All language subtitles for Mayday.S04E09.Vertigo.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

In the dark of night
over the Red Sea

a pilot struggles to control
his passenger jet.

Retard power.
Retard power. Retard power.

The plane
seems to have a life of its own.

Pull up, pull up.

Something's
wrong with the plane.

I heard a scream,
a noise.

After that I didn't
hear anything.

The sands
of Egypt hide

thousands of years of history.

Monuments to
ancient civilizations

dominate the landscape.

But for sun loving Europeans,

Egypt is also
a resort destination,

where the most important
sand is on the beach.

The town of Sharm el-Sheikh

is several hundred kilometers
south east of Cairo.

Perched on the Red Sea,
it's a natural destination

for people looking for a little
rest and relaxation.

Sharm-el Sheikh is
quite popular with Europeans.

The reason is where can
you get a very warm sea

with a five-hour flight?

You have the Red Sea

which is crystal clear,
beautiful mountains.

It's just extraordinary.

The city's
popularity is growing.

More than four million
people a year

use Sharm el-Sheikh's airport.

In the early days of 2004,

tourists aren't the only ones
drawn to the local beaches.

British Prime Minister Tony
Blair is also in the region

visiting Egyptian
leader Hosni Mubarak.

Just after two in the morning
on January the 3rd,

many vacationers are still
out on the town...

but fifty-three-year-old
Captain Khedr Abdullah

is just starting his day.

He's renowned
for his punctuality.

A former officer in the Egyptian
Air Force, Khedr is now a highly

respected Captain with the
charter company, Flash Airlines.

He always
liked to pack his own suitcase.

He wouldn't let me
do it for him.

He always said
I would like to prepare my own

things to make sure
I don't forget anything.

He was very precise
on what he wanted

and what he would take with him.

Captain Khedr meets
up with

his twenty-five-year-old
First Officer, Amr El-Shafy.

Together,
they'll fly out of

Sharm el-Sheikh
heading for Paris.

El-Shafy is young enough
to be the Captain's son.

The early morning flight
isn't for everyone.

Pascal Mercier and his family
are supposed to be

on the Flash jet
but changed their plans.

I was booked
on the Flash Airline Flight.

When my agency told me
that I had to wake up very early

and then get to change
planes in Cairo,

I said this is really stupid.

I mean my daughter
was like two years old

and the other ones were like six
and eight so really

I didn't feel comfortable
about changing planes and so on.

For other tourists,
the cheap tickets that

Flash offers are worth
the trouble of getting up early.

France Thullier was able to

bring his entire family
to Egypt.

They need the break.

My brother-in-law
had just lost his father,

so he brought his children,
his mother,

and his wife there just
to have a good time,

not to see the sites
or anything,

just to have a good time.

That's what Sharm El-Sheikh
is known for.

Fatima is also
heading back to Paris

after a vacation in Sharm.

The mother of five is
flying alone.

Before takeoff, she calls her
nephew in France.

Hi.

I was asleep
when she called.

I didn't really want to get
into a conversation with her.

She was someone who called
you for everything.

She needed to be reassured.

So even though she had a five or
six-hour flight ahead of her,

she just wanted
to make sure that

I would be there to pick her
up at the airport.

In all,
1-hundred and 48 passengers

and crew settle into their seats
aboard the jet.

It's five am. In the cockpit,

Ashraf Abdel Hamid is
the third member of the crew.

He's training
as a First Officer,

although he has worked for years
piloting corporate jets.

None of the crewmembers
are happy with the poor

quality of the weather
information they're

getting from the local
Air Traffic Controller.

They didn't
say sky clear,

they said clouds and sky clear.
How? The two are opposite.

Ask them about ceiling.

No ceiling and clouds
and sky clear.

Maybe it's scattered?
Maybe he mean's scattered.

Good morning.

The Captain is
also frustrated that

one of his instruments
isn't working.

Although the engineer agrees
there's a problem,

it's not serious enough to fix.

The men laugh it off at the
expense of the first officer.

It was probably caused
by Amr making a heavy landing.

Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of Captain Khedr
and his entire crew,

we welcome you on board
Flash Airlines' Boeing 737-300.

It's still
hours before dawn

when the plane lifts off.

