Original subtitles

[Plane Engine Roaring]

[Narrator] Descending through the thick clouds.

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

[Narrator] Ansett New Zealand flight 703

slams into a hill.

It was just an almighty crash.

Horrendous sound.

Ansett 703, do you read?

[Narrator] Those lucky enough to survive the crash,

find themselves stranded.

There's no signals at all and they're off radar.

[Narrator] And facing the possibility

of freezing to death.

Hypothermia would've been a major problem.

[Narrator] Once investigators finished

piecing together the clues.

There it is clear as day.

It was obvious that there was a malfunction.

[Narrator] Their findings lead

to an unprecedented charge of manslaughter.

This accident should not have happened.

[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!

[Dramatic Music]

[Pilot] It's gonna crash.

[Dramatic Music]

[Plane Engine Roaring]

[Narrator] It's nine in the morning

as Ansett New Zealand flight 703

cruises toward the city of Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Last approach heading is set.

We're on heading 250.

[Narrator] At the controls is 40 year old,

Captain Garry Southern, a six year Ansett veteran

with almost 8,000 flying hours.

Ansett 703 establish inbound.

[Narrator] 33 year old first officer, Barry Brown,

has more than 6,000 hours.

Will do at 10 miles, Ansett 703.

And that was a fairly standard sort of commuter flight

and these two pilots were very, very qualified

to fly this plane.

[Narrator] There are 18 passengers onboard

the short flight.

[Suspenseful Music]

William McGrory is flying to his company's head office

for an early morning meeting.

I was working for a plumbing company.

I was based in Auckland

and they were based in Palmerston North.

Do you race?

Oh no, never watched a race in my life.

Passes the time though.

Are you headed home?

And then the hostess sat down on the seat

in front of me on the armrest and just started chatting.

She was telling me about her life

and I was telling her what I was up to

and she was great,

just full of life, full of beans

and had her life planned.

I'm trying to save enough to buy a house.

She was from Christchurch and I believe

that's where she was gonna buy her house.

She was really excited about that.

[Captain] Captain Sotheran again,

we are beginning our approach to Palmerston North.

We should have you on the ground right around 9:30.

[Narrator] The pilots are flying a Dash 8100 series.

A 40 seat regional airliner known for its short take-off

and landing capability.

-And course par is active. -Check.

[Narrator] Flight 703 left Auckland

for the one hour flight to Palmerston North.

It's a 250-mile journey south

to a region with notoriously unpredictable weather.

[Jimmy] There was low clouds

around the Palmerston North area,

so I mean, it wouldn't have been a great day

to fly because of the lack of visibility.

As we were on approach.

Hang on a minute.

Then she looked out the window and looked a bit concerned.

[Plane Engine Roaring]

She looked in the other side as well and she said,

I don't think the landing gear is down

on the right side, can you check your window?

[Narrator] The landing gear on the Dash 8

is located in the engine's housing on the wings.

Because the wings are on top of the airplane,

when the landing gear is extended,

it's clearly visibly from the cabin.

No, I can't see the landing gear at all.

We were looking straight out under the wing, pretty much,

so yeah, you'll be able to see it all right.

I could that it wasn't extended.

-Excuse me. -[Suspenseful Music]

[Narrator] Karen Gallagher alerts the pilots.

And I'll keep an eye on the airplane

while you're doing that.

Yeah, okay.

[Narrator] In the cockpit,

Captain Sotheran and his first officer

are already troubleshooting the problem.

The right landing gear isn't down,

I guess you guys know that.

-Yeah, we know. -Thank you.

Alternate gear extension,

approaching landing checklist, pressurization.

When the gear doesn't go down normally,

every airplane has a checklist to have a back-up system.

That's required by design, the Dash 8 is no exception.

It should not be a big deal.

[Suspenseful Music]

We're good.

They have everything under control.

There's a standard procedure that they're running through.

