Original subtitles

NARRATOR: An emergency above the French Alps strikes

Trans-Air Cargo Flight 671.

There was an enormous bang.

And the aircraft almost inverted.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

NARRATOR: The crew needs to land but are flying blind.

Kabo 671, we have no radar contact.

They stood a very real chance of hitting a mountain.

NARRATOR: Then they discover something even more horrifying.

I saw nothing in the number four engine position.

The wing was clean.

NARRATOR: Assuming the worst, the first officer leaves

a clue for investigators.

MARTIN EMERY: I took the photograph because I wasn't

sure what would happen next.

If somebody might find the camera, they'll see the truth.

MAN: Mayday mayday

Pull up!

NARRATOR: Trans-Air Flight 671 is preparing for takeoff

at Luxembourg Airport.

Forecast says we'll get some weather in an hour.

As we cross over the Alps, typical.

NARRATOR: Captain Ingemar Berglund

is a highly experienced Swedish pilot

who has been flying Boeing 707 aircraft for over a decade.

MARTIN EMERY: The captain had been a military pilot.

And he'd been on air transport flying

for most of his working life.

His experience was pretty vast in Africa and in Europe.

He knew the routes.

And he was a very good pilot.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER (OVER RADIO):

Kabo 671, you are cleared for takeoff, runway 24.

671 clear for takeoff, roger.

NARRATOR: First officer Martin Emery

is an accomplished British pilot who has worked as an instructor

and an air traffic controller.

Ready to go.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: The first officer had

about 10,000 hours, about half of which was on the Boeing 707.

So he was very experienced too.

V1, 170, rotate.

NARRATOR: The Boeing 707 is a long-range aircraft powered by

four Pratt & Whitney engines.

It was a very basic airplane, very strong, very reliable,

and could carry 40 or 50 tons of freight.

NARRATOR: Assisting the pilots is flight engineer Terry Boone.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: The Boeing 707 didn't have much in the way

of automated systems.

But this meant that there was a whole panel sideways

in the flight deck in which the flight engineer had to operate

every system manually.

He was probably one of the most experienced Boeing 707

flight engineers in the world.

NARRATOR: Today's flight is a seven hour journey from

Luxembourg to Kano, Nigeria.

Feels a little heavy today.

Well, did you see what's loaded back there?

It's all oil well equipment.

Yeah, and not the light kind.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is operated by the newly formed Nigerian

company Trans-Air Limited.

Their client-- Kabo Air Cargo.

Trans-Air had only been formed a few

weeks before this incident.

It was purely for the oil industry

to transport a lot of equipment down to Nigeria

for the oil works.

This was an extra special flight in that it was carrying

equipment that would have helped Nigeria in their modernizing.

NARRATOR: Kabo 671 levels off at 29,000 feet.

MARTIN EMERY: The flight plan indicated, with the weight

of the aircraft, we should stay at a slightly lower

than normal flight level for the first part of the flight

until we burned off fuel.

And then we could gain a higher flight level.

How are the guys in the back?

Good, they made us coffee.

NARRATOR: Also on board are a cargo supervisor

and a maintenance engineer.

Like them more every day.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: So the five of them

were knowledgeable about the 707.

They were knowledgeable about this sort of ad hoc air

cargo work.

And although they hadn't met until a fortnight previously,

I think they worked well together as a team.

NARRATOR: Over the Alps, the weather deteriorates.

Pretty much ground level up to about 33,000 feet was in cloud.

And the cloud was rough and turbulent.

I'm going to buckle up until we're above it.

Good idea.

We engaged our five-point seat harness,

rather than just the four-point harnesses that we normally keep

on to a top of climb and then moved our seats

forward to be really guarding the controls

in this turbulent air.

It was getting quite rough.

Ask if we can go to 33.

Kabo 671, request flight level 330.

671, roger.

Climb to flight level 330.

Climb 330, 671.

The requested climb was to go up another 4,000.

NARRATOR: One hour into the flight,

just as the plane reaches 33,000 feet--

MARTIN EMERY: There was an enormous bang followed almost

immediately by another one.

And the aircraft absolutely rolled to the right.

NARRATOR: The captain uses all his strength

to level the plane.

MARTIN EMERY: Had the captain not reacted as quickly

as he did, the aircraft could have

rolled over, in fact, inverted.

Engine fire.

NARRATOR: Engines three and four show signs of fire.

While the flight engineer deals with the engine alarms,

the first officer checks on the engines.

