Original subtitles

Go around, captain.

Go around!

NARRATOR: With the runway in sight,

a passenger jet smashes down at catastrophic speed.

Why did the crew go off the end of the runway?

Was there a problem with the airplane?

Hang on to the son of a bitch!

NARRATOR: A Delta flight crew battles a deadly storm during

their final approach in Dallas.

They didn't have any idea of the severity of what

they were about to face.

Speed.

Oh, God.

Go around.

NARRATOR: And tragedy strikes in San Francisco

when a Boeing 777 lands short.

Hang on.

How could a couple of highly trained, experienced pilots

simply fly an airplane into the ground short of the runway?

NARRATOR: Landing is a routine operation,

but also one of the most dangerous stages of flight.

Investigators have to determine what went wrong when the safety

of the runway was in sight.

If you're not prepared to land the plane, you shouldn't do it.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

PILOT: We lost both engines.

[radio chatter]

PILOT: Mayday, mayday.

WOMAN: Brace for impact!

MAN 1: I think I lost one.

MAN 2: Investigation's starting on the tragedy.

MAN 3: He's gonna crash!

[somber music]

NARRATOR: It's early morning on the Indonesian island of Java.

A Boeing 737 flies high overhead.

Visibility, 8 kilometers.

27,000 feet.

27,000.

NARRATOR: The crew of Garuda Flight 200

is preparing to land.

There are 133 passengers on board this morning.

They're nearing the end of a short flight

from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta 265 miles southeast

to the city of Yogyakarta.

The plane is 15 minutes from touchdown.

OK, when we're cleared, we approach runway 9, course 088.

NARRATOR: Captain Muhammad Marwoto Komar has

been with Garuda for 21 years.

Approach flaps 40, auto brake 2.

NARRATOR: As they near the airport.

He briefs first officer Gagam Rohmana

on the final steps needed to get their plane on the ground.

Understood.

Approach briefing complete.

Garuda 200, you'll clear to approach runway zero niner.

Let me know when you have the runway in sight.

Gear down.

Gear down.

NARRATOR: They are now less than 3,000 feet above the ground.

The runway is in sight.

Flaps 15.

NARRATOR: But as the plane descends,

passengers notice something isn't right.

The plane is going very fast and is very low to the ground.

Clear to land 2 miles out.

[suspenseful music]

Pull up.

Too low.

Terrain. - Too low.

Go around, captain.

Go around.

Pull up.

Terrain. Terrain.

Pull up.

NARRATOR: Passengers are thrown violently as the plane

bounces a second time.

Even after a third impact, the plane isn't stopping.

[screaming]

[sirens wailing]

The 737 has come to a stop in a swampy rice field

off the end of the runway.

But the disaster isn't over.

Inside the burning fuselage, passengers struggle to get out.

And outside, firefighters battle to reach the swampy crash site.

If the fuel tanks ignite, the plane could explode.

you need fire suppression right there right now.

Because you've got massive flames at 1,800 degrees,

you've got a lethal situation.

Give me a hand with this.

NARRATOR: With An.

Exit door finally open, passengers make their escape.

[coughing]

[chatter]

Of the 140 passengers and crew onboard, 21 people are dead.

Clearly, you knew that people were not going to survive this.

It's almost a miracle that so many did survive.

There's a variety of different scenarios

that go with any kind of landing accident.

So from the challenges of an investigator with regard

to trying to piece these elements back together,

why did the crew go off the end of the runway.

Were they flying the approach properly?

Was there a problem with the airplane?

NARRATOR: At the crash site, investigators from Indonesia's

National Transportation Safety Committee, or NTSC,

face the enormous task of determining what went wrong.

They're joined by members of the Australian transport Safety

Bureau, including investigator Alan Stray.

It's good to see you.

What have you got so far?

We have to establish, where did it touch down,

were there any runway marks, did it bounce, did it skid?

Looks like they hit pretty hard.

NARRATOR: Investigators quickly discover gouges and shattered

pieces of landing gear on the runway,

clear signs that the plane slammed

down with unusual force.

