Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 12, Episode 7 - 28 Seconds to Survive - full transcript

A plane crash in the Andes...

It was a challenge to get to the site

...pushes rescuers and investigators to the limit

We were at an altitude of 14,000 ft

The location of the crash is baffling

The aircraft was not in the route,
normally taken

How did two pilots, familiar with the route...

Denis, Denis

We are 074 aren't we?

...become so lost...

It was far away to the North



...that they flew straight into a mountain?

It was incredible to hear them talk
the way they were talking

What a piece of junk

Alarm in the cockpit

This is a true story

It is based on official reports
and eyewitness accounts

Navigation out of service

Merida Airport Venezuela,
21 February 2008

It is just before 5:00 PM when the crew
of Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518

arrives for their last
flight of the day

Hello, sir, welcome aboard

Yes, I told them upstairs that the standard
operating procedures are all wrong

Captain Aldino Garanito Gomez is a senior pilot
and flight instructor for the airline

with over 5,000 hours in the air



I'll give the chief of operations
my manuals next week

The captain's first officer today
is one of his closest friends

Yeah, well, things get better

Denis Ferreira Quintal has over 2000 flying hours

There are 43 passengers in the cabin

including 11 year old Eisberth Quintero Hereira
and his father Alexander

Alexander was the mayor of Mucuchíes
a town in the state of Mérida

He was going to a meeting of his political party,
because he was running for Governor of State

Today, they will be flying
a ATR 42 twin turbo prop.

The aircraft is popular with regional airlines

Carlos Hopkins is a Venezuelan pilot
who knows the plane well

It is an excellent airplane

What we say in Venezuela
is that they are like a battle horse

they are very dependable airplanes

The flight prepares to depart

For your information:
an Avior B190 checked in 2 minutes ago

directly over Lagunillas station

The tower warns Captain Garanito Gomez that
another plane is coming in to land from the West.

Roger, Avior
start-up clearance received and doors closing

The single runway at Merida Airport
can only handle one plane at a time.

If Flight 518 doesn't get off the ground soon

it will have to postpone take off
until after the other plane has landed

Cleared for take off

OKAY, we are ready to go

You are now at control,
if you want.

This afternoon, first officer Ferreira Quintal
is handling the flying.

70 knots

The captain monitors the instruments.

V1

and rotate

Gear up

Check

We're up

Flight 518 is bound for
Venezuela's capital, Caracas

The airline operates this 90 minute flight
3 times daily

navigating the mountainous terrain
around Merida demands a lot from pilots

Merida airport is in the middle of a valley
in a high elevation

A sector of Venezuela
where the Andean mountains finish

There is only one way to get in

and only one way to get out

The official flight plan takes planes South West
through a river valley

so they can gain height before looping back to
the North and over the mountains towards Caracas

Avior 1116
Traffic airborne right now

Roger, 116 inbound over la Merida

The crew of the inbound plane
reports their position.

For your information

We stay close to the Northern mountains,
we'll give you guys some room

In that case,
we'll keep closer to the Southern mountains

The two crews must fly carefully
to avoid the mountains and each other

The captain had vast experience
operating at this airport

He probably had more than 1,000 landings there

Climbing to 6 ,000 ...7000 ft

The same crab as the other day

If you want, you can start to turn, Denis

Turning now

Flight 518 turns left,
as it climbs out of the valley.

Yeah, this way is better

Let's keep this heading, OKAY, Denis

As they climb,
the crew must continuously adjust their course

Denis, a bit more to the right

To the right?

Yeah, get to 067

Then, 6 minutes into the flight
something begins to go wrong

An alarm is sounding a warning
that the plane is dangerously close to the ground

The GPWS just gave an aural warning to the pilots

indicating that the terrain was coming
in front of them in a very rapid way

Denis, Denis

We are at 074, aren't we?

The captain takes control of the plane

Denis, Denis, I have it

The passengers are unaware of the growing danger

while in the cockpit, confusion mounts

Hold on

Hold on, easy, Denis, easy

Santa Barbara 518, do you copy?

Santa Barbara 518, Please respond

15 minutes later,
Flight 518 hasn't checked in as scheduled.

Flight 518 is missing, 43 passengers on board

The news that a plane is gone missing
spreads quickly in the small town.

We had hope that if the plane did crash,

it crashed in a place
that allowed for some survivors

There was a feeling of optimism

As daylight fades at Merida airport

a search and rescue team gets ready to launch.

Orangel Lozada joins the team in Merida.