MARTIN EMERY: I saw nothing in the number

four engine position.

Number four engine has left the wing.

Mayday, mayday, mayday, Kabo 671.

NARRATOR: With reduced engine power

and an unbalanced configuration, the flight drops out of the sky

in an uncontrolled descent.

The descent rate was horrific.

I think I saw 8,000 or 9,000 feet per minute.

NARRATOR: It's diving quickly towards the French Alps

through heavy clouds.

They need to get out of the mountains.

And they can't see outside because of the thick cloud.

They need the air traffic controller to give them

a direction in which to head for a safe haven,

for a safe airport.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Request descent for radar landing.

The ground service can follow your track

over the ground you're heading, your height and speed,

from our transponder.

And they can point you to the nearest available runway.

NARRATOR: But air traffic control has bad news.

Kabo 671, we have no radar contact.

Say your position please, sir.

NARRATOR: They can no longer see Flight 671 on the radar.

With nobody able to give them a direction to steer,

they stood a very real chance of hitting a mountain.

NARRATOR: The plane's radar transponder has failed.

I was considering which direction we could

go to avoid the mountains.

It was very scary.

NARRATOR: The situation is dire enough that the first officer

records the damage to the wing.

MARTIN EMERY: I wasn't sure what would happen next.

I believe that if anything ended,

like the flight before we were ready,

somebody might find the camera.

And they'd have seen the truth.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is in an uncontrolled descent

over the French Alps.

With thick clouds and no transponder

for the controller to guide them, the crew is flying blind.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Request descent for radar landing.

NARRATOR: The flight engineer attempts to get

the transponder working again.

He suspects there is a power issue.

The reason the air traffic control lost

the radar initially was probably because the electrics

powering the radar failed when the engine

number four fell off.

NARRATOR: The flight engineer redirects

the power to engine one.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: He selected the essential power selector

to engine number one which had an

operative electrical generator.

NARRATOR: It works.

MARTIN EMERY: Request descent radar landing.

Roger.

Turn left, heading south to Marseilles.

NARRATOR: The controller directs Flight 671

to Marseilles Airport, 75 miles away.

You turn left, 180.

OK.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: There was immense relief

as they descended out of the cloud

and finally could see the mountains around them.

NARRATOR: But relief is short lived

after the first officer gives the right wing

a further inspection.

We've lost both engines on the right wing.

What?

MARTIN EMERY: With a five-point harness,

you are slightly restricted.

But I did manage to look right over my right shoulder.

And both the engines were off the wing.

The wing was clean, which was a really big shock.

We've lost both engines.

Both engines?

BOB GRIMSTEAD: Just about the worst thing

that can happen in an airliner is to have an engine

depart from the aircraft.

The only thing worse than that would be to have two engines

depart from your aircraft.

NARRATOR: With only the two left engines functioning,

control of the plane is compromised.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: When you've lost both engines

from the right wing and still have a lot of thrust

from the engines on the left wing, it upsets that balance

and causes the airplane to turn and to roll

very powerfully to the right.

Getting the airplane to turn left

is a huge ask under these circumstances.

Can you turn 180?

Yeah, I'm trying.

NARRATOR: Flying the disabled plane is

testing the captain's strength.

The Boeing 707 has all manual flying controls.

It's very heavy to fly when everything's working well.

When you've lost two engines on one side,

it's virtually at the limit of physical capability

for the captain.

You want to dump fuel?

Yes, dump fuel.

NARRATOR: To keep Flight 671 in the air,

the crew decides to reduce its load.

This aircraft was carrying a very heavy fuel load.

And it was imperative to reduce that fuel load.

NARRATOR: But it requires a precise calculation.

They need to leave themselves enough fuel to reach

Marseilles and land safely.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: 112 tons is the maximum safe weight

at which they can land.

If they're any heavier than that and hit the ground hard,

then they would be sliding along the runway on their belly,

shedding fuel and burning.

This is not a position you want to be in.

NARRATOR: The process is time consuming.

As Flight 671 completes its left turn toward Marseilles,

Captain Berglund reduces power in the two left engines.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: They had to reduce the power

on the left engines to give themselves

a chance of staying upright and going in the direction they

wanted to go in.

NARRATOR: Reducing air speed means an increase

in the angle of descent.

MARTIN EMERY: Unfortunately, this of course

meant they then descended more rapidly.

They have to land soon.

And they have to land somewhere very nearby.

NARRATOR: Airspeed isn't the crew's only concern.

Request the weather.

Give me the weather for Marseilles, 671.

