All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S07E02.Falling.From.the.Sky.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD.5.1.H264-SiGMA

narrator:
high above the indian ocean
disaster strikes.

boy: the engine's on fire.

narrator: more than six miles
in the air

all four engines
of a british airways 747

stop working.

pilot: roger, declare emergency.

co-pilot:
mayday, mayday, mayday.

speedbird 9.

narrator: with no engines
and little power,

british airways flight 9
falls towards the ocean.

the crew fights
to keep their plane

from crashing into the sea.

what has crippled
their massive jet,

threatening the lives
of everyone on board?

flight attendant:
ladies and gentlemen,
we are starting our approach.

pilot: we lost both engines!

flight attendant:
put the mask over your nose.

emergency descent.

pilot: mayday, mayday.

flight attendant:
brace for impact!

controller: i think i lost one.

man: investigation starting...

man: he's gonna crash!

narrator: june 24, 1982.

british airways flight 9 cruises
through the sky over indonesia.

in a few hours, the plane
and all 263 people on board

are scheduled to land
in perth, australia.

phyllis welch and her daughter
are seated in cabin e

at the very back
of the enormous jet.

phyllis welch: how's that
heroine of yours,

fanny price, faring?

betty tootell ferguson:
she's having a tough old time
at mansfield park.

it's a good place for me
to spend a few hours.

welch: wouldn't mind
being there myself.

[chuckles]

tootell ferguson:
it's all right, mum.
we'll get there.

we had already traversed
at least two time zones.

we were very tired.

we had flown through bombay,
through kuala lumpur,

hadn't been able to get
much sleep, if any,

and it was a dark, dark,
pitch black night.

narrator: ahead of betty
and phyllis,

charles capewell is returning
home to perth, australia,

with his two boys,
chas and stephen.

charles capewell:
all right, settle down, lads.

come on, time for a nap.
get back to your seat.

chas: no.

capewell: what, do you want
to sleep here?

all right.

it was a good flight.

it was going well.

leaving london was great,
and we was all eager to go home,

and the two boys were eager
to get back to mum.

i thought we'll be home
in three hours--perth.

they'll be back and we'll
get in a taxi and we'll be home.

narrator: while many
of the passengers

have been traveling
for almost a day,

the crew is fresh.

they took control
at the last stopover

in kuala lumpur.

captain eric moody got
his first taste of flying

at the age of 16
when he took a gliding lesson.

he was one of the first ever
trained on the 747.

eric moody:
roger, check with jakarta.

roger greaves: jakarta control,
speedbird 9 over halim

at level 3-7-0.

controller: speedbird 9, roger.

narrator:
first officer roger greaves

has been a co-pilot
for more than six years.

barrie townley-freeman
has been a flight engineer

on these aircraft
for just a little longer.

greaves: i'd not flown with eric
before, or barrie,

and that was the first time
we'd actually,

we'd actually met,
on that flight.

narrator: as the jet flies

over the city of jakarta,

it's cruising
at more than 36,000 feet

and has been in the air
for an hour and a half.

captain moody checks
his weather radar.

it shows smooth sailing
for the next 300 miles.

moody: all right, roger,
it's all clear.

just keep your eyes open.

i'll be back in a moment.
just got to use the loo.

narrator: back in the cabin,

many of the passengers
have fallen asleep.

while charles capewell
and his sons doze,

an ominous haze appears
above their heads.

it's still legal to smoke
on passenger jets in 1982.

for the cabin crew, though,

the smoke seems thicker
than normal.

graham skinner: there seems
to be a lot of smoke out there.

narrator: they begin to worry
that a small fire

may be smoldering somewhere
on the plane.

skinner: maybe someone
lit up in the toilet.

let's go see if we can find it.

narrator: a fire at 36,000 feet
is a terrifying prospect.

if there is a blaze somewhere,

the crew must find it
immediately.

in the cockpit, the flight
takes an unsettling turn.

greaves: barrie and i were just
sitting there minding the shop,

pitch dark night, of course,

and then we started to get
these pinpricks of light

on the, on the windscreen.

barrie townley-freeman:
st. elmo's fire?

greaves: i don't think so.

it's not moving
the way it should.