The Flash Airlines
flight will head

out over the Red Sea
before turning toward Cairo.

The jet climbs through
a pitch black night.

Without a moon to light
the scene, it's hard

for the passengers to see much
of anything out their windows.

In the cockpit,
the simple turn

over the Red Sea
is taking a bizarre twist.

See what
the aircraft just did?

Captain Khedr
doesn't like

the way his plane is behaving.

Turning right sir.
What?

Aircraft is turning right.

Turning right?
How turning right?

The plane
is supposed to be

turning left
on its way to Cairo.

Instead, it's turning
in the opposite direction.

Okay. Come out.

The Captain tries
to get his plane back on course

but his situation
just gets worse.

Overbank.

Knowing
he's in trouble,

the Captain tells the first
officer to engage the autopilot.

Autopilot. Autopilot!

But it doesn't work.

No autopilot commander.

The 737 is now flying
almost completely on its side.

Something's
wrong with the plane!

The plane gains speed

as it spirals towards
the Red Sea.

Just minutes after takeoff,
the plane is out of control.

Diving toward the water,

it's traveling at more than
7-hundred kilometers an hour.

Everyone on board is
running out of time.

Just minutes after
takeoff, an early morning

flight has become a desperate
battle for survival.

A passenger jet
filled with French families

is plunging towards the Red Sea.

Everyone on board can feel
the tremendous speed

and gut-wrenching turns.

The enormous
G-Forces are making it

difficult for Captain Khedr
Abdullah to fly the plane.

Ashraf Abdel Hamid, the third
member of the flight crew,

tells the Captain to slow
the plane down.

Retard power,
retard power, retard power!

The plane is traveling

so fast it's threatening
to tear itself apart.

After flying almost upside down,

the crew is finally beginning to
bring their plane under control.

Then, they hear the ground
proximity warning.

They're getting dangerously
close to the Red Sea.

Pull up, pull up, pull
up, pull up, pull up, pull up.

Pascal Mercier
and his family

are staying at
a beachfront hotel.

My daughter woke
up suddenly screaming like hell,

screaming like
if something happened.

I didn't hear the crash
but maybe she did.

It's okay sweetie.

It's just before
five in the morning,

minutes after the plane
took off from the airport.

It's disappeared from local
radar screens.

By the time the sun rises,
the crash site is found, -

but there's
little for rescuers to do.

The plane shattered on impact.

A post card is found
saying simply,

I think this card
will arrive after me.

Pieces of debris litter
the surface

but most of the plane has
sunk beneath the waves.

There are no survivors.

All 1-hundred and 48 people
on board the plane are dead.

Flight 604 was
to land at Charles De Gaulle

airport in Paris in the morning.

As family and friends wait,
officials list the plane

as delayed and then slowly break
the news of the accident.

They asked me,
are you waiting for

someone from Sharm el-Sheikh?

You say yes. Then they say
to you could you come with us?

We're going to take
you to a hotel.

At the hotel,
we'll explain it all to you.

It was very strange

since we were greeted in a hotel
and we passed people who

were leaving happy because
they were looking for the same

information as us but their
families were not on the list.

They came
with a paper in hand.

Here, yes, Madame Hjiaj, Fatima.

We apologize that you
have to learn it this way

but she's dead.

Later,
on his voice mail,

Mohammed Hjiaj hears Fatima's
message sent during the flight.

I heard a scream,
a noise.

After that I didn't
hear anything.

Captain Khedr's wife

hears about the crash
from her son.

My son called me
from abroad and told me that

he heard there was an accident
in Flash Airlines.

I was in disbelief for a while
until it became reality.

It was a very big shock for me.

In resort hotels,

workers check the empty rooms
of those who were on Flight 604.

But one of the rooms
is occupied.

Mister Mercier.

This guy from the hotel,
the hotel staff began to cry.

He was really shocked,
happily shocked to see us.

He thought we were on the flight
with everybody else.

They're, they're here.

In my hotel eighty-two
people were on that flight,

eighty-two people.

It was really, really strange.

Really, really heavy,
but we were really lucky.

There had been no
Mayday call from the plane,

no warning
to Air Traffic Control

that something was wrong.

