A Pilot Who Wouldn't Land (United Airlines Flight 173) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN 

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I know this is a bit of a silly thing to say, as it's a tragedy regardless, but the fact that the flight engineer was one of the fatalities, despite being right all along, hit particularly hard here

"We're out of fuel!" "Ok, can you give me 15 minutes to check the landing gear one more time?"

Insane. I half-expected "after the 4th engine flamed out, the Captain again turned his attention to the landing gear..."

This one is the best example of tunnel-vision ever, along with Eastern Flight 401 the "landing gear lightbulb" crash in Everglades. Horrifying how the captain didnt pay attention to the fuel situation

It was the captain's fault. The flight engineer told him to stop stalling and to make an emergency landing. Obviously we're all humans and make mistakes, but that's why there are multiple people flying the plane. I'm glad the culture has changed so that people in the cockpit are more likely to override someone else's mistake. RIP to those 10 beautiful souls.

Absolutely cannot believe how blinded the captain was to the plane running out of fuel, even to the point of trying to check on other things AGAIN as the plane was close to crash landing. Horrifying

I worked with a guy like that before. You see the problem before he does but there's nothing you can do except wait for disaster to unfold.

In remembrance to those lost: Flight Engineer Forrest Ervin Mendenhall, 41 Flight Attendant Joan Newton Wheeler, 36 Gwen Dawn Griffith, 13 Raymond E. Waetjen, 64 Gabor Andor Rosina Andor Gabriella Andor, 2 Rosina Andor, 1 Jasna Peponik Anna Peponik, 6 months

The flight engineer did not deserve to go out like that💔

I flew for United, this captain was known as "No Fuel McBroom". We watched this film in initial and recurrent training as an example of really poor CRM and a few other key issues. I flew the "Stretch 8 " a few times in 1986 and absolutely hated. Especially the one we acquired from ANA. Another great video. Thanks Chloe.

Captain McBroom went to a "survivors reunion" every year it was held until he eventually passed away many years later. He was plagued with guilt for the rest of his life, even if the CFIT went much better than it should have. No matter how many times I watch a program about this crash, I always find myself shouting at the screen "FUEL!" and "land the damn plane!". Even though CRM was not in place yet, this should have never happened. The rest of the crew should have been much more proactive about the fuel situation, since that is why there were three crew in the cockpit to begin with. It took a major study by NASA before CRM was finally introduced and it has made flying much safer.

Due to a combination of the captain's actions and the suspenseful narration..... this had to be one of the most infuriating stories you've shared on this channel!

This one was super intriguing! It's mind blowing how the pilot's lack of situational awareness combined with CRM led to this crash. You've done a wonderful job explaining everything clearly, as always! Thank you for your hard work.

I can only imagine what the first officer and flight engineer must have felt as the captain's refusal to land dragged on with no end in sight, even as fuel became critical. "Why won't he land? What doesn't he understand? We're going to crash! How can he not see this?"

This plane crashed less than a block away from my father and mother-in-laws house. We looked at the wreck, and amazingly the plane crashed between rows of houses, not causing much damage. They had to cut the wreck apart to remove it, and it took quite a while.

This is similar to Eastern 401 which crashed when the entire flight deck crew was focusing on a burnt out landing gear indicator light and didn’t notice the plane was losing altitude.

A good college friend of mine was on this airplane for the New York to Denver leg of the flight. He got off at Stapleton International Airport in Denver to take another flight to Salt Lake City where we were attending college. However, the ground crew didn't remove his luggage from UA 173 and transfer it to his next flight. We always talked about how lucky he was that the only thing he lost was his luggage. Thanks for making this video, this crash and why it happened was always of particular interest to me.

My Brother-n-law's Mother was on that flight. Right after the crash she walked up to the nearest Payphone and called her husband. Saying "You wouldn't believe what just happened".. True story.

It seems to me, that other then the Captain, the crews seemed to be dangerously afraid to challenge the Captains

We have used the transcript of the cockpit voice recording from this flight to teach patient safety in health care. We get teams to role play each member of the flight crew. They quickly learn the importance of CRM in critical situations, including the ICU and the operating theatre.

This incident frustrates me so much. The captain wasn’t task saturated and had a lot of time to recover from the surprise. The other crew told him multiple times about the fuel. The plane didn’t break in a way to cause the accident. Ugh

The quality of research, detailed information and top-notch animation in your videos is outstanding. You deserve much more subscribers, and I believe that the 100k milestone is just the beginning for your channel. Always delighted to see new uploads, excellent work!

