This pilot's vast experience with the primitive aircraft of the pre-WWII period served him very well when he was faced with this mechanical failure that no amount of computer power could deal with. He knew the physics of flight. Unlike modern planes, the Lockheed L-1011 didn't have sensors to report the problem with the elevator. There will always be problems that exceed the capacity of digital hi-tech.
@@nobody7817 I totally get where you're coming from. I wonder sometimes if going back toa third active member of crew would make a difference, in the old way that an 'engineer' would monitor systems, but that's countered by the difficulty of three people communicating during a dire emergency. I think there is a test bed of sorts, but it's on the ground. The EV vehicle has so much fewer moving parts, and though it could be another decade until enough data is available to see if fewer parts makes systems simpler and last longer, that would always be my guess. Fewer moving parts, fewer systems. I believe in simplify, but I respect when it comes to flight, there's so many variables in physics alone, let alone the mechanics of keeping a massive airliner in the sky. The only real comparison is the ocean liner. It never went well at all, but when you look at the cruise ship of today (putting illnesses onboard aside) the modern ship does have an amazing safety record in the last 30yrs, with fewer major disasters than ever.
@@nobody7817 I have driven coaches and they have 10 dials too much, but you look on a fight deck and think, are you serious?!?! I get why they have to have a sterile environment at times. They also need 6 eyes each.
I wish this channel did more of these happy-ending videos rather than the disasters. They're uplifting not only because everyone survives but also because of the skill of the pilots.
My Dad was the former DAL Director of Flight Training & retired on the L1011 a few months after this incident. He knew Capt. McMahan well. He said he told Jack that if it had been anyone else they may have lost the aircraft that night. He thought highly of his actions...no luck, just the right stuff in the left seat.
That was an awesome episode. A war hero pilot, an on the ball crew, and even the passengers helped land the plane! Has the makings of a feelgood Hallmark story.
Bro, so true....but there's more There was a really cute couple that had NEVER met, until the pilots asked everyone to move forward, then they were seatmates - and it was true love at first sight....married in a month ! Ha Hallmark movie plot....
@@johnsmith-rs2vk yep gotta check it out. I made a video on BA38 if you’re interested. If you want to check it out and give me feedback I would really appreciate it 😉
I'm so glad that aviation safety has improved so much that new TheFlightChannel videos are ending with "Everyone survived". I know this is a 1977 incident but the fact that there aren't too many new commercial accidents is great.
Yes! Whenever I tell people about this channel they always ask if watching these videos makes me more nervous to fly, and I always reply that it actually makes me _less_ nervous. It’s comforting seeing all the new safety procedures that are put in place after each incident.
Can you imagine the horror of being column full-forward and having your aircraft uncontrollably pitching itself up into a stall? If this had not been an engine-in-tail config airplane, and if the pilots had not realized and capitalized on that fact, I doubt the situation would have been survivable. Damn, that's a beautiful airplane though.
I grew up around the time of the Tri planes. I have always thought the same. The De Havilliand Comet, and then the Tri planes that were designed during the 1960's seemed so ahead of their time.
She was! I flew to France round-trip on a L-1011 Tri Star and the flight was incredible! Then my mum and I flew to Detroit on a 747. The 747 was a very nice plane but I still liked the L-1011 Tri Star best.
@@harrietharlow9929 Were they as loud as they say they were? When I flew on a 747-200, I expected so much more, but they more like an Elephant proficient in ballet. Not at all the huge, powerful machine I expected.
Wow! The same day I went to sea aboard the USS Constellation out of San Diego for a WestPac cruise! This pilot is slick. Lots of talent and a critical thinker. Exactly what’s needed in the cockpit.
I flew this Delta bird many times. My favorite plane ever. They used to run them nowhere near passenger capacity, and it was great having it all to ourselves. I cried when the last one flew and retired.
1969: when returning from my 3rd Armored Division station of duty in Frankfurt Germany we flew an L1011 stretch back to Philadelphia... it being Easter weekend when we stopped for fuel in Northern Ireland and in Bangor Maine the terminals were closed .. so no stretch breaks during refueling... And there was not one empty seat! Thirteen hours total ... families with small children 👶 babies crying ... I really felt bad for the dear moms doing their best 😊 to care for them. All in all .. an uneventful great flight.... By comparison... my next flight from Baltimore to LAX .. an all nighter was a 707 with just 11 passengers... two middle-aged couples and 7 single guys and 7 stewardesses ... so let your imaginations figure out that 7 hour flight ✈️... okay 👌 🎃😎
Diverting most of the thrust into the tail-mount engine to get the pitch down, that's some smart thinking in what looked like a grim situation! All those years of flying planes paid off for Captain Jack!
These videos always make me cry... for 30 plus years flying was my commute. 6 continents. 57 countries. All major airlines. I’ve logged millions of miles and to this day, I look flight crews in the eyes and thank them. They’re my heroes.
L1011 is one of the best commerical aircrafts that there was. Sad it had a peculiar issue. Also the skills and guts of the captain and his team have to be commended. Nothing greater than saving so many lives. 🙏🏼🕉️🇮🇳
We went from the Wright Brothers to the Moon in less than 70 years. It's amazing what a country can do when everyone agrees and sets their mind to something.
@@space0015 I agree. Unfortunately, far too many Americans know nothing about the rest of the world. In many fields we are light years ahead of the US.
I wonder if the passengers knew how close to death they were in that day. The pilot and crew did an amazing job at preventing that very realistic possibility that many other flights have failed to recover from and crash due to stalled conditions. Will someone get this crew a round of drinks on me.
I wonder how the cabin crew communicated their order to the passengers for moving them to the front of the plane. Free Business seats for everyone? Or were they honest and told them it was necessary to survive? 🤔
I believe most passengers would have sensed something unusual in a pitch-up of that degree. Then, when the crew asks everyone to move forward, all doubt would have ceased.
