Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 3, Episode 9 - Kid in the Cockpit - full transcript
Aeroflot flight 593, a routine flight, veers out of control and crashes in Russia in 1994, after the Captain lets his son sit in the flight deck.
A Russian flight to Hongkong is in serious trouble
Gravity has become a deadly force
as the crew fight to keep the plane
from falling to earth from 10,000 meter
The cause of all the chaos:
a 15 year old is at the controls
March, 22th, 1994
Moscow
15 year old Eldar Kudrinsky
is going abroad for the first time
He needs every gadget he has
Eldar, Uncle Valodia is waiting
My radio
But this is no ordinary kid:
Eldar's father is Captain Yaroslav Kudrinsky,
an international airline pilot
In Russia,
that means membership to a privileged group
and access to luxuries most of the country
can only dream of
Ah, Captain is here
Now he can take off
Hello, uncle Valodia
Aeroflot allows pilot's families
to travel once a year at a discount
So, Captain Kudrinsky is taking his children
on a 4 day holiday to Hongkong
You think we are going for a year
And where is your daughter?
She listens to the music in the car
By the time that they are of our age,
these kids are going to be deaf.
Captain Vladimir Makarov, Valodia to his friends,
is an Aeroflot pilot, too
He is also going to Hongkong on Holiday...
...and will be keeping an eye on the kids
during the flight
Misses Kudrinsky is only going
as far as the airport to see them of
Eldar, Yana,
promise you call as soon as you get there
We'll call as soon as we can, okay?
Yaroslav and I love to travel
and so did the kids
They love seeing new places,
learning new things
There is a chance for them
to come along with their father
and they jumped at it
Eldar and Yana are not the only ones
boarding flight 593
Most of the 63 passengers
are businessmen from Hongkong and Taiwan.
looking for opportunities in new Russia
Others, like Adrian Deauville,
have come from London
flying Aeroflot
because it offers a cheap connection to Asia
He is the man camera-shot at Northern England
and has a passion for airplanes
He is going on a two week holiday to Hongkong
to photograph the new airport they just build
if he felt that was a good airport
somewhere in the world
he travels best to get to that airport
just to go and make some nice photographs
On the trip to Hongkong
He wanted to see this brand new airport
It was a piece of engineering at that time
Mark Newport is a British sport-promoter
who lives in Hongkong
Mark was in the army
he went at Hongkong and got married there
He has chosen Aeroflot,
I might never heard of it until then
because that was just a cheap flight home
In 1994, Russia is in a state of great change
Three years earlier,
the old Soviet Union finally collapsed
A new Russia is bursting out from behind
the torn Iron Curtain
Russian state owned airline: 'Aeroflot'
is given a makeover, too
They struggled to buy
5 new airplanes from the company Airbus:
the $ 17 million state of the art Airbus A310-300
Aeroflot hopes to improve the company's
chequered safety reputation
Aeroflot has created a new prestigious division
around the Airbus fleet:
Russian Airlines
To fly Russia's premium airline,
Aeroflot hand-picks an elite
core of first class pilots
Each of them have thousands of hours flying time
impeccable safety records
and are fluent in English
They are given special training
by the manufacturers of the aircraft: Airbus
Kudrinsky started working here at the same time
and naturally,
we first got acquainted simply as neighbours.
Then, we found out that we were both pilots
Later, we both trained for the A310
We studied together
Yana and Eldar are finally on board the new plane
they've heard so much about from their father
Now, you two, behave...
...or uncle Valodia will push the eject button
Kudrinsky has 900 hours of flying the A310
under his belt
It was their first trip abroad
but naturally, they had come along with him
on other trips within Russia
They were quite well travelled for their age
First captain Danilov will command the flight
through the busy flight corridors out of Moscow
Relief captain Kudrinsky will then take over.
When he does, First Officer Piskaryov
becomes his copilot
All three are fist class pilots
On this new A310,
the flight-deck is fully computerized
Like other state of the art aircraft,
it is equipped with a sophisticated autopilot
that can fly the plane
for long stretches of the flight
Flight 593 takes off at 4:39 PM local time
Soon, it will join the Trans Siberian Airway
flying East towards Mongolia and China
It is a smooth flight
only 4 hours into the 10 hours trip
They have just passed over Novosibirsk in Siberia
They are most halfway
But Eldar and Yana are too excited to sleep
Having negotiated the busy airways out of Moscow
First Captain Danilov takes a rest break
He hands over control to relief Captain Kudrinsky
who now becomes active captain
for the next leg of the journey
You have control
I have control
You are still awake?
Yes, but why?
Shall we surprise your father?
In the cockpit?
Do you like that?
Aeroflot's most technically advanced aircraft is
now cruising on AUTOPILOT at 10,000 meter
It is a calm, windless night
But the peace will not last
The pilots and crew will soon be fighting
to save the lives of everyone on board.
One of Aeroflot's new Airbuses is on
a direct flight from Moscow to Hongkong.
Captain Kudrinsky is taking his children
on their first trip abroad
They are both to pay him a surprise visit
I have some visitors,
shall I bring them in?
Okay...
Come on in
This is First Officer Igor Vasilyevich Piskaryov
So, whaat do you thienk of our nu airplane?
It is very nice
It's amazing
It is quite different
from our old Russian planes, eh?
Daddy, what is that?
Well, this is a flight-computer
It flights the plane
and does everything automatically
Now, come and sit in my seat,
would you like to?
It is a quiet flight
Many passengers are sleeping,
unaware of what is taking place on the flight deck
Daddy, can I turn this?
Now, Yana,
would you like to pilot the plane?
Put your hands on the control column
but don't touch any buttons
Especially this red one, AUTOPILOT switch,
you don't touch it
Kudrinsky turns the HDG SEL knob
It doesn't disengage the AUTOPILOT...
...but allows him to turn the plane
slightly to the left
It makes his daughter think
she is flying the aircraft
The artificial horizon shows the plane
is banking slowly to the left
This instrument is vital
when you cannot see the ground
As it shows the pilot
how level the airplane is to the horizon
It was you,
You turned the plane
Kudrinsky now puts the aircraft back
on its preset course,
while First Officer Piskaryov radios local ATC
with their position
Novokuznjetsk
This is SU 593
Flight level 33000 ft,
Heading 105
Flight 593 is now more than 3000 km East of Moscow
near the middle of Siberia
SU 593, Novokuznetsk
Flight Level 35000 ft, Heading 105
SU 593, estimating at 1759
Now it is Eldar's turn at the wheel
He has been waiting a long time for this moment
Are you filming?
Oh, yes, I am
Can I turn this?
