Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 2, Episode 6 - Missing Over New York - full transcript

Avianca Flight 52 is in trouble.

The crew is exhausted.

They're over New York City and almost out of fuel.

Are we clear to land now? Yes, we're clear to land.

Tell me things louder because
I'am not hearing it

They are cleared to land soon the
nightmare would be over

Gear Down

Glide slope.
500 feet.

The captain desperate searches for the runway
at Kennedy airport

(Lights) but he can't find it

The runway, where is it?



I don't see it, I don't see it

Now they are battling violent windshear

This is the windshear

They are going to crash

Landing gear up! Landing gear up!

The plane has hardly a drop of fuel left,
they cannot land

Flight 52 is about to crash somewhere over New York.

How could that happen?

Even the worlds finest air crash detectives
will never agree about who is to blame

January 25, 1990.

Air traffic controllers have been nervously tracking

a massive low pressure system

approaching the north-east coast of America.

There was a system moving through the Great Lakes, moving east.



There was a couple of other systems converging.

A lot of times they'd converging in the New York area,

and the whole north-east would go down

The weather is already near the safe minimum to land a plane.

Flights will have to be cancelled or delayed.

The terminals will be choked with thousands of angry passengers.

Despite the terrible weather,

the air traffic managers in Washington DC

order controllers at Kennedy Airport in New York

To set a high landing rate.

Air travel is vital

and they're unfler tremendous pressure to delay or cancel

as few flights as possible.

There's pressure, because that's the business they're in.

The business is moving passengers from A to B.

That's what the airlines are paid,

and the controllers are paid to help that work.

Management in Washington DC is pressuring New York

to take on more flights than they feel is safe.

Despite the weather they want them to land 33 aircraft per hour.

We don't like it.
We gonna have the worst possible conditions

for landing an aircraft at Kennedy ariport.
We can't use runway 13,

we have to use runway 22 because
of the conflicts with other airports

and because of the winds,
we don't like the rate of 33 per hour.

33 is it, you will take it.

Scores of overseas flights with thousands
of passengers are already on their way.

They have to land somehow.

What we gonna do with foreign traffic?

We'll just give airborne holds.

We know we gonna have wind shear
and missed approaches

and this is gonna be a very bad day.
I got very bad vibes about this day.

No! 33, you will shake it!

And that set the scenario

at about 7:00 or 8:00
in the morning,

before we left Medellin.

At 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, the scenario was set

for this accident to happen.

But within the next few hours,

fog and low clouds have closed the main runway at JFK.

Now, whatever their bosses say,

the controllers won't be able to land 33 aircraft an hour.

Nearly 4000km to the south, in Colombia,

it's a warm, sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky.

Avianca Flight 52 is now boarding passengers for New York.

Amond them Myriam and Louise Montoya
and their two young daughters

After a short business trip,

Nestor Zarate is travelling home to New York.

NESTOR: I received a telephone call
telling me

that if I could be at the air in half an hour,

and not ask any question or request anything,

I would get on the direct flight to New York.

In the cockpit, flight engineer Mathias Moya

monitors the loading of about 6000 kilos of fuel...

..making a total of some 36000 kilos...

..enough for the journey, plus an extra two hours flying time.

Avianca 052 heavy

request clearance for take-off, runway 11.

Just after 3:00 in the afternoon,

Avianca 52 takes off from Medellin with its maximum allowable fuel load.

The Colombian airliner heads north for the United States

with 158 passengers and crew.

By early evening, deteriorating weather

has made flight operations at JFK appalling.

Continue to the left,

heading 230 vectors and holding for Cameron again.

With no way of turning back
the overseas flights,

aircraft are forced to circle around endlessly, waiting to land.

Turn left.

There is a windshear alert on final at 1500 feet Turn left...

Controllers work frantically to keep track

of the growing number of aircraft now in the skies over New York.

251, you are clear to land...

JFK I need how long the delay is gonna be

Talk to someone else over there
I have no idea

I am holding over here delays
are definite due to the weather

The traffic is missing approaches
they go around

I just can't give you a good answer

Your guess is would be as good as mine,
that is the best I can tell you.

