Original subtitles

Narrator: A DC-9 crew lost in the fog at Detroit Airport...

Captain: What runway is this?

Narrator:...ends up on the wrong end of an active runway.

First Officer: Oh, God! Oh, God!

Captain: Oh, damn!

[Screaming]

Narrator: The horrifying collision kills eight people.

Man: A tragic event occurred,

but that's just really the tip of the iceberg here.

Narrator: When investigators dig into the crew's background...

First Officer: The tower controller said,

"You're on fire. Eject."

Bam! I...

Captain: Wow.

Man: He was a little brash, a little cocky.

Narrator:...they are shocked by what they uncover.

Man: He's clearly embellishing.

Narrator: Does the sequence of events leading up to the crash

start with the relationship between the pilots?

Controller: You say you're on 21 center?

Captain: We're not sure.

First Officer: Yes, we are.

Controller: Exit that runway immediately, sir.

Flight Attendant: Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

Pilot: We lost both engines!

Flight Attendant: Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Pilot: Mayday, mayday!

Flight Attendant: Brace for impact!

Controller: I think I lost one.

Man:...investigation starting into this tragedy...

Man: He's gonna crash!

♪

Narrator: Detroit metropolitan airport.

Bill Hagedorn: Parking brake.

Bob Ouellette: Set.

Narrator: The crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 299

prepares to depart for Memphis.

Hagedorn: Throttle.

Ouellette: Idle.

Narrator: Captain Bob Ouellette, First Officer Bill Hagedorn,

and their flight engineer

have been delayed for more than an hour

by a last-minute change of aircraft.

Hagedorn: Fasten seatbelts is on.

Checklist complete.

Narrator: They're finally getting under way.

James Krieger: Northwest 299 was a nonstop flight to Memphis,

about a two-hour flight,

one of your bread-and-butter routes

for Northwest Airlines at that time.

Narrator: Detroit's airport is one of the biggest in the U.S.,

servicing millions of passengers every year.

It's also the hub of the nation's fourth largest airline,

Northwest.

Krieger: I would describe Wayne County

as a pretty busy airport.

♪

Controller: Man, I don't think I've ever seen fog this bad.

Narrator: In the tower, controllers are dealing with fog

that's blanketed the entire airport.

It's so thick, they can't see the planes they're guiding.

Barry Strauch: The only way they could know

where the aircraft were on the airport

was to have the pilots give them positions

as to where they were.

Hagedorn: Northwest 299 ready to taxi.

Controller: Northwest 299, Metro ground.

Taxi to runway three-center via Oscar 6, Fox, and X-ray.

Hagedorn: Oscar 6, Fox, X-ray,

going to three-center, Northwest 299.

Narrator: The ground controller clears flight 299 to taxi

to the active runway three-center.

It will follow a series of taxiways

known as Oscar, Foxtrot, and X-ray

that will take it to the runway's threshold.

Krieger: The whole purpose of taxiways

is to provide movement for aircraft, kind of like highways,

to and from the runways themselves,

Basically roadways for aircraft to move around on an airport.

Controller: Northwest 299, what's your position now?

Hagedorn: Okay, we just turned down onto X-ray. 299.

Controller: Roger. Switch to tower control, 118.4.

Hagedorn: Roger.

Narrator: As flight 299 nears the runway threshold,

control of the plane passes from the ground controller

to the tower controller.

The 727 is now at the runway threshold preparing for takeoff.

Hagedorn: All set to go back there?

Flight Attendant: Yes, sir. Ready to go.

Hagedorn: Okay.

Ouellette: Tell him we're ready to go.

Hagedorn: Tower, Northwest 299 is ready on the center.

Krieger: As an aircraft is ready for departure,

they will call the tower.

They'll say, "We're at the end of the runway. We're ready."

Tower Controller: Northwest 299, Metro tower.

Runway three-center clear for takeoff.

Hagedorn: Roger.

