All language subtitles for Air Disasters S18E07 Unlocking Disaster 1080p PMTP WEB-DL DDP5 1 H 264-maldini_track3_[eng]

SPEAKER 1: Ladies and gentlemen,
we are starting our approach.

SPEAKER 2: We lost both engines!

SPEAKER 3: Don't be
alarmed, emergency detected.

SPEAKER 4: Mayday!
Mayday!

SPEAKER 5: Brace for impact!

SPEAKER 6: I think I lost one.

SPEAKER 7:
Investigations start--

SPEAKER 8: It's gonna crash!

NARRATOR: Modern airliners
are among the most complex and

reliable machines in the world.

Their safety record is high, and
dangerous incidents are rare.

But when they do happen,
aviation authorities

commit to finding the cause.

It's rarely easy.

This is the story of
one such investigation.

When a 747 suffered a
devastating explosion

at high altitude, the
crew and passengers

faced an unprecedented
crisis, and

one family's grief
helped authorities

uncover the full truth.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: Lee kind
of died for nothing.

You know, you've got to
find out why he died,

and you've just got to make sure
that it never happens again.

NARRATOR: Hawaii is a
natural stop for any flight

across the Pacific.

On this morning,
a United 747 was

undergoing routine
inspection for a trip

to Auckland, New Zealand.

But as flight 811
prepared for takeoff,

everyone's guard is up.

Just a few months earlier, a
terrorist bomb had brought down

a 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

LAURA BRENTLINGER: We were in
the aftermath of Lockerbie,

and I had instructed the crew
to be particularly aware,

because it was a through
flight from Los Angeles

going through to New Zealand.

So in my pre-flight
briefing, I'd

asked them to make sure that
they checked any baggage that

looked suspicious or
anything, because we

wanted to be extra cautious.

NARRATOR: Flight 811
was heavily loaded.

337 passengers packed cargo
holds and a full fuel load.

The doors closed on time,
and the plane left the gate

just before 2:00
in the morning, for

a routine eight-hour flight.

LINDA BAHNA: Well, we were going
to New Zealand on vacation,

someplace that we had really
thought was interesting,

and somebody had told
us how beautiful it was.

So this was kind of
a dream come true.

BRUCE LAMPERT: I was seated in
what's called the upper deck.

I hadn't had a
vacation in five years,

and I took all my MileagePlus
points from United Airlines,

and I purchased a business-class
ticket to Auckland, New

Zealand, and Sydney, Australia.

I was going to finally
make that dream vacation

I'd always wanted--

to get to Australia
and lay on a beach

somewhere, and forget
about airplanes,

forget about
accidents, and get this

out of my mind for a while.

NARRATOR: On the
flight deck captain,

Dave Cronin was hugely
experienced, just

two months short of retirement.

Rotate.

DAVID CRONIN: I flew almost
35 years with United.

I've got over 30,000
hours of flight time

and just about everything
military as well as civilian.

My co-pilot, our first
officer, was Al Slader.

And I'd known Al at that
time for probably 20 years.

And the second
officer, Mark Thomas--

was the first time I
had flown with him,

but we got along real well.

Tell them we can handle
33 if it's available.

OK.

NARRATOR: The pilots
wanted to climb

to 33,000 feet above the Pacific
Ocean to avoid turbulence.

OK, it looks like
196 put us direct--

DAVID CRONIN: We did notice
that there were thunderstorms

100 miles south, right on
course, which was rather

unusual for that time of night.

So I left the seatbelt sign on.

NARRATOR: Captain
Cronin's decision

to keep people fastened in their
seats would save many lives.

LAURA BRENTLINGER: We
were still climbing out,

and the seatbelt
sign was still on,

and just basically, getting
ready to serve beverages,

and then to tuck everyone
in for the evening,

because it was going to
be a long flight down

to New Zealand.

OK, tell them we're going
to detour over to left.

Center, United 811, heavy.

We're going to be detouring.