JFK Airport in New York now only has one runway for landing,

and aircraft are queuing up to use it.

In the near black-out conditions,

several planes have to abort their landings,

which only adds to the delays.

On Flight 52, they know none of this.

The crew neither receives nor requests the weather for New York

or for their alternate airport, Boston.

It's inconceivable to me

that someone with a responsibility of other people's lives

would fly into a deteriorating condition

without checking about,

"Hey, do we have a way out of this place?"

Avianca 52 enters the airspace near Norfolk, Virginia.

After four hours in the air,

New York City is now less than 40 minutes away.

51-year old Captain Lariano Caviades is a seasoned pilot

who's been flying with Avianca for 27 years.

But his English is poor.

All communications with Air Traffic Control

will be handled by the 28-year-old copilot, Maurizio Clotz.

The third man in the cockpit, flight engineer Mathias Moyano,

is experienced but like copilot Clotz,

he has only four months of flight time in the 707.

They were highly experienced flight crew

who had been into New York several times

previously on behalf of Avianca.

So they were familiar with the route and the procedures,

and highly experienced pilots.

Washington, good evening.

Avianca 052 heavy, flight level 370.

Avianca 052 heavy, Washington Centre, roger.

Avianca 052, I’d like you to make a right 360-degree turn

and I need you to get a pencil ready for holding instructions at Norfolk.

Okay, 360-degree right turn at Norfolk, Avianca 052 heavy.

Avianca 052, you ready to copy your holding instructions?

Go ahead, sir.

Right, Avianca 052, you are clear to the Norfolk vortec,

hold south on 174 with right turns in 20-mile legs.

Flight 52's troubles are about to begin.

They're being diverted out over the Atlantic Ocean

near Norfolk, Virginia,

and placed in a holding pattern.

Here, the aircraft will fly an elliptical racetrack pattern

while it waits for further instructions

from Air Traffic Control.

They don't know about the bad weather ahead,

but with enough fuel for two hours of flying,

there's no cause for alarm.

This area, in the north-east corridor of the United States,

is one of the most congested airspaces in the world.

Incoming traffic from overseas

is routinely directed through a pipeline of controllers

before being cleared to land at one of three major airports

in the New York area

JFK, La Guardia and Newark.

Tonight, Avianca 52 will come under the direction

of more than six controllers,

each of whom is trying to get the aircraft, now circling over New York,

safely down on the ground.

It's indefinite holding at this time.

We just had three missed approaches on 22-right.

We just went below the minimum, so we had four misses on 22-right,

which is our primary runway.

Visibility is getting worse and it's worsing

Alright, how many are holding?

We are still holding the 12 of 13 we had earlier,
we are expecting some pretty lengthy delays

for another hour or so.

While air traffic controllers try to cope

with the increasing
backlog of flights,

Avianca Flight 52 circles for 19 minutes over the Virginia coast,

waiting for permission to continue its journey to New York.

Avianca 052 expedite descent through level 33.

Leave flight level 330 within three minutes, please.

Okay. We'll leave 330 within three minutes.

Avianca 052 heavy.

The Avianca jet is on its way to New York at last,

but they have no idea of the trouble that awaits them.

Avianca Flight 52 is on its final approach to New York,

unaware than conditions for landing at JFK

are barely above the safe limits to land a plane.

It's a pitch-black night,

with heavy mist, rain and sudden, violent winds.

This is Central. I was wondering how your weather's doing.

It's pretty bad at this point.
We got windshears missed approaches

due to not seeing the runway

You are still trying at 30 rate?

Right now unsuccessfully at this point

The winds are starting to pick up.

20% of the guys-that-attempted approach went on a miss.

When the north-east goes down, it goes down.

The plane has now almost used up the fuel planned for the journey,

and will shortly start eating into its reserves.

The crew is considering diverting to their alternate airport in Boston,

just 340 km from New York.

-Washington center, Avianca 052 heavy

Avianca 052 heavy, go ahead.

