All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S05E11.Titanic.In.The.Sky.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Narrator: The world's largest
commercial airliner

is coming apart in midair.

Man: We're losing an engine.

Man: There was fuel leaking
from the aircraft.

There was damage to
the aircraft flight controls.

Narrator: Pilots face
an avalanche of warnings.

Man: What have you got
for me now?

Narrator: Critical systems
are failing

throughout the gigantic plane.

Man: What's going on up there?

Narrator: The lives of
440 passengers are at risk.

And the crisis quickly
escalates from bad...

Man: It's one system
after another.

Narrator: ...to catastrophic.

Man: The computer says
we can't make it.

Man: Damn it!

This is like the simulator
exercise from hell.

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: Qantas flight 32
is making a refueling stop

in singapore.

The airbus a380 is
more than halfway through

a marathon 22-hour flight,

all the way from london
to sydney, australia.

After two hours on the ground,

the crew is nearly ready to get
the plane back in the air.

Very few pilots are trained
to captain an a380.

Former fighter pilot
richard de crespigny

is in that elite rank.

Richard de crespigny:
Everyone ready for takeoff?

The a380 is the latest
generation of innovation,

automation and excellence.

And it's the largest, most
complex aircraft in the sky.

Narrator: The main duty
on this flight

for first officer matt hicks

is to monitor the vast number
of electronic gauges

and computer displays needed to
fly this state-of-the-art plane.

Matt hicks: Everything's looking
good here, richard.

All of us had flown together
at some stage.

It just makes it easier, because
there's no first-day greetings,

or, you know,
personality uncertainties.

Everyone knew each other
pretty well.

Narrator: Mark johnson is
the second officer.

De crespigny: Mark, any worries?

Mark johnson:
All good back here.

Narrator: The three pilots will
take turns flying the plane

during the remaining
seven hours of the flight.

The gigantic a380 is
a true double-decker--

the first jet ever built
with two decks

running the entire length
of the plane.

It dwarfs every other airliner
in the sky,

with enough space for
as many as 525 passengers.

Marion carroll:
I hadn't realized the enormity

of how large a 380 was.

The cabin,
the inside of the a380,

just everything seemed bigger,
but more rows and upstairs.

Narrator: On today's flight

captain de crespigny's
performance is being evaluated.

It's a yearly requirement
for every qantas pilot.

The check captains
performing the task

are veterans harry wubben
and dave evans.

Dave evans: Some people
are affected by checks.

They get a bit nervous,

so we try to keep that
as easy as possible.

De crespigny:
Ok, so, everyone's happy?

Hicks: Richard, obviously,
just being checked,

he's a bit, you know,
tentative in taxiing out.

So when he asked if
everything's, everyone happy?

I said, yeah, I'm happy.

Just don't crash.

Controller: Qantas 3-2 cleared
for takeoff, runway 20 center.

Hicks: Qantas 32
cleared for takeoff.

De crespigny:
Ok, we're on the roll.

Hicks: Thrust set. 80 knots.

The more automated aircraft get,

it doesn't necessarily make them
easier to fly,

it just makes them
different to fly.

Narrator: The a380 is powered

by four massive
rolls-royce engines.

Each can deliver
72,000 pounds of thrust.

De crespigny: They design
wonderful engines,

very reliable.

Hicks: V-1. Rotate.

Narrator:
At 9:57 a.m. Local time,

qantas 32 lifts off
right on schedule.

Passengers get a unique view
of the takeoff,

thanks to a camera mounted
on the a380's tail.

Carroll: The atmosphere in
the cabin was perfectly casual.

We were chatting away
the whole time

since we, since we were seated.

Narrator: There are 250,000
sensors monitoring

every flight function
on the aircraft.

De crespigny: Autopilot.

Hicks: On.

Narrator: This is by far
the most automated passenger jet

in the skies.

De crespigny:
Climb out checklist, please.

Hicks: Auto thrust is set
and ecam is clear.

Narrator: The ecam,

or electronic centralized
aircraft monitor,

keeps watch over the myriad
of onboard systems

and alerts the crew to even
the slightest malfunction.

It's 10:01 a.m.

The pilots are just four minutes
into the flight.

Hicks: We're losing an engine.

De crespigny: Boom.

Boom.

It's like a backfire
in your car.

Carroll:
There was a loud explosion.

Huge explosion, and everybody
just said, what was that?