[William] She came back and sat down again on the armrest

and said they're just doing a manual reset

and they'll have the wheel down in no time.

She wasn't stressed or not alarmed at all.

[Narrator] As flight 703 nears Palmerston North,

the pilots follow the procedure

for lowering landing gear manually.

-Airspeed below 140 knots. -It's 140.

Karen was sitting right there in front of me

and the next minute.

And then I'll have a few days off,

so I'll probably head down to...

[Loud Screeching]

[William] There was just an almighty crash,

just horrendous sound and then the sound stopped.

Then we must've lifted off the ground.

[Plane Roaring]

Another crash and then we seemed to be sliding.

[Plane Screeching]

It was just horrible, horrible noise.

All the metal and all the things flying around

inside the plane.

[Plane Screeching]

Eventually we came to a stop.

And it was just this strange silence

of no more grinding and metal

and things happening around me.

[Narrator] The impact fractured a vertebrae

in McGrory's back, but the rush of adrenaline

keeps him from feeling the pain.

[William] I guess I just flicked into survival mode

and it didn't really matter what was wrong with me,

just I was alive.

Get out of this plane, that was probably

the only single thing that was on my mind at the time.

I saw a hole in front of me, on the right-hand side

and saw that as an opportunity to get out.

[Dramatic Music]

[Narrator] William McGrory has survived

the crash of Ansett flight 703,

but now fears the possibility of a fire.

I assumed that we had crash landed

on the tarmac without the wheel down

and any minute now, all the fire engines

will be screaming up to us to spray all the foam on

and make sure we didn't catch fire.

[Narrator] McGrory suddenly realizes

he's nowhere near the airport

and has no idea where he is.

I just looked back and thought,

hell, we're in a paddock somewhere in the hills

and that's when I went back to the plane,

because there was people starting to come out

through the holes in the sides and I went back to assist.

[Intense Music]

[Jimmy] There were some people pretty badly injured,

some of the passengers were still unconscious.

Up in the cockpit, the two pilots had survived,

but were pretty badly injured.

[Narrator] Passengers still trapped in the wreckage

are in urgent need of medical help.

Ansett 703, Ansett 703,

this Palmerston tower, do you read?

[Narrator] In the airport's tower,

controller, Tony Chapman,

tries to contact Ansett flight 703.

I don't know where they are.

There's no signals at all and they're off radar.

Well, the emergency services were ready to go,

there's firefighters at Palmerston North airport,

but they didn't know where the plane was exactly.

[Intense Music]

[Narrator] To make matters worse,

it's extremely cold and windy.

Survivors need to find a way to keep warm

until help arrives.

And I thought, hell, we need some gear

to get everyone warm.

There must be blankets or maybe there's some bags

at the back, you know, where we can just get some jerseys

or jumpers or shirts or whatever,

just to get people warm.

But there was nothing, nothing at all to keep us warm.

We're out in front of the nose now,

which was facing back the way we came.

I saw my little briefcase.

So I grabbed that and opened it up,

knowing full well that my phone was in there.

In 1995 not many New Zealanders would've had cellphones at all,

so it's pretty amazing that he had one

and then saw it and it was still working.

I rang 111 and they said,

"What emergency? Do you need, ambulance, fire or police?"

And I said, "Send the whole bloody lot."

We got a plane crash, send everything.

And she immediately changed her tone

and said, "Just hang up and we'll get back to you."

[Suspenseful Music]

Looking for a white twin engine prop plane.

They were flying west along Manawatu Gorge,

heading towards the airport.

[Narrator] Flight 703 last reported

being on final approach for runway 25.

The plane could now be anywhere in a 150-square-mile area.

[William] Everyone was huddled together to try and keep warm

as the shock was really setting in at this stage.

[Jimmy] Hypothermia would've been a concern

for the passengers who had survived,

the ones who were injured, in particular,

the last thing you want is to be exposed to the cold.

