Original subtitles

GPWS: Pull up.

FO. HAYES: I remember a very hard impact.

We hit the ground.

NARRATOR: A commuter flight slams

into a North Carolina neighborhood.

FO. HAYES: What has just happened to us?

NARRATOR: Thirty-seven souls are lost,

but the crew survives to explain what happened.

FO. HAYES: The problem was the weather.

GREG: All of a sudden they ran into this rain shaft.

NARRATOR: But for investigators, weather alone

can't explain the deadly impact.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Rain did not cause this crash.

FO. HAYES: Flaps to 15.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down! Push it down.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Wait. Stop the tape.

Did he just say push it down? Play it again.

GREG: We replayed that a dozen times.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down! Push it down.

GREG: Did he really say that? And what did he mean by that?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: US Air Flight 1016 is en route

from Columbia, South Carolina, to Charlotte, North Carolina.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, good evening.

Climb and maintain one two thousand. Twelve.

CAPT. GREENLEE: One two thousand, US Air 1016.

NARRATOR: Captain Mike Greenlee is one of US Air's top pilots.

He's an Air Force veteran who still flies

fighter jets in the reserves.

FO. HAYES: I believe he flew the F-4, and then he flew the F-16.

CAPT. GREENLEE: One two thousand.

FO. HAYES: Ten.

NARRATOR: The first officer, Phil Hayes, is a seasoned pilot

who's dreamed of flying since he was a boy.

FO. HAYES: And I went for a ride in an airplane

when I was about fifteen and... fourteen or fifteen,

and the bug bit, and I wanted to fly after that.

FO. HAYES: So, how old are you, Mike?

CAPT. GREENLEE: Thirty-eight. How about yourself?

FO. HAYES: I'll be 42 on the 26th of July.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Is that right? I had you figured about 35.

FO. HAYES: Did you really? CAPT. GREENLEE: Oh yeah.

FO. HAYES: I knew there was something

I liked about you.

NARRATOR: This is the first time

the two pilots have flown together.

FO. HAYES: Mike was a very affable, very likeable fella,

and we hit it off right away.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Many of the fifty-two passengers

are traveling for summer holidays.

RICHARD: This was a Saturday prior to July 4th,

so there were a lot of leisure travelers.

RICHARD: Can I offer you a snack?

NARRATOR: Flight attendant Richard DeMary has been on the job

for two years. He enjoys his work so much

that he looks for ways to get more hours.

RICHARD: I picked up this flight as part of a series of flights

over a number of days.

It was a three-day trip with multiple legs each day.

NARRATOR: Today's flight to Charlotte is on board a DC-9,

one of the many aircraft types Greenlee and Hayes have flown.

CAPT. GREENLEE: What kind of airplanes you fly corporate?

FO. HAYES: A few Lear, Cessna Citation, King Air Beechcraft.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Oh, that's nice equipment.

FO. HAYES: Yeah, yeah, pretty nice.

RICHARD: Flight crews at US Air typically

were always very professional.

FO. HAYES: And a lot of piston bangers, Navajos and that stuff.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Yeah? I got a lot of time in Navajos, Aztecs, Senecas.

RICHARD: With that, there was a lot of trust in the individuals

that you were working with, both from

a flight attendant perspective as well as the pilots.

NARRATOR: The US Air crew is on its fourth leg of the day.

They started out this morning in Pittsburgh,

flew to New York City, then Charlotte and on to Columbia.

Now, they're on their way back to Charlotte.

FO. HAYES: There was no weather. There were no thunderstorms.

There was, there was nothing.

It was a completely benign, beautiful summertime day.

NARRATOR: The DC-9 is now roughly fifteen minutes from landing.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Ladies and gentlemen, we're 40 miles from Charlotte.

At this time we'd like to ask the flight attendants

to secure the cabin for arrival.

RICHARD: Here, let me clear this away for you.

RICHARD: The flight between Columbia and Charlotte was normal.

