Lost: the mystery of flight 447
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- PAUL COMTOIS. We don’t fly around on auto-pilot a lot, we have a lot of, you know, hands-on stick time.
- PAUL COMTOIS. You learn not to believe your body, because your body will lie to you.
- PAUL COMTOIS. I have flown on missions where I felt like I was in a hundred and twenty degrees of bank but Im looking at that gauge and it’s telling me Im flying straight and level.
- GLENN KING. OK here comes a very high degree 40 degree pitch up – 50 degree pitch up attitude – the aircraft is rolling.
- PAUL COMTOIS. You, you’ve got to unstall the airplane. The nose must go down.
- PAUL COMTOIS. It’s a mental battle, because yes I am flying on that gauge but man, I don’t feel right.
- PAUL COMTOIS. Ive got to be very careful for how much I pull back on that stick.
- GLENN KING. OK he started his recovery – you can hear the buffeting now, from the plane being loaded. PAUL COMTOIS. You see how fast it is.
- GLENN KING. That’s a lot of altitude. And he’s flying again.
- PAUL COMTOIS. The more we automate, the more we need to get back to the basics of flying. You know, when, when Im flying that fighter to the edges I am physically hands-on with stick and throttle.
- MARTIN ALDER. Stalling is not something actually that’s taught to transport category aeroplane pilots.
- JOHN COX. We know that based on the impact damage, that the airplane was nose-up, pretty close to wings level, with a high vertical sink rate when it hit the water.
- MARTIN ALDER. In any of these accidents they are chains of unusual circumstances and it only requires one of those links in that chain to be broken, to prevent it happening again.
- MARTIN ALDER. We believe that the aircraft was probably in an area of turbulence, which would have been challenging to fly.
- JOHN WILLIAMS. What’s possibly unusual in this storm is to have super-cooled liquid water this high up in the atmosphere.
- TONY CABLE. There is little doubt that the air speed systems failed in some fashion, probably due to icing, and that the aircraft went out of control from that point.
- JOHN COX. They were faced with multiple warnings, multiple system failures, at night, over water, unbelievably challenging environment.
- TONY CABLE. Crews can be very slow to get on to operating the throttles manually, which is very essential of course to maintain a decent air speed.
- PAUL COMTOIS. If you’ve never been there and you don’t know what to expect, the results are going to be disastrous.
- JOHN COX. They were not successful in surviving the event.
- JOHN COX. We do need to solve it, aviation does not do well with unsolved mysteries. We need to understand what happened that night out over the Atlantic.
- CREDITS 58:09 END
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47:39 |
If one wing stalls before the other, the aircraft rolls violently to one side... |
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47:45 |
…more like a fighter jet than a passenger airliner. |
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47:54 |
To recover from this stall, the Flight 447 pilot would require highly specialised skills. |
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48:10 |
This is the National Aerospace Training and Research Center, in Pennsylvania. |
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48:19 |
At the controls of his advanced simulator is Colonel Paul Comtois – a former US Air Force F16 Fighter Pilot. He believes that taking an aircraft to the extremes is a skill that only comes from direct experience. PAUL COMTOIS. We don’t fly around on auto-pilot a lot, we have a lot of, you know, hands-on stick time. PAUL COMTOIS. Not only does it give you the experience to fly in that extreme manoeuvring envelope, it gives you the confidence to be able to do it as well. |
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48:54 |
The simulator has the cockpit controls of a passenger airliner. |
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49:00 |
But unlike conventional simulators, it moves like a fighter jet… …spinning on three axes, to take pilots to the limits of human physiology. PAUL COMTOIS. You learn not to believe your body, because your body will lie to you. |
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49:17 |
Comtois is flying in the dark – with no visual cues from the outside world. Instead, he must rely on his instruments. PAUL COMTOIS. I have flown on missions where I felt like I was in a hundred and twenty degrees of bank but I'm looking at that gauge and it’s telling me I'm flying straight and level. |
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49:37 |
Instructor Glenn King is about to trigger a violent manoeuvre… …like the stall that may have hit Flight 447. GLENN KING. OK here comes a very high degree 40 degree pitch up – 50 degree pitch up attitude – the aircraft is rolling. |
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49:51 |
The simulator sends Comtois into a head-spinning roll at 35 000 feet. |
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PAUL COMTOIS. You, you’ve got to unstall the airplane. The nose must go down. |
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50:04 |
He has to get the air flowing over his wings. By ignoring his own senses, and trusting the instruments. PAUL COMTOIS. It’s a mental battle, because yes I am flying on that gauge but man, I don’t feel right. |
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50:20 |
He’s regaining control – but the ground’s still coming up fast. PAUL COMTOIS. I've got to be very careful for how much I pull back on that stick. |
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50:30 |
The danger - he might stall again, as he tries to pull up. GLENN KING. OK he started his recovery – you can hear the buffeting now, from the plane being loaded. PAUL COMTOIS. You see how fast it is. GLENN KING. That aircraft’s trying to G-load, starting to load up the Gs, the airspeed is very high. GLENN KING. Recover, Paul. PAUL COMTOIS. Phew! GLENN KING. That’s a lot of altitude. And he’s flying again. |
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51:04 |
Comtois finally recovers control. But despite years of jet fighter experience - the Air Force Colonel lost 19 000 feet. More than half his altitude in just 45 seconds. |
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51:19 |
CAPTION: RECONSTRUCTION |
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51:22 |
Most airline pilots have no such experience. |
