Air Crash Investigation: Cutting Corners Part 2

[krazytyme]

This is so tragic. Those pilots tried so hard, but it was just futile as soon as the horizontal stabilizer in the tail broke.

[mrceebees14]

This was horrendous.

[FLT111]

Does anyone have an idea as to why the elevator tabs flew off when the horizontal stabilizer broke free?

[totoni2000]

they tried the best they could. may the souls rest in peace

[yyoU8s]

Nice videos, horrible tragedy

[ahgoon69er]

What i hate is people on ground is not helping them...

[unholyimage]

Doubtful real pilots behave like this. Huffing and puffing like a couple of geezers who haven't been to the gym in 40 years. My dad used to do this kind of training for students with me in single engine planes back in the late 70's (I was 10 or so) and both him and the student were totally calm. He'd point the nose of the plane straight down, cut the engine (or engines if it happened to be a twin) and the student had to recover us. I felt way more relaxed than I would with these 2 goons.

[aussifrog]

@unholyimage uhh these guys were battling huge control forces due to the faulty stabiliser. Of course your dad and the student were calm; they were doing a training exercise that really doesn't resemble this scenario at all, it's just a simple nose down recovery. These pilots were trying to fight the aerodynamic forces of a damaged stabiliser simply with the strength in their hands, in an airplane that became completely uncontrollable. Use your brain before commenting.

[unholyimage]

@aussifrog Uh, I was commenting about the cheesy acting, not the real pilots (which should have been obvious).

[aussifrog]

@unholyimage oh right, my bad :P I'm used to ignorant youtube comments haha, was a bit harsh on you sorry.

[unholyimage]

@aussifrog No probs. I might've had a bit too much scotch that night, and might've been jaded by said moronic YT comments myself. Cheers.

[Epica124]

@unholyimage Did the plane of the stabilizer faile due to an improperly maintained jack-screw assembly which broke free making it so they could not recover?

[heathirving]

@unholyimage

try flying an md-80 upside down with a jammed stabilizer and virtually no hydraulics.

[magellanmax]

Flying upside down in a crippled plane has to be one of the most excruciating things one can imagine.

[sixnightsaweek]

Mcdonald douglas has to be one of the worse plane manafacters that even bulit crafts.......So simple two bad jack screws

[therockchannel100]

@sixnightsaweek mcdonnel, donald is donald duck

[chezebeez]

O_O that that MY HOUSE NUMBER!!

[BOOM7STAR]

Have those responsible for this horrific and could have been avoidable accident been brought to justice?

[SunriseHealthFoods]

this is why people distrust the super 80. because of this accident

[avionicswirenut]

I worked on avionics for 21 years via military jets and civilian aircraft....Have seen a-lot....Many of the people working on planes need a job at McDonalds...An A/P liscense does not mean a quality maint. technician....Lot of the problems come from management or owners of repair stations...Through the years I was told to do things or over look items to save time and money...I had some knock down drag out arguments with owners and managers..Only one way, the right way, to repair planes...

[BOOM7STAR]

mandatory life sentence for the uneducated mechanic's his only concern was a paycheck .

[avionicswirenut]

@BOOM7STAR You cannot teach common sense in any A/P school....Look at my other comment above yours....

[chow202]

what the robot is warning? over speed?or what?

[andrekrasic]

@chow202 Yeah Over Speed

[chow202]

they should land on the water

[estupido7490]

@chow202 Your mom should land on the water.

[chow202]

why the planes behave so weird when they have problems? so sudden change direction,and then sudden come back to normal...and then again make some weird move..?

[waterman1976]

sometimes the prospect of dealing with a horrifying death like this is more appealing than 8 hours in my office with my asshole boss

[NielsC68]

@ILikeCheese747 They were professionals to the end. Listen to the original ATC recordings, the actors actually mimic very well.

[MrChuck2221]

@NielsC68 Terribly sad listening to the last ATC stuff. Poor guys faced with an impossible situation. Sucks.

[Fliying6]

really a parachute it needs

[n8tivguitar]

OMFG that be scary

[Kg277]

8:21 yo'momma havin'a revelation!

[Kg277]

7:07 yo'momma doing gospel!

[Kg277]

1:47 yo'momma!!

