Who would ever expect this to happen!!!! .You expect engine fires 🔥 turbulence, acts of terrorism but never ever this . Hats off to everybody 👏for doing a great job and team work
I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the captain survived, let alone decided (and was able) to fly again not even half of a year later. Unprecedented bravery and toughness.
reminds me of that guy who flew across the Atlantic stowaway in the landing gear and somehow managed not to freeze to death. It's interesting how fragile yet strong bodies can be.
I hope the cabin crew member who held on to the captain despite a dislocated shoulder, frostbite, and the belief that he was probably already dead got a medal, too!
Absolutely amazing (and terrifying). I vaguely remember this from when it happened. The crew were fantastic as your excellent video illustrated. Many thanks.
I think I remember hearing somewhere that one of the reasons for holding on to the captain even while thinking he was dead is that they didn't want to risk him getting sucked into the engine.
So let me get this straight.. This captain endured the entirety of the flight from 17,500 feet to well after landing hanging halfway out the cockpit windshield…? That is just insane
Let's not forget flight attendant Susan Gibbins, who took care of a cabin filled with terrified passangers in an emergency all on her own. She, Nigel Ogden and Alastair Atchinson were rightfully awarded the Queen's Commendation For Valuable Service In The Air.
i did wonder what happened to the passengers when all this was going on. looking after all those people by herself, during a crisis, is incredible. Im glad they all got the award, they truly deserve it.
@@jimboSleeeeiiice I think it's more about someone taking leadership of the crisis and staying calm, that has a knock on effect. If she lay down screaming, it all would have gone to shit. 🤷♂️
Just imagine clingin on to a person you fear might be dead as his head bangs violently against the windshield form the outside, suffering frostbite and injury. Just... unthinkable. What a hero.
I don’t think they could have let go less he was then sucked into the engine. Surely that would have made a bad situation even worse. Thank God that pilot survived
@@tabularasa7775 I saw from another documentary on this case that the first officer asked the crew not to let go and the assumed reason being that he would get sucked into the engine and make the flight more perilous than what it already was.
I've had my shoulder dislocated before most of my shoulder was destroyed and did it all the time. The grip of his hand and ignoring the pain is incredible. Fucking legend.
@@shylahmariebrandt2090 Can guarantee even with plenty of adrenaline you still very much know about a dislocation, its a very different sort of pain to broken bones
I saw an interview with the crew. They thought the captain was dead and were considering letting his body go, but the first officer was worried that the body may hit the engine if it was released. Therefore he asked that they hang onto the body. Another fantastic decision!
these videos weirdly do make me feel safer when it comes to flying. i think it’s mostly because of the way you describe how planes work, and the fact that planes continue to get safer and safer after each accident because we learn from them.
late reply, but i 100% agree. I’m a nervous flyer but pilots are well trained, and planes are (mostly) well designed with safety (usually) the top priority.
I mostly agree. The Max 8 is an example where as they try to make them "safer" they actually make them worse. Of course with new technologies and better training, flying these days is far better than it was even 20 years ago, and especially better than it was in the 70's and 80's when jet travel was still relatively "new".
I cant fly unless i binge on air crash investigation. Im new to this guy, but I think hes gonna help, too... i think its a case of calming my nerves at how rare an accident is n how often pilots manage to recover from them and how dangerous just walking down the street (my usual mode of transport), is by comparison...
After all the stories of people disregarding procedures and panicking in high pressure mayday situations....this story is so heartwarming. The cabin crew saved his life, the First Officer was an absolute legend and saved everyone's life. As an airplane passenger that's the crew you hope to be in charge. Absolute professionals.
I love how you pretty much refuse to bash anyone in your videos, like the engineer in this situation who did the faulty work. You point out the errors but you also always explain how the errors could have happened. This is the best damn channel on RUclips!
The engineer was a good man who had one bad night at the office. His desire to get the job finished in a timely manner caused him to neglect the discipline required by the task at hand - he was guilty not of negligence, not of failing to care, but of sloppiness under pressure. Almost all of us have done something similar at one time or another and so we understand how it might have happened - as the saying goes "there but for the Grace of God go I". We also recognise with gratitude that few of us work in environments where a minor mistake can have such drastic consequences.
The engineer could have not only killed the pilot but brought the plane down and killed everyone . There are no excuses when it comes to aircraft maintenance ever !
I wonder what happened to him. I'd say he carries that everywhere with him to this day. Mistakes are made, this was just an incredibly serious and traumatic one. I heard Nigel has died since and that he was seriously affected by the incident. I hope everyone is doing well today
It makes sense to me. My dad, a retired Air Force pilot, always says, "Attack the problem, not the person." And that's the attitude you have to have to fly safely. If you get too into playing the blame and punish game, outside of WILLFUL malfeasance/negligence, then people are afraid to speak up when things go wrong and it's overall a less safe environment. And we are very likely to not get to accurate root cause information. One of the most fascinating examples of having the exact OPPOSITE attitude, and the literally toxic situation it created, is what happened at Chernobyl. You had shitty reactor design everyone was afraid to point out, insane timelines that everyone was afraid of having their ass on the line for not meeting, and a whole string of decisions made out of fear/ass-covering during the accident sequence and cleanup operations. This even led to Gorbachev being ill informed as to what was going on at first, which needless to say pissed him right on off when he found out. And in terms of political fallout, it was one of the things that made him so serious about initiating glasnost and perestroika...and ultimately setting off the sequence of events that brought down the Soviet Union. Had the environment/culture enforced by the fear and blame-based Soviet system not been in place, problems would very likely have been proactively fixed, or people would have at least felt empowered to take bold actions when things did go wrong, without having to think it would be their ass on the line for doing the right thing. Especially when doing the right thing might mean having to admit to their own screwups. It's very likely the Chernobyl accident wouldn't have occurred, or would not have been as severe or taken as many lives had people been empowered to have a proper safety culture.
This is beyond a movie. The fact that everyone landed safely and that the captain's injuries were the sort from which he could recover is incredible. What heroic performances, especially from the First Officer. Great story-telling, Mentour Pilot. Didn't feel the need to add drama when there was already so much.
It was actually made into a movie on the Mayday or Air Crash Investigation TV series (can't remember exactly which one). Gives new meaning to "flying ON on airplane" literally. hehe
This was one of my two favorite stories from National Geographic's "Air Crash Investigation." What really tugged at my heartstrings was that the first officer, who had this incredible emergency whammed into his face literally out of thin air, did an absolutely masterful job of getting his plane, his crew and his passengers safely back on the ground ... and then went completely to pieces. Poor guy, if anyone deserved to bawl like a baby it was him.
True. Also really amazing that he was able to keep it together until everything was over. Most other people myself included probably would have broken down right in the middle of the emergency and then the plane most likely would have just crashed.
@@HippieInHeart Hmmm ... I kind of take issue with this. Color me an optimist, but I believe -- well, I hope -- okay, I pray -- that more of us have a hidden Frodo in us than we give ourselves credit for. Under the right circumstances we can step up to bat, handle a crisis, and only fall apart when the crisis is over. I mean, where else would the heroes of fact and fiction come from, right?
@@seanbigay1042 I think it is different. If everyone - or at least almost everyone - was able to handle such amount of stress in this very good way, it would be considered normal. Stories are told about outstanding and unusual things, not mundane stuff that everyone is capable of.
Indeed! What a horrible predicament the crew were in! I was amazed that they were able to keep it together, help each other, & that everyone pulled through!
The first time I heard about this flight, I thought "No way. That only happens in Hollywood. That's too crazy to be real." Cherry on the cake: The captain lived. Absolutely insane. Wonderful video explaining it all.
@@galescott8433 I watched all episodes of Mayday and this was the first I ever saw, afterwards I was addicted. Also on of my favorit episodes was the flight from Hawaii to the neighbour Isln, where the roof of the plane went off and they had a convertible Plane, and they landed the plane and most survived
Mainly just super confused by how much of a shit show the repair crew was haha.. You don't fucking eyeball screw size for airplane repairs..and you can't read the label to get the right part..? Or cough up some money for a better scaffold arrangement..?
@@KaladinVegapunk Imagine the forces of wind moving over the captain at 200mph and you think you can pull a grown man in through a window on top of that?
What an incredible story. My jaw honestly dropped when I first watched this and learned that the captain not only survived, but with only relatively minor injuries. My hat goes off to the first officer and the cabin crew who are without a doubt in my mind truly heros.
I agree. I expected at least some head damage and maybe permanent brain damage due lack of oxygen because it sure is not easy to breath in such a wind. However, cold environment does reduce the damage due lack of oxygen in brain so it might have helped here.
Idem.,!!!! My most adulatory words to these incredible brave British subjects.!!!! If i would be that pilot, (the one that got sucked out), i would hv wanted WHO IN THE HELL INSTALLED THOSE FLIMSY WINDOWS???? Tells you much about British and Bolivian mentalities huh??
Wow what an absolute legend this captain is. Not only that he survived with minor injuries but to return to service?! And then flight attendant who actually had dislocated shoulder and still kept hold of the captain even though he thought that he wasn’t alive! Those two deserve all possible honours.
The first officer...must be the most chill man in any room he enters. How he accomplished that mission and landing is beyond my comprehension. Total respect.
First Officer's Spouse: How was the flight? First Officer: It was okay, I had to do all the work though. FIrst Officer's Spouse: Where was the captain? First Officer: Eh, he was three sheets to the wind...
In fairness, the way the commercial aviation industry is set up, it recognises that individuals routinely makes mistakes. Recognising that as an unfixable issue, it instead sets up systems such that mistakes are caught before they become a problem In other words, you'd probably be okay.
I've learned from my own experience over time that if something doesn't seem right you better stop and investigate because if you just blow it off, it'll probably blow up in your face. The crewman who initially held on to the captain, Nigel, I hope he got an award. Holding on to something until your eye is frostbit and your shoulder is dislocated is nothing short of a heroic effort ❤️
I work in special machine assembly as a team leader. We work about 6-8 months on a machine and every 1-2 months we let check the machine form a different assembly group to prevent what we call "machine blindness". Because you have to focus on so many issues you start to oversee even the most obvious errors especially when you are short of time or colleagues.
Such procedures are good, but you also have to ensure that they are done properly. If the second party is just ticking check boxes without actually verifying the work then the review is useless.
Okay I love that term, "machine blindness" and I'm totally going to use it. I'm a software engineer by trade and programmers deal with this all the time. We build incredible interwoven pieces of logic through hundreds or thoussnds of lines of elegant code, and most of our bugs and errors come from.the most mundane things.
FO Alistair Atchison rarely discussed this incident or gave interviews. He left BA shortly afterwards and flew with another airline until his retirement at 65 in 2015. One of the best stories I heard the crew members tell was about their return to their home base airport of Birmingham. As they entered the facility, the entire airport staff from gate agents to baggage handlers to other crew members, stood and applauded. That pretty much says it all, I think.
Not quite true. He stayed with BA for quite a number of years after the incident. I flew with him on the 747-400 in about 2000 and something. I’d have to check my logbook for the exact year. He was a captain then, and I was his first officer. I think he retired from BA not too long after that when he reached 55, and then moved onto a low cost carrier, but that would have been around 2010 I’d guess. He was a very quiet chap, and I chose not to ask him about it…
True story! Tim Lancaster has been the pilot twice for me. Once from Gatwick to Amsterdam and the 2nd Gatwick to Spain both in early 2000's. The only reason I remember his name was his handsome voice over the tannoy and his last name Lancaster ( as in Bomber ). It was only a few years later while watching a documentary on this that I realized it was the same man!.God bless you Captain Tim Lancaster ❤️❤️
Another aspect of the screws that can't be seen is the "class": screws with the same dimensions in the ISO norm are divided also by their strength. You can have an M10 screw (10mm of external diameter) that breaks at 800MPa (class 8.8) [92.800 psi] or at 1200MPa (class 12.9) [174.000 psi] . Those numbers depend on the material, its treatment and surface finish, not the diameter. You can find two screws that look exactly identical and have one breaking much faster
Today you can find all the things you describe. It's called progress because 33 years ago when this happened, those tolerances did not exist. Trial and error = progress. Accidents are the error bit.
