All language subtitles for Mayday.Air.Disaster.S25E01.Pacific.Ditching.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BLOOM_track3_[eng]

We can't keep going down.

Above the Pacific Ocean,

the pilots
of Transair Flight 8-10

can't get their cargo plane
to climb.

- Just hitting the water is
gonna tear the airplane apart.

- We're in the water.
We're in the water!

Remarkably,

they survive the crash and
are rescued by the Coast Guard.

- They're covered in gasoline
and hydraulic fluid.

So it wasn't pretty.

Investigators
are eager to interview the crew.

- Did both engines fail
at the same time?

- Most likely.
That's my conclusion.

The evidence
does not support
the pilot's assessment.

- It looks fine.

No internal damage.

- So it was critical for us
to get more information

to better understand
what had happened here.

Mayday! Mayday!

It's the middle
of the night

at Daniel K. Inouye
International Airport

in Honolulu, Hawaii.

- Okay.

Let's see.

Crews have just
finished loading cargo

for Transair Flight 8-10.

- Okay, thank you.
See ya.

The captain of
tonight's flight is Henry Okai.

He has almost
16,000 flying hours.

- So this captain is highly
experienced in the aircraft,

been doing it for a while.

- Engine start checklist.

- Engine start checklist.

Tail stand.
- Removed.

- Cargo.

First Officer
Gregory Ryan is a lawyer

who recently returned to flying
part-time for Transair.

- It's not necessarily the best
pilot career, straight up,

but you do get to be in Hawaii.
You get to fly an airplane.

- Engine start checklist
complete and...

...clear right.

- Clear right.

Transair flights
use Rhoades Express
as a call sign.

- Tower, Rhoades Express
8-10 Taxi Kilo.

- Rhoades Express 8-10,
Honolulu tower,

runway 8 right, taxi via
Charlie Romeo Tango Romeo Alpha.

Transair is
owned and operated

by Rhoades Aviation,

which transports cargo
between the Hawaiian Islands.

- They had the postal contract,
which was quite lucrative.

Their focus was on keeping
their costs down

to maintain their advantage
over more and well-established
competitors.

The plane is
a Boeing 7-37-200

built in the 1960's and 70's
for passenger travel.

Today,they're workhorses
for transporting cargo.

- Twin engine,
small aircraft,

it was designed
for short haul operations.

It wasn't very sophisticated.
No automation.

I loved flying that airplane.

The pilots
prepare for takeoff.

- Runway 8 right confirmed.

Before takeoff
checklist complete.

Rhoades 8-10,
cleared for takeoff.

- Runway 8 right, cleared
for takeoff, Rhoades 8-10.

Tonight's flight
is a short hop to Kahului

on the neighboring island
of Maui, only 100 miles away.

- Okay.
You have control.

- Okay. I have control.

At 1:33 a.m.,

Captain Okai hands over
the plane to first officer Ryan.

- Engines stable.

Eighty knots.

- Check.

- V-1...

Rotate.

- V2...

Positive rate.

Gear up.

Within seconds
of lifting off ...

- Damn!

- Lost an engine.

You got it?
- Yeah. I got it.

The pilots
have lost thrust

in one of their engines
only 390 feet off the ground.

- Losing an engine after takeoff
is one of the most critical
events

that can happen in a flight.

You're close to the ground,
you're slow.

However, we also know
from our training

that the aircraft will fly
perfectly well on one engine.

The first
officer levels the plane

and continues to climb away
from the airport.

- Flaps.

- Turn 2-20 heading.

I'll give you the flaps.

- Okay.

- Rhoades 8-10,
we have an emergency.

Standby.

We're on 2-20 heading.

You can inch up to 2,000.

The captain wants
to put more distance

between the plane and the ocean,

so they have space
to address the problem.

- Anytime you have an emergency
situation,

maintain aircraft control.
If you fail to do that,

nothing else you do matters.

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,
we've lost an engine.

We're on a 2-20 heading
maintaining 2,000.

Declaring an emergency.
How do you read?

- Rhoades Express 8-10,

you are cleared visual approach
runway four right.

You can turn in
towards the airport.

The controller
clears Flight 8-10
to return to the airport.

