Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Racing the Storm - full transcript

-Can't see anything

-Damn, we are off course

-No I can see it
-Way Off

On June 1, 1999,

as an American Airlines jet prepared
to land amid fierce thunderstorms...

passengers knew that were flying into trouble

I don't know what made me aware

so god gone aware that
we gonna have a problem

Oh no!

...within minutes, their worst fears
would be realised.

Other one!, Other one!, Other one! ,Other one!
Other one! ,Other one!



Get away from the plane , run,
get away from the plane

But there's a road
that goes around the airport.

This film tells the story of a tragic

and avoidable disaster

The investigation would reveal
a lethal combination of pilot error,

the devastating effects
of severe weather,

and a dangerous race to keep
the plane on schedule.

It will also uncover disturbing evidence

of an instunstry wide failing
when they could kill again at anytime

Despite reliable aircraft
and extensive training,

modern airlines and their crews
face unprecedented pressures.

Intense industry competition
demands that the whole system,

from the flight planners
to the pilots,

be efficient and on time.



The stresses this can bring
would play a vital role

in the loss of Flight 1420.

For a large operator
like American Airlines,

the pressures start with the complex
task of scheduling their vast fleet.

Dispatchers direct the planes
around the world

in a carefully choreographed dance.

The strain of maintaining this
efficiency affects the entire system.

Of course,
competition has become very intense.

A lot pressure on the dispatchers,
pilots, flight attendants

and basically the whole infrastructure

to accomplish the mission
and make a dollar.

Every effort is made to ensure

that nothing disrupts
these fragile schedules.

But there is one variable that
no airline can control - the weather.

The Southern states of America
are especially prone to severe weather

where storms not only cause delays

but pose extreme dangers to commercial jets

Delays, scheduling problems and fierce thunderstorms

would all conspire to turn a routine flight

into a terrifying race
against time

On June 1, 1999, American Airlines
Flight 1420 is running late.

The movement of the storm

Everything is sliding
to the south-east.

So, yes, we do have
a stormy evening headed our way.

The delay of Flight 1420 put pressure
on the pilots even before takeoff.

The responsibility
can fall on flight crews

to keep a tight schedule on track.

Dispatch, please.
Yeah, it's Michael Origel.

Crews have strict legal limits
on their duty time.

The first officer
warned the dispatcher

that they were in danger
of running out of time.

Time - around 11:16.

The flight had to take off in the next hour or be cancelled.

The pilots also became aware of another pressure

caused by deteriorating weather near their destination.

pilots had a weather
briefing that they got

before they departed Dallas-Forth Worth

which provided the forecast
weather alerts

The dispatcher and the captain
preparing for the flight

looked at the weather information

and thought they could
get to Little Rock

before the thunderstorms impacted.

The 139 passengers just wanted to get home.

I was travelling wth my son
and my daughter

we were coming home from our vacation
was my daughters first flight

the plane was late there were
a lot of delays of course

It was tiring, it was frustrating
it was late at night

They soon began to sense that
flight 1420 was racing against the weather

As they called for us to board the plane

they wanted us there and just
to get on really quickly

just get on sit down, put your seatbelt on
we are going.

They did mentioned there was bad weather
between us and Little Rock.

Tliey wanted to get ahead of the bad weather coming in.

Finally, over two hours behind schedule, Flight 1420 leaves Dallas.

Unknown to the crew, the storms are already moving, towards Little Rock.

40 minutes later, 1420
is 100 miles from its destination.

At this point, the voice recorder transcript

reveals a calm and steady cockpit routine.

American 1420 are you going to still want lower?

So far it's OK.

So far so good madam
American 1420 - we'll let you know.

The First Officer on American 1420

was a new hire, he just recently
completed training

and he had been paired on one
of his first trips

with this management captain.

So now you had a very experienced
pilot sitting on the left seat

with the company

paired with the relatively new hire.

Buschmann and Origel are clearly relaxed

as they plan their approach and landing.

25 for 24 set and armed

this stuff going to work out pretty well?

Yes we are almost down to max landing weight

There is a moon out or a spaceship

Oh, it's the mother ship.

Centre pump's coming off, alright?

The pilots are keeping a close eye on the storms ahead.