Yeah, but if you turn it to the left,
Where will the plane go?
Left
Look out to the left,
watching for the ground while we are turning
Eldar finds the control column quite stiff
It seemed to move easily
when his sister was doing it
So, he tries harder
But he cannot make the plane turn
because the AUTOPILOT is keeping it on course
Is the plane turning?
Suddenly, the column turns easily
It is the plane turning to the left?
Yes, yes it is
Set the horizon to normal for him
Once again, his father switches the HDG SEL knob
back to its original setting...
...ending the turn
And Eldar's illusion of flying the plane
Captain Kudrinsky then selects NAV mode
It tells the AUTOPILOT to put the plane
back on course to Hongkong
Dad, Dad!
But Eldar is still holding the wheel to the left
It has become stiff again
Can I go back to my seat?
What for?
You'll only go to sleep
And don't run in the first class
They will fire us
Eldar now turns his control column
slightly to the right,
enjoying his time at the controls
Why is it turning?
Is it turning by itself?
Yes, it is
It had just been over 3 minutes
since Eldar sat down in the pilot's seat
The plane is tilting sharply
A turn that is getting steeper every second
The plane seems to be turning by itself
but no one seems to know why
Going into some kind of zone?
We have gone into a holding pattern
of course we have
An arc has replaced the straight direction line
on the flight display
The arc looks like a plane in a holding pattern
around an airport
As they study the screen,
the plane continues to turn
It is now tilted at 45° ...
...which is steeper than what it was build for
Suddenly, the command bars disappear
from the primary flight display
The crew no longer have any information
about course or heading
The plane is flying 650 km/hr and banking hard
Like a quick turn in a sport-scar,
the dramatic movement of the airplane
begins to push every one into their seats
Guys!
The A310's AUTOPILOT works to keep the plane aloft
Suddenly, the nose pitches up
The increased G-force makes it difficult
for Piskaryov to reach the controls
With one hand, he does his best...
...but nothing happens.
Piskaryov's hard turn to the left
has had no effect on the plane
Hold it,
hold the control column
Eldar is the only one
with both hands on the controls
He can only follow the most basic orders
He cannot give up because the speed of the turn
is pushing him back into his seat
Turning to the left
To the left!
To the left, not to the right
The other way
I am turning it left
Okay, get out!
Eldar has been in the pilot seat
for just over 4 minutes
and now he cannot leave
His body feels twice its normal weight
Get up, get out!
Kudrinsky can do nothing
but struggle against the crippling G-forces
The airplane is plunging towards Siberia
and there is nothing anyone can do
Crawl out to the back
Get out
Russian Airlines flight 593 to Hongkong
is in serious trouble
The pilot's 15 years old son
has been at the controls for 4 minutes
The plane is turning steeply,
and losing altitude
The other way!
Captain Kudrinsky desperately needs
to get back into the pilot's seat
but he can barely move
The plane is turning so steeply and so quickly,
the G-forces on his body make it feel
like it is twice its normal weight.
Everyone on board now feels the force
of the plane's dramatic movements
Realizing there is a serious crisis,
Captain Danilov tries to return to the cockpit.
But he too is squashed by the powerful forces
created by the plane's extreme banking.
The plane still is not responding
To add to their confusion
an alarm begins to sound
It signals the complete shut down of the AUTOPILOT
The plane is now completely in the hands of Eldar
And to make matters even worse,
there is another alarm.
The other way
The plane is about to stall
An automatic safety system kicks in
to keep the plane flying
It lowers the nose
and puts the Airbus into a
steep dive to regain speed
The plane dives at a frightening 200 m/s
For people on board, it is like
having an elevator fall out from under them
In just seconds, the heavy pressure
of the high speed turn
is replaced by a mere weightlessness
As the plane suddenly drops away
it is now a very dangerous environment
People and objects that are not secured
will land anywhere, once gravity returns
They had been flying at 10,000 meter...
...but now, they are falling fast
Unless the crew does something quickly,
the plane will hit the
ground in less than a minute
Piskaryov yanks back on the
control column as hard as he can
to pull the Airbus out of the dive
The airplane's nose finally turns up
and the aircraft begins climbing quickly
Gravity now returns with a shock
As the plane climbs, the rapid acceleration
pushes people down relentlessly
The dramatic change in speed makes everyone
feel 4 times heavier than normal
Meanwhile, 1st Officer Piskaryov is still trying
to gain control of the airplane
This pulled the Airbus out of his dive,
but it is climbing too quickly
The engines on the A310 don't have enough power
to push it almost vertically in to the sky
Their airspeed drops dramatically
The plane strains to climb,
but it has been pushed too far
As normal gravity returns,
Kudrinsky leaps into action
But Piskaryov has stalled the plane
The nose drops into a corkscrew dive
Now the Airbus is twisting towards the ground
from 6,000 meter
at a breathtaking 70m/s
For the first time
since the crisis began
Captain and copilot can work
together to save the plane
Kudrinsky pumps the rudders,
which control a vertical flap on the tail
that helps slow the spin
At last, the airplane's dive is slowing down
Working the rudders,
Kudrinsky has nearly stopped the corkscrew dive
After a desperate struggle
the two pilots have managed to pull
the plane out of its terrifying spin
They are level,
but still not completely in control
We will get out of this,
everything is fine
Easy, we will be back
In all of the chaos of the passed 6 minutes
the pilots don't know exactly
how far they have fallen
and suddenly, they ran out of time
SU 593, this is Novokuznetsk area control
Please, come in
Air Traffic controllers in Russia have
lost contact with the passengers jet,
bound for Hongkong
Their worst fears are soon confirmed.
Less than 2 hours later the
first search-party goes out
to look for the Airbus in the
frozen rugged Siberian wilderness
They finally locate the remains
of Flight 593 on a wooded hillside,
about 100 km East of Novokuznetsk
It is soon clear there are no survivors
among the 75 passengers and crew
This was a brand-new airplane,
fitted with the latest technology
What could have brought it down?
Why was there no warning?
Not even a distress signal
The Russian media are quick to speculate
Could it have been a terrorist bomb?
When I was in Moscow,
the news we had but it could
have been a terrorist act
because we had
terrorist acts on aircraft previously
I was completely unaware
other then that nobody had survived it.
