Out of Fuel Over New York (Avianca Flight 52) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN
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- Опубликовано: 16 апр 2021
- On a cold and foggy evening in January 1990, Avianca Flight 52 faced a precarious situation. After being stuck in holding for over an hour, the entirety of the plane's fuel supply was exhausted. The engines shut down and the plane came down in the neighborhood of Cover Neck on Long Island New York. Just what happened? Why was this plane holding for so long?
Sources:
www.ntsb.gov/investigations/A...
www.almanac.com/weather/histo...
www.visualcrossing.com/weathe...
skyvector.com/
skyvector.com/files/tpp/2103/...
skyvector.com/files/tpp/2103/...
• Video
www.vaisala.com/sites/default...
www.tailstrike.com/250190.htm
apnews.com/article/1f7073d23b...
• Video
www.nytimes.com/1992/11/17/ny...
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I sure enjoyed this video, even if i have not watched it into it's entirety!
Can we get a video on the ACA143 flight?
A quality video, thank you. However I do wish your delivery were just a tad slower - at times it feels a little rushed, and your enunciation isn't as clear as it could be if you slowed down. P.S. Your Spanish pronunciation is good. :)
@@moviemad56 Not very difficult to keep up, although a couple of times I did pause it and rewind. Overall I thought it was good, but obviously not the best. Stay safe.
There should be a comma after "video". And "as" should be replaced with "because" or a semicolon.
The part where ATC asked if they had enough fuel to make it to the airport and then there's just silence makes my blood curdle. That silence was so so very loud
Well said. No bigger killer in aviation than ego. These pilots were beyond incompetent. Plenty of blame to go around with ATC, but ultimately it's the pilot's responsibility to make decisions, and they severely failed to do so. What's ashame is there's airports everywhere in that region. Had they declared an emergency at a reasonable timeframe, they'd have received priority (you get priority when declaring emergency, not when calmly mentioning you need priority ... piloting 101). Could've been diverted to one of the dozens of other airports in the region.
@@topspot4834 the pilot has made the statement “We are running out of fuel” and “Please give us priority” many time. In their language, priority means need attention immidiately. It’s those egg heads in the ATC that just change shift and take too long of time to clear them for landing.
@@NoName-sb9tp the problem is aviation has very specific rules to handle multi national and multi cultural issues, when fuel got to a concern level, Pan Pan Pan, should have been called, thats what ATC controllers are trained to respond to that and Mayday, you make one of those calls ATC drops what its doing and bends heaven and earth for you,,,, Now ATC Also should have paid attention to any plane citing fuel concerns and got either estimates from them or bumped them up the que, but the pilots needed to use the right words,,
@uwais msnn what was that jumbled mess I cannot read your comment...
If you think about what I'm saying you'll notice the same issues as Avianca and ATC had that night...this is why we have international standards and both English and French are the languages of trade...
@To Release is To Resolve no, they stated clearly that they needed to land, they were out of fuel, and they needed priority for landing. If they are egg head, your head must be some empty that you need to break a glass box to see what inside
The amount of poor communication by everyone involved and how easily this could've been avoided is just tragic.
The poor communication was more of the Flight Crew not being assertive and using wrong terminology for a critical situation. Should have long transmitted May Day to ATC.
The poor communication was
the first officer and his captain.
@@edwardrichardson5567 *I cannot believe with all those technology we have the control tower still cannot track how much fuel is left around its airspace* or standardize the communication as exactly how much a few we left, such as "Avianca Fight 2 hours 30minutes"
@@robertgittings8662 They could probably add that to the list of data an aircraft's transponder sends to ATC, and format it in a way that doesn't clutter the radar scope. But then you'd have to retrain every single controller on the proper understanding and use of this new feature. Expensive, time consuming, but doable if push came to shove.
@@robertgittings8662That would also add to the workload of the controllers. It should be up to the flight crew to know how much fuel they have and make it known that they need landing priority. Adding extra numbers and variables for the ATCs to keep track of opens opportunity for mistakes and errors.
The fact that anyone survived is incredible.
there would have been more if the seats didn't come loose.