It was short. Even though it was a 50 minute flight,

the actual flight time was much less than that.

NARRATOR: As they approach the airport,

the skies begin to darken.

FO. HAYES: There's more rain out there than I thought there was.

FO. HAYES: We could see one little... what we refer to

in the aviation business as a build-up.

It has a little rain in it.

But it's not anything to be concerned about.

It's just a little shower.

Mike reached over and turned the radar on.

CAPT. GREENLEE: It looks like it's sitting

just off the edge of the airport.

NARRATOR: The radar shows some rain directly ahead.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Charlotte, US Air 1016.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, go ahead.

CAPT. GREENLEE: We're showing a little build-up here.

It looks like it's sitting on the radial.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: About how far ahead are you looking, 1016?

CAPT. GREENLEE: About 15 miles.

NARRATOR: The controller explains that he'll be directing them

away from the rain shower.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: I'll turn you just before you get there

about five miles northbound.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Okay. FO. HAYES: Good call.

NARRATOR: US Air Flight 1016 is now less than ten minutes

from its destination.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, Charlotte. Maintain 4,000.

Runway one-eight-right.

CAPT. GREENLEE: 4,000 for the right side.

FO. HAYES: That's one-eleven and three and one-eighty-one.

NARRATOR: The pilots are ready for final approach.

CAPT. GREENLEE: The cabin's down. Seat belt signs on.

Hydraulics on.

Altimeters, flight instruments thirty-oh-one, set.

FO. HAYES: Set.

NARRATOR: As promised, the controller turns Flight 1016

away from the storm.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, turn ten degrees right,

descend and maintain 2,300.

Vectors to visual approach to one-eight-right.

FO. HAYES: The controller said descend to 2,300 feet.

He said, I'll turn you at the marker for the visual approach.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Ten right. Down 2,300, US Air 1016.

FO. HAYES: Another confirmation that there was

absolutely nothing going on.

RICHARD: At that point in the landing phase,

the cabin had been secured

and we were in our seats ready for landing.

♪ ♪

FO. HAYES: Gear down.

Flaps 40, please.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Forty flaps. FO. HAYES: Ugh.

FO. HAYES: Suddenly this very heavy rain seemed to come from nowhere.

It did not go light rain, moderate rain,

heavy rain, extreme. It didn't do that.

It was just all of a sudden like you're in... under a waterfall.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Here come the wipers.

FO. HAYES: That's, 10 knots right there.

FO. HAYES: Now we're like, oh. What has happened?

You know, what changed?

RICHARD: In other rain events you can see out the window.

You can make things out.

This rain completely obstructed any view out of the window.

FO. HAYES: Whoa!

CAPT. GREENLEE: Okay, you're plus twenty.

FO. HAYES: Visibility had been reduced, and with this heavy rain,

Mike and I made the same decision at about the same time.

Let's go around.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Take it around. Go to the right.

FO. HAYES: Let's play it safe. So I reached up

and pushed the power up, started a right turn,

and at this point Mike picked up the microphone and he said...

CAPT. GREENLEE: US Air 1016's on the go.

♪ ♪

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, I understand you're on the go, sir.

Fly runway heading, climb and maintain 3,000.

NARRATOR: It's what pilots call a missed approach.

RICHARD: You have the noise of the engines.

You have the feeling on your body that you're climbing.

Go-arounds are not that unusual.

I've been in go-arounds before.

NARRATOR: But this is not a normal go-around.

GPWS: Pull up. Terrain! Terrain!

FO. HAYES: All of a sudden the aircraft wasn't flying anymore.

It was just falling.

And we were losing airspeed very, very rapidly.

GPWS: Terrain! Terrain!

RICHARD: It was very alarming. This was not part of a go-around.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Ugh. Firewall power.

NARRATOR: Phil Hayes jams the throttles to maximum.

RICHARD: We're sinking, and I'm preparing myself.

♪ ♪

FO. HAYES: I remember the stick shaker,

and I remember the ground proximity warning system go off.

