Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Flying Blind - full transcript

In October, 1996,

a state of the art passenger- jet got
out of control for 30 horrific minutes

Then crashes into the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, no one understands
how this could happen.

The answer to the mystery may be found
in the aircraft's black box flight recorder.

The story the investigators uncover,
is how a simple human error...

...set off a chain of events
that ended in tragedy.

2 cent of American money
brought down a $ 75 million aircraft

and killed 70 people

The problem that they
faced that night

was probably one of 10
over the last 20 or 30 years.



You never lose hope immediately,
it takes time for you to get to that point...

...that you will accept the fact that
there is no people that get out of there, alive

Lima, Peru,
Chavez International Airport

AeroPeru Flight 603
prepares for take off for Santiago, Chili.

The plane is a 4 years old Boeing 757,

a state of the art passenger carrier,
known for its reliability and safety.

AeroPeru 603 is flown by
two of the National Airlines' best pilots,

Captain Eric Schreiber, 58
and First Officer David Fernández, 42.

61 passengers and 9
crew-members are aboard.

Most are Chileans on their way home.

Others are Peruvian, British,
Italian, Spanish, 1 New Zealander

and other Latin Americans.

Among them are the brother in law,

and a close friend
of Mexican business man Monus Albert



We are companies
that do business in South America.

We export and we will go and see clients.

On this trip, Kennie and Abraham
went to see some clients in Peru and Chili

I have a very good relationship
with Bolton, my brother in law,

of course, we were like brothers,

I loved the guy, he married my only sister,
so we had a great relationship.

Checklists are complete,

First Officer Fernandez hails the tower.

Lima tower, AeroPeru

603, runway 15,
ready for take off

Take off, briefing complete

The captain makes a joke about their precision

They are accurate, we are not even Swiss.

Rolling

The AeroPeru 757 is one of a new generation
of computer-controlled aircraft,

in which pilots are trained to
rely on a central data-system,

designed to reduce errors,
both mechanical and human.

During take off, the 757 performs perfectly.

80 knots

V1, rotate

V2

Gear up

Within moments,
the pilots get a very unusual reading

the altimeter indicates the height
of the aircraft of the ground

It reads zero, though they were obviously flying.

The altimeters have stuck

Yeah, all of them

The 757 is equipped with 3 altimeters,

one for pilot, one for copilot,
one back-up.

All three are dead.

Then they lose another crucial instrument,
the air-speed indicator

The speed

What is going on, we are not climbing

I am climbing, but the speed

AeroPeru 603 leaves the lights of Lima,
out toward the Pacific Ocean.

With no air-speed or altitude-instruments,
the pilots are now flying blind.

The air-traffic controller in Lima
maintains contact with the plane,

noting its altitude and course

He does not hear when the pilots
get a new, minor warning...

...that they must adjust the rudder
which steers the aircraft left and right.

603, we are descending

Rudder ratio

That is strange, turn to the right

Alan McLeod is a veteran Air Canada pilot.

They got a rudder-ratio warning,

which consists of an amber light
that would come flashing on there,

with a little beeping horn and
a message on this engine crew alerting system,

saying: RUDDER RATIO

That is a system that reduces
the amount of rudder, the airplane has.

It could be used as the airplane
accelerates and goes faster and faster,

because it was sensing wrong or
improper information,

It senses the fault,
it gave a warning to the crew.

The erratic warnings are being generated
by the plane's central computer,

but the pilots cannot understand why.

Then, the dead altimeters spring to life.

Climb, climb, climb...

I am

Climb, we are going down, David

I am up, but the speed...

Climb, climb, climb...

Set heading 100

It is okay on this heading

Is that the climb thrust?

Set the AUTOPILOT in command

Suddenly, the altitude readings return to normal.

but each passing moment
takes them further into the dark night.

Captain Schreiber tries to engage the autopilot
to give them time to think

There is no command

The autopilot requires identical data from
2 of the aircraft's 3 flight control computers.

But Schreiber's instrument-readings
are so different from those of Fernandez,

the AUTOPILOT disengages.

Then, another alert

MACH TRIM, MACH TRIM

MACH TRIM indicates
that the plane is not flying in a level position.

yet the 757 is flying normally.

Let's go to basic instruments,
everything is going to hell.

The MACH SPEED - TRIM
is a system that trims the airplane,

it changes the angle of the horizontal stabilizer
in the back-end of the airplane

and that has to be changed
as the airplane accelerates to a higher speed

It was getting false indications,
so they get a warning that they had an over-speed.