[Narrator] For the survivors of Ansett 703,

time is running out.

[Dramatic Music]

Ansett New Zealand flight 703 has crashed

somewhere in the hills around Palmerston North.

Passenger, William McGrory, anxiously waits

for the emergency operator to call back.

Did he say where they were?

Okay, did you get a number?

[Narrator] The operator has notified

Palmerston North's tower of McGrory's call.

Perfect, thank you.

Got a witness called in, said he saw the crash.

[Suspenseful Music]

[Phone Ringing]

They have been told that I saw the crash

and they didn't know that I was actually

in the crash at the time,

so I straightened them up on that pretty quickly.

Witnessed it? No, I was on the bloody thing.

William, whatever happens, do not hang up the phone,

you have to stay on the phone with me.

Okay, okay.

The person from the control tower said,

"We need to know where you are,"

can you give us

some descriptions of what's around you?

A lot of hill.

It could be a farm.

It's freezing cold.

[Jimmy] The passengers who had survived,

of course, would be going into shock

and it was very cold for them

and that could've had unfortunate consequences.

Okay, do whatever you can to keep everybody warm.

[Narrator] Survivors build a makeshift shelter

from wreckage to protect themselves

from the howling winter wind.

It had been snowing the day before,

so the cold was all there

and it was just a horribly, bitter day.

All right, I'll see what we can find.

Can you see if you can find some kind of landmark,

anything that can help find us where we are?

[Intense Music]

How long is your battery going to last?

About an hour.

Okay, good.

Don't hang up.

The passenger who had come to help me said,

"I'll have a look around."

So he went off, up the hill

and he'd gone quite a distance and quite a while really

and he came back some time later

and he said, "There's a big holding pen for sheep

up the hill further."

We're next to a very large sheep holding pen.

-Wood, maybe 30 meters long. -Okay, William.

Some of the rescuers who were listening

to this conversation, someone recognized it

and knew where to go.

Looks like they're near the Buckley Stockyard,

up on Hall Block Road.

One of them knew that the only holding pen

of that size, anywhere around the area was so and so's farm.

[Helicopter Whirring]

[Narrator] With the location

of the crash roughly pinpointed,

rescuers make their way to the scene.

One rescue helicopter pilot described it

as flying in the inside of a milk bottle,

to give you an idea of flying up in the cloud.

[Helicopter Whirring]

I can hear a helicopter.

-[Sighs] That's good, William. -It's getting closer.

[Helicopter Engine Roaring]

There it is.

It's there, there it is.

[Helicopter Roaring]

I remember the helicopter coming up

through the cloud and I saw its lights heading for us.

It was just incredible.

I'll never forget that feeling of seeing those lights

and the sound of the helicopter.

Okay, William, you can hang up now. Thank you.

[Helicopter Roaring]

[William] And that's when the adrenaline stopped pumping

and I started feeling the pain and the cold

and the misery that everyone else was going through.

[Narrator] Flight 703 has crashed into a hill,

10 miles from the airport at Palmerston North.

15 passengers and both pilots have survived.

Tragically, three passengers

and flight attendant, Karen Gallagher are killed.

We were very, very lucky that 17 of us survived.

I think so sadly for those that did lose their lives,

the hostess and the others that died on that day

was so unnecessary.

[Somber Music]

[Narrator] Investigators from New Zealand's

Transport Accident Investigation Commission,

the TAIC, are quickly on the scene.

[Jimmy] At the time it was massive news.

There's not many plane crashes in New Zealand

and particularly in this case,

because there were so many survivors.

Well, definitely hit more than once.

[Narrator] Because the plane was manufactured in Canada,

Larry Vance from the Canadian Transport Safety Board

is sent to New Zealand to assist with the investigation.

There was a main fuselage piece

that was basically intact.

There was a separated tail,

there was a separated left wing

that were spread out over the rolling hills.

The land was sloped so it was pretty strewn about.

