Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 3, Episode 4 - Fight for Your Life - full transcript

FedEx Flight 705.
Wings. Gear up wings.

A routine trip from Memphis,
Tennessee, to San Jose, California.

Little do the crew know they will
soon have to defend themselves

against a determined attack
intended to kill them all.

Aah!

Flight 705 will never
reach its destination.

We've had an attempted takeover...
Investigators will uncover

a meticulous plan
and a desperate motive.

(SIRENS WAILING)
We're not getting an audio signal.

Alarm... (PHONE RINGING)

It's April 1994. A FedEx cargo plane
is on its way to California.



It's a perfect day for flying.

Ten minutes, 9s and 2s here.

But behind the cockpit,
in the galley area,

a disaster is about to unfold.

The pilots of FedEx Flight 705

are seconds away from
an unprecedented situation.

Oh, man! (GRUNTING IN EFFORT)

Aah!

Emergency.

We got an attempted takeover.

(MEN ROARING)

We need an ambulance and we
need armed intervention as well.

April 7th, 1994,

worldwide headquarters of Federal
Express in Memphis, Tennessee.



Servicing 171 countries,

the company delivers over
2 million packages per day,

and works to a tight schedule.

Flying conditions are perfect
at the Memphis airport.

FedEx flight 705
to San Jose, California

is preparing to depart
with a three-man crew.

Has the afternoon flight to San Jose
got any jump-seaters on?

42-year-old Auburn Calloway
is a flight engineer.

He hopes to hitch a ride on Flight
705 for pressing personal reasons.

Thanks. Employees have
the privilege of free rides -

they're known as "jump-seaters."

39-year-old flight engineer
Andy Peterson

is the first of the flight crew
to arrive on the plane.

Andy Peterson. Auburn Calloway.

He's surprised to find
Auburn Calloway on board.

My first thought was, "scheduling
has called someone else out

for the flight, and now
we've got two engineers,"

so I said hey to him

and asked if he was gonna be
riding to San Jose with us,

and he said he was - that he
was gonna ride the jump seat out.

Peterson, a five-year
flyer with FedEx,

finds something unusual
during his pre-fly check.

The breaker switch of the cockpit
voice recorder, or CVR,

is in the off position.
Puzzled, Peterson resets it.

The CVR records all
in-flight voice communications.

It's a crucial tool
for investigating air disasters.

No large commercial airliner
is allowed to fly without one.

The cockpit voice circuit breaker
didn't pop out,

which means the power's off
to the cockpit voice recorder.

So, I'd never seen that before,
and I thought it was kinda weird.

49-year-old pilot David Sanders,

and 42-year-old co-pilot
James Tucker,

are next to board
and prepare for departure.

Howdy. You mind if I hop a ride
with you guys to California?

No, not at all. I don't see any
problems - everything looks good.

You play the guitar? I play ax.

He was very cool, calm, collected -

nothing indicating
anything was amiss.

Actually noticing
there was a guitar case

off to the right
in front of the net.

I couldn't wait to get in the cockpi
and start the cockpit checks,

because we have a lot to do.
But something was amiss.

They didn't know it, but Calloway
had originally been scheduled to be

the Flight Engineer on this flight.

However, he and his crew
had exceeded their flying hours

by just one minute the previous day,
so they'd been replaced.

But Calloway was determined to make
Flight 705 no matter what.

Nuts and bolts. (CHUCKLES)

I came back out on the airplane
and went back up to the cockpit

and noticed that that circuit-
breaker had popped out again.

So I reset it and decided that
I would see if it would stay in.

Instead of calling maintenance then,
I'd just wait and see.

If it popped back out,
then I'd call maintenance,

because that's a no-go item.

If the CVR is turned off,
there will be no audio record

of the events aboard Flight 705.

The crew is flying together
for the first time.

Both Tucker and Sanders are ex-Navy.

Sanders has been with FedEx
for twenty years.

James Tucker, who has
a wife and three children at home,

has been with the company
for ten years.

