Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 4, Episode 7 - Out of Sight - full transcript

due to the graphic nature of this program,

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East of Los Angeles

A calm Holiday weekend is shattered
by a devastating explosion

A neighbourhood is destroyed.

I turned inside my house,
totally on fire

All the houses behind me were all on fire.

Fiery wreckage is strune for blocks

Investigators must discover
why this airliner crashed

and find a way to stop it
from ever happening again.

This is a true story



The reconstructions are based
on eyewitness accounts,

CVRs and official reports

BROKKENPILOTEN S04E07
OUT OF SIGHT

Los Angeles International Airport,
LAX

is one of the busiest in the world

It is used by 40 million passengers each year

More than 1500 planes take off and land

More than 1500 planes take off and land
every day

It is August, 31st 1986,

Laborday Weekend

Today, a junior controller,
Walter White

will be handling some of that traffic

White isn't a full-fledged controller yet

He has to put in more time
before he gets his final certification



Hey, Carl,
How is it going?

Slow, slow slow

It was a long weekend

It was a beautiful day on Los Angeles,
it was absolutely clear outside

which we call chamber that day

Want to take a break?
Have a cigarette?

Walter wanted to work the sector

As I remember correctly,
he wanted to work proficiency time

He had worked a while

Several hundreds km South,
In Loreto, Mexico

passengers are boarding an Aeromexico DC-9.

Dr Donald Wong and his sons

are returning
from a highly successful fishing trip.

Jason, I think we should put it up in the kitchen

They caught an enormous shellfish

which they plan to display back home

Labor day weekend
was the last weekend before school was to start

Donald decided that it would be fun
to take the boys fishing down to Mexico

to go deep sea fishing,
which he had only done one at a time in his life

This would be alike father-son bonding weekend

it was also the first time that
they had travelled without me

Just East of LA, the suburban city of Cerritos
wakes up slowly

In the 1970's,

this buzzing community has been one
of the fastest growing in Los Angeles County

My husband had been working out of town all week

He was coming home for the weekend

That Sunday morning we decided:
Let's just stay home and not go to church

I'm getting to go out and
get your favourite things for a good breakfast.

Javier,
go and take a shower

I left to go to the grocery store

In the home was Alex, he was 14

his twin sister Anjelica

she was asleep, he was asleep, still

and Javier, that was my 16 year old

and my husband

As Estrada leaves on her errand
Aeromexico Flight 498 is just 20 minutes from LA

Captain Arturo Valdes Prom is acting as a copilot
as they approach the city.

First officer Jose Valencia
is piloting this leg of their journey.

About 22 km South of LAX sits the Torrance Airport

operating in the shadow of LAX,

Torrance services private planes
and amateur pilots

It is one of several small airports
that operate near LA

A region that has over 6000 weekend flyers

At the end of a busy summer,

William Kramer,
his daughter Caroline and wife Kathleen

are finally taking to the skies

Piper 4891,
all cleared to take off

Good Morning, Piper 4891,
this is Torrance Tower

You are cleared for take off of runway...

They are heading to Big Bear Lake

about 200 km North East

A meticulous man , William Kramer
is an executive for an engineering company

6 years ago, at the age of 47

Kramer bought his first airplane,
a stylish and swift Piper Cherokee.

South East of LAX,
the crew of AM Flight 4891

is still a few minutes from their first contact
with air-traffic controller Walter White

but in the skies above Los Angeles

a deadly series of events is about to unfold.

Dozens of people who have never met
will be bound together forever

in a tragedy that will effect everyone who flies.

August 31st, 1986

Laborday weekend

Just South of Los Angeles,

William Kramer and his family are
finally on their way for a long awaited holiday

Just an hour to go and we are in Big Bear Lake

As the Torrance Airport recedes behind him,

Kramer begins climbing to 3,000 m
on his way North East to Big Bear Lake

Several kilometres away,

a half full DC-9 from
Mexico is approaching LAX

It is not a busy morning

and one by one arrivals,
Controller White guides his planes in safety

At 11:47 AM,
he gets his first call from Aero-Mexico 498

Los Angeles approach,
Good morning, this is Aero-Mexico 498

Aero-Mexico 498, Los Angeles approach,

25L,
final approach course

The jet is now officially inside
what is known as the terminal control area

Or TCA

Sometimes referred to as the birdcage

The TCA is a complex piece of 3-D airspace
around the airport

It is restricted airspace that is normally
found around heavily congested airports

or hub airports
where the traffic density is extremely high

and you need to control
the access into and out of that airspace

As the Aero-Mexico plane descends,

William Kramer and his family continue climbing

I hope it is like this when we get to Big Bear

We should be able to see the ocean by now

Honey, take a look at the map
look around the 45 and see if you could see any

any kind of landmarks that we can use

Walter White is keeping his eye
on the Aero-Mexico-jet

when his attention is abruptly drawn to
another plane that has just appeared on his radar

It is not one he is expecting

One approach, 66R
Flight from Fullerton

cruising altitude is 4,500
we'd like following

The pilot of a small Grumman Tiger

asks White to help him guide
him through the crowded TCA

Pilots are supposed to contact LAX approach
before they enter the controlled airspace.

