Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 2, Episode 5 - Lost - full transcript

This is a true story

The reconstruction is based to the real cockpit voice recorder
as well as eyewitness descriptions.

American 965, leaving 23...

In 1995,
only days before Christmas,

an American Airlines Boeing 757 is on
its final approach to Cali, Colombia.

Cali approach, American 965.

The pilots are calm and relaxed.

They don't know
they've made a terrible mistake.

965, 9000 feet

They've strayed more than 60 km off course

and no longer have a clue where they are



Oh, shit! Pull up, baby!

In complete darkness,

the jet,
carrying 163 passengers and crew,

is heading into mortal danger.

Up, baby!

I think we knew that something

imminent was around the corner

Up, baby!

More, more!

Up, up, up!

Flight 965 crashed
into a 2700m mountain.

The crash reverberated
throughout the aviation industry.

How could one of the most technologically
advanced aircraft in the world,

equipped with a state-of-the-art
navigational system,



and flown by
some of the most skilled pilots,

crash into the side of a mountain?

On 20 December 1995,

American Airlines Flight 965

is preparing to depart
Miami International Airport.

Its destination is Cali, Colombia.

Flight 965 is scheduled to leave
at 4.40pm

but has already been delayed
for 30 minutes at the gate

to allow for connecting passengers.

Surely, they're going to call us
any second now.

The Dussans only just made it.

In Miami, they tell us
that we have to rush

because the plane
is going to leave to Cali very soon.

Definitely, we were very happy because,

we know we gonna fly that night

-So you made it

-Just in time

Mercedes Ramirez,
along with her mother and father,

managed to get on the flight
at the last minute.

We were on stand-by

so we weren't sure our names
were going to be called

to get on that flight.

We heard our names
and we were excited

because, like,
"Yes! We got on the flight."

Flight 965 finally leaves the gate
at 5.14pm, 34 minutes late,

but the problems are not over yet.

As they taxi towards the runway,

the tower informs informs them
of yet another delay.

American 965, stand by.

Heavy seasonal traffic
clogs the runways

and they are forced to wait another
hour and 20 minutes on the tarmac.

We're ready.

American 965...

Finally, two hours late,
flight 965 is cleared for take-off.

Fly the runway heading,
clear for take-off.

Merry Christmas,
cleared for take-off, 27 right,

American 965.

You do a great job, goodnight.

Captain Nicholas Tafuri, aged 57,
is in charge of Flight 965.

He is one of American Airlines'
premier pilots,

with more than 13,000 hours
of flying experience,

over 2,000 of them in the 757.

He had flown to Cali
only six days earlier.

200...the heading...climb to 16.

That's 16, American 965.

At the controls is first officer
Donny R. Williams, aged 39.

Although he has been flying
for American for nine years,

Flight 965 is his first trip to Cali.

It is the holiday season

and the plane is filled
with passengers

starting
their Christmas celebrations.

Everybody on that plane was either going back home

for the Christmas holidays to visit their families

So I think that everybody was just happy

and excited to go back

The day of the flight, 20 December,

is a very special day
for passenger Mercedes Ramirez.

Mercedes is a university student
from Missouri.

It is her 21st birthday

and this trip
is a gift from her parents.

We never spent the holidays with our family in Colombia

so it was a big deal for us.

Gonzalo Dussan and his wife, Nancy,

and their two children,
Michelle and Gonzalo Jr,

are seated nearby.

We were very excited
because it was the first time

we were going all like family

to pass you know Christmas over there in Cali

we wanted to see our families, members, brothers, sisters

to see our city again.

Two hours and 45 minutes
into the flight,

the plane is cruising
at an altitude of 11.300m

and on a pre-programmed flight path
and heading towards Cali's airport.

36 miles.

They are flying a Boeing 757,

a state-of-the-art airplane

equipped with highly sophisticated
computer systems.

When programmed
with the appropriate data,

the on board computer, known as
the flight management system,

can control the aircraft
from take-off to landing.

