft to examine--

Hey.

NARRATOR: --Jeff Gazetti
from the National

Transportation Safety Board--

Following this on television.

NARRATOR: --compiles data
from coastal radar stations

to build a picture of
how the plane was flying.

OK, ready when you are.

We always consider
recorded radar

data as a poor man's blackbox.

It's a way to get some
information in regards

to the flight path, the
airspeed, the altitude.

And that was very helpful
in this investigation.

NARRATOR: But the
radar information

leaves investigators perplexed.

He suddenly starts heading
away from Martha's Vineyard.

Why is he flying in
the wrong direction?

NARRATOR: About 30 miles
from Martha's Vineyard,

the plane makes a series
of unusual maneuvers.

He's flying like someone
who can't control the plane.

The pattern that was
indicated by the radar

was quite unusual for a normal
type of descent and approach

to an airport.

We don't know at that
point exactly why.

NARRATOR: Finally, four
days after Kennedy's

plane goes missing,
the investigation

catches a giant break.

Today, we were able to
bring closure to two families.

And I think that, we
realize, is very important.

NARRATOR: US Navy divers
locate the sunken wreckage

and the bodies.

75% of Kennedy's Piper
Saratoga is recovered

from the ocean floor--

Get the cables all
together in one spot.

Let's keep them over there.

NARRATOR: --and sent to a
hangar for detailed analysis.

Because the small
plane was not required

to carry flight recorders--

Each and every piece,
no matter how small,

we need to know
where it was found.

NARRATOR: --investigators
will have to uncover the story

behind this crash
by interpreting

the clues imprinted on
the crumpled debris.

I want to see every piece.

We start at the wingtips;
we work our way in.

NARRATOR: First, the team
examines and tests the records

for any signs of a malfunction.

Their efforts reveal
that at the moment

the plane hit the water--

Well, the aileron
cables also seem fine.

NARRATOR: --the engine,
the flight controls,

and the instruments
were working normally.

We found no evidence
of any kind of pre-impact

mechanical malfunction.

NARRATOR: The focus now shifts
from the plane to the pilot.

Investigators wonder,
did John F. Kennedy

Jr. lose control of his plane?

Over 300 flight hours.

He wasn't a total rookie.

He had a fair number of
flight hours under his belt.

NARRATOR: They check
Kennedy's training

records to learn all they
can about his experience

as a pilot.

So what did he
learn in 300 hours?

I'd like to try a few
eyeless approaches again today.

NARRATOR: They discover that
Kennedy had been taking lessons

on and off for 17 years,
but he had relatively little

experience flying on his own.

He's only qualified
for visual flying.

He hadn't finished his training
for instrument-only flights.

NARRATOR: Investigators also
discover that Kennedy was still

working towards his instrument
rating, a crucial qualification

for flying at night or in bad
weather using only the flight

instruments as a guide.

Instrument flight is
one of the hardest ratings

to get when you're moving
up through your licenses

and ratings.

And it involves flying without
looking outside the aircraft

so that when you're in
clouds, you can maintain

control of the aircraft.

So he wasn't ready to
fly if he couldn't see.

So could he see or not?

NARRATOR: Investigators
look at Kennedy's activities

in the hours before the flight.

Computer records
reveal that he checked

the weather online at 6:34 PM.

At that time, it was a clear
day with good visibility.

Any word from your sister?

No.

Stuck in traffic, I guess.

It's Friday.

I told her it was
going to be jammed.

NARRATOR: But they took off
two hours later than planned.

By that time, weather
conditions over the ocean

were deteriorating
with fog making

it hard to see the horizon.

Starting to get
a bit sucked in.

Hope it clears up
for the weekend.

NARRATOR: Suddenly,
Kennedy found himself

flying at night in bad
weather, both conditions

he wasn't trained for.

Was Kennedy lost
in a cloudy haze

before his plane went down?

What the hell?

John?

What are you doing.

in the cockpit as John F.
Kennedy Jr. flew his plane

into worsening conditions.

Not a great night for
this guy to be flying.

Weather plays an immense
role in all aviation

accidents, even the ones that
you might not think it would.

NARRATOR: If Kennedy was
concerned about weather,

he could have been getting
updates during the flight.

