Original subtitles

The crew of a passenger jet

searches in vain for their airport.

Look carefully.

Rain is making it impossible to see.

-Not in sight. Missed approach. -Go around!

More than 200 passengers are on board.

As I turned around, a huge fireball came out.

- -

Investigators search for clues.

Could a vital missing piece of equipment

be responsible for the crash?

I think the best way to describe that

would have been, irresponsible.

- -

I know a lot of people

could have walked off that plane that night.

Nothing will change my views on that.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines!

Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Mayday, mayday.

Brace for impact!

I think I lost one.

Investigation starting...

He's gonna crash!

Nimitz Hill, Guam.

Once the site of fierce American offensives

during World War Two...

For over 50 years there has been peace here.

Now the peaceful hill is used by hunters,

and the normal quiet is broken by the roar of jumbo jets

as they fly overhead.

Every night, commercial pilots

must fly over this tall rocky outcrop

to land at Guam's Agana International Airport.

Flights come from airports all across Asia.

Just past midnight, on august 6, 1997,

Korean Airlines flight 801

is on its way to Guam from Seoul, South Korea.

42-year-old captain Park Yong-chul

is at the controls.

A former Korea air force pilot,

Park has been flying 747's for more than six years.

Just a few months ago, he received a Flight Safety Award

from the president of Korean air

for successfully handling a 747 engine failure at low altitude.

Park is supposed to be flying

to the United Arab Emirates tonight,

but a schedule change has put him in command

of this shorter flight to Guam.

In the cabin, Korean, Japanese and western tourists

are heading for Guam's pristine beaches.

Guam is a U.S. Territory run under U.S. Law.

The island is tiny, just 212 square miles,

but there's enough sand to keep people coming.

24-year-old Sean Burke

and his girlfriend Wendy Bunten

are planning to make the most of Guam's beaches.

They're flying in from San Diego for a vacation.

Sean and Wendy were going to Guam

to do some scuba diving, reef diving,

and at the same time they were gonna visit her brother

who was in the navy over there.

He was a navy doctor.

Flight 801 is taking Barry Small back to work.

He is returning to Guam from New Zealand

for another 6-month contract as a helicopter pilot.

But he does it with a heavy heart.

The night before I left,

my father had a heart attack,

and I had to CPR him until the ambulance arrived

and decided to cancel the contract

so I could help him,

but he was insistent that you must carry on with your job.

The flight is still a couple of hours from Guam

when the calm evening is brutally interrupted.

Watch the speed. It could be severe turbulence.

Make an announcement to have everyone in their seats

-with seatbelts on. -

Ladies and gentlemen,

this is your first officer speaking.

Even an experienced flyer

like Barry Small is surprised.

There was no lead-up to this turbulence,

and anybody that wasn't strapped down

was going to be airborne, that's for sure.

The lockers were rattling,

and anything in those lockers was bound to break.

It was a horrendous shudder.

It's heavy turbulence,

but the crew rides it out.

Eventually the flight returns to normal.

We're through it.

Let the passengers know.

Ladies and gentlemen,

this is your first officer speaking.

We have cleared the turbulent area.

But it's left some of the passengers shaken.

Shhh. It's okay, Rika.

We'll be there soon.

Ma'am, if you don't mind,

I'm gonna move this duty-free up here for you.

The cabin crew cleans up,

and the passengers settle in for the rest of the trip.

Because of the 12-hour stopover in Seoul

and no change of clothes,

it was getting rather uncomfortable

in a tropical environment,

and I took my shoes off just to relax a little bit

and feel more comfortable.

Captain Park and his crew begin looking ahead.

They know there's more unsettled weather coming.

Rain has been hitting Guam on and off all day.

In fact, august is the heart of the island's rainy season.

Small showers can pop up, making visibility unpredictable.

In that particular part of the world

they have what's called a top hat thunderstorm.

That is a very small thunderstorm

that builds up all times of the day,

and it's very short lived.

So it wouldn't hamper the pilot's ability

to actually conduct the approach.

It's gonna just obscure his view for some period of time

while they're transiting through it.

Just past 1:00 in the morning,

Korean air flight 801 makes initial radio contact

with Kurt Mayo,

the radio controller at Guam's Airport.

Guam Center, Korea 801

leaving level 4-1-0

for 2,600.