@@jlm2044 that would be a good thing to know. I wonder what the handbook says about a situation like that. You would think an airline company would have a policy on just these matters. And the more I think about it I’m starting to think they would have tool them something because then the people would be able prepare for a crash landing and people would be better suited to assist after because they know what happen and not shocked it happened.
WW2 pilots were by far the best. They knew how to fly the airplane because they had to. Computers are fine but a pilot never gains the skills of the old time pilots who had no computers to fly the plane for them.
Ah, the Whisperliner. I sent my son to Europe on one. I remember being at the gate and watching the TWA liveried L-1011 fire up the engines. It was a magnificent machine. It sat there gleaming in the late afternoon sun with engines 1 and 3 spinning their turbine blades.
Wow PTL it didn't crash - due also to heroic piloting. We had a bad enough one in Sept 1978 in PSA Flight 182 Mid air crash, with 140 some Souls lost. San Diego was my hometown growing up & the impact zone was 1 mile from our house. Never could forget that tragic, life altering day.
Yup I remember I also was close by. The bums living in the shrubs on the side of the 8 fwy ran up and started to loot and pull rings, jewelry and wallets from the body parts !
@@CatDaddySteve Wow Steven I had not heard that. Pretty sick ! I guess So Cal has ALWAYS had a homeless problem. I visited back in 2016 and recall in the Mission Valley Riverbed there was a sizeable encampment.
I remember seeing the smoke from Grossmont College that day, blowing to the west, because there was a Santa Ana. And, is no one going to mention the fact that at the time of this video's incident, the airport was known as Lindbergh Field, not San Diego Airport? 🤨
@@CatDaddySteve I knew a SD County Sheriff- he arrested a guy with pieces of jawbone and teeth in his pockets. The guy was going to melt the gold or silver fillings and sell the metal.
Imagine being a passenger on a jet and getting this message. "Hello,this is the captain,due to a control issue with the aircraft,we ask that you unbuckle your seat belts and follow the stewardesses instructions." "Please move as far to the front of the aircraft as possible and do that immediately please." As the jet is in a never ending takeoff angle ,in flight. What an amazing story of perserverance and triumph in the face of certain death. The captain,his crew and everyone on the flight deserved medals. Great video,TheFlightChannel,I never expected them to get to an airport safe but they sure did. Simply Amazing.
Thanks TFC! I'm learning so much of your videos, that at in the "eminent stall" part. I was anxious screaming "c'mon guys, reduce the engine thrust and maybe the pitch will down". Your work is amazing! Thank you!
A seepage of water into the bearing over time...I recently retired as Quality Mgr. after 40 yrs at an aerospace supplier. I was trained by the previous quality manager who had experience going back to the 1950's and he was a stickler for assessing the risk of a design for any part. I never forgot his axiom - it's the details that will kill you!
Later on, the tail number (N707DA) was used on a Cessna 182. The aicraft was involved in a crash in 2020 killing both occupants. This tail number has a storied history.
Re the DC-10 fiasco, the flight authorities should have pulled out all the stops in 1972 but chose instead to allow McD to take its time with those critical hull mods (like the pressure-equalising vents in the cabin floor whose installation might have averted the 1974 Paris disaster).
Apart from the absolutely amazing pilot, lets all reflect upon the fact, that Lockheed didnt wait for the FAA or the NTSB, they immidiately called, not just a written notice, they called all the L-1011 operators around the world and told them to check the bearing in question asap. Then compare that to Boeing and the MAX failures.
I remember coming back to Chicago from San Diego back in 1982. When taking off or landing you went over the commercial buildings downtown. It was so foggy they ended busing us to LAX to get us home.
And I remember flying into O'Hare from San Diego (via LAX) on 5/25/1979, in an AA DC-10, and having to circle the field for a very long time before we could land. We didn't find out why until after we landed, and then had to drive past the still smoking wreckage on the way out. That would have been our flight back a week later. As it was, we did fly an AA DC-10 back, as they hadn't been grounded yet. We hit a little wake turbulence just after take off, and there were more than a few *very* worried looks in the cabin.
I heard about this story a few years ago in a video done by "mini air crash investigations" and I loved the story and I always wanted "flight channel" to do a video about it because I love the videos he makes. I'm so glad he did. I know that he would do it justice. flight channel is one of my top 3 if not my favorite RUclips channel ever.
What happened in the similar incident? I hope everything turned out OK there also. The pilots on this Delta flight did an amazing job. Kudos to their great skill!
Very interesting situation. He most certainly was an experienced and thinking pilot. Glad they were saved from a terrible fate. The L-1011 is one of my favorite A/C but I unfortunately never got to fly one.
A hero, experienced and a bold pilot. My respect goes to the F/E, F/O, and the captain for keeping the plane alive. Props to the flight crew too, calming down the passengers.
You don't get better than TFC for airplane history videos. It's never ceased to amaze me how much pertinent information crammed into 15 minutes. And it flows together perfectly, from beginning to end.
The Flight Channel is unbelievable and the BEST. Watching that video had me on edge sitting in my lounge. The pilots were so cool calm and collected. Not sure I would have been had I been a passenger. You really do have to give it to the pilots. I think they do a fantastic job and sometimes have to far exceed what is usually expected of them. The captain deserved to have been given that award 👏
Capt. Jack McMahan is one incredibly awesome pilot & hero, I'd love to have him & the few of his calibre be my pilot every flight. Good job to the entire flight crew and thanks to TheFlightChannel for yet another great video, I don't bother watching anything but TheFlightChannel for aviation disasters/incidents due to the superior quality and lack of bullshit the others are so saturated with.
Amazing story- looked up some info on L-1011-- Delta's L1011 Tristar (ship number 728) was retired as the last L1011 passenger plane on July 31st of 2001 AND there is just one, the only one of L-1011 still being operated by Northrop Grumman, it is called Stargazer.