This pilot could be in the path of incoming jets

but before White can deal with the private plane

he gets a call from the Aero-Mexico DC-9

What speed do you want

We are reducing to 290...

No, 2190

White decides to give the Aero-Mexico jet
the runway closest to their gate

Roger 498

With the DC-9 on hold,
White turns to the intruder

Grumman 66R,
remain clear of the TCA!

White tells the pilot of the Grumman
to use a unique radio channel

but he seems confused

50 or are they two numbers?

00:10:48,988 --> 00:10:51,956
66R, are you at 4,500 ft now?

Negative, we are at 3,400 and climbing

OKAY, you are right in the middle of the TCA, sir

Grumman 66R and I suggest in the future
that you look at your TCA chart

You just had an aircraft,
passing at your left above you at 5,000

and we run a lot of jets,
right through there at 4,500 ft

Well, what do you suggest I do now?

As the crew of Aero-Mexico flight 498
continue to close in the airport

their DC-9 is rocked by a violent shutter

First Officer Valencia tries desperately
to control their dive

This cannot be

A crippled DC-9 falls
from the skies over Los Angeles

Fighting to control their jet,

the captain and First Officer have no
idea what has happened to their plane

Air Traffic Controller Walter White
is getting no response from the Aero-Mexico jet

And now, he cannot find it on his radar-screen.

I am sitting there,
talking with the departure controllers

Not really thinking,
I hear Walter say something like

I think I lost one

Aero-Mexico 498, Los Angeles approach

Where was Aero-Mexico?

at this point,
we weren't absolutely sure what has happened

White calls to an incoming jet for help

American 333,
want you take a look around 11 o'clock?

I just lost contact with a DC-9

11 O' clock, 5 miles

What altitude?

he is no longer on my radar-scope, AA333

OKAY, I see a very large smoke stream
on the left side of the aircraft about 11 O' clock

I went down the street
to go down to my house

and I saw a woman's head

Her body had been cut in a diagonal
and she was just laying there

There is nothing but debris and fire
spread across all over the place

I could see fire in the whole neighbourhood

Nearby, an engine from a local fire station
had been on a training exercise

led by fire-captain Larry Hambleton

All of a sudden,
one of the firemen tapped on my shoulders

There is smoke after our left

So, I picked up the microphone
and made a guess at the address

responding to a large fire,
North of 91 North of Carmenita

I came back and I said:
Wow, we got a report of an airliner down

So I upgraded the response to triple
what I had initially asked for

As we approached,

I realized that, in addition to
the aircraft parts in the street

there were people, body parts

which changed the complexion of the whole thing.

Hello!

At Los Angeles approach,
Walter White, deeply shaken by the crash

is relieved of duty

I remember watching Walter get up

and walking out of the room by himself

and something inside of me was just saying:

This is not right,

This is not right,
somebody has to go with him

Tony, you cannot go out alone

I could have been sitting there
just as easy as him

And I don't know if I had done anything different
than he did.

Helicopter news crews are quickly on the scene

There was a lot of fire in front of me

and my house was totally on fire

Frank,

Anjelica,

Javier

When I saw my neighbour,

Where are they?

I said to her, Rose where is my family?

What happened?

And she goes:
Oh, honey, your family is in here

We are looking for you

I think to myself: all I could do is
thank God, they are safe and sound

She took me into her home
and I saw Alex

What happened?

Where is Anjelica?

Where is Javier?

Where is Papa?

No, mama, I'm sorry

He started crying right away
and said: mama,

Sorry, I am the only one that came out alive

And all i could do was hugging.

Pieces of fuselage have torn to nearby homes,
setting them in fire.

The tail-section of the jet has been catapulted
more than a block from the crash-site

Hello!

Is there anybody in here?

As I surveyed the houses
and the crash site around me

it was a very surreal experience
to stand right there,

for probably 4 or 5 minutes
before anybody else showed up

and not seeing another living soul.