No fuel = No fire
@@SomePerson_Online that too.
Yes, thank God every live ❤️
@@habeang304 no
Don’t apologize. The longer the videos, the better.
But not too long though. I love the way he puts them into bitesized videos. All of the facts and no crap.....and ad breaks 👍🏼
You're gorgeous. What is your ethnicity?
@@MrGrace who, me??
@@twinstarzeonx lmao! Yes, why not 😂
@@MrGrace well, thank you very much. Same goes for you…very handsome ☺️. I’m from uk
I think the stress should have started when they were about to miss their alternative airport in terms of both, the schedule and fuel reserve.
Absolutely! If you no longer have the necessary fuel to make your alternate, you’re already putting your plane and passengers at unnecessary risk.
@aaa it's always better, but not always simple to do that when in that situation
@aaa as soon as they were 10% of fuel pan pan should have been called...but due to a combination of the language barrier and stress of the situation it wasn't made clear that a fuel emergency was needed...
@aaa Staying calm is always necessery. But staying positive can be toxic. These pilots should have planned ahead and turned to another destination before they used up too much fuel for doing it so.
Then. they should have declared an emergency. What were they thinking? Were they not able to calculate and say we must land now or never? If your car has fuel for a 50 miles journey, you won't plan a 200 miles journey without money for fuel. Confidence will not take you anywhere when you need fuel. It's that simple.
@aaa with respect, you are mixing your apples with your oranges. Remaining calm and confident is all very well, but an emergency is an emergency. This flight crew handled a low fuel situation very poorly.
Just imagine walking out of your house and seeing a 707 crashed 10 feet in front of your house entrance. I am actually surprised the house wasn't damaged more. Why the FO didn't call in an emergency is just mind blowing. The only good thing about running out of fuel is that there was no fire after the crash which probably saved most of the people on that flight. RIP to the victims of Avianca flt 52.
Agree. I watched a different documentary on this same crash. The person being interviewed in defense of the deceased FO claimed how is "priority" different in North America vs South America etc. Needing priority to land can be anything from low engine pressure to a medical emergency in the air. I am so baffled as to why they did not use the correct phrasing. It also seemed that the FO was not assertive enough to ATC.
I was thinking the same
there could have been more survivors if the seats didn't come loose.
lack of an embankment would have been a much smoother crash
@@GiordanDiodato experts have warned about those seats before
16:31 “ I guess so, thank you very much “. The person in the cockpit who relayed that message didn’t make it sound like they were in danger of running out of fuel and that it was an emergency situation. His tone sounded like he was ordering lunch or something.
Agree 100%. His voice doesn’t sound like they are about to crash. Why didn’t he scream, or at least wake up the ATC ?!!
@@marimatsumoto372 agreed!!
Yeah...a fuel emergency isn't the time to be shy or coy with ATC. Seems like it was part language barrier but it's hard to not see the flight crew seriously failed to inform ATC of how seriously low their fuel levels were.
The "I guess so, thank you very much" got me so angry
That was after they missed their attempt at the runway and to me it sounded like the guy knew they were screwed at that point so he was just like "yeah sure whatever, thanks, were screwed now." like he was defeated because he knew there was no way they could make another attempt.
This first officer is the point where cool under pressure is no longer a good thing
Yeah, like to comment above that I was about to reply to along the same lines… I’m sure they hear that from pilots, somewhat low on fuel but who mainly are sick of holding and being delayed. Especially if they’ve been hand flying a long distance.
They should’ve been much more adamant (in whatever terminologies they used) Much sooner! and I’m only halfway or a little bit over halfway through the video. 😢
In defense of air traffic control, the guy said we are running out of fuel so casually that it could be assumed that they had at least enough fuel to land
Even pilote don't speak perfectly English, maybe he was saying, we don't have anymore fuel anf told otherwise, still controleurs fault.
Even pilote don't speak perfectly English, maybe he was saying, we don't have anymore fuel anf told otherwise, still controleurs fault.
@@calvindmncn8085 Your comment is very confusing. What are you attempting to convey?
