All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S03E11.Nowhere.to.Land.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

It's a rough ride
aboard a 737

on descent to New Orleans.

We were getting
tumbled around pretty good.

A violent thunderstorm

has caught the pilots off guard.

Mayday, mayday. Taca 110.
We're in the middle of a storm.

We're talking about

the equivalent of an atomic bomb
going off.

Everything went black.

All the alarms start sounding
in the cockpit.

We lost an engine.

Both engines.

With no thrust,
the plane won't get far.

I don't think that
we'll make it.

I don't have any power
in the engines.

38 passengers
suddenly face

a terrifying prospect.

They will crash in minutes...

Look! That's where
we're going to go in?

You got it, my friend.

Okay.

...unless the crew
of Taca flight 110

can perform one of
the greatest feats

in the history of
commercial aviation.

Alright.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines!

Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Mayday, mayday.

Brace for impact!

I think I lost one.

Investigation starting...

He's gonna crash!

A brand new Boeing
737 is making its way

through heavy thunderstorms
and hail

30,000 feet above
the Gulf of Mexico.

Taca airlines is
a small, family-owned operation

based in El Salvador.

Taca flight 110 left Belize city
less than two hours ago,

bound for New Orleans.

Among the 38 passengers...

Gracias.

...no one is more
eager to arrive in the U.S.

Than Lee Burmeister.

I'd been down to
Costa Rica for about a month,

and my appendix ruptured,

and I had surgery in
a small, little village.

It was a scary time.

I was really ready to get home.

The heavy weather
the crew is now coping with

is a big change from
earlier in the flight.

I remember that

it was a very sunny day
when we left Belize.

Everything was going well.

It was just
like that.

It was pretty,

and then all of a sudden
it was the blackest sky

I've ever seen in the afternoon.

They're flying over
the Gulf of Mexico in may.

At this time of year,
the weather is unpredictable.

Violent storms can form
in a matter of minutes.

Thunderstorms have
all types of hazards in them

from the heavy rain, hail,
lightning, microburst,

wind shear, severe icing.

We're talking about
the equivalent

of an atomic bomb going off.

A tremendous amount of energy.

To avoid
dangerous storms,

the crew tracks the weather
with onboard radar.

But the technology
has limitations.

Airborne weather radar
typically operates

in an x-band,

which is at
a certain wavelength

and has limited power.

As a matter of fact, hail is not
picked up on airborne radar.

So we will sometimes
get hail blowing off a storm.

And yet it will only show up
as green or yellow

in front of us
on the weather radar,

not as the heart of
a red thunderstorm.

And unfortunately
this is one of the reasons

we have to try to
stay as far away

from thunderstorms as we can.

Captain Carlos
Dardano was born to fly.

At just 29,
he is the third generation

in a family of pilots.

Anti-ice on.

Since I was a little child

I remember that I was dreaming
on being a pilot

and being around airplanes
all the time.

Captain Dardano
has had to overcome

tremendous obstacles

to earn his wings.

Six years earlier, in 1982,

he was flying for a small
general aviation company.

I was doing a little
aero-taxi business

around the country.

El Salvador was
consumed by a civil war.

And Dardano found himself
caught in the crossfire.

At a little
grass runway airport,

I was shot by guerrillas
in the face.

Badly wounded,

he managed to fly his passengers
to safety.

We just take off,

and I stayed really low
between trees,

and I flew 20 minutes
back to the main airport.

The brush with death
cost him his left eye.

I was shot over here.

The bullet went through.

But Dardano did not
give up on his dream.

Despite his impaired vision,

he went on to become
a certified commercial pilot.

Taca 110, runway
28.

Final approach course
continue inbound.

Descend at pilot's discretion.

Maintain 4,000.

Thank you, sir.

Taca 110.

4,000.

First officer
Dionisio Lopez

has more than
12,000 flight hours.

He and Dardano have flown
together many times.

Captain Arturo Soley is a flight
instructor with Taca airlines.

He's on board today

to observe the performance
of this new plane.

A 737-300 series,

the jet was delivered to Taca
airlines just two weeks ago.

This hail is going
to scratch the paint.

