Original subtitles

Narrator: In 1956 Jack Parshall faces

one of the most challenging air crash investigations

of all time.

Man: When you talk about an accident in the Grand Canyon,

you're talking about both hostile, inaccessible,

remote and dangerous.

Jack Parshall: Hot enough to melt aluminum.

Man: This was the age in which accident investigation

began to grow up.

Parshall: Now, let's see what we got on the DC-7.

Pilot: Damn!

Narrator: The world expects answers from Parshall.

Parshall: Right there.

Man: The consequences for getting it wrong in any respect

could have tremendous negative ramifications

for this fledgling industry.

Narrator: Parshall makes a frightening discovery

about commercial aviation: It isn't safe.

Man: It's not a matter of the system being broken.

Guys, we don't have a system.

Pilot: Mayday, mayday!

Narrator: At Los Angeles International Airport,

United Airlines flight 718 is preparing to depart for Chicago.

The DC-7 is the newest and fastest passenger plane

in America--

the pride of the united fleet.

Flight attendant: I'm sorry, sir,

there's no smoking until after takeoff.

Narrator: In 1956 airline travel

is something few people have had a chance to experience.

There are only 117 commercial aircraft

in the entire state of California.

Announcer: The girls were off, bound for New York.

They were walking on air even before they got on board.

John Nance: Flying had a panache about it.

Now, part of this was because it cost a lot

and there was a level of exclusivity about it.

But there was also a level of civility about it.

Announcer: Expertly prepared and tastefully served.

Nance: It was a special deal.

Narrator: A DC-7 can carry almost 100 passengers non-stop

from coast to coast.

Nance: It was no longer a situation where people said,

well, you're going to go fly commercially?

You're putting your life on the line.

It was getting to be reliable.

It was getting to be, if not ubiquitous,

then fairly common.

Bob Shirley: Chicago for dinner, gentlemen.

Gerard Fiore: Dinner can't come soon enough for me.

Flight attendant: Door closed and secure, guys.

Narrator: The DC-7 is powered by four huge engines.

Each one has 18 cylinders.

The wright 33-50 turbo compound is a technical marvel.

But it demands a lot of attention.

Flight attendant: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

and welcome aboard United Airlines 718.

Our captain today is Bob Shirley.

You're in good hands.

Narrator: 48-year-old Captain Bob Shirley

has more than 17,000 flight hours.

He's been on the plum L.A.-Chicago route

for nearly a year.

Clay lacy: Bob Shirley was an excellent pilot.

Narrator: Clay lacy is a former united pilot

who was with another crew flying out of Los Angeles that morning.

Lacy: He was highly regarded as a pilot.

And he had his own airplane and was a guy that loved aviation.

Shirley: TWA's running a little late this morning, huh?

Robert Harms: Mm-hmm.

Narrator: The 36-year-old first officer, Robert Harms,

is a world war ii veteran and a former flight instructor.

Fiore: Well, we're on time, guys.

Let's keep it that way.

I'm three pages into the checklist.

Narrator: The third member of the United Airlines cockpit crew

is flight engineer Gerard Fiore.

Fiore: Engine number one.

Shirley: Rpm to 2100.

Bob macintosh: The flight engineer was a busy fellow,

and he fine-tuned the power plants individually

and even by cylinder.

Fiore: Checking magnetos.

Left. Both.

Right. Both.

Rpm is good for left and right.

Macintosh: The proper heat, mixture controls

and cowl flaps and so on, so forth

to keep those power plants running at their best.

Fiore: Cylinder head temps are in the zone.

Shirley: Well, Dr. Fiore, we are blessed this morning.

Fiore: She's all yours, captain.

Narrator: While the united crew waits to taxi,

the tower controller gives instructions

to the plane ahead of them,

a TWA's flight to Kansas City.

Controller: TWA's 2 cleared for takeoff

on runway 2-5-right.

Jack Gandy: Roger, copy, cleared for takeoff 2-5-right.

Controller: United flight 718 taxi to position and hold.

You are next on runway 2-5-left.

Harms: United 718 copy, taxi and hold runway 2-5-left.

Narrator: The united flight is right on time this morning.

Keeping to schedule is important

in the small but growing air travel business,

where many flights carry

at least some first-time passengers.

