All language subtitles for Mayday.S03E10.Head.on.Collision.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Pull the control! Pull!
Just pull it!

Guys!

A Russian
flight to Hong Kong

is in serious trouble.

The other way! The other way!

To the left! Now to the right!

Gravity has become
a deadly force

as the crew fight
to keep the plane

from falling to Earth
from 10,000 metres.

Get out! Get out!

Back!

The cause of all the chaos:

a 15-year-old
is at the controls.

3,000.

We're not getting
any oxygen!

We have the terrain alarm.

Aero Peru 603.

We are in an emergency.

Come and sit
in my seat.

Go on.

Pilot being filmed!

Are you filming?!

It's a family outing.

A proud pilot taking his kids
on their first trip abroad.

But in just a few minutes,
their vacation

will turn into a terrifying
fight for their lives.

Hold the control column.
Just hold it!

Back, back!

- Investigators would be amazed.
- To the left!

The other way!
- I am turning it left!

How did a 15-year-old kid
end up in the pilot's seat,

flying a brand new
passenger aircraft?

The other way!

Back!

March 22, 1994. Moscow.

15-year-old Eldar Kudrinsky

is going abroad
for the first time.

He needs every gadget he has.

Eldar! Uncle Volodya
is waiting!

- I'm ready, I'm ready!
- Come on.

But this is no ordinary kid.

Eldar's father is Captain
Yaroslav Kudrinsky,

an international airline pilot.
- Come.

In Russia, that means
membership of a privileged

group and access to luxuries

most of the country
can only dream of.

Okay, let's go.

Ah, Captain's here.
Now we can take off.

Hello, Uncle Volodya.

Hello!

Aeroflot allows pilots'
families to travel once a year

at a discount.
So Captain Kudrinsky

is taking his children
on a four-day holiday

to Hong Kong.

Mom, it won't all fit.

Anybody would think you were
going for a year!

Where's your daughter?

Listening to music in the car.

By the time they're our age,
these kids are going to be deaf.

- What?
- Deaf!

Pardon?

Captain Vladimir Makarov,

Volodya to his friends,

is an Aeroflot pilot too.

He's also going to Hong Kong
on holiday,

and will be keeping an eye
on the kids during the flight.

Mrs. Kudrinsky is only going
as far as the airport

to see them off.

Eldar, Yana,

promise you'll call
as soon as you get there.

Volodya, you will
make them call me?

Um... Yeah.

We'll call as soon
as we can, okay?

Come on, come on, come on!

Yaroslav and I loved
to travel,

and so did the kids.

They loved seeing new places,

learning new things.

There was a chance
for them to come along

with their father,

and they jumped at it.

Eldar and Yana
aren't the only one's boarding

Flight 593.

Most of the 63 passengers
are businessmen

from Hong Kong and Taiwan,

looking for opportunities
in the new Russia.

Others, like Adrian Deaville,
have come from London,

flying Aeroflot because
it offers a cheap connection

to Asia.

He's the manager
of a camera shop

in northern England,
and has a passion for aircraft.

In fact, he's going on
a two-week holiday to Hong Kong

to photograph the new
airport they've just built.

He'd go as far as he could
if he thought there was a good

airport somewhere in the world,

he'd try his best to get
to that airport,

just to go and make
some nice photographs.

And the trip to Hong Kong
grew from that,

because he wanted to see
this brand new airport

which was a feat
of engineering at the time.

Mark Newport
is a British Sports Promoter

who lives in Hong Kong.

Mark was in the army,
he was in the forces.

And he went to Hong Kong,
and he just loved it.

And he got married out there.

He had chosen Aeroflot,
I'd never heard of it until
then

because it was just
a cheap flight home.

In 1994,
Russia is in a state

of great change.

Three years earlier,
the old Soviet Union

finally collapsed.

A new Russia is bursting out

from behind the torn
Iron Curtain.

Its people want
the freedoms of the West,

the lifestyle,
the international travel.

But Russia's state-owned
airline, Aeroflot,

is getting a make over too.

They struggle to buy
five new aircraft

from the company
Airbus Industrie.

The $70 million
state-of-the-art

Airbus A310-300.

Though it seats fewer
than 200 passengers,

it can fly three times
further than any

of Russia's biggest
passenger aircraft.