With the plane crashing
just minutes after

it left the airport, there are
immediate concerns that

a bomb had brought the jet down.

The plane had just taken
off and it looked very strange

why this accident happened
so quickly after takeoff.

When investigators
examine the plane's flight

path, they discover it would
have gone directly over the

town where Egyptian Leader Hosni
Mubarak kept a vacation home.

It's also close to the house
where British prime

minister Tony Blair
and his family were staying.

Blair and his family were
supposed to leave

from the same airport that day.

Security around
the prime minister

is immediately heightened.

Two days after the crash,

authorities receive
a phone call.

Terrorists from Yemen claim
responsibility for the crash.

They say it is a protest
against a French law banning

the Muslim headscarf,
the hijab, in public schools.

But in spite of the phone call
and the rumors swirling

around Egypt, investigators
quickly rule out terrorism.

If you have a wreckage

distributed in
a very large area,

that means the plane was
disintegrating in the air,

and due to an explosion

it would be disintegrating
in a wide area.

In this case, there were very,
very few pieces

and all located in a very
small area.

So this indicated that
the plane was intact

and went into the water intact.

If it
wasn't terrorism,

what had ripped the plane
from the sky so quickly?

Investigators face
an enormous challenge.

The plane has sunk below the
surface of the Red Sea.

Divers have to fight off sharks
that are drawn to the carnage.

The rescue teams find
few bodies intact.

The aircraft and most of
the 1-hundred and 48 passengers

and crew have
sunk over 1-thousand meters

to the bottom of the Red Sea.

The first task of investigators
is to find the aircraft's

flight data and cockpit voice
recorders, the black boxes.

If they survived the crash,
they will now be on the seabed.

But this part of the Red Sea
has never been charted.

With so many French
tourists involved,

the French government offers
to help in any way it can.

The French immediately
responded by sending a boat

specially equipped with a robot
to search the bottom of the sea.

But the wreckage
is too deep.

The sub that the French boat has
can't survive the enormous

pressure at the bottom
of the sea.

The investigators desperately
need another submarine,

but they're running out of time.

The black box transmits
a radio signal,

but the battery only
lasts for thirty days.

If investigators can't find it
within a month,

the mystery of flight 604 may
never be solved.

Getting to the black
boxes before the timed

pingers stopped transmitting
was always a very worrisome

aspect to all
the investigation team.

Everybody was working
twenty-four hours,

round the clock to try
to salvage these

and try to locate them first.

While the recovery
effort continues,

family and friends
of the victims

begin to mourn those who died.

They pressure investigators
to solve the mystery.

It's the biggest air
disaster involving French

nationals, the biggest in the
history of civil aviation.

American, French and
Egyptian experts join forces.

While waiting for the plane's
black boxes to be recovered,

they also begin focusing
on Flash Airlines itself.

Flying just two planes,

it was one of a number of
low-cost charter companies

that had been competing
for customers in Europe.

In the last ten years,
there had been a rapid expansion

of budget airlines throughout
this part of the world.

Offering inexpensive,
no-frills service

they fought for a piece
of the holiday market.

Seaside resorts like
Sharm el-Sheikh were

one of the many destinations
they serve.

Now one
of the ways in which

they provide this extremely
cheap travel

is by operating their airplanes
twenty-four hours a day.

Operating on such
tight schedules means

the planes are flown constantly.

Former Flash passengers step
forward to complain

about other flights.

There are a lot of stories.

I was flying
home after a vacation...

A year
before the crash, while flying

from Sharm el-Sheikh to Bologna,
one passenger recalls

seeing flames pouring
from a Flash Airline's jet.

Hey! Hey!
The engine's on fire! Look!

The flaming
aircraft is forced to make

an emergency landing.

Investigators learn
that in 2002,

the Swiss Aviation Authority
performed a surprise

inspection on the same plane
that would later crash.

The pilots'
oxygen masks are missing.

There aren't enough
oxygen tanks.

Some of the cockpit
instruments aren't working.

It's enough for the Swiss
to ground the flight for eight

hours until the company
repairs the plane.

A few days later,

Flash Airlines was banned
from flying in Switzerland.

Another ban occurred in Poland.

In Norway, Tour operators
stopped contracting with Flash.

It's a rare
event for an airline to be

banned from operating
into a country.