None of the crew know Calloway or
his reasons for being on this flight.

(TOWER) Flight 705, heading runway
27, cleared for take-off.

Sprint 705, cleared for take-off.

Positive break. Gear up please.

FedEx Flight 705
is airborne and Westward-bound.

The weather to California is clear,
and, if all goes as planned,

they'll be back home
within ten hours.

In the cargo area, Auburn Calloway
is launching a different plan,

a plan he's been shaping
and reshaping for several days.

Like the brilliant
chess player he is,

Calloway has thought out
all his moves.

Being bounced from the crew
of Flight 705 today

was an unexpected glitch,
but nothing he can't cope with.

At his home that morning,
Calloway already had to make

a small adjustment to his plans.

The flight bag he'd planned
to take with him on his journey

is in for repairs,
so instead he packs a guitar case.

As a company employee,
he's unlikely to be searched,

and a guitar case
seems innocent enough.

Here you have a man who made some
accomplishments that no other

African-American had ever made.

Calloway graduated from
Stanford University in 1974.

He became a top Navy flyer,
then a commercial pilot,

but his five years at FedEx
have been as a flight engineer.

He was highly intelligent,

a driven person,
to accomplish goals...

And had before him an opportunity
of a tremendously positive career.

He was married
and had children and family

and it just seemed as though

he was almost part of the true
American dream, the American family.

Before leaving for the airport,

Calloway put some
important documents on his bed.

Among them,
his last will and testament.

FedEx Flight 705
is several minutes outside Memphis,

still climbing
and passing through 5,800 metres.

Jim Tucker is hand-flying the plane,

using control-wheel steering mode,

and enjoying
the clear afternoon skies.

A couple of metres away
sits Auburn Calloway.

Behind him lie frustrated
expectations of a brilliant career

and a marriage that ended in tears.

After take-off is complete.

Calloway has a terrifying plan.

His guitar case is packed with
several hammers and a spear-gun.

Out of sight of the crew,
he gets his weapons ready.

To be successful, Calloway
will have to act quickly.

Speed and strength will be critical.

Calloway is a former Navy pilot
and a martial arts expert,

so speed and strength
come as part of the package.

The original plan was to
take out his original crew,

which have only been two
individuals. One was a female.

Much smaller than the crew that
he wound up facing on Flight 705.

I live in Fisherville.
Fisherville? Great spot.

I had the cockpit door locked open

and I noticed that Calloway
was walking up into the cockpit.

I just caught him out of the corner
of my eye and saw his arm coming up.

I thought, "he's just coming up to
sit and talk with us for a while."

Oh! Aah!

Aah!
Excruciating pain, blinding pain.

So much in fact that
I never lost consciousness

but I lost useful consciousness
for at least 45 seconds.

The crew is in shock, and confused.

(GRUNTING IN EFFORT)
No, you don't!

What I saw was simply
a face and his eyes...

Oh, God!
...And an object coming down at me.

Aah!

I didn't discern
any emotion or hate or anger.

I just saw a threat and I didn't
really know what the threat was.

It was so shocking for a crewmember
who is a pilot in uniform

to attack another pilot is unheard
of in the airline industry.

Although terribly injured,
Peterson and Tucker are still alive.

(GROANING) My head, my head!

Calloway hurriedly retreats
out of the cockpit.

Unaware of each other's injuries,
the crew starts to mobilise.

Calloway has a back-up plan.

The spear gun stashed outside
the cockpit is a deadly weapon.

Sit down! Sit down!

Get back to your seats! This is
a real gun, and I'll kill you!

There was a loud ringing in my ear
and I was a little unbalanced.

But I saw the spear gun,
and I thought, well,

the only thing I can do is try
to grab it. So I grabbed the spear.

It sticks out of the spear gun
about 3 inches.

So I grabbed it behind the barbs
and tried to hang on to it tightly.

(GRUNTING IN EFFORT) Tucker does
something Calloway's not expecting.

He pulls back the yoke and puts the
plane into a sudden 15 degree climb.

