One thing I love about this channel is that they always leave text on screen long enough for me to be able to read all of it. It's a small detail but you'd be surprised how many other channels will have on screen text up for like only 5 seconds and take it off before you get to read all of it, so you gotta rewind the video, pause the frame and finish reading the text before continuing on.
It's not a prob, press pause as you said. TV is worse, I barely get thru 2 lines of say 4 lines & off it goes. Why don't they just read it & then edit on that. Sometimes you get narration & also a running scrolling text at same time. I only have one brain!
I can’t imagine how absolutely terrifying this experience must have been for the passengers. This is everyone’s worst fear when getting on a plane. Total nightmare fuel for sure.
When you have no outside horizon/land reference, [IMC] spatial disorientation kicks in to the point you can't tell even if you are upside down. The terrifying part began when the aircraft broke up combined with how long they remained conscious.
Aviation is unique in always having a 'No-blame' culture (unless there is extreme negligence, of course). Every crash/ incident makes aviation safer. It's often said that flight checklists & procedures are written in the blood of departed colleagues.
At that speed with a plane breaking up, there is an extreme change of pressure and freezing temperatures at the high altitude and lack of oxygen but most of all, the pressure change and high-speed would cause their lungs to explode and kill them almost instantly but even if that didn't happen, they would quickly lose consciousness.
@@melisentiapheiffer3034 and if there’s a heavy post crash fire the bodies will actually start melting leaving you a very stiff “crispy” charred body that is almost impossible to identify.
It amazes me that TheFlightChannel is able to recreate these incidents so well. I am training to become a pilot and I enjoy watching these videos so I can learn from other pilots’ mistakes. Thanks for being such a great RUclipsr. 👍
@@cchabaudie8395 I work for Copa Airlines. I'm not sure why the website says their fleet is all 737-MAX, since pretty much 80% of their fleet is composed of 737-NG. Maybe it's a marketing thing from the time they received their MAXes. The airport I work at, we only see a 737-MAX like twice or thrice a month.
@@cchabaudie8395 The 737MAX issue has been fixed since, they were kept on the ground for a long time, till Boeing solved it. Those planes fly daily by thousands and no new incident has been recorded...it's actually one of the most checked planes that exist, because of the two crashes.
@@aliceswanderland I can personally attest to this statement. It is, as a consequence, one of the most scrutinized of aircraft in commercial aviation. EDIT: It kind of boggles my mind, that it would not occur to a pilot with that much experience to switch gyros. Maybe he was very tired or otherwise distracted by some other issue (i.e. a fight with his wife the night before). There was no mention of spatial disorientation, but I suppose that is obvious as if it were not night flying they probably would have had some ground/horizonal visual reference. Very strange accident and I have to wonder if pilots should have night vision goggles available to them? (of course at 25,000 feet, no mention of forward visibility, weather at their present position, so no assurances there necessarily) I mean, if a pilot has any inkling that it could be some instrument malfunction, they can at least hand fly to recover rather than just yanking the yoke right blindly and incessantly.
@@hofahome sadly not. Passengers were more than likely alive until impact. Some may have gotten lucky and passed out due to the change in pressure and oxygen but sadly majority most likely were alert and aware when they made impact.
@@Idky547 not at those speeds. Def not. Pressure change, temperature, and extreme g forces would cause quick unconsciousness at least but more likely their lungs exploded. They either were killed almost instantly at that point but definitely unconscious.
@@cantfindmykeys Avianca used to be a classy airline, one of the first airlines in the Americas (a Colombia airline), but not it's become pretty much a low-cost airline that charges like a high-cost airline. Their service nowadays is absolutely terrible.
@@lauvasquez8030 I agree. I live in Colombia. I expected to have a nice experience when I flew from San Jose to Bogota on Avianca. The ticket cost almost $1000 for first class and the flight was less than 3 hours. It was dinner time and they gave me a small bottle of water and some crackers. I asked why they gave me bird food instead a proper dinner. It was uncomfortable and the attendants were not friendly and neither was the pilot during his announcement. Rough landing, too. American first class was less than $300 from Miami to San Jose, same time in the air. They gave me anything I wanted to eat and drink. I had 2 dinners and 3 desserts, lol. Because I was only allowed to take my mask off while eating, I decided to eat the entire time. Anyway, I like the Airbus better than the 737 but American Airlines treats you so much better. Avianca doesn't do anything to justify the price of the ticket. And they don't seem to care if you are comfortable or hungry, either.
@@cantfindmykeys Yeah they should be ashamed of themselves for calling that first class, what an awful experience. Now in economy the don't even offer water
@@lauvasquez8030 Not even water? That's outrageous, especially the price of their tickets. I got a tiny bottle for a thousand dollar seat. What cheap bastards. Sounds like they need some healthy competition. They are they only direct flight from San Jose to Bogota.
I've been away for a short while, however the graphics on this video are a major improvement to the previous vids I've seen. Using my "pause" I can read all your verse and still watch the screen. I'm liking the new improved Flight Channel. Kudos and looking towards 1.5M subs.
@Snoopy And that airflow would likely be very fast as the plane had exceeded mach 1. Mach 1 due to dive. Mach 1 which broke up the plane, opening the cabin to the external airflow...... So, yeah, the dive speed was the root cause of high speed airflow in the cabin.
@Snoopy Well I think that we agree on most of this. With one exception. I was responding to your statement about the high speed air flow in the cabin. You said: ====== what tore their clothes off. Not the speed of the dive ====== I disagree. The speed of the dive caused the breakup with resulting high speed air in the cabin. If the dive speed had remained below Vne, there would have been no breakup and the cabin air flow would have been normal,,,, till the ground reached up to smite them! So as I stated the dive speed was the root cause of their clothes being blown off........ PS Great screen name. Been a dog lover all my long life. Sadly my two old, sick dogs died last year. And I am getting too old to be able to take proper care of another....(Sigh)
@Snoopy There have been a handful of other accidents involving defective ADIs, when the backup was operating properly, yet the plane still crashed :( Not sure if all of these were the result of inadequate training, or some sort of CRM issue as surely the FO would have been able to cross-check the indications on his own panel, not to mention the backup instrument. Very sad :(
4 hours old and this video has already got 1.5k likes 😮. Easy to see why - the videos are first class, so professional. This sounds like everyone’s worst nightmare of a flight!
I am 65 years old and a blind folded passenger. After this video, I will tell all airline pilots to bring a portable pendulum box and an oil filled small nautical compass. Place those on the navigators table for teamwork recheck of aircraft course and bank during flight. Thanks.
Pendulums don't work like that I aircraft because the aircraft doesn't fly in a straight line when it's banked, the forces from the turn will balance the forces acting on the pendulum from gravity, meaning regardless of the bank angle the pendulum will be pointing more or less towards the floor of the cockpit. You have to have a precision gyroscope (or modern electronic equivariant) to be able to judge the bank angle without outside reference. If you try to use a pendulum alone you will have a 100% chance of death.
Imagine routinely getting on a flight like normal not realizing you’ll be plummeting to the earth in a little while. I couldn’t imagine their final minutes. At least it was quick at the end.
From almost the first day of flight training, it's pounded into your head to trust your instruments. But when your instruments are lying to you........
One aspect of this, if it had been daylight hours, they might have realized the instrument reading was wrong. Seems to that flying at night and/or through clouds makes correcting these kinds of events pretty much impossible. So sad for those people. Another great presentation. Thank you!
That’s why I think too. They might’ve recognized the error had it been in the daytime. Unfortunately, their training during nighttime is to trust their instruments.
@@wxwaxone Except the one backup in the center panel that seemed to be working correctly, at least, in the re-enactment here, and that's the 'emergency backup ADI'. If they just looked at that one...
I've flown countless times on a Boeing 737 and never once did I get the feeling that something might go terribly wrong...On several occasions I had to endure strong storms in mid-flight, with the aircraft moving violently and feeling airsick, but I never really thought we might crash....The 737 always gave me the impression of a rugged, strong plane. Now, after reading about this episode, I'm not so sure I'll fly again on a similar happy-go-lucky mode...!
