All language subtitles for Mayday.S05E02.Behind.Closed.Doors.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

At the time,
it was the worst crash
in aviation history.

It was just a scene
of absolute, utter devastation.

In 1974,
more than 300 people died

when their plane
fell from the sky.

There's barely anything
left here that's recognizable
as being a part of an aircraft.

You couldn't walk anywhere
without the danger

you were going to stand
on a part of a human being.

The key
to understanding the disaster

is found
thousands of kilometers away.

An unusual piece of evidence
that tells the troubling story

of a crash
that could have been prevented.

Mayday! Mayday!

June the 12th, 1972.

One of the newest members
of American Airlines Fleet

is in Detroit, Michigan.

- John.
- Paige.

Sir.

Flight 96,
a brand new DC-10,

is getting ready for takeoff.

Captain Bryce McCormick
and Co-Pilot Paige Whitney

have been
in the plane for hours.

...back there,
so when we're in flight,
if you can get a chance

just to look at that?

Detroit is
just a stopover
on a flight from LA to Buffalo

and then to New York.

- ...got there?
- I do.

You ready to try one, Paige?

All right, sir.

McCormick has flown
the plane out from California,

but Whitney is going to fly
the next leg.

Both men want as much time
at the controls as possible.

Neither one of them
has more than 75 hours
flying the DC-10.

Few pilots have more.

There simply aren't enough
of the planes in the air.

In 1972, the DC-10
had just been introduced.

The plane is the latest advance
to passenger jets.

Its style and its size set it
apart from other airliners.

The McDonnell Douglas
Corporation has spent

more than a billion dollars
developing it.

In the late '60s,
there was a race going

among the three major
manufacturers of jetliners.

McDonnell Douglas,
Boeing, and Lockheed

to see who could get
the first jumbo out.

So they've got really busy
on getting this DC-10

into production
as fast as they could.

And one of the things
that they could not suffer
were many delays

based on some problem
with the design.

American Airlines
is one of the first companies
to buy the plane.

Flight 96
is one of those planes.

Just the fifth DC-10 ever built.

Cydya Smith
has just been trained

to be the chief flight attendant
on the DC-10.

I was excited because it was
one of the first Jumbos
that we had.

And I was going
to have the opportunity
to fly number one,

which is what I always wanted
to do on a big jet.

Okay, you got it?

Okay.

Hand on the wheel.

I gotcha.

V-1, rotate.

Just after seven
in the evening,

Flight 96 lifts off
from Detroit airport.

Just minutes after takeoff,

the plane is rising easily
through 3,500 meters

over Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

I was sitting in my seat
and the captain had turned off

the "Fasten Seatbelt" sign
and I was making my way
to the galley

and I had to go sort of downhill
because we were climbing.

I had to go to the galley
to turn on the coffee.

When I...
When I punched the coffee

and I moved over to one side,
that's when it happened.

I remember falling over
because the plane was going...

Was like this,
but all of a sudden,
it just went like this.

I saw ceiling compartments fall,

and I saw things coming out
of pockets and everything

and I thought to myself,
"Oh, boy."

It felt like
the last day of my life.

We've hit something.
We lost an engine here.

In the cockpit,
the crew is fighting
for control of their jet.

The throttles,
which control the three engines,
have snapped to idle.

The plane loses
almost all its thrust.

The huge jet
begins slowing down.

The plane immediately took
a huge drop.

And the next thing that happened

was I was hit in the face
with a piece of the plane.

My husband
was frantically trying
to find a stewardess

to give me something
to put pressure
on my face to stop the bleeding.

Let me have it!

McCormick
takes over control of the plane.

He and Whitney
wrestle the jet level...

but Flight 96
has been badly damaged.

Have we got hydraulics?

No. I've got full rudder here.

The rudder
on the tail which controls
the direction of the jet

is jammed to the right.

That's forcing the plane
to swing dramatically
in that direction.

While McCormick fights
to turn his damaged plane
back to Detroit,

Cydya Smith is shocked to see
a gaping hole in the floor
of the main passenger cabin.

People were asking me,
you know, what to do.

and I knew that I didn't know
what to tell them.