I appreciate that you bring us obscure incidences that might not be generally known by the public due to the heroic acts of the crew. All's well that ends well . . .
These days with all the computer control flying going on this sort of event would have ended in disaster. It would have become the pilot vs computer to control the aircraft, and as we learn over and over the pilot rarely ever wins
Right. The half-operative elevator breakdown is such a highly unusual incident that it couldn't have realistically been anticipated. Even now it's extremely unlikely. However, pilots in WWII actually were training for extreme breakdowns due to combat. Cannon, flak explosions, and machine gun damage were a real possibility every time they took off. Check out the RUclips videos of B-17 bombers returning from missions over Germany, Japan, and Italy from 1941 to '45. Entire rudders, elevators, and wing sections were blown away, yet the pilots somehow managed to fly home.
I am grateful that the pilot rarely ever wins. It is the reason that air travel is safer today than it ever has been, but don't worry, even when automation slashes the number of road deaths by several magnitudes there will be idiot dinosaurs just like you saying how it was much safer when you could just drive your car home from a bar after 8 beers.
1st Officer, “Captain, airspeed is dropping we’re about to stall!” (Captain reaches over and pulls back the throttles). I guarantee that was his military combat experience kicking in.
@@robertdoell4321 that’s true but there was other mechanical problems. The pilot’s experience kicked in and over rode the “add more power” thus saving everyone’s life.
Truly a fascinating and fantastic case of how such a small part failing can have monumental effects on the safe flight of an airplane. Kudos to the captain and crew for managing to get their crippled aircraft to the ground.
Excellent video! I know I am old fashioned, but I will always want a pilot who understands the concept of flight in the cockpit first! Look at all the best saves when the technology broke! It was the pilots who understood flight that resulted in the best outcomes.
First, great Captain at work. Second, imagine the flight attendants asking everyone to move completely two thirds forward.._ "so a minor adjustment to our plane's center of gravity" not explained. But a brilliant move off the cuff.
Horrifying and a fantastic recreation. Presentations like this are where TFC does it better than anyone else...the sounds of the engines throttling up and down...the dramatic fade in and fade out text...this simulation made me anxious as if I were in the plane. Not to venture into a sensitive topic, but narration, as happens occasionally on this channel, would have completely changed the experience of this dramatic recreation. Glad it was presented like this.
Soon I will be joining a flight school this year and your videos always gives me the zeal to work hard. I like the confidence of both crews and this shows how the are willing to give their all for this job🙌✨
The key is understanding what makes an aircraft fly--and what makes it not fly. Button pushing and gauge watching are important, but time and time again, the pilots who save the day are the ones that fully understand aerodynamics.
That was some solid flying, something that comes from experience in aircraft that aren't fly by wire. These lessons should be part of every continuing education cycle for commercial pilots.
The drama created during these short videos is quite something. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat watching this not knowing if everyone lives or dies. Better then most movies today. Great job!
The favorite part about my job is you always upload during my lunch break I work in a warehouse we supply boeing and airbus with the seats and furniture
Was glad to see the Captain get that award!! I thought that entire flight crew did an unbelievable job keeping control of the aircraft and getting it safely to its destination!! Kudos!! This was a good one!! 💕✈✈💕
When Delta 191 crashed at DFW due to wind shear, someone called the CEO to tell him that 191 had gone down. He asked what kind of plane? When informed it was an L-1011, he said "Bullshit, L-1011's don't crash, they're crash proof". This particular aircraft was sold to American Trans Air (ATA) which ran charters from Detroit to Las Vegas. I'd take that flight every 2-3 weeks, it was cheap back in the 80's. I wound up dating one of the flight attendants who one day took me down to the lower galley where there was an air mattress. Time to join the Mile High Club she grinned. It was this exact plane. N187AT, f/k/a N707DA, I thank you.
What fortune for this to happen to a pilot with such superb flight history. I am sure many pilots could have carried out what this pilot did but quite correctly he was awarded a citation. Superb video as always..thank you.
The L-1011 is still, IMO, the finest airliner ever built. She had multiple redundancies and was the safest most comfortable and roomy passenger aircraft that was light years ahead of it's time! I had the privilege of flying aboard her over a dozen times in the mid 70's through the early 80's in this exact classic Delta livery and she was the most beautiful bird in the skies! The Captain and the flight crew did a magnificent job getting the aircraft stable and back safely on the ground. Thanks for posting this incredible story!
The rest of the story is Delta found the crew another L1011 that night and they continued on to Atlanta for the red eye . Truly unbelievable. Captain said they should not have done that. The crew’s mind was overworked no doubt. This is one airline history’s greatest unknown stories.
I flew on many Delta L-10s while living in Atlanta. Loved that plane. Matter of fact, my first ever plane ride was an L-10 from ATL to MIA in 1977. I continued to fly Delta for an additional 2,000,000 miles and was a Flying Colonel.
This, this here, is the difference between "pilots" and "Aviators". Aviators know how to fly even when systems aren't working properly. Pilots are the ones that revert to the books and if the info isn't there, they don't know what to do.
According to the story from AA Cpt. Warren VanderBurgh in his AAMP(Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program) lecture in late 90s he mentions this incident, stating that the aircraft had trim stuck in full up, aircraft rotated before takeoff speed, then Captain recovered it several times by rolling to the side. Until he came up with idea of assymetric trust(using no 2) and moving all the people to the nose to alter the CG(center of gravity) to help him overcome this rollercoaster. You can listen to that by searching AAMP Control Malfunctions, skip to 33:27
That's one heckuva good flight crew. Worked the problem and, when they couldn't determine a cause, relied on piloting experience to land the plane safely. Well done!
It was amazing and lucky that this was a tri-jet and the captain had the brilliance of using it to control pitch. Just image if this didn't have a tail mounted engine - could have been impossible to control it!