Onboard weather radar

scans a cone-shaped area of sky in front of the plane.

Potentially severe storms show up in red.

There is your big one ????

Yeah, we got get over there
really quick

I don't like that. That's lightning.

It sure is.

The American Airlines dispatcher

issued an update on the shape and formation of the thunderstorms.

Right now on radar there's
a large slot to Little Rock

Thunderstorms on the left and right
and Little Rock's in the clear

short of like a bowling alley approach

Thunderstorms are moving east-north-eastward

towards Little Rock, and they may be
a factor for our arrival

I suggest expediting our arrival.

The dispatcher gave this crew the weather information.

It appeared to him
that there was going to be a gap,

or what he called "the bowllng alley"

where you had two types of thunderstorms,
or two thunderstorms,

with an alley between them

and that the flight crew

if they expedited their travel to Little Rock

could probably make it up that
alley before the storms closed together.

But as Flight 1420 descends,

the plan to beat the storms is about to go seriously wrong.

The pilots do not realise

that the walls of the bowling alley are closing in.

The route flown by American Airlines Flight 1420

is flanked by treacherous thunderstorms -

a corridor the pilots call 'the bowling alley'.

With 80 miles to go,

the path to Little Rock still appears to be clear.

This is the bowling alley here.
Yeah, I know.

In fact there are the city lights
straight there

Do you want to go down? Not yet, but pretty soon.

We are about 80 miles from the airport

and we started our descent toward it

quite a light show
on the side of the aircraft

and we gonna be pass that
on the way to the Little Rock

It's been a pleasure having you on board
our short flight

and I'll take this opportunity to thank you
for flying with American Airlines

The lightnings seemed to be on both
sides of the plane

it had light up the inside of the plane

very quick you know just "ks" kaboom type lightning
which was little scary

There was quiate a light show
of to the left

Normaly that doen't get pointed out

If you go passing Grand Canyon
that can be pointed out

but not a lightning show

As the plane descends, transcripts of the cockpit voice recordings

show that the pilots are aware of rough weather ahead.

Just some lightning straight ahead

I think we gonna be ok though

Right there, right down the bowling alley

as my friends would say "California cool"

Cool. Peachy. Exactly.

1420 at 113 for 10000

When pilots contact the controller at Little Rock,

he gives the first of a series of alarming weather alerts.

We got a thunderstorm north-west of the airport
moving through the area now.

Wind is 2-8-0 at 2-8, gusts 4-4.

And I'll have new weather for you
just in a moment am sure

Gale force winds are gusting to 50 miles per hour,

enough to blow tiles off a rooftop.

High winds pose a severe hazard for Flight 1420.

Crosswinds could make it difficult to control the plane on landing.

The pilots must quickly determine if they're within safe limits.

They calculate the strength of the crosswind from its angle

to their final approach.

Alright, so, that's 2-8-0 at 4-4.

Gusts at 44. Right.

Near the limit.
It's 40 degrees off.

You're not out of the limit because of the angle

but that's pretty close.

Flight attendants, prepare for landing please

The pilot's attention now returns to the bad weather ahead.

He said the storm was
to the north-west of the field

He said north-west.
Yeah.

Lightning strikes, he said storm.

The task of tracking the shifting storms is made more difficult

by the lack of sophisticated radar at Little Rock.

American 1420, um, your equipment's
lot better than what I have

How's that final for 2-2 looking?

What�s that?

We can see the airport but we can
just barely make it out

Uh, we should be able to make 2-2.

That storm is moving closer like your radar says

but is little further of than you thought

The controller was telling them that

"Your radar's better than mine,"

The controller in this accident

had a monochromatic, or basically a black and white, set of radar,

he could not determine
the intesities of the storm

The controller calls in with more bad news.

Right now I have a windshear alert.

Windshear is a sudden change of wind direction over a short distance.

It is one of the most feared elements of a severe thunderstorm.

To combat constantly shifting winds,

the pilots are forced

to throw away their previous approach plans and start again.

They have to reverse the direction of their approach,

so they will be landing into the wind.

Yeah, were going to need, uh...

we would rather go to the head wind sir

The pilot's decision to land in the opposite direction

is a prudent move,

but it will create serious problems.

