All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S06E09.Kid.In.The.Cockpit.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Pilot: Hold the control column!
Just hold it!

Man: Guys!

Narrator: A Russian flight
to Hong Kong

is in serious trouble.

Pilot: The other way!

Co-pilot: The other way!

Pilot: To the left!

Now to the right!!

Narrator: Gravity has become
a deadly force...

As the crew fights
to keep the plane

from falling 33,000 feet
to earth.

Pilot: Get out!
Co-pilot: Back!

Narrator:
The cause of all the chaos:

A 15-year-old
is at the controls.

Co-pilot: The ground
is right 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: March 22, 1994.

Moscow.

15-year-old Eldar Kudrinsky is
going abroad for the first time.

He needs every gadget he has.

Yaroslav Kudrinsky: Eldar!
Uncle Volodya is waiting!

Eldar Kudrinsky:
I'm ready, I'm ready!

Yaroslav: Come on.

Narrator: But this is
no ordinary kid.

Eldar's father is
captain Yaroslav Kudrinsky,

an international airline pilot.

In Russia, that means membership
in a privileged group

and access to luxuries
most citizens can only dream of.

Vladimir Makarov:
Ah, captain is here.

Now we can take off.

Eldar: Hello, uncle Volodya.

Makarov: Hello!

Narrator: Aeroflot
allows pilots' families

to travel once a year
at a discount.

So captain Kudrinsky
is taking his children

on a four-day trip to Hong Kong.

Yana Kudrinsky:
Mom, it won't all fit!

Kudrinsky: Anybody would think
we're going for a year!

Victoria Kudrinsky:
Where's your daughter?

Makarov: Listening to the music
in the car.

By the time they're our age,
these kids are going to be deaf.

Eldar: What?

Makarov: Deaf.

Eldar: Pardon?

Narrator:
Captain Vladimir Makarov--

Volodya to his friends--
is an Aeroflot pilot, too.

He's also going to Hong Kong
on vacation

and will be keeping an eye
on the kids during the flight.

Mrs. Kudrinsky is only going
as far as the airport

to see them off.

Victoria: Eldar, Yana,
promise you'll call

as soon as you get there.

Volodya, you will
make them call me?

Makarov: Um...yeah.

Yana: We'll call
as soon as we can, ok?

Kudrinsky: Come on,
come on, come on!

Victoria, translated:
Yaroslav and I loved to travel,

and so did the kids.

They loved seeing new places,
learning new things.

There was a chance for them to
come along with their father,

and they jumped at it.

Narrator: Eldar and Yana aren't
the only ones boarding 593.

Most of the 63 passengers
are businessmen

from Taiwan and Hong Kong,

looking for opportunities
in the new Russia.

Others, like Adrian Deaville,
have come from London,

flying Aeroflot
because it offers

a cheap connection to Asia.

He's the manager
of a camera shop

in northern England

and has a passion for aircraft.

He's going on
a two-week vacation to Hong Kong

to photograph the new airport
they've just built.

Joyce Deaville: He'd go
as far as he could

if he thought there was a good
airport somewhere in the world.

He'd try his best
to get to that airport,

just to go and make
some nice photographs.

Barrie Deaville: And the trip
to Hong Kong grew from that,

because he wanted to see
this brand-new airport,

which was a feat of engineering
at the time.

Narrator: Mark Newport is
a British sports promoter

who lives in Hong Kong.

Brenda Clark:
Mark was in the army,

he was in the forces.

And he went to Hong Kong,

and he just loved it.

And got married out there.

He had chosen Aeroflot--

I'd never heard of it
until then--

because that was just
a cheap flight home.

Narrator: In 1994 Russia
is in a state of great change.

Three years earlier,

the old soviet union
finally collapsed.

A new Russia is bursting out

from behind
the torn iron curtain.

Its people want the freedom
of the west, the lifestyle,

the international travel.

Russia's state-owned airline,
Aeroflot,

is getting a makeover, too.

They struggle to buy
five new aircraft

from the french company
Airbus Industrie--

the $70 million state-of-the-art
airbus A310-300.

Though it seats
fewer than 200 passengers,

it can fly three times farther

than any of Russia's
biggest passenger aircraft.

The A 310 is
a fully automated airplane,

equipped with sophisticated
fail-safe systems.

Aeroflot hopes
it will help improve

the company's checkered
safety record.