Some weather here.

It'll be to the left of course.

NARRATOR: 100 miles from
Honolulu, as flight 811

climbed through 23,000
feet, a huge malfunction

was about to occur.

There was now a big air pressure
difference between the inside

and the outside of the aircraft.

Suddenly, passengers sitting
just above and behind the cargo

door heard a noise.

LINDA BAHNA: Then, it was
kind of a grinding noise.

I heard, like, a thud.

The hell?

In the next
nanosecond, it was pure,

unadulterated pandemonium.

We lost number three.

Going down.

It looks like we've
lost number three engine,

and we're descending rapidly.

Coming back.

The next thing I knew, I
found myself on the stairwell,

hanging on to the rungs,
and I immediately knew it

was an explosive decompression.

NARRATOR: The cargo
door had torn off

and ripped a large section
of the plane with it.

The pressurized air
inside had blasted

out with explosive force.

I immediately
thought of Lockerbie.

We actually thought it
was a bomb that went off.

BRUCE LAMPERT: It
was hell on earth.

Everything on the
airplane that wasn't

fastened down, tied down,
or secured became airborne.

The noise was incredible.

BOB BAHNA: Everything
in front of us was gone.

Where we were sitting, we were
about 6 inches from the hole,

so there was nothing in front
of us or to the side of us.

The whole side of
the plane was gone.

Actually, our feet were
dangling on the hole.

And my first thought-- we
weren't going to make it.

You know, I just didn't
think there was any hope.

NARRATOR: With the
pressurized air blown out,

the lack of oxygen
at 23,000 feet

was now suffocating the
passengers and the crew.

It felt like someone had
kicked me in the stomach

and knocked the wind out of me.

And I remember trying to
catch my breath, and couldn't.

You're supposed to
wrap those oxygen masks

and put them on, except the
oxygen masks in that cabin--

they were ripped out of
the ceiling, and they

weren't-- they weren't there.

And I remember
thinking to myself,

this is what it feels
like to suffocate.

United know, 811 heavy.

We're doing an
emergency descent.

NARRATOR: The pilots could
tell from their instruments

that the number-three
engine was failing,

but they couldn't tell the
full extent of the damage.

Their priority was to get the
plane down to a level where

they could breathe normally.

Put your mask on, Dave.

NARRATOR: But the
pilots didn't know

that the explosion had destroyed
the entire oxygen supply.

Can't get any oxygen.

We're not getting any oxygen!

Are you getting any?

I can't get any either.

NARRATOR: With the plane
heading steeply down

and no word from the
cockpit, the cabin

crew were thinking the worst.

I remember thinking
that the cockpit, which

is up in the upper
deck, had probably

blown off the airplane, too.

Because as far up as we could
see, there was nothing there.

Now, we're doing
this nose dive.

My next thought was, oh my god,
we're just going straight down.

We're going to
crash into the sea.

NARRATOR: With the
airplane ruptured,

severe damage to the right
wing and engines, and its crew

forcing it down to
an emergency descent,

the problems on flight
811 had only just begun.

Two minutes after suffering
a devastating explosion,

flight 811 was still in a
steep emergency descent,

passing rapidly through 15,000
feet to reach breathable air.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO): United 811
heavy, say your altitude now.

Believe me, 15.

United 811, heavy,
we're out of 15.5.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO):
United 811, roger.

I think we blew a
door or something.

Tell the flight attendant to
get prepared for an evacuation.

NARRATOR: The crew
finally began to level

out at a safer altitude.

But they now faced a
barrage of problems.

The most immediate
was the disintegration

of the number-three engine
nearest to the explosion.

We don't have any
fire indications?

I-- I don't have anything.

OK, we lost number three.

Let's shut it down.

There's no N-1.

Yeah, OK.

Ready for number-three
shutdown checklist.

Before you shut down number
three, the generator went off.

Looks all right to try it now.

Well, that stopped
the vibration anyway.

Feel jettison procedure.