Nance: As they kept adding flights, passengers kept coming.

It was almost

an "if you schedule it, they will come" situation.

Controller: United flight 718 cleared for takeoff.

Harms: Takeoff clearance obtained.

Shirley: Takeoff thrust.

Harms: 80 knots.

Shirley: Check.

Harms: 120 knots.

V-1.

Rotate.

Narrator: At 9:04 in the morning

flight 718 lifts off from Los Angeles.

The trip to Chicago should take about 6 hours.

Captain Shirley must follow an assigned corridor

through the airspace around Los Angeles.

After that he's free to fly wherever he wants,

as long as he reports in, passing a series of waypoints

along the route to Chicago.

Nance: If you had to divert, it was no real big deal.

We did not have the sophistication

of the radar equipment we have today.

Back in the '50s there was a big sky out there,

and that was kind of the way everybody thought of it.

There weren't that many airplanes up there.

Shirley: The engines sound good, Mr. Fiore.

How are the temps?

Fiore: They're holding steady, skipper.

Still running a little rich.

Lacy: We were very interested in those days

in pleasing the passengers.

Shirley: Well, time for some introductions.

Harms: Knock yourself out.

Shirley: Good morning, folks, Captain Bob Shirley here.

It is a beautiful, bright day.

We're almost at our cruising altitude of 21,000 feet,

which is almost exactly four miles.

Lacy: If only 10% of the people had flown,

we were certainly trying to get more people to fly,

so we tried to make it a fun, interesting experience.

Narrator: 54 minutes into the flight,

the DC-7 reaches its second waypoint.

Harms: United 718, we're at needles, 9:58, 21,000 feet,

clear skies, course direct to Durango.

Estimate crossing the painted desert line at...

Shirley: 10:31.

Harms: 10:31.

Narrator: The crew will next check in

when they cross a point on the map

known as the painted desert line.

Shirley: I'll try to get you some spectacular views

in the next half hour,

so I'd stay glued to those windows.

We're just crossing into Arizona.

On the right you can see Lake Havasu.

Up where we are it's about ten below zero,

so don't go rolling down those windows now.

Narrator: Cruising at 21,000 feet,

the crew spots thunderclouds ahead and adjusts their course.

Lacy: Back in those days, if we'd see a thunderstorm ahead

or a line of thunderstorms,

we'd turn and try and go between two of the cells.

And without radar we didn't have to tell anybody,

we'd just steer around it.

Shirley: Folks, we've got a little weather,

so it could get a bit bumpy.

Nothing to worry about, just keep your eyes peeled

and you'll get a spectacular view

no matter where you're sitting.

How are we doing on your side, Bob?

Harms: Thunderhead five miles south.

We're clear of it.

Shirley: Damn!

Narrator: Shocked passengers have no idea what's gone wrong.

Shirley: Oh, god! Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank!

Come on, baby! Come on!

United dispatcher: United dispatch to united 718,

do you copy?

Narrator: Flight 718 is overdue to check in.

Calls from dispatch go unanswered.

United dispatcher: United dispatch to united 718,

do you copy?

Narrator: Air traffic control headquarters in Salt Lake City.

Controller: C.A. Salt Lake.

Narrator: Controllers here don't normally communicate

directly with flight crews.

They get flight information by phone from airline dispatchers

who are in radio contact with their pilots.

At 10:51, they get a disturbing call

from United Airlines dispatch.

Controller: Salt Lake.

Understand.

United 718 20 minutes overdue at painted desert.

Narrator: Moments later, another dispatcher calls.

More disturbing news.

TWA's dispatcher: Salt Lake TWA's.

I'm getting no response from flight 2.

Controller: Understand, TWA's flight 2

20 minutes overdue at painted desert.

We have had no contact here.

Narrator: Controllers now know that two planes flying from L.A.

Have not reported crossing a scheduled waypoint--

the painted desert line.

United flight 718 and TWA's flight 2 to Kansas City

were both expected to reach that waypoint at 10:31.

Controller: C.A.A. Salt Lake.

TWA's flight 2, do you copy?

