Original subtitles

NARRATOR: A commuter plane in Norway

is heading for disaster.

Stop!

Just stop!

Then you're starting to run out of options.

It's going over!

Why couldn't it stop, and why didn't it stop?

NARRATOR: The horrific scene is caught on home video.

Watch your step, guys.

We could find bits and pieces of steel,

but all the rest of it was gone.

NARRATOR: Could a mysterious substance point to the cause?

I think we found our smoking gun.

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!

MAN: He's gonna crash.

NARRATOR: It's 7:20 AM.

High above the jagged coast of Norway, the crew of Atlantic

Airways 670 reaches the peak altitude

for a short 15-minute flight.

There's 10,000.

OK.

We're all the way up.

It must be time to get ready to go down again.

ROLF LILAND: Norway has a lot of steep mountains

and deep fjords.

And if you are to travel by road or by sea,

your journey might take hours or days,

while a short hop with an aircraft of 15 to 20 minutes

will cover big parts of the country.

NARRATOR: This morning, an oil company

has chartered the plane to shuttle a group of employees

to work.

The first workers boarded at Stavanger Sola Airport.

Next up is a quick stop on the island of Stord

to pick up a few more, before flying

on to their final destination at Molde

on the mainland coast.

For Tor Arne Johannesen, it's just another morning commute.

TOR ARNE JOHANNESEN:

INTERPRETER: I was going to be on a 5-2 rotation.

That means I was going to work for five days,

and go home for weekends.

For me, it was a totally normal day.

NARRATOR: The crew is flying a British Aerospace 146, a four

engine commuter plane ideal for flying

between remote Norwegian airfields.

The 146 is a very nice airplane, an easy airplane

to fly actually.

NARRATOR: Sven-Erik Strandberg flew

the 146 for Atlantic Airways.

It was actually meant for landing on short runways

and even gravel runways.

The runway is going to be in sight soon.

Why don't you see what the weather's doing.

NARRATOR: For this first leg, 34-year-old Captain Niklas

Djurhuus is at the controls.

He's been a commercial pilot for more than a decade.

Control, Atlantic 670, can you

advise on current conditions?

NARRATOR: The first officer, 38-year-old Jakob Evald,

joined Atlantic Airways just a few months ago.

Wind is 110 at 6 knots.

Visibility is over 10 o'clock.

Wind 110 at 6, Atlantic 670.

Weather is good.

ROLF LILAND: This was an early October morning.

Just about clear skies and almost calm winds.

So a very good day for flying.

TOR ARNE JOHANNESEN:

INTERPRETER: The plane was normal,

nothing that would predict something was wrong.

It was cold.

That was the only thing.

It was early in the morning, and that's

why I kept my jacket on.

NARRATOR: Stord Airport is perched

on the edge of a rugged island with rocky cliffs

bordering the runway on three sides.

SVEN-ERIK STRANDBERG: It's located

on top of a small mountain, you could say.

So it's pretty steep terrain around.

NARRATOR: There's very little margin for error.

Overshoot the runway, and you could end up in the sea below.

We are still planning on runway 15.

Winds 110 at 6 knots?

Yep.

So it's just a small tailwind.

Let's take runway 33, that way we can do it straight in.

You've got it.

NARRATOR: Shortly before touchdown, the crew

makes a last minute change.

They want to approach Stord single runway

from the Southern end, known as runway 33,

rather than circling around to land from the North end, known

as runway 15.

Control, Atlantic 670, we'd like

to do a visual into runway 33.

Affirmative, 670.

The runway is free.

You are cleared for a visual approach, runway 33.

ROLF LILAND: Since they were coming from the South,

straight and landing towards the Northwest

would be the most convenient way to land.

NARRATOR: The straight in approach

will put the airplane on the ground

in less than five minutes.

What's our landing speed?

112 knots.

NARRATOR: The crew now enters the busiest

time in any flight.

Set speed for final.

NARRATOR: They must simultaneously

shed altitude and speed.

Speed set.

Flaps 20.

NARRATOR: And prepare the plane for touchdown.

Flaps 20.

You're deploying the flaps, you're putting the gear down,

the wheels, if you will.

Gear down.

Gear is down.

Flaps to full.

Flaps full.

NARRATOR: Flight 670 is just one minute from the runway.

We're stable.

We have landing speed.

ROLF LILAND: The flying pilot will be looking outside

at the visual references.

