Original subtitles

NARRATOR: FedEx flight 705.

- Positive rate. - You're up late.

NARRATOR: A routine trip from Memphis, Tennessee

to San Jose, California.

Little did the crew know, they will soon

have to defend themselves against a determined attack

intended to kill them all.

Flight 705 will never reach its destination.

We've had an attempt to take over.

NARRATOR: Investigators will uncover a meticulous plan

and a desperate motive.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

CAPTAIN: We lost both engines.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Fasten your belts.

Emergency descent. CAPTAIN: Mayday.

Mayday.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Brace for impact!

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER: I think I lost them.

REPORTER: Investigation started tragically.

MAN: It's going to crash!

NARRATOR: April 7, 1994.

Worldwide headquarters of Federal Express

in Memphis, Tennessee.

Serving 171 countries, the company

delivers over two million packages per day

and works to a tight schedule.

Flying conditions are perfect at the Memphis airport.

FedEx flight 705 to San Jose, California

is preparing to depart with a three-man crew.

Has the afternoon flight to San Jose

got any jump seaters on it?

None at all?

NARRATOR: 42-year-old Auburn Calloway is a flight engineer.

He hopes to catch a ride on flight 705

for pressing personal reasons.

Thanks.

NARRATOR: Employees have the privilege of free rides.

They are known as jump seaters.

A 39-year-old flight engineer, Andy Peterson,

is the first of the flight crew to arrive on the plane.

Andy Peterson.

Auburn Calloway.

NARRATOR: He is surprised to find Auburn Calloway on board.

My first thought was, well, scheduling has gotten--

it's also called someone else out for the flight

and now we've got two engineers.

So I said, hey to him and then asked

him if he was going to be riding

out to San Jose with us.

And he said he was, that he was going

to ride the jump seat out.

NARRATOR: Peterson, a five-year flyer with FedEx,

finds something unusual during his pre-flight check.

The breaker switch of the cockpit voice recorder, or

CVR, is in the off position.

Puzzled, Peterson resets it.

The CVR records all in-flight voice communications.

It is a crucial tool for investigating air disasters.

No large commercial airliner is allowed to fly without one.

ANDY PETERSON: The cockpit voice circuit breaker--

it had popped out, which means the power is off

to the cockpit voice recorder.

So I never seen that before and I thought,

well, that's kind of weird.

NARRATOR: 49-year-old pilot David Sanders

and 42-year-old co-pilot James Tucker

are next to board and prepare for departure.

Auburn Calloway.

Mind if I hop around with you guys to California?

No, not at all.

I don't see any problems today.

Everything looks good.

You play the guitar?

I play at it.

He was very cool, calm, collected.

Nothing indicating anything was amiss.

Actually noticing there was a guitar case off to the right

in front of the nine 9-G net.

But I couldn't wait to get in the cockpit

and start going through cockpit checks

because we had a lot to do.

NARRATOR: But something was amiss.

They didn't know it, but Calloway

had originally been scheduled to be the flight

engineer on this flight.

However, he and his crew had exceeded

their flying hours by just one minute the previous day.

So they'd been replaced.

But Calloway was determined to make

flight 705, no matter what.

(SIGHS) Think she'll fly.

AUBURN CALLOWAY: All the nuts and bolts are in?

Yeah.

ANDY PETERSON: When I came back on the airplane

and went back up to the cockpit,

I noticed that that circuit breaker had popped out again.

So I reset it and decided that I would

see if it would stay in, instead of calling

maintenance at that time.

That I'd just wait and see if it popped back out,

that I would call maintenance because that is a no-go item.

NARRATOR: If the CVR is turned off,

there will be no audio record of the events

aboard flight 705.

You want to fly this leg of the trip

or do you prefer the return trip?

You never know when you're going to get another chance.

DAVE SANDERS: I met Jim Tucker that afternoon.

Jim had been with the company for 10 years.

In fact, he was an instructor in the DC 10.

Andy Peterson and I had had a trip together.

In fact, we flew to Paris one time.

NARRATOR: The crew is flying together for the first time.

Both Tucker and Sanders are ex-Navy.

Sanders has been with FedEx for 20 years.

James Tucker, who has a wife and three children at home,

has been with the company for 10 years.

None of the crew knows Calloway or his real reasons

for being on the flight.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER: Flight 705, heading runway 27.

