All language subtitles for Mayday.S04E02.Falling.From.the.Sky.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

High above the
Indian Ocean disaster strikes.

The engine's on fire.

More than
10 kilometers in the air

all 4 engines of a British
Airways 747 stop working.

Roger, declare emergency.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.
Speedbird 9.

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 onboard?

June the 24th, 1982.

British Airways flight 9 cruises
through the sky over Indonesia.

In a few hours, the plane
and all 2-hundred and 63 people

onboard 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.

How's that heroine
of yours, Fanny Price, faring?

Oh she's having a tough
old time at Mansfield Park.

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

Wouldn't mind
being there myself.

It's all right, mum.
We'll get there.

We had already
traversed at least 2 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.

Ahead of Betty

and Phyllis, Charles Capewell
is returning

home to Perth, Australia with
his two boys, Chas and Stephen.

All right, settle
down lads. Time for a nap.

Get back to your seat.
No.

What, do you want to
sleep here? All right.

It was a good flight.
It was going well.

Uh 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 to Perth.

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

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.

Roger, check with Jakarta.

Jakarta control,

speedbird 9 over Halim
at level 3-7-0.

Speedbird 9, Roger.

07 First officer
Roger Greaves has been

a co-pilot for more
than 6 years.

Barrie Townley-Freeman has been
a flight engineer on these

aircraft for just
a little longer.

I'd not
flown with Eric before or Barrie

and that was the first
time we'd actually,

we'd actually met on that
uh that flight.

As the jet
flies over the city of Jakarta,

it's cruising at more
than 11-thousand meters

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 5-hundred kilometers.

All right Roger, it's all
clear. Just keep your eyes open.

I'll be back in a moment.
Just gotta use the loo.

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.

There seems to be
a lot of smoke out there.

They begin to worry
that a small fire may be

smoldering
somewhere on the plane.

Maybe someone
lit up in the toilet.

Let's go see if we can find it.

A fire at 11-thousand
meters 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.

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.

St Elmo's fire?
I don't think so.

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.

Anything on the radar?
No, no it's clear.

I don't like the look of this.

Let's get a better
look out there.

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.

But at 37-thousand feet,

the normal thing you would
anticipate would be high

serous which is just a thin
layer of cloud.

I think we better get
the captain back up here.

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.

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.

Eh? All right,

well go see that the passengers
are comfortable.

Do you smell
anything odd mum?

Seems rather
smoky in here.

I noticed that
thick smoke was

pouring into the cabin through
the vents above the windows

and that was a very
sobering sight.

Turkish cigarettes?

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 from the aircraft

but nothing was
further from the truth.

When did it start?

Just after
you stepped out.

Anything on radar?

No, it's clear,
not a cloud.

Oh my lord. Look at engine four!
It's lit up somehow.

Captain, captain have a
look at number one.

It's the same on my side.

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.

Strange lights are striking
the windshield

of a British Airways passenger
jet heading to Perth, Australia.

At the same time,

the plane's engines are lit
by a brilliant white glow.

Look at engine four!
It's lit up somehow.

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.

Inside the cabin,
smoke has been growing thicker.

Chief steward Graham Skinner has
been organizing an intense

but quiet search for fire.

What's with all
the smoke?

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.

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.

Can't find anything.

With one mystery
confronting them,

they are suddenly faced with a
frightening new situation.

Dad! Dad!
The engine's on fire!

The whole of the wing
was a sheet of light

and I thought well and I said
oh you better close that

because we don't know
what's happened.

Chas, sit down.
Stephen, close that blind.

Then I realized that,
you know,

something was
dramatically wrong.

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 in to 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?

As fire engulfs
the engines, one of them

revs loudly and flames out.

Engine failure,
number four.

Fire action, number four.

Checklist power and gear.
Set.

Thrust lever.
Closed.

Start lever.
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

but you can standardize
the operations.

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.

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.

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 enough to
say well what do we do now dad?

If anything's
gonna happen,

I want to be close to you.
Oh please.

The cabin crew begins
storing anything that's loose.

They don't want dishes
or bottles

flying around the cabin
if the plane begins to dive.

Don't worry.
It's just friction.

If I was misleading them
then that was for a reason

because I didn't want them
to get as upset as I felt.

I just couldn't believe it
and, you know, all this is going

through my mind and yet I'm
chatting to the passengers and

chatting to the crew and saying
oh yeah nothing to worry about.

Yeah it's just a little hiccup,
you know.