He'll be checking the air speed to make sure

that it's on speed, not too high,

and definitely not too low.

And when you're landing at an airport like Stord, which

is fairly short, where stopping distances is

an important factor, then you're

extremely highly focused on the desired touchdown point.

Reducing thrust.

NARRATOR: The plane touches down at 7:32 AM.

And spoilers.

No spoilers.

INTERPRETER: I noticed there was something abnormal.

Full brakes.

Why aren't we slowing down.

INTERPRETER: It felt like when you're driving a car on ice

and you're trying to break, but they don't work.

We're not stopping.

TOR ARNE JOHANNESEN:

INTERPRETER: We realized it wasn't breaking,

and it's moving really, really fast.

Speed.

ROLF LILAND: If the airplane still does not

seem to be decelerating, then you're starting

to run out of options.

NARRATOR: Flight 670 is running out of runway.

Desperate to stop his plane, Captain Djurhuus

takes drastic measures.

Hang on.

NARRATOR: He throws the plane into a sharp turn,

first right, then left, hoping to skid to a stop.

These pilots were thinking extremely clearly.

And they even tried to put the aircraft into a skid

just to increase the friction between the wheels

and the pavement.

Stop!

Stop!

Just stop!

We're going over!

TOR ARNE JOHANNESEN:

INTERPRETER: Your only thought is that you're going to die.

This is the end.

The fire brigade responded immediately.

NARRATOR: At Stord Airport, firefighters

race toward the end of the runway

where Flight 670 has disappeared over a cliff.

Both pilots are alive, but fire is consuming

the right side of their plane.

You all right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Emergency checklists.

I'll shut down, you order the evacuation.

--here comes down off the top.

NARRATOR: Procedures call for the crew

to shut down the engines and order an evacuation.

But the cockpit door is jammed.

The door is stuck.

We've got to get out.

We've got to get out now.

TOR ARNE JOHANNESEN:

INTERPRETER: I had only one focus,

and that was I had to get off the plane.

NARRATOR: Passengers face a terrifying challenge.

The front exits are blocked, and moving

up the aisle to the rear exit doors

is like climbing a cliff.

ROLF LILAND: The passengers had to more or less climb uphill

in order to reach that door, using

the seats and the headrests to pull themselves

up towards the exit door.

NARRATOR: The pilots have their own serious problems,

one of the plane's four engines is not switching off.

The door is stuck.

I can't get engine two to shut down.

Behind the engine, obviously it's very hot.

On the front end of the engine, there's

the jet intake, the air intake, which

is sucking air into the engine for compression.

So basically you have a danger area all around the engine.

INTERPRETER: You're standing in the aisle hearing the jet

engines, and you're sure that you're going to die when you

jump out behind the engines.

NARRATOR: Less than a minute after what

seemed like a normal touchdown, all 16 people on board

are scrambling for their lives.

The cockpit door still won't budge.

Hey, we have to get out of here.

NARRATOR: The pilots are forced to escape

through the side window.

Above the window is a rope that you can use.

And you sit out with the back, lean back, hold the rope,

and kind of winch yourself down.

NARRATOR: At the back of the plane,

Tor Arne Johannesen has finally found a way out.

He escapes just before the plane bursts into flames.

INTERPRETER: The interior burst into flames,

and you couldn't see anything.

The next moment, I'm outside the plane.

I didn't think about whether I was relieved or happy,

I was just full of adrenaline.

My wife.

I need to call my wife.

NARRATOR: A local resident records

the terrifying scene as aviation

fuel burns out of control.

It takes fire crews nearly two hours to quench the flames.

ROLF LILAND: They have to stand up by the runway

and direct their foam and water way down into the ravine,

barely reaching the aircraft.

NARRATOR: Four people are dead.

Both pilots have survived.

Tor Arne Johannesen has suffered some painful burns,

but it could have been much worse.

TOR ARNE JOHANNESEN:

INTERPRETER: I kept my jacket on, which saved my arms

from being badly burned.

ROLF LILAND: There were tragic fatalities.

But the fact that they managed to evacuate so many

from the aircraft is really, really

a feat which has impressed a lot of people in the industry.

NARRATOR: Sven-Erik Strandberg spoke to the captain

just after the crash.

I tried to comfort him somehow there

but he didn't say much.

I couldn't stop.

Why couldn't I stop?

Obviously in shock and trying to figure out what happened,

I would say.