@@fedup3449 it is taught in technical and professional high schools so it shouldn't be hard to know for someone who does that job. The majority of progress is made through experiments which don't include deaths or tragedy. I didn't talk about tolerances, what did you mean?
@@fedup3449 oh ok. It was the '90s, there were no unga bunga cavemen handfitting stones for their fireplaces 😅. Engineering was advanced enough to recognise that if you heat treated the steel in different ways you could have different performances, another difference is if the steel is only carbon iron (with varying % of C) or is alloyed with other elements. The ancient Greeks already knew this Another old method is carbon or nitride diffusion, which really matters when you have alternating pulls and pushes on the screws
I'm a machinist. We once had Boeing send us the wrong aluminum for a bracket that holds the engine on a 737. It was not nearly strong enough. The mistake was caught and corrected. This was back in 2007.
One of my all time favourite aviation story. Every thing was against them yet the co pilot did an extraordinary landing as well as the crew holding on to the captain. Thank you so much for again an excellent video !
I had seen this video before where one of the cree was going to let the captain go assuming hr was dead anyway. But the co pilot said no. His body might hit the engine or wing and cause damage and flight control problems. For God sake this is a human being, friend. Even if he had died, wouldn't you want to give his body to his family in one piece? Or give him a chance to be revived? Im glad they nixed the idea of letting him go. Sacrifice to hold on was commendable. Do you know how guilty thry would feel had they let capt go and found out after autopsy that he was still alive? Murder.
@@sharoncassell9358 I get what you're saying but you have to remember that the captain was causing ongoing danger to the entire plane by being stuck there. If the crew had jostled the controls whilst holding him the plane might have crashed, and there's a chance he could have even broken the next window or pulled a member of the crew out that was trying to save him. It's great that they managed to save his life but, logically, his life was only worth 1/170th of the lives on the plane. If it was a 1/10 chance that holding him there caused the plane to crash then you're valuing the captains life at 17 times more than everybody else's lives. You have to act rationally and not risk everybody's life to save one person's life. That would be like filling a critical condition patient's hospital room with every doctor in the hospital in case one of them has an idea on how to save him whilst leaving the rest of the hospital with no doctors.
Couldn't help but be in awe of what the first officer did. I am not anywhere close to the aviation industry but it just inspires me to be as good at my job as the first officer was at his. Truly, truly inspirational.
I still can't get over the fact the pilot managed to survive. It's mind blowing. I always enjoy tuning into these videos, Petter. They're so well done and easy to understand.
There is something called the mammalian diving reflex. It occurs when a person is immersed in sudden cold water and this slows down a person's physiology reducing their need for oxygen. Something similar can occur with people in deep hypothermia.
@@lizlovsdagmara5525 really? I'd never heard of that before. Sounds a little bit scary. Is that why people who drown in cold water can sometimes be revived?
@@ecclestonsangel there is a saying in the medical field that you're not dead until you're warm and dead. Probably stems from this so you are likely correct
@@jonpeters9065 Funnily enough, a friend of mine was widowed and that was one of the things she said when her husband died in her bed. She didn't believe he was dead because he was still warm.
For those who may not know, if they didn’t hold on to the captain, even though they thought he was dead, there was a chance his body could fly right into the engine and kill everyone.
No. Thats not how the physics work. Only if the plane would be accelerating really fast. If you watch skydivers jump out of the plane you can see how they just fall of the side
@@Honsolgen98skydivers fall out of a very slowly moving little plane, not a rapidly accelerating and climbing jet. Dude was being sucked out of the window and pinned against the plane by the rapidly moving air, you think he's just going to fall straight down? Nonsense, that's not how physics works.
Hi. My wife know Alistair and his wife as she used to baby sit for them and my in-laws live 500 yards down the road from them. What an amazing kind man he is.
@@MentourPilot definitely so. My son is learning to fly at the moment and when they spoke last year pre covid he was encouraging and gave him helpful advice.
I used to wonder the same thing about myself as a trauma nurse in the ER. You don't get nervous because you know what to do, and what to do after that. If I wasn't so busy doing those things, I might have gotten nervous. If what happened was tragic, I didn't think about it until I got off duty. And then still wonder how I did it. Now 20 years later, I can't believe I did that job! This is my interaction for the channel to go with my thumbs up times 10. I love Mentour aviation. Makes me proud to be a Swede!
I love that you are sympathetic to all people involved and are more understanding to human factors rather than making them villains because of one mistake. Also, the professional quality of the production and the way you clearly explain all the factors relevant are fantastic. Thank you.
That guy is a terrible mechanic. And the fact that he didn't raise the flag when he installed another windscreen, what a terrible work ethic. And this guy gives him the benefit of the doubt. He's a hack in my book, seen plenty of them in aviation.
In the Airforce we replaced plenty of windshields . If the screws were damaged you have to walk, hoof it back to the shop to get new hardware. No laziness was acceptable. This guy almost cost the captain his life. If the windshield was still intact but un- serviceable for a plane due to blurring warping or scratches from birdstrikes or weather, we would make a table out of it instead of discarding it. Just a tidbit.
@@arkern6464 some examples of things that caused this that was outside of the mechanic’s control: 1. The main store was not properly restocked. 2. In the poorly lit unstaffed store only 269 of the 294 drawers there had labels and of those only 163 contained only the correct parts. So he was forced to compare bolts manually. 3. The torque wrench he was supposed to use was missing so he had to use a torque-limiting screwdriver instead which doesn’t hold the correct bit properly and he needs to hold the bit with his other hand. 4. The plane was already fitted with incorrect bolts from before BA acquired the plane
As an engineer, that was one of my biggest single concerns, that something I did could kill someone. If you stop and think about it for any length of time, you'd just quit rather than consider the possibilities.
I agree. I think the maintenance crews are the unsung heros of aviation. They have to get everything spot on all the time. There are 10s of thousands of parts on an aircraft, all have to be in perfect working order. I would be just too chicken to even think of doing a job like that.
yeesh automotive is sketchy enough... it is usually simple in principle "torque said important bolts" but feeling pushed for time or being distracted, I can easily picture this happening even to well trained techs... at first I assumed they were actual hex bolts and were possibly of the wrong grade. Seems the head was a bit small and wasn't getting a good purchase on the holes.
I feel bad for the engineer. With him doing three people's jobs at the same time in his nightshift (staff manager, maintenance engineer, QA inspector), he was bound to make some mistake. He was probably overworked and stressed out from the volume of work he had to get done on his own and that very nearly killed someone ans could have killed an entire flight worth of people! All because management skimped on stuff, it seems!
This story has always been my favorite due to the fact that the pilot survived & so many acted quickly to help and make the right decision for someone else to live.
OMG the capts body went though some extreme forces that his body was not conditioned to withstand, but somehow was able to. The human body is a amazing thing. Great video as always!
A brilliant example of the highest order of airmanship - aviate, navigate, communicate. The lives of everyone on board rested with the F/O and he did a magnificent job. I hope the company recognised him for it.
The Captain: "Did I tell you the story of when I was flying 23 000 feet above the ground" Child very unimpressed: "You mean in a plane?" The Captain: "..... no."
As a Qualit Assurance Manager, rules number 1, never QA your own work. I saw an interview with this pilot, truly remarkable. Good job describing the problem.
I was on a BA flight in the cockpit a few years ago and talked about this incident! We were waiting on a repair and had been grounded for hours waiting and the pilots LOVED talking about this and other incidents. I got to sit in the captains seat and wear his hat. But even before I found your channel I was amazed by this incident and loved talking to the pilots about it - and they liked it too. Tack! Din perspektiv som pilot är superbra!
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well he already beat the odds and got past that event, so in all likelihood statistically he wont have another issue for the rest of his career. in a way its safer to go back to work, than to have started the job in the first place.
I know right! You could see the blood near the window where his head had hit a large number of times. I was wondering whether his back or legs had snapped in two at one point.
@@MentourPilot One thing you didn't mention was that although they thought he was dead, they held on tight in case his body went through the engine. Not directly of course but bouncing off the wing.
It’s very comforting to know that crews then and now are so well trained to bring this nightmare to a miraculous conclusion. I don’t believe they get enough credit for their skills and dedication to duty! Another excellent video!
Outstanding performance by the Co-Pilot, to get it down safely with such an unbearable level of stress going on all around. I can only imagine the devastation he would have gone through afterwards, truly believing that the Captain had perished. Followed by the utter elation after finding out he was still alive. The crew as well, to face what was left of that window and keep their Captain from being lost. I can't find the words to put it into. Truly selfless and heroic.
Wow. I didn't know the story, but I guess the captain is the only person who survived on the outside of a plane for so long. Absolutely amazing that everyone was alive and well after that. Thanks for sharing the story with us.
Imagine LITERALLY almost getting sucked out of your airplane and being back in the pilot seat 5 months afterwards 😂 this is loving your job right there
I agree; though I'm pretty certain one of the thoughts he had that got him back into the cockpit was "What are the odds of me getting sucked out of the Captain's seat TWICE in my lifetime?!?"
@@JCDofNYC nah, more like.. I have one condition on coming back to work. Make my seat a commode. He certainly will not be 'easing his belt' on a BAC ever again I suppose
I have learned more about aircraft, flight crew procedures, the entire process in the last couple of months watching your videos than I knew in my first 57 years. They are professional, no extra drama, just facts. Thank you so much for the education you are providing to all of us!
I have heard that at one point the cabin crew asked if they should let go of the captain because they thought he was dead. The First officer said no, not because he thought that the captain was still alive but because he was afraid the captain's body would go into the engine.
It’s funny to know that they would have sent him flying away to certain death, if it wouldn’t have made it more dangerous for them. He’s lucky they had no way to miss the engine with his body, or he’d be a goner 😂
Props to the FO for handling everything in this dire situation. And the cabin crew man who saved the pilot's life should be well rewarded. More of these stories please.
Jesus had a hand in this for sure. F.O gets everything right, absolutely right without a checklist?!? That was some divine inspiration. Could literally hear Him saying, 'That was me...'
Sorry... First Officer was a professional with many flying hours; instead of wasting his time praying for help from above, he got to work and did his job. He certainly deserves all the credit.
One of the most amazing samples of flying under pressure in the history of aviation by the First officer to stay calm enough, in the absolute chaos mechanically, physically , and most importantly mentally, psychologically and emotionally to land the plane so perfectly after To be able to keep his mental state calm enough and thought processes logical enough and block out the the carnage around him requires super human strength It's just totally unprecedented and Impossible to train for such an event and the stress involved
That's absolutely insane that the Captain survived! I would have assumed he would have been frozen solid by the time they landed. Amazing work by the crew holding onto him!
It may have something to do with most windows are mounted from the inside making them just about fail proof, perhaps that standard carried over to this aircraft model. Another factor is that the procedure to replace the window seems rather simplistic, even for an average joe. As long as you got the correct tools and parts. I can see how it was not considered a vital part. I guess it was deemed impossible for specialists to mess it up. I'm sure that's how that technician felt about it too. had the job been more complex, He probably would have used proper rigor and no flaws would occur.
@@wesman7837 not sure but I would think at that height they probably would all be dead because of the depressurization would have brought unconsciousness very quickly without oxygen on.