That warning would consist of a
MASTER CAUTION and a MASTER WARNING,

which is a red light,
associated with an aural warning as well.

Despite confusing warnings and no autopilot,
the aircraft is controllable.

If necessary,
Schreiber could keep the plane aloft for hours

But he decides to land.

He instructs his First Officer
to declare an emergency.

We are in an emergency

We have no basic instruments:
No altimeter, no airspeed indicator.

Received,
Altitude?

We don't have,
we are up to 1,000 ft

approx 1700

603, confirm if possible
if you can change your frequency to 119.7

to make sure you can receive radar instructions

Just 60 km's from Lima,

the pilots of AeroPeru Flight 603
are flying without instruments,

hoping the tower can help
bring them down alive.

Lima, 603.

We request vectors for ILS

They seek the runway with the help
of the guidance transmitter,

called the Instruments Landing System, or ILS.

The ILS provides information on their course,

while altitude information comes
from the aircraft's transponder.

Confirmative, maintain present altitude.

What level do we have?
We have 4000 ft, can you confirm for us?

Maintain 4000.

Schreiber and Fernandez have never experienced,
nor been trained for this emergency.

AUTO THROTTLE disconnect

Really, we don't have any control

Not even the basics

The airplane was controllable...

...but you first have to diagnose what is wrong,

It is very easy sitting on a chair
on a nice sunny day to say:

"This is what he should have done"

But in the cold, dark night,
with bells and whistles are going off,

it is very difficult to analyze conflicting
information that you are getting.

This kind of a problem that they face that night,

was probably 1 of 10 over the last 20 or 30 years
that has been similar to this

Over the dark Pacific Ocean,

the pilots cannot determine
altitude nor speed by sight

They request that the tower help guide them in.

Air speed is zero, all speeds

Can you give us airspeed please,
if you have us on the radar

Yes, it seems that you are climbing at level 6000
at 22 miles South on heading 195.

The traffic controller's computers
calculate a correct airspeed

by measuring the plane's
movement over the ground.

Okay, we have that ,we are on heading 190
and we have 7,000 ft on the altimeter.

Yes, correct,
you are now reaching 7000 ft

But neither the pilots nor the controller
know that the altitude,

indicated on the scope, is incorrect.

It is coming from the plane's erratic computer.

The traffic controller would try
to help the pilot,

but he was receiving the wrong
information on the altitude,

He was receiving a wrong indication
from the Captain's altimeter.

The reason the air traffic control system
was transmitting

improper altitude read-out information
to the airplane,

was because the airplane's altimeter
would send the indicated altitude

down to the radar unit
and of course, it was incorrect.

And they would read it off their read-out
down in the air traffic control CENTER

and transmitted it incorrect back to the pilot

Investigators would later discover that
AeroPeru 603 was drifting downward,

while the altimeters show them
at a nearly constant 10,000 ft.

And the passengers are unaware of the drama,
unfolding in the cockpit.

5 minutes after take-off,

Captain Schreiber orders Fernandez
to scan the flight-manual

for some explanation of the warnings.

In Lima,

the air traffic controller continues to
guide AeroPeru 603 back to the ground.

AeroPeru 603, we are observing you at level 9200
What is your heading now?

We are heading level 205

You are turning slowly to the right, correct?

No, we are maintaining course
to stay away from the coast

With incorrect altitude-information,
being transmitted from the aircraft to the tower,

they do not know that the plane is descending.

Your distance is 30 miles,
do you want a heading to proceed to the localizer?

We are going to suggest course North, 360

360, we have problems here reading the instruments

you are going to have to help me
with altitudes and airspeed, if it is possible

The approach is set.

The 757's computer sends
critical warnings,

information that the pilots are trained to obey,
but cannot trust.

Let's try to make a descend on this heading.

It is climbing.

The airspeed plummets to below stall speed
and then races up again.

Let's go down to 10,000 ft

What is the speed go away so fast?

Would it be the real speed?

That is what worries me,
no, I don't think so

Can you verify our speed, please?

320 is indicated.

We have 350.

The engines are on idle
but we keep accelerating and accelerating

Nerves are now stretched tight.

You can imagine the pilots,
they are flying there,

they don't have a true indication of the speed,

they are obviously trying to fly the airplane
and changing the attitude up and down,

that for itself will change an identification
of airspeed, although it was incorrect,

Both pilots were really confused,

they didn't know what to do,
or how to act,

and they did inhuman efforts
to save the aircraft,

but they were really tired
of all the work and confusing alarms.