Main boost pumps.

Center, United 811.

We need the equipment
standing by.

Company notified, please.

We got a control problem.

Center-wing,
left-right valves, on.

Start dumping the fuel.

I am dumping.

One stewardess was seriously
injured by falling debris.

As Laura Brentlinger helped
her, the full gravity

of this situation
suddenly became clear.

As I'm holding her in
my arms, I looked up,

and as I looked up,
that was the first time

I saw this tremendous
hole on the side

of the aircraft that was just
a void, and seats were missing.

And I immediately knew that
we had lost passengers.

NARRATOR: Five rows
of seats had been

blown out in the decompression,
killing nine passengers.

On the flight deck, the crew had
turned the stricken plane back

to Honolulu, but with
80 miles still to go,

the crisis now got far worse.

We got a hell of a
control problem here.

I got almost full
rudder on this thing.

Are you dumping
as fast as you can?

I'm dumping everything.

We got a problem with
number-four engine?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Debris from
the explosion that also

damaged the number-four engine.

If it failed completely, the
implications would be severe.

If you are on two engines
and you weigh 700,000 pounds,

that is a big deal.

Simply because with
that kind of weight,

two engines are not going
to keep you in the air.

You're going to come down.

NARRATOR: Although their
number-four engine was failing,

the pilots pushed it
along with the remaining

engines to full power--

a setting they should not run
up for more than four minutes.

But the nearest land
was 15 minutes away.

I look out the window
on the right-hand side,

and I see flames, big flames.

And I know what flames
in engine means.

It's not good.

NARRATOR: The
pilots were unaware

that the number-four
engine was now on fire.

You've got 250 knots now.

That's good.

7,000--

Yeah, we're
getting more rumble.

Watch your heading.

Watch your heading.

You want to go direct Honolulu.

OK.

I'm going to go downstairs and
see what the hell is going on.

Yeah.

Go ahead and run down
and see what's happening.

LAURA BRENTLINGER: I
saw the flight engineer

descend down the stairwell.

And when I saw him, my relief
was, oh my god, they're alive.

And there was a huge
sense of relief for me.

He saw the hole, turned
as white as a sheet,

and I screamed to him, dear
god, please get us down.

We've got a fire out there.

Oh, yeah, we got a
fire in number four.

Go through the procedure.

Shut down the engine.

We're not going to be able
to hold this altitude on two.

We got a fire
on the right side.

We're on two engines now.

The whole right side-- it's
just gone from about the one

right back to-- it's just open.

You're just looking outside.

What do you mean?

It looks like a bomb.

Fuselage?

Yeah, the fuselage.

It's just-- it's just open.

OK, it looks like
we got a bomb that

went off on the right side.

The whole right side is gone.

Yeah, from-- from about
the one right back to--

Anybody--?

Some people are probably gone.

I don't know.

I knew that we
had lost people.

I didn't know how many.

In fact, I didn't know until
the next day how many were lost.

But you know, it's
a terrible thing

when you're a captain
of an airplane

and you lose passengers.

NARRATOR: Lee Campbell,
flying home to New Zealand,

was sitting in row 10 just
in front of the cargo door.

I woke up with such a start,
because I'd seen Lee standing

by the bed, just with a
gray jacket over his arm

and a small smile on his face.

Of course, as I woke up,
it faded slowly, uh--

And then, we woke up in the
morning, and we discussed this.

I said, oh, it was
strange in the night,

but it's such a vivid dream.

Lee was standing there.

And then, the radio came on,
and the first item of news

is that there'd been problem
with a United aircraft.

And I said, that was Lee.

It's Lee, and my
blood just ran cold.

I knew he was dead,
from that moment.

Center, do you read?

We evidently had a
bomb or something.

A big section of the right
sidebar of the airplane

is missing.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO):
Unite 811, heavy, roger.

I wouldn't go any faster than
I had to, because that hole--

I mean, I wouldn't
get it over 250 knots,

because that's a big--

OK, what's-- what's
our stall speed?