narrator: saint elmo's fire
is a natural phenomenon

that's sometimes seen
when planes fly

through highly charged
thunderclouds.

but there aren't supposed to be
any thunderclouds tonight.

townley-freeman:
anything on the radar?

greaves: no.
no, it's clear.

i don't like the look of this.

let's get a better look
out there.

narrator: with the help
of their landing lights,

the two men are disturbed

to see a thin layer of cloud
surrounding their plane

even though nothing is
showing up on their radar.

greaves: but at 37,000 feet,

the normal thing
you would anticipate

would be high cirrus, which is
just a thin layer of cloud.

i think we better get
the captain back up here.

[ding]

tootell ferguson:
i was reading my book,

and there was a slight flick
of turbulence,

just a slight flick,
and i glanced over to the left

where i had a clear view
of the port wing,

and to my surprise
it was covered

in a brilliant white
shimmering light,

which seemed to be clinging
to the wing of the aircraft.

i carried on reading,
but i found that i kept reading

the same paragraph
over and over again

and not taking in a word of it.

i just didn't know
what was happening.

narrator: in the cabin,
the smoke begins to thicken.

stewards have been
unable to figure out

where it's coming from.

if there's a fire,
they can't find it.

skinner: eh?

all right, well, go see that
the passengers are comfortable.

tootell ferguson:
do you smell anything odd, mum?

welch: seems rather smoky
in here.

tootell ferguson:
i noticed that thick smoke
was pouring into the cabin

through the vents
above the windows,

and that was
a very sobering sight.

welch: turkish cigarettes?

moody: it smelt like sort of
a sulfuric electrical smell,

and i went on that flight deck

expecting to hear that we had
some electrical smoke

somewhere on the aircraft,

but nothing was further
from the truth.

when did it start?

greaves: just after you
stepped out.

moody: anything on radar?

greaves: no, it's clear,
not a cloud.

oh, my lord.
look at engine 4!

it's lit up somehow.

captain, captain,
have a look at number 1.

moody: it's the same on my side.

narrator:
none of the crew have ever seen
anything like this before,

but the light show
is just the beginning.

their bizarre flight

is about to take a terrifying
turn for the worse.

greaves: this light show,
if you like,

had become more intense.

in fact we ended up
sitting there

with two sheets of brilliant
white light in front of us

in place of the windscreens.

narrator: inside the cabin,
smoke has been growing thicker.

chief steward graham skinner

has been organizing an intense
but quiet search for fire.

capewell: what's with
all the smoke?

skinner: there was smoke
in the cabin.

it got really, really hot.

you were perspiring,

literally drenched
in perspiration,

and the acrid smoke was
at the back of your throat,

up your nose, in your eyes,
and you're rubbing this

and your eyes are running
and it was, oh, it was not,

not a very nice situation
at all.

narrator: flight engineer
barrie townley-freeman

has been checking
his instruments carefully.

he's smelled the smoke,
but so far has no indication

that there's a fire in any
of the plane's systems.

townley-freeman:
can't find anything.

narrator: with one mystery
confronting them,

they are suddenly faced with
a frightening new situation.

[beeping]

chas: dad!

the engine's on fire!

capewell: the whole of the wing
was a sheet of light,

and i thought, well,
i said, we better close that,

because we don't know
what's happened.

chas, sit down.

[people coughing]

stephen, close that blind.

[coughing]

then i realized that, you know,

something was
dramatically wrong.

tootell ferguson:
there were huge flames coming
out of the back of the engines,

20, some people said
40 feet long.

these huge jets of sheer flame

shooting out of the back
of all the engines.

is it going to penetrate from
the outside of the aircraft?

is it going to come
into the cabin?

are we going to burn to death?

are we going to choke to death
on the smoke?

what's going to happen?

what's causing it?

what are they
going to do about it?

narrator:
as the fire engulfs the engines,

one of them revs loudly
and flames out.

townley-freeman:
engine failure, number 4.

moody: fire action, number 4.

greaves:
checklist power and gear.

moody: set.

greaves: thrust lever.

moody: closed.

greaves: start lever.

moody: off.

once one engine fails,

you call for the drill
to shut that one down.