My reaction immediately,
I think, was,

oh, my goodness,
maybe this is it.

Hicks: The first thought
when it goes bang,

is engine failure,
possibly severe damage.

We've lost number two.

De crespigny:
Holding 7,500 feet.

Narrator: De crespigny
wastes no time

taking over control
from the autopilot.

35 years of flying tells him
what to do next.

De crespigny: I pressed
the altitude hold button,

which would cause the nose to
lower and the aircraft level.

Matt, ecam actions.

Hicks: On it.

Narrator: The captain assigns
hicks to decipher the ecam data.

He needs to evaluate
every message

and figure out how best
to react to each one.

Hicks: We had to work
our way through it

and build up a picture of what
was going on with the airplane.

Narrator:
While the captain summons

all his skills as a pilot,

hicks needs to quickly master
the plane's ecam computer.

He's facing a barrage
of error messages

from seemingly unrelated systems
throughout the plane.

Hicks: You can't really tell
how many messages

you've got pending.

You know there's more coming,

because the screen will give you
an arrow at the bottom

indicating that there is
another message.

Evans: It became very confusing
initially

as to why we were seeing
so many of them.

Narrator: Captain de crespigny
needs room to maneuver.

De crespigny: Pan, pan, pan.
Qantas 32. Engine failure.

Maintaining 7,400
and current heading.

Controller: Qantas 32, copied.

Please let us know
how to assist.

De crespigny:
I declared a pan call,

and what that does is tell
everyone who's listening,

we have a problem.

It tells air traffic control,

clear the airspace and to not
annoy us with transmissions.

Let us solve the problem.

Narrator: But the ecam warnings
just keep coming.

Hicks: Number two's overheating.

Narrator: Their damaged engine
is dangerously hot.

This state-of-the-art plane is
now in very real danger

of becoming a fireball.

Carroll: Well, we couldn't
actually see the engine itself,

because it was under the wing.

Oh, my god!

But we could see the stream
of the fuel coming out.

Narrator: The wings of an a380
are filled

with tons of highly flammable
jet fuel.

Carroll: We were all
just wondering

what was going to happen next.

Narrator: The crew wants to cut
the flow of fuel

before the damaged engine
catches fire.

Hicks: Number two master
switch to off?

De crespigny: Confirm.

Narrator: But it's too late.

An alarm warns the crew
the engine is on fire.

An in-flight fire is one of the
most dangerous and unpredictable

emergencies any crew can face.

It's nearly always disastrous.

July 11, 1991.

Smoke begins seeping into
the cabin of a dc-8

moments after takeoff from
jeddah, saudi arabia.

As the pilots try to land,

flames sweep through
the entire cabin

and consume the plane, killing
all 261 people on board.

On qantas 32, the crew's only
hope of putting out the fire

is to activate
the emergency extinguishers

inside the burning engine...

Hicks: Fire number two.
Push button?

De crespigny: Confirm.

Narrator: ...and keep their
fingers crossed that it works.

Hicks: The warning's off.
I think the fire's out.

De crespigny: Let's find a way
to confirm that, please.

It was stressful.
It was difficult.

Hicks: I mean, if you had a fire
burning out on the wing

for the duration of the flight,

you'd be landing
pretty quick smart

rather than taking your time
flying around,

trying to solve other problems.

Narrator: Marion carroll is
sitting over the left wing,

giving her a front-row seat
to the unfolding calamity.

Carroll: I could see the hole
that was in the wing

that had been made
by the explosion.

And it seemed, from what I could
see, quite a large hole,

like about a couple
of feet across,

and all the metal was jagged
and sticking up.

Narrator: 4,000 miles away,

the qantas operations center
in sydney

is getting data transmitted live
from the plane.

It's like nothing engineer
alan milne has ever seen before.

Alan milne: I'm getting some
odd messages off flight 3-2.

When we saw the messaging
coming in from the airplane,

it was so diverse,
so many systems,

we couldn't, we couldn't
just put a finger on it.

Narrator: Meanwhile,
on batam island, indonesia,

locals are finding evidence
of an air disaster.

The wreckage sparks
media speculation

that a qantas plane has
fallen from the sky.

At the australian
transport safety bureau,

kevin chapman gets word of
disturbing media reports.

If true, he knows
he'll soon be facing

the biggest investigation
of his career.

Kevin chapman: The australian
transport safety bureau

monitor the media,

and we were well aware
through the media coverage

that there was
some sort of event.