No clue why I do this to myself but every time I fly I binge on these videos while I wait at the airport.

McBroom was a broken man after this incident. He died in 2004 at the age of 77. It’s ridiculous how lack of awareness he had.

This was an episode on Air Disasters called "Focused on Failure".

This story is absolutely insane. I'm so grateful to live in a post CRM Era of flying.

I was wondering if you'd done this one! I was born near Portland in March 1979. During Christmas 1978 my parents went to TN to visit my maternal grandparents. This flight was supposed to have been their connecting flight back to Portland, but they decided to stay in TN for an extra day.

I use your channel to fall asleep nightly. The narration is far more precise and calming than most narrators. Thank you sir.

I find it incredulous that such an experienced pilot could be so focused on one minor problem. I know that in this era the Captain had a godlike aura in a cockpit, but simply from a survivable point of view, i felt the First officer and Flight Engineer should have been much more forcible.

Videos like these still make me wonder why the heck no one ever bothers to add little cameras at these places of critical importance. Sth for the wings overlooking the engines and flaps, landing gear and rudder. So many incidents already where just having a visual on these things would have sped up trouble shooting by a lot, and I dou t it takes that much wiring to hook knob cameras to the side with a button in the flight deck to check the cameras when needed. Beyond me why such a simple (I think) thing isn't included in modern planes. Anyhow, another great video! Thanks a lot! Am learning a lot from this channel. Also quite like your rail accident content. This is some high production content, so you can be proud of your work!

With a name like Malburn McBroom, he was bound for notoriety somehow...

This happened not too far from where I used to live. People still talk about it. The captain passed away in 2004 from cancer he was really affected by the way it was handled on his part, and 10 people died because of the situational awareness that was not there

I like how they say he retired, he in fact was fired and actually sued to get his job back but the firing was upheld, he also tried to blame Frosty for this claiming he must have screwed up the fuel transfer.

It's really kind of scary when some pilots forget to fly the plane.

Nice video! Reminded me of a slightly similar Air Crash. That of Kalita Air 808. Pilot was fatigued and got distracted in trying to find a Strobe Light (which was unrelated to the already complicated approach maneuver). The Captain had been awake for nearly 24 hours, First Officer 19 hours and Flight Engineer for 21 hours. The Captain failed to maintain airspeed and turned late. He was fixated on locating the Light but never spotted it. Fatigue caused impaired judgement which prevented him from recovering from the stall in time. The plane crashed but the three member Crew survived with serious injuries. The Strobe Light, by the way, was turned off that day.

I'm addicted to this channel... The videos are of the highest quality and very informative, congratulations DB!

0:08 The DC-8 on the pic had 4 CFM International CFM-56 Turbofan Engines, which were installed onto the Douglas DC-8, Boeing 707, Boeing 737, and Airbus A320

I have lived in Portland for the last twelve years and this legit one of my irrational fears (definitely not helped out by a dream I had of a plane crashing downtown) and here it is playing out on RU-vid in front of me. I am so relieved it wasn't worse but even 10 people is terrible. I hope their families have been able to heal some over time. Never knew about this but I thank you for all your research, hard work, and dedication in bringing it to the world.

Captain McBroom became one of Walmarts first people greeters ever hired

I went through a civilian commercial pilot training program at a university in the late 1980's where we studied the United Airlines CRM philosophy in an aviation safety class I was in. That class changed how I think about a lot of everyday activities as well as ego and complacency. The class had a much larger impact on my life than that excellent instructor would ever know. CRM has saved a lot of lives and careers.

This captain is 100% liable for this accident, it makes me so mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This one hit really hard and he should have been prosecuted for being so negligent!!!!!!!! He was told multiple times about the fuel!!!!

When this happened I was living several miles from the landing. One good thing that happened was that when the crash first hit the news, and it was indeed breaking news in Portland, a lot of people were lined up outside the local Red Cross (and they had opened) expecting there would be a great demand for blood with which to treat the injured. It turned out that it wasn't needed but a glimpse of humanity at it's best. Also, and I don't know if it was a local legend or the truth, but a prisoner was on that flight being returned to Portland, rather than taking a golden opportunity to escape he stayed and helped to evacuate and comfort the passengers, supposedly he got extra lenient treatment because of this. Oh, and McBroom didn't retire - he was canned and had his licenses - private and commercial - pulled.