[odsall]

The fault is with the maintenance crew, however they really should have headed back too Mexico as soon as they noticed a fault. They took a chance and when other peoples lives are at stake you really carnt do that!!!!

[Kamikuru77]

WTF is wrong with that maintenance guy?!?

[BigCJFan]

@Kamikuru77 I would give you a million thumbs up for the question that has been brewing in all our minds I'm sure. How can ANYONE take a nose dive so lightly!!!

[1kikojr]

@Kamikuru77 what do you mean?

[raveeshsharm]

@Kamikuru77 maybe his grey matter is in his testicles...

[Tooligan29]

I wish all that post videos to Youtube would disable comments so none of us who know how to read and write would have to listen to all this garbage you post.

[TheAmazingCreative]

Don't freaking lie to the passengers! Tell them the truth so they can get right with God and save their souls at least! Geez.

[eruditesickle0216]

@TheAmazingCreative I know what you're saying, however these pilots did actually think that they would make it to the gate, to the final second. I think that given the circumstances overall, they did a commendable job (plus you don't think of everything perfect to say in that type of situation). As for your comment about landing right away, they needed to make sure that the plane would not go out of control again, because when your altitude is so low, you have no opportunity to recover.

[TheAmazingCreative]

MORE Trouble Shooting????? SCREW THAT! I would have turned that sucker around as soon as I noticed control issues.

[TheAmazingCreative]

if it had been me, I would have turned that plane around at the sign of control problems and landed it back where I came from.



[Seigu007]

what is it about the living that compels them to talk out of their fucking asses? What a bunch of sorry looking fools.

[Angjelo98]

All these DC planes seem to go down mysteriously :-/

[somebodyindahouse]

@Angjelo98 ikr O.O

[Seigu007]

@somebodyindahouse Speak english, you fucking idiot.

[somebodyindahouse]

@Seigu007 woah. somebody needs to take a chill pill mate. by the way, this is what i said.

I know right O.O

[whoohaaXL]

@somebodyindahouse Lol, "Speak english"....What language did he think you were speaking? Lol.

[VLombardi01]

Falling 18 thousand feet is unbearable. I cant even handle a roller coaster ride. Thats my biggest fear of flying, not the normal take off and landing crashes.

[pellabologna]

Heres what I would do: call flight attendent, ask him\her to find the strongest guy on the plane, get him to hole the plane steady while they mess with buttons or whatever. Still, thier heroes to me

[pellabologna]

Heres what I would do: call flight attendent, ask him\her to find the strongest guy on the plane, get him to hole the plane steady while they mess with buttons or whatever.

[marialovesmarvin]

best argument for exterior cockpit rear view mirrors/ camera if there was one.....

[WIZKID8675]

What Happened to Alaskan Airlines, it was once was one of the best airlines ever, now its a deathtrap. In memory of the victims of this tragedy.

[beatlemyn]

@WIZKID8675 I know, right?

[CubsFanJohn]

The Pilots should have landed ASAP!!!! Though the one smart thing I will give them credit for is setting up for landing over water.

[Bingbling16]

Balls of steel, diving in that situation? genious, probably gave them thatt last five minutes.

[florentlondon]

R.I.P FOR THE PEOPLE THAT DIED :(

[thenolanful]

3:17 -- 40 degers DOWN pich?!

[cupomash2]

The maintenance guy on the ground was a big help. Bla bla bla if you want to try it it's up to you see ya at the gate!!!!!!!

[yongjianrong]

Did I see wrongly or was there a 500+ knots at 08:45?

[whoohaaXL]

@yongjianrong Where did you see that? At 8:45 there's not even a view of the instrument panel.

[yongjianrong]

@whoohaaXL oops it's 08:35.

[KHDND]

good hustle pilots. R.I.P

[KotobKotob]

They fought to the last moment...

RIP

[sherif1290]

i really hate to travel by a plane rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr­rr

[jkyet]

What if they asked if there was a really strong guy among the passengers?

[seattlefw190]

omg id like to severly beat up all you idiots this is was happenned i work on planes , this is whats wrong with are young people they are really really stupid and need to have their ovaries and balls surgically removed tommorrow

[criminalexposed]

this is all very sad...