Smith has been
able to account
for all of her passengers

but flight attendant
Sandra McConnell is missing.

Sandra! Can you hear me?

Sandra, where are you?

And finally,
I saw her come out
of one of the bathrooms.

McConnell has to cross
the hole in the floor
to move to safety.

And almost
every step she took,
the floor kept collapsing.

The crew
brings up power
to the engines on the wings.

But the third engine on the tail
stubbornly refuses to respond.

Center, this is
American Airlines Flight 96.
We've got an emergency.

American 9-6. Roger.
Type of emergency?

We got a jammed rudder.
We need to get down
and make an approach.

Along with his engine
and his rudder,

McCormick is also having trouble
controlling the elevators
on the tail of the plane.

They help him move
the massive plane up and down.

They're slow to respond,
but he can move them.

The situation
isn't completely hopeless.

I think it's going to fly.

American 9-6,
turn further right,
heading will be 2-0-0.

Without complete control
of the elevators

and with a rudder
that's frozen to the right,

McCormick has to use
his engines to turn the plane.

By increasing the thrust
on one side of the plane,
he can change direction.

But it won't be fast.

I have
no rudder control whatsoever.

So our turns
are gonna have to be
very slow and cautious.

All of the passengers
move as far away from the hole
in the back as possible.

But apart from the cut
to Loretta Kaminsky, so far,

there are
no other serious injuries.

Captain! There's a hole
in the back of the plane.

- A hole?
- Yes, sir.

What do you want us to do?

Get everyone ready
for an emergency landing.

Bryce McCormick's
DC-10 is badly damaged.

The lives of everyone on board
now depend entirely

on his ability to land a plane
that can barely fly.

With explosive suddenness,
a short flight
from Detroit to Buffalo

has become
the most challenging flight

of Captain
Bryce McCormick's career.

He's down an engine
and he can't move his rudder.

As he heads back to Detroit,

McCormick begins
to slow his plane down
so it can land safely.

But when he does,
his plane begins falling
dangerously fast.

Ideally, McCormick
should be descending
at 700 feet a minute.

But now he's falling
more than twice that fast.

1,600 feet a minute.

What's the sink rate?

Sink rate, 1,600.

At this rate,
McCormick will crash
well short of the runway.

He increases power
to his engines
to slow his fall.

Sink rate, 700.

McCormick has slowed
the plane's descent
to 700 feet per minute.

But to do that,
he's had to increase
his forward air speed,

which means he'll be landing
far faster than usual.

For the first time since
the beginning of the crisis,

McCormick talks
to the passengers.

Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.

We've had a small problem,
but the plane
is under control now,

and we're heading
back to Detroit
for an emergency landing.

Bryce McCormick
was as calm

as if he were
welcoming you on the plane.

As the plane
nears the airport,

flight attendants
asked passengers

to remove their shoes
and any sharp pieces of jewelry.

They had to take off
their shoes and glasses.

We collected everything
in a blanket.

Less than half an hour
after leaving,

the badly damaged DC-10
struggles back
to the Detroit airport.

The few minutes
that it took
to get back to Detroit

were the longest minutes
that I will ever remember
spending on an airplane.

Because we were sure that
we were not going to survive.

Captain Bryce McCormick now needs
to give the jet

even more power
to push the nose up for landing.

His plane is still drifting
to the right and traveling fast.

I have no rudder
to straighten it out
when it hits.

The DC-10
with 67 people aboard,

roars toward the runway
at almost 300 km an hour.

Brace!

The landing was
the most frightening part
of the entire flight.

When the plane
hits the ground, it begins
veering hard to the right.

Once the plane landed,
it seemed like
we just went on forever.

I mean, it was just forever.

One set
of landing gear wheels

runs off the runway
and through the grass.

After a harrowing touchdown,
the plane
eventually comes to a stop

just 300 meters
from the end of the runway.

Okay, engines off
at your discretion.

Shut 'em down.

Every woman
wanted to hug him.

And, um, he was just amazing.

Because we... It was
just at that moment
that we all realized

that we were alive
because of him.

That he
literally had saved our lives.

Oh!

If you take a look
at something like this

and you say,
"Well, there's good flying
and there's bad flying,"

this is beyond good.
This is superlative.