They must have done something
dramatically wrong,

especially when it
comes to safety.

With mounting concerns

about the safety record of
Flash Airlines,

investigators comb through
the company's paperwork.

They discover that the most
recent maintenance

records for the plane that
crashed were never duplicated.

They've gone
missing with the aircraft.

The lack of having
copies of the technical log

and all of them being on board,
of course this is

a violation and uh civil
aviation here issued uh

very clear instructions
that this should not happen.

The French
authorities agree that there

are serious
questions about Flash.

They now ban the company
from flying in France.

While there are concerns
about the state

of the company's planes,

there are no such issues when it
comes to the crew of flight 604.

Captain Khedr was considered not
only a flying ace but a national

war hero for his performance
in the Yom Kippur war.

During his career he not only
flew sophisticated fighter

jets, but also a variety
of large cargo aircraft.

He had over 7-thousand
hours of flying

experience as well as 2-thousand
hours as a flight instructor.

All the evidence shows that
Captain Khedr was a model pilot.

With the aircraft and its black
box data recorders still

hidden deep under the Red Sea,
investigators wonder,

was this a case of
a superb pilot

fighting to save
a decrepit plane?

See what
the aircraft did?

On a moonless
January night,

a Flash Airlines 737 spiraled
wildly into the Red Sea.

All 1-hundred and 48 people
on board were killed.

Investigators trying to find out
why the plane went down have

uncovered a history of safety
problems with the airline.

But trying to prove that there
was anything

wrong with the plane that
crashed is difficult.

Much of the wreckage has sunk
deep beneath the waves.

Investigators have been unable

to find the flight's
black boxes.

Whenever an airplane
crashes into the water there's

always a fear by investigators
that the cockpit voice

recorder and the flight data
recorder may not be recovered.

Those two boxes in
and of themselves give

the investigator a very good
picture and without them

could make the investigation
process very, very difficult.

Finally,
after several days of searching,

a breakthrough.

A French research ship
hears the locator signals

given off by the black boxes.

A remotely operated sub drops
down over 1-thousand meters.

The violence of the crash
has spread

the wreckage over a wide area.

Two weeks after the crash,
both the cockpit voice recorder

and the flight data recorder

are recovered from
the bottom of the sea.

Investigators finally have
some hard evidence.

The Egyptian, French
and American team

examines the critical
devices in Cairo.

After the two black
boxes are found,

the salvage effort wraps up.

Other than a select
number of small pieces,

the rest of the plane is
too deep to recover.

The cost to continue
would be too great.

Without the wreckage itself,

investigators concentrate
on what they do have.

They hope the black boxes
will recreate the final

minutes of the doomed plane.

One of the things
we did to depict

the path of the aircraft was
we created an animation based on

the data we got from the flight
data recorder and from radar.

The flight data
recorder paints

a devastating picture.

Shortly after takeoff,
the plane began heading left,

just as it was supposed to.

But then it quickly started
banking in the other direction.

The cockpit voice recorder
shows that the turn caught

the captain off guard.

Turning right sir.
What? How turning right?

Analyzing the cockpit
voice recorder showed that

the pilots were experiencing
definitely some kind

of an abnormality, a problem
that they could not understand.

The investigators
sift through the flight

data to find some explanation
for the jet's bizarre movement.

Perhaps some mechanical
fault was forcing

the plane off course.

And there is an indication
that something was

wrong with the Flash
jet before it took off.

On the runway, the captain
and the ground engineer

discussed an electrical
malfunction.

But it's impossible to tell
from the cockpit voice recorder

exactly what the problem was.

We can't be sure which
equipment was being

referred to by the aircraft
captain and the engineer

when they were discussing
faulty equipment.

Not enough parts were brought
up from the bottom of the sea

to be able to determine that.

And tragically,

the ground engineer was
also on the flight.

We believe from the data
we're looking at on the

flight data recorder, that
there's a very high possibility

that the plane was tending
to turn to the right by itself.

But exactly
what had gone wrong?

A thorough accident
investigation can take years.

But in the case of Flash Flight
604 there are unique challenges.

The problem with accident
investigation is that it's

very time consuming and resource
intensive especially

when we don't have an
airplane to physically look at.