The initial event
described in the media

was an airplane had crashed
off indonesia.

Damn.

An a380's gone down
in indonesia--qantas.

So we were quite concerned
at that point.

Narrator:
Explosive engine failure

has led to fatal tragedy
in the past.

July 19, 1989.

A united airlines dc-10
bound for chicago

loses an engine mid-flight.

Shrapnel severs hydraulic lines,

making the plane nearly
impossible to control.

The crash landing
in sioux city, iowa,

kills 111 of the 296
people on board.

Back aboard the a380,

first officer matt hicks has
begun working his way through

a growing avalanche of
computerized warnings.

The crew must correctly react
to each and every message

before moving on to the next.

Hicks: Ok, i've cleared
slate one and two.

What have you got for me now?

Hydraulics.

De crespigny: It was like taking
plates off a serving machine

in a restaurant,
where you do one checklist,

and there's another one.

You do that, and there's
another one, and another one,

and another one,
and another one, another one.

Hicks: In a training environment

you probably only do two or
three consecutive failures.

And in this case,
I think we had 58,

so it was, yeah, a lot more than
i'd ever worked through before.

Narrator: It's been five minutes

since the plane's number two
engine exploded.

Qantas 32 is 43 miles
south of singapore

and heading out
over the open ocean.

The pilots want to turn back,
but making a u-turn is risky

without knowing how badly
damaged their plane is.

The list of failures
continues to grow,

taxing the pilots'
abilities to respond.

One wrong move on their part

could lead to one of
the deadliest air disasters

the world has ever seen.

Engineers at the operations
center are also trying

to make sense of
the cascade of errors.

Qantas 32 seems to be failing
in almost every conceivable way.

No one knows how long the plane
can stay in the air.

Milne: It's one system
after another.

My initial impression was that

it might have actually been
an indication problem--

that the airplane was sending us
false error messages.

What's going on up there?

Hicks: Degraded pneumatics,
hydraulics, electrics,

power to the left wing
shut down.

Flaps, slats and ailerons
are damaged but operable.

De crespigny: Dave, I need you
to get on the horn

to the passengers.

Let them know our situation.

Evans: Ladies and gentlemen,

we're just sorting out
some engine problems.

Carroll: He was very calm
and very reassuring,

and, I mean, it was his tone of
voice that was very reassuring.

Narrator: Captain de crespigny
knows he's running out of time.

The failures are mounting.

His plane may soon
be unflyable.

He needs to get the damaged
plane on the ground.

That means turning around and
heading back to singapore.

De crespigny:
Singapore, qantas 3-2.

We require a left turn
back towards singapore.

Controller:
Qantas 32, singapore.

Turn left heading 0-2-0.

Hicks: Are we stable enough
for this turn?

De crespigny:
We'll know pretty soon.

Narrator: De crespigny
takes it inch by inch...

...knowing that he could lose
control at any moment.

De crespigny: It takes time to
prepare the aircraft to land,

to understand the airplane
that we're going to land.

But as the time goes on,
things are getting worse.

So we don't want to stay
one minute more in the air

than we have to.

Narrator: Singapore is
the largest airport

within 200 miles.

Its massive runway offers
the best chance

of landing the plane safely.

De crespigny: Singapore runway
is four kilometers long,

and we would normally need 1,800
meters to land on the runway

if we're at maximum
landing weight.

But we are 40 tons over
our maximum landing weight.

Narrator: De crespigny completes
the turn back to singapore.

The maneuver gives
the crew confidence

that they have some control
over this juggernaut.

Making a left turn is one thing,

landing the crippled a380
will be quite another.

The pilots need to know more
about the damage

and its possible effects.

De crespigny:
Mark, why don't you go back

and take a look at that wing?

Johnson: On my way.

De crespigny: We couldn't see
the wings from the flight deck.

We can't see the engines.

So mark would be our eyes
and ears to the aircraft.

Carroll: After a couple
of minutes,

one of the pilots came out and
was looking down each window.

And I called to him and said,
well, if you come down to my row

you'll get a much better view
of the hole in the wing.

Narrator: The second officer
gets a sobering view.

Johnson can clearly see that
the wing has been punctured

straight through from below.

The cause of the damage
is obvious--

the inboard left side engine
is blown to pieces.

Carroll: Is it bad?

Johnson: No, we'll be fine.
No worries at all.

De crespigny:
What can you tell me, mark?