Do you have any information
about the lanes to Boston?

Boston, ?'ll check that, sir.

Thank you.

The Washington controller asks his assistant

to check on the conditions at Boston,

but he gets distracted juggling other aircraft

and forgets all about Avianca's request.

While Flight 52 is left waiting for an answer that never comes,

their precious fuel supply is slowly draining away.

Ask him about Boston again

Did you ask about delays at Boston or are we going to approach Kennedy?

Okay, Avianca 052, it looks as though New York's centre

may have to hold you for possibly up to 30 minutes.

Expect clearance on course,

just momentarily with, er... stands right now...

..an additional holding of almost 30 minutes.

With that in mind, do you wanna check on an alternate airport?

I believe Boston is... I'll check on Boston.

Okay, we're now descending to 1-niner-0

and expecting Information about Boston.

Okay, Avianca 052, I’ve been advised Boston's open

and accepting traffic, if you need that as an alternate airport.

Okay, stand by a minute.

Flight engineer Moyano begins to calculate how much fuel they'll have

after an additional 30 minutes of holding.

Even before they can respond,

Washington Control directs them to another holding location.

Avianca 052 heavy

make a right turn now to intercept the Cameron 2 arrival.

Cleared on course, maintain flight level 1-niner-0.

Flight 52 is now off the New Jersey coast,

in an area known as Cameron,
less than 72 km from Kennedy Airport,

but it seems as far away as ever.

During all those holding times
I was praying trying to see

where we gonna land and
where we gonna be on the ground

I don't want to be here anymore

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain.

I apologise for the delay,

but it appears we're going to be holding

as we wait to land in New York.

Please remain seated with seatbelts fastened.

We should have you on the ground shortly.

Thank you.

There was a point where the captain announced that there was traffic

in the New York City area

and that we'd be on hold for a while
and he'd get back to us

It will be the last communication
the crew has with the passengers.

Flight 52's situation now goes from bad to worse.

Avianca 052, descend and maintain 14000...

It's handed over to the New York controllers,

who, even on a good day, can be intimidating.

And today is not a good day.

There are up to 39 aircraft trying to land

and dozens more on the ground waiting to take off.

Avianca 052, expect further clearance at 0139.

Avianca 052 heavy, roger.

Tired and frustrated, the crew of Avianca 52

continues to circle
the crowded airspace over New York

while they wait for clearance to land.

After more than five hours in the air
Louise Montoya is anxious to get

his wife and two young daughters
on the ground and back to their home

in Queens

As the flight started to prolong,
we started to feel uneasy

my wife was carrying the baby
at all times,

and we were wondering
what could be happening.

After all they weren't giving us
any information

and most people begun to feel nervous.

New York's centre finally gives the crew of Avianca 52

the message they've been waiting for.

Avianca 052 heavy, avia Kennedy is 2400 feet.

Can you accept an approach?

That's an affirmative, sir.

They think they're finally in the clear.

Then...calamity.

The foul weather and zero visibility

forces several aircraft just ahead of them

to abandon their landing attempts and make a second attempt.

The controllers have bad news for the Colombian airliner.

Avianca 052, continue to the left, heading 230 vectors,

holding at Cameron again.

Another hold.

Okay, 230 vectors for holding at Cameron.

Kennedy, Avianca 052.

Avianca 052, go ahead.

Thank you, sir.
Do you have any estimate, sir?

Uh, Avianca 052 heavy, I might be able to get you in now. Stand by.

Thank you.

The crew wait silently and hope,

but when the reply comes, it's more bad news.

Avianca 052, we just got off the line.

It's indefinite holding at this time.

Avianca 052 turn left, heading 090,

hold at Cameron, maintain 11000.

They've been held up for 48 minutes on the way here.

w they've been circling around for another 25 minutes,

ly a few miles from the safety of JFK Airport.

We were progressively moving toward JFK,

and they were held in the air for three times.

This certainly would put some stress on the crew,

as to the fact they want to go from A to B.

They don't want to fly in a racetrack for an hour just holding.