Korean air 801, roger.

The crew aren't the only ones preparing to land.

After more than three hours of flying through the night,

the passengers get ready for the airport.

I saw the lights of Guam,

and I knew exactly where the aircraft was,

because I'd been there many times before.

Captain Park has navigated Nimitz Hill

nine times before,

but this time there's a major difference.

At airports around the world,

pilots land with the help of a glide slope,

an electronic system that helps planes safely touch down.

If pilots follow the directions given by the glide slope,

it guides them to the foot of the runway.

The glide slope beacon at Guam Airport

has been removed for extensive maintenance.

Without the airport transmitter,

Park's glide slope indicator in the cockpit is useless.

Landing without a glide slope is rare, but it does happen.

In Guam, the transmitter is scheduled to be out of service

for more than two months.

But impaired navigation is only part of the problem.

Captain Park is fighting exhaustion.

They make us classic guys work to the maximum.

Probably this way hotel expenses are saved on cabin crews,

and they maximize flight hours.

Really sleepy.

Now, as the plane approaches Guam,

clouds and rain block their way.

Captain, Guam condition is no good.

It's raining a lot.

It's been several hours

since captain Park and his crew left Seoul.

Now the rain is making the late flight more difficult.

Tired and fighting the weather,

the captain begins the final approach

to Agana Airport on the Island of Guam.

In the cabin, 237 passengers

are getting ready to begin their vacations

or get back to work.

The flight, other than the turbulence,

was totally normal.

We had our meals,

and it was just a totally normal flight in every way.

As the jet approaches Guam,

an erratic storm pushes rain and clouds

between the plane and the airport.

It's hard to see.

The captain wants to make a small change in course

to avoid the worst of the weather.

Request 20-mile deviation to the left

as we are descending.

Guam center, Korea 801 request deviation

1-0 miles left of track.

Korean air 801, roger.

Veering around cloud cover,

captain Park Yong-Chul struggles

to get a clear view of his approach.

And finally he sees what he's been looking for.

It's Guam.

- Guam. -Good.

Today the weather radar helped us a lot.

Korean Air 801,

cleared for ILS runway 6 left approach.

Glide slope unusable.

Air traffic controller Kurt Mayo

reminds the crew that the airport's glide slope equipment

is out of service.

It would normally help them find the runway,

but since it's under repair

it isn't sending out any signals.

Then, with the crew in the middle

of their landing sequence,

something unexpected happens.

Glide slope.

The glide slope appears to come to life.

Is the glide slope working?

-The glide slope? - Yeah?

Yes. Yes, it's working.

Why is it working?

It's a confusing moment.

Unsure what's happening,

the crew continues to prepare for their landing.

-Six D check. Gear down. -Check.

Approaching 1,400.

Since today's glide slope condition

is not good,

we need to maintain 1,440. Please set it.

Set.

At 40 minutes after 1:00 in the morning,

Guam controller Kurt Mayo

once again makes contact with the crew.

Korean Air 801, contact the Agana tower at 118.1.

He passes the plane on to the airport tower

and says goodbye in Korean.

-Ahn nyung hee ga sea yo. -Soo ga ha sip is yo. 118.1.

It's the last time he'll ever talk

to the crew of the jetliner.

The guy working here

probably was a G.I. In Korea before.

Agana tower, Korean Air 801

to intercept the localizer 6 left.

Korean Air 801 heavy, Agana tower.

Runway 6 cleared to land.

Korean 801, roger, cleared to land 6 left.

Flaps 30.

Flaps 30.

As the plane descends,

clouds and rain close in again.

They've lost sight of the airport.

Look carefully.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we're preparing for landing

at Agana International Airport in Guam.

Please return your seats to the upright position,

fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing.

Set 560 feet.

As the plane flies closer to the ground,

the crew expects they'll see the airport any second.

But the rain makes it hard to see anything.

Isn't the glide slope working? Wiper on!

Then a computerized voice fills the cockpit.

500.

It's the ground proximity warning system,

which tells the crew they're just 500 feet in the air,

but they still can't see the runway.

I'd done this flight many, many times before,

and when I estimated we were about 30 seconds from landing,

I bent down to put my shoes on.

200.

The plane is now just 200 feet above the ground,

but still the crew can't see the runway.