It can be a pilot's best friend,

or in the case of Flight 965...

..their worst nightmare.

An awkward moment an hour before
their scheduled arrival in Cali

makes Mercedes Ramirez change seats.

My mother had been talking to
the college student next to her

and I think she was trying
to kind of set me up with him,

because she kept on saying,

"My daughter's in college,

"and my daughter's this,
and my daughter's that."

So I was very embarrassed.

So I got up from my seat
and moved to the row behind us

and I sat with my father.

The seemingly trivial decision
will prove to be her lifesaver.

It is a clear, moonless night,
with visibility more than 10kms.

Gonzalo Dussan's children
quarrel over the window seat,

not knowing that the consequences
will be dire.

I was fighting
with my brother, Gonzalo.

We were fighting for the window.

Let your sister
have a chance by the window.

And I'm like, "I want to see,
I want to see the lights,

"I want to see the airport."

And he got mad.

Go sit with your cousin.

Good boy, Gonzalo.

Take a look at the lights.

We're almost there.

Michelle, can you see the lights?

Ladies and Gentleman,
this is your captain speaking

we have began our descend for landing in Cali

it's a lovely evening and as we had expected

we will pass a shower or two
on our way in

This lovely evening is about to end

In 30 seconds,

the pilots will make
the first of a series of mistakes

which will result in the death
of nearly everyone on board.

American Airlines Flight 965

is on its final descent,

roughly 100 kms from Cali.

Cali's Aragon Airport is situated
at the end of a long valley.

On both sides of the valley
are towering mountain ranges

that stretch to almost 4,300m.

It is a formidable sight.

-Want one of this nuts?

-No, thank you

-Do you want your water?
Or you wanna wait to get on the ground

-No I'll wait for the ground

To guide the plane on
its proper pre-programmed flight path

the aircraft must pass over
a series of waypoints.

These are generally radio beacons

at fixed positions along the route.

The plane's computer

picks up the signal
from these beacons

one after the other

and guides it safely
to the destination.

Flight 965

is now approaching
the waypoint called Tulua.

Tulua is a radio beacon

at the head of the valley
which leads to Cali.

After passing Tulua

they should fly down the valley

and pass over the final waypoint

called Rozo.

Then they fly past the airport,

turn right and land from the south.

You can see it really well.

Cali approach,
American 965.

American 965.
Good evening, go ahead.

Buenas noches, senor. American 965...

Cali air traffic controller
Nelson Rivera

will oversee the final approach
of Flight 965.

But he has a problem.

Insurgents opposed to
the Colombian Government

have blown up the radar installation.

Rivera has no way of knowing
where planes are

until they radio their position.

The distance, DME, from Cali?

Without radar,

the air traffic controller
must rely on the flight crew

to provide the aircraft's distance
to the runway.

The DME is 63.

The DME is the distance measuring
equipment in the Boeing cockpit.

Roger, American 965
is cleared to Cali.

Descend and maintain 15,000 feet,

altimeter 3002.

Report, Tulua.

Okay, understood.

Clear direct to Cali VOR,
report Tulua.

Affirmative.

It's a misunderstanding.

Captain Tafuri
thinks he is being told

to fly direct to Cali
and forget all about Tulua,

but the controller needs him
to report when he passes Tulua

so that he knows where the plane is.

To me,
the word "directly" means

he was authorised
to go directly to Cali,

that there was no delay.

Therefore, he had to inform us
of his position in Tulua

because we don't have radar.

I needed him to inform me
of that exact location.

Tafuri punches "direct to Cali"
in his computer.

Since the plane no longer
has to pass over them,

all the waypoints
between his present position and Cali

will now be erased,

including Tulua,
the one he is now approaching.

I put "direct Cali"
for you in there.

Okay, thank you.

Flight attendants, please,
prepare for landing, thank you.

And I remember they gave us the order

to put the back of the seat straight

I remember that, and everybody was so happy

because we were very close to the city

11 minutes before
their estimated time of arrival...