For some time,
they didn't tell me anything specific
and only on the next day
the airline director told me
there is no hope, whatsoever
It was a horrible moment, of course
It is hard to believe
Aeroflot flies the families of the deceased
out to Moscow
Amongst them is Brenda Clark,
a mother of British passenger Mark Newport
we met my daughter in law there
They told us:
we cannot get down there
She said:
You cannot get down there, Benda
because the Chinese are down there,
They have to
she said that down there
That is when I knew they've lied to me
And that is when I told them I wanted to go down
When you don't take me down,
then I will take a lift
The authorities take them
to where the accident happened
Relatives of Chinese victims drop
pieces of paper with messages, written on them
Others throw flowers
Yeah, that was really moving
We had the flowers, they had the paper
They wrote messages on these pieces of paper
And they threw them out, lovely
The families are taken to a Mort,
near the crash site
where the recovered bodies are being held
Many are too badly mutilated to be identified
They ask the families to look at recovered bits
of clothing to help identify the bodies
Brenda Clark finds her son's family photographs
It sense a chill through her
For the first time she knows for certain
he was on that flight
The recovery operation gets on their way
The Russian government mobilizes 238 soldiers,
police, investigators and rescuers
Everyone in the aviation-world wants to know
how a brand-new state of the art Airbus
could fall out of the sky without any warning
Does the Airbus A310 have
problems no one knows about?
They need to find out fast
Chief accident investigator Ivan Mashkivsky
is in charge
The crash site itself offers few clues
The ones he does have are puzzling
Unbroken bottles of champagne...
...a flight attendant in an oxygen mask
and finally, the bodies of two children
thrown into the cockpit
The plane's digital FDR indicates
the engines were running when it hit the ground
He rules out engine failure
Mashkivsky needs the expertise of a man
who knows the A310 well
Someone who can also recreate the final flight
and find out what exactly went wrong
Vladimir Biriukov is an experienced test pilot
and crash investigator
at the Gromov Institute in Moscow
He is an expert on the A310 Airbus
Biriukov was directly involved in testing
and certifying the airplane,
prior to the Russians buying it
Because of the faith of this plane,
the faith of this airline
my first reaction was shock
How could such a thing happen?
All I knew was, that the plane had crashed
somewhere over Siberia
I remember spending a sleepless night, distraught
and trying to figure out
what might have happened
and what could have caused it
I think you should come and listen to this
Each investigation begins with
a complete analysis of the plane's CVR
This time, it reveals something disturbing
Now, come and sit in my seat,
would you'd like to?
Daddy, can I turn this?
Kudrinsky was in the pilot's seat, wasn't he?
Yeah, according to the diagram
Can I turn this a bit?
Yeah, but if you turn it to the left,
where will the plane go?
Left!
Again
Some years ago it wasn't unusual for people
to be invited up to the cockpit
Of course, since 9/11 it has become a lot tighter
You will find cockpit doors are locked
generally throughout the flight
Every country sets its own rules
as to who has the authority or
the access to the cockpit
In some countries, it is up to the captain
So the captain can invite guests up to the cockpit
but to have them actually manipulated
in the controls of an airplane,
regardless whether
they have people on it or they are not
The fact that this was allowed to occur
is definitively exception in the industry
The two investigators are stunned
by what they hear on the CVR
It is unbelievable
These two youngsters,
the ones that we could not identify
They were not thrown into the cockpit by the crash
They were his kids
And they were flying the plane
The investigators are speechless
How could three experienced pilots
allow children to fly a commercial airliner?
There are about to learn things even worse
The children are only part of the problem
A little known feature of the plane proved deadly
Why is it turning?
Is it turning by itself?
Russian investigators listen to the CVR
of an Aeroflot Airbus that has crashed in Siberia
What they hear makes their blood run cold
You should understand the frame of mind
of the father
He is very proud of what he is doing
He invites his kids into the cockpit
Strictly speaking, it is a violation, of course
But I know such violations do occur in life
I am not condemning him or defending him here
but I'm trying to say is that no disaster occurs
for just any single reason
there is always more than one,
all coming together
But this time,
it really does look like a single cause:
A child flying the plane
and it sends shock waves
to Aeroflot's higher echelons
Investigators feel the pressure
The media has learned
that Eldar was at the controls
Aeroflot, trying to polish its Soviet era image
wants to minimize the damage
Boris Rybak is an aerospace consultant in Moscow
Aeroflot managers and executives
indeed tried to conceal results
and tried to downplay
the importance of this accident
because it was very embarrassing
Managers at Aeroflot are not the only ones
following the investigation.
Airbus, the company who made the plane,
is also intensely interested
Ivan, what is wrong?
Nothing
If the accident was caused by Eldar,
it will vindicate Airbus
At the same time,
grieving families are also glammering for answers
For Mashkivsky and his team,
it is a delicate balance
There is always more than one reason
for a plane to crash
We must find it
I will do my best
His reputation, the reputation of Airbus,
as well as Aeroflot
all now depends on finding this other cause
This was an international flight
It was a Western build aircraft
and it was inevitable that the investigation
that would be conducted by the authorities
and the inquiries that would be
conducted by claimant lawyers
would expose information
At the same time the manufacturer of the aircraft
the Airbus industry
was very keen to get
as much realistic explanation of what happened
because the reputation of this aircraft
was at stake
What I objected to was the way I was treated
by Aeroflot after the accident
They would not tell us anything
what was going on
They denied everything,
I wanted to know where my son died
I wanted to know
why these men had been allowed to do such a thing
but our regard from Aeroflot was
blank, blank, blank
Every time we tried to find something out,
they just didn't want to know
Families aren't the only ones
desperate for answers
Vladimir Biriukov continues
trying to learn all he can
about why the Airbus fell out of the sky
By analysing information from the FDR,
he can trace and repeat every command,
given to the aircraft during the flight
We were trying to get
as close to the truth as possible
to find the cause,
because that was the precedent
the first foreign produced plane
to crash while flying for a Russian airline
The investigation confirms the AUTOPILOT was on
when the plane got into trouble
Even with the children in the cockpit,
the plane should have flown on course
What went so terribly wrong?
So, have we new developments?
We can discount Kudrinsky's daughter
She sat in the chair, but she didn't fly the plane
At 17:47 and 6 seconds,
Captain Kudrinsky tells her not
to touch the AUTOPILOT switch
Her father gave the AUTOPILOT the command to turn
while Yana just rested her hands
lightly on the controls
But when Eldar took the controls,
Biriukov discovers that something
dramatically different happened
No one could possibly have guessed,
not even the three pilots in the cockpit,
Biriukov may have found the key to the puzzle
The plane's FDR
shows that 2.5 minutes before the crash
while Eldar was at the controls
the AUTOPILOT partially disconnects
This is the start of all of the plane's troubles
but how did that happen?
The AUTOPILOT is a sophisticated computer
which manages speed, altitude and heading.