If they did less and left most of the work to the autopilot, there would be FAR fewer crashes!. In this case the Pilots seem totally incompetent and out of their mind for not feeling the G forces or using visual/gut clues about the Aircraft's bank angle (leaving the procedural inaccuracies aside) this was shameful and imo a kid with some experience of flight sim could do better. 😔
@@BroBytesBhai Agreed but there is a growing concern within the aviation industry that perhaps today's pilots are relying too heavily on the automation and in some cases are not being adequately trained to fly the plane manually. Automation has made huge improvements in safety, but it should never be a complete substitute for having a highly trained pilot at the yoke. Also, I feel the need to point out that when a plane is maouvering at speed, the g-forces don't always give the pilot an accurate indication of which way up they are. It's quite possible, in a fairly tight turn, for example, for the g-forces to press you down into your seat sufficiently that you may feel that you're the right way up, despite having a fairly steep bank angle. This effect can very easily lead to dangeous levels of pilot disorientation, especially at night, and has been a contributing factor to far too many fatalities. It's a surprisingly common effect and can catch out even the most experienced pilots :(
The speed of sound and getting the clothes ripped off those poor people went through a lot. Thank you for providing this the music and being able to read the titles.
`TBH if your instruments play tricks like this and its pitch black outside not sure what chance you have. To my eyes the cockpit view is so disorientating at night!
@@rob9999i Well the thing is, the FO instrument and the backup were working fine. If they had compared the FO instrument with backup, it would have been very obvious the captain's instrument was wrong. That's where CRM and training play a vital role.
Awesome explanation to what occurred with this aircraft. I love flying but man tragedies like this makes you rethink flying sometimes. Continued rip and prayers for the passengers and their families
Pilots ' fault BIG-TIME. They get paid for these very situations otherwise the autopilot is what's flying the aircraft. SOPs not followed and brain dead handling of the situation makes me question their incompetence
Problem appears early - with initial cockpit setup before engine run. Standard setup is every inertial system should be feed from own source: left from 1, second from 2 and standby always from own 3. This setup allows voting for eliminate potential input data error quickly.
Only one technical failure - the ADI, an instrument that can fail & they have other instruments as well as an easily-seen backup ADI to cross-reference to. The two biggest failures were the fools sat in the two front seats.
@@BroBytesBhai yes sure, easiest thing to blame pilots. Definitely can see that you don’t have any close relation ( nor information) about this accident or aviation itself.
In the case of Colorado spring the rudder actuator was jammed producing left rudder when the pilots were actually giving right rudder, and vice versa (same for usair 427 accident) . No similarities with Copa where the plane followed the pilot's input (although they were wrong because of the attitude indicator)
Oh finally you got a video about this one! Their only fatal crash (Copa Airlines). There was a documentary here on RUclips about the recovery of the wreckage, it was pure nightmare fuel since it was very graphic and uncensored. Very awful accident.
I spent ten years as a Captain on several variations of the 737. My airline training taught me to immediately go to the standby artificial horizon if there was a malfunction in the primary instrument. This crew failed to do that. Very unfortunate.
No, you are wrong. The crew immediately changed the artificial horizon to the co-pilot, the other other one that was working properly (in addition to the stand by artificial horizon in the center). But this is what happened: In training cockpit, not the real plane, when (this is an example, i don't remember the real direction) you turned the switch to the left, it changed the pilot's artificial horizon to feed data from the co pilot artificial horizon. The one that is was working. This is what the pilot did immediately. But there was a problem, that the pilot didn't knew, and didn't realized: In the real plane, this specific switch was working the opposite way compared to the training cockpit on the ground: When you turned the switch to the left, it made the two artificial horizons of pilot and co-pilot to feed data from the pilot's artificial horizon!! The one that this time was not working correctly!! Of course, there was the stand by artificial horizon that was working correctly. But until the pilots realized what was happening, and because they wanted to turn, they lost control of the plane. I wonder if it was the first time in this flight that the specific artificial horizon malfunctioned, or it had happened before in previous flights but they had not repaired it immediately.
@@george-op9dw Yes, the switch was positioned incorrectly. But given what was happening , I can’t understand why they didn’t compare the standby to the primary and go to the standby. I guess they had different training in the simulator than we did.I remember having to use that switch in flight a couple of times because the same thing happened to me. By the grace of God we go. Another thing I remember is seeing a red flag come in view on the instrument when it malfunctioned. It would stay there until you fixed the problem. Their airplane maybe didn’t have that.
when you realize that you are going to die, fortunately, the body switches to calm mode, breathing becomes shallow and we close our eyes and the light goes out.
When this started I wondered why they didn't check the F/O's ADI or the standby ADI. Obviously these pilots were not very familiar with the A/C workings. Where does this compare to the rudder hard-overs so many 737's experienced? Totally different cause here.
It is radar hard-over. Multiple 737 similar crashes with different allegibale causes!simply transparent cup of wine could replace the ADI in an emergency.
@@Barkevshadian dont go making stuff up. glass of wine wont work. a banked plane is turning creating centrifugal force which will point everything towards the planes floor, including your wine
@@Capecodham F/O......First Officer. He has an identical set of flight instruments in front of him. They have separate inputs than the Capt. A/C redundancy.
I've seen all the real life accounts of just about every one of these crashes on a show called, "MAYDAY: Air Disasters". And I've gotta say, your rendition of the events is spectacular. Great job to everyone behind these vids. Subscribed!
@@akpokemon Attitude indicator was correct. It’s a back up to the primary flight display. Doesn’t depend on electricity. If you watch the video again, you’ll notice the instrument to the right and a little above the pilots main flight instruments indicating the actual and true pitch and bank angle of the aircraft
Seems at if that switch would/should have been on a pre-takeoff checklist, set to the center/both position. Then in the event of an odd reading, the crew would quickly compare readings for both the Captain and FO ADI, and compare with the backup ADI. This quickly identifying the faulty ADI. That’s the point of the 3rd backup ADI. What about the checklist? Pre-flight and possibly during the event? BTW, I am a licensed pilot. As an aside it’s easy to do smooth rolls and other maneuvers, winding up in an unusual attitude, all while pulling only 1 or a bit more G force. The inner ear can’t detect the unusual attitude. Same for pendulums and all the other suggestions made by non-pilots. The main issue is simply that the switch was in the wrong position and the pilots just didn’t check the two good, working ADIs. Due to lack of procedure, checklist, Crew Resource Management, and basic piloting.
@@adamw.8579 So it would seem that this point must have been raised in the accident report as a key factor in the crash, but there was no subsequent discussion about this in the video after noting the incorrect setting.
@@petergaylord4241 In "Air Crash Investigation" document movie is detailed explanations. It was more behind doors. For example trainer simulator had other overhead panel configuration in this area, left and right gyro source was swapped. Center as usually was "normal" but left and right positions was reversed. Is very plausible so captain switched sources based on memorized position but not visually confirmed this.
They had a backup ADI in the middle which was functioning. My gosh, they forgot how to use the equipment available to them and hand fly the aircraft. RIP
Even if anyone survived, the Darien Gap is the most inhospitable region of Latin America. It's the only place where there is no road or railway - and the reason why you can't travel from North to South America and vice versa via land - because it's a huge dangerous jungle.
Despite this, thousands of immigrants cross the Darien weekly to risk their lives in search of better opportunities. Many die trying to cross it, for obvious reasons. It's a super hostile jungle.
I remember seeing this in air crash investigation! On the simulator, the switch was: "Left ADI from Right | Normal | Right ADI from left" On the aircraft, it was: "Both from Left | Normal | Both from Right " That might be a big part of the problem!
What happened after the crash? It must've taken a while for people to get to the crash site. Did the jungle catch on fire? Were there issues getting there? The Darién Gap is one of the most dangerous places on Earth due to not only the terrain, but the presence of very dangerous criminals from what I hear.