Initially, we got information about the aircraft

We also asked how many people were on board

From that moment, we started to prepare ourselves
both mentally and physically...

...for the rescue of possible survivors

When a flight goes missing,

rescuers often use a plane's radar track
to pinpoint its last position

but Merida airport...

...has no radar.

The rescuers don't know where to find flight 518

We don't know their last known position
so the search area is going to be large.

With no other clues to go on

they begin searching by helicopter
along Flight 518's planned route

but strangely,
the plane is nowhere to be found

The search was done by helicopter,

we discovered that the plane
wasn't on the planned route.

Due to the captain's excellent reputation
as a pilot

rumours begin to spread
that the missing plane may not have crashed at all

Once I learned that the crew was headed
by Captain Aldino Garanito

the first thing I thought
is that they have been hijacked?

that airplane was really missing
because the airplane was hijacked

Then comes distressing news from high in the Andes

Mountain-villagers have reported a plane crash,
10 km from Merida

There is no word about any survivors

Until we arrived at the site,
we cannot give up hope.

If any passengers are still alive,
they are now in a new fight for survival

against the elements

The morning after the crash
of Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518

rescuers, carried by helicopter
arrive at Los Conejos

a remote Andes mountain top

The air is thin,
the temperature near freezing

Let's get our gear over there
underneath a shelter to keep warm

There was a lot of fog and it was cold.

We were at an altitude of 14,000 ft

The thin air makes even the slightest
physical exertion a huge effort

The location, the altitude and the site of impact
are contrary to human physiology

So, the work doubles or triples.

Hope of finding survivors in the wreckage
fades quickly.

The crash has killed all 46 people on board.

These are images
that are imprinted on your memory for life

but, in this kind of work, you
have to know how to get through it

and move on.

Meanwhile, at Merida airport

investigators from Venezuela's
Aviation Accident Investigation Board

begin setting up a base

It will take time
before they can get to the remote crash site

So, where exactly is the crash site?

It is their task to figure out
why Flight 518 ended in tragedy

You have a team already there?

One of the things we wonder the most
was why the aircraft ended up in that location

since it was not on the route
that they should have been following

when they left the airport.

Controllers in the tower provide some insight.

We are trying to figure out
why they weren't on the official route

Because they were fly observatorium

It is not an official route,
but every one flies it

Investigators learn that instead of
flying the usual loop around the valley

Flight 518 was taking
a popular but unofficial shortcut

It is known as Observatorio
because it passes over an astronomical observatory

It was a normal, common practice
to do it direct over the Observatory

There was only one reason:

Time

Following the established procedure
took them at least 10 or 15 minutes longer

This departure route via the Observatory
allow them to save that time

For the company, it means a lot:

15 minutes of fuel, in this case.

Though unofficial, the short cut is so common,
the tower cleared them for the route

518 Airborne

Contact me again
when you cross Observatorio

This way is better

It is now clear why the plane
was not found along the official route

It was not the route the crew was flying

Keep this heading, Denis

But the explanation raises a new question.

Though the crash site isn't on the official route

it is not along the Observatorio flightpath either

What are they doing over there?

The aircraft was not in the route
normally taken to go over the Observatorio

It was far away to the North

So, there was something that raise their concern

and then they step on to investigation

Only rescue-workers have reached
the top of Los Conejos

It is up to them to continue the difficult task
of sorting through the debris

Hey, you guys are OKAY
keep going?

The search and rescue mission
is now a recovery effort.

but that doesn't change
the brutal high altitude conditions.

We prepare for all kinds of situations

but this case in particular
was much more difficult than others

It pushed us almost to the limit
of our preparation.

The tragedy hits home as bodies of the death
are brought down from the mountain

There had never been such a large plane crash
in Merida before

It touched the entire city.

It is also shocking because Eisberth
was an 11 year old boy

and that news was some of the hardest
that we ever received as a family.

Investigators know the pilots set out to
fly over the mountaintop Observatorio

They know the plane veered off course
with tragic results

But they don't know why

Was it pilot error?

A mechanical problem?

Poor weather?

Or something else?

The answers may lie in the wreckage
more than 12,000 ft above sea-level.

But so far,
the investigators haven't been able to get near it

Before they can ascent
to such a dangerously high altitude

they must first pass a physical exam

The situation was quite extreme;

There were some people
that suffered from disorientation

So, you had to be very careful
with the people in your team.

Am I OKAY?

