Original subtitles

Pilot: Going down, 1862, going down! Going down!

Narrator: A 747 cargo jet

plunges into an apartment complex.

Man: No!

Man: Cut it like a knife.

Pilot: El al 1862, mayday, mayday.

Narrator: Amid wild rumors...

Man: There was speculation

that a missile had struck the aircraft.

Man: We need those black boxes!

Narrator: Crash investigators search for the cause

of the Netherlands' worst air disaster.

Man: There was a lot of pressure

to come up with some findings as quickly as possible.

Man: The only trouble is

the investigators didn't know the answers,

which were simply not available.

Narrator: Preventing an even greater disaster

may now be a race against time.

Man: We were extremely worried and concerned

that the next airplane might have been a passenger airplane.

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 into this tragedy...

Man: He's gonna crash!

Narrator: It's a quiet Sunday evening

at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

Yitzhak Fuchs: Everybody ready for takeoff?

Arnon Ohad: It's all looking good.

Narrator: An el al cargo jet is fueled

and ready to depart for Tel Aviv.

Fuchs: El al 1862, good evening.

Controller: Good evening, el al 1862.

Line up in sequence 0-1 left.

Fuchs: Roger.

Narrator: The Boeing 747 is loaded with 140 tons of freight.

The crew is under the command of Yitzhak Fuchs.

Like all el al pilots,

he earned his wings in the Israeli military.

Guri Palter: He was, uh, many years in the company already

and flew for the air force at first,

so I believe he had something

like 20,000, 25,000 hours of flying.

Ohad: How's our fuel?

Gedalya Sofer: Yeah.

More than enough for a four-hour flight.

Narrator: Gedalya Sofer is the flight engineer.

It's his job to monitor the performance of the aircraft,

including the engines and fuel consumption.

Palter: The flight engineer was also very, very experienced,

very professional, flying with the company many years.

I think he was about to retire at that time.

Controller: El al 1862 is clear for takeoff, 0-1 left.

Fuchs: Clear for takeoff, 0-1 left, roger.

Arnon, she's all yours.

Ohad: Thanks, Yitzhak.

Narrator: First officer Arnon Ohad will be handling

the controls for this flight.

Ohad: On the roll.

Palter: The legs of the flight are divided by both captains

and first officers to get the same experience.

Narrator: The freighter's four massive Pratt & Whitney engines

pump out 200,000 pounds of thrust.

Fuchs: V-1.

Rotate.

David Learmount: The visibility was good.

It was cool, but, um, there was no, no weather to worry about.

Ohad: Gear up.

Fuchs: Gear up.

Learmount: It was a routine flight back to base.

Narrator: Flight 1862 will now head east

over the suburbs of Amsterdam's,

then turn south to fly across central Europe

before landing in Tel Aviv.

Controller: El al 1862, climb flight level 2-1-0.

Fuchs: Flight level 2-1-0, roger.

Narrator: The controller clears them for a climb to 21,000 feet.

Sofer: Engines are looking good.

Climb power's set.

Palter: It's quite normal and routine

climbing out of the, of the airport.

They were expecting to be home in about four hours.

Narrator: Everything seems normal

for the first seven minutes of flight.

Ohad: What the hell?

Learmount: What happened was not only dramatic,

it was completely sudden.

There was no warning whatsoever.

Narrator: The 747 is rolling violently to the right,

and the crew has no idea why.

Fuchs: I have control.

Ohad: You have control.

Narrator: The captain takes over flying the plane.

Palter: The, uh, wings are banking to the right.

Fuchs: Sofer, what can you tell me?

Sofer: Engines three and four are out.

Narrator: Both engines on the right wing have suddenly died.

Learmount: This is a very dramatic situation.

The wing where the engines have failed drops

and the other wing rises.

Ohad: We need to level off.

Fuchs: Working on it.

Narrator: The captain struggles to bring the plane level.

Sofer: We're losing hydraulics on system three.

No, three and four.

Narrator: Critical flight controls are failing.

Learmount: The hydraulics power the controls.

This is such a big airplane

that pilots can't control it with muscle alone.

Fuchs: Full left rudder.