Cleared for takeoff.

Express 705 cleared for takeoff.

Lights if you want them.

I mean, blocks if you want them.

Lights are coming on.

We'll get the vertical speed here in a minute.

How's the checklist look?

All right.

Before takeoff is complete.

Your airplane.

Set standard power please, before they change their mind.

JIM TUCKER: Power is set.

Eight knots.

Head checks?

V-1.

Rotate.

Positive rate.

Gear up, please.

NARRATOR: FedEx flight 705 is airborne and westward bound.

The weather to California is clear.

And if all goes as planned, they'll

be back home within 10 hours.

But back in the cargo area, Auburn Calloway is

launching a different plan--

a plan he's been shaping and reshaping for several days.

Like the brilliant chess player he is, Calloway

has thought out all his moves.

Being bounced from the crew of flight 705 today

was an unexpected glitch, but nothing he can't cope with.

At his home that morning, Calloway

had already made a small adjustment to his plans.

The flight bag he'd planned to take with him on his journey

is in for repairs.

So instead, he packs a guitar case.

As a company employee, he's unlikely to be searched

and a guitar case seems innocent enough.

Here you have a man who made some

accomplishments that no other African-American

had ever made.

NARRATOR: Calloway graduated from Stanford

University in 1974.

He became a top Navy flier, then a commercial pilot.

But his five years at FedEx have

been as a flight engineer.

JOHN FOWLKES: He was highly intelligent, a driven person

to accomplish goals, and had, before him,

an opportunity of a tremendously positive career.

He was married and had children and family

and it just seemed as though he was

almost part of the true American dream, just

about-- the American family.

NARRATOR: Before leaving for the airport,

Calloway put some important documents on his bed.

Among them, his last will and testament.

FedEx flight 705 is several minutes outside of Memphis,

still climbing and passing through 19,000 feet.

Jim Tucker is hand-flying the airplane,

using control wheel steering mode

and enjoying the clear afternoon skies.

A couple of feet away sits Auburn Calloway.

Behind him lie frustrated expectations

of a brilliant career and a marriage that ended badly.

DAVE SANDERS: 10 minutes?

JIM TUCKER: Nines and twos here.

After takeoff is complete.

NARRATOR: Calloway has a terrifying plan.

His guitar case is packed with several hammers

and a spear gun.

Out of the crew's sight, he prepares his weapons.

To be successful, Calloway will have to act quickly.

Speed and strength will be critical.

Calloway is a former Navy pilot and a martial arts expert,

so speed and strength come as part of the package.

The original plan was to take out his original crew

which, would have only been two individuals,

one was a female--

much smaller than the crew that he

wound up facing on flight 705.

No, I live in Fisherville.

Fisherville.

Great spot.

ANDY PETERSON: I had the cockpit door locked open

and I noticed that Calloway was walking up into the cockpit.

I just caught him out of the corner of my eye

and basically saw his arm coming up.

And I thought, well, he's just coming up to sit

and talk with us for a while.

Oh!

Oh.

JIM TUCKER: Excruciating pain.

Blinding pain.

So much, in fact, that I never lost consciousness,

but I lost useful consciousness for at least 45 seconds.

MORRIS RAY: A blow to the head will rattle the brain.

It will shake it enough that the electrical connections

momentarily are not working.

And it can be anywhere from a complete, irretrievable loss

of consciousness, to simply a stun

or to, what he describes as, a period of time where he was

somewhat aware of what was going on,

but could not respond to it.

I was slumped back like this.

And he looked-- I remember-- right in my eyes

as he passed over.

It was almost probably like, well, the lights are on,

but there's nobody home here.

This guy is out of action, so I'll

move on to the next person.

NARRATOR: The crew is in shock and confused.

What the hell are you doing?

DAVE SANDERS: What I saw was simply a face, and his eyes,

and an object coming down at me.

AUBURN CALLOWAY: Shut up.

Oh!

I didn't discern any emotion or hate or anger.

I just saw a threat and I didn't

really know what the threat was because it's so shocking.

And for a crew member, who is a pilot in uniform,

to attack another pilot is unheard of in the

airline industry.

NARRATOR: Although terribly injured,

Peterson and Tucker are still alive.

ANDY PETERSON: Oh.

JIM TUCKER: Get him.

Get him .

