All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S05E02.Speed.Trap.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Man: Something's going on.
It's not good.

Narrator: Air Traffic
Controllers in California

face a catastrophe.

Man: The radar controller
said something like...

Man: Hughes Airwest 7-0-6.

Radio check.
How do you hear me?

Man: No answer.

Narrator: A passenger plane
with 49 people on board

vanishes from radar.

Man: What happened?
Was it a structural issue?

It had crashed for some reason,
and we had no idea whatsoever.

Narrator: Witnesses describe
an almost unthinkable scenario.

Man: Was that something there?

Man: We didn't see it.

Four sets of eyes
didn't see it.

Man: It might have been
a plane...

Maybe not.

Man: The fact that
somebody says something

doesn't prove anything until
you've proved it yourself.

Man: What the hell were
those guys doing up there?

Flight Attendant:
Ladies and gentlemen,
we are starting our approach.

Pilot: We lost both engines!

Flight Attendant:
Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Pilot: Mayday, mayday.

Flight Attendant:
Brace for impact!

Controller: I think I lost one.

Man: Investigation starting...

Man: He's gonna crash!

Narrator: Los Angeles
International airport.

Hughes Airwest flight 706
prepares for takeoff.

There are
44 passengers on board.

The flight has stops in Utah,
Idaho, and Washington state.

Man: Welcome aboard, folks.

We'll be getting under way
any minute now.

Narrator:
Captain Theodore Nicolay
is in command today.

Jeannine Moyle: Captain Nicolay
had flown for the Air Force.

He was pretty senior,

so anybody who was flying
with him felt comfortable.

Because of his seniority,

you knew he knew
what he was doing.

Narrator:
Los Angeles International

is one of the busiest hubs
in North America.

Controllers direct crews

to follow specific air corridors
on departure.

Controller: Airwest 706 red
cleared for takeoff,

runway 2-4 left.

Climb via heading 2-5-0.

Pilot: Roger, 2-4 left,
climb heading 2-5-0.

Narrator:
First Officer Price Bruner

is also highly experienced.

Price Bruner: Weather looking
clear all the way to Seattle.

Narrator: He has even more hours
in the air than Captain Nicolay.

Moyle: Price was actually
checked out as a captain,

although he elected to fly
as first officer.

And I think he truly enjoyed
being in the cockpit.

Narrator:
Flight Attendant Pat Shelton

flies this route regularly.

Moyle: She was a beautiful gal
with lots of long, dark hair,

and she had just gotten engaged.

She was so looking forward
to getting married

and she was at a happy state
in her life.

Theodore Nicolay:
Runway's clear.

Price Bruner: Brakes released.

Narrator: In 1971,
airlines in the U.S.

Have been flying the DC-9
for more than five years.

It's two efficient
turbofan engines

make it ideal for short
to medium haul flights.

Nicolay:
Throttles are all yours.

Bruner: 80 knots.

Narrator: At 6:02 p.m.

The Hughes Airwest flight
lifts off from L.A.

Controller:
Turn right heading 0-6-0.

Bruner: Airwest 706 red,
right 0-6-0.

Narrator: The heading
takes the plane west

over the pacific ocean

before turning northeast towards
its first stop, salt lake city.

Four minutes after takeoff,
First Officer Bruner

contacts a different
control center north of L.A.

Bruner: Los Angeles Center,
good evening.

Airwest 706 Red with you.

Climbing through 6,000.

Narrator:
The Los Angeles air route
traffic control center.

Controller: Airwest 706 red
turn left heading 0-4-0

until receiving Daggett.

Narrator: Head Controller
Roger Anderson

is helping a trainee operator
get up to speed.

Roger Anderson: That's it.
You got to keep scanning.

It's something where you can't
stop and think about

each decision in-depth.

You have to make quick
decisions, a lot of reaction.

You got to move at a fast pace.

Narrator:
Controllers must keep planes

at a safe distance
from one another

as they fly in and out of L.A.

Anderson:
In addition to Airwest,

the radar controller
may have been talking to

five or six other jets climbing
out towards the northeast,

in addition to
a small number of criss-crossers

back and forth
through the airspace.

Bruner: Ok,
0-4-0 direct to Daggett.

Narrator:
The controllers monitor

the Hughes Airwest DC-9
on radar.

They use markers
called "shrimp boats"

to track the position
of every plane.