Narrator: Flight 299 is cleared for takeoff.

[Engine Revving]

The 727 is seconds away from leaving the ground.

Hagedorn: 80 knots.

Krieger: When a flight crew is in departure mode,

advancing the throttles, speed is increasing.

Narrator: But danger lies ahead.

A DC-9 is stopped halfway down the runway.

It's carrying 40 passengers.

♪

In the cockpit, Captain Bill Lovelace

and First Officer Jim Schifferns are lost in the fog.

Bill Lovelace: This is a runway.

Jim Schifferns: Yeah.

♪

Lovelace: Oh, no.

Hagedorn: Oh, damn!

Narrator: There's very little time to avoid a collision.

Krieger: The pilot turned to the left.

Maybe he was actually trying to lift that right wing

Up over the DC-9.

Schifferns: Oh, God! Oh, God!

[Screaming]

Narrator: Inside the DC-9, it's chaos.

[Screaming]

John Izzo, one of the flight's 40 passengers,

has no idea what's happened.

[Screaming]

[Explosion]

John Izzo: There was an explosion.

And all I thought was the engine blew up.

Narrator: He's in shock and unsure what to do.

Izzo: I sat there for a second. I was kind of dazed.

And then all of a sudden, I hear click, click, click.

I said, "Oh, yeah. I guess I better get out of here."

Narrator: He's stunned by what he sees.

Izzo: I saw a light,

a thin light between the fuselage

like it was sliced.

I looked back, and I saw fire coming in the back of the plane

Like a blowtorch...

Coming up.

I said, "Ah, I can't stay here."

Hagedorn: Northwest 299 aborting.

There's an aircraft on the runway,

and we struck his, uh, right wing.

Narrator: Incredibly, damage to the other plane

is limited to the wing,

and the none of the passengers or crew are injured.

Benzon: The 727 was virtually intact

except for a pretty good chunk of one wing.

Narrator: It's a different story on board the DC-9.

John Izzo realizes to his horror that the passenger opposite him

did not survive the accident.

[Screaming]

Everyone sitting in window seats on that side of the plane

is severely injured or dead.

[Coughing]

Izzo: I went to the emergency wing exit,

and I was just starting to dismantle it,

And a person jumps in front of me,

and he's flailing around there and says, "Hey, easy, easy,"

so I took it out, and I threw the door on the wing.

I said, "Go ahead, buddy."

And he went out, starts walking down the wing.

[Screaming]

Narrator: In the tower,

controllers are trying to get help

to the two damaged airplanes.

Controller: Northwest 299, copy.

Emergency vehicles are on the runway.

Hagedorn: Northwest 299, roger.

Krieger: When you hear about something like this,

your heart goes out for the folks that are involved,

not only the passengers on the aircraft and their families,

but also the air traffic facility that was involved.

It's devastating for them.

[Siren]

Narrator: John Izzo has escaped the burning plane

through the emergency wing exit.

Izzo: All right, come on, let's go.

Narrator: Now he's helping others get away.

Izzo: I'm on the ground,

and I saw a gentleman that must have either jumped or pushed,

and you could tell he broke his leg,

so I went over, and I got him, moved him away from the plane.

Narrator: As the inferno rages on,

firefighters and emergency response teams

race to the scene.

[Sirens]

But the heavy fog makes their job much harder.

♪

Benzon: The aircraft was virtually burned out.

The passenger compartment was gutted.

We knew we were gonna lose a lot of evidence because of the fire.

Narrator: The accident site is a scene of complete devastation.

Tom Brokaw: Good evening.

It was a nasty day at the Detroit airport...

rain and fog and confusion,

confusion that ended with a collision and death.

Two Northwest airliners trying to take off clipped each other.

Narrator: John Izzo survives,

but eight other passengers are killed,

making it the deadliest incident of its kind

on U.S. soil in almost two decades.

♪

A collision on a runway is known as a runway incursion

since one of the planes is clearly not where it should be.