Right here.

The nose wheel hits first.

[Narrator] The marks in the ground

tell investigators that the plane's

forward landing gear wheels hit the ground first.

The fact that the nose wheel hit first

and then the rest of the aircraft followed told us

that the aircraft was flying somewhat level.

It wasn't going nose first into the ground.

[Narrator] The most critical clue

is the one that's missing.

No tire tracks.

[Narrator] The ground where the right landing gear

should've touched down is undisturbed.

[Larry] What we saw from ground markings,

it was entirely consistent with the fact

that the right landing gear was not extended.

[Narrator] The marks in the ground show that flight 703

was flying level when the forward landing gear

hit the ground, but the right main landing gear

was not extended.

[Suspenseful Music]

In the cockpit, investigators find evidence

that the pilots attempted to lower the landing gear.

We saw that the landing gear selector was down.

We saw that the emergency landing gear selector

was being used.

So we knew they were dealing with a landing gear problem,

simply by looking in the cockpit.

Landing data, altimeters, tanks, belt smoking,

airspeed below 140 knots.

It's 140.

-Landing gear selector down. -Yep.

Landing gear alternate release door fully open,

which it is.

[Narrator] The alternate method

should've lowered the gear.

For some reason, the plane hit the ground

less than a minute later.

We had two million questions.

The first one was, why did the landing gear not extend?

And the second one was,

why did the pilots fly the aircraft into the ground?

[Intense Music]

[Narrator] Investigators need to examine

the wreckage of Ansett 703 to determine why the pilots

were unable to get their landing gear down,

but the muddy terrain is presenting a challenge.

It was virtually impossible

to get equipment onto that site.

It would slip and then we'd get stuck

and slide down hills and so on.

[Narrator] Vance comes up with a solution.

They had a huge helicopter owned by Russians.

What we suggested to them that they do,

is get a big, long cable and put the cable

through the fuselage.

The ribs were in good enough condition

that they would basically hold the weight of that fuselage.

They brought that helicopter in and a 200 foot long line

and they lifted that fuselage out, all in one piece.

[Intense Music]

[Narrator] With the wreckage in a hanger,

investigators are able to examine the right landing gear

to understand why it didn't come down.

Right landing gear doesn't come down.

Start the alternate procedure

and then slam into a hill eight and a half miles

from the runway.

First question is, what went wrong with their gear?

What we were thinking is there's only a couple of things

that can keep that gear from extending.

It's hard to tell why it didn't come down.

[Narrator] Vance is joined by Jim Donnelly,

a maintenance engineer from De Havilland,

the Dash 8's manufacturer.

It was obvious that there was a malfunction

of the right main landing gear to extend.

So we needed to look at what may have influenced

the landing gear system operation.

[Narrator] When the landing gear is up,

a latch holds a roller on the gear's leg

in the retracted position.

When pilots lower the gear,

an actuator moves the uplock latch

to release the roller, allowing the landing gear to extend.

This is probably where the problem was.

Well, when we got to the hanger,

we could actually have a better look.

We had better lighting and more controlled climate

and everything pointed

to the right main landing gear uplock actuator

and the uplock actuator latch.

The latch is definitely showing signs of wear.

When we visually examined the uplock latch,

really didn't notice a great deal,

however, you could feel a very slight detent

on the latch itself where the roller sat.

[Narrator] Over time, the roller wore a small groove

into the right side latch.

It was enough to prevent it

from sliding into the down position.

It was similar to what you would find

if you got your car stuck on ice

and you started spinning your tire

and the tire would wear itself down a little bit of a dip

down into the ice and once you get one of those,

of course, it's awfully hard to get out of.

Here's another.

Landing gear fails DEX-10.

-Yeah. -It definitely was an issue.

[Narrator] Investigators dig through the Dash 8's history.

The issue with the uplock actuator wear

was well-documented on early model Dash 8's.