NARRATOR: Calloway hurriedly retreats out of the cockpit.

Unaware of each other's injuries,

the crew starts to mobilize. - Get up.

Get up.

NARRATOR: Calloway has a backup plan.

The spear gun stashed outside the cockpit

is a deadly weapon.

Sit down.

Sit down.

Get back to your seats.

This is a real gun and I'll kill you.

ANDY PETERSON: There was a loud ringing in my ear

and I was a little unbalanced.

But I saw the spear gun and I thought, well, the only thing

I can do is try to grab it.

So I grabbed the spear.

It sticks out of the spear gun about--

I don't know-- four inches or so,

so I grabbed it right behind the barbs

and tried to hang on to it real tight.

Oh!

NARRATOR: Tucker does something that Calloway

is not expecting.

He pulls back the yoke and puts the plane

into a sudden 15-degree climb.

It throws the struggling men out of the cockpit

into the galley behind.

I had already figured out that what I had in my hands

is probably one of the best weapons available,

and that was the aircraft itself.

NARRATOR: James Tucker has not been just a Navy pilot,

but a combat instructor flying A-4's.

His fighter pilot experience would prove invaluable

in the next few minutes.

And I was looking at this whole situation

as if it was an air combat maneuvering situation.

Get up!

We're taught in the Navy and the fighter community

as the first thing you want to do is engage the bogey,

engage the bad guy.

You make him predictable by engaging him,

and you use his predictability then against him,

and then you kill the bogey.

Get up, get up, get up!

NARRATOR: But the copilot doesn't stop there.

Tucker immediately rolls the massive aircraft to the left,

in an acrobatic maneuver to try and disarm Calloway.

The men roll along the smoke curtain

to the left side of the plane.

I knew that I had to do something very

abrupt, very, very rough and something that he

would not be expecting.

Get him!

NARRATOR: Tucker has no idea whether rolling the plane

is helping Sanders and Peterson as they

try to restrain Calloway.

The fight continues with the men pinned

to the left side of the plane.

The crew members are rapidly losing blood and strength.

Tucker continues to execute the roll,

while trying to maintain a visual reference

outside the captain's window.

Get him. Get him, Andy.

I got the airplane.

So you roll the airplane over on its back

and pull through completely in the vertical.

But at this particular point, if I had rolled the airplane

over in its back, I wouldn't really be

able to see what I was doing.

This is not a bubble canopy that you have over the top.

You're actually looking out.

It's got an expansive windows.

But nonetheless, you roll this airplane over on its back,

you can't really see that much of what you're doing.

So I roll it to about 140 degrees, where I can still

see out over the side, as the airplane's nose

was starting to come through.

NARRATOR: Tucker rolls the half million

pound DC-10 to 140 degrees almost on its back.

Commercial aircraft are never meant

to roll more than 60 degrees.

The men continue their fight on the ceiling of the aircraft.

Kill ya!

NARRATOR: Calloway wrenches the hammer in his hand free

and hits Sanders in the head.

Tucker decides to pull back on the yoke

and put the plane into a steep dive,

a risky but cunning move.

The G-Force of the dive pushes the men back along the ceiling

to the smoke curtain.

The plane is traveling at a very dangerous speed.

Tucker is making demands on the aircraft,

for which it was not designed.

DC-10's are never meant to be flown past 430 miles an hour.

Tucker is going over 500 miles an hour.

No DC-10 in history has been flown so fast and survived.

JIM TUCKER: The air speed indicator was maxed.

It was all the way to what we call the Barber pole.

It couldn't go any faster.

But you could tell it you were going quite a bit faster

because of the things you don't normally

hear in a jet that size.

And one is the incredible amounts of sound--

of wind-- coming across the cockpit.

ROBOT VOICE: Overspeed.

NARRATOR: As the plane approaches supersonic speed,

the airflow over the stabilizer becomes disrupted.

The elevators begin to flutter.

If the flutter becomes more pronounced,

they may become inoperable, and Tucker

will no longer have the means to pull

the plane out of the dive.

If I didn't pull out soon, the airplane was

probably going to come apart.

Because I was getting into a phenomenon known as mock tuck,

where the airplane is pitching over because the airspeed

is increasing so much.

The wind flow over the surfaces of the wings

is doing things that it's not even designed to do.

NARRATOR: The injury to the left side of Tucker's brain

is beginning to paralyze functions

on the right side of his body.