It throws the struggling men out of
the cockpit into the galley behind.

I had already figured out that
what I had in my hands

was probably one of
the best weapons available,

and that was the aircraft itself.

Tucker has not been
just a Navy pilot,

but a combat instructor flying A4s.

His fighter pilot experience
would prove invaluable

in the next few minutes.

I was looking at the whole situation

as if it was an air combat
manoeuvring situation.

We're taught in the Navy,
and in the fighter community,

the first thing you want to do is

engage the bogey,
engage the bad guy.

you make him predictable
by engaging him,

and you use his predictability
against him, and you kill the bogey.

Get him, get him!

But the co-pilot doesn't stop there.

Tucker immediately rolls
the massive aircraft to the left,

in an acrobatic manoeuvre
to try and disarm Calloway.

The men roll along the smoke curtain
to the left side of the plane.

I knew that I had to do something
very abrupt, very rough,

something he would not be expecting.

Tucker has no idea whether
rolling the plane

is helping Sanders and Peterson
as they try to restrain Calloway.

The fight continues with the men
pinned to the left side of the plane.

The crewmembers are rapidly
losing blood and strength.

Tucker continues
to execute the roll,

all the while trying to maintain
a visual reference

outside the Captain's window.

Get him, get him, man,
I got the airplane.

I wanted to pull the airplane over
on its back

and pull through completely
in the vertical.

But at this particular point,

if I'd rolled the airplane
over on its back,

I wouldn't really be able
to see what I was doing.

You don't have a bubble canopy
over the top - you're looking out,

it's got expansive windows,
but nonetheless,

you roll this airplane
over on its back,

you can't really see
that much of what you're doing.

So I rolled to about 140 degrees
where I could still see out

over the side as the airplane's nose
was starting to come through.

Tucker rolls the quarter-million
kilogram DC-10 to 140 degrees,

almost on its back.

Commercial aircraft are never
meant to roll more than 60 degrees.

The men continue their fight
on the ceiling of the aircraft.

Tucker decides to
pull back on the yoke,

and put the plane into a steep dive,
a risky but cunning move.

The G-force of the dive

pushes the men back along
the ceiling to the smoke curtain.

The plane is travelling at
a very dangerous speed.

Tucker is making
demands of the aircraft

for which it was not designed.

DC-10s are never meant to be flown
past 695kmph. Tucker is over 800kmph.

No DC-10 in history
has been flown so fast and survived.

The airspeed equipment was maxed -

it was all the way all the way to
what we call the barber pole.

Couldn't go any faster. But you
could tell that you were going

quite a bit faster, because...

The things you don't normally hear
in a jet that size -

incredible amounts of sound
and wind coming across the cockpit.

(ALARM SOUNDS) Over speed.

The plane approaches
supersonic speeds.

With the increased airspeed,
the air flow over the stabiliser

becomes disrupted. The elevators
begin to flutter back and forth.

If the flutter
becomes more pronounced,

they may become inoperable,
and Tucker will no longer

have the means
to pull the plane out of the dive.

If I didn't pull out soon,
the plane would probably come apart,

because I was getting into
a phenomenon known as 'mock tuck,'

where the plane is pitching over
because the airspeed

is increasing so much.

The wind flow over
the surface of the wings

is doing things
it's not even designed to do.

The injury to the left side
of Tucker's brain

is beginning to paralyse functions
on the right side of his body.

Tucker notices something alarming -

the plane is travelling
at this incredible speed

because the throttle levers
have been left in their automatic

climb setting from take-off.

The DC-10 is now in a vertical dive

with the engines
at nearly full power.

Tucker must release
his only usable hand from the yoke

to pull back on the throttles.

With power reduced to idle,
the DC-10 is still not out of danger.

Despite Tucker's manoeuvres,
Calloway is gaining the upper hand.

Calloway hit with me a third blow
which was on the top of my head.

Nearly rendered me unconscious.
I began to grey out.

At that very same time, it occurred
to me we might lose this thing.