Altitude and heading are controlled
by three key functions
The rudder, which controls sideways movement
The elevator, which controls vertical movement
And the ailerons, which are for turning
On flight 593, the AUTOPILOT
had disconnected itself from the ailerons
in the AUTOPILOTS that were used
in transport airplanes years ago were an ON/OFF
In today's sophisticated flight-management systems
you can literally take fragments of the AUTOPILOT
and disengage them, but not necessarily
turn the switch OFF and turn it all off
Unless you want to.
The question that really worries
accident investigator Biriukov is:
how did the AUTOPILOT
become partially disconnected?
There is no mention of it in the Voice Recordings
If this is a fault in the aircraft,
it could prove fatal for future flights
The only way to know for certain,
is to reconstruct the accident on a simulator
at Airbus industries headquarters
in Toulouse, France
Biriukov's experience
is a test-pilot
and his detailed knowledge of the
A310 are crucial to the investigation
Using information from the FDR,
Biriukov reconstructs the events
beginning at the moment Captain Kudrinsky
allows his son to sit at controls
A copilot will replicate Piskaryov's actions
Unlike his sister,
Eldar turns the wheel before his father
can tell the AUTOPILOT to turn the plane
The controls are stiff
because he is fighting the AUTOPILOT
In a simulator, Biriukov replicates
Eldar's every movement
Now it started to go...
...going...
...going...
There!
Holding it long enough and it disconnects
How long?
30 seconds
and it disconnects smoothly
No warning?
No one in the cockpit knows it,
but this is a critical moment
Eldar's resistance actually turns
part of the AUTOPILOT OFF
It takes just half a minute, but from here on,
Eldar is controlling the ailerons
Eldar is actually steering the plane
What seemed like an open and shut case,
is suddenly much more complex
The 15 year old flying the plane
isn't the only reason they crashed
The discovery highlights a dangerous flaw
and how pilots are trained on the A-310
Accident investigator Vladimir Biriukov
has finally discovered the
terrifying sequence of events
that made Aeroflot Flight 593 fall to earth
Captain Kudrinsky's 15 years old son
had turned the plane's steering wheel
against the programmed flight settings
This disconnected the AUTOPILOT (without warning)
from the ailerons,
the flaps which turn the plane.
Hold it long enough and it disconnects
The aircraft then began
an uncontrolled turn to the right
which got steeper and steeper
But why didn't anyone realize
the AUTOPILOT had disconnected?
Another peculiarity of the plane,
is that it has no alarm
signalling the disengaging
of the AUTOPILOT in the list channel
While our Russian planes
have an alarm sounding in such an event
So, I think that the captain
allowed the boy to do it
irregular as it was
believing that even if the AUTOPILOT
got disengaged
the crew would be alerted to that fact
But the A310 Airbus has only a small light
to tell the crew the AUTOPILOT has disconnected
There is no alarm
and the Russian crew
were obviously unaware of it
But there is also another reason why no one
realized what was happening
The AUTOPILOT still appeared
to be working normally,
because it was controlling
the plane's other functions
Although the plane is now banking,
the situation isn't yet critical
At this point, if the crew take the proper action
they can still stabilize the plane
Eldar is the first to notice
that the artificial horizon is at an angle.
The three musketeers don't understand this at all
After all, Kudrinsky returned the flight
to its AUTOPILOT heading
Vladimir Makarov is the first to offer
a possible explanation
It is going into some kind of zup
we are going into a zone,
a holding pattern
Have we?
Of course we have
Increasing 1°/sec
27°
Now we should be entering into a zone
What is that?
A strange arc now appears on the navigation panel
It looks like the course a plane would take
circling an airport
waiting to land
There appeared an arc very much resembling
the arc that appears on the display
when a plane enters a waiting zone
There are waiting zones around airports
When too many planes accumulate,
they enter such a zone and
circle around while they wait
But there could be no such a zone at that point
on the route
And yet we here on the CVR:
'Hey, we are entering a zone'
This false holding zone
distracts the crew for 9 seconds
In that time,
the plane crosses a critical threshold.
The Airbus is now banking at 45°,
far beyond its design limits
It cannot turn this steeply AND maintain height
It is now losing altitude fast
But the Airbus' AUTOPILOT
is no longer controlling the ailerons
Its other functions try to compensate
by pulling the plane's nose up
and accelerating to regain altitude
The drastic move pushes every one
back into their seats
It is on the verge of stalling
It starts to shake like a leaf
Part of the Flight Control Panel now goes dark
It is a warning sign that the plane has gone
beyond its design limits
From here on, the Airbus is out of control
By recreating the fatal flight
Biriukov has worked out
how a lapse in judgement and concentration
has resulted in a catastrophic crisis
But could the crew
have saved the plane and its passengers?
The pilots of Flight 593 try to bring
the plane out of its fatal dive
by pulling up on the nose
but they go to far,
the plane climbs steeply...
...and stalls
We are losing altitude
Now it started to spin,
so what do we do?
It is coming out of the corkscrew
Now, we are levelling out
In a moment, we will come out of the dive
All they had to do, was let go!
The plane has an in-build survival mechanism
which won't allow it to stall...
...even at a very low speed
But the pilot has to know that
The team's perseverance
for an open and honest investigation
did show that there was more
than one simple cause behind the accident
Their findings benefited the whole industry
especially the revelation that the AUTOPILOT
can partially disconnect
This remains a feature of the A310
as it enables pilots to control
certain elements of a flight
while leaving the rest to the computer
but crews are now made aware of this
Captain Kudrinsky's misfortune
is that it was triggered in a way that was
unexpected and difficult to detect
Within a year, the industry begins
offering pilots upset recovery training
teaching them skills to handle extreme situations
like the one on flight 593.
The tragedy of one trip to Hongkong
may have contributed something to the safety
of other passengers and crews
For parents and friends of those on board though
what happened that night
is never far from their minds
Adrian Deaville's body
was one of 23 that were never identified
Their remains were cremated together
by the Russian authorities
In my mind, he was asleep
and the is the way I deal with it
He didn't know much about it
The crew of the Airbus are buried
in Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow
in a hero's grave
next to the fire fighters who died at
the Tsjernobyl Nuclear plant
Yana and Eldar lie next to their father
I can imagine the horror they experienced
in their last moments
You knew there are not only
all those people depending on him
but also his own kids
Yes, it was a violation
Yes, he did it
But how it all happened
It was just a freak accident
a bizarre coincidence
I can forgive the pilot
I can forgive the children
(because they were innocent)
This man was 39 years old,
and for those 39 years,
he had an exemplary flying career
It was the final 5 minutes of those 39 years
that went a ride
Children should not be allowed in the cockpit
But it might stop things happening
in the future
Narrated by
Stephen Bogaert
Subtitles
Rein Croonen
Gravity has become a deadly force
as the crew fight to keep the plane
from falling to earth from 10,000 meter
The cause of all the chaos:
a 15 year old is at the controls
March, 22th, 1994
Moscow
15 year old Eldar Kudrinsky
is going abroad for the first time
He needs every gadget he has
Eldar, Uncle Valodia is waiting
My radio
But this is no ordinary kid:
Eldar's father is Captain Yaroslav Kudrinsky,
an international airline pilot
In Russia,
that means membership to a privileged group
and access to luxuries most of the country
can only dream of
Ah, Captain is here
Now he can take off
Hello, uncle Valodia
Aeroflot allows pilot's families
to travel once a year at a discount
So, Captain Kudrinsky is taking his children
on a 4 day holiday to Hongkong
You think we are going for a year
And where is your daughter?