Nance: In the absence of a radar beam hitting an airplane,

if the airplane disappears

you're not gonna know that anything is wrong

until probably the second time

that they fail to hit a reporting point.

They're supposed to get on the radio

and report their position.

Controller: TWA's 2. C.A.A. Salt Lake.

Do you copy?

Narrator: TWA's flight 2 is carrying 70 people.

There are another 58 aboard the united flight.

Controllers and dispatchers can only wait

for some response to learn their fate.

Lacy: I had a trip that morning in a DC-6

from Los Angeles to Denver.

We got over Bryce Canyon about the same time

that air rank was calling united 718...

Controller: C.A.A. Salt Lake. Do you copy?

Lacy: ...maybe twice a minute.

They were trying to get a hold of 'em.

And I remember slim, who was Bob Shirley's boss,

he says, "oh, that Bob isn't listening

to the radio," you know.

Narrator: More than an hour has passed

since the planes were last due to check in.

Controllers send out a bulletin asking local authorities

to keep an eye out for the two missing planes.

Nance: Painted desert, that's where you expected

to hear from at least one of those two airplanes.

When neither of them were heard from,

that's the time that the hair is going to begin to stand up

on the back of the heads of the controllers.

Narrator: Two commercial airliners

are still missing somewhere over the Arizona desert.

Macintosh: Finding an aircraft in those days,

before we had the various locator beacons,

before we had the radar systems that we have today,

indeed was looking for a needle in a haystack.

Narrator: The next morning news comes

from authorities in Arizona

confirming everyone's worst fears.

Controller: They found them?

Narrator: The remains of two different planes

have been spotted in Arizona's Grand Canyon.

Nance: There was a gentleman named Palen Hudgins

who was an air tour pilot

who had heard that there were missing airplanes,

and he was flying along

looking at anything he could see down there.

And he sees some smoke coming up from char butte.

Narrator: The twisted wreckage of united 718

lies on a rocky ledge

688 feet up the sheer canyon wall.

The air tour pilot spots the second crash site

on the floor of the canyon about one mile away.

Nance: He banks around, comes in for a closer look,

and there is the most distinctive structure

in commercial aviation at the time:

The tail of a constellation with the three prongs.

There's just no mistaking that.

Macintosh: We had one aircraft up on a bluff.

We had pieces down in crevasses,

engines and parts lying in various places.

Narrator: The immediate priority is to get rescuers

into one of the least accessible places in North America.

Richard Rodriguez: When you talk about an accident

in the Grand Canyon,

you're talking about both hostile, inaccessible,

remote and dangerous.

Narrator: Richard Rodriguez is a former investigator

with the civil aeronautics board.

Rodriguez: You're 1,000 feet above riverbed, for instance,

depending upon where you are.

So it's a very dangerous place to work.

Narrator: When rescuers finally reach the crash area,

they first find the scattered remains of TWA's flight 2.

Reaching the wreckage of the other plane

will be even more difficult.

Reporter: These are mountaineers

from Denver's rocky mountain rescue club.

Near the rim of the Grand Canyon gorge

they collect their gear.

These mountaineers will attempt to scale the steep walls

from the floor of the canyon

in order to reach an abutment

on which rests the shattered wreckage

of the United Airlines DC-7.

Narrator: It's not long before rescuers

come to a grim conclusion.

Everyone aboard both planes is dead.

It is now up to investigators from the civil aeronautics board

to piece together what happened.

Ed Herlihy: The Grand Canyon is a graveyard

for 128 passengers and crew of two airliners

which crashed on peaks little more than a mile apart.

The impact reduced the wreckage

to carbonized smears of paint and metal.

None survived.

Narrator: The sudden loss of two

of America's most modern airplanes

shocks a country that has come to think of air travel

as luxurious and safe.

Nance: We were not familiar as a people

with having massive tragedies like this and a huge body count,

especially in this fledgling thing

called commercial aviation.

We were used to an airplane crashing every now and then.

It was a fairly common occurrence,

but not two very safe airliners.

Narrator: Air accident investigators

are shuttled to the crash site by helicopter.

Rodriguez: The investigator, of course, is driven

by a desire to know what caused the accident

for the simple reason

that we want to prevent it from ever happening again.

Narrator: The team's lead investigator

is well suited for the job.

