Original subtitles

Controllers in Islamabad watch

as Airblue Flight 202 heads straight towards a massive hill.

He's not turning.

They issue urgent warnings.

Turn left immediately!

...but fail to prevent a disaster.

- Terrain ahead. - We are going down!

Pull up.

It was the worst accident in Pakistan's aviation history.

When investigators listen to the CVR

they hear the pilots realise they're in danger...

- Terrain ahead. - Terrain, sir.

Pull up.

...took steps to avoid it...

Turning left.

...but were unable to save the lives

of 152 people.

Why aren't we turning left?

The crew knew what they had to do.

They reported that they were doing

what they were supposed to do

and yet the aircraft continued to fly in the wrong direction.

Mayday, mayday!

Pull up!

Airblue Flight 202

begins its early morning descent towards Islamabad, Pakistan.

There are 146 passengers

and six crew on board the Airbus A-3-21.

Airblue 202

expect arrival to ILS runway 3-0,

followed by circling approach to land runway 1-2.

Understood, it will be ILS down to minima

and then left downwind.

Okay.

Captain Pervez Chaudhry

is one of the airline's most experienced pilots.

Najam Qureshi is a former Airblue pilot

who flew with Captain Chaudhry.

Captain Chaudhry had a lifetime of experience

flying with the Pakistan International Airline.

He had a very successful career

and he was pretty much approaching

the end of his career.

Airblue 202 cleared to 39-hundred

for ILS approach to runway three-zero

followed by circling approach to land on 1-2.

First Officer Syed Ahmed

has less commercial experience.

He is a former F-16 fighter pilot

and Squadron Leader in Pakistan's Air Force.

Airblue 202, cleared to 3-9-hundred

for ILS two-three-zero.

Cleared to descend to 3-9-hundred.

He had about 300 hours on the type so just brand new,

learning the differences between the air force flying

and the commercial flying.

Pakistan's capital, Islamabad,

is a city of more than 800,000 people.

It's surrounded by the Himalayan foothills

to the north and northeast.

The mountainous terrain means the only approach

to Islamabad's runway is from the south.

Due to the wind direction today,

planes are landing on Runway 1-2.

They must circle the airport

and make a visual approach to the other end of the runway.

It is always safer to land with a head wind

as compared to a tailwind.

When the winds change beyond a certain limit

the air traffic controller will switch the runways.

That will ensure the plane lands in a head wind.

Thick clouds envelop the airport,

making landings difficult.

China Southern is going around

and diverting back to Urumqi.

China Southern confirming, diverting back to Urumqi.

Attention all landing aircraft,

China Southern is diverting due to weather.

If at any point you lose sight of the airfield,

you should abandon the approach completely

and carry out the missed approach procedure.

Flight 202

is now less than 10 minutes from landing.

Gear down.

Gear down.

The plane reaches the minimum altitude

to which the pilots can descend without the runway in sight.

As soon as you see the runway you turn right

and then after that

you're supposed to keep the runway in sight.

Commencing right turn, heading 3-5-2.

Call it in.

Airblue 202

maintaining 2-500

and turning right heading 3-5-2.

Airblue 202 confirming

at 2,500, turning right heading 3-5-2.

Captain Choudhry initiates the first turn

of the circling approach.

Airblue 202

continue on the circle for landing on runway 1-2.

Caution, low clouds and visibility.

Maintain visual with the airport.

Even in the poor weather,

it's up to the pilots to decide

whether they should continue the approach or not

depending whether they have the runway in sight.

The controller expects to see the lights

of the Airbus as it flies past the airfield.

Radar, I can't see Airblue 202,

what's his current location, please?

He's approaching the No Fly Zone north of the airfield.

Instruct him to turn left immediately.

Flight 202 is much further north than expected

and needs to turn left for the approach to runway 1-2.

Airblue 202, turn left heading 1-8-0.

Confirm he has visual with the ground.

If not instruct him to climb and execute a missed approach.