Tucker notices something alarming.

The plane is traveling at this incredible speed

because the throttle levers have

been left in their automatic climb setting from takeoff.

The DC-10 is now in a vertical dive with the engines

at nearly full power.

Tucker must release his only usable hand from the yoke

to pull back on the throttles.

With the power reduced to idle, the DC-10

is still not out of danger.

Despite Tucker's maneuvers, Calloway is

still gaining the upper hand.

Calloway hit me with the third blow,

which was in the top of my head,

nearly rendered me unconscious.

I began to gray out.

At that very same time, it occurred to me

we might lose this thing.

NARRATOR: As Tucker starts to pull

the plane carefully out of the dive,

the elevator flutter increases.

Balance panels, counterweights that

help the pilots manipulate the elevator,

break free and begin to wrinkle the skin of the stabilizer.

Tucker fears that if he pulls back too hard during the dive,

the surfaces on the tail section might come off.

Sanders' strength is nearly gone

and Peterson's head is bleeding profusely from

his ruptured temporal artery.

Somehow, they managed to pin their attacker down.

Sanders believes this is a turning point.

-

The plane is safe for the moment.

About a minute after the attack begins,

Tucker finally has a chance to radio Memphis.

Centers.

Center emergency.

NARRATOR: Air traffic controller Kent

Fleishman and his trainee received

Tucker's emergency request.

Aircraft emergency, say again.

JIM TUCKER: Center.

Aircraft emergency, say again.

JIM TUCKER: Listen to me.

Express 705.

I've been wounded.

We've had an attempt to take over and aboard the airplane.

Give me a vector, please, back in Memphis at this time.

Hurry.

Express 705, fly heading zero niner five, direct Memphis.

JIM TUCKER: Zero nine five, direct to Memphis.

Get me an ambulance and alert the airport facility.

Hey, Memphis, are you are still with me?

Affirmative, 705.

Descend and maintain one zero thousand.

NARRATOR: Fleishman takes action in case

the hijacker has a gun.

If he can get the plane below 10,000 feet,

a bullet hole in the fuselage will not

cause explosive decompression.

Tucker hears the fight increase in the galley.

Again, he uses his only weapon--

the aircraft.

The maneuver throws the men onto the side of the plane.

Let go of the spear.

Look, just keep talking to me.

OK?

Express 705, affirmative.

If you need an ambulance, stand by and we'll get that for you.

JIM TUCKER: Yeah, we need an ambulance

and we need armed intervention as well.

Make sure to notify the SWAT team.

He's asking for armed intervention.

NARRATOR: Fleishman recognizes the term

"armed intervention" as the most

serious request from a pilot.

It means they want armed officials to storm

the plane upon landing.

Memphis approach has to be alerted.

We have an emergency.

Express 705.

He's had an attempted takeover on the aircraft.

He's had an attempted takeover?

OK.

Pete, our contact-- put them on 119.1.

NARRATOR: Paul Candalino, a 44-year-old veteran air

controller, spots flight 705 on his radar screen.

But something is wrong.

The plane is heading away from the airport.

It looks like the hijacker has seized the plane.

Air traffic control watches helplessly

as they fly away from the airport,

while the fight for control of the plane continues.

Co-pilot James Tucker is pushing the DC-10, his best

weapon, to its limits.

He throws the wheel round, flipping the massive plane

in the opposite direction.

Tucker, drawing on his military experience,

reverses the roll, keeping his maneuvers unpredictable.

JIM TUCKER: Here I am, all alone in the cockpit,

the fight is still going on in the back.

I don't know who's winning.

I don't know who's losing.

And that was about the only time

I really had time to be frightened.

And it was a very horrifying situation at that point,

thinking that, quite possibly, Auburn was winning.

Let go.

NARRATOR: Three and a half minutes after the attack,

Auburn Calloway is pinned and injured,

but still won't relinquish the spear.

You son of a-- fight me.

DAVE SANDERS: Anger was coming in then and so when I hit him,

it was with the intent to disable him and eliminate

his ability to fight.

Not kill, but to injure him sufficiently

that he could fight no more.

So when I swung the hammer, it was with all the strength

that I had.

NARRATOR: Sanders and Peterson momentarily subdue Calloway.

DAVE SANDERS: Put it on auto-pilot and get back here.