@@EneTheGene what I say it's atc fault, captain was asking about fuel and the two don't speak perfectly English, he need to be sure that's the plane is OK, but instead he put them in wait, again, again and again
@@calvindmncn8085 But the first officer didn#t imply a low or critical fuel situation. It#s the crews responsability to make sure the atc understands that. He could have just made a pan pan call to get priority immediatly as well.
"I guess so, thank you very much." f-ing what!? Unbelievable with so many lives hanging in the balance.
ever heard of ESL?
@@GiordanDiodato so what? Don't work as a pilot if you cannot properly deliver the message. Also, he didn't know the word "no" in English!?
@@GiordanDiodato Shouldnt be flying if you cant communicate. Pretty simple.
Can't blame the ATC at all for this. The flight crew was incompetent at communicating their situation
I'm actually listening to your videos while cleaning so I don't know about the graphics, but your description is easy to understand for a non aviation listener and your diction is clear. I enjoy these videos a lot, thank you!
Also - I'll make a note of the word "gobbledygook". I like it. I want to use it more often in conversations.
I'm listening to this while cleaning too!
Omg i listen to these videos while doing homework lol
ME TOO I ALWAYS LISTEN WHILE DRIVING HOME FROM WORK. So I don’t see the graphics but his narrative is clear and nice.
Diction lol
It is often said accidents like this are the result of a chain of seemingly unrelated factors that, if combined in certain unforeseen ways, lead to catastrophe. This is no exception. Among the many sub-optimal behaviors displayed by the crew, one in particular fairly early on didn’t get much focus but effectively doomed the flight. And that was the failure of the crew to set a mandatory decision time where, regardless of their location relative to JFK, MUST abandon JFK altogether and go to their alternate in Boston. They did not do this, however, and only after their fuel level was too low realized that going to Boston was no longer viable. That put enormous risk on every aspect of the JFK approach to the extent there was no room at all for error. RIP
KC in DC well said. Your summary is very accurate.
swiss cheese effect
pre flight planning, yes. the pilot was exhausted from hand-flying. no room for error... then that fucking wind shear
This video is not complete, there was much more to this. It was the greed of the airport offcials and the sloppiness of the ATCs the major factors that caused the accidents.
@@royaltyblessed2454 - Exactly, more formally known as the “Reason Model,” for the man who postulated it - James Reason.
This is the best amateur Avianca 52 video I've seen. Just a few things to add:
- Hand-flying for over 6 hours should have been highlighted more in the video. It gave way to a tired and complacent atmosphere in the flight deck.
- Pilots were not informed of low-level windshear on approach, which almost led to a crash on their first approach. The dissenting statement from Mr. Burnett (final report, NTSB) did make a point of this.
- You did mention the Boeing fuel bulletin, but not the "at least 7000 lbs as the minimum indicated fuel quantity for landing". The FE didn't realize that the flight was running on emergency fuel until he started considering gauge inaccuracies.
Keep up the good work!
Not to mention that autopilot is more efficient in terms of fuel.
...bore off
@@iankemp2627 Yep, that is true, autopilots are better at reducing fuel consumption. It is so sad that a confluence of events had to lead to this disaster. :( Hmm, what if planes were powered by a reactor, and used electricity generated via an steam turbine to power electric ducted propellers? No need for jet fuel. But hey, that is just a shower thought. Reactors are heavy and expensive, and risky if a plane were to get into an accident.
A more feasible system would be a fuel monitoring software that could automatically locate the nearest diversion airport when fuel runs low.
May all the passengers and crew rest in peace for Avianca Flight 52.
The First Officers actions are infuriating. Talk about complacent. Why tf didn't he declare a fuel emergency after the Captain had repeatedly ordered him to do so?!
The captain could've done so as well. He knew the F.O. had not done as he was instructed and the captain was ultimately in charge.
@@anunpopularstance But as was stated in the video the Captain's english was poor. He probably didn't know the correct vocabulary to declare a fuel emergency.
well he assumed ppl would get , we are running out of fuel we need priority. obviously the world is full of dopes .