Ok right turn 2-5-0 the long way around

Yes sir you are a little close to the airport

Yeah right
2-5-0 that will work

As the pilots turn to their new approach,

the aircraft’s weather radar, which scans in front of the plane,

loses track of the thunderstorms.

Worse still, the turn delays landing by more than 10 minutes.

And with every passing moment the storms are growing in intensity.

Runway 4 right 1-1-1 point 3042.

I think...I think that was the airport below us.

Switching runways, keeping track of the storms -

all add greatly
to the pilots' heavy workload.

OK. 2-2-17 glide slope intercept
all the way down

Missed approach right turn to 4,000.

Let's see you got the airport there right

I don't have the airport

Well, I'm saying you've got the ILS.
Yeah, I've got the ILS.

Airline pilots they make their money

when they fly into bad weather

when the weather goes down
now all of the sudden

the workload starts to increase

because you have to factor in

Low clouds, rain, lightning, thunderstorms, wind
all of this elements start to bombarde you

the closer you get into the airport enviroment

American 1420,

it appears we have the second part
of the storm moving through

the wind now is 3-4-0 at 1-6 gusts 3-4

With the storms worsening,

the pilots need to make it to the airport as quickly as possible.

Want to accept the short approach,
keep it tight

Yeah but if you can see the runway
cause I don't quite see it

It's right there. See it? Alright.

Point me in the right direction
I'll start slowing down, give me flaps 11

The transcripts now reveal rising confusion on the flight deck

as the captain struggles to fix the position of the airport.

Ok did you notice something?
Did you see the airport there?

Where?
There!

You...you're on a base for it, OK?

It's right there.
I'm on a base now?

It's like a dog leg we're coming in
And...and there it is - right there.

I've lost it
I don't see how we can maintain visual

The pilots now have to abandon their direct visual approach,

and request help from Little Rock's instrument landing system.

But this delays landing even further.

Approach American 1420.

American 1420, yes sir

There's a cloud between us
and the airport and we've lost the field.

We're on the last vector you gave us,
which is like a dog leg it looks like

American 1420,

can you fly heading 2-2-0 -I'll take you out to the ILS.

This news footage shows the storm on the night of the crash.

As heavy rain, cuts visibility even further,

Captain Buschmann is getting frustrated.

Yeah, I hate droning around visual at night in weather

without having any clue where we are.

The think that was really getting to me
was I knew we were very low

I knew that rain was not letting up

and that we were been jaulted around
quite heavily

See we are going right
in the middle of this crap

Allright, approach American 1420

I know you're doing your best, sir,

but we are ending very close to the storm

and we will keep it really tight
if we have to

The plane was rock n roll
and was when it was really unstable

I don't know what made me aware
that we gonna have a problem

I don't know what did that

As Flight 1420 lines up for final approach,

they're heading straight into the heart of the thunderstorm.

The crisis for the flight crew is about to get even worse.

With Flight 1420 four minutes from touchdown,

severe thunderstorms give the pilots another major problem.

Blinding rain and thick clouds are obscuring the airfield.

The visibility on the runway, known as RVR,
is only just above the regulation limit of 2400 feet.

Ah, we are going right into this

American 1420, right now we have heavy rain on the airport.

I don't have new weather for you, but visibility is less than a mile.

And the runway 4 right RVR is 3000.

Visibility is down to 3,000 feet.

The pilots are unsure if it's safe to land.

3000?

Roger that 3000, American 1420.

This is 4 right correct?

American 1420 - that's correct, sir, on runway 4 right, cleared to land.

Can we land?
030 at 4-5, American 1420.

3000 RVR we can't land on that
No...3000 if we need.. What do we need?

No, it's 2400 RVR. OK. Right.

Yeah. We're fine.
Alright. 15.

Landing gear down.

And lights, please.

The crosswinds are way over the limit.

The pilots could divert to another airport,

but they don't -even as the weather gets worse.

Windshear alert

Centerfield wind 3-5-0 at 3-2 gusts.
4-5 north boundary wind 3-1-0 at 2-9

North-east boundary wind 3-2-0 at 3-2

Jault seemed to be

much stronger than I'd ever felt.

You could tell that the thunderheads were extremely close to the plane.