I watch all of these videos, I know nothing about flying planes. I am just fascinated by machines and how they work. This dude is amazing, just for knowing how to manipulate the controls in a different manner to reach the desired result. So cool
Experience is the best teacher. Using engine #2 effectively was pure logic to the veteran pilot. Common sense saved the day. Unfortunately they couldn't do a visual in the night as a cautionary measure.
It's really refreshing to hear a story where the plane puts itself in a potential stall configuration and the pilots immediately and appropriately respond. There's no complacency or sitting around blissfully unaware in this story. Plane pitches up, full nose forward on the controls. Check the trim, use the manual trim (screw the computer), regain control, go through a full systems diagnostics check once you've regained appropriate (or at least maintainable) attitude. Pitch up keeps happening, DECREASE the power!! That does against every instinct, but saved the aircraft from its precarious pitch up attitude. Excellent composure, excellent instincts. That's what saved the souls aboard. Too often now there are stories where the pilots completely ignore the indication of a stall. Wonderful story. As a side note, my great uncle was a TWA captain. He, like many (if not most) older aviators said that the L1011 was the finest aircraft he'd had the privilege to fly.
In those days passengers were also considered test pilots. Moving forward to change the center of gravity would have been considered just part of the flying experience.
What an idiotic, and made up comment. I was flying in planes in the 70s. Never once were we asked to move to the front of an aircraft, with low occupancy. And passengers as test pilots??? WTF?
When we were kids at least once a week we would drive down to plane watch in a parking lot across from Solar Turbines off Harbor Blvd. The Delta L-1011 was nearly always the last plane out before midnight curfew. We always knew when it was heading down the taxiway the distinctive sound of the Rolls-Royce engines was a dead give away.(The old Ryan Aircraft factory obstructed the view of AC until the last few hundred feet of taxiway) I miss the Tri-star such a beautiful jet.
This pilot's vast experience with the primitive aircraft of the pre-WWII period served him very well when he was faced with this mechanical failure that no amount of computer power could deal with. He knew the physics of flight. Unlike modern planes, the Lockheed L-1011 didn't have sensors to report the problem with the elevator. There will always be problems that exceed the capacity of digital hi-tech.
I agree so totally, and my entire comment is dedicated to our thinking on this.
Agreed, sir.
@@nobody7817 I totally get where you're coming from. I wonder sometimes if going back toa third active member of crew would make a difference, in the old way that an 'engineer' would monitor systems, but that's countered by the difficulty of three people communicating during a dire emergency. I think there is a test bed of sorts, but it's on the ground. The EV vehicle has so much fewer moving parts, and though it could be another decade until enough data is available to see if fewer parts makes systems simpler and last longer, that would always be my guess. Fewer moving parts, fewer systems. I believe in simplify, but I respect when it comes to flight, there's so many variables in physics alone, let alone the mechanics of keeping a massive airliner in the sky. The only real comparison is the ocean liner. It never went well at all, but when you look at the cruise ship of today (putting illnesses onboard aside) the modern ship does have an amazing safety record in the last 30yrs, with fewer major disasters than ever.
@@nobody7817 I have driven coaches and they have 10 dials too much, but you look on a fight deck and think, are you serious?!?! I get why they have to have a sterile environment at times. They also need 6 eyes each.
Just as there will always be problems that exceed the capacity of organic lo-tech.
Everyone lived, and the pilot got an award for his skills now that’s the best kind of ending.
I wish this channel did more of these happy-ending videos rather than the disasters. They're uplifting not only because everyone survives but also because of the skill of the pilots.
My Dad was the former DAL Director of Flight Training & retired on the L1011 a few months after this incident. He knew Capt. McMahan well. He said he told Jack that if it had been anyone else they may have lost the aircraft that night. He thought highly of his actions...no luck, just the right stuff in the left seat.
That pilot is amazing and definitely a hero.
Yeh, definitely deserves a Blue Peter badge!
Naw he just understands how fight works
Remember, the Pilot 👨🏻✈️ has a wife and kids waiting for him at home too🙋🏽♀️✈️
Its me flying this plane in Jumbo Jet Flight Simulator
@@donnarupert4926 The crazy thing is that his only child, a teenage son, had just passed away a year prior to this incident.
That was an awesome episode. A war hero pilot, an on the ball crew, and even the passengers helped land the plane! Has the makings of a feelgood Hallmark story.
Bro, so true....but there's more
There was a really cute couple that had NEVER met, until the pilots asked everyone to move forward, then they were seatmates - and it was true love at first sight....married in a month !
Ha Hallmark movie plot....
and a trijet which allows the crew to control the pitch by adjusting the thrust of the engines
What a crazy story. Extraordinary pilots!
SOME OF THE BEST .
@@johnsmith-rs2vk imagine having the column full forward and still heading towards a stall.
@@BREADCRUMB Check out BE .548 . Trident crash heathrow 1972 .
@@johnsmith-rs2vk yep gotta check it out. I made a video on BA38 if you’re interested. If you want to check it out and give me feedback I would really appreciate it 😉
@@BREADCRUMB It was the Trident crash at Heathrow in 1972 BE 548 RUclips
I'm so glad that aviation safety has improved so much that new TheFlightChannel videos are ending with "Everyone survived". I know this is a 1977 incident but the fact that there aren't too many new commercial accidents is great.
Yes! Whenever I tell people about this channel they always ask if watching these videos makes me more nervous to fly, and I always reply that it actually makes me _less_ nervous. It’s comforting seeing all the new safety procedures that are put in place after each incident.
@@SessVlogs are u a pilot?
@@inc0gnit011 No? Why would you think that 😅
@@inc0gnit011 hey you! Remove that hair!
@@SessVlogs just by ur comment I thought so.
Jack had just lost his only child, a teenage son, the year prior to this incident. True hero.