Greg Feith: Any time there is
a national carrier

supported by their
particular government,

if that government
is in turmoil,

whether it's financially
or political turmoil,

it affects everything
that's associated

with that core government.

Aeroflot is a national carrier,

and so there is always
the perception

that they may not have had
the monetary resources

and the wherewithal to be
a very structured carrier

with a lot of oversight

to ensure a high level of safety
at that time.

Narrator: Aeroflot has created
a new, prestigious division

around the airbus fleet:
Russian international airlines.

Pilots wear special uniforms,
they fly state-of-the-art planes

and travel the world's
top destinations.

Ria represents a new, modern
Russia to the world.

Boris Rybak: After collapse
of the soviet union,

Aeroflot, still controlled
by government,

was forced to look for profits

and develop a network which
would be commercially justified.

Narrator:
For Russia's premier airline,

Aeroflot handpicks an elite
corps of first class pilots.

Each of them has thousands
of hours of flying time,

impeccable safety records
and fluent English.

They're given special training

by the manufacturers
of the aircraft,

Airbus Industrie.

Victor Sazhenin, translated:
The airline had around 3,000

pilots at that time.

Only 16 men were to be sent
to be trained first.

Only the best of the best
made it.

Valery Dudkin, translated:
Kudrinsky and I started working

here at Sheremetyevo
at the same time,

and naturally, we first got
acquainted simply as neighbors.

Then we found out
we were both pilots.

Later we both trained
for the A 310.

We studied together.

Victoria: I remember how hard
it was for them to master it,

because the technology
was quite different,

so they were working very hard.

But they all got through it
and started to fly.

Narrator: Yana and Eldar are
finally on board the new plane

they've heard so much about
from their father.

Kudrinsky: Hey.

Now, you two behave,

or uncle Volodya will push
the eject button.

Eldar: Voom!
Makarov: Yeah!

Narrator: Kudrinsky has
900 hours of flying the A 310

under his belt.

Kudrinsky: I must go now, ok?

Victoria: It was
their first trip abroad,

but naturally, they had
come along with him

on other trips within Russia.

They were quite well-traveled
for their ages.

Narrator: First captain Danilov
will command the flight

through the busy
flight corridors out of Moscow.

Relief captain Kudrinsky
will then take over.

When he does,

first officer Piskarev
becomes his co-pilot.

All three
are first class pilots.

On this new A 310,

the flight deck
is fully computerized.

Like other
state-of-the-art aircraft,

it's equipped with
a sophisticated autopilot

that can fly the plane for
long stretches of the flight.

International routes,
like this one to Hong Kong,

are Aeroflot's lifeline.

They bring in
precious hard currency

at a time when
the domestic market

is struggling to turn a profit.

Flight 593 takes off
at 4:39 p.m. Local time.

Then it will join
the Trans-Siberian Airway

flying east towards Mongolia
and China.

It's a smooth flight.

Only four hours
into the ten-hour trip,

they've just passed over
Novosibirsk in Siberia,

almost halfway.

But Eldar and Yana
are too excited to sleep.

Having negotiated
the busy airways out of Moscow,

first captain Danilov
takes a rest break.

He hands over control
to relief captain Kudrinsky,

who now becomes acting captain
for the next leg of the journey.

Igor Piskarev: You have control.

Kudrinsky: I have control.

Makarov: Still awake?

Eldar: Yes. Why?

Makarov: Shall we surprise
your father?

Eldar: In the cockpit?

Makarov: Mm-hmm.

Eldar: Oh, yeah!

Makarov: Would you like that?

Ok, let's go.

Narrator: Aeroflot's most
technically advanced aircraft

is now cruising on autopilot
at 33,000 feet.

It's a calm, windless night.

Captain Kudrinsky's children

are about to pay him
a surprise visit in the cockpit.

Makarov: Captain, you have
some very important visitors.

Shall I bring them in?

Kudrinsky: Ok.

Come on in!

Eldar: Wow!
Yana: Hi, dad.

Kudrinsky: This is first officer
Igor Vladimirovich Piskarev.

Piskarev: Hello.
Eldar: Hi.

Piskarev: So what do you think
of our new airplane?

Yana: It's very nice.

Eldar: It's amazing!

Kudrinsky: It's quite different
from our old Russian planes.

Yana: Daddy, what's that?

Kudrinsky: Oh,
this is the flight computer.

It flies the plane.

It does everything
automatically.

Now, come and sit in my seat.

Would you like to?
Come on.

Narrator: It's a quiet flight.