You're such a good speaker, fluent, articulate, eloquent. And your knowledge so vast. I suppose not all this learning is mandatory for pilots. At the time of retreat you could make a great TV network contributor. Safe flights, best luck.
Just out of curiosity... Did he ever unfastened his seatbelts after this incident during flight again (besides having to take a break or going to the toilet?)
I’ve been on late night maintenance crews trying to get a plane fixed for the morning flight schedule. There’s a lot of perceived pressure layered underneath the overt pressure of getting the plane ready to fly. In a perfect world the only pressure would be to get it right no matter how much it affects the flight schedule. Luckily for all of us, there are a lot of great mechanics who love the job so much that they don’t mind the unrealistic expectations and mediocre pay! 😊
this is such a stupid mistake that there is no excuse, under any amount of pressure, for making. the mechanic is lucky the pilot survived. I hope the mechanic never touched an airplane again.
@@MaxRenke we’re only human and we all make mistakes. That’s why there are so many checks and double checks already built into most aviation jobs. I’ve seen top mechanics make careless mistakes. Any skill that you are good at will degrade as you try to do it faster.
@@Donkor640 "That’s why there are so many checks and double checks already built into most aviation job" that this guy clearly ignored. it wasn't a mistake, it was intentional incompetence
The reason for this accident reminds me of back when I was an apprentice years ago. The master plumber would always have somebody else check behind him when he worked on gas lines. He'd worked on this stuff for more than 40 years, but he always said he wanted somebody else's eyeballs to see if they could catch something he didn't.
Amazing story, amazing video...........I was living in Southampton at the time and remember it well. Amazing that the captain returned to work 5 months later, what a man and what a team.
Another interesting thing came out of the investigation. Apparently, the previous windshield had been attached with the wrong screws as well, so when he compared screws, they matched. If he would have looked up the screws, he would have found out they were the wrong screws. Also, a co-worker in the parts department actually mentioned to the engineer that he thought the windscreen used different screws than what he was looking for, but he ignored that co-worker's comment thinking that matching the old screws would be sufficient. The assumption that the old screws were correct was wrong and is part of what led to disaster.
That needed to be thoroughly investigated. Engineering changes happen all the time, big changes, little changes. Sometimes they do not get communicated or the updated documentation does not get distributed. The assumption that the old screws were correct was not totally unreasonable. We do not see any follow-up as to whether the old screws were originally factory-installed or from a later replacement. The difference should have been caught, reported and the plane grounded until resolved. Also, as follow-up, were the other planes in this series checked?
@@KameraShy True, assuming that the old screws were correct was not an unreasonable assumption, but proved to be disastrous in this case. The official investigation noted that the windshield had been replaced with the wrong screws by a different engineer on a previous repair. They could not explain why the windshield did not fail previously, but it might have been because this engineer was working at an angle over the windshield, and could not see the screws were not flush. Whereas, the previous engineer was able to position himself directly over the windshield for a better view, and therefore could make sure the screws were at least in all the way, even if not the correct size. It is speculation why one failed and the other didn't, but they do know that two engineers put the wrong screws in.
@@ScottMStolz - The way I always understood it was that the engineer who did the previous repair likely used a combination of the correct type bolt (possibly from the original fitting) and the incorrect type. This raises the question as to whether it was common practice to attempt to match the bolts visually (as it was difficult to discern the size difference by the naked eye). Either way, there were enough bolts of the correct size to hold the windscreen in securely enough to stay put (though not as securely as it should have been). If that was the case, the luckless shift manager who performed the repair before the accident flight had the misfortune of picking one of the incorrect bolts to use as his basis for comparison. Truth be told, I feel bad for the guy. A lot of people have called him incompetent, and I remember at the time there was a very cruel accusation from the press that he rushed the job in order to get home in time for a World Cup match. While it's true that official procedure required him to consult the service manual to determine the correct bolt type, the fact that at least a number of incorrect bolts had been fitted previously implies that he wasn't the only one attempting to use experience and intuition to get things done more efficiently. The stockroom engineer corrected him on the type of bolt he was looking for, and that should have been a red flag - but on the other hand the stockroom guy didn't look it up, he was working from memory, and the shift manager was holding the actual bolt he'd just taken out of the windscreen in his hand, and it was of a different type. Driving round to the stores and attempting to match the bolts visually was a mistake, but again, it's not the kind of thing you'd do as a mechanic or engineer if you hadn't done it before. The implication here is that the maintenance operation as a whole had fallen into some sub-optimal habits. Ultimately, he was the one who made the mistakes which caused an accident, however I have strong suspicions that he was not the only one who had become used to working this way. He was too trusting of the work previously done, and exhibited a certain amount of complacency - but the way he went about things was both diligent (in terms of wanting to ease the workload for the mechanics on his shift) and logical. Unfortunately, the presence of the incorrect bolts from the previous repair meant that he was diligently and logically working on the basis of false information.
@@turricanedtc3764 Very true. I don't remember whether the video I saw about the government investigation mentioned if all of the old bolts were wrong, but I do remember that it mentioned that the engineer took the investigator to the trash can where he dumped them and grabbed the old bolts out of the trash to show the investigator. This is how the engineer proved he took the wrong size bolts out of the windshield. What you mentioned sounds very plausible. The investigators also said that this engineer was working at an angle in low lighting because of the way the plane was parked and that some of the screws might not have been seated correctly because of this. This limited his view enough where he could feel where the screw was but not clearly see if the screw was seated correctly. So it is possible that previously all of the wrong size screws were seated correctly and that was enough for it to hold, but in this case, if some were not seated correctly, the ones that were seated correctly were not strong enough to hold it in place. I'll have to find the investigation video again. The investigator was very meticulous in accounting for as many screws as possible, but I forgot exactly what they said. But, ultimately, one of the findings was that this engineer's behavior had become standard operating procedure for many engineers over the years, and the investigators recommended re-training every year on proper procedures to try to prevent this type of accident again.
Not correct. There were three different types of bolt involved. The bolts originally specified for the aircraft were 10UNC and they were replaced after a number of years by bolts of the same diameter but slightly longer; the change in spec. did not require old bolts to be replaced with new. The bolts chosen by the shift manager were of the wrong diameter (8UNF) - regardless of which bolts were already in the screen, he made the wrong choice. His mistake was failing to spot the difference between 8UNC and 10UNC, easily done as the difference in diameter is 0.6mm. One point not often mentioned is that it is possible to tighten a 8UNC bolt into a 10UNF nut, though the strength of the coupling is significantly weaker.
I've seen other videos about this, but this was the first time I've gotten details like how pilots use their seatbelts described. A big Like from me, very informative, interesting, and well made, both to listen to, and watch. Extra plus for details like mentioning both Celsius, and Fahrenheit.
One impeccably presented video! Thank you. Before I started teaching, I worked as a flight attendant for World Airways. In January 1982, I was a member of the ill-fated DC-10 flight that careened off the runway at Boston International Airport. I am fortunate that I am here today.
My cousin was a flight attendant and they told her to miss this flight and pick up the next one the next day. She complained about being alone in the hotel. The plane crashed and all 8 crew died. She is 81 now and told me she still feels bad. See how accidents can cause trauma to any family member or co-worker.
I saw this on the "Mayday Air Disaster" show. Man, I love this channel. There is no nonsense explanation of what the hell went wrong or cheezy reenactments of people trying to find parts in a field. And also, dude is extremely likable! Keep up the great work my man and may God bless you and your family from San Antonio fricken Texas!
I work in the food production industry - when we do allergen cleans, we have to get our work checked out by someone else - ‘checking’ your own work is a big no-no.
@@ojonasar Sometimes court appeals are decided by the same judge whose ruling is being appealed. They could learn something from the food production industry.
@@MakerInMotion where are you from? In the UK an appeal changes court. It starts at magistrates court, that appeal goes to crown court, that appeal goes to high court and that appeal eventually and finally goes to Supreme Court (essentially where laws are made, changed and the precedent for law and every future case is set). So the judge of a magistrates will never be found in crown, high or Supreme Court etc so a judge will never be able to overturn (or not overturn) his own decision.
@@Rawwhhh The US. It's really family court (divorce, child custody) where the worst stuff happens. The judges have more autonomy and can pretty much do what they want. The example of a judge hearing an appeal to his own decision I'm pretty sure was from a family court case in the documentary "Divorce, Inc." You really don't want to get divorced in America.
I've watched a lot of disaster videos in the past: _Seconds from Disaster_ and _Air Disaster Investigations_ and others. A great many disasters were caused because "some component not necessary to the safe operation of the aircraft was inoperative."
tell that to the new style flight computers which just ignore pilot inputs!!! Keep human judgement above computer algorithms, thanks. I'd rather pay for well trained smart people to fly our planes rather than spend more on programming silicon while cheaping on staffing in those human cattle cars
I remember some 7 years ago working for a MRO in the UK, there was a culture of transparency regarding mistakes / incidents that the company was continuously reinforcing on all the staff. A "no-blame", transparency first approach. And obviously, all work on the aircraft had to be inspected by another tech/engineer afterwards.
I hear from your accent that you are Swedish but cannot see your name. I have always been fascinated by real stories where airplanes are involved, maybe because of my grandfather's adventures hundred years ago. He and his friend, an educated engineer (my grandfather was a natural and self-taught), built THE (or one of) the very first) airplanes in Sweden (he also built houses and a sailboat etc). I have not only heard him tell about it himself but also seen pictures and read about it in old Swedish papers and an old "Airplane magazine" for enthusiasts. He was banned from continuing his adventures by his parents after witnessing him störta from 20 meters but he miraculously recovered/survived. This happened 100 years ago in the Swedish city Vimmerby, the city where also Astrid Lindgren was born and who was a member of the same "folk dance team" as my grandfather where he played the violin. This is of course not of public interest but parts of my own interesting background. :) I am also interested in testing my own abilities and will absolutely perform the training/tests you recommend! /Jane
Imagine being the pilot sucked out of the window? I bet that ordeal felt like an eternity! That would be the one time in life I would be glad to be knocked unconscious.
Imagine being the guy flying the plane. For all that time, basically alone, dreading that the captain is dead, and you're about to join him and take all your crew and passengers with you. And finding out later, that the only reason your captain lived was because you didn't dare let what you thought was his dead body go into the engines.
@@gworfish i would imagine it's also quite noisier with the air rushing over you at such high speeds, and the engines whirring loudly, along with vibrations and rattling from the aircraft itself due to the rapid decompression and any physical damage throwing off aerodynamics.
Great Job always! I remember watching this documentary years ago! Still gave me chills and as I grew up I learnt that every little detail is important and we shouldn’t take a lot of things for granted.
The one thing I find remarkable that the captain was alive after this ordeal and his coworkers were also fine with just minor injuries despite the harsh weather. This is just mind boggling on how the human body can survive these things is just that remarkable!
Your videos have just recently hit my RUclips queue, I've watched three in total, (the French Concord, and the Tenerife) and this one, which was a miracle. You had me on the edge of my seat. But I have to stop for a day or two, I'm too old to stress vicariously. When I was a teenager in the late sixties, one of my high school science teachers conducted a class called "Preflight". It was a semester, and we even had a textbook He was also a pilot, not commercial, but a very intelligent guy who flew small planes as a hobby. That was one of the best classes I have ever taken in my life and I still remember a lot of what he taught. Thank you so much for your great narration and explanations. It's quite something to hear how events transpire second to second.
This channel is amazing. I used to be really irrationally scared of flying, but these videos really help me see what all goes into making sure everyone is kept safe. I feel like I can go into my next flight with a more level head after finding this channel. Thank you so much!
Glad it helps. It really is re-assuring a lot of the mistakes or accidents that have occurred have been huge learning lessons. Weather it's mechanical issues need to be addressed or human error. Planes have on average become so much safer compared to older models of aircraft.