The A310 is a fully-automated
aircraft,

equipped with sophisticated
fail-safe systems.

Aeroflot hopes it will help
improve the company's

checkered safety reputation.

Any time there
is a national carrier

supported by their particular
government,

if that government
is in turmoil,

whether it's financially
or political turmoil,

it affects everything
that's associated

with that core government.

Aeroflot is a national carrier,

and so there is always
the perception

that they may not have had
the monetary resources

and the wherewithal to
be a very structured carrier

with a lot of oversight

to ensure a high level
of safety at that time.

Aeroflot has
created a new,

prestigious division
around the Airbus fleet:

Russian International Airlines.

Pilots wear special uniforms,

they fly state-of-the-art
planes

and travel to the world's
top destinations.

RIA represents a new,
modern Russia to the world.

After collapse
of the Soviet Union,

Aeroflot,

still controlled by government,

was forced to look for profits

and develop a network

which would be commercially
justified.

For Russia's
premier airline,

Aeroflot handpicks an elite
corps of first-class pilots.

Each of them has thousands
of hours of flying time,

impeccable safety records,
and fluent English.

They're given special training
by the manufacturers

of the aircraft,
Airbus Industrie.

The airline had around
3,000 pilots at that time.

Only 16 men were to be sent
to be trained first.

Only the best of the best
made it.

Kudrinsky and I started
working here at Sheremetyevo

at the same time, and naturally,

we first got acquainted
simply as neighbours.

Then we found out
we were both pilots.

Later, we both trained
for the A-310.

We studied together.

I remember how hard it was
for them to master it,

because the technology
was quite different,

so they were working very hard.

But they all got through it
and started to fly.

Yana and Eldar
are finally

on board the new plane
they've heard so much about

from their father.

Hey. Now, you two behave,

or Uncle Volodya will push
the eject button.

Voom!

Kudrinsky has 900 hours

of flying the A310
under his belt.

I must go now, okay?
See you later.

It was their first
trip abroad,

but naturally,

they had come along with him
on other trips within Russia.

They were quite well-traveled
for their ages.

First Captain
Danilov will command the flight

through the busy flight
corridors out of Moscow.

Relief Captain Kudrinsky
will then take over.

When he does,
First Officer Piskarev

becomes his co-pilot.

All three
are first-class pilots.

On this new A-310,

the flight deck
is fully computerized.

Like other state-of-the-art
aircraft,

it's equipped with
a sophisticated autopilot

that can fly the plane for long
stretches of the flight.

International routes,
like this one to Hong Kong,

are Aeroflot's lifeline.

They bring in precious
hard currency

at a time when
the domestic market

is struggling to turn a profit.

Flight 593 takes off
at 4:39PM local time.

Then it will join
the Trans-Siberian airway

flying east towards
Mongolia and China.

It's a smooth flight.

Only four hours into
the ten-hour trip,

they've just passed over
Novosibirsk in Siberia,

almost halfway.

But Eldar and Yana
are too excited to sleep.

Having negotiated the busy
airways out of Moscow,

First Captain Danilov
takes a rest break.

He hands over control
to Relief Captain Kudrinsky,

who now becomes
Acting Captain

for the next leg
of the journey.

You have control.

I have control.

Still awake?

Yes. Why?

Shall we surprise your father?

In the cockpit?

Oh, yeah!
- Would you like that?

Aeroflot's most
technically advanced aircraft

is now cruising on autopilot
at 10,000 metres.

It's a calm, windless night.

But the peace will not last.

The pilots and crew
will soon be fighting

to save the lives
of everyone on board.

One of Aeroflot's new Airbuses

is on a direct flight
from Moscow to Hong Kong.

Captain Kudrinsky is taking
his children

on their first trip abroad.

They're about to pay him
a surprise visit.

Captain? You have some
very important visitors.

Shall I bring them in?

Okay.

Come on in!
- Wow!

Hi, Dad.

This is First Officer

Igor Vladimirovich Piskarev.

- Hello.
- Hi.

So, what do you think
of our new airplane?

It's very nice.

It's amazing!

It's quite different
from our old Russian planes.

Daddy, what's that?

Oh. This is the flight
computer.

It flies the plane, it does
everything automatically.

Now, come and sit in my seat.
Would you like to?

Come on.