I'm ready, let's get up there

I am on my way

Finally, air-crash investigators are able to join
the rescuers at the crash site

Their first priority is to learn
as much as they can from the wreckage

Left wing 35

They hope that the pattern of
debris can tell them something

about how the plane was flying
in the final moments

so, it slid up on his belly

The debris path shows that the aircraft
hit the ground in an upward trajectory

and that direct
against the mountain

because the debris hit the ground
and started to slide slope up

Some parts of the aircraft
and some bodies were found a bit higher

from the point of impact

That shows that the aircraft was climbing
at the moment of impact

Denis, Denis, I have it

Investigators conclude that
the pilots must have put their plane into a climb

before they hit the mountain

Aldino!

Hold on!

If they were trying to avoid disaster

the evidence shows
they came tragically close to succeeding

It nearly cleared the top

the difference between life and death
was just a few hundred meters.

The site of the crash
where the aircraft hit the mountain

was about 300 meters to the top of the mountain.

Rescuers have recovered
Flight 518's two Flight Recorders

The FDR and the CVR capture important details
of what the pilots did and said

We need to get these
down the mountain right away

But it will take time to recover the data

Since Venezuela doesn't have a laboratory
for analyzing black boxes

we contacted the French government
through the manufacturer of the aircraft

And they offered to give us support
in analyzing both recorders

Investigators wonder if a problem
with either of the 2 turboprop engines

might explain the crash

Maybe they had an engine failure
and just lost power

didn't have enough power
to go over the mountain and crashed

The engines themselves are too badly damaged
to provide any clues

But the propeller blades do tell a story

We are able to determine by
the damage to the propellers

that they were rotating
at the time of impact

The way they are bent reveals
that the blades were spinning normally

when they hit the ground.

Clear evidence that the engines were working
at the time of the crash.

The engines were burning and turning

Instruments from the cockpit
are brought down the mountain for analysis.

We recovered instruments like the altimeter
and the airspeed indicators

and they had remained in optimal condition
for post crash analysis

The instruments confirm
the plane was under control just before the crash

but they hold few other clues.

So far, everything points to a plane
that was operating normally.

There was no malfunction,
everything was working well

and they just crashed against the mountain

Why that happened remains a baffling question
for the Venezuelan investigators.

The search for answers takes them to Paris

to the French accident investigation authority,

the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses

Their technicians download the data
from the flight recorder

It reveals that the doomed plane
hit the mountain just 6' 47'' after take off

If a mechanical failure was to blame,
the Flight Data Recorder should have recorded it

What is this?

but investigators face a huge problem

Some of the key parameters they need to analyze
are missing.

The data that we obtained
from the aircraft's flight-recorder was good

However, certain parameters were missing.

What is missing is navigational information:

What direction the plane flew and when.

The information on the aircraft's position
and course wasn't being send to the FDR.

The missing data is a major setback

one that puts even more pressure on investigators

to find the answers that families of the victims
so desperately want to hear.

When you find yourself a victim of an air-disaster
for the first time

you really feel angry and powerless

The accident could have been avoided

You want to know why it happened.

They need to piece together
some of the missing flight data.

They come up with an unorthodox way of doing that

Tell me when you are ready

They try to figure out
the movements of the plane.

Ah, same crap as the other day

If you want, you can start to turn, Denis

Turning now

Investigators are able to study
every movement of the control column

the one thing that was properly recorded

This allowed us to establish the altitude
at the moment of impact

and it also helped us recreate the path

that the aircraft took
from the moment of its departure.

Step by step, they piece together the flight

Left 15° now

The recreation shows that the plane was
flying normally as it flew away from the airport

but then, it began to veer off course

You see?
They fly here

This is when they went off course

The finding confirms
there was a problem with navigation

but investigators can't be sure
if that was due to pilot error...

...or mechanical failure

Apparently,
they continued turning more than they needed

and instead of heading to the Observatory
(that is an East heading)

they turned to the North,
directly to the mountain

Aldino!

Hold on!

Go ahead, please

With no hard answers from the FDR

investigators consider some conversations,
captured on the CVR

They focus in on
the last moments of the short flight

hoping to hear something that might explain
why the plane veered off course

Yeah, get to 067

The pilots discuss their compass heading.

Denis, Denis

We are at 074 aren't we?

It was evident
that there was a panic among the crew

The copilot started to worry
about the position and heading that they were on

What investigators hear next, provides a
disturbing glimpse into the flight's final seconds

Damned, we are at 318

The pilots couldn't agree where they were headed

They have no idea where they are

How could such a dangerous situation arise
on a popular commercial flight?