Anderson: Shrimp boats--
this was before automation,

and these were
little, small plastic markers

with a pointy end.

And we'd write on them
with grease pencil.

And it would contain
just basic information

like aircraft call sign,

sometimes
the assigned altitudes--

as much information as you can
squeeze with a grease pencil

onto a little plastic marker.

Narrator: The sound
of an emergency transmitter

warns the controllers

that a plane in the area
may be in trouble.

They need more information
to figure out what's happening.

Anderson:
Frequently at the time,

people would accidentally
trigger the transmitter.

It was seldom a real situation,

so we didn't tend to
pay that much attention to it.

At this point, we looked back,

and our shrimp boats,
where Airwest 706 is,

the target's missing.

The radar controller
said something like...

Controller: Hughes Airwest 706,
reset your transponder.

Radar contact lost.

Anderson: There's no answer.

Airwest 706--

controller: Radio check.
How do you hear me?

Anderson: No answer.

This is getting bad now.

We've lost the target,

and we've got no communications
with the aircraft.

Narrator: Anderson realizes
the enormity of the situation

when the crew of a nearby
military plane radios in.

Pilot: Center,
we've just seen an explosion

on the side of a mountain.

Anderson: Hey, something's
going on. It's not good.

And he said,
"center, I didn't see it,"

but my co-pilot
looked out the window.

He saw explosions
on the side of the mountain.

Well, then, we knew
something bad had happened.

What the hell happened?

Narrator: A DC-9
with 49 people on board

has slammed into
the California hills.

Anderson:
Did Airwest just explode?

Did a wing fall off?

What happened?
Was it a structural issue?

It had crashed for some reason,
and we had no idea whatsoever.

Narrator: The loss of the DC-9
will attract a lot of attention

because of
its high-profile owner.

Just a year earlier,
the airline was purchased

by billionaire aviator
Howard Hughes,

one of the most famous people
in America.

Dave Knutsen: Howard Hughes was
looking for an airline to buy

at a good price.

And eventually
they found Airwest.

It then became Hughes Airwest.

Narrator: The National
Transportation Safety Board

assigns one of its top
investigators to the case,

world war ii navy pilot
dick baker.

Dick baker:
San Gabriel Mountains.

Narrator: The crash location
poses an immediate challenge.

Baker: Ok. We're gonna need
choppers to get in there.

In the meantime,

I want you to find me anyone
who saw anything...now.

Richard Rodriguez: In this case,

the accident site
was very remote

and in very precipitous
mountain terrain.

That makes it always difficult

for the investigators
to get out there.

Narrator: The crash site
is just a few miles

from the town
of Duarte, California.

It's the best place
to find witnesses.

In the hours after the crash,

dozens of people come forward
with the same story.

They say they heard an explosion

and looked up
to see the DC-9 falling

like a leaf to the ground.

Most have no idea
what caused the explosion.

But a handful of witnesses
say they do.

They insist it was
a mid-air collision

between the DC-9
and a fighter jet.

Rodriguez: Witness statements
can be notoriously deceiving,

but in a mid-air collision,

they're generally
pretty accurate

as to the fact
that a collision occurred.

Narrator:
Investigators need to figure out

where this second jet
may have come from.

With the American war
in Vietnam raging,

military air bases
on the west coast

are extremely active.

There are several
in southern California alone.

Frank Romaglia: In the '70s,

there was lots
of military training

going on in southern California

because there were clear skies
and lots of desert out there

that they could train over.

Baker: Ok.
Thank you. Bye-bye.

Narrator: Baker soon gets
the information he needs.

Baker:
El Toro's missing a jet.

Narrator: An F-4 Phantom
hasn't made it back

to nearby
el Toro's marine corps airbase.

It's the military's
most advanced fighter.

The two-man jet
is capable of flying

at twice the speed of sound

and outmaneuvering almost
everything else in the sky.

Romaglia: It was simply the
meanest aircraft on the block.

It had a radar
missile capability

so you could shoot BVR--
beyond visual range.

It was high speed--
more than mach ii capable.

Narrator: The witness reports
leave little doubt:

The missing fighter from el
Toro's

is the aircraft
that collided with the DC-9.

But how could experienced
fighter pilots

fly into a much slower
civilian plane?

Baker: What the hell were
those guys doing up there?

Narrator: Witnesses provide
some crucial information

about a mid-air collision

in the skies
over southern California.