Niner-six-five, go ahead, please.

Sir, the wind is calm.

..Air traffic control
asks the flight crew

if they would like to land
on runway 19...

Want to shoot the 19 straight in?

..instead of their planned approach
to runway 01.

We'll have to scramble to get down.
We can do it.

Yes, sir. We'll need a lower
altitude right away, though.

Roger. American 965
is cleared to VOR DME.

Okay.

The pilots are pleased.

Runway 19 is a straight-in approach
from the north -

they won't have to lose precious time
by circling the airport.

But there isn't much time.

They need to start
getting the plane down quickly.

Williams deploys the speed brakes.

The brakes are flaps
on the top of the wings.

When they are raised

they reduce lift and increase
the plane's rate of descent.

Approach runway one-niner.

Rozo No.1 arrival. Report Tulua VOR.

This split-second decision
to land on runway 19

sets off a chain of events
that will end in disaster.

Will report VOR, thank you, sir.

Report Tulua, VOR.

Report Tulua.

I gotta give you to Tulua
first of all.

You want to go right to Cali
or to Tulua?

I thought he said
the Rozo one arrival?

He did.
We got time to pull that out?

Events begin to unravel very quickly
in the cockpit.

The pilots have to locate the new
charts for the approach to 19,

enter the new route into the computer
and still fly the plane.

And Tulua one, Rozo, yeah,
there it is.

See, that comes off Tulua.

That are getting totally confused.

The controller keeps asking them to
report when they have passed Tulua,

but having erased it
from their computer,

they have no idea where it is.

Captain Tafuri asks the tower

if they can forget Tulua
and fly directly to Rozo,

their last waypoint
before the runway.

Can American Airlines 965
go direct to Rozo

and then do the Rozo arrival, sir?

Affirmative, take the Rozo one and
runway one-niner. The wind is calm.

Alright, Rozo. The Rozo 1219,
thank you, American 965.

Report Tulua 21 miles
and 5,000 feet.

Okay, report Tulua 21 miles...

The controller is still asking them
to report passing the Tulua beacon.

Without radar, he doesn't realise
they are already past it

and are speeding down the valley
towards the airport.

Captain Tafuri now makes
another fateful decision.

Having decided they are going to head
for the Rozo waypoint instead,

he punches "R" into his computer.

The computer database responds

by offering a list of more than
10 waypoints to choose from,

all beginning with "R".

Normally, the nearest one, Rozo,
would be top of the list,

but tonight, it's not.

Captain Tafuri doesn't notice...

..and pushes the execute button.

At nearly 520km per hour,

and descending at a rate of 400m per minute,

Flight 965 begins to veer off
on a new and deadly course.

I never imagined that they were deflecting

the route in addition to losing altitude

because I didn't have radar

In the cockpit of Flight 965,

the pilots are completely unaware
of what they have done.

They are busy studying charts

as their plane crosses the mountains
into unknown territory.

For more than a minute,

American Airlines Flight 965

has been turning off
its proper course

and into the mountains.

Captain Tafuri and First Officer
Williams suddenly notice

their aircraft is taking them
somewhere they don't want to go.

Let's go right to Tulua
first of all, okay.

Yeah, where are we headed?

17, 7.

Captain Tafuri is floundering
in the pitch darkness.

If he could only find
the Tulua waypoint

he could get his bearings.

He switches from one computer system
to another

and then manually enters the radio
frequency for the Tulua beacon.

Okay, I'm getting it.

17.7 just doesn't seem right
on mine. I don't know why.

Left turn. So you want a left turn
back around to ULQ?

No. Hell, no. Let's press on to...

Press on to where, though?

Tulua.

Hopelessly lost and
less than two minutes from impact,

Tafuri decides to press on
with his doomed approach.

Let's go to Cali, first of all,
okay?

-We fucked up here, didn't we?

-Yeah

-Go direct Ciello, how did we fucked up here?