Airblue 202, confirm you have airfield in sight.

The controllers had radar.

They could see what the aircraft was doing.

They could see that the aircraft was not doing

what the procedure said they should be doing.

Ask again.

Airblue 202 please confirm you have visual with the ground.

Airblue 202, visual with the ground.

He's confirming visual.

He's not turning.

Controllers can see that Flight 202

is rapidly approaching the hills north of the airport.

In the cockpit the pilots are struggling

to turn their plane away from the mountains ahead.

Why aren't we turning left?

Why isn't it turning left?

Terrain Ahead.

Pull up. Terrain.

Terrain, sir.

Pull up.

Instruct him to turn left immediately.

The controllers can't believe what they're seeing.

Here's a guy with 25,000 hours

and he's flying directly towards a mountain.

In the cabin passengers have become aware

that something's not right.

They're approaching the 5,000 foot Margalla Hills.

Terrain ahead. Pull up.

Sir, we are going down. Sir, we are going down!

Message from radar, turn left immediately.

Terrain ahead. Pull up...

We are going down!

Pull up.

Flight 202 has crashed into the Margalla Hills,

seven miles from the airport.

The wreckage lies at an altitude of nearly 3,000 feet.

It will be difficult for rescuers to reach the site.

We couldn't get access to it

with a car or a truck.

Even with helicopters, there was no place to set down.

So the only way to get to the accident site

was with a long, slow climb.

It takes more than half-an-hour for rescuers

and volunteers to make their way up the steep hill

to the crash site in hopes of finding survivors.

When crews do reach the site,

they find a scene of complete devastation.

152 people died in this accident.

It was the worst accident in Pakistan's aviation history.

Why did a modern airplane fly into well-known mountains

north of the airport in Islamabad?

Investigators arrive at the accident site

to study the wreckage of Airblue Flight 202.

When an aircraft flies into mountains,

there are really two areas that we're looking at

in terms of the root cause.

One is a sudden and unexpected loss of control.

The other would be the aircraft

has actually stayed in control of the pilots,

and still somehow been flown into a mountain.

An analysis of the engines

shows that they were fully functional at the time of impact

and capable of producing maximum thrust.

Okay, good work everyone. Start heading back down.

Right. So the stabilizer was set at 3.5 degrees nose up.

Landing gear was down. Engines at climb power.

So configured for landing but climbing at full power.

An examination of the electrical

and mechanical components that we could find,

there was no obvious damage or mechanical failure.

They were trying to land here.

But then they slam into the Margalla Hills,

seven miles north of the runway.

How did they get so far off course?

For an approach that was supposed to be

a very tight approach because of the existence of the hills,

that is extraordinary.

They were approaching from the southeast for a landing here,

on runway 1-2.

Scattered clouds, rain.

Visibility was at 3.5 kilometers.

Challenging conditions.

Could the cloudy conditions

have been a factor in the accident?

When an aircraft flies into high ground,

one thing that is almost certainly a factor

is poor visibility,

uh, low cloud, fog, call it what you will.

Visibility would have been an issue.

But you don't need to see the Margalla Hills

to know that they're there.

Everyone knows towards the northeast of the runway

there are mountains.

They are clearly marked on the maps.

- Terrain Ahead. - Sir, we're going down!

Pull up. Pull up.

Can the controller explain why the crew

of Flight 202 couldn't avoid the mountains?

Radar control informed him he'd be doing the circling

approach to runway 1-2.

Airblue 202 expect arrival at ILS 3-0,

followed by circling approach to land runway 1-2.

And he understood the approach.

Yes, sir. He did.

Understood. It'll be ILS down to minima...

...and then left downwind.

And then?

That's when I assumed control,

as he began the right turn to the circling approach.

The circling approach

involves four carefully timed turns.

The first to the right followed by a left turn

that takes the plane parallel to the runway.

The two final turns line the plane up for the landing

on runway 1-2.

Pilots must keep the runway in sight

for the duration of this approach.