you have drills for certain
things so that you don't have,

you don't fly together
as a crew forever.

you can fly
with different people then,

and you can standardize
the operations.

narrator: the instruments do not
indicate a fire on the plane,

but the passengers can see
flames erupting from the engines

and stretching down the length
of the 747.

tootell ferguson:
i could not see the engines

from where i was sitting.

i could only see
the space behind them,

but there was enough glow
in that space to convince me

that the aircraft was
really seriously on fire.

capewell: we were in trouble.

they knew,
as young as they were,

they knew we were
in bad, bad trouble,

and they sort of just
looked at me

as if to say, well,
what do we do now, dad?

narrator: the 747 is more than
six miles above the ocean.

its engines appear
to be burning,

and the peculiar smoke
continues to fill the cabin.

and then the unthinkable
happens.

townley-freeman:
number 2 engine's gone.

moody: all right, then.
begin the engine shutdown.

townley-freeman: no wait!

[engine whir fading]

they've all gone.

all four engines have failed.

moody: the other three just
went out almost immediately,

and that's when it begins to be
a serious emergency.

tootell ferguson: those engines
made a grating, rumbling sound,

almost like a cement mixer,

and then gradually
the noise just disappeared

and they became silent.

greaves: in a minute and half

we've gone from four engines
running normally to having none.

narrator: the 747
has plenty of fuel.

yet somehow all four
of the jet's engines

have completely stopped working.

moody: roger, declare emergency.

greaves: mayday, mayday, mayday.

speedbird 9, we have lost all
four engines out of 3-7-0.

mayday, mayday, mayday.

speedbird 9, we have lost
all four engines out...

narrator: with no engine power

and no idea what has crippled
their plane,

british airways flight 9
begins falling from the sky.

greaves: jakarta control.
speedbird 9.

we have lost all four engines,
now out of 3-6-0.

narrator:
first officer roger greaves
issues a mayday,

but he has trouble getting
his message across.

controller:
have you got a problem?

greaves: jakarta control.
speedbird 9.

we have lost all four engines.

repeat, all four engines.

now descending
through flight level 3-5-0.

controller: speedbird 9,
you have lost number 4 engine?

greaves: this idiot
doesn't understand!

jakarta control.

speedbird 9.

we have lost all four engines.

repeat, all four engines.

now descending
through flight level 3-5-0.

greaves: the air traffic control
at jakarta

unfortunately seemed to have
a slight problem

in understanding
what we actually were saying.

narrator:
only when another plane nearby
relays the mayday call

do controllers in jakarta
understand.

greaves: now descending
through flight level 3-5-0.

controller: speedbird 9,
all four engines out.

understood. standing by.

narrator:
as far as the crew knows,

no 747 had ever lost power
to all of its engines before.

the crew has to find out
why it's happening now.

moody: i think we've
cocked something up.

we were concerned and worried
that we'd done something wrong,

you know, to cause
the whole thing.

greaves: all three of us felt
exactly the same,

and it was, it was
a personal guilt

in the sense of
what have i missed?

what have i done wrong?

you know, because this kind
of thing doesn't happen.

narrator:
while not built for gliding,

even without its engines

a 747 can travel forward
nine miles

for every half mile it drops.

with no power, flight 9
has started a long, slow fall.

some six miles above the ocean,

the crew has less
than half an hour

before they smash into the sea.

moody: when they all stop,

you go into automatic mode,
obviously.

we had practiced this drill
on the simulator

many, many times,

and that's very good
and all very well

as long as when it happens
to you for real,

what happens on the airplane
is mirrored

by what happens to you
in the simulator,

and i'm afraid that wasn't so.

narrator: in the simulator,

when all four engines stop,
the autopilot turns off.

but high above the indian ocean,

captain moody sees that
his autopilot is still on.

moody: we were all three
confused and concerned

that what was happening to us

wasn't what we'd been told
would happen to us.

greaves: all right,
begin restart drill.

narrator:
in the heat of the situation,

they have no time to figure out
why the autopilot is still on.

townley-freeman: on.

greaves: anything?
anything?

townley-freeman: no.
moody: again.

greaves: all right, then.
from the top. battery.

townley-freeman: check. on.