She listens to the music in the car
By the time that they are of our age,
these kids are going to be deaf.
Captain Vladimir Makarov, Valodia to his friends,
is an Aeroflot pilot, too
He is also going to Hongkong on Holiday...
...and will be keeping an eye on the kids
during the flight
Misses Kudrinsky is only going
as far as the airport to see them of
Eldar, Yana,
promise you call as soon as you get there
We'll call as soon as we can, okay?
Yaroslav and I love to travel
and so did the kids
They love seeing new places,
learning new things
There is a chance for them
to come along with their father
and they jumped at it
Eldar and Yana are not the only ones
boarding flight 593
Most of the 63 passengers
are businessmen from Hongkong and Taiwan.
looking for opportunities in new Russia
Others, like Adrian Deauville,
have come from London
flying Aeroflot
because it offers a cheap connection to Asia
He is the man camera-shot at Northern England
and has a passion for airplanes
He is going on a two week holiday to Hongkong
to photograph the new airport they just build
if he felt that was a good airport
somewhere in the world
he travels best to get to that airport
just to go and make some nice photographs
On the trip to Hongkong
He wanted to see this brand new airport
It was a piece of engineering at that time
Mark Newport is a British sport-promoter
who lives in Hongkong
Mark was in the army
he went at Hongkong and got married there
He has chosen Aeroflot,
I might never heard of it until then
because that was just a cheap flight home
In 1994, Russia is in a state of great change
Three years earlier,
the old Soviet Union finally collapsed
A new Russia is bursting out from behind
the torn Iron Curtain
Russian state owned airline: 'Aeroflot'
is given a makeover, too
They struggled to buy
5 new airplanes from the company Airbus:
the $ 17 million state of the art Airbus A310-300
Aeroflot hopes to improve the company's
chequered safety reputation
Aeroflot has created a new prestigious division
around the Airbus fleet:
Russian Airlines
To fly Russia's premium airline,
Aeroflot hand-picks an elite
core of first class pilots
Each of them have thousands of hours flying time
impeccable safety records
and are fluent in English
They are given special training
by the manufacturers of the aircraft: Airbus
Kudrinsky started working here at the same time
and naturally,
we first got acquainted simply as neighbours.
Then, we found out that we were both pilots
Later, we both trained for the A310
We studied together
Yana and Eldar are finally on board the new plane
they've heard so much about from their father
Now, you two, behave...
...or uncle Valodia will push the eject button
Kudrinsky has 900 hours of flying the A310
under his belt
It was their first trip abroad
but naturally, they had come along with him
on other trips within Russia
They were quite well travelled for their age
First captain Danilov will command the flight
through the busy flight corridors out of Moscow
Relief captain Kudrinsky will then take over.
When he does, First Officer Piskaryov
becomes his copilot
All three are fist class pilots
On this new A310,
the flight-deck is fully computerized
Like other state of the art aircraft,
it is equipped with a sophisticated autopilot
that can fly the plane
for long stretches of the flight
Flight 593 takes off at 4:39 PM local time
Soon, it will join the Trans Siberian Airway
flying East towards Mongolia and China
It is a smooth flight
only 4 hours into the 10 hours trip
They have just passed over Novosibirsk in Siberia
They are most halfway
But Eldar and Yana are too excited to sleep
Having negotiated the busy airways out of Moscow
First Captain Danilov takes a rest break
He hands over control to relief Captain Kudrinsky
who now becomes active captain
for the next leg of the journey
You have control
I have control
You are still awake?
Yes, but why?
Shall we surprise your father?
In the cockpit?
Do you like that?
Aeroflot's most technically advanced aircraft is
now cruising on AUTOPILOT at 10,000 meter
It is a calm, windless night
But the peace will not last
The pilots and crew will soon be fighting
to save the lives of everyone on board.
One of Aeroflot's new Airbuses is on
a direct flight from Moscow to Hongkong.
Captain Kudrinsky is taking his children
on their first trip abroad
They are both to pay him a surprise visit
I have some visitors,
shall I bring them in?
Okay...
Come on in
This is First Officer Igor Vasilyevich Piskaryov
So, whaat do you thienk of our nu airplane?
It is very nice
It's amazing
It is quite different
from our old Russian planes, eh?
Daddy, what is that?
Well, this is a flight-computer
It flights the plane
and does everything automatically
Now, come and sit in my seat,
would you like to?
It is a quiet flight
Many passengers are sleeping,
unaware of what is taking place on the flight deck
Daddy, can I turn this?
Now, Yana,
would you like to pilot the plane?
Put your hands on the control column
but don't touch any buttons
Especially this red one, AUTOPILOT switch,
you don't touch it
Kudrinsky turns the HDG SEL knob
It doesn't disengage the AUTOPILOT...
...but allows him to turn the plane
slightly to the left
It makes his daughter think
she is flying the aircraft
The artificial horizon shows the plane
is banking slowly to the left
This instrument is vital
when you cannot see the ground
As it shows the pilot
how level the airplane is to the horizon
It was you,
You turned the plane
Kudrinsky now puts the aircraft back
on its preset course,
while First Officer Piskaryov radios local ATC
with their position
Novokuznjetsk
This is SU 593
Flight level 33000 ft,
Heading 105
Flight 593 is now more than 3000 km East of Moscow
near the middle of Siberia
SU 593, Novokuznetsk
Flight Level 35000 ft, Heading 105
SU 593, estimating at 1759
Now it is Eldar's turn at the wheel
He has been waiting a long time for this moment
Are you filming?
Oh, yes, I am
Can I turn this?
Yeah, but if you turn it to the left,
Where will the plane go?