NARRATOR: The captain is yelling

at Tucker to come and help, but he's the one flying the plane.

Express 705, I've contact Memphis approach on 119.1.

They are aware of your emergency.

DAVE SANDERS: Jim.

Quick, Jim.

Request a single frequency approach.

A single frequency approach. Roger.

We'll pass it along.

119.1.

Put it on autopilot.

Come on, Jim.

ANDY PETERSON: Get back here.

What you have to understand is that's probably

the strangest request that I've ever had come my way,

because here I am, the only one up front in the cockpit now,

and for me to go ahead and get up and go to the back

means I've got to--

first of all-- stand up, which I

didn't know until the particular time

and I tried to stand up.

It was very, very difficult to do so.

NARRATOR: Jim Tucker, with a fractured skull and only one

side of his body functioning, puts the plane on autopilot

and struggles out of his seat to help.

Hey, wait a minute.

I'm coming.

ROBOT VOICE: Autopilot.

NARRATOR: But the plane's gyros have

not stabilized sufficiently for the autopilot to take over.

OK.

NARRATOR: Now no one's flying the plane.

705 heavy.

How do you hear?

NARRATOR: Paul Candalino tries to establish

radio contact with flight 705, but there is no response.

Their radar screens show the aircraft turned to the north,

then the west, finally southwest,

heading away from the airport.

There is only an eerie silence.

Anything could be happening on board the plane.

JIM TUCKER: So I stepped into forward cargo area.

I was absolutely amazed at what I was seeing.

All three of the individuals are

completely covered with blood.

Auburn Calloway on his back.

There are papers everywhere in the back.

You can see where the jump seats, which is just

a normal commercial airline seat,

has had two covers torn off.

There's bloody footprints on the top of the ceiling.

There are coats that have come out of closets.

It's total carnage in the back.

NARRATOR: Sanders has disarmed Calloway

and handed the spear to Tucker.

You move, I'll kill you.

You keep him contained.

I'm going to get the airplane.

Go get the airplane.

NARRATOR: They decide that Sanders, the captain,

should fly the plane back to Memphis.

You take this.

NARRATOR: Tucker wants the weapons as far away

from Calloway as possible, and asks Sanders to take

them with him to the cockpit.

DAVE SANDERS: In an emergency situation

it's expected that the captain of the airplane

will fly the airplane.

I was in somewhat of a daze because of the fight.

I wasn't sure of the direction of the airplane.

I wasn't sure of the condition of the airplane.

But it appeared to be flying OK.

I was bleeding excessively from the top of my head.

I couldn't see out of my left eye.

I thought the fight was over.

I mean, I had hit Calloway four times

in the head with a 20-ounce framing

hammer as hard as I could swing it.

He had stopped fighting and he was bleeding

and he looked like he was severely injured.

NARRATOR: Tucker can't tell anymore whether his hand

is gripping the spear.

The blows to his head have caused

a blood clot on his brain and damaged his sense of touch.

Let me up. Let me up.

I won't fight anymore.

Please.

I can't breathe!

NARRATOR: Even with several open gashes in his skull,

Auburn Calloway cannot be trusted.

Both pilots know their strength is quickly running out.

I can't breathe!

NARRATOR: Sanders, safely back in the driver's seat,

must get the plane on the ground and fast.

Memphis, can you hear me?

Is this express 705 heavy?

705 heavy, yes.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER: Express 705 heavy.

Memphis, Roger. I do hear you you.

You can proceed direct to Memphis if able.

Expect runway niner.

The altimeter is 30.29.

Do you understand we're declaring an emergency?

We need security to meet the airplane.

We'll stop on the runway if we can.

NARRATOR: Captain Sanders, without his glasses

and with blood dripping into his eyes,

thinks that the plane is on a course back to the airport.

But it is still heading southwest, away from Memphis

at over 350 miles an hour.

Roger.

Express 705 heavy, is a situation under control

or is it still in progress?

We appear to have it under control.

NARRATOR: Candalino wants to warn the pilot,

but he's afraid the crew may still

be under attack and trying to mislead

the hijackers by flying in the wrong direction.

Express 705 heavy, are you able to turn

toward the airport?

Yeah.

Give me a vector.

100, vector Memphis.

Sanders takes the plane off autopilot

and sets a course back to the airport.

We're turning to the airport now.