It said, pull up. Pull up.

GPWS: Pull up. Pull up.

♪ ♪

FO. HAYES: And then I remember a very hard impact.

And we hit the ground.

RICHARD: We were sliding along the ground,

and I started hearing the snapping of trees.

FO. HAYES: And the left wing sheared off.

And the cockpit came to rest in the middle of a road.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: US Air Flight 1016 destined for Charlotte, North Carolina,

has slammed into the ground less than a mile from the airport.

Fight attendant Richard DeMary has no idea how he survived.

RICHARD: There was a tremendous amount of disbelief

and disorientation,

and it took a few seconds to get my bearings.

And I should say that I was scared.

You know, there was a lot of fear

because of the smoke and the heat coming off of the airplane.

And I remember the real thought of, I've survived the accident.

I don't wanna die afterwards.

NARRATOR: First Officer Phil Hayes has also survived the crash.

FO. HAYES: I remember looking to my left,

and there was nobody in the captain's seat.

And in my mind I know I was trying to put things together,

like, what has just happened to us?

And so I got out of my harness and crawled out of the opening,

and I found Captain Mike Greenlee tending

to one of the flight attendants who had been injured.

RICHARD: You know, the full realization

that we had been in an accident hit home.

So I thought, I gotta do something to help.

So I start to yell, release seat belts and get out.

Release seat belts and get out. Release seat belts and get out.

NEWS ANCHOR (Archive): Good evening.

Emergency workers in Charlotte, North Carolina,

spent this Sunday pulling bodies from the wreckage

of a US Air jet that crashed there last night.

NARRATOR: The crash of Flight 1016 is the first accident

involving a major airline in North Carolina in twenty years.

Both pilots and the cabin crew have survived.

But of the fifty-two passengers, thirty-seven are dead.

♪ ♪

FO. HAYES: As I looked back at the wreckage,

it was just very surreal.

How could this have happened to us when the day was so benign?

There was no weather. There was no threat.

How could this have happened?

NARRATOR: Greg Feith, senior investigator

with the National Transportation Safety Board,

will lead the investigation.

GREG: Any time you go to an airplane accident site,

a crash site, there's always this wave of emotion.

I don't care how seasoned an investigator you are,

because you know that people have been seriously injured

or killed in that particular event.

And so as the investigator in charge,

you have to compartmentalize that, because you can't

get emotionally attached and still be able to do your job.

NARRATOR: Examining the wreckage is the team's first task.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: So what have we got?

NARRATOR: They must determine if a loss of engine power

was a factor in the crash.

They examine the DC-9's two Pratt & Whitney power plants.

GREG: There are a variety of things that

these power plant experts are gonna be looking for

to determine if in fact there was some sort of

operational issue, mechanical malfunction or failure

with the engine or engines.

NARRATOR: Right away, they spot something unexpected.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Look at that.

The thrust reverser on this engine is deployed.

GREG: Their examination of the right engine indicated that

the thrust reverser was in the deployed position

and that the thrust reverser on the left engine

was in the stowed position,

and of course that always starts the red flag up the pole,

if you will, going, hmm.

Why is this one not in the same position as the other?

Because they should be symmetrical.

NARRATOR: Thrust reversers are deployed upon landing

to help slow the plane down.

They work by redirecting the engines'

high-powered exhaust gasses forward.

GREG: If it happens in flight that's detrimental, because

if it happens on one engine on a multi-engine airplane

you create an asymmetrical thrust situation.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Maybe that's what brought this flight down.

Like Lauda Air 004.

NARRATOR: Three years earlier in Thailand, Lauda Air Flight 4

crashed, killing 223 people. A thrust reverser was to blame.

GREG: We've had thrust reversers deploy in flight

and, depending on the speed of the aircraft,

you can literally break that engine right off the aircraft.

NARRATOR: Closer investigation reveals abrasion marks

on the metal of the right side reverser,

marks that suggest a heavy impact with the ground.

It's an important clue.