Probably the first ever [non-intentional] "walk around" done are 17,000 feet! :-) Such a great crew, risking their lives and severe injuries to work the problem with determination and save the lives of all on board [or outside]. Another great video, and what a great outcome for the people on board.
Consider the walk around done on some of the last space shuttle flights to check for heatshield damage. One of those found fatal flaws but attempted landing anyway, unfortunately ending up in Texas instead of Florida.
This is a really clear demonstration on why you should always have two sets of eyes on any crucial components, regardless of industry. I work with high end chemical explosives on a daily basis. As the engineer on site- if anyone on my crew is found to have assembled any components without having someone else sign off I am obligated to fire them immediately.
@@gworfish While it's a super hard-line approach, it does the job it's meant to very well. I wouldn't be unhappy to see those types of standards implemented in other fields where people's lives are at stake.
@@whitenoise509 Yeah, preaching to the choir mate. I think any job worth doing is worth doing well on principle. But if it can hurt someone that isn't you, why wouldn't you want another set of eyes?
@@gworfish It's so difficult to impress upon people how important the little things are when it comes to safety sometimes. In my field we see an interesting trend in our data. The rookies follow most procedures word for word because the danger feels readily apparent to them. Then the curve divebombs after a few months of experience, because nothing bad has happened around them. They feel "safe" in an area that is absolutely hazardous. All of the companies I have contracted with have tried to mitigate this in varied ways. What most of is have found is that you can't train in respect for danger, that generally it comes with experience and understanding. Hence the very aggressive approach most of us have adopted now. You won't hear about them, but surface detonations do happen. Several per year normally. Where I live (usa) heavy industry companies are absolute masters at not letting news get out.
I've never unfastened my seat belt during a flight (never even been to the toilet) I love the fact that the aviation industry learns from every single accident/incident, they're sometimes spending many millions to locate the black boxes to find out what happened and how to prevent it from reoccurring. Thank you for your videos and giving an insight to what happens inside the cockpit x
Hello thanks for your comments and supports, your comments and constant support has brought me this far. Keep supporting ❤️, please send me a message on Hangouts via
Oh my god, never heard about this incident! That F/O has balls of steel! And amazing that they were able to keep the captain from being completely sucked out, amazing!
Thanks for this comprehensive explanation. I'm not at all in the industry, but I found this absolutely riveting. It's terrifying how seemingly trivial mistakes can lead to a nearly catastrophic event like this. I even feel bad for the engineer who made the faulty repair, because I'm sure he lost his job, but at least he didn't have to live with knowing he was responsible for any loss of life.
Well, he should lose his job right? The lives of many are counting on his precision. If he knew he and his family was to board that flight, I wonder if he would have been more cautious?
I do not know much about planes, but it’s strange that two plane accident videos I have watched in many years, both pertained to incorrect or thinner screws being used as the engineer compared them by eye and not by identity. Important to look at specifications.
I'm also wondering why there is a need for screws of a similar size but not identical. Maintenance is a lot easier when you have a few standard screw sizes. If every part has a different screw size, it's a mistake waiting to happen.
@@meneldal ...or more dangerous if they are the same dimensions but are lower tensile strength or incorrect material. Aviation safety means thinking beyond the obvious. A unique part number with no substitution allowed is the best safeguard.
I thought I knew everything about this and stayed for the ”storytelling” and yet learned something new already (the bit about the passenger oxygen masks). Thank you for another great video!
Yes. My thinking too. I know this cause of this accident. Is it really worth watching this one? Absolutely! Because of course I learn more details than I ever knew before with a great perspective.
The BAC 111 is quite an old aircraft. I’m surprised that BA were still operating them in 1990. The first aircraft I ever flew on was a BAC 111 and that was in the mid 1970s and the one I flew on was old then.
There is a ton of aircraft accident investigation channels out there, but you really stand out with you factual and relax presentation. I really can't stand all those "documentaries" trying to be a Hollywood action movie, and you are the opposite of that. Thank you!
I am so glad they kept holding onto the captain and didn't let go of him even though they must have thought he didn't stand a chance of surviving. this makes me happy and believe in humanity.
My first thought when watching this episode was - what a terrible design having a windscreen in a pressurised aircraft mounted from the outside! I wonder why it was designed that way.
Not true, CRJs windscreens are mounted from the outside. Never had a problem, as long as you use the right bolts. Plus the Bolts are not reused unless they are checked for cracks.
You do realise that if they were mounted on the inside and this happened the captain would have instead been killed by a couple hundred kilos of glass hitting him in his head right?
@@Alucard-gt1zf That's not how pressure works. The higher internal pressure means that: a. Even if the bolts failed, the window would be pressed against the frame and not budge. b. The bolts are unlikely to fail in the first place, since they don't bear much of the pressure loads, that job is now taken up by the frame the glass is mounted to.
Probably a manufacturing / maintenace-related reason - how are you going to maneuver a large piece of glass into the cockpit from the inside to bolt it into place?
I think I heard somewhere that while the cabin crew were convinced the captain was dead, they considered letting him go, but due to the placement of the engine they feared he would get sucked into the engine. Of course letting him go would’ve been a terrible idea so I’m not sure if it’s true or not but if it is then the captain can be lucky the engines are where they are
Engines under the wing are just as dangerous as those at the back of the fuselage. So far as I am aware, no-one has ever tested which presents the greater danger to a pilot blown out of his cockpit.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
These pilots were faced with a catastrophic situation and handled it like real pro’s! 👉🏻 ruclips.net/video/H5UUr9RXfTY/видео.html
@Atlas Air Boeing 747-46N (F) c
Have you thought of a video about "The Ghost of 401"? It's an interesting story with a very unexpected and unusual ending.
I see he had a real strong tie, didn't go with the airflow at all.
Walk or get a yacht
Who would ever expect this to happen!!!! .You expect engine fires 🔥 turbulence, acts of terrorism but never ever this . Hats off to everybody 👏for doing a great job and team work
I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the captain survived, let alone decided (and was able) to fly again not even half of a year later. Unprecedented bravery and toughness.
reminds me of that guy who flew across the Atlantic stowaway in the landing gear and somehow managed not to freeze to death. It's interesting how fragile yet strong bodies can be.
@@bogdiworksV2 it's almost like we aren't in control of our living and dying, huh?
@@juliemclain5841 pretty much, yea.
@@bogdiworksV2 I never heard about this. Unbelievable!
I think whenever a British person becomes an officer of any sort they get plot armour along with their uniform.
Everyone- “it’s near impossible to land a plane under such stress”
Co pilot- “hold my captain”
Cant bring my Dad anywhere
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Underrated comment 😂😂😂
Lol😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I hope the cabin crew member who held on to the captain despite a dislocated shoulder, frostbite, and the belief that he was probably already dead got a medal, too!
He did!
@@MentourPilot well deserved! Must've been hellish for him!
Absolutely amazing (and terrifying). I vaguely remember this from when it happened. The crew were fantastic as your excellent video illustrated. Many thanks.
I think I remember hearing somewhere that one of the reasons for holding on to the captain even while thinking he was dead is that they didn't want to risk him getting sucked into the engine.
@@MentourPilot I hope his frostbite recovered properly, losing an eye would not be good!!
So let me get this straight.. This captain endured the entirety of the flight from 17,500 feet to well after landing hanging halfway out the cockpit windshield…? That is just insane
just built different
Alpha physique.
Gives a whole new meaning to being "pilot flying".
And then returned to work 5 months later, fully healed. You couldn't make this up if you tried!
Love this 😂🙏🏻❤️
Let's not forget flight attendant Susan Gibbins, who took care of a cabin filled with terrified passangers in an emergency all on her own. She, Nigel Ogden and Alastair Atchinson were rightfully awarded the Queen's Commendation For Valuable Service In The Air.
i did wonder what happened to the passengers when all this was going on. looking after all those people by herself, during a crisis, is incredible. Im glad they all got the award, they truly deserve it.
Sure she said not to worry people..happens all the time
o7
@@AflacMan13
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@@jimboSleeeeiiice I think it's more about someone taking leadership of the crisis and staying calm, that has a knock on effect. If she lay down screaming, it all would have gone to shit. 🤷♂️
When I heard he returned to service after just 5 months, that sent chills down my spine, what an absolute legend.
Yes, indeed!
Probably with his 5-point seatbelt fully strapped on permanently troughout the whole flight
Now I can continue watching because it means he survived. Thanks. Scary stuff
Hmm? Is that a pun?
@@YTshashmeera Haha, I was intending to write "no pun intended" but I left it as is, the pun wasn't intentional. :)
Just imagine clingin on to a person you fear might be dead as his head bangs violently against the windshield form the outside, suffering frostbite and injury. Just... unthinkable. What a hero.
Right, I thought they would get so cold they'd let go or at the very least he would be a Captainsicle.
I don’t think they could have let go less he was then sucked into the engine. Surely that would have made a bad situation even worse. Thank God that pilot survived
@@tabularasa7775 I saw from another documentary on this case that the first officer asked the crew not to let go and the assumed reason being that he would get sucked into the engine and make the flight more perilous than what it already was.
Yeah, it’s something that has always haunted him. He ended up with PTSD, and several years later took early retirement due to health.
"This was a very serious situation" biggest understatement I've ever heard.
The crew of British Airways flight 009 like this.
@@JohnSmithShields speedbird 9 is honestly my fav aviation story.
Brits are the masters of understatement.
It does two things 1) injects a little bit of humour 2) the humour calms the situation somewhat.
so you havent heard yet "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped."
Nigel Ogden, the guy that kept hold of the pilot, is a soldier for still hanging on to the pilot with a dislocated shoulder. Hero! 👏👏
I've had my shoulder dislocated before most of my shoulder was destroyed and did it all the time. The grip of his hand and ignoring the pain is incredible. Fucking legend.
With the adrenline he probably didn't even realized it. When I watched the video of it he had said his arms & hands were doing nume
Indeed.
Dude also sacrificed his one eye. Fcking Legend
@@shylahmariebrandt2090 Can guarantee even with plenty of adrenaline you still very much know about a dislocation, its a very different sort of pain to broken bones
I saw an interview with the crew. They thought the captain was dead and were considering letting his body go, but the first officer was worried that the body may hit the engine if it was released. Therefore he asked that they hang onto the body. Another fantastic decision!
Incredible the plane could land with the weight of the enormous balls of all the crew on board.
😂true
Just about took the words right out of my mouth.
Never mind landing. How did that aircraft even get airborne?
In the split second he was sucked out of the cockpit, the captain realized he'd need to lose altitude, and disabled the autopilot with his balls
Hell of a comment
(Clapping and Cheering).
Lol
these videos weirdly do make me feel safer when it comes to flying. i think it’s mostly because of the way you describe how planes work, and the fact that planes continue to get safer and safer after each accident because we learn from them.
late reply, but i 100% agree. I’m a nervous flyer but pilots are well trained, and planes are (mostly) well designed with safety (usually) the top priority.
Me too...I have developed a bit of an addiction to these videos now😅😅
I've viewed many of these presentations, and sad to say, human error seems to play a big part, more often than not.
I mostly agree. The Max 8 is an example where as they try to make them "safer" they actually make them worse. Of course with new technologies and better training, flying these days is far better than it was even 20 years ago, and especially better than it was in the 70's and 80's when jet travel was still relatively "new".
I cant fly unless i binge on air crash investigation. Im new to this guy, but I think hes gonna help, too... i think its a case of calming my nerves at how rare an accident is n how often pilots manage to recover from them and how dangerous just walking down the street (my usual mode of transport), is by comparison...