It is absurd design to have independently fed VG displays (1 & 2) that the pilots can switch back and forth between, but when set to view both, they resort to both being fed by a single feed. In this case, both displays were fed by the Captain's ADI, which was faulty. If he had switched from VG 1 to VG 2, it would have dIsplayed info. from a separate, presumably correct source. To have 2 displays using a single feed completely negates the entire point of having separate feeds. The possibility of confusion is almost 100%. I'm completely stunned and baffled at what seems to be a glaring error in the design. Unbelievably bad.
in normal mode each is independently fed. the correct move would have been to put them in normal, notice they disagree, then make micro adjustments while monitoring speed and altitude and all other indicators to see what lined up with which display. possibly the reason they decided to turn around was because they noticed they disagreed, but incorrectly decided the captains was the working one.
It seems like there are a lot of ridiculous Nonpilots in the comment section, Research about spatial disorientation it's almost impossible to notice bank, pitch, or yaw without external references or instrumentation... For those saying they should just look through the windows at NIGHT over the jungle and with maybe some clouds, you don't know what are you talking about or haven't flown on a real airplane at night... This problem is called partial panel and it's something we pilots train for and it's pretty difficult to catch something failed quickly, this was a problem with a poor crosscheck and airline training and procedures, don't be so quick to judge pilots when I am pretty sure you don't even have 1 hour of flight at night :)
In flight simulator, the switch to the gyro source had the opposite direction compared to the real plane. So, the captain changed the switch to the wrong selection, without even realising it.
It seems to me , the real problem in this incident (and many others) is the pilot's lack of understanding how systems work. If they knew how their particular ADI functions, they would have known that it could malfunction due to faulty data. Pilots are trained to almost blindly depend on ADI--more than their g-feelings and even more than their eyes. In most cases, that is the correct approach--unless the ADI itself is faulty. This is exacerbated by the fact that some ADIs are simple self-contained mechanical devices that are virtually fail-proof, thereby causing a false confidence in the particular device. Again, the failure is in poor or insufficient training that leads to a lack of systems understanding.
True, but there is an understandable human factor here. Correct, the training must be to generally blindly trust the instruments, as not trusting them is what causes the overwhelming number of accidents if there is a conflict between the two. But seems like there wasn't much time here from the realization that something was wrong until it was too late. You'd usually troubleshoot all other possibilities before getting to faulty instruments since they're so redundant and reliable as you pointed out. I wasn't there but I can see how that probably didn't even occur to them in that time span.
@@Mk-qb2ny Agree with you in all respects, I just believe a better understanding of the L-BOTH-R function and why it could become necessary to use it would have been helpful.
June 6, 1992: A faulty gyroscope is the leading theory why Copa Flight 201 ended up crashing. But soon, another shocking conclusion arises: the crash could have been averted if the pilot hadn’t flipped a switch the wrong way.
So what happened to the pilots sense of correct gravitation? I mean, if you are unsure of the banking, just try standing up. Or the fall of hair or something heavy. Don't they have something mechanical in their cockpit, that just reacts to physics, like a snow globe?
The medical answer is very complicated, but put it this way. The brain doesn't work like you think it does, especially when the eyes see something the ears (balance system) don't agree with. And it gets much worse when you are moving. To give you an idea for how bad it can get, and how fast, a group of pilots rated VFR (they can only fly when they can see) were given a simulation of flying in the clouds and told to "just fly straight". Not a single one of them made it to five minutes. Most were dead in 45 seconds. This is why pilot training is so important. At some point in their career, what they see and feel, and what their instruments tell them will be radically different. They have to be trained to know what to do. Ask any instrument pilot what happened the first time they got "the leans." EDIT: grammar
Have you ever been in a plane where it was banking at a steep angle but the liquid in your drink stayed in the glass? If the plane banks a certain velocity, it feels exactly like you aren't banking at all. Before gyroscopic instruments were added to planes, pilots flying at night would crash frequently because there would be no frame of reference to tell if they were flying level or at an angle. When banking at a constant rate, a pendulum will point towards the floor of the plane, not towards the ground. Look up the video "Fighter pilot drinks water while flying upside down" if you want a demonstration of this effect.
Go in an actual plane, at night time, strapped in tight on the flight deck and try that and see how that works. As long as the G loading on the airframe is positive, which it was in this case, it feels as if you are upright.
Looking at the videos of aviation disasters made me learn that being a pilot is not as simple as driving delivery trucks. Your Airplane and ATC observation are not the only thing you concern yourself with, but you also need to handle your senses properly as a pilot. You are on a tight time limit whenever a problem occurs, and it tends to mess with these pilots. Much as it might upset you, the best answer to that would be that not everyone is a Sully, and i believe even Sully had his own problems as a pilot.
Why wouldn't they go with the standby ADI which was pictured center in the video? If you notice once the aircraft was in steep banking right that gyro showed it in its correct roll
There was a documentary made either by boeing or the NTSB, which assisted with the investigation. Video taken at the scene as they were looking at the instruments captured the moment with the wire at the back of the captains indicator came off. Powerful tape.
11:39 The "In memory of ..." message flashes on for way less time necessary to read it (in addition, all-caps is known to be harder to read than lower case) which of course depreciates the memorialization of the passengers and crew killed. This misfeature is present on other videos also.
Shame about the ADI failure. The lessor, Britannia Airways were engineering experts on the 737,757,767. Their engineering excellence was globally respected and by Boeing.
How can this happen, that teaching pilots one way to fly the airplane and when flying an actual plane it's totally different than what they were taught to fly? Terrifying crash for all onboard! I can't begin to imagine what they all were experiencing when the plane was upside down and heading downhill toward the ground! I'm so very sorry to the family members whose loved ones died. ❤🩹🤍❣ May they R.I.P. ✝ It blows my mind that pilots in a situation like these pilots were in didn't know what to do, and the same happened to other pilots who had crashed in this same way.
Not “totally different “. But at the time of this accident, copa airlines had a fairly non standard fleet with several variants of flight deck layouts (even among similar fleet types). That’s frowned upon due to slight differences in flight deck layout that can cause improper settings of flight control switches (such as happened here).
And that is why there is a standby attitude indicator located on the center panel that is independent from the other ADI's, to avoid this sort of incident. Piss poor training.
This is the one thing I can say with all certainty that will NEVER happen to me as I don’t fly and haven’t done so for 20 years. Rest in peace so sorry x
Some of the questions I've ever had about this crash are: 1. If it was in broad daylight, it would have happened? Since they have the actual horizon in view 2. Don't you feel the aircraft banking too much? I've felt any changes in sideways attitude on every flight I've taken so I wonder if there was something diferrent that day or people have different sensitivities to it... Or if maybe they were trusting their instruments too much.
1. Yes, nothing would probably happen in daylight, and on Visual meteorological conditions, I am pretty sure they would identify it pretty fast. 2. No, it's very hard to know without actual visual references your mind starts to play tricks with you, the solution over here would be a good crosscheck of your panel to use the backup instruments to identify the problem.
There was a little spirit level (turn/slip indicator) in the cessna's I flew. If the artificial horizon went out you have to use turn/slip indicator, compass, and rate of climb indicator. Hard to ignore artificial horizon to be honest.
2. Belief in this is a delusion. Humans cannot feel accurately all changes in frontal and sideways attitude. Especially on the high speed you absolutely can't feel real frontal and sideways attitude. This is why gyro attitude indicator is on instruments panel. You can read about 'Vestibular illusions' and 'Somatogravic illusions' (Sensory illusions in aviation) - there a lot of plane crashes because of this. Some of these crashes I have saw on this channel. So no, I think banking is not too much.
o wow! i recall united 585, in the late 80's my my aunt started working as a usaf administrator in co springs and she would take the same comm flight to buckley afb in denver and back twice a week. that crash shook her to her core......has never flown again to my knowledge.
i mean if you compensate the banking and you notice that the ADI still not changing you should have the initiative that there's something wrong with the equipment right.?