Further analysis leads to a definitive answer.

Investigators know exactly when and how

the right side reverser opened.

GREG: They were able to make a determination that the

reverser on that right engine, even though it was deployed,

happened during the course of the impact sequence

and did not happen in flight.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: At least we know it wasn't thrust reversers.

NARRATOR: Eliminating one potential cause

is a step forward for investigators.

But they're still a long way from understanding

what brought down US Air Flight 1016.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Keep looking through this wreckage.

See if you can find any clues. I'm gonna speak with the crew.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the pilots can shed some light on what happened.

GPWS: Pull up.

FO. HAYES: The impact broke my foot and cut my head open,

and so I was in the hospital about three days, I believe,

and when we were released from the hospital

we were taken to a hotel.

NARRATOR: First Officer Phil Hayes meets with the NTSB.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Thank you so much for seeing us today.

We just have a few questions. This won't take long.

BARRY: We recognize that this is not a pleasant time for them.

They've been through what is most likely the most difficult

professional event they've ever been through.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: On the day of the crash, can you tell us what happened?

FO. HAYES: The problem was the weather.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Tell me about the weather.

FO. HAYES: Flaps 40, please. CAPT. GREENLEE: Forty flaps.

♪ ♪

GREG: All of a sudden they ran into this rain shaft.

FO. HAYES: We lost all visibility.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Take it around. Go to the right.

GREG: That's when the captain called for the first officer,

who in this case was the flying pilot at the time,

to execute a go-around.

They were gonna climb to 3,000 feet, roll to the right

to turn right, and of course you're

bringing the power up at the same time.

FO. HAYES: The next thing I knew the aircraft was falling.

FO. HAYES: It's a terrible feeling to feel the aircraft fall

and you realize it isn't flying anymore.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Why did you decide to fly into the storm in the first place?

NARRATOR: Pilots usually avoid thunderstorms

because they can produce violent air currents

that can cause turbulence or even damage the aircraft.

JOHN: You're always respectful of thunderstorms.

The weather there was growing, that was the big thing.

And it was growing quickly.

That's a key indicator that the situation's deteriorating.

FO. HAYES: Well, air traffic control told us

the weather was nothing to worry about.

FO. HAYES: And the controllers really did not

say anything to us about it.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: I'll tell you what, US Air 1016.

You may get some rain just south of the field.

There might be a little coming off the north.

BARRY: In fact, some rain was misleading. It wasn't some rain.

It was a very heavy thunderstorm.

NARRATOR: Investigators have learned that air traffic control

failed to warn the crew of Flight 1016

that there was a powerful storm in their path.

BARRY: They mistakenly believed that it would be

safe for them to land.

NARRATOR: The question now is why?

NARRATOR: Investigators need to understand why air traffic control

in Charlotte didn't warn US Air Flight 1016

about a fierce storm over the airport.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Oh, hey. Good to meet you.

JOHN: The air traffic controllers had more information,

and they could see and they had been watching this thunderstorm

for much longer than the flight crew had.

So we knew very early on it was gonna be

one of the central areas of focus to understand it.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Why did you tell the pilots

the weather was good enough to land in?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: The weather reports told us it was.

NARRATOR: The controller reveals that he relied on a bulletin

from the National Weather Service.

It showed that conditions were well within limits

for a safe landing.

JOHN: The reports on the field were light winds.

There had been some rain on and off.

There's nothing to key them to say that

this is an unsafe condition

and that they shouldn't continue to fly it.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: I even asked a pilot

who landed four minutes earlier how it was.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 983, how was the ride on your final approach?

PILOT: Smooth. US Air 983.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, previous flight just exited the runway.

He said it was a smooth ride.

♪ ♪

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: It was fine, no problems.

BARRY: That's pretty significant in that

all the information that crews have,

real-time information from people flying for their airline,

carries a lot of weight.

NARRATOR: The weather bulletin issued at 6:36 PM

was indeed correct. Conditions were clear to land.