Jack Parshall is an aviation legend,

not only an experienced pilot, but a crash survivor himself.

Nance: This was one of the pioneers.

This is a guy who's flown airmail.

He's done it all over the years,

and he's also had four crashes of his own.

You would want somebody exactly like this on the job

of trying to piece together the dynamics of a crash

as well as piece together the metal.

Parshall: Alright, let's figure out what's what.

Start mapping this out.

Narrator: The pieces on the ground

will tell Parshall what happened in the air.

Shirley: Folks, we've got a little weather,

so it could get a bit bumpy.

How are we doing on your side, Bob?

Harms: Thunderhead five miles south.

Narrator: Could a sudden thunderstorm

have produced turbulence violent enough

to knock both planes out of the sky?

Shirley: Damn!

Narrator: Jack Parshall doesn't have any

of the advanced technology

or the considerable body of knowledge

that modern-day investigators have come to rely on.

Nance: It was night and day between the tools

that the national transportation safety board has now

and what they had then.

Just, it literally was a different world.

They had very little.

Narrator: Broken fragments of the plane

and his own expertise

are all he has to solve this mystery.

Parshall: Here's what left of the cockpit.

Nance: There were no black boxes like there are today.

It really was a "by the seat of your pants" situation.

And, in fact, this was the age

in which accident investigation began to grow up.

Parshall: Hot enough to melt aluminum.

Narrator: At the TWA's crash site

Parshall finds evidence of an intense post-crash fire.

But that doesn't tell him what brought the plane down.

Parshall: Where's the Connie's tail from here?

Okay. Let's take a look.

Narrator: Investigators locate

the constellation's distinctive triple tail

about 1,500 feet from the rest of the plane.

Parshall: Well, well, well.

Narrator: The distance tells Parshall that the tail

came off the plane before it hit the ground.

If he can figure out why the tail came off in midair,

he'll be one step closer to finding the cause of the crash.

Parshall: Check this out.

Narrator: The wreckage of TWA's flight 2

shows clear evidence of a catastrophic impact.

The plane's skin has been shredded.

Parshall also finds small streaks of blue paint.

Parshall: We're going to need this brought up to the hangar.

Narrator: On the canyon floor

over 2,000 feet from the constellation

lies a piece of the other plane.

The DC-7's wingtip is streaked with red paint

and is nowhere near the rest of the plane.

It also came off in midair.

Nance: It was a smoking gun.

When you find red on an airplane that has no red,

that pretty well proves the point

that something happened up there

that was not part of that airplane

as it took off from Los Angeles.

This was one of the things that cinched the deal.

Narrator: The evidence points

to an incredibly rare, almost unheard-of event.

Parshall: They definitely swapped some paint up there.

Narrator: It wasn't severe weather that brought down

two planes from two of America's largest airlines.

Shirley: Damn! What's he doing there?

Narrator: It was a midair collision.

Nance: For a DC-7 crew to look up

and see a white constellation right in their face,

first of all there's going to be a nanosecond or two

of absolute, complete disbelief.

Shirley: Oh, god!

Bank, bank, bank, bank!

Come on, baby! Come on!

Nance: Muscle memory kicks in for any experienced pilot.

And that's when the yoke gets grabbed

and thrown in whatever direction,

raising the wing, trying to get out of the way.

But the dynamics at that point in time are too late.

Narrator: The collision over the Grand Canyon

is one of the most significant accidents

in the history of commercial aviation.

Macintosh: It was an earthshaking event

that took place there that day.

Narrator: What Jack Parshall uncovers through his investigation

could affect commercial aviation across the country.

Already certain there's been a midair collision,

he now needs to figure out

exactly how the two planes collided and why.

Parshall: Can we get that piece over there, please?

Thanks, guys.

Narrator: Parshall has to recreate

the final moments of the two flights

based on bent metal and streaks of paint.

Macintosh: It was one heck of a challenge

to match those two aircraft up

and come to a deduced conclusion as to what happened.

They start to look at models in a midair collision

to put things together and figure out

could this wing have interfered

with this horizontal stabilizer, et cetera?

Parshall: Now, let's see what we got on the DC-7.