NARRATOR: Within hours, Norway's

Accident Investigation Board, the AIBN, is at the scene.

Watch your step, guys.

TOR NORSTEGAARD: We knew very little in the beginning.

We heard that it had skidded off the runway,

and it was burning, and it was fatalities there.

And then we knew it was serious.

NARRATOR: As they begin their work,

there's only one thing investigators know for sure.

We knew that this aircraft didn't manage to stop.

So we had to look into why couldn't it stop,

and why didn't it stop.

NARRATOR: Answering that question won't be easy.

There's much more to stopping an airplane

than just hitting the brakes.

Aerodynamic forces, atmospheric conditions,

and a range of mechanical systems are all at play.

ROLF LILAND: So the evidence they would find

would need a deep technical analysis in order

to draw conclusions from it, or at least

meaningful conclusions.

NARRATOR: Flight 670 has come to rest nose down,

one side rolled against the steep slope.

We saw that this must have been a dramatic event.

NARRATOR: Investigators quickly realize the wreckage

will give them few leads.

Much of the plane has been completely consumed

by the post-crash fire.

TOR NORSTEGAARD: There was almost nothing left.

It was melted aluminum.

And what we could find was some steel

bolts, and some steel shafts, and bits and pieces of steel.

But the rest of it was gone.

NARRATOR: Investigators face immediate pressure to find

the cause of the crash.

The BAE 146 is considered an ideal machine for Norway's

challenging flying conditions.

If there's a hidden flaw in the design of the aircraft,

other lives could be at risk.

The flight recorders are quickly recovered.

But they've been exposed to intense heat and fire

for two hours, more than double what

they're designed to endure.

They weren't quite burned.

They were suited.

Ooh.

A lot of heat damage to the exterior.

KAARE HALVORSEN: And they had changed color

from the normal red to black grayish

color, which indicates that they had

been exposed to extreme heat.

Well, let's hope the insides are in better shape.

NARRATOR: Investigators send them for analysis,

and hope for the best.

We took both of their recorders

to the British Accident Investigation

Board, which are experts on reading out the recorders.

NARRATOR: For now, the runway itself

is the best lead they have.

For now, just record everything you see.

You never know what might be important.

We could see some marks at the runway

that looked like being from the accident airplane.

So that was very interesting.

NARRATOR: The skid marks might provide

important clues about why the plane failed to stop.

But analyzing them won't be easy.

How many planes use this airport anyway?

On this airport, there's a lot of skid marks.

So it's a tricky part to determine which skid

mark was from which aircraft.

NARRATOR: As they collect bits of debris from the runway,

they notice a troubling detail about the surface.

Runway's damp.

NARRATOR: It lacks a crucial safety feature.

And there are no grooves.

NARRATOR: Most modern runways are

lined with special grooves that carry away rainwater

and help prevent pooling.

It was raining at Stord earlier on the morning of the crash.

A wet runway will make the runway more slippery,

and it will increase the aircraft stopping distance.

We're not stopping.

NARRATOR: Did the dangerously wet runway prevent

Flight 670 from stopping--

We're going over!

NARRATOR: --before it's fatal plunge

down a rocky embankment?

Air traffic controllers at Stord Airport

can't explain why Atlantic Airways Flight

670 careened over a cliff.

The other flight had no problem.

NARRATOR: An identical plane landed

safely on the same runway just 25 minutes before the crash.

Sven-Erik Strandberg was piloting that plane.

It was not that wet, it was just a little bit damp,

so we didn't notice very much on landing at all.

So it was uneventful.

NARRATOR: The idea that a wet runway was to blame just

doesn't seem to add up.

You describe how the landing looked to you?

NARRATOR: But investigators get a new lead

when they talk to some of the firefighters

who saw Flight 670 land.

Several reports seeing a trail of mist

streaming from the plane's wings after it touched down.

KAARE HALVORSEN: The witnesses stated that they saw wing

vortices from the aircraft.

For us, this is one evidence that the lift spoilers

were not working as intended.

NARRATOR: When an airplane is in flight,

the wings create trails of turbulent air

known as wingtip vortices.

But only when the wings are generating lift.

In the air, you can actually see this like corkscrews

following up from the wings.

NARRATOR: The 146 has six spoilers that should have

deployed on touchdown to disrupt that lift

and help the plane stick to the runway and stop.

As soon as you select the spoilers,

you will feel the airplane sink down towards the runway,

and you can apply the brakes.