The nose wheel digging in and fracturing

was indicative of a very hard g-force on that impact.

No skid marks here.

NARRATOR: It's also clear that the plane

hit the runway more than once.

So 1, 2, 3.

Then off the end of the runway.

NARRATOR: What caused the pilots to perform

such a dangerous landing?

Investigators need to know what happened onboard the aircraft.

Thankfully, the plane's flight recorders are quickly recovered

from the scorched wreckage.

All right.

Let's get these to the lab.

Without that data, we're screwed.

NARRATOR: While they wait for the flight data,

investigators look into the mechanical systems of the 737.

Was there a mechanical failure?

Looking at the performance of the aircraft,

was it physically possible for the aircraft to stop?

The team focuses in on the systems used during landing,

including the wing flaps.

The flap system on a modern jetliner like a 737

create greater lift.

And that means that we can approach an airport

or we can take off from an airport with a much

lower and safer airspeed.

NARRATOR: They inspect the mechanical rods, or jackscrews,

that move the flaps.

We measured the screwjack extension to establish

what the flap setting was.

NARRATOR: What they find is astonishing.

It doesn't look like the flaps are all the way out.

NARRATOR: To provide enough lift on landing, the flaps of a 737

are usually extended step by step from 0 all the way

to 40 degrees as the plane slows and descends toward the runway.

However, the jackscrews show a flap setting of just 5 degrees,

not nearly enough for a safe landing.

We just could not believe that the aircraft would have

landed with only 5 degrees.

NARRATOR: Was there a malfunction

within the flap system that caused the terrifying landing?

Investigators hope the data from the flight recorder

will shed some light on how the plane

was operating before the crash.

We were able to get information about the flap

settings, the speed on the approach, the thrust reverser

deployment, the dynamics of the approach and landing itself.

Pull up the data for the flaps, would you, please?

There.

The flaps were set for 5 degrees.

Never more than 5 degrees.

NARRATOR: The data confirms the flaps were not configured

properly for landing.

To hear an airplane that has been in an accident

because of overrunning the runway had

a flap setting of only 5 in a 737 is very disturbing.

NARRATOR: As they continue to review the data,

investigators discover the 737 was coming

in for landing blazingly fast.

Flight 200 hit the ground at over 250 miles an hour,

more than 100 miles an hour faster than normal.

We're not stopping!

The speed of the aircraft on short final and on touchdown

was so excessive, there was no way it was going to stop.

NARRATOR: But why did the pilots touch down at such

a catastrophically high speed?

NARRATOR: After a painstaking data recovery process--

Finally.

NARRATOR: --investigators in Indonesia

are able to listen to the cockpit voice recorder

from Garuda Flight 200.

Fortunately, the recorder specialists at the laboratories

are a tenacious breed, and they do not give up easily.

NARRATOR: They hope the recording will help explain why

the pilots failed to configure the aircraft properly

for landing.

OK.

Let's hear it.

OK, when we're cleared, we approach

runway nine course 088.

What you're doing is listening for the atmosphere

and the tone, the ambience, if you like, in the cockpit.

Approach flaps 40, autobrake 2.

Approach briefing complete.

The captain certainly doesn't sound stressed.

NARRATOR: Then the first hint that something's wrong.

Looks like we're not going to hit the glide slope.

NARRATOR: The plane is higher than it should be

for this stage of the approach.

Better get down a little faster.

NARRATOR: To land smoothly, planes

need to lose enough speed and altitude

to descend gradually and meet the runway at a shallow angle.

But Flight 200 is too high for a steady landing.

He definitely has some work to do if he hopes to get on track.

Check speed flaps 15.

Flaps 5.

Captain is calling for flaps 15.

Why is he saying flaps 5?

Flaps 15.

NARRATOR: The captain repeatedly tells the first officer--

Check speed, flaps 15.

NARRATOR: --to increase the flaps.

Check speed flaps 15.

NARRATOR: But the first officer never

moves them past 5 degrees.