I've heard about this crash from several different sources - I suppose it's outlandish and tragic enough that it's a "popular" crash to cover for shows/podcasts/blogs/etc. I think it's tragic - I also heard that because the plane's holding pattern was at relatively low altitude, it burned up fuel faster than if it had been cruising for the same amount of time. But an experienced pilot should know that. Especially with crew continually telling him the levels. I have ADHD, and while I like the idea of taking flying lessons, I would *never* want to be a commercial pilot. I'm way too familiar with hyperfocus (or conversely, not being able to focus at all and missing/forgetting things), and I know my brain is just not reliable enough to do this sort of job safely. McBroom hyperfocused on the gear issue, and he was still thinking in terms of "potentially unsafe landing vs safe landing if I spend a few more minutes solving this problem" - not realizing it was more like "potentially unsafe landing due to the gear issue, vs VERY UNSAFE crash landing after we run out of gas!" As for the crew - it's so hard to imagine being in that position and NOT speaking up forcefully, but anothee piece of context is in the 70s, a lot of pilots were former military, so respecting the hierarchy had been trained into them their entire careers (that's part of why there were so many CRM issues with different airlines and crews at the time). Similar CRM issues have happened more recently in South Korea and other places, where there's mandatory military service, many pilots come from military careers, and the general culture itself is extremely hierarchical. It sounds insane to die instead of speaking up - but I suppose in the army, that's often how you're trained. Thanks for the video DB! This was definitely, sadly, one for the history books.

You really are a great story teller. I kept hoping the aircraft would get to the runway just in time. Well done, keep 'em coming! 😢

Loved the video. I too worked for United out of Stapleton International that very night on the ground. Wow, this brought back memories. I loved the Stretch DC 8.

Oh baby, you've put the age to the names! Thank you very much!! :-*

Wow even though this happen way before I was born it’s crazy to think this crash happened minutes away from my home. I live about 10 minutes away from the airport so I always see planes in the sky.

Truly tragic. Great content, thank you.

This is extremely frustrating. Weighing out your options it boils down to - land at the airport and MAYBE the landing gear collapses but you have all the necessary emergency equipment and personnel at your disposal, or, run out of gas and crash the plane. It's mind boggling that ANYONE let alone an experienced captain would have a hard time making that decision.

I remember when this happened and how a year or two later the survivors got together for a kind of reunion. The pilot showed up and they treated him as if he was some kind of hero. I remember thinking... Huh?'

I can understand how tunnel vision and fixation can diminish situational awareness, but this seems to be in a category of its own, especially when considering how many times the captain was reminded of the low fuel.

Thank you for a well -told story. Aside from knowing that the captain retired soon after the accident, none of those reports mentions anything about the liability aspect of the story. I'd like to know what happened to that captain. Did he simply walk into happy retirement? After all, his negligence did cause the death of 10 people. He was found responsible. Doesn't that amount to Involuntary Manslaughter or something? Did he go to jail? I understand that this question is not directly related to the crash case itself, though it's the very next question people would ask.

"Why?" "Fuel." Then 10 lives lost. May them who perished rest in peace.

It might be the safest way to travel but I don't have to worry about falling 30,000 feet if my Jeep runs out of fuel on the Interstate. 🤷

I'm so relieved this incident took "only" as few lives as it did. It's still incredibly sad and unnerving, but nevertheless could have turned out a lot worse, easily.

A friend of mine lived in the apartment building the plane missed. From the kitchen window you could see several trees the wings hit.

Captain McBroom: *decides to focus on anything other than landing the plane* Me: *in Nigel the Pelican from Finding Nemo voice* OH WOULD YOU JUST LAND THE PLANE!?

Did the captain not face any criminal charges?

Any fire/smoke, etc seems such a terrible thing on an airplane, where all of the cabling, etc is hidden away. It therefore surprises me that this didn't lead to an immediate emergency landing. Terrible disaster.

This crash was because of poor CRM between all 3 flight crews of the landing gear believed that the right side landing gear freefalled while the left was normal but did not display The Captain was so distracted by the Landing Gear despite numerous warnings by the FE and FO. In addition of how long it took to prepare the Cabin was the cause of the crash (The duration of being able to be ready was a factor) After the accident the CRM was implemented a lot in aircraft training 10 people were killed including the lead flight attendant and Flight Engineer

The fact the Captain flew in the war is a warning. Alot took unnecessary risks (massaging their egos) thinking they're still in the war. There's alot of accidents down to pilots around this time taking risks whereas these days not so much.