But minutes later, the skies over the airport

opened up and heavy rain poured down.

♪ ♪

CAPT. GREENLEE: Take it around. Go to the right.

US Air 1016's on the go.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, understand you're on the go, sir.

Fly runway heading, climb and maintain 3,000.

NARRATOR: At the same time, the controller acknowledges

the crew's missed approach.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: US Air 1016, understand you're turning right? Go ahead, 1016.

NARRATOR: He never gets a response.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: By the time I got to the next bulletin, it was too late.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Listen, I really appreciate your help.

If I have more questions, is it all right

if I call you, all right?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Sure. NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Thanks.

NARRATOR: It's now clear to investigators

that weather conditions at the Charlotte Airport

changed very quickly.

What's unclear is why the controller's weather report

failed to forecast the change.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Let's see what we have here.

NARRATOR: They study the reports that the National Weather Service

issued for Charlotte Airport that day.

6:36 PM. Light rain showers. 6:40 PM. Heavy rain showers.

It seems the weather service correctly identified

the change in conditions.

But then investigators make an important discovery.

It took two minutes for the weather service

to transmit the new information in an updated bulletin.

GREG: The problem came from the air traffic controllers

not having a full body of information

from the National Weather Service.

FO. HAYES: Flaps 40, please.

GREG: So they weren't providing real-time information

to the flight crew.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Forty flaps.

GREG: They were very delayed in providing essential information

that would have assisted this crew in their decision-making

as they progressed towards the airport.

NARRATOR: Weather radar images soon lead to another discovery.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: This is crazy. Look at that.

There are two storm cells moving in here.

As the US Air pilots were trying to avoid one storm formation...

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: 18:40.

NARRATOR: Another storm cell... NTSB INVESTIGATOR: 18:42.

NARRATOR: ... suddenly increased in intensity.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: They were blindsided.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Here come the wipers.

NARRATOR: The late weather report left the crew

unprepared for the sudden downpour.

The critical question now: Was the rainstorm strong enough

to knock Flight 1016 out of the sky?

GREG: We had to look at that to see if in fact

this heavy rain shower had any kind of cause

or contributing factor in this accident.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: NASA has studied this.

NARRATOR: Investigators review NASA research

that shows heavy rain can stick to a wing, increasing drag

and increasing the chance of an aerodynamic stall.

GREG: If the volume of rain striking the aircraft

is sufficient, it will disrupt the smooth airflow and

decrease the efficiency, the lifting capability of the wing.

NARRATOR: Testing has shown that the amount of rain needed

to stall a wing and cause a crash is huge --

thirty to forty inches per hour.

Investigators examine precipitation data

from the day of the crash.

They want to know just how bad the rain really was.

What they find is surprising.

The rate of precipitation during the downpour

was only ten inches per hour.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Not enough to bring the plane down.

GREG: We were able to determine that there was

a negligible effect of this heavy rain shower

on the performance of the airplane.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Rain did not cause this crash.

NARRATOR: If it wasn't the sudden downpour that caused

Flight 1016 to fall out of the sky, what did?

♪ ♪

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Can you bring up the FDR?

NARRATOR: Evidence recovered from US Air 1016's

flight data recorder is now ready to be examined.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: So what have we got?

NARRATOR: The device captures critical indicators

such as airspeed, altitude

and the position of key flight controls.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Can you blow this up?

NARRATOR: Almost immediately, they come across something puzzling.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Look at that.

NARRATOR: The data shows that seconds before impact,

the airspeed inexplicably begins to fluctuate.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: The airspeed's all over the place.

FO. HAYES: Ugh. That's 10 knots right there.

NARRATOR: First, it falls by ten knots.

FO. HAYES: Whoa.

NARRATOR: Then it increases by thirty knots.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Okay. You're plus 20.

JOHN: You could see the change on the airplane

because the airspeed started jumping.

NARRATOR: Airspeed is the speed on an aircraft

relative to the air it's flying through.