Can you imagine the horror of being column full-forward and having your aircraft uncontrollably pitching itself up into a stall? If this had not been an engine-in-tail config airplane, and if the pilots had not realized and capitalized on that fact, I doubt the situation would have been survivable. Damn, that's a beautiful airplane though.
I grew up around the time of the Tri planes. I have always thought the same. The De Havilliand Comet, and then the Tri planes that were designed during the 1960's seemed so ahead of their time.
The Lockheed trijet was truly a marvel of its time. Definitely one of the most beautiful and advanced planes ever built
L-1011 tri-star
She was! I flew to France round-trip on a L-1011 Tri Star and the flight was incredible! Then my mum and I flew to Detroit on a 747. The 747 was a very nice plane but I still liked the L-1011 Tri Star best.
@@harrietharlow9929 Were they as loud as they say they were? When I flew on a 747-200, I expected so much more, but they more like an Elephant proficient in ballet. Not at all the huge, powerful machine I expected.
Wow! The same day I went to sea aboard the USS Constellation out of San Diego for a WestPac cruise! This pilot is slick. Lots of talent and a critical thinker. Exactly what’s needed in the cockpit.
I was a vendor for one of the shipyards and got a tour on the USS Constellation. Sad to see her decommissioned. Her and the USS Kittyhawk.
I flew this Delta bird many times. My favorite plane ever. They used to run them nowhere near passenger capacity, and it was great having it all to ourselves. I cried when the last one flew and retired.
Definitely one of Lockheeds long line of beautiful aircraft. My favorite airliner and a great cargo hauler too.
my fave plane too..flew on Delta L1011s many times from San Francisco to Atlanta and back..
I was a mechanic for TWA. By far my favorite aircraft. Still to this day ! Nothing flew as good as the Tri-Star
1969: when returning from my 3rd Armored Division station of duty in Frankfurt Germany we flew an L1011 stretch back to Philadelphia... it being Easter weekend when we stopped for fuel in Northern Ireland and in Bangor Maine the terminals were closed .. so no stretch breaks during refueling... And there was not one empty seat! Thirteen hours total ... families with small children 👶 babies crying ... I really felt bad for the dear moms doing their best 😊 to care for them. All in all .. an uneventful great flight....
By comparison... my next flight from Baltimore to LAX .. an all nighter was a 707 with just 11 passengers... two middle-aged couples and 7 single guys and 7 stewardesses ... so let your imaginations figure out that 7 hour flight ✈️... okay 👌 🎃😎
@@StarPartners if that isn't already a movie, it should be
What an incredibly skilled pilot, true professional.
The pilots were amazing and skilled. Never bowed out under pressure.
Great skill and remaining level-headed by the Pilot to save all lives and the plane!
All you need to get out of a sticky situation is a pilot who flew F4's during WW2, and a plane with a third, tail-mounted engine like Lockheed L-1011.
Work the problem. Don't make things worse by guessing
Diverting most of the thrust into the tail-mount engine to get the pitch down, that's some smart thinking in what looked like a grim situation! All those years of flying planes paid off for Captain Jack!
These videos always make me cry... for 30 plus years flying was my commute. 6 continents. 57 countries. All major airlines. I’ve logged millions of miles and to this day, I look flight crews in the eyes and thank them. They’re my heroes.
L1011 is one of the best commerical aircrafts that there was. Sad it had a peculiar issue. Also the skills and guts of the captain and his team have to be commended. Nothing greater than saving so many lives. 🙏🏼🕉️🇮🇳
@@feliceconte123 😅
@@feliceconte123 *LOL*
It's amazing how technology improved so quickly that in the span of one man's career, the pilot went from flying biplanes to jumbo jets.
I mean, in WWII biplane bombers and jet fighters co-existed. Swordfish bombers were still sinking U-Boats into 1945.
We went from the Wright Brothers to the Moon in less than 70 years. It's amazing what a country can do when everyone agrees and sets their mind to something.
@@User31129 *world not country. U are glorifying United States Of America
@@space0015 I agree. Unfortunately, far too many Americans know nothing about the rest of the world. In many fields we are light years ahead of the US.
@@User31129 You mean it's amazing what a country does when it poaches engineers from other nations.
I wonder if the passengers knew how close to death they were in that day. The pilot and crew did an amazing job at preventing that very realistic possibility that many other flights have failed to recover from and crash due to stalled conditions. Will someone get this crew a round of drinks on me.
I wonder how the cabin crew communicated their order to the passengers for moving them to the front of the plane. Free Business seats for everyone? Or were they honest and told them it was necessary to survive? 🤔
I believe most passengers would have sensed something unusual in a pitch-up of that degree. Then, when the crew asks everyone to move forward, all doubt would have ceased.
@@selftrue670 ya I can see that, however I’m certain they did not know the dire situation, the crew would have denied that info.
@@jlm2044 that would be a good thing to know. I wonder what the handbook says about a situation like that. You would think an airline company would have a policy on just these matters. And the more I think about it I’m starting to think they would have tool them something because then the people would be able prepare for a crash landing and people would be better suited to assist after because they know what happen and not shocked it happened.
They would have definitely knew something was wrong based on their flight. No doubt. I would have orderd
A pilot who thinks on his feet and does not panic, awesome!
Of course! He is a Marine!
@@nobody7817 Marine? You yanks all live in tinsel town! Our normal infantryman is worth ten of your so called marines!🏴
@@mongo4511 Ouch! That's rough. And inaccurate, of course.
@@selftrue670 well ?
WW2 pilots were by far the best. They knew how to fly the airplane because they had to. Computers are fine but a pilot never gains the skills of the old time pilots who had no computers to fly the plane for them.
No. So many WWII pilots got lost and never returned to base. Their deaths are merely considered less of a tragedy because it was war.
But on the whole humans make more mistakes than computers.
Flying a jet without either a computer or a flight engineer is almost impossible.
I'm an airline pilot and I guarantee you I know how to fly - just saying.
