Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Martinair Flight 495 is minutes

from landing at Faro, Portugal.

CORTEN HOVE: The left engine was making rattling sound.

All of a sudden, we heard an enormous bang.

It was total destruction.

NARRATOR: 56 people are dead.

Wow. Look at this.

NARRATOR: Investigators quickly find some intriguing evidence

at the crash site.

AL DICKINSON: There was a two inch deep cut down

the left side of the runway.

This is very strange.

NARRATOR: The landing gear is completely severed.

JOHN COX: If the aircraft were overweight

it could exceed the design limit,

causing it to break and shear.

These guys for 71,000 pounds underweight.

It wasn't too heavy.

So what went wrong?

PILOT (ON RADIO): Mayday!

Mayday!

Pull up!

NARRATOR: Martinair Flight 495 is nearing

Portugal's southern coast.

Approach, Martinair 495.

Good morning.

NARRATOR: The captain is 56-year-old H.W. van Staveren.

74 DME, and out of 240 for level 70.

NARRATOR: A, highly experienced pilot

and flight instructor he's been with Martinair for 24 years.

Descending to level 70.

NARRATOR: The first officer is 31-year-old R.J. Clemenkowff.

He's been flying with the Dutch company for three years.

The youngest member of the team is 29-year-old flight engineer

Gary Glans.

It was our last flight before the Christmas holidays.

Everyone was in a good mood.

My job as a flight engineer--

I'm responsible for the aircraft, in general,

to make sure that everything is operating properly,

and overall trying to be a third set

of eyes for the flying pilots.

NARRATOR: The crew is flying a DC-10,

a three engine wide body jet.

In the '90s, the DC-10 was one of the type of aircraft most

used for operators worldwide.

NARRATOR: They're now less than half an hour from landing.

There are 13 crew members and 327 passengers on board.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Most are residents of the Netherlands.

We were heading for a vacation for a week in the South

of Portugal, in Algarve, going to warmer wetter

than the Netherlands was, and fleeing the busy year we had.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 near the end of a 2 and 1/2

hour trip from Amsterdam to Portugal's Faro Airport.

Eight letter word for apple sources.

Hmm.

-Orchards. -Oh.

CORTEN HOVE: I was traveling with Yvonne, then

my girlfriend, now my wife.

I was lucky we could sit at the front row,

so I had a lot of leg space to move around.

Oh.

It's raining cats and dogs over there.

NARRATOR: As they descend towards Faro Airport,

the pilots expect to encounter some bad weather.

GARY GLANS: We knew that we were going to encounter rain

showers, thunderstorms, or something that you have to be

incredibly aware of, and ensure that they

don't affect your flight path.

We do everything to avoid 'em, because they

can produce unexpected wind changes,

microbursts, wind shears.

NARRATOR: When a thunderstorm moves over an active runway,

the potential for wind shear can make

it too dangerous for an aircraft to land.

GARY GLANS: It wasn't something that we felt

was going to be a major issue.

It was just something to monitor.

NARRATOR: If the weather worsens,

they can divert north to Lisbon.

But right now it isn't necessary.

PILOT: Martinair 461, runway visual.

NARRATOR: Just minutes ahead, another Martinair flight

is landing at Faro.

Clear to land, runway 11.

NARRATOR: The weather report indicates the closest

thunderstorm is approximately seven miles

to the west of the runway.

Knowing other airplanes were flying that same approach

and nobody had reported any significant issues made

us feel we were safe to continue onwards.

495 is turning inbound.

NARRATOR: Eight miles out, Martinair 495

starts its final approach to runway 11.

GARY GLANS: The captain chose to be the pilot monitoring,

so he could oversee the whole approach

and let the first officer focus on just flying the aircraft.

NARRATOR: They descend into the rain clouds,

confident the nearest thunderstorm

is still miles away.

You've got to be kidding me.

CONTROLLER (ON RADIO): 495, report at minimums or runway

in sight.

Runway surface conditions are flooded.

Roger, 495.

NARRATOR: With wet runway conditions,

the crew configures the plane to make what's

called a positive landing.

A positive touchdown is when the main wheels penetrate

the water layer on the runway and improve the stopping

ability of the aircraft.

Gear down.

Gear down.

GARY GLANS: With a wet runway, you

do want to touch down at a positive firm rate

rather than trying to float down for a softer touchdown.