We were really worried about the
paint coming off the airplane,

because this is a brand new
airplane in the company.

The 300 is the latest

in the world's
most successful line

of twin-engine passenger jets.

It's more aerodynamic
than its predecessor.

It also features a new
state-of-the-art engine design.

When you pick up a new jetliner
worth millions and millions

and fly it home with
a brand new paint job

and everything is nice and new,

it's not just a thrill
for the crew,

it's a thrill for
the airline, too,

especially a smaller one
like Taca.

This was a big, big deal.

30 miles from
the New Orleans airport,

the plane begins
its final descent.

It felt like
you hit a wall.

There was severe turbulence
in the cockpit

with a lot of noise with ice
hitting the airplane.

It was awful.

Lots and lots of lightning.

And the plane was having
a pretty rough trip.

We were, we were getting
tumbled around pretty good.

Ask the flight attendants to
take their seats.

Flight attendants,

please take your seats.

Suddenly, less than
17,000 feet from the ground,

the flight becomes
all the more terrifying.

It was very strange,

because it had never happened
to me before.

The lights had never gone off
during turbulence.

Everything went black.

All the alarms start sounding
in the cockpit.

All the instruments went out.

So I hit the throttles
a couple of times

trying to just go to basics,
control the airplane.

We lost power on the engines.

Then I find out that
we didn't have any power.

I've got nothing.

The plane has
enough speed to glide,

but not for long.

It will rapidly lose altitude
as it does.

No power also means
no electricity

for all of the onboard systems.

In the New Orleans
control tower,

flight 110 disappears
from radar.

Taca, Taca 110,
approach, say altitude.

Taca 110, this New Orleans
approach control.

How do you hear?

Without power,

communication with the plane
is now impossible.

It's really quiet.

There aren't any engine sounds.

There aren't any lights.

It feels like you're in
a dark room without any power.

In less than a minute,

the 737 drops almost 1,000 feet.

It continues to fall.

We are dropping at
1,500 feet per minute.

And without power,

there is no way to
restart the engines.

Well, we knew
we didn't have much time

to try to find out where to land

or what kind of emergency
landing we're going to have,

or that we're going to have
the engines started again.

The altimeter and
attitude indicator

have backup battery power.

Nothing else is working.

Get the APU started.

The APU,
or auxiliary power unit,

is a backup generator that
provides emergency power

to vital systems.

But starting it takes time.

And with each passing second,

Taca flight 110 falls closer
and closer to the water below.

It was very quiet.

You could hear the hail
hitting the plane.

I was thinking that
this was, this was it.

That it's going down and
this is, this is my last day.

Lopez, watch the gauges.

Without power
to the engines,

the state-of-the-art jetliner
has become a 47-ton glider.

We were wondering if

we can get the APU
going really fast.

You know, you're gliding down
in the middle of a thunderstorm

trying to get the power going.

APU is up and running.

When the lights
came back on, I was relieved.

I thought it was
something temporary.

No big deal.

The APU is now
providing emergency power

to the plane's systems.

But the engines are
still not running.

To fire up the powerful
turbofan engines,

the crew must follow
the procedure

for a complete engine restart.

Thrust to idle.
Fuel levers off.

The APU can
generate the power

to restart the engines.

But it takes time.

It takes like
30 seconds or so,

but it feels like all your life.

Communicate to New Orleans.

Get us out of this storm
and onto a runway.

Mayday, mayday, Taca 110.

We are, we are in the middle
of a storm, sir.

We need vectors to
the runway now, sir.

We lost an engine.

Both engines.

Both engines, sir.
Both engines.

I understand.
Both engines, Taca 110, roger.

The controller knows

he needs to get the plane on
the ground as soon as possible,

even if it means sending it
to another airport.

Taca 110, roger.

Turn left heading 280.

Vectors to navy callender,
runway 22.

Flight 110 is still
20 miles from New Orleans.

The stricken plane has
a better chance of landing

at a U.S. Naval base
17 miles away.

But the plane will not make it
to any airport

unless the crew gets
the engines started.

28, 29, 30.

Hit it.

Only 5,000 feet
from the ground,

the left engine ignites.

Speed.

Okay.