127.25.

NARRATOR: To get
accurate information,

investigators know
he would have tuned

his radio to the
weather transmission

from Martha's Vineyard.

The radio from Kennedy's
plane is among the many parts

salvaged from the ocean.

And it's tuned to 127.25,
the wrong frequency.

126.25.

He was off by one digit.

NARRATOR: Investigators
now know for certain

that Kennedy wasn't receiving
the weather updates he needed.

It's a revealing discovery.

The team begins piecing together
a likely scenario to explain

Kennedy's tragic end.

It started after
he cleared New York.

NARRATOR: As he heads up the
coast towards Long Island,

night falls, and
visibility decreases.

Visibility was bad
and is getting worse.

He starts his descent.

NARRATOR: But Kennedy isn't
properly trained to fly solo

in these dangerous conditions.

As he headed
out over the water

and all those lights
were behind him,

all that visual
reference was gone.

NARRATOR: It's
possible that Kennedy

decides to check
the weather station

in preparation for landing.

He looks away from his
instruments for like a second.

127.25.

Remember, his
frequency was off.

Maybe he was trying
to tune the radio.

He might look to see if
the frequency had changed.

Still nothing.

While all of
that's going on, it's

quite easy for the
airplane to slip

into a little bit of a bank,
one direction or another.

NARRATOR: Investigators now
believe that the disorienting

effects of the dark, hazy
night begin to affect

Kennedy's sense of space.

If you're in a turn for
an extended period of time,

your inner ear can feel
a reverse of the turn,

and you can become spatially
disoriented very easily.

What the?

That can't be.

He looks back, his instruments
are telling him one thing;

his senses another.

You have to be well trained
to disregard what your brain is

saying and look at your
instruments, work on your scan,

and fly by your instruments.

Come on.

Level off.

What are you doing?

Climb.

NARRATOR: Once he
becomes disoriented,

Kennedy is too
inexperienced to believe

his instruments no matter what
his senses are telling him.

Nothing's working.

He may not have even
have known what type

of unusual attitude
he was in and that he

was about to hit the water.

So it's the only
thing that fits--

spacial disorientation.

You're really left with
the gaping possibility that

was always there, which
was the classic case

of spacial disorientation,
which unfortunately

has killed so many pilots.

[screaming]

NARRATOR: Lost in the
skies, Kennedy fights

to keep this plane airborne.

But he can't.

Investigators conclude
that Kennedy's tragic crash

was caused by his inexperience
flying in confusing conditions.

That is one
sorry flight path--

textbook disorientation.

I don't think the public
wanted to accept sort

of pilot error as the cause.

Losing him was one thing, but
losing him essentially to his

own mistake made it much worse.

NARRATOR: Research shows that
spatial disorientation is a

factor in 15% of all accidents.

As one of the most significant
hazards to air safety,

even the most experienced
pilots are susceptible

to this deadly confusion.

Five years later,
another crew experiences

spacial disorientation
when their passenger

jet from Egypt--

I was at a loss
to understand how

a flight crew with this level
of experience would end up here.

NARRATOR: --mysteriously
crashes into the Red Sea.

Former Egyptian Air
Force pilot Khadr

Abdullah is now a
highly respected

captain with FLASH Airlines.

Morning.

Good morning, sir.

NARRATOR: His first officer
today is Amr Al-Shaafei.

Ashraf Abdelhamid is the
third member of the crew,

training as a first officer.

Visibility 6 kilometers.

Clouds and sky clear.

NARRATOR: They're piloting an
early morning flight to Paris.

In all, 148 passengers and
crew settle into their seats

aboard FLASH
Airlines Flight 604.

Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of Captain
Khadr and his entire crew,

we welcome you onboard FLASH
Airlines Boeing 737 300.

NARRATOR: It's still
hours before dawn

when the plane lifts off.

The FLASH Airlines flight
will head out over the Red Sea

before turning toward Cairo.

The jet climbs through a
moonless pitch black night.

The ascent after
takeoff is going well.

Then, out of nowhere, a
simple turn over the Red Sea--

See what the
aircraft just did?

NARRATOR: --takes
a bizarre twist.

Captain Khadr doesn't like
the way his plane is behaving.

Aircraft is turning right.