At 8:55 the
cockpit voice recorder begins recording

the last 40 minutes of Flight 52.

The crew at this stage seem resigned,

or are perhaps too timid to complain.

Moments later, Avianca is given more unwelcome news.

Avianca 052, expect further clearance time 0205.

Expect further clearance in 20 minutes.

It's now that the stress level in the cockpit begins to rise.

0205. Uh, well...
I think we need priority.

We're passing out of fuel.

Avianca 052, roger.

How long can you hold and what's your alternate?

Okay, stand by a minute.

The flight engineer quickly calculates the remaining fuel.

Yes, sir, we'll be able to hold for five minutes.

That's all we can do.

Avianca 052, roger. What's your alternate?

We said Boston, but it's full of traffic, I think.

Avianca 052, say your alternate again?

It was Boston, but we can't do it now.

We'll run out of fuel.

Avianca 052, cleared to land at Kennedy, via heading 040,

maintain 11000 at speed 180.

The Avianca crew, when they felt they were being handed off

to an approach controller now and given a heading,

and a lower attitude..

..I'm sure in their minds, they thought...

Well, they even commented on i on the voice recorder.

"We're being handled" or "We're being taken care of."

It's okay if I send four more your way?

Casino, I'm back in hold again.

I got full in the stack and there's no end in sight.

I can't give you times. I'd be guessing, if I did.

This guy's killing me.

Avianca 052 only has five more minutes in the hold.

Can you take him?
Or I'll set him up to his alternate?

What's the speed now?

Not sure, to be honest with you. Holding speed.

Slow him to 180 and I'll take him.

Uh, say again?

Slow him to 180 knots, and I'll take him. You guys holding a lot?

Man! Holding up and down the coast.

Ah, that's good practice, man.

But in this critical hand-off from one controller to the next,

there is no specific mention of Avianca's critically low fuel.

Nobody told the next controller

So the next controller, when Avianca came in on the frequency,

the controller just said, "Right, I've got you. Proceed to Kennedy."

Or "I'm gonna put you in a hold."

And put him in a holding pattern over the last approach fix.

The options were gone.

Now the aircraft could only get into Kennedy.

Avianca descend and maintain 7,000.

Descending to 7,000. Avianca 052 heavy

Avianca 052, before you go, there is a windshear alert

on final at 1500 feet.

Turn left, heading O-niner-O.

Left heading 0-niner-0 Avianca 052 heavy.

The high-level windshear was passed on early on,

so he was aware of that.

But the low-level windshear below 500 feet was not passed on.

After more than an hour and 17 minutes

waiting for clearance to land,

the crew of Flight 52 believe controllers on the ground

are at last aware of their fuel emergency

and are clearing the 707 for a priority landing.

In the cabin, the flight attendants and passengers

have no idea that their plane is dangerously low on fuel.

The go-around procedure is stating that the power be applied slowly...

In the cockpit, the crew now hastily discuss the go-around procedure -

what the manual says they must do if they can't find the runway

through the fog and low clouds

and have to go around a second time.

It's standard procedure.

..power be applied slowly, and to avoid rapid accelerations

and to have a minimum of nose-up altitude.

To maintain what?

Minimum...minimum nose-up altitude.

Flight engineer Moyano is concerned

that if the captain were to pull up the plane's nose too sharply,

all the remaining fuel would slosh to the back of the tank,

causing engines to stop.

..fuel during the go-around.

What it means is it doesn't contain fuel for feeding itself

and a flame-out could occur.

And it is necessary to lower the nose again.

Right now we are proceeding
to the airport inbound

We have 27...17 miles.
Roger.

This means we'll have hamburgers

Avianca descend and maintain, uh...

..descend and maintain 3000.

Descend and maintain 3000.
Avianca 052 heavy.

3000 feet. They got us. They're already vectoring us.

No they are descending us
and they are giving us priority.

Avianca 052 heavy, contact Kennedy Tower, 11-niner.1. Good day.

Only minutes before landing,

Flight 52 is handed off to a JFK Tower controller

whose shift is about to end.

