When they tried everything up to and including flying the plane upside down ... and it nearly worked! ..if there had been a way of saving anyone they probably would have tried it ...
Another note about the pilots herosim is how they declined overland landing vectors into LAX, not willing to risk coming down over populated Los Angeles Angeles
You were very diplomatic regarding Tenerif. I had to research it as part of my aviation degree, and that KLM pilot was a total dikk. he didn't just takeoff without clearance he was the cause of the delay that put everyone in the fog and that had him in a such a rush to meet certain crew duty time limits. He parked in a way that blocked all the other aircraft so nobody could takeoff then he let all of his passengers off, then waited for them to all re-board before even bothering to call for the fuel trucks, by this time other planes were getting cleared to finish their flights. The weather was still favorable, but nobody could make use of it for the next half an hour because somebody had been conducting himself with total disregard for his affect on other people. Also the airport traffic controllers did not meet today's aviation language requirements so there was substantial communication trouble. In addition to causing many other operational changes in the industry, this event was a direct motivation for today's international language requirements and testing standards for all air traffic controllers and commercial pilots. (At least for those countries that are parties to ICAO, there are a few airlines that simply are not allowed to fly into or over the USA or EU because they don't bother to meet standards.)
I heard somewhere that although the KLM captain was KLM's chief pilot, in the months leading up the accident had spent most of his time teaching other pilots in the simulator, he knew how to fly the plane perfectly well it's just that his airport etiquette was a little rusty.
It didn't save them, but the flip those Alaska pilots pulled was straight up badass. Also, it's a small comfort but at least the Air New Zealand flight had no idea what hit them. Just boom, and lights out.
And good on the people who kept calling for further inquiry on the Air New Zealand flight. For so many years that pilot’s name was besmirched when in fact he had done everything he could to prepare ahead. Reading the details how blame was shifted onto a person who couldn’t defend himself is infuriating.
@@lizc6393 was not over sight. i suggest you do more research, but basically the flightplan in the plane computers was changed overnight and it was wrong and headed them straight into the mountain, none of the crew were aware that the flightplans had been changed, the bosses at air new zealand spent the night after the crash shredding all information in regards to the change
One of the survivors of the Tenerife disaster, E. Jack Ridout, had a round-trip ticket from San Diego to Los Angeles the weekend of September 23 - 24, 1978, leaving Friday and returning Monday, September 25. There was a record-setting heat wave that weekend. He was staying with a friend, but his friend's air-conditioning was broken. After a sleepless Saturday night, he changed his ticket to return Sunday night. The next day he awoke to find that the fight he was supposed to be on, PSA 182, had crashed into a neighborhood in San Diego, killing everyone on board and seven people on the ground. It was the US's worst air disaster at the time. If that wasn't enough, he had earlier been drafted into the Vietnam war, but was hit by a drunk driver and by the time he was well enough to serve, the draft was over. His story might make an interesting episode or segment of one.
@@MrDannyboyhall reminds me of that funny tweet where a woman was bragging about how god must have a plan for her after surviving multiple near death experiences. Someone replied to her that it sounded like he was trying to kill her.
I've invented a new fangled contraption I lovingly refer to as a "helicopter". Slightly more difficult to fly though, hope that doesn't come back to bite me....
There was a flight where one of the cockpit windows popped out. The pilot was mostly sucked out of the plane. Several stewards managed to hang on to the captain while the copilot landed. Amazingly, no one died. British Airways flight 5390
I heard about this. I think the pilot lost some fingers and part of his nose due to frostbite from his time outside of the plane. They thought he was dead when they managed to pull him back in.
A similar event happened with Sichuan Airlines 8633 a few years ago. The right windshield failed and the FO was partially aspirated from the plane, pushing on the controls and causing a momentary loss of control. Only his loosened lap belt kept him in. That said, the FO was able to get back in a bit quicker than in the case of British Airways. The windshield failure was linked to weakening of the panel due to electrical arcing in the heating elements. Since then the Airbus 320 Quick Reference Handbook for any cracked windshield specifies that both crew must don their full harness immediately.
