All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S07E09.Vertigo.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Overbank. Overbank!

In the dark
night of the Red Sea,

a pilot struggles to
control his passenger jet.

Return power.

The plane seems
to have a life of its own.

Oh, God.

Something is
happening to the plane.

I heard a scream, a noise.

After that, I didn't
hear anything.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines.

Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Brace for impact!

The
sands of Egypt hide

thousands of years of history.

Monuments to ancient
civilizations

dominate the landscape.

But for sun loving Europeans,
Egypt

is also a resort destination
where the most important

sand is on the beach.

The town of Sharm
el-Sheikh is several miles

southeast of Cairo.

Perched in the Red Sea,
it's a natural destination

for people looking for a
little rest and relaxation.

Sharm el-Sheikh is

quite popular with Europeans.

The reason is, where
can you get very

warm sea with a 5-hour flight?

And you have the Red
Sea, which is crystal

clear, beautiful mountains.

It's just extraordinary.

The city's
popularity is growing.

More than 4 million
people a year

use Sharm el-Sheikh's airport.

In the early days of 2004,
tourists aren't the only ones

drawn to the local beaches.

British Prime Minister Tony
Blair is also in the region,

visiting Egyptian
leader Hosni Mubarak.

Just after 2:00 in the
morning on January 3,

many vacationers are
still out on the town,

but 53-year-old
Captain Khedr Abdullah

is just starting his day.

He's renowned for
his punctuality.

A former officer in the
Egyptian Air Force, Khedr

is now a highly respected
captain with the charter

company Flash Airlines.

He always liked
to pack his own suitcase.

He wouldn't let
me do it for him.

He always said, I'd like to
prepare my own things to make

sure I don't forget anything.

He was very precise
on what he wanted

and what he would
take with him.

Captain
Khedr meets up

with his 25-year-old First
Officer, Amr Al-Shaafei.

Together, they'll
fly out of Sharm

el-Sheikh heading for Paris.

Good morning.

Good morning, sir.

Al-Shaafei
is young enough

to be the captain's son.

The early morning flight
isn't for everyone.

Pascal Mercier and
his family were

supposed to be on the Flash
jet but changed their plans.

I was booked
on the Flash Airline flight.

When my agency told me that
I had to wake up very early

and then we had to
change planes in Cairo,

I said, this is really stupid.

I mean, my daughter
was like 2 years old

and the other ones
were like 6 and 8.

So really, I didn't feel
comfortable about changing

planes and so on.

For other
tourists, the cheap tickets

that Flash offers are worth the
trouble of getting up early.

France Thuillier
was able to bring

his entire family to Egypt.

They needed the break.

My brother-in-law
had just lost his father.

So he brought his children,
his mother and his wife

there just to have a good time.

Not to see the
sights or anything,

just to have a good time.

That's what Sharm
el-Sheikh is known for.

Fatima Hjiaj is
also heading back to Paris

after a vacation in Sharm.

The mother of five
is flying alone.

Before takeoff, she calls
her nephew in France.

Hi.

I was
asleep when she called.

I didn't really want to get
into a conversation with her.

She was someone who
called you for everything.

She needed to be reassured.

So even though she had the 5
or 6-hour flight ahead of her,

she just wanted to make
sure that I would be there

to pick her up at the airport.

In all, 148
passengers and crew

settled into their
seats aboard the jet.

604...

It's 5:00 AM.

Cairo met condition time 02...

In the cockpit,
Ashraf Abdelhamid is

the third member of the crew.

He's training as
a first officer,

although he has worked for
years piloting corporate jets.

Temperature 12, due point 01...

None of
the crew members

are happy with the poor
quality of the weather

information they're
getting from a local air

traffic controller.

They didn't say sky clear.

They said clouds and sky clear.

How?

The two are opposite.

Ask them both ceiling.

No ceiling.

And clouds and sky clear.

Maybe scattered.

Maybe he means scattered.

Good morning.

The captain
is also frustrated

that one of his
instruments isn't working.

Although the engineer
agrees there's a problem,

it's not serious enough to fix.

Especially electrical.

The men laugh
it off at the expense

of the first officer.

It's probably caused by
Amr making a heavy landing.

Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of Captain
Khedr and his entire crew,

we welcome you on board Flash
Airlines Boeing 737 300.

It's still
hours before dawn

when the plane lifts off.

The Flash Airlines flight
will head out over the Red Sea

before turning toward Cairo.

The jet climbs through
a pitch black night.