I wouldn't go below 240.

Yeah.

I don't know if we're
going to make this.

We didn't know that we
were going to make it back,

so we were actually preparing
to ditch that airplane

at night in the
Pacific Ocean, which

has never been done before.

NARRATOR: In the cabin, the
crew prepared for the worst.

LAURA BRENTLINGER: My
training kicked in,

and I got up from my
jump seat and started

instructing the crew.

We have to prepare the cabin.

We have to prepare
for a ditching,

which I thought was inevitable.

You're running around
getting life vests on,

and I do remember
thinking, I'm not

sure this is going to matter.

Because when we hit
the water, you know,

I just imagine planes
getting split apart.

I knew that if
we hit the water,

it'd be tantamount to
hitting the ground,

and there would be very
few, if any, survivors.

So my mind went to--

the thing that meant something
to me, and at that point

in my life, it was my son.

NARRATOR: Believing
they were going to die,

one of the passengers
took these photographs.

For 15 minutes, the plane
steadily lost altitude.

Then, at 4,000 feet, there
was a glimmer of hope.

After an imponderable time, I
remember one of the passengers

began to point out one of the
windows on the right side.

And everybody looked, and we
looked to this little window

from wherever we were, and we
could see a point of light,

and another point of
light, and another point.

Pretty soon, you could
make out of coastline.

OK, I've got lights over here.

OK.

OK.

We're at 4.

We're 21 miles out.

We're in good shape.

NARRATOR: At Honolulu Airport,
an emergency was declared.

All other aircraft
were diverted,

and the rescue services
prepared for the crash landing

of a fully loaded airliner.

Hey, you want to
give me some speeds?

Yeah.

150 is going to be
your two engine.

Use a 160.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO): United
811, I need souls on board,

if you have it.

OK, souls on board.

160 is the minimum.

Stand by, United 811, heavy.

I don't know how
many is on board.

200 and-- I don't have the
paperwork in front of me here.

Uh, we're too busy right now.

200 and something.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO): OK.

NARRATOR: Six minutes
from the airport, the crew

now had to slow the
overweight plane for landing.

But the effect of
this was unknown.

What's going to happen
when I start coming out

with flaps and landing gear?

We're either going to land
on the airport in the water

or downtown Honolulu.

OK, inboards
are coming to ten.

How do the controls feel?

All right, so far.

NARRATOR: But the
flaps were damaged

and could not fully extend.

This meant that flight 811 would
have to land dangerously fast.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO):
United 811, heavy.

Do you have the
airport in sight?

It's over here to
the right, Captain.

OK.

OK, we have the airport.

United 811, heavy.

SPEAKER (ON RADIO): 811 is
clear to land, eight left.

Equipment standing by.

Wind at 05012.

Clear to land.

Eight left, United 811, heavy.

NARRATOR: As the unstable
747 lined up for landing,

the pilots knew they would
only have one attempt.

But even if they got
it on the runway,

the nagging question remained.

Would the stress of impact
cause the damaged and overweight

aircraft to disintegrate?

Severely damaged, with
an unstable airframe,

losing altitude, and
on only two engines,

flight 811 began its final
approach to Honolulu airport.

Two-engine approach.

Two-engine approach.

We still had no idea how
far off the ground we were,

if we were going to make
it to Honolulu or not.

But that seemed like
an appropriate time,

if we're somewhere around
land, that we're probably going

to try and land somewhere
to get the passengers

in their brace positions.

So that's when we
started yelling for them

to get down to brace positions.

Every molecule in my
body combined to express,

get this damn airplane
on the ground.

How are we doing
on the hydraulics?

Hydraulics are good.

We got brakes?

Normal hydraulics.

So we got brakes.

But, uh-- you're only going to
have reversing on one and one.

Though I thought maybe there
was a chance that we were going

to actually be able
to attempt to land,

the thought came to my mind.

What happens now?

