Original subtitles

A catastrophic scenario occurred at an altitude of 1,200 meters.

Flames were coming out of the cockpit's deck.

We were starting to get burned.

A fire broke out aboard Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458.

This airplane was a trap.

It was a matter of life or death.

The pilots only had a few seconds to land the plane.

All I could see was trees on the horizon.

It wasn't going to be a smooth landing.

11 of the 12 people on board survived.

But the fire destroyed all the evidence.

The plane was completely burned.

A surviving pilot delivered a clue to the NTSB investigators.

When I turned on the switch, I saw smoke at the base of the control column.

That was a very, very valuable statement to one of the investigators.

There were 10 passengers on board Flight 458.

Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458.

Hello, everyone. We're about to take off.

Make sure your seat belts are well attached.

I'll serve.

Well done.

Just after 3 p.m., the Twin Otter took off on the runway.

111 kilometers per hour.

111 kilometers per hour.

Flight 458 took off from Groton in Connecticut.

To the destination of Boston.

140 kilometers north.

Positive rhythm.

Flaps up.

Flaps up.

Today, it's Thomas Prinster, 36, who is in charge of the plane.

He's been working for this company for three years.

Thomas, everyone loved Tom.

He would show us how to pilot that airplane.

What you could do, what you do want to do.

It was a real pleasure to fly with.

Temperature and pressure in the green.

Everything is good.

Pilgrim 458, crossing 300 meters.

Pilgrim 458, well received. Passing at 300 meters.

The co-pilot, Lyle Hogg, 27, has been part of the company for just a few months.

Before I went to Pilgrim Airlines, I had about 1,500 hours of flight.

And from my arrival to this flight, 458, I had flown about 400 hours.

The pilots are in charge of a 2-Havilland Dash 6 Twin Otter,

a turbo-pulsed aircraft frequently used on regional lines.

It was a twin turbo-pulsed twin engine that was mainly used for short flights.

A very popular airplane in its day.

It helped lead the air revolution.

And at the time, it was used all over the world.

Pilgrim 458, climbing 1,200 meters.

Positioning VOR.

The flight to Boston lasts only 40 minutes.

There is no flight attendant on board.

One of the passengers of this flight is Harry

Policron, an engineer at the US Airlines.

He goes to Boston to take his next service.

The flight to Boston is the first of its kind.

The flight to Boston is the first of its kind.

My flight out of Boston, the next day, was early in the morning.

So my plan was to arrive on Sunday night,

and take a hotel room, so I would be all set and ready to go.

Paul Ainsworth, business advisor, has to take another flight to Boston.

Once we had started to take altitude, I started going up into the air.

I had really just flipped my head over, closed

my eyes, and started going up into the air.

I was so tired.

The plane reached 1,200 meters, its cruising altitude.

The weather was typical for a month of February in New England.

There was clouds at 900 meters and some freezing rain.

Pilgrim 458, how's it going? Smooth flight.

...

With an outside temperature of minus 3 degrees Celsius,

the wavy rain forms a layer of ice on the windshield.

I'm going to pick up some ice.

It's the same as the wavy on a car's windshield.

It's a rough and difficult to see through.

How's it going on the wings? No ice.

...

All right, let's interview the pilots to clean this windshield.

You go.

The pilots want to be sure that they can unwind the windshield.

They want to make sure that the windshield is working.

We would test the windshield to make sure it was working.

We wouldn't change the pump all the way because

it would consume too much of the alcohol.

You wouldn't use up too much of the alcohol.

You'd save it when we needed it, when we'd be out at the next airport.

Okay, you can go to the other side.

I noticed very little fluid on the outside of the windshield.

I first activated the switch.

Anything on your side?

Some, but not a lot.

The second time, I held the switch in the on position for a little bit longer

so we could get a good indication of the gas being in the windshield.

Still nothing.

Something's right.

I'm going to stop trying.

Quite soon after that, there wasn't a foot in the cockpit.

It was like a smell of alcohol.

There wasn't an emergency at that time yet,

but we were beginning our thought process as far as,

okay, what are we going to do to deal with this issue?

I smell the smoke.

Okay.

Around the same time,

we saw there was an acrid-type smell.

The first thought that came to mind was Tom had

been a smoker in the ashtray in the cockpit,

in the lower circuit.

We looked towards the smoke from the ashtray was,

and it was not smoke coming from the ashtray.

In the cockpit,

Harry Polycron asks himself questions.