After all the stories of people disregarding procedures and panicking in high pressure mayday situations....this story is so heartwarming. The cabin crew saved his life, the First Officer was an absolute legend and saved everyone's life. As an airplane passenger that's the crew you hope to be in charge. Absolute professionals.
I love how you pretty much refuse to bash anyone in your videos, like the engineer in this situation who did the faulty work. You point out the errors but you also always explain how the errors could have happened. This is the best damn channel on RUclips!
The engineer was a good man who had one bad night at the office. His desire to get the job finished in a timely manner caused him to neglect the discipline required by the task at hand - he was guilty not of negligence, not of failing to care, but of sloppiness under pressure. Almost all of us have done something similar at one time or another and so we understand how it might have happened - as the saying goes "there but for the Grace of God go I". We also recognise with gratitude that few of us work in environments where a minor mistake can have such drastic consequences.
The engineer could have not only killed the pilot but brought the plane down and killed everyone . There are no excuses when it comes to aircraft maintenance ever !
I wonder what happened to him. I'd say he carries that everywhere with him to this day. Mistakes are made, this was just an incredibly serious and traumatic one. I heard Nigel has died since and that he was seriously affected by the incident. I hope everyone is doing well today
Love the way Mentour Pilates narrates the stories...
It makes sense to me. My dad, a retired Air Force pilot, always says, "Attack the problem, not the person." And that's the attitude you have to have to fly safely. If you get too into playing the blame and punish game, outside of WILLFUL malfeasance/negligence, then people are afraid to speak up when things go wrong and it's overall a less safe environment. And we are very likely to not get to accurate root cause information.
One of the most fascinating examples of having the exact OPPOSITE attitude, and the literally toxic situation it created, is what happened at Chernobyl. You had shitty reactor design everyone was afraid to point out, insane timelines that everyone was afraid of having their ass on the line for not meeting, and a whole string of decisions made out of fear/ass-covering during the accident sequence and cleanup operations. This even led to Gorbachev being ill informed as to what was going on at first, which needless to say pissed him right on off when he found out. And in terms of political fallout, it was one of the things that made him so serious about initiating glasnost and perestroika...and ultimately setting off the sequence of events that brought down the Soviet Union.
Had the environment/culture enforced by the fear and blame-based Soviet system not been in place, problems would very likely have been proactively fixed, or people would have at least felt empowered to take bold actions when things did go wrong, without having to think it would be their ass on the line for doing the right thing. Especially when doing the right thing might mean having to admit to their own screwups. It's very likely the Chernobyl accident wouldn't have occurred, or would not have been as severe or taken as many lives had people been empowered to have a proper safety culture.
This is beyond a movie. The fact that everyone landed safely and that the captain's injuries were the sort from which he could recover is incredible. What heroic performances, especially from the First Officer.
Great story-telling, Mentour Pilot. Didn't feel the need to add drama when there was already so much.
It was actually made into a movie on the Mayday or Air Crash Investigation TV series (can't remember exactly which one).
Gives new meaning to "flying ON on airplane" literally. hehe
This was one of my two favorite stories from National Geographic's "Air Crash Investigation." What really tugged at my heartstrings was that the first officer, who had this incredible emergency whammed into his face literally out of thin air, did an absolutely masterful job of getting his plane, his crew and his passengers safely back on the ground ... and then went completely to pieces. Poor guy, if anyone deserved to bawl like a baby it was him.
True. Also really amazing that he was able to keep it together until everything was over. Most other people myself included probably would have broken down right in the middle of the emergency and then the plane most likely would have just crashed.
@@HippieInHeart Hmmm ... I kind of take issue with this. Color me an optimist, but I believe -- well, I hope -- okay, I pray -- that more of us have a hidden Frodo in us than we give ourselves credit for. Under the right circumstances we can step up to bat, handle a crisis, and only fall apart when the crisis is over. I mean, where else would the heroes of fact and fiction come from, right?
@@seanbigay1042 I think it is different. If everyone - or at least almost everyone - was able to handle such amount of stress in this very good way, it would be considered normal. Stories are told about outstanding and unusual things, not mundane stuff that everyone is capable of.
Indeed! What a horrible predicament the crew were in! I was amazed that they were able to keep it together, help each other, & that everyone pulled through!
woah is it called air crash investigation? it’s called ‘mayday’ in canada
The first time I heard about this flight, I thought "No way. That only happens in Hollywood. That's too crazy to be real." Cherry on the cake: The captain lived. Absolutely insane. Wonderful video explaining it all.
god bless all the crew and survived!
@@galescott8433 I watched all episodes of Mayday and this was the first I ever saw, afterwards I was addicted. Also on of my favorit episodes was the flight from Hawaii to the neighbour Isln, where the roof of the plane went off and they had a convertible Plane, and they landed the plane and most survived
That First Officer was definitely a hero that day, but so was the cabin crew!
Yes, everyone of them
We should always have the highest respect for them as our lives are in their hands
I'm just really confused why they didn't pull poor ol cap back inside hahaha
Mainly just super confused by how much of a shit show the repair crew was haha.. You don't fucking eyeball screw size for airplane repairs..and you can't read the label to get the right part..? Or cough up some money for a better scaffold arrangement..?
@@KaladinVegapunk Imagine the forces of wind moving over the captain at 200mph and you think you can pull a grown man in through a window on top of that?
@@KaladinVegapunk Sometimes pressure of expectation and time makes good people do bad things. This story is a case in point.
What an incredible story. My jaw honestly dropped when I first watched this and learned that the captain not only survived, but with only relatively minor injuries. My hat goes off to the first officer and the cabin crew who are without a doubt in my mind truly heros.
same. wow.
I agree. I expected at least some head damage and maybe permanent brain damage due lack of oxygen because it sure is not easy to breath in such a wind. However, cold environment does reduce the damage due lack of oxygen in brain so it might have helped here.
Hereos*
@@joshsmith8863 If the politicians had this sort of behavior. We would not all be so DOOMED!
Idem.,!!!!
My most adulatory words to these incredible brave British subjects.!!!! If i would be that pilot, (the one that got sucked out), i would hv wanted WHO IN THE HELL INSTALLED THOSE FLIMSY WINDOWS???? Tells you much about British and Bolivian mentalities huh??
Wow what an absolute legend this captain is. Not only that he survived with minor injuries but to return to service?! And then flight attendant who actually had dislocated shoulder and still kept hold of the captain even though he thought that he wasn’t alive! Those two deserve all possible honours.
lets not forget about the first officer as well, he did an absolutely astonishing work!
The first officer...must be the most chill man in any room he enters. How he accomplished that mission and landing is beyond my comprehension. Total respect.
First Officer's Spouse: How was the flight?
First Officer: It was okay, I had to do all the work though.
FIrst Officer's Spouse: Where was the captain?
First Officer: Eh, he was three sheets to the wind...
Mentour - I think you have he classiest & best execution of graphics in Utube land! 👍🏼
God was the co pilot 🙌🏻
@@alancode2147 😂😂😂😂
@@maryhodges9418 Paaahleeease. God had nothing to do with it. It was great people and great training.
as an engineer who routinely makes mistakes, I am glad I don’t work in a field where my mistakes could kill someone.
software engineer? LMAO!
In properly run organisations an engineer's work is checked by another engineer. Not all organisations are properly run, unfortunately.
In fairness, the way the commercial aviation industry is set up, it recognises that individuals routinely makes mistakes. Recognising that as an unfixable issue, it instead sets up systems such that mistakes are caught before they become a problem
In other words, you'd probably be okay.
@@Poetikalizoh that can kill, see the 737 Max
@Poetikaliz some software mistakes nowadays can probably kill more people than any mechanical mistakes
That First Officer was downright amazing, coping with so much, and keeping it together. As we've seen on this channel, many others WOULD NOT have !!
Yes, indeed.
I can’t even fathom the fact that the captain lived after essentially riding on the outside of a plane. That’s got to be an insane experience
I've learned from my own experience over time that if something doesn't seem right you better stop and investigate because if you just blow it off, it'll probably blow up in your face. The crewman who initially held on to the captain, Nigel, I hope he got an award. Holding on to something until your eye is frostbit and your shoulder is dislocated is nothing short of a heroic effort ❤️
Saudia Flight 163 underscores your point quite well
I work in special machine assembly as a team leader. We work about 6-8 months on a machine and every 1-2 months we let check the machine form a different assembly group to prevent what we call "machine blindness". Because you have to focus on so many issues you start to oversee even the most obvious errors especially when you are short of time or colleagues.
Exactly!
well done.... Keep up your great work. Thx
Such procedures are good, but you also have to ensure that they are done properly. If the second party is just ticking check boxes without actually verifying the work then the review is useless.
@@Mike-oz4cv True, this is why the process itself needs constant reinforcement. I hate it when my work is reviewed improperly.
Okay I love that term, "machine blindness" and I'm totally going to use it. I'm a software engineer by trade and programmers deal with this all the time. We build incredible interwoven pieces of logic through hundreds or thoussnds of lines of elegant code, and most of our bugs and errors come from.the most mundane things.
FO Alistair Atchison rarely discussed this incident or gave interviews. He left BA shortly afterwards and flew with another airline until his retirement at 65 in 2015.
One of the best stories I heard the crew members tell was about their return to their home base airport of Birmingham. As they entered the facility, the entire airport staff from gate agents to baggage handlers to other crew members, stood and applauded. That pretty much says it all, I think.
Indeed.
You knew him personally? I guess it was quite traumatic for him if he didn't like talking about it, but why he left BA?
Not quite true. He stayed with BA for quite a number of years after the incident. I flew with him on the 747-400 in about 2000 and something. I’d have to check my logbook for the exact year.
He was a captain then, and I was his first officer. I think he retired from BA not too long after that when he reached 55, and then moved onto a low cost carrier, but that would have been around 2010 I’d guess.
He was a very quiet chap, and I chose not to ask him about it…
@@divemaster2452 he retired from Jet2 in 2015
True story! Tim Lancaster has been the pilot twice for me. Once from Gatwick to Amsterdam and the 2nd Gatwick to Spain both in early 2000's. The only reason I remember his name was his handsome voice over the tannoy and his last name Lancaster ( as in Bomber ). It was only a few years later while watching a documentary on this that I realized it was the same man!.God bless you Captain Tim Lancaster ❤️❤️
Another aspect of the screws that can't be seen is the "class": screws with the same dimensions in the ISO norm are divided also by their strength. You can have an M10 screw (10mm of external diameter) that breaks at 800MPa (class 8.8) [92.800 psi] or at 1200MPa (class 12.9) [174.000 psi] . Those numbers depend on the material, its treatment and surface finish, not the diameter. You can find two screws that look exactly identical and have one breaking much faster
I didn't know this! Fascinating, thank you!
Today you can find all the things you describe. It's called progress because 33 years ago when this happened, those tolerances did not exist. Trial and error = progress. Accidents are the error bit.
@@fedup3449 it is taught in technical and professional high schools so it shouldn't be hard to know for someone who does that job. The majority of progress is made through experiments which don't include deaths or tragedy.
I didn't talk about tolerances, what did you mean?
@@kino_61 I was just referring to your comments about screws. Today only one screw will do the job but maybe, back then, if the screw fits, use it.
@@fedup3449 oh ok. It was the '90s, there were no unga bunga cavemen handfitting stones for their fireplaces 😅. Engineering was advanced enough to recognise that if you heat treated the steel in different ways you could have different performances, another difference is if the steel is only carbon iron (with varying % of C) or is alloyed with other elements. The ancient Greeks already knew this
Another old method is carbon or nitride diffusion, which really matters when you have alternating pulls and pushes on the screws
I'm a machinist. We once had Boeing send us the wrong aluminum for a bracket that holds the engine on a 737. It was not nearly strong enough. The mistake was caught and corrected. This was back in 2007.