OK, first things first.

Why did the first officer ignore the captain

and leave the plane at flaps 5?

It's very perplexing.

If you've got professional pilots, we can make mistakes.

But usually that's why we've got two people up there,

so one catches the other.

NARRATOR: When investigators revisit the speed

of the landing, they understand why

the first officer was reluctant to increase the flap setting.

Way too fast for flaps 15.

NARRATOR: The plane is traveling 35 knots, or a little over 40

miles per hour faster than is designed

for flaps at 15 degrees.

Wind drag could tear the flaps right off the wings

if the flaps are extended past 5 degrees.

The first officer was exactly right in not putting them down.

But why didn't the first officer say something,

tell the captain to slow down?

It's very clear that the co-pilot should have said,

captain, I got the airplane.

But what it tells me here is that this co-pilot

did not feel that he could speak up one way or another.

NARRATOR: The captain's behavior continues

to stun investigators.

Landing checklist completed, right?

Landing checklist?

There were 15 ground proximity alerts

and warnings during that final stage of the approach.

When a crew member hears that, there should be instant action.

NARRATOR: But instead of reacting,

the captain becomes fixated on the landing checklist.

Stray and his team begin to question the quality

of the crew's training.

Fixation is when we are focused on completing a task

to the exclusion of other things that may be going on around us.

NARRATOR: Investigators theorize that the captain

is completely fixated on descending

to the proper altitude.

Landing checklist completed, right?

In the case of a pilot fixating on a runway,

he or she can blank out the rest of the advice,

the ground proximity warning system, everything.

NARRATOR: Pilot training is designed to combat fixation,

ensuring that pilots in a crisis situation can break the spell

and take in the information they need.

Better training might have helped

the first officer overcome his reluctance to correct

the captain's mistake.

Well, go around, captain.

Go around.

Go around!

Landing checklist completed, right?

Without question, if the captain wasn't going to respond

by going around, which is what he should have done instantly

on hearing whoop, whoop, pull up,

the co-pilot should have said, I've got

it and done the same thing.

NARRATOR: In 2008, Captain Marwoto Komar faced charges

and was found guilty of negligence,

but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

In their final report, investigators

call for improved pilot training with added focus on approach

and landing procedures.

In the aftermath of the Garuda 200 disaster,

the airline overhauls its training and safety protocols,

and today, it is a safer airline than it's ever been.

The takeaway is that the organization has

a responsibility to provide the pilots with the best available

training, flying the best available equipment,

and then having a process to ensure

that even when no one's looking they're doing the right thing.

NARRATOR: But sometimes even the best trained pilots

can be taken by surprise on landing

when faced with an unpredictable force of nature.

It's a scorching hot day at Dallas-Fort Worth International

Airport, with the temperature reaching

101 degrees Fahrenheit.

The intense heat triggers thunderstorms

that surround the airport.

Delta Airlines Flight 191 heads in for landing at DFW.

Weather, 6,000 scattered, 21,000 scattered.

Visibility, 10.

Temperature, 101.

Wind, calm.

101?

101 degrees.

Yes, sir.

NARRATOR: Captain Ed Connors and first officer Rudy Price

are two of Delta Airlines' most experienced pilots.

Second Officer Nick Nassick is one of Delta's most highly

regarded flight engineers.

They're flying a six-year-old L1011 TriStar.

There are 152 passengers and 11 crew members onboard.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are starting our approach to DFW.

The crew begins their final descent into the Dallas-Fort

Worth area.

CONTROLLER: Attention all aircraft listening.

There's a little rain shower just north of the airport.

NARRATOR: While continuing with their approach procedures,

First Officer Price notices the upcoming storm.

We're going to get our airplane washed.

NARRATOR: Less than six miles from the runway,

the controller tells the crew to expect a stiff but manageable

crosswind of up to 15 knots.

CONTROLLER: Winds 090 at 5.

Gusts to 15.

Tower, Delta 191 heavy out here in the rain.

Feels good.

NARRATOR: First Officer Price is at the controls.