The 747 is more than
10 kilometers above the ocean.

Its engines appear
to be burning,

and peculiar smoke
continues to fill the cabin.

And then the unthinkable
happens.

Number two
engine's gone.

All right then.
Begin the engine shutdown.

No wait!
They've all gone.

All four engines have failed.

The other three went
out almost immediately

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

Those engines made
a grating rumbling sound

almost like a cement mixer
and then gradually the noise

just disappeared
and they became silent.

In a minute and half
we've gone from 4 engines

running normally to having none.

The 747 has
plenty of fuel.

Yet somehow all
four of the jet's engines have

completely stopped working.

Roger, declare emergency.
Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Speedbird 9 we have lost
all 4 engines out of 3-7-0.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Speedbird 9 we have lost
all 4 engines out...

With no engine power

and no idea what has crippled
their plane,

British Airways flight 9 begins
falling from the sky.

Jakarta control.
Speedbird 9.

We have lost all 4 engines
now out of 3-6-0.

First officer
Roger Greaves issues a mayday

but he has trouble
getting his message across.

Have you got a problem?
Jakarta control.

Speedbird 9. We have lost all 4
engines. Repeat all 4 engines.

Now descending through flight
level 3-5-0.

Speedbird 9, you have
lost number four engine?

This idiot doesn't
understand! Jakarta control.

Speedbird 9. We have lost all 4
engines. Repeat all 4 engines.

Now descending through
flight level 3-5-0.

The, the air traffic
control at Jakarta

unfortunately
seemed to have a slight

problem in understanding what
we actually were saying.

Only when another
plane nearby relays

the mayday call do controllers
in Jakarta understand.

Now descending
through flight level 3-5-0.

Speedbird 9, all 4 engines
out. Understood. Standing by.

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.

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.

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?

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

While not
built for gliding,

even without its engines
a 747 can travel

forward 15 kilometers for every
kilometer it drops.

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

Some 10 kilometers
above the ocean, the crew has

less than half an hour before
they smash into the sea.

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.

In the simulator,
when all 4 engines stop,

the autopilot turns off.

But high above the
Indian Ocean, Captain Moody sees

that his autopilot is still on.

We were all three confused
and concerned that what was

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

All right,
begin restart drill set.

In the heat
of the situation,

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

On.
Anything? Anything?

No.
Again.

All right then.
From the top. Battery.

Check. On.

Cross-feed valves.
Open.

Fire switch.
In.

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.

Come on.
Again gentlemen.

All right.
From the top. Battery.

Check. On.

Cross feed valves?
Open.

Fire switch?
In.

At 10-thousand meters,

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.

Jakarta,
speedbird 9 turning left,

back to Halim out of 300.

Speedbird 9, radar cannot
see you. Squawk Alpha 7700.

Air traffic
control asks them

to transmit the emergency
transponder signal.

Jakarta, speedbird 9.
We are already squawking 7700.

Now the crew is
flying back to an airport that

can't find them on 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.

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.

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.

What's going on?
What's the problem?

It's just
a technical fault.

I've been through much worse,
let me tell you.

Everything will be fine.

I think
if I'd have sat down

and really thought of exactly
what was happening

I don't think
I would have ever got up again.

One steward came up to us

and said are you two ladies all
right and yes we said we're

fine which was an absolute lie
but that's how it was.

It seemed absolutely
vital not to panic.

Captain Moody can't
restart the engines

unless he can keep the plane
flying between 2-hundred

and 50 and 2-hundred
and 70 knots.

But the airspeed indicators
aren't working.

Captain, I've
got 3-hundred

and 20 knots on my side.

Well I've got 2-70.

Bloody hell!
It's a 50 knot difference.

I'll change the speed.

Falling from the sky
with no engine power,

the crew now have 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.

So from that
point onwards,

Eric then varied
the speed through,

through uh just about a hundred
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.

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.

At one time the aircraft
developed a strange motion.

It seemed to be climbing steeply
and then diving down.

That was the sensation we got

and a bucking action that was
so violent that we felt

it could break the aircraft up
in the air.

Pressure warning
captain. We're at 10-thousand.

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.

As well as providing
electrical power,

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

With the engines not
working of course,

the air wasn't being pumped in
so gradually

the pressure was leaking away.

With all
4 engines gone,

the pressurized air is
rapidly seeping out.

The thinning level of oxygen
makes passengers gasp.

The crew reach for
their oxygen masks,

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

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.

The captain must
make a difficult choice.