You want to be absolutely
sure about the facts, conditions

and circumstances before you
publish that information.

Family and friends
of the victims are becoming

more and more frustrated.

As the months pass,
they demand answers.

We were led to protest
outside the Egyptian embassy

because we had no news.

Eleven months after
the disaster,

we had no message,
no information.

Shortly after
the protest,

Egyptian investigators
release a Factual Report.

It contains all of the
information

from the black boxes.

But the report does not reach
any conclusions

about why the jet crashed.

Ladies and gentlemen,
good evening.

With a situation
as complicated as this one,

the investigators don't
yet have any answers.

The only thing
they can do is to keep looking.

Investigators discuss several
possible scenarios that

could have been responsible
for the plane's erratic course.

You look into every
hypothetical scenario that

would create a similar profile
and then you see

if this profile fit the data
that you have put together.

Fifty different
theories are examined

in minute detail.

In the process
of looking into all

the possible hypothetical
scenarios

we proceeded by eliminating
those that did not fit the data.

Investigators
travel to the United States

to test the most likely ideas
in a sophisticated simulator.

If they can force
the simulator to repeat

the movements of the Flash Jet,

they might be able to figure
out why the plane crashed.

The results are brought
back to Cairo.

There are only four mechanical
faults that could have

produced the flight
path of the doomed jet.

Investigators believe the key
to the crash is to find out

why the plane began
turning off course.

These four scenarios
were all related to what

would cause an uncommanded bank.

So we were left with these
as causes

that we could not rule out.

Two of the
scenarios involved

the spoilers on the plane's
right wing.

Spoilers lift up from the top
surface of the wing.

By producing drag,
or spoiling the airflow,

they slow the plane down.

If the pilot's control wheel,

or the cables that connect it
to the spoiler jammed,

it could have forced
the plane off course.

Problems with the spoilers
are one explanation

but there's no physical proof.

And while there were maintenance
problems with Flash planes,

none of them had to do
with the jet's spoilers.

The team searches for another
explanation.

Another potential cause of the
crash is the plane's ailerons.

This part of a plane's
wing controls

the angle of a plane's turn.

A malfunctioning aileron
could have caused

the plane to roll to the right.

Again, if the crew
couldn't fix the problem,

the plane would have
begun to spiral into the sea.

While so-called aileron trim
runaway would create

a flight path like the one
seen during the crash,

once again there's no physical
proof to support the theory.

And typically,
aileron trim runaway

can be physically overcome
by pilots.

All he would have had
to do was overpower using more

force to move the control
wheel in an opposite direction.

Overbank.

When they listen
to the cockpit voice recorder,

the investigators
are puzzled by the constant

discussion of the plane's
autopilot.

The Captain asked for the
autopilot to be turned on but

it had no effect and the plane
began to plummet to the sea.

And earlier in the cockpit
recording,

investigators uncover
another curious exchange.

Captain Kehdr began the initial
turn over the Red Sea

manually but decided to let
the autopilot take over.

Autopilot.

The flight data
recorder shows that the

autopilot was indeed
turned on as the plane climbed.

Not yet.

But then the Captain
appears to change his mind.

The plane's flight data recorder
shows that the autopilot

was only activated
for three seconds.

But investigators wonder if the
autopilot had malfunctioned

and stayed in command
of the jet.

The automated system could
have continued to control

the plane,
flying it to the right,

even after the pilots thought
it had been disengaged.

The malfunction
of the autopilot of course took

a lot of work from us

because it was nearly impossible
to show that it did not

happen and quite impossible
to show that it did happen.

So but it was always a very
prominent possibility because

it would give a very, very close
scenario to what was happening.

Perhaps
most puzzling of all

though is that no matter what
happened to the plane,

it appeared to be under control
just before it crashed.

Moments before impact,

the Captain was seemingly
back in command of his airplane.

If there had been some
crippling mechanical problem,

why did it seem to disappear?

Some members of the team
want to consider

something besides mechanical
fault, the pilots themselves.

I think the major
concern for the United States

was that the Human Factors
elements of this accident

weren't thoroughly explored.

Perhaps the high
esteem given to Egyptian

pilots was getting in the way.