As Tucker starts to pull the plane
carefully out of the dive,

the elevator flutter increases.

Balance panels, counterweights

that help the pilots
manipulate the elevator,

break free and begin to wrinkle
the skin of the stabiliser.

Tucker fears that, if he pulls back
too hard during the dive,

all the surfaces on the tail section
will be in danger of coming off.

Sanders' strength is nearly spent,

and Peterson's head
is bleeding profusely

from his ruptured temporal artery.

Somehow they manage to
pin their attacker down.

The G-force was beginning to
be reduced as we began to level off,

pulling out of a dive.

I saw the hammer in Calloway's hand.

I reached for the hammer
with both my hands

and pulled it out of his hands.

Sanders believes
this is a turning point.

The plane is safe for the moment.

About a minute
after the attack begins,

Tucker finally
has a chance to radio Memphis.

Centre, emergency.

Air Traffic Controller
Kent Fleschman and his trainee

receive Tucker's emergency request.
Aircraft emergency, say again?

(INDISTINCT)
Aircraft emergency, say again?

Listen to me. It's Flight 705.
I've been wounded.

We've had an attempted takeover
on board the airplane.

Give me a vector please, back
in Memphis at this time - hurry.

Express 075, fly heading 095
direct to Memphis.

095 direct to Memphis.

Get me an ambulance
and alert the airport facility.

(PANTING) You still with me?

Affirmative 705. Descend
and maintain 1,000.

Fleschman takes action in case
the hijacker has a gun.

If he can get the plane
below 3,000 metres,

a bullet hole in the fuselage will
not cause explosive decompression.

Tucker hears the fight
increase in the galley.

Again he uses his only weapon,
the aircraft.

Aah!

The manoeuvre throws the men
onto the side of the plane.

Let go of the gun!
Just keep talking to me. OK?

Express 705, affirmative.
If you need an ambulance,

stand by and we'll get that for you.

Yeah, we need an ambulance and
we need armed intervention as well.

(PANTING)

Make sure and notify the SWAT team -
he's asking for armed intervention.

Fleschman recognises the term
"armed intervention"

as the most serious request
from a pilot.

It means they want armed officials
to storm the plane upon landing.

Memphis approach has to be alerted.

We have an emergency. Express 705,

he's had an attempted takeover
on the aircraft.

He's had an attempted takeover? OK.

Radar contact, put him on 119.1.

Paul Candolino,
a 44-year-old veteran controller,

now spots Flight 705
on his radar screen.

But something's wrong. The plane
is heading away from the airport.

It looks like the hijacker
has seized the plane.

Co-pilot James Tucker
is pushing the DC-10,

his best weapon, to its limits.

He now throws the wheel round,
flipping the massive plane

in the opposite direction.

Tucker, drawing on his military
experience, reverses the roll,

keeping his manoeuvres unpredictable.

Here I am, alone in the cockpit.
The fight is still going on

in the back - I don't know
who's winning or losing.

That was about the only time
I really had time to be frightened,

and it was a horrifying situation,

thinking that, quite possibly,
Auburn was winning.

Sanders and Peterson
momentarily subdue Calloway.

Put it on autopilot and
get back here. (PETERSON YELLS)

The Captain's yelling at Tucker
to come and help,

but he's the one flying the plane.

Express 705,
contact Memphis approach on 119.1.

They are aware of your emergency.

Request a single frequency approach.

Signal frequency approach, roger,
we'll pass that along. 119.1.

Put it on autopilot. Come on Jim,
come here! Come out here!

You have to understand, that's
probably the strangest request

I've ever had,

because I'm the only one
in the cockpit.

For me to go to the back means

I've got to first of all stand up,

which, I didn't know until
I tried, was very difficult to do.

Jim Tucker, with a fractured skull

and only one side
of his body functioning,

puts the plane on autopilot and
struggles out of his seat to help.

OK, wait a minute - I'm coming.

(ALARM SOUNDS) Autopilot.