Investigators desperately need to know...

...why the crew of a reliable airplane
carrying 43 passengers...

...lost track of their heading
and crashed into a mountain.

The CVR starts operating
when the plane's battery is turned on

They scrutinize the pilots' early conversations
for any sign of trouble

They are surprised to hear
the pilots start the engines

before asking the tower for permission

Santa Barbara 518 requesting
start-up and clearance for a flight to Maiqutia

One of the pilots was asking
for authorization for engine start

the other pilot was already
starting the engines

but what they don't hear
is truly surprising

For your information:
Avior B190 checked in 2 minutes ago

directly over Lagunillas station

Roger, Avior, via Lagunillas

Start-up clearance received and doors closing

There is no sound of pilots
running through their pre-flight checks.

They are skipping a lot of steps here

Getting a passenger plane off the ground
requires dozens of small steps

missing any one of those could be deadly

That is why pilots are trained
to follow checklists

On those checklists,

you confirm that all parameters
are within the normal range

to avoid failure during flight

Not only do you activate the engines,
you activate the propellers, brakes, spoilers

various different systems must be verified
when making the flight.

This would not be the first time

that failing to complete a checklist
ended in tragedy

In 1987,
North West Airlines Flight 255 crashed in Detroit

after the crew failed
to configure the plane properly for take off

the pilots missed a single crucial step
on their pre take off checklist

More than 10 years later,
American Airlines 1420 careened off the runway

while trying to land in Little Rock, Arkansas

Investigators later found that the crew
didn't complete a checklist

that would have reminded them
to arm their brakes and spoilers

Pre flight checklist can be completed
without a problem within 5 minutes

Do your checklist
not to rush the Russian Roulette

Roger, Avior via Lagunillas

Start up clearance received and doors closing

The Santa Barbara crew is clearly
rushing through their take off procedure

Then, as the pilots are taxiing to the runway,

Ah, these gyros are messed up, again.

The Captain tells his First officer
that the motion sensors are not functioning

The motion sensors or gyro's
are a critical part of its navigation system

They keep track of the plane's position
as it moves through the sky.

Despite the equipment problem,
the crew carries on

The plane lifts off,
less than 3 minutes after it started to taxi

Now, that is fast

Venezuelan investigators wonder
if missing a step in one of the checklists

could have affected the plane's navigation system.

The Attitude Heading Reference System,
or AHRS

gives pilots critical information they need
to fly the plane

Let me see that

The AHRS is a system,

developed to reduce the complexity
of the navigation system

the attitude, the bank and the heading

They combine everything in to one unit
that gives all that information.

Denis, a bit more to the right

To the right?

Yeah, get to 067

An inoperative navigation system could explain

why flight 518 took a deadly turn
towards the mountains.

The question now is how a hurried take off
could lead to such a dangerous malfunction

Let me see those specs again.

Gracias

To find out, investigators travel to
Santa Barbara Airlines headquarters in Caracas

They want to see what happens to
the navigation system when procedures are rushed.

Did recklessness cause a failure?

We decided to conduct tests in a similar aircraft
to the one that was in the accident

We wanted to understand how the AHRS was working
when the crew took off from Merida Airport

First, investigators try starting the plane
using all the correct procedures

Battery

ON

They run all the checklists

Flaps lever

They time how long it takes
for the navigation system to come to life

3 minutes

This system needs initialization-process

and the process begins when
turning the battery switch ON

you have to wait around 3 minutes
to synchronize and stabilize the gyros

and the aircraft must be still,
without any kind of movement.

OKAY, now, let's try it that way

Investigators also recreate the procedure,
used on the day of the crash.

Battery

Due to their hurry, they started the engines
and immediately started taxiing to the runway

and by doing that,
they forgot to check their flight instruments.

They started moving ...now

The test confirms
that Flight 518's hurried take off

left the navigation system OFF Line

Less than 30 seconds

That is all they had to wait

They took off with no accurate way
to track the direction they were flying

If they have checked that

they would have noticed that
3 minutes waiting time had not passed

and they had their screens blank
without any navigational information

All the conditions for the accident to occur
existed on the ground

They were created on the ground.

Investigators now know why Flight 518's
navigation system wasn't working.

But the pilots were extremely familiar
with the terrain

and should have been able
to see the mountain in time to avoid it.

Merida Airport is a visual airport, isn't it?

At Merida Airport,
planes operate under visual flight rules

Pilots look out of the window
to watch for any obstacles in their path

Why didn't it work this time?