Several people share
a particularly troubling detail.

Baker:
I want you to tell me again

what you mean by trick flying.

Narrator:
It seems the fighter jet

may have been performing a stunt

moments before it collided
with the passenger plane.

Man: The jet was doing
a barrel roll.

Narrator: Stunt flying is
dangerous not only for pilots,

but also for people
on the ground.

It's strictly regulated.

Rodriguez: If he was performing
acrobatic maneuvers

in an area that was not
specifically assigned

for acrobatic maneuvers,

it would be in violation
of his operating instructions

for any military flying.

Narrator: Investigators hope
recordings of air traffic radar

will tell them more about what
the F-4 pilots were doing.

But the controllers
on duty that day

say the fighter didn't appear
on their radar at all.

Controller: I would have warned
Hughes if I'd seen the jet.

Narrator: And they have
the tapes to prove it.

Anderson: We didn't see it.

Four sets of eyes didn't see it.

The target wasn't there.

What you don't know
you can do nothing about.

Narrator: Investigators
learn the identities

of the F's-4's two crewmen:

Marine pilot
James Richard Phillips

and radar intercept Officer
Christopher Schiess.

Christopher Schiess:
Watch it!

Narrator: After the impact,
only Lieutenant Schiess

was able to eject
from the doomed fighter.

Romaglia: There's a time
that you know

you have to get
out of the aircraft.

There's no more fooling around.

Narrator: Investigators
are anxious to learn

what Schiess knows,

but first doctors must
check him for injuries.

Romaglia: I would think

if the other crew member
did not survive,

you'd feel horrible
because you were a survivor.

It's something that,
you made it,

and the guy sitting just a few
feet away from you did not.

Narrator:
In Vietnam-era America,

the involvement of a military
jet in a civilian disaster

sparks a public outcry.

Rodriguez: It was in an era
of our nation's history

that the military wasn't

the most popular organization
in the world.

And so it does create greater
tension in the investigation.

Narrator:
The Marines send their own man

to help with the investigation.

Baker: Dick baker.

Narrator:
Lieutenant Colonel Jack Zyke.

Baker: I guess we'll be
working together on this.

Narrator:
He'll work with the NTSB

to figure out how
the two planes collided.

Jack Zyke:
These were good marines.

I doubt they were stunting.

Baker:
Well, let's figure that out.

Narrator: The wreckage may offer
some clues about what happened.

But recovering it
from the remote crash site

in the San Gabriel Mountains
will take time.

Reporter: The rough terrain
and dense fog

have hampered
the removal of bodies

and the search for clues.

Knutsen:
It is very rough terrain--

bramble bushes, rattlesnakes,
and very steep canyons.

This area was some
of the roughest terrain

that I had ever seen,
ever experienced.

Reporter: The first rescue
workers had to hike six miles

to get to the scene.

They reported
only the tail section intact,

no signs of life.

Narrator: Among the wreckage

are the remains of 49 men,
women, and children--

the youngest
just three weeks old.

Moyle: There is a port hole

adjacent to
the forward jump seat,

and I'm just imagining
that Pat Shelton

would have been looking out
through that port hole.

I'm just wondering

if they weren't able to see
a split second of something.

That haunts me often.

Reporter:
This was the worst plane crash

in California history.

Narrator: In an area swarming
with military flights,

the deadly collision

sends a chill
through the flying public.

Rodriguez:
We were very concerned

about the mid-air collision.

Narrator: Investigators need
to figure out what went wrong

before it happens again.

A day after the crash,

they get a chance to talk to
the accident's sole survivor.

Baker: Thanks, Johnny.
Send him in.

Narrator: They're eager to ask
him to explain the maneuvers

reported by the witnesses.

Rodriguez:
There's a tremendous urgency

to talk to any survivor
of an accident,

to get to them
as quickly as possible,

because they tend to
build on news stories

so you don't get the clear,
unfiltered description.

Baker: Sit down, Lieutenant.

We won't bite.

Rodriguez:
What were you doing?

Who, what, when,
where, and why?

Narrator:
Lieutenant Christopher Schiess

is just 24 years old.

He insists that he and his pilot
were not stunting.

He maintains the collision
was not their fault at all.

Schiess: The DC-9 hit us.

Like this.

His nose to our tail.

Baker: Hold on.
Back up a bit.