NARRATOR: For now, the situation aboard the DC-10

seems under control, but a potential disaster

is only moments away.

At the Memphis airport, emergency personnel

begin to move into position.

We need security to meet the airplane.

We'll stop on the runway if we can.

NARRATOR: The FedEx cargo plane is heading for the safety

of Memphis Airport.

But that, in itself, presents another scary possibility.

The aircraft is more than 18 tons over the recommended

landing weight, with more than 85,000 pounds of fuel

still in its tanks.

In most emergency landing situations,

there's time to dump any excess fuel.

But Sanders knows the switches and levers are

too far away to access safely.

KENNETH ENSSLIN: You'd have to get up and go back

to the engineers panel, where the fuel dumping switches

are, and set up the engineers fuel panel to dump fuel.

So it's virtually impossible for-- say--

the captain to dump fuel while he's attempting

to fly the airplane.

NARRATOR: In the galley, Auburn Calloway still

hasn't given up the fight.

Calloway drags himself towards the jump seats,

with Peterson and Tucker on top of him.

He hopes to gain enough leverage

to get back on his feet, where he'll have an advantage.

JIM TUCKER: He was using his thumbs to go ahead and try

and push my eyes out, doing everything

he possibly could to break Andy and I down as a team.

We could handle him together, but we certainly couldn't

handle him one-on-one.

So certainly, a fight against the clock.

Auburn's getting stronger.

I know we're getting weaker.

I knew if he ever got back in the cockpit, we were history.

I just knew we had to keep him-- somehow,

we had to keep him from getting back in that cockpit.

DAVE SANDERS: Approaching 7,000 feet, the fight in the back

started again.

And it was as violent and as loud

as when I was in the back in the midst of the fight.

It became so violent and loud, that approaching 7,000 feet,

I decided that I was going to level the airplane,

turn on the autopilot, go to the back of the airplane

and kill Calloway.

It was so severe, I thought that had to be done.

NARRATOR: The DC-10 is only 14 miles from Memphis Airport.

Is he under control?

ANDY PETERSON: No, no.

NARRATOR: The sound of a struggle worries Sanders.

He decides this has to end.

DAVE SANDERS: I release the seat belt,

climb out of my seat, headed to the back of the airplane.

And Jim Tucker said to me, David,

I think we have him under control now.

I said, are you sure?

JIM TUCKER: Yeah, he is.

DAVE SANDERS: He said, I think we have him under control.

I went back to the seat, climbed into the left seat

of the airplane, continued the descent

on down toward the airport.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER: Express 705 heavy,

can you verify the situation is still under control?

Yeah, we're sort of under control.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OFFICER: The wind is 030 with five.

Clear to land runway nine.

Clear to land?

NARRATOR: Now Sanders faces yet another possible disaster.

The delay caused by getting out of his seat

means he's way over the normal approach speed--

too high and too fast.

He will not be able to slow the overweight plane quickly

enough to land on runway nine.

Coming around to 36 left.

NARRATOR: At 9,300 feet, runway 36 left is longer,

but it's perpendicular to his flight path.

To land there, he needs to make a series of turns--

reasonable maneuvers for a fighter jet or a crop

duster, but for an overloaded DC-10 with an injured pilot,

nearly impossible.

First, he must turn 90 degrees to the right,

fly parallel to the runway, and then execute

a tight, 180 degree turn.

OK, express 705 heavy.

Runway three six left cleared to land.

Cleared visual approach, three six left.

Wind is--

NARRATOR: Sanders must ignore the computer warnings

and push the plane beyond normal operating limits.

The plane is nearly on its side.

DAVID TEAGUE: All of a sudden, he just turned it up

on his wingtip, looked like a fighter jet,

and put it in a real tight turn and then disappeared

down behind the terminal.

When he got down low enough, we couldn't see.

And at first, I thought he might have crashed,

because there was some construction going

on the airport at that time.

And there was some smoke coming up south of the terminal,

kind of where we were going.

NARRATOR: A hammer is lying in the galley.

It's out there. The hammer!

NARRATOR: The men struggle to reach it.

This could be Calloway's last chance to gain control.

Sanders has turned 90 degrees to the south,

flying the downwind leg parallel

to runway three six left.

DAVE SANDERS: The airplane was probably at about 300 feet

above the ground at that time.