After about a minute

I expected to see him fly by,

but he never did.

I asked the crew if they had the runway in sight,

and they confirmed that they did.

Airblue 202 please confirm you have visual with the ground.

Airblue 202, visual with the ground.

But he kept flying further and further

away from the airport,

directly towards the hills.

After breaking off from the approach,

they are supposed to turn after 30 seconds.

Instead they kept going for almost two minutes.

We tried to stop him several times.

But it was too late.

Message from radar, turn left immediately!

We couldn't prevent...

what happened.

It's all here, on the radar track.

The crew knew what they had to do.

They reported that they were doing

what they were supposed to do,

and yet the aircraft continued to fly in the wrong direction.

Terrain ahead.

Pull up.

How could the pilots have ended up

so dangerously off course?

Investigators look into the background

of Flight 202's pilots

to determine if the approach into Islamabad was mishandled.

The Captain had years of experience with major airlines.

Captain Chaudhry has been flying

for more than 40 years.

He has accumulated more than 25,000 flying hours

throughout his career

but only about 1,000 of those were on the Airbus.

The first officer, however, is a whole different story

First Officer Syed Ahmed

had far fewer hours than the Captain.

The former fighter pilot had recently joined the airline

and had accumulated only 286 hours

on Airbus A-3-20 airplanes.

Two very different pilots.

One nearing the end of his career

with thousands of hours of experience,

and the other just starting off his commercial career.

But neither of them had a ton of experience

with the Airbus A-3-21.

Did the pilots' lack of experience

on this type of plane play a role in the accident?

Experience is generally considered to be an asset.

The only potential downside is that of course,

if you've got a lot of experience

of one particular thing,

it actually might be more difficult to learn

how to operate this new type of aircraft.

Okay, so they're supposed to perform their approach

within this area.

Anything beyond this is outside

the airport's 4.3 mile protection zone.

Okay, let's see his track.

Investigators examine Flight 202's radar track

to see how the pilots set up their approach.

Alright.

So they make their first turn here,

and then head straight out of the protection zone.

And this left turn takes them directly

into the Margalla Hills.

The radar track shows the that the pilots

flew closer and closer

to the mountains surrounding Islamabad.

Wouldn't they have gotten a warning

that they were approaching the hills?

Yes, sir.

It should have sounded 60 seconds before impact.

The Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System

looks downward to see the height that you're at above ground,

but it also looks ahead

to see any terrain that you're flying towards.

If they got a warning,

why didn't they try to pull up or turn to avoid it?

Did the pilots of Flight 202 get any warning

of an impending collision?

The crew would have been given pictures

on their navigation display of the approaching terrain,

and they would have been given aural warnings.

So, since they flew directly into the terrain,

has the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System

completely failed?

Don't leave me in suspense.

Did they get any Ground Proximity warnings?

They sure did.

The cockpit data shows

that in the final minute of the flight,

the crew got 21 separate warnings

about the rising terrain ahead.

Okay, so that answers that.

Over 21 times, we saw 'Terrain, terrain, pull up.

Terrain ahead, pull up.'

There's no way that the captain missed that warning.

The Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System

was working properly.

Terrain Ahead.

If the warning system was operating,

why would the pilots ignore it

and allow the accident to happen?

If you hear a full 'terrain pull up' warning

from the EGPWS, the reaction should be immediate.

It should be to apply full power,

pull the nose of the aircraft up,

get it moving away from the ground.

And that should be done before any questions are asked.

Why didn't the crew of Airblue Flight 202

act on terrain warnings

and steer their plane away from the mountains?

Islamabad, Airblue 202...

Investigators listen to the cockpit

voice recording.

...what are current conditions, please.

Airblue 202,

visibility is now 3.5 kilometers with rain.

Wind 1-6 knots zero five zero degrees...

...Runway 1-2 currently in use.

They focus on how the crew set up for landing.

- It'll be runway 1-2. - Yes, and visibility is crap.