Johnson: Number two's
blown apart,

cut holes through the wing,
and we're leaking fuel.

Hicks: Good to know.

It was invaluable
to send someone back

to physically eyeball
the damage on the wing

and to have a pilot
come back to you

and say, hey, look,
this is the situation,

and especially
someone you trust,

that's as good as you
having a look yourself.

Narrator: The news helps explain
why so many systems are failing.

Vital flight controls
run through the wing.

Shrapnel from
the demolished engine

has likely destroyed
many of them.

Hicks: There's obviously a lot
of hydraulic components

that run through the wings,

so that would make sense

that we'd have damage
to the hydraulic system.

It sort of clarifies a lot
of the information

that you're seeing.

De crespigny: We had so many
checklists, 100 in the air,

that it took matt 55 minutes
to stabilize the aircraft

so that this aircraft situation
didn't get worse.

That is unprecedented
in aviation history.

Narrator: Knowing why
qantas flight 32 is failing

doesn't make it easier to fly.

The damaged electrical
and hydraulic systems

could cause
an unexpected failure

while the crew is
trying to land.

The pilots decide to circle
near the airport

until they can work out a plan.

De crespigny: Dave.

I need you to run the numbers
on this landing.

Narrator: Check captain
dave evans

is called into action.

De crespigny: Three engines,
full load, all that.

Narrator: He uses the a380
landing software

to calculate how much
runway they'll need

to bring the huge plane
to a stop.

Evans: The computer says
we can't make it.

Runway's too short.

With the nine failures
that i'd put into the system

and the surface conditions
in singapore,

at our maximum landing weight, I
couldn't come up with an answer.

Narrator: The a380 is
weighed down with fuel.

The plane has burnt almost none
of the 105 tons it took on

for the flight to sydney.

De crespigny:
Can we dump some fuel?

Hicks: That's a good idea,
but we can't.

The fuel transfer pumps
are down.

De crespigny: Damn it!

Can someone tell me
what
is
working?

Narrator: The heavy load
of flammable fuel

means any landing attempt
will be extremely dangerous.

Evans: We were some 40 tons

above our maximum
landing weight.

And the heavier you are,
the more runway

and the higher speeds will be
on your approach.

Narrator: Evans tries
his calculations again.

The computer has assumed
a worst-case scenario.

He now plugs in
some more optimistic numbers.

De crespigny: There is a belief
in part of the industry

that computers are infallible,

and you always believe
a computer.

Now, we've used our computers
at home to know that's not true.

Evans: Ok.

Looks like we can do it
with 139 meters to spare.

139 meters surplus on
a 4,000-meter runway

is a slim margin, but it's
better than a minus 139 meters.

De crespigny: What do we need
for our approach speed?

Evans: 146 knots.

Hicks: 146 knots?
That can't be right.

It's just too slow.

He gave us that speed to input

into our flight management
computer.

And before I input it,
I thought,

I just had to think about it,

and I thought that
just can't be right.

It's just too slow.

Narrator: Maintaining the right
speed on landing is critical.

Too slow, and the plane
will lose lift

and plummet to the ground.

Too fast, and they could run off
the end of the runway and crash.

De crespigny: Add 20 knots.
Can we still stop in time?

Evans: Good catch, matt.

Yep. 166 works.

De crespigny: I'd like to think
that we sucked the brains dry

of all the pilots in the cockpit
to make one massive brain,

and we used that intelligence
to resolve problems on the fly,

because these were,
these were unexpected events,

the unthinkable events.

Narrator: At the qantas
operations center,

milne sees that qantas 32
has begun its final descent.

Now all he can do is hope
the crew can safely execute

this treacherous landing.

Milne: They're doing it.
Qf 3-2's coming in.

Narrator: He alerts personnel
at the airport

to prepare for
the emergency landing

of the biggest airliner
on earth--

a landing that could
end in disaster

for 469 passengers and crew.

Milne: We know these guys
personally.

We know the cabin crew,
and you know, it's a worry.

De crespigny:
Singapore approach, qantas 32.

We're gonna need
a long approach.

And you better have
fire services standing by.

We're leaking fuel.

Controller: Roger, qantas 32.

You're cleared straight in
on final, 20 miles.

Narrator: The five seasoned
pilots now use everything

they've ever learned
about flying...

De crespigny: Flaps three.

Narrator: ...to try to land
their plane safely.