Macintosh: To try and build a scenario that matches

some of the minute clues that they may have

like impact marks, like paint transfer marks.

Parshall: Take a picture, please.

Narrator: The paint transfer evidence tells Parshall

that the DC-7's left wing hit the constellation from behind.

Macintosh: It was obvious that the DC-7

had probably overrun the constellation

from the right rear side.

Macintosh: Had come apart, literally,

knocked the tail off.

Narrator: The constellation plummets

towards the Grand Canyon more than 17,000 feet below.

United 718 has lost half of its left wing

but not all of its engines.

Shirley: What's our damage?

Fiore: Number one engine is out.

Shirley: Airspeed? Harms: 260.

Shirley: Come on, level out.

Fiore: 8,000 now.

Lacy: If anyone survives a midair collision, it's luck,

because it depends on what the damage to their airplane.

You have to have enough left to control the airplane.

Narrator: Less than a minute after the collision,

TWA's flight 2 slams into the canyon floor.

In the DC-7, Bob Shirley and his crew

struggle to avoid the same fate.

Shirley: Come on, pull up! Pull up!

Rodriguez: This airplane is gonna be rolling

rapidly to the left.

And it has no control.

Narrator: Parshall now understands the mechanics

of how the two planes collided.

But he still doesn't know why their flight paths crossed.

They were supposed to be flying different routes

at different altitudes.

They should not have been in the same place at the same time.

Shirley: Damn! What's he doing there?

Narrator: Parshall now needs to know how that happened.

Reporter: Today the only three bodies found

from the United Airlines plane

were brought up by helicopter.

Here army, C.A.B. And airline officials

talk over future operations

as this somber announcement is made,

that next Monday

a single reverent burial service in three faiths

is planned at flagstaff, Arizona,

for the unidentified victims of the two planes.

Nance: This crash in the Grand Canyon

startled everybody and galvanized the country.

I would just imagine that Parshall was very cognizant

of the fact that this was probably

the most critical investigation he had ever been involved with

and that the consequences for getting it wrong in any respect

could have tremendous negative ramifications

for this fledgling industry.

Radio announcer: Investigators continue climbing

through the wreckage of two passenger planes

that collided over the Grand Canyon.

Narrator: Jack Parshall reviews the plane's flight plans.

Parshall: So they both start the day at lax.

Controller: United flight 718, taxi to position and hold.

Parshall: Let's see, 718 was cleared

green airway five out of L.A.

Direct to palm springs junction, to needles,

then on to painted desert line here at 21,000 feet.

TWA's was cleared amber airway five,

green airway two direct to Daggett

and crossing painted desert line at 19,000 feet.

Man: Neither one of them should have been over the canyon.

Narrator: It's clear both planes diverted

from their original flight plan,

but Parshall knows that's not uncommon.

Rodriguez: What you would find pilots doing

is they would file a flight plan along the airways,

and once you get airborne and you're more or less

out of the heavy congested area of an airport,

then you re-file your, what you really want to do,

which is direct here, direct there,

direct someplace else.

Narrator: With no cockpit voice recorder to help them,

investigators turn to radio dispatch recordings

and transcripts.

The radio calls between the pilots

and their company dispatchers

may hold clues about the routes

the two planes actually took that day.

Harms: United 718, we're at palm springs junction.

United 718, we're at needles, 9:58,

21,000 feet, clear skies.

Parshall: That's the last one they reported.

Harms: Course direct to Durango.

Estimated crossing the painted desert line at...

Shirley: 10:31.

Harms: 10:31.

Parshall: They had 33 minutes to get there.

So how come they never made it?

Narrator: To answer that question,

Parshall needs to learn more

about the movements of the other plane

now lying at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Parshall: Let's see what TWA's did.

Controller: TWA's 2 cleared for takeoff on runway 2-5-right.

Gandy: Roger, copy, cleared for takeoff 2-5-right.

Narrator: TWA's flight 2 took off

three minutes ahead of the united flight

in a different direction.

It was to fly northeast towards its first checkpoint, Daggett.

Gandy: TWA's 2 en route Kansas City

passing Daggett at 19,000.

Controller: Roger TWA's 2. One-nine-thousand at Daggett.

Narrator: The TWA's pilot was Jack Gandy.