A number of operators experienced it.

Ah, the Ansett fleet sure had its share of problems.

And both are Dash 8's by the looks of it.

[Narrator] Ansett New Zealand's Dash 8's

had been experiencing landing gear failures for years.

There were incidents of the landing gear

either not lowering or lowering very slowly.

[Suspenseful Music]

The problem became so wide spread

that De Havilland offered airlines

a modified uplock mechanism,

designed to overcome the problem.

[Jim] It was found that a change of material

would be of benefit to prevent these issues

and it would be a harder material,

something that didn't have the same wear properties.

Just the left side?

Gotcha, thanks for that.

They replaced the mechanism on the left side,

but were waiting on parts for the right.

Ansett only replaced the left uplock actuator,

because that is where they experienced

the majority of their issues.

[Narrator] But all of these gear problems

were easily dealt with.

In every case, the pilots used the alternate method

-to lower the gear. -And they all landed safely.

[Narrator] If the gear didn't lower normally,

pilots could pull a handle in the cockpit

that manually disengage the latch,

so the gear could drop into position.

The alternate system is 100% reliable.

There has never been an issue

with the alternate landing gear extension system

failing to lower a landing gear.

[Narrator] But evidence from the cockpit wreckage reveals

the first officer didn't pull the handle hard enough

to release the landing gear.

We saw that the handle that is normally pulled

was partially pulled.

[Narrator] Failing to lower the landing gear is unusual,

but it doesn't explain why the pilots

of Ansett flight 703 slammed into a hill,

just a few miles from the airport.

[Dramatic Music]

Investigators need to know

what was happening inside the cockpit.

We're looking to see who's actually flying the airplane,

who's monitoring the altitude,

who's doing the call-outs

and this what investigators have to look at.

[Helicopter Roaring]

[Narrator] The pilots of Ansett 703

have suffered severe head trauma

and are unable to be interviewed.

It's a major set back.

[Pilot] Not below 4600 to start on with,

not below 3000 at nine miles.

[Narrator] Investigators now depend

on a cockpit voice recorder

to uncover the cause of the crash.

Ansett 703, stop descent at 6000 feet

for VOR-DME, approach runway 25.

[Barry] Stop descent 6000 for approach 25, Ansett 703.

[Narrator] The approach to runway 25 at Palmerston North,

involves making a right turn 14 miles from the airport

and approaching the runway from the east.

Everything seemed to be pretty well nominal,

until they got on final approach.

Not below 4600 to start off with.

Not below 3000 at nine miles.

-Not below 2500 at seven miles. -Yep.

And 1600 to five miles.

[Narrator] Because of the steep terrain

surrounding the airport,

the pilots need to hit prescribed altitudes

at specific distances from the airport.

And it's right on the limits, so we gotta stick to that.

3000 at nine, 2500 at seven, 1600 at five.

They knew their minimums.

[Narrator] The recording shows

that the pilots knew their minimum altitudes

throughout the descent.

[Suspenseful Music]

Known air flags. Best approach heading is set.

-We're on heading 250. -Check.

Ansett 703 established inbound.

[Narrator] Flight 703 makes the final turn

and reports flying on a heading towards the airport.

Ansett 703, roger.

Contact Palmerston tower at 10 miles.

Will do at 10 miles, Ansett 703.

Pause for a second please.

Okay, they knew their minimums,

they're 13 miles out and on course.

And in two and a half minutes they'll hit the ground.

[Garry] Gear down.

Say again?

-Gear down. -Yep.

Selected.

And on profile, hang on.

Fraction low.

Check.

Flaps 15.

Oh, crap.

-Oh, look at that. -What's that?

[Garry] I don't want that.

Sounds like they just noticed

the gear isn't down and locked.

[Garry] Yeah, that's not good.

Okay, she's not locked, alternate landing gear.

Seem to be on top of it.

Alternate extension.