I said that
"If he tries to land in this weather, we'll crash."

Flaps 28.
Add 20.

Then visibility falls drastically below the limit.

American 1420, the runway 4 right
RVR is now 1600

Damn

The pilots are rattled.

Under pressure, they begin to make mistakes.

Can't see anything. Looking for 460. It's there.

I couldn't see anything

The wind was throwing the plane
around so violently

There was enough of a crosswind,
that I was afraid we gonna land in the wind

It felt like it will tip over
just felt that bad

You want 40 flaps? Yeah, I thought I called it.

I knew the way he was jockeying the plane
and the sounds of the engines,

he was trying to line up with the runway.

And I couldn't see it,
but i could tell we were close

and I kept thinking, "Where's the runway?"

Wind 3-3-0 at 2-3. Damn, we're off course.

No I can't see it
Way off

I can't see anything

Got it?
Got it!

100 feet

50 feet

00:20:30,451 --> 00:20:31,970
30.

20.

10.

We hit the runway really hard

We didn't slow down

We're down! We're sliding! Oh, no!

We were still going
very very very fast

and then I thought, "We're dead."

On the brakes!

It was just chaos.
It was terryfying.

Other one!
Other one, other one!

When the plane actually stopped

there was a moment of absolute silence

There was fire in front of me
and I could see debris

and it was silent and I thought
Oh my God, I'm dead

Within those minutes I heard
a small scream and I heard it get louder

and louder and louder like it was on a megaphone

and hit me that's my daughter
"Oh, ok we got to get out of here"

"You know we got to do something"

The passengers struggled to get out before fire engulfed the cabin.

I had a broken sculp, a dislocated shoulder
cracked ribs

and all sorts of stuff going on
but I didn't feel a thing

I just wanted to get out
I wasn't gonna die in that thing

I got out of that plane
probably in 10 seconds

It was like being in a war " GO, GO ,GO!"

I am yelling "Get away from the plane"

"Run, get away from the plane"
"Go, go, go!"

Travelling at over 100 miles an hour

the aircraft ran off the end of the runway,

ploughed down a 25-foot embankment and slammed into a steel walkway.

The plane was ripped into several pieces.

The wreckage finally came to rest

on the muddy banks of the Arkansas River.

10 passengers died in the crash.

Captain Buschmann was killed instantly

when the cockpit was split open by the steel walkway.

It was shame that literally shame
that I hadn't done more to save people

That's the worst nightmare I have

The US National Transportation Safety Board

was immediately notified.

Greg Feith was NTSB's chief investigator.

The night American 1420 happened,

I received a phone call
about 1:00 in the morning

from our communication centre
in the NTSP advising that there has been

an aircraft accident at Little Rock
and maybe some fatalities involved

Fellow investigator Don Eick was quickly on the scene.

There is a sense of adrenaline
as an accident occurs like this

where you been launched to the accident scene

There's a strong urge to get therere,
to try to find out what happened,

to document the facts, so we can
prevent it from happening.

The NTSB set up a command centre close to the site.

They would spend the next 18 months piecing together

the events that led to the crash.

We did have a basic idea when we got on scene of what happened

we just didn't know why.

We knew the airplane went off the runway
we knew that the pilots couldn't stop it

we knew that the aircraft was destroyed
going through this cat walk

we knew that the subsequent postcrash
fire killed people

we just didn't know why at that point

The NTSB worked backwards from the impact,

piecing together the sequence of events

from the final approach all the way back to Dallas-Fort Worth.

The first question for investigators

was why the pilots
had been unable to stop the plane.

Analysis of the tyre tracks left by the skidding plane

showed a complete loss of control after touchdown.

When you look at the width
of this tyre tracks

you then see that the airplane wasn't going straight

but in fact was sliding sideways.

Here you have this machine
that weighs 130-140,000 pounds,

it has 100 or so people on it,
it is sliding uncontrolled

of this runway

Something had gone terribly wrong on landing

and investigators wants to know why.

They questioned the survivors of Flight 1420,

who would provide an extremely important clue.

The NTSB investigators needed to find out

why Flight 1420 had slid uncontrolled off the runway.

They set out to interview surviving passengers,

many of who were local to Little Rock

Their eyewitness testimony would point the inquary

towards the most important mechanical system

used to slow a plane down after landing.