@@tankthearc9875 Thing is that in aviation you simply musnt make assumptions. You must estate everything plain and simple. They had an emergency and they should have said as such.
@@toumabyakuya its pretty silly they needed the one word, when it was stated several times they needed priority and running out of fuel. at one point they mentioned they cant make their alternative.
airtraffic settled for 40percent of the accident costs. shows they knew they were also responsible..
As soon as they got to NYC airspace they should've told ATC "I need priority landing, we are in our reserve fuel". Or declare an emergency if ATC is hesitant to land you promptly.
Flight crew really dropped the ball here
"Pan Pan Pan" "Mayday Mayday Mayday" "We have a fuel emergency" "We have an emergency, request priority landing"...so many ways to alert the ATC. Instead, the first officer seemed almost bored when ATC asked if they had enough fuel to circle around the island and he simply said "I guess so...". Those are not the words of a pilot commanding a plane that has less than an hour of fuel left...makes no sense!
the ATC also dropped the ball here they SHOULD have known that low on fuel means emergency regardless
@@kuro9410_ilust they literally asked the crew if they had enough fuel to be diverted 15 miles away from the airport, which the FO agreed to. Where's the ATC fault on that?
They were consistently under the impression that they would be given landing clearance shortly. The ATCs fucked up, not the pilots. Typical lazy, worthless union workers.
The pilot should have said I’m almost out of fuel I’m landing on the middle lighted runway so clear the f-in runway!!!
American Airlines flight 2 actually did that. There are videos with the audio
He was way too complacent.
"Almost out of fuel" and "running out of fuel" are relative terms. They need to say something like we have 5 minutes of fuel left or 1 minute of fuel left.
@@xonx209 Pan Pan Pan, Avianca 052 Heavy, Fuel Starvation, request emergency landing at nearest possible airport?
This channel is pure gold, every video is so well made on such a tight uploading scedule. Great work
Thanks a ton! Glad you like the videos. This is just a one person team too :)
@@DisasterBreakdown Just insane
He deserves way more views though..
@@DisasterBreakdown
A team consists of more than one person. I think what you meant was:
_"I'm flying solo."_
Great content buy the way.
100% AGREED
So much negligence on the part of the flight crew for burning through their alternate fuel instead of diverting to alternate like they were supposed to when they got to bingo........
This is the most heartbreaking and avoidable tragic disaster I've ever seen on this channel. It's utterly stupifying that this plane crashed cause it ran outta fuel over an airport!!! Smh
You should watch the air France crash, all pilot error, that one was heartbreaking.
Watch Air France 447
Honestly, seems like both ATC and flight crew had some pretty big screw ups come together for this one.
The first screw up chronologically is one not mentioned, that the plane was told to hold for a time severely exceeding what they where prepared for.
The second screw up was a failure of the engineer to use the word "emergency" even when directly told to.
The third was ATC's failure to note that the plane had 5 minutes of holding fuel left, and their general failure to react to that piece of information as seriously as it clearly deserved.
The fourth failure was the plane actually following through on instructions they should have known would put them far too close to running out of fuel for safety. After the failed landing attempt, the plane should have refused to ascend, repeat that they are minutes away from running out of fuel, and probably performed a water landing or immediately looped around to try again.
It is the responsibility of the flight crew to monitor fuel state so this is not the fault of ATC.
@@edwardrichardson5567 They where monitoring fuel and told the ATC about their low fuel. It is the ATCs responsibility to respond to information in an appropriate and timely manner.
@@piguyalamode164 - It is the responsibility of the crew to communicate their situation to ATC using standard phraseology and clear, unambiguous terms. It is also the responsibility of the crew to not accept a clearance which would compromise the safety of their aircraft. Aviation rules are quite clear on both of these points.
ATC also did not notify the Avianca crew of low alititude windshear reports.
It's all on the ATCs for not using their fucking brains and figuring out that "we are almost out of fuel, give us priority clearance" means "GET US ON THE GROUND OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE." Had the ATCs done their job, the flight would have made it down safely.