It's a quiet flight.

Many passengers are sleeping,

unaware of what is taking place
on the flight deck.

- Daddy, can I turn this?
- Yes.

Now, Yana, would you like
to pilot the plane?

No.

Put your hands
on the control column.

Go on, go on, go on.

But don't touch
any buttons, okay?

Especially this red one,
autopilot switch.

You don't touch it. Alright?

Kudrinksy turns the heading
select knob.

It doesn't disengage
the autopilot,

but allows him to turn the plane
slightly to the left.

It makes his daughter think
she's flying the aircraft.

The Artificial Horizon shows
the plane is banking

slowly left.

This instrument is vital
when you can't see the ground,

as it shows the pilot
how level the aircraft is

in relation to the horizon.

It was you!
You turned the plane!

Kudrinsky now puts
the aircraft

back onto its preset course,

while First Officer Piskarev

radios local air traffic
control with their position.

Novokuznetsk, this is SU 593.

Flight Level three-three-zero.
Heading one-zero-five.

Flight 593 is now over
3,200 kilometres east of
Moscow,

near the middle of Siberia.

Sierra Uniform 593,

Novokuznetsk.

Flight level three-five-zero.
Heading 105.

Sierra Uniform 593,

estimating Zakir at 17:59.

Now it's Eldar's turn
at the wheel.

He's been waiting
a long time for this moment.

Pilot being filmed!

Are you filming?

Yes, I am!

Can I turn this?

Yeah. But if you turn it
to the left,

where will the plane go?
- Left.

Right, look out to the left,

watching for the ground
when we're turning.

Eldar finds the control column
quite stiff.

It seemed to move easily
when his sister was doing it.

So he tries harder.

But he can't make
the plane turn,

because the autopilot
is keeping it on course.

Is the plane turning?

Suddenly the column
turns easily.

Great!

Is the plane turning
to the left?

Yes, yes, it is!

Set the horizon
to normal for him.

Once again,
his father switches

the heading select knob
back to its original setting,

ending the turn
and Eldar's illusion

of flying the plane.

Captain Kudrinsky then selects
Navigation mode.

It tells the autopilot
to put the plane back

on course to Hong Kong.

Dad? Dad?

But Eldar is still holding
the wheel to the left.

It's become stiff again.

Can I go back to my seat?

What for?
You'll only go to sleep.

And don't run in the first-class
or they will fire us.

Eldar now turns
his control column

slightly to the right,

enjoying his time
at the controls.

Well, I am going shopping
on Temple Street.

It's a famous market
that only opens at night.

Why is it turning?

Is it turning by itself?

Yes, it is.

It has just been over
three minutes since Eldar

sat down in the pilot's seat.

The plane is tilting sharply,

a turn that's getting
steeper every second.

The plane seems to be
turning by itself.

But no one seems to know why.

We're going into
some kind of zone.

We've gone into a zone,
a holding pattern.

- Have we?
- Of course we have!

An arc has replaced
the straight direction line

on the screen.

The arc looks like a plane
in a holding pattern

around an airport.

As they study the screen,
the plane continues to turn.

It's now banked at 45 degrees,

which is steeper than
what it was built for.

Suddenly the command bars
disappear

from the primary flight display.

The crew no longer
have any information

about course or heading.

The plane is flying
at 650 kilometres an hour

and banking hard.

Like a quick turn
in a sports car,

the dramatic movement
of the aircraft

begins to push everyone
into their seats.

Guys!

The A-310's autopilot works
to keep the plane aloft.

Suddenly the nose pitches up.

The increased G-force
makes it difficult

for Piskarev to reach
the controls.

He does his best,
but nothing happens.

Piskarev's hard turn
to the left

has had no effect on the plane.

Okay, hold it.
Hold the control column!

Eldar is the only one
with both hands

fully on the controls.

He can only follow
the most basic orders.

He can't get up,
because the speed of the turn

is pushing him back
in his seat.

Turn it to the left!

To the left!

To the left! Not to the right!
The other way!

- I am turning it left!
- Okay, get out!

Eldar has been
in the pilot's seat

for just over four minutes,

and now, he can't leave.

His body feels twice
its normal weight.

Get out! Get out!

Kudrinsky can do nothing
but struggle against

the crippling G-forces.