Fernandez suggests that they try the speed-brakes
used to rapidly slow the aircraft.

Extend the speed brakes

For a moment, it appears to be working.

Then, another warning

All three indicators are fine on speed

Over speed

Over-speed means the plane is flying too fast.

The pilots cannot believe it,
but the warning adds to their confusion

They are forced to choose: Speed up or slow down.

The lives of 70 people are in their hands.

15 minutes have passed since take off.

Then, the computerized brain
of AeroPeru Flight 603

sends another burst of
contradictory warnings.

Rudder Ratio

It cannot be,
nothing has been disconnecting

All engine-instruments are okay

What can our real speed be?

Lima Tower provides their only chance of survival

We're observing you crossing
260 of Lima, at 31 miles West,

level is 10,700 ft,
velocity is 280

The controller's
altitude-reading is incorrect,

junk-information being generated by the 757's
computers and radio-ed to the tower.

The brakes are on,
but now, another over speed warning

Then, the stall-warning sounds

They got a stall-warning,
that the airplane is falling out of the sky,

at the same time they got an over speed warning,

impossible to have 2 contradictory alarms.

Either you are stalling,
or either you are having an over speed.

That created more confusion.

This problem has never happened before,
it was a new emergency

In aviation, you always figure,
what is going to kill me.

What is THE critical thing,
let us take care of that first

And then, we will take care of the other,
less critical issues later on

When you get a stall-warning, or when
you get an over-speed-indication,

you need to pay attention
to those immediately.

In this case, they were getting
both a stall warning and an over speed,

well, which is right?

First Officer David Fernandez finally realizes
that the odds are against a safe landing.

We request: Is there any plane
that can take off and rescue us

Acknowledged,
rescue has been alerted

Any plane that can guide us of AeroPeru,
that may be in the area, anybody?

Now, don't say anything like that

Yes, because right now, we are in a stall

The stick-shaker vibrates violently,
indicating that the 757 is going too slow

and could fall from the sky.

AeroPeru 603, we have a 707 that is leaving
from Lutjebroek, we will advice him

We are not in a stall, that is a false alarm

Schreiber's air-speed indicator reads 350 knots,
well above stall-speed.

No, we have stick-shaker, it has to be

When the airplane slowed down
to a point in the air

that it can no longer sustain itself in flight,
it stalls,

The wings stall and stop flying,

There is a warning system build into the airplane,
that tells a pilot when it is happening,

as known as a stick-shaker, along with
a voice-warning, which we just heard.

And when the stick-shaker goes off,
because the airplane has slowed down too much,

you get a warning like this,
the control column is shaking and vibrating,

along with the voice-warning,
saying that the airplane is stalling,

and of course the pilot has to do the aircraft's
stall-recovery procedure at that point.

In the battle between man and machine,
the deranged 757 is winning.

The pilots have no sense of where they are
or how high.

They have gradually been descending.

Now, to just over 300 meters over the sea

Lima Tower, misguided by AeroPeru
603's incorrect transponder

reassures the pilots that they are at 10,000 ft

AeroPeru 603
You are now flying on course 120

We observe you to be at level 10,000 ft,
your speed is approx 220

and the distance from Lima
of 33 miles North West

The Boeing 707 will be ready in 15 minutes
to fly West to help you

The pilots have failed in their attempt
at a landing

The best hope now,

is that another aircraft can get airborne
and guide the 757 back to the airport.

To have another aircraft
come alongside and formate ,

would have been one way
of recovering from this abnormal situation.

However, we must remember
that the flight was at night, in darkness,

the pilots may or may not have
any formation flying training,

that would have been one way
to resolve the problem quite well.

Terrain, too low, terrain

Now the pilots receive
the most terrifying warning of all.

It is called the ground proximity alarm,

meaning a collision with the earth is imminent

Still, the tower tells them,
they are at 10,000 ft.

We have the terrain alarm
and we are supposed to be at 10,000ft?

There is no checklist for, if you have
these warnings going off, which they did,

and they couldn't shut them off

It is a very rattling experience,

I could play that tape for you,
and you could hear those things, PULL UP, TERRAIN

and all of these things going off
and the stick-shaker

It's a very unnerving environment.

All the computers are going crazy here

Schreiber turns the aircraft towards the sea,

away from a possible collision
with a mountain or skyscraper.

Despite the erroneous warnings,
the terrain alarm is correct.

There is a system on board of the aircraft,
called the ground-proximity warning system,

it senses the rate of
descend of the airplane.