The throttles are at idle.

They've been at idle since I left 7,000 feet.

That's an extremely unusual engine power setting

to land a big airplane.

You always land, make the approach with power

on-- a lot of power on.

In this case, it was an idle because I wanted the airplane

to slow down so that we would not exceed

the limits of the landing gear and the flaps,

so that we would touch down at or below 195 knots.

NARRATOR: With flaps extended and landing gear down,

Sanders is still coming in too fast,

and he is being bombarded by computerized warning alarms.

The runway is 9,300 feet long.

A normal DC-10 needs only 6,100 feet to stop,

but flight 705 is too heavy.

Even this runway may not be long enough.

ROBOT VOICE: Pull up.

Pull up.

NARRATOR: Peterson manages, for the first time in the fight,

to get hold of a hammer, but is extremely

weak, due to blood loss.

You got to hit him, Andy.

You got to hit him.

I was almost like pleading with him.

And I told him, I said, Andy, you know, you got to hit him.

You know, he's about ready to take us down.

And I guess I gave him kind of a blank stare,

what are you talking about?

And he looked at me real stern like a father

would look at his son, saying, you've got to do this.

And he said, hit him.

- Hit him.

You got to hit him.

NARRATOR: The DC-10 is only feet above the runway,

traveling at 200 miles an hour.

Sanders can only hope he won't explode the tires

or crash beyond the runway.

Luckily, all 10 tires withstand the landing impact.

Captain David Sanders has landed the plane with only

1,000 feet of runway to spare.

The crew of flight 705 is safely on the ground,

but not out of danger.

Blow the door.

DAVID TEAGUE: The chute is covered with kind of a talcum

powder so it won't stick when it needs to be deployed,

but it made it slick trying to go up.

DAVE SANDERS: The police and firemen

tried to climb up the slide.

One fireman made it almost all the way to the top

and I leaned out the door of the airplane

and pulled him on board.

Who's the bad guy?

That's the attacker.

DAVID TEAGUE: There was blood all over the floor,

all over the ceiling.

The seats in the little area were just covered with blood.

You got any handcuffs?

If not, you better get some, because that son of a bitch

is still dangerous.

I need handcuffs.

Can you throw me some handcuffs?

NARRATOR: Paramedic David Teague

is thrown a pair of handcuffs.

Stand here in the middle of the chain.

Ouch!

Get your foot off!

You're hurting me!

Ow!

NARRATOR: Sanders holds Calloway down

as Teague examines Peterson, who barely has a pulse

and is the first crew member to leave the plane.

Sanders is the last member of the crew on board.

Standing in the door of the airplane,

I had a sense of euphoria I've never experienced before,

or since.

It was the sense of, we had been there, and we came back

and we won.

NARRATOR: The crew has weathered

the attack of a co-worker but they're badly injured.

Co-pilot Jim Tucker has bone chips driven into his brain.

Flight engineer Andy Peterson's life is in danger

from massive blood loss.

Both are in critical condition.

The wounded men are rushed to the Regional Medical Center

at Memphis.

Restrained and under guard, Calloway is also

taken to the same emergency facility,

but the important question still remains.

Why did Auburn Calloway attack the crew of flight 705?

The full story is beginning to unfold.

Divorced in 1990, Auburn Calloway still

tries to support his ex-wife and their two children

and wants to secure their financial future.

He was very interested in the welfare of his children,

very interested that they not live the kind

of childhood he had lived.

NARRATOR: The evidence for a suicidal mission against FedEx

grows, as investigators search the aircraft

and find a letter to Calloway's estranged wife.

AUBURN CALLOWAY: Dear Pat.

I want you and the kids to know that I lived for you.

I thought of your welfare every day.

Though for example, how can I guarantee

having enough money for Keel and Bernie's

Stanford education?

JOHN HUSTON: He was obsessed with his financial well-being.

He was interested in his children.

I tend to believe he's interested in his marriage.

And I know his marriage was coming

apart-- had come apart, basically,

at the time of this incident.

But I suspect he was also a difficult man

to be married to.

NARRATOR: By April 7, 1994 Calloway may be

thinking his career is over.

Life had been one disappointment after another--

the failed marriage, the kids he can't afford

to send to college, the brilliant pilot who

ends up as an engineer on a cargo plane.

And now, even that may be about to go.