The aircraft is plunging
towards the snowy earth,

and there's nothing
anyone can do.

Crawl out to the back!
Get out! Get out!

Get out!

Russian International Airlines

Flight 593 to Hong Kong
is in serious trouble.

There's the ground!

The pilot's 15-year-old son

has been at the controls
for four minutes.

The plane is turning steeply
and losing altitude.

The other way!

Captain Kudrinsky desperately
needs to get back

into the pilot's seat,

but he can barely move.

The plane is turning
so steeply and so quickly,

the G-forces on his body
make it feel like

it's twice its normal weight.

Everyone on board now feels
the force

of the plane's dramatic
movements.

This plane is in
a serious crisis.

But Captain Danilov
can't get to the cockpit.

He too is squashed
by the powerful forces

created by the plane's
extreme bank.

The plane still
isn't responding.

To add to their confusion,
an alarm begins to sound.

It signals the complete
shut down of the autopilot.

The plane is now completely
in the hands of Piskarev

and Eldar.

And to make matters even worse,

there's another alarm.

The other way. The other way!

The plane is about to stall.

An automatic safety system
kicks in

to keep the plane flying.

It lowers the nose,

and puts the Airbus
into a steep dive

to regain speed.

Get it to the left!
There's the ground!

The plane dives
at a frightening

40 thousand feet per minute.

For the people on board,
it's like having an elevator

fall out from under them.
- Daddy!

In just seconds,
the heavy pressure

of the high-speed turn

is replaced by near
weightlessness.

As the plane suddenly
drops away.

It's now a very
dangerous environment.

People and objects that are
not secured

will land anywhere
once gravity returns.

They'd been flying
at 10,000 metres

but now they're falling fast.

Unless they do something
quickly,

they will hit the ground
in less than a minute.

Piskarev pulls back
on the control column

as hard as he can

to bring the Airbus
out of the dive.

The nose finally comes up,

and the aircraft begins
climbing quickly.

Gravity now returns
with a shock.

As the plane climbs,
the rapid acceleration

pushes people
down relentlessly.

The dramatic change in speed

makes everyone feel
four times heavier than normal.

Meanwhile,
First Officer Piskarev

is still trying to gain
control of the aircraft.

Thrust levers to slow!

Piskarev has pulled
the airplane out of the dive,

but it's climbing too quickly.

The engines on the A-310
don't have enough power

to push it almost vertically
into the sky.

The airspeed drops dramatically.

The plane strains to climb,
but it's been pushed too far.

As the force
of the acceleration eases,

Kudrinsky leaps into action.

But Piskarev has stalled
the plane.

The nose drops
into a corkscrew dive.

Now the Airbus is twisting
towards the ground

from 6,000 metres

at a breathtaking
70 metres a second.

Full throttle!

For the first time
since the crisis began,

Captain and co-pilot can work
together to save the plane.

Full throttle, no?

I got it,
I have full throttle!

Kudrinsky pumps the rudder,

the vertical surface
on the tail,

to help break out of the spin.

- What's the speed?
- I don't see it.

At last, the plane
seems to be responding.

Working the rudder,
Kudrinsky has nearly

stopped the corkscrew dive.

Coming out, coming out.

Too much speed, ease back
on throttle a bit.

After a desperate struggle,

the two pilots have managed
to pull the plane out

of its terrifying spin.

- Take it easy.
- They're starting to level
out,

but still not
completely in control.

We'll get out of this.
Everything is fine.

Pull backwards a little bit.

In all of the chaos
of the past few minutes,

the pilots don't know
exactly how far they've fallen.

Suddenly, they run out of time.

Sierra Uniform 593,

this is Novokuznetsk
Area Control,

please come in.

500 kilometres
north of the Mongolian border,

air traffic controllers
in Novokuznetsk

wait for Flight 593 to radio
that it's left

their control area.

...control.
Please come in.

Less than two hours later,

the first search party goes out
to look for the Airbus

in the frozen,
rugged Siberian wilderness.

They finally locate the remains
of Flight 593

on a wooded hillside
about 100 kilometres east

of Novokuznetsk.

It's soon clear
there are no survivors

among the 75 passengers
and crew.

This was a brand new aircraft,

fitted with
the latest technology.

What could have brought
it down?

Why was there no warning?

Not even a distress signal?