Tell me exactly what happened.

Narrator:
On the day of the crash,

Schiess was flying
in the rear seat of the F-4,

the usual position for the radar
intercept officer, or rio.

Schiess: Copy, Rick.
Climb to 15,000.

Narrator: 27-year-old
First Lieutenant Rick Phillips

is in the forward seat,
flying the jet.

The pair has already
flown across four states.

Their mission now is to
get the F-4 back to home base--

el Toro's, California.

Schiess: We climbed
to 15,000 feet, here.

And we rolled over
for a look around.

Baker: An aileron roll?

Schiess:
Yes, Sir. Full 360.

Narrator:
Schiess claims they executed

a 360-degree aileron roll.

They wanted to check
for other planes

flying above or below their jet.

Romaglia: The F-4 Phantom

had good visibility
down over the nose,

and anytime you wanted
to look anywhere,

it would just
take a second to roll

so that an area in which you
didn't have good visibility,

you could instantaneously
get good visibility.

Narrator: After the roll,

Schiess uses his radar
to scan the ground below--

part of his combat training.

Romaglia: It's excellent
practice for ingress,

either at night
or in the weather,

such that you could fly
and use the radar

to know where you were
over the ground.

He would have his head down
in the radar scope,

doing ground mapping,

and then the front seater
would be primarily visual

because he knew that he lost
that extra set of eyes

that was down in the radar

instead of looking out
for other aircraft

in the "see and be seen"
environment.

Schiess: Watch it, Rick!

That's when
I first saw the DC-9.

It came out of nowhere
and slammed into us.

Narrator: Five seconds later,
Schiess ejects.

Schiess: I got out.

Rick didn't.

Knutsen: The radar observer
who had bailed out,

as one of his
first comments said,

was that the DC-9 had hit them.

So this kind of became
an objective.

Did the DC-9 hit the F-4?

Did the F-4 hit the DC-9?

Narrator:
Investigators know the F-4

was not equipped
with a black box.

They'll have no flight data
from the fighter

to help confirm Schiess' story.

They won't get any clues from
the phantom's wreckage, either.

The high-speed impact
obliterated the small jet.

Hughes Airwest engineer
Dave Knutsen is brought in

to see if the young lieutenant's
story holds up.

Knutsen: Not unlike
an intersection on the ground,

generally speaking,

the one who gets
to the intersection first....

Bruner: Climbing through
15,000 feet.

Knutsen: Tends to have
the right of way.

So that seemed to be
kind of an overwhelming drive

to determine that.

Narrator:
Wreckage from the DC-9

might explain
which pilot was at fault.

Knutsen: The task began

to find a place where we could
rebuild the airplane.

In this particular case,

it was a factory where they had
put fiberglass together.

For whatever reason, they'd left
hundreds of C-clamps.

These could be handy.

Plus there were overhead cranes,

which was ideal for
reconstructing an airplane.

Narrator: Knutsen hopes
putting the DC-9 back together

will help him understand
exactly how the two planes hit.

Knutsen: We knew that there was
a mid-air collision up there.

The objective was to,
to the extent possible,

to rebuild the remains
of the airplane

to help in the investigation

as to what actually
happened up there.

Narrator: The team has recovered
the DC-9's black boxes.

But they're badly damaged.

Baker: We'll have to see if the
lab can do anything with these.

Narrator: They're sent to
NTSB headquarters in Washington

for analysis.

Knutsen studies
the twisted metal,

looking for scratches
and paint marks--

clues that might reveal
how the two planes hit.

But the most vital piece
of the DC-9 is still missing.

Knutsen: We'd recovered
the main section

which was in this canyon,
along with all the remains.

But we still were missing

the front end
of the cockpit area.

We've got to find
the rest of it.

Narrator: In Washington, the lab
is also having mixed success.

The DC-9's
cockpit voice recorder

is completely destroyed.

But the flight data recorder
has survived the crash.

Rodriguez: The flight data
recorder, in this case,

gave very good information.

Narrator:
If the pilots of the DC-9

had somehow flown off course...

Bruner: Right 0-6-0.

Narrator:
The flight data recorder

should reveal their mistake.

Rodriguez:
The aircraft did little

in the way of maneuvering.

The aircraft was in
a steady state climb.

Narrator:
Instead, the data shows

they never strayed
from their assigned heading.