I had my head in the paper,

and then I got that whiff of alcohol.

As a navigator,

Polycron knows that this smell can be the sign of a serious problem.

In principle,

there's no reason to smell an alcoholic smell in an airplane.

It's coming from down there.

The pilots then see bubbles of smoke entering the cockpit.

We did see initially some very light white smoke.

Before we could even talk about that or react to that,

the smoke started to come up very quickly.

Something is burning somewhere,

and the situation gets worse.

The fire on board is something terrible.

You can't just pull off on the side of the road with the fire.

You have to do something immediately.

Concept, Pilgrim 458,

direct on Providence, there's an emergency.

The commander wants to land on the nearest airport,

Providence, 19 kilometers to the right.

The choice of Providence was out of the brainer,

because we knew exactly where we were and knew about the airport.

Pilgrim 458, what do you need?

Directly to Providence, please.

This is an emergency.

There's a fire on board.

Pilgrim 458, understood.

Turn right.

Cap on 150 for Providence approach vector.

Okay, so we're going to try and land.

Right turn.

150.

I'll go get the runway.

The fire, the plane,

the pilots have purely limited time.

I'm pushing.

I'm pushing.

I'm pushing.

I'm pushing.

We gotta get out of these fucking clouds.

Mmm…

we needed to get up as fast as we could and so the

turn was quite rough and the descent was quite steep.

Pilgrim 458, how many people on board?

The controllers are preparing for an emergency landing on Providence.

We have ten people on board.

Lyle responded that there were ten.

He was thinking of the passengers. He didn't include Tom and himself.

It's getting worse.

What the hell is this? Where is this coming from?

It was blinding. It was choking. They couldn't see each other.

They couldn't see their instruments. They were in the clouds.

The smoke spread little by little in the cabin.

As soon as the black smoke infiltrated the cabin,

we had more and more trouble seeing and breathing.

I immediately grabbed the bottom of my sweater.

I pulled it up, sat into it, and put it under my nose.

And started to use it, you know, as a filter.

The pilots are suffocating.

The Twin Otters are not pressurized.

They can open their hatches to have a little fresh air.

Because at that moment, I couldn't even distinguish Tom.

I opened the window on my side to ventilate.

But in the cabin, the hatches don't open.

The passengers suffocate.

How am I going to get in there?

It was a matter of life or death.

The passengers and the crew of the Pilgrim Airlines

458 flight are struggling for their survival.

I did have that tennis racket.

I blew up a hatch.

It drew the smoke out.

And then I proceeded for a couple of times.

Well, I guess we were on the right side of the airplane, you know.

Uh!

I was actually looking down because of what he was doing.

Move it, Mark!

The smoke's starting to get out!

I thought, oh my god, this is an amazing piece of good

news, not only for me, but for everybody on the plane.

In addition to the thick smoke, the pilots are now

confronted with the flames coming out of the deck.

I thought I was going to try and get to the fire extinguisher,

which was behind my seat, and it was close to the floor.

But because of the intense heat released by the fire, Og didn't make it.

That's when we were starting to burn.

The initial reaction was not to feel the pain.

The initial reaction is, you need to talk to this person first.

You need to talk to him quickly.

As they are still 18 kilometers from Providence, the pilots deliver

a race against the watch to manage to put their plane on fire.

We were doing an emergency descent towards

Providence without knowing if we could get there.

The navigator, Harry Polycron, heads towards the

cockpit to make sure the pilots were in the cockpit.

It was horrible.

I was having a hard time standing up.

The plane was hanging in all directions.

It was a wild ride.

We were swinging from right to left.

When I passed the head in the cockpit, he was invaded by a cloud of smoke.

They couldn't see their instruments, and they couldn't see outside.

How they managed to keep the plane on the right side up amazes me.

I just wanted them to know that the passengers were doing well,

and to tell them to keep it up, that they were doing a great job.

I said to them...

You guys keep doing what you're doing.

At the back, we're managing.

My intention was just to show them that we were

supporting them in this almost superhuman challenge.

It was just heroic.

The flames are now winning the cockpit.

Time is running out.

It is more urgent than urgent to land.

It was an extremely scary, painful, frightening, deadly

set of circumstances that were getting worse every second.

The pilots can't see each other anymore, and with

the windows open, they can't hear each other.

I needed to make sure that Tom was in fact still in the plane's aircraft.

And that's when I rested my hand on his neck to follow along with his movements.