Come to the right, right now.
Come to the right, right now.

The pilots don't know it,

but when the plane veered off course
it crossed over the mountains.

They are now in another valley,

parallel with the one
they should be flying down.

Passenger are completely unaware
that in less than 60 seconds

the aircraft travelling over 340km/h is going to crash

We are almost there

This ain't no fuckin Tulua

I am not getting for some reason

-See , I can... ok now
Tulua is fucked up

-ok, yeah

I can put it in the box if...
I don't want Tulua.

Let's just go to
the extended centre line.

Which is Rozo.
Rozo.

Why don't you just go direct to Rozo
then, alright?

Okay.

I'm going to put that over to you.

They decide to give up on Tulua
and make straight for the airport.

They don't realise

that there is now a wall of mountains
between them and Cali.

Niner-six-five, altitude?

965, 9,000 feet.
Roger.

Distance now?

Shit!

The plane's ground proximity
warning system is telling them

they are about to crash.

965, this is Cali approach,
can you hear me?

He didn't answer.

He never answered again.

Easy does it, easy does it!

I could feel that we were
just violently...just going up.

And I felt like I was in
a roller-coaster ride or something.

Too low. Terrain.

Easy does it! Easy does it!

Up baby!

Instinctively, I reached over
and I grabbed my father's hand

and I put my head in my lap.

In my mind I just kept thinking,

"Come on, straighten it out,
straighten it out."

Up baby!

More, more!

Up, up, up!

These were the last words
on the cockpit voice recorder.

American 965, this is Cali approach.

Can you hear me?

At 9.42pm on its final approach
to runway 19...

American 965, can you hear me?

..American Airlines Flight 965
seemingly vanishes without a trace.

American 965, this is Cali approach.

Can you hear me?

I never experienced
anything like this before.

This was the first time
that I lost a plane

and the crew was not responding.

It is very difficult
to grasp the moment.

When the plane didn't answer,

I looked outside
from the control tower.

I could see from there the sky.

I started to look for the plane.

The night was clear and I thought
I could see the plane coming,

but in this case,
I never saw the plane.

Moments after
the plane's scheduled arrival,

airport monitors
indicate a seven-minute delay.

Friends and family
wait with anticipation

for the arrival of their loved ones.

As the revised arrival time
comes and goes,

rumours begin to circulate
throughout the terminal

that air traffic control
has lost contact with Flight 965.

In an instant, joy turns to shock

as cries that the plane has crashed
spread throughout the terminal.

PHONE RINGS

Locals living near the town of Buga,
north of Cali,

report hearing a massive explosion.

SIRENS WAIL

Rescue teams race to the town,

which lies near the base
of a mountain range

that stretches
as high as 10,000 feet.

It is now 3am,
almost six hours after the crash.

The first elements
of the search and rescue team

are trekking up the side
of El Deluvio mountain.

They are no roads,
it is completely cut off.

In the midst of tonnes
of twisted and torn metal...

..lies 21-year-old Mercedes Ramirez.

Her last memory prior to impact
is grabbing her father's hand

and the deafening sound
from the back of the plane

of the tail section striking trees.

The next memory I have
is the next day.

It's daylight,

I wake up
and I see the sunlight around me

and I don't know where I am

and what's around me
looks like a landfill,

like a trash dump,

and so as I'm laying there I'm
thinking, "Where in the world am I?"

Mercedes is critically injured

with severe internal injuries
and a shattered leg.

Help! Is anybody out there?

Help me!

19-year-old college student Morissio
Rayez also survives the impact

and responds
to Mercedes' cry for help.

Can you move?

Um, I can try.

I'm not sure,
my leg is bent backwards.

Okay.
Please, help.

Okay, hold on.

Hold on.

-Ok -Help me please! -Ok

The only way for me to get out

was having to drag myself over

people and I remember this lady

who I had to drag myself over

and I'll never forget her

Looking back I think oh my goodness

that was someone's mum, someone's sister,
someone's wife

But at that time she was just an object

that I needed to get over o get out

-Ok? Just stay here

-Ok -Ok, Ok

Anybody out there?