For the content you get,I rather pay you than some subscription to watch aviation disaster documentaries
Very nice made video.. Totally agreed
I really do not believe we can fault the air traffic control here. The crew should have declared an emergency in plain language, at which point they would have been given priority to land. I don't understand how they could run their reserve so low without seeming to be particularly worried about it.
Watch more documentaries about this accident. The ATCs were sloppy and irresponsible.
they flew from Colombia to NY by hand?! That's pretty fun, and probably degraded their range calculations somewhat along with all the holding patterns.
This is like the opposite of the 2 pilots who overshot their destination by more than an hour when they were bored (ahem, snoring)
This may be a stupid question, but if the autopilot had been working and was used, would that have used less fuel in the same way a vehicle cruise control usually does?
@@vickiweber4718 Yes and yes.
@@vickiweber4718 To piggy-back off Raymond, auto throttle also makes subtle fuel increases/decreases where manual inputs can be less efficient (just as the cruise control in a vehicle as you mentioned.
@@vickiweber4718 Yes. Not as much as modern hyper efficient systems, but even the 707's Autopilot would be more fuel efficient than hand flying by most pilots over that distance. An ex WW2 Bomber Pilot might have developed the hyper efficient fuel management skills to beat the autopilot when hand flying, but regular commercial pilots? not likely. (and even then it would almost need to be a pilot that was incredibly well trained in that specific task. So probably just Paul Tibbet's 509th Composite group. The B-29 squadron that dropped the nukes.)
I lived on Long Island when this happened. I remember hearing a very low flying plane go over our house, in the wind, rain, and snow outside. The next morning when I heard the news I knew what I heard was this airplane.
How do you hear a plane with its engines flamed out?
Worst thing to say/hear when the pilot says he has a problem:
"Radar Contact Lost"
I know right. It basically sums up everything in just a couple of words.
I've been binge watching these reports for days now. It's some strange psychology that these terrifying events fascinate me so much... Anyone else get the feeling of "peering over the edge", so to speak, when watching these videos?
@@winniepooh4894 also having all this knowledge on what can go wrong sets up horror scenarios in the mind whenever I think about my next flight.
I was an aircraft mechanic for 14 years in the Air Force, and I truly think these kind of videos would be very beneficial to a lot of young maintenance and aircrew guys and girls new to the Air Force.
@@justinwallace390 I have to agree most definitely! Also thank you for your service.
@@adamsanders3521 actually does the opposite for me. Because of all these situations over decades, the flights are now safer than ever.
I have the same feeling. I’m a very sensitive person so I’m almost always crying at the end of these episodes, however there’s this sort of need for me to hear the reasons why these kinds of accidents happen. Thankfully I’m not gonna be on a plane soon but I’ll definitely be nervous as hell when I have to travel.
Your content is so high quality! When I first watched you I assumed this was a short documentary from Netflix or something 🤣
Wow, thank you!
I comment for the algorithm, but I’m immensely impressed by the quality of your content
3:49 anyone else noticed the person going through the plane?😆
🤣🤣 yes
😂😂😂😂👻
There was a cargo door there?
@@atikulhussain7614 yes there was a door there, but the person’s head went through
Sooo....I’m getting on a plane right now....This’ll be fun to watch!
Still alive?
@@yagzyaw3948 nope, I died.
@@arandomthing2489 rip may your soul rest in peace.
@@arandomthing2489 where are u
@@kirilmihaylov1934 The bottom of the ocean
I’m sorry everybody can go back-and-forth when the surviving member of the flight crew said that nobody in the cockpit ever communicated anything to the passengers on the plane not even a brace for impact I put 100% on the flight crew
First Officer failed to warn ATC. "Pan Pan Flight 052, fuel priority! Pan Pan! That would've been clear as day to ATC.