The weather was marginal,

and marginal weather makes you nervous because you don't know

whether you're going to be able to see anything at all.

And the captain clearly was nervous about this approach.

Did the Captain proceed

with an approach he wasn't comfortable with?

Set waypoints for runway 1-2...

...Radial 0-2-6, 5 miles abeam.

Wait. Stop.

Why is he asking him to input a course to the runway?

This is supposed to be a visual approach.

It didn't make any sense for the captain

to be entering waypoints into the flight management system.

The circling approach is by definition a visual approach.

So, there is no way

that any pilot would normally do this.

Then, just two miles from the airport,

the pilots of Airblue flight 202

hear of a flight landing ahead of them.

Be advised that a PIA 7-3-7

has landed on runway 1-2 safely.

Commencing right turn heading 3-5-2.

That could have caused the pilot to say,

'Hey, if they can get in, we can get in too.'

Wait, stop, stop.

So he starts his turn later than usual,

half a mile from the runway.

Instead of breaking off early, they had to continue on

because of the low visibility and low ceilings.

And they did not break off to the right

until the last possible point,

which was at the end of the runway.

Concerned with poor visibility,

Captain Chaudhry makes a baffling decision.

Switching to NAV Mode

for managed approach to Runway 1-2.

There he goes switching to NAV Mode. He can't be visual.

Carrying out the circling approach

using the auto-pilot to navigate

is a violation of procedures.

As soon as you select the NAV mode

the plane starts to fly the pre-programmed waypoints.

And at this point Captain Chaudhry's no more

flying the visual approach.

Okay, sir...

But, are you visual?

I have a visual.

Chaudhry insists he can see the runway

but investigators are certain he could not.

They can't see the airfield any longer

because they've just got to the far side of it.

There is no airfield in sight.

So instead of turning left to fly parallel with the runway,

he keeps flying in this direction

moving further and further from the airport.

Sir, we're reaching higher ground.

Terrain ahead.

Terrain ahead.

Sir, there's terrain ahead.

Sir, turn left.

Terrain ahead.

It should be turning.

Terrain ahead.

As the Captain struggles to turn away

from the hills,

controllers become concerned.

Airblue 202 confirm you have airfield in site.

Uh, wha... what should I tell him, sir?

Terrain ahead.

Tell him... tell him.

Pull up.

The crew doesn't reply straight away.

Probably because the first officer knows full well

that, no, they don't have visual contact with the airfield.

But he waits for his captain to tell him what to say.

Airblue 202

please confirm you have visual with the ground.

Terrain ahead. Pull up.

Airblue 202, visual with the ground.

In the end, the crew tells air traffic control

that they are in visual contact with the ground.

Now, that's not untrue.

But it's not the same thing as being visual with the airfield.

It feels more like a reply

designed to get air traffic control off their backs.

Sir, we are approaching terrain ahead.

Yes, I know. We are turning left.

- Pull up. - Pull... pull up, sir.

- Stop, stop. - Sir, pull up!

The Captain says he's turning left.

But he keeps flying directly towards the hills.

Investigators are unable to explain

why Captain Chaudhry could not alter his course

and steer away from the mountains.

- Terrain Ahead. - Sir. Turn left!

The final minute of the CVR

reveals a picture of chaos and confusion.

Pull... pull up, sir. Sir, pull up!

They're applying power, trying to climb.

Terrain Ahead.

Sir, pull up, sir!

Investigators hear First Officer Ahmed

pleading with his Captain to pull up.

Why aren't we turning left?

Pull up.

Terrain Ahead. Pull up.

Terrain, sir!

Terrain ahead.

Sir, we are going down!

Pull up.

Message from radar, turn left immediately!

Pull up.

- Sir, we are going down! - Pull up.

All they had to do was turn away from those hills.

Despite reacting to the terrain warnings,

the pilots could not steer their plane away from the mountains.

I think they knew what was happening.

I think they knew that they had to turn left.