Learmount: The only way you can get the aircraft

level and straight again

is to put the rudder on with your left foot

and try and pick up the right wing.

Ohad: Wings coming up.

Narrator: Captain Fuchs can barely control the plane.

Controller: Speed bird 943, climb flight level 2-8-0.

Narrator: At Schiphol air traffic control,

the evening routine is about to be shattered.

Ohad: El al 1862.

Mayday, mayday. We have an emergency.

Palter: They realize right away

that they are in a real bad situation.

Controller: El al 1862, do you wish to return to Schiphol?

Ohad: Affirmative.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Controller: Turn right heading 2-6-0.

Narrator: The crew now has a heading back to the airport.

But with hydraulics failing,

the captain is having more and more difficulty

controlling the plane.

Ohad: Watch your pitch.

Narrator: Then, the crisis gets much worse.

Ohad: We have a fire in number three.

Narrator: A new warning tells the crew

one of the engines is on fire.

Sofer: Shutting down engine three.

Ohad: We have a fire in engine three.

Controller: Roger.

Learmount: You've got to get the fire out quickly,

because if fire starts, that's serious,

because it will structurally damage the airplane

very rapidly.

Ohad: Number three fire extinguisher.

Fuchs: Pull it.

Narrator: The crew triggers the fire extinguisher

and waits for it to douse the flames.

Learmount: They had not only to keep control

of this really stricken airplane,

they also had to go through the routine

for putting the fire out.

Ohad: Okay, we still have a fire warning.

Narrator: The procedure has no effect.

The crew can't see their engines from the cockpit.

They have no idea how bad the fire might be.

Palter: When it doesn't work

you are getting into real pressure

to put the aircraft back on the, on the ground very quick.

Fuchs: We need to land.

See if they can get us down on runway 2-7.

Ohad: We have a fire in engine three,

engine three and four inoperative.

Request runway 2-7 for landing.

Narrator: The captain knows the airport.

He wants to land on the longest runway at Schiphol.

Controller: In that case, heading 3-6-0, heading 3-6-0.

Ohad: Roger, 3-6-0.

Learmount: It's the pilot who decides what can be done,

especially with an airplane

which is as badly stricken as this one.

The air traffic controller's job is to facilitate

that request from the air.

Controller: That'll give you a right turn

to cross the localizer.

You only have seven miles to go from current position.

Fuchs: Damn it!

Narrator: The crew is now facing another huge challenge.

Fuchs: There's no way that we can slow down at this distance.

We're gonna have to go around again.

Ohad: Agreed.

Narrator: They're too close to the airport

to slow down in time to land.

Captain Fuchs decides to make a descending turn over Amsterdam's

so he can lose speed and altitude

before coming in to land.

Palter: They have no power on the right side, no hydraulics.

Learmount: These pilots had an airplane

which was scarcely flyable, but they didn't know why.

Ohad: There's Schiphol at our three o'clock.

Fuchs: Got it.

Narrator: The crew has to make one final turn

to line up with the runway.

Controller: 1862, your speed is?

Ohad: Speed is 2-6-0.

Narrator: Despite the unexplained damage to his plane,

Fuchs manages to guide the 747 toward the runway.

Palter: Very difficult controlling the aircraft

in this situation,

but they controlled the aircraft the full 360 degrees back.

Ohad: Speed's a little high.

Are we stable enough to make the runway?

Fuchs: We'll see.

Narrator: The crew has no doubt.

This will be the riskiest landing they've ever attempted.

Fuchs: Here we go.

Narrator: Flight 1862 is less than three minutes from landing.

Fuchs: Alright. Let's get the gear down.

Ohad: Gear down. Three green.

Narrator: Amsterdam's airport is tantalizingly close.

Fuchs: Reducing speed.

Narrator: Captain Yitzhak Fuchs slows his plane

and calls for the flaps.

Fuchs: Flaps two.

Narrator: He wants to increase the wings' surface area...

Ohad: Flaps two.

Narrator: ...to add lift at the slower speed

he needs for landing.

Fuchs: Alright, nice and easy.

Easy...

Easy!

No, no, no, no!