I have a question that I never understood. Why is it that when the plane turns you don't feel it or slide in the direction of the turn? Is it possible to walk upright during a steep turn? Any insight would be appreciated.
In a coordinated turn, any bank angle, you'll feel no side forces, just downward forces in your seat. Yes, you could indeed stand upright in a steep turn and not fall over. It's because wings produce lift perpendicular to the planes floor, not to the horizon.
It's the same as riding a bicycle on a curve. You don't slide outwards in a curve on a bike either. The plane banks the same way as the bike leans, so you don't feel lateral forces in your seat.
Wow, what a nightmare. Would people agree its much safer to fly daytime? It feels that if something like this happens at night you literally cant see a thing and have to rely solely on the instruments which we've seen many times fail
That plane averaged 4 takeoff/landings a day and 10 hours of flight time a day for everyday it existed. I’m not a mechanical engineer so I could be wrong but that seems like a lot of stress on anything over a 12 year period. It definitely was a workhorse
Thought I'd share 1998 a survivor of the clapham junction train disaster in London less than two weeks later boarded the doomed PanAm flight that blew up over Lockerbie Scotland !!!!!
Boggles the mind, doesn't it? Here's a simulated flight, but this isn't like the actual plane/instruments you'll be flying! Oh, I feel so much for the passengers and family/friend survivors! FASTER than the speed of sound!!!
So the pilots bank right to level off the wings.. but the ADI doesn't budge. How is it not obvious to them that something is broken? Look at a compass.. you're not turning left anymore. Also, isn't there another ADI-like instrument above the fuel gauge?
Perhaps a bit like buses and cabs with silly mileage. Never off the job except for routine servicing. I once owned a one company VOLVO 164 taxi, 4 years old with 650,000 miles on the clock. It was used nonstop day and night.
Why don't pilots just tie a string to the ceiling and let a weight dangle? That would give them the plane's attitude independent of any instruments. Crude, but it doesn't lie.
@@markstone2138 Cos the momentum of the aircraft is enough to create a "false" gravity on the weight. Look up the video pilot pours Red Bull doing a barrel roll to see the principal in action.
wouldn’t be reasonable for pilots to have like a chain/rope with a pendant basically a pendulum type thing hanging from somewhere, vertically, as you would a necklace around a rear view mirror in your car for reference of their attitude ? just in case something like this happens ?
I carried several round disks with suction cups on them to cover up instruments, for partial panel work, when I was giving flying lessons. I always kept them in my flight grip in case I needed them. I have used them when I had a couple of vacuum pump failures to cover all the gyro instruments. It’s a bitch to try to fly partial panel with the attitude indicator stuck in a 60 degree bank. A lot of the airplanes I flew had an electric back up for the attitude indicator or the turn and bank. We were also taught, and I taught my students, how to use the whiskey compass as a back up for the gyro instruments. I would not clear a student for solo cross country unless he had the covers and the ability to use them. My main point is that maybe a simple set of suction cup round disks could have saved the aircraft and it occupants.
One thing I love about this channel is that they always leave text on screen long enough for me to be able to read all of it. It's a small detail but you'd be surprised how many other channels will have on screen text up for like only 5 seconds and take it off before you get to read all of it, so you gotta rewind the video, pause the frame and finish reading the text before continuing on.
👍🏽 Yes! Already traumatized 😖 by the tragedy... Es bueno no tener que estar escogiendo entre ver imágenes o leer. ‼️
🇸🇻🙏❤🕊❤👍🏽‼️🇸🇻
It's not a prob, press pause as you said. TV is worse, I barely get thru 2 lines of say 4 lines & off it goes. Why don't they just read it & then edit on that. Sometimes you get narration & also a running scrolling text at same time. I only have one brain!
You can change the playback speed at which you watch a video. That helps me. I hit the GEAR, select PLAYBACK SPEED, then 75%.
I completely agree!!!
I can’t imagine how absolutely terrifying this experience must have been for the passengers. This is everyone’s worst fear when getting on a plane. Total nightmare fuel for sure.
That's why I wouldn't set my foot in any Boeing
@@jerryjencik3879 When you consider all the aircraft made and types, Boeing has an excellent safety record.
When you have no outside horizon/land reference, [IMC] spatial disorientation kicks in to the point you can't tell even if you are upside down. The terrifying part began when the aircraft broke up combined with how long they remained conscious.
@@jerryjencik3879 I'll take a Boeing over an Airbus any day.
@@DrHarryT Unfortunately with what I see, Airbus has more safety record than Boeing
It amazes me that with all the things that can possibly go wrong on an airplane that they don't crash more often than they do.
Planes are extremely dangerous. Airlines brag about how “statistically you’re more likely to die in a..blah blah”. What they don’t tell you is only
It's because of past crashes that they don't crash often.
Aviation is unique in always having a 'No-blame' culture (unless there is extreme negligence, of course). Every crash/ incident makes aviation safer. It's often said that flight checklists & procedures are written in the blood of departed colleagues.
I feel the same way Mr. Melman but the other two commenting here make good points.
I agree completely. It’s why I wrote a praise-filled letter to Boeing several years ago.
I feel so bad for those passengers. Can’t even imagine the overwhelming fear that must have been going through their mind.
I hope that perhaps they were already unconscious from the steep descent and therefore felt nothing as they ... perished.
At that speed with a plane breaking up, there is an extreme change of pressure and freezing temperatures at the high altitude and lack of oxygen but most of all, the pressure change and high-speed would cause their lungs to explode and kill them almost instantly but even if that didn't happen, they would quickly lose consciousness.
@@thickerconstrictor9037 I’ll go with they lost conscious
They probably had lost consciousness by the time the plane hit the speed of sound.
The detail about the clothes being ripped from their bodies..... just wow.
Not just that. On high speed crashes into the ground, bodies can be "de-gloved" of their skin.
@@GUITARTIME2024 oh my God
@@melisentiapheiffer3034 and if there’s a heavy post crash fire the bodies will actually start melting leaving you a very stiff “crispy” charred body that is almost impossible to identify.
Gives me an idea to start up a nudist airline. Fly Naked!
@@GUITARTIME2024 i literally just GASPED out loud
Imagine you are boarding a flight and everyone is walking like that...and you've been watching the Flight Channel for years.
LOL well done
I'm not getting on that plane. 😄
lmao.
I swear they look like extras from Dawn of the Dead 😂😂😂 I'm definitely not boarding that plane!!
Oookkkk 🤨
You explained this so well and in detail - especially highlighting the areas in the cockpit.
It amazes me that TheFlightChannel is able to recreate these incidents so well. I am training to become a pilot and I enjoy watching these videos so I can learn from other pilots’ mistakes. Thanks for being such a great RUclipsr. 👍
To date, this is Copa Airlines’ only deadly accident.
They have an all-737 MAX fleet now. So anything can happen 😔That's why I won't fly them again
*- Copa Airlines PR*
@@cchabaudie8395 I work for Copa Airlines. I'm not sure why the website says their fleet is all 737-MAX, since pretty much 80% of their fleet is composed of 737-NG. Maybe it's a marketing thing from the time they received their MAXes. The airport I work at, we only see a 737-MAX like twice or thrice a month.
@@cchabaudie8395 The 737MAX issue has been fixed since, they were kept on the ground for a long time, till Boeing solved it. Those planes fly daily by thousands and no new incident has been recorded...it's actually one of the most checked planes that exist, because of the two crashes.
@@aliceswanderland I can personally attest to this statement. It is, as a consequence, one of the most scrutinized of aircraft in commercial aviation. EDIT: It kind of boggles my mind, that it would not occur to a pilot with that much experience to switch gyros. Maybe he was very tired or otherwise distracted by some other issue (i.e. a fight with his wife the night before). There was no mention of spatial disorientation, but I suppose that is obvious as if it were not night flying they probably would have had some ground/horizonal visual reference. Very strange accident and I have to wonder if pilots should have night vision goggles available to them? (of course at 25,000 feet, no mention of forward visibility, weather at their present position, so no assurances there necessarily) I mean, if a pilot has any inkling that it could be some instrument malfunction, they can at least hand fly to recover rather than just yanking the yoke right blindly and incessantly.