What we were really interested in

that were sitting near the wings

who could look out the windows
and tell us whether they saw

the ground spoilers deployed.

Spoilers are large flaps that flip up on landing,

literally spoiling the airflow over the wings.

This is nessesary for braking to take effect.

Crucially, none of the passengers saw the spoilers deploy.

The NTSB compared their testimony

with data of the airplane's black boxes.

The flight data recorder,

which monitors the systems on board during flight,

confirmed that the spoilers had failed to deploy.

The implications were catastrophic.

Flight 1420 had no hope of stopping in time.

On the brakes! We're sliding! Oh, no!

So, was the failure of the spoilers to deploy a mechanical problem?

Or in the confusion of final approach, was it pilot error?

To find out,

the NTSB would make clever use of the cockpit voice recorder, or CVR.

Yeah! I thought I called it!

One of the key elements that the CVR team was listening for

was the setting of the spoiler handle

We saw on the flight data recorder

that the ground spoilers didn't deploy

We wanted to know if the handle
had been actually armed or not.

and we were looking for a specific click sound

We couldn't find that sound
on the accident CVR,

which led us to believe

that the handle was never
in the armed position at touchdown.

Intensely busy in the cockpit,

the pilot simply forgot
to arm the spoilers.

Had they deployed, the MD80 aircraft
might have overshot the runway,

but it would have stopped
before hitting the catwalk.

The pilots had made serious
and ultimately fatal errors,

but investigators wanted to know why.

They suspected that pressures earlier
in the flight led to these mistakes.

They turned their attention
to the weather.

It was clear to us
that severe weather

had been in the area
around the time of the accident.

How it played a part was one of
the things we had to try discover.

And putting the radar images in,
the observations,

trying to put it all together,

would take weeks, of course,
to get this information done.

The NTSB wanted to know what role
the weather had played in the crash,

and had the pilots
been fully aware of the dangers?

See? We're going right
in the middle of this crap.

One of the concerns
that all pilots have

when they're trying
to land an aircraft,

is, of course, making sure

that the crosswinds
that they may experience

don't exceed the capabilities

of either themselves
or the aircraft.

The wind's now 3-5-0
at 3-0 gusts 4-5.

Can we land?

This particular flight crew
had a limitation

not imposed by themselves
but imposed by the company.

And that was that
they were not allowed to exceed

a 10-knot crosswind on a wet runway.

Crosswind limits are clearly stated
in the operating manual.

The crew of 1420 were flying
beyond regulation limits.

This is a can of worms.

Runway to your right. You got it?
No.

The effect of the winds
can be seen in this NTSB animation

showing the captain's
desperate last manoeuvres.

DON EICK: Winds definitely
impacted the flight.

If you look at the animation,
you'll see him fighting the winds.

Definitely not good.

PILOT: We're down! On the brakes!

Other one! Other one! Other one!

When you start talking about wet
runway, thunderstorms - not good.

But were the pilots of 1420

aware of the hazards posed
by the severe weather?

For the NTSB, previous accidents
had made the dangers of thunderstorms

all too clear.

In 1994, a US Air DC-9 fell victim
to windshear in North Carolina.

The plane stalled at 250 feet
and fell from the sky.

A Delta Tristar crashed

after flying into the most severe
kind of windshear

that created an intense
downdraft of air.

So, should the crew of 1420
have aborted the approach?

There's the runway.
Uh, there's two runways.

Yeah, I know. See, we're losing it.

I don't see
how we can maintain visual.

This NTSB weather animation
overlays the path of the aircraft

with ground radar images
of the storm.

Buschmann and Origel landed in
lightning, torrential rain and hail

and the crosswinds gusting
well over the limit.

Based on the information we had
from ground base weather radar,

the flight crew of 1420

should have been seeing
the majority of that storm.

They would have been seeing
the leading edge going green,

rapidly changing the yellow
to bright red.

I can't see anything.
Looking for a 460.

FEITH: As they progressed
towards Little Rock,

they started to paint
the bad weather

not only on their on-board radar

but they could see
out the window - lightning.

And one of the key statements
that this captain made,

which basically
summarised the entire flight,

was the captain saying...