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,
we're gonna run a checklist.

I'll let you know when we're
ready to come to the airport.

Captain Okai wants
to assess the situation further

before returning
to the airport.

Flight 8-10 has been in the air
less than three minutes

flying over the Pacific Ocean
on a very dark night.

- Okay.
I have control.

- Roger.

- Okay, let's see
what's the problem.

What's going on with the gauges?

The pilots
troubleshoot the situation.

- So it looks like
the number one.

- Number one's gone?
- Gone, yeah.

We still have the number two.

- So we have number two.
Okay.

They confirm
they've lost their number one -

or left - engine.

They now must rely
on their right engine

to return to the airport.

- Let's do the engine failure
shutdown checklist.

And I have the radios now.
- Okay.

- There's a number of things
this checklist is gonna do
for you.

It's gonna confirm
the failed engine

and you're gonna wanna secure
that engine.

- Okay, engine failure
or shutdown

when one of these occurs - an
engine failure,

an engine flameout -
another checklist directs
an engine shutdown.

As the pilots
zero-in on the problem engine,

the situation intensifies.

- Hey, we're red line here.

The right engine
is now overheating

and they're losing altitude.

- We should pull back
on the right one a little bit.

- Okay.

- We should head back
to the airport.

- Yeah, we should.
Yeah.

The pilots now
face the possibility

of losing both engines.

- Problems on your second engine
is going to significantly change
your outlook

because you got the dark water
below you

and you know
you're running out of options.

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,

we'd like
to come to the airport now.

We might lose the other engine.

- Rhoades Express 8-10, roger.

Confirm you still have, uh,
the airport in sight.

- Uh, negative.

The pilots
have descended too low
to see the airport.

Only the lights on the shoreline
are visible.

- Hey man,
we're going down.

We can't keep going down.
- We're descending!

The captain has
no other option

but to increase power
to the overheating engine,

risking a double engine failure.

- How's the EGT?

- Ah, it's max.
It's beyond max.

The temperature
of the right engine is now
dangerously high,

and the pilots suspect
it could fail at any moment.

- Do we go flaps?
Flaps one?

Fearing the worst,

the first officer suggests

configuring the plane
for a water landing.

- No.
Not... not, not yet.

- Okay, we're very slow, though.

The Captain's
efforts to reduce the loss
in altitude aren't working.

- Shoot.
Okay, flaps one.

- Just hitting the water's
gonna tear the airplane apart

so you want to be at the lowest
possible airspeed.

The flaps will facilitate that.

- Oh.

Rhoades Express 8-10,
low altitude alert.

As Transair Flight
8-10 descends below 400 feet,

the controller is automatically
alerted to the aircraft's
dangerously low altitude.

- Are you able to climb at all?

- Uh, negative. Can you let
the Coast Guard know?

- We will.

Watch desk, please call
the Coast Guard.

Flight 8-10, a 7-37, is probably
going to be in the water.

- How's the EGT?

If the engine
temperature has improved,

they might be able to climb.

- Hot.
Way over.

Terrain. Terrain. Pull up.

The chances
of reaching the airport
six miles away

deteriorate as the plane
descends even further.

The controller has an idea.

- Express 8-10,
do you want Kalaeloa?

There's a closer airport.

It might be
the pilots' last hope.

- We want the closest runway
available, please.

- Anything we can land on.

If they can't
make it to the closer airport,

there might be
no other option

than to ditch the 7-37
into the Pacific Ocean

and hope for rescue.

Too low.
Gear. Too low.

- Okay, give me a heading.
Terrain.
Terrain. Pull up.

The pilots
of Transair Flight 8-10

have one last chance
to reach land.

- Rhoades Express 8-10,

the airport is about a
three one zero heading from you.

But it's too late.

Pull up.
Pull up. Pull up. Pull up.

Terrain. Terrain.
- We're in the water!

- Pull up.
- We're in the water!

12 minutes
after takeoff,

Transair Flight 8-10
hits the ocean

just two miles
from the Kalaeloa airport.

- Watch desk, 8-10's
in the water

two miles south-east
of Kalaeloa.

Coast Guard Air
Rescue is immediately
dispatched.

- Hearing that there's a 7-37
that crashed,
I didn't believe it.