Do we-- on impact,
do we explode?

Do we fall out this huge hole?

NARRATOR: Despite dumping
fuel, the aircraft was

still critically overweight.

192.

NARRATOR: But without full
flaps to keep it in the air,

it had to approach fast.

1,000 down.

NARRATOR: The danger was that
the undercarriage would shear

off and the plane break up.

A dot and a half high.

190.

185.

A little slow.

A little slow, Dave.

It's below what we want.

Coming up on the glide slope.

OK.

Let's try the gear.

NARRATOR: No one
knew if the explosion

damaged the landing gear.

I remember Laura saying
to me that she didn't

hear the landing gear go down.

And it was loud.

You know, it was still loud.

And I didn't hear the
landing gear go down.

So that's another thought--

maybe they can't get
the landing gear down.

Maybe it's not down.

You got the gear down.

We're clear to land,
and everything's taken

care of, as far as we know.

195.

Half a dot high.

Looking-- looking good.

192.

195.

Coming off in the power.

100 feet.

50 feet.

Center thhe trim.

Center the trim.

30.

10.

Zero.

We're on.

Gear's holding.

LEONARD JENKINS: We landed.

It felt fast.

And that was my next concern--
is that we weren't going

to stop at the
end of the runway,

that we were just
going to keep going.

And all of a sudden, we were
slowing down, slowing down.

And I said, oh my
god, we've landed.

We're on the ground.

And the people
started applauding.

DAVID CRONIN: Probably the
best landing I've ever made.

When we finally
stopped on the runway,

we deployed all 10 chutes,
and the flight attendants

evacuated all the passengers.

LEONARD JENKINS: It's amazing
how fast everyone went.

My understanding is, like, less
than 45 seconds, 330 people

were off the airplane.

BRUCE LAMPERT: We were probably
20 feet off the ground,

and I would have stepped out of
the airplane without a slide.

I wanted to get off so bad.

Fortunately, there was a slide.

I stepped into the abyss,
fell into the slide,

flew down to the
bottom of the thing,

and then you hit, feet running.

LAURA BRENTLINGER: The slide
kind of kicked me up and flew

me up into the air, and
my thought was, oh my god,

I'm going to survive
this whole thing,

and I'm going to get wiped
out here on the evacuation.

Because it just really threw me.

And I landed and
scraped up my legs

pretty badly, and
landed on my feet.

And it wasn't until that
moment that I had the sense of,

I'm here, I'm OK,
I'm on the ground.

DAVID CRONIN: When we
got all our switches off,

I ran through the
airplane, made sure there

wasn't no one else on the
airplane, came up to the door--

one left--

and went down the slide.

And I came around
the front, and I

saw that humongous
hole in the side,

and I just couldn't believe it.

By the grace of god, we made it.

And it was an
awesome experience.

I would never want to
go through that again.

LINDA BAHNA: It was crazy.

It was wild.

It was scary, all
at the same time,

I just thought that that was the
end, that we were going to die.

I mean, that was
my first thought--

that this is the end.

NARRATOR: But for the
families of the nine people

who were killed, the
ordeal was just beginning.

Kevin and Susan Campbell's
son, Lee, had been flying home.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: About
3:00 in the afternoon,

I think they said that there
was no New Zealanders involved.

But we just knew
that it was Lee.

And then, about, I suppose,
1/4 of an hour later,

we got a phone
call from Chicago.

And they just said
that they regret

to inform us that our son
was missing, presumed dead.

And I guess about
another hour after that,

a policeman arrived at the door.

And he took one look
at us, and he says,

I can see that
you've had the news.

So it was just--

just an awful, awful day.

And it certainly didn't get much
better for a long, long time.

NARRATOR: Although Lee's
body had not been recovered,

the Campbells flew straight
to the wrecked aircraft

in Honolulu.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: Your initial
feeling is that you want to be

as close to the spot
where your relative died,

and that was the aircraft.