Left
Look out to the left,
watching for the ground while we are turning
Eldar finds the control column quite stiff
It seemed to move easily
when his sister was doing it
So, he tries harder
But he cannot make the plane turn
because the AUTOPILOT is keeping it on course
Is the plane turning?
Suddenly, the column turns easily
It is the plane turning to the left?
Yes, yes it is
Set the horizon to normal for him
Once again, his father switches the HDG SEL knob
back to its original setting...
...ending the turn
And Eldar's illusion of flying the plane
Captain Kudrinsky then selects NAV mode
It tells the AUTOPILOT to put the plane
back on course to Hongkong
Dad, Dad!
But Eldar is still holding the wheel to the left
It has become stiff again
Can I go back to my seat?
What for?
You'll only go to sleep
And don't run in the first class
They will fire us
Eldar now turns his control column
slightly to the right,
enjoying his time at the controls
Why is it turning?
Is it turning by itself?
Yes, it is
It had just been over 3 minutes
since Eldar sat down in the pilot's seat
The plane is tilting sharply
A turn that is getting steeper every second
The plane seems to be turning by itself
but no one seems to know why
Going into some kind of zone?
We have gone into a holding pattern
of course we have
An arc has replaced the straight direction line
on the flight display
The arc looks like a plane in a holding pattern
around an airport
As they study the screen,
the plane continues to turn
It is now tilted at 45° ...
...which is steeper than what it was build for
Suddenly, the command bars disappear
from the primary flight display
The crew no longer have any information
about course or heading
The plane is flying 650 km/hr and banking hard
Like a quick turn in a sport-scar,
the dramatic movement of the airplane
begins to push every one into their seats
Guys!
The A310's AUTOPILOT works to keep the plane aloft
Suddenly, the nose pitches up
The increased G-force makes it difficult
for Piskaryov to reach the controls
With one hand, he does his best...
...but nothing happens.
Piskaryov's hard turn to the left
has had no effect on the plane
Hold it,
hold the control column
Eldar is the only one
with both hands on the controls
He can only follow the most basic orders
He cannot give up because the speed of the turn
is pushing him back into his seat
Turning to the left
To the left!
To the left, not to the right
The other way
I am turning it left
Okay, get out!
Eldar has been in the pilot seat
for just over 4 minutes
and now he cannot leave
His body feels twice its normal weight
Get up, get out!
Kudrinsky can do nothing
but struggle against the crippling G-forces
The airplane is plunging towards Siberia
and there is nothing anyone can do
Crawl out to the back
Get out
Russian Airlines flight 593 to Hongkong
is in serious trouble
The pilot's 15 years old son
has been at the controls for 4 minutes
The plane is turning steeply,
and losing altitude
The other way!
Captain Kudrinsky desperately needs
to get back into the pilot's seat
but he can barely move
The plane is turning so steeply and so quickly,
the G-forces on his body make it feel
like it is twice its normal weight.
Everyone on board now feels the force
of the plane's dramatic movements
Realizing there is a serious crisis,
Captain Danilov tries to return to the cockpit.
But he too is squashed by the powerful forces
created by the plane's extreme banking.
The plane still is not responding
To add to their confusion
an alarm begins to sound
It signals the complete shut down of the AUTOPILOT
The plane is now completely in the hands of Eldar
And to make matters even worse,
there is another alarm.
The other way
The plane is about to stall
An automatic safety system kicks in
to keep the plane flying
It lowers the nose
and puts the Airbus into a
steep dive to regain speed
The plane dives at a frightening 200 m/s
For people on board, it is like
having an elevator fall out from under them
In just seconds, the heavy pressure
of the high speed turn
is replaced by a mere weightlessness
As the plane suddenly drops away
it is now a very dangerous environment
People and objects that are not secured
will land anywhere, once gravity returns
They had been flying at 10,000 meter...
...but now, they are falling fast
Unless the crew does something quickly,
the plane will hit the
ground in less than a minute
Piskaryov yanks back on the
control column as hard as he can
to pull the Airbus out of the dive
The airplane's nose finally turns up
and the aircraft begins climbing quickly
Gravity now returns with a shock
As the plane climbs, the rapid acceleration
pushes people down relentlessly
The dramatic change in speed makes everyone
feel 4 times heavier than normal
Meanwhile, 1st Officer Piskaryov is still trying
to gain control of the airplane
This pulled the Airbus out of his dive,
but it is climbing too quickly
The engines on the A310 don't have enough power
to push it almost vertically in to the sky
Their airspeed drops dramatically
The plane strains to climb,
but it has been pushed too far
As normal gravity returns,
Kudrinsky leaps into action
But Piskaryov has stalled the plane
The nose drops into a corkscrew dive
Now the Airbus is twisting towards the ground
from 6,000 meter
at a breathtaking 70m/s
For the first time
since the crisis began
Captain and copilot can work
together to save the plane
Kudrinsky pumps the rudders,
which control a vertical flap on the tail
that helps slow the spin
At last, the airplane's dive is slowing down
Working the rudders,
Kudrinsky has nearly stopped the corkscrew dive
After a desperate struggle
the two pilots have managed to pull
the plane out of its terrifying spin
They are level,
but still not completely in control
We will get out of this,
everything is fine
Easy, we will be back
In all of the chaos of the passed 6 minutes
the pilots don't know exactly
how far they have fallen
and suddenly, they ran out of time
SU 593, this is Novokuznetsk area control
Please, come in
Air Traffic controllers in Russia have
lost contact with the passengers jet,
bound for Hongkong
Their worst fears are soon confirmed.
Less than 2 hours later the
first search-party goes out
to look for the Airbus in the
frozen rugged Siberian wilderness
They finally locate the remains
of Flight 593 on a wooded hillside,
about 100 km East of Novokuznetsk
It is soon clear there are no survivors
among the 75 passengers and crew
This was a brand-new airplane,
fitted with the latest technology
What could have brought it down?
Why was there no warning?
Not even a distress signal
The Russian media are quick to speculate
Could it have been a terrorist bomb?
When I was in Moscow,
the news we had but it could
have been a terrorist act
because we had
terrorist acts on aircraft previously
I was completely unaware
other then that nobody had survived it.