I really needed the weather at Marseilles

to make a plan for an approach to land

either direct or a circuit, or whatever we could do.

NARRATOR: But air traffic control isn't responding.

Request weather.

Mayday, mayday, mayday, 671 request weather.

MARTIN EMERY: It was quite a tough call to actually get

the instant weather, at that moment, at Marseilles airport,

that we needed right now.

NARRATOR: Making matters worse, the fuel

dump is not going as expected.

Fuel tank number one isn't discharging.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: It became evident to the flight engineer

that the number one fuel tank wasn't emptying.

This would cause a lateral imbalance across the airplane,

which is not a good thing.

I've got limited maneuvering.

You dumping?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: The flight engineer discovers that a circuit

breaker has popped.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: By pushing the circuit breaker back in,

he was able to reactivate the number one fuel pump

and get the fuel jettisoning from all four tanks

simultaneously.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is 30 miles from the runway in Marseilles.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

MARTIN EMERY: 671 requests weather.

It's raining on the airfield.

Two , 500 feet.

Three , 1,600 feet.

Three , 2,000 feet.

No. No, no.

NARRATOR: Thunder clouds and the risk of turbulence

will make a difficult landing harder.

MARTIN EMERY: We were pushed to even get there

with the height available.

With thunderstorm activity, it was really a no go.

Kabo 671, what is our distance to the runway?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER (OVER RADIO):

22 miles for landing, sir.

MARTIN EMERY: We had no plan B. At that point,

that was a nasty moment.

What we wanted was a runway.

And we wanted it quickly.

Hey, you see the airfield?

I don't see it.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is in a rapid descent

with limited maneuverability less than 9,000

feet above Southern France when the crew finally gets a break.

MARTIN EMERY: I looked through just cloud underneath us,

and I glimpsed some ribbon black tarmac.

It was a runway.

Kabo 671, we have an airfield ahead.

What is our airfield?

It's a military airfield at your 12 o'clock for six miles.

Can we land there?

No, it's too short.

Too short.

How long is the runway on this military airfield?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER (OVER RADIO): 13,000 feet.

Oh, yeah, OK.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: The runway at Istres is long.

It is France's flight test center.

And it was also a space shuttle alternate learning ground.

It's probably the biggest airport in Europe.

Military airfield, mayday, traffic 671.

NARRATOR: The first officer makes contact with air traffic

control at Istres Airport.

671, this is Istres.

You are cleared for arrival, runway 33.

We're just overhead.

What's the wind?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER (OVER RADIO):

Wind it is 330 10 knots, gusting 1 to 4 knots.

We'll make a left-hand pattern from the west.

Yeah.

MARTIN EMERY: The French military air traffic

controller was one of my gang.

I thought he was great.

We turn left to land.

Yes.

NARRATOR: As they start their turn,

the crew lowers the plane's flaps

in preparation for landing.

The wheels were down and locked.

And the flaps were coming down, so Captain Berglund

could have more roll control.

NARRATOR: But when the flaps are extended--

--disaster strikes.

MARTIN EMERY: There was another big explosion which

tried to roll us right again.

Turn left.

Turn left to land.

Turn left.

I'm trying.

Turn left to land. Left turn.

Yeah.

We missed the runway.

Oh, god.

NARRATOR: They're unable to line up for landing.

671, we have fire on board.

I confirm, fire on board.

I could hear the fire.

But I didn't say anything.

We need another runway.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER (OVER RADIO): Take runway 14.

Wind is 320, 10 knots, clear, direct.

NARRATOR: After failing to make a hard left for a landing

on runway 33, the crew attempts to circle back and land

on the runway's opposite end, known as 15.

The captain doesn't have the strength

to make the turn on his own.

But the first officer has an idea.

MARTIN EMERY: I said, "I'll take the power."

Then, Captain Berglund said to me, "Be careful."

I said, "I will.

I promise."

NARRATOR: The first officer adjusts the throttles to help

steer the plane to the runway.

I'm bringing back number one, advancing number two.

It actually turned the airplane left.

And he could fly it going towards the runway,

which was a miracle.

Truly was.

NARRATOR: It's a race against time

to get the plane on the ground before the wing is incinerated.

Good descent.

You are on axis.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is flying 50 knots faster

than normal landing speed.

MARTIN EMERY: Captain did a perfect landing,

kept it just left of the center line.

And we were safely on the ground at a great speed,

but we were on the ground.

NARRATOR: If they don't brake soon,

they will overshoot the runway.