He realizes the storm is more than just a little rain.

There's lightning coming out of that one.

Where?

Right ahead of us.

NARRATOR: 1,000 feet.

I'll call them out to you.

All right.

NARRATOR: One minute away from landing,

Price carefully guides the aircraft toward the runway.

Without warning, the intensity of the storm increases.

Driving rain pounds the L-1011.

All of a sudden, their airspeed picks up.

Watch your speed.

NARRATOR: Price needs to slow the plane down so they

don't overshoot the runway.

They're only 600 feet off the ground.

There it is.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, the plane drops sharply.

It's as though an invisible force

is pushing it to the ground.

Push it up.

Push it way up.

Way up. - Way up?

Way up!

[suspenseful music]

NARRATOR: The pilots' efforts are futile.

One mile short of the runway, the plane plows into a field,

traveling at more than 200 miles an hour.

At that moment, the controller catches sight of Delta 191.

He's going to crash!

You have to go around!

[alarm beeping]

They cartwheeled into the tank in just an instant.

And then of course, there was a wall of fire.

In the tower, it's just quiet.

And you just sit there stunned, wishing you could

do anything to take it back.

NARRATOR: When firefighters and rescue workers arrive,

they discover 27 people have survived.

But Captain Connors, First Officer Price, and Second

Officer Nassick are killed along with five other crew

members and a devastating 128 passengers.

I was on a Delta flight behind that flight.

You could see this horrific fire and burning wreckage

just out the plane window.

And we came in to the gate where that plane

was supposed to have come.

And at that time, families could go to the gates.

It was a sight I will never forget.

NARRATOR: Investigators from the National Transportation Safety

Board, or NTSB, arrive at Dallas-Fort Worth,

determined to find the cause.

One of our field investigators would have been on scene trying

to locate the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice

recorder, which is a very important

part of the investigation.

NARRATOR: Thankfully, both flight

recorders are recovered quickly and immediately sent

for analysis.

Investigators hope the data will reveal what caused

Flight 191 to crash into a water tank off the end of the runway.

This flight data recorder gave us several parameters

we didn't have before--

engine power, longitudinal acceleration.

And those parameters really enabled us

to do a more in-depth analysis.

NARRATOR: The device also records external elements

like temperature, wind speed, altitude, and air pressure.

When they review the data, investigators

discover an alarming weather pattern logged on the recorder.

Then it shifts to a downdraft.

NARRATOR: In a matter of seconds,

the plane is hit with three strong winds from the front,

above, and then behind.

There you have it.

NARRATOR: Bud Laner immediately recognizes the weather pattern.

The plane flew through a microburst.

A microburst is a violent shaft of air

falling from a storm cloud.

On the day of the crash, it had been extremely hot,

and hot air rises.

When that hot air meets the cold, moist air in the storm

clouds, it cools instantly and rushes violently back to earth.

If you're at the kitchen sink, and you turn on the water,

and it goes straight down and splashes out in all directions.

And that's kind of what a microburst is, except that it

is extremely bad news if you're an airplane flying

through it at low altitude.

NARRATOR: The plane first faces a strong headwind,

which lifts the plane skyward.

Then it's hit by a downdraft, slamming it toward the ground.

Finally, the microburst delivers its most dangerous punch--

the tailwind.

And you would get a rapid descent, a loss of lift

and a rapid descent towards the ground,

and easily crash the airplane.

NARRATOR: It's clear that the 136 people on Flight 191

are the latest victims of the intense weather phenomenon.

Unbelievable.

NARRATOR: But one mystery still remains.

Altimeters?

NARRATOR: How did such an experienced crew

fall victim to a storm--

We're in good shape.

NARRATOR: --they were all trained to overcome?

of Flight 191's pilots to the force of the microburst--

1,000 feet.

NARRATOR: --they uncover details of a fight to the death.

I'll call them out to you.

All right.

NARRATOR: A fight that the Delta pilots almost won.

What's your speed?