@@winstonchurchill3597 How is that relevant to this conversation?
Even after all these years the L-1011 is a visually fantastic looking airframe ✈️
Especially in that Delta livery
Ah, the Whisperliner. I sent my son to Europe on one. I remember being at the gate and watching the TWA liveried L-1011 fire up the engines. It was a magnificent machine. It sat there gleaming in the late afternoon sun with engines 1 and 3 spinning their turbine blades.
Wow PTL it didn't crash - due also to heroic piloting.
We had a bad enough one in Sept 1978 in PSA Flight 182 Mid air crash, with 140 some Souls lost.
San Diego was my hometown growing up & the impact zone was 1 mile from our house.
Never could forget that tragic, life altering day.
Yup I remember I also was close by. The bums living in the shrubs on the side of the 8 fwy ran up and started to loot and pull rings, jewelry and wallets from the body parts !
@@CatDaddySteve
Wow Steven I had not heard that. Pretty sick !
I guess So Cal has ALWAYS had a homeless problem.
I visited back in 2016 and recall in the Mission Valley Riverbed there was a sizeable encampment.
I remember seeing the smoke from Grossmont College that day, blowing to the west, because there was a Santa Ana. And, is no one going to mention the fact that at the time of this video's incident, the airport was known as Lindbergh Field, not San Diego Airport? 🤨
@@CatDaddySteve I knew a SD County Sheriff- he arrested a guy with pieces of jawbone and teeth in his pockets. The guy was going to melt the gold or silver fillings and sell the metal.
Imagine being a passenger on a jet and getting this message.
"Hello,this is the captain,due to a control issue with the aircraft,we ask that you unbuckle your seat belts and follow the stewardesses instructions."
"Please move as far to the front of the aircraft as possible and do that immediately please."
As the jet is in a never ending takeoff angle ,in flight.
What an amazing story of perserverance and triumph in the face of certain death.
The captain,his crew and everyone on the flight deserved medals.
Great video,TheFlightChannel,I never expected them to get to an airport safe but they sure did.
Simply Amazing.
Thanks TFC! I'm learning so much of your videos, that at in the "eminent stall" part. I was anxious screaming "c'mon guys, reduce the engine thrust and maybe the pitch will down". Your work is amazing! Thank you!
A seepage of water into the bearing over time...I recently retired as Quality Mgr. after 40 yrs at an aerospace supplier. I was trained by the previous quality manager who had experience going back to the 1950's and he was a stickler for assessing the risk of a design for any part. I never forgot his axiom - it's the details that will kill you!
Later on, the tail number (N707DA) was used on a Cessna 182. The aicraft was involved in a crash in 2020 killing both occupants. This tail number has a storied history.
Wow, moved all the passengers up towards the nose section to level the plane. Very innovative pilot and they were lucky to have him at the controls.
Lockheed really pulled out all the stops in immediately addressing the issue, unlike another particular American manufacturer...
Douglas DC-10 cargo door.
Re the DC-10 fiasco, the flight authorities should have pulled out all the stops in 1972 but chose instead to allow McD to take its time with those critical hull mods (like the pressure-equalising vents in the cabin floor whose installation might have averted the 1974 Paris disaster).
Apart from the absolutely amazing pilot, lets all reflect upon the fact, that Lockheed didnt wait for the FAA or the NTSB, they immidiately called, not just a written notice, they called all the L-1011 operators around the world and told them to check the bearing in question asap. Then compare that to Boeing and the MAX failures.
"Everyone survived." The relief I felt! So many of these videos end with the opposite declaration.
The Pilot did an amazing job of counter measure to correct the problem. His experience and level headedness got everyone to safety.
I remember coming back to Chicago from San Diego back in 1982. When taking off or landing you went over the commercial buildings downtown. It was so foggy they ended busing us to LAX to get us home.
And I remember flying into O'Hare from San Diego (via LAX) on 5/25/1979, in an AA DC-10, and having to circle the field for a very long time before we could land. We didn't find out why until after we landed, and then had to drive past the still smoking wreckage on the way out. That would have been our flight back a week later. As it was, we did fly an AA DC-10 back, as they hadn't been grounded yet. We hit a little wake turbulence just after take off, and there were more than a few *very* worried looks in the cabin.
I heard about this story a few years ago in a video done by "mini air crash investigations" and I loved the story and I always wanted "flight channel" to do a video about it because I love the videos he makes. I'm so glad he did. I know that he would do it justice. flight channel is one of my top 3 if not my favorite RUclips channel ever.
I'm sure that we can all agree that the flight channel makes the best aviation videos
These videos are genuinely high quality.
Yes, no contest, for me!
What happened in the similar incident? I hope everything turned out OK there also. The pilots on this Delta flight did an amazing job. Kudos to their great skill!
I was wondering the same thing!!
I am as well asking that
I really love a happy ending with no deaths in aviation. Great job of the crew.
I remember hearing this incident a few years back when I read about it on Wikipedia. It’s interesting how rain can cause some controls to jam…
Peanut butter as well
Ps and marmite!
Very interesting situation. He most certainly was an experienced and thinking pilot. Glad they were saved from a terrible fate. The L-1011 is one of my favorite A/C but I unfortunately never got to fly one.
A hero, experienced and a bold pilot. My respect goes to the F/E, F/O, and the captain for keeping the plane alive. Props to the flight crew too, calming down the passengers.
Another beautiful video! Your videos made me who i am today, as i create aviation content with so much enthusiasm.
You don't get better than TFC for airplane history videos. It's never ceased to amaze me how much pertinent information crammed into 15 minutes. And it flows together perfectly, from beginning to end.