I hate droning around visual
at night in weather

without any clue
as to where we are.

"I hate droning around at night
when I don't know where I am."

That was such a key statement.

It was at that point, by an
experienced 10,000-hour captain,

that he should have abandoned
the approach going into Little Rock

and either gone to his alternate
or made his way back to Dallas.

But to make a statement like that

and then continue an approach
to an airport

where you have a thunderstorm
in progress over the airport

is a recipe for disaster.

But the pilots were not the only ones
to be heavily criticised.

As the investigation continued,

American Airlines flight policy
would come under fire

and an industry-wide scandal
was about to be exposed.

For months after the crash
of Flight 1420

the NTSB dug deeper
into the circumstances

surrounding the accident.

The question was -
who would take responsibility?

American Airlines
were reluctant to admit

that their pilots had knowingly
flown into a severe thunderstorm.

Initially they tried to pin the blame
on the controller at Little Rock.

American started legal action

against the authorities responsible
for airport controllers.

Americans' lawyers claimed
that the crew of Flight 1420

had not been given
all the current weather information.

American 1420, your equipment's
a lot better than what I have.

How's that final for 2-2 looking?

But after interviewing
the controller at Little Rock,

investigators were unconvinced.

It's highly unlikely

that the flight crew
wasn't sufficiently informed

about the nature of the weather
and the severity of the weather.

Not only en route but, of course,

during the course of the landing
at Little Rock.

The focus turned back on the pilots.

Lawyers representing the passengers

were determined
to get American Airlines

to accept liability for the crash.

I mean is about many in a way
because you wanna make them pay

because I saw the letters
they would write back to my lawyer

minimising what we'd been through
minimising my daughters burns, cuts

the phycological effects had on my son
at age 15 and my daughter and me

minimising everything so
you wanna find a way to hurt them

Renee Salmans and

many other survivors attended
the NTSB public hearings

held in Little Rock
eight months after the disaster.

With the captain dead,

the co-pilot
was the first to testify.

As we went off the runway,
I saw lights coming up

and I knew we were going off
the runway.

I couldn't see anything in front.

I thought the gear would collapse
and we would continue to slide.

"It's gonna to be OK."

And all of a sudden,
I felt the impact.

I followed???? as close as I could

I wanted to know what happened

I went to all the NTSB hearings

I was outraged, I was mad
for me they didn't ask him

the right questions, you know
I wanted to ask him

"What were you thinking, why did you a
ll played chicken with our lives?"

The co-pilots testimony
was highly controversial.

In his account of the final moments
of the flight,

he claimed to have told the captain
to abort the approach,

otherwise known as a 'go around'.

Who can call for abandoning the approach?

Either pilot

Did you call for a go-around at any time?

Yes sir I did. It sounds like
everything on the tape

You can definitely hear the 'go'.

And the 'around' - it seems like
he talked at the same time I did,

and I looked over at him, and he
brought the airplane back on course.

However when NTSB specialists
studied the cockpit voice tapes

they couldn't hear this statement

"Damn we're off course"
"Oh, I can't see it", "Way off"

Even though
he stood by that statement,

we could never validate it.

That led to a controversial finding

because we weren't really sure
if that took place or not.

The NTSB asked tough questions
of the co-pilot,

but was American Airlines training
also at fault?

Greg Feith put an American Airlines
manager on the stand.

What were the company rules
for pilots flying near thunderstorms?

When asked the question,
he basically responded

that he just didn't want his pilots
flying into that type of weather.

Our pilots are forbidden
to enter or depart a terminal area

blanketed by thunderstorms.

To the NTSB this policy simply
wasn't clear cut enough

Well, that's a very
subjective call for a pilot.

Pilots need boundaries.

You have to set limits.

If there's convective activity,
thunderstorm activity,

within five nautical miles
of the airport, there's lightning,

there's windshear - don't go there.

The deeper they looked,

the more the NTSB found
that flying into thunderstorms

was disturbingly widespread.

Extraordinary evidence given at the hearings

revealed that the problem
was industry wide

Experts from MIT

spent weeks recording
the flight paths of planes

landing at Dallas-Fort Worth.

They waited for thunderstorms,
and watched how pilots reacted.