Altimeters?

Set three times.

NARRATOR: Four miles from touchdown, the pilots

make their final checks.

Spoilers?

Fine.

Flaps, slats.

5-0, land.

CORTEN HOVE: The left engine was making quite a noise

and a rattling sound every time it gave full power.

The plane was pitching up and pitching down.

So that was not reassuring.

Martinair 495, clear to land runway 11.

The wind, 150, 15 knots, maximum 2-0.

Cleared to land.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 is less than a minute

from touching down when the weather gets much worse.

Windshield anti-ice.

I can't see anything.

I'm on it.

Wipers are on fast.

It's OK. It's OK.

I was just squeezing her hands firmer and firmer with Yvonne.

It was dead quiet, the plane.

NARRATOR: The plane is now just a few seconds from landing.

CORTEN HOVE: All of a sudden we heard an enormous bang.

I fell out of the chair, and then I saw the kitchen splinter

into pieces.

I was pretty sure we were going to be crushed.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 slides more than 350 feet

off the runway at Faro Airport.

Firefighter and rescue crews raced to the site.

Incredibly, many of the passengers and the flight crew

survived.

There were people screaming, and crying, and running.

CORTEN HOVE: I didn't see my girlfriend.

My first thought was, oh, I won't ever see Yvonne again.

NARRATOR: Those lucky enough to escape search for loved ones.

CORTEN HOVE: All of a sudden, I heard my name.

Then I saw in the distance, I saw Yvonne standing there.

We found each other.

NARRATOR: The injured are taken to nearby hospitals.

GARY GLANS: Of the 340 people on board,

54 passengers and two cabin crew members

are dead, making this one of Portugal's worst aviation

disasters in more than a decade.

A detailed investigation is now

underway into why this plane hit the tarmac

and burst into flames.

See if we can find the flight recorders.

Got it.

NARRATOR: Investigators from Portugal's General Directorate

of Civil Aviation and from the American

NTSB arrived to inspect the wreckage

of Martinair Flight 495.

A DC-10 is a big aircraft and there

were pieces of it all around.

The right wing had dislodged from the rest of the aircraft.

The wing structure is the strongest structure

on whole aircraft, so it had to have a major amount of stress

to make that wing depart.

It's amazing so many survived.

PEDRO MATOS: The wreckage showed that the aircraft

was mostly destroyed by fire.

80% to 90% of the people who died,

died from the post-impact fire.

AL DICKINSON: We were very concerned.

Because if you have something that's

suspect on an aircraft that's being flown all over the world,

you want to find it.

That's great. Nice work.

Let's hope we get the data back quickly.

NARRATOR: Investigators recover the black boxes

containing the flight data recorder

and cockpit voice recorder.

PEDRO MATOS: We needed to try to understand what happened

in the final moments of the flight in terms of speeds,

in terms of decisions, and also what

happened just before touchdown.

Well, look at this.

NARRATOR: A quarter of a mile from the runway threshold,

investigators discover the aircraft's

initial point of impact.

There was a two inch deep cut down the left side

of the runway.

So it hit here and veered off to the right.

It's deep.

It must have come down hard.

PEDRO MATOS: The scratches we saw on the runway revealed

to us that the plane had landed very hard,

so that's why the marks were deep.

Maybe one of the engines failed.

PEDRO MATOS: Why did the plane land so hard?

Was it a problem with the landing

gear or was it a problem with speeds

or was it a problem with the engines?

So we need to investigate that.

Is that all of them?

Let's see what we've got.

AL DICKINSON: You always look at the engines,

and there was substantial damage.

We had to determine was there some kind

of malfunction in the engine.

NARRATOR: Investigators examine a key component

from the engine's oil block called

a magnetic chip detector.

A magnetic chip detector is a small, cylinder shaped device

located inside the engine's oil filter.

When an engine part wears, pieces or chips of broken metal

adhere to a magnet as they pass through the oil filter.

JOHN COX: It's known as making metal.

Why is there more metal on this detector than expected?

What part of the engine is wearing?

The alloys are slightly different.

They wear at different rates.

So they can tell by laboratory analysis

what part of the engine is wearing and how rapidly.

These look clean.

No chips.

NARRATOR: There's no evidence of metallic debris

inside the oil system.

The engines look fine.

From the tests conducted on the engines,

it was concluded that the engines did

not contribute to the accident.