Avianca 052 heavy, Kennedy Tower 22-left.

You're No.3, following 727 traffic on a niner mile final.

Avianca 052 heavy, roger.

Can I lower the landing gear yet

No, I think it's too early.

If we lower the landing gear,

we have to maintain
a very high nose altitude.

So desperately low is their fuel

that the first officer wants to delay putting down the landing gear,

which will increase the aircraft's drag,

requiring more power and using more of what little fuel remains.

I was so happy,
for me it was like a joy

we gonna land soon and this is gonna end.

Avianca 052, what is your airspeed?

Avianca 052 140 knots.

Avianca 052, can you increase your airspeed 10 knots?

10? Okay, 10 knots increasing.

Increase. Increase.

10 knots more.

Tell me things louder because
I am not hearing it.

Lower the gear

Gear down.

Avianca 052, 22-left, wing 1-niner-0 at 20 cleared to land.

Clear to land, Avianca 052 heavy.
Wind check, please?

1 -niner-0 at 20.

With the weather deteriorating, and flying on fumes,

the crew of Flight 52 will have only one chance

of getting their 149 passengers safely on the ground.

Avianca 052, say airspeed.

145 knots.

Are we clear to land?
Yes, we're clear to land.

Stand by. Flaps 50. Landing checklist complete.

It was extremely important

that Avianca 52 landed on their first approach at JFK.

The voice recorder revealed

that the captain was certainly quite concerned about the fuel state,

and he was talking aggressively with the first officer,

putting out flaps, getting the airplane configured.

it was time for the flight engineer to say,

"This is the only approach we're going to be able to make."

And he didn't.

Give me 50.

Flaps 50 now.

All set for landing. Standing by for lights.

Slightly below glide slope.

1000 feet above field.

Instruments crosschecked

Stand by for lights. Stand by.

The wind is slightly from the left,
190 to 20 below glide slope.

With about 10 minutes of fuel remaining,

and nearly 4 km from the runway,

Flight 52 finds itself flying into violent windshear,

forcing them to slow the plane down.

They were getting, like, 60 knots of wind on the nose.

As they descended on down throug about 500 feet to the ground,

they were down to 20 knots.

So, that's a 40-knot change at 1000 feet of elevation.

That's a lot.

This is the windshear!

Now the wind changes direction.

It's pressing them down towards the ground.

Glide slope!
Glide slope.

Sink rate 500 feet.

The captain desperately searches for the runway,

but it's shrouded in low clouds and fog.

Lights!

The runway, where is it? I don't see it.

I don't see it!

The plane's warning system is telling them

that they're about to crash.

Glide slope!
Glide slope.

500 feet.

Just 4 km from touchdown,

Flight 52 has been caught in violent windshear.

To save the plane, Captain Caviades applies full throttle,

burning up mor of the plane's precious fuel.

Give me the landing gear up!
Landing gear up!

The airplane was about 200 feet above the ground,

about two miles from a runway,

which was well below the glide slope, and very dangerous.

So, the airplane almost crashed on its first approach.

When you get a missed approach.

..now that changes the whole ball game.

Request another traffic pattern!

Executing a misseft approach.
Avianca 052 heavy.

The operation of pulling the plane up in the missed approach

was a very violent one.

-I don't know what happened with the runway,
I didn't see it.

-I didn't see it either
-I didn't see it

Avianca 052, you are making a left turn. Correct?

Tell them we are in an emergency!

2000 feet.
That's right. 2180 on the heading.

We'll try once again. We are running out of fuel.

Okay.

What did he say?

I already advised him that
we're going to attempt again.

Advice him we are in an emergency.
Did you tell him?

Yes, sir, I already advised him.

But the tower controller, at the end of his shift,

transfers Avianca 52 to his counterpart in Approach Control.

They'll have to begin all over again.

Contact approach on 118.4.

Approach, Avianca 052 heavy,

we just missed...a missed approach, and we're maintaining 2000.

Flaps 14.

Avianca 052 heavy New York. Good evening.