De crespigny: Here we go.

Narrator: De crespigny
still doesn't know

if his plane is capable of the
precision needed for a landing.

Hicks: 4,500 feet.

Narrator: He decides to find out

while there's still
room for error.

De crespigny: Ok.
I'd like to do a control check.

An aircraft where the
aerodynamic ability is unknown,

you have to prove the aircraft
to be safe to fly

before you land, and they are
called control checks.

Ok, let's see what you can do.

Narrator: Captain de crespigny
rolls the plane carefully left

to simulate lining up
with a runway.

De crespigny: We had degraded
roll control.

We had lost 65% of
our roll control.

So I knew that we had to certify
the airplane ourselves

to fly before we landed.

Ok.

Narrator: As he rolls the plane
to the right,

there's barely enough control
to achieve the maneuver.

He's quickly learning the limits
of his damaged plane.

De crespigny: If the few flight
controls that we have remaining

are working to their limit,

then clearly we have very
little margin for maneuvering

when we come in to land.

Hicks: When we did
those control checks,

I thought it was a bit sluggish
at the time,

and I think richard did as well.

Narrator: The crew knows
they'll only get one shot

at lining up with the middle
of the runway.

There can be no
last-minute adjustments.

Now the crew discovers

a potentially catastrophic
obstacle.

Hicks: Landing gear hydraulics
are still offline.

Narrator: The automated system
for lowering the landing gear

is damaged.

They can only release the gear,

and hope it falls hard enough
to lock itself into place.

Hicks: Landing gear down?

De crespigny: Confirmed.

Narrator: If the gear
doesn't lock,

the crew has no hope
of landing safely.

De crespigny:
For the landing gear,

we just needed enough wheels
to hold the aircraft

with enough brakes to stop us.

Narrator:
It takes a full two minutes

for gravity to pull
the landing gear into position.

Hicks: Full green.
Confirm gear down.

Evans: You can hear
the air noise change

as the wheels extend.

That's always a comforting sound
to hear them come out.

Carroll:
We're always told anyway

that the takeoff and the landing
are more critical.

So one was...

One was conscious
that we were moving

into a more dangerous time
coming in to land.

Narrator: Qantas flight 32
is now just two minutes

from touchdown.

Hicks: Better watch your speed,
richard.

De crespigny:
Ok, just a little bit slower.

Narrator: De crespigny
adjusts the throttle

so that he'll touch down at
the slowest speed possible,

making it easier to stop.

Computer: Airspeed low.

De crespigny:
Damn, not that slow.

Computer: Airspeed low.

Narrator: The airbus is getting
close to stalling.

The plane will lose lift
and drop like a stone

if the airspeed falls any lower.

Too fast,
and the plane won't stop

before reaching
the end of the runway.

It's a precarious balancing act.

Hicks: There it is.
Speed is stable.

De crespigny:
If we sped up three knots,
we would run off the runway.

If we slowed down one knot,
we'd get a speed warning.

Narrator: De crespigny's ability
to keep his plane

lined up with the runway
is severely limited.

Hicks: Singapore,
what's the surface wind?

Controller: 170 degrees
at five knots.

Narrator: If the crew
misses the runway,

there's no way
the crippled plane

can go around for another try.

De crespigny: Everybody ready?

Hicks: At the end of the day,

it just came down to, I think
we've covered everything.

Can anyone think of anything?

No? Ok, let's go and do it.

Confirm fire services
standing by.

Controller: Affirmative.

Computer: 100.

Hicks: You think
about your kids,

you think about your wife,

and that's just what you do,
and then it was game on again.

Computer: 50, 40, 30, 20.

Narrator: Just a few feet
from the ground,

flight 32's stall alarm again
warns of impending disaster.

De crespigny: So that threw
questions up in my mind--

what is our performance?

Is our performance correct?
It doesn't appear to be.

Carroll: We, as passengers,
were not aware

that so many things had gone
completely wrong.

Computer: Airspeed low.

Narrator: The plane is
gobbling up 250 feet of runway

every second.

De crespigny:
We had lost one reverser.

We had half the spoilers
on the wings not working.

We had the ailerons not making
a speed brake action.

Narrator: If they don't
slow down quickly,

they risk overshooting
the runway and hitting terrain

that could rupture the plane's
heavily laden fuel tanks.

Evans: We just weren't
slowing down.

Hicks: Get into it!

Evans: Matt yelled out...