The irony of the situation was they were getting
warnings from that too low, terrain, too low,

that probably was a true one.

But because they have been
subjected to so many warnings,

false warnings, horns, bells and whistles,

they didn't, I think, react to that too seriously.

Are we descending now?

We are showing the same speed.
You have 200 knots approximately

Speed 200 knots?

The pilots are stunned,

200 knots is precariously
close to a stall speed.

Damn, we are going to stall right now

Let us go up!
Let us go up here!

Two Peruvian man grapple with a deadly situation

A computer that warns they are flying
too fast, too slow and too low...

...all at once.

Schreiber decides to risk a 2nd attempt
at landing,

seeking the signal, known as the ILS,
to guide the aircraft to the runway

I want to try to intercept the ILS,
I am trying to descend

Lima, AeroPeru 603,

We will try to intercept the ILS,
let us know if we are in

Received, Aeroperu 603, we show now level 9700

Instruments seem to be working.

For a moment, there is glimmer of hope.

This one is OKAY, too

The air-traffic-controller attempts
to raise the pilots' spirits with good news.

Standby the verified speed,
The 707 is about to take off, it is on taxi

Confirm our speed, It is very important we
do not have any speed indications on board,

How can we be flying at this speed

if we are descending with
setting the engines on idle?

Give me the altitude, please.

Yes, you are maintaining 9700 ft,
according to the scope, sir

9700 ft?

That is correct

What is your indicated altitude;
do you have any visual reference?

9700 but it is indicating "too low, terrain"

Are you sure you have us on the radar at 50 miles?

Hey, look, the 370
We have 370 or what, lowered gear?

AeroPeru 603, Lima

What do we do with the gear?

Suddenly they realize the awful truth

We are hitting water, pull it up

Climb!, Climb AeroPeru 603
if you need to pull up

For 20 seconds, the pilots struggle for altitude.

I've got it, I've got it

We are going to turn over

The next morning,

Mexican business man Monus Albert learns
that an AeroPeru flight has crashed.

5 minutes after take off,

the crew informed the tower that they were having
an emergency and had requested to return to Lima.

During the process, the contact
with the aircraft was lost at 01:10

with the latest position of the aircraft
being 50 miles North of the city of Lima

at 6.00 AM I got up and turned on
the News-channel, and I heard there was a crash,

an airplane crash, of AeroPeru, that
the news mentioned 'New York to Lima'

The rescue-operations are
on their way by authorities,

the aircraft was carrying 61
passengers and 9 crew-members

His brother in law, and his business partner
were on AeroPeru 603

So I went to the shower
and didn't pay a lot of attention,

but when I came out,
they corrected the news and they said:

"from Lima to Santiago"

and I knew:
in that plane, Kenny and Abraham were flying.

The news was very vague,

so they mentioned there
might be some survivors

and mentioned the plane
crashed in the Pacific Ocean

and they didn't have a lot of news,

the crash was at night,
so in my mind, I thought

the plane landed on water
and most people got out.

Guido Fernández has just been appointed
Peru's accident investigator.

AeroPeru is his first case.

The co-pilot, David Fernandez, is his nephew.

I was in bed, it was about 4.30 AM,
they called me,

"your nephew is lost in an airplane,
how do you feel",

I said: "I feel very bad,
but I am a professional

I have to do a job,
I have to comply

and complete my duty"

So, that is what I did.

Fernandez rushes to the crash-site
in a NAVY helicopter

It is clear, that there are no survivors.

9 bodies are floating in the debris.

The rest sank with the 757.

Fernandez put thoughts of his nephew
out of his mind

His job is to retrieve the aircraft's
flight data and voice recorders...

...to determine what happened.

He needs help.

Fernandez contacts the NTSB in Washington DC,

one of the world leading agencies
for air-accident investigation.

They had found the aircraft,

it was pretty well
documented by radar,

the Peruvian Navy had gotten a fix on the floats
and the wreckage in the ocean

and the only thing left to do was
find it on the bottom of the ocean,

which they did not have the facilities for.

Rodriguez flies to Lima

to join Guido Fernandez
in his effort to find answers.

I found out that his nephew
was the First Officer,

I suggested that perhaps they should consider
removing Captain Fernandez from the investigation,

because of emotional involvement.

The American investigators' concerns soon vanish.

He was very objective,
I would say an excellent investigator,

considering that it was a not distant nephew,
he was a very close relative,

he did an outstanding job.