The commander, Prinster, pursues a quick descent,

but he has no idea where he's going to land.

I initially did not see him.

I was still in the clouds, and I didn't see an adequate landing site.

The passengers prepare for the worst.

I sat up very straight on my chair, and took the seatbelt, and

ensured that it was down across my hip, and not across my stomach.

And tightened it as tightly as I possibly could.

At 450 meters from the ground, the heat released by the fire in the cockpit

has become so intense that the pilot's helmets are starting to melt.

I had to take this rubber helmet off.

These circumstances were absolutely desperate.

At that point, it was very clear to the pilot...

...that the plane had been transformed into a death trap.

The plane approaches Providence Airport.

Pilgrim 458, you can go straight to Providence VOR.

Without a helmet, the pilots are no longer able to communicate with the control tower.

One of the pilots was gripping the elbow so hard...

...that his thumb was on top of the button that acted...

...the microphone.

And the result of that was...

...the air traffic control has heard this roar.

Pilgrim 458.

Pilgrim 458, do you copy? I do not receive you.

At 300 meters above the ground, the Twin Otter pierces the clouds.

At a high altitude, I could only see trees.

Tom was taking a turn.

I could not see him, but I felt that he was... ...turning to the left.

Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458.

The pilots must land before the fire reaches the fuel tank...

...highly inflatable, located in the belly of the plane.

Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458.

The plane is just under the passengers.

I was wondering, at this point... if we were going to be able to land on the ground

or if the plane was going to explode on the ground.

Are you ready?

Oh my God!

Looking out the window, I saw trees, I saw the shore of this frozen reservoir,

and my immediate thought was, hey, we're going to make it.

The pilots spotted the Situate artificial lake near

Providence, which extends over 13 square kilometers.

It was a wide open flat area, there were no trees, there

was no obstacle, there was just ice that was in the open.

The pilots direct their aircraft in fire towards the lake.

The next thing was just to get down as fast as we could and get out of the aircraft.

They had never crossed the ice before.

They could have supported the weight of the aircraft.

In the cabin of the Pilgrim Airlines 458 flight, the

passengers were waiting for an emergency landing.

I looked out the window and I saw that the impact was imminent.

I wanted to get back in, but the seat was on

fire, so I put myself against the bulkhead.

Flight 458 is about to crash.

It was a matter of putting this plane on the

ground as absolutely as fast as we could.

It was not going to be a smooth landing.

Get ready for the impact.

All of a sudden, there was an enormous bang.

Enormous bang.

Oh yeah!

Flight 459 got a big hit.

Flight 459 was about to crash.

Flight 458 was about to crash.

It was about to crash.

All of a sudden, the aircraft lost consciousness.

When I got back to consciousness, the plane was stopped and everything was silent.

All of a sudden, the plane was cut off and everything was silent.

The pilots have managed to land their plane on fire on the frozen lake.

They must still make sure that everyone can get

out of it before the fire consumes it entirely.

We find ourselves in the middle of this white

and icy expanse. What are we going to do now?

I just released my belt and jumped up and hit the main

door and attempted to open it, but I was unable to do so.

Because the fuselage was compressed.

I glanced and I saw a slit in the fuselage right behind the doorway.

I've made the decision that I was going to expand that area of

the fuselage and make a hole in it so that we could get out of it.

There's a hole! There's a hole in the back!

There's a hole! There's a hole in the back!

Hainsworth knows that you have to act very quickly.

I still had the concern that the plane would imminently explode.

I jumped out first and I then started to assist other people.

Harry Polichrone, gravely injured, is still at the front of the plane.

That was filled with adrenaline and shock. I had dislocated

my shoulder, I had injured my knee, I had a burnt leg.

My very first instinct was to get out of that airplane right now.

And I got a little proceed to the back of the airplane.

I heard a young woman say, someone please help me.

I heard a young woman say, someone please help me.

Come!

This way to the back!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

You're okay?

Come on!

I grabbed the young woman by the arm and I pulled her towards the opening.

I think I was the last one to go out.

Are you okay? Yeah.

..

Yeah...

I think I'm gonna make it.

At the point where we were, it was no longer a question of procedures to follow.

We have to get out of here.

The two pilots, as well as nine of the ten passengers,

left the plane and headed for the mainland.

A few minutes later, the Twin Otter was completely destroyed by the fire.

I think it's a real miracle that I'm still alive.

And I'm very grateful to the pilot, the co-pilot, and the other pilot,

who was patting on the plane for the actions

that were quite reckless, beyond remarkable.