Good job.

Start working on the other one.

The plane can fly
with only one engine.

But both engines would be safer,

especially in bad weather.

Request a vector
back to New Orleans.

Okay, we have one engine
back on.

Request vectors to New Orleans.

Taca 110, Wilco.
Fly heading 290.

Vector around the thunderstorms
to your right.

Meanwhile,
captain Soley is taking

the steps to fire up
the second engine.

Here comes
the other one.

Ah, here comes the other one.

Speed.

Alright.

And you've got
both of them now.

With both engines back,

it appears the crisis is over.

Okay, sir, we have
both engines back now.

We really appreciate
what you've done for us.

We are going to go down to 310.

For the engines
to come back on,

it really didn't make anybody
feel that much better.

We were still in a mess.

Look.
I don't feel any power.

Why don't I feel any power?

Something's wrong.

The engines appear
to be running,

but they're not providing
any thrust.

The sucker is
not starting.

Then, the gauges show

that the engines
are overheating.

They're burning up
from the inside.

The risk of
a catastrophic engine fire

now leaves Dardano no choice.

He must do something no pilot
would ever want to do...

shut down both engines
for good.

Once again,
the plane is without power,

and falling fast.

We knew that we don't
have any possibility

to restart the engines.

And we had to start looking
for someplace to land.

The plane is quickly
closing in on 3,000 feet.

At the rate it's dropping,
it won't make it to New Orleans.

Okay, where do
I put this thing down?

Visibility begins to improve

when the plane breaks through
the storm clouds.

But it's still raining,

and Dardano has less than three
minutes to find a place to land.

I was seeing just
swampy land all over the place.

New Orleans is
surrounded by canals and lakes.

The city is protected by
a system of levees...

man-made barriers designed
to prevent flooding.

It's no place to
try to land a 737.

We are...we don't have
power on the engines.

Taca 110,

I'm gonna vector you
to lakefront airport.

You're only 11 miles
from lakefront.

I don't think that
we'll make it.

I don't have any power
in the engines.

I guess we'll have to go down.

We're going to declare
an emergency.

You're going to have to decide
where to put this thing.

Taca 110,
do you have visual reference

of the ground at this time?

Yes, sir.

Taca 110, there is
an interstate highway

directly ahead of you at
12 o'clock and seven miles.

Let's see what it is.

Landing on a highway
may be Dardano's only option.

It was probably
a possibility,

but you always know that
the freeways are full of cars.

I said no way I'm going to try
to land in the highway,

because we'll kill
many more people.

So that was not an option,
really.

11 years earlier,

a southern airways flight
facing a similar emergency

was forced to land on
a highway in Georgia.

The crash landing killed
nine people on the ground

and 63 people on board
the plane.

I don't think we're going to be
able to make it there.

You're six miles
away from lakefront airport.

Can you make it there?

No, sir, we're at
2,000 feet and losing altitude.

The crew
has only one option left.

I guess I'm going to have to
make a ditching here, sir.

They must
take their chances

and put the plane down
on the water.

Taca 110, roger.

Whatever you need to do, sir.

And that was about
the last communication

with the tower.

Then we were like 1,500 feet
when that was going on.

This is New Orleans tower.

We have an inbound 737
probable ditching.

45 souls on board.

The coast guard is
immediately deployed.

Dardano plans to put the plane
down in the canal

directly ahead of him.

Okay.

There.

Put it down softly.

It was kind of the
feeling of everyone on the plane

that we weren't going to
get out of this.

It was a doomsday
kind of feeling.

And this...this was it.

Excuse me. What's going on?

The stewardesses' body language.

I didn't even have to understand
what they were saying.

You could just see them
in distress.

The 737 can only
stay in the air

for another minute.

As Dardano looks for
a safe stretch of canal

to drop the plane in,

another option appears.

Look!
Look at that one over there!

And then Lopez saw
the levee parallel to the canal

that we were making
the approach on.

Can we put it down
on the grass?

Yes, boss.

The levee is much
shorter and narrower

than a runway, but it looks
safer than the water.

That's where
we're going to go in?

You got it, my friend.

They will have to
act fast to get there.