Without a moon to
light the scene,

it's hard for the passengers
to see much of anything

out their windows.

In the cockpit, the simple
turn over the Red Sea

is taking a bizarre twist.

See what the
aircraft just did?

Captain
Khedr doesn't like

the way his plane is behaving.

Turning right, sir.

What?

Aircraft is turning right.

Turning right?

How turning right?

The plane is supposed
to be turning left on its way

to Cairo.

Instead, it's turning in
the opposite direction.

OK, come out.

The captain tries to
get his plane back on course,

but his situation
just gets worse.

Overbank.

Knowing
he's in trouble,

the captain tells
the first officer

to engage the autopilot...

Autopilot.

Autopilot!

...but
it doesn't work.

No autopilot, commander.

The 737 is now flying
almost completely on its side.

Something is
happening to the plane.

The plane
gains speed as it

spirals towards the Red Sea.

OK.

Just minutes
after takeoff, the plane

is out of control,
diving toward the water,

traveling at more
30 miles an hour.

Everyone on board can
feel the tremendous speed

and gut-wrenching turns.

The enormous
G-forces are making

it difficult for Captain Khedr
Abdullah to fly the plane.

Ashraf Abdelhamid, the third
member of the flight crew,

tells the captain to
slow the plane down.

Return power. Return power.
Return power.

The plane is
traveling so fast it's

ready to tear itself apart.

After flying
almost upside down,

the crew is finally
beginning to bring

their plane under control.

Oh, God.

Then they gave the
ground proximity warning.

They're getting dangerously
close to the Red Sea.

It's just before
5:00 in the morning,

minutes after the plane
took off from the airport.

It's disappeared from
local radar screens.

By the time the sun rises,
the crash site is found,

but there's little
for rescuers to do.

The plane shattered on impact.

There are no survivors.

All 148 people on board
the plane are dead.

Flight 604 was to land at
Charles de Gaulle Airport

in Paris in the morning.

As family and friends
wait, officials

list the plane as delayed
and then slowly break

the news of the accident.

It's very
strange since we were greeted

in a hotel and we passed
people who were living happy

because they were looking for
the same information as us,

but their families
were not on the list.

They came
with a paper in hand.

Here, yes, Madame Hjiaj Fatima.

We apologize that you
have to learn this way,

but she's dead.

Later
on his voicemail,

Mohammed Hjiaj hears
Fatima's message

sent during the flight.

There was
a scream and noise.

After that, I didn't
hear anything.

Captain
Khedr's wife hears

about the crash from her son.

My son
called me from abroad

and told me that he
had heard there was

an accident in Flash Airlines.

I was in disbelief for a
while until it became reality.

It was a very big shock for me.

In resort hotels,
workers check the empty rooms

of those who were on Flight
604,

but one of the rooms
is occupied.

Mr. Mercier.

This guy from
the hotel, the hotel staff

began to cry.

He was really shocked,
happily shocked to see us.

He thought we were in the
flight with everybody else.

They're here.

In my hotel, 82 people were
on that flight, 82 people.

It was really, really strange.

There had
been no Mayday call

from the plane, no warning
to air traffic control

that something was wrong.

With the plane crashing
just minutes after it left

the airport, there are
immediate concerns that a bomb

had brought the jet down.

The plane had just taken off

and it looked very strange
why this accident happened

so quickly after takeoff.

When investigators
examine the plane's flight

path, they discover it
would have gone directly

over the town where
Egyptian leader Hosni

Mubarak kept a vacation home.

It's also close
to the house where

British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and his family

were staying.

Blair and his
family were supposed

to leave from the
same airport that day.

Security around
the prime minister

is immediately heightened.

Two days after the
crash, authorities

receive a phone call.

Terrorists from Yemen claim
responsibility for the crash.

They say it is a protest
against a French law

banning the Muslim headscarf,
the Hijab, in public schools.

But in spite of the
phone call and the rumors

swirling around
Egypt, investigators

quickly rule out terrorism.

If you have a wreckage
distributed over a very

large area, that
means the plane

was disintegrating in the air.

And due to an
explosion, it would be

disintegrating on a wide area.

In this case, there was
very, very few pieces and all

located in a very small area.

So this indicated that
the plane was intact

and went into the water intact.

If it
wasn't terrorism,

what had ripped the plane
from the sky so quickly?

Investigators face an
enormous challenge.

The plane has sunk below
the surface of the Red Sea.

Divers have to fight off sharks
that are drawn to the carnage.

The rescue teams find
few bodies intact.