Thank you Disaster Breakdown for being one of the few sources to treat this crash objectively, instead of using Avianca's Lawyers as the sole source of information (looking at you Mayday). To put the "we are running out of fuel" in perspective. EVERY Plane in the sky that night was grumbling about fuel. There was a major storm screwing up air travel on the US Eastern seaboard. Planes were in the air for hours. The ATC's were trying to get everybody on the ground as quickly as they could. and triaging the needs. But it was still up to the pilots to properly monitor and manage their fuel, to know their diversion limits and activate them. ATC didn't hand over fuel information about the plane to the next ATC because they had not declared a Pan or an emergency. The cause of this crash was not a failure of communication between ATC, it was a complete failure of communications and cockpit management by the flight crew. Avianca and its Lawyers have spent the past 25 years and millions of dollars trying to bombard the public with misinformation in order to cover that fact up and shift blame onto the FAA's ATC. The only misinformation attempt more blatant egregious and widespread continues to this day be the Dutch Governments Bullshit regarding Tenerife.
This took place 32 years ago today! Thanks for making the video, this was 1/4 mile from my house. At the time, I was 9 years old, my parents walked down the road to see what was happening, I stayed home with grandma. For the next few weeks we had to show ID to get into the village. Just today we walked up to see the site, still no tall trees where it impacted.
Great video. I grew up and currently live very, very, close to the crash site in one of the surrounding towns and my family had some friends on board. I was only 1 when this crash happened but according to a surviving family friend, she woke up inside of a body bag on the “triage” lawn. Haunting stuff.
What? They didn’t check if someone was dead before putting them in a body bag?
Loved the video! What's crazy is that, in fact, the dialect of Spanish used most commonly in Columbia (el seseo) would have made "emerjencia" sound even closer (like :eh-mer-HEN-sya:) to the English "emergency." Unbelievable to think that they were in such a dire situation and didn't communicate with any urgency...
Columbia?
My deepest regards to the family of the cargo handler at 3:49 who lost his head.
You saw that too? 😂
Ok I thought it was just me but I had replay that part a few times cause something just didn’t look right about it. Glad I’m not just seeing things.
@@jboisseau3 or not seeing things😂😂😂
Avianca settled with the family out of court for an undisclosed amount.
RIP
To the 73 passengers and crew of Avianca Flight 052
I went to the crash site that night and helped get a woman still strapped to her seat out of a tree. I could see the torso of one of the pilots also hanging from a tree.
Holy shit how did it it not hit that house?!? That's WILD.
Simple. Higher tree to house ratio.
Damn bro the graphis fresh af! You're real gifted with it -great job as always!
I lived in NYC when this happened. The weather was horrible that night. My boyfriend at the time was the son of a thoracic surgeon who lived near the crash site. He rushed to the scene, which he could see from his property. Many residents were able to reach the victims before 1st responders. It was complete chaos. RIP to the passengers and crew who didn't survive. 💔
I remember watching an episode of Air Crash Investigation that featured this accident. The real ATC recording is so much calmer compared to the acting in that episode 😀. When watching that ACI episode, it was pretty mindboggling why the controllers were so blase about the plane's condition. When listening to the real recordings and how calm the (co-)pilot seems to be, makes it a lot more understandable that the controllers weren't too worried. In addition to the Avianca crew never actually declaring an emergency, of course.
The episode is on YT and a80% of the comments are about how terrible the ATC were when it fact they weren't that way. People just get told or shown what to believe when it fact the pilots were at fault.
Imo no one shone in this incident. ATC, the flight crew & Avianca all failed the passengers to some degree.
For me though the biggest issue was the lack of English proficiency & lack of CRM in the cockpit. Though that isn't on the flight crew it is on Avianca. Avianca had many (16?) years to insist that the captain improve his English proficiency yet they didn't provide this. The captain had no idea what the first officer or ATC were saying. They could have been swapping recipes for all he knew. How can a captain effectively lead when he has no idea what's happening.
In short, wokeness can get you fucking killed.
Well at least the captain knew what "emergency" meant. He insisted multiple times, rather vehemently, that the F/O use that term to the controllers but the fool never did. Alas, it was the crippling nonchalance of the F/O that got them all killed.
Great video. I've seen a few full-length docs on this crash, but you've included all relevant information and a robust analysis in less than half the time. Your streaminling of the disaster timeline really helps highlight how the whole situation was tragic and avoidable.
Looking forward to the next upload.