Hicks: Get into it! Brakes.

De crespigny: "Brakes, brakes,
rich, put on the brakes.

Pump them, push them."

Hicks:
Brakes, full brakes, rich!

De crespigny: I am.

Hicks: I think I prompted him
to brake harder, and he said...

De crespigny: My feet are flat
to the floor!

Hicks: Keep it in, rich.
Hammer them!

Narrator: Finally, after
a grueling two-hour ordeal,

qantas 32 comes to a stop on the
same runway it took off from,

with less than
500 feet to spare.

Woman: Hallelujah.

Hicks: Beautiful.

De crespigny:
Welcome to singapore, guys.

I'm truly proud of everyone
in the aircraft that day--

the technical crew,
the pilots and the cabin crew,

and I'm really proud of
the decisions we made,

the way we worked as
a unified, cohesive team.

Carroll: I thought all,

as I'm sure all the other
passengers did, too,

that the crisis was over,

that we'd landed back safely.

It seemed like that was
the end of the problems.

Narrator: But with fuel leaking
beside red-hot brake discs,

the danger is far from over.

Evans: There was smoke
coming from

the left-hand undercarriage.

And there was fuel
pouring all around it.

De crespigny: The passengers
could see the fuel

coming out of the wing.

We had alarm bells
in the cockpit now.

The situation was almost as
bad as it was in-flight

after that engine exploded.

Narrator: A plane that made
a narrow escape in the air

is now in grave danger of going
up in flames on the ground.

Carroll: I kept looking
at my watch at that point.

It was quite tense,
for me, inside,

in that I couldn't see
why we couldn't get off.

De crespigny:
This is the captain.

I want the passengers
in their seats

until the fire crew
does its job.

Carroll: Why are they
taking so long?

Evans: So it was important
at that tense moment

to lay foam and reduce
the possibility of fire

as best we could.

Narrator: While the fire crew
lays down fire-retarding foam,

de crespigny faces
a difficult decision--

keep the passengers on board,
or evacuate the massive plane.

De crespigny: And the only
answer I can give to anyone

saying why did or didn't we
evacuate is,

with someone in your home,

are they safer in your home or
are they safer somewhere else?

Narrator: The argument
for getting them off?

British airtours flight 28
in 1985.

A 737 abandons takeoff

after an engine overheats
and bursts into flames.

The pilots brake and steer
onto a taxiway.

An evacuation gets under way
in seconds.

But the fuel-fed fire is filling
the cabin with smoke.

Firefighters respond quickly.

For many on board, though,
it's already too late.

They've been overcome
by toxic fumes.

Of the 137 people on the plane,
only 82 survive.

De crespigny knows that
the plane's 16 escape slides

can get all the passengers
off the plane in 90 seconds.

He also knows
there's a high price--

5% to 10% of his passengers will
likely suffer a serious injury.

Evans: And an evacuation, once
that starts, you can't stop it.

De crespigny: And we decided
to keep them on board,

because the environment outside
the aircraft was toxic.

Hicks: Turning engine
master switches to off.

Narrator: The crew begins
the routine

of shutting down their engines.

Fire chief: Qantas 32, please
shut down engine number one.

Narrator: A radio call
from the fire chief

alerts them to yet
another problem.

Hicks: Uh, we have.
We've shut them all down.

De crespigny:
Damn it, he's right.

Number one is still running.

Shut it down.

Hicks: Uh, it's not...

I can't shut it down.

Narrator: The damage
to the left wing

has cut through the controls

that should have shut down
the outboard engine.

De crespigny:
We now had an engine

that we could not shut down.

And the situation is now just
getting more toxic outside.

It's not meant to
happen this way.

This was like the simulator
exercise from hell.

Narrator: Firefighters can't
do their job

with one of the largest airplane
engines in the world

still running a few feet away.

They call qantas engineer
alan milne in sydney

for advice on getting it
shut down.

Milne: Well, blast it
with all the water you can.

They fired one of their
high-rate water cannons

straight down the front
of the engine.

Remembering, of course, these
engines are designed to fly

through some pretty
torrential rainstorms,

and no matter
how hard they tried,

they could not get that engine
to shut down.

Narrator: It takes a full hour,

but emergency crews finally
lay down enough foam

to eliminate the risk
of a fuel fire.

They move stairs into place,

which are safer than
escape slides.

This will no longer be
an emergency evacuation.