A passenger is dead, suffocated by the smoke.

All the others, injured to varying degrees, are transported to the hospital.

The two pilots are severely burned.

Lyle was burned for 25% of his body,

and the captain was burned for 75% of his body, much of it at third degree.

Volunteers are in charge of removing the essential parts of the wreck from the lake

so that they can be examined by the investigators.

And I'm going to have to do an operation.

We have a portable electric generator around here with lights.

We're going to mop up the fuel oil, and wait for the FAA representatives to come.

If it's obvious that the plane was destroyed by the fire, we don't know why.

Knowing that there was a fire on board is not enough.

You need to understand exactly what happened, how it happened, when,

and how the crew was able to pilot the plane with the fire on board.

The two pilots being too seriously injured to make a statement,

the investigators turn to the air controller.

What did they tell you?

Just that there was a fire on board and that it was going to land in an emergency.

And when did they tell you?

The call came in at 3.29, so less than 20 minutes after takeoff.

What would cause a fire on board?

You're looking for a flammable source, you're looking for an ignition source.

Well, we're going to have a hard time finding something useful in there.

The investigators examine the cockpit manometers of flight 458,

hoping to find clues to the origin of the fire.

But after a fire, after impact, the instruments are often so damaged

that they take a considerable amount of work to get more out of it.

Sometimes we get nothing we need, because we

just can't make it to understand what they say.

One moment.

The plane's clock is still readable.

Stopped at the crash.

3.34.

We don't know what happened, but it happened.

Less than five minutes after signaling the emergency,

the pilots hit the frozen lake.

The investigators conclude that the situation has deteriorated rapidly.

Engine fire?

The flight 458 not being equipped with a flight recorder,

the investigators will have to work on the most probable sources of a fire on board.

...

It makes the investigation a little more time-consuming.

It takes a little more time to get out.

It doesn't keep us from doing an investigation,

but it increases the amount of work that

needs to be done to complete an investigation.

They examine what's left of the engines to see if they played a role in the accident.

Both engines were running at the time of impact.

The best way to know if the engines were running at

the time of impact is to look at if they were damaged,

look at if the propellers were twisted or bent,

and in that case, look at in what direction and in what proportion.

It clearly appeared that both engines were deploying power at the time of impact.

The fact that the engines were running at the time of impact

proves that they were not at the origin of the fire.

All of them are talking about the same thing.

The smoke.

While the pilots are recovering,

the passengers' testimonies provide an important clue.

A thick smoke from the cockpit has invaded the cabin.

If passengers say they saw smoke during the flight,

the focus of the investigation

would be to focus on the source of the smoke

and be interested in the source of the smoke and the time when the smoke appeared.

They examine the calcined wreck of the plane

to try to find out where the fire started.

The fire must have started somewhere.

We look for concentration points

which would give us an indication of where the fire started.

The plane is completely burned.

Yeah, but the cockpit floor here is the most damaged.

I guess the fire started somewhere under the cockpit.

The plane burned after it landed on the ice.

It is therefore impossible to determine the precise origin of the fire on board.

We could tell in the area where the fire started,

but we needed to do more to look at potential flammable sources.

The pilots are now able to testify.

The pilots are the most experienced people on the airplane,

and they can tell us about the events that occurred

around them at the time that this was going on.

All their sight, sounds, and feelings can be used in the investigation.

Thank you for your interview.

Maybe you just want to tell me what you can remember.

Towards the end of the week,

they asked me if I wanted to talk to the NTSB, and I said yes.

...

We tried to unwind the windshield,

but there was no liquid, and almost immediately,

I smelled an alcohol smell, and then smoke.

...

And then I saw the smoke,

at first, light and white.

It was coming out of the control column.

It took a long time for this smoke to get thick and black.

Just after, we couldn't breathe anymore,

and we started burning.

How long did it take for the first signs of smoke?

It happened real fast.

I don't know.

Maybe a minute, or less.

...

And that's where you called for an emergency?

Yes.

And we started going down right after.

He hit the switch

to get the liquid out,

and clean the windshield.

And very shortly thereafter,

he had what he described as a white smoke with an alcohol smell.

That was a very important statement for an

investigator, for an investigator looking for a fire.

So,

it all starts right here,

with the deflation.

The co-pilot's interrogation led the investigators

to focus on the plane's deflation system.