Bruner: Climbing through
15,000 feet.

Nicolay:
Just another hazy day.

Rodriguez:
There was no evasive maneuver

involved in this
particular accident

by the DC-9.

Narrator:
The flight data from the DC-9

doesn't explain what happened.

Ten days after the crash,

searchers finally find
the nose of the DC-9

less than a mile
from the main fuselage.

It's a key discovery
for Knutsen.

Knutsen: After we had started
rebuilding the plane,

questions arose about what angle
were the airplanes going

when they collided?

And so one of my jobs
as an engineer

was to get various pieces
of the airplane

and determine what the angle
of attack was, so to speak.

Bingo.

Narrator:
There's only one way to explain

the size and angle of the gash
slicing through the cockpit.

Knutsen: It looks like
the stabilizer

cut the plane in two.

Knutsen: Once we got
the plane constructed,

you could back off
and you could see

where the vertical stabilizer
of the fighter

came right underneath
the pilot's seat

and just sliced off the nose.

Baker:
So if they hit like this...

Knutsen: The F-4
had actually penetrated the DC-9

on the left side,

a few feet from the nose.

So, frankly,
the F-4 hit the DC-9

rather than the DC-9
hitting the F-4.

Then we know who hit who.

Narrator: The markings suggest

the F-4 tried
to avoid the DC-9...

Schiess: Watch it, Rick!

Narrator: At the last second.

Knutsen: It cut off
the nose of the airplane.

And that took away
all the controls.

And the airplane,

as some of the observers
on the ground said,

it was like a falling leaf
till they hit the ground.

Narrator:
Investigators are convinced

Lieutenant Schiess
is wrong about who hit whom.

More troubling,

it's not the only part of
his story that doesn't add up.

Baker: He says they hit
15,000 feet here.

Zyke: But witnesses say
that they saw them roll here.

Narrator: Witnesses
contradict Schiess' story

about where the F-4 was
when it performed the roll.

Rodriguez: The investigator
brings a very cynical approach

to anything
that he's investigating.

The fact that
somebody says something

doesn't prove anything until
you've proved it yourself.

Baker: He can't be in two places
at the same time.

Narrator: Some witnesses insist

that a Marine F-4
was performing stunts

just before it crashed
into the Hughes Airwest DC-9.

Baker: Was it like this?

No? O.K.
How about this?

Rodriguez:
There was some conflict

between what we had gotten
from eyewitnesses,

or supposedly eyewitnesses
along the flight path,

and what the rio
was describing.

Schiess: And we rolled over
for a look around.

Narrator: Lieutenant Schiess
claims the move wasn't a stunt.

Baker: An aileron roll?

Narrator: He says it was
a safe standard maneuver

called an aileron roll.

Schiess:
Yes, Sir. Full 360.

Rodriguez:
I can best describe that

as simply flying
in a level upright position

and placing the stick either
to the left or to the right

and the aircraft rolls about
the longitudinal axis.

Narrator:
During an aileron roll,

the jet flies in a straight line
at a constant speed.

But during a barrel roll,
loops are added,

so the jet covers less ground
in the same length of time.

Investigators
should be able to figure out

which maneuver it was

by reconstructing
the F's-4's flight path.

Rodriguez: We actually flew
the route of the flight

and were able to duplicate
the aircraft's progress

along the flight path.

Narrator: Lieutenant Schiess'
recollection of the flight...

Zyke: And Schiess says
that they were here

two minutes before the crash.

Narrator:
Is combined with witnesses'
sightings of the plane.

Baker: An eyewitness
who checked his watch

says he saw the plane here

one minute before the crash.

That looks like
a straight run to me.

Rodriguez:
The truth of the matter is

if there had been
acrobatic maneuvers,

they would not have been
in the mid-air collision.

It would have delayed the
progress along the flight path

and the two aircraft would never
have come together.

Narrator: Baker is convinced

the F-4 did not perform
an aerobatic stunt,

but an aileron roll
to check for other planes.

Schiess:
All clear on my side.

Narrator: From the ground
it would have been easy

to mistake one maneuver
for the other.

Rodriguez:
There was no indication

that he was what you would
classify as a hotdog

or undisciplined
in his activities.

I'm sure that they were
more interested in getting home

than they were in, "oh, boy,
I've got an airplane

and an hour to kill,
and watch this,"

or something of that nature.