Krieger: Runway incursions are a particularly difficult problem,

and the reason is is that aircraft on runways

are traveling at such high rates of speed.

If the aircraft come into contact there,

there's going to be many fatalities.

♪

Narrator: The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board,

or NTSB, opens an investigation into the accident.

Benzon: The 727's wing sliced right through the fuselage.

Narrator: Bob Benzon will lead the investigation.

Benzon: We obviously knew what happened in a gross sense...

Two aircraft came together, and, uh, and a tragic event occurred.

Narrator: For Benzon,

the incident is an eerie reminder

of an investigation from 13 years earlier.

[Camera Clicks]

It was the worst accident in aviation history.

[Siren]

March 1977.

Two Boeing 747 jumbo jets

collided on the resort island of Tenerife.

The crash occurred when a KLM jet initiated its takeoff run

while a Pan Am jet, caught in thick fog,

was taxiing on the same runway.

♪

583 people were killed.

Strauch: The accident at Tenerife

affected everybody in aviation.

It's always in the back of your mind that this could happen,

that an airplane could inadvertently take off

on a runway that's not clear.

[Camera Clicks]

Narrator: Since fog was a significant factor

in the Tenerife disaster,

investigators need to find out what role the weather played

in the Detroit accident.

Operations investigator Richard Rodriguez

joins the investigation.

Richard Rodriguez: From the weather service reports,

the visibility was a big problem at Detroit

on this morning.

Visibility was three-quarters of a mile

an hour before the accident,

but then it drops to a quarter mile.

Benzon: A quarter-mile is the minimum.

We did understand that it was very, very foggy out there,

so our job was to try to figure out the overall condition

of the weather at the airport, and then most specifically

at the departure end of the takeoff runway.

Narrator: He learns that in the minutes before the collision,

visibility dropped to the minimum level

allowed at the airport.

Benzon: Everybody agreed that the visibility

was at least one-quarter mile.

That would allow operations to continue.

Before the accident, every other aircraft that took off

had no problem at all finding the end of the proper runway

and departing,

but our men in the DC-9 didn't do this.

Narrator: Investigators need to find out exactly how the DC-9

ended up in the path of an oncoming 727.

Did air traffic control lead them astray?

Rodriguez: We were hoping to find out from the controllers

what they, they are thinking

as they issue instructions to the crew.

Controller: I cleared them to use

Oscar 6, Foxtrot, and X-ray to runway three-center.

Narrator: The ground controller gave Captain Lovelace

and First Officer Schifferns

specific instructions on how to get to the runway.

Controller: Northwest 1482, taxi to Oscar 6 to Foxtrot.

Report making a right turn on X-ray.

Schifferns: Oscar 6 to Foxtrot, report X-ray.

Narrator: They learn that the DC-9 and the 727

were both supposed to follow the same route.

Controller: It seemed to be going smoothly, at first.

Northwest 1482, what's your position now?

Narrator: But when asked for an update from the DC-9's crew...

Schifferns: We're headed eastbound on Oscar 6 here.

Controller: Uh, eastbound on Oscar 6?

Narrator:...their position report didn't make any sense.

Krieger: They announced that they were eastbound on Oscar 6,

which was an impossibility.

It's a northwest/southeast oriented taxiway.

Rodriguez: You can tell by the comments

that were made by the crew

that they had no idea where they were.

Schifferns: Okay, I think we might have missed Oscar 6.

I see a sign here that says, uh, the arrow is to Oscar 5.

Benzon: The folks in the tower realized

that the pilots in the DC-9 were probably becoming

a little confused about where they were.

Narrator: Instead of going straight down Oscar 6,

the aircraft turned left and approached taxiway Oscar 5.

Krieger: The controller pinned down their location

to be on the outer taxiway at Oscar 5.

Controller: I realized they had made a wrong turn,

so I gave them directions to get them back on track.