Turning right?

How turning right?

NARRATOR: The plane is supposed
to be turning left on its way

to Cairo.

Instead, it's turning in
the opposite direction.

The captain tries to get
his plane back on course,

but his situation
just gets worse.

Pull it back.

Autopilot.

Autopilot, take command.

Autopilot, autopilot!

NARRATOR: But the
autopilot doesn't work.

Just minutes after takeoff,
the plane is out of control.

The 737 is now flying
almost completely

on its side and gains speed as
it spirals toward the Red Sea.

[screaming]

The enormous g-forces make it
difficult for Captain Abdullah

to fly.

We're at top power.

We're at top power.

We're at top power!

For the love of God!
[screaming]

NARRATOR: Three
minutes after FLASH

Airlines Flight 604
takes off, the plane

disappears into the Red Sea.

By the time the sun rises,
the crash site is found.

But there's little
rescuers can do.

148 people are dead.

There are no survivors.

Egyptian, French, and
American teams join forces

to investigate the crash.

The light debris scattered
on the surface of the Red Sea

gives them their first clue.

There was very,
very few pieces

and all located in
a very small area.

So this indicated that
the plane was intact

and went into the water intact.

NARRATOR: The debris pattern
rules out an onboard explosion

or break-up mid-flight.

To learn more, investigators
must recover the wreckage

and blackboxes currently
thousands of feet underwater.

Whenever an airplane
crashes into the water,

there's always a
fear by investigators

that the cockpit voice recorder
and the flight data recorder

may not be recovered.

Without them, it could
make the investigation

process very, very difficult.

NARRATOR: Finally, after
an exhaustive search,

a breakthrough.

The blackboxes are recovered
by a remotely operated sub.

Investigators now have
some hard evidence.

In Cairo, the multinational
investigation team

examines the critical devices.

They mine the data
from both boxes

to recreate the final
minutes of the doomed plane.

To depict the path
of the aircraft,

we created an animation based on
the data we got and from radar.

NARRATOR: The simulation
paints a devastating picture.

Shortly after takeoff, the
plane begins heading left

just as it was supposed to do.

But then it quickly starts
banking in the other direction.

The cockpit voice recorder
shows that the turn

catches the captain off guard.

Turning right, sir.

How turning right?

The pilots were
experiencing definitely

some kind of an
abnormality, a problem

that they could not understand.

NARRATOR: Digging deeper into
the flight data recorder,

investigators discover
something peculiar.

We believe from the data we
are looking at in the flight

data recorder that
there is a very

high possibility that
the plane was tending

to turn to the right by itself.

NARRATOR: Data also reveals
that before the plane's

bizarre turn to the
right, three things seem

to happen at the same time.

The plane ends its left
turn early, its nose rises,

and the airspeed drops.

But shockingly, the
captain says nothing.

In fact, he seems completely
unaware of the dramatic changes

to his flight path.

I've flown out of Sharm
El Sheikh at nighttime

and in the same
type of aircraft.

And in no way should the
pilot allow the airspeed

to drop by as much as 30
knots or the bank angle

to change beyond 5
degrees without clearly

stating the reasons for the
change in the flight path.

NARRATOR: Investigators
are stumped.

The Egyptian team suspects
the aircraft failed somehow.

MAN: Q and H1013.

NARRATOR: But there's
nothing in the flight data

that proves a mechanical
failure was capable of bringing

the plane down.

American investigators
want to explore

the possibility that
the highly regarded

pilots may have been at fault.

In Egypt, pilots
are very respected.

And in particular,
Air Force pilots

are very highly regarded.

In an environment like
this, the pilot is

somewhat immune to suspicion.

When something goes wrong,
the natural tendency

is to blame the equipment.

NARRATOR: Nevertheless,
some investigators

begin to consider a provocative
theory that might explain

the flight's erratic behavior.

Turning right, sir.

What?

Aircraft is turning right.

NARRATOR: Perhaps Captain
Khadr had lost his bearings.

A plane's flight path into
a dark, moonless night

is ideal for creating
a sense of vertigo.

Vertigo is a
physiological condition

that would exist with any
person, not just pilots.

And it's based on the inner ear.