Climb and maintain 3,000.

Advice him we don't have fuel!

Climb and maintain 3,000. We are running out of fuel.

Okay. Fly heading 080.

Did you already adviced him we don't have fuel?

Yes, sir. I already advised him.

We’re going to maintain 3000 and he's gonna get us back.

As they get back in the pattern

and circle the field and come back again,

that again adds to the traffic jam that was being created at Kennedy.

Avianca 052 heavy,

I'm gonna turn you about 15 miles northeast,

and then bring you back onto the approach, okay?

What did he say? The guy's angry.

Uh...I guess so. Thank you very much.

These guys were out.
And they didn't say, "We're out."

And he allowed the Approach Control to vector him

way out in the original pattern

of 15 miles north of the outer marker again.

Flight 52 is instructed to fly a long approach pattern

for another landing attempt.

The plane is down to its last dregs of fuel,

as the crew waits for final clearance from ground controllers.

And then they were run way out toward Long Island and vectored all around,

which was equivalent to holding for another 15, 20 minutes.

Did you get clearance yet?

Can you give us a final yet? Avianca 052 heavy.

Avianca 052 affirmative.

Turn left, heading 040.
Climb and maintain 3000.

Negative, sir.
We are running out of fuel.

Okay, turn left, heading 310.

Say flaps 14.

Okay, you're No.2 for the approach.

I'll give you enough room to make it without having to come out again.

Okay. We’re No.2 and flying 360 now.

Avianca 052 heavy, turn left, heading 330.

The lights in the aircraft start to flicker -

a sign that the engines are being starved of fuel.

330 on the heading. Avianca 052.

Once there's no fuel flowing through the pump out of the tank,

an amber light comes on to tell you that tank is empty.

Flame out! Flame out engine No.4!

Flame out on engine...
Flame out on engine No.3!

Find the runway.

The passengers can hear the sound of
the engines beginning to shut down.

When the engines went off,
I looked over to the lady that was

sitting next to me and I asked her
to give me her hand,

and I felt sophically accepted you know
I might die here. This is it.

Avianca 052. We just lost two engines. We need priority, please.

Avianca 052,

turn left heading 250, intercept the localiser

250, roger.
Select the ILS.

Avianca 052.

You're 15 miles from the outer marker.

Maintain 2000 until established on the localises

Cleared for ILS 22-left.

Roger, Avianca.
You select the ILS.

When all the engines flame out and the generators fall off the line,

a considerable amount of power's lost - Electrical power's lost.

In the cabin, the screams, the crying...

And then this terrible sound..

..of the wind against the fuselage

as the plane drops from the sky

Avianca 052, radar contact lost.

Avianca's missing due to the weather thing.

Yeah, Avianca 52 lost an engine. We’re trying to find out why.

Yeah, we're no longer talking to Avianca.

He's 15 north-east of Kennedy.

Ah, wonderful.

Acupa 18, turn left heading 180.

Six and a half hours after leaving Colombia,

Avianca Flight 52 is missing somewhere over New York.

Yes, hello. I live in Cove Neck, Oyster Bay.

and there is a plane crashed in our yard in front of our house.

When I woke up, the first thing that I did

was put my hand over my head, and I was bleeding as hell...

Both my legs were broken and I had blood all over the place.

The seat where my daughter was sitting,
was totally destroyed

by pieces of steel, but happened to have come
from the wind.

I found my baby Daniella among the pieces
of a torn up twisted chair

and I picked her up like this
and she was drenched in blood.

Avianca 52 has crashed on Long Island, New York,

less than 28km from JFK Airport.

From deep in the woods, medical technician Bob O'Brien

can hear the survivors before he can see the shattered 707.

What I first heard was..

there were just some people who were crying in pain

but it was apparent immediately what had happened.

When the plane hit the mountain, it just stopped dead.

"It just fell out of the sky."

That's how witnesses describe the crash of Avianca Flight 52,

a strangely silent crash...

There's not a big fire

That'll make it easier for investigators to examine

if there were any gas or engine problems.