Without hydraulics, they have only the plane's emergency

brake to reduce speed.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: There was no anti-skid protection.

That would have meant that the tires would start scuffing

and bursting, which would then reduce

their ability to slow down.

Stopping was the only thing that mattered.

You want both thrust reverses?

The flight engineer wanted to use reverse thrust on the two

left engines, because that was the only way

he could see of slowing down.

No, cut the engines.

The first officer didn't want him to do that,

because that would pull the airplane

off to the left of the runway.

I've just lost engine two.

As a compromise, they used reverse thrust

on the inboard left engine, the number two engine, which

did help reduce their galloping speed,

but pulled the airplane off the runway to the left.

The aircraft did come to a halt in the mud.

We're on fire. Evacuate.

Evacuate.

MARTIN EMERY: I realized that we were on fire.

And it was burning and belching smoke and flame.

We needed to get down, get out, and get away.

NARRATOR: With two missing engines, a wing on fire,

and no brakes, Flight 671 has landed in Istres, France

with its cargo and crew safe.

To actually have two of the four engines fall off the wing,

virtually unheard of in the history of aviation.

NARRATOR: The heroic escape from death

makes headlines around the world.

As French investigators arrive, they're faced

with an important question.

What caused two engines to fall off a plane?

BOB GRIMSTEAD: Losing two engines is a huge thing,

so the investigators had quite a big task to establish what had

happened, and more importantly, why and how

to prevent it happening again.

NARRATOR: The damaged 707 is moved to a hangar

to be examined by the BEA, France's

air investigation authority.

The level of damage on this aircraft

was very close to looking like a total structural failure.

I've got something.

NARRATOR: Investigators make an early discovery about the fire

on board the plane.

These wires from the cable loom short circuited.

That, plus a fuel leak from near the engine

three area caused the fire.

Good work.

When the engines came away from the wing,

they tore with them electrical wiring.

Some of that wiring still had power available.

NARRATOR: When the flaps were extended, leaking fuel

made contact with live wires and ignited.

Let's get this cleaned up, get a better look at what tore

the engine loose from the wing.

NARRATOR: Investigators are counting

on the plane's flight data recorder

to provide more information.

OK, let's see what it can tell us.

Looks like engines three and four

were producing thrust right up until here.

9:10:50 AM, one hour into the flight.

NARRATOR: The FDR data reveals that both engines stopped

working almost concurrently.

The flight data recorder basically

show the engines operating as normal

when they left the aircraft.

NARRATOR: To you understand why two perfectly functioning

engines detached from the 707's wings,

investigators need to find the missing engines.

Here's the flight path.

This is where they probably fell off.

I'll send a search and recovery team out there.

NARRATOR: 24 hours into the investigation, the engines

of Flight 671 are located on a mountainside

near Séderon, France, 55 miles northeast

of where the plane landed.

Investigators found the engines about 800 meters apart.

That's very close.

NARRATOR: Their locations also suggest the engines detached

at almost the same time.

While the team waits for the engines to be recovered,

they turn to the crew for further insight.

We were climbing to 33,000 feet

to avoid some pretty bad turbulence.

Suddenly, there were loud sounds.

I saw engine four was missing.

You reported the engines missing at two different times.

Is it possible you were mistaken?

It's possible.

The harness I was wearing kept me from getting a good look

out the window at first.

You said you were climbing to avoid turbulence.

How bad was it?

It was severe.

I wouldn't want to go through that again.

They'd flown through extremely heavy turbulence of a level

not normally encountered.

So there were two cumulonimbus clouds here and here.

And they went up past 33,000 feet.

NARRATOR: Investigators examine the weather conditions

at the time of the incident.

Looks like there was also a 90-knot jet stream over here.

NARRATOR: They discover that Flight 671

flew through two weather conditions

when they reached 33,000 feet.

Those two conditions would have

generated severe turbulence.

But you'd think it could withstand the turbulence.

NARRATOR: Did two colliding weather conditions

tear the engines off the 707?

Well, let's see what the engines can tell us.

Hey, boss.

NARRATOR: Close examination of the engines

gives investigators an important new clue.

See this dent on engine four?

Shape and diameter match a dent on engine three.

So does this white paint.

You could tell from the shape of the damage,

and from transfer of white paint from one engine

to the other engine, that the number

three had struck the number four engine and separated it.

NARRATOR: Investigators now need to find out what

caused engine three to detach.

Looks like a clean break of all four fittings.