In Egypt,
pilots are very respected

and in particular Air Force
pilots are very highly regarded.

For the past 26 years,
the country's president has

been a highly decorated
Air Force officer.

In an environment like this,

the pilot is somewhat
immune to suspicion.

When something goes wrong
the natural tendency

is to blame the equipment.

And on this flight,
the pilot was a war hero

with thousands of hours
of experience.

Studying the flight data
recorders again,

the investigators discover
something peculiar.

Even before the plane's
bizarre turn to the right,

three things all
seem to happen at the same time.

Instead of a smooth left turn,

the plane begins to come
out of its turn early.

The nose starts to rise,

and the plane's airspeed
decreases noticeably.

But during this time,
the pilot says nothing.

It seems that he's unaware of
the changes to his flight path.

I've flown out of Sharm
el-Sheikh at nighttime

and in the same type of aircraft
and in no way should

the pilot allow the airspeed
to drop by as much as 30 knots

or the bank angle to change
beyond five degrees without

clearly stating the reasons for
the change in the flight path.

Some investigators
consider a provocative

theory that might explain this
seemingly bizarre behaviour.

Perhaps Captain Khedr had
been affected by vertigo.

Vertigo is a physiological
condition that would exist with

any person, not just pilots,
and it's based on the inner ear.

Over a dark ocean without a
defined visual horizon,

no ground lights, the pilot may
not be able to perceive

visually whether he was
flying up, down, left or right.

And if the fluid in his inner
ear was moving or he tilted

his head, that may induce
a sensation, a physiological

sensation that may cause the
pilot to believe the airplane

is flying straight and level
when it's actually turning.

The plane's flight
path is ideal

for creating a sense of vertigo.

The Flash Airline jet
took off into a moonless night.

Captain Khedr was flying
manually,

and began to turn
as he was climbing.

Heading out over dark water,

it would be very difficult
using just his senses

for Captain Khedr to know
exactly where he was.

Roger when ready,
god willing.

Left turn to establish
Three Zero Six Sharm VOR.

It is actually a very
high workload situation

and when there are no
visual cues outside

because it's a moonless night
and you're over featureless

territory with no lights in it,
you really as a professional

pilot should be totally
aware of the fact that this is

a situation in which you
could get disorientated.

It's a classic, it's happened
so many times,

it's killed so many people
in the last ten years.

When the plane was
supposed to be turning

slowly left, the control wheel
began inching towards the right.

Perhaps the Captain
was making the turn

without even being
aware of it.

When you study the movement

of the aircraft
control surfaces,

it appears that something
was guiding

Captain Khedr to the right.

Now that could have been
a false horizon

or something he'd
seen outside of his window.

See what
the aircraft just did?

Or perhaps he believed
he was actually correcting

a problem with the plane itself.

He thinks he's gained
his flight path again and,

all of a sudden, at this moment,

he receives contradictory
information.

Turning right, sir.
What?

Aircraft is turning right.

The contradictory
information

adds to the pilot's confusion.

He believes he's fixing
a problem

when he's told his problems
have just started.

In this particular
instance,

not only are you trying to fly
the airplane and understand

situationally what's happening
but you are going through

the mental gymnastics because
your expectations are one way.

Meanwhile, you have the first
officer who's telling him

something that's totally
different.

Aircraft is turning right.

Egyptians
investigators agree that

Captain Khedr may
have suffered some

form of disorientation
during the flight.

But they don't believe

it was the only problem the crew
was dealing with.

I don't really have a
very clear indication

that it was disorientation
but it's possible.

There was a recovery
from disorientation.

The time to find out the problem
and take the corrective

action needed was more than
the time left before impact.

No matter what
role disorientation

played in the crash,
investigators are about to learn

that the crew wasn't properly
trained to deal with it.

Flash Airlines never provided
the pilots with basic

information that could have
saved their lives.

It's been two years

since an Egyptian charter plane
smashed into the Red Sea.

1-hundred and 48 people
were killed.

Investigators trying to figure
out why Flash Airlines

flight 604 crashed face
immense challenges.

Most of the wreck is
still deep under water.

By carefully examining
the plane's black boxes,

the investigators believe that
disorientation may have

played a role in the accident.

The pitch-black night
and the featureless sea caused

the pilot to become confused
about what was happening.