The following day, he is supposed

to report to a FedEx hearing about falsified information

he'd given the company.

During our investigation, it appeared

that he had overestimated the number of hours of flight

experience that he had, and that the company

was taking a look at this.

NARRATOR: Calloway may be afraid he'll be fired.

At just 42, his professional life could be finished.

He comes up with a solution.

JOHN HUSTON: The goal is to leave my children well off.

The goal is to escape--

I guess-- the pain of this life.

NARRATOR: Calloway cashes in all the funds

he can lay his hands on and sends a total of $54,000

to his ex-wife.

But his life insurance is worth about $2.5 million

if he dies in a work-related accident.

AUBURN CALLOWAY: I would much rather

go on a date, time, place, and a method of my own choosing.

I resolved, sometime ago, that the next time my security

and future is threatened or seriously jeopardized,

it's time--

my time to go.

NARRATOR: Perhaps he believes his family

would receive the maximum insurance

payout if he crashed the plane in an apparent accident.

If this was Calloway's idea, he planned it well.

He was armed with unusual weapons for a hijacking--

hammers and a spear gun.

After injuring the crew, he could

take control of the plane.

A bomb or gun could leave traces

at the scene of a crash.

But if investigators found a spear gun or hammers,

it would be very difficult to tie

them to an attack on the crew.

JOE RINEHART: I believe it would have been

impossible to tell the difference in the type

of injuries that a hammer would have made,

with the type of injuries that you might

sustain in a large crash.

Auburn had spent the week leading up

to this incident preparing to die, and basically

get his affairs in order.

NARRATOR: Calloway even goes to a lawyer

to change his will before boarding the FedEx flight.

JOE RINEHART: He left his will and testament on his bed

so that it would be easily found.

NARRATOR: For any crash to look like an accident,

there is a key obstacle--

the plane's cockpit voice recorder.

Switching off the CVR's power would disable any recording.

I think she'll fly.

Is all the nuts and bolts in there?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: If Peterson, in his pre-flight inspection,

discovers the thrown switch, it would be a setback.

But Calloway would know that he simply has to fly

the airplane for half an hour.

That's the length of the tape's recording time.

After 30 minutes, any incriminating recording

would be gone forever.

JIM TUCKER: Now I think he was going to do something

very, very horrible with it-- something along the lines

of what we've seen on 9/11.

NARRATOR: Had Calloway been able to seize control

of the plane, he could have crashed the DC-10 with over

85,000 pounds of fuel aboard into any site,

including the FedEx headquarters-- the hub--

crippling his employer and killing a large number

of workers on the ground.

Well after 9/11, there were a lot of improvements

to our security program, both in the United States

and worldwide.

Cockpit crew members are the most

highly checked and monitored group of people in the world.

I only know of this one incident,

in my 46 years of aviation experience,

where a crew member was involved

in something like this.

NARRATOR: Although Auburn Calloway pleaded

temporary insanity at his trial,

the jury didn't believe him and found him guilty.

On August 11, 1995, he was sentenced to life imprisonment

in a federal penitentiary.

He has no chance of parole.

Pilots on flight 705, they are the real heroes.

It is amazing that they were able to do what they did,

given the injuries that were inflicted upon them.

It took two and half years to recover completely

because I had to learn how to walk, talk,

and chew gum all over again.

I had three major operations.

I operated on him twice more after his initial injury,

and then followed him through his rehabilitation.

NARRATOR: On May 26, 1994, the crew of FedEx flight 705

was awarded the Airline Pilot's Association gold medal

award for heroism, the highest award

a civilian pilot can receive.

However, because of the legacy of their injuries,

none of the crew has been certified as medically fit

to fly commercially.

JIM TUCKER: I always thought, I'm going to fight.

I'm going to I'm going to overcome this thing.

Except that that's when they found out that I

had a slight seizure disorder.

I'm seizure-free, but it's because I

have to take medication.

And the only way for me to be able to fly

without somebody with me is to be off of medication.

At this particular point, it's been ascertained that I'll

never be able to do that.

I'll be on medication for the rest of my life.

I miss the flying.

Every time I see an airplane go over,

I wonder where it's going.

So I'll miss that part of it.

But I really cherish the fact that I'm still alive

and able to be with my family.

The bond of pilots and what you

do together in the airplane, and outside the airplane--

I miss that.

I miss it very much.