NARRATOR: Each engine is attached to a pylon.

The pylon is then bolted to the wing using four large fittings.

During flight 671, all four fittings broke on engine three.

Now three of the four fittings broke like this one.

You can see from the surface, they broke from stress.

This mid spar fitting is different.

There's some distortion here.

It likely broke from a fatigue fracture.

JOE EPPERSON: You could see some characteristics surface-wise,

coloration-wise, that were consistent with a fatigue

cracking.

NARRATOR: Over time, the inboard mid spar fitting

on engine three was weakened because of a crack

caused by metal fatigue.

When it snapped off in severe turbulence,

the other fittings broke too.

As a metallurgist, I want to take

a closer look at these things.

OK, let's see what we got.

NARRATOR: To establish a detailed history of Flight

671's broken mid spar fitting, investigators use an electron

microscope to examine it.

I can see multiple arrest lines.

With each takeoff and landing, the crack grows a little bit.

And it leaves a mark.

And each little stress cycle makes

the crack a little bigger.

These are likely from the flights

the plane flew since Trans-Air put it back

in service a few weeks ago.

But what about before that?

NARRATOR: As the team continues examining

the cracked mid spar fitting, they make an unusual finding.

It looks like corrosion.

The plane had to have been exposed to moisture

over a long period of time.

All right, well, it looks like the previous owner

had the plane in storage for 13 months prior to the incident.

Where was it stored?

Um, in a field in England.

REX PARKINSON: Steel will corrode

if it's in a salty atmosphere or a very moist atmosphere.

This particular aircraft was stored at airfields

which weren't far from the sea.

That explains the corrosion.

How about those-- those little marks?

NARRATOR: Near the bottom of the fitting,

they discover several telltale marks.

Those are corrosion pit marks.

Corrosion pits are tiny holes that appear in metal

after water has gained access to that metal

and caused corrosion to take place.

And the pit can be the start of a long crack.

JOE EPPERSON: And in this case, there were corrosion pits that

grew into one crack and eventually

fractured the mid spar fitting.

So when did these pit marks start to develop?

Well, it's hard to pinpoint exactly.

Given their distance from the arrest lines,

it suggests that the pitting started even before the plane

went into storage.

JOE EPPERSON: The crack doesn't occur in storage.

The oxidation does.

So that tells us the cracking occurred before storage, or

probably years before storage.

These fittings were a time bomb waiting to blow.

So how did the maintenance team miss it?

This just arrived from Trans-Air, maintenance records.

Oh, let's have a look.

NARRATOR: Investigators want to know

if poor maintenance on Flight 671 contributed to the crash.

REX PARKINSON: You start to look at the age of the parts

that failed, and what was the maintenance

requirements for those parts, and did they

play a role in the accident.

NARRATOR: In the 1990s, Nigerian airlines,

like Trans-Air, gained a reputation

for poor maintenance.

For a while, Nigerian airways were, in fact, banned

from United Kingdom airspace.

According to this, Trans-Air didn't do

mid spar maintenance check.

Trans-Air had only owned that airplane for a very

small amount of time.

So it's unlikely that they've performed

any maintenance on it.

So maybe Trans-Air inherited the problem

before it was owned by them.

Looks like the previous owner did two maintenance checks--

one on October 10, 1991, when the plane was

in storage, and the other in May 1990,

before it went into storage.

NARRATOR: The team learns that the plane passed

two maintenance checks in a two year period

prior to the incident.

If the metal fatigue started before the storage,

the maintenance check should have caught the problem.

GUY HIRST: There were certain cracks that should have

been picked up, which weren't.

NARRATOR: Then, one month into the investigation,

another 707 loses an engine.

The incident is similar to what happened to Flight 671.

During takeoff from Miami International Airport,

the number three engine is torn off the wing

and then hits engine four.

REX PARKINSON: With the Miami accident,

the pilots managed to land the aircraft

safely, with no one being hurt.

NARRATOR: The NTSB investigates and discovers

that a broken mid spar fitting also caused the engine

to fall off the wing.

This was, perhaps, history repeating itself.

Is that from the NTSB?

Yep.

NARRATOR: French investigators review the NTSB's

preliminary report, curious about the Miami

plane's maintenance history.

Maintenance on the 707 in Miami

was performed 328 flights before the accident.

Which is well within the 600 flight recommendation

by the FAA.

NARRATOR: They discovered that the plane had also passed

maintenance checks and reported no fatigue cracking

or corrosion.