-Do you wanna grab the QRH? -Yep.

[Narrator] Captain Sotheran instructs his first officer

to run through the alternate procedure,

which is set out in the plane's quick reference handbook.

Technically it's designed to make sure

the gear does come down,

so ultimately it will come down and then you can land.

Whip through that one.

See if we can get it out the way before it's too late.

11 and a half miles out.

Gonna have to move it to get that gear down.

I'll keep an eye on the airplane while you're doing that.

Yeah, okay.

Good separation of duties.

The captain flies while the FO does the checklist.

[Karen] The right landing gear isn't down.

I guess you guys know that.

That's Karen Gallagher.

-Yeah, we know. -Thank you.

[Barry] Alternate gear extension.

Approach and landing checklist, pressurization.

Skip down to the actual applicable stuff.

[David] When the captain asked the first officer

skip over those steps,

he had the authority under Ansett to do so

and so this is the something that's again,

not unusual, it was not breaking a rule,

but the crew was rushing.

Rushing to get this checklist done

which they needed to do

if they wanted to land the airplane.

[Barry] Yeah, landing data, altimeters,

tanks, belt smoking, airspeed below 140 knots.

[Garry] It's 140.

[Barry] Landing gear selector down.

Yep.

Landing gear alternate release door open.

[Jim] The first officer would open a door

in the ceiling and that exposes the handle.

You pull it until you can't pull it anymore

and the landing gear drops.

And then it free falls to the down unlocked position.

So far so good.

A few more steps, the gear will be down and locked

with about four and a half minutes to spare.

Ansett 703 establish final to Palmerston North.

[Female Controller] Ansett 703, that's understood.

And insert this handle. Insert handle 'til...

[Narrator] First officer, Brown is struggling

with the procedure.

If there was any chance

that the landing would not go down to the locked position,

there's a hand pump down on the floor

that you open another door in the floor,

you put a handle in and make a selection

and you start pumping.

And operate until the main gear locks.

He missed a step.

He's fussing with the pump handle

and he hasn't even pulled the gear release yet.

Oh yeah, operate until the main gear locks.

You're supposed to pull the handle.

Oh, it's actually got that after that.

[Dramatic Music]

There, it's pulled.

He pulled it, but not all the way.

That's why the gear was still up when they hit.

[Narrator] The plane is only a few hundred feet

from the ground, but the pilots still haven't lowered

the right landing gear.

[Dramatic Music]

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

Terrain, terrain, pull up.

[Narrator] Could one missed step on a checklist

have doomed the passengers and crew of flight 703?

[Intense Music]

-Alternate landing gear. -Alternate extension.

-Do you wanna grab the QRH? -Yep.

I'll keep an eye on the airplane while you're doing that.

[Barry] Yeah, okay.

[Narrator] Investigators struggle to understand

how two experienced pilots fail to notice

they were flying dangerously low.

The captain clearly said,

"And I'll keep an eye on the airplane."

It doesn't sound like he did that.

There are two people in the cockpit,

the captain was to fly the airplane,

but he's involved in the checklist.

Oh yeah, and operate until the main gear locks.

You're supposed to pull the handle.

[Narrator] The voice recorder has revealed

that instead of monitoring the airplane

as he said he would,

the captain was helping his first officer

with the landing gear checklist.

In any emergency, somebody has to fly the airplane

and keep the airplane where it needs to be.

Let's see the approach profile.

[Narrator] The flight data shows exactly

when flight 703 began to stray

from it's planned descent path.

Their approaching their minimum altitude

when the gear hangs up,

and they keep descending.

[Ominous Music]

Fast.

[Narrator] The data shows that flight 703

kept dropping lower and lower

until is was almost 1400 feet too low.

And the aircraft started to descent quite quickly,

down below what would be a desirable glide path

and the captain didn't notice that.

He was paying more attention to what the co-pilot was doing,

because the co-pilot was struggling

trying to get the landing gear sequence right.