I place the blame squarely on the entire cockpit crew. The captain was being oblivious and the first and second officers did not make sufficiently strong statements regarding the fuel situation, such as, "We're going to go empty on fuel and fall out of the sky in ten minutes. We're going to have to risk a landing."

An hour when you are traveling looks so much, but when thinking or preparing it just flies away, trouble shooting is just like having a discussion while you are stationery on the ground, it flies away soon.

I feel like there needs to be a greater emphasis on the importance of getting down if fuel is running out in pilot training.

Where the plane crashed was the only uninhabited block in a couple square miles. A lot of people on the ground could have been hurt or killed if this had come down almost anywhere else. Pure luck.

This is one of the most infuriating incidents I've ever seen documented. They told him and told him to no avail

I know everyone’s a genius in hindsight, but I think, that were it my plane, I’d rather land with no gear than with no fuel. At least one of the options actually guarantees an on-field landing where emergency services are immediately available!

I live not far from the crash site of this plane. I read that United bought the land and fenced it off. Though we haven't had a big crash like this in 50 years, the door plug blowing out on the recent Alaska Airlines flight on the news definitely had me thinking about this, seeing as I live right underneath one of the major flight paths. Great video as always, Chloe! Thank you!

Amazing video! The quality of research is great.

I recall there being a huge culture of alcohol use in pilots (and probably crews) reported in the news, in the 80s as well. I wonder if alcohol was a factor in this as well, though it was apparently so common. I was a child, but I remember drunken pilots, and pilots drinking in airport lounges before flights being on the news.

The pilot wasn't convinced of the safety of landing on a questionable landing gear, but he should have been completely aware of the dangers of flying without fuel.

I'm amazed how many people survived. This really could have been SO much worse. Amazing how the lack of fuel actually ended up making the best of a bad situation!

Seriously, what's worse? Having the landing gear malfunction (unlikely), at least it was down, or running out of fuel? Incredible!

Good quality vid as always from what I’ve watched so far on an interesting crash. Thanks.

27000 hours of flying time. You won't think that someone like that would be responsible for such a major fuck-up.

Our local Portland news station just posted a series of online photos on the anniversary of the crash. The most bizarre thing I noticed is how many tall, mature Douglas Fir trees were still standing back then. The Portland metro area has so few trees now on that side of town, it's like a wasteland. It looks like a crash site in its own right.

This is what they mean by "Turning a drama into a crisis"!

100,000? Look where you are now! Nearly 200K, Chloe

I' ve been watching DB videos for months but missed this. Another great video. FYI to all this flight is one of the mayday disaster made a docu drama about. Outside of actors screaming to show fear as the plane crashed it is excellent too. Mayday and DB cover many of the accidents. Seems the pairs I've seen support each other. Great job, Chloe. 14:58 14:58

Didn't want to land with landing gear but neglected no fuel forces you to land despite what you think of landing gear.

Chloe thanks for another great video!!

when the first officer replied "Fuel" I can imagine him saying it in a very condescending and sarcastic tone, like the first officer and the Flight engineer have been warning you the whole time and only when they run out do you take notice

Excellent presentation as always! Top notch content.

Long time NE & SE Portland resident here since 1968. By the time this incident happened I was very familar with both the aircraft landing patterns in the area as well as the NE and SE area of Portland.. Although I didn't realize it until later, I actually saw this plane in the distance likely a minute or less before it crashed. What drew my attention to the plane was that it was very much unusually low flying over the city. I commented to my wife about how really low it was. Once I heard of the crash and what part of the city it had occured in, I realized I had actually seen the plane moments before it crashed. Even though I did not witness the crash nor did I know anyone involved or in the area, the realization of what I saw moments before it occured and the deaths involved still messed with my head.

great video, as always!

My father in law was an EMT that night and remembers that night clearly.

40 years later and there are still no cameras on the planes, thanks to which the pilot could visually see the most important elements of the plane. And how big are the cameras today, we see on the phones.