My dad was a flight engineer on the Air New Zealand DC 10 and knew all the crew on 901. He even met with them in the debrief crew lounge in Auckland that morning, as he flew to Australia watched the Erebus bound flight taxi down the runway. We were just kids and watched the news come in while dad was away (not knowing at the time just where he was!).
Yes this is a perfect example of two pieces of matter trying to occupy the same space. It's also a lesson in cockpit etiquette. How most of these guys use to be ex-military and they ran their cockpits like it. Now they encouraged the co-pilot if the pilot is screwing up say something about it.
They also encourage cabin crew to speak up if something happens that is deemed not normal to them! Since they walk around the cabin and can inspect the wings and engines routinely in flight, they could be the first to notice an issue
Indeed. A lot of air crashes happened because the pilot was being arrogant and not listening to anyone and the co-pilot being too timid to say anything.
Seeing that B52 crash footage at 0:51 is painful for me every time I see it. I was a Gunner on the B52 back in the 80s so there is that, but I also knew 2 of the people on the aircraft when it crashed. The flight was practice for a flyover during a base celebration. The really sad part is that the pilot was doing maneuvers that he was told not to do, and had been in trouble before for doing the same thing, he should not have been allowed to even fly during this event due to his prior actions.
I don't have a fear of flying but don't think it's a quick end. There have been accidents that took many minutes to resolve, meaning the final minutes of those pax were terror-filled. There's also crashes on mountainsides where rescue crews were unable to get there for many hours, meaning pax either died of injuries or exposure.
@@waltblackadar4690 In the case of the passengers on Swiss Air 111 chances are that they were either unconscious or dead long before the plane hit the water in much the same way that the passengers and crew of South African Airlines flight 295 were almost certainly dead of carbon monoxide poisoning long before that plane belly flopped into the indian ocean.
As soon as you said New Zealand and Antarctica I knew exactly what you were going to talk about. Every New Zealander learns about the disaster in school and a full apology from the NZ government wasn't issued to the families of those who died until the 40 year anniversary of the disaster.
I’ve got tickets to fly home to Ireland on Monday. I’m scared of flying. After watching this I guess I’ll need more tranquillisers and a few more litres of Guinness before getting on the plane😳🇮🇪
hey, hope you made it home without too much anxiety. also, if you want to know, flying is really safe. even if something did go wrong, chances are you wouldn’t crash. emergency landings usually land fine. even if you did crash, there’s a very good chance you would survive. this is something i know after doing a lot of research on crashes and survival rates. i hope the knowledge of how safe flying is brings you some peace.
@@ExperimentIV I did thank you. I know it’s irrational but I guess phobias by definition are. Without all that booze and diazepam in me I flew higher than the plane did! I think from now on I’m either going to go by ship or stay at home. I might get therapy for it,I hear that helps a lot of people Peace and happiness from Dublin Eire 🇮🇪
You should check out Mentour Pilot's channel. He has quite a few videos on the subject. One thing he points out a number of times is that crash / incident investigations are done not to assign blame, but rather to find out what happened so that it doesn't happen again.
I am sure it has been noted before, 7:50 Puerto Vallarta to SFran does not fly over the Atlantic. I was waiting in Reno that day for an Alaska Airlines flight with an identical plane that was scheduled to land and pick me up. When the plane landed the flight crew was grieve stricken. All Alaska planes of that type were grounded. Took 3 days to find a spare seat on United so as to leave Reno.
The ultimate irony about the Tenerife disaster is that the KLM pilot, Jacob Van Zanten, was considered the airline's best pilot at the time. He was widely featured in their advertising materials, and when KLM was first informed about the accident, the first thing they did was try to call him up so he could be assigned to their investigation team. It never occurred to them that he could be the one who caused the crash.
Cockpit resource management. Not a truly new concept but the Tenefrie accident was the impetus to use the concept. A very old friend was slated to take the Alaska flight-but had a family emergency. "Fate is the Hunter."
That Pan Am Jumbo that made headlines in Tenerife was no stranger to publicity, Clipper Victor made global news on two other occasions. It was the first 747 to enter passenger service on a flight from New York to London in January 1970 and it was also the first 747 to be hijacked just a few months later on. It was forced to land in Cuba by the hijacker and was greeted by none other than Castro himself, who, having played no apparent part in the hijacking later secured its return flight back to the States but not before being invited onboard for a good look around, he declined the offer on the grounds that he didn't want to scare the passengers.