The Russian media
are quick to speculate.

Could it have been
a terrorist bomb?

When I was in Moscow,
the news we had

was that it could have been
a terrorist act.

Because we had terrorist acts
on aircraft previously.

We was completely unaware

other than nobody survived it.

For some time, they wouldn't
tell me anything specific.

And only on the next day,
the airline director told me

there was no hope whatsoever.

It was a horrible moment,
of course.

Horrible.

It's hard to believe.

Aeroflot flies
the families of the deceased

out to Moscow.

Among them is Brenda Clark,

the mother of British passenger,
Mark Newport.

We met my daughter-in-law
there.

They told us it's cordoned off,
we can't go down there.

And she said,
"You can go down there, Bren,

because the Chinese
are down there.

They have to do rituals
and things." You know.

And, um...

So she said they're down there.
That's when I knew

they'd lied to me
and said it was cordoned off.

And that's when I told them...

I want to go down,
and if you don't take me down,

then I'll thumb a lift.

The authorities take them
to where the plane crashed.

Relatives of Chinese victims
drop pieces of paper

with messages written on them.

Others throw flowers.

Yeah,
that was really moving.

We had the flowers,
they had the little...

They wrote messages, I think,
on these pieces of paper.

And they threw them out.
It was lovely.

Yeah.

The Russians take
the families to a morgue

in a town near the crash site,

where the recovered bodies
are being held.

Many are too badly
mutilated to be identified.

They ask the families
to look at recovered items

of clothing to help
identify the bodies.

Brenda Clark finds
her son's family photographs.

It sends a chill through her.

For the first time,
she knows for certain

he was on the flight.

The recovery operation
gets underway.

The Russian government
mobilizes 238 soldiers,

police, investigators
and rescuers.

Everyone in the aviation world
wants to know

how a brand new,
state-of-the-art Airbus

could fall out of the sky
without any warning.

Does the A310 have problems
no one knows about?

They need to find out, fast.

Chief Accident Investigator
Ivan Mashkivsky is in charge.

The crash site itself
offers few clues.

The ones he does have
are puzzling.

Unbroken bottles of Champagne,

a flight attendant
in an oxygen mask,

and finally,
the body of at least one child

thrown into the cockpit.

The plane's Digital Flight
Data Recorder

indicates the engines
were running

when it hit the ground.

He rules out engine failure.

Mashkivsky needs
the expertise of a man

who knows the A310 well,

someone who can also
recreate the fatal flight

and find out what exactly
went wrong.

Vladimir Biriukov
is an experienced test pilot

and crash investigator

at the Gromov Institute
in Moscow.

He's an expert on
the A310 Airbus.

Biriukov was directly
involved in testing

and certifying the airplane
prior to the Russians buying
it.

Because of the fate
of this plane,

the fate of this airline,
my first reaction was shock.

How could such a thing happen?

All I knew was that
the plane had crashed

somewhere over Siberia.

I remember spending
a sleepless night,

distraught and trying
to figure out

what might have happened
and what could have caused it.

Yeah, come.

I think you should come
and listen to this.

Each investigation
begins with a complete analysis

of the plane's cockpit
voice recorder.

This time, it reveals
something disturbing.

Now, come and sit
in my seat.

Would you like to? Come.

Daddy, can I turn this?
- Yeah.

Kudrinsky was in the pilot's
seat, wasn't he?

According to the diagram.

Can I turn this a bit?

Yeah. If you turn
it to the left,

where will the plane go?

- Left.
- Right, look out.

Oh no...

Again.

Can I turn this a bit?

Yeah. If you turn it left,
where will the plane go?

Ten years ago,
it wasn't unusual

for people to be invited
up to the cockpit.

Of course since 9/11,
it has become a lot tighter,

and you will find cockpit doors

are locked generally
throughout the flight.

Every country sets
its own rules as to

who has the authority
or the access to the cockpit.

In some countries,
it's up to the captain,

so the captain can invite
guests up to the cockpit.

But to have them actually
manipulate the controls

of an airplane,
regardless of whether

they have people on it or not,

the fact that
this was allowed to occur

is definitely an exception
in the industry.

Can I go back
to my seat?

The two
investigators are stunned

by what they hear on
the cockpit voice recorder.

It's unbelievable!