The black box in the Boeing 757
can emit a locator beacon for 30 days.

The US Navy provides underwater remote
operated vehicles to survey the debris field,

seeking the Black Boxes.

It is clear to the veteran investigator Rodriguez
that the plane went down in one piece.

I've done in flight-break-ups that were spread
over 15, 16 miles and maybe 1,5 mile wide,

which tells you instantly,
looking at the wreckage,

this thing didn't hit in one piece,
it clearly was disintegrating as it was crashing

But in this case,
there was a fairly tight debris-field.

Obviously, it hit at high-speed
and was a fairly closely wreckage pattern.

The data recorders are retrieved from the 757,

brought to the surface,

the boxes are placed in coolers
full of fresh water to keep them from oxidizing.

They were swept back to Washington
for analysis at the NTSB.

The CVR might offer the evidence
the investigators seek.

Every word, spoken by pilots
Schreiber and Fernandez,

and every unnerving alarm
is recorded on audio-tape.

The recorded voices are faint,
sometimes hard to make out,

but the chaos in the cockpit rings through
with chilling clarity

The tape is digitized into a computer,
filtered, and enhanced

It was clear to us

that they were really experiencing a problem
with airspeed and altitude

The airspeed and altitude-indications in the
aircraft are a function of the pitot-static system

The pitot static system is found on all aircraft,
large or small.

External ports measure outside air-pressure
to provide data on altitude and speed.

If these ports are obstructed,
the plane's computers generate false warnings.

But why these ports would be blocked,
is a mystery.

Robotic vehicles are deployed
to find the missing piece of the puzzle.

Investigators are stunned to discover that Captain
Schreiber's static port is completely blocked...

...with tape!

Just before AeroPeru 603 lifted off from Lima,

maintenance workers cleaned the aircraft.

A worker covered the static ports with tape
to protect them.

This is standard procedure...

...but he forgot to remove the tape.

It was a small oversight
with catastrophic results.

The taping was never removed,

and when the airplane departed,
and started to fly,

nothing but trapped static sea level air-pressure
was sensed by those instruments

and the airplane was climbing up in thinner air,

and the information, presented on the instruments
to the computer was false,

which generated totally non-normal readings.

The inspector,
who was supposed to quality check his work,

did not do it.

And the supervisor out on the line,
that night was not there, he was sick,

and there was a regular mechanic
who was filling that role,

he did not see it.

And the captain or the pilot...
in this case the captain did the pre-flight,

they do a walk-around,
looking for just that kind of thing,

The captain did the preflight that night
he did not detect it either

A little piece of paper, with glue,

cost an accident.

But the paper and the glue...

...are not to blame.

Humans are to blame.

Because humans use that tape,
in the wrong place for the wrong purpose

An accident shockingly similar to AeroPeru 603
happened with another 757,

just 8 months earlier.

In February 1996,

189 people died when a German charter,
called BirgenAir crashes

after take off near Puerto Plata,
Dominican Republic.

The NTSB assists in the investigation.

The survey of the wreckage
reveals that one pitot-tube,

the other critical part of
the pitot static system,

is blocked.

As with AeroPeru 603,
night is the pilot's worst enemy.

The BirgenAir pilot flips
the plane upside down

before crashing into the sea.

Bulletins are immediately issued to
all airline carriers about pitotstatic problems.

But AeroPeru had not yet implemented the changes.

The bulletins and what is called "The Fruits" of
the Dominican Republic investigation of BirgenAir,

had not yet reached AeroPeru at
the time this accident occurred

The Peruvian government,
very correctly,

made a point of that in their report
on the accident,

saying that they should have given more
empatice to their recommendations,

to get them up to the industry quicker.

Even if Schreiber and Fernandez
had known about BirgenAir,

it may not have helped them survive,
given the high pressure of their situation.

It is easy to sit here in the 757 cockpit
and play the Monday-morning quarterback,

having heard the bells and
the over-speed-warnings,

the ground-proximity warnings, the stall-warning,
It is very easy to do that and sit here

and say what I would have done
being an experienced pilot,

but to put yourself into
the position of those two pilots at night,

they were in an extremely difficult
situation to fly that airplane

and recover from that experience.

Two weeks after the crash,

Monus Albert joins dozens of grieving families,

seeking the remains
of his brother in law and his friend,

He finally identifies
them in a Lima morgue.