But if there is and
there's 200 people in the water,

what am I gonna do?

- They told me two souls
onboard.

We're like alright, two's a lot
more manageable than like 200.

45 minutes later,

there's still no sign
of the plane, or the pilots.

Rescuers fear the worst,
until...

- There were a bunch of boxes
now floating by us.

I figured, alright, well,
this might be the start
of a debris field.

So we started our second pass,

and grabbing onto the vertical
fin of the tail

was one of our pilots.

It's Captain Okai.

- And I was like,
Alright, he is still okay.

Great. I still wanna find
the second pilot.

They soon spot
the first officer

on a cargo pallet,
bleeding from the head.

- Right before we started
to make the moves

to put me in the water to go up
to him, the plane moved.

The tail section
the captain had been clinging
to

sinks beneath the waves.

- The captain
is drowning right now.

They race back
and deploy the rescue swimmer.

- And as soon as
I grabbed his hand,

it's like his eyes rolled back
and he went limp.

- And they're dripping wet,
covered in gasoline

and hydraulic fluid,
so it wasn't pretty.

The first officer
is soon rescued

by a fire department vessel

as the captain is rushed
to a local hospital.

Both pilots survive.

- Good planning, good crew,
good decision-making

and then implementing
those decisions

is how we came out on top.

While the pilots
recover from their injuries,

investigators from the National
Transportation Safety Board

or NTSB,
arrive on the scene.

- Right now, we're in
the fact-gathering phase.

Once we finish
the fact-gathering,

we'll switch into
the analytical side

and then that's when we'll go in
to determine the probable cause

and contributing factors.

- What can you tell me
about last night?

- It was a normal night. Slow.

There was another Transair
flight inbound

around the same time.

- And when did Flight 8-10 alert
you that there was a problem?

Investigators
turn to the controller

to determine what might have
caused Transair Flight 8-10
to ditch into the Pacific.

- It was about, uh, two minutes
into the flight,

they reported
they'd lost an engine.

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,
we've lost an engine.

We're on a 2-20 heading,
maintaining 2,000,

declaring an emergency.
How do you read?

- They wanted to work on the
problem before turning back.

- Did they say
which engine?

- No. But not long after
they said that, uh...

they might lose the other engine
as well.

- Really?

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,

we'd like to come
to the airport now.

We might lose the other engine.

Could Transair 8-10
have really lost both engines?

- The only information we had to
go on initially was

the communications between
the airplane and the controller.

But the airplane
and its recorders

were at the bottom of the ocean.

- Thank you.

Another NTSB team
is tasked with recovering
the airplane

and its engines lying 350 feet
deep on the ocean floor.

- At the depth that the airplane
was at,

it's difficult to get divers
down there.

So in order to actually hook
all of our equipment

up to the aircraft
and pull it up,

we needed to use ROV's.

It will take time
for the investigation

to secure
the necessary equipment

from a salvage company
on the mainland.

- Good morning.
- Good morning.

- I'm glad to see you here.
- So am I, very glad.

Yeah.

Investigators meet
with Captain Okai

to determine if Transair Flight
8-10 did lose both engines.

- The purpose of this
investigation is to determine

probable cause
and prevent recurrence.

Our role is not to assign fault.

- I understand.

- It's critical to speak
to pilots as soon as we can

because we want
to get those fresh memories.

- Walk me through
what happened.

- Everything was normal
up to about 400 feet.

- Gear up.

Damn!

- There was a whoosh
sort of a sound, not a pow.

It was a whoosh.

Then it was in a roll.

And my first officer was able
to counteract that.

Lost an engine.

You got it?

- Yeah. I got it.

- Eventually we leveled off
at 2,000 feet

and I go,
"Greg, what do we have?"

- So it looks like
the number one.

- Number one's gone?
- Gone, yeah.

We still have the number two.

- So we have number two.
Okay.

I'm looking at Number 1 EPR,
there's no power.

I'm looking at Number 2,

and the EPR, it-it's,
it's coming down.

The captain
explains he first lost power

in the left engine and
was losing power in the right.

- How's the EGT?

- Ah, it's max.
It's beyond max.

- Did both engines
fail at the same time?