AL DICKINSON: At this point in the investigation,

we really didn't have a good idea of what to look for next.

We just had to keep going.

This is very strange.

NARRATOR: They soon realize that part of the right landing gear

is broken.

The fact that part of the right landing gear fractured

is very unusual.

It's almost impossible to make it fail.

The forces necessary to shear the landing gear like that

is massive.

NARRATOR: Landing gear is designed

and tested to be able to withstand

the shock of a 200-ton landing.

It should never fracture.

Well, we had to confirm whether there was something

wrong with that gear in the metal used

or maybe the maintenance on it--

anything that could cause the gear to fail in any way.

And if it was a design problem, that's a big deal.

NARRATOR: The landing gear failing on impact

would explain this tragic accident.

Did we get this piece of landing gear in yet?

Not yet.

I'll put a rush in.

PEDRO MATOS: The landing gear collapsed.

That was perhaps the most important question

that we had to deal with.

NARRATOR: While investigators wait for the right landing gear

of Flight 495, they consider what could

have caused it to fracture.

Maybe the plane was too heavy.

If the aircraft were overweight and made a very firm

touchdown, then the loads imparted

could exceed the design limit, causing it to break and shear.

Let's check the load manifest.

The plane and the cargo were roughly 280,000 pounds.

There was 340 people on board.

Let's call it 53,000 pounds.

The fuel?

Fuel was 20,000 pounds.

So total weight on landing was 353,000 pounds, give or take.

Max weight is 424,000 pounds.

So these guys were 71,000 pounds underweight.

It wasn't too heavy.

NARRATOR: The weight of the plane

is not what caused the landing gear to fail on touchdown.

What about weight distribution?

AL DICKINSON: You have to have the baggage and the weight

distributed properly, so the aircraft will fly

the way the pilots want it to.

By the book.

It was properly loaded, properly

stored, properly locked down.

So it wasn't really an issue.

NARRATOR: With weight and balance ruled out,

investigators are finally able to test

the right landing gear itself.

Service records are up to date.

Let's see if the steel wasn't strong enough.

PEDRO FERNANDES: Another thing they

were looking for is any pre-existing weaknesses

on the steel.

If this occurred in the manufacturing process,

it could affect the aircraft in operations

all around the world.

NARRATOR: They performed something

called a Vickers hardness test.

JOHN COX: The Vickers hardness test is an industry standard

test to evaluate the strength of a particular component

or piece of metal.

NARRATOR: A pyramid-shaped diamond

is pressed into the steel, leaving an indent, or a dimple.

You can measure the depth and the diameter of the dimple,

and derive the metallurgical strength

of what you're testing.

Hardness value is 658, so the steel was strong enough.

NARRATOR: Investigators find no weakness

in the metal used to make the plane's landing gear.

PEDRO FERNANDES: It was determined there was nothing

wrong with the landing gear.

Whatever went wrong, it happened before the aircraft

touched the runway.

NARRATOR: There are still no clues that can help explain

why the landing gear fractured.

The next step in the investigation

was to look at how the crew was operating during the last phase

of the landing.

This is interesting.

NARRATOR: Official statements made by the pilots

may shed some light on the final moments

of Martinair Flight 495.

After the accident, the investigators

came to all three of us.

We had closed sessions.

The captain said the flight was normal.

The approach was normal.

"At 200 feet, we were on the center line."

So they should have been OK.

Mm-hmm.

But a few seconds later, the captain sees lightning.

"I suddenly felt a high sink rate.

It all happened so fast.

The aircraft actually fell out of the sky."

NARRATOR: According to the captain,

he saw lightning just seconds before the aircraft

began to lose altitude rapidly.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Sink rate.

GARY GLANS: The airplane felt like God took his hands,

rammed it into the ground.

Well, get this.

The first officer stated, "The weather was bad

and it was raining heavily.

It was gusty and very turbulent."

NARRATOR: Investigators wonder if sudden wind

changes could have contributed to the crash of Flight 495.

The flight crew indicated to the investigators

that they were in an area with a lot of wind shear,

a very dynamic weather condition.

They were in turbulence.

Things were changing very rapidly.

NARRATOR: Did the pilot encounter wind shear

on final approach?

The team interviews the air traffic controller

to better understand the conditions

the pilots were experiencing.

Can you tell me what happened with Flight 495?