So we had to immediately
go and see the aircraft.

SUSAN CAMPBELL: The damage
inside was horrific.

Just a total mess.

And the hole in the
side of the aircraft

was much bigger than I
had thought it would be,

even though we had seen
television newsreel reports.

And it was so sad to
get in and actually

see where Lee's seat had been.

The legs of the seat
were still there.

There was a good bit of fuselage
beside him, and still a window.

NARRATOR: But the
Campbells' desire

to find the cause of
Lee's death inevitably

brought them face-to-face
with dreadful details.

They took us to the medical
examiner's office as well.

Because they had found body
parts and that sort of thing.

So they didn't actually
show us the body parts,

but they showed us bits
and pieces that they

had recovered from the engines.

And we got the medical
examiner's report

on what they had recovered.

So you know, we really would
have preferred that it was Lee

that went through the
engine, because it would

have been an immediate death.

Because it was a four-minute
fall down to the ocean,

and we know that the
people could have been

alive as they were falling.

And when you think about
that, that's just horrific.

NARRATOR: As it became clear
that their son's body would

never be found,
the Campbells' need

to find the cause of the
accident that killed him

grew stronger.

Lee kind of died for nothing.

You know, you've got to
find out why he died,

and you've just got to make sure
that it never happens again.

NARRATOR: Susan and Kevin
Campbell traveled to America

to begin researching
possible causes

of the disaster on flight 811.

With the cargo door at
the bottom of the ocean,

no one had any hard evidence.

MAN: The engines
number 3 and 4--

NARRATOR: Two months after
the accident on flight 811,

the NTSB held
preliminary hearings,

and the Campbells were there.

But they soon grew frustrated.

The NTSB would not complete
its report for months.

The Campbells
wanted answers now.

--the probable
cause of this accident

was the sudden opening--

We certainly weren't going
to leave it to the NTSB

to come up with the findings.

We were going to follow through.

And when the
hearings ended, they

had said that we
could take whatever

we wanted off the press table.

And Susan walked up to the
top table and yelled out,

there's a really
good set up here.

So I grabbed a box and loaded
in all of the documents

that we could find up there.

Kevin's the most
honest of people I know.

But here he was,
taking something

that we hadn't specifically
been told we could take.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: And we're
heading out the door

just as the NTSB were arriving
back in with the trolley

to pick up all their documents.

So we were out the door
and into a taxi and gone.

SUSAN CAMPBELL: So we quickly
realized we'd got a really good

set of papers, with a
lot of things that hadn't

been released to the public.

We were able to really
start our investigation

in earnest at that stage.

NARRATOR: With the
NTSB investigation

ongoing, suddenly, the
Campbells had an insider's view.

Documents revealed that other
cargo doors opened inward,

so the plane's internal
pressure helped

jam the door into its frame.

But the cargo door on
the 747 opened outward,

allowing for more cargo
space, but requiring

a more robust locking system
to handle the pressure.

What they do is they build
in multiple redundancies

to make sure the
door is properly

latched and does not open.

And you build an end to a point
that it's extremely improbable

that the door would ever open.

NARRATOR: So what went
wrong with flight 811?

Kevin Campbell thought the
problem lay in the design

of the locking mechanism.

To lock the cargo
door on the 747,

electric motors rotate
C-shaped latches

around pins in the door frame.

A handle then moves
arms known as locking

sectors over the
top of the C latches

to prevent them from reopening.

Campbell, an
engineer by training,

built a model to approximate
the Boeing design.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: Initially,
the locking sectors

were made in aluminum.

And in 1975, Boeing
realized that they weren't

strong enough, and they
actually doubled up the aluminum

to make it double thickness.

But it still wasn't
strong enough.

And a lot of the
airlines didn't even

put the doublers on anyway.

NARRATOR: He thought the
weakness of the aluminum

increased the risk of the
door accidentally opening.

With the aluminum
locking sectors,

if the C-locks
tried to back-wind,

open electrically, it
would just push the locking

sector out of the way.