Over a dark ocean, without
a defined visual horizon,

no ground lights,
the pilot may not

be able to perceive visually
whether he was flying

up, down, left, or right.

That may cause the
pilot to believe

the airplane is flying
straight and level

when it's actually turning.

NARRATOR: Soon after
takeoff, Captain Khadr

was flying manually and starts
turning left as planned.

Heading out over dark water
with no visible horizon,

it would be very difficult using
just his senses for the pilot

to know exactly where he was.

Left turn.

Roger when ready, inshallah.

Left turn to establish
306, Sharm VOR.

NARRATOR: Investigators
need to know

how could a veteran combat
pilot become so mixed up that he

crashes his jet into the ocean?

voice recordings and flight data
of FLASH Airways Flight 604.

They're searching for an
explanation as to how Captain

Khadr may have become oblivious
to his plane's sudden bank

to the right.

When you study the movement of
the aircraft control surfaces,

it appears that
something was guiding

Captain Khadr to the right.

Now, that could have been a
false horizon or something he's

seen outside of his window.

See what the
aircraft just did?

He thinks he's gained
his flight path again

when all of a sudden
at this moment, he

receives contradictory
information.

Turning right, sir.

What?

In this particular
instance, not only

are you trying to
fly the airplane

and understand situationally
what's happening,

but you're going through
the mental gymnastics

because your
expectations are one way.

Meanwhile, you have
the first officer

who's telling him something
that's totally different.

NARRATOR: But investigators
know that with proper training,

pilots should trust
the help of a co-pilot

when disorientation sets in.

Investigators are curious.

Not yet.

NARRATOR: Why
didn't the co-pilot

take control of the plane?

The team turns to the FLASH
Airlines pilot training.

They make a disturbing find.

Flight crews had not been
provided with CRM, or crew

resource management
training despite it being

a requirement of the company.

Had the pilots of FLASH
Air 604 received a formal CRM

training program, the
outcome of this flight

may have been
substantially different.

NARRATOR: Investigators
now believe this explains

why the first officer
made no attempt

to take control of the plane.

Formal CRM training would have
empowered the first officer,

who had the best situational
awareness and the most

information about the
position of the airplane,

to take command of the
airplane when he saw

that the captain wasn't taking
the appropriate corrective

action.

NARRATOR: The final report
recognizes that the pitch black

night may have fooled
the captain's brain

into thinking he was flying
straight when he wasn't.

But Egyptian investigators
do not entirely rule out

a possible mechanical issue.

Aircraft is turning right.

Turning right?

How turning right?

NARRATOR: It also suggests that
with more of an emphasis on CRM

training, the co-pilot
might have been

able to recover the
plane and pull back

from the brink of disaster.

The pilots are
responding based

on skills, abilities,
knowledge, and what

they got out of training.

If the training was
deficient, that's

a company responsibility.

NARRATOR: Proper training
can be the difference

between life and death.

And where there are very
few outside visual cues,

it can be very easy
to get in a position

where you're disoriented.

And when you're
disoriented, you might

make decisions as
a pilot that will

put that aircraft in danger.

NARRATOR: And without the use
of navigation instruments,

a pilot can be
flying totally blind.

Surabaya, Indonesia, captain
Refri Widodo is in command

of Adam Air Flight 574.

He's been flying with
Adam Air for six months.

His first officer, Yoga Susanto,
has been with the airline

for almost a year and a half.

There are 96 passengers and six
crew members on today's flight.

80 knots.

Check.

81.

Rotate.

NARRATOR: It's a routine
two-hour hop from Surabaya

on the island of Java to Manado
on the island of Sulawesi,

a little over 1,056
miles northeast.

Minutes after takeoff, the
crew turns on the autopilot.

The flight computer
will fly the plane

and navigate it along a
preplanned route to Manado.

Now passing flight level 220.

Climbing to flight level 330.

Roger, Adam 574.

Track direct to Diola.

Confirmed.

Tracking direct
to Diola, Adam 574.

NARRATOR: 22,000 feet below,
air traffic controllers

track the flight's progress.

But they're mystified
by what they see.

Where is Adam direct to?

My god, he's flying north.

NARRATOR: Less than 30
minutes after takeoff,

Flight 574 has flown
off course, directly

towards a violent storm.