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

They were on their final approach

and confirmed they had the runway in sight.

Then I cleared them to land.

CONTROLLER (ON RADIO): Martinair 495, clear to land runway 11.

The wind, 150, 15 knots, maximum 20.

The controllers were quite confident that they

performed well at the tasks.

So they didn't find that they did anything wrong,

and they gave the correct information.

Did they report any issues with the plane?

No, not at all.

What about the weather?

There was rain.

But other planes were taking off and landing without difficulty.

PILOT (ON RADIO): Martinair 461, runway visual.

NARRATOR: Just minutes before the crash, the controller

was in contact with an aircraft that took off

and another that landed on the same runway.

Clear to land runway 11.

NARRATOR: Neither flight reported extreme weather

over the runway.

What about wind shear?

Did the runway sensors pick up anything?

NARRATOR: Faro Airport is equipped with two anemometers

that measure both wind speed and direction, located

on runway 29 and runway 11.

If the anemometers detect a sudden change in wind speed

of 15 knots or greater, a wind shear warning

is automatically triggered.

Yes, there were wind shear warnings.

But they happened after the aircraft had already crashed.

NARRATOR: If Flight 495 was hit by an extreme gust of wind

before it crashed to the runway, the system

would have detected it.

It didn't.

PEDRO MATOS: There was a conflicting information

between what the crew said and what the air

traffic controller reports.

NARRATOR: The crew's statements don't

match with the controller's account of the weather.

Thank you.

AL DICKINSON: The best thing to substantially what went on

was to take a really deep look at what the pilots were saying

to each other in the cockpit.

NARRATOR: A week after the crash of Flight

495, data from the cockpit voice recorder

is ready to be reviewed.

FIRST OFFICER CLEMENKOWFF: Plenty approach with 50 flaps.

You call approaching minimums in field in sight.

You look outside.

Wet runway.

Here are the wipers.

Roger.

NARRATOR: As the crew prepares for the approach,

they become aware of weather conditions at Faro Airport.

You have to make a positive landing.

Yes.

OK.

So, obviously, they're worried about the runway conditions.

NARRATOR: In a positive landing, the aircraft

touches down firmly enough to penetrate the water,

allowing the wheels to grip the tarmac and slow the airplane.

They want to put it down hard to avoid hydroplaning

and running out of runway.

So what went wrong?

NARRATOR: Did the pilots somehow botch their plan

as they approached the runway?

CAPTAIN STAVEREN (ON RECORDING): 500.

FIRST OFFICER CLEMENKOWFF (ON RECORDING): Cleared.

CAPTAIN STAVEREN (ON RECORDING): Speed a bit low?

Speed is low.

Low.

OK.

Now speed is an issue.

JOHN COX: Going onto a wet runway,

the air speed control is very, very important,

so that you don't have too much and the airplane floats,

but that you don't have too little

and you end up impacting the runway quite hard.

All right. Let's hear more.

CAPTAIN STAVEREN (ON RECORDING): Speed is OK.

Windshield anti-ice! I can't see anything.

I'm on it.

Wipers are on fast.

NARRATOR: As the plane gets closer to the ground,

the crew contends with stormy conditions.

CAPTAIN STAVEREN (ON RECORDING): A bit low.

Low!

FIRST OFFICER CLEMENKOWFF (ON RECORDING): Yes.

Throttles!

Why does the captain yell, "Throttles?"

For the captain to say this at this moment,

it raises a question.

Did they have an issue in the final phase of landing?

All right.

Let's look at the descent profile.

NARRATOR: If Flight 495 flew in on the right trajectory,

the FDR will confirm it.

Here you go.

JOHN COX: The flight data recorder

gives objective, clear data on what

the airplane was actually doing.

Was the airplane being flown at the proper speed?

The changes in the airspeed-- were they indicative

of a severe weather condition?

And how were the pilots responding to those changes?

Autopilot is on.

OK.

So they're descending at the standard angle,

and they dip here and recover.

Looks fine.

At 200 feet, which is about 20 seconds from landing,

they were on a normal glide path.

Something happened between that and touchdown.

Let's look at the airspeed data.

So it looks like they're flying steady at 145 knots until here.

Then airspeed jumps

and then drops all the way to 139 knots.

NARRATOR: Investigators spot evidence

of airspeed fluctuations during the last minute of the flight.