Love this video series. So many of these disasters I had absolutely no knowledge of. Thank you for these detailed and sensitive retellings, given the tragic nature of these plane disasters. Keep up the superb work.
Excellent narration with an accurate display of clips and photographs in regards to the subject, a lot of good and real input! Thank you!
You have the perfect voice, tone and music for these videos, makes them deep and i always feel connected in some way with the people that died, it's weird.. Amazing and informative video as always..
its hard for me to understand that the crew did not communicate the fuel situation with an emergency
They offered $75000 to the survivors? Woohoo! You almost killed me but sure, 75K
is fine.
its 1990 so purchase power was alot higher and how much more would you want from them? lmao
Enough money seems to solve every problem. Really?
Very well done video. A most chilling recounting of what went on aboard that doomed flight. No need to apologize for the length of this video, it was time well spent. Thank you.
videos are always great quality and very informative with a lot of background information very glad I found this channel!
These videos are very interesting!
Thank you for making these documentaries
I am very familiar with this accident as I attended the NTSB Hearings in support of a professional organization I was with. Like most accidents, there were multiple factors that led to the outcome, but one that your otherwise excellent video failed to mention was, as the NTSB put it, "the airline's failure to utilize an airline operational control system" and this was listed as the first contributing factor after NTSB's probable cause statement. The listing of this lack of operational control ahead of all the other factors such as weather, ATC, and language difficulties is significant in that the lack of that operation control system set the very stage for the accident, and essentially loaded and cocked the gun that those other factors would fire.
What did US airline flights have that night that Avianca 52 didn't have? The answer is an FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher who was responsible for not only properly planning the flight, but also monitoring it after departure and providing the flightcrew with updated weather and delay information, and also monitoring the aircraft's fuel state. BOS was never a legal destination alternate due to the weather, and an alternate with better weather should of been used. Once the holding at ORF and BOTON had consumed so much fuel, diversion to a better alternate (such as IAD or BWI) within fuel range of the aircraft should have been initiated. The aircraft dispatcher had (under FAA Part 121 regulations) the legal authority and responsibility to declare an emergency independently of the captain. This didn't happen with Avianca 52 because, as a foreign airline, they were operating under Part 129 of the FAA regs, which reverted the flight to be operating under regs applicable to the airline's home country, which in this case were more lax.
Q
Great job visualizing the incident with flight patterns (even the "Mayday" series didn't do as good of a job!). It begs the question: why do air-traffic controllers not monitor the number/timing of holding patterns? I'm not saying they need to know the exact starting fuel of every plane in the air, but when you've had a plane in a holding pattern for 2+ hours for a 5+ hour flight, there has to be a point where the ATC should be concerned about fuel levels, independent of a specific declaration of "emergency". A colossal failure of communication from both sides, although in the end, it's the flight crew's responsibility to protect their passengers, which they didn't do (and left the crew in the back of the plane in the dark...not allowing them to tell passengers to brace, perhaps saving lives and many injuries).
It's almost impossible for a human to keep track of this sort of information. It's exactly why ATC, as well as piloting, should be performed by automated systems.
This flight crew was deficient from beginning to end, and that's where the story begins and ends. Everything else is deflection.
This is so disgusting so maddening. This occurrence totally totally did not need to happen. When I first heard about this occurrence decades ago I was angry with ATC but now I realize that the flight crew really dropped the ball on this one. Their conduct was totally unprofessional. They had a fuel emergency which got progressively worse and worse and they did...
NOTHING. Until it was too late. To be fair, JFK ATC has to eat some of the blame on this one because they were informed that this flight was critically low on fuel and did not immediately bring the plane in. Worse yet, after being informed that they were low on fuel, ATC handed this flight over to another controller and did not inform the other controller the flight was critically low on fuel. This is not acceptable either.
Thank you man,your channel is one of the best documentory *(that has avaition)* channels i have watched! I cannot wait for new documents on crashes!
Your videos are of such high quality, I’m amazed with the quality, amount of research, time taken, your passion, your channel is the entire package! Gunna binge watch a load of these amazing videos!