With 15,000 hours as captain,

he was nearly as experienced as united's Bob Shirley.

Gandy knew these skies well.

He'd flown this route nearly 200 times.

Gandy: Good morning, TWA's dispatch, TWA's 2.

We've got a little bit of weather here

we want to get on top of.

Be a good man and ask Salt Lake to clear us to 21,000.

TWA's dispatcher: Roger, TWA's 2, requesting clearance

at 21,000 feet.

Parshall: So TWA's asked for 21,000.

So Salt Lake clears them?

Man: No. Request denied due to conflicting traffic.

Controller: Advisory, TWA's 2, unable to approve 21,000

due to traffic.

TWA's dispatcher: That's a no-go on 21,000.

United 718 is there.

Narrator: Captain Gandy wants to avoid the clouds in his path,

and in 1956 he has another way to accomplish that.

Gandy: Let's just get on top of this stuff.

Narrator: He uses visual flight rules, or VFR.

Gandy: Roger that.

Advise Salt Lake I'm going to VFR and 1,000 on top.

TWA's dispatcher: Salt Lake.

TWA's 2 requesting 1,000 on top.

Controller: Maintain at least 1,000 on top.

Advise TWA's 2 his traffic is united 718 direct Durango.

Narrator: The TWA's crew was cleared to fly

a thousand feet above the clouds

but warned to look out for united 718.

Lacy: Well, they used to have a procedure

to operate a thousand feet on top.

It meant you stayed a thousand feet away from clouds.

But you stayed in the clear, and you were supposed to be VFR

looking around for traffic.

Parshall: So at Daggett he asked for 1,000 on top.

That's all fine.

So where does that get him?

Man: His next report is from Mojave at 9:59.

Gandy: TWA's 2 passing Lake Mojave 1,000 on top at 21,000.

Estimate painted desert at 10:31.

Narrator: Half an hour after requesting 1,000 on top,

Gandy reports his actual altitude.

Parshall: 21,000 feet.

Now they're both there.

Rodriguez: They could fly at any altitude they wanted

as long as it was a thousand feet separation

from those clouds.

So they took a thousand on top

and then selected to fly at 21,000 feet.

Narrator: Investigators now understand how the TWA's flight

ended up at the same altitude as united 718.

As for why both planes diverted

from their scheduled routes at the same time...

Shirley: Damn! What's he doing there?

Come on, pull up! Pull up!

Narrator: ...the answer is the crash site itself...

An awe-inspiring natural wonder.

Shirley: Let's give them a look, shall we?

Harms: Aye, captain.

Lacy: It was common of making

a few turns over the Grand Canyon

to show people the Grand Canyon.

I mean, that happened every flight

because the Grand Canyon's such a spectacular site.

Announcer: Wonderful sites to see way down below.

The Grand Canyon, for instance,

one of the seven wonders of the world.

Nance: Sightseeing in terms

of what you could show to the passengers

was something that really lit up the senior flight crew.

I can actually show you something

that nobody else can show you.

I can dazzle you with things that you,

as an ordinary human being who doesn't fly,

would never see.

Shirley: Just keep your eyes peeled

and you'll get a spectacular view

no matter where you're sitting.

How are we doing on your side, Bob?

Harms: Thunderhead about five miles south.

We're clear of it.

Shirley: Okey-dokey. We've got some room.

Lacy: You were free, if you wanted to deviate a little bit

for sightseeing, that you could.

It wasn't dangerous, nothing dangerous about 'em.

Shirley: Damn!

Narrator: But on June 30, 1956, it proves fatal.

Shirley: Oh, god!

Narrator: Jack Parshall needs to find out

how such a common practice killed 128 people.

Rodriguez: From the very beginning of aviation

we had the concept of "see and avoid"

or "see and be seen."

The responsibility for separation of aircraft

was still the pilot's responsibility.

Narrator: Parshall knows that united hit TWA's

on the right side coming from behind.

One of the pilots failed to see and avoid.

Parshall needs to figure out which one.

Shirley: What's he doing there?

Narrator: The answer will lead to sweeping changes

in the rules governing commercial aviation.

Parshall: Alright. Let's see what Captain Shirley

could see out there.