Ohad: We're losing it.

Narrator: The plane is once again rolling to the right,

and this time it's worse.

Learmount: The pilot realized that by going slower

he was having even more control problems than he already had.

Controller: El al, further right heading 3-1-0, heading 3-1-0.

Narrator: Controllers urge the pilots

to correct their course to the runway.

Fuchs: I can't hold it! I can't hold it!

Ohad: Uh, we have a controlling problem.

Learmount: They realized that their aircraft

was uncontrollable.

Fuchs: No, no, no! Come on!

Ohad: Going down.

Going down, 1862, going down.

Going down.

Fuchs: Come on!

Palter: Hit the building and, and cut it like a knife.

Narrator: El al 1862 has slammed

into an 11-story apartment block.

The Bijlmermeer apartment complex,

home to thousands of people, is engulfed in flames.

Henk Van Rooij: You prepare yourself for a lot of things,

but this was more than I ever expected.

Narrator: Henk Van Rooij is one of hundreds

of Amsterdam firefighters who rush to the crash site.

Van Rooij: When I arrived there and I looked at the site,

and there was a big hole in it, and there was a massive fire.

It's the biggest fire I've ever seen in my life.

Narrator: The intensity of the inferno is overwhelming.

Van Rooij: The cargo plane was fueled up in Schiphol

with 80 tons of kerosene.

Narrator: Rescuers race to pull the injured to safety.

In the chaos, it's hard to know

how many victims there actually are.

Van Rooij: I was expecting 200 people dead, just killed,

and 600 people injured.

Narrator: The next morning, daylight reveals

the overwhelming scale of the disaster.

Pim Van Santen: It was traumatic to see the damage

and what it did to the people living there.

Narrator: The plummeting jet has cut the apartment block

completely in two.

There's almost nothing left of the plane.

No one aboard has survived.

Learmount: It was quite clear that a lot of lives

had been lost on the ground, let alone in the air.

Narrator: Though the exact number isn't yet known,

dozens are dead.

The eyes of the world soon focus

on the Netherlands' worst ever aviation disaster.

Learmount: The spectacular nature of this accident

was such that, you know, all the cameras were quickly there.

Narrator: The Dutch government assigns Pim Van Santen

to the crash investigation.

Van Santen: How soon can I get my team in here?

Thank you.

Narrator: He's well aware that his entire nation

will soon be demanding answers.

Van Santen: There was a lot of pressure,

both from the public, from the press,

to come up with some findings as quickly as possible.

Narrator: Van Santen faces a frustrating delay.

He's not allowed to examine the debris

until rescuers complete their search for victims

in the demolished building.

Van Santen: We're just waiting.

They're, they're clearing out the bodies.

We were basically walking around and getting as close as possible

without disturbing the rescue people.

Narrator: For now, vital evidence remains out of reach.

Van Santen: Go ahead, please.

Narrator: With the crash site off limits,

Van Santen turns to recordings

made by Schiphol air traffic control

on the night of the accident.

Ohad: El al 1862, mayday, mayday.

We have an emergency.

Controller: El al 1862, do you wish to return to Schiphol?

Narrator: It's not as detailed as the cockpit recording,

but does capture the conversations

between controllers and the el al crew.

Van Santen: You hear those people speaking,

and that makes it very, for me, at least,

made it very emotional.

You hear people speaking,

but you also know that they are dead.

Ohad: Uh, we have a controlling problem.

Narrator: The recording reveals

just how quickly the disaster unfolded.

Controller: El al, further right heading 3-1-0, heading 3-1-0.

Narrator: It captures the terrible moment

when the crew lost control of their plane.

Ohad: Going down, 1862, going down.

Narrator: But what triggered the crisis remains a mystery.

Van Santen: This isn't getting us anywhere.

We need to find those flight recorders.

We didn't hear anything

which was really directing us at the actual cause.

The only thing what was obvious

was that the airplane was no longer controllable.

Narrator: Van Santen pins his hopes

on recovering the plane's black boxes.

Every 747 carries a flight data recorder

and a cockpit voice recorder in the tail.

They capture detailed information about everything

the pilots say and do during the flight.