This is using every instinct
you have as an airman

and all the...
all the capabilities you have

to stay calm enough
to get the situation assessed.

With the plane
on the ground,

the crew has
its first opportunity
to inspect the damage.

The captain and I walked back...

when everybody was off.

We walked back to the back

and we just looked up
and saw this hole.

And it was just so weird.

There's no indication
that the jet hit something,
as the pilots first thought.

What has caused such damage
to the airliner?

The hole was so enormous that...

if anyone had been sitting
in the seats that were there,

they would have been
sucked out immediately.

At that point, they still felt
it might have been a bomb.

But while the incident
had happened
with explosive suddenness,

no indication
of a bomb is found.

As investigators
begin their work,

they discover that
not all of the DC-10
is at the Detroit airport.

A coffin that the plane
was carrying in its cargo hold

is discovered 30 km away
from the Detroit airport,

near Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Investigators also find
the plane's rear cargo door.

Doors are not supposed
to fall off airplanes.

Especially since it was
a rather new airplane,

you would not expect
something like that to happen.

When they examine
the cargo area of the plane,

they discover that
the very design of the door
makes it a potential weak spot.

Most doors on a jet open inward.

In fact, the door
is slightly larger
than the frame it fits into.

As the pressure
builds inside a jet,

this type of plug door
is actually forced
into the frame of the aircraft.

The design
makes the door extremely safe.

But McDonnell Douglas designed
the cargo door on the DC-10
to open outwards.

That decision was made
to increase the amount
of storage space on the plane.

When it's closed,
hooks on the DC-10's door

grab hold of a bar
on the plane's door frame.

To make sure it's closed,

baggage handlers
push down on a lever,

which drives locking pins
through the hooks,
which hold them in place.

When investigators examined
the cargo area of the plane,

they don't find
any structural damage
around the door.

When they study the locks
on the cargo door itself,

they find that the latches
are not completely closed...

and the pins that are supposed
to make sure the door is locked

are not
in their locked position.

When we interrogated
the cargo handler
that closed the door,

it became immediately apparent

that he used excessive force
to close the door.

And in fact, he said
he had to use his knee

to get the door handle
to go flush.

Investigators make
a frightening discovery.

It's possible to close the lever
on the outside of the door...

even if the hooks
and locking pins
are not in the closed position.

Paul Eddy is a journalist
who investigated
the history of the DC-10.

What Windsor showed
is that you could
actually pull the handle

in order to buckle
the top fixture

so that the handle
went home properly,

but the locking pins
had not gone through the spools.

Engage the lever.

This means
that baggage handlers can
believe the door is closed...

when it's not.

Not only can the outside lever
be closed without the locks
being fully engaged,

there's no way for the crew
of the plane to know.

The faulty locking pins
will still turn off
the warning light,

even though they aren't
in their proper position.

The door
was a ticking time bomb.

As passenger jets climb,
the difference between
the pressure inside the plane

and the pressure
outside the plane grows.

If a door isn't properly shut,
it will blow out
with explosive force.

The problem
on the American Airlines flight

began as the plane
passed through 3,500 meters.

When the door blew,

the coffin in the cargo hold
was sucked out.

When the air pressure
inside the plane was released,

anything that wasn't
firmly attached
was pulled out of the airliner.

It's a really startling thing
if you're not expecting it.

What you've got is a lot of air

stuffed inside
this pressure vessel
that now wants to get out.

And the bigger the airplane is,
the more powerful
the hurricane of air

leaving the airplane is
during that period of time.

By itself,
explosive decompression does not
make a plane un-flyable.

So why had Captain McCormick
experienced such difficulties
controlling his jet?

Investigators take a closer look
at the back
of the plane's cabin,

and learn that
the very design of the DC-10
makes it vulnerable.

When the cargo door blew off,
there was so much pressure

on the floor of the cabin
that it collapsed into
the cargo compartment below.

When it did, the floor ripped
into some of the plane's
critical control systems.

When it collapsed the floor,
it took the cables that
controlled number two engine,

and it took most of the cables
or impeded most of the cables

that had to do
with the flight controls
in the back.

I think it's going to fly.

It left McCormick
just enough control
to keep his plane level.