Thankfully, the incredible experience of the pilot along with his crew saved everyone! Great job! ❤️❤️❤️❤️👍
The Flight Channel is unbelievable and the BEST. Watching that video had me on edge sitting in my lounge. The pilots were so cool calm and collected. Not sure I would have been had I been a passenger. You really do have to give it to the pilots. I think they do a fantastic job and sometimes have to far exceed what is usually expected of them. The captain deserved to have been given that award 👏
Your videos are getting better with quality details!
Wow. Great pilots in that cockpit. I flew a lot in the mid 80's and I loved the L-1011. I still love them. The dc10's never came close.
Amazing story! What a pilot! 👏🏾 A not very known incident, I think...this video deserves more views!
Capt. Jack McMahan is one incredibly awesome pilot & hero, I'd love to have him & the few of his calibre be my pilot every flight. Good job to the entire flight crew and thanks to TheFlightChannel for yet another great video, I don't bother watching anything but TheFlightChannel for aviation disasters/incidents due to the superior quality and lack of bullshit the others are so saturated with.
Amazing story- looked up some info on L-1011-- Delta's L1011 Tristar (ship number 728) was retired as the last L1011 passenger plane on July 31st of 2001 AND there is just one, the only one of L-1011 still being operated by Northrop Grumman, it is called Stargazer.
So weird that a plane designed by Lockheed Martin is being used by Northrop Grumman lol
I appreciate that you bring us obscure incidences that might not be generally known by the public due to the heroic acts of the crew. All's well that ends well . . .
These days with all the computer control flying going on this sort of event would have ended in disaster. It would have become the pilot vs computer to control the aircraft, and as we learn over and over the pilot rarely ever wins
Exactly; fly by wire, die by wire !
Right. The half-operative elevator breakdown is such a highly unusual incident that it couldn't have realistically been anticipated. Even now it's extremely unlikely. However, pilots in WWII actually were training for extreme breakdowns due to combat. Cannon, flak explosions, and machine gun damage were a real possibility every time they took off. Check out the RUclips videos of B-17 bombers returning from missions over Germany, Japan, and Italy from 1941 to '45. Entire rudders, elevators, and wing sections were blown away, yet the pilots somehow managed to fly home.
I am grateful that the pilot rarely ever wins. It is the reason that air travel is safer today than it ever has been, but don't worry, even when automation slashes the number of road deaths by several magnitudes there will be idiot dinosaurs just like you saying how it was much safer when you could just drive your car home from a bar after 8 beers.
This is a great channel, so pleased everyone were ok thanks to the flight crew.
1st Officer, “Captain, airspeed is dropping we’re about to stall!” (Captain reaches over and pulls back the throttles). I guarantee that was his military combat experience kicking in.
Who pulls back on the throttles when you are about to stall? Thats normally when you want full power.
@@robertdoell4321 that’s true but there was other mechanical problems. The pilot’s experience kicked in and over rode the “add more power” thus saving everyone’s life.
@@todd5082 I was thinking he should I just did not expect him to do what I was thinking. Kinda outa the box
@@robertdoell4321 I totally agree.
ur videos are unreal man - i think I nearly seen them all at this stage. a lot of time, effort and research. Well done on a great channel.
Like the pilot in this story, my late father also piloted the Grumman F4F Hellcat (when he was in the Navy)! Respect ✊🏻🇺🇸
Kudos to the flight crew. Couldn't have had a more competent pilot.
Truly a fascinating and fantastic case of how such a small part failing can have monumental effects on the safe flight of an airplane. Kudos to the captain and crew for managing to get their crippled aircraft to the ground.
The L-1011 was a beautiful gal that just could not catch a break.
Well done, thanks again.
They got captured that classic sound of the L1011 turbofans spinning up. Nice touch!
L-1011 is the most beautiful plane imho
Excellent video! I know I am old fashioned, but I will always want a pilot who understands the concept of flight in the cockpit first! Look at all the best saves when the technology broke! It was the pilots who understood flight that resulted in the best outcomes.
First, great Captain at work. Second, imagine the flight attendants asking everyone to move completely two thirds forward.._ "so a minor adjustment to our plane's center of gravity" not explained. But a brilliant move off the cuff.
Horrifying and a fantastic recreation. Presentations like this are where TFC does it better than anyone else...the sounds of the engines throttling up and down...the dramatic fade in and fade out text...this simulation made me anxious as if I were in the plane. Not to venture into a sensitive topic, but narration, as happens occasionally on this channel, would have completely changed the experience of this dramatic recreation. Glad it was presented like this.
Soon I will be joining a flight school this year and your videos always gives me the zeal to work hard. I like the confidence of both crews and this shows how the are willing to give their all for this job🙌✨
The key is understanding what makes an aircraft fly--and what makes it not fly. Button pushing and gauge watching are important, but time and time again, the pilots who save the day are the ones that fully understand aerodynamics.
That was some solid flying, something that comes from experience in aircraft that aren't fly by wire. These lessons should be part of every continuing education cycle for commercial pilots.
The pilot's knowledge of physics saved a lot of lives. The consideration of CG and power from the middle engine are things out of the textbook.
The pilot, Jack McMahan, was a Marine Corps pilot in WWII. Ed McMahon (of the tonight show with Johnny Carson) was also a Marine Corps pilot in WWII.
Well done airmanship from the awesome pilots, especially the Captain's. What a delight to hear about they made it back to the ground, safely.
Another amazing story! Thank you Flight Channel! Those were the days when pilots were pilots and not computer operators. Well done!
Lovely story. Those triple engine aircraft were so beautiful.
I’ve always loved the L1011. Typical lovely design of a Lockheed aircraft. It got a bad rap over the years but it definitely was a workhorse.
I love it when these stories have happy endings! Awesome teamwork and thank God for those amazing crew members! ❤️
From a time when pilots knew how to fly. All hail the tri-jet, they would have been in a lot more trouble otherwise.
The drama created during these short videos is quite something. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat watching this not knowing if everyone lives or dies. Better then most movies today. Great job!