Our local airline in Minnesota was northwest airlines whose tails were red because they were the color that was most easily found if they crashed in Alaska. That's now Delta airline
Not at all, while the DC-10 was involved in spectacular accidents, it's safety record wasn't worse than other planes of the time. And they had conducted several Antarctic flights the previous years (when the waypoints of the route had not been moved) without problems.
Someone clip that out of context. Simon just said "Made in Canaris" 😂 The video is very good but props to the script writer for getting him to say NSFW things in a safe context. This would be worth gold In the BRAIN BLAZE community.
God, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 is just so unbelievably infuriating. All those people died, all because Alaska Airlines didn't want to spend what was the equivalent of a fucking cup of coffee to properly oil the jackscrew.
15:54 "Airplanes are one of the safest ways to fly" :) Over helicopters and balloons, I'd say yes. Over sailplanes, I'd say no. Or perhaps he meant "travel," not "fly."
thank you van in Africa which has the very very poor flying safety records, you're more likely to die driving to the airport then actually on a plane. that same rule applies to pretty much everywhere else in the world.
All plane crashes are terrible. What makes a crash among the worst is the number of people who died and the amount of suffering imposed on those who lived long enough to suffer. I disagree with more than half of this list being among the worst. A plane that crashes with nuclear bombs on board is certainly notable, but with all bombs recovered safely and few casualties, that fares pretty well among crash outcomes. I would replace the last 3 on the list with these: July 1, 2002 BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and DHL International Aviation ME Flight 611 collided in mid-air over Überlingen Germany. Forty-six of the passengers were children on a school trip from the Russian city of Ufa. A year after the crash, the air traffic controller on duty was murdered by the husband and father of 3 victims. It wasn't the poor guy's fault. They were understaffed and had some of their systems down for servicing. October 13, 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered by a rugby team for a match in Chile crashed in the Andes mountains. This was the accident that the book and movie "Alive" were based on. Of the 45 on board, 29 survived more than a day and were subjected to appalling suffering from injuries, freezing temperatures, thin air, an avalanche, and starvation. They were compelled to resort to cannibalism to survive and only 16 were alive after the 72 days it took to be rescued from the efforts of 2 passengers who walked out of the mountains to find help. August 12, 1985 Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed in the mountains 100 km from Tokyo, killing 520 of the 524 on board. This was the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history, specifically because the aircraft had been modified to accommodate less cargo and more passengers than the standard 747 passenger configuration. Twelve minutes into the flight, the fully loaded 747 suffered an explosive decompression that severely damaged the hydraulic system and made flight control all but impossible. They managed to stay aloft in a phugoid pattern for another 32 minutes of what must have been sheer terror for the passengers by manipulating engine throttle in an attempt to steer to an airport. The pilot's effort was valiant and skillful, but to no avail. Some of the passengers survived the crash only to die through the night from critical injuries and the elements because the rescue efforts were postponed until morning based on a military helicopter pilot reporting no signs of survivors.
I must have missed something, but why wasn't the PanAm plane just told to stay where it was until the KLM plane had taken off? It was behind the KLM to begin with.
Because air traffic controllers were also in a rush to get the planes off the airport; if visibility dropped too much, the airport would be closed and it would be full of airplanes, and unable to provide its regular service to smaller aircraft, in case needed, for a longer period of time.
We always hear the "more likely to die in a auto crash than a plane crash" line. But - is this "per travel", or year? The average person make a heck of a lot more auto travels per year than they do air travels. Basically - would this still hold true, if comparing say a full time driver, and a full time pilot?
That's always been my "Argument" to that. True, you may be "Statistically more likely to die in an auto crash than you are in a Plane crash" BUT the number of Airplanes flying is nothing compared to the number of drivers driving on congested roadways (we won't even bring up what their driving experience or physical/mental condition might be when they are driving). If you want to claim air travel is safer than traveling by car, then let's put every 16 year old-80+ year old in the air using an airplane to make all of those trips to school/work/the Mall/etc and then see how the "Statistics" change, LOL!