They're quickly running out of time.

Let's make a missed approach.

- Not in sight. -Not in sight. Missed approach.

Go around.

Go around!

Flaps!

100.

40.

20.

I had no idea, thought it was still just a normal landing

and the aircraft went on

and was decelerating quicker than normal,

but nothing to really alarm me.

Things were getting pretty serious then.

The aircraft was starting to break apart.

I forced myself up to look,

and there was just bottles, bags,

everything you can imagine was coming out.

The only way I can really describe it

is like about a thousand 737's landing all at once.

On a wooded hillside in Guam,

the shattered plane finally grinds to a halt.

- -

- -

I was too scared to undo my seatbelt at that stage

'cause I was waiting for the next bounce

to go over another ravine

or whatever was going to happen next.

Miraculously, 11-year-old Rika Matsuda

has survived and is virtually unhurt,

but her mother is trapped and injured.

Momma, momma.

Hello!

Barry Small is also injured

and terrified that fire is sweeping through the plane.

The fire started in the front

and proceeded from the front to the back towards me.

There was no floor lighting or anything like that,

but the fire was so intense

there was no problems to see where I was going.

Momma! Momma!

If help doesn't arrive soon,

those who survived the initial crash

may be trapped inside the cabin.

- -

Korean Air 801 heavy, tower,

how do you hear?

Everyone in the cockpit has been killed.

But airport authorities still have no idea

what's happened aboard flight 801.

Korean Air 801 heavy, tower, how do you hear?

Hurt by the crash and desperate

to escape the ruined plane,

Barry Small stumbles towards an opening in the cabin.

I got back these six seats,

and then there was about a six foot drop down to the ground.

The undercarriage had gone completely.

I came across an obstacle that I had to cross

because it was the only path that wasn't burning.

Go!

Get over it!

Momma!

Rika.

Momma!

Rika's mother tells her daughter

to get out of the burning plane.

- Go. -

Go, go now.

Get out of here!

-Go! -

Now go, go!

You must go.

Go!

You must go. Go now! Go!

The fire is spreading quickly.

As passengers struggle to deal with the disaster,

rescue workers don't even know the plane's gone down.

- -

The fire engulfed both the Asian gentleman and myself

to the extent that it burnt my arms,

and my watch got that hot

it was melting into my flesh and I had to flick it off.

Minutes earlier, Kurt Mayo

had passed the passenger jet on

to the local tower controllers.

Now he learns that it hasn't landed yet.

Approach Agana, did Korean Air come back to you?

No.

I cleared him to land, and I don't know where he's at.

-He didn't land? - Negative.

Oh, my god!

Within minutes, Guam fire chief Chuck Sanchez

is in route.

I was thinking, my god,

the 747, where's it at?

Is it on the island? Is it on the sea?

What is the plan here?

We both fell off the side of the container,

and the Asian gentleman disappeared into the jungle.

So I rolled over onto my back

and I managed to crawl with my elbows.

There was still a little bit of skin on my elbows left.

Small has a badly broken right leg.

He crawls away from the wreckage.

Many more people remain trapped inside.

Lying there, it just sounded like a battlefield.

It was just like a movie.

Things were exploding short of me,

going over top of me.

Things were landing beside us on fire.

It was just indescribable.

There is only one way for emergency crews

to get to the scene of the crash of flight 801.

The route is a single access road

that runs beside Nimitz Hill.

As they race to the accident scene,

rescue workers discover a major obstacle.

A pipeline has been ripped out of the ground by the crash

and thrown across the road.

There's no way around it.

Having heard about the crash,

the island's governor, Carl Gutierrez,

has joined the rescue team.

Engine company 7, get this thing out of the way.

You guys, get the medic kits and come with me.

We reached the closest point of approach to the crash site,

which was up the hill,

and probably about another 150 yards downhill.

I go, gentlemen, turn on whatever lights you got

to guide us down this path and let's do it.

We started running and just listening to the screams

so that we can guide ourselves

because there was just nothing but overgrowth

on the side of the road.

At one point I stopped him.

I go, governor, sir, I need you to make some serious decisions

in this operation.

I don't think I want you to move further.

I'd like for you to stay on this side,

and, you know, I don't want you to get hurt.

Let us do this job.