There are no survivors, just fatalities

I dealt with dead on 2 or 3 people
in a residential fire

but never a whole airliner fall on people

I don't think I ever saw a whole human being

The game of the job was finding body-parts
and covering them with yellow rescue-blanket

No matter whatever so small,
a hand or a torso or a leg, whatever

That became life to us

it was treated with respect

My memory of the incident is in
a muted shade of brown

It is not black and white,
it is not a definite color

The grass is not green,
the houses don't have paint

all some muted brown shade

I'm told that is my brains a way of
taking something violent and horrible

and softening it a little bit
so I can live with it and deal with it

16 houses have been damaged

many of them completely destroyed

At Los Angeles International Airport,
Mary Wong is waiting for her husband

and two young sons.

You are thinking
Customs might take a little while

Maybe 12:20 or 12:30 I started seeing
a man walk around

with a pack on his back
with a green cross

We were taken up to a lounge upstairs

and on the elevator up
I looked at the man and said:

They are dead

I just know they are gone

In Cerritos, emergency workers are shocked
by another grizzly discovery

In the playground of a local school

they find the wreckage
of a Piper Cherokee Archer

remarkably intact,
the plane's canopy is sliced off

Its three occupants are found still belted
into their seats

William Kramer and his family are dead.

All the passengers and crew
on Aero-Mexico Flight 498 are also dead.

Another 15 people on the ground have been killed

It is a horrifying situation.

Two planes have crashed
into a Californian neighbourhood

Something has gone terribly wrong in the skies
above one of the biggest airports in the world

Now, investigators have to find out exactly
what has happened

On the last day of August 1986

a lazy Laborday weekend is shattered
by an enormous explosion

Two planes crash in LA county,
destroying several homes

It is a grisly scene,

bodies are scattered throughout
the devastated neighbourhood.

82 people are dead

15 people on the ground have been killed

Another 67 have died in the tangled wreckage
of the 2 planes involved

Investigators from the NTSB arrived that night

They include experts in human performance,
flight-systems

and Air-traffic Control

From the beginning,

investigators focus on the fact that
there are two planes on the ground

It suggests a disturbing conclusion
that this was a mid air collision

With that idea in mind,

John White and his team
has painstakingly examined the wreckage

It is more of
documenting where the major pieces were

and then looking at the pieces to see
if you can determine how the aircraft were angled

the aircraft may have come together at.

Propeller marks on the tail of the DC-9,
and paint from the Piper Cherokee

reveal how the planes crashed.

It looks like
the Piper collided at the tail section of the DC-9

To piece together the tragedy,
investigators examine the DC-9's FDR

It helps them pin-point the exact location
and altitude of Aero-Mexico Flight 498

The DC-9 was inside the TCA,

the restricted airspace of the Los Angeles Airport

It was right where it was supposed to be

But the Piper Cherokee was also
inside the Terminal Controlled Area

With all of the jets taking off and landing at LAX

private planes must first get permission
to enter this area

Piper 4891

All clear for take off Torrance

William Kramer was a newcomer to Los Angeles

but investigators learned that
he was well aware of the limits,

imposed by the Terminal Control Area

He knew that it was restricted airspace

And in the cockpit of Kramer's Cherokee
the confirmation:

Investigators find a map of the TCA

Investigators make another puzzling discovery

They learned that Kramer's proposed flight-plan
took him from Torrance to Long Beach

Then up to Ontario

and finally to Big Bear Lake

At a cruising altitude of 3,000 meter

that plan keeps him well out
of the Terminal Controlled Area.

The fact and the matter is

The Cherokee flew
into the Terminal Controlled Area

and hit the DC-9

A restricted airspace without a clearance

So, how had Kramer flown into danger?

And why hadn't he let anyone know?

On the ground in Cerritos,
one possible answer emerges

Are you alright. Bill?

Heart disease runs in Kramer's family

and the initial autopsy-result
shows a major blockage

Samples of William Kramer's heart-tissue

were sent to the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology for testing

If he suffered a heart attack,

it might explain why
he didn't call in to LA approach

It is totally possible
that he could have had a heart-attck

fell back, pulled the airplane up

and that is why he didn't try and avoid the DC-9

But nomatter why
Kramer was flying in restricted airspace

Air Traffic Controller Walter White
should have been able to see him

Kramer's plane should have appeared
on White's radar

Before he is questioned
by investigators,

White reviews the radiocalls
from that morning

He needs to be sure
of what he said

and what he saw.

Richard Wentworth was one of the investigators
who talked to White

At any time

did you see the Piper Cherokee on your scope?

No!