greaves: cross-feed valves.

townley-freeman: open.

greaves: fire switch.

townley-freeman: in.

narrator:
the standard restart drill takes
up to three minutes to complete.

plunging from the sky, the crew
has fewer than ten chances

to get their engines going
before they run out of time.

greaves: come on.

moody: again, gentlemen.

greaves: all right.
from the top. battery.

townley-freeman: check. on.

greaves: cross-feed valves?

townley-freeman: open.

greaves: fire switch?

townley-freeman: in.

narrator: at 32,000 feet,

captain eric moody decides

to turn the plane back

toward the closest airport,

halim, just outside jakarta.

but even that is too far away

if he can't get at least some
of the engines going again.

greaves: jakarta,
speedbird 9 turning left,

back to halim out of 3-0-0.

controller: speedbird 9,
radar cannot see you.

squawk alpha 7700.

narrator: air traffic control
asks them to transmit

the emergency transponder
signal.

greaves: jakarta, speedbird 9.

we are already squawking 7700.

narrator: now the crew is flying
back to an airport

that can't find them
on the radar.

without the constant rumble of
the engines, the cabin is quiet.

some of the passengers feel
the plane beginning to descend.

but without communication
from the cockpit,

they can only guess.

capewell: the quietness
was unbelievable

'cause it was sort of,

the airplane was no engines,
nothing.

it seemed to be eerie, you know,
a bit surreal, really,

because like as if you was in,
suspended in space or something.

all we could feel
was this quietness

and the whimpering from the few
people that were really upset.

tootell ferguson: some people
were sitting quite rigidly

almost as if they hadn't
noticed anything.

at first it was,
it was sheer fear,

and then after a while
it turns to acceptance.

you know you're going to die.

we knew we were going to die.

narrator: captain moody
can't restart the engines

unless he can
keep the plane flying

between 290 and 310
miles per hour.

but the airspeed indicators
aren't working.

greaves: captain, i've got
320 knots on my side.

moody: well, i've got 270.

greaves: bloody hell!
it's a 50-knot difference.

moody: i'll change the speed.

narrator: falling from the sky
with no engine power,

the 747 crew now has no idea
how fast they're going.

but to have the best chance
to restart the engines,

captain moody has to have the
plane flying at the right speed.

greaves:
so from that point onwards,

eric then varied
the speed through,

through just about
a 100-knot range

hoping that at some point
or other,

coincidental with us putting
the fuel into the engines,

that we would actually be
at the right speed.

narrator: to change speeds,

captain moody turns
the autopilot off.

then he slowly pulls the nose
of the jet up to slow it

and then pushes it down
to increase his speed.

the upsetting
rollercoaster movement

adds to the panic
felt in the cabin.

[beeping]

townley-freeman:
pressure warning, captain.

we're at 10,000.

moody: pressure warning?

that's, that's not
supposed to do that.

and a warning horn went off.

now this didn't ever happen on
the simulator in this exercise,

so it was a bit
of a surprise to us.

narrator: as well as providing
electrical power,

the engines on a jumbo jet
help keep the cabin pressurized.

greaves: with the engines
not working, of course,

the air wasn't being pumped in,

so gradually the pressure
was leaking away.

narrator:
with all four engines gone,

the pressurized air
is rapidly seeping out.

the thinning level of oxygen
makes passengers gasp.

[coughing]

the crew reach
for their oxygen masks,

but first officer greaves
can't get his mask to work.

greaves: my oxygen mask, yeah,

that was a problem
i could have done without.

it was stowed above my head,

and when i pulled
the oxygen mask down,

the mask and the tube
became separated.

narrator: the captain must make
a difficult choice.

if he continues
to descend slowly,

it will get
increasingly difficult

for first officer greaves
to breathe.

moody: i said look, if we get
down to 20,000 feet quickly,

we can all take
our oxygen masks off

and we can talk and we're
back as a crew again.

greaves: we had to actually
increase the rate of descent

to descend
to a lower altitude quicker,

which in the circumstances

was something that we wouldn't
really have chosen to do.

moody: so then i dived
the airplane

and got rid of about 6,000 feet
in a minute.

narrator:
the loss of cabin pressure
and the steep dive

have another
terrifying consequence.