For some reason, the aircraft didn't turn left.

Will flight 202's Flight Data Recorder

explain why Captain Chaudhry didn't, or couldn't,

turn and avoid the mountains?

Can we see the altitude please?

The minimum altitude is 2,500 feet.

Investigators can see that Chaudhry

dialed in an altitude below what's permitted.

There's only one reason it would drop below that.

Commencing right turn. Heading 3-5-2.

There's no earthly reason for doing it

because the minimums are there for a very good reason.

The only reason why they ever break the minimums

is because they can't see the ground properly,

and they want to get closer to it.

Can we see the flight path?

You see. He's way off course,

in heavy fog, and has clearly lost visual.

Let's see the auto-pilot modes.

So, he asks the automation to take over.

More than four miles off course,

Captain Chaudhry makes his biggest error

by switching modes on his autopilot.

The captain switched from heading mode to NAV mode.

And the aircraft turned left to heading of three zero zero...

Towards the mountain.

The Airbus now makes a left turn

towards a pre-determined waypoint,

bringing the flight dangerously close to the mountains.

He's approaching the No Fly Zone north of the airfield.

From this point on, air traffic control

continued to urge the flight to turn left

because they knew they were in the vicinity

of the high mountainous terrain.

Terrain ahead. Pull up.

Airblue 202 turn left heading 1-8-0.

Why aren't we turning left?

Pull up.

Can we see what he's selecting?

He's dialing in a left turn.

Captain Chaudhry uses his heading knob

to turn the plane sharply left, away from the hills.

But the plane, it keeps flying in the same direction.

It's not turning.

He's still in NAV.

Investigators realize that the captain

forgot his plane was in navigation mode

and not heading mode,

which is required to turn the aircraft.

If the aircraft is flying in NAV mode,

it will keep on flying on its predetermined course,

whether or not the crew change the heading select.

Why aren't we turning left?

Pull up.

Captain Chaudhry doesn't realize

that his inputs are futile.

Pull up. Pull up.

In order to get from NAV mode into heading mode,

you pull the knob out and that engages heading mode.

He forgot to pull it out.

He realizes his error and pulls the knob here

at 40 seconds before impact.

Ah.

When Captain Chaudhry

tries to correct his error,

he only makes a bad situation worse.

Sir, turn left.

Why isn't it turning left?

Captain Chaudhry has dialed in

so many left turns,

that his last input is now to the plane's right.

The Airbus takes the shortest route to get to that heading,

directly towards the Margalla Hills.

He's in heading mode for the rest of the flight.

The investigation saw that the captain was so reliant

on the automation that he was trying to turn the aircraft

to the left,

asking why the aircraft wasn't turning to the left,

but he didn't even use his side stick

and actually turn the aircraft to the left manually.

Why aren't we turning left?

Terrain Ahead.

Investigators now know why Captain Chaudry

was unable to turn left and avoid the mountains.

But one question remains:

Why didn't the first officer recognize the mistakes

and do something to correct them?

Sir, we're going down!

Pull up.

100 knots.

Check.

Investigators find a possible explanation

for the first officer's puzzling behaviour...

V1...

...at the very start of Flight 202.

Rotate.

... as it took off for Islamabad.

The flight starts with the pilots

working efficiently as a crew.

Positive rate.

Gear up.

Gear up.

The take-off from Karachi is textbook.

From initial push back start up

and all the way to take off everything seemed normal.

We are clear to climb to flight level...

Explain to me why that is blue

but the other symbols are white.

The pilots' cordial relationship

soon changes.

Sir?

There, on your display. Why is that symbol blue

but the others are white?

You should know why that is.

I believe it's because the flight plan differs

from the current route.

No, that's wrong.

It's because it's the one being navigated towards. Basic.

Do you know how to modify this point?

From the main menu...

Oh you don't need to return to the main menu.

You can do it on the screen.

What did they teach you in that so-called training of yours?

Captain Chaudhry is heard quizzing

and berating his First Officer.