AL DICKINSON: These fluctuations in airspeed

can be caused by wind gusts as they got closer to landing.

Speed is a bit low.

Speed is low.

Speed is OK.

NARRATOR: Was the captain concerned

their speed wasn't fast enough to compensate

for the strong headwind?

These fluctuations seem too extreme

to be caused by the 20-knot winds

reported by the controller.

We need a full analysis of the weather

conditions on final approach.

NARRATOR: Investigators asked the Netherlands Aerospace

Laboratory to perform an in-depth weather study

to determine if the winds were stronger than what

was reported to Flight 495.

What about auto throttle data?

Let's take a look.

Hmm.

Yeah, the fluctuations in auto throttles correspond

to the airspeed fluctuations.

If there is an increase in air speed, the auto throttle system

will decrease the power that is being commanded--

the amount of thrust that the engines are producing.

If the airspeed falls low, the auto throttle system

will command increase thrust to bring the airplane up

to the commanded airspeed.

NARRATOR: The auto throttles were

indeed adjusting for the dramatic changes in airspeed.

Wow. Look at that, 102% power.

NARRATOR: Investigators discover a very

high surge in engine power 3/4 of a mile

from the runway threshold.

The 102% command by the auto throttle system

is a massive amount of power.

It would be similar to the amount of power

that you would use for takeoff--

too much power to try to land with.

And then here power drops to 40%.

NARRATOR: The team discovers that the power

dropped to a minimum, or engine idle, shortly thereafter.

That's way too fast for the auto throttle system

to perform on its own.

For the engines to decelerate as quickly as they did means

that the levers were moved faster than the auto

throttle clutches can physically move them.

The only way the throttles would move that quick

would be if the pilot was manually

adjusting them down to 40%.

GARY GLANS: The auto throttle system

could make large corrections.

And you have to make manual adjustments if the throttles

aren't keeping up.

JOHN COX: The first officer, who was the flying pilot,

made the decision to override the auto throttle system

and to pull the power way back.

And, in fact, he pulled it all the way back to flight idol.

With so little power they would have dropped like a rock.

According to the data, they were

dropping 1,000 feet per minute.

AL DICKINSON: 1,000 feet is well beyond the operational limit

of 600 feet per minute for the DC-10.

NARRATOR: As a consequence of the reduced power,

the plane hit the runway with enough force

to crack the landing gear.

I've never experienced a landing as hard as that.

I crushed my teeth in my mouth.

It was hard beyond compare.

NARRATOR: Investigators are left with a key question.

Why would the crew reduce power by so much,

so far from the runway threshold?

This is the Dutch weather report.

NARRATOR: Investigators turned to a weather analysis prepared

by the Netherlands aerospace laboratory

to determine if the weather affected the crew's actions

during their final approach.

Looks like the weather was worse than we thought.

Really?

They hit no less than three separate micro bursts

in the last minute of flight.

Wow. OK.

NARRATOR: A microburst is a column of air

that descends from rain clouds, hits the ground,

and fans out horizontally.

It leads to significant fluctuations

in a plane's airspeed.

When exactly?

The first one was at 700 feet.

The second was between 600 and 300 feet.

And the last one was between 200 and 110 feet.

Now, this last one was the worst.

The wind speed jumped from the reported 20 knots to 40 knots.

Wow.

That would have triggered a wind shear alert if one

was installed on the plane.

Then the wind shifts from a headwind to a tailwind.

GARY GLANS: So a wind shear from headwind to a tailwind

is the worst type of wind shear, because a headwind improves

your angle of attack to ensure that the aircraft has

good lift.

When the wind switches around to a tailwind,

you lose that aerodynamic performance.

If you don't have the thrust to compensate for it right away

the aircraft will drop.

Let's compare this to the auto throttle data.

They line up.

Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: For every microburst there's

a corresponding increase in engine power,

as the auto throttles try to maintain the plane's speed.

The auto throttle was going up and down.

It was struggling very hard to fight

against those heavy down bursts.

The down burst causes a decrease

in stability, which means turbulence induced

roll and pitch oscillations.

Would have been a bumpy ride.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: As they pass through each microburst,

the auto throttles were adjusting

to the shifts in wind gusts.

PEDRO MATOS: In the final moments,

the approach was under extreme weather conditions.

There were a lot of oscillations in speed,

and that created a lot of stress for the pilot

flying at that time.