But finding those recorders won't be easy.

City officials have ordered the crash debris

to be trucked to dump sites around Amsterdam.

Van Santen: The city wanted to have the crash site cleaned

as quickly as possible,

because for the people living there

who may have lost relatives,

it was extremely traumatic to see this,

these buildings and parts of the airplane.

Robert Benzon: Dig in, guys.

We need those black boxes.

Narrator: Robert Benzon is a veteran investigator

with the U.S. National transportation safety board.

He joins the team and knows just how crucial

the voice and data recorders can be.

Benzon: We use those extensively

along with examination of wreckage

to nail down almost to an nth degree

what happened sometimes.

Narrator: Investigators face a difficult search

through a tangled mess of pulverized aircraft parts

and building debris.

Benzon: Hang on.

That's an engine part.

Goes over there.

You'd be surprised how much building debris,

pipes and things, can actually look like airplane parts.

It gets confusing.

Narrator: While investigators sort through

the mountains of debris,

witness reports provide a stunning lead.

Learmount: The earliest information

that I think the investigators had,

which gave them clues that there was more to this crash

than just the pilots losing power on two engines,

was that witnesses saw things happening to the airplane,

and they reported this.

Narrator: Just minutes before the crash,

they saw what looked like two jet engines

falling into lake Gooimeer, east of the airport.

Learmount: For an engine to fall off the wing of an airplane,

it's not unheard of, but it's very, very unusual.

Fuchs: Sofer, what can you tell me?

Sofer: Engines three and four are out.

Van Santen: Losing two engines for us was...

We've never heard of that before.

Two engines in this lake.

Let's find them, please.

Benzon: Two engines were missing,

and that became the focus of the investigation.

Narrator: Divers immediately take to the water

in search of the fallen debris.

What they find could solve this mystery.

Meanwhile, across Amsterdam, rumors begin to spread,

speculation about what could have torn two engines

from a 747.

Benzon: Well, the fact that the aircraft was an Israeli company,

el al, led to early speculation

that there may have been some kind of terrorist involvement.

Narrator: The history of conflict

between Israel and its Arab neighbors

suggests a terrifying possibility.

Benzon: There was early speculation

that a missile had struck the aircraft.

Narrator: Other rumors hint the 747 might have been carrying

explosive military cargo for the Israeli army,

cargo not listed on the official manifest.

Learmount: Oh, el al, must have been sabotage, must have been.

Might have been a missile.

They were going for absolutely every possible explanation.

The people standing in front of the cameras

had to have something to say, so they said it.

Narrator: Within hours,

the search of lake Gooimeer pays off.

Investigators recover one of flight 1862's

right side engines.

A look at the serial number reveals it's engine number four.

The 747's engines are numbered from left to right.

Number four is the outermost engine on the right wing.

Searchers also recover debris

from the forward edge of the right wing,

control surfaces that are crucial

for controlling the plane.

Van Santen: Um, we've got...

Benzon: The loss of leading edge components, flaps and slats,

led us to believe that the aircraft

was extremely difficult to fly safely.

Narrator: The mystery now is what caused

the engines to fall off.

Was it terrorism, a mechanical failure

or something else?

Investigators rush the recovered wreckage to a forensic lab

and test it for explosive residue.

Benzon: You have to look at every single part

to either rule it in or out.

Narrator: But there's no evidence of any explosion.

Benzon: And we looked at every single part

and ruled out a missile.

Narrator: One thing is now certain.

The el al disaster has nothing to do with terrorism.

But with engine three still missing,

the case is far from being solved.

Benzon: Finding both engines was a virtual necessity.

We had other parts of the aircraft, of course,

that went into the apartment complex,

but they were heavily damaged,

so we needed all the parts of the puzzle

that we could possibly locate.

Van Santen: Take a look at this.

Narrator: News of another recent accident

adds grave urgency to the search.

Van Santen: I think the whole fleet could be in danger.

Narrator: Investigators learn of another 747

that lost two engines and crashed

just nine months earlier.

Benzon: It quickly became apparent that a similar accident

occurred in, in Taiwan to a China Airlines 747,

very similar in fact.