At first light,

the Colombian Air Force
starts searching for the crash site.

They were unable to leave earlier

because they had
no night-vision equipment.

When I woke up,

I started to feel
the pain in my back

then when I heard the sound
of the helicopters

I realised something happened

I started you know to feel panic

Help me!

Someone, please, help me!

Daddy, I'm here. Papa!

Michelle?

Gonzalo Dussan's
six-year-old daughter Michelle,

still strapped in her seat,

answers her father's desperate call
for help.

Keep talking to me, okay?

So, I realised that my daughter

was alive too then I started to crawl

to try to look where the voice of my daughter

was coming from

Michelle, please, I'm coming.
Where are you?

Dussan struggles to crawl through
the broken and twisted cabin

to reach his daughter,

but she's pinned
beneath the wreckage.

Ow, ow! My leg hurts.

When the plane crashed

my legs, I had my seatbelt on

and I guess the cuts were so deep

that my legs like were pinned to the ground

I tried to move myself, but my legs hurt

they hurt really bad that I couldn't pick myself up

Daddy it hurts

Ok Michelle

I'm going to get some water for you
soon and bring it back, okay?

And then I tried to crawl more
to tried to get out.

Despite a severe back injury,

Dussan manages to crawl towards
a small open section of the fuselage.

I saw a hole behind me

and I said inside me "God help me get our from here"

Help us!

Over here!

Help us!

When I get out of the fuselage
of the plane,

I remember my son talked to me.

Gonzalo!

He say, "Father, Father, help me."

Gonzalo. Gonzalo.

Despite a desperate search,

Gonzalo Dussan is unable to locate
his son amongst the wreckage.

Gonzalo!

Realising there is no way
to get off the mountain by foot,

the survivors of Flight 965

are still unsure
if they will ever make it.

The temperatures
have fallen dramatically

and without protective clothing,

they could die of exposure
in a matter of hours.

Stay awake for Papa, okay?

Okay, Michelle?

Since first light,

the Colombian Air Force

has been searching for the crash site
without success.

With each passing minute,

the four survivors,
all gravely injured,

take one step closer to death.

Michelle!

Shortly after daybreak,

the crew of a Black Hawk chopper
spot the crash site.

Over here!
Here!

I could see the helicopters
perfectly from where I was at

and even though
I could see them perfectly,

I didn't know if they could see me.

Help us!

When I saw the helicopter very close

to the top of the trees

I started to move the blanket until

they saw me! They saw me!
They are coming for us

More than eight hours after impact,

and after enduring
life-threatening injuries

and near-freezing temperatures,

the survivors of Flight 965
are about to be rescued.

People finally know that we're here

and they're finally here
to rescue us

after so many hours of being stuck
on the side of that mountain.

So seeing them
was one of the greatest things ever.

They came and they threw a rope
and the people started to descend,

and, you know, I was so happy

because I feel then
that they are going to help us.

The first thing I told them -

"My son is alive, my son is alive
but I don't know where he is.

"Help me to find him, please,
help me to find him.

"And my daughter is alive,"
I told them.

"She's inside,
she's inside the fuselage."

As the rescue team divided up,

one went into the fuselage
to free Michelle,

another scoured the site
for Gonzalo Dussan Jr.

Gonzalo is found hanging
in the branch of a nearby tree.

He has been suspended in the air
above the crash site

for more than eight hours.

His condition is grave.

Morissio Rayez is the first
to be airlifted off the mountain.

But low cloud cover
grounds the chopper

and delays the removal
of the remaining survivors.

Fearing that Michelle Dussan
may not survive the wait,

volunteers decided to take
a calculated risk.

They fashioned a makeshift stretcher
out of a piece of the wreckage

and began to evacuate Michelle
off the mountain by foot.