It is curious,
because they have done that many times

All of us flew that route,

and Aldino especially was one of the ones
who flew it the most.

Climbing to 6,000 ...7000 ft

We are visual

Investigators study weather records
from the day of the crash

They learn there were thick clouds
in the plane's path when it reached 10,000 ft.

Definitively not clear sailing up there

Now, they would have entered the clouds
when they got to 10,000 ft

So, that would be up around here

It is exactly the point
where Flight 518 began to veer off course

Once the pilots flew into the clouds

it was impossible for them
to see where they were going

Evidently, once in the air they entered a cloud
and became disoriented

Denis, a bit more to the right

The alarms started to sound
that indicated that they were near land

They didn't have the slightest idea
where that mountain was

It was the final straw

You start to think:
Why did this experienced pilot...

...in a place where he goes more often
than the majority of the pilots

got into this situation

These gyros are messed up again

The CVR points to the reason
for the pilot's blunder

Now we cannot see anything

We'll have to reset it in flight
What a piece of junk

We will go visual

They believe they can reset their instrument
during the flight

We'll take off in the dark

Their conversation reveals
they have done it before

The same thing happened last time
when we had to take off like this

But this time,
their luck didn't hold

It is practically impossible
to maintain a flight straight and level enough

for the gyroscopes to synchronize in the air.

A tiny sound on the CVR also suggests

that the pilots had an unconventional
strategy for navigating,

while they waited for the system to reboot

What was that sound?
Can I hear that again

Turn a bit more,
See if this works and keep it right there

I think he is using a standby compass

Instead of relying on their electronic systems

the captain needed to use an old fashioned
magnetic compass to plot their course

We would be going back to the 30's era,
flying with the basic instruments

That the captain would fly a passenger plane
into the clouds, guided by a compass

suggests he was extremely confident
in his abilities

maybe too confident

In a way, that excessive confidence
on the part of the captain

led him to skip certain steps in the procedures

What do you want,
turn to the right?

Aldino, take that way

Aldino, turn around we are going down

The only reference they had was a compass
and at that moment, they started to worry

trying to find the correct path or route
without the basic instruments they normally have

Aldino

Hold on, hold on
Easy Denis, easy

They were flying blind.

It is now clear that a dangerous combination
of failed instruments and poor decisions

caused the crash of Flight 518

The only remaining question

What pushed the pilots to take such great risks?

Venezuelan investigators believe that
the pilots of Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518

knowingly took off with inadequate instruments

and a risky plan
to restart their navigation system in the air.

I need to know what these guys were thinking

To learn why they did that,

they piece together the pilots' last
hours before the flight.

Do you remember what they were doing here?

You know...

the problem with this company
is that they don't listen to their employees

When the pilots arrived at Merida,
they decided to go to the terminal

They learn
the pilots left the plane in between flights

to relax over coffee in the terminal

The good friends got talking
and lost track of the time

The passenger department
sent the passengers on board

without having the pilots on the aircraft.

You cannot have the passengers embarked
until at least there is one pilot on board.

Denis, come on, it's late

From this moment on
the pilots are rushing to get back on schedule

In aviation, rushing doesn't end well

It never ends well.

The pilots entered the cockpit
just 7 minutes before their scheduled take off

and half an hour after
the last passenger boarded the plane.

To do it faster, means it doing it too rushed

Something can happen
something can fail

Now, we cannot see anything

We'll have to reset it during flight,
what a piece of junk

We'll go visual

The same thing happened last time
when we had to take off this way

The pilots make a rash decision
to take off quickly

They know the area well

and it is not the first time
they've flown without the instruments

The worst risk and the worst mistake
that a pilot can make

is to feel confident in the flight;

No two flights are the same

All they needed was a little more time.

The pilots of Flight 518 only had to wait
another 28 seconds before moving

and their navigation system
would have worked perfectly.

Instead, they hope
to troubleshoot the problem in the air

while they navigate it
without that vital piece of equipment.

This didn't have to happen.

Soon after the crash of flight 518

Venezuelan authorities decide Merida Airport
is just too dangerous.

They close it to commercial traffic

Without a doubt,
the investigation helped public awareness

and promoted change within the aviation community

I am 100% sure
that this prevented other accidents in Venezuela.

The lesson from this crash is clear:
Rushing puts passengers at risk

Once you start doing things the wrong way
without following procedures

you start getting rid of those safety nets

and you become vulnerable

So, these are the rules of the game:

Follow the procedures.

Narrator
Jonathan Aris

Subtitles
Rein Croonen