And he goes no, I want to help you guys.

At the site of the crash,

flames are devouring the wreckage.

Hampered by his broken leg,

Small can only look on as people cry out for help.

I lay on that bank for the whole night,

during that time hearing people call out in a foreign language,

which initially sounded like good, healthy calls for help,

then turned into screams as the fire got more intense...

And after a period of time the fire even grew worse

and the screams faded away.

Finally, almost an hour after the accident,

Sanchez's crew reaches the site.

Momma!

Guam's governor Carl Gutierrez

sees Rika Matsuda all alone and crying out for her mother.

Don't cry, little angel.

Everything will be okay.

I did not dare let her go.

It's something that I almost,

like there was a bond between me and that young little girl,

and I found out later she was 11,

but she looked really smaller than 11 years old.

Fire chief Chuck Sanchez

finds Barry Small in the sword grass.

- - Take my jacket.

He gave me his fire jacket

and put it under my head to comfort me.

-Yeah, go. I'm all right. - Let's go.

Later on he was very distressed

that he had to come back and get it back

'cause he was getting burnt

dragging people and bodies out of the aircraft.

It's clear to rescue personnel

that for many they have arrived too late.

But Sanchez isn't giving up.

He sends a team to search further into the wreckage.

Group two, start at the tail

and work forward. Go.

What I heard was this large explosion, man,

right where they were at.

No radio transmission at all.

We lost all transmission.

Then finally somebody came out.

Sir, we're okay.

We survived the explosion.

Everybody's accounted for.

It's not until the dawn finally comes

that rescue workers can see the extent of the damage.

The plane has spilled down the mountain

and broken into several large pieces.

Only 26 people survive the disaster.

Friends and family are desperate for any news.

Many bodies are badly burned.

Although most of the passengers are Korean,

Sean Burke and his girlfriend Wendy Bunten

are among the few Americans on the flight.

Thousands of miles away,

news of the crash reaches Sean's parents.

When she hears about the crash,

Sean Burke's stepmother doesn't know if Sean is alive or dead.

He could have been burned in the crash.

He could be unconscious in a local hospital there,

and we just wanted to go over and bring him back.

So, I mean, 'cause that kept going through our minds, that...

He possibly could be laying on the hillside.

Since Guam is an American territory,

the responsibility for investigating the crash

falls to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Greg Feith is the lead investigator.

When he arrives on the site, he has to contend

with more than just the carnage of the plane crash.

Grieving family members surround the scene,

making it especially difficult for investigators to work.

As an accident investigator

you have to keep your emotions in check.

It's like being a doctor in an E.R. Room.

You see this devastation,

you see this tragedy unfolding in front of you,

and as an accident investigator

you have to keep those emotions in check

because you have to remain objective.

You have to remain emotionless

to be able to do your job effectively.

During the preliminary investigation,

Feith finds that large sections of the plane

are almost completely intact.

The airplane landed relatively under control.

That is that the pilot basically landed the airplane

into the trees and into that terrain.

Unfortunately, it was three miles from the airport.

Investigators find a number of items

that survived the crash and the fire that followed...

Including the landing chart the crew was using

as it approached Guam Airport.

Investigators also find captain Park's travel bag,

and in it they discover a small plastic pill container.

Captain Park had been prescribed a variety of drugs,

including pills containing benzodiazepine,

a class of drugs often used as a sedative.

The pills and tissue samples from captain Park's remains

are sent for analysis.

That, and the landing chart

become part of a growing pile of evidence.

Using the jet's flight data recorder,

investigators recreate the plane's flight path.

The relatively gentle slope of its descent

supports investigator Greg Feith's belief

that the jet all but landed on the hillside.

But the flight path shouldn't look like this.

Korean Air 801

cleared for ILS runway 6 left approach.

Glide slope unusable.

Korean 801, roger.

Cleared for ILS runway 6 left.

The crew had been told

that the glide slope at the airport wasn't working.

It meant that the captain

had to take more manual control of his plane.

It's now up to the pilot

to fly an established procedure called a step-down,

where he starts at an altitude of, say, 2,000 feet.

When he gets to a particular point

located by what they call DME,

or distance measuring equipment,

he then starts a descent to another prescribed altitude.

If the crew was following

the step-down procedure,

its flight path would resemble a set of stairs.