Many passengers are sleeping,

unaware of what is taking place
on the flight deck.

Yana: Daddy, can I turn this?

Kudrinsky: Yeah.

Now, Yana, would you like
to pilot the plane?

Yana: No.

Kudrinsky: Put your hands
on the control column.

Go on, go on, go on.

But don't touch any buttons, ok,
especially this red one,

autopilot switch,
you don't touch it.

Alright?

Narrator: Kudrinsky turns
the heading select knob.

It doesn't disengage
the autopilot,

but allows him to turn the plane
slightly to the left.

It makes his daughter think
she's flying the aircraft.

The artificial horizon shows the
plane is slowly banking left.

This instrument is vital
when you can't see the ground,

because it shows the pilot
how level the aircraft is

in relation to the horizon.

Yana: It was you!

You turned the plane!

Narrator: Kudrinsky
now puts the aircraft

back onto its preset course...

While first officer Piskarev

radios local air traffic control
with their position.

Piskarev: Novokuznetsk,
this is SU 593.

Flight level 3-3-0.

Heading 1-0-5.

Narrator: Flight 593 is now
over 2,000 miles east of Moscow,

near the middle of Siberia.

Controller: Sierra uniform 593,

Novokuznetsk flight level 3-5-0,
heading 1-0-5.

Piskarev: Sierra uniform 593,
estimating Zakir at 17:59.

Narrator: Now it's Eldar's turn
at the wheel.

He's been waiting a long time
for this moment.

Makarov: Pilot being filmed!

Eldar: Are you filming?

Makarov: Yes, I am!

Eldar: Can I turn this?

Kudrinsky: Yeah.

But if you turn it to the left,
where will the plane go?

Eldar: Left.

Kudrinsky:
Right. Look out to the left,

watching for the ground
when we're turning.

Narrator: Eldar finds
the control column quite stiff.

It seemed to move easily
when his sister was doing it,

so he tries harder.

But he can't make the plane turn

because the autopilot
is keeping it on course.

Kudrinsky: Is the plane turning?

Narrator: Suddenly
the column turns easily.

Eldar: Great!

Kudrinsky: Is the plane
turning to the left?

Eldar: Yes, yes, it is.

Makarov: Set the horizon
to normal for him.

Narrator: Once again, his father
switches the heading select knob

back to its original setting...

Ending the turn...

And Eldar's illusion
of flying the plane.

Captain Kudrinsky then selects
navigation mode.

It tells the autopilot
to put the plane

back on course to Hong Kong.

Yana: Dad? Dad?

Narrator: But Eldar is still
holding the wheel to the left.

It's become stiff again.

Yana: Can I go back to my seat?

Kudrinsky: What for?

You'll only go to sleep.

And don't run
in the first class,

or they will fire us.

Narrator: Eldar now turns
his control column

slightly to the right,

enjoying his time
at the controls.

Yana: Well, I am going shopping
on temple street.

It's a famous market
that only open at night.

Eldar: Why is it turning?

Kudrinsky: Is it turning
by itself?

Eldar: Yes, it is.

Narrator: It's been
just over three minutes

since Eldar sat down
in the pilot's seat.

The plane is tilting sharply,

a turn that's getting
steeper every second.

The plane appears to be
turning by itself.

But no one seems to know why.

Makarov: ...kind of zone.

Piskarev: We've gone into
a zone, a holding pattern.

Kudrinsky: Have we?

Piskarev: Of course we have!

Narrator: An arc has replaced
the straight direction line

on the screen.

The arc looks like a plane

in a holding pattern
around an airport.

As they study the screen,
the plane continues to turn--

it's now banked at 45 degrees,

which is steeper
than what it was built for.

Suddenly the command bars
disappear

from the primary flight display.

The crew no longer has
any information

about course or heading.

The plane is flying
at 370 miles an hour

and banking hard.

Like a quick turn
in a sports car,

the sudden movement
of the aircraft

begins to push everyone
into their seats.

Makarov: Guys!

Narrator: The A 310's autopilot
works to keep the plane aloft.

Suddenly the nose pitches up.

The increased G-force

makes it difficult for Piskarev
to reach the controls.

He does his best...

But nothing happens.

Piskarev's hard turn to the left
has had no effect on the plane.

Kudrinsky: Ok, hold it.

Hold the control column!

Narrator:
Eldar is the only one

with both hands
fully on the controls.

Kudrinsky: The other way!