If the plane encounters a tailwind, airspeed drops

because the rate of airflow over the wings decreases.

A headwind has the opposite effect, increasing airspeed

by accelerating the airflow over the wings.

GREG: What happens is you have a performance increase

because you're flying into a headwind.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Maybe the wind brought this plane down.

NARRATOR: Could strong winds be the culprit?

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Where's that airport map?

To answer that question, investigators will need

precise wind data from the time of the crash.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Yeah, thank you.

NARRATOR: Like dozens of other US airports...

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: One here.

NARRATOR: ... Charlotte Airport is equipped

with a system of special wind sensors.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: One here. One here. Here. Here. And here. Six in total.

JOHN: The low level wind shear alert system is a number

of anemometers, wind speed and direction sensors, that

are placed in various places around and near the airport.

And they compare the winds at one part of the airport

with winds at another part.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Okay. Run it.

NARRATOR: Investigators hope the combined data

from all six sensors at Charlotte Airport will tell them

just how dangerous the winds were on the day of the crash.

JOHN: There was light wind which was not at all severe.

NARRATOR: They discover that top wind speeds

were not very high that day.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Wait a second. Look at that wind.

It's blowing all over the place.

NARRATOR: But the changes in wind speed and direction were extreme.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Look at that.

NARRATOR: Less than two minutes before the accident,

four of the six sensors signaled a weather event

known as wind shear.

Wind shear is a sudden shift in wind direction and velocity

that can cause a plane's airspeed

to become dangerously erratic.

FRED: What makes the wind shear events near the airports

at low levels very hazardous is

because the aircraft coming in for landing

have very low airspeeds and are close to the ground.

So there's not much room for managing

the energy state of the aircraft.

NARRATOR: Investigators may finally be close to a breakthrough.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Let's get this data to NASA, see what they make of it.

NARRATOR: But they won't know if it was wind shear

that brought down the DC-9

until experts analyze the weather data in detail.

♪ ♪

NASA meteorologist Fred Proctor gets the assignment.

♪ ♪

FRED: I was asked by the NTSB to help them understand

what happened in this event

and whether or not wind shear was a factor in the accident.

FRED: Okay, let's see what the data tells us.

Adding temperature. Humidity.

NARRATOR: Using a weather simulator, Proctor enters

the airport wind data, along with other key variables.

FRED: I used a model that I had developed earlier

and used in wind shear studies

to recreate the thunderstorm that occurred on that day.

FRED: That should be it. Let's check out this simulation.

FRED: And so from there I began to piece together

or reconstruct the accident event.

NARRATOR: The simulation renders the forces within the storm

in precise detail.

FRED: That's incredible.

NARRATOR: Proctor makes a startling discovery.

The DC-9 didn't just encounter wind shear.

It flew into something even more deadly.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: NASA meteorologist Fred Proctor now has the complete picture

of the violent weather event that blindsided US Air 1016.

FRED: That's no wind shear. That's a microburst.

FRED: A microburst is a strong low-level downdraft

that spreads out at the ground

and creates strong low level wind shear.

NARRATOR: The microburst downdraft hits the ground

with tremendous force, spreading out in all directions

and creating wind shear.

JOHN: You can think of it as suspending a cold block of air

like an anvil and then pulling that support out from under it.

When it starts down it has enormous force.

FRED: When you hit the shear it's like you're coming to

the top of a roller coaster.

And then it's like the bottom drops out.

NARRATOR: It has long been known that these powerful downdrafts

can be lethal for aircraft during takeoff or landing.

GREG: There were a number of accidents in the '60s and in the '70s

that were attributed to a microburst

or wind-shear type environment.

We just didn't know what to call it then.

We hadn't had a lot of information.

Nobody really studied it.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: In 1985, a microburst caused the crash

of Delta Airlines Flight 191 at Dallas/Fort Worth.

One hundred and thirty-five people died,

spurring a major effort to find ways to reduce the threat.