This wasn't normal behaviour.

It seems it was only really for the purpose

of putting his first officer in his place,

making sure he knew who was in charge

and to do as he was told.

What's he doing?

If you don't know how to use the Flight Management System...

... then what use are you in the cockpit?

You might as well go back and help the girls serve tea.

Yes. Sorry, sir.

What about maximum thrust available for climb?

Can you at least tell me what that is?

This has been going on for nearly an hour now. Torture.

Radio ahead to Islamabad for the weather.

Do you know how to use the radio?

Yes.

Captain Chaudhry is a very experienced pilot.

He should know that this is not how we behave

on the flight deck of an airliner.

Investigators wonder why Captain Chaudhry

would act so aggressively towards his First Officer.

He was recently treated for diabetes and hypertension

but deemed fit to fly.

Anything?

Pilots who flew with him said he was demanding,

sometimes difficult.

But nothing at this level.

Maybe it had more to do with him.

Could the First Officer's background

have affected his Captain's attitude towards him?

In Pakistan there has been a hidden rivalry

between air force pilots and the people

who are in the commercial side already.

They feel that ex-air force guys

they are taking away their opportunities.

Investigators believe

that the Captain's abusive behaviour

might explain one of the mysteries of this tragedy,

why First Officer Ahmed never took control of the plane.

All the first officer had to do

was to take manual control of the aircraft

and fly it away from the mountain.

Investigators scrutinize First Officer Ahmed's

actions leading up to the crash of Flight 202.

His first officer tells the captain to pull up three times

and to turn left twice.

But he never says he's taking control.

If I were the first officer,

I would take over the control,

pull back on the side stick

to create the max performance maneuver,

apply TOGA thrust and keep climbing

till I'm clear of the hills.

The team believes the Captain's behaviour

earlier in the flight explains why the First Officer

allowed him to mishandle the approach.

If you don't know how to use the Flight Management System

then what use are you in the cockpit?

We have the captain's behaviour,

which was so overbearing, so autocratic,

so nasty

that it served to completely shatter the self-confidence

of the first officer.

First Officer Ahmed

allows procedures to be set aside...

Switching to NAV Mode for managed approach to Runway 1-2.

Okay... Sir.

...and then fails to take control

when his captain flies the plane directly towards the mountains.

He was so worn down by the Captain's harsh behaviour

that he just couldn't stand up to him.

He became a bystander.

The first officer clearly knows

that what they're doing is wrong.

He knows that his captain is disoriented,

that the aircraft is on a collision course

with a mountain, and yet, somehow,

he doesn't have it in him to intervene.

Terrain ahead. Pull up.

Sir, we are going down. Sir, we are going down!

Three and a half minutes after the start

of the approach...

We are going down!

...the Airbus slams into the Hills...

...killing everyone on board.

This is one of the most extraordinary

accidents I've seen.

There were no technical factors in this accident.

There was nothing wrong with the aircraft,

there was nothing wrong with the engines.

It was all a matter of human misjudgment

and human error.

If he doesn't try the approach in NAV mode,

there's no accident.

All the warning signs were there,

telling him what to do.

It should have been easy to recover.

Very.

If he hadn't taken his First Officer out of the picture,

a different outcome.

Absolutely incredible.

It's hard to believe that somebody of his experience

would make so many errors and mishandling of the aircraft.

Uh, it... I just... it just defies logic.

The final report

into the crash of Airblue Flight 202

makes several recommendations to Pakistani airlines

including better briefings on the circling approach procedures

and better crew management training.

This accident shows that cockpit management

and the atmosphere in the cockpit

that's set by the captain

is just as important as an operating aircraft

and operating engines.

And in 2018 the airport in Islamabad

is replaced with a more modern airport with two runways

that are well away from the hills

that claimed the lives of the 152 people

on board Flight 202.

As I learned more, I really felt extremely bad.

I felt very sad about that loss.

It was a preventable accident.

Subtitling: difuze