Narrator: He can only follow
the most basic orders.

He can't get up
because the speed of the turn

is pushing him back in his seat.

Makarov: Turn it to the left!

Kudrinsky: To the left!

Piskarev: To the left!
Now to the right!

The other way!

Eldar: I am turning it left!

Kudrinsky: Ok, get out!

Narrator: Eldar has been
in the pilot's seat

for just over 4 minutes,

and now he can't leave.

His body feels
twice its normal weight.

Kudrinsky: Get out! Get out!

Narrator: Kudrinsky can do
nothing but struggle

against the crippling G-forces.

The aircraft is plunging
towards the snowy earth,

and there's nothing
anyone can do.

Everyone on board
now feels the force

of the plane's
dramatic movements.

This plane is
in a serious crisis.

But captain Danilov
can't get to the cockpit.

He, too, is squashed
by the powerful forces

created by the plane's
extreme bank.

The plane still
isn't responding.

To add to their confusion,
an alarm begins to sound:

It signals the complete shutdown
of the autopilot.

The plane is now completely
in the hands of Piskarev...

And Eldar.

And to make matters even worse,
there's another alarm.

Piskarev: The other way!
The other way!

Narrator:
The plane is about to stall.

Piskarev: To the left!

Narrator: An automatic
safety system kicks in

to keep the plane flying.

It lowers the nose

and puts the airbus
into a steep dive

to regain speed.

Piskarev: To the left!
There's the ground!

Narrator:
The plane dives at a frightening
40,000 feet per minute.

For the people on board,

it's like having an elevator
fall out from under them.

Yana: Daddy!

Narrator: In just seconds,
the heavy pressure

of the high-speed turn

is replaced
by near weightlessness.

As the plane
suddenly drops away,

it's now a very dangerous
environment.

People and objects
that are not secured

will land anywhere
once gravity returns.

They'd been flying
at 33,000 feet,

but now they're falling fast.

Unless they
do something quickly,

they will hit the ground
in less than a minute.

Piskarev pulls back
on the control column

as hard as he can

to bring the airbus
out of the dive.

The nose finally comes up,

and the aircraft
begins climbing quickly.

Gravity returns with a shock.

As the plane climbs,

the rapid acceleration pushes
people down relentlessly.

The dramatic change in speed

makes everyone feel
four times heavier than normal.

Meanwhile,
first officer Piskarev

is still trying to regain
control of the aircraft.

Piskarev: Thrust levers to slow!

Narrator: Piskarev has pulled
the airplane out of the dive...

But it's climbing too quickly.

The engines on the A 310
don't have enough power

to push it almost vertically
into the sky.

The airspeed drops dramatically.

The plane strains to climb,
but it's been pushed too far.

As the force
of the acceleration eases,

Kudrinsky leaps into action.

But Piskarev
has stalled the plane.

The nose drops
into a corkscrew dive.

Now the airbus is twisting
towards the ground

from 19,000 feet
at over 230 feet a second.

Piskarev: Full throttle!

Narrator: For the first time
since the crisis began,

captain and co-pilot can finally
work together to save the plane.

Piskarev: Full throttle, no?

Kudrinsky: I got it,
I have full throttle!

Narrator:
Kudrinsky pumps the rudder,

the vertical surface
on the tail,

to help break out of the spin.

Kudrinsky: What's the speed?

Piskarev: I don't see it.

Narrator: At last, the plane
seems to be responding.

By working the rudder,

Kudrinsky has nearly stopped
the corkscrew dive.

Piskarev:
Coming out, coming out...

Too much speed,
ease back on throttle a bit!

Narrator:
After a desperate struggle,
the two pilots have managed

to pull the plane
out of its terrifying spin.

Piskarev: Take it easy.

Narrator: They're starting
to level out,

but still not completely
in control.

Kudrinsky:
We'll get out of this...

Everything is fine...

Easy. Pull backwards
a little bit.

Narrator: In all of the chaos
of the past few minutes,

the pilots don't know
exactly how far they've fallen.

Suddenly they run out of time.

Controller: Sierra uniform 593,

this is Novokuznetsk
area control.

Please come in.

Narrator: 310 miles north
of the Mongolian border,

air traffic controllers
in Novokuznetsk

wait for flight 593 to radio

that it's left
their control area.

Controller: ...area control,
please come in.

Narrator:
Less than two hours later,

the first search party
goes out to look for the airbus

in the frozen, rugged
Siberian wilderness.