Shortly after Michelle Dussan
left the crash site

the weather clears

and the remaining survivors
are airlifted to a base camp

halfway down the mountain

and then to hospital
for emergency medical treatment.

More than 13 hours
after the crash of Flight 965,

Michelle Dussan is the last survivor

to emerge from the jungle
of El Deluvio alive.

Surgeons attempt to save the life
of her brother, Gonzalo Jr,

but he dies on the operating table
from massive internal injuries.

Of the 163 passengers and crew
on board Flight 965,

only four survived the crash.

Experts will later label the accident
a "non-survivable event".

All of the survivors were seated

within two rows of one another

just above the wing.

Huge girders carrying the wings make
this the strongest part of the plane.

Despite this,

Mercedes Ramirez lost both
her parents on her 21st birthday.

December 20th 1995
my life changed for ever

and has never been the same ever since

There is 160 people on that flight who

the moment that plane hit that mountain

all their hopes and dreams instantly lost

but for some reason
I've been given a second chance

of life so I will try to make the best of it

Investigators are now descend to the crash side

to try to find out how one of the most

sophisticated airliners equiped with state of the art

technology could veer off course and crash

more than 56kms from the airport

American airlines flight 965 crashed on approach

to Cali airport

The plane carrying 163 passengers and crew

hit a mountain near the remote town of Buga

The wreckage and debrie report indicated that

the airplane actually impacted
the eastern side of the mountain

as it was trying to proceed back west

to get to the valley

and the main body of the wreckage

cleared the mountain top

but the rear edge I should say

landed over on the western side
which is inside the valley area

Also following the investigation was

Dave Simmon an airline captain who knew

the Cali approach well

In the days that follow the crash

the industry were shocked

They were shocked because they didn't know

how could a sophisticated airplane like the 757

flown by a well respected international carrier like

American Airlines with well trained crews

get so far off course.

Nobody could figure out
how did it happen

why did it happen.

Sabotage and mechanical malfunction
was soon ruled out

Attention began to focus on the actions
of the flight crew

The discovery of the black boxes

enabled the investigators
to follow the final moments

of American Airlines Flight 965

There is never
one single item that -

or error - that typically
brings an airplane down.

There is an error of chain.

And the chain is made up
of many links.

The airplane was en route to Cali.

As they were approaching
from a distance out,

the controller offered them
a straight-in landing.

Are you able to approach
runway one-niner?

Would you like shoot the 19
straight in?

Ah...yeah, we'll have to scramble
to get down.

We can do it.

When they first accepted
the approach,

the first officer remarked,

"That we do get need to get down
in a hurry

"in order to accomplish this."

Yes, sir, we'll need a lower
altitude right away, though.

At the time the crew
accepted the approach to runway 19,

they were too high, too fast
and too close in

to safely make this approach.

To lose altitude,

the first officer
deploys the speed brakes.

This action will come back
to haunt the flight crew

in the final segment of the flight.

The fact
that they accepted that runway

put the crew in a rushed
and hurried manner.

Tulua first of all.

Go right to Cali or Tulua?

I thought he said
the Rozo one arrival?

He did.
We got time to pull that out?

The flight crew now needs to study
the approach charts

and reprogram the computer.

Meanwhile, the airplane is moving
at more than 8 kms per minute.

And when you start to rush

and you can't prepare
in an adequate amount of time,

then additional errors
start to occur.

Can American Airlines 965
go direct to Rozo

and then do the Rozo arrival, sir?

Affirmative.

Take the Rozo one
and runway one-niner.

Where are we?

The crew looks at their charts
in front of them

and they see the fix "Rozo" and
it is identified by the letter "R"

so they naturally put "R"
into the computer,

thinking it will take them
directly to Rozo.

The computer offers a list of Rs
to choose from,

but unbeknownst to the pilots,
none of them is Rozo.

Habit has shown,
and the system is designed,

to place the one that is closest
to your airplane first.