But the plane's gyros
haven't stabilised sufficiently

for the autopilot to take over.

OK.

Now, no-one's flying the plane.

705, how do you hear?

Paul Candolino tries to establish
radio contact with Flight 705,

but there's no response.

The radar screen shows the aircraft
turned to the North,

then the West, finally South-West,
heading away from the airport.

There's only an eerie silence.

Anything could be happening
on board the plane.

So I stepped into
the forward cargo area.

I was absolutely amazed
at what I was seeing.

There are papers everywhere
in the back... you can see

where the jump seat - which is just
a normal commercial airline seat -

has had the covers torn off.

There's bloody footprints
on top of the ceiling.

There are coats
that have come out of closets...

It's total carnage in the back.

Sanders has disarmed Calloway
and handed the spear to Tucker.

You move, I'll kill you.
You keep him contained,

I'm going to get the airplane.
Go get the airplane.

They decide that Sanders,
the Captain,

should fly the plane back to Memphis.

Take this. Tucker wants
the weapons as far away

from Calloway as possible,
and asks Sanders

to take them with him to the cockpit.

In an emergency situation,

it's expected that the Captain
of the airplane will fly it.

I was in somewhat of a daze
because of the fight.

I wasn't sure
of the direction of the airplane,

I wasn't sure of its condition.

But it appeared it be flying OK.

I was bleeding excessively from
the top of my head.

I couldn't see out of my left eye.

I thought the fight was over.

I had hit Calloway four times in
the head with a 20-ounce hammer

as hard as I could swing it.
He had stopped fighting, and he was

bleeding, and he looked like
he was severely injured.

Tucker can't tell any more whether
his hand is gripping the spear.

The blows to his head have caused
a blood clot on his brain,

and have damaged his sense of touch.

Sanders, safely back
in the driver's seat,

must get the plane on the ground -
and fast.

Memphis, can you hear me?
Is this Express 705 heavy?

705 heavy, yes.
Express 705 heavy, Memphis Roger,

I do hear you. You can proceed
direct to Memphis if able.

Expect runway 9.
The altimeter is 30.29.

You understand
we're declaring an emergency?

We need security to meet the plane.
We'll stop on the runway if we can.

Captain Sanders, without his glasses,
and with blood dripping in his eyes,

thinks that the plane
is on a course back to the airport.

But it's still heading South-West,
away from Memphis at over 550kmph.

Roger. Express 705 heavy,

is the situation under control
or is it still in progress?

We appear to have it under control.

Candolino wants to warn the pilot,

but he's afraid the crew
may still be under attack

and trying to mislead the hijackers
by flying in the wrong direction.

Express 705 heavy, are you able
to turn toward the airport?

Yeah. Give me a vector?
100-vector Memphis.

Sanders takes the plane off autopilot
and sets a course for the airport.

We're returning to the airport now.

For now, aboard the DC-10,
the situation seems under control.

But a potential disaster
is only moments away.

(SIRENS WAIL) At the Memphis Airport,

emergency personnel
begin to move into position.

We need security to meet the plane.
We'll stop on the runway if we can.

A FedEx cargo plane is about to land

after a would-be hijacker
tried to seize control.

All members of the crew
are badly injured.

Paramedic David Teague
is one of the first to get the call.

They came over
the loudspeaker system

from the Air Traffic Control centre

I was new to the area, so I wasn't
able to understand them real well,

but I got the words hijacking
and some other stuff,

and was advised that there'd
been a hijacking on an airplane.

And then dispatched to the runway
where the plane was gonna land.

The airplane is heading for
the safety of Memphis Airport,

but that in itself presents
another scary possibility.

The aircraft is more than 16,000kg
over the recommended landing weight,

with more than 38,000kg
of fuel still in its tanks.

In most emergency landing situations,

there's time and opportunity
to dump any excess fuel,

but Sanders knows
the switches and levers

are too far away to access safely.

You'd have to get up and go back
to the engineers's panel

where the fuel dumping switches are

and set up the engineer's
fuel panel to dump fuel,

so it's virtually impossible for,
say the Captain to dump fuel

while he's trying to fly the plane.