They finally locate the remains
of flight 593

on a wooded hillside

about 60 miles east
of Novokuznetsk.

It's soon clear
there are no survivors

among the 75 passengers
and crew.

This was a brand-new aircraft,

fitted with
the latest technology.

What could have brought it down?

Why was there no warning,
not even a distress signal?

The Russian media
are quick to speculate:

Could it have been
a terrorist bomb?

Barrie Deaville: When I was
in Moscow, the news we had,

that it could have been
a terrorist act.

Because we had terrorist acts
on aircraft previously.

We was completely unaware,
other than nobody'd survived it.

Narrator:
Aeroflot flies the families
of the deceased out to Moscow.

Among them is Brenda Clark,

the mother of British passenger
mark Newport.

Clark: We met
my daughter-in-law there.

They told us, you know,

it's cordoned off,
we can't go down there.

And she said
you can go down there, Brenda,

because the Chinese
are down there:

They have to do rituals
and things.

Narrator:
The authorities take them
to where the plane crashed.

Relatives of Chinese victims

drop pieces of paper
with messages written on them.

Others throw flowers.

Clark: Yeah,
that was really moving.

We had the flowers,
they had the little...

The little, they wrote messages,
I think,

on these pieces of paper.

And they threw them out.

It was lovely. Yeah.

Narrator: The Russians
take the families to a morgue

in a town near the crash site,

where the recovered bodies
are being held.

Many are too badly mutilated
to be identified.

They ask the families to look
at recovered bits of clothing

to help identify the bodies.

Brenda Clark finds
her son's family photographs.

She is shaken.

For the first time
she knows for certain

he was on the flight.

The recovery operation
gets under way.

The Russian government
mobilizes 238 soldiers,

police, investigators
and rescuers.

Everyone in the aviation world
wants to know

how a brand-new
state-of-the-art airbus

could fall out of the sky
without any warning.

Does the A 310 have problems
no one knows about?

They need to find out fast.

Chief accident investigator
Ivan Mashkivsky is in charge.

The crash site itself
offers few clues.

The ones he does have
are puzzling.

Unbroken bottles of champagne,

a flight attendant
in an oxygen mask,

and finally, the body
of at least one child

in the cockpit.

The plane's digital
flight data recorder

indicates the engines were
running when it hit the ground.

He rules out engine failure.

Mashkivsky needs the expertise

of a man who knows
the A 310 well,

someone who can also recreate
the fatal flight

and find out exactly
what went wrong.

Vladimir Biriukov
is an experienced test pilot

and crash investigator at
the Gromov institute in Moscow.

He's an expert
on the A 310 airbus.

Biriukov was directly involved

in testing and certifying
the airplane

prior to the Russians buying it.

Vladimir Biriukov, translated:
Because of the fate
of this plane,

the fate of this airline,
my first reaction was shock.

How could such a thing happen?

All I knew was that the plane

had crashed somewhere
over Siberia.

I remember spending
a sleepless night, distraught,

and trying to figure out
what might have happened

and what could have caused it.

Ivan Mashkivsky: Yeah, come.

Biriukov: I think you should
come and listen to this.

Narrator: Each investigation
begins with a complete analysis

of the plane's
cockpit voice recorder.

This time it reveals
something disturbing.

Kudrinsky: Now, come
and sit in my seat.

Would you like to?

Come.

Yana: Daddy, can I turn this?

Kudrinsky: Yeah.

Biriukov: Kudrinsky was
in the pilot's seat, wasn't he?

Mashkivsky:
According to the diagram.

Eldar: Can I turn this a bit?

Kudrinsky: Yeah.

But if you turn it to the left,
where will the plane go?

Eldar: Left.

Kudrinsky: Right. Look out...

Mashkivsky: No.

Again.

Eldar: Can I turn this a bit?

Kudrinsky: Yeah.

But if you turn it to the left,
where will the plane go?

Nigel Taylor: Ten years ago
it wasn't unusual

for people to be invited
up to the cockpit.

Of course since 9/11
it's become a lot tighter,

and you will find cockpit doors
are locked generally

throughout the flight.

Feith: Every country
sets its own rules

as to who has the authority
or the access to the cockpit.

In some countries
it's up to the captain,

so the captain can invite guests
up to the cockpit.

But to have them
actually manipulating

the controls of an airplane,

regardless of whether they have
people on it or not,

the fact that this
was allowed to occur

is definitely an exception
in the industry.