We'd start looking in the rest of the plane for clues to this deflation system,

and then begin a parallel investigation with Mitch to see

if there was any history or other problems with that system.

The reservoir contains five and a half liters of anti deflation liquid.

The 28-volt pump is activated by an interrupter located on the upper console.

A flexible plastic pipe connects the pump to the spray nozzles.

It's a pretty basic system.

The use of chemical deflation in airplanes had been used since the 1920s.

So it was not an unknown, or not a system that they were using.

The investigators hope to find some of the components of the deflation system.

If they found the pump and the attachments,

it clearly would have shown them where the problem was.

That's all that's left.

No trace of the pump.

The wires are all out.

The only part of the system that escaped the fire

is a half-consumed piece of the plastic tank.

It can't be of any use to us.

The pilots have reported a smell of alcohol.

The investigators are studying a sample of the deflation liquid used

by Pilgrim Airlines to find out how flammable it is.

87% isopropyl.

It's a rather flammable product.

They are now more or less certain that, the

deflation liquid from the flight 458 has inflamed,

triggering a fire.

But they still don't know how.

We really have not had any experience with this type

of system of putting the fire on board an airplane.

He reports to the co-pilot's statement

concerning the start of the fire.

He did say that the system didn't work very well.

The first time I switched on the switch,

I got a tiny bit of liquid on my side.

So I tried a second time, and nothing.

...

So what did you do?

That's when I felt a strong smell of alcohol.

So I stopped trying.

A few seconds later,

we felt the smoke.

The investigators must now determine which part of the

deflation system could have been the source of the fire

that destroyed the aircraft.

The investigators read the maintenance reports to see

if the deflation system had already caused problems.

He's talking about a leak.

According to the reports,

the plastic pipe had already split and separated from the pump.

Pilgrim's mechanics solved the problem by cutting

the pipe and fixing it with tightening collars.

As the alcohol comes into contact with this tubing

from the inside, it changes the properties of the pipe.

It tends to harden and swell,

so at the place of the connection,

the contact is less good.

They take up the history of the plane

by looking for what could explain how the deflation system could have led to a fire.

A few months ago,

they detected a leak on this plane.

The maintenance discovered that the pipe was too short to reach the pump.

They had trimmed and reconnected the pipe so often that it was no longer adjusted.

By shortening the cracked pipe,

it ended up no longer being in contact with the pump.

...

Over time, you wouldn't have enough length of the pipe

to fix it correctly and you would have to change it.

Apparently,

the same thing happened on this plane just three days before the accident.

The same thing happened on this plane and they made a leak, it seems.

The pilots noticed a leak

when they stopped at New Haven.

They tried to reattach the pipe to the pump,

but they couldn't because it was too short.

They reattached it

and a mechanic worked on it.

The mechanic repaired the pipe,

put it back in place,

tightened it,

then he filled the tank again.

The mechanic says that after he had reattached the pipe to the pump,

he then signed off on the anomaly and then repaired it.

Three days later, the plane was on fire when the pilots tried to de-ice.

The investigators think that the pipes in which the liquid circulated

were not properly secured and were detached from the pump after the repair.

There's a good chance that the pipe wasn't as long as it should have been.

That it was probably pulling on the pump and because the house was detached,

because it was badly tightened.

It's still nothing.

If the de-ice system on flight 458 didn't work because of a bad repair,

that doesn't explain the fire as much.

In order to know the effect

that this system could have had on a fire,

either by starting it or by contributing to it,

the NTSB investigators took a tank and a pump

from the laboratory and they connected the system

to an electrical power supply system

to see what it would do.

They want to know

what amount of the highly inflatable liquid

would be concentrated under the cockpit

if, as they think,

the pipe was well detached.

Well, let's see.

Even without connecting the system,

it leaks when the pipe is not attached.

They measure the amount of liquid lost at the level of the pump.

The test has revealed that the pump would leak to a level of 90 milliliters a minute.

And so, over time,

that could actually empty the 5.

5-litre tank

of gas completely.

The test shows that if the pipe was detached from the pump,

a large flask of inflatable liquid would have formed under the cockpit

even before the pilots tried to defuse the windshield.

Let's see what happens

when we plug in the system.

Seven feet.

Oh, it's not too far.

When Hogg tried to plug in the deflating system,

the pump would have pulverized the liquid at

two metres in the compartment under the cockpit.

The consequences of that,

given what is down in that area,

are quite severe.

The deflating pump gets pretty hot when it's operating.