The aircraft and most of
the 148 passengers and crew

have sunk almost 3,300 feet
to the bottom of the Red Sea.

The investigators'
first mission

is to find the aircraft's
flight data and cockpit voice

recorders, the black boxes.

If they survived
the crash, they

will now be on the seabed.

But this part of the Red
Sea has never been charted.

With so many French
tourists involved,

the French government offers
to help in any way it can.

The
French immediately

responded by sending a
boat specially equipped

with robots to search
the bottom of the sea.

But the
wreckage is too deep.

The French boat sub can't
survive the enormous pressure

at the bottom of the sea.

The investigators desperately
need another submarine,

but they're running
out of time.

The black box transmits
a radio signal,

but its battery only
lasts for 30 days.

If investigators can't
find it within a month,

the mystery of flight
604 may never be solved.

While efforts to recover flight
604's black boxes continue,

family and friends
of the victims

begin to mourn those who died.

They pressure investigators
to solve the mystery.

It's the biggest
air disaster involving

French nationals, the
biggest in the history

of civil aviation.

American, French and
Egyptian experts join forces.

While waiting for the plane's
black boxes to be recovered,

they also begin focusing
on Flash Airlines itself.

Flying just two planes, it was
one of a number of low cost

charter companies that
had been competing

for customers in Europe.

In the last 10
years, there had been

a rapid expansion
of budget airlines

throughout this
part of the world.

Offering inexpensive
no-frills service,

they fought for a piece
of the holiday market.

010 to clear flight...

Seaside resorts
like Sharm el-Sheikh

were one of the many
destinations they served.

Now one of
the ways in which they provide

this extremely cheap travel is
by operating their airplanes

24 hours a day.

Operating on
such tight schedules

means the planes are
flown constantly.

Former Flash passengers
stepped forward to complain

about other flights.

There are a lot of stories.

I was flying home
after a vacation.

A year
before the crash

while flying from Sharm
el-Sheikh to Bologna,

one passenger recalls seeing
flames pouring from a Flash

Airlines jet engine.

Hey, hey.

The engine's on fire.

Look.

The flaming
aircraft is forced

to make an emergency landing.

Investigators learned that
in 2002, the Swiss Aviation

Authority performed a surprise
inspection on the same plane

that would later crash.

The pilot's oxygen
masks were missing.

There weren't
enough oxygen tanks.

Some of the cockpit
instruments weren't working.

It was enough for the Swiss to
ground the flight for 8 hours

until the company
repaired the plane.

A few days later, Flash
Airlines was banned

from flying in Switzerland.

Another ban occurred in Poland.

In Norway, tour
operators stopped

contracting with Flash.

It's a rare event for
an airline to be banned

from operating into a country.

They had to have done
something dramatically wrong,

especially when it
comes to safety.

With mounting
concerns about the safety

record of Flash
Airlines, investigators

comb through the
company's paperwork.

They discover that
the most recent

maintenance records for
the plane that crashed

were never duplicated.

They've disappeared
with the aircraft.

The lack of having

copies of the technical log
and all of them being on board,

of course, this is a violation.

And the civil aviation
here issued

very clear instructions

that this should not happen.

The
French authorities

agree that there are serious
questions about Flash.

They now ban the company
from flying in France.

While there are concerns about
the state of the company's

planes, there are no
such issues when it comes

to the crew of Flight 604.

Captain Khedr was considered
not only a flying ace

but a national war hero for
his performance in the Yom

Kippur War with Israel.

During his career,
he not only flew

sophisticated fighter
jets but also a variety

of large cargo aircraft.

He had over 7,000
hours of flying

experience as well as 2,000
hours as a flight instructor.

All the evidence shows that
Captain Khedr was a model pilot,

but trying to prove
that there was anything

wrong with the plane that
crashed is difficult.

Much of the wreckage has
sunk deep beneath the waves.

Investigators have
been unable to find

the plane's black boxes.

Whenever an airplane
crashes into the water,

there's always a
fear by investigators

that the cockpit voice recorder
and the flight data recorder

may not be recovered.

Those two boxes, in
and of themselves,

give the investigator
a very good picture,

and without them, could
make the investigation

process very, very difficult.

Finally, after
several days of searching,

a breakthrough.

A French research ship
hears the locator signals

emitted by the black boxes.

A remotely operated sub
drops down over 3,300 feet.

Two weeks after the crash,
both the cockpit voice recorder

and the flight data
recorder are recovered

from the bottom of the sea.

Investigators finally
have some hard evidence.