Narrator: It suddenly seems possible that the 747

may have a deadly design flaw.

Benzon: That scares everybody,

because there were a thousand 747s out there at the time.

Van Santen: We were extremely worried and concerned

that if this was a pattern, that the next airplane

might have been a passenger airplane.

Narrator: Thousands of lives could be at risk.

Investigators must work quickly

to find out what brought down flight 1862.

The crash of a 747 near the heart of Amsterdam

has shocked people all across that city.

The Netherlands' queen Beatrix tours the devastation,

sharing in her nation's grief.

At least 43 people are dead.

Learmount: A lot of people died,

but it could have been much worse than that.

Narrator: Pressure builds to find evidence.

With engine three still missing,

investigators call in the Dutch navy

to search lake Gooimeer using sonar.

Van Santen: It is not very deep there,

maybe four or five meters,

but that is deep enough to make it difficult to find.

Narrator: Three days into the investigation,

a major breakthrough.

Searchers find a black box in the debris.

It's the flight data recorder.

Benzon: Okay.

Let's see what the lab can do with this.

Narrator: It should contain detailed information

about the operation of the engines,

but getting at that data may be impossible.

The huge impact has taken a heavy toll

on the critical recording device.

Benzon: The FDR survived the accident,

but it certainly wasn't intact.

Narrator: The tape is badly damaged.

Benzon: The tape had shattered upon impact in a couple places.

Narrator: But Van Santen and his team are determined.

They ship the recorder to Washington,

where NTSB experts will try to repair the damage.

More than a week after the Netherlands' worst air disaster,

there's still no sign of the second black box,

the cockpit voice recorder.

Benzon: Any luck?

Narrator: It looks like investigators will have to solve this mystery

without one of their best tools.

Benzon: You have to remember there was a giant pile of rubble

mixed in with an entire 747.

It never showed up.

My guess is that it probably was burned into a little cinder.

Narrator: Underwater searchers are having better luck.

They've found and recovered engine number three.

Investigators now have both the engines

from the right side of the plane.

But a close examination of the newly recovered engine

only adds to the mystery.

Van Santen: Visual exam shows no sooting, no signs of fire.

Ohad: We have a fire in number three.

Benzon: In spite of what the flight crew said over the radio,

there were absolutely no evidence of sooting,

melted metal, things like that inside the engines.

Sofer: Shutting down engine three.

Narrator: Whatever went wrong,

it not only caused the engines to separate from the wing,

it also triggered a false fire alarm that misled the crew.

Benzon: All they had to go on were lights and indications

in the cockpit.

I don't think they ever knew

that they were missing two engines.

Narrator: Investigators hope an unusual streak of paint

found on the cowling of engine three

will help explain what really happened.

They take a sample of the paint for testing.

Van Santen: Let's see if the lab can tell us

where this came from.

Narrator: While they wait for lab results,

investigators turn their attention to the fittings

that attach the engines to the wing.

Known as pylons, they're designed to be strong enough

to support the massive engines during all the rigors of flight.

Learmount: If the airplane is in turbulence in the sky

and the whole airplane is being shaken,

the engines are being shaken as well,

so the pylons have to be very, very strong.

Fuchs: V-1.

Narrator: Investigators know flight 1862 powered away safely

from the runway.

Fuchs: Rotate.

Narrator: They wonder, did the 747 hit something in the air

that somehow damaged the two right side engine mounts?

Air force radar scans from the night of the crash

reveal some intriguing data.

Van Santen: So these blue areas are all flocks of birds?

Wow.

Narrator: There were unusually large flocks of birds

around the airport the night of the crash.

Van Santen: One of the scenarios was that there was bird impact.

In October, November, we have lots of geese flying around

Schiphol airport, and these are big birds.

Narrator: Bird strikes can do incredible damage.

Ohad: What the hell?

Narrator: Finally, there might be an explanation...

Fuchs: I have control.

Ohad: You have control.

Narrator: ...for what tore two engines off el al flight 1862.

To test the bird strike theory,

the team turns to the science of light.

When exposed to ultraviolet light,

blood and other organic remains will glow green.