The first officer likely would have

been overwhelmed by the unexpected change

in the weather.

And knowing that he needed to make a positive landing

at the runway threshold, he sees the power spike to 102%

and takes corrective action.

NARRATOR: In order to get the plane on the ground,

the first officer overrides the auto throttle

and reduces the power to idle.

Investigators now see just how unfortunate his timing was.

He cut the power at the exact same time

that last down burst hit them.

Throttles!

NARRATOR: The captain tries to stop

the plane's uncontrolled descent...

...but he's too late.

The captain should have stepped in sooner.

AL DICKINSON: He should have recognized

something was not right.

The captain really should have taken over and landed himself.

NARRATOR: Investigators suspect the sudden change in weather,

combined with the pilot's decision to cut power too

early, caused the aircraft to land with more force

than it was built to withstand.

But one question remains unanswered.

If the winds were gusting at 40 knots a half mile

from the runway, wouldn't the winds at the runway

be gusting stronger than the 20 knots

reported by the controller?

NARRATOR: The team returns with their findings

to the air traffic controller who

oversaw Martinair Flight 495.

You reported that the winds on runway 11

were gusting up to 20 knots.

That's correct.

But that doesn't seem right.

The Dutch weather study confirmed that there were three

microbursts in the last minute of flight

with gusts much higher than that.

Can you show me the actual data for runway 11?

According to the raw data, the winds were

actually gusting at 35 knots.

Well, that sounds more like it.

But how could you have underreported

the wind conditions?

We receive wind data every 30 seconds from this device.

It must have been switched to runway 29...

...instead of runway 11.

NARRATOR: Investigators discover that air traffic controllers

at Faro Airport had mistakenly selected the wind reading on

runway 2 instead of runway 11.

JOHN COX: Airports are large places.

So when you have anemometers on opposite ends of the airport,

you would expect that frequently there

would be a difference in direction

in velocity of a reported wind.

CONTROLLER: Martinair 495, clear to land runway 11.

The wind 150, 15 knots.

Maximum 20.

Clear to land.

The controller's information that they provided to the crew

was not representative of what was actually

occurring on the runway.

PEDRO MATOS: Wet runway, crosswinds--

that's a completely different picture.

If the pilots were aware, they would have gone around.

NARRATOR: Investigators have figured out

what brought down Flight 495.

495 is turning inbound.

CONTROLLER: 495, copy.

Report at minimums or runway in sight.

Runway surface conditions are flooded.

Roger, 495.

Gear down.

Gear down.

NARRATOR: With the runway at Faro underwater,

the crew plans a positive touchdown

at the runway threshold.

CONTROLLER: Clear to land, runway 11.

The wind, 150, 15 knots, maximum 20.

NARRATOR: But they're unaware of the severity

of the weather conditions.

-I can't see anything. -I'm on it.

NARRATOR: They're hit by a series

of unexpected microbursts, causing the engine power

to shoot up automatically.

Concerned that the excess power is

too great for a positive landing,

the first officer reduces the power to idle just

as the last microburst occurs.

That makes them vulnerable to strong winds,

and the aircraft dropped from 150 feet.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 slams to the ground

at 1,000 feet per minute.

The danger of being slow and encountering a downdraft

is you may not be able to recover in time.

And that can be disastrous.

PEDRO FERNANDES: They could have come with a higher speed.

They could have performed a missed approach.

But the truth is, the flight crew tried their best.

This wasn't an accident where we can

see negligence or gross error.

NARRATOR: In the aftermath of their report into the crash

of Martinair Flight 495, investigators make

a series of recommendations.

This accident was going to be yet another example

of inappropriate wind shear recovery being

applied in a timely fashion.

So this says additional pilot training.

This says wind shear detection systems on airplanes.

This says a more aggressive approach to go-arounds

in unstable conditions.

NARRATOR: Shortly after the crash,

Faro Airport modernized their wind

sensors and displays to comply with international regulations.

JOHN COX: The critical information

that controllers provide to pilots needs to be accurate.

So these are some of the lessons that the industry

learned and implemented following this accident.

GARY GLANS: You know, one of the things

I was told when I was becoming a pilot is

never let your guard down.

You can be having a beautiful, wonderful flight.

And in the blink of an eye, things can change.

It's just ingrained in my mind, always

be ready for the unexpected.