The favorite part about my job is you always upload during my lunch break I work in a warehouse we supply boeing and airbus with the seats and furniture
Was glad to see the Captain get that award!! I thought that entire flight crew did an unbelievable job keeping control of the aircraft and getting it safely to its destination!! Kudos!! This was a good one!! 💕✈✈💕
The L-1011 - the most beautiful of airplanes ever built.
So glad this one ended well, and the pilots performance was recognized. Ty @TheFlightChannel, your videos are always so well done and honorable.
When Delta 191 crashed at DFW due to wind shear, someone called the CEO to tell him that 191 had gone down. He asked what kind of plane? When informed it was an L-1011, he said "Bullshit, L-1011's don't crash, they're crash proof". This particular aircraft was sold to American Trans Air (ATA) which ran charters from Detroit to Las Vegas. I'd take that flight every 2-3 weeks, it was cheap back in the 80's. I wound up dating one of the flight attendants who one day took me down to the lower galley where there was an air mattress. Time to join the Mile High Club she grinned. It was this exact plane. N187AT, f/k/a N707DA, I thank you.
What fortune for this to happen to a pilot with such superb flight history. I am sure many pilots could have carried out what this pilot did but quite correctly he was awarded a citation.
Superb video as always..thank you.
The L-1011 is still, IMO, the finest airliner ever built. She had multiple redundancies and was the safest most comfortable and roomy passenger aircraft that was light years ahead of it's time! I had the privilege of flying aboard her over a dozen times in the mid 70's through the early 80's in this exact classic Delta livery and she was the most beautiful bird in the skies!
The Captain and the flight crew did a magnificent job getting the aircraft stable and back safely on the ground. Thanks for posting this incredible story!
The rest of the story is Delta found the crew another L1011 that night and they continued on to Atlanta for the red eye . Truly unbelievable. Captain said they should not have done that. The crew’s mind was overworked no doubt. This is one airline history’s greatest unknown stories.
I flew on many Delta L-10s while living in Atlanta. Loved that plane. Matter of fact, my first ever plane ride was an L-10 from ATL to MIA in 1977. I continued to fly Delta for an additional 2,000,000 miles and was a Flying Colonel.
Kudos to the pilot for bringing everyone back to safety! Another excellent recounting, thanks a ton, TFC!
Don’t forget KFC for their finger licking chicken!
@@mongo4511 I thought the "C" stood for "Children"!
Anyway, I'll Keep-Fingers-Crossed
professionalism at its best, what a hero, Thank You Dear God for watching over them
This, this here, is the difference between "pilots" and "Aviators". Aviators know how to fly even when systems aren't working properly.
Pilots are the ones that revert to the books and if the info isn't there, they don't know what to do.
According to the story from AA Cpt. Warren VanderBurgh in his AAMP(Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program) lecture in late 90s he mentions this incident, stating that the aircraft had trim stuck in full up, aircraft rotated before takeoff speed, then Captain recovered it several times by rolling to the side. Until he came up with idea of assymetric trust(using no 2) and moving all the people to the nose to alter the CG(center of gravity) to help him overcome this rollercoaster.
You can listen to that by searching AAMP Control Malfunctions, skip to 33:27
My buddy, who is a 34-year AA captain, recalls this being what he heard years ago about this incident - 90-degree side rolls saving the day.
Warren was awesome.
i saw all his training vids.
That's one heckuva good flight crew. Worked the problem and, when they couldn't determine a cause, relied on piloting experience to land the plane safely. Well done!
It was amazing and lucky that this was a tri-jet and the captain had the brilliance of using it to control pitch. Just image if this didn't have a tail mounted engine - could have been impossible to control it!
What a great ending. Bravo to the crew 👏👏
Your music is just freaking awesome in your videos! It makes it an event instead of just a video
That's some serious flying that is the result of excellent training and experience!
I watch all of these videos, I know nothing about flying planes. I am just fascinated by machines and how they work. This dude is amazing, just for knowing how to manipulate the controls in a different manner to reach the desired result. So cool
The pilot did not panic .panic could have made him forget everything.he also trusted himself and a faster thinker
Another great video from the (for me) no. 1 RUclips channel about aviation incidents and diasters!
Blown away at the thought of wide body service between SAN and LAX at 11:30 pm.
Experience is the best teacher. Using engine #2 effectively was pure logic to the veteran pilot. Common sense saved the day. Unfortunately they couldn't do a visual in the night as a cautionary measure.
It's really refreshing to hear a story where the plane puts itself in a potential stall configuration and the pilots immediately and appropriately respond. There's no complacency or sitting around blissfully unaware in this story. Plane pitches up, full nose forward on the controls. Check the trim, use the manual trim (screw the computer), regain control, go through a full systems diagnostics check once you've regained appropriate (or at least maintainable) attitude. Pitch up keeps happening, DECREASE the power!! That does against every instinct, but saved the aircraft from its precarious pitch up attitude. Excellent composure, excellent instincts. That's what saved the souls aboard. Too often now there are stories where the pilots completely ignore the indication of a stall. Wonderful story.
As a side note, my great uncle was a TWA captain. He, like many (if not most) older aviators said that the L1011 was the finest aircraft he'd had the privilege to fly.
In those days passengers were also considered test pilots. Moving forward to change the center of gravity would have been considered just part of the flying experience.
What an idiotic, and made up comment. I was flying in planes in the 70s. Never once were we asked to move to the front of an aircraft, with low occupancy. And passengers as test pilots??? WTF?
When we were kids at least once a week we would drive down to plane watch in a parking lot across from Solar Turbines off Harbor Blvd. The Delta L-1011 was nearly always the last plane out before midnight curfew. We always knew when it was heading down the taxiway the distinctive sound of the Rolls-Royce engines was a dead give away.(The old Ryan Aircraft factory obstructed the view of AC until the last few hundred feet of taxiway) I miss the Tri-star such a beautiful jet.