The air from the air duct is at 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

The discharge from the silencer gets heated into the cockpit.

And the electric motor that drives the flaps

could also inflate the liquid.

The investigators say that several components

could have inflated the deflating liquid jet.

The investigators have never been able to identify with precision

the components that had inflated the liquid because there was so much down there.

It could have been the heat from the hydraulic pump.

It could have been the heat from the hydraulic pump

that was released by the hydraulic pump or its engine.

...

It could have been any component of the aircraft at the back of the dashboard.

Directly to Providence, please.

There's an emergency.

We've got the fire on board.

Once the liquid has inflated,

it doesn't take long for the fire to spread.

Older aircraft are less resistant to the newer aircraft.

And if you have alcohol from the deflating system

spreading through the airplane,

it could easily take fire than probably the newer materials.

Flying around in a time bomb for years, no one was worried about that.

I think it's surprising to discover something new

in aircraft that's been in service

for so long in such a good history, to find

something new in the future in the investigation.

The investigators are now asking one last question.

How the hell did they make it to make it to the ground?

The investigators are studying the way the pilots have responded

to the emergency situation aboard flight 458.

At the first sign of black smoke,

they've alerted the control tower.

Soon after,

they've changed course for an emergency landing at Providence.

...

He pushed the deck forward to make the airplane descend very quickly.

...

They were still in the clouds and the airplane was coming down rapidly.

...

Turn right and point 150 for Providence approach vector.

Let's get on board.

The pilots start a 1,200-meter rapid descent

all the way to the right towards Providence.

All their obsessions will get the plane down.

At this point,

the cockpit is on fire and packed with black smoke.

So what do these guys do?

They stick their heads up and try to get out of the clouds.

...

While they're no longer able

to see or breathe and are seriously burned,

the pilots fight

to bring the plane under the clouds.

They were burning some of their burns on

their bodies and they never left their seats.

...

They never left their seats in the fact that they were

bringing in the damage to the control of the airplane

and getting it to land on that frozen lake.

It was amazing.

Despite the pain and the terror,

these pilots stayed in their controls they kept flying the airplane.

...

They were determined to get down successfully

despite the agony they were feeling.

The plane landed

They reported their exit from the clouds at 300 meters.

...

Quick left turn,

landing in a few seconds.

When there's a fire,

you know,

the main rule is to bring the plane to the ground as fast as possible

and that's what we did.

It wasn't easy, but we did it.

We landed

and almost everyone survived.

...

Six minutes to get out of the clouds,

find a place to land and get out of the clouds.

And I'm bringing in the plane on fire.

...

The investigators congratulate the two pilots

for their heroic action

facing this emergency situation.

Here's an example of a crew you know, that has the skills and professionalism

to save the lives of all the people on board.

Yeah.

Let's get out of here.

Lesser men would have let it go.

They didn't give up.

They didn't give up.

They fought like the devil until the end and that's why I'm still here today.

The passengers also highlight the courage of the navigator

Harry Polycron

who has contributed to saving lives.

Without the action

of the passengers sitting in front of me with the tendency

to break the window with a tennis racket,

I absolutely believe

other people would have lost their lives in this crash.

...

The NTSB concludes that the fire aboard flight 458

has been due to a bad conception of the windscreen deflating system.

I didn't know how flammable isopropyl alcohol was.

They took the industry by surprise that it was so flammable

and that it could trigger a devastating fire just as quickly.

The investigators have recommended replacing this crash

on all the Twin Hotters with an electrically heated

The alcohol system has been ruined as a result of this accident and I think

the realization that the hazards were just too high.

But what will remain in the history of flight 458

is the heroism and the professionalism

of the two pilots

who managed to land their plane and save the passengers.

I don't consider myself a hero.

...

I consider that we have done what we did and what we had to do that day.

...

We have done what we had to do to survive.

...

The pilots

Prinster and Hogg

have received numerous marks of honor for their bravery.

Today at Situate

in Rhode Island a park close to the place where they landed bears their name

and houses a commemorative monument.

41 years later the heroes of flight 458

have returned and reflect on the hard lesson learned that day.

I mean, you guys

were a strong power of your own

to just stay with the band.

...

Fortitude is the word.

...

I think your body takes over and you just hang in there.

...

It's actually when things get real you can really kind

of share everything and hold it and just go for it.

I think we all go out a little bit of that.

It's a great day.

It was a great day.

It was a great day.

What a day.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.