The remarkable flying
of Bryce McCormick

had saved the lives of everyone
on board Flight 96.

But there was a problem
with one of the newest
and most expensive planes

flying over North America.

In the Windsor incident,
there was an obvious flaw.

And that's where
the NTSB said, "Look,

"here is really the smoking gun,
the ability to close that thing

"without having
all those locks engaged.

"Let's make sure we change
this system right now.

"Every DC-10 operator
needs to know this."

All right, I want
everything checked.
I want all the bolts checked...

Chuck Miller
is the head of the NTSB's
Aviation Safety Bureau.

You have to check
all the latches, okay?
Every single latch...

It's his responsibility
to point out problems

with the new DC-10
and propose solutions.

He helps write the fixes
he thinks McDonnell Douglas

needs to make
to keep the planes safe.

He was
a very, very professional man,
and he had...

His investigators
had enormous respect for him.

Chuck didn't sit back
in the office.

Chuck was always on the scene.

For Chuck Miller,
fixing the DC-10 is
a matter of professional pride.

For McDonnell Douglas,
the near accident over Windsor
has enormous implications.

Their billion dollar gamble came
close to tumbling from the sky.

If anything else goes wrong,
the company itself
could be at stake.

March the third, 1974.

A perfect spring-like day
in Paris.

It's been almost two years
since a DC-10 came close

to crashing
near Windsor, Ontario.

Now, more than 50
of the new planes
are flying around the world.

One of them, Plane 29,
is owned by Turkish Airlines.

Normally, the last leg
of this trip
from Turkey to England

wouldn't be very crowded.

But today,
the DC-10 is filling up fast.

People are squeezing into seats
throughout the plane.

A strike at a British airline
has passengers scrambling

for any flight back to London.

Wendy Wheal is one of many last
minute additions to the flight.

A model, she's returning home
after a shoot in Spain.

We'd been married
for 18 months and we were
about to start a family.

I believe
the secret of her success
for modeling was...

not just that she was
a very attractive girl,

um, and good model material,

but she was generally liked
by all the photographers

because she had such a pleasing,
lovely, light personality.

With all
the new passengers boarding

the flight is
a little behind schedule.

And it's not only the crew
who are waiting.

At the back of the plane
is baggage handler,
Mohamed Mahmoudi.

With all the new passengers,

he's not sure if there are
any more bags to load.

Not expecting
any other luggage,

Mahmoudi locks
the rear cargo door.

The DC-10 is set to go.

Just after 12:30
in the afternoon, THY Flight 981

one lifts off into the skies
above Paris.

London is
less than an hour away.

Flight Control,
this is Tango Hotel Yankee 981.

We're at 6-0.
Requesting clearance
to flight level 2-3-0.

Tango-Hotel-Yankee 981,
you are cleared
to flight level 2-3-0.

981, roger.

As it flies
away from the airport,

the DC-10 continues
to gain altitude.

2,700 meters.

3,000 meters.

3,300 meters.

The huge jet shudders
and banks to the left.

What happened?

- The cabin blew out.
- Are you sure?

Just 16 seconds
after the start of the crisis,

the crew struggles
to save their crippled jet.

The nose is pitching down,
the plane, picking up speed.

Bring it up!

Pull her nose up!

I can't bring it up.

She doesn't respond!

Passengers at the back of the plane
witness a horrifying scene.

Two rows of seats
have simply disappeared.

Through a huge hole
in the floor,

passengers can see
the sky over France.

7000 feet!

Hydraulics?

We've lost it!

The crew discovers
that they have
no hydraulic power

with which to control the plane.

Without it, they can't move
their rudder or elevators.

Even without
its most basic controls,

the plane begins to level out.

But it's fallen too far.

Looks like we're going
to hit the ground!

Speed!

The DC-10 is traveling
almost 800 km an hour.

The flight from Paris to London
never even makes it
to the English Channel.

Just nine minutes
after taking off,
Turkish Airways Flight 981

becomes the worst plane crash
of all time.

In London,
the flight is listed as delayed.

The news of the crash
comes out slowly.

I went
to the ticket office kiosk.

And I...

asked what has happened
to the flight.