But after the first step,

the plane enters a long, slow descent.

If you don't hit those step-downs,

and those altitudes are prescribed

to give you terrain clearance,

if you don't fly that as depicted on the approach chart,

you run the risk of flying into

an obstruction or high terrain.

The plane's cockpit voice recorder

has also been recovered from the debris.

Feith and his team begin to analyze it,

hoping to better understand

what happened in the cockpit.

Set 560 feet.

On two separate occasions,

captain Park gave orders to descend

long before he was supposed to.

But there are other clues on the tape as well.

The cockpit voice recorder provided us,

the investigators, quite a bit of information.

One of the key elements that we found

was that the flight crew appeared to be tired.

Very sleepy.

This was a chartered flight,

so it would have put them on what we call

"back side of the clock" flying.

That is, they wouldn't be normally flying during the day.

They are now flying at night,

and typically your body says you should be asleep

when it's dark outside.

The sedatives could have made

a difficult situation even worse,

but when the lab results come back, they're conclusive.

While he had the pills with him,

there are no traces of them in captain Park's system.

When lead investigator Greg Feith returns

to the cockpit voice recorder,

he focuses on the captain's discussion of the glide slope.

Is the glide slope working?

- The glide slope? - Yeah.

-Yes. Yes, it's working. -Why is it working?

He started to see the glide slope needle

move a little bit

and started to question the other crew members

as to whether or not the glide slope

was actually working or not.

But Feith still doesn't understand

why Park's glide slope appeared to be working.

Was there a problem on this plane,

and is the equipment susceptible to problems

that could affect other jets as well?

To find out, he brings in

navigation expert Nelson Spohnheimer.

I spent some time looking at the transcript

trying to determine what the navigation issues were,

and why a good airplane was in the wrong place.

Spohnheimer sends a team of investigators to Guam.

They fly over the island trying to determine

whether radio signals from a nearby military base

could have affected the plane,

making it seem like the glide slope was working.

My conclusion was that spurious signals,

whether they be from other transmitters

or failed ground equipment such as personal walkie-talkies,

could not cause a sustained warning flag movement.

If the glide slope was not fully operating,

why did Park believe it was?

And even if he did believe it was working,

why did he crash into Nimitz Hill?

Isn't the glide slope working? Wiper on.

As investigators continue to try

to piece together the causes of the crash,

Barry Small is trying to understand

why he and 25 others survived.

I went to touch my shoes, we hit the ground,

and I was accidentally in the perfect crash position

by some sort of miracle.

An airline engineering apprentice

and helicopter pilot,

Small understands airplanes.

I do firmly believe there are some changes

that could be made to the aircraft.

Small believes that the way crossbars

are built into aircraft seats

caused one of his legs to break.

But luck saved his other leg.

My right leg went forward and crashed

into the bar in front of the seat and broke,

and my left leg was saved by my carry bag

stopping my leg going forward at that bar.

Still able to walk on his one good leg,

Small escapes while others remain trapped inside.

Since she's young, Rika Matsuda's legs

are shorter than a normal adult's.

Sitting normally, her legs wouldn't have been pressed

against the crossbar on impact,

so she was able to escape the plane

while her mother died.

Small is also convinced that the flames

that first spread through the cabin

of Korean Air flight 801 were preventable.

They estimate that those top lockers

had over 462 liters of burnable alcohol on board.

Had the plane been full,

it could be at least twice that amount.

During the crash,

Small believes that the duty-free alcohol

mixed with oxygen in the overhead bins.

The combination ignited with deadly results.

It's a fire he thinks could have been prevented.

Why have this risk, alcohol and oxygen?

I thought, you know, for aircraft it's about safety,

and this is just a blatant

breaking of the rules of safety

as far as I'm concerned.

As he continues to recover from the accident,

Small is determined to prevent what happened to him

from happening to others.

He decides to push for changes on how seats are made,

and how duty-free alcohol is stored.

For NTSB investigator Greg Feith,

the biggest question still remains.

How did an experienced pilot,

one recently honored by his company for his safety record,

crash his plane three miles short of the airport?

As the investigation continues,

he discovers that the landing chart the crew was using

was more than six months old and out of date.

It's an indication that the crew

could have been better prepared for the landing.