It just simply wasn't up to the
job that it was designed for.

NARRATOR: If
Campbell was correct,

this could happen again, and
more lives were at stake.

They redoubled their efforts to
conduct their own investigation

into the flight that killed
their son and eight others.

SUSAN CAMPBELL: We bought a
car and set off in the United

States to see as many
people who were involved

with the accident as possible.

We started at Seattle, down
to Denver, across to Chicago,

through to Washington, DC,
down to Kentucky, on to Miami,

and back across to San Diego,
back up through San Francisco,

back to Seattle.

And that was just one trip.

NARRATOR: The Campbells
soon discovered

a similar incident to
flight 811 when cargo

doors had failed mid-flight.

In 1987, two years
before flight 811,

a Pan Am 747 had
been climbing out

of Heathrow when it had failed
to pressurize at 20,000 feet.

The pilots had to turn back.

When it got back to Heathrow,
they found that the door was

hanging open an inch and
a half at the bottom,

and all of the locks were open.

When it got to the
maintenance base,

they found that all
of the locking sectors

were either bent or broken.

NARRATOR: Boeing
blamed the failure

on mishandling of the
door by the ground crew--

a common problem.

But Campbell thought it
didn't explain this problem.

The door had been
closed manually.

And what they said
happened was that the guy

wound the C-locks closed--

98 turns of a speed wrench.

He closed the outer handle,
and then wound it open again.

And to be in the position
that they were found in when

the aircraft got
back, he would have

had to wind them open
98 turns, and that's

just absolutely ridiculous.

NARRATOR: Were the
doors really getting

mishandled by ground crew,
weakening the latches?

Or was there a problem
baked into the system?

Campbell suspected
an electrical fault.

It had a fault in the S2
master latch lock switch

that should have turned
off the power to the door

when the outer
handle was closed.

NARRATOR: When the
outer handle was closed,

the S2 master lock
switch was meant

to disconnect the power supply
and stop the C-latch motors

from turning.

So could this have
failed, allowing

the motors to open the door?

Boeing asked the airlines
to do a simple test.

Close the outer
handle, then press

the switch to open the door.

It should remain closed,
but in some cases,

the door tried to open.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: When they hit
the switch, it actually worked.

Boeing thought, this
is not going to work,

but it actually worked.

There was power
to the door locks,

with the outer handle closed.

And the lock started
to move, and it

started to force the locking
sectors out of the way.

And a few days
later, the airlines

started ringing in and saying
it was damaging their planes.

So Boeing stopped
the test, but it

meant that on those aircraft,
the S2 switch had failed, which

is a silent failure, and
all of those aircraft

were likely to have the
same problem as 811.

They were just waiting
for a short circuit

to open the doors.

NARRATOR: The Campbells
now became convinced

that the accident on flight 811
began with a failure of the S2

switch.

Power remained on to
the C-latch motors.

All it might take would
be a short circuit

in an aging plane's wiring
to start the motors up.

The aluminum locking sectors
would be through waiting

to stop the latches
turning, and the cargo door

could burst open.

The National
Transportation Safety Board

determines that the probable
cause of this accident

was the sudden--

NARRATOR: After waiting a
year for the NTSB report,

Kevin and Susan
Campbell expected

it to match their
theory of what had led

to the accident on flight 811.

I'd assumed that we would have
a report come out that this was

an electrical
malfunction, and were

staggered when they came out
and said that the door had

been mishandled.

The report focused
entirely on the fact

that the door lock must
have been mishandled

by the ramp attendant.

That was disappointing.

And we felt that they must have
been at a different hearing

from the one we were at.

NARRATOR: So how had the NTSB
come to their conclusion?

There was other
evidence that we had found

during our investigation
of improper procedures

by the United mechanics
and ramp people.

So we were convinced
that there was--

we could use the word, "abuse,"
being done on the doors.

The doors were sort
of abused and weren't

maintained very well.