NARRATOR: The increase in airspeed from the headwind

prompts First Officer Price to reduce power

to his engines, power he'll desperately

need in just a few seconds.

You're going to lose it all of a sudden.

There it is.

The captain knew the characteristics

of a microburst.

He'd obviously been given an introduction

to wind shear and microburst characteristics

in his flight training.

NARRATOR: But when Connors and Price are hit with a tailwind,

there is very little they can do.

Only 500 feet off the ground, they

have insufficient speed and altitude

with which to maneuver.

Push it up, way up.

NARRATOR: Then suddenly the microburst

delivers another blow, a fierce crosswind

that forces their plane to bank dangerously to the right.

Hang onto the son of a bitch!

NARRATOR: Combined with the other winds,

the crew is defenseless.

Toga, toga!

Toga is "take off, go around" mode,

plus abandon the approach.

We're no longer going to try to land this airplane.

NARRATOR: The skill and experience of the pilots

are no match for this fierce microburst.

It's too big, its winds too powerful and unpredictable.

Making matters worse, investigators

discover the storm at the foot of the runway

arrives virtually unannounced.

Once trained weather observers see it on the radar,

it's too late to warn the crew of Delta 191.

It's small.

It's the length of a runway, roughly.

And it doesn't last very long.

So it's something that can happen so quickly

that many accidents have occurred because nobody

knew it was there.

NARRATOR: Investigators conclude that the Delta crash was caused

by the pilots' decision to continue their approach

into a storm, a decision that was made because the crew

wasn't warned about the hazard.

After the crash of Delta 191, the Federal Aviation

Administration installs terminal Doppler

weather radar at high risk airports,

including Dallas-Fort Worth.

Doppler radar detects the direction and speed

of precipitation and wind flow.

Doppler radar, which is on the ground,

is incredibly effective in detecting microbursts.

And in fact, it can detect about 98% of a microburst.

Even though we've learned a lot of information

from accidents involving thunderstorms,

things can still go wrong on a clear and sunny day only feet

from the runway.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.

We hope you had a pleasant flight.

We'll be on the ground in about 30 minutes.

NARRATOR: Asiana Flight 214 is nearing

the end of an overnight flight from Seoul, Korea

to San Francisco.

The Boeing 777 is carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew members.

Is that the Golden Gate?

Captain Lee Kang-Kook takes in the sights as he guides

the plane toward the airport.

Golden Gate's over there.

That bridge goes to Oakland.

Ah.

OK.

Lee Jeong-Min, also a captain, is

serving as first officer today.

Runway in sight.

OK.

Gear down, sir.

Gear down.

NARRATOR: In the cabin, the flight attendants

prepare passengers for landing.

Asiana 214, heavy, runway 28 left, cleared to land.

Landing checklist complete.

Clear to land.

On glide path.

Check.

NARRATOR: The plane is less than a minute from the runway

when a passenger notices something alarming.

There's a small pier that extends out of the runway.

And I'm like, wow.

We're very low.

NARRATOR: In the cockpit--

Speed!

NARRATOR: --a crisis hits.

I've got control.

Oh, God.

Go around!

NARRATOR: The captain pulls up the nose and tries to climb.

[screaming]

AUTOMATED VOICE: Terrain. Terrain.

Damn it!

AUTOMATED VOICE: Pull up.

Just wondering how it's going to end, how it's going to stop,

and when it's going to stop.

Hang on, hang on!

NARRATOR: In the cockpit, the pilots have survived.

But they have no idea of the extent of the damage.

The brutal impact has torn the tail off the body of the plane.

Control, come in.

It's Asiana 214.

Initiating evacuation checklist.

We need help out here.

Asiana 214 Heavy, emergency vehicles are responding.

[sirens wailing]

WOMAN: Oh my god.

That's scary.

NARRATOR: Eyewitness video captures

the dramatic scene as hundreds of people

flee the cabin from only a few exits.

Come on.

Get out.

NARRATOR: Asiana Flight 214 has crashed on one of the airport's

busiest runways.