And instantly the look
on the gentleman's face
behind the counter

told me
something was wrong. Instantly.

There's barely anything
left here

that's recognizable as being
a part of an aircraft.

I looked on the television
and I just thought,

"Well, I just hope she's dead."

Because I just saw the carnage
of the forest, in Senlis

and it was like
looking at...

a first World War trench movie.

Flight 981,
carrying 346 passengers,

virtually disintegrates
on impact.

There are no survivors.

It was just a scene
of absolute, utter devastation.

And the litter of...

personal possessions,
electric wires, bits of metal,
bits of bodies,

just strewn everywhere.
I mean, you couldn't walk...

You couldn't walk anywhere
without the danger
you're going to stand on...

a part of a human being.

I still have nightmares
about this, even though
it's 33 years ago.

Investigators for the French Accident
Investigation Bureau

are quickly on the scene.

My first job was to...

evaluate the scope
of the wreckage

and to begin the first
investigation on the spot.

At first I was unable to know
what has happened.

I was just seeing that
terrible crash
has occurred, and...

that it will be
very hard work
for investigators.

Despite
the enormous force of the crash,
the black boxes,

made of three layers
of hardened steel
and insulation, survive.

Their contents could provide
valuable clues about the crash.

Most speculation was
that it must have been a bomb.

Because, you know,
you've got a almost brand new,
very powerful airplane

flying in clear blue sky,

and it gets to 12,000 feet
and falls out of it.

Investigators are called to a field 15 km
from the crash site.

They find a piece of fuselage
and two rows of seats
from the DC-10.

Somehow they fell
free of the airliner

before the rest of the plane
smashed into the forest.

When investigators arrive,

the bodies of the passengers
who were in the seats
have already been removed.

When relatives
of those who died in the crash
arrive in France,

they're directed
to a small church
in the town of Senlis.

One of the saddest sights
I've ever seen

is in this church.

They laid out on tables

everything they'd found.
You know, clothing...

possessions, teddy bears,
rings, watches...

and then relatives who wanted to
were allowed to come

and walk around
these trestle tables
with all this stuff like that.

They produced a little packet
with my wife's wedding ring
and rings, engagement ring.

It was all pretty battered up,

so you can imagine the thoughts
that went through my mind.

Since the accident
involves an American plane,

the NTSB's Chuck Miller
joins the investigation.

For the second time
in two years,

he's dealing with a problem
with the DC-10.

I don't believe
that Miller suspected

for one moment that the door
hadn't been fixed after Windsor.

But it becomes clear
that the piece of fuselage
found in France

is in fact
the plane's rear cargo door.

It seems like a repeat
of the Windsor accident.

Miller is left
with a haunting question.

Why hadn't the problem
been fixed?

When he saw the door,

of course he saw that the...
it hadn't been done.

The fix hadn't been made.

And that's when
I think his anger

became very, very strong indeed.

Miller takes
an unusual step.

Although the official investigation
is just beginning,

he gives journalist Paul Eddy
an important tip.

I said, "Have you got any ideas?

"What made the door come off?"

He said, "Yeah. If I were you,
I'd go and look at a place
called Windsor, Ontario."

Hello, I'm Chuck Miller.

Miller shares
his suspicions
with the French investigators.

Could you please
pass these around?

These were taken
on June 12th, 1972,

right after the incident.

We have asked for the report
on the Windsor accident

and our American colleagues,
were also volunteers

to give us a lot of details.

Now we had
an American Airlines flight

from Detroit to Buffalo
have its cargo door blow off.

And he has been very frank,

and explained
what he was thinking
of the Windsor accident.

After all the work
done during the American
Airlines investigation,

had something been overlooked?

Was there another problem
with McDonnell Douglas'
enormous plane?

With the information
from Chuck Miller,

French investigators
take a closer look
at the plane's cargo door.

They make a shocking discovery.

There is no new problem.

It's just like
the American Airlines case
all over again.

The latches that are supposed
to hold the cargo door closed
aren't locked.

And since two rows of seats
were sucked out
of the DC-10 over Paris,

it's clear that the floor
on the plane collapsed,
just as it had in Windsor.

It looks like we're
going to hit the ground!