Northwest 1482, at Oscar 4,

make the right turn onto X-ray.

Report crossing 9/27.

Narrator: The DC-9 was then directed

to continue straight to Oscar 4,

turn right onto X-ray, cross inactive runway 9/27,

and then follow X-ray back to the runway for takeoff.

Schifferns: Roger. At Oscar 4, make the right turn onto X-ray.

Benzon: The DC-9 radioed back, "Okay, I understand,"

or something to that effect,

and everybody calmed down

and thought that they had straightened everything out.

Narrator: But somehow, five minutes later,

flight 1482 ended up right in the middle of the active runway.

Strauch: For an airplane to be on an active runway

when they shouldn't, somebody did something wrong.

Narrator: Investigators need to know what happened

in those five minutes.

They interview the crew,

starting with captain Bill Lovelace.

Benzon: The captain was kind of a mild-mannered fellow.

He loved to fly.

Rodriguez: We hoped we would find out,

why did you miss all this and wind up on an active runway?

Lovelace: I wasn't familiar with the layout

of the taxiways and runways.

Narrator: They learn he was new to the airport in Detroit.

Lovelace: So, I asked my first officer,

where have you been flying out of?

Where have you been flying out of?

Schifferns: Uh, Memphis and Detroit.

Lovelace: Good. You can help me find my way around

these taxiways here in Detroit.

Schifferns: I sure can.

Lovelace: I thought, great,

someone in the co-pilot's seat who knows where he's going.

But, uh, we still got lost somehow.

Strauch: The first officer had bragged about his knowledge

of the airport.

That would have enhanced the likelihood

that the captain would have trusted the first officer

to help navigate in Detroit.

Narrator: So, why wasn't the first officer able

to guide the DC-9 across Detroit airport?

The investigators hope Jim Schifferns,

the first officer on the DC-9, can give them the answer.

Benzon: He was a little brash, perhaps a little cocky.

Uh, I wouldn't say a know-it-all,

but he'd, he'd been around the horn.

Schifferns: Captain Lovelace misunderstood.

What I meant was,

I knew the procedures for pushing back from the gate,

not the physical layout of the airport.

Narrator: They learn the first officer

Was also inexperienced with the taxiways at Detroit.

Strauch: It's hard to look at what the first officer did,

feigning confidence about his knowledge

that was clearly unsupported when he himself wasn't sure.

Narrator: Investigators conclude the first officer

misled the captain, intentionally or not,

about his knowledge of the airport.

Strauch: The captain can be faulted

for excessively trusting the first officer.

The first officer clearly contributed

by claiming expertise that he did not have.

Benzon: How'd we end up with two guys in the cockpit

who don't know their way around?

Narrator: Investigators now wonder why neither pilot knew

the layout of Detroit's airport,

a major hub for Northwest Airlines,

the company where they both worked.

Benzon: Our DC-9 crew was really not familiar

with the Detroit airport, and then you bring in

all the other things like low visibility,

It all comes together to create a dangerous situation.

Narrator: Investigators try to understand

why neither of the pilots of flight 1482

knew the layout of Detroit airport.

Were there gaps in their training or experience

that could account for it?

They study the personnel files of the DC-9's crew.

Benzon: Medical leave.

The captain has been on medical leave for six years.

Rodriguez: Six?

Benzon: Yeah.

He just started back to work.

Narrator: In fact, flight 1482

was his first unsupervised flight

since resuming his duties.

Benzon: He was very grateful to get back to work.

He knew he had catching up to do

because procedures had changed, modernized.

Narrator: Investigators then look

into first officer Schifferns' background.

They discover he was an ex-military pilot

who had joined Northwest earlier that year.

Rodriguez: The first officer had an Air Force background,

B-52s and T-38 Talons and quite an extensive experience.

Benzon: He also was an experienced pilot,

except not in the DC-9.

He only had a few hundred hours at most

in the right seat of a DC-9.