- Most likely.
That is my conclusion.

- Thank you.
- Thanks.

- We'll be in touch.

What could have
caused both engines to fail

so soon after take-off?

- The purpose of this
investigation...

- A dual-engine failure seemed
improbable,

but both the crew

seemed to agree that
that is what had occurred.

We couldn't confirm or deny it

unless we could actually
look at the wreckage

and get the recorders.

But those vital
clues remain out of reach,

deep on the bottom of the sea.

Could contaminated fuel

have brought down
Transair Flight 8-10?

- You're looking for an item
that's common to both engines,

would cause them both
to shut down at the same time.

For that would be
most likely the fuel.

- So one thing that we did do
at the airport

was take samples
from the fuel truck

that had been used to fuel
the airplane before it departed.

The US Navy
conducts the testing.

- If you have water
in your fuel,

that was most likely to be the
cause of fuel contamination.

When the fuel
samples are analysed,

the results are conclusive.

- We actually found that the
fuel that was in the aircraft

conformed to standards
as we would expect.

- So according to the pilots,

they lose the left engine
first and then the right.

- All the samples from
the fuel truck tested clean.

What was the weather like
on that night?

Any volcanic activity?

Hawaii is
in an active volcano zone.

Could volcanic ash
have caused the engines to fail?

- Volcanic ash
is very bad for jet engines.

It's like throwing sand
in the gears.

Jet engines will shut down.

In 1982,
a British Airways 7-47

traveling from England
to New Zealand

flew through an ash cloud
over Indonesia.

All four engines failed.

The plane was high enough
for pilots to be able to restart
the engines,

find an airport
and land safely.

- Nothing here.

Clear night.

- So that leaves maintenance.

- There were no reports
of volcanic ash on that night.

The only information that we
have to work on is what the crew
was telling us

that they had
a dual engine failure.

So we're gonna look at the
maintenance on the engines.

In the meantime,

recovery crews pinpoint the
exact location of the plane.

It has settled on the ocean
floor in two large pieces.

- Often with water recoveries,

we have an airplane that's
in multiple different pieces.

They're usually smaller pieces
and they're less heavy.

So to bring them up intact

was a bigger
engineering problem.

It means another
delay for investigators.

- The plane is, what, like
40-something years old?

The team digs
into the engine history
of the accident aircraft

to determine why both engines
might have failed.

- Uh, 46.

Flown over 69,000 cycles.

The engines have been around
too;

the left engine
32,000 flying hours

and the right over 70,000.

- Engines that old are
going to need upkeep.

- Jet engines
are very solid machines.

With proper inspection
and maintenance,

they can fly on forever.

- Anything in the FAA database?

Investigators look
into service reports

filed by Transair with the
Federal Aviation Administration,

or FAA, to see if
the aircraft had any history

of engine troubles.

- I've got three reports
on this aircraft.

The most recent

was two and a half years ago:

left engine failure
at 2,000 feet.

- That's something.

Did an aging
aircraft

put the lives of two pilots
in jeopardy?

The team researches the repair
work that's been performed

on the engines over the years.

- Both engines were serviced
two years ago

and underwent a daily check the
day before the accident flight.

- Did they report anything?

- No discrepancies.

- It's possible that maintenance
could have missed something.

- Call your contacts
at the FAA.

Maybe they can shed
some light on Transair.

And I'll speak
to maintenance personally.

- Because of the possibility
that there had been

a dual engine failure,

we did a deep dive
on the maintenance organization
at the airline,

trying to find
potential theories

for something
that could have gone wrong.

- A bit of a mess over there
at Transair maintenance.

- What did you find out?

- The chief maintenance
inspector quit six weeks
ahead of the accident

citing chronic maintenance
issues and being understaffed.

I also found multiple reports
from different pilots

about engines overheating.

Investigators
uncover internal
Transair reports

revealing issues
with the engines.

- We noticed so many of these
reported issues with temperature

that we were starting
to think

that this might really involve
a maintenance issue.

There was just so much smoke,

we thought there had
to be some fire.

Anything specific
to the accident aircraft?

- No. They involved
other airplanes.

Not exactly a smoking gun.

Anything from the FAA?