JOHN: Following Delta 191, NASA and a number of people

within the industry started to study thunderstorms

and this microburst, and they found that the microbursts were

far more prevalent and numerous than previously thought.

NARRATOR: The NASA simulation not only confirms that

the DC-9 was hit by a microburst, it reveals that

it was one of the most powerful researchers have ever seen.

FRED: This wind shear event would have been in the top 1%

of most intense microbursts that we had looked at.

I've only seen maybe one or two cases

where microburst wind shear was actually stronger.

NARRATOR: Investigators now know that it was

an extreme microburst that brought down Flight 1016.

But their questioning doesn't end there.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Firewall power!

NARRATOR: They also know that pilots are trained

to deal with such events.

JOHN: If you do find yourself in a microburst, what do you do?

Max power. Get as much lift out of the wings as you can.

Try to keep it flying because

you'll be through it fairly quickly.

NARRATOR: Why weren't the pilots of Flight 1016

able to recover and avoid disaster?

The NTSB gathers pilot training materials from US Air

in the hope of answering that question.

GREG: Those pilots had been trained in the simulator

to a variety of different types of scenarios

that were based on accidents and incidents in the past.

BARRY: And at this point crews had been trained.

In the event that they encounter a microburst they

were trained to traverse them safely and get out of there.

NARRATOR: Investigators learn that US Air trains its pilots

to do two things in the event of a microburst:

apply firewall power and raise the nose into a climb.

GREG: If you're gonna do this wind shear environment

escape maneuver, you go full power and nose up.

You get maximum performance to fly through this environment.

NARRATOR: But did the pilots even know there was a risk of wind shear?

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: We need to know what was going on in that cockpit.

Ready? Okay, let's hear it.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Ladies and gentlemen, we're 40 miles from Charlotte.

NARRATOR: Flight 1016's cockpit voice recording

is the investigators' best hope of finding an answer.

FO. HAYES: There's more rain out there than I thought there was.

CAPT. GREENLEE: It looks like it's hitting just off the edge of the airport.

NARRATOR: The recording reveals that the crew

saw the storm forming over the airport.

The pilots were confident they could handle it.

CAPT. GREENLEE: If we have to bail out,

it looks like we'll bail out to the right.

FO. HAYES: Amen.

CAPT. GREENLEE: So I think we should be all right.

Chance of shear. Heads up.

FO. HAYES: Roger that.

NARRATOR: Captain Greenlee not only knew wind shear was possible,

he was ready with a plan of action.

BARRY: And they were fully prepared to abort the landing,

perform what's called a missed approach

should the weather deteriorate at any point

before they touch down.

NARRATOR: Investigators also discover that when the microburst hit,

the pilots initially did the right thing.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Max power. FO. HAYES: Max power.

JOHN: They initiated a normal missed approach

and started to accelerate, pitched the nose up, increased

the power on the engines, a normal routine go-around.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Max power.

NARRATOR: But as they continue listening,

they hear something completely unexpected.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down! Push it down!

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Wait, stop the tape. Does he just say, push it down?

Play it again.

GREG: When we heard the captain say down, push it down,

we replayed that statement a dozen times

trying to put it in context as to, did he really say that,

and what did he mean by that?

ROBERT: Flaps to 15.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down. Push it down.

NARRATOR: Based on their training, they should keep

the plane's nose up to climb.

But the captain tells his first officer to drop the nose.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down! Push it down.

BARRY: We were all surprised when that came out.

None of us were expecting that.

It goes against what pilots are supposed to do

in a wind shear escape maneuver.

GWPS: Terrain. Terrain.

GREG: If he didn't push the nose over,

they wouldn't have flown into the ground.

GWPS: Terrain. Terrain. Terrain.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Ugh. Firewall power!

GWPS: Terrain. Terrain.

♪ ♪

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: What was he thinking?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Investigators return to the US Air pilots,

hoping to learn why they didn't keep the plane's nose up

as they were trained to do.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Hey. Good to see you.