There have been reports of lightning in the area

just before the plane went down

The Controllers' Union says that Kennedy

is critically understaffed a problem compounded by bad weather.

Rescuers have not yet given up
on finding more victims

First thing I remember is that I looked up
and I saw a priest,

he was praying for me and I was
lying down in the ground.

Right above us I saw 3 or 4 helicopters
flying over us,

Over here!

We managed to get on top of the fuselage,

and there's that door handle that says, "In case of emergency, pull."

So I pulled that door handle, and that door handle just went 'pshhhh'.

The door came open about four inches.

I was able to flip that over,

and I could just see piles and piles of people trapped in their seats.

The extreme G-force of the crash has broken off the cockpit

and catapulted it through a stand of trees

and into the deck of a home some 30m from the impact site.

I saw some cables and
I saw big hole on the fuselage

over the passengers
that were sitting next to me

who were kind of unconscious

In the top of me it was this guy
who was bleeding

big guy I didn't know who he was
but he was on top of me

but I was seated

I pulled myself with those cables
towards that hole

which was over the wing

I started screaming "Help me out,
help me out of here!"

and then somebody realised that i was alive
they took away the guy that was on top of me

and they took me out of the airplane.

That moment a fireman was climbing
on the wing and he saw me

and he said "there is a guy here"
and he pulled me out.

37 fire and rescue companies from Nassau County

are quickly mobilised.

The rescue is the largest pre-9/11 operation of its kind

in the New York area.

That little girl she was sitting
on the top of the fuselage

and she was crying,mi madre, mi madre

And that imprint of horror just was...

..you know, in your mind's eye focus right back in on,

I saw "mi madre". I saw her mother.

I know what that little girl was seeing.

It was horrible enough for me, and I'm a professional rescuer.

I realised that my baby was dying
so I began to scream

"Please, help me! I have the baby here please!"

The plane has crashed in the wealthy neighbourhood of Cove Neck.

Near the home of the father of tennis star John McEnroe.

Medics set up a makeshift triage unit
on his lawn.

When daylight breakes 10 hours later

85 survivors have been pulled
from the wreck

The lead flight attendant is the only
member of crew to survive the crash.

Of the 11 babies on board Flight 52,

all but one are found alive.

Bob O'Brien scours the tail section for survivors

and finds FAA investigators

struggling to remove the aircraft's black boxes.

I grabbed the handle and just pulled the whole box out

and took that out and brought that out the door and gave it to them.

Even as people are being pulled from the wreckage,

the on-site investigation begins.

In charge on the ground is Barry Trotter

of the National Transportation Safety Board.

A former airline pilot, Trotter became an investigator

after losing his right arm in a motorcycle accident.

The condition of the aircraft was really astonishing.

To see that that much of the structure was left

and the condition that it was in.

Unaware of the details of Avianca's troubled flight,

investigators quickly find a valuable piece of evidence

You could look at the engines right away

and you could tell the engines were not turning.

So there was no power in the engines.

That was the first...first big clue.

Trotter and his team examine the fuel tanks

and find just a few gallons of jet fuel still onboard.

It becomes clear why the 707's engines stopped turning.

But the question of who's to blame is still to be answered.

In the community of Cove Neck, New York,

salvage workers begin the task of dismantling the shattered remains

of Avianca Flight 52.

But there's still one critical question

who is responsible for Flight 52 running out of fuel

and causing the death of 72 passengers and crew?

The answer will be worth millions of dollars

and affect dozens of lives.

At the lab of the National
Transportation Safety Board

in Washington DC,

investigators are eager to recover data

locked inside the two black boxes.

The most telling of these is often the flight data recorder,

which records critical information,

such as the plane's altitude, airspeed and heading.

When they get recovered the flight
data recorder

and brought it to our lab in Washington,

we opened it and found that the foil wrap was not hooked up.

Someone had actually intentionally taped the end of the foil

so it wouldn't fly around

and put it back in the airplane.

Without the crucial flight data recorder,

investigators rely heavily on Flight 52's cockpit voice recorder,

which is found with more than
40 minutes of voice recordings

of the crew and communications between the first officer

and air traffic controllers.