Van Santen: Looks clean.

Narrator: But they can find no green fluorescence

on any part of either engine.

The investigation is back to square one.

Van Santen: Bird impact was ruled out.

Fire was ruled out.

So basically then the conclusion was

it must have been something else.

So we know that...

Learmount: The media of course are putting pressure on them

to answer questions.

The only trouble is the investigators

didn't know the answers, either.

Narrator: Then the investigation takes a dramatic turn.

Lab results reveal the paint found on engine three

came from the cone-shaped spinner

at the front of another engine.

Van Santen: Get everyone together.

I think I know what happened.

Narrator: Van Santen believes there's only one scenario

that can explain the bizarre finding.

Van Santen: Say this is engine three.

Paint transfer is right there.

No way engine four could come forward,

but if engine three came off first,

it could fly back, and the spinner would hit right here.

Benzon: As in an automobile accident,

if you find the paint of one color

on a device made of another color,

uh, there's an indication that they struck each other.

Van Santen: In other words,

engine three knocked engine four off the plane.

Narrator: The four-ton engine would have hit with the force

of a small bulldozer.

Fuchs: Sofer, what can you tell me?

Sofer: Engines three and four are out.

Narrator: It's a critical discovery,

but it leaves a huge question unanswered.

Why did engine three fall off in the first place?

To try to solve that mystery,

investigators need to find the lugs and bolts

that connected that engine to the wing.

Learmount: In terms of finding the evidence,

the physical parts of the airplane,

so that you could find out what broke and how it broke,

was going to be difficult.

Narrator: The engine fittings could have fallen to earth

at any point during the midair crisis,

or they could be buried in the rubble from the crash site.

Van Santen: You'll never have any guarantee

that you will find all the parts,

which are needed to determine this most likely cause.

Narrator: Almost three weeks after the crash,

the investigation has hit a major hurdle.

Though it's clear why the el al crew declared a mayday...

Ohad: Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Narrator: Investigators still can't explain

what started the deadly chain of events.

Then, they get a lucky break.

A painstaking search through the crash debris

has recovered some key components from the fitting

that held engine three to the plane,

including one of four crucial bolts, or fuse pins,

that secure the pylon to the wing

and support the weight of the engine.

Van Santen: There was luck involved, definitely,

and that was really for us

the point where pieces are falling into place.

Narrator: Investigators study the pieces in search of clues.

A metallurgical scan leads to a stunning discovery.

There's a four-millimeter crack

on the inside of the hollow fuse pin.

Benzon: We discovered that it had pre-existing fatigue cracks.

If there's a micro crack in it,

it weakens the entire structure and makes it easier to break.

Narrator: Investigators theorize that as soon as one pin failed,

the entire engine fitting broke apart.

They suspect the crack is the result of simple wear and tear.

Every takeoff and landing puts stress on the crucial pin.

Fuchs: Rotate.

Narrator: Eventually, a tiny crack formed.

Sofer: Climb power's set.

Narrator: Over time, the crack grew worse and worse.

Benzon: It can grow slowly and slowly and slowly for years

until finally the part breaks.

Fuchs: I have control.

Benzon: Fatigue cracking is, is almost like

a ticking time bomb going off.

Narrator: There could be many more of those time bombs.

Investigators studying the engine mount

from the China Airlines crash

determine that it, too, failed from metal fatigue.

Learmount: These fuse pins were developing fatigue problems

at a certain rate which was much faster

than anybody had anticipated.

Narrator: Just one final question remains

for Van Santen and his team.

The 747 has four engines.

Even with two engines gone,

the el al jet had enough power to fly back to the airport.

Palter: Of course it's an emergency, half the power,

but the aircraft is designed to do it,

and we are practicing it in the simulator

every time that we are making simulator.

Narrator: Why was captain Fuchs able to descend

to within sight of the runway...

Fuchs: No, no, no!

Come on!

Ohad: Going down!

Narrator: ...but not able to land?

NTSB technicians have been able to repair the damaged tape

from the flight data recorder.

Investigators scour the data searching for answers.

Benzon: It gave us a wealth of data--

airspeed, altitude, what control surfaces were doing,

what hydraulic systems were still operating,

a myriad, myriad of things.