I wonder if the aluminum that was incorrect was too bouncy, since in cane from Boeing?
@@TruckFan542that sir is one of the absolute worst dad jokes I think I've ever heard.
Bravo I fricking love it
@@zZWolfyZz Boing..?
One of my all time favourite aviation story. Every thing was against them yet the co pilot did an extraordinary landing as well as the crew holding on to the captain. Thank you so much for again an excellent video !
It’s a very nice story. Glad you liked it!
This one and the gimli glider!
@@MentourPilot If they were at 35,000 feet, do you think he/they would have survived? I’m curious to know that.
I had seen this video before where one of the cree was going to let the captain go assuming hr was dead anyway. But the co pilot said no. His body might hit the engine or wing and cause damage and flight control problems. For God sake this is a human being, friend. Even if he had died, wouldn't you want to give his body to his family in one piece? Or give him a chance to be revived? Im glad they nixed the idea of letting him go. Sacrifice to hold on was commendable. Do you know how guilty thry would feel had they let capt go and found out after autopsy that he was still alive? Murder.
@@sharoncassell9358 I get what you're saying but you have to remember that the captain was causing ongoing danger to the entire plane by being stuck there. If the crew had jostled the controls whilst holding him the plane might have crashed, and there's a chance he could have even broken the next window or pulled a member of the crew out that was trying to save him. It's great that they managed to save his life but, logically, his life was only worth 1/170th of the lives on the plane. If it was a 1/10 chance that holding him there caused the plane to crash then you're valuing the captains life at 17 times more than everybody else's lives. You have to act rationally and not risk everybody's life to save one person's life. That would be like filling a critical condition patient's hospital room with every doctor in the hospital in case one of them has an idea on how to save him whilst leaving the rest of the hospital with no doctors.
Couldn't help but be in awe of what the first officer did. I am not anywhere close to the aviation industry but it just inspires me to be as good at my job as the first officer was at his. Truly, truly inspirational.
Why is this story not more famous??? This is one of the most incredible events I’ve ever seen involving an aircraft wow!! Great work
We British don't like to make a fuss
It happened 33 years ago!. It was famous at the time but like all things, once they have happened they become history.
"Did you have a busy day at work, dear?"
"Nah, just hung out"
😂😂😂
OmG 😂😆
and enjoyed some fresh air 😀
Oh and took a nap
Funny
I still can't get over the fact the pilot managed to survive. It's mind blowing. I always enjoy tuning into these videos, Petter. They're so well done and easy to understand.
So happy you think so!
There is something called the mammalian diving reflex. It occurs when a person is immersed in sudden cold water and this slows down a person's physiology reducing their need for oxygen. Something similar can occur with people in deep hypothermia.
@@lizlovsdagmara5525 really? I'd never heard of that before. Sounds a little bit scary. Is that why people who drown in cold water can sometimes be revived?
@@ecclestonsangel there is a saying in the medical field that you're not dead until you're warm and dead. Probably stems from this so you are likely correct
@@jonpeters9065 Funnily enough, a friend of mine was widowed and that was one of the things she said when her husband died in her bed. She didn't believe he was dead because he was still warm.
For those who may not know, if they didn’t hold on to the captain, even though they thought he was dead, there was a chance his body could fly right into the engine and kill everyone.
No. Thats not how the physics work. Only if the plane would be accelerating really fast. If you watch skydivers jump out of the plane you can see how they just fall of the side
@@Honsolgen98skydivers fall out of a very slowly moving little plane, not a rapidly accelerating and climbing jet. Dude was being sucked out of the window and pinned against the plane by the rapidly moving air, you think he's just going to fall straight down? Nonsense, that's not how physics works.
@@giin97LoL!!!
@@Honsolgen98 What a dumny
@@Honsolgen98they literally explain it in the video and you still missed it
Hi. My wife know Alistair and his wife as she used to baby sit for them and my in-laws live 500 yards down the road from them. What an amazing kind man he is.
I’m sure he must be. Great work on that day for sure.
@@MentourPilot definitely so. My son is learning to fly at the moment and when they spoke last year pre covid he was encouraging and gave him helpful advice.
I’m no doubt biased, but the old school BA crews are always such friendly and dedicated people.
@@anthonyglee1710 just a thought here. Did that attitude change with student loans?
How long was his upper body outside off the aircraft? He didn’t tell us that.
I'm glad you did this one. It amazes me how the first officer man to remain so calm through it all.
Great airmanship
@@MentourPilot Yes definitely. His training really kicked into high gear.
I used to wonder the same thing about myself as a trauma nurse in the ER. You don't get nervous because you know what to do, and what to do after that. If I wasn't so busy doing those things, I might have gotten nervous. If what happened was tragic, I didn't think about it until I got off duty. And then still wonder how I did it. Now 20 years later, I can't believe I did that job! This is my interaction for the channel to go with my thumbs up times 10. I love Mentour aviation. Makes me proud to be a Swede!
I love that you are sympathetic to all people involved and are more understanding to human factors rather than making them villains because of one mistake. Also, the professional quality of the production and the way you clearly explain all the factors relevant are fantastic. Thank you.
That guy is a terrible mechanic. And the fact that he didn't raise the flag when he installed another windscreen, what a terrible work ethic. And this guy gives him the benefit of the doubt. He's a hack in my book, seen plenty of them in aviation.
In the Airforce we replaced plenty of windshields . If the screws were damaged you have to walk, hoof it back to the shop to get new hardware. No laziness was acceptable. This guy almost cost the captain his life. If the windshield was still intact but un- serviceable for a plane due to blurring warping or scratches from birdstrikes or weather, we would make a table out of it instead of discarding it. Just a tidbit.
@@arkern6464 some examples of things that caused this that was outside of the mechanic’s control:
1. The main store was not properly restocked.
2. In the poorly lit unstaffed store only 269 of the 294 drawers there had labels and of those only 163 contained only the correct parts. So he was forced to compare bolts manually.
3. The torque wrench he was supposed to use was missing so he had to use a torque-limiting screwdriver instead which doesn’t hold the correct bit properly and he needs to hold the bit with his other hand.
4. The plane was already fitted with incorrect bolts from before BA acquired the plane
As an engineer, that was one of my biggest single concerns, that something I did could kill someone. If you stop and think about it for any length of time, you'd just quit rather than consider the possibilities.
I agree. I think the maintenance crews are the unsung heros of aviation. They have to get everything spot on all the time. There are 10s of thousands of parts on an aircraft, all have to be in perfect working order. I would be just too chicken to even think of doing a job like that.
yeesh automotive is sketchy enough... it is usually simple in principle "torque said important bolts" but feeling pushed for time or being distracted, I can easily picture this happening even to well trained techs... at first I assumed they were actual hex bolts and were possibly of the wrong grade.
Seems the head was a bit small and wasn't getting a good purchase on the holes.
@@codemiesterbeats, countersunk screws.
I feel bad for the engineer. With him doing three people's jobs at the same time in his nightshift (staff manager, maintenance engineer, QA inspector), he was bound to make some mistake.
He was probably overworked and stressed out from the volume of work he had to get done on his own and that very nearly killed someone ans could have killed an entire flight worth of people!
All because management skimped on stuff, it seems!
I didn't realize choo choo pilots had such depth of thought.
Such a good series. High quality videography, graphics, no people screaming and other unnecessary dramatization.thank you, Petter and Team.
This story has always been my favorite due to the fact that the pilot survived & so many acted quickly to help and make the right decision for someone else to live.
OMG the capts body went though some extreme forces that his body was not conditioned to withstand, but somehow was able to. The human body is a amazing thing. Great video as always!
A bit of divine help happened there too I think. Everything was a little too perfect to be a soley human effort
@Future President oof! And I found the novice, lol
A brilliant example of the highest order of airmanship - aviate, navigate, communicate. The lives of everyone on board rested with the F/O and he did a magnificent job. I hope the company recognised him for it.
What a nightmare, being sucked out of the cockpit. And hats off to the copilot for keeping his cool to bring the airplane safely down to the ground
One hell of story for the captain to tell his grandchildren. So glad he (and everyone else) survived.
The Captain: "Did I tell you the story of when I was flying 23 000 feet above the ground"
Child very unimpressed: "You mean in a plane?"
The Captain: "..... no."
@@thesayes6231 😄 "partially..."
As a Qualit Assurance Manager, rules number 1, never QA your own work. I saw an interview with this pilot, truly remarkable. Good job describing the problem.
I have flown with this captain years ago when I was a copilot. What a legend!
Do tell. What did he say about the incident? This is just an incredible story!
Nah, he said it's just normal day, even sometimes he forgot about it.
I was on a BA flight in the cockpit a few years ago and talked about this incident! We were waiting on a repair and had been grounded for hours waiting and the pilots LOVED talking about this and other incidents. I got to sit in the captains seat and wear his hat. But even before I found your channel I was amazed by this incident and loved talking to the pilots about it - and they liked it too. Tack! Din perspektiv som pilot är superbra!
Kul att du tycker om dem!
Hello thanks for your comments and supports, your comments and constant support has brought me this far. Keep supporting ❤️, please send me a message on Hangouts via
Omg the first officer , and cabin crew saved the captains life absolutely brilliant
The guy returned to work after that. Didn't switch jobs. What a champ.
Because his wife “encouraged “ him.🧏♀️💅
@@artofficial2010 for $$$> no job no $$$ for wife
well he already beat the odds and got past that event, so in all likelihood statistically he wont have another issue for the rest of his career. in a way its safer to go back to work, than to have started the job in the first place.
Bet he wore his full seatbelt though...
One of the requirements for that job: balls of steel.
The fact that the pilot lived is a miracle
It really was!
I know right! You could see the blood near the window where his head had hit a large number of times. I was wondering whether his back or legs had snapped in two at one point.
The Captain has an absolutely fantastic story to tell, first Captain to be on outside of plane when it lands. No one else can beat that.
@14:26 - It is really hard to imagine what the poor captain had to go through.
Kudos to the first officer and rest of the team on their amazing work.
Indeed!
Probably good that he was unconscious for some of it because the stress wouldn't help anything.
@@MentourPilot One thing you didn't mention was that although they thought he was dead, they held on tight in case his body went through the engine. Not directly of course but bouncing off the wing.
Yes, that picture gave a bitter taste to a story that (after learning about the outcome) almost felt hilarious.
It’s very comforting to know that crews then and now are so well trained to bring this nightmare to a miraculous conclusion. I don’t believe they get enough credit for their skills and dedication to duty! Another excellent video!
Outstanding performance by the Co-Pilot, to get it down safely with such an unbearable level of stress going on all around.
I can only imagine the devastation he would have gone through afterwards, truly believing that the Captain had perished. Followed by the utter elation after finding out he was still alive.
The crew as well, to face what was left of that window and keep their Captain from being lost. I can't find the words to put it into. Truly selfless and heroic.
Wow. I didn't know the story, but I guess the captain is the only person who survived on the outside of a plane for so long. Absolutely amazing that everyone was alive and well after that. Thanks for sharing the story with us.
IT WASN'T HIS TIME TO GO 🙏🏻
The flight crew who suffered frostbite, dislocated shoulder... but refused to let go.
Thank God! He was sure blessed that day!! 🥰😇😇
NOT IN AMERICA HE WOULD STRIPPED OF ANY LICENSES AND WOULD BE PENDING JAIL TIME
@@theconsciousone9017 um what? It’s been a while. But the flight crew who held onto Captain even with injuries, extreme cold would be punished?
The Force was strong with him/her.
The cabin crew suffered frost bite, but the captain who was outside didn't, funnily enough.