- Most of the current inquiries
into the company

are policy
and procedure related.

Nothing to do
with engine maintenance.

Investigators don't
find any maintenance issues

that would have brought down
Flight 8-10.

- We need those engines.

- So even though we were
discovering these issues
with pilot reports

and maintenance records,
there wasn't anything clearly
indicating a specific problem

that would have led to this
reported dual engine failure.

With a salvage
company in place

and the weather clearing,

the NTSB is finally able
to attempt the recovery

of Flight 8-10
from 350 feet of water.

- This was one of the largest
water recovery efforts we have
done in a couple decades.

The wreckage
is successfully raised

in two large pieces.

The black boxes are recovered
from the rear fuselage

and sent to Washington
for analysis.

The engines are retrieved
separately

and brought to a warehouse
for inspection.

- To be able to see that
wreckage come up just creates
immense satisfaction

because you're like, "Okay,
now... now we can start this
in earnest."

- Let's start with this one.

Investigators begin
with an examination

of the right engine, the one
the pilots say was overheating.

- It's in better shape
than I expected.

- They were
in pretty good shape.

There was damage due
to the water impact.

- Let's take a look inside.

They perform
a borescope inspection

of the right engine.

It enables them
to examine the engine interior

without the need
for disassembly.

- There.
Take a look.

- Broken fan blades.

- See if there's any damage
downstream.

- Multiple puncture marks
on the turbine.

- With that type of damage

the engine could have
easily overheated.

Investigators
discover two fractured
turbine blades

which caused shrapnel damage
inside the right engine.

- The pilots were correct.

The right engine
was giving them trouble.

- So from the examination
on the right engine,

they were able to see that there
were blades that had fractured

in the high pressure turbine.
But it was only those two.

And they knew that it would
still be able to produce power,

so it wasn't like
a complete failure.

- It looks like rust
and corrosion

inside of the blades
caused them to rupture.

- The routine maintenance
inspection procedures

contained
in the maintenance manual

would not necessarily
have revealed

the presence of cracks
or one fractured blade.

- So this is the engine
the pilots said failed first.

Investigators
turn their attention

to the left engine.

- Let's see what we got.

- It looks fine.

No internal damage.

The pilots said
the left engine failed,

followed by the right

but investigators
can't find anything wrong
with the left engine.

- When we found out that the
left engine was undamaged

prior to impact,

it really changed the course
of our investigation

in terms of focusing more
on the crew actions.

- We pulatfrom the radar .

- I've got the CVR data.

And here's...

a copy of the transcript.

Investigators turn
to the cockpit voice recorder,

or CVR, of Flight 9-10

to determine why the pilots
thought the left engine failed

as the evidence suggests
it did not.

- Let's hear it from takeoff.

80 knots.

- Check.

V1.

- Rotate.

- V2.

- Positive rate.

- Gear up.

Damn!

- Stop.
Did you hear that?

Play it again.

- Gear up.

- It definitely sounds
like an engine surge.

They discover
that Flight 8-10

suffered engine trouble
17 seconds after takeoff.

- Most likely the blades

breaking apart
in the right engine.

Keep playing.

Lost an engine.

You got it?
- Yeah. I got it.

- Yup, looks like
you lost number...

Number two.
- Number two.

- Hold it right there.

- They both said number two,
the right engine.

- They were correct.

The pilots' original assessment

matches what investigators
have discovered:

the initial problem was
with the right engine.

- So why did they think that
the left engine had failed?

- We were able to hear the crew
discuss they had correctly
identified the right engine.

So at some point, you know,
in their mindset,

it flipped to the wrong engine.

- Let's hear what happens next.

Flaps.

Turn 2-20 heading.

I'll give you the flaps.

- Rhoades 8-10.
We have an emergency.

Standby.

We're on 2-20 heading.

You can inch up to 2,000.

- The captain calls in
the emergency.

Tells the first officer
to climb to a safe altitude.

It all sounds good.

- We're on 2-20 heading.

Say again.
Heading two four zero.

- Two four zero
heading Rhoades 8-10.

- No, Rhoades eight zero nine.

Rhoades eight zero nine
left two four zero.

- It sounds like
there's some overlap

with another Transair Flight.