Yana: Dad, can I go back
to my seat?

Narrator: The two investigators
are stunned by what they hear

on the cockpit voice recorder.

Mashkivsky: It's unbelievable!

These two youngsters, the ones
who we couldn't identify,

they were not thrown
into the cockpit by the crash.

They were his kids!

Biriukov: And they were
flying the plane.

Narrator: The investigators
are speechless.

How could three
experienced pilots

allow children to fly
a commercial airliner?

They're about to learn
something even worse:

The children were only part
of the problem.

A little known feature
of the plane proved deadly.

Eldar: Why is it turning?

Kudrinsky:
Is it turning by itself?

Makarov: Turn it to the left!

Kudrinsky: The other way!

Piskarev:
The other way!

Eldar: I am turning it left!

Kudrinsky: Ok, get out!

Come on, get out! Get out!

Piskarev: Get it left,
the ground is right there!

Narrator:
Russian investigators listen
to the cockpit voice recorder

of the Aeroflot airbus
that crashed in Siberia.

Piskarev: Full throttle!

Narrator: What they hear
makes their blood run cold.

Piskarev: Full throttle!

Kudrinsky: I got it.
I have full throttle!

Piskarev: Full throttle, no?

Biriukov: You should understand
the frame of mind of the father.

He is very proud
of what he's doing.

He invites his kids
into the cockpit.

Strictly speaking,
it's a violation, of course,

but I know such violations

do occur in real life.

I'm not condemning him

or defending him here.

What I'm trying to say

is that no disaster occurs
for just any single reason.

There's always more than one,
all coming together.

Narrator:
But this time it really does
look like a single cause--

a child flying the plane.

And it sends shock waves through
Aeroflot's higher echelons.

Mashkivsky: No, I think
it would benefit the...

Narrator: Investigators
feel the pressure.

The media has learned
that Eldar was at the controls.

Aeroflot, trying to improve
on its soviet-era image,

wants to minimize the damage.

Boris Rybak is an aerospace
consultant in Moscow.

Rybak: Aeroflot managers
and executives

indeed tried to conceal results

and tried to downplay
the importance of this accident

because it was
very embarrassing.

Narrator: Managers at Aeroflot

aren't the only ones
following the investigation.

Airbus, the European company
which made the plane,

is also intensely interested.

Biriukov: Ivan Efremovich.

What's wrong?

Mashkivsky: Nothing, nothing.

Narrator: If the accident
was caused by Eldar,

it will vindicate airbus.

At the same time,

grieving families are also
clamoring for answers.

Biriukov: Are you sure?

Narrator: For Mashkivsky
and his team,

it's a delicate balance.

Mashkivsky: There is always
more than one reason

for a plane to crash.

We must find it.

Biriukov: I'll do my best.

Narrator: His reputation,
the reputation of airbus,

as well as Aeroflot,

all now depend on finding
this other cause.

Taylor: This was
an international flight.

It was a western-built aircraft,

and it was inevitable
that the investigation

that would be conducted
by the authorities

and the inquiries that would be
conducted by claimant lawyers

would expose information.

Rybak: At the same time,

manufacturer of the aircraft,
Airbus Industrie,

was very keen to get
as much realistic explanation

of what happened

because reputation
of this aircraft was at stake.

Narrator:
Vladimir Biriukov continues
trying to learn all he can

about why the airbus
fell out of the sky.

Analyzing information
from the flight data recorder,

he can trace and repeat

every command given
to the aircraft

during the flight.

Biriukov: We were trying to get

as close to the truth
as possible,

to find the cause,

because that was the precedent:

The first foreign-produced plane
to crash

while flying
for a Russian airline.

Narrator: The investigation
confirms the autopilot was on

when the plane got into trouble.

Even with the children
in the cockpit,

the plane should have flown
on course.

What went so terribly wrong?

Mashkivsky:
So, any new developments?

Biriukov: We can discount
Kudrinsky's daughter.

She sat in the chair,
but she didn't fly the plane.

At 17:47 and 6 seconds

captain Kudrinsky tells her not
to touch the autopilot switch.

Narrator: Her father gave the
autopilot the command to turn,

while Yana just rested her hands
lightly on the controls.

Yana: It was you!
You turned the plane!

Narrator: But when Eldar
took the controls,

Biriukov discovers

that something dramatically
different happened.

No one could possibly
have guessed--

not even the three pilots
in the cockpit.

Biriukov may have found
the key to the puzzle.