Prepare the cabin.

You don't even have time

to think about being scared.

So I can't say I was scared.

We had to start
preparing the cabin.

I had to assume
crash position.

And it was really
difficult for me

because I had just had surgery.

You're kidding me.

And I had stitches going up
the middle of my stomach.

I've got stitches.

Operation.

Passengers only have
seconds to prepare.

The passengers had
to take off their shoes,

their jewelry.

They had to put their shoes
under the seat in front of them.

So we went through
the whole emergency checklist.

Air traffic control
can no longer

pick up the low-flying 737
on radar.

The controller asks other planes
to look for it.

Six to kilo-alpha.

If you could check your east
just slightly to the south,

three to four miles.

We lost an aircraft down there,
a 737.

If you could let me know
what you see.

Roger.

Kilo-alpha to six,
I'll see what I can do.

I felt scared
when I got back to my seat.

That's the moment when
I really got scared.

Okay.

Put the gear down.

Alright.

But captain Dardano
is still flying

towards the water.

Well, the levee was
parallel to my right.

To have any hope of
landing on the levee,

he needs to make a sudden and
dramatic course correction.

That requires a risky maneuver
known as a sideslip.

So we just had to do
a little bit sideslip

to get into position to make
a perfect landing.

It's a move meant for
small planes and gliders,

not a 47-ton Boeing 737.

But it's a risk he has to take .

I prayed.

I was in disbelief that
this was happening.

Only 700 feet

separate the plane from the
ground.

Without engines the pilots
have no thrust reversers

to slow the plane
when it touches down.

Dardano has an additional
challenge.

With only one eye,
he's unable to gauge depth

as he speeds towards the narrow,
rain-soaked strip of grass.

Oh, god, oh, god.

I was prepared for the plane
to blow up and explode.

I was prepared for
a tragic event.

And mentally had said goodbye
to my family.

This is it.

There's a high cement
wall in front of the levee,

and a steep embankment
on the left.

There may not be enough room
to land.

Watch out for the wing
on that side.

I see it.

Come on.

Aqui te tengo, baby.

Aqui te tengo.

We touched down with one wheel
and the other one.

Was it a hard landing? Yes.

If the seatbelt snapped,

we would have flown through
the plane, for sure.

On the soggy grass,

the plane is in danger of
skidding off the levee

into the water.

I was trying just to
control the airplane

not to...to hit the brakes and
not to lose the airplane

at the last minute, you know.

The spoilers were out.

So we were just thinking,
okay, we make it,

we make it, we make it.

Very good.

Very good.

Very good, Charlie.

Very good, my friend.

I was surprised.

It was a hard landing,

but, um...

But it was a nice,
it was a nice landing.

Just to be alive.

The landing was
spectacular.

The plane landed so smoothly.

There wasn't even
a bit of turbulence.

A perfect landing.

That was, I think,

the most beautiful landing
I ever made.

When I looked out
my window, there was no fire.

So I immediately opened the door
and deployed the slide.

They told us
to get off the plane,

that the plane
was going to blow up.

The New Orleans
controller has no idea

what has become of
Taca flight 110.

Another aircraft relays the news
to the tower.

Kilo-alpha to six.

Everything looks okay.

Looks like he did
a pretty good job.

They made it.

You're not going to believe
where they are!

For the first time
in history,

a 737 without any engines
has landed safely

outside of an airport.

Now investigators must find out
why the sophisticated engines

on a brand new jetliner
failed in mid-flight.

Pilots call this
a dead-stick landing...

a landing with no engines.

As it turns out, Taca 110 has
landed on NASA property.

This is the Miscode facility

where they manufacture parts
for the space shuttle.

The evacuation was quick.

We got out of the plane quickly.

We slid down the chutes.

I got to the top of the levee,

and there were some nurses
that were on the plane.

And they looked at my stitches
and everything.

No major injuries.

Just one person that had had
an operation, but she's okay.

Where were you
headed?

To New Orleans.

And soon after,
an ambulance came,

put me on a stretcher
and took me to the hospital.

You have to thank god.

That's right. Yes.

And also our captain
because he kept calm.

Now that's not
something you see every day.