- According to these
transcripts,

the captain spends the
next minute and forty seconds

communicating
with the controller.

- That's a long time
in a critical moment.

Investigators learn
that instead of monitoring
the engines...

- Rhoades Express 8-10,
you are cleared visual approach

runway four right.

...the captain
is distracted

by a conversation
with the controller.

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,
we're gonna run a checklist.

I'll let you know when we're
ready to come to the airport.

- When you have
an emergency situation,

it is important to aviate,
navigate and communicate.

And your third priority is
communicating your emergency.

- What happens next?

- Okay. I have control.
- Roger.

Okay,
let's see what's the problem.

What's going on with the gauges?

- The captain starts flying
the plane

and turns his attention
to the engines.

- So it looks like
the number one.

- Number one's gone?
- Gone, yeah.

We still have the number two.

So we have
number two. Okay.

- Stop.

The FO changes his diagnosis.

Investigators confirm

that the first officer
correctly assesses

that the right engine
lost power on takeoff.

- Yup.
It looks like we lost number...
- Number two.

But less than
four minutes later,

he tells Captain Okai it's
the left engine that's failed.

- So it looks like
the number one.

- Number one's gone?
- Gone, yeah.

- Why?

- It wasn't clear why they had
changed their minds about it.

- The captain then instructs
the FO

to do the engine shutdown
checklist

but he only gets through
the first step.

- Hey, we're red line here.

We should pull back
on the right one a little bit.

- Okay.

The right engine
overheats

because of the internal damage,

leading the pilots to believe
they're losing both engines.

- Once the crew had convinced
themselves that they had
a dual engine failure,

they were focused almost
exclusively on altitude
and airspeed

and eventually, they ran out
of options and had to ditch.

- It's clear that the right
engine -

the one with the issue -

is overheating
and not producing full thrust.

But what led them to think
the left engine wasn't working?

- Let's see what the flight
data recorder can tell us.

Okay. Let's see
what the engines were doing.

Investigators
examine the engine power data
of Flight 8-10

to determine what actions
the pilots took

that led them to believe
their perfectly working engine,

the left one, had failed.

- After the right engine failed,

both engines are brought back
to flight idle

once they level off
at 2,000 feet.

That's proper procedure
to get the speed down.

- But the first officer never
told the captain

he brought the engines back
to idle.

They discover
a key step missing

in the pilots' actions.

- It was procedure
for a crew member

to verbalize when they moved
the engine controls.

In this case, the first officer
actually did not do that.

And that could have affected
the captain's situational
awareness

of where those engine throttles
were.

Why did
the first officer fail

to inform the captain
of his action?

- Send someone to interview
the first officer again

about bringing
the throttles back.

- So it was critical for us
to get more information

to better understand
what had happened there.

- Did anyone actually
ever test the throttles?

After they leveled off,

the pilots could have increased
power to the left engine

to confirm which engine
had failed.

- No.

The left engine throttle
stayed at idle

for the rest of the flight.

- If you're going into the water

and you have
no other option left,

you're gonna firewall
both throttles

just in case it might help.

- Why didn't the captain check
the first officer's
misdiagnosis?

- Let's ask him.

- When the first officer
subsequently said
it was the number one,

the captain just accepted it.

He didn't effectively
cross-check

that erroneous assertion.

So we wanted to ask him

why...
why did he accept that?

- Captain Okai.

Thanks for meeting
with me again.

You're muted.

Investigators speak
to Captain Okai one more time

to find out why he thought
the left engine had failed.

- Sorry about that.
Glad I can help.

- When Greg told you
the left engine had failed,

do you recall initially thinking
the right one had failed?

- No.

The thing with Greg is
I've flown with him
so many times.

He's never made a mistake.

If Greg says the left is gone,
the left engine is gone.

Investigators
learn the captain put his faith

in his first officer's
diagnosis.

- While trust is very important,

when it comes to crew
resource management,

you also want to verify.

The captain did not verify

the information that the first
officer was giving him.

- Okay.
Thank you.

- Sure thing.

- It's really critical when
you do have an engine failure

to look at all the available
information and cross-check

and agree that you have
identified the correct engine.