When he reviews the training practices

for Korean Airlines,

Feith uncovers more gaps

in the information that the crew received.

We found that the Korean Airlines flight crew

had all of their training based on airports with approaches

where the DME was always co-located at the airport.

DME is distance measuring equipment,

electronic beacons that tell pilots where they are

in relation to the airport.

Often the final beacon is found at the foot of the runway.

That was not the case in Guam.

The airport was in fact three miles further on.

200.

Struggling to see through the rain,

Park was unable to find the airport.

Distracted by the unexpected glide slope reading,

Park used the final beacon as a guide,

expecting it to take him right to the runway.

Let's make a missed approach.

Not in sight.

Not in sight. Missed approach.

-Go around. -Go around!

Flaps!

It's clear that flight 801 flew an approach

about three miles premature.

In other words, the descent was about three miles early.

It was a nominal approach otherwise,

just to the wrong location.

We think that based on fatigue

and some of their training,

that in fact when the flight crew crashed the airplane,

when the counter got to zero

they thought the airport should be there.

A fully loaded 747

weighs more than 44,000 pounds.

Like an enormous ocean liner,

it can't change course quickly.

- - 100.

50.

Blinded by rain and relying on their equipment,

the crew of Korean Air flight 801

thought they were heading straight at the runway.

When they realized something was wrong,

it was too late.

As the investigation continues,

Feith and his team make a startling discovery.

Equipment that would have given the crew more time to react

had been disabled...

On purpose.

The final accident investigation report

is published more than two years after the crash.

It lays blame on the Korean Airlines' training methods

and the crew's over-reliance on the jet's automation.

But it also has sharp words reserved for the FAA,

the body that regulates air travel in the United States.

Because of an FAA decision,

a critical piece of technology

that could have saved flight 801

was intentionally disabled.

The minimum safe altitude warning system, or MSAW,

is a standard piece of equipment at major American airports.

But in Guam, the FAA had made a critical alteration

to the way it was used.

Contact the Agana tower...

MSAW uses radar to watch the planes

as they come into the airport.

If they're too low,

a warning is given to air traffic controllers,

who can then relay it to the crew.

But in Guam, the system kept giving nuisance readings

to controllers.

The controllers kept getting these nuisance warnings.

They redesigned the software

and moved the limitations of the MSAW

further away from the airport,

where it afforded no one a level of protection.

Instead of watching the planes

as they neared the airport,

the system in Guam now tracked them

when they were some 50 miles away, over the ocean.

I think the best way to describe that

would have been and should be, irresponsible,

because you've taken this system that was designed

as a level of protection not only for the controller,

but you've taken the protection away from the flying public.

For the passengers and crew of flight 801,

the lack of the MSAW system sealed their fate.

If the system had been working,

the crash could have been avoided.

Without it, the crew had no warning at all.

The two pilots didn't want to die.

They had families.

No one wanted to die.

We still do not blame them.

I guess the bottom line is

nobody wanted to be in that situation.

It was just something that happened.

For Barry Small,

the years since the crash of flight 801

have been emotional and frustrating.

The civil aviation authority in his homeland of New Zealand

has acknowledged the potential danger posed

by duty-free liquor on board.

But so far, no policies have been changed.

His desire to modify airplane seat design

has also been ignored.

Sean Burke was never officially identified

as a victim of flight 801.

Wendy Bunten was positively identified,

but DNA samples only proved

that a white male was on the plane near her.

Bill and I never gave up hope

that Sean had survived the crash.

Even after we came home for,

I would say, a year or two,

every time the phone rang,

every time somebody knocked on the door,

we expected a phone message

saying, "hi, dad, this is your son Sean."

For Sean's father, the deep sorrow of the crash

will never completely leave.

For me, the grief of Sean's loss never ends.

Hasn't gotten better, hasn't gotten worse.

Just another day.

Uh...for everybody else, it's gone.

I expect people to move on,

but I'll be this way

till the day I'm with him again.

For Barry Small there is anger, too,

but also incredible gratitude for surviving.

So many people have told me

that I survived for a reason.

I've been searching for that reason for nine years now,

and I truly believe if someone would listen to my story

about the oxygen and the alcohol

and the improvement of the seats,

that I could justify in my own mind

that I don't need to feel guilty about surviving.