Passengers clothes being ripped off just paints a terrifying image. Those poor people. I can’t even imagine.
I know. I hope the Lord took them quickly.
@@hofahome sadly not. Passengers were more than likely alive until impact. Some may have gotten lucky and passed out due to the change in pressure and oxygen but sadly majority most likely were alert and aware when they made impact.
@@Idky547 thats sad. Reminds me of the Challenger then. They must have been conscious till the end.
@@Idky547 not at those speeds. Def not. Pressure change, temperature, and extreme g forces would cause quick unconsciousness at least but more likely their lungs exploded. They either were killed almost instantly at that point but definitely unconscious.
@@hofahome maybe the Lord shouldn't be a scum bag and saved them. Guess he is either a bastard or not real
So terribly sad, but your re-enactments are always great!
Since this accident Copa has become one of the safest airlines in the world
Nevertheless, I chose to fly Avianca. But they didn't feed us dinner in first class which pissed me off.
@@cantfindmykeys Avianca used to be a classy airline, one of the first airlines in the Americas (a Colombia airline), but not it's become pretty much a low-cost airline that charges like a high-cost airline. Their service nowadays is absolutely terrible.
@@lauvasquez8030 I agree. I live in Colombia. I expected to have a nice experience when I flew from San Jose to Bogota on Avianca. The ticket cost almost $1000 for first class and the flight was less than 3 hours. It was dinner time and they gave me a small bottle of water and some crackers. I asked why they gave me bird food instead a proper dinner. It was uncomfortable and the attendants were not friendly and neither was the pilot during his announcement. Rough landing, too. American first class was less than $300 from Miami to San Jose, same time in the air. They gave me anything I wanted to eat and drink. I had 2 dinners and 3 desserts, lol. Because I was only allowed to take my mask off while eating, I decided to eat the entire time. Anyway, I like the Airbus better than the 737 but American Airlines treats you so much better. Avianca doesn't do anything to justify the price of the ticket. And they don't seem to care if you are comfortable or hungry, either.
@@cantfindmykeys Yeah they should be ashamed of themselves for calling that first class, what an awful experience. Now in economy the don't even offer water
@@lauvasquez8030 Not even water? That's outrageous, especially the price of their tickets. I got a tiny bottle for a thousand dollar seat. What cheap bastards. Sounds like they need some healthy competition. They are they only direct flight from San Jose to Bogota.
I've been away for a short while, however the graphics on this video are a major improvement to the previous vids I've seen. Using my "pause" I can read all your verse and still watch the screen. I'm liking the new improved Flight Channel. Kudos and looking towards 1.5M subs.
I can't believe the dive tore the passsengers' clothes off. That's scary.
TFC, I enjoy your channel tremendously. Thank you for all your hard work.
@Snoopy oh! Okay. Thank you for explaining that.🙂
@Snoopy And that airflow would likely be very fast as the
plane had exceeded mach 1. Mach 1 due to dive.
Mach 1 which broke up the plane, opening the cabin to
the external airflow......
So, yeah, the dive speed was the root cause of high speed airflow
in the cabin.
@Snoopy The force of the air would have probably knocked out or killed instantly some of the passengers as well.
@Snoopy Well I think that we agree on most of this.
With one exception. I was responding to your statement about
the high speed air flow in the cabin. You said:
======
what tore their clothes off. Not the speed of the dive
======
I disagree. The speed of the dive caused the breakup with resulting
high speed air in the cabin. If the dive speed had remained
below Vne, there would have been no breakup and the cabin air
flow would have been normal,,,, till the ground reached up to smite them!
So as I stated the dive speed was the root cause of their clothes
being blown off........
PS Great screen name. Been a dog lover all my long life. Sadly
my two old, sick dogs died last year. And I am getting too old
to be able to take proper care of another....(Sigh)
@Snoopy There have been a handful of other accidents involving defective ADIs, when the backup was operating properly, yet the plane still crashed :( Not sure if all of these were the result of inadequate training, or some sort of CRM issue as surely the FO would have been able to cross-check the indications on his own panel, not to mention the backup instrument. Very sad :(
Terrain terrain pull up pull up must be the most frightening four words that a pilot would ever hear.
or the words Trump is President
@@TR-vr5pz Or Biden has got a brain.
@@TR-vr5pz T R O L L
@@airaction2257 Smart enuff to beat Frump LOLOL
What about "The toilets arent working".
4 hours old and this video has already got 1.5k likes 😮. Easy to see why - the videos are first class, so professional. This sounds like everyone’s worst nightmare of a flight!
I am 65 years old and a blind folded passenger. After this video, I will tell all airline pilots to bring a portable pendulum box and an oil filled small nautical compass. Place those on the navigators table for teamwork recheck of aircraft course and bank during flight. Thanks.
a simple spirit level bubble sat on the dash would be a great verification tool
Pendulums don't work like that I aircraft because the aircraft doesn't fly in a straight line when it's banked, the forces from the turn will balance the forces acting on the pendulum from gravity, meaning regardless of the bank angle the pendulum will be pointing more or less towards the floor of the cockpit. You have to have a precision gyroscope (or modern electronic equivariant) to be able to judge the bank angle without outside reference. If you try to use a pendulum alone you will have a 100% chance of death.
hahahaha...what navigator?
That had to have been an extremely terrifying experience for those poor people
It was hardly a pleasant experience ?
I like to think in situations like this that their sense of timing is sped up and its over before they know it..
Ya think?
Imagine routinely getting on a flight like normal not realizing you’ll be plummeting to the earth in a little while. I couldn’t imagine their final minutes. At least it was quick at the end.
From almost the first day of flight training, it's pounded into your head to trust your instruments. But when your instruments are lying to you........
One aspect of this, if it had been daylight hours, they might have realized the instrument reading was wrong. Seems to that flying at night and/or through clouds makes correcting these kinds of events pretty much impossible. So sad for those people. Another great presentation. Thank you!
"The pilots should have trusted their instruments," we seem to be always told. Here, their instruments killed them.
@@wxwaxone Yes.
That’s why I think too. They might’ve recognized the error had it been in the daytime. Unfortunately, their training during nighttime is to trust their instruments.
There were two other ADIs in the cockpit. The lack of training and CRM is what crashed this plane.
@@wxwaxone Except the one backup in the center panel that seemed to be working correctly, at least, in the re-enactment here, and that's the 'emergency backup ADI'. If they just looked at that one...
To be alive and seeing the plane you're travelling and your clothes ripping apart, unimaginable!! 😨😰
I've flown countless times on a Boeing 737 and never once did I get the feeling that something might go terribly wrong...On several occasions I had to endure strong storms in mid-flight, with the aircraft moving violently and feeling airsick, but I never really thought we might crash....The 737 always gave me the impression of a rugged, strong plane. Now, after reading about this episode, I'm not so sure I'll fly again on a similar happy-go-lucky mode...!
You are brilliant at recreating these incidents. I am actually learning so much about all that the pilots have to do while flying.
If they did less and left most of the work to the autopilot, there would be FAR fewer crashes!.
In this case the Pilots seem totally incompetent and out of their mind for not feeling the G forces or using visual/gut clues about the Aircraft's bank angle (leaving the procedural inaccuracies aside) this was shameful and imo a kid with some experience of flight sim could do better. 😔
@@BroBytesBhai How can't they feel that the aircraft is actually banking right ?
@@BroBytesBhai Agreed but there is a growing concern within the aviation industry that perhaps today's pilots are relying too heavily on the automation and in some cases are not being adequately trained to fly the plane manually. Automation has made huge improvements in safety, but it should never be a complete substitute for having a highly trained pilot at the yoke.