Rodriguez: Both pilots had tons of experience,

but they were both new recruits to Northwest.

Benzon: That doesn't explain how they got lost

on a routine taxi.

Narrator: The pilots' experience alone

doesn't provide enough clues

to determine what went wrong during a routine taxi.

Investigators need to look elsewhere.

Benzon: It was paramount for us to try to figure out

exactly where the DC-9 was almost to the second

during the whole sequence of events here.

We had some help from the tower,

Not a lot because they couldn't see what was going on.

Narrator: By listening to the cockpit voice recording,

investigators hope they will be able to figure out

where the DC-9 went astray.

Benzon: All ready?

Rodriguez: Yeah.

Benzon: Let's begin.

Lovelace: I haven't even got a uniform yet.

Narrator: Even before 1482 pushes back from the gate,

investigators hear a conversation

that gets their attention.

Schifferns: Not even a jacket?

Narrator: Captain Lovelace had returned to flying so recently,

he had not yet received the Northwest uniform.

Lovelace: Nah. I've only got my old company's jacket.

Benzon: The cockpit voice recorder

recorded the last half hour of voices in the cockpit,

so we got to know a little bit more about the crew members, uh,

in a more casual setting before they really started taxiing.

Schifferns: One thing I miss?

I've always flown with an ejection seat.

I've used it twice.

Narrator: As the pilots waited,

the first officer began to boast about his military service.

Lovelace: Yeah, I bet that was scary when you punched out.

Schifferns: Nah. I got shot down once over Southeast Asia,

and I didn't have time to get scared.

Lovelace: Oh, is that right?

Schifferns: And then, uh, when I was flying T-38s one time,

I had an engine fire.

The tower controller said, "You are on fire. Eject."

Bam! I...

Lovelace: Wow!

Wow.

Benzon: At that time in the NTSB,

a lot of us had, uh, military backgrounds.

He and I were in the same place at nearly the same time,

so my ears perked up.

Lovelace: How long were you in the service?

Schifferns: 20 years.

I retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Benzon: Okay, you can stop it there.

Is he some kind of war hero?

Rodriguez: Sounds like it.

Benzon: Let's look at his military record,

check out his story.

To bail out or eject out of two different airplanes,

you know, that's very rare, so it started to make me

look a little askance at what's going on.

Narrator: Investigators wonder if the first officer

was being honest about his military record.

They study his military discharge form.

Benzon: Check this out. He's clearly embellishing.

It turns out that he didn't bail out of any aircraft at any time.

Strauch: He said that he retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Well, in fact, he retired as a major.

Benzon: We even have a Phrase For That: stolen valor.

It kind of set things on edge a little bit for us.

Rodriguez: Why would he lie?

Benzon: That's a good question.

Narrator: Benzon rechecks the first officer's file

for any clue.

Strauch: Why would somebody give themselves a higher status

than they were really entitled to?

Why would they brag about things that didn't happen to them?

Benzon: He was still on probation.

Rodriguez: So, he needed the captain

to give him a good report.

Benzon: I think the first officer was bragging

to impress the captain

because the first officer was still in his probation stage,

and a bad mark would be tantamount

to not getting a career with Northwest Airlines.

Narrator: The boasting is not normal

for a professional commercial pilot,

but it doesn't explain the cause of the crash.

Schifferns: Oh, God!

Benzon: Let's continue.

Narrator: After sitting at the gate for 40 minutes,

the DC-9 gets the call to taxi.

Controller: Northwest 1482, right turn out of parking,

taxi to runway three-center, exit ramp at Oscar 6.

Benzon: Okay, let's see where they go,

and let's confirm any directional changes

with the FDR data.

Narrator: Investigators combine the cockpit voice recording

with the heading changes from the flight data recorder

to better understand Northwest Flight 1482's

every movement on the ground.

Benzon: Every time the compass swung,

we could see the aircraft turning almost in our minds.

He had to be on this taxiway if it's this heading.