They should've been descending at about 580 feet per minute,

instead they were descending at around 1200 feet per minute.

Why is that?

The captain should have put some more power

to the engines and adjusted the nose attitude

to decrease his rate of descent.

That's what should've been happening.

Okay, right here.

The engines are cut back to flight idle.

-Course bar is active. -Check.

Going down to 4600 now.

[Dramatic Music]

[Narrator] Captain Sotheran brought his engines

to flight idle to aid his descent

and then left them in that position

for more than a minute.

During that time, flight 703 descended below

the recommended altitude.

The captain eventually increased engine power,

but not enough.

And flaps 15.

And up to 33%

and back to flight idle.

Then up to 10%.

Not giving it a lot of power.

[Plane Engine Roaring]

He allowed the airplane to get way below the profile.

He didn't notice that, because again,

he was busy, he was distracted.

The co-pilot didn't notice

because he was trying to deal with his checklist

so nobody noticed the airplane was descending below profile.

[Narrator] But there is a device in the Dash 8,

that should've warned the pilots

that they were rapidly approaching the ground.

The ground proximity warning system or GPWS.

The system uses radio signals

to measure the distance from the ground

and the plane's closing speed.

If the plane is getting too close to the ground

or descending too quickly,

a warning sounds, advising the pilots to pull up.

Okay, let's listen to what they heard in the cockpit.

[Narrator] Investigators listen for the warning sounds

from the GPWS.

[Garry] You're supposed to pull the handle.

[Barry] It's actually got that after that.

It's pulled.

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

There it is, clear as day.

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

It went off 4.5 seconds before impact.

Not a lot of time to react.

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

[Narrator] The voice recording reveals

that the warning system didn't give the pilots

much time to pull up and save the plane.

It was quite obvious to us

that they had made an attempt

to start an immediate climb away.

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

[Larry] They had started to put on power,

they had obviously brought the nose up

from the aircraft's previous nose down attitude.

[Narrator] Computer simulations show

that the GPWS on the Dash 8

should've provided a warning

well before flight 703 hit the hill.

[Ominous Music]

17 seconds, that's more like it.

The pilots would've had ample time

to avoid a collision.

Had it been 17 seconds, I suspect the airplane

would've cleared the hill.

It would've been a scary moment,

but they would've cleared the hill.

There's a big difference between 17 seconds

-and 4.5 seconds. -Sure is.

A four and a half second warning before you hit the hill

isn't particularly helpful.

[Narrator] The team now wonders

why the crew of flight 703 got a late warning

from their GPWS.

[Plane Engine Roaring]

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

[Dramatic Crashing]

[Narrator] Investigators have recovered

the GPWS computer from the wreckage of Ansett flight 703.

We didn't know if there was anything wrong

with that system, but we knew

it warranted looking at further.

[Suspenseful Music]

This checks out. No problems at all.

[Narrator] The unit appears to be in good working order.

Investigators know the GPWS didn't warn the pilots

until it was too late.

Did something interfere with the altimeter

that feeds the unit altitude data?

What do we know about this?

[Larry] The issue was brought up

about the nearby telecommunications tower

and whether or not that had any potential

for interference with the operation of the airplane.

What do you got?

It's a radio transmission tower.

Signals are in the 800 to 900 megahertz range.

[Dramatic Music]

No, those frequencies wouldn't affect the radio altimeter.

[Suspenseful Music]

The main reason that we ruled out

the telecommunications tower very quickly,

was that it was not in the same frequency range at all,

that's used by the GPWS, two entirely different frequencies.

[Ominous Music]

It's been painted.

[Narrator] To prevent any disruption to reception,

the antenna for the radio altimeter

is marked with the words, "Do not paint",

it appears Ansett ignored that.

The GPWS antenna sends

and receives radio altimeter signals

as the aircraft passes over the ground.

It was painted, it shouldn't have been painted.