For some time,
they didn't tell me anything specific
and only on the next day
the airline director told me
there is no hope, whatsoever
It was a horrible moment, of course
It is hard to believe
Aeroflot flies the families of the deceased
out to Moscow
Amongst them is Brenda Clark,
a mother of British passenger Mark Newport
we met my daughter in law there
They told us:
we cannot get down there
She said:
You cannot get down there, Benda
because the Chinese are down there,
They have to
she said that down there
That is when I knew they've lied to me
And that is when I told them I wanted to go down
When you don't take me down,
then I will take a lift
The authorities take them
to where the accident happened
Relatives of Chinese victims drop
pieces of paper with messages, written on them
Others throw flowers
Yeah, that was really moving
We had the flowers, they had the paper
They wrote messages on these pieces of paper
And they threw them out, lovely
The families are taken to a Mort,
near the crash site
where the recovered bodies are being held
Many are too badly mutilated to be identified
They ask the families to look at recovered bits
of clothing to help identify the bodies
Brenda Clark finds her son's family photographs
It sense a chill through her
For the first time she knows for certain
he was on that flight
The recovery operation gets on their way
The Russian government mobilizes 238 soldiers,
police, investigators and rescuers
Everyone in the aviation-world wants to know
how a brand-new state of the art Airbus
could fall out of the sky without any warning
Does the Airbus A310 have
problems no one knows about?
They need to find out fast
Chief accident investigator Ivan Mashkivsky
is in charge
The crash site itself offers few clues
The ones he does have are puzzling
Unbroken bottles of champagne...
...a flight attendant in an oxygen mask
and finally, the bodies of two children
thrown into the cockpit
The plane's digital FDR indicates
the engines were running when it hit the ground
He rules out engine failure
Mashkivsky needs the expertise of a man
who knows the A310 well
Someone who can also recreate the final flight
and find out what exactly went wrong
Vladimir Biriukov is an experienced test pilot
and crash investigator
at the Gromov Institute in Moscow
He is an expert on the A310 Airbus
Biriukov was directly involved in testing
and certifying the airplane,
prior to the Russians buying it
Because of the faith of this plane,
the faith of this airline
my first reaction was shock
How could such a thing happen?
All I knew was, that the plane had crashed
somewhere over Siberia
I remember spending a sleepless night, distraught
and trying to figure out
what might have happened
and what could have caused it
I think you should come and listen to this
Each investigation begins with
a complete analysis of the plane's CVR
This time, it reveals something disturbing
Now, come and sit in my seat,
would you'd like to?
Daddy, can I turn this?
Kudrinsky was in the pilot's seat, wasn't he?
Yeah, according to the diagram
Can I turn this a bit?
Yeah, but if you turn it to the left,
where will the plane go?
Left!
Again
Some years ago it wasn't unusual for people
to be invited up to the cockpit
Of course, since 9/11 it has become a lot tighter
You will find cockpit doors are locked
generally throughout the flight
Every country sets its own rules
as to who has the authority or
the access to the cockpit
In some countries, it is up to the captain
So the captain can invite guests up to the cockpit
but to have them actually manipulated
in the controls of an airplane,
regardless whether
they have people on it or they are not
The fact that this was allowed to occur
is definitively exception in the industry
The two investigators are stunned
by what they hear on the CVR
It is unbelievable
These two youngsters,
the ones that we could not identify
They were not thrown into the cockpit by the crash
They were his kids
And they were flying the plane
The investigators are speechless
How could three experienced pilots
allow children to fly a commercial airliner?
There are about to learn things even worse
The children are only part of the problem
A little known feature of the plane proved deadly
Why is it turning?
Is it turning by itself?
Russian investigators listen to the CVR
of an Aeroflot Airbus that has crashed in Siberia
What they hear makes their blood run cold
You should understand the frame of mind
of the father
He is very proud of what he is doing
He invites his kids into the cockpit
Strictly speaking, it is a violation, of course
But I know such violations do occur in life
I am not condemning him or defending him here
but I'm trying to say is that no disaster occurs
for just any single reason
there is always more than one,
all coming together
But this time,
it really does look like a single cause:
A child flying the plane
and it sends shock waves
to Aeroflot's higher echelons
Investigators feel the pressure
The media has learned
that Eldar was at the controls
Aeroflot, trying to polish its Soviet era image
wants to minimize the damage
Boris Rybak is an aerospace consultant in Moscow
Aeroflot managers and executives
indeed tried to conceal results
and tried to downplay
the importance of this accident
because it was very embarrassing
Managers at Aeroflot are not the only ones
following the investigation.
Airbus, the company who made the plane,
is also intensely interested
Ivan, what is wrong?
Nothing
If the accident was caused by Eldar,
it will vindicate Airbus
At the same time,
grieving families are also glammering for answers
For Mashkivsky and his team,
it is a delicate balance
There is always more than one reason
for a plane to crash
We must find it
I will do my best
His reputation, the reputation of Airbus,
as well as Aeroflot
all now depends on finding this other cause
This was an international flight
It was a Western build aircraft
and it was inevitable that the investigation
that would be conducted by the authorities
and the inquiries that would be
conducted by claimant lawyers
would expose information
At the same time the manufacturer of the aircraft
the Airbus industry
was very keen to get
as much realistic explanation of what happened
because the reputation of this aircraft
was at stake
What I objected to was the way I was treated
by Aeroflot after the accident
They would not tell us anything
what was going on
They denied everything,
I wanted to know where my son died
I wanted to know
why these men had been allowed to do such a thing
but our regard from Aeroflot was
blank, blank, blank
Every time we tried to find something out,
they just didn't want to know
Families aren't the only ones
desperate for answers
Vladimir Biriukov continues
trying to learn all he can
about why the Airbus fell out of the sky
By analysing information from the FDR,
he can trace and repeat every command,
given to the aircraft during the flight
We were trying to get
as close to the truth as possible
to find the cause,
because that was the precedent
the first foreign produced plane
to crash while flying for a Russian airline
The investigation confirms the AUTOPILOT was on
when the plane got into trouble
Even with the children in the cockpit,
the plane should have flown on course
What went so terribly wrong?
So, have we new developments?
We can discount Kudrinsky's daughter
She sat in the chair, but she didn't fly the plane
At 17:47 and 6 seconds,
Captain Kudrinsky tells her not
to touch the AUTOPILOT switch
Her father gave the AUTOPILOT the command to turn
while Yana just rested her hands
lightly on the controls
But when Eldar took the controls,
Biriukov discovers that something
dramatically different happened
No one could possibly have guessed,
not even the three pilots in the cockpit,
Biriukov may have found the key to the puzzle
The plane's FDR
shows that 2.5 minutes before the crash
while Eldar was at the controls
the AUTOPILOT partially disconnects
This is the start of all of the plane's troubles
but how did that happen?
The AUTOPILOT is a sophisticated computer
which manages speed, altitude and heading.