[screaming]

capewell: the things shot down.

they sort of dangle down
in front of you,

and i looked to see
if stephen had got his,

and chas had pulled his
out of the socket.

so i made sure that chas
got his oxygen.

i seen a few movies on planes,

and, you know,
once that happens,

you know you're
in serious trouble.

welch: help me.

tootell ferguson:
yeah, here we go.

breathe normally, mum,
not deeply.

breathe calmly.

tootell ferguson:
the oxygen masks came down.

is yours working?

welch: no, i'm not
getting anything.

narrator: the cabin crew tries
to use the public address system

to explain what's going on.

but it's not working.

chief steward graham skinner
makes do with a low-tech backup.

[blows into microphone]

skinner: can you hear me?

we're having a small problem
with the public address system,

so if you would, place your
masks over your mouth and nose

and breathe normally.

narrator: in the cockpit,
first officer roger greaves

manages to fix
his broken oxygen mask,

but he's still frustrated
by engines that won't start.

greaves: alright, barrie, let's
start the restart drill. ready?

townley-freeman: set.

greaves: battery?
townley-freeman: check. on.

greaves: standby power?
townley-freeman: on.

greaves: anything?

come on, anything?

townley-freeman: no.

greaves: all right, then.

let's do it from the top.
battery?

townley-freeman: check. on.

narrator:
first officer greaves and
engineer barrie townley-freeman

have actually shortened
the standard restart drill.

it's giving them more chances
to get the engines going,

but so far nothing's working.

greaves: come on, you old sod.

the process that we were
going through the whole time

was just continuous.

we hadn't had any success
with the drill at all,

despite all the efforts
we were putting in.

but it was the only thing
we had left to cling on to,

so that's what we did.

from the top again.
battery?

townley-freeman: check. on.

moody: i have no idea--
i don't think any of us have--

how many times we tried
to restart those engines.

if i say 20, i would think
that's too low.

if i say 50, i would think
that's probably about right.

narrator: as the plane falls
lower and lower,

captain moody faces
a brutal choice.

a mountain range cuts
across the island of java

between his plane
and the airport.

he knows he has to be at least
11,000 feet high to clear it.

but if his engines don't restart
soon, they won't make it.

at this rate, it will crash
in a matter of minutes.

it's just a question of where.

captain moody decides if
the engines don't restart soon,

he'll turn back toward the ocean
and try landing on the water.

greaves: all right,
are we getting something?

townley-freeman:
it's not starting.

moody:
i knew it was so difficult
to land airplanes on the sea

even when you had everything
going for you,

and i thought, well, we haven't
got much going for us here.

i'd never done it before.

narrator: hiding his concern,

captain moody addresses
the passengers and crew.

moody: ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.

we have a small problem.

all four engines have stopped.

we are doing our damnedest
to get it under control.

i trust you are not
in too much distress.

[whimpering]

narrator: most of the passengers
expect the worst.

capewell: "ma, in trouble.

plane going down.

will do best for the boys.

we love you.

sorry, pa."

i thought we were going down,
heading for the ocean to crash.

and i thought if she got
the note, you know,

she knew we were still
thinking about her

and we did whatever we could.

tootell ferguson:
will we be burnt alive,

will we be choked by the smoke,

or will the aircraft
break up in the air

and hurtle us out into space,
which was my biggest fear.

or will we come down in the sea
and be eaten by sharks alive,

or will we crash
into a mountain?

let's crash into a mountain
quickly and get all this over.

greaves: well?

townley-freeman: nothing.
it's not starting.

narrator: the captain
must decide to keep flying

and likely crash
into the mountains

or turn around and ditch
into the sea.

chas: i don't know how to swim.

capewell:
i couldn't swim anyway,
so i thought, well, you know,

i'm doomed anyway,
and i'll just hope

that maybe one of the passengers
might help the two boys

to make sure that they
could stay afloat.

greaves: well, anything?
townley-freeman: no!

greaves: all right, then.
from the top again. battery?

we had very few chances left
of starting the engines

before having to turn
out to sea again

because we wouldn't have been
able to clear the mountains

on the south coast of java.

greaves: start lever?
townley-freeman: cut off!