Narrator: With the new information...

Fuchs: Rotate.

Narrator: ...investigators hope finally to understand

why el al flight 1862 never made it back to safety.

Pim Van Santen pieces together the fatal flight.

Van Santen: Okay, let's get started.

Narrator: He combines flight data...

Controller: El al 1862...

Van Santen: Engines are working fine at takeoff.

Narrator: ...with the recordings captured in the tower.

Fuchs: ...1-0. Roger.

Sofer: Engines are looking good.

Climb power's set.

Van Santen: Then right here the pylon fails.

Engine three breaks away.

Ohad: What the hell?

Benzon: The sound had to be very, very loud,

perhaps a half a second or so when both pylons failed.

Van Santen: Engine three moves sideways,

tears off the leading edge

and damages hydraulic lines before hitting engine four.

Sofer: We're losing hydraulics on system three.

No, three and four.

Ohad: We need to level off.

Fuchs: Working on it.

Van Santen: They have a lot of damage,

but they're still controlling the plane.

Learmount: When you've lost half of your hydraulic power,

that makes the controls heavier

and slower than they were before.

Ohad: El al 1862, mayday, mayday.

We have an emergency.

Van Santen: The damage also causes a false alarm.

Ohad: We have a fire in engine three.

Engine three and four inoperative.

Van Santen: There never was any fire.

They would have an indication in the cockpit

that they would have a fire,

but they couldn't verify that by looking at the engines,

because you can't see them.

They put out their flaps to slow down.

Fuchs: Flaps two.

Narrator: The flaps are designed to add lift

at the lower speeds needed for landing.

Van Santen: The flaps don't go out on the right side.

Narrator: With the plane's right side hydraulics

so badly damaged,

the right wing flaps can't extend as they should.

Van Santen: When the speed drops, so does the wing.

Fuchs: Easy.

No, no, no, no.

Ohad: We're losing it!

Benzon: More lift on the left, less on the right,

causing a roll to the right, and as the aircraft slowed down,

this rolling tendency got harder and harder to counteract.

Fuchs: I can't hold it! I can't hold it!

Narrator: It's a lethal imbalance of aerodynamic force.

Fuchs: No, no, no! Come on!

Ohad: Going down.

Van Santen: We could see that the airplane

went into an uncontrolled rolling motion.

Fuchs: Come on!

Ohad: Going down, 1862, going down.

Going down.

Van Santen: As soon as they extended their flaps,

it was all over.

Narrator: In the aftermath, some wonder what might have happened

if the el al crew had known their true situation...

That there could be no engine fire,

because they had no engines at all on the right side.

Ohad: There's Schiphol at our three o'clock.

Fuchs: Got it.

Narrator: Their only option would have been a desperate one,

choosing not to deploy their flaps on final approach.

It would have meant trying a high-risk landing

at nearly 350 miles an hour.

Learmount: The likelihood of the airplane

and the crew surviving a landing at that speed,

which is more than twice the speed

that airplanes normally land at,

the likelihood of their surviving was practically zero.

Van Santen: 43 dead because of one small part.

Narrator: Investigators conclude that the accident

that killed 43 people

is the result of the faulty fuse pin.

Benzon: It's very rare for the failure of one tiny, little part

like a fuse pin to actually bring down an airplane.

Narrator: The Dutch-led team immediately calls on Boeing

to redesign the critical engine fastener.

Van Santen: They very quickly went back to the drawing board.

Narrator: New, stronger fuse pins are installed

on every single 747 around the world.

Benzon: Boeing stepped up to the plate,

did a massive redesign of the pylons,

very expensive at the time,

but to its credit, the company knew they had a problem,

and they fixed it.

Learmount: The safety record

of subsequent generations of airplanes

says that problem has been solved.

Narrator: Today in Amsterdam,

there's no sign of the jagged wreckage

that once scarred the Bijlmermeer apartment complex,

but the painful memories of the el al disaster

will never be erased.

Palter: The aircraft, the building,

everything can be rebuilt or restored,

but lives are the most important things,

so this is a tragedy.