These two youngsters, the ones
who we couldn't identify.

They were not thrown
into the cockpit by the crash.

They were his kids!

And they were flying
the plane.

The investigators
are speechless.

How could three experienced
pilots allow children

to fly a commercial airliner?

They're about to learn
something even worse:

the children are only part
of the problem.

A little-known feature
of the plane proved deadly.

Why is it turning?

Is it turning
by itself?

Turn it to the left!

The other way!
The other way!

To the left, not to the right!

The other way!

I am turning it left!

Get out! Get out!

Get out! Get out!

Get it left.
the ground is right there!

Russian Investigators listen

to the Cockpit Voice Recorder
of an Aeroflot Airbus

that has crashed in Siberia.

What they hear makes
their blood run cold.

- Full throttle!
- Got it. I have full throttle!

Full throttle now!

You should understand
the frame of mind of the father.

He is very proud
of what he is doing,

he invites his kids
into his cockpit.

Strictly speaking,
it's a violation, of course,

but I know such violations
do occur in real life.

I am not condemning him
or defending him here.

What I am trying to say
is that no disaster

occurs for just
any single reason.

There are always more than one,
all coming together.

But this time,
it really does look

like a single cause:

a child flying the plane.

And it sends shock waves through
Aeroflot's higher echelons.

No. I think it would
benefit the--

Investigators feel
the pressure.

The media has learned
that Eldar was at the controls.

Aeroflot, trying to improve
on its Soviet-era image,

wants to minimize the damage.

Boris Rybak is an aerospace
consultant in Moscow.

Aeroflot managers
and executives

indeed tried to conceal results

and tried to downplay

the importance of this accident,

because it was very
embarrassing.

Managers at Aeroflot
aren't the only ones

following the investigation.

Airbus, the European company
which made the plane,

is also intensely interested.

What's wrong?

Nothing, nothing.

If the accident was caused
by Eldar,

it will vindicate Airbus.

At the same time,

grieving families are also
clamouring for answers.

Are you sure?

For Mashkivsky and his team,
it's a delicate balance.

There is always more
than one reason

for a plane to crash.

We must find it.

I'll do my best.

His reputation,
the reputation of Airbus,

as well as Aeroflot,
all now depend

on finding this other cause.

This was an international
flight.

It was a Western-built aircraft,

and it was inevitable
that the investigation

that would be conducted
by the authorities

and the inquiries
that would be conducted

by claimant lawyers
would expose information.

As the same time,
manufacturer of the aircraft,

Airbus Industrie, was very keen

to get...

...as much realistic
explanation

of what happened,

because reputation
of this aircraft was at stake.

What I objected to
was the way we was treated

by Aeroflot after the accident.

They wouldn't tell us anything
what was going on.

They denied everything.

I wanted to know
why my son died.

I wanted to know why these men

had been allowed
to do such a thing.

But all we got from Aeroflot

was blank, blank, blank,

every time we tried
to find something out.

They just didn't want to know.

Families aren't
the only ones

desperate for answers.

Vladimir Biriukov continues
trying to learn all he can

about why the Airbus
fell out of the sky.

Analyzing information
from the Flight Data Recorder,

he can trace, and repeat,
every command given

to the aircraft
during the flight.

We were trying to get as close
to the truth as possible.

To find the cause,

because that was the precedent:

the first foreign-produced plane

to crash while flying
for a Russian airline.

he investigation
confirms the autopilot was on

when the plane got into trouble.

Even with the children
in the cockpit,

the plane should have
flown on course.

What went so terribly wrong?

So, any new developments?

We can discount
Kudrinsky's daughter.

She sat in the chair,
but she didn't fly the plane.

At 17:47 and six seconds,

Captain Kudrinsky tells her

not to touch
the autopilot switch.

Her father gave the autopilot
the command to turn,

while Yana just rested her hands
lightly on the controls.

It was you!
You turned the plane!

But when Eldar
took the controls,

Biriukov discovers something
dramatically different
happened.

No one could possibly
have guessed,

not even the three
pilots in the cockpit.

Biriukov may have found
the key to the puzzle.

The plane's Flight Data Recorder
shows that two-and-a-half

minutes before the crash,

while Eldar
was at the controls,

the autopilot
partially disconnects.

This is the start of all
of the plane's troubles.

But how did that happen?