greaves: fuel pressure?
townley-freeman: available.

greaves: standby ignition on.

narrator: and then, as suddenly
as it stopped working,

the fourth engine
roars back to life.

townley-freeman:
engine 4 back on line!

capewell: then all of a sudden
there was

this sort of like somebody

had given the airplane
a punch from underneath,

and then i realized that
it might have been an engine.

it was a boom.

tootell ferguson: oh, my god!
welch: look!

greaves: the noise that
a rolls royce engine makes

when it starts up

is a low rumbling noise,
you know,

and it was, it was just, well,
it was wonderful to hear it.

narrator: a 747 can fly
with one engine,

but captain moody knows
that just one engine

still won't give him enough
power to clear the mountains.

moody: the glass now
is half full.

it's not half empty.

we're now in with a real chance,
and i tell you what,

the three of us would have
dragged that airplane

around the whole island of java.

narrator: as the plane falls
past 13,000 feet,

another engine sputters
and comes back to life.

townley-freeman:
engine 3 back on line!

narrator: it's followed quickly
by the final two.

townley-freeman:
i don't believe it.

engines 1 and 2
both back on line!

narrator:
from almost certain disaster,

the crippled jet is now
under full power.

tootell ferguson:
oh, my god, mum.

capewell: i realized then
that we could make it back to--

not to perth,
but to an airport.

that's all we wanted
was to land on the earth

and, you know, be part
of the living again,

'cause while we were up there
we were dead.

greaves: jakarta, speedbird 9.

we are back in business.

all four running.
all four running.

narrator: this time,
local controllers

have no trouble understanding
the message.

controller: speedbird 9.

all four engines
serviceable again.

confirm continuing to halim.

greaves: affirmative,
affirmative.

moody: we say right, let's get
this thing on the ground

as quickly as we can.

ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.

we seem to have overcome
that problem

and have managed to start
all the engines.

[laughter and applause]

[sigh]

we are diverting to jakarta

and expect to land
in about 15 minutes.

narrator:
captain moody begins climbing,

putting plenty of room
between his plane

and the mountains below.

but as he does,

the strange lights that he saw
when the crisis began

reappear in front of the jet.

moody: now, as soon as we got
to 15,000 feet,

the st. elmo's fire
started again.

now, i'm not slow, so i thought
let's get out of here quickly.

narrator: but before he can
descend very far,

the plane is stricken again.

townley-freeman:
engine 2 is surging.

tootell ferguson:
oh, no, not again!

greaves: the whole airplane
was shaking.

it was just going
bang, bang, bang.

tootell ferguson:
the atmosphere in the cabin

was very tense and very quiet.

by then i think very few people
were talking.

i think there were quite a lot
of prayers going up.

narrator: the engines
backfire violently.

the captain must make
another fateful decision.

moody: begin shutdown drill.

greaves: checklist power
and gear.

moody: off.

greaves: thrust lever.
moody: closed.

greaves: we were
reluctant to do it

as you can probably
understand but, you know,

that was it, so we were back
on three engines.

narrator: as the plane
closes in on the airport,

first officer greaves thinks
the windshield

is covered in moisture,
making it hard to see through.

greaves: and i said,
i said to eric,

i said it's a bit misty
out there.

so we turned,
turned the blowers on

to kind of, you know,

like demisters on your car
to try and clear that.

that didn't work.

i used the windscreen wipers,
and that didn't work.

narrator: somehow the glass
itself has been badly damaged.

moody: for some unknown reason

i looked out the edge
of my windscreen,

and about a two-inch strip down
the edge on the left-hand side

i could see much more clearly,

but i couldn't see anything much
out the front.

it was getting
more and more opaque

the nearer and nearer we got
to the lights.

narrator: the crew gets
a final unwelcome surprise.

equipment on the ground

that helps them descend
at the proper angle

isn't working.

controller: jakarta atc.

be advised our glide path
is unserviceable.

greaves: the localizer which
gives you the left and right

of the runway center line,
that was working,

but the glide slope
which gives you

the actual profile
for the descent

was not working.

narrator: after all the troubles
they've been through,

now the crew has to land
their plane manually.

greaves: we then continued
with eric flying the localizer

and me calling out the distance
and the altitude

that he should be at.