But mechanical problems may
also have plagued the plane.

As they continue to try to solve
the mystery,

investigators make
a startling discovery.

Officials at Flash Airlines
reveal that they hadn't

provided the pilots with Crew
Resource Management training

although it was
a requirement for the company.

It might have helped the crew

deal with their
horrifying situation.

Crew Resource Management
is a program where pilots

are trained to work together
rather than as individuals.

Had the pilots of Flash Air
604 received a formal CRM

training program,
the outcome of this flight

may have been
substantially different.

American investigators
believe the very junior

First Officer may
have felt the plane

was in trouble before the
Captain did, but failed

to offer suggestions to his much
more experienced co-worker.

What?
Aircraft is turning right.

Nor did he attempt
to take control of the plane.

Right.

Formal CRM training

would have empowered
the first officer,

who had the best
situational awareness

and the most
information about the position

of the airplane to take command
of the airplane when he saw that

the captain wasn't taking the
appropriate corrective action.

An earlier
conversation in the cockpit,

before take off, may reveal why
the young First Officer

would have been reluctant
to challenge the Captain.

Yesterday
we were coming in at dusk

and the sun was two two.

I felt I could hardly
see the runway

and he's already
saying in sight.

What in sight?
Age, sir.

It may not have
meant to be insulting but it

may have reinforced the
First Officer's feeling that he

was the student
and the Captain was the teacher.

I am unable to raise
my eyes and he says in sight.

Where in sight? MAX: It is going
to serve as negative feedback.

The young first officer
is bound to hesitate.

He doesn't want to be
wrong again.

He doesn't want to lose the
respect of an Air Force general.

In a crew, an effort must
be made to bring together

people who are able to co-pilot,
not a crew in which one person

pilots and the other person
looks on without saying a word.

But the Captain

and the co-pilot weren't
alone in the cockpit.

A third crewmember with more
experience than the first

officer was also there.

He too never said anything until
the final seconds of the flight.

Otherwise, how will
we know when we clear the cloud?

We hear him speak very
clearly and very openly

all during the time
before the engines start up.

He was in conversation with the
first officer and with the

captain so this
experienced person,

being very quiet all through,

we believe that he, if he saw
any of the crew members

doing something that he should
not be doing, or uh not doing

something that he should be
doing would have said something.

Retard power,
retard power.

But the only words
he said was retard

the throttles at the later
stage of the event,

shows that that's the only thing
he saw that should be done.

Even if the co-pilot
had taken control sooner,

there's no way to know
if he could have saved the jet.

Whatever took place on flight
604 happened quickly.

And since the plane had just
taken off, the crew had

little time to react before
they crashed into the sea.

The final report
on the Flash Airlines crash

was released in March 2006.

There are no clear answers.

Egyptian officials say that
any of four mechanical problems

could have caused the crash.

They say disorientation
may have played a role

but it's not
the reason behind the accident.

American investigators
refuse to blame the plane.

Instead, they say the problem
lies with the airline,

which didn't sufficiently
train their crews.

The pilots are responding
based on skills, abilities,

knowledge and what
they got out of training.

If the training was deficient,
that's a company responsibility.

Two months
after the crash,

Flash Airlines went
out of business.

And as a result
of the Flash 604 tragedy,

new rules came into place
to ensure that in the future

aircraft safety violations will
be judged more harshly.

The Flash Airlines crash
gave the final political

impetus to a move to create
a European black list where

if one state banned an airline
then all the other European

states would automatically
ban that airline also.

The Egyptian
investigation

concluded with an important
recommendation.

We have recommended that
some kind of training or

awareness program
should be made to be

able to have the pilot observe
another being disoriented

early and what he should do,
to first maintain a safe flight,

second to pull the pilot,
pull the pilot

from his disorientation
back to orientation.

Was there
a mechanical problem

at the heart of the crash?

Investigators will
likely never know.

With so much of the plane still
at the bottom of the Red Sea,

questions will always
remain for investigators

and everyone else who was
affected by the crash.

I lost my nephews and
my niece. They were just kids.

What future would they have had?

How can you put a price on that?
What a waste?

The families will
never be able to fully mourn,

me included because we'll never
know what's really happened.