[LeftArmFast]

Gotta love how everyone who dies was a "perfect child", there are never assholes or dickheads who die on plane crashes :p

I'm sure some of the people who die were douchebags, can we hear about them as well?

[ozcowboy23]

@LeftArmFast ........ no one deserves to die this way..ok ..... lets see if we can work out a way of having a douchbag pilot and 100 douchbag passengers on a flight like this ...but the world dont work that way

[ELconchesumare]

@LeftArmFast unfortunately you and your family were not on board.

[tengokpuas2]

heroes..

[bluenail90]

Yep, they're good actors. Bad narrator though.

[mbtkabjd]

learning of this and watching many things on this completely changed the way i feel about flying. im scared to death now

[Puff29646]

Maybe the greedy bastards can take more short cuts and murder more human beings. Greed!!! The foundation of all evil!!!

[Epica124]

@Puff29646 They were not the right of of Greedy. There is good Greed such as wanting to make tones of money for doing a great job and runing a great company. Then there is bad greed in which you fail to understand that you need to run a great company to keep all you're money. Though here I don't know why people kept on flying the airline.

[Puff29646]

@Epica124 Greed is the foundation of ALL evil!!! Motivated by SELF!!! At the top of that mountain is a hole waiting for you to crawl in it!

[Epica124]

@Puff29646 You do know with out greed we would all be living in caves still right?

[Puff29646]

@Epica124 Nothing could be further from the truth. Without greed we would be living in a society with no needs or wants. Utopia!!!

[DLPBurke]

@Puff29646 that isn't true either since Greed has positive benefits for society, and it is a fact that not everyone can have total wealth.

[Puff29646]

@DLPBurke Greed is the foundation of ALL evil! It does NOT reward the world! It rewards itself!!! The world just gets scraps and crumbs!!! In this case they (the passengers) got DEATH!!!

[crazydreams87]

God, I don't know how they can be as calm as they are talking to the passengers and reassuring them. It's amazing. Man, this whole situation sucks.

[sasktank]

ive watched all these air crash videos--Ive come to the conclusion that all aircraft are pieces of junk -- huge room for improvement

[southwest1998]

who is that guy on the tail that looks like a hipie?

[flamerblazer]

ya the pilots are heros of crashing

[blackhawk438]

@flamerblazer yeah they just couldve put like a piece of metal or wodd of something to hold the cotrol stick up. They also could have had the passangers help.

[elanxx]

who's that wierd smiling dude on the tail section?

[Boeing757200ALPA]

Its easy to make comments while sitting at home on a nice sunny day, looking back at what they did right and wrong... hindsight is 20/20... They did everything they could. It was Alaska Airlines MXT which was the real problem.

[Kamikuru77]

@Boeing757200ALPA whats alaska airlines MXT mean?

[1imthwalrus]

"no we don't"

[lyssaryan77]

I remember this accident. I worked for America West at the time and we had a lot of people calling, hoping that their family members were on our flight and not Alaska's. Denial is a very powerful emotion. Everyone was crying at our work. It was very emotional even though it wasn't our bird.

[fireAKems]

@lyssaryan77 I know. A good friend of mine was a flight attendant at the time. He was at work on the east coast and was waiting to hear from his wife and roomate that were returning from Mexico.

Both were on that flight.

The man hasn't fully recovered yet. He did get a park in Seattle named after his wife.

Alaska Air, or the insurer of AA, was ruthless with him. Checking to see if he ever was unfaithful, etc to his wife. He wasn't, so they had to give him several million for AA's mistake.

[lastxwriter]

@fireAKems I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. What happened that day is a tragedy in every sense of the word. It may not mean much, considering it comes from a stranger, but send him my condolences.

[darkspirit581]

everything depends on the air resistance which the pilots has to fight  to regain control of their aircraft.

[Loesje0595]

this are great pilots, they try to save the plane en the passagiers, they have do everything they cut, without succes :s, respect! they are great heroes!

[TOMCATALEXANDER]

the problem started when they pulled to hard on the suitcase handles and pickle switches at the same time, that stuffed things up snapping the last bit of control they had. Dont know why maitenance or the pilots were not trained in this, it should have been writen in a manual as a warning for the md80 series..