The autopilot
is a sophisticated computer

which manages an aircraft's
speed, altitude and heading.

Altitude and heading
are controlled

by three key functions:

The rudder, which controls
sideways movement;

the elevators, which control
vertical movement;

and the ailerons,
which are for turning.

On Flight 593,

the autopilot had disconnected
itself from the Ailerons.

The autopilots that were used
in transport airplanes

years ago were an on-off.

In today's sophisticated
flight management systems,

you can literally take
fragments of the autopilot

and disengage them,

but not necessarily
turn the switch off

and turn it all off,
unless you want to.

The question
that really worries

accident investigator Biriukov

is how did the autopilot
become partially disconnected?

There is no mention of it
in the cockpit voice recording.

If this is a fault
with the aircraft,

it could prove fatal
to future flights.

The only way to know for certain

is to reconstruct the accident
on a flight simulator

at Airbus Industrie's
headquarters

in Toulouse, France.

Biriukov's experience
as a test pilot

and his detailed knowledge
of the A310

is crucial to the investigation.

Using information
from the Flight Data Recorder,

Biriukov reconstructs
the events,

beginning at the moment
Captain Kudrinsky

allows his son to sit
at the controls.

A co-pilot will help
replicate Piskarev's actions

Look out to the left,

watching for the ground
when we are turning.

Unlike his sister,

Eldar turns the wheel
before his father

can tell the autopilot
to turn the plane.

The controls are stiff

because he is fighting
the autopilot.

In the simulator,
Biriukov reproduces

Eldar's every movement

Now...

...it's starting to go.

Going...

Going...

There.

Hold it long enough,
and it disconnects.

How long?

30 seconds.

And it disconnects smoothly.

- No warning.
- No.

No one
in the cockpit knows it,

but this is critical moment.

Eldar's resistance actually
turns part of the autopilot
off.

It takes just half a minute,
but from here on,

Eldar is controlling
the ailerons,

Eldar is actually
steering the plane.

Why is it turning?

Is it turning by itself?

Yes, it is.

What seemed like
an open and shut case

is suddenly much more complex.

To the left!
The other way!

The 15-year-old
flying the plane

isn't the only reason
they crashed.

The discovery highlights
an apparent flaw

in how pilots are trained
on the A-310.

I got it!
I have full throttle!

Accident Investigator

Vladimir Biriukov
has finally discovered

the terrifying sequence
of events

that made Aeroflot's Flight 593
fall to Earth.

Captain Kudrinsky's
15-year-old son

had turned the plane's
control column

against the programmed
flight settings.

This disconnected
the autopilot, without warning,

from the ailerons,
which turn the plane.

There.

Hold it long enough
and it disconnects.

How long?

The aircraft then began
an uncontrolled turn

to the right, which got
steeper and steeper.

But why didn't anyone realize
the autopilot had disconnected?

Another peculiarity
of the plane

is that it has no alarm
signalling the disengaging

of the autopilot
in the list channel.

While our Russian planes
have an alarm sounding

in such an event.

So, I think that the captain
allowed the boy to do it,

irregular as it was,

believing that even
if the autopilot got disengaged,

the crew would be
alerted to the fact.

The A310 Airbus
has only a small light

to tell the crew
the autopilot has disconnected.

There's no alarm.

And the Russian crew
was obviously unaware of it.

But there's also another reason

why no one realized
what was happening.

The autopilot still appears
to be working normally

because it's controlling
the plane's other functions.

Although the plane
is now banking,

the situation
isn't yet critical.

At this point, if the crew
takes the proper action,

they can still
stabilize the plane.

Eldar is the first to notice

that the Artificial Horizon
is at an angle.

Why is it turning?

Is it turning by itself?

Yes, it is!

The three pilots
don't understand this at all.

After all,
Kudrinsky returned the flight

to its autopilot heading.

Makarov offers an explanation.

Looks like it's going
into some kind of zone.

We've gone into a zone,
a holding pattern.

- Have we?
- Of course we have!

Increasing at one
degree per second

27 degrees.

Now, we should be
entering into the zone.

What's that?

A strange arc now appears
on the navigation panel.

It looks like the course
a plane would take

circling an airport,
waiting to land.

There appeared an arc
very much resembling

the arc that appears
on the display

when the plane enters
a waiting zone.