Narrator: But something
still doesn't add up.

The F-4 is an incredibly
nimble aircraft.

It can turn much more sharply
than any commercial airliner.

Romaglia: For the F-4,

minimum
"cruising around" airspeeds

were in the neighborhood
of a minimum of 300 knots.

And that would enable us to
at least do an initial 5-G turn

if an airliner
popped up in front of you.

Narrator:
If the F-4 wasn't stunting,

why couldn't it avoid

the much larger and less nimble
DC-9 in its path?

Investigators study the basics:

The weather.

Rodriguez:
It was what I would classify

as a typical
southern California day.

There were no obstructions
to visibility.

Baker:
We're missing something.

We need Schiess back here.

Rodriguez: I don't believe
that the initial descriptions

by the rio of his flight path

and what activity
had taken place

was in any way in error

because of deliberate action
on his part.

I think he was...
He was very much in shock

as a function of the event
he had been through.

Baker: Ok, Lieutenant.

Let's go back
to the very beginning.

What were you doing
before the flight?

Schiess: Before the flight
we were at the base in Fallon,

getting the F-4 looked over.

Narrator:
On the afternoon of June 6th,

the young officer
is 372 miles from Los Angeles,

at an airbase in Nevada.

His F-4 Phantom
is one of a group of fighters

that's been practicing
air intercepts

over the western united states.

Romaglia: They were en route

from Fallon Naval Air Station
up in Nevada

back to marine el Toro's
in the south Los Angeles basin,

relatively close to lax.

Schiess: I just needed some
guidance with an oxygen issue,

and we were good to go.

Baker: Oxygen issue?

Narrator: Investigators learn

the F's-4's high altitude
oxygen system was leaking.

Schiess: So there's no way
to fix it at this base?

Narrator: And the mechanics
in Nevada couldn't fix it.

Schiess:
Sir, it's Lieutenant Schiess.

Yes, Sir. Will do.

Yeah, they still want us
to head back to el Toro's.

Narrator: To avoid using
the broken oxygen system...

Schiess: Just keep it
nice and low.

Narrator: They've been ordered
to fly at low altitude.

Schiess:
And that's what we did.

Narrator: At 5:15 p.m.,
the F-4 takes off.

Pilot Rick Phillips cruises
lower than he ordinarily would.

If it weren't for
the oxygen problem,

he could fly much higher

and clear of commercial traffic
leaving Los Angeles.

At around 6 p.m.,

the pilot needs to climb
to avoid the mountains ahead

and get above a layer of haze.

Schiess: Copy, Rick.
Climb to 15,000.

Romaglia: The crew in the F-4,
they climbed from,

I believe it was about
1,500 to 15,000 feet.

You could certainly
do climb rates

of 10 to 15,000 feet a minute
easily in a phantom.

Narrator: Baker wonders if
the rapid increase in altitude

could have brought on
a dangerous condition

known as hypoxia.

Rodriguez: Hypoxia will degrade
your visual acuity.

Romaglia: It's a deprivation
of oxygen to the brain.

It slows down your thinking,

and that's not good in
a tactical high-speed aircraft.

Narrator:
Marine corps investigators...

Zyke:
This system is for the masks.

Narrator: Are familiar
with the F's-4's design.

Zyke: And this one here
is for the cabin pressure.

Narrator: They know that the
problem with the oxygen system

would only have
affected the masks,

and those are only required
at very high altitudes.

At 15,000 feet,

there should have been plenty
of oxygen in the cockpit.

Rodriguez: The pressurization
system of the aircraft

would have held
the cabin altitude

well below 10,000 feet,

so there was no requirement
for the oxygen

from a standpoint of physiology.

The crew was not hypoxic
in any way, shape, or form.

Narrator: The cause of
the collision remains a mystery.

There's a basic concept
in aviation

called "see and avoid."

It's every pilot's job
to watch out for other planes.

Investigators wonder why
the pilots of the DC-9

did not take any action
to avoid the disaster.

Baker: Not much here.

You got anything?

Narrator: Investigators find
that commercial pilots

don't get as much training
as their military counterparts

when it comes
to visual scanning.

Bruner: Engage autopilot.

Rodriguez: There was no
formal training at Airwest

with respect to
"see and avoid" scanning.

The crew may have had
some residual training

from past military experience,

but Hughes Airwest did not have
an established program.