Narrator: Using a scale model of a DC-7 cockpit

and airspeed estimates for both planes,

Parshall tries to calculate the distance

at which the united pilots

could have first spotted the constellation.

Macintosh: What were the views of the flight crew members

from each one of the aircraft?

Could they have seen each other?

Did they try and avoid each other?

Parshall: So if they ended up like this,

let's go back a couple of minutes.

Macintosh: Those are the kinds of things

that that investigator in charge I'm sure was asking himself

and getting his team together

to try and deduce from the evidence.

Parshall: I'm gonna need you over there.

Narrator: Investigators begin to suspect

that there may be serious problems

with the whole idea of see and avoid.

Parshall: Alright, keep going.

Keep going.

Nance: Let me tell you one of the dirty little truths

of commercial aviation from the '50s all the way to now.

We have been under "see and avoid,"

but you can't see in most cases even to avoid.

And that's because the windows are very small.

Parshall: Alright, keep going.

A little bit further.

Keep going.

Stop!

Come back half a step. Right there.

That's where Shirley would have first seen the Connie's.

Narrator: Since the DC-7 was behind the constellation,

it was Captain Shirley's responsibility to avoid it.

Shirley: Oh, god! Bank, bank, bank!

Come on, baby! Come on!

Narrator: Parshall wants to find out

if he had enough time to do that.

Macintosh: There are basic rules,

and those basic rules are to indeed

if you see an impending situation,

the overtaking aircraft will give way

to the aircraft in front.

Narrator: The six pilots in both planes were preoccupied

with the demanding job of flying their aircraft.

Lacy: In a piston plane you had the throttles,

you had the propeller, rpm, to adjust your rpm.

Shirley: The engines sound good, Mr. Fiore.

How are the temps?

Fiore: They're holding steady, skipper.

Still running a little rich.

Lacy: There's really a lot more to do,

a lot more to do flying a piston airplane.

Man: That'd be 53 miles.

Narrator: Parshall's test shows that in theory the constellation

would have been visible to the DC-7 crew

when it was 53 miles away.

The numbers suggest that Captain Shirley

had two full minutes to avoid a collision.

That's more than enough time to safely change course.

Shirley: Damn!

Oh, god!

Come on, baby! Come on!

Narrator: Parshall needs to know why that didn't happen.

The answer becomes clear

when he reviews the radio recordings.

Gandy: Good morning, TWA's dispatch, TWA's 2.

We've got a little bit of weather here

we want to get on top of.

Be a good man and ask Salt Lake to clear us to 21,000.

Narrator: On June 30th the skies over Arizona were not clear.

Shirley: Folks, we've got a bit of weather over the canyon,

so it could get a bit bumpy, nothing to worry about.

How are we doing on your side, Bob?

Harms: Thunderhead about five miles south.

We're clear of it.

Shirley: Okey-dokey.

We've got some room.

Nance: They were flying,

I hate to say "fat, dumb and happy,"

but in effect that's a phrase we use

when you think everything's Copacetic.

Narrator: When he factors cloud cover into the equation,

Parshall reaches a stunning conclusion.

The crew of flight 718 had just seconds

to recognize and avoid the plane ahead of them.

Parshall: Boom.

Narrator: The collision was unavoidable.

Rodriguez: You have seconds to respond, to identify,

to develop or formulate an evasive maneuver

and execute it

and for the aircraft to respond

to any control inputs that you put in there.

Nance: There was no indication in the heads

of any of the pilots on either of those two flight decks

that they were in proximity of anybody else in a dangerous way

until they came around a cloud

and all of a sudden the DC-7 crew

has a Connie's right in their face.

And the Connie's crew, I'm sure that they,

to the moment of death, had no idea whatever hit 'em.

Narrator: When Jack Parshall sits down to report his findings,

he faces intense pressure.

The reputation of an industry hinges on what he has to say.

Macintosh: We're really there

to try and prevent the next accident,

a recurrence of similar circumstances

that set up an accident.

But certainly with the high death toll,

128 people died that day,

two major airlines of America running into each other,

there was a call to find out who was guilty,

who was to blame.

Narrator: The obvious conclusion

is that the pilots were to blame.

TWA's dispatcher: That's a no-go on 21,000.