No, sir,
the Piper was not displayed

It is my believe
that it was not on my radar scope

He was positive

that the aircraft was not
there for him to see

NTSB investigators are not satisfied
with White's memory

While the radar data is being analysed,

news arrives from
the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

about William Kramer's heart

Results from a detailed study of his body show
that wwhile he had an advanced heart disaese

William Kramer was not fighting a heart-attack
before the collision.

Investigators must find
another explanation

for why the Kramer's flight went
into the Los Angeles TCA

While he had submitted a flight-plan,

small planes like Kramer's Cherokee
don't have sophisticated instruments

Like most private pilots,
Kramer was navigating by landmarks, like free-ways

That meant keeping an eye
both on the landscape below

and the airspace around him

New to California,

perhaps bewildered by the
tangle of freeways below him

Kramer may have flown into the TCA
without knowing it.

There are no lines on the ground that says:
The Terminal Controlled Area starts here

and at this altitude
you have to look at a chart

You have to interpret that

Investigators are now confident
they can explain why Kramer was inside the TCA

But when he finally gets a look
at the ATC radar record

Richard Wentworth is convinced that Walter White
should have been able to see the Piper

We were able to determine that the aircraft
that collided with AM498

was there to be seen

So why hadn't White reacted
to the Kramer's plane if it was on his radar?

When Walter White came to work that day

the arrival station was being controlled
by Karl Grundmann

Grundmann believes that low sending radarproblems
were the reason

why White didn't see
the Kramer's plane

Controllers have been complaining
about the radars for a long time

We had reported problems with the radar
not picking up targets,

several times.

When radar signals strike a target

they bounce back to the receiver

But if buildings or mountains interrupt the radar

the return signal can disappear.

A blind spot is only an instantaneous thing,

it is not a continuous thing.

I think I lost one

There are also holes that were
just because the radar was old

It was just not as accurate as it might have been

It was not state of the art equipment,
that is for damn sure.

We reviewed that data

We had no evidence that there were
any malfunctions of any systems

in Los Angeles

There is another possible explanation

If the Cherokee had appeared on the radar

White still could have missed it

Investigators focus on the other plane in the sky
that day:

The Grumman Tiger

Private planes are required to contact ATC
if they are entering the TCA

But the Tiger was already deep into the Terminal
Controlled Area before it radioed Walter White

One approach 66R flight from Fullerton

The cruising altitude is 4,500
we'd like following

Grumman 66R, you are at 4,500 ft now?

Negative, we are at 3,400 and climbing

OKAY, you are right in the middle of the TCA, sir

There was an aircraft that was East of the airport
which he became involved in.

That was what they called a violator

Grumman 66R, I suggest in the future
you look at your TCA chart

The problem with the conversation
between the controller

and the pilot of the Grumman is
that it went on too long.

Why were you so mesmerized by the Grumman?

I thought he posed a risk

This occurred during a critical time at which

the two aircraft to the SouthWest of his display

which was the AeroMexico and the Cherokee...

...were merging

But even if the Cherokee's signal
did appear on White's radar

and even if he seen it

investigators discover that White still
would not have had all the information he needed.

Radar signals only show controllers
that a plane is in range.

Transponders on planes
can broadcast other information

including height and speed.

But at the site of the Cherokee wreckage

investigators discover
the plane's transponder is a basic model

It only sends out information
of the plane's direction

It povides no information
about the plane's altitude.

So, these controllers were pretty much used

to see a little triangle which represented
the VFR aircraft with no altitude read-out

diverging all over the place

And the lesson they learned,
first hand from the pilot

They had an expectation that
the aircraft would not intrude into that airspace

Investigators believe that
White's divided attention

perhaps made worse by an older radar system

explains why he never warned the DC-9
of the danger, posed by Kramer's Cherokee

But there is another mystery
that hasn't been solved

Studying the radar records from that day

NTSB investigators are startled by what they find

Neither the crew of the DC-9,
nor the pilot of the smaller Cherokee

took any evasive action before the crash

Both pilots appear completely unaware
of each other

Why hadn't the pilots of either airplane reacted?

Visibility was over 20 km.

How could two planes collide
in the clear blue sky?

A terrifying mid-air collision over a
Los Angeles suburb takes the lives of 82 people

The day of the disaster, the sky was clear.

A major question in the investigation has become

Why didn't the two planes takes action
to avoid the collision?

The radar information paints a puzzling picture

It indicates that for more than a minute,

the Kramer's Cherokee was there to be seen
by the Aero-Mexico crew

And if the Kramers had looked
out their right-side window

they would also have seen the Aero-Mexico jet

But neither plane altered its course.