The Egyptian, French and
American team examines

the critical devices in Cairo.

After the two black
boxes are found,

the salvage effort wraps up.

Other than a select
number of small pieces,

the rest of the plane
is too deep to recover.

Without the wreckage itself,
investigators concentrate

on what they do have.

They hope the black boxes will
recreate the final minutes

of the doomed plane.

One of the things

we did to depict the
path of the aircraft

was we created an
animation based

on the data we got from
the flight data recorder

and from radar.

The
flight data recorder

paints a devastating picture.

Shortly after
takeoff, the plane

began heading left just
as it was supposed to,

but then it quickly
started banking

in the other direction.

The cockpit voice recorder
shows that the turn

caught the captain off guard.

Turning right, sir.

What?

How turning right?

Analyzing the
cockpit voice recorder showed

that the pilots were
experiencing definitely

some kind of an abnormality,
a problem that they

could not understand.

The investigators
sift through the flight data

to find some explanation for
the jet's bizarre movement.

Perhaps a mechanical fault was
forcing the plane off course.

And there is an indication
that something

was wrong with the flash
jet before it took off.

On the runway, the captain
and the ground engineer

discussed an
electrical malfunction,

but it's impossible to
tell from the cockpit

voice recorder exactly
what the problem was.

Especially electrical.

What's that?

It's like what used to
happen in the other aircraft.

And tragically,
the ground engineer

was also on the flight.

We believe, from
the data we were looking at

and the flight data recorder,
that there is a very high

possibility that the plane was
tending to turn to the right

by itself.

But exactly
what had gone wrong?

With the wreckage of
flight 604 scattered

across the sea floor, the
answer may never be known.

Family and friends of
the victims of flight 604

are becoming more
and more frustrated.

As the months pass,
they demand answers.

We were led to protest

outside the Egyptian embassy
because we had no news.

11 months after the
disaster, we had

no message, no information.

Shortly
after the protest,

Egyptian investigators
release a factual report.

It contains all
of the information

from the black
boxes, but the report

does not reach any conclusions
about why the jet crashed.

Ladies and gentlemen,
good evening.

With a situation
as complicated as this one,

the investigators don't
yet have any answers.

The only thing they
can do is keep looking.

You look into
every hypothetical scenario

that would create
a similar profile.

And then you see if this
profile fit the data

that you have put together.

50 different theories
are examined in minute detail.

Investigators travel
to the United States

to test the most likely ideas
in a sophisticated simulator.

If they can force the simulator
to repeat the movements

of the Flash jet, they
might be able to figure

out why the plane crashed.

The results are
brought back to Cairo.

There are only four
mechanical faults

that could have produced the
flight path of the doomed jet.

Investigators believe
the key to the crash

is to find out why the plane
began turning off course.

These four scenarios

were all related to what would
cause an uncommanded bank.

So we were left
with these as causes

that we could not rule out.

Two of the
scenarios involve the spoilers

in the plane's right wing.

Spoilers lift up from the
top surface of the wing,

slowing it down.

By producing drag or
spoiling the airflow,

they help turn the aircraft.

If the pilot's control wheel
or the cables that connect it

to the spoiler
jammed, it could have

forced the plane off course.

Problems with the spoilers
are one explanation,

but there's no physical proof.

And while there were
maintenance problems

with Flash planes,
none of them had

to do with the jet spoilers.

The team searches for a
different explanation.

Another potential cause of the
crash is the plane's ailerons.

This part of the wing controls
the angle of the plane's turn.

A malfunctioning aileron
could have caused the plane

to roll to the right.

Again, if the crew
couldn't fix the problem,

the plane would have begun
to spiral into the sea.

While so-called aileron trim
runaway would create a flight

path like the one seen
during the crash, once again,

there's no physical proof
to support the theory.

And typically, aileron
trim runaway can be

physically overcome by pilots.

All he
would have had to do

was overpower using more force
to move the control wheel

in an opposite direction.

Overbank.

When they listen to
the cockpit voice recorder,

the investigators are puzzled
by the constant discussion

of the plane's autopilot.

Autopilot.

The captain asked for
the autopilot to be turned on,

but it had no
effect, and the plane

began to plummet to the sea.

And earlier in the cockpit
recording, investigators

uncover another
curious exchange.

Captain Khedr began the
initial turn over the Red Sea

manually, but decided to
let the autopilot take over.

Autopilot.

The
flight data recorder

shows that the autopilot
was indeed turned

on as the plane climbed.

Not yet.

But then the captain
appears to change his mind.