If he continues to descend
slowly, it will get

increasingly difficult for first
officer Greaves to breathe.

I said look if we get down
to 20-thousand feet quickly,

we can all take our oxygen
masks off and we can talk

and we're back as a crew again.

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.

So then
I dived the airplane

and got rid of about 6-thousand
feet in a minute.

The loss of
cabin pressure

and the steep dive have another
terrifying consequence.

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're in serious trouble.

Help me.
Yeah here we go.

Breathe normally mum,
not deeply. Breathe calmly.

The oxygen masks came
down and we put those to our

faces as had been described
in the drill which fortunately

we had been observing
at the beginning of the flight

but it seemed that the oxygen
supply was not working.

Is yours working?

No, I'm not
getting anything.

The cabin crew
try 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.

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.

As the passengers
struggle with their masks,

Captain Eric Moody is
running out of options.

If his engines don't start soon,

he'll have to
turn his jet around

and try landing
on the open ocean.

High above the Indian Ocean,

the seemingly impossible
has occurred.

All 4 engines on a
British Airways 747

have stopped working,
and the crew has no idea why.

First officer Roger Greaves
manages to fix his broken oxygen

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

Ready?
Set.

Battery?
Check. On.

Standby power?
On.

Anything?
Come on, anything?

No.
All right then.

Let's do it from the top.
Battery?

Check. On.

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.

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, it
was the only thing

we had left to cling onto
so that's what we did.

From the top again.
Battery?

Check. On.

I have no idea,
I don't think any of have,

how many times we tried
to restart those engines.

If I say twenty
I would think that's too low.

If I say fifty I would think
that's probably about right.

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 35-hundred meters
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.

All right,
are we getting something?

It's not starting.

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.

Hiding his concern,

Captain Moody addresses
the passengers and crew.

Ladies and gentlemen this
is your captain speaking.

We have a small problem.
All 4 engines have stopped.

We are doing our damnedest
to get it under control.

I trust you are not in too
much distress.

Most of the passengers
expect the worst.

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, know, she knew

we were still thinking about her
and we did whatever we could.

Will we be burnt alive,
will we be

choked by the smoke or will
the aircraft break up in the air

and hurdle 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.

Well?
Nothing.

It's not starting.
All right.

From the top then. Battery?
Check. On.

Standby power?
On.

Finally, Captain Moody
has to decide to carry on,

and likely crash into the
mountains or turn around

and ditch into the sea.

I don't know how to swim.

I couldn't swim anyway
so I thought well,

you know, I'm doomed anyway

and I'll just hope maybe
one of the passengers might help

the two boys to make sure
that they could stay afloat.

Well? Anything?
No!

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.

I can't remember...
I can't swim.

Start lever?
Cut off!

Fuel pressure?
Ah, available.

Standby ignition on.

And then as suddenly
as it had stopped working,

the fourth engine
roars back to life.

Engine four
back on line!

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.
Oh my god!

The noise that a
Rolls Royce engine makes when it

starts up is a low rumbling
noise, ya know and it

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

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.

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.

As the plane
falls past 4-thousand meters,

another engine coughs
and comes back to life.

Engine 3 back on line!

It's followed
quickly by the final two.

I don't believe it.

Engines 1 and 2
both back on line!

From almost
certain disaster,

the crippled jet is
now under full power.

Oh my god mum.

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.

Jakarta, speedbird 9.
We are back in business.

All 4 running - all 4 running...

This time, local
controllers have no trouble

understanding the message.

Speedbird 9.
All 4 engines serviceable again.

Confirm continuing to Halim.
Affirmative, affirmative.

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.

We are diverting to Jakarta

and expect to land
in about fifteen minutes.

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.

Now as soon as we got
to 15-thousand feet this

St Elmo's fire started again.

Now I'm not slow so I thought
let's get out of here quickly.

But before he can
descend very far,

the plane is stricken again.

Engine 2 is surging.
Oh no, not again!

The whole
airplane was shaking.

It was just going bang,
bang, bang.

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.

The engines
backfire violently.

The captain must make
another fateful decision.

Begin shutdown drill.

Checklist power and gear.
Off.

Thrust lever.
Closed.

Well we were
reluctant to do it

as you can probably understand
but, you know, that was it

so we were back on three
engines.

Now I'm not a coward
but when you've had four

engines going, no engines going,
you get four going and tell

me, show me any pilot that will
quickly shut down that engine

'cause you're worried that
they're all gonna stop again.

Jakarta, speedbird 9.
Leaving 150 for 120.