Bring it up!

I can't bring it up!
She doesn't respond!

In fact,
when investigators listen
to the cockpit voice recorder...

7,000 feet!

they find that
the Turkish flight crew had
even less control of their plane

than the crew of American
Airlines Flight 96.

We need to get down
and make an approach.

I think it's going to fly.

Over Windsor,
Bryce McCormick

was able to recover his plane
and land it.

But in Paris,
all the hydraulic systems
were destroyed.

Hydraulics?

We've lost it!

The hydraulic fluid
helps crews move the rudder
and elevators on the tail.

Not being able to control them
meant the crew couldn't keep
their plane in the sky.

The basic problem was
the Paris flight
was much heavier

in terms of the number
of people on board.

The floor, when it collapsed,
collapsed with such
a tremendous amount of pressure

that it literally severed
all the cables and controls
at the back.

They had no hope
after that point.

Do you and each of you
solemnly swear that
the testimony you're about to...

Shortly after
the crash
of Turkish Airlines Flight 981,

Chuck Miller is back
in the United States.

Our first witness this morning
is Mister C.O. Miller,

Director of the Bureau
of Aviation Safety

of the NTSB.

This time,
he's facing questions
from American senators.

Or potentially catastrophic
design defense.

A special hearing
begins to find out how a problem

that was identified in 1972
could bring another plane down
two years later.

And of course, our understanding
up to this time,
they all had been.

What you've got
to now discover is,

why wasn't that door fixed?

Why would a major, venerable,

mighty, American corporation...

deliberately do
something like this?

So...

Less than a month
after the near-crash
over Windsor,

the NTSB had made two
very specific recommendations.

Miller and his investigators
recommended that
a change be made

to the locking mechanism.

Engage the lever.

They wanted
to make sure that it was
physically impossible

for baggage handlers
to close the lever

without the locking pins
being in place.

They also suggested that vents
be put into the floors
of all DC-10s.

This would rapidly allow
the pressurized cabin air

to equalize
without collapsing the floor.

But in the two years
since the accident,

neither one
of these recommendations
was implemented.

There is a fundamental problem
at the heart of aviation safety

and there has been
in the United States
for a very long time.

And that is...
that it's the job of the NTSB

to discover what's happened...

and to come up
with recommendations

as to how to prevent it
happening again.

But it has
absolutely no authority
to implement them.

The NTSB does not have
regulatory authority.

They have to turn to the FAA
as they did,

and say,
"We want these things done."

And that's where
the system went wrong.

If the FAA,
the Federal
Aviation Administration,

issues an Airworthiness Directive,

planes are pulled out of service
until the proper fix is made.

But as serious as the problems
on the DC-10 were,

no Airworthiness Directive
was ever issued.

A so-called
gentleman's agreement

between the head of the FAA

and the head
of McDonnell Douglas
stopped it from happening.

The gentleman's agreement
is the root cause of Paris.

There is no question that
if an Airworthiness Directive
had been issued

as it should have been,
after Windsor,

Paris would not have happened.

It was
an entirely avoidable accident.

McDonnell Douglas
assured the FAA that it would
fix the problem voluntarily.

An Airworthiness Directive
would cast a shadow
on the still fledgling DC-10.

The last thing
in the world you want

is for the public
or any of the airlines

who are going to be
operating these airplanes

to think, "Uh-oh, maybe there's
some flaws in this bird."

And so
an Airworthiness Directive,

especially one that requires you
to go back
and re-engineer something,

is a really horrific thought
for a manufacturer.

McDonnell Douglas
did make changes to the way
the cargo door was built.

A peep hole was cut
in the bottom of the door

so baggage handlers could see
if the locking pins had engaged.

Several warning signs
were also attached
to the plane's door.

The company also made
other changes to the DC-10.

These included increasing
the length of the locking pins

and attaching a plate
to the inside of the door.

This plate would make it
physically impossible

to push down the lever
if the door
wasn't properly locked.

But each of the proposed fixes
had its own problem.

Many baggage handlers
didn't know

what the small window
in the door was for.

And the baggage handler in Paris
read and spoke
three languages...

but not English,

the only language in which
the warning signs were written.