Bruner: Too bad you're missing
the dodgers game tonight.

Nicolay: This year they're going
all the way to the world series.

Bruner: Not if the giants
can keep it up.

Rodriguez: I don't think
that the average crew member

in the airlines

was aware of how significant
outside scanning was

or should be.

We had studies
that pilots would spend

less than 50% of their time
looking outside,

and sometimes as low as 20%.

Narrator: Investigators conclude
that the Hughes Airwest pilots

may not have had enough training
to scan effectively,

and that's why they failed
to spot the F-4.

Not everyone is convinced.

Many of his colleagues
remember Captain Nicolay

as an exceptionally
vigilant pilot.

Moyle: Captain Nicolay was
that kind of a pilot, I think,

who really had
an instinct with flying.

On one occasion,
we had a near miss,

and he took the airplane
for a dive.

And I can remember him
explaining to his first officer

and to whoever
was in the vicinity

about how important it is
to keep your eyes out

because anything
could come along.

Narrator: If Captain Nicolay

was on the lookout
for planes in his path,

why didn't he see
the approaching F-4?

Baker: The F-4 is coming in
at 420 knots

from the north...

Slightly east.

The DC-9...

Is coming in at 320 knots...

From the southwest.

What's the rate of closure?

Knutsen: I was able to calculate

the closing speed
of these two planes

was roughly
1,000 feet per second.

And if one thinks about that...

And a good comparison

is the muzzle velocity
of a .45 caliber gun.

Narrator: In the seconds
before the crash,

radar operator Schiess
has his head down,

checking his scope.

Pilot Phillips is likely
checking instruments.

Baker: At 15 seconds,

the F-4 is one-tenth
of an inch big in the window--

tiny.

10 seconds...
Three-tenths of an inch.

Still tiny,
but maybe now he can see it.

5 seconds...
The entire window's filled.

Narrator: In addition
to the rapid closing speed,

the color of the fighter
may have also been a factor.

Romaglia:
It would be very difficult

in the accident context

for the airline guys
to spot the F-4

because it was painted
marine/navy gray-blue,

which would be very hard to see
against the sky,

which in fact is the objective.

Rodriguez: The probability
of these two aircraft,

either one detecting
and avoiding the other,

was slim and none.

Narrator: Investigators suspect
the design of the DC-9 cockpit,

with its wide window dividers,

may have made the visibility
problem even worse.

Baker: You can't see it here,
or here.

Narrator:
The F-4 would have been hidden

by the window posts...

Baker:
It's completely obstructed.

Narrator:
For close to 25 seconds.

Rodriguez: It's virtually
impossible for the DC-9 crew

to have detected the F-4
as it approached.

Nicolay:
Just another hazy day.

Schiess: Watch it!

Narrator:
None of the pilots that day

had enough time to see
the other plane in their path.

But air traffic controllers
are supposed to make sure

planes fly at a safe distance
from each other

and prevent
collisions in the sky.

Controller: Airwest 7-0-6 red
turn left heading 0-4-0

until receiving Daggett.

Narrator: But they didn't see
the F-4 either.

Rodriguez: Why did the F-4,
the marine aircraft,

not show up on the radar?

Anderson:
What the hell happened?

Narrator: Controllers should
have been able to spot the F-4

and warn
Hughes Airwest flight 706

that it was on
a collision course.

Rodriguez:
The fact that the DC-9

was under radar control
at the time

raised many questions about

why did they not give warning
or a traffic alert to the DC-9,

which was
the primary responsibility

of the air traffic controllers?

Baker:
A couple rookies in there.

Narrator: Investigators wonder

if the inexperience
of the trainee controllers

could have played a role.

Anderson: A new person

training in an air traffic
control facility

has to train with live traffic.

Now there's a lot
of simulation equipment

available for training.

But back then,
we had none of that.

Narrator: But when they study
staff reports and transcripts...

Baker: They all check out.

Narrator: They find the trainees

were well-qualified
and well-supervised.

Anderson: The two trainees--

you can say,
"well, they were trainees.

What do they know? They probably
weren't paying attention."

Wrong.

Trainees are paying attention

much more closely
than a journeyman controller

who can tend to get
a tad complacent

because they're so comfortable
with the routine.

Narrator: There appears
to be no way to explain

why the radar system in Palmdale
didn't detect the F-4.

Then investigators
discover some key details

about the equipment
installed there.