We had no idea what this meant

to the operation of the system.

The non-metallic paint used would not inhibit radio signal.

So that's not it.

[Narrator] They're running out of leads.

It's got to be the software.

[Narrator] Investigators determine

that a software glitch prevented the GPWS

from getting accurate altitude readings.

As the plane descended faster than normal

over unusual hilly terrain.

We concluded that probably

the radio altimeter missed a beat or two

as they were approaching the underlying terrain,

that it just dropped out for whatever, one or two hits.

Enough to cause it to give only

a four or five second warning.

Landing gear alternate release door open, which it is.

[Narrator] But the failed GPWS doesn't answer

the investigation's most pressing question,

why didn't the pilots discontinue their approach

while they struggled with their gear?

Crew notices the landing gear issue here.

Five miles out.

That only gives them about five minutes

to get the gear down and land.

Why not go around and buy some time?

Good question.

Time is your friend and if you don't have enough time,

it's your enemy, so you wanna make sure

you give yourself time,

'cause these procedures do take time to lower the gear.

Question is why did he continue?

[Narrator] Investigators now realize

that the entire sequence of events

put in motion by the failed gear,

could've been prevented if the pilots

had taken one simple action.

They would've avoided all of this by just going around.

[Ominous Music]

Oh, crap.

-Yeah, look at that. -I don't want that.

Yeah, that's not good.

Okay, so she's not locked, alternate landing gear?

Alternate extension, do you wanna grab the QRH?

Yeah.

[Dramatic Music]

Just whip through that one,

see if we can get it out of the way before it's too late.

[Narrator] The teams believes Captain Sotheran's decision

to continue the approach while trying to lower the gear,

was a tragic mistake.

When this landing gear did not come down,

the pilots should've stopped their approach right away.

They should've said, "We're gonna go somewhere

and hold and we're gonna get the landing gear down."

Oh yeah, and operate until the main gear locks.

You're supposed to pull the handle.

[Narrator] But instead, Captain Sotheran

made the decision to continue his approach

to Palmerston North.

In human factors terms, it's called, continuation bias.

Continuation bias means that you've got a plan

to do something, other things come up

to show you that plan may not be as good as you hoped,

but you don't accept those other things.

[Narrator] His resolve to continue

the approach proves deadly.

[Computer] Terrain, terrain, pull up.

[Dramatic Crashing]

[Narrator] In their final report,

investigators fault Captain Sotheran

for not making proper power adjustments,

for losing track of his altitude,

for not focusing on flying the airplane

and for continuing the approach

while troubleshooting the landing gear.

You did it to yourselves.

A landing gear issue should not cause

an airplane accident.

Flight crews are trained to overcome

this type of emergency.

This accident was about the performance of the pilots.

This accident should not have happened.

[Narrator] Ansett New Zealand

revised it's operations manual following the accident.

Pilots are now instructed to discontinue

their approach and resolve any abnormal situations

before attempting to land.

What I learned from this accident was,

give yourself time.

It's not a critical emergency.

It's something you can do in an organized way,

but you need time.

[Narrator] In the year 2000, in an unprecedented move,

Captain Sotheran is charged with manslaughter

for operating an aircraft in a careless manner.

After a six week trial, six years after the accident,

a jury finds him not guilty.

It was a grueling trial the captain.

He never flew for Ansett again

and had to leave the country to resume his flying career.

[Narrator] To this day,

William McGrory bears no ill will

towards the crew of Ansett flight 703.

Yes, there was pilot error,

but I did not at any time,

blame the pilots for the crash.

It's a whole host of things on the day

that came together like the perfect storm.

At the time, after the crash,

I learnt to appreciate life in general

and I often have to pinch myself

and say, "Hey, smell the roses,

tell people you love them again

and remember that one instant you can be here,

the next instant you can be dead."

So it's been good for me in that respect,

that it makes you appreciate what you have got.