The support plate that was
supposed to be
installed in the door

was never attached to the jet
that crashed in Paris.

Papers confirming the completion

of the work are also uncovered.

But no matter what
the paper trail says,
the fix was never made.

Again, the problem is
you don't have
an independent FAA inspector

coming along
to look and see it

and then put his stamp on it.

because it wasn't
an Airworthiness Directive.

In the years following
the Turkish Airlines crash,

an enormous flurry of lawsuits
are filed in California.

The tragic story of the DC-10

has one more surprise in store.

It's 1974...

and an unprecedented series
of lawsuits

are being filed
against McDonnell Douglas.

The families of those
who died near Paris
want someone held responsible.

As time went by, I learned
more and more
about what actually happened

and realized that
it was not an accident,
as we would call an accident.

It was totally avoidable.

My goal was
to expose these people.

In the weeks
leading up to the trial,

lawyers who are involved
in the case have access

to the entire history
of the DC-10's development.

They're not the only ones
who pore through the evidence.

So does journalist Paul Eddy.

We were determined to get
to those documents
and that testimony.

Somebody gave us a key
to the depository
where the documents were.

And so at night
we would go in...

and then had a huge accumulated
pile of documents to go through

in order to find out
what they've been up to.

Reading through
the immense pile of paper,

Eddy makes
an incredible discovery.

A memo written by Dan Applegate,

the director
of product engineering
for Convair,

the company who'd built
the cargo door
for McDonnell Douglas.

I think the point
where we knew we got them

was the Applegate memorandum

that specifically pre-warned
this would happen.

The memo
is a damning indictment
of the cargo doors

that were being made
for the DC-10

and the lack of venting
in the cabin floors.

It warns that it's
only a matter of time

before there's a major disaster
involving the doors.

"The airplane demonstrated
an inherent susceptibility...

"to catastrophic failure

"when exposed
to explosive decompression.

"of the cargo compartment."

The memo,
written just weeks after
the near disaster in Windsor,

recommends that immediate changes be made
to the DC-10 cargo door.

You know you've got them.
You know you've got them,
because, you know they knew.

During the court case,
another chilling find is made.

Not only did
McDonnell Douglas know
about the problem after Windsor,

they knew during the development
of the DC-10.

Four years
before the Paris crash,

two years before Windsor,

the cargo door failed
during a pressure test.

The company knew
there was a problem

but the fundamental design
of the door stayed the same.

I could not believe
a large corporation...

McDonnel Douglas, at the time
could do such a thing.

Could risk our lives,
ordinary people's lives...

for the sake of money.

Well, in aviation, it's called
tombstone technology.

In other words, we always have
the balance of money.

And unfortunately,
over the years,

that has been true
more times than not

that we have had to wait
until we had enough people die
in an accident to say,

"You know, we really are
going to have to spend
the money over here."

The Applegate memo
and other information that
comes out during the court case

leads to one
of the biggest settlements
in the history of aviation.

McDonnell Douglas paid
over 80 million dollars
in damages.

After the Paris crash,
foolproof changes

were finally made
to the DC-10 cargo door.

And this time,
nothing was left to chance.

The FAA issued
an Airworthiness Directive

that ensured the doors would
never again open in midair.

And it worked.

After Paris, there wasn't
another serious incident

involving the cargo doors
on a DC-10.

But the plane's history

and an intensely competitive
industry did have an impact.

McDonnell Douglas sold
far fewer commercial DC-10s

than it had once hoped for.

Most of the pilots that I know
who have flown the DC-10

over the years
really love the old bird.

She's probably a little
more clunky than the 747

in terms of her heaviness
of flight controls.

But it's still
a lovely bird to fly.

That's fine, but
you can't disassociate

either the airplane
or the company

from the awful reputation
that the crash left.

Eventually,
McDonnell Douglas
itself disappears.

The company
was bought by Boeing in 1996.

In the forest outside Paris,
a monument now stands

honoring those who were killed
on Flight 981.

A permanent reminder

of one of the most
disturbing crashes
in the history of aviation.

You never forget.

And I've gone on to lead, uh...

my life for 30 odd years.

But I've never forgotten.

People, to this day,

think it was an accident...

and it wasn't.