Altitude and heading are controlled
by three key functions
The rudder, which controls sideways movement
The elevator, which controls vertical movement
And the ailerons, which are for turning
On flight 593, the AUTOPILOT
had disconnected itself from the ailerons
in the AUTOPILOTS that were used
in transport airplanes years ago were an ON/OFF
In today's sophisticated flight-management systems
you can literally take fragments of the AUTOPILOT
and disengage them, but not necessarily
turn the switch OFF and turn it all off
Unless you want to.
The question that really worries
accident investigator Biriukov is:
how did the AUTOPILOT
become partially disconnected?
There is no mention of it in the Voice Recordings
If this is a fault in the aircraft,
it could prove fatal for future flights
The only way to know for certain,
is to reconstruct the accident on a simulator
at Airbus industries headquarters
in Toulouse, France
Biriukov's experience
is a test-pilot
and his detailed knowledge of the
A310 are crucial to the investigation
Using information from the FDR,
Biriukov reconstructs the events
beginning at the moment Captain Kudrinsky
allows his son to sit at controls
A copilot will replicate Piskaryov's actions
Unlike his sister,
Eldar turns the wheel before his father
can tell the AUTOPILOT to turn the plane
The controls are stiff
because he is fighting the AUTOPILOT
In a simulator, Biriukov replicates
Eldar's every movement
Now it started to go...
...going...
...going...
There!
Holding it long enough and it disconnects
How long?
30 seconds
and it disconnects smoothly
No warning?
No one in the cockpit knows it,
but this is a critical moment
Eldar's resistance actually turns
part of the AUTOPILOT OFF
It takes just half a minute, but from here on,
Eldar is controlling the ailerons
Eldar is actually steering the plane
What seemed like an open and shut case,
is suddenly much more complex
The 15 year old flying the plane
isn't the only reason they crashed
The discovery highlights a dangerous flaw
and how pilots are trained on the A-310
Accident investigator Vladimir Biriukov
has finally discovered the
terrifying sequence of events
that made Aeroflot Flight 593 fall to earth
Captain Kudrinsky's 15 years old son
had turned the plane's steering wheel
against the programmed flight settings
This disconnected the AUTOPILOT (without warning)
from the ailerons,
the flaps which turn the plane.
Hold it long enough and it disconnects
The aircraft then began
an uncontrolled turn to the right
which got steeper and steeper
But why didn't anyone realize
the AUTOPILOT had disconnected?
Another peculiarity of the plane,
is that it has no alarm
signalling the disengaging
of the AUTOPILOT in the list channel
While our Russian planes
have an alarm sounding in such an event
So, I think that the captain
allowed the boy to do it
irregular as it was
believing that even if the AUTOPILOT
got disengaged
the crew would be alerted to that fact
But the A310 Airbus has only a small light
to tell the crew the AUTOPILOT has disconnected
There is no alarm
and the Russian crew
were obviously unaware of it
But there is also another reason why no one
realized what was happening
The AUTOPILOT still appeared
to be working normally,
because it was controlling
the plane's other functions
Although the plane is now banking,
the situation isn't yet critical
At this point, if the crew take the proper action
they can still stabilize the plane
Eldar is the first to notice
that the artificial horizon is at an angle.
The three musketeers don't understand this at all
After all, Kudrinsky returned the flight
to its AUTOPILOT heading
Vladimir Makarov is the first to offer
a possible explanation
It is going into some kind of zup
we are going into a zone,
a holding pattern
Have we?
Of course we have
Increasing 1°/sec
27°
Now we should be entering into a zone
What is that?
A strange arc now appears on the navigation panel
It looks like the course a plane would take
circling an airport
waiting to land
There appeared an arc very much resembling
the arc that appears on the display
when a plane enters a waiting zone
There are waiting zones around airports
When too many planes accumulate,
they enter such a zone and
circle around while they wait
But there could be no such a zone at that point
on the route
And yet we here on the CVR:
'Hey, we are entering a zone'
This false holding zone
distracts the crew for 9 seconds
In that time,
the plane crosses a critical threshold.
The Airbus is now banking at 45°,
far beyond its design limits
It cannot turn this steeply AND maintain height
It is now losing altitude fast
But the Airbus' AUTOPILOT
is no longer controlling the ailerons
Its other functions try to compensate
by pulling the plane's nose up
and accelerating to regain altitude
The drastic move pushes every one
back into their seats
It is on the verge of stalling
It starts to shake like a leaf
Part of the Flight Control Panel now goes dark
It is a warning sign that the plane has gone
beyond its design limits
From here on, the Airbus is out of control
By recreating the fatal flight
Biriukov has worked out
how a lapse in judgement and concentration
has resulted in a catastrophic crisis
But could the crew
have saved the plane and its passengers?
The pilots of Flight 593 try to bring
the plane out of its fatal dive
by pulling up on the nose
but they go to far,
the plane climbs steeply...
...and stalls
We are losing altitude
Now it started to spin,
so what do we do?
It is coming out of the corkscrew
Now, we are levelling out
In a moment, we will come out of the dive
All they had to do, was let go!
The plane has an in-build survival mechanism
which won't allow it to stall...
...even at a very low speed
But the pilot has to know that
The team's perseverance
for an open and honest investigation
did show that there was more
than one simple cause behind the accident
Their findings benefited the whole industry
especially the revelation that the AUTOPILOT
can partially disconnect
This remains a feature of the A310
as it enables pilots to control
certain elements of a flight
while leaving the rest to the computer
but crews are now made aware of this
Captain Kudrinsky's misfortune
is that it was triggered in a way that was
unexpected and difficult to detect
Within a year, the industry begins
offering pilots upset recovery training
teaching them skills to handle extreme situations
like the one on flight 593.
The tragedy of one trip to Hongkong
may have contributed something to the safety
of other passengers and crews
For parents and friends of those on board though
what happened that night
is never far from their minds
Adrian Deaville's body
was one of 23 that were never identified
Their remains were cremated together
by the Russian authorities
In my mind, he was asleep
and the is the way I deal with it
He didn't know much about it
The crew of the Airbus are buried
in Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow
in a hero's grave
next to the fire fighters who died at
the Tsjernobyl Nuclear plant
Yana and Eldar lie next to their father
I can imagine the horror they experienced
in their last moments
You knew there are not only
all those people depending on him
but also his own kids
Yes, it was a violation
Yes, he did it
But how it all happened
It was just a freak accident
a bizarre coincidence
I can forgive the pilot
I can forgive the children
(because they were innocent)
This man was 39 years old,
and for those 39 years,
he had an exemplary flying career
It was the final 5 minutes of those 39 years
that went a ride
Children should not be allowed in the cockpit
But it might stop things happening
in the future
Narrated by
Stephen Bogaert
Subtitles
Rein Croonen