300 feet, captain.

so he was then able to adjust
his rate of descent

to what i was telling him

as far as the glide slope
was concerned.

200.

150 feet, captain.

100.

50 feet.

30 feet.

welch: oh, my god.

tootell ferguson:
oh, my god!

[applause]

chas: we're on the runway!

moody: reverse.

[applause]

greaves: 90 knots, 80 knots.

[laughter]

moody: we're down.

i could really go
for a cold soda.

the airplane just landed itself.

it seemed to, anyway,
kiss the earth.

it was beautiful.

greaves: that's, that's amazing.

narrator: safely on the ground
at halim airport in jakarta,

passengers celebrate the end
of a harrowing ordeal.

they also want to know
what happened.

no fire had been found, so why
had smoke filled the cabin?

how could all four engines have
stopped at nearly the same time?

and what were the strange lights
that surrounded the plane?

in the cockpit,
the flight crew is relieved

but also concerned
that they might be at fault.

greaves: the first thing
that we did,

having parked the airplane
and shut it all down,

was to then go through
all the paperwork

to see if there was possibly
anything anywhere in it

that might have given us
any pre-warning

of some sort of phenomenon that
caused what happened to us.

moody: ...every time, 'cause
it's gonna come back to us.

narrator: the damage to the 747
is extensive.

from the outside,
the crew realizes

that their windshield
has been deeply scratched.

they see bare metal
showing through

where the paint has somehow
been stripped away.

and they still have no idea
why any of this happened.

moody: we went back the next day
to look at it in daylight.

the airplane had lost its sheen

and in some places it had been
sandblasted quite well,

and all the decals and the paint
had come off.

really it was
very little to see,

until they stripped
the engines down.

narrator: the engines were
manufactured by rolls royce.

their investigation is led by
a former rolls royce engineer,

malcolm grayburn.

malcolm grayburn:
we did do a forensic analysis

of the engines,

and we did record it all in
terms of photographic analysis,

and also we did a lot
of laboratory analysis.

narrator: grayburn discovers
the engines were choked

with fine dust, pieces of rock
and sand.

when it was closely studied,

they learned that the debris
was clearly volcanic ash.

days after
their harrowing flight,

the passengers and crew learn
that the night they were flying

there had been a major eruption
of the mount galunggung volcano

located just 100 miles
southeast of jakarta.

[explosion]

tom casadevall is director
of the u.s. geological survey

and has studied
the galunggung volcano.

tom casadevall:
indonesia is the world's most
volcanically active country.

it has more than 130
historically active volcanoes,

meaning volcanoes
which have erupted

in the last
several thousand years.

galunggung erupted explosively
early in the 1980s.

in april, may, june of 1982,

the eruptions became
increasingly more powerful.

narrator:
the eruptions were large

and the damage on the ground
was extensive.

more than 60,000 people
were evacuated

from the area
around the mountain.

the night flight 9 flew nearby,
the volcano erupted again.

as the ash cloud rose more than
49,000 feet into the night,

winds pushed it
to the southwest,

right into the path
of british airways flight 9.

never before had
a volcanic cloud

seriously affected an airplane.

could the ash have crippled
this flight?

moody: roger, declare emergency.

greaves: mayday, mayday, mayday.

speedbird 9.

we have lost all four engines.

casadevall: unlike ash
that you might see in a chimney

or after a fire in a forest,

this is not soft material
at all.

this is very fine
ground-up particles

of solid rock and minerals.

this material
is very, very abrasive.

it's very angular in shape.

if you were to see it
under a microscope,

you would see very sharp angles,

and so that's what caused
the abrasion.

narrator: in addition
to sandblasting the windshield

and all the leading edges
of the plane,

could the ash cloud explain
all the other strange phenomena

the passengers and crew
had experienced?

casadevall: remember,
the aircraft is moving

close to 500 miles per hour
as it's flying into that cloud.

even though it's
a very fine material,

it can still cause abrasion
and friction

on the skin of the aircraft.

because it's such a dry
environment up there,

that frictional electrification
produces the glow

that we refer to
as st. elmo's fire.