Had to be on this taxiway if it's another heading,

so it worked out well.

Schifferns: Three-center, exit the ramp at Oscar 6.

Did you get all that?

Lovelace: Yeah, but I'm gonna need you to help.

Schifferns: Just kind of wind around here,

and Oscar 6 is gonna be right around the corner here.

Lovelace: Okay.

Schifferns: Just kind of stay on the ramp here.

Lovelace: Okay, Jim, you just watch

and make sure I go the right way.

Schifferns: Okay.

Narrator: Investigators discover that as they began to taxi,

Captain Lovelace asked his first officer to navigate.

Benzon: The first officer was correct

in offering up help to the captain,

and the captain was correct in accepting that help.

I mean, this is just the way things should work.

This didn't surprise us.

Lovelace: Uh... left turn or right turn?

Schifferns: Yeah, well, this is the inner taxiway here.

We're still going for Oscar 6.

Lovelace: So... left turn?

Schifferns: Yeah.

♪

Benzon: So, when they should go straight through Oscar 6,

they turn off it and go east.

Rodriguez: It seems like the first officer

Is calling the shots.

♪

Schifferns: Just keep going straight.

Lovelace: Okay.

Benzon: It was a gradual thing.

At first, the first officer

was kind of taking on a bit more responsibility,

a bit more, a bit more,

and then he started to direct the taxi itself.

Schifferns: We are headed eastbound on Oscar 6 here.

Benzon: Just as the controller said,

you can't go east on Oscar 6.

Oscar 6 runs north/south.

Controller: Northwest 1482, you are on the outer taxiway.

Schifferns: Yeah, that's right.

Narrator: The investigators next hear the course correction

that was supposed to get flight 1482 back on track.

Controller: Northwest 1482, at Oscar 4,

take the right turn on X-ray. Report crossing 9/27.

Schifferns: Roger, at, uh, Oscar 4,

make the right turn onto X-ray.

Narrator: The DC-9 crew was definitely told

to continue eastbound and make a hard-right turn onto X-ray

to get back on track.

Lovelace: So, what do we do here?

Schifferns: You make the right turn

and report crossing 27.

Narrator: The captain is now relying completely

on his first officer.

Benzon: Once you break down the dialogue

between the captain and the first officer in the DC-9,

it becomes very obvious that this role reversal was,

was pretty total.

By the time the accident occurred,

the reversal was complete.

Schifferns: There's Oscar 4, and this is X-ray.

Rodriguez: The first officer was pulling him around by the nose,

so to speak, and the captain was simply going along.

As a personal note, I liked the captain very much.

He was a very sweet and gentle person.

But that was sort of his undoing,

the fact that he did not exercise his authority

in any forceful way.

Benzon: Let's hold there.

Narrator: But did that passiveness cause them

to miss the crucial right turn?

Benzon: Okay, so the last instruction was at Oscar 4,

turn right onto X-ray.

Controller: Northwest 1482, cross 9/27.

Schifferns: This is...

should be 9/27.

Lovelace: You're sure?

Schifferns: Well, that's what he said.

Yeah. Yeah, this is 9/27.

Narrator: In the fog, the crew is still struggling

to follow the controller's directions

to get back to the runway.

Lovelace: Right over here, then?

Schifferns: Yeah, that way.

I think we, we're on X-ray here now.

Benzon: There is no way they're on X-ray.

Rodriguez: They never make it onto X-ray.

Narrator: The investigators learn the DC-9 crew

wasn't able to navigate the critical right turn onto X-ray.

Krieger: That turn onto X-ray was quite a difficult turn.

It was not a 90- or 70-degree turn that pilots are used to.

It was about 120 degrees.

Lovelace: What runway is this?

Schifferns: Turn left over there.

Nah, wait, wait. That's a runway, too.

Benzon: They are totally disoriented.

Lovelace: Tell them we're out here. We're stuck.

Benzon: Somehow they've made it here.