We sir you are clear to land. Stand by.

All set for landing.
Below glide slope.

And it was apparent from the voice recorder transcript and tape

that the captain was not understanding

the first officer's radio communications

that were being made in English.

Everybody wants to blame the pilot.

But he may be the last person to make a decision.

The scenario which caused him to be in that position

where he makes the decision

was created by several other people along the route.

The captain asked the first officer about nine times

"Clarify information" or repeat it, or to pass on information.

We're going to attempt again. Advise him we're in an emergency.

Did he make a conscious decision to run out of fuel? No.

He was sucked into a situation by the air traffic controllers

where he ran out of fuel.

The cockpit voice recorder reveals a crew desperate to land the 707

in near zero visibility and in extreme windshear,

without the aid of an autopilot.

In this case,

the captain had a difficult time maintaining the glide slope

during the approach, with the windshear,

didn't see the airport and had to make a go-around.

That almost doomed the airplane at that point.

The information being given to pilots en route

was a windshear up as high as 1500 feet.

But the pilots on approach were encountering windshears

as low as 300 feet.

That wasn't passed on to the Avianca pilot.

This is the windshear!

The crew of Flight 52 is caught off-guard.

As they descend below 150m and slowed down,

a violent vertical wind forces them towards the ground,

nearly causing the plane to crash 4km short of the runway.

Ironically, Avianca 52's lack of fuel

resulted in no fire or explosion,

saving the survivors from almost certain death.

If the flight would've found some level ground,

it was conceivable he would've slapped the fuselage down

and slid to a stop.

With no fuel, there'd have been no fire.

I think it's very possible that many
people would've survived it

in that case.

As fhe hearings into the crash begin

lawyer George Tompkins is confronted by controllers

who maintain that the Avianca crew failed to use the word emergency',

instead using the word 'priority' to communicate their situation.

The govennment took the position

that the pilot never declared an emergency,

so no-one knew that he had a problem.

But saying you're getting low on fuel,

and saying you cannot make your alternate...

..the word 'emergency' is not necessary to say.

Negative, sir.
We are running out of fuel.

We just, uh, lost two engines and we need priority, please!

And they thought they weren't telling them

when they said "we need priority".

In Spanish for us the word priority means first
attend to me, run to me, I need you right now

I don't know if priority in other languages
means that you can wait.

Avianca 052 only has five more minutes in the hold.

You able to take him, or send him up to his alternate?

What's the speed now?

Not sure, to be honest.
Holding speed.

The NTSB concludes

that Air Traffic's handling of Avianca 52 was proper,

considering the information they were getting from the flight crew.

Many of the passengers are shocked and outraged

by what they feel is a gross injustice.

That Air Traffic Control is found blameless.

Avianca sues the Federal Aviation Administration,

which employs the air traffic controllers,

saying they should have done more

when flight 52 told them they were running out of fuel.

The FAA settles, and ends up paying around 40%

of the estimated $200 compensation due to the
victims.

If you listen and read the tapes, the transcripts of the tapes

of each air route traffic control centre along the route,

and the final to New York tower, Kennedy Tower,

you'll find 20 places where this accident could've been avoided

if somebody had done something differently.

Among the 85 survivors who escaped
the shattered remains of flight 52

are the Montoja's two daughters.
Daniella the baby covered in blood

is now a healthy teenager
preparing for college

The day just before the flight,
we took a long trip to visit

the Virgin Mary this is a very important
sensuary in Medellin

Perhaps it was a miracle of God and the Virgin
that the 4 of us survived,

it was a miracle and we feel
blessed by that.

For many of the survivors,

recovering from their injuries has been easier than coming to terms

with the reason why Flight 52 ran out of fuel.

I had to learn to walk from scratch.

It's difficult enough to deal

with the injuries.

It m s me very angry to think that, that a plane went down

with 161 souls..

..and almost half the people lost their lives

because of a...a word?

Subtitle: Dimitrios Priftis
[email protected]