Instead of dramatising everything, you humanise everything, give us the hard facts, and report these accidents in a respectful manner, something I massively appreciate. I find aviation fascinating, but dislike a lot of TV shows because they dramatise everything and don’t focus as much on the facts, and come across as disrespectful with how much they sensationalise everything, which is extremely disrespectful when there’s loss of life, so your channel is an amazing breath of fresh air, factual, respectful, and extremely educational!
You are amazing. I can't believe a single person made this with such quality. Thanks!
I honestly love these videos. For some reason I’m scared to hell of planes but I love watching and learning about them. Great videos man. Love ya.
The FO didn't sound assertive enough in my opinion. It seemed as if he was driving down the road coasting on gas fumes thinking everything would work itself out.
I wait for your video every week. It's quite impressive how your channel has matured over the last year. Great work my friend great work
I'm so glad I found this channel 😍😍😍😍😍
The obvious lesson from this is never to have anything to do with anything that involves new york city.
They should have said "we are running out of fuel" as soon as it had started cutting into their reserve and not when they had barely 5 minutes of flying time left.
Great video dude, I didn't know much about this was so it was a really interesting watch.
I love how your videos are interesting but still short and entertaining
Glad you enjoy it!
I love your videos! I watched every one of them and wait eagerly every week! Keep up the great work
Love this channel, I press like even before finishing watching the whole video because I know it's going to be brilliant!
Normally I feel saddened and/or have a great deal of sympathy towards flight crews involved in these type of videos, but I'm simply just angry at the flight crew for their negligence. Especially the first officer.
God dam that music you use is so sad sounding and fits so well!
Your videos are brilliant, thanks so much.
That's amazing that people actually survived that
keep up the good work. this channel deserves more attention and support.
such a good channel. Found it today, and was shocked to see you only having 28k subscribers! Keep up the great work.
Great video. I much prefer this to the documentaries with the loud music and sound effects.
Thank you!
I’ve watched every thing out there on this flight yet still clicked your video and watched it start to finish! Keep at it and one day you will see 1 million subs!
Great video ! Thank you so much
So very sad. RIP and praise to DB for such a well presented video.
Just discovered this channel and am very impressed. You've definitely got a new sub and fan. 👍
You're videos are amazing. For one guy you do a phenomenal job.
Excellent video. Knew the background to this, but this has great clarity!
Good videos.look it, your in depth information is awesome and easy to listen to and not using words as my sight is limited so keep it up, thanks
I'm no pilot so excuse my ignorance as I ask this but, what stopped them from using the standard emergency "Pan” or "Mayday" calls?
Aren't these terms universally known and designed to express urgency? Can they not be used in a critical fuel emergency?
makes me wonder if they wasn't in so long holding patterns could everyone be around today, RIP to those who died very sad
Every other flight in holding patterns that day made it in safely, not sure why this crew needed extra hand-holding.
@John Doe How much flight time would it take you to kill 73 people, when it could easily have been avoided to begin with? Rhetorical question.
I don't mind your long videos because you are a very talented narrator and voice is quite pleasant to listen to. Keep up the excellent work you do. I'm sorry I can't show my gratitude by being a patron but I will continue to give positive feedback.
Your content is awsome my dude. Keep it up!!!
Thanks! Will do!
Great videos, I’ve just binged watched all of them!
By far my favorite air crash investigation channel
I do not know how I ended up watching your videos, but you can be sure that I am now subscribing!
I actually live 20 min away and I’ve seen the street where it originally crashed . They got luck because it is wooded and there’s water right next to it as well . Now it’s called tennis court ave and it happens to be on the same road that President Theodore Roosevelt lived which is crazy
It’s scary 2009 before all seats could withstand forces I flew on a fair few 747’s across the pond in early 2000’s up until 2009.
I really love this show. I watched them all within a couple of days, some more than once. Never miss s new one.
thank for this video, lovely.
Quality contents. You deserve more 🤗
Good work, informative.
Your videos are great, I hope this channel gains more traction
Kick ass video! Keep it up man
Great telling. Thanks.