There are waiting zones
around airports.

When too many planes accumulate,
they enter such a zone

and circle around
while they wait.

But there could be no such zone
at that point on the route,

and yet we hear
in the voice recording,

"Hey, we're entering a zone!"

This false Holding Zone
distracts the crew

for nine seconds.

In that time, the plane crosses
a critical threshold.

The Airbus is now banking
at 45 degrees.

Far beyond its design limits.

It cannot turn this steeply
and maintain height.

It's now losing altitude.

Guys!

But the Airbus autopilot
is no longer

controlling the ailerons.

Its other functions
try to compensate

by pulling the plane's nose up
and increasing power

to maintain altitude.

Passengers are pushed back
into their seats.

It's on the verge of stalling.

It starts to shake like a leaf.

Hold it! Just hold it!

Part of the flight control
panel now goes dark.

It's a warning sign
that the plane has gone

beyond its design limits.

From here on, the Airbus
is out of control.

By recreating the fatal flight,

Biriukov has worked out
how a lapse in judgment

and concentration has resulted
in a catastrophic crisis.

But could the crew have saved
the plane and its passengers?

The pilots of Flight 593

tried to bring the plane
out of its fatal dive

by pulling up,
but they go too far.

The plane climbs
steeply and stalls.

We're losing altitude!

Now we've started to spin.
So, what do we do?

It's coming out
of the corkscrew.

Now we're levelling out.

In a moment,
we'll come out of the dive.

All they had to do was let go.

The plane has an in-built
survival mechanism

which won't allow it to stall,
even at very low speed.

But the pilot has to know that.

But the situation
is totally new to them,

something they weren't
accustomed to handling.

A stressful and incomprehensible
situation.

It would have taken
special skills

to act correctly
in such a difficult situation.

It was not the crew's fault,
but their misfortune,

because if a person
doesn't know how to do something

because he was never taught to,

you can't really blame him.

The team's
perseverance in an open

and honest investigation
did show

that there was more than
one simple cause

behind the accident.

Their findings benefited
the whole industry,

especially the revelation
that the autopilot

can partially disconnect.

This remains a feature
of the A310,

as it enables pilots to control
certain elements of a flight

while leaving the rest
to the computer.

But crews are now
made aware of this.

Captain Kudrinsky's misfortune
is that it was triggered

in a way that was unexpected
and difficult to detect.

The crash of the Russian plane

comes at a troubling time
for the airline industry.

In 1994, the same year
that Flight 593 went down,

a series of crashes
in the United States

raised questions about
how commercial pilots

handle upsets,
situations in which an aircraft

finds itself in extreme
flying conditions.

When we think about an upset
in a large airplane,

we think about an attitude
of the airplane

that's beyond what normal
flight regimes would be.

That is greater
than 20 degrees nose up,

greater than 10 degrees
nose down,

and bank angles greater
than 25 degrees.

Within a year, the industry
had begun offering pilots

upset recovery training,

teaching them skills
to handle extreme situations

like the one on Flight 593.

The tragedy of one trip
to Hong Kong

may have contributed something
to the safety

of other passengers and crew.

For parents and friends
of those on board, though,

what happened that night
is never far from their minds.

Adrian Deaville's body
was one of 22

that were never identified.

Their remains
were cremated together

by the Russian authorities.

In my mind, he was asleep,

and that's the way
I deal with it,

and you know,
he didn't know much about it.

The crew of the Airbus
are buried

in Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow,

in a hero's grave,
next to the fire fighters

who died at the Chernobyl
nuclear plant.

Yana and Eldar
lie next to their father.

I can imagine the horror
they experienced

in their last moments.

He knew there were not
only all those people

depending on him...

but also his own kids.

Yes, it was a violation.

Yes, he did it.

But how it all happened...

It was just a freak accident,
a bizarre coincidence.

I can forgive
the pilot.

I can forgive the children,

because they were innocent.

This man was 39 years old,

and for those 39 years,

he had an exemplary
flying career.

He had a family,
and he was proud of them,

and it was the final
five minutes

of those 39 years
that went array.

Children shouldn't have been
allowed in the cockpit,

I don't believe, but...

Me saying that now
won't matter,

won't bring Mark back, will it?

But it might stop things
happening in the future.

difuze