Also, I feel the need to point out that when a plane is maouvering at speed, the g-forces don't always give the pilot an accurate indication of which way up they are. It's quite possible, in a fairly tight turn, for example, for the g-forces to press you down into your seat sufficiently that you may feel that you're the right way up, despite having a fairly steep bank angle. This effect can very easily lead to dangeous levels of pilot disorientation, especially at night, and has been a contributing factor to far too many fatalities. It's a surprisingly common effect and can catch out even the most experienced pilots :(
I remember that accident, three friends of mine died in that flight... RIP
😢 R.I.P to your friends. God bless their souls🙏
This is terrifying with instruments not reporting correct information. I feel for the flight team.
Worst nightmare as a passenger
Next to ditching in the North Atlantic in the winter!
Ya think?
Adiós a mis amigos que perecieron en este accidente. Siempre los recordaré.
Una pena que tus amigos hayan fallecido en ese accidente, que ha sido el unico accidente de Copa en su vida como aerolinea!!
The speed of sound and getting the clothes ripped off those poor people went through a lot. Thank you for providing this the music and being able to read the titles.
Thank you, for a very informative video. May they all rest in peace.
A lack of proper training and very little in the way of CRM (Cockpit Resource Management) is always a recipe for disaster sooner or later.
Just FYI, CRM stands for crew resource management NOT “cockpit resource management “
@@paulu7751 Lol of course it does, i don't know what made me write cockpit. Probably doing 2 things at once, as usual.
`TBH if your instruments play tricks like this and its pitch black outside not sure what chance you have. To my eyes the cockpit view is so disorientating at night!
@@rob9999i Well the thing is, the FO instrument and the backup were working fine. If they had compared the FO instrument with backup, it would have been very obvious the captain's instrument was wrong. That's where CRM and training play a vital role.
@@WayneM1961 exactly it actually baffles my mind that they thought they're playing with stuck at this angle without checking the other display
Very sad. Cant imagine the panic of people and crew onboard in the last few minutes.
If there is some sort of RUclips award for best sound, they should give it to this channel.
Awesome explanation to what occurred with this aircraft. I love flying but man tragedies like this makes you rethink flying sometimes. Continued rip and prayers for the passengers and their families
Rest In Peace = RIP
So many factors that were faulty and not helping give the pilots the correct information. A real shame this happened. Video well done.
Pilots ' fault BIG-TIME. They get paid for these very situations otherwise the autopilot is what's flying the aircraft.
SOPs not followed and brain dead handling of the situation makes me question their incompetence
Problem appears early - with initial cockpit setup before engine run. Standard setup is every inertial system should be feed from own source: left from 1, second from 2 and standby always from own 3. This setup allows voting for eliminate potential input data error quickly.
Only one technical failure - the ADI, an instrument that can fail & they have other instruments as well as an easily-seen backup ADI to cross-reference to. The two biggest failures were the fools sat in the two front seats.
@@BroBytesBhai yes sure, easiest thing to blame pilots. Definitely can see that you don’t have any close relation ( nor information) about this accident or aviation itself.
There are just so many things that can go wrong in an airplane where a crash is inevitable.
And that is why I’m not flying anywhere.
In the case of Colorado spring the rudder actuator was jammed producing left rudder when the pilots were actually giving right rudder, and vice versa (same for usair 427 accident) . No similarities with Copa where the plane followed the pilot's input (although they were wrong because of the attitude indicator)
True.
Lord have mercy!
Would have been interesting to see what the recovery efforts were like since the plane crashed into the Darien Gap.
I can only add Unbelievable.
Took them 12 hours to get there.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼✈️
I have chills. So sorry for these ppl, their families.
Oh finally you got a video about this one! Their only fatal crash (Copa Airlines). There was a documentary here on RUclips about the recovery of the wreckage, it was pure nightmare fuel since it was very graphic and uncensored. Very awful accident.
This documentary video is still on YT
Link?
@@britttanypaige They said it was here on you tube. Can you not type it in the search box yourself?
@@britttanypaige ruclips.net/video/qf_Uz2UmUSM/видео.html
@@britttanypaige, he's fighting Ganon again.
I spent ten years as a Captain on several variations of the 737. My airline training taught me to immediately go to the standby artificial horizon if there was a malfunction in the primary instrument. This crew failed to do that. Very unfortunate.
No, you are wrong. The crew immediately changed the artificial horizon to the co-pilot, the other other one that was working properly (in addition to the stand by artificial horizon in the center).
But this is what happened: In training cockpit, not the real plane, when (this is an example, i don't remember the real direction) you turned the switch to the left, it changed the pilot's artificial horizon to feed data from the co pilot artificial horizon. The one that is was working. This is what the pilot did immediately. But there was a problem, that the pilot didn't knew, and didn't realized: In the real plane, this specific switch was working the opposite way compared to the training cockpit on the ground: When you turned the switch to the left, it made the two artificial horizons of pilot and co-pilot to feed data from the pilot's artificial horizon!!
The one that this time was not working correctly!! Of course, there was the stand by artificial horizon that was working correctly. But until the pilots realized what was happening, and because they wanted to turn, they lost control of the plane. I wonder if it was the first time in this flight that the specific artificial horizon malfunctioned, or it had happened before in previous flights but they had not repaired it immediately.
@@george-op9dw Yes, the switch was positioned incorrectly. But given what was happening , I can’t understand why they didn’t compare the standby to the primary and go to the standby. I guess they had different training in the simulator than we did.I remember having to use that switch in flight a couple of times because the same thing happened to me. By the grace of God we go. Another thing I remember is seeing a red flag come in view on the instrument when it malfunctioned. It would stay there until you fixed the problem. Their airplane maybe didn’t have that.
when you realize that you are going to die, fortunately, the body switches to calm mode, breathing becomes shallow and we close our eyes and the light goes out.
When this started I wondered why they didn't check the F/O's ADI or the standby ADI. Obviously these pilots were not very familiar with the A/C workings. Where does this compare to the rudder hard-overs so many 737's experienced? Totally different cause here.
It is radar hard-over. Multiple 737 similar crashes with different allegibale causes!simply transparent cup of wine could replace the ADI in an emergency.
@@Barkevshadian WHAT? RADAR hard-over? WTF is that? This accident had nothing to do with that major 737 issue back then.
@@Barkevshadian dont go making stuff up. glass of wine wont work. a banked plane is turning creating centrifugal force which will point everything towards the planes floor, including your wine
F/O?
@@Capecodham F/O......First Officer. He has an identical set of flight instruments in front of him. They have separate inputs than the Capt. A/C redundancy.
Always great to watch your videos, I've learned a lot from them. Thank you.
I've seen all the real life accounts of just about every one of these crashes on a show called, "MAYDAY: Air Disasters". And I've gotta say, your rendition of the events is spectacular. Great job to everyone behind these vids. Subscribed!
Very sad to know that this could have been avoided with better information and training
Probably could have been avoided if the crew looked at the standby attitude indicator!
@@vixen0347 oh, so "attitude" wasn't a typo in the video? "Altitude" made a lot more sense to me. Interesting.
@@akpokemon Attitude indicator was correct. It’s a back up to the primary flight display. Doesn’t depend on electricity.
If you watch the video again, you’ll notice the instrument to the right and a little above the pilots main flight instruments indicating the actual and true pitch and bank angle of the aircraft
You need to leave the "In memory..." on the screen longer than 0.5 seconds. Thank you
Seems at if that switch would/should have been on a pre-takeoff checklist, set to the center/both position. Then in the event of an odd reading, the crew would quickly compare readings for both the Captain and FO ADI, and compare with the backup ADI. This quickly identifying the faulty ADI. That’s the point of the 3rd backup ADI. What about the checklist? Pre-flight and possibly during the event? BTW, I am a licensed pilot. As an aside it’s easy to do smooth rolls and other maneuvers, winding up in an unusual attitude, all while pulling only 1 or a bit more G force. The inner ear can’t detect the unusual attitude. Same for pendulums and all the other suggestions made by non-pilots. The main issue is simply that the switch was in the wrong position and the pilots just didn’t check the two good, working ADIs. Due to lack of procedure, checklist, Crew Resource Management, and basic piloting.