In the galley, Auburn Calloway
still hasn't given up the fight.

Calloway drags himself
towards the jumpseats

with Peterson and Tucker
on top of him.

He hopes to gain enough leverage
to get back on his feet,

where he'll have an advantage.
It's certainly a fight

against the clock. Auburn's getting
stronger and we're getting weaker.

I knew if he ever got back
in the cockpit we were history.

I knew somehow we had to keep him
from getting back in that cockpit.

Approaching 7,000 feet,
the fight in the back started again.

And it was as violent and as loud

as when I was in the back
in the midst of the fight.

It became so violent and loud,
that, approaching 7,000 feet,

I decided that I was
going to level the plane,

turn on the autopilot,

go to the back of the airplane,
and kill Calloway.

It was so severe that
I thought that had to be done.

The DC10 is less than 40km
from Memphis Airport.

Is he under control?
I don't know!

The sounds of the struggle worries
Sanders. He decides this has to end.

I released the seatbelt,
climbed out of my seat,

headed to the back of the airplane.
and Jim Tucker said to me,

"David, I think we have him
under control now."

I said, "are you sure?"
Yeah, he is.

He said, "I think we have him
under control."

I went back to the seat, climbed in
to the left seat of the plane,

continued the descent
on toward the airport.

Express 705, can you verify the
situation is still under control?

Yeah, we're...
sort of under control.

Heading is 03015,

cleared to land runway 9.

Clear to land? Now Sanders faces
yet another possible disaster.

The delay caused by
getting out of his seat

means he's way over
the normal approach speed.

Too high and too fast.

He'll not be able to slow
the overweight plane quickly enough

to land on runway 9.

Coming around to 3-6 left.

Runway 3-6 left is longer, at 2,800m,

but it's perpendicular
to his flight path.

To land there,
he needs to make series of turns.

Reasonable manoeuvres for a fighter
jet or a crop-duster,

but for an overloaded DC-10 with
an injured pilot, nearly impossible.

He must turn 90 degrees
to the right,

fly parallel to the runway,

then execute
a tight 180 degree turn.

OK, Express 705 heavy,

runway 36 left, clear to land.
Clear visual approach, 36 left.

Wind is... 050 heading.

(COMPUTER) Bent angle.
Sanders must ignore the computer

warnings and push the plane
beyond normal operating limits.

The plane is nearly on its side.

All of a sudden, he just turned it
on its wing-tip -

looked like a fighter jet,
and put in in a real tight turn,

then disappeared behind the terminal

when he got down low enough -
we couldn't see him.

At first I thought
he might have crashed,

because there was some construction
going on at the airport then,

and there was smoke coming up
South of the terminal,

kinda where we were going.

A hammer is lying in the galley.

The men struggle to reach it.

This could be Calloway's
last chance to gain control.

Sanders has turned 90 degrees
to the South, flying the downwind leg

parallel to runway 36 left.

The airplane was probably at about
300 feet above the ground.

The throttles were at idle.

They'd been in idle
since I left 7,000 feet.

That's an extremely unusual power
setting to land in an airplane -

you always makes your approach
with power on, a lot of power on.

In this case, it was vital, because
I wanted the plane to slow down

so it would not exceed the limits
of the landing gear and the flaps.

So that we would touch down
at or below 195 knots.

(ALARM SOUNDS) Pull up.

With flaps extended,
and landing gear down,

Sanders is still coming in too fast,

and he's being bombarded by
computerised auto-warning alarms.

(ALARM SOUNDS) Pull up.
The runway is 2,800m long.

A normal DC-10 needs only 1,900
to stop, but Flight 705 is too heavy.

Even this runway
may not be long enough.

(ALARM SOUNDS) Pull up.

Peterson manages, for the first time
in the fight, to get hold of a
hammer.

But he's extremely weak
due to blood loss.

You got to hit him, Andy,
you got to hit him!