[IdeaBoxful]

This is a crime by the Airline company. In the airline world, maintenance used to be seen as the necessary evil. Nobody wants to keep a plane on the ground because it costs money. Airplanes have very strict maintenance regimes, every part is tracked for its certified life and part replacement policies are strictly laid out by the manufacturer and certified by NTSB.

The blue suits killed these people

[ttjoslin]

As a southern girl, I am reminded of one of our sayings we have down here in regard to the maintenance department responsible for this plane.

About as useful as tits on a warthog! If there was a way to go thru this computer & pinch their freakin' heads off, I would!

[88anson88]

this two pilot  are good acting

[p2proxtheworld]

stupid-ass corporations trying to save money...

[getpagesize]

@p2proxtheworld

Stupid? All corporations save money this way, it is just a difference in the degree; that doesn't make them stupid, it just makes them evil. However a large corporation is not a single person, so the term evil does not really apply.

[Suzyqs]

@getpagesize The term evil is completely apt. There is no other word.

[getpagesize]

@Suzyqs

If they don't realize they are evil, then they are by definition not evil.

[Suzyqs]

@getpagesize Ignorance of the law is never a valid legal defence.Obviously you haven't watched all parts of this show because if you had you would know many people at AA were aware of the problems.The definition of evil is:

1.a.morally bad or wrong; wicked; depraved

b.resulting from or based on conduct regarded as immoral an evil reputation

2.causing pain or trouble; harmful; injurious

[bilal8882000]

y they did nt try to land immediatly

[Epica124]

Becasue they had no idea how bad of a spot they were in. By the time the went to go to land they already hit end game.

[terryk1233]

Stabilizer jam is not a serious issue. In this case it wasn't a stabilizer jam, it was a complete failure of the stab control mechanism. Had the pilots not attempted to force the stabilizer to move they would have been fine. The elevators would have provided enough control to land the plane. This problem was noticed before they even reached cruise. It got worse when they tried freeing what they thought was a jam.

[jerarbel]

ok but i think those 2 pilots were one of the best. they tried to resolve the problem, they asked advice maintenance, and controlled the first dive.

After the first dive they never touched the stab contol mechanism and were very cautious about their moves

[camcamepictv]

@bilal8882000 THEY WERE OVER THE OCEAN!!!

[kevinzeldafan56]

180 knots? stall speed is 140!

[mrsmelzbad]

200 knots? isnt stall speed 140?

[Lndmk227]

Stall speed differs from plane to plane and whether or not flaps are extended. The more flaps the plane has, the lower speed it can go before stalling.

[apsluke]

on 31st january 2010 it will be 10 years since this accident

[pettyofficer30]

I wonder if it would have been possible for the plane to decend and land natually with engine, slats, flaps and speed control only.

[dsy1081]

yeah...that plane in baghdad that got hit by terrorists landed with only control over one engine after their right engine got hit and they lost all hydraulic systems. pretty awesome flying....

[Epica124]

That would not have worked because the problem was in the tail of the plane and they had no idea of how bad it was. They were placed in a really bad spot which they were not going to come out of.

[MrJackanthony]

They were probably concerned of the workload thing. And. getting grounded would be the consequence of bringing a normal plane home

[MrJackanthony]

Flying a jet manually is hard enough landing is next to impossible.

[MrJackanthony]

They should have landed but at the start they had no Idea about the seriousness of the emergency

[lavakava]

if i were the pilot, i would immediately attempt to land at the slightest sign of trouble.

[secondeye]

@lavakava Fixing the stabs in midair would be much much safer than trying to land assuming they're gone.. They didn't make the right choice, but they did make the safest choice in trying to fix them. 

[lastxwriter]

@secondeye How do you even fix something like that in mid-flight?

[CSplayahata]

LAND THE PLANE!!!! WTF? is going on. They have PASSENGERS on BOARD!!!

[FLT111]

@CSplayahata  wtf? man so what fly forever!! ?

[Epica124]

When you don't know what the problem is it's easier said then done. One wrong move and that's it. They had no idea what the problem was until the very end. So you just can't land the plane.

[ekateri28]

@Epica124  okay so all those people including the 25 year old Miller girl with her whole future ahead of her had to DIE?????? Some logic Epica124.