Within hours
of the emergency,

investigators arrive and begin
examining the damaged plane.

To end up with a jetliner
sitting on a levee

having landed there
being perfectly intact

is almost an unbelievable sight.

It's beyond incredible.

Just a couple of
questions for you.

But the first thing I'd like
to say is, nice landing.

So tell me, when did
the engine trouble start?

Investigators meet
with the crew right away.

They want to know exactly
what was happening

when the engines flamed out.

We were
descending to 16-5

when both our engines flamed out
at the same time.

That both of them coming
apart at the same time

is an infinitesimal possibility.

This plane was powered

by one of the most advanced

and widely used
jet engines on earth...

the CFM56.

It powers not only
the Boeing 737,

but airbus and military planes
as well.

The CFM56 is just
a marvel of current engineering,

aeronautically.

There are thousands and
thousands of them out there,

and they almost never,
ever fail.

But two CFM56s had
failed on this one plane alone.

Investigators desperately
need to know why.

I haven't flown through too many
storms that intense.

They turn their attention

to the weather conditions.

It's considered
a very rare occurrence

for engines to have flamed out
in flight.

And therefore
the concentration was on

what possibility
would cause this?

Is there
an environmental effect,

since they were flying
through rain and hail?

Tell me about the storm.

The winds were fierce.

There was so much rain and hail.

We could barely see
out the window.

Dents in the fuselage reveal

that the plane was struck by
hail almost an inch in diameter.

If the hail was strong enough

to damage the exterior
of the plane,

investigators wonder if it
crippled the engines as well.

A turbofan engine is made up of
a system of fans and blades.

A large fan brings air
into the engine.

A series of blades compresses
the incoming air

which mixes with fuel to ignite,

spinning the turbines
deep inside the engine.

The first thing you
look for is to find the parts.

And then look in the front
and the back of the engine

to determine if there's damage
that might explain

something has gone in the engine

or something has broken
inside the engine.

To peer inside the
engine, they use a borescope.

This is where you put
a little TV camera

on the end of a scope
of some sort.

You can look in the internal
hot section of the engine

and see what they could see.

No hail damage to
the compressor that I can see.

Keep going deeper.
Let's see what's at the center.

But the turbines deep
inside the engine are charred.

Look at this.

Turbines are almost
completely melted.

When the engine
overheats,

if the overheat is allowed
to occur long enough,

then it will cause melting of
the turbine blades.

So when did you
get the temperature warning?

The engines
started to overheat

right after we started them.

And the damage
to the turbine,

which is the melting
of the blades,

means that you can no longer
produce thrust

out of that engine.

The charred turbines
don't explain

why the engines stopped working
in the first place.

For some reason, flight 110's
engines had quit, restarted,

and only then, burned up.

But before the search for
answers can continue,

investigators are confronted
with another problem.

The plane is starting to sink.

It can't stay here much longer.

Maybe NASA has some ideas.

The levee was never
meant to support 94,000 pounds.

A jetliner has
an awful lot of weight

on a very small footprint.

You leave a plane there
for two or three days,

you may have it mired
up to its hubcaps.

There was barely
enough room

to land the plane on the levee.

Getting the plane off it
could be even more challenging.

You've got
really three ways

to get this airplane
out of there.

One is to fly it out.

Secondly, to disassemble it.

Or third, put it on a barge.

But it's not as easy
as it sounds.

Disassembling the
plane could cause more damage.

Do you think
we can fly it off?

The decision is made.

They'll attempt to take off and
fly the plane to New Orleans.

The very first problem

in getting the airplane
ready to fly

was getting the engines to
the point of reliability,

which meant they had to replace
the right engine.

It was just cooked.
It was too far gone.

The left engine was probably
going to need to be overhauled,

but they could fly it out
with that.

After replacing
the right engine,

they bring in test pilots to get
the plane off the ground

and to the airport 15 miles away
in New Orleans.

It's a...
It's a good, safe operation

that we're, that we're doing
here today.

We can accelerate up to,
virtually, to takeoff speed.

And then if we decide to stop,
why, we can stop the airplane.

With no passengers
and very little fuel

to weigh the plane down,

it reaches takeoff speed
in just over 1,200 feet.