United 718 is there.

Narrator: A lot of people want to lay the blame

on TWA's Captain, Jack Gandy.

Gandy: Roger that.

Advise Salt Lake I'm going to VFR and 1,000 on top.

Narrator: It was Gandy's decision to switch altitudes

that put his plane in the path of united 718.

But a strict interpretation of the rules

would put the blame on united pilot Captain Bob Shirley.

Shirley: Damn! What's he doing there?

Nance: In a perfectly sterile analysis of this,

the overtaking aircraft,

the one who's overtaking the other aircraft,

has the legal responsibility

of avoiding the aircraft they're overtaking.

Parshall: Right there.

Narrator: But Parshall's calculations have shown

there was no way for Captain Shirley

to avoid the collision.

Nance: I think it's not only fair to say

that these two crews were following the rules

and doing everything the way

that they understood it should be done...

Parshall: 21,000 feet.

Now they're both there.

Nance: ...but that this was the way society in aviation

viewed the right way to do it at the time.

Narrator: There is one last possible culprit:

The air traffic controller

who told TWA's about the united flight

but didn't advise the DC-7 crew about the constellation.

Controller: Maintain at least 1,000 on top.

Advise TWA's 2 his traffic is united 718.

Nance: There was an attempt to throw blame in all directions--

very human, very understandable.

By the same token,

when it came to the blame put on the air traffic controllers,

it was very misplaced.

Narrator: With no radar coverage,

air traffic controllers could not visually track flights.

It was impossible for them to advise every company dispatcher

on the precise location of every plane in the sky.

Macintosh: I think if we try and pin the issue down

to who was to blame,

we're probably looking at this accident

in an inappropriate way.

Narrator: It has become clear to Parshall

that no one person is to blame for the midair collision.

Macintosh: Those two aircraft

were put in the proximity of each other

by the rules and the regulations.

Narrator: The real cause of the crash is something much bigger,

something that goes to the very heart of aviation in America.

Jack Parshall concludes

that blame for the Grand Canyon disaster

lies not with the pilots,

not with the controllers,

but with a completely inadequate air traffic control system.

Nance: The subtext in that report

had to be very delicately placed

in front of the congress and the American public,

but the subtext is very clear,

and that is, you know, it's not a matter

of the system being broken.

Guys, we don't have a system.

This is a great non-system of air traffic control.

And until we get a handle on that,

we are not going to be able to rise to the level

of assurance of separation in any degree

that the public is obviously expecting.

Narrator: The Grand Canyon crash and Jack Parshall's report

provoke dramatic changes in American aviation.

Macintosh: As a result of the event in the Grand Canyon,

something new was born.

There was a new awareness

to the public's right, desire and interest in air travel.

And that was fostered by lots of very innovative designs

in traffic collision avoidance systems

that are present in today's environment.

Narrator: The main outcome of the Grand Canyon collision

is that the united states now has a nationwide radar system.

Controllers can now track the movements of planes

in even the most remote parts of the country.

Nance: The only way you're going to assure

that this will never happen again

is if you've got somebody

positively controlling whoever's up there

to where they cannot get too close to each other.

They can't change altitudes at the right time.

You can't mix the traffic.

And that meant radar coverage

across the entirety of the country.

Narrator: Despite all the advances,

air traffic controllers still face challenges:

More planes in the sky

flying faster and higher than ever before.

And though extremely rare,

midair collisions still do occur.

In response, aviation officials are developing a system

that could transform air traffic control in America.

The next generation air transportation system,

or Nextgen, will use GPS satellites

to give pilots the precise location

of the traffic around them.

By the year 2020 pilots will know

exactly how close they are to all other aircraft

without air traffic controllers having to tell them.

Macintosh: Hopefully the next generation

of air traffic control

will look back on that event of the Grand Canyon

and will try and get ahead of it

before such another tragedy does recur.

Narrator: As the era of romantic air travel fades into history,

the lessons learned from the Grand Canyon disaster remain.

Flying can always be made safer.

Nance: I'm reminded constantly

anytime I study an older accident

of something that was said

by George Santayana in 1917,

an American philosopher

who said those wonderful words:

He who cannot remember the past

is condemned to repeat it.