[Epica124]

@ekateri28 They did not know what the problem was. Did I say they had to die? No I said they had no idea how bad it was. If you watched the video. They did ever thing over the water becasue they had no idea what would happen when they start the landing. You make it sound really easy and it's not. They fought until the end.

[Nightmare0088]

omg this pilots are heroes

[Nightmare0088]

@n15n15n15 why not?

[bpotts0401]

@n15n15n15 then why where they the only pilots to posthumously receive the Airline Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism? They where heroes, the plane was impossible to fly but they tried to save it the best they could

[celticlofts]

@Nightmare0088 No they were not heroes, they were idiots. They had a jammed stabilizer but the aircraft was flying straight and level. They should have known that fucking with a jammed stabilizer could make the situation a whole lot worse if it jammed in the up or down position.. I feel terrible sorry for the passengers who lost their lives but not for the pilots, their stupidity cost a lot of lives that day.

[IdeaBoxful]

@celticlofts You are not understanding the procedures. The pilots pull out of the 8000 ft drop and then they didn't turn back for an immediate landing because they had to ensure that the plane had to be controllable to come to a landing. If you follow the procedures, they did the right thing they stayed at a high altitude and tried simulate a landing by working on the speeds.

[IdeaBoxful]

@celticlofts As a pilot, if my control surfaces are jammed or malfunctioning, I will make sure I have a lot altitude and try and interpret from a landing simulation to get feedback on the planes control behavior at approach speeds which incidentally is at around 210 - 180 and touch down speeds is around 145 knots. They simulated upto 180 knots but the planes stabs where obviously damaged beyond any kind of recovery.

Dont you get it they had to land some time!

[IdeaBoxful]

@celticlofts The were selectively checking the planes response. You are not in a car where you can see wether you engine is smoking or the wheels have blown.

You cant see any of this stuff from the cockpit other than the indicators showing the position of the control surfaces.

[Epica124]

@celticlofts Damn you are a dumb one. read ever thing IdeaBoxful posted. He knows more then you do.

[taufactor]

The pilots were operating from a systematic checklist, as is procedure. It's there to give them a step-by-step process of determining the nature of the problem and what actions should be taken. They don't automatically declare an emergency unless it's something very immediate like an engine flame-out or decompression.

[EinkOLED]

Very convincing and excellent acting from both pilots, I'm sure they're real pilots.

[ekateri28]

Man I don't understand why they attempt to FIX the problem, a problem they have no clue of instead of LANDING THE FUCKING PLANE!!!!!!!

[ZhangyXD]

yeah easy for you to say... landing the plane with a jammed stabilizer. But they could have used the flaps to help ditch the plane in the sea... that way at least someone would survive..

[AtheistBrit]

There was no indication that this was anything more than a minor electronic hitch.

[nomel747]

Well they need to check so the plane dont crash when they try to land! They are pilots and you are not so stfu!

[logalyn]

hindsight 20/20

[firepyro2]

you have no idea how hard it is to land a plane in normal conditions, let alone a damaged plane. If a pilot thinks that he can solve a problem, he should.

[FLT111]

@EinkOLED surprisingly these actually arnt real pilots, just great actors... i must admit ACI "season 1 - Season 3" was really good now ACI is so unrealistic.

[boeingsarethebest]

@EinkOLED YOU SON OF A BITCH

[artgoat]

With the elevator screw jammed then stripped, it's amazing they kept in the air as long as they did. The maintenance guy seemed pretty cavalier. "Yeah, try whatever you feel like." He couldn't have done anything about it, but it just seemed like he didn't give a damn.

[moonrules]

It's all nice to arm chair quarterback these situations, but put yourself in the pilot's shoes. Not to mention they had no control and needed to troubleshoot to see if it was still controllable for a safe landing.

[bgibb101]

I agree...they might have gotten down safely had they turned back or landed at the nearest airport instead of trying to fix the problem, not knowing the risks they were taking.

[Nicmavr]

That is so scary... :( they should have attempted an emergency landing the moment they had a problem, not try to troubleshoot it.

[ateamga]

Do you speak from expertise or laymen's observation?

[Nicmavr]

Well, I'm going to say layman's observation, as I have no experience in things like this. But it makes sense to land it once you have a problem, not troubleshoot it...

[ateamga]

Well I guess you're right. I think they should've landed it also. I think most pilots would never do that.