The plane's flight data recorder

shows that two and a half
minutes before the crash,

while Eldar was still
at the controls,

the autopilot
partially disconnects.

This is the start
of all the plane's troubles.

But how did that happen?

The autopilot is
a sophisticated computer

which manages an airplane's
speed, altitude and heading.

Altitude and heading
are controlled

by three key functions:

The rudder, which controls
sideways movement;

the elevators, which
control vertical movement;

and the ailerons,
which are for turning.

On flight 593, the autopilot

had disconnected itself
from the ailerons.

Feith: The autopilots
that were used

in transport airplanes years ago
were an on/off.

In today's sophisticated
flight management systems,

you can literally take fragments
of the autopilot

and disengage them,

but not necessarily
turn the switch off

and turn it all off,
unless you want to.

Narrator:
The question that really worries
accident investigator Biriukov

is how did the autopilot
become partially disconnected?

There is no mention of it
in the cockpit voice recordings.

If this is a problem
with the aircraft,

it could prove fatal
for future flights.

The only way to know for certain
is to reconstruct the accident

on a flight simulator at
Airbus Industrie's headquarters

in Toulouse, France.

Biriukov's experience
as a test pilot

and his detailed knowledge
of the A 310

are crucial
to the investigation.

Using information
from the flight data recorder,

Biriukov reconstructs
the events,

beginning at the moment
captain Kudrinsky allows his son

to sit at the controls.

A co-pilot will help replicate
Piskarev's actions.

Kudrinsky: Look out to the left,

watching for the ground
when we're turning.

Narrator: Unlike his sister,
Eldar turns the wheel

before his father can tell
the autopilot to turn the plane.

The controls are stiff because
he is fighting the autopilot.

In the simulator,

Biriukov replicates
Eldar's every movement.

Biriukov: Now...

It's starting to go...

Going...

Going...

There.

Hold it long enough,
and it disconnects.

Co-pilot: How long?

Biriukov: 30 seconds.

And it disconnects smoothly.

Co-pilot: No warning.

Biriukov: No.

No.

Narrator:
No one in the cockpit knows it,

but this is the critical moment.

Eldar's resistance actually
turns part of the autopilot off.

It takes just half a minute,
but from here on,

Eldar is controlling
the ailerons,

Eldar is actually
steering the plane.

Kudrinsky: Is it turning
by itself?

Eldar: Yes, it is.

Narrator: What seemed
like an open and shut case

is suddenly much more complex.

Kudrinsky: To the left!

Piskarev: The other way!

Narrator: The 15-year-old
flying the plane

isn't the only reason
they crashed.

The discovery highlights
an apparent flaw

in how pilots are trained
on the A 310.

Kudrinsky: I got it!
I have full throttle!

Narrator: Accident investigator
Vladimir Biriukov

has finally discovered the
terrifying sequence of events

that made Aeroflot's flight 593
fall to earth.

Captain Kudrinsky's
15-year-old son

had turned the plane's
control column

against the programmed
flight settings.

This disconnected the autopilot,
without warning,

from the ailerons,
which turn the plane.

Biriukov: Hold it long enough,
and it disconnects.

Co-pilot: How long?

Narrator:
The aircraft then began

an uncontrolled turn
to the right,

which got steeper and steeper.

But why didn't anyone realize

the autopilot
had been disconnected?

The A 310 airbus
has only a small light

to tell the crew the autopilot
has disconnected.

There's no alarm.

And the Russian crew
was obviously unaware of it.

But there's also another reason

why no one realized
what was happening.

The autopilot still appears
to be working normally

because it's controlling
the plane's other functions.

Although the plane
is now banking,

the situation
isn't yet critical.

At this point, if the crew
takes the proper action,

they can still stabilize
the plane.

Eldar is the first to notice

that the artificial horizon
is at an angle.

Eldar: Why is it turning?

Kudrinsky:
Is it turning by itself?

Eldar: Yes, it is!

Narrator: The three pilots
don't understand this at all.

After all, Kudrinsky
returned the flight

to its autopilot heading.

Makarov: Still turning.

Narrator:
Makarov offers an explanation.

Makarov: Going into
some kind of zone.

Piskarev:
We've gone into a zone,
a holding pattern.

Kudrinsky: Have we?

Piskarev: Of course we have!

Biriukov: Increasing...

One degree per second...

27 degrees...

Now, we should be
entering into the zone.

Co-pilot: What's that?