Listen, I need your help with one thing

I just can't understand.

Why did the captain decide to push the nose down?

FO. HAYES: I, I don't really remember.

FO. HAYES: I'm not sure if I have a clear recollection of that,

of him saying that or if it was,

or if I just remember listening to it

on the cockpit voice recorder.

All I remember is that we were losing airspeed.

We could have stalled.

BARRY: They were re-interviewed about that,

why the captain called for that.

And I don't believe that we got an answer,

though that explained it.

GREG: And when we showed them the data,

and we let the captain and the first officer

listen to the cockpit voice recorder.

It's like, that's you. Why'd you say that? Don't know.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Okay. Well thanks again.

JOHN: Trying to get precise information from them

in an interview proved to be pretty hard,

not because they were withholding anything;

just because humans don't always remember great detail

under high-stress events.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Next slide, please.

NARRATOR: Investigators can only speculate

about why the captain reacted as he did.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: And the next slide, please.

NARRATOR: It suggests he fell into the grip

of a deadly phenomenon that aviators call

spatial disorientation.

GREG: How we maintain our orientation in space

is with our feet on the ground, basically the force of gravity,

and the fluid in our inner ear and primarily our eyes.

So when you look out at the horizon you know what is up,

what is down.

FO. HAYES: Whoa.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Okay, you're plus 20. Take it around.

Go to the right. US Air 1016's on the go.

NARRATOR: In flight, extreme changes in speed,

direction and altitude create physical forces on the body

that can confuse the senses.

This may cause the pilot to lose track

of the plane's orientation.

GREG: What happens with pilots is that

during the course of acceleration and deceleration

the fluid in their inner ear starts to move.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down! Push it down!

GREG: And so your body will fool you,

because all you have is basically the body sensation.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: He's coming in for his landing

and he gets hit by the thunderstorm.

So he decides to do a missed approach.

But just as they're climbing,

the microburst pushes the plane down. It slows the airspeed.

Now the captain believes that the plane is

about to stall and that they're pointed up.

JOHN: And a stall that close to the ground

would have been catastrophic.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: But in reality they're nearly level.

So he tells the first officer to push the plane down.

CAPT. GREENLEE: Down! Push it down!

NARRATOR: For Captain Greenlee...

CAPT. GREENLEE: Firewall power!

NARRATOR: ... it would have felt like the DC-9

was in a dangerously steep climb,

a false sensation called somatogravic illusion.

GREG: The somatogravic illusion

is a very disconcerting illusion because

your body sensations can trick you.

He thought, we're pitching too fast,

when in fact it was perfect.

JOHN: Had they been able to just sustain the flight for

another thirty seconds, they'd have been out the backside.

NARRATOR: In their final report, investigators highlight

the need for prompt weather updates

whenever there's a risk of thunderstorms.

They also call on the FAA to make sure that

controllers are displaying the highest level

of precipitation intensity on their radar screens

and relaying that information to flight crews.

Finally, since the Flight 1016 tragedy,

a more sophisticated type of radar called Doppler radar

has become standard equipment at most airports

and on board many aircraft.

GREG: You can see the intensities of the wind,

the vertical and the horizontal velocities.

That's great information.

JOHN: They have predictive wind shear, and so it can

actually look and predict before the airplane arrives

so that you get a much earlier warning.

FRED: Because of our increased understanding of wind shear

and the development of new technologies, there has not been

a case in the United States of a wind shear accident

since the Charlotte event.

NARRATOR: Both Mike Greenlee and Phil Hayes

resumed their flying careers, eventually becoming pilots

for American Airlines

when American merged with US Airways in 2013.

As for flight attendant Richard DeMary,

his brave actions in the immediate aftermath

of the Flight 1016 crash earned him no fewer than five awards,

including the US Department of Transportation's

Award for Heroism.

RICHARD: I believe that while I was

the individual in the event, the awards really represent

a recognition of the flight attendant profession,

and that flight attendants play a role of extreme importance

on each and every flight.