De crespigny:
Ladies and gentlemen,

thanks for your cooperation.

The aircraft is now secure
and we can let you off.

Carroll: Oh, thank god.

Narrator: It's finally safe
for the passengers

to get off the plane.

Carroll: When we finally,
finally walked off the plane,

there was a great
sense of relief.

And I noticed my legs
were shaking,

which I kind of thought,
oh, why are my legs shaking?

I guess maybe I must have been
a bit more nervous

than I was aware.

Narrator: All the passengers
make it off the plane safely.

But engine number one still
refuses to shut down.

Milne: Yeah.

Man: We're not having any luck
with the fire hose.

What else can we do?

Milne: Try firefighting foam,
see if that will shut it down.

Eventually,
we had really no option

other than to
switch to the foam,

the firefighting
extinguishing foam,

and fire that down
the front of the engine.

And that, that managed
to shut it down.

Narrator: Three hours after
their dramatic landing,

the pilots get the all-clear.

Man: Qantas 32,
I'm happy to confirm

that the engine is
finally shut down.

Hicks: Thank you, singapore.
See you on the runway.

Evans: Good job.
Harry wubben: Well done.

De crespigny: Well done, mark.

Narrator: Minutes later,

the flight crew gets
its first look at the damage.

De crespigny: I was shocked.

I had never seen such
extraordinary damage

to an airplane before.

Narrator: Later that day,

qantas ceo alan joyce makes
a stunning announcement.

Alan joyce: We will suspend
those a380 services

until we are completely
confident

that qantas safe requirements
have been met.

Milne: It was our ceo himself
that asked the question--

can you assure me that we won't
have this failure again

on one of our airplanes?

And we couldn't answer yes
to that.

Narrator: The future of
the entire qantas fleet of a380s

now depends on understanding
what went wrong

inside one single engine.

Simon grummett: There's really
only a very select number

of companies that produce
the large engines,

the large turbofan engines, and
rolls-royce is up at the top.

What a disaster.

I've never seen
anything like it.

Narrator: Simon grummett is
a materials engineer

with the australian
transport safety bureau.

Grummett: Everywhere you looked,

there was,
there was shrapnel debris,

and holes in this thing.

So it was quite significant.

And that was
the initial response.

And from that point onwards,
we knew that this was gonna be

a big investigation
particularly for the atsb.

Narrator: The severity
of the damage

adds pressure to find answers.

Grummett: An uncontained engine
failure is a pretty rare event,

even for an investigator to,

that's performing
this line of work,

to actually, this is a job, ok,
this is the one that counts.

Narrator: The debris that
fell to the ground

includes a broken
engine turbine disk.

It's made of nickel alloy

and is one of the most robust
parts of the airplane.

Grummett: Let's get this back
to rolls-royce,

see what their guys think.

Chapman: We knew that we had
a turbine disk failure.

The next stage was to find out

why the turbine disk
had actually failed.

Narrator: The 350-pound disk is
one of the most critical parts

of the engine.

Its massive fan blades can reach
the speed of sound

as they move air through
the engine for combustion.

In the lab at rolls-royce,

engineers compare the disk to
its manufacturing records,

and notice something odd.

The disk is larger
than it should be.

It tells investigators
that it was spinning

at an almost
unbelievable speed--

so fast that it actually began
to stretch and grow wider.

Grummett: And it gets wider
and wider and wider,

until the ultimate strength
of the material is reached,

and the disk will
generally fly apart.

It occurs with such violence

that the fragments are released
with an infinite energy.

And what that means is
that there will be nothing

which can stop
those engine pieces.

It ripped through
everything in its path--

wires, hydraulics, everything.

Narrator: Investigators trace
the path of the debris

through the plane.

Pieces from the engine have
clearly sliced through

the fuselage and the left wing.

Grummett: No wonder they had
so many failures.

Narrator: Severing fuel lines,
hydraulics and flight controls.

The damage explains
why the pilots received

so many error messages
after the engine exploded.

But it doesn't explain why
the disk was spinning so fast

in the first place.

Investigators take
the engine apart,

searching for anything
that could explain

the catastrophic failure
of the turbine disk.

Chapman: The disk had failed
from overspeed,

and there was no
contributing factors

in regards to the manufacture
or design of the disk itself.

At that point, the focus went
back onto the engine.

Narrator: They discover
something disturbing.

Grummett: Oil fire.

Chapman:
In a rolls-royce engine?