I was almost pleading with him,
I said, "Andy, you got to hit him."

He's trying to take us down.

I guess I gave him a blank stare -

what are you talking about?
And he looked at me real stern,

like a father would look at his son,

saying, "you've got to do this."
And he said, "hit him."

The DC-10 is only metres above
the runway, travelling at 382kmph.

Sanders can only hope he won't
explode the tyres

or crash beyond the runway.

Luckily, all ten tyres
withstand the landing impact.

Captain David Sanders
has landed the plane

with only 300m of runway to spare.

The crew of flight 705
is safely on the ground,

but not out of danger.

The chute is covered with
kind of a talcum powder

so it won't stick
when it needs to be deployed,

but it made it slick
trying to go up.

The police and firemen

tried to climb up the slide.

One fireman made it
almost all the way to the top

and I leaned out the door
and pulled him on board.

Who's the bad guy?
That's the attacker.

There was blood all over the floor,
all over the ceiling.

The seats in the little area
were covered with blood.

Teague is thrown a pair of handcuffs.

Stand here,
on the middle of the chain.

Www! Get your foot off!

You're hurting me!

Owww!

Sanders holds Calloway down
as Teague examines Peterson,

who barely has a pulse and is the
first crewmember to leave the plane.

Sanders is the last member
of the crew on board.

Standing in the door of the plane,

I had a sense of euphoria I'd
never experienced before or since.

It was the sense of
we had been there,

and we came back, and we won.

The three men have weathered
the attack of a co-worker,

but they're badly injured.

Co-pilot Jim Tucker has bone chips
driven into his brain.

Flight Engineer Andy Peterson's life
is in danger from massive blood loss.

(CRIES OUT IN PAIN)
Both are in critical condition.

The wounded men are rushed to the
regional medical centre at Memphis.

The pilot, Dave Sanders,
shares an ambulance with Tucker.

It's only during this ride that
he realises the extent and severity

of his co-pilot's injuries.

Tucker is taken to emergency
by stretcher.

Sanders is helped, but can walk.

Restrained and under guard,

Calloway is also taken to
the same emergency facility.

But the important question
still remains -

why did Auburn Calloway
attack the crew of Flight 705?

The full story is starting to unfold.

Divorced in 1990, Auburn Calloway

still tries to support his ex-wife
and their two children,

and wants to secure
their financial future.

He was worried for the welfare
of his children, they they not live

the kind of childhood he had lived.

The evidence for a suicidal mission
against FedEx grows,

as investigators search the aircraft
and find a letter

to Calloway's estranged wife.

Dear Pat, I want you and the kids
to know that I live for you.

I thought of their welfare every day

For example, how can I guarantee
having enough money

for Kayla and Bernie's
Stanford education?

He was obsessed with
his financial wellbeing.

He was interested in his children...

I tend to believe
he was interested in his marriage.

I know his marriage
had come apart...

but I suspect he was also
a difficult man to be married to.

By April 7th, 1994,

Calloway may be thinking
his career is over.

Life had been one disappointment
after another.

The failed marriage, the kids he
can't afford to send to university,

the brilliant pilot who ends up as
an engineer on a cargo plane.

Now even that may be about to go.

The following day,
he's due to report to a FedEx hearing

about falsified information
he'd given the company.

During our investigation, it
appeared that he had over-estimated

the number of hours
of flight experience that he had.

The company was looking at this.

Calloway may be afraid
he'll be fired.

At just 42, his professional life
could be finished.

He comes up with a solution.

The goal is...
to leave my children well-off.

The goal is to escape
the pain of this life.

I can't continue
to participate in this life

and still leave them well-off,

because I'm fixing to lose my career

I won't be able to provide for them
like I'd like to.

But my life has value
if it's given in an accident.

Calloway cashes in all the funds
he can lay his hands on,

and sends a total
of $54,000 to his ex-wife.

But his life insurance
is worth about $2.5million

if he dies
in a work-related accident.

I would much rather go on a date,

time, place,
and method of my own choosing.