The system may not have been
reliable enough

to accurately track
a fast-moving fighter jet.

Anderson: It was nothing more
than world war ii technology.

And temperatures
generated by this equipment

would cause the equipment
to drift drastically.

And sometimes it would drift
so bad off its peak performance

that we really couldn't
see at all.

Narrator:
Investigators need to know

exactly what
the radar in Palmdale

could and could not see.

Investigators conduct
a radar test.

They fly an F-4 along the route
Schiess and Phillips took

to see whether it can be
picked up by radar in Palmdale.

Anderson:
Uh, was that something there?

The F's-4's traveling
almost 500 miles an hour.

Narrator:
The F-4 does six runs.

The controller can barely track
the high-speed fighter.

Anderson:
It might have been a plane...

Maybe not.

It could just be interference

that it was shown
frequently on the radar,

ground clutter...
Who knows what?

A single blip
means absolutely nothing.

We have to have
a history of blips

to see that
it's actually traffic.

Narrator: They conclude
it was almost impossible

to detect the marine F-4
as it streaked across the sky.

Baker: He's all alone.

And no one knows he's there.

Narrator:
To make matters worse,

in 1971, military pilots
were not routinely briefed

on civilian air traffic routes.

Rodriguez: The military pilots
were not that familiar

with what the civilian pilots
were doing,

not just the Los Angeles area,

but in other
heavy congested areas.

Narrator: The military plane
was not under orders

to check in with
civilian air traffic control.

Baker; these are the roads
in and out of lax.

Narrator: The air corridors
surrounding lax

are like spokes on a wheel
that extend for miles.

Flight 706 was following one of
those established corridors.

Baker: Your guys were crossing

one of the busiest flight paths
in the country.

I assume they knew it was there?

Schiess:
We should stay clear of traffic

if we cut east of Los Angeles.

Narrator:
Schiess tells investigators

that they hoped to avoid
commercial air traffic

by skirting the city.

Instead, they turned into one of
the airport's busiest lanes.

Rodriguez:
The terminal area charts

would show those departures,

but the military
doesn't have those

because they don't operate

out of Los Angeles
International Airport.

Romaglia: The question
I have in my mind is:

Why did the F-4 crew,

why did they not get ahold
of an air traffic control guy

to let them know where they were
and what they were doing?

Narrator: The investigators
reach an alarming conclusion.

Air transportation in America
has a dangerous flaw:

The military and civilian
systems don't communicate.

Baker: Bang.

Anderson: Could we have done
anything different?

No, absolutely not!

It was just
something that happened.

We could not have changed it.

Not us.

Narrator:
The exhaustive investigation

produces two separate reports:

One civilian and one military.

They cover every detail
of the deadly accident...

How two Marine airmen were
hindered by an oxygen leak.

Schiess: So there's no way
to fix it at this base?

Narrator: How they took off

without advising civilian
air traffic controllers

and flew low
over the California desert.

Anderson:
Was that something there?

Narrator:
How controllers couldn't track

the supersonic fighter jet,

and why the crew of a DC-9
with 44 passengers on board

never saw them coming.

Nicolay:
Just another hazy day.

Narrator: The reports
lead to important changes

in the rules governing aviation.

Knutsen: Military pilots used
to fly VFR, visual flight rules,

which has
a much lesser requirement

for reporting positions
and that sort of thing.

And so, as a result
of this accident,

everybody had to be
on radar control,

and that means being controlled

by radar operators
on the ground.

Narrator: Military pilots
are now advised

of all restricted air traffic
zones near commercial airports.

The size and shape of the zones
has also changed.

Rodriguez: There was
a continuum of revision

to restricted airspace

into what we call
the upside-down wedding cake.

Narrator: No longer
merely spokes in a hub,

restricted airspace
at busy airports

now surrounds
the entire terminal.

Hughes Airwest was sold in 1980

and eventually folded
into Northwest Airlines.

But the legacy of the airline's
deadliest accident endures.

Schiess: Watch it!

Narrator: Lessons learned
from the accident

helped force changes
to air traffic control...

That make passengers safer
to this day.

Anderson: It was so unfortunate

that 50 people
died that evening.

It's so sad.

But this past year in the U.S.,

35,000 were killed
in traffic deaths,

so the system is extremely safe.

The procedures we use,
the technology we have,

it works well.