Imagine LITERALLY almost getting sucked out of your airplane and being back in the pilot seat 5 months afterwards 😂 this is loving your job right there
I agree; though I'm pretty certain one of the thoughts he had that got him back into the cockpit was "What are the odds of me getting sucked out of the Captain's seat TWICE in my lifetime?!?"
I wonder how he views the shoulder straps now.
@@checkersx3556 he will never take em off again 😂
@@JCDofNYC nah, more like.. I have one condition on coming back to work. Make my seat a commode.
He certainly will not be 'easing his belt' on a BAC ever again I suppose
@@nooboftheyear7170 fair enough. I'm sure adult diapers were standard issue every time he flew a flight of more than 45 minutes.
I have learned more about aircraft, flight crew procedures, the entire process in the last couple of months watching your videos than I knew in my first 57 years. They are professional, no extra drama, just facts. Thank you so much for the education you are providing to all of us!
I have heard that at one point the cabin crew asked if they should let go of the captain because they thought he was dead. The First officer said no, not because he thought that the captain was still alive but because he was afraid the captain's body would go into the engine.
Airline(?) Disasters mentioned this
It's lucky that the screen didn't go through the engine. The guy who hung onto the caps legs should got a medal.
Yes the said that on “Seconds from Disaster “. If they let him go he would have been sucked into the engine.
It’s funny to know that they would have sent him flying away to certain death, if it wouldn’t have made it more dangerous for them. He’s lucky they had no way to miss the engine with his body, or he’d be a goner 😂
Um they thought he was dead that’s why they considered letting him go
Because they had trouble holding him
Props to the FO for handling everything in this dire situation. And the cabin crew man who saved the pilot's life should be well rewarded. More of these stories please.
Jesus had a hand in this for sure. F.O gets everything right, absolutely right without a checklist?!? That was some divine inspiration. Could literally hear Him saying, 'That was me...'
Sorry... First Officer was a professional with many flying hours; instead of wasting his time praying for help from above, he got to work and did his job. He certainly deserves all the credit.
One of the most amazing samples of flying under pressure in the history of aviation by the First officer to stay calm enough, in the absolute chaos mechanically, physically , and most importantly mentally, psychologically and emotionally to land the plane so perfectly after To be able to keep his mental state calm enough and thought processes logical enough and block out the the carnage around him requires super human strength It's just totally unprecedented and Impossible to train for such an event and the stress involved
That's absolutely insane that the Captain survived! I would have assumed he would have been frozen solid by the time they landed. Amazing work by the crew holding onto him!
yeah I'm thinking of the scene from Snowpiercer.
It's insane they never considered the cockpit windows a vital part, I'd consider that part very vital.
Right like what’s more important than the cockpit I mean it’s not like the people flying the damn plane are in the cockpit looool
It may have something to do with most windows are mounted from the inside making them just about fail proof, perhaps that standard carried over to this aircraft model.
Another factor is that the procedure to replace the window seems rather simplistic, even for an average joe. As long as you got the correct tools and parts.
I can see how it was not considered a vital part. I guess it was deemed impossible for specialists to mess it up.
I'm sure that's how that technician felt about it too. had the job been more complex, He probably would have used proper rigor and no flaws would occur.
Could you imagine if it happened at 35,000 ft.? I don't think the Capitan would have lived, and the crew probably would have had severe frostbite.
Right but wearing your seatbelt seems to be the lesson learned !
@@wesman7837 not sure but I would think at that height they probably would all be dead because of the depressurization would have brought unconsciousness very quickly without oxygen on.
You're such a good speaker, fluent, articulate, eloquent. And your knowledge so vast. I suppose not all this learning is mandatory for pilots. At the time of retreat you could make a great TV network contributor. Safe flights, best luck.
I had the pleasure to fly with that captain once, when I still worked as Cabin Crew. Impressive story - impressive personality!
Just out of curiosity... Did he ever unfastened his seatbelts after this incident during flight again (besides having to take a break or going to the toilet?)
I’ve been on late night maintenance crews trying to get a plane fixed for the morning flight schedule. There’s a lot of perceived pressure layered underneath the overt pressure of getting the plane ready to fly. In a perfect world the only pressure would be to get it right no matter how much it affects the flight schedule. Luckily for all of us, there are a lot of great mechanics who love the job so much that they don’t mind the unrealistic expectations and mediocre pay! 😊
this is such a stupid mistake that there is no excuse, under any amount of pressure, for making. the mechanic is lucky the pilot survived. I hope the mechanic never touched an airplane again.
hell yeah, huge respect!!
@@MaxRenke we’re only human and we all make mistakes. That’s why there are so many checks and double checks already built into most aviation jobs. I’ve seen top mechanics make careless mistakes. Any skill that you are good at will degrade as you try to do it faster.
@@Donkor640 "That’s why there are so many checks and double checks already built into most aviation job" that this guy clearly ignored. it wasn't a mistake, it was intentional incompetence
That's not lucky, that's acclimating to exploitation.
The reason for this accident reminds me of back when I was an apprentice years ago. The master plumber would always have somebody else check behind him when he worked on gas lines. He'd worked on this stuff for more than 40 years, but he always said he wanted somebody else's eyeballs to see if they could catch something he didn't.
A great miracle.
God was in the c pit .
He was/is a very smart and thoughtful man. Some people get insulted if you would even suggest that a second look at their work would be a good idea.
A very wise man (the plumber)!
Tbh, that's probably why the master plumber is a master plumber. It takes maturity and humility to ask someone to look for mistakes you may have made.
Amazing story, amazing video...........I was living in Southampton at the time and remember it well. Amazing that the captain returned to work 5 months later, what a man and what a team.
Indeed! It’s incredible
Another interesting thing came out of the investigation. Apparently, the previous windshield had been attached with the wrong screws as well, so when he compared screws, they matched. If he would have looked up the screws, he would have found out they were the wrong screws. Also, a co-worker in the parts department actually mentioned to the engineer that he thought the windscreen used different screws than what he was looking for, but he ignored that co-worker's comment thinking that matching the old screws would be sufficient. The assumption that the old screws were correct was wrong and is part of what led to disaster.
That needed to be thoroughly investigated. Engineering changes happen all the time, big changes, little changes. Sometimes they do not get communicated or the updated documentation does not get distributed. The assumption that the old screws were correct was not totally unreasonable. We do not see any follow-up as to whether the old screws were originally factory-installed or from a later replacement. The difference should have been caught, reported and the plane grounded until resolved. Also, as follow-up, were the other planes in this series checked?
@@KameraShy True, assuming that the old screws were correct was not an unreasonable assumption, but proved to be disastrous in this case. The official investigation noted that the windshield had been replaced with the wrong screws by a different engineer on a previous repair. They could not explain why the windshield did not fail previously, but it might have been because this engineer was working at an angle over the windshield, and could not see the screws were not flush. Whereas, the previous engineer was able to position himself directly over the windshield for a better view, and therefore could make sure the screws were at least in all the way, even if not the correct size. It is speculation why one failed and the other didn't, but they do know that two engineers put the wrong screws in.
@@ScottMStolz - The way I always understood it was that the engineer who did the previous repair likely used a combination of the correct type bolt (possibly from the original fitting) and the incorrect type. This raises the question as to whether it was common practice to attempt to match the bolts visually (as it was difficult to discern the size difference by the naked eye). Either way, there were enough bolts of the correct size to hold the windscreen in securely enough to stay put (though not as securely as it should have been). If that was the case, the luckless shift manager who performed the repair before the accident flight had the misfortune of picking one of the incorrect bolts to use as his basis for comparison.
Truth be told, I feel bad for the guy. A lot of people have called him incompetent, and I remember at the time there was a very cruel accusation from the press that he rushed the job in order to get home in time for a World Cup match. While it's true that official procedure required him to consult the service manual to determine the correct bolt type, the fact that at least a number of incorrect bolts had been fitted previously implies that he wasn't the only one attempting to use experience and intuition to get things done more efficiently. The stockroom engineer corrected him on the type of bolt he was looking for, and that should have been a red flag - but on the other hand the stockroom guy didn't look it up, he was working from memory, and the shift manager was holding the actual bolt he'd just taken out of the windscreen in his hand, and it was of a different type. Driving round to the stores and attempting to match the bolts visually was a mistake, but again, it's not the kind of thing you'd do as a mechanic or engineer if you hadn't done it before. The implication here is that the maintenance operation as a whole had fallen into some sub-optimal habits.
Ultimately, he was the one who made the mistakes which caused an accident, however I have strong suspicions that he was not the only one who had become used to working this way. He was too trusting of the work previously done, and exhibited a certain amount of complacency - but the way he went about things was both diligent (in terms of wanting to ease the workload for the mechanics on his shift) and logical. Unfortunately, the presence of the incorrect bolts from the previous repair meant that he was diligently and logically working on the basis of false information.
@@turricanedtc3764 Very true. I don't remember whether the video I saw about the government investigation mentioned if all of the old bolts were wrong, but I do remember that it mentioned that the engineer took the investigator to the trash can where he dumped them and grabbed the old bolts out of the trash to show the investigator. This is how the engineer proved he took the wrong size bolts out of the windshield. What you mentioned sounds very plausible.
The investigators also said that this engineer was working at an angle in low lighting because of the way the plane was parked and that some of the screws might not have been seated correctly because of this. This limited his view enough where he could feel where the screw was but not clearly see if the screw was seated correctly. So it is possible that previously all of the wrong size screws were seated correctly and that was enough for it to hold, but in this case, if some were not seated correctly, the ones that were seated correctly were not strong enough to hold it in place.
I'll have to find the investigation video again. The investigator was very meticulous in accounting for as many screws as possible, but I forgot exactly what they said.
But, ultimately, one of the findings was that this engineer's behavior had become standard operating procedure for many engineers over the years, and the investigators recommended re-training every year on proper procedures to try to prevent this type of accident again.
Not correct. There were three different types of bolt involved. The bolts originally specified for the aircraft were 10UNC and they were replaced after a number of years by bolts of the same diameter but slightly longer; the change in spec. did not require old bolts to be replaced with new. The bolts chosen by the shift manager were of the wrong diameter (8UNF) - regardless of which bolts were already in the screen, he made the wrong choice. His mistake was failing to spot the difference between 8UNC and 10UNC, easily done as the difference in diameter is 0.6mm. One point not often mentioned is that it is possible to tighten a 8UNC bolt into a 10UNF nut, though the strength of the coupling is significantly weaker.
That crew though. Wow. The third crewman along with the copilot. Man oh man. Captain is very fortunate Nigel had balls of steel
I've seen other videos about this, but this was the first time I've gotten details like how pilots use their seatbelts described. A big Like from me, very informative, interesting, and well made, both to listen to, and watch. Extra plus for details like mentioning both Celsius, and Fahrenheit.
One impeccably presented video! Thank you. Before I started teaching, I worked as a flight attendant for World Airways. In January 1982, I was a member of the ill-fated DC-10 flight that careened off the runway at Boston International Airport. I am fortunate that I am here today.
My cousin was a flight attendant and they told her to miss this flight and pick up the next one the next day. She complained about being alone in the hotel. The plane crashed and all 8 crew died. She is 81 now and told me she still feels bad. See how accidents can cause trauma to any family member or co-worker.
Wife: How was work today dear?
Pilot: It sucked. I was halfway to calling it quits.
That's Wrong. Made me laugh though.
Technically, it blowed.
😬😳😂
Lol nevertheless
Topic Tom-that was funny as hell! You deserve all the likes and then some!! 👏👏👏👏🤣😂🤣
I saw this on the "Mayday Air Disaster" show. Man, I love this channel. There is no nonsense explanation of what the hell went wrong or cheezy reenactments of people trying to find parts in a field. And also, dude is extremely likable! Keep up the great work my man and may God bless you and your family from San Antonio fricken Texas!