NARRATOR: Did the spoilers on Flight 670

somehow fail to deploy?

It may be a difficult question for the team to answer.

All six of the plane spoilers were destroyed by fire.

Is this all we got?

TOR NORSTEGAARD: Digging into this wreckage,

we saw that it was no switches, no wires, nothing that could

be useful for us, but we knew that the actuators possibly

could tell us something.

NARRATOR: Investigators are in luck.

The actuators that move the spoilers into place

have survived.

OK then.

Let's see what these can tell us.

NARRATOR: They send them to the lab for X-ray examination.

The actuators, they were moving

the spoilers up and down.

The actuator is sort of a jack, you see.

So it pushes the spoilers up, and it locks them.

NARRATOR: X-rays of the actuators

confirm the investigators suspicions,

the spoilers never deployed.

With no spoilers, Flight 670 didn't have the usual amount

of stopping power.

It's a compelling clue.

Investigators wonder if they've found

the explanation for the crash.

With no spoilers, they would need 40% more runway.

NARRATOR: As a safety feature, the British Aerospace

146 can stop without spoilers, but it

takes a lot more runway.

ROLF LILAND: When you know that you're

going to land at the short airport,

you need to calculate how much distance you will use to land.

How long is this runway anyway?

NARRATOR: Perhaps the runway at Stord

was simply too short for the plane

to stop without this critical equipment.

Stopping distance is 470 meters

on a 1,200 meter runway.

NARRATOR: But it's a dead end.

They had more than enough room to stop without spoilers.

TOR NORSTEGAARD: The last part of the runway,

for instance, the speed should have been so low,

so spoilers or no spoilers shouldn't be that important.

So we knew early on that it must be something else

in addition to the spoilers.

NARRATOR: But what?

That is the mystery now.

Stop!

Stop!

Just stop!

NARRATOR: What else went wrong during a routine landing that

suddenly turned to disaster?

We're going over!

NARRATOR: In their quest for answers about the fatal crash

at Stord Airport, investigators have a vital witness,

Captain Niklas Djurhuus.

We tried to get into the cabin,

but the door would not open.

Not too sure why.

We gave it everything we had, but the door wasn't opening.

NARRATOR: He recounts the harrowing last moments

in the twisted cockpit of his burning plane,

and his desperate efforts to open the cockpit door

and help with the evacuation.

--you order the evacuation.

Down here comes out off the top.

ROLF LILAND: The door was a new type which was reinforced

for security measures.

I can't get engine two to shut down.

So opening it by kicking it and so forth

would not be as easy as with an old type basic type of door.

Hey, we have to get out of here.

Now I need you to think back further.

NARRATOR: To understand the cause of the accident,

investigators need to know what the captain

was doing in the cockpit before he lost control of the plane.

What happened when you first touched down?

OK, well, as soon as we touched down,

I pulled the spoiler lever.

But it didn't work.

NARRATOR: The captain says he tried to activate

the spoilers on touchdown.

And spoilers.

No spoilers.

Full brakes

NARRATOR: But they didn't engage.

And that wasn't the crew's only problem.

The braking system seemed ineffective as well.

We were slowing down.

I think we could have stopped if we just--

I needed a few more meters.

OK.

Thank you, captain.

Talking to the crew, we got indications that the brake

possibly was not working.

So then we were interested in investigating the braking

system more thoroughly.

We're not stopping.

NARRATOR: If the brakes on Flight 670 failed,

that would explain why the plane couldn't stop.

There might be evidence to support that theory

on the flight data recorder.

But it's been almost entirely melted by the fire.

TOR NORSTEGAARD: The flight data recorder was a rather

old type with the tape.

And the tape hasn't survived the heat.

What we got was just three smaller

fragments that was usable.

That was a disappointment.

NARRATOR: The investigation into the crash of Flight 670

is nearly at a standstill.

There's almost no hard evidence.

We've got about three seconds of FDR data after touchdown.

And we know they had a speed of 20 knots

near the end of the runway.

And that's about it.

NARRATOR: Investigators need to know more about

how well the brakes were working

when Flight 670 touched down.

They hope the skid marks will tell them.

As they trace the marks along the runway,

they notice something strange.

Anyone seen skid marks this color before?

TOR NORSTEGAARD: Normal skid marks are like black lines

along the runway, but this was more like a lightly colored

brownish type of marks.