Narrator: The inside of
the engine is burnt black

and covered with soot and oil.

The evidence tells grummett that
the fire was fueled by oil.

The engine must have
suffered an oil leak.

Grummett examines
the engine further,

searching for the source
of that leak.

Grummett: Kev.

It's at that point that actually

the i.i.c. Walked into
the disassembly area.

And I called him over
and I said...

Kev, I think we've got it.

Chapman: At that point,
it was, it was, ah, wow.

This is a really important
moment of the investigation.

Narrator: A narrow pipe
has snapped off,

releasing oil into the area
around the turbine disk.

The broken part is called
a stub pipe.

Chapman: This nearly
brought down an a380.

Geez, man.

Narrator: Investigators believe

that oil from the broken
stub pipe ignited

and burned at more than
1,800 degrees fahrenheit.

Hicks: Fire in number two.
Push button?

Narrator: The fire damaged
the drive shaft,

allowing the turbine disk
to spin faster and faster,

until it broke apart and tore
through everything in its path.

There was nothing the crew
could have done to prevent it.

Chapman: Once a fire
is established

inside a gas turbine engine,

it's nearly impossible
to put out,

other than physically
shutting down the engine.

In this case the internal
oil fire happened so quickly

and accelerated, that the crew
had absolutely no opportunity

to shut down that engine
before the engine failure.

Narrator: Investigators now have
a prime suspect.

But what caused
a simple stub pipe

made by one of the world's most
esteemed engine manufacturers

to break and nearly destroy
a $400 million airplane?

Investigators send what's left
of the stub pipe

to its manufacturer,
rolls-royce--

where a disturbing discovery
is made.

One side of the pipe is much
thinner than the other.

That's what allowed it
to break apart,

spraying the engine with oil

and causing a near
catastrophic fire.

Grummett: It's no wonder
it cracked.

We're only talking, it was
0.35 millimeters in thickness.

It's a couple of
sheets of paper.

Narrator: Investigators study
the manufacturer's report.

They learn why one side
of the stub pipe

was so dangerously thin.

It was due to
a manufacturing error.

Chapman: The investigation was
actually quite surprised

that such a mature organization

such as the engine manufacturer
rolls-royce

could be in that situation.

Narrator: The atsb immediately
takes steps

to alert other airlines that
their a380s are at risk.

Just 29 days after the accident,
they issue a report

warning that a faulty stub pipe
caused a fire

that led to uncontained
engine failure on qantas 32.

They advise airlines to
inspect their fleets.

Grummett: The question that
was put forward was,

what are you going to do
about this?

Narrator: Atsb chief
martin dolan

soon has an answer
from rolls-royce.

Martin dolan: And if the problem
is detected

in any of the engines,

those engines will be
taken out of service.

Narrator: There are 20 a380s
with the same rolls-royce engine

in service around the world.

34 engines are found to have
suspect oil pipes.

Chapman: As a result of
this investigation,

all engines that had
non-conforming oil feed pipes

have been removed from service.

Rolls-royce have made
significant changes

to their quality
management system.

They introduced
a software program,

which basically removes fuel
from the engine

in a similar event.

Narrator: Investigators conclude
that flight 32 ended safely

because the well-trained crew
responded quickly

and effectively--

even when aviation's most
sophisticated technology

failed them.

De crespigny:
Matt, ecam actions.

He kept his calm.

He followed the procedures.

We worked the checklists.

What do we need for
our approach speed?

Evans: 146 knots.

Hicks: That can't be right.

It's just too slow.

De crespigny: Add 20 knots.

Evans: 166 works.

Grummett: Now, they would have
stalled at 146.

And then there's
this gutsy move.

De crespigny: Ok, i'd like to do
a control check.

Narrator: The captain's decision
to get a sense

of what his plane was capable of
at a safe altitude

gave the crew
valuable information

about how their aircraft
would perform on landing.

Grummett: What a crew.

Evans: A modern aircraft like
the a380 is full of automation.

But like any piece of
automation, it can fail.

So the human element
is always necessary.

Milne: You can see the whole
team working together

to deliver an outcome
under adversity

in a situation such as this,
and it's the right outcome.

De crespigny: It's not about me
as a pilot in command of qf 32.

It's about aviation that
for the last 110 years

has shared their knowledge
and experience

to make aviation safer
for the traveling public.

I think in every regard,

the qantas 32 story is one of
aviation's finest hours.