We concluded that the
probable cause was mechanical.

NARRATOR: The Campbells thought
the NTSB report was simply

incomplete and incorrect.

What they said happened
was, the door was closed.

The locks didn't fully close.

The doors partially closed,
just hanging on the pins.

And then, they closed
the outer handle,

but that just
simply can't happen.

Because that part of the
locking sector is still intact.

It just simply can't happen.

You can't close the outer
handle, unless these are

in the fully locked position.

It's the only way that the
outer handle will close.

And just closing
this manually, you

can't exert enough force to
actually damage this part

of the locking sector.

All it does is just
backs up against there.

If the locks aren't
fully closed,

it just simply backs up against
them and goes no further.

NARRATOR: The Campbells didn't
accept the NTSB findings

and kept digging.

After the Pan Am
incident in 1987,

it turned out that Boeing
had issued a directive

to the airlines on how to
correct the weak aluminum

locking sectors.

RON SCHLEEDE: The
directive that came out

was to replace the
aluminum sectors with steel

sectors that could not be bent.

And there were additionally
some interim requirements

for inspections to be
performed until what

they call terminating
action-- the steel

sectors were installed.

NARRATOR: The Federal
Aviation Administration

required these improvements
but gave the airlines

18 months to comply.

Within a year, Lee
Campbell and eight others

would die on flight 811.

After the deaths,
the FAA instantly

shortened the deadline
for fixing the cargo door

from 18 months to just 30 days.

Still thinking the
NTSB got it wrong,

the Campbells took
their case to the press

and were invited
to United Airlines.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: One
of them actually

broke down, because they'd never
had to meet next of kin before.

And Eddie ended up with the
vice president of United

taking us around the
maintenance facility.

And he had people running
off in all directions

just to get the information that
we wanted, questions answered.

We could go anywhere
that we wanted.

And we just-- everything
was laid on for us,

because at that
stage, they realized

that we really did know
what we were talking about.

NARRATOR: Other families of
the victims added pressure.

The vital piece of evidence,
flight 811's cargo door,

still laid 2 miles down
in the Pacific Ocean.

With headlines driving
up public interest,

the NTSB commissioned the
US Navy to search for it.

100 miles south of
Honolulu, a deep submersible

began to trawl the seabed.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: We
went to Honolulu

and waited there while
they had their attempts.

And they finally
recovered the door

from 14,000 feet of water,
which was the deepest

recovery ever at that time.

And we were phoned
within an hour

of it coming out of the water.

NARRATOR: The recovered door
came under intense scrutiny.

Then, in June 1991, another
incident appeared to confirm

the Campbells' theory.

A four-year-old United 747 was
sitting on the apron in New

York when the C-latch
motor started up

and the door opened itself.

After recovery of the
door was that in fact,

the actual pieces had--

NARRATOR: Finally,
the NTSB publicly

issued a revised
report that concurred

with the Campbells' version.

There was an inadvertent
failure of either the switch

or the wiring that caused
an uncommanded opening

of the door.

KEVIN CAMPBELL: It's nice that
other people know that you're

right and had been all along,
and that the support that they

had given you was vindicated.

NARRATOR: The Campbells
spent thousands

of dollars of their own
money on their campaign.

They were never interested in a
financial settlement for Lee's

death, but they
did persuade United

and Boeing to set
up a university

scholarship in his name.

SUSAN CAMPBELL: I
couldn't have lived

with myself if we had done
no investigating ourselves.

It was just something we
both felt we needed to do.

We didn't even discuss it.

We just knew that's
what we would do.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: For some of the
survivors of flight 811,

the cost has been heavy.

Each crew member
handled it differently.

I know there are still two
crew members that have never

set foot on an aircraft again.

It was very difficult for me.

I was diagnosed with severe
post-traumatic stress disorder.

You can't reason.

You can't think.

Making the slightest
decision is very difficult.

You're just at a total loss.

So it was very
difficult to cope with.