Yes it is. Should be set for "normal" position - 3 instrument with 3 independent gyro sources.
@@adamw.8579 So it would seem that this point must have been raised in the accident report as a key factor in the crash, but there was no subsequent discussion about this in the video after noting the incorrect setting.
@@petergaylord4241 In "Air Crash Investigation" document movie is detailed explanations. It was more behind doors. For example trainer simulator had other overhead panel configuration in this area, left and right gyro source was swapped. Center as usually was "normal" but left and right positions was reversed. Is very plausible so captain switched sources based on memorized position but not visually confirmed this.
They had a backup ADI in the middle which was functioning. My gosh, they forgot how to use the equipment available to them and hand fly the aircraft. RIP
Even if anyone survived, the Darien Gap is the most inhospitable region of Latin America. It's the only place where there is no road or railway - and the reason why you can't travel from North to South America and vice versa via land - because it's a huge dangerous jungle.
There's tar pits as well. Not even animals can get thru I think.
Despite this, thousands of immigrants cross the Darien weekly to risk their lives in search of better opportunities. Many die trying to cross it, for obvious reasons. It's a super hostile jungle.
I swear this channel is by far one of the best on RUclips...highly recommend everyone subscribe...
I remember seeing this in air crash investigation!
On the simulator, the switch was:
"Left ADI from Right | Normal | Right ADI from left"
On the aircraft, it was:
"Both from Left | Normal | Both from Right "
That might be a big part of the problem!
Beyond words with this tragedy😭😩
On a lighter note; I LOVE the choice of music, fittingly perfect! Thank you! 🙂
I might have flown on this aircraft in Europe in the 80's, ex Britannia aircraft. RIP crew and souls on board.
Another great video thanks TFC. Shame we dont see the break up as indicated in the thumb nail. 👍👏
What happened after the crash? It must've taken a while for people to get to the crash site. Did the jungle catch on fire? Were there issues getting there? The Darién Gap is one of the most dangerous places on Earth due to not only the terrain, but the presence of very dangerous criminals from what I hear.
Thank you for your channel. Followed you for years and you just keep getting better. I am single engine land instrument rated
It is absurd design to have independently fed VG displays (1 & 2) that the pilots can switch back and forth between, but when set to view both, they resort to both being fed by a single feed. In this case, both displays were fed by the Captain's ADI, which was faulty. If he had switched from VG 1 to VG 2, it would have dIsplayed info. from a separate, presumably correct source. To have 2 displays using a single feed completely negates the entire point of having separate feeds. The possibility of confusion is almost 100%. I'm completely stunned and baffled at what seems to be a glaring error in the design. Unbelievably bad.
in normal mode each is independently fed. the correct move would have been to put them in normal, notice they disagree, then make micro adjustments while monitoring speed and altitude and all other indicators to see what lined up with which display. possibly the reason they decided to turn around was because they noticed they disagreed, but incorrectly decided the captains was the working one.
And there is always a third ADI (in the midle - the backup one) they just ignored...by some unexplained reason. 🙄
It looks very real bro!😃
It seems like there are a lot of ridiculous Nonpilots in the comment section, Research about spatial disorientation it's almost impossible to notice bank, pitch, or yaw without external references or instrumentation... For those saying they should just look through the windows at NIGHT over the jungle and with maybe some clouds, you don't know what are you talking about or haven't flown on a real airplane at night... This problem is called partial panel and it's something we pilots train for and it's pretty difficult to catch something failed quickly, this was a problem with a poor crosscheck and airline training and procedures, don't be so quick to judge pilots when I am pretty sure you don't even have 1 hour of flight at night :)
It’s so much more fun watching vids of incidents that I haven’t already seen on Air Disasters with the same title.
Normally there is a backup gyro. Or they could fly partial panel which sucks but the facts they didn't switch gyros is ridiculous.
This plane had a backup gyro and secondary AI. This was just bad piloting, caused from poor training. Really sad cause it is so easily preventable.
In flight simulator, the switch to the gyro source had the opposite direction compared to the real plane.
So, the captain changed the switch to the wrong selection, without even realising it.
It seems to me , the real problem in this incident (and many others) is the pilot's lack of understanding how systems work. If they knew how their particular ADI functions, they would have known that it could malfunction due to faulty data. Pilots are trained to almost blindly depend on ADI--more than their g-feelings and even more than their eyes. In most cases, that is the correct approach--unless the ADI itself is faulty. This is exacerbated by the fact that some ADIs are simple self-contained mechanical devices that are virtually fail-proof, thereby causing a false confidence in the particular device. Again, the failure is in poor or insufficient training that leads to a lack of systems understanding.
True, but there is an understandable human factor here. Correct, the training must be to generally blindly trust the instruments, as not trusting them is what causes the overwhelming number of accidents if there is a conflict between the two. But seems like there wasn't much time here from the realization that something was wrong until it was too late.
You'd usually troubleshoot all other possibilities before getting to faulty instruments since they're so redundant and reliable as you pointed out. I wasn't there but I can see how that probably didn't even occur to them in that time span.
@@Mk-qb2ny Agree with you in all respects, I just believe a better understanding of the L-BOTH-R function and why it could become necessary to use it would have been helpful.
@@selftrue670 Indeed, for sure
June 6, 1992: A faulty gyroscope is the leading theory why Copa Flight 201 ended up crashing. But soon, another shocking conclusion arises: the crash could have been averted if the pilot hadn’t flipped a switch the wrong way.
So what happened to the pilots sense of correct gravitation? I mean, if you are unsure of the banking, just try standing up. Or the fall of hair or something heavy. Don't they have something mechanical in their cockpit, that just reacts to physics, like a snow globe?
The medical answer is very complicated, but put it this way. The brain doesn't work like you think it does, especially when the eyes see something the ears (balance system) don't agree with. And it gets much worse when you are moving. To give you an idea for how bad it can get, and how fast, a group of pilots rated VFR (they can only fly when they can see) were given a simulation of flying in the clouds and told to "just fly straight". Not a single one of them made it to five minutes. Most were dead in 45 seconds.
This is why pilot training is so important. At some point in their career, what they see and feel, and what their instruments tell them will be radically different. They have to be trained to know what to do. Ask any instrument pilot what happened the first time they got "the leans."
EDIT: grammar
Have you ever been in a plane where it was banking at a steep angle but the liquid in your drink stayed in the glass? If the plane banks a certain velocity, it feels exactly like you aren't banking at all. Before gyroscopic instruments were added to planes, pilots flying at night would crash frequently because there would be no frame of reference to tell if they were flying level or at an angle. When banking at a constant rate, a pendulum will point towards the floor of the plane, not towards the ground.
Look up the video "Fighter pilot drinks water while flying upside down" if you want a demonstration of this effect.
Go in an actual plane, at night time, strapped in tight on the flight deck and try that and see how that works. As long as the G loading on the airframe is positive, which it was in this case, it feels as if you are upright.
Looking at the videos of aviation disasters made me learn that being a pilot is not as simple as driving delivery trucks.
Your Airplane and ATC observation are not the only thing you concern yourself with, but you also need to handle your senses properly as a pilot. You are on a tight time limit whenever a problem occurs, and it tends to mess with these pilots. Much as it might upset you, the best answer to that would be that not everyone is a Sully, and i believe even Sully had his own problems as a pilot.
I still think having a marble on the floor would help with orientation. 🥺
I love the background music to your videos. It's perfect🎵🎼
I find it very spooky when planes I looked after back in the day are then involved in fatal accidents.
Why wouldn't they go with the standby ADI which was pictured center in the video? If you notice once the aircraft was in steep banking right that gyro showed it in its correct roll
There was a documentary made either by boeing or the NTSB, which assisted with the investigation. Video taken at the scene as they were looking at the instruments captured the moment with the wire at the back of the captains indicator came off. Powerful tape.