The investigation at
the emergency landing site

comes to a dramatic end.

In most scenarios in
which an airplane comes down

on the wrong place
but is still intact,

you'd probably never
get it out that way.

This just happened
to be amazing luck.

Hey, guys.

Investigators must
now try to figure out

why the engines failed
in mid-flight.

If rain caused them
to shut down,

thousands of other planes
are at risk.

This was
an incredible situation,

because these engines
were just too reliable.

Did they go through
a thunderstorm?

Well, that's not
supposed to do it.

So what happened?

The CFM56 engines
are designed

to withstand a heavy rainstorm.

Most water is diverted away from
the core while in flight.

Whatever makes it inside
should evaporate or drain

from the engine.

The engines were sent back

to the G.E. Test facility
in Ohio,

where they have
the test facilities

that can recreate
water ingestion testing.

If some
hidden design flaw

caused the engines to fail,
investigators need to find it.

They hope
water ingestion testing

can provide some answers.

Once they got
these engines in the shop

and started testing them,

the very first thing was
to go to the FAA standard,

the way FAA had tested them
in the past

and what had been approved.

Okay, let's see
what they can handle.

You basically spray
water from nozzles

into the inlet of the engine.

And the amount of water
you adjust

in percentage
to the amount of air

to simulate flight conditions.

Despite rigorous
water testing,

the engine does not flameout.

Like we thought.
It wasn't the rain.

And nothing went wrong.
The engine continued to run.

So obviously
something else had happened.

So they needed
to examine this

in much more detail .

Was there something more severe
about the weather?

We lost an engine.

Both engines.

Both engines, sir.

Investigators study
all available data

on the storm that somehow
brought down Taca flight 110.

That was more
than a thunderstorm.

It was a hailstorm.

In the case of Taca,

we had basically a frontal
system to the north,

some very strong winds
and a vertical

producing several hail events.

And in the southern latitudes

you don't typically see
too many hailstorms.

So it was abnormal.

The engines are
designed to ingest water.

But investigators are unsure
if hail acts differently

from water inside the engine.

They never thought about hail
getting into the core.

Hail is only created
in a thunderstorm.

It basically starts
as a raindrop

that goes up above
the freezing level,

freezes,
becomes a piece of ice.

Then, as it gets heavier,

drops back down below
the freezing level,

coats another layer of water
around it,

and gets back into
the updraft again

brought to higher altitudes.

It refreezes.

So hail is multiple layers
of ice

that forms on a particle.

Investigators learn
that the engines were designed

to withstand the impact from
hailstones of a certain size.

The FAA standards called for a
mixture of hail sizes

of one-inch and two-inch
diameter balls.

Some of the hail
Taca 110 encountered

was smaller than that.

Those smaller pieces of hail
could make their way

through the fan and
compressor blades,

accumulating deep inside the
engine where they would melt.

Hail was considered
to not be a factor

in the center core.

But if it had been,
what would it look like?

Investigators
calculate the amount of hail

that could have entered
the engine core.

They then estimate
the volume of water

the melting ice
would have produced.

That's substantially more water.

Investigators want to
know if this excess water

overwhelmed the engines
and caused the failure.

Okay, let's try
more water and see what happens.

They perform another
water ingestion test,

this time adding even more water

to account for the hail
inside the engines.

So if they used enough
water to emulate that,

maybe they can make it fail.

Well, they tried using
a high speed on the engine.

And still it wouldn't fail.

Okay, what are we missing?

Or was there
something unique

about the engine
operation itself

that might have contributed
to the engine losing power?

Engine performance figures

from the flight data recorder
give investigators a new lead.

Just before the flameout,

engine power was down to 35%.

Taca 110,
runway 28.

Final approach course
continue inbound.

Descend at pilot's discretion.

Maintain 4,000.

Thank you, sir.

Taca 110.

4,000.

They had just
started their descent.

Thank you, sir.
Taca 110. 4,000.

As the plane began
its final approach

to New Orleans,

the engines automatically
reduced power

to slow down for their descent.

At a lower power setting,

the engines may not have been
able to handle as much water.