Rodriguez: And we've got two planes facing each other

on the same runway.

But there's signs and surface markings all along here.

I don't get it.

Krieger: When an aircraft gets lost on the airfield,

usually the pilots will spot signs or something like that,

help clarify the position in the controller's mind

of where the aircraft is exactly.

Narrator: Investigators are baffled.

Why didn't the airport's signage and runway marks

prevent the pilots from losing their way?

Lovelace: This is a runway.

Narrator: To better understand why the crew of a DC-9

couldn't follow the signage at Detroit Metropolitan Airport...

Rodriguez: Let's do this.

Narrator:...investigators retrace their route.

Benzon: The only way to fix this in our minds

was to perform what we call a taxi demonstration.

We'd get in a DC-9, taxi around the same route

that the accident aircraft taxied down.

Rodriguez: Wow, will you look at that?

Narrator: At the Oscar 6 intersection,

where Flight 1482 made the initial wrong turn,

Rodriguez finds something disturbing.

They discover that the yellow taxi centerline

the DC-9 was supposed to follow is badly faded.

Benzon: We noted things like painted markings on the taxiways

That were worn in places.

Rodriguez: I can barely see it on a bright day.

Benzon: It was obvious that if we got confused

in broad daylight with no fog, perfect visibility,

that the issue was more acute when you could barely see

your hand in front of your face out there.

Narrator: Now investigators make their way

to the Oscar 4 intersection, where the DC-9 crew failed

to make that critical right turn.

Rodriguez: So, which way is the Oscar 4 sign pointing?

Right or straight ahead?

Narrator: Rodriguez discovers the signage at the intersection

is deficient.

Rodriguez: It was amazing the problems with the signage

when you get to Oscar 4.

It's just a very wide mass of concrete with no lighting

and no indications of where they are.

Now we're supposed to turn right on X-ray.

It's actually back there.

Narrator: The investigators find that if the plane

Actually reaches the Oscar 4 intersection,

they've already missed the right turn to get onto X-ray.

Rodriguez: And the only right turn here

gets you onto the active runway.

Narrator: The team determines the signage on Oscar 4

contributed to the DC-9 crew getting lost.

Instead of turning right onto X-ray, the crew passed X-ray

and turned up the active runway instead.

Lovelace: Uh, we're out here. We're stuck.

We can't see anything, but I believe we're on a runway.

Controller: Okay, are you on the taxiway or the runway?

Lovelace: Ground, it looks like we're on 21 center here.

Controller: Northwest 1482, you say you're on 21 center?

Lovelace: I believe we are. We're not sure.

Schifferns: Yes, we are.

Controller: Northwest 1482,

exit that runway immediately, sir.

Strauch: When you have multiple intersecting runways,

the only way for pilots to really be certain

of where they are

Is to have unmistakable signs that offer pilots

clear and readily interpretable information,

and that's what was missing in this accident.

Narrator: But there's still an unanswered question

about the tragedy.

Controller: Northwest 1482,

exit that runway immediately, sir.

Narrator: Once flight 1482 reported being on the runway,

why didn't air traffic control

stop the other plane from taking off?

Rodriguez: They should have been able to stop that aircraft

and avoid a collision completely.

Hagedorn: Oh, damn!

Schifferns: Oh, God! Oh, God!

Narrator: To understand what happened

just before the crash...

Controller: Yes, absolutely. No question about that.

Narrator:...investigators interview the tower controller

responsible for clearing the 727 for takeoff.

Controller: We found out there was a plane on the runway.

Narrator: The DC-9's crew informed the ground controller,

sitting next to the tower controller,

that they were lost on the runway.

Ground Controller: Northwest 1482,

exit that runway immediately, sir.

I've got a lost aircraft out here.

It may be on the runway.

Okay. All aircraft on this frequency,

just stop, stop your taxi right now, please.