Their animation plots the planes
coming into land,

overlaid with radar images
of the storms.

Anything yellow or orange is
a potentially severe thunderstorm.

Of the 2,000 encounters
with thunderstorms,

two out of three pilots flew into
the storm and landed their aircraft.

I was very surprised by
the testimony at the public hearing.

Given the fact that
they are flying the best equipment,

typically have the best training,

have the best information
available to them,

for those decisions to be made
to continue into harm's way,

it was very surprising to me
that they tried to do that.

Pilots know that if we go into that thunderstorm
we may not come out of that thunderstorm

and if we do we may not be
basicaly in one piece

Why did so many pilots
fly into danger?

The MIT researchers
found pilots were more reckless

if they were behind schedule,
if it was night,

and if aircraft in front of them
were also flying into bad weather.

In the Little Rock case,

two of those three elements
were present.

It was night
and they were running late.

The MIT investigation
was chilling evidence

that the crash at Little Rock
was part of a much wider problem.

We're not seeing a major
improvement, to put it bluntly.

There's a limited time for training,

weather was a significant part that
set up the stage of this accident.

We do not condone any operation
being conducted in such weather.

It is a known severe weather hazard

and it should have been suspended -
no operation.

The root causes behind
the crash of 1420 went even deeper.

Why were the pilots
so determined to land?

Greg Feith found the answer
back at Dallas

before the flight
even left the ground.

There he found signs
of a deadly condition in aviation

known as 'get-there-itis'.

There may have been a sense
of 'get-there-itis'.

They knew they were
pushing their 14-hour duty day.

It had been a long duty day.

"The airport's right there,
let's try it.

"Let's see if we can
accomplish the mission."

Pilots are goal-oriented,
we're mission-oriented.

We will stick our nose in there

to try and see
if we can accomplish the mission.

Sometimes we will
accomplish that mission,

but sometimes we get too far into it
that we can't bail out,

we don't have any more options,

and bad things happen.

The pressures of get-there-itis

sparked a fatal series
of mistakes and misjudgements.

Uh, looking for 4-60.

At the end of a long day,
rushing to beat the storms

and get the passengers
to their destination,

the crew of Flight 1420
made the basic mistake

that cost 11 people their lives.

They forgot to arm the spoilers.

They were so busy to get the plane
on the ground

that they forgot to do
what they needed to do

They didn't have time to do it

After the accident, American Airlines
revised their checklist procedures.

Both pilots must confirm
that the spoilers are armed,

ready for landing.

In October, 2001,
the NTSB published their report.

They concluded that the two
main causes of the crash

were first, the decision
to land in a thunderstorm,

and second, the pilots' failure
to arm the spoilers.

American Airlines declined
to take part in this film

or comment on the findings.

As an investigator,
I had over two years to, basically,

criticise and determine what
the captain was trying to accomplish.

That particular captain
had seconds to make decisions

based on the information
he was getting.

And while it's unfair for
an accident investigator like myself

to start pointing the finger,
I wasn't there.

I blame them but I'm not

angry persay at them
I don't waste my time

with anger on them

They've got nothing but flack.

You can understand it, but
I can't understand a person

wanting to kill himself either.

We've been out and visited his grave
at the Air Force Academy

a couple or three times,

and the guy just got caught up
in a bad, bad situation.

I mean, uh, been there, done that.

One year after the crash,
the survivors of Flight 1420

gathered at the site
to remember those who died.

For surviving passengers
the effects of the crash

are long lasting and profound.

We as a family worked long and hard
to work thought it.

We had mini talks.
A blue part in all of our relationships

You found out who your
real friends are.

I can't do enough to mitigate
what happened to the individuals

on the airplane.

Life is a precious thing and you definately
you are for a very short time.

All of the sudden your life looks like
about a second and a half long

People ask me if I'm ok
"Well I am not ok"

"No! I will never be ok"
"What is this ok stuff?"

You're different,
deal with it

I mean that's the way we gonna be

The day after it happened,
when Adam and I we were on the hospital

and Samantha, Adam and I
looked out of the window

and we just couldn't believe that life went on.

We just couldn't believe cars were driven
and it was sunny and life went on

because for us life stopped.

Subtitles: Dimitrios Priftis
[email protected]