We are now on three engines.

As the plane
closes in on the airport,

first officer Greaves
thinks the windshield is

covered in moisture,
making it hard to see through.

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 uh clear that.

That didn't work.

I used the windscreen wipers
and that didn't work.

Somehow the glass
itself has been badly damaged.

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.

The crew get
a final unwelcome surprise.

Equipment on the ground
that helps them

descend at the proper
angle isn't working.

Jakarta ATC. Cleared for
procedure. Turn over the beacon.

Be advised our glide path
is unserviceable.

The localizer
which gives you the left

and right of the runway centre
line, that was working but

the glide slope which gives you
the actual profile

for the descent was not working.

After all the troubles
they've been through,

now the crew has to land
their plane manually.

We then continued with
Eric flying the localizer and me

calling out the distance and the
altitude that he should be at.

Three hundred
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.

Two hundred, one hundred
and fifty feet captain.

One hundred. Fifty feet.
Thirty feet.

Dad, we're on the runway.
Reverse.

Ninety knots,
eighty knots.

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.

That's, that's amazing.

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?

What were the strange lights
that surrounded the plane?

In the cockpit,
the flight crew are relieved

but also concerned that they
might be at fault.

The first thing that we
did having parked

the airplane and shut it
all down um 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.

It's gonna,
it's gonna come back to us.

The damage
to the 747 is extensive.

From the outside,
the crew realize

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 it happened.

When investigators uncover
the cause of the disaster,

flight 9 changes pilot
training around the world.

During a calm flight
to Australia, all 4 engines

of a British Airways 747
suddenly stop working.

After a long terrifying descent,

the crew managed the restart
the engines and land.

That's, that's amazing.

They spent an excited

and largely sleepless night
in Jakarta before returning

to Halim Airport to inspect
their plane.

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.

It was very little to see until
they stripped the engines down.

The engines were
manufactured by Rolls Royce.

Their investigation was
led by a former engineer,

Malcolm Grayburn.

Three
of the engines were

removed in Jakarta following the
incident and were ferried back

via cargo aircraft to London
Heathrow and then transported

to South Wales where the engines
were in fact stripped

down into piece parts and it
was there that I got involved.

Grayburn was
stunned by what he saw.

Much of the engine was badly
scratched and scored.

We did do a forensic
analysis of the engines

and we did record it
all in terms of photographic

analysis and also we did
lot of laboratory analysis.

Grayburn discovered
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 1-hundred and 60 kilometers
south east of Jakarta.

Tom Casadevall is director
of the US Geological Survey

and has studied
the Galunggung volcano.

Indonesia is the world's

most volcanically
active country.

It has more than
a hundred and thirty

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.

The eruptions
were large

and the damage was extensive.

More than 60-thousand
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 15-thousand meters

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 really have
crippled this flight?

Roger, declare emergency.
Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Speedbird 9.
We have lost all four engines.

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.

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?

Remember the aircraft
is moving at close

to 5-hundred 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.

The electrification
also caused the interference

in communication
experienced by the crew.

Speedbird 9, you have
lost number four engine?

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.

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.

While the volcanic ash
caused the visible scarring,

filled the plane with smoke
and fouled communications,

could it cause the engines
to flame out as well?

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.

The temperatures
in the combustion chamber where

this ash is flowing through
are around

2-thousand degrees centigrade
and so volcanic ash

we know melts at about
13-hundred, 14-hundred degrees.

But when
the liquid ash reached

deeper into the engine,
it cooled slightly,

turning into a sticky
molten goo.

It attached itself to the engine
and began choking it.

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.

Backfires occur

when the engine isn't
burning cleanly.

The engine's on fire!

There's too much fuel
and not enough oxygen.

Engine failure,
number four.

Fire action, number four.

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 onboard
the 747 flamed out.

What Grayburn found next was
that a remarkable

piece of chemistry
saved the plane.

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.

When enough
of the molten ash was gone,

the engines were clear again
and Townley-Freeman's frantic

efforts to restart
them paid off.

Engine four
back on line.

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.

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.

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.

For everyone
onboard 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.

This was an event which
was unique in aviation

history and it seemed to me

absolutely vital that it
should be put on record

and I wondered who was going to
do this but no sooner had that

thought entered my mind than
I thought I'm going to do that.

Tootell would also
end up marrying a man

she met on the flight,
James Ferguson.

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.

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.

Not long
after their 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 the
British Airways flight 9

happily stay in touch
to this day.