Could you rephrase your comment? I'm confused.
Talking bull.
11:39 The "In memory of ..." message flashes on for way less time necessary to read it (in addition, all-caps is known to be harder to read than lower case) which of course depreciates the memorialization of the passengers and crew killed.
This misfeature is present on other videos also.
Rip to departed souls,too scary&sad to see such helplessness💔🙏
Shame about the ADI failure. The lessor, Britannia Airways were engineering experts on the 737,757,767. Their engineering excellence was globally respected and by Boeing.
Dear GOD,what a calamity,, RIP TO ALL ON THAT AIRCRAFT,,,,,,,,,,,,🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
The airplane sounds give me anxiety but somehow soothed by the music in videos.
How can this happen, that teaching pilots one way to fly the airplane and when flying an actual plane it's totally different than what they were taught to fly?
Terrifying crash for all onboard! I can't begin to imagine what they all were experiencing when the plane was upside down and heading downhill toward the ground!
I'm so very sorry to the family members whose loved ones died. ❤🩹🤍❣
May they R.I.P. ✝
It blows my mind that pilots in a situation like these pilots were in didn't know what to do, and the same happened to other pilots who had crashed in this same way.
Not “totally different “. But at the time of this accident, copa airlines had a fairly non standard fleet with several variants of flight deck layouts (even among similar fleet types). That’s frowned upon due to slight differences in flight deck layout that can cause improper settings of flight control switches (such as happened here).
And that is why there is a standby attitude indicator located on the center panel that is independent from the other ADI's, to avoid this sort of incident. Piss poor training.
This is the one thing I can say with all certainty that will NEVER happen to me as I don’t fly and haven’t done so for 20 years. Rest in peace so sorry x
I hope you don’t drive a car then either in that case, statistics aren’t in your favor lol.
@@Subawoo123 nope
This would have been utterly terrifying as a passenger
Some of the questions I've ever had about this crash are:
1. If it was in broad daylight, it would have happened? Since they have the actual horizon in view
2. Don't you feel the aircraft banking too much? I've felt any changes in sideways attitude on every flight I've taken so I wonder if there was something diferrent that day or people have different sensitivities to it... Or if maybe they were trusting their instruments too much.
....this is where a simple level gauge (or spirit level) not attached to electronics above the dial would be good as a double check.
1. Yes, nothing would probably happen in daylight, and on Visual meteorological conditions, I am pretty sure they would identify it pretty fast.
2. No, it's very hard to know without actual visual references your mind starts to play tricks with you, the solution over here would be a good crosscheck of your panel to use the backup instruments to identify the problem.
There was a little spirit level (turn/slip indicator) in the cessna's I flew. If the artificial horizon went out you have to use turn/slip indicator, compass, and rate of climb indicator. Hard to ignore artificial horizon to be honest.
@@blaze1148 no it wouldn’t. 🤦♂️
2. Belief in this is a delusion. Humans cannot feel accurately all changes in frontal and sideways attitude. Especially on the high speed you absolutely can't feel real frontal and sideways attitude. This is why gyro attitude indicator is on instruments panel. You can read about 'Vestibular illusions' and 'Somatogravic illusions' (Sensory illusions in aviation) - there a lot of plane crashes because of this. Some of these crashes I have saw on this channel. So no, I think banking is not too much.
Just a wild thought but I feel like they could have referenced to the CDI to also confirm whether or not your in a left or right turn
o wow! i recall united 585, in the late 80's my my aunt started working as a usaf administrator in co springs and she would take the same comm flight to buckley afb in denver and back twice a week. that crash shook her to her core......has never flown again to my knowledge.
Was there any reason for you to show SJC as the airport in the beginning (during takeoff)? Just curious, and great video!
i mean if you compensate the banking and you notice that the ADI still not changing you should have the initiative that there's something wrong with the equipment right.?
I have a question that I never understood. Why is it that when the plane turns you don't feel it or slide in the direction of the turn? Is it possible to walk upright during a steep turn? Any insight would be appreciated.
In a coordinated turn, any bank angle, you'll feel no side forces, just downward forces in your seat. Yes, you could indeed stand upright in a steep turn and not fall over.
It's because wings produce lift perpendicular to the planes floor, not to the horizon.
I've always wondered that.
@@rrknl5187 Aha. So it's because the floor is being pushed up to you which creates a gravitational-like force. Is that correct?
It's the same as riding a bicycle on a curve. You don't slide outwards in a curve on a bike either. The plane banks the same way as the bike leans, so you don't feel lateral forces in your seat.
@@abdullahhoward8379 Basically, yes.
Wow, what a nightmare. Would people agree its much safer to fly daytime? It feels that if something like this happens at night you literally cant see a thing and have to rely solely on the instruments which we've seen many times fail
How horrific, those poor passengers..
@Theo P Yes, if you get on board one of those flying coffins!
That plane averaged 4 takeoff/landings a day and 10 hours of flight time a day for everyday it existed. I’m not a mechanical engineer so I could be wrong but that seems like a lot of stress on anything over a 12 year period. It definitely was a workhorse
What a serious plane crash RIP & great video
Thought I'd share
1998 a survivor of the clapham junction train disaster in London less than two weeks later boarded the doomed PanAm flight that blew up over Lockerbie Scotland !!!!!
Really,unbelievable !!!!😭
Boggles the mind, doesn't it? Here's a simulated flight, but this isn't like the actual plane/instruments you'll be flying! Oh, I feel so much for the passengers and family/friend survivors! FASTER than the speed of sound!!!
So the pilots bank right to level off the wings.. but the ADI doesn't budge. How is it not obvious to them that something is broken? Look at a compass.. you're not turning left anymore.
Also, isn't there another ADI-like instrument above the fuel gauge?
46,000 hours on an airframe in only 12 years is hard to imagine.
Perhaps a bit like buses and cabs with silly mileage. Never off the job except for routine servicing. I once owned a one company VOLVO 164 taxi, 4 years old with 650,000 miles on the clock. It was used nonstop day and night.
@@trainmanbob Yup.....over 5 years of total time hanging in the air.........
You're not lying, that's 10hr/day on average.
It's so terrifying ,inconceivable!! Those extremely unfortunate people!! 😬😪
Just dangle a simple necklace or string from the overhead panel. You will know if you are level, banking left or right pitched up or down.!!
Your making a fundamental mistake. Maybe google it. If it was that simple it would exist.
@@hanro7430 *You're (Sorry, couldn't resist. It's such a fundamental mistake!)
do ya really think you figured it out? random internet guy? from your computer chair? you think you just outsmarted the world? really?
HSI showing a heading change but no cross-checking of the frozen ADI to the back-up ADI? Shockingly poor piloting by both of them.
If only they had had enough light to see the horizon.
Why don't pilots just tie a string to the ceiling and let a weight dangle? That would give them the plane's attitude independent of any instruments. Crude, but it doesn't lie.
@@markstone2138 Cos the momentum of the aircraft is enough to create a "false" gravity on the weight. Look up the video pilot pours Red Bull doing a barrel roll to see the principal in action.
They had a backup attitude indicator.
Number one reason right here why people are terrified of flying
wouldn’t be reasonable for pilots to have like a chain/rope with a pendant basically a pendulum type thing hanging from somewhere, vertically, as you would a necklace around a rear view mirror in your car for reference of their attitude ? just in case something like this happens ?
I carried several round disks with suction cups on them to cover up instruments, for partial panel work, when I was giving flying lessons. I always kept them in my flight grip in case I needed them. I have used them when I had a couple of vacuum pump failures to cover all the gyro instruments. It’s a bitch to try to fly partial panel with the attitude indicator stuck in a 60 degree bank.
A lot of the airplanes I flew had an electric back up for the attitude indicator or the turn and bank. We were also taught, and I taught my students, how to use the whiskey compass as a back up for the gyro instruments. I would not clear a student for solo cross country unless he had the covers and the ability to use them.
My main point is that maybe a simple set of suction cup round disks could have saved the aircraft and it occupants.