At the time of this crash, I owned and flew a small plane. I lived in central Oregon and was in the middle of the ground school portion of my DC-9 type rating. The school was held at the Portland airport. The day after the crash, I could see the wreckage and of course, the first part of the class was spent discussing what had happened. I never met the Captain but several people in the class had flown with him. His basic way of running his cockpits was something like 'I'm the Captain, you are my assistants, never challenge me or I'll get you fired'. Thus the other 2 pilots were afraid to speak up very much. While this attitude was common back them, he was a bit worse than most. He had a tendency to focus on one point while ignoring the big picture plus, weather reporting was not very good back then, especially upper winds. While it wasn't common, occasionally the upper winds would be less favorable than forecast and you'd need to land at an airport along the route and take on more fuel. As noted by another person here, he had a reputation of pressing on even if there would be almost no fuel left at landing. CRM (Crew Resource management) didn't exist back then, the captain was considered to be totally in charge. As a result of this crash, and a few other incidents, CRM was born. The main reason the Captain retired shortly after this crash is because the FAA revoked his airman certificate. This decision was based on the opinions of crew members that flew with him plus several incidents of landing with very low fuel. Further, according the the DC-8 operators manual and the checklists, if the pins are visibly protruding from the top of the wing, the gear is absolutely down and locked regardless of what the lights say. Basically, if the pins are up, landing is to be commenced without further delay.

OMG! This veteran pilot totally freaked out! The Flight Engineer (who died) had already said that he visually saw the wing indicator and that the landing gear was down! So sad!

Hello, thank you for another amazingly detailed and informative video! I wonder if you could maybe cover Aerofłot flight 281? It was a routine domestic flight between Moscow and Perm which ended as a disaster - the aircraft crashed into the ground because the pilot flying was drunk and didn't follow ATC instructions. I would love to see your video about this horrific and sad accident. Anyway, keep up the good job! All the best

Is that music from Sundered? Good choice! I'd recognize that gong/alarm sound anywhere

Compliments to the narrator and the well documented videos. I really enjoy these videos but I'm so sad and stund to hear about how MANY people died in these plane crashes! How cn such sophisticated Planes crash!

Pretty amazing landing though. I'm starting to wonder if the trees maybe helped soften the landing? I've driven through that area and the trees are gone now but it sure isn't far from the airport.

When I was taught about this accident, it was explained that the Captain had made it very clear he would never crash land a plane with any extra fuel onboard because he’d watched a friend burn to death in an accident when he was in the war.

this is similar to the Eastern Airlines accident- the pilot on that flight were preoccupied with the nose gear and lost track of altitude and crashed into the FL Everglades.

I can't believe how many people survived this! I would love to see a fully lit animation showing where they landed compared to where the trees and homes were.. seems impossible

This incident led to a complete revamp of United Airlines view of aircraft crew relationships and training; that new philosophy carried over into most of the US carriers. On a personal note. i was on arrival into PDX that night and ended up going to SEA as PDX was in a mess. Just listening to ATC was startling. Pilots must look at situations with two views: that which is at hand and what will come up next; be it quickly or just over the horizon. Indeed they must also change their focus and integrate their limited vision with viable solutions as time evolves. Not easy.

I noticed the interior of the plane was a bit wonky. There was a wide body interior while it's a narrow body plane.

I remember this accident well. I was still in High School and was about to start taking flying lessons in order to become an airline pilot. Today, I find myself a little older than the Captain of United Flight 173 was when this accident occurred with almost as many flight hours as he had at the time of the accident and now an Airline Captain myself. In my opinion the most important thing to come out of this accident was the concept of CRM (Cockpit now Crew Resource Management) which the author of this video (Disaster Breakdown) just barely mentions at the end of this video. I believe CRM to be one of the “gems” of Aviation and a concept that can be applied to great benefit in many other fields besides commercial aviation. I will need to disagree with the author's (corrected) assessment of what the culture is like and should be like in today's airliner flight deck. The flight deck is not a democratic "fiesta" where everybody gets to vote, and all votes carry equal weight and everybody is a “co-equal leader”. During flight operations, and other areas as well, there is a necessary accountability and responsibility hierarchy, where ultimately the Captain who is in control and responsible for the safety of the passengers, crew and everything else associated with the flight makes the final decision. Having said that United Flight 173, and other accidents domestically (United States) and throughout the rest of the aviation world, have highlighted the need to empower all of the other crew members to speak up, advocate strongly and effectively for their opinions, plans and ideas throughout any flight's progress and especially when dealing with "abnormal" and "emergency" inflight events. As the Captain I understand that I do not always have/understand all the relevant information. Neither can I, in a vacuum, always make the best possible decisions. I fully support, believe in and try to the best of my ability to employ all the principles of CRM in each and every one of my flights. I am convinced that several people working together are able to come up with a superior solution than any one individual can working alone (I said “can” not “always will”). The change in aviation (CRM) as a result of the investigation into the causes of this accident was a tremendous step in improving flight safety.