NARRATOR: Equally strange, the skid marks were dotted

with unusual pieces of debris.

TOR NORSTEGAARD: It smelled like rubber,

and it felt like rubber, but soft and sticky.

NARRATOR: The debris appears to be from the tires,

but investigators have no idea why the tires would have

disintegrated so severely.

I have personally never seen such rubber

grains on the runway before.

So that was new to me.

NARRATOR: Investigators pin their hopes

on the cockpit voice recorder.

OK.

Let's see what we've got.

NARRATOR: Though the flight data recorder

is beyond repair, technicians have

managed to recover the recordings

captured in the cockpit.

There's 10,000.

The manufacturers were able to repair

the memory from the recording and download the information.

And the information was superb.

NARRATOR: This could be their last chance

to solve the puzzle.

The runway's going to be in sight soon.

Why don't you see what the weather's doing.

KAARE HALVORSEN: We had everything,

from takeoff to the accident.

Control, Atlantic 670--

NARRATOR: They hope the sounds will reveal why

Flight 670 didn't slow down.

Visibility is over 10 kilometers.

Wind 110 at 6, Atlantic 670.

Fairly routine so far.

NARRATOR: They don't hear any mistakes.

ROLF LILAND: The communication between the pilots

was very professional, down to the point,

and exactly how a pilot would expect it

to be on a flight like this.

Wind's 110 and 6 knots?

Yep.

So it's just a small tailwind.

Let's take runway 33, that way we can do it straight in.

You got it.

Bit of a tailwind.

What's your landing speed?

112 knots.

Set speed for final.

Looks like they were aiming for the right speed,

but that tailwind could have given them a little bit extra.

Having a tailwind in general will

affect your landing distance.

It will increase a little bit.

NARRATOR: Strong winds behind a plane

can push up landing speed, making

it take longer to slow down.

So pilots usually try to land into the wind.

That's what Sven-Erik Strandberg

did on the day of the crash.

I made a circle to land.

Came in from the North landing towards the South

in a little bit of a headwind there.

Control, Atlantic 670--

NARRATOR: Investigators wonder if the tailwind eroded Flight

670's safety margin when it was already struggling

to stop without spoilers.

Tailwind?

Could it be that simple?

NARRATOR: Investigators review the history

of the British Aerospace 146.

They find 12 other incidents of the plane

careening off the runway after touching down in a tailwind.

It's a troubling record.

OK, runway is damp, tailwind is 6 knots,

let's give it a try.

NARRATOR: To learn more, they recreate Flight

670's landing in a simulator.

The airport at Stord is a nice airport,

in good conditions, could be a little bit

hard sometimes when it's rainy and the winds from the

West there.

And we're reducing thrust.

NARRATOR: They want to know if conditions

that day made it too difficult to stop with no spoilers.

Don't put out the spoilers.

Step on the brakes.

NARRATOR: But the theory doesn't hold up.

OK, looks like we're back to square one.

Within acceptable limits, there

was nothing wrong about landing with 5 knots tailwind.

NARRATOR: Even without spoilers to help slow the plane,

the tailwind was not enough to push it over the edge.

The answers investigators need remain elusive.

What sent Flight 670 plummeting off the end of the runway.

We're going over!

NARRATOR: Digging through the remains of the burnt fuselage

turns up an unexpected lead.

A kind of breakthrough came when we started

to remove the wreckage.

NARRATOR: One of the tires from Flight 670's main landing gear

has survived the fire.

It's a lucky break.

Investigators immediately noticed

that the edges of the rubber tire

have a peculiar texture, just like the rubber pieces

they found on the runway.

More sticky rubber.

The inner left hand main landing gear

had a flat spot, which indicates

that the tire had been skidding along the runway.

We could see that it had been extremely hot.

And this heat had transformed the tire.

NARRATOR: The tire manufacturer provides

an intriguing explanation for the strange discovery.

Reverted rubber hydroplaning?

NARRATOR: The sticky pieces of rubber

are the result of an unusual phenomenon that

sometimes occurs when rubber tires heat

up due to extreme friction.

Yeah.

Let's bag some of that.

NARRATOR: If the rubber is skidding

along a damp or wet runway, the friction

can generate so much heat that it turns the water

into a cushion of steam that lifts the tire up

off the surface of the runway.

The small layer of steam from the rubber developed

between the tires on the runway,

and basically making it a lot more

difficult to get the required retardation

from the wheel brakes.