We'd been testing
everything in accordance

with the normal
FAA methodologies

at high speed on the engines.

But these guys were in descent
to New Orleans.

They repeat the test.

This time with less power
to the engines.

So we want to see
what happens

when we add the same
amount of water

but with the engines
powered down to 35%. Okay?

The big ah-ha moment
was when they realized

that it was the speed
of the engine

that was managing to get
the engine through the ingestion

of as much water as
they could throw at it,

and presumably as much hail.

But when the engine
went down to idle,

that's when they managed
to find the key.

That's when the engine
couldn't handle it.

Well, now we know what happened.

Bad timing.

And that test gave
a completely different result.

Investigators
have discovered

why the engines flamed out.

It showed something that
no one understood at the time.

Because in all the testing
and all the logic

that had gone into it,

they hadn't taken into account
the slow speeds

on the engine on descent.

At the lower speeds,

the hail, having a significant
velocity and momentum,

can actually see an opening
between the fan blades.

And it's able to get
through the fan blades

and directly into the core.

The engines filled
with hail and water

and flamed out.

For investigators,
only one mystery remains.

Look! I don't feel any power.

What went wrong

after the Taca crew
restarted their engines?

The sucker is not starting.

Why did they
overheat and fail?

When the engines on the 737
flamed out,

the crew knew they
had to act fast.

We lost power on the engines.

To have any hope of
restoring engine power,

they needed to first
get the APU running.

Get the APU started.

Since the engines
were no longer spinning,

they had stopped ingesting
air and water.

But a successful restart
was far from guaranteed.

If you do not have
all the proper conditions,

you can get what's called
a hot start,

which means that
you have too much fuel

for the amount of air
going into it.

And the flame will now
migrate into the turbine

where it could overheat it.

After studying
the engine data

from the flight recorder,

investigators conclude
that the overheating

and ultimate failure
of the engines

was, in fact,
due to a hot start.

Mayday, mayday, Taca 110.
We lost an engine.

Both engines.

Both engines, sir.
Both engines.

With his engines
flooded with fuel

and no time to
properly drain them,

Dardano hit the ignition switch.

If he doesn't get
all the timing correctly,

then this is
what's going to happen.

You're going to get a hot start.

I can't be critical of a pilot
in that condition.

That aircraft is coming down.

Rain and hail
from an intense storm

crippled a modern passenger jet,

and nearly led to disaster.

Investigators must find a way
to make sure

it never happens again.

One of the beauties of
aviation and aviation safety

is when we find
there's a problem,

everybody works together
to solve it.

And in this case,

the problem indicated a need
for an engine change.

Not a complete design overhaul,
but just a few tweaks.

But that was done
almost immediately,

much to the credit of
everybody involved.

The shape of
the engine nose cone

and the spacing of
the fan blades are modified

in order to better deflect hail
away from the core.

Also, additional bleed doors
are added

to drain more water
from the engine.

That sort of thing
hasn't happened again.

And there are thousands and
thousands of these engines

flying every day for hours
and hours and hours.

Within a year
of the incident,

737-300s around the world are
retrofitted with the upgrades .

The plane involved
in the daring landing

is back in service
within a month.

Look!
Look at that one over there!

That's where
we're going to go in?

You got it, my friend.

The crew's actions
on flight 110 are legendary

in the aviation world.

The decision-making
at the very end

when they were going to
put it in the canal

and saw an opportunity to put it
on dry ground and did so,

that was superlative.

It was the decision-making.

Investigators credit
the calm nerves

and determination of
captain Dardano...

Watch out for the wing
on that side.

I see it.

...for avoiding
what could have been

a fatal disaster.

Captain Carlos Dardano is dubbed
a hero in the media.

Passengers that day
were overjoyed.

Dardano and his crew
kept the calm.

And because of that,

45 people who rode that plane
are alive today.

Today, the Dardano
family tradition continues.

Carlos' son and daughter
have followed

in their father's footsteps,
both becoming pilots.

At the beginning,
I was mad when I was shot.

I lost part of my vision.

And then I had this accident
that everything went well.

And 20 years later I have
a career and have a good life,

and life is for a reason
and reason is for life.