The plane's flight
data recorder

shows that the autopilot was
only activated for 3 seconds,

but investigators
wonder if the autopilot

had malfunctioned and stayed
in command of the jet.

The automated system
could have continued

to control the plane,
flying it to the right,

even after the pilots thought
it had been disengaged.

The malfunction
of the autopilot, of course,

took a lot of work
from us because it

was nearly impossible to
show that it did not happen

and quite impossible to
show that it did happen.

So... but it was always a
very prominent possibility

because it would give a
very, very close scenario

to what was happening.

Perhaps
most puzzling of all

is that no matter what
happened to the plane,

it appeared to be under
control just before it crashed.

Moments before
impact, the captain

seemed to be back in
command of his airplane.

If there had been some
crippling mechanical problem,

why did it seem to disappear?

Some members of the
team want to consider

something besides mechanical
fault, the pilots themselves.

I think the major
concern for the United States

was that the human factors
elements of this accident

weren't thoroughly explored.

Perhaps
the high esteem

given to Egyptian pilots
was getting in the way.

In Egypt, pilots
are very respected.

And in particular,
Air Force pilots

are very highly regarded.

For the past 26 years,
the country's president

has been a highly decorated
Air Force officer.

In an environment like
this, the pilot is

somewhat immune to suspicion.

When something goes wrong,
the natural tendency

is to blame the equipment.

And on this
flight, the pilot

was a war hero with thousands
of hours of experience.

Studying the flight
data recorders again,

the investigators discover
something peculiar.

Even before the plane's
bizarre turn to the right,

three things all seemed to
happen at the same time.

Instead of a smooth left turn,
the plane begins to come out

of its turn early, the
nose starts to rise,

and the plane's airspeed
decreases noticeably.

But during this time,
the pilot says nothing.

It seems that he's
unaware of the changes

to his flight path.

I've flown out
of Sharm el-Sheikh

at nighttime and in the
same type of aircraft.

And in no way should the
pilot allow the airspeed

to drop by as much as 30
knots or the bank angle

to change beyond 5
degrees without clearly

stating the reasons for the
change in the flight path.

Some
investigators consider

a provocative theory that
might explain this seemingly

bizarre behavior.

Perhaps Captain Khedr had
been affected by vertigo.

Vertigo is a physiological
condition that would exist

with any person,
not just pilots,

and it's based
on the inner ear.

Over a dark ocean without
a defined visual horizon,

no ground lights,
the pilot may not

be able to perceive visually
whether he was flying up,

down, left or right.

And if the fluid in his
inner ear was moving

or he tilted his head, that
may induce a sensation,

a physiological sensation
that may cause the pilot

to believe the airplane is
flying straight and level

when it's actually turning.

The plane's flight
path is ideal for creating

a sense of vertigo.

The Flash Airline jet took
off into a moonless night.

Captain Khedr was
flying manually

and began to turn
as he was climbing.

Heading out over dark water,
it would be very difficult

using just his senses
for Captain Khedr

to know exactly where he was.

Roger.

When ready, inshallah.

Left turn to establish 306.

Sharm VOR.

It is actually a very high
workload situation.

And when there are no visual
cues outside because it's

a moonless night and you're
over featureless territory

with no lights in it, you
really as a professional pilot

should be totally
aware of the fact

that this is a
situation in which

you could get disorientated.

It's a classic.

It's happened so many times.

It's killed so many people
in the last 10 years.

When the
plane was supposed

to be turning slowly left,
the control wheel began

inching towards the right.

Perhaps the captain was
making the turn without even

being aware of it.

When you study
the movement of the aircraft

control surfaces, it appears
that something was guiding

captain Khedr to the right.

Now, that could have
been a false horizon

or something he'd seen
outside of his window.

See what the
aircraft just did?

Or
perhaps he believed

he was actually correcting a
problem with the plane itself.

He thinks he's
gained his flight path again.

And all of a sudden,
at this moment,

he receives contradictory
information.

Turning right, sir.

What?

Aircraft is turning right.

The
contradictory information

adds to the pilot's confusion.

He believes he's
fixing a problem

when he's told his
problems have just started.

In this particular instance,

not only are you trying
to fly the airplane

and understand situationally
what's happening,

but you're going through
the mental gymnastics

because your
expectations are one way.

Meanwhile, you have
the first officer

who's telling him something
that's totally different.

Aircraft
is turning right.

Egyptian
investigators

agree that Captain
Khedr may have suffered

some form of disorientation
during the flight,

but they don't believe
it was the only problem

the crew was dealing with.