Air Crash Investion 2.0, the issues when the quality control manager ticks off his own mistakes.
I work in the food production industry - when we do allergen cleans, we have to get our work checked out by someone else - ‘checking’ your own work is a big no-no.
@@ojonasar Sometimes court appeals are decided by the same judge whose ruling is being appealed. They could learn something from the food production industry.
@@MakerInMotion where are you from? In the UK an appeal changes court. It starts at magistrates court, that appeal goes to crown court, that appeal goes to high court and that appeal eventually and finally goes to Supreme Court (essentially where laws are made, changed and the precedent for law and every future case is set). So the judge of a magistrates will never be found in crown, high or Supreme Court etc so a judge will never be able to overturn (or not overturn) his own decision.
@@Rawwhhh The US. It's really family court (divorce, child custody) where the worst stuff happens. The judges have more autonomy and can pretty much do what they want. The example of a judge hearing an appeal to his own decision I'm pretty sure was from a family court case in the documentary "Divorce, Inc." You really don't want to get divorced in America.
@@Rawwhhh Really? Strange.
The moral of the story: There's no such thing as a non-vital item on an airplane
Pretty much
That for sure
I've watched a lot of disaster videos in the past: _Seconds from Disaster_ and _Air Disaster Investigations_ and others.
A great many disasters were caused because "some component not necessary to the safe operation of the aircraft was inoperative."
Even SkyMall?
tell that to the new style flight computers which just ignore pilot inputs!!! Keep human judgement above computer algorithms, thanks.
I'd rather pay for well trained smart people to fly our planes rather than spend more on programming silicon while cheaping on staffing in those human cattle cars
I remember some 7 years ago working for a MRO in the UK, there was a culture of transparency regarding mistakes / incidents that the company was continuously reinforcing on all the staff. A "no-blame", transparency first approach. And obviously, all work on the aircraft had to be inspected by another tech/engineer afterwards.
I hear from your accent that you are Swedish but cannot see your name. I have always been fascinated by real stories where airplanes are involved, maybe because of my grandfather's adventures hundred years ago. He and his friend, an educated engineer (my grandfather was a natural and self-taught), built THE (or one of) the very first) airplanes in Sweden (he also built houses and a sailboat etc). I have not only heard him tell about it himself but also seen pictures and read about it in old Swedish papers and an old "Airplane magazine" for enthusiasts. He was banned from continuing his adventures by his parents after witnessing him störta from 20 meters but he miraculously recovered/survived. This happened 100 years ago in the Swedish city Vimmerby, the city where also Astrid Lindgren was born and who was a member of the same "folk dance team" as my grandfather where he played the violin. This is of course not of public interest but parts of my own interesting background. :) I am also interested in testing my own abilities and will absolutely perform the training/tests you recommend! /Jane
Imagine being the pilot sucked out of the window? I bet that ordeal felt like an eternity! That would be the one time in life I would be glad to be knocked unconscious.
Imagine being the guy flying the plane. For all that time, basically alone, dreading that the captain is dead, and you're about to join him and take all your crew and passengers with you. And finding out later, that the only reason your captain lived was because you didn't dare let what you thought was his dead body go into the engines.
When I was a child I used to stick my head out the car window. I'm trying to imagine scaling that experience up, but I doubt I'm really getting there.
@@gworfish i would imagine it's also quite noisier with the air rushing over you at such high speeds, and the engines whirring loudly, along with vibrations and rattling from the aircraft itself due to the rapid decompression and any physical damage throwing off aerodynamics.
@@un-nerdyneko Agreed. Jet engines are one of the few things even louder than my dad played his music.
He wasn't conscious for long, and I recall from another documentary that he retained little memory of the incident.
Great Job always! I remember watching this documentary years ago! Still gave me chills and as I grew up I learnt that every little detail is important and we shouldn’t take a lot of things for granted.
Yes, that’s correct
The one thing I find remarkable that the captain was alive after this ordeal and his coworkers were also fine with just minor injuries despite the harsh weather. This is just mind boggling on how the human body can survive these things is just that remarkable!
Your videos have just recently hit my RUclips queue, I've watched three in total, (the French Concord, and the Tenerife) and this one, which was a miracle. You had me on the edge of my seat. But I have to stop for a day or two, I'm too old to stress vicariously. When I was a teenager in the late sixties, one of my high school science teachers conducted a class called "Preflight". It was a semester, and we even had a textbook He was also a pilot, not commercial, but a very intelligent guy who flew small planes as a hobby. That was one of the best classes I have ever taken in my life and I still remember a lot of what he taught. Thank you so much for your great narration and explanations. It's quite something to hear how events transpire second to second.
This channel is amazing. I used to be really irrationally scared of flying, but these videos really help me see what all goes into making sure everyone is kept safe. I feel like I can go into my next flight with a more level head after finding this channel. Thank you so much!
That makes me SO happy to hear! Let me know if there is anything else you would like me to cover.
I'm the opposite, after watching these kind of videos I will NEVER get on a big jet lol
less nervous about flying but more nervous about people 😅
I’ll wager more people are killed/ injured driving to the airport (worldwide ) than on an actual flight in any given year.
Glad it helps.
It really is re-assuring a lot of the mistakes or accidents that have occurred have been huge learning lessons.
Weather it's mechanical issues need to be addressed or human error.
Planes have on average become so much safer compared to older models of aircraft.
Probably the first ever [non-intentional] "walk around" done are 17,000 feet! :-) Such a great crew, risking their lives and severe injuries to work the problem with determination and save the lives of all on board [or outside]. Another great video, and what a great outcome for the people on board.
Consider the walk around done on some of the last space shuttle flights to check for heatshield damage. One of those found fatal flaws but attempted landing anyway, unfortunately ending up in Texas instead of Florida.
This is a really clear demonstration on why you should always have two sets of eyes on any crucial components, regardless of industry. I work with high end chemical explosives on a daily basis. As the engineer on site- if anyone on my crew is found to have assembled any components without having someone else sign off I am obligated to fire them immediately.
Yeah, well that kind of seems reasonable. You can't really afford to have people learning by their mistakes in that scenario.
@@gworfish While it's a super hard-line approach, it does the job it's meant to very well. I wouldn't be unhappy to see those types of standards implemented in other fields where people's lives are at stake.
@@whitenoise509 Yeah, preaching to the choir mate. I think any job worth doing is worth doing well on principle. But if it can hurt someone that isn't you, why wouldn't you want another set of eyes?
@@gworfish It's so difficult to impress upon people how important the little things are when it comes to safety sometimes. In my field we see an interesting trend in our data. The rookies follow most procedures word for word because the danger feels readily apparent to them. Then the curve divebombs after a few months of experience, because nothing bad has happened around them. They feel "safe" in an area that is absolutely hazardous.
All of the companies I have contracted with have tried to mitigate this in varied ways. What most of is have found is that you can't train in respect for danger, that generally it comes with experience and understanding. Hence the very aggressive approach most of us have adopted now.
You won't hear about them, but surface detonations do happen. Several per year normally. Where I live (usa) heavy industry companies are absolute masters at not letting news get out.
This is one of the most astonishing airplane incidents ever. CRM was at its peak! The crew did a hell of a job.
Pilot: " I don't believe in seat belts." Co-pilot: "Sucks to be you."
Lol
Lol
I've never unfastened my seat belt during a flight (never even been to the toilet)
I love the fact that the aviation industry learns from every single accident/incident, they're sometimes spending many millions to locate the black boxes to find out what happened and how to prevent it from reoccurring. Thank you for your videos and giving an insight to what happens inside the cockpit x
Hello thanks for your comments and supports, your comments and constant support has brought me this far. Keep supporting ❤️, please send me a message on Hangouts via
Never been to the toilet?! I guess you never been on a 14hr flight to Asia then. 😂
Oh my god, never heard about this incident! That F/O has balls of steel! And amazing that they were able to keep the captain from being completely sucked out, amazing!
Thanks for this comprehensive explanation. I'm not at all in the industry, but I found this absolutely riveting. It's terrifying how seemingly trivial mistakes can lead to a nearly catastrophic event like this. I even feel bad for the engineer who made the faulty repair, because I'm sure he lost his job, but at least he didn't have to live with knowing he was responsible for any loss of life.
Well, he should lose his job right? The lives of many are counting on his precision. If he knew he and his family was to board that flight, I wonder if he would have been more cautious?
I do not know much about planes, but it’s strange that two plane accident videos I have watched in many years, both pertained to incorrect or thinner screws being used as the engineer compared them by eye and not by identity. Important to look at specifications.
I understand the screws compartment was not labelled. So it had to be a visual comparison in poor light. Sloppy stores management.
I'm also wondering why there is a need for screws of a similar size but not identical.
Maintenance is a lot easier when you have a few standard screw sizes. If every part has a different screw size, it's a mistake waiting to happen.
@@meneldal ...or more dangerous if they are the same dimensions but are lower tensile strength or incorrect material. Aviation safety means thinking beyond the obvious. A unique part number with no substitution allowed is the best safeguard.
I thought I knew everything about this and stayed for the ”storytelling” and yet learned something new already (the bit about the passenger oxygen masks). Thank you for another great video!
Yes. My thinking too. I know this cause of this accident. Is it really worth watching this one? Absolutely! Because of course I learn more details than I ever knew before with a great perspective.
The BAC 111 is quite an old aircraft. I’m surprised that BA were still operating them in 1990. The first aircraft I ever flew on was a BAC 111 and that was in the mid 1970s and the one I flew on was old then.
There is a ton of aircraft accident investigation channels out there, but you really stand out with you factual and relax presentation. I really can't stand all those "documentaries" trying to be a Hollywood action movie, and you are the opposite of that. Thank you!
I am so glad they kept holding onto the captain and didn't let go of him even though they must have thought he didn't stand a chance of surviving. this makes me happy and believe in humanity.
My first thought when watching this episode was - what a terrible design having a windscreen in a pressurised aircraft mounted from the outside! I wonder why it was designed that way.
It's old. Not done that way anymore
Not true, CRJs windscreens are mounted from the outside. Never had a problem, as long as you use the right bolts. Plus the Bolts are not reused unless they are checked for cracks.
You do realise that if they were mounted on the inside and this happened the captain would have instead been killed by a couple hundred kilos of glass hitting him in his head right?
@@Alucard-gt1zf That's not how pressure works. The higher internal pressure means that:
a. Even if the bolts failed, the window would be pressed against the frame and not budge.
b. The bolts are unlikely to fail in the first place, since they don't bear much of the pressure loads, that job is now taken up by the frame the glass is mounted to.
Probably a manufacturing / maintenace-related reason - how are you going to maneuver a large piece of glass into the cockpit from the inside to bolt it into place?
I'd worked in the aircraft manufacturing business for almost 30 years and seeing an incident like this just freezes me in my tracks.
One incident in 30 years ? A lot of people are doing a lot of things the right way.
I think I heard somewhere that while the cabin crew were convinced the captain was dead, they considered letting him go, but due to the placement of the engine they feared he would get sucked into the engine. Of course letting him go would’ve been a terrible idea so I’m not sure if it’s true or not but if it is then the captain can be lucky the engines are where they are
Correct
Engines under the wing are just as dangerous as those at the back of the fuselage. So far as I am aware, no-one has ever tested which presents the greater danger to a pilot blown out of his cockpit.
Well I can understand that but remember: Noones dead until proven otherwise. They saved his life and that's great - because it wasn't easy.
@@MentourPilot Besides that fascinating story, I wondered, why does the BAC 1-11 has these cables from the top of its fuselage to it's t-shaped tail?
@@tobiasl.8815 Probably an external HF antenna