Nearly 50 people are seriously injured.

Six were thrown out of the back of the plane

when the tail broke off.

Two of them are dead.

The challenges in the Asiana 214 investigation were myriad.

You would think, oh, OK.

Most everyone survived.

This shouldn't be a problematic investigation.

But it was.

Transportation Safety Board quickly pull together a team.

Senior investigator Bill English leads

the high profile investigation.

Everyone's on standby as of right now.

So the 777 had been in service for about 20 years

at the time of this accident.

And this was the first fatal accident of A777

777 in that entire time.

NARRATOR: The investigators arrive at the horrific crash

site the following morning.

Before searching the scorched wreckage,

they equip themselves with protective gear

to shield them from the toxic fumes.

OK, here we go.

NARRATOR: For NTSB investigator Roger Cox,

the hunt for evidence is worth the risk.

It was a tricky accident site.

We had to be properly garbed up to make sure that we

weren't affected too much by the dangerous wreckage that

was there

NARRATOR: Cox gathers the pilots' charts

and personal effects, hoping to find clues

about what the pilots were doing in the final stages

of the flight.

That's everything I could find.

NARRATOR: Many of the documents are in Korean.

They'll need to be translated before they

can be fully analyzed.

Meanwhile, at NTSB headquarters, photos of the crash zone

provide investigators with a crucial lead.

Where it impacted on the rocks of the seawall pretty

much tells us it was too low.

It landed well short of where it should have.

NARRATOR: The team hopes the data recovered from the 777's

flight recorders will help explain why the plane

crashed into the seawall.

We were able to see all the basic things,

like airspeed, altitude, the configuration of the airplane.

We were also able to see all the inputs that the crew made.

NARRATOR: English carefully plots the data.

Most of it looks completely normal.

But then he spots something unexpected.

This is where they bring it back to idle.

NARRATOR: One minute before the crash, engine

power suddenly drops to idle.

Right here.

NARRATOR: The sudden change in power settings makes no sense.

Normally, the last moments of flight

are when pilots need more power to overcome drag

from the landing gear and wind flaps.

And data from earlier in the flight

shows the engines were functioning properly.

We could see that the engines were making proper power all

the way through the approach.

NARRATOR: The question now--

what was the crew doing to control

engine power in the critical final moments of flight?

Speed.

How did the pilots operate the airplane?

Why did they do what they did that got the airplane too low?

NARRATOR: Investigators turn their focus squarely

on the actions of the pilots.

Gear down, sir.

NARRATOR: Understanding every nuance of the cockpit

voice recording is crucial.

They listen as the pilots prepare for a visual approach

in landing.

Missed approach, 3,000 feet.

Landing checklist complete.

Clear to land.

On glide path.

NARRATOR: They combine what they hear with the data

from the flight recorder that shows how the pilots

were manipulating the controls.

This seems a little high.

NARRATOR: As the crew nears the runway,

the recording hints at the first sign of trouble.

The rate of descent is too slow.

They risk overshooting the runway.

I will descend more.

NARRATOR: What the recording reveals next is stunning.

To speed up the rate of descent, the captain

switches the autopilot to flight level change mode.

But he makes a dangerous mistake.

He made an entry to the autopilot

that at first actually made the airplane climb.

Obviously, he didn't want to do that.

NARRATOR: Instead of descending, the new mode

instructs the plane to climb to its preset go

around altitude of 3,000 feet.

The autopilot mode switches here; starts all the confusion.

The pilot flying is supposed to actually select things

with the autoflight system and call out what he's doing,

and the pilot monitoring is supposed

to verify that the change has actually occurred.

No call-outs.

How is anyone supposed to know what he's doing?

NARRATOR: To bring his plane back down,

the captain immediately pulls the throttles back to idle,

stripping the plane of crucial airspeed they need for landing.

It's low.

NARRATOR: Investigators now understand

how the engines got to idle.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: But why would an experienced captain

make the mistake of leaving them there?

Pull up.

Oh, God.

Go round.