Narrator: Investigators learn the ground controller

stopped all taxiing traffic around the airport,

but the 727 had already switched to a different radio frequency

and didn't hear that instruction.

The tower controller never issued his own warning

to the crew.

Krieger: The tower controller had a decision to make

and decided to not do anything,

not say anything to the aircraft.

Narrator: Investigators now question the tower controller

about why he didn't warn the 727

That there was a DC-9 lost on the runway ahead of them.

Controller: I thought they were already airborne.

Rodriguez: The controller said nothing because he figured

that the 727 had already taken off and was airborne.

Narrator: Because it had been a full minute

since he cleared the 727,

the tower controller thought the plane had taken off,

but the 727 was still at the runway threshold.

Rodriguez: I think they would have been able

to stop that aircraft or at least eased over

to the left side of the runway

as they continued to roll out an aborted takeoff.

Narrator: Now investigators need to know why it took the 727

so long to begin its takeoff.

Benzon: Let's hear it.

Narrator: They listen to the plane's cockpit voice recorder

to determine what happened just before the plane

began its takeoff roll.

Hagedorn: Cleared for takeoff, runway three-center, 299.

Narrator: They learn that shortly after getting permission

To take off...

Hagedorn: Final items.

Anti-skid?

Ouellette: On.

Narrator:...the crew of the 727 delayed takeoff

to perform a final checklist.

Ouellette: Takeoff check complete.

♪

Narrator: With thick fog obscuring the runway,

the tower controller did not know they had not yet taken off.

But was the checklist the only factor

that affected the plane's takeoff?

Hagedorn: It's definitely not a quarter mile.

Narrator: Investigators also discover that the pilots

noticed the fog was getting worse.

Benzon: They knew that they needed

one-fourth of a mile of visibility, forward visibility,

before they could take off,

but when they got to the end of the runway,

it became very, very iffy

Whether they had that type of visibility.

Rodriguez: But nonetheless, they went ahead and took off.

[Engine Revving]

Narrator: Investigators finally think they know what happened

on the day of the collision.

Lovelace: Now, what runway is this?

This is a runway.

Schifferns: Yeah.

Turn left over there.

No, wait. That's a runway, too.

Narrator: A dysfunctional and disoriented DC-9 crew

mistakenly taxied onto an active runway.

[Engine Revving]

Hagedorn: 80 knots.

Narrator: A 727 crew took off in visibility

it knew was below minimums.

♪

Controller: I've got a lost aircraft out here.

It may be on the runway.

Okay, all aircraft on this frequency,

just stop, stop your taxi right now, please.

Narrator: And a tower controller failed to warn the 727 crew

about the lost plane on the runway

because he thought the 727 was already airborne.

Lovelace: Oh, no!

Hagedorn: Oh, damn!

Strauch: It took all of these things in sequence

for this accident to happen,

and that's one of the things that makes it unusual,

not just the number of errors, but their uniqueness

and what it says about human interactions

that is really remarkable.

Schifferns: Oh, God. Oh, God!

[Crash]

[Screaming]

♪

[People Yelling]

♪

[Coughing]

♪

Benzon: In the end, almost everybody involved

in this accident did something wrong.

There really just are no heroes in this one.

Lovelace: And, uh, flying was my life.

Narrator: Captain Bill Lovelace

never worked as an airline pilot again.

Neither did first officer Jim Schifferns.

He became a first responder and a firefighter.

In the aftermath of the crash,

Detroit Metropolitan Airport improved signage

and now uses highly visible reflective paint

for all airfield markings.

All U.S. airports are required to use the same signage

to avoid confusion.

The confusing Oscar 4 intersection was rebuilt.

Dozens of U.S. airports have installed new technologies

that allow controllers to monitor taxiing aircraft.

Krieger: Ground radar with audible and aural warnings,

as well, to tell controllers of an impending collision,

uh, is in place at most major airports

At this point in time.

That's gone a long ways

to preventing actual collisions from happening.

♪