In this case, that didn't occur.

- What were the power readings
when the engines were at idle?

Even if the captain
trusted the first officer,

wouldn't there be
other indicators

showing which engine had failed?

- The left engine was 1.05

and the right 1.12.

The team discovers

the power was a bit lower
on the left engine

even though both engines
were set to idle.

- Okay, let's see
what's the problem.

What's going on with the gauges?

- They did have slightly
different power outputs.

And that is something you would
see with two different engines.

- And that could have really
affected the captain's
decision-making.

If the captain
had checked the gauges,

the readings would have
supported his first officer's
report

that the left engine had failed.

- So it looks like
the number one.

- Number one's gone?
- Gone, yeah.

- So we have number two. Okay.

But this doesn't
explain why the first officer

never told the captain

that he brought both throttles
back in the first place.

- If the first officer had said,

"Hey, I pulled the thrust back
on both engines,"

then that might have caused
the captain to engage

in a different thought process
about what might be going on.

- First officer
follow-up interview.

Why didn't the
first officer of Transair Flight
8-10

tell the captain he brought
the power levers back

after the right engine failed?

- He has no recollection
of bringing either thrust lever

back to idle.

- We believe that the first
officer forgot

because he was busy.

That leads to stress.

Stress leads
to tunneling of attention.

That can lead to fixation
on a small number of parameters.

- But even if the first officer
didn't tell the captain
about the thrust levers,

there must have been other signs
which engine failed.

Check out the rudder data.

Immediately after the right
engine failed on takeoff,

5.5 degrees of left rudder
is applied.

- You got it?
- Yeah. I got it.

After the right
engine lost power on takeoff,

the plane pulled
to the right.

When the first officer
applied the left rudder,

the plane straightened out.

- The foot that isn't pressing
on the rudder pedal

is the side with the bad engine.

So it's usually a pretty clear
indication of which engine
has failed.

- He held that left rudder
for three minutes!

He had a clear indicator,
but it never registered.

The fact that
the first officer was applying
left rudder

was an indication that the right
engine had lost power.

- It's very possible that under
those stressful conditions

in the middle of the night
over the water,

you could make that mistake.

- They made the right assessment
initially,

but in the end, the stress
of the situation

degraded their ability
to fly the plane.

Investigators now
know the series of events

that led to the ditching
of Transair Flight 8-10.

When the right engine loses
power after takeoff...

- Damn!

...both pilots
make the proper assessment.

- Yup, looks like we lost
number...

- Number two...
- Number two.

But while
the captain communicates
with air traffic control...

- Okay, Rhoades 8-10,

we're gonna run a checklist.

...the first
officer reduces engine power.

- Okay, let's see
what's the problem.

In a moment
of stress, he forgets
to tell the captain.

- What's going on
with the gauges?

The slightly
different readings on the gauges

lead the pilots to believe

the fully functioning
left engine has failed.

- So it looks like
the number one.

- Number one's gone?

The captain relies
on the first officer's
assessment

without doing his own analysis
of the situation.

- Gone, yeah.
We still have the number two.

- So we have number two.
Okay.

Instead of
confirming which engine
had actually lost power

and forgetting
their original assessment,

the pilots end up flying
on a damaged engine.

- How's the EGT?

- Uh, it's max.
It's beyond max.

Setting them up
for an inevitable ditching.

- We're in the water.
We're in the water!

- The pilots' misidentification
of the damaged engine,

and their use of the only...

Before the NTSB's
final report is published,

Rhoades Aviation is shut down
by the Federal Aviation
Administration

for numerous safety
and maintenance violations.

- While it may be disappointing

that the crew never actually
touched their left engine
that was working properly,

it is a testament
to the human limitations
that actually arise

when you have stressful,
high workload situations.

And that's what we need
to account for.

With only 50
7-37-200's remaining
in service,

it's deemed impractical
to fit them with engine sensors

that would alert pilots
to a failed engine.

But it's now standard
in most passenger airliners.

- Engine monitoring technology
has improved considerably

since this aircraft
was manufactured.

Newer airplanes actually
give very clear indications
to the pilot

regarding which engine is bad

and reduces the risk
of the crew misidentifying it.

Subtitling: difuze