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And Auto-pilot means they do little hands-on flying. |
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For Tony Cable, the case of Flight 447 highlights critical training issues. TONY CABLE. It has raised the question, about whether the situation is actually being made worse by the increase in automation, whereby crews don’t get a great deal of opportunity to manually fly the aircraft. |
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52:02 |
Paul Comtois agrees. PAUL COMTOIS. The more we automate, the more we need to get back to the basics of flying. You know, when, when I'm flying that fighter to the edges I am physically hands-on with stick and throttle. |
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52:21 |
Standard airline flight simulators don’t have the freedom of movement to recreate extreme manoeuvres. MARTIN ALDER. Stalling is not something actually that’s taught to transport category aeroplane pilots. MARTIN ALDER. We’ve gone from pilots who’ve had experience of some of the more extreme manoeuvres, to pilots who very rarely see them. |
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52:49 |
But the wreckage of Flight 447 suggests the pilots may have come close to saving their passengers’ lives. JOHN COX. We know that based on the impact damage, that the airplane was nose-up, pretty close to wings level, with a high vertical sink rate when it hit the water. |
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53:08 |
Did they somehow manage to get upright and level - before running out of time? |
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53:19 |
Without further evidence - this is one question the investigators can’t answer. |
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53:33 |
A year after the accident, the search for Flight 447’s black boxes continues. |
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53:40 |
This is what the official investigation is looking for... |
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…but Flight 447’s black boxes stopped transmitting location signals after one month. |
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53:56 |
They’re still lost - in an underwater mountain range, two and a half miles deep. JOHN COX. The only way that we’re going to find complete and total understanding of what happened to that airplane is if we’re fortunate enough to get the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder. |
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54:15 |
If the black boxes are recovered, they’re likely to prove there was no single cause for the accident. MARTIN ALDER. In any of these accidents they are chains of unusual circumstances and it only requires one of those links in that chain to be broken, to prevent it happening again. |
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54:33 |
From the existing, limited evidence, our independent team has linked together the possible chain of events. No single link is fatal in itself. But together – they provide the most convincing solution so far to the mystery of Flight 447. |
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54:56 |
Just before 2:10 am, Flight 447 flew into a 250 mile wide Atlantic storm. A possible reason – it was hidden from the aircraft’s radar by a smaller storm. MARTIN ALDER. We believe that the aircraft was probably in an area of turbulence, which would have been challenging to fly. |
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55:20 |
The next link in the chain…. The storm clouds contained a rare form of water. |
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JOHN WILLIAMS. What’s possibly unusual in this storm is to have super-cooled liquid water this high up in the atmosphere. | |
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55:36 |
Then - another unforeseen event. Flight 447’s pitot probes develop a problem. |
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All 3 of Flight 447’s vital pitot probes - froze. |
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TONY CABLE. There is little doubt that the air speed systems failed in some fashion, probably due to icing, and that the aircraft went out of control from that point. |
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55:58 |
The automatic flight systems failed…. ..forcing the pilots to take back control. JOHN COX. They were faced with multiple warnings, multiple system failures, at night, over water, unbelievably challenging environment. |
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56:12 |
In similar, previous incidents, pilots did not take control of the vital thrust levers - as is standard procedure. TONY CABLE. Crews can be very slow to get on to operating the throttles manually, which is very essential of course to maintain a decent air speed. |
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56:35 |
If they lost too much airspeed, the potential high altitude stall would have been far beyond most airline pilots’ experience. PAUL COMTOIS. If you’ve never been there and you don’t know what to expect, the results are going to be disastrous. |
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56:50 |
But in the final struggle, it’s possible that the crew almost saved their passengers…. …before a second, and this time terminal stall. JOHN COX. They were not successful in surviving the event. |
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57:07 |
A compelling theory, based firmly on the available evidence. But until the black boxes and their vital data are recovered, there can be no definitive proof. Aviation experts will continue to be troubled… JOHN COX. We do need to solve it, aviation does not do well with unsolved mysteries. We need to understand what happened that night out over the Atlantic. |
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57:39 |
CREDITS |
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58:09 |
END |
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folders -> Avg internet Security Protection Jan 23, 2011 Continuing Protection Service Automatic Renewal and Electronic Fund Transfer Authorization
folders -> Scan for Information
folders -> Statement on Measures Taken by the faa to Prevent Runway Incursions ~ January 2003 ~
folders -> Team Around the Family Meeting
folders -> What we have recently witnessed with the events involving the Canadian Coast Guard diving team’s restricted entrance into the waters off the coast of British Columbia is just another example of Transport Canada’s lack of funding
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