I resolved, some time ago,
that the next time

my security and future is threatened
or seriously jeopardised,

it's time. My time to go.

Perhaps he believes his family would
receive the maximum insurance pay-out

if he crashed the plane
in an apparent accident.

If this was Calloway's idea,
he was planning it perfectly.

He was armed with unusual weapons
for a hijacking.

Hammers and a spear-gun.

After injuring the crew, he
could take control of the plane.

A bomb or gun could leave traces
at the scene of the crash.

But if investigators found
a spear gun or hammers,

it would be very difficult to
tie them to an attack on the crew.

I believe it would've been
impossible to tell the difference

in the type of injuries
that a hammer would have made

with the type of injuries
you might sustain in a large crash.

Auburn had spent the week leading up
to this incident preparing to die

and basically
get his affairs in order.

Calloway even goes to a lawyer
to change his will

before boarding the FedEx flight.

He left his will and testament
on his bed

so that it would be easily found.

For any crash to look like
an accident, there is a key obstacle:

the plane's cockpit voice recorder.

Switching off the CVR's power
would disable any recording.

This thing should fly.

Got all the nuts and bolts in here.
Yeah.

If Peterson,
in his pre-flight inspection,

discovers the thrown switch,
it would be a setback.

But Calloway would know he simply has
to fly the airplane for half an hour.

That's the length
of the tape's recording time.

After 30 minutes, any incriminating
recording would be gone forever.

(TUCKER) I think he was gonna do
something very horrible with it.

The flight of FedEx 705
took about 30 minutes.

But the impact it had
will last for years.

He was convicted of
attempt air craft piracy,

an offence that carried
a minimum of 20 years confinement

and up to life in prison.

Although Auburn Calloway pleaded
temporary insanity at his trial,

the jury didn't believe him
and found him guilty.

On August 11th, 1995,

he was sentenced to life imprisonment
in a federal penitentiary.

He has no chance of parole.

The pilots on Flight 705 -
they are the real heroes.

It is amazing

that they were able to do
what they did,

given the injuries
that were inflicted upon them.

When someone's struck
with a hammer on the skull,

there can be linear radiating cracks
that go out on the skull,

then, if it's hard enough,
there may well be in-driven bone

right at the site where
the hammerhead hits the skull

and drives it into the skull.
This is a replica of my skull-cap.

It was a use of a cat-scan protocol

to give the proper shape of my skull

also the shape of the defect.

This is the area I was hit -
the left parietal.

For a year and a half I was walking
around in this configuration.

It took two and a half years
to recover completely,

because I had to relearn how to
walk, talk and chew gum.

I had three major operations.
I operated on him twice more

after his initial injury,

then followed him
through his rehabilitation.

They can fashion
a piece of material

to fit the exact size of the defect,

the shape of the skull and of course
the thickness of the skull too.

It's a blown acrylic called an HTR

or Hard Tissue Replacement.

He had difficulty with speech,

difficulty with sensation and motor
strength on the right side,

and he came back to where he can
now probably, if he wanted to,

break my fingers with a handshake.

On May 26th, 1994,

the crew of FedEx flight 705
was awarded

the Airline Pilots' Association
gold medal award for heroism,

the highest award
a civilian pilot can receive.

However, because of
the legacy of their injuries,

none of the crew has been certified
as medically fit to fly commercially.

I always thought I'm gonna fight -
I'm gonna overcome this thing.

Except that that's when I found out
I had a slight seizure disorder.

I'm seizure-free, but
that's because I take medication.

And the only way for me
to be able to fly

without somebody with me
is to be off of medication.

It's been ascertained
that I'll never be able to do that -

I'll be on medication
for the rest of my life.

I miss the flying. Every time
I see an airplane go over,

I wonder where it's going.
So I miss that part of it.

But... I really cherish the fact

that I'm still alive
and can be with my family.

The bond of pilots,

what you do together in and out
of the airplane - I miss that.

I miss it very much.

Subtitled by BSkyB.