I don't really
have a very clear

indication that it
was this orientation,

but it's possible.

There was recovery
from this orientation.

The time to find
out the problem

and take the corrective action
needed was more than the time

left before impact.

No matter what
role disorientation played

in the crash, investigators
are about to learn

that the crew wasn't properly
trained to deal with it.

Officials at Flash Airlines
reveal that they hadn't

provided the pilots with crew
resource management training,

although it was a
requirement for the company.

It might have
helped the crew deal

with their
horrifying situation.

Crew resource
management is a program

where pilots are
trained to work together

rather than as individuals.

Had the pilots of Flash Air 604
received a formal CRM training

program, the outcome
of this flight

may have been
substantially different.

American
investigators

believe the young first officer
may have felt the plane was

in trouble before
the captain did,

but failed to offer
suggestions to his much

more experienced co-worker.

-Turning right, sir.
-What?

Aircraft is turning right.

Nor did he attempt
to take control of the plane.

Formal CRM
training would have empowered

the first officer who had the
best situational awareness

and the most information about
the position of the airplane

to take command of the
airplane when he saw

that the captain wasn't taking
the appropriate

corrective action.

An earlier
conversation in the cockpit

before takeoff may reveal
why the young first officer

would have been reluctant
to challenge the captain.

Yesterday, we were coming in
at dusk and the sun was 2-2.

Yeah.

I felt I could
hardly see the runway.

He's already saying in sight.

What in sight?

Age, sir.

It may not have
been meant as an insult,

but it may have reinforced
the first officer's

feeling that he was the
student and the captain was

the teacher.

I am unable to raise my
eyes and he says, in sight.

Where in sight?

It is going to
serve as negative feedback.

The young first officer
is bound to hesitate.

He doesn't want
to be wrong again.

He doesn't want to
lose the respect

of an Air Force general.

In
a crew, an effort

must be made to bring
together people who

are able to co-pilot,
not a crew in which one

person pilots and
the other person

looks on without saying a word.

But the
captain and the co-pilot

weren't alone in the cockpit.

A third crew member with
more experience than the

first officer was also there.

Maybe scattered.

Maybe he means scattered.

He too
never said anything

until the final
seconds of the flight.

Otherwise, how will we
know when we clear the cloud.

We hear him speak

very clearly and very openly.

All during the time before
the engines start up,

he was in conversation with the
first officer and the captain.

So this experienced person
being very quiet all through,

we believe that if he saw
any of the crew members

doing something that
he should not be doing

or not doing something
that he should be doing,

would have said something.

Return power!

Return power!

The
only word he said,

was return the throttles, at
a later stage of the event.

Shows that that's
the only thing

he saw that should be done.

Even if the co-pilot
had taken control sooner,

there is no way to know if
he could have saved the jet.

Whatever took place in
Flight 604 happened quickly.

And since the plane
had just taken off,

the crew had little time
to react before they

crashed into the sea.

The final report on the
Flash Airlines crash

was released in March 2006.

There are no clear answers.

Egyptian officials say that
any of four mechanical problems

could have caused the crash.

They say disorientation
may have played a role,

but it's not the reason
behind the accident.

American investigators
refuse to blame the plane.

Instead, they say
the problem lies

with the airline, which
didn't sufficiently

train their crews.

The pilots are
responding based

on skills, abilities,
knowledge, and what

they got out of training.

If the training was
deficient, that's

a company responsibility.

Two months
after the crash,

Flash Airlines went
out of business.

And as a result of
the Flash 604 tragedy,

new rules came into place to
ensure that in the future,

aircraft safety violations
will be judged more harshly.

The
Flash Airlines crash

gave the final political
impetus to a move

to create a European blacklist,

where if one state banned

an airline, then all
the other European Union

states would automatically
ban that airline also.

The
Egyptian investigation

concluded with an
important recommendation.

We
have recommended

that some kind of training
or awareness program

should be made to be able to
have a pilot observe another

being disoriented early
and what he should do to,

first, maintain
safe flight, second,

to pull the pilot from
his disorientation

back to orientation.

Was there
a mechanical problem

at the heart of the crash?

Investigators will
likely never know.

With so much of the plane still
at the bottom of the Red Sea,

questions will always
remain for the investigators

and everyone else who was
affected by the crash.

I lost my
nephews and my niece.

They were just kids .

What future would
they have had?

How can you put
a price on that?

What a waste.

The families will
never be able to fully mourn,

me included,
because we'll never

know what really happened.