In both the Miami accident and the French accident,

the mid spar fitting had failed in a very similar way

and had also been maintained as specified by the FAA

and Boeing Aircraft Company.

Perhaps they weren't maintaining properly.

At the time, the mid spar fittings

were required to be inspected in a close, visual examination.

Basically, you gain access to the fitting,

you wipe it off the best you can, and what you can see

is what you examine.

NARRATOR: Was there a problem with the inspection process?

Investigators interview a maintenance

supervisor about how engine fittings

are approved for flight.

So how do you inspect the fitting?

Well, you're supposed to carry out

a close visual inspection for cracks on the exposed

surfaces of the fitting.

And--

And?

Well, cracks can start on the inside of the fitting.

So why is that a problem?

Well, it's a problem because you can't see

inside unless you remove the engine and the pylon

from the wing.

NARRATOR: It's a troubling discovery.

The mid spar fitting is normally inspected by removing

a panel on the pylon.

But the entire fitting cannot be seen from the access panel.

The engine and pylon need to be removed to check for cracks

on the inside of the fitting.

Boeing did not require disassembly

of the mid spar fitting.

Their risk assessment basically said, it's not

worth it on this old airframe.

So there could be 707s out there

with cracks in this fitting that no one could see?

Yeah.

As an investigator, you always have

to wonder how many more engines are going to fall off of 707s.

Listen to this.

NARRATOR: Investigators of Flight 671

do a deep dive into the history of the Boeing 707's mid spar

fitting.

There have been reports of more than 35 cracked mid spar

fittings on the 797.

These planes are at the end of their life cycle.

797 in Miami had flown over 50,000 hours.

The Trans-Air 707 had flown more than 60,000 hours.

This was an old fitting, on an old airplane, that had been

designed a very long time ago.

When they didn't know how these materials would age,

the consequence of this and perhaps not the best

maintenance or inspection meant that eventually

this fitting just gave up.

NARRATOR: By 1992, most 707s were considered

too old to fly passengers and were

converted to freight transport.

We need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

NARRATOR: Investigators conclude that a hidden fracture

in the mid spar fitting almost took the lives of the five men

on Trans-Air Flight 671.

The fate of the plane is sealed when

a maintenance inspection fails to catch the fatigue crack.

Ask if we can go to 33.

NARRATOR: The 707 is pushed to its breaking point

when two weather events collide.

JOE EPPERSON: The in-flight turbulence

was the last little bit that was necessary to cause fracture.

Basically, it was the last straw that held this pylon together.

NARRATOR: The weakened mid spar fitting finally breaks

and both engines are lost.

If not for the heroics of the crew,

the plane would have crashed.

The 707 is not an easy airplane to fly

when everything is going well.

It's a very difficult airplane to fly

when things are going wrong.

I've got limited maneuvering.

You dumping?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Captain Berglund's skill and stamina

prove remarkable as he physically keeps

the plane stable until landing.

From the beginning of the incident to when they

finally landed on the runway--

24 minutes.

24 minutes that most pilots wouldn't

have had all those things happen to them in his entire career.

He was just one fantastic pilot.

Kabo 671, we have no radar contact.

Say your position, please, sir.

NARRATOR: Throughout the harrowing flight,

Flight Engineer Boone troubleshoots and fixes

key systems.

GUY HIRST: The flight engineer looked at his panel

and came up with the solution as to why

the radar wasn't working.

You turn left, 180.

OK

Hey, you see the airfield?

NARRATOR: And First Officer Emery's quick thinking

and intuition proved vital.

Kabo 671, we have an airfield ahead.

What is that airfield?

It was an absolute genius decision

to land at a military base with a long runway.

It shows an awful lot about that spirit of pilots and survival,

that they somehow coalesce together.

And they all use their own individual skills.

NARRATOR: The BEA recommends that inspections

of the current mid spar fittings be modified to enable

the detection of hidden cracks or be replaced

by reinforced fittings.

JOE EPPERSON: The FAA decided to mandate replacement

of the mid spar fittings with a new and improved mid spar

fitting, which did not require inspections that were

ineffective in the first place.

NARRATOR: In 1992, the crew of Trans-Air Cargo 671

received the Hugh Gordon-Burge Award

for Outstanding Airmanship.

BOB GRIMSTEAD: This flight was a heroic achievement

where the crew have recovered from a virtually

impossible situation.

And they deserve the awards they got.

MARTIN EMERY: So a lot of luck, and a bit of teamwork,

and a bit of shouting, and a bit of action, but a happy landing.