Narrator: A strange arc now
appears on the navigation panel.

It looks like the course
a plane would take

circling an airport,
waiting to land.

Biriukov: There appeared an arc
very much resembling the arc

that appears on the display when
a plane enters a waiting zone.

There are waiting zones
around airports.

When too many planes accumulate,
they enter such a zone

and circle around
while they wait.

But there could be no such zone
at that point on the route,

and yet we hear
in the voice recording,

"Hey, we're entering a zone!"

Narrator:
This false holding zone

distracts the crew
for nine seconds.

In that time the plane crosses
a critical threshold.

The airbus is now banking
at 45 degrees,

far beyond its design limits.

It cannot turn this steeply
and maintain height.

It's now losing altitude.

Makarov: Guys!

Narrator:
But the airbus autopilot

is no longer controlling
the ailerons.

Its other functions
try to compensate

by pulling the plane's nose up

and increasing power
to maintain altitude.

Passengers are pushed
back into their seats.

It's on the verge of stalling.

It starts to shake like a leaf.

Kudrinsky: Hold it!
Just hold it!

Narrator: Part of the flight
control panel now goes dark.

It's a warning sign

that the plane has gone
beyond its design limits.

From here on, the airbus
is out of control.

Biriukov: It was zone,
a holding pattern.

Narrator:
By recreating the fatal flight,
Biriukov has worked out

how a lapse in judgment
and concentration

has resulted
in a catastrophic crisis.

But could the crew have saved
the plane and its passengers?

The pilots of flight 593

tried to bring the plane
out of its fatal dive

by pulling up,

but they go too far.

The plane climbs steeply
and stalls.

Co-pilot:
We're losing altitude!

Biriukov:
Now we've started to spin.

So what do we do?

Co-pilot: It's coming
out of the corkscrew.

Biriukov:
Now we're leveling out.

In a moment we'll come
out of the dive.

Narrator: All they had to do
was let go.

Biriukov: See?

Narrator: The plane has
a built-in survival mechanism

which won't allow it to stall,
even at very low speed.

But the pilot has to know that.

Biriukov: But the situation
is totally new to them,

something they weren't
accustomed to handling.

A stressful and
incomprehensible situation.

It would have taken
special skills

to act correctly
in such a difficult situation.

It was not the crew's fault
but their misfortune,

because if a person doesn't know
how to do something

because he was never taught to,
you can't really blame him.

Narrator:
The team's perseverance in
an open and honest investigation

showed that there was
more than one simple cause

behind the accident.

Their findings benefited
the whole industry,

especially the revelation

that the autopilot
can partially disconnect.

This remains a feature
of the A 310,

as it enables pilots to control
certain elements of a flight

while leaving the rest
to the computer.

But crews are now
made aware of this.

Captain Kudrinsky's misfortune
was that it was triggered

in a way that was unexpected
and difficult to detect.

The crash of the Russian plane

comes at a troubling time
for the airline industry.

In 1994, the same year
that flight 593 went down,

a series of crashes
in the united states

raised questions about how
commercial pilots

handle "upsets"--

situations in which an aircraft

finds itself
in extreme flying conditions.

Feith: When we think about
upset in a large airplane,

we think about an attitude
of the airplane

that's beyond what normal
flight regimes would be.

That is greater
than 20 degrees nose up,

greater than 10 degrees
nose down,

and bank angles
greater than 25 degrees.

Narrator:
Within a year, the industry

had begun offering pilots
upset recovery training,

teaching them skills
to handle extreme situations

like the one on flight 593.

The tragedy of one trip
to Hong Kong

may have contributed something

to the safety of other
passengers and crews.

For parents and friends
of those on board, though,

what happened that night
is never far from their minds.

Adrian Deaville's body

was one of 22
that were never identified.

Their remains
were cremated together

by the Russian authorities.

The crew of the airbus is buried
in Mitinskoe cemetery in Moscow,

in a hero's grave,

next to the firefighters

who died at the Chernobyl
nuclear plant.

Yana and Eldar lie
next to their father.

Victoria: I can imagine
the horror they experienced

in their last moments.

He knew there were not only all
those people depending on him,

but also his own kids!

Barry Deaville:
I can forgive the pilot.

I can forgive the children,
because they were innocent.

This man was 39 years old,

and for those 39 years he had

an exemplary flying career.

He had a family,
and he was proud of them,

and it was the final 5 minutes
of those 39 years

that went awry.