Here was an 'R'
that showed up first,

and he selected that.

A map display in front of the pilot

shows the proposed course

to the waypoint he selected.

It will take the plane left
into the mountains.

According to
American Airlines procedure,

prior to executing an input
such as this,

to select the 'R',
you confirm with the other pilot,

"Does this look correct to you?"

965, 9,000 feet.

This clearly was not done.

If it had been
they would have seen a dotted line

showing a provisional path

from the nose of the airplane,

turning and going back
to about their 7 o'clock position.

Captain Tafuri hastily presses
the execute button.

In aviation, we call that
"Fast-Fingered Freddy"

when you don't confirm anything,

you're in a big hurry to punch
something in the computer

and you don't confirm
where it's really going to take you.

-Yeah it's left... left turn

-Yeah I got to identify that fucker though

Unfortunately, the crew
does not know

that 'R' stands for another fix

that is 132 miles away

behind them
at about their 7 o'clock position,

and that is where the airplane
starts to go to.

The flight crew
of American Airlines 965

has unwittingly directed their
aircraft off its intended course

and into mortal danger.

Ah, where are we?

The plane was simply doing
what it was programmed to do.

In this case,

it is to fly to Bogota

130 miles away.

More than a minute into the turn,

the pilots are unaware
the plane is flying away from Cali

and is heading
dangerously off course.

The first officer
is getting the charts out,

the captain
is getting the charts out,

they are trying to tune radios,

no-one is flying the airplane,

no-one is watching what happens

and they assume

the automation
is going to take care of them.

Sometimes it will,
but in this case, it didn't.

Ah, where are we?

Let's go right to Tulua
first of all, okay?

Yeah, where are we headed?

17.7.

There's an old saying in aviation -

never point an airplane some place

that your brain hasn't been
five minutes earlier.

American 965, distance now?

What did you want, sir?

Distance, DME?

In this case,
the airplane got in front of them.

It was flying what was selected.

And in fact, it was flying
beyond the pilot's recognition

of where it was supposed
to be travelling.

The pilots had lost what's referred
to as "situational awareness".

Left turn,
so you want a left turn back...?

No! Hell, no, let's press on to...
Press on where, though?

Tulua.
That's a right?

Once they became
unsure of their position,

once they became
confused and disoriented,

that's the time
to click off the automation

and to basically
abandon the approach,

climb to the minimum safe altitude
and to go to Cali.

Let's go to...ah, straight to Cali.

Niner-six-five, altitude?

Instead of abandoning the approach
and gaining altitude,

Flight 965
continued its deadly descent.

When the warning sounded

that the plane was about to crash
into the ground,

First Officer Williams disengaged
the autopilot within one second,

but forgot to retract
the speed brakes

which had been deployed earlier.

965, this is Cali approach.

Can you hear me?

ENGINE ROARS

According to the official report,

had they remembered
to lower the speed brakes,

the plane could have cleared
the mountain with room to spare.

This accident
is known as a CFIT accident,

which means
"controlled flight into terrain".

By that, I mean the airplane
was controlled by the crew

and it was a perfectly normal,
functioning airplane

and the crew flew the airplane
into the mountain.

It's one of the leading causes of
accidents over the last 100 years

and still is a problem.

Both these pilots
were experienced pilots,

flying the 757
for American Airlines.

Both these pilots were good pilots.

I think it's like anything else -

two good pilots were led astray
by a problem

that they were trying to figure out

and at the time, they failed to do
the basic thing, fly the airplane.

A court eventually ruled

that the pilots of Flight 965

had showed wilful misconduct
during the approach to Cali Airport.

Survivor Mercedes Ramirez,
who lost both her parents,

continues to deal with the crash.

I think this was a classic textbook case of

everything you should not do when flying a plane

Hopefully it's a wake up call to pilots

no matter how many times you flown to a city

you just have to be alert and aware

because every little move that you make

you have the lives of people in your hands

Subtitles: Dimitrios Priftis
[email protected]