NARRATOR: And why did the crew not

notice they were dangerously low until it was too late?

Pull up.

NARRATOR: NTSB investigators are anxious to interview the pilot

who was flying Asiana Flight 214 when it crashed

onto a San Francisco runway.

I'll try to help if I can.

NARRATOR: The captain explains he was worried

about landing in San Francisco.

I was a bit nervous.

NARRATOR: On the day of the crash,

the electronic runway equipment designed to help guide

pilots in for landing was down.

I thought that was very unusual coming

from an experienced pilot.

Because no one really needs an electronic

glide slope on a clear day to be able to land an airplane.

It's a fundamental skill.

Other pilots are making that landing.

I thought I should be able to make it too.

Why did he not ask the other guy for help?

I think he just didn't want to admit the weakness.

Slow.

NARRATOR: The captain tells investigators

he doesn't understand why the plane didn't

have enough power on landing.

I know I made some mistakes, but I

was certain that the autothrottle

would control the speed.

NARRATOR: Like other modern jets,

the 777 can automatically increase

or decrease engine power through a system

known as the autothrottle.

He was confident the autothrottle was actually going

to take care of speed for him, that the autothrottles would

wake up, advance the thrust, and keep them safe.

NARRATOR: But investigators discover the autothrottle never

corrected the speed.

Oh, go around.

Pull up.

NARRATOR: Did the critical automated system

fail in flight?

When they conduct an exhaustive search of the plane's

computerized functions, the team makes a surprising discovery.

We could see some strange things

happening with automation inputs while that airplane

was on short final.

NARRATOR: When they replicate the sequence of inputs made

by the captain, including changing the autopilot mode

and then reducing the thrust--

Bingo.

That does it.

NARRATOR: --the unusual combination of commands

switches off the 777's autothrottle system,

leaving the engines at idle.

By doing that, that sent the signal

to the autothrottle system that he wanted control of the power.

So at that point in effect, the airplane

was basically just gliding.

NARRATOR: Investigators finally understand

why the autothrottle did not re-engage and boost

engine thrust on landing.

Oh, God.

Go around!

NARRATOR: But it doesn't explain why the captain was so

uncertain about the autopilot function

and why the crew was so slow to react.

22,000 hours between them.

You'd think they'd notice the speed.

NARRATOR: The translated documents

retrieved from the cockpit provide some crucial answers.

They reveal that Captain Lee Kang-Kook was

training on the Boeing 777--

Is that the Golden Gate?

NARRATOR: --after flying the Airbus

A320, an aircraft with a very different style of automation.

Check.

He was a little bit stressed because it was a training

flight, and he was being monitored

by this more senior pilot.

NARRATOR: But why did the experienced first officer

wait until it was too late before taking

control of the plane?

I've got control.

NARRATOR: If he had intervened sooner--

Positive rate.

NARRATOR: --he would almost certainly

have prevented the accident.

When they continue looking through company records,

investigators discover the first officer

had never before supervised a training flight like this one.

Slow.

NARRATOR: His inexperience most likely

led him to wait too long--

Speed.

NARRATOR: --before taking over the controls.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Terrain.

Pull up.

NARRATOR: In their final report on the crash of Asiana 214,

investigators list pilot error as the probable cause.

But they also cite the complexities

of the automation system as a contributing factor.

I am not confident that the majority of pilots, 777 pilots

at the time, would have been able to predict the modes

that the airplane would end up in.

NARRATOR: The report calls for better pilot training,

more intuitive designs of aircraft automation,

and better cockpit alarms to warn pilots

if their speed gets too low.

Modern jets are very, very, very efficient, which means

that they're hard to slow down.

So getting the airplane on the proper speed

is one of the biggest challenges that jet pilots face.

NARRATOR: If pilots aren't prepared

when the runway is in sight, a routine landing

can quickly become a tragedy.

A stabilized approach says I know we can make it.

If you're a pilot and you ever say,

I think we can make it, you better be doing a go around.

Because those are the last words I've heard on so

many cockpit voice recordings.