NARRATOR: The extreme heat also breaks down the rubber

and makes it sticky, just like the fragments

found on the runway.

It looks like we've got a match.

We had a kind of textbook example of it in front of us.

NARRATOR: The phenomenon also explains

the unusually pale skid marks investigators

found on parts of the runway.

The reason for the skid marks being so pale

is because that cushion of steam sort of steam

cleaned the runway.

Takes all the dirt and everything out of the

runway itself.

Something just doesn't seem to fit.

NARRATOR: But there's still a mystery.

Reverted rubber hydroplaning only

occurs if the wheels lock.

It's the only way to produce enough friction.

The BAE 146 is equipped with anti-lock brakes.

And spoilers.

No spoilers.

Full brakes.

NARRATOR: They're not supposed to lock up and skid ever.

And yet that's exactly what happened.

Investigators need to know why.

They return to the sounds captured

in the cockpit of Flight 670.

OK.

Go ahead, please.

KAARE HALVORSEN: We didn't know what had happened

mechanically in the aircraft.

So then we had to look for other means.

NIKLAS DJURHUUS: We have landing speed.

Reducing thrust.

And spoilers.

Hang on.

Play that again.

NARRATOR: Many cockpit controls make distinctive sounds

when pilots move them.

JAKOB EVALD: And spoilers.

NARRATOR: Investigators compare the cockpit recording

to a detailed library of sounds,

hoping to piece together what was

happening on board Flight 670.

There.

That click is the spoiler lever.

NARRATOR: The technique pays off.

They're able to identify specific sounds,

including the click of the spoiler lever.

No spoilers.

Full brakes.

NARRATOR: Listening closely, they soon hear another sound,

a sound that could finally explain

why the plane couldn't stop.

We're not stopping.

Stop.

Can you match that?

NARRATOR: The chiming sound indicates

the plane's emergency brake has been switched on.

Play it again.

We're not stopping.

Listen to those tires.

First, the chime of the emergency brake,

then they start skidding.

NARRATOR: It's a major breakthrough.

We got the chime that proved that he has turned

on the emergency brake, and a short period after that,

we could hear the noise from the wheels on the CVR.

I think we found our smoking gun.

Anti-skid and touch down protection

may not be available.

Landing distance will be increased by 60%.

NARRATOR: Investigators learn that the emergency braking

system on the British Aerospace 146

doesn't have anti-skid protection.

That was the last piece in the puzzle that told us more

about this braking situation.

We're stable.

We have landing speed.

Reducing thrust.

NARRATOR: Investigators finally understand why

Flight 670 ended in tragedy.

They touched down here.

But the runway is damp, and there's a tailwind giving

them a bit of an extra push.

And spoilers.

The captain activates the spoilers,

but they don't deploy.

No spoilers.

Full brakes.

Here he switches on the emergency brake.

We're not stopping.

And that's the final straw.

ROLF LILAND: Which means basically

that the wheels are locked, as on a car,

with no anti-skid brakes.

NARRATOR: The plane's fate is sealed.

We're going over!

NARRATOR: Investigators now believe

that even with the damp runway, no spoilers, and the tailwind,

the plane would have stopped in time if not

for the emergency brake.

We're not stopping.

NARRATOR: But the pilots had no way to predict the outcome.

They had never trained for such an unlikely scenario.

ROLF LILAND: If you have a failure at a critical time,

like just after touchdown on a case like this,

and the normal systems for deceleration do not work,

then you automatically almost by instinct

go on to the next level, you need

to go to the emergency brakes.

Hang on.

SVEN-ERIK STRANDBERG: You have to stop the aircraft,

and that's what they try to do.

In this case, of course, the runway wasn't long enough.

NARRATOR: In their final report,

the AIBN calls for better training

to help pilots stop safely in similar situations.

They also call for longer safety areas around runways,

especially at airports like Stord that are

surrounded by steep terrain.

That's our goal, that every accident should

bring the safety standards a little bit

in the right direction.

NARRATOR: Since the crash of Atlantic Airways Flight 670,

important changes have been made to make landing at

Stord safer.

The runway is now longer, and grooves

have been added to channel water off the surface

in rainy weather.

SVEN-ERIK STRANDBERG: It's 50 meters longer

now than before the accident.

So I think positive things happen even

though we had an accident.

The main task is to improve safety,

and the other is telling the story so others

can learn from failures.