narrator: the electrification
also caused the interference

in communication
experienced by the crew.

controller: speedbird 9,
you have lost number 4 engine?

narrator:
some of the volcanic ash

that was sucked in and ground up
by the engines

was also blown into the plane,

and when passengers and crew saw
it swirling through the cabin,

they feared the worst.

casadevall: you're a passenger,
you're looking out the window.

suddenly you start breathing
this sulfurous,

sulfur-laden air in the cabin,

and it probably is a choking,
probably a shocking sensation.

it's essentially a
house-of-horrors-type situation.

narrator: while the volcanic ash
caused the visible scarring,

filled the plane with smoke
and fouled communications,

did it also cause the engines
to flame out as well?

grayburn: ...and x-rayed from
front to back of the engine.

narrator:
a turbofan jet engine works

by sucking in enormous
amounts of air.

the air is then
highly pressurized

by the engine's compressor.

this tightly packed air is mixed
with fuel and ignited.

the force of this reaction
propels the jet through the sky.

grayburn: the temperatures
in the combustion chamber

where this ash is flowing
through

are around
2,000 degrees centigrade,

and so volcanic ash
we know melts

at about 1,300, 1,400 degrees.

narrator:
but when the liquid ash
reached deeper into the engine,

it cooled slightly, turning it
into a sticky, molten goo.

it attached itself to the engine
and began choking it.

grayburn: we got a fundamental
disturbance of the airflow

in the main core of the engine,

which caused the engine
to backfire,

and the engines flamed out,

and that was the cause
of the problem.

narrator:
backfires occur when the engine
isn't burning cleanly.

chas: the engine's on fire!

narrator: there's too much fuel
and not enough oxygen.

townley-freeman:
engine failure, number 4.

moody: fire action, number 4.

greaves:
checklist power and gear.

townley-freeman: set.

narrator: on flight 9,
the backfires were the cause

of the enormous jets of flame

many passengers saw
behind the engines.

after struggling
against the choking effects

of the ash cloud,

the engines on board
the 747 flamed out.

what grayburn found next

was that a remarkable piece
of chemistry saved the plane.

grayburn: as soon as you came
out of the volcanic ash

and the engines
were not running, remember,

so everything cooled down,

it was enough for this stuff
to break off

and allow the engines
to restart.

narrator: when enough
of the molten ash was gone,

the engines were clear again,

and townley-freeman's
frantic efforts to restart them

paid off.

townley-freeman:
engine 4 back on line!

casadevall:
we have learned quite a bit

and we've incorporated this
learning into pilot training.

pilots now, for example,
know what signs to look for

when they might be
in an ash cloud,

and those signs include the odor
of sulfur in the cabin,

dust accumulating in the cabin,

and if you're at night
you might look out

and see the frictional
electrification

or the st. elmo's fire

on the leading edges
of the aircraft.

narrator: another important
lesson learned from flight 9

is that volcanic ash clouds
do not appear

on normal weather radar,
which reflects water.

since the clouds are dry,

they're all but invisible
to radar.

that knowledge has led
to better communications

between the geologists
that study volcanoes

and the international airlines
that fly over them.

the crew of flight 9

was showered with awards
and commendations

in the months after
their incredible night.

grayburn:
i thought the airmanship

displayed by this crew
during this event

was absolutely fantastic,

the way that they managed
to guide this aircraft

back down to a safe landing

after having been through
such extreme circumstances.

it was fantastic the way
they recovered this aircraft,

absolutely brilliant.

narrator: for everyone
on board flight 9,

the terrifying plunge through
the skies had a lasting impact.

betty tootell was so struck
by the events of that night

that she wrote a book
about the ordeal.

charles capewell
and his two sons

made it home two days after
they touched down in jakarta.

25 years later both chas and
stephen still live in perth.

capewell: our time hadn't came,
and that was it.

from then on i took
a different view of life.

when your time comes
there's nothing you can do,

but you can still hope, and we
hoped and we got out of it.

narrator: not long
after the fateful flight,

captain eric moody created
the galunggung gliding club.

every member of the crew
and all passengers

were automatically admitted
to this exclusive group.

the survivors
of british airways flight 9

happily stay in touch
to this day.