I wanted to find them

I really wanted to find him
and one part of me didn't want to find him

because there was this fantasy,
that if I don't find him,

maybe they are on an Island with a drink,
and looking at some girls, dancing

I can close the chapter,

I can go and take him in heaven, buried,

and there will be a place for the families to go
and put some flowers once in a while,

and say:"OKAY, my brother in law is here,

or my daddy is here,
or my husband is here,"

Now that the investigators have their answers
to the mysterious loss of AeroPeru 603,

the lawsuits begin.

In November 1996,

a Miami lawyer takes the case
on behalf of 41 passengers and crew.

arguing that Boeing is liable for the accident.

Boeing has to foresee
the miss-use of their product.

The manufacturer of a product is legally liable
for the foreseeable miss-use of their product

if it can be corrected.

Boeing builds the airplane
with a potential hazard in it

That hazard is:

in order to clean the airplane,
you have to cover the static port,

and if you don't take it off,
the airplane can crash.

I wanted them back!

Since I couldn't get them back,

at least I wanted the wives of the victims
to get compensated.

How much is that worth?

Abraham had 3 daughters,

and now, they don't have a father!

What is the compensation?

The best compensation is,
if it can be done: get them back

Give them life back again.

But because that is not possible,

then the other possibility is
to get a monetary compensation

And then you fight
for the best compensation you can get.

Boeing argues that AeroPeru was at fault,

not the 757.

An AeroPeru worker forgot to remove
tape from over the static port,

which is marked with clear warnings.

Boeing also blames Captain Eric Schreiber;

it was his job to visually inspect
the aircraft before taking off.

But investigator Rodriguez can understand how
Schreiber overlooked the tape on the static port.

One of the reasons is:
It is very high,

it is about maybe 15, 17 feet up in the air.

And at night with a flash light,

and this happened to be duct-tape,
which is not supposed to use

They specify the tape and this was duct-tape,
which is silver, so it would not...

...distinguish itself against
the background of the fuselage of the aircraft

So, basically, 3 or 4 people failed to detect
the tape on the aircraft, prior to departure.

As the search for blame continues,
the worker who taped the ports

is jailed for negligent homicide.

Lawyers, they confuse matters,

They send a guy and ask people questions
and the one that stuck the tape,

was the painter,

it was the lowest cultured
and the one that knew less about what could happen

The judge resolved
that he was the one responsible.

and he was in jail

Schreiber and Fernandez were also scrutinized.

Veteran pilot Alan McLeod
believes that in their situation,

he would have not attempted to land.

He would have continued to fly for as long as
he could with the plane angled upwards slightly

with the speed set just above cruise.

Experience has shown that
if you don't fly the airplane

when you are experiencing
an abnormal situation,

you must fly the airplane, concentrate and
get the airplane under control, first and foremost

If you don't do that,
airplanes are going to bite you!

and you will end up into more serious situations

So I would fly the airplane,

make sure that I was able to fly it safely,
if only by using the attitude direction indicator

and normal power settings
that I was familiar with.

And then eventually work my way back
and get it on the ground.

In 1999,

Boeing and AeroPeru decide
to settle the lawsuits out of court.

Families and loved ones receive
an exceptional settlement,

averaging $1 million per victim

The damages are high, because of the terrible way
the victims of AeroPeru died.

We are able to show
that a lot of the people who are alive,

in a crash like this,
a lot of the people would survive the crash

And then died of drowning.

There was no question in our minds
that the people suffered terrible terror...

...and pain when this has happened to them

They were horrified,
they were awake,

they knew what happened.

The disaster helps sink AeroPeru

combined with increased
competition and rising debt,

the national airline
goes bankrupt in 1999.

Boeing increases training
on pitot static problems,

and issues new regulations
and improved static port-covers.

Since 1996,

there has not been another pitotstatic failure
like the one on AeroPeru 603.

The designers of these pitots,
the manufactures of these products,

I know that they have to take
safety into account

They do that because they know
it is the right thing to do

But they also know that
if they don't do it,

there is somebody
watch them saying:

let us go and investigate it,
Let us go and find out why it happened.

They are accountable for what they do wrong.

And if they don't take it
into consideration safety,

they have to pay for it.

The case is settled,
and the airline industry moves on,

such as the world of commercial aviation.

But it is of little consolation for those
whose lives are scarred forever

by an insignificant piece of tape

And suddenly, this guy does not exist anymore?

It is very hard to swallow,

it is very hard to understand
and it took me a long time to accept,

so the memory is still there,
and it will be there for a long time.

I am not going let go, I don't want to let go.

Narrated by Stephen Bogaert

Subtitles:
Rein Croonen