REFRI WIDODO: May I
have your attention?

This is your captain speaking.

We are about to experience
some turbulence.

NARRATOR: Air traffic
controllers work

with the flight crew--

Yes.

NARRATOR: --to try
to understand how

far they've drifted off course.

The pilots realize
the coordinates

in the flight navigation
system aren't matching

their current position.

But the IRS, 28
is the difference.

NARRATOR: The weather is
making it hard to see.

And without a navigation
system they can trust,

they risk veering even
more wildly off course.

Getting lost over the
ocean is everyone's worry.

Because when you lose trust of
your navigational instruments,

what do you do?

It's starting to fly
like a bamboo ship.

are way off course, headed
into a bad thunderstorm.

Confirm our position.

Adam 574, confirm
our position, please.

Roger, Adam 574.

Position is 125
miles, mike, kilo,

sierra, crossing radial 307.

Mike, kilo, sierra.

NARRATOR: The storm
is growing worse.

This is crazy!

We're going to get lost
if it stays like this.

NARRATOR: Captain
Widodo wants to take

over navigation of the plane
from the flight computer.

OK, put the IRS in attitude.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, a warning.

The autopilot has
disengaged completely.

Then many of Susanto's
computerized instruments

go blank.

To make matters worse,
Flight 574 is now banking

right at a dangerous angle.

We can enter this.

NARRATOR: Captain Widodo wants
to re-engage the autopilot.

OK, put it back on auto.

Yes.

Put it on nav again!

NARRATOR: An alarm
tells the pilots they

are beginning a steep descent.

Don't turn it.

This is our heading!

Pull up!

NARRATOR: Flight 574
vanishes from radar.

Adam 574, u-gen control.

Adam 574, u-gen control.

NARRATOR: News of the
disappearance spreads quickly.

Search and rescue
teams are mobilized.

Indonesia's National
Transportation Safety

Committee, or NTSC, is notified.

Frans Wenas is the
investigator of Adam Air 574.

The first steps that we take
when there was an accident,

we will find all the
resources that we have

and get a team together before
we dispatch to the area.

NARRATOR: To have any
hope of conducting

a successful
investigation, he needs

to locate the wreckage and the
blackboxes as soon as he can.

When the plane was
last detected by radar,

it was crossing Makassar Strait.

The search area is
the size of Ireland.

Pinpointing the wreckage
is nearly impossible.

When the aircraft
went missing,

it was a bit of a
shock for everybody

because in this day
and age, nobody expects

an aircraft to go missing.

NARRATOR: Within a few
weeks of the crash,

investigators pinpoint the
wreckage some 6,500 feet

below the surface.

But the airline and Indonesian
government can't agree on who

should pay for the salvage.

After a grueling
seven-month long battle,

the salvage operation
finally begins.

Pull up quadrant 3.

NARRATOR: Because the
plane is American-made,

Clint Crookshanks from the
National Transportation Safety

Board joins the investigation.

It was quite deep water,
deeper than we're normally used

to recovering airplanes from.

NARRATOR: The only
items they can recover--

That's it.

That's it.

NARRATOR: --are the
aircraft's blackboxes.

The blackbox is the
only source for evidence

that we have.

Because we don't
have any wreckage.

We don't have the witnesses.

NARRATOR: The discovery
is a massive breakthrough.

The boxes will
provide investigators

with the first solid
clues about why

Flight 574 fell from the sky.

Roger, Adam 574.

Track direct to Diola.

Confirmed.

Tracking direct to
Diola, Adam 574.

NARRATOR: The conversation
on the cockpit voice recorder

tells investigators
that the crew discovered

that the plane's
navigation system

was sending them off course.

The IRS, 28 is the difference.

They're drifting.

NARRATOR: They seem preoccupied
with fixing the problem.

This is messed up.

NARRATOR: Investigators need to
understand why the plane flew

so far off the flight path set
by the jet's navigation system.

To maintain the
plane's flight path,

the flight computer
always has to know

the plane's exact location.

That information comes from
a component called the IRS,

or inertial reference system.

It tracks every adjustment to
the plane's course to calculate

its exact position.

It then feeds that
information to the autopilot.