Neither plane took any action
to avoid the deadly collision.

Investigators believe that
if William Kramer was indeed lost

and using the highways as a guide,

he might never have seen the approaching DC-9

The window he would have been looking out
was the pilot's window

but the DC-9 was coming from the other direction

For the crew of the DC-9,
the very size of the much smaller Cherokee

could have prevented them from seeing the plane
before it was too late

In some cases,
when the small aircraft is closing very rapidly

by the time the aircraft becomes large enough
for you to easily see it

it is almost too late to avoid the collision

The design of the cockpit wind-shield
may also have contributed to the disaster

It is possible that during part of the approach,
at least for one of the pilots,

the aircraft was actually behind the centerpost
unless the pilot moved his head back and forth

to clear that airspace.

Unless he had a reason to do that,

it is possible the aircraft was
obscured during part of the time

in which he might have had a chance
of seeing the other aircraft

The disaster over Cerritos reveals
several tragic weaknesses in the ATC-system

One of the most glaring

was that pilots could not be relied on
to see and avoid each other.

They'd need new technology
to keep a mid-air collision from happening again.

A small Californian neighbourhood is rocked
by a terrifying plane crash

82 people are killed when
a private plane slams into a large passenger jet.

The devastation is enormous

More than a dozen homes are damaged,
several levelled completely

The NTSB accident report makes it clear

that there are glaring problems
across the Air Traffic system

and these concerns must be
addressed before inevitably

there is another mid-air disaster.

The FAA, which regulates the airline-industry
in the United States

acted swiftly
to improve safety around major airports.

A new kind of transponder was required
for smaller planes:

the kind that might have helped
air traffic controllers

recognize that the private aircraft
posed the danger.

If you had an aircraft that flew
under controlled airspace

you would have a transponder and you
would be required to have altitude,

in coding or reporting

That way there would be no mistake

as to whether you had in an intruder in eye

A new system, called Mode C Intruder
was also developed

to warn Air traffic Controllers

Mode C Intruder is
an automated program

that is now incorporated
in all our major radar facilities

That if an aircraft should inadvertently intrude

the controller will now be given
a visual and an aural alert

thus giving him time
to give a warning to the pilot

Even for the most diligent pilot

the old strategy of see and avoid
had serious limitations

Those limitations would be addressed
by the most important innovation of all

The major technological innovation
that came out of the Cerritos mid-air

was the congressional mandate
that all air-carried aircraft

operating within the United States
would be outfitted with TCAS

Traffic Collision and Avoidance System

John Andrews worked on the team
that developed TCAS

The TCAS that which was under development

quite possibly could have prevented this accident.

TCAS gives the pilot a traffic advisory
45 seconds before the potential collision

And then, approx. 25 seconds
before the potential collision,

a resolution advisory is given to actually
tell the pilots to climb or descend

to avoid the altitude of the other aircraft

Today, commercial airlines around the world
use TCAS

The pilot of the Grumman Tiger,
the so called 3rd pilot

who's action may have played a part in the crash

was eventually charged for
flying into controlled airspace

in a careless and
reckless manner

For Walter White,
the effect of the disaster over Cerritos

could not be overcome.

Walter came back

and I think it was probably a month or so later

I cannot give you exactly how long he stayed there
but it was not very long

and he just got up and said:

No!

No, thank you!

And as far as I know,
he didn't talk to airplanes again

Within a year of the incident,
the old radars at LAX were replaced.

In Cerritos, a memorial garden now
marks the day of the disaster

Mary Wong has since remarried

but the pain of returning home that day
will never go away.

There is nobody here

the house is empty

Derrick was already living
in an apartment in San Diego

and here I was,
I was no longer a mother,

except to Derrick

And I was no longer a wife

and so it shattered my whole world.

Days after the disaster,

Mary Wong found one of the few people
who could fully understand her loss

I went to the memorial service

it was very important to try to meet
somebody else who had gone through this

I knew from reading stories that
Theresa had lost her husband and two children

So I saw someone there,
who I thought it was Theresa

She said: Are you Theresa Estrada?

She said, well, my name is Mary Wong,
and she says:

I lost my husband and children also

I just wanted to grab her and hug her

because...

...she was feeling what I was feeling.

So, we had an immediate connection

we maintained our friendship over these 20 years

Everyone who flies today has been affected
by the mid-air collision over Cerritos

The disaster led to historic improvements
in aviation safety.

Since the full adoption of TCAS

there has not been another mid air collision
in North America.

Narrator
Stephen Bogaert

Subtitles
Rein Croonen