The autopilot needs to
know where the aircraft is

and where it needs to go.

Now, the autopilot takes those
data from the IRS in terms

of height, heading, and speed.

NARRATOR: Investigators
need to know

if the IRS was faulty
and leading the plane

in the wrong direction.

They check the IRS information
from the flight data recorder.

The numbers are fine
when they're on the ground.

Yes, yes.

NARRATOR: The data
confirms the IRS

was properly calibrated before
Adam Air Flight 574 took off.

This is where it begins.

That's right.

NARRATOR: But for
some reason, the IRS

began to send the plane
off course almost as soon

as the flight got into the air.

Pull up, pull up!

NARRATOR: Investigators now
face a disturbing new question.

Did a faulty IRS contribute to
the jet's catastrophic nosedive

into the sea?

This just gets
worse and worse.

NARRATOR: Indonesian and
American investigators

dig through Flight 574's
maintenance history

to better understand why
it got lost in space.

And I have something
else I'd like to show you.

NARRATOR: They
discovered that the IRS

unit that led the
plane off course

was plagued with problems.

As you can tell, there's
more than 100 write-ups here.

Look at this.

Same unit.

The same problem.

That's right.

NARRATOR: Over the
past three months,

numerous complaints
had been written up.

Again and again.

The case of the IRS of
this aircraft, that unit

should have been taken out
and sent to maintenance

for calibration or repairs.

NARRATOR: It's a big break
in the investigation.

But the failing IRS
only explains why

the plane steered off course.

Investigators still
don't know what caused

the plane to actually crash.

To paint a vivid picture
of the moments leading up

to the mysterious
accident, the team

creates a computer
simulation of the flight

by combining the flight data
and cockpit voice recorder.

Investigators can
now see that once

Captain Widodo realizes
the flight computer is

sending the plane off course--

OK, put the IRS in attitude.

NARRATOR: --copilot Susanto
overrides the flight computer

by switching the
navigation system

to a mode that
would keep the plane

flying straight and level.

Captain Widodo could
now change his course.

This is where they switch
from nav to attitude.

NARRATOR: But when the
navigation mode is switched,

it forces some computerized
navigation controls, including

the attitude indicator, to
go blank for about 30 seconds

while they reset.

ADI goes off and stays off.

NARRATOR: During this time, the
autopilot systems are totally

disengaged, and the
pilots need to fly

the plane straight and level
using visual flight rules.

Maintain straight
and level constant

airspeed flight until
altitude displays recover.

Approximately 30 seconds.

It's in the manual.

NARRATOR: But with
no natural horizon

and no navigation
control panels,

the captain has absolutely no
way of knowing if the plane is

flying straight.

That's where the plane
starts its right roll.

NARRATOR: These are the perfect
conditions for the pilots

to become totally disoriented.

The autopilot
disengaged when they

consciously selected from the
nav mode to the attitude mode.

And then the aircraft commenced
an almost imperceptible roll

to the right of around
about one degree per second.

NARRATOR: The crew has no
idea that their plane is

dipping one degree per second.

It's a very common way for
pilots to become disoriented.

Your body will
start to fool you.

Your senses will start
sending you false information.

You might think that you
are actually going straight

and level where you're actually
rolling slowly to the right

or to the left.

Pull up!

NARRATOR: Completely
disoriented, Widodo tries

to straighten the plane by
pulling back on his control

column before his
wings are level,

forcing the plane into
a tight spiral dive.

It just kept rolling until
it almost went inverted

and just fell.

It kind of fell out of the
sky once it got to a point

where it wasn't flying like
a normal airplane should.

NARRATOR: Investigators
conclude that equipment designed

to prevent pilots from
getting lost in space

tragically failed the crew
of Adam Air Flight 574.

And when the flight
crew became confused

and lost their bearings,
they couldn't save the plane.

OK, enter this.

NARRATOR: Time and again,
it's a human factor

that can never be completely
eliminated as a flight risk.

But a pilot can
learn how to fight

the effect of deceptive
illusions with good training.

In all of these
cases, we see pilots

that are disoriented as to
which way's right side up.

It means that you
have to revert back

to your primary instrument
training of trust

the instruments.

That's one of the
lessons that we learned,

and it continues
to evolve today.