I feel the same way. Your chances of surviving a 50 MPH crash is very good compared to falling out of the sky at 300 nMPH. One thing goes wrong on a car?... Simple to pullover. Something goes wrong on a plane?... 😱
"Airplanes are statistically speaking one of the safest ways to fly." As opposed tooo, magic carpet's?? Sry Simon. Love your vids & mean no ill will, but couldn't help myself. 😂✌️
"Aeroplanes are one of the safest way to fly"? Well, the only other options are balloons, airships, gliders and helicopters.. Did you mean safest way to travel?
Ummm the reason its safer to fly Simon is because you dont get in a plane five time a day to go to the shop or pub. Fly that much and the odds are about the same...
Not at all, precisely because of volume. Even frequent flyiers have less risk of dying in a plane accident thanks to the sheer volume of airplane units and passengers flying weekly, monthly and yearly without any incident. This leads to 0.01 deaths per 100 million miles traveled by planes; compared to 1.26 deaths per 100 million miles traveled by car. Of course, we can say that this numbers may only apply in the US and can dramatically move up or down if we could filter the data by region, country or even airline (but then, we would be talking about regional safety, and even specific troubled airlines, not "aviation" in general).
Really surprised Japan Air Flight 123 didn't make this list. Aside from being the worst single plane crash of all time, it was rendered especially tragic due to the fact that rescue teams waited until the next morning to check for survivors. There were in fact survivors due to the tail impacting the ground much slower than the rest of the plane ... but most of those died overnight crying for help.
Hearing the first story with the Pan Am and KLM planes, and the small regional airport having to manage traffic it wasn't meant to, makes me even more grateful that the situation in Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 went so well.
If you want a more in depth overview of this incident Black Box Down does a great job. It explains the failure of the crews, airport, and airlines. They also talk more about how they implemented the recommendations.
Air safety is safety done right... it does not assign blame and move on, it looks at what went wrong, why the existing systems didn't prevent it and puts in place solutions to try and prevent it happening again ... and the general policy of not blaming, and air accident investigators having draconian powers to shut down entire airlines, airports, or entire fleets of planes means investigations get results quickly
I've watched several specials on the air traffic controllers that handled the Gander situation. They all had Tenerife in the back of their head while they were doing their work. They knew how bad it could be.
The Submersible DSV Alvin was used to locate the Hydrogen Bomb from Palomares Incident, Alvin later gained international fame for her exploration of the Titanic and as of 2021she's still in active service.
Lol, 15:52: “airplanes are statistically one of the safest ways to fly”. Well yes. Compared to ballooning, rocketry, getting shot out of a cannon and other methods of flight.
Hi Simon, have you heard of United flight 811, the 747 that had the cargo door ripped off the plane in flight? it's an amazing story that is worth a video.
Combine the 747 video with the Aloha 737 that lost its roof. Both happened near Hawaii, both Boeings and both, I believe, were due to corrosion. Oh, and they both landed.
@Tom Foster I remember the pictures. A very strange sight. Those passengers are amongst the luckiest people alive. I think they lost an FA who wasn't strapped in.
I read the title as "Worst Art Disasters", thought "this should be funny", expecting a humorous video capped off by the Jesus mural in Spain being "restored".
FWIW, at time 7:47 I think you meant to say they were flying over the Pacific Ocean not the Atlantic. I suppose they could have been taking the long way round but somehow I doubt that. :)
Fun Fact: The worst mass murder ever to take place on canadian soil happened in 1947. The crime in question was the bombing of a Canadian Pacific Airlines DC3 carrying 51 people that had just departed from montreal, the bombing was part of an insurance scam masterminded by Albert Guay and his mistress with assistance from her brother. The dynamite time bomb used to destroy the plane was hidden in a package that was delivered to to the plane by albert's mistress. All three conspirators were arrseted charges and convicted of malice murder and sentenced to death, the mistress would go down in history as the last woman to die on the gallows in canada when she was hung at montreal's Bordeaux Prison in january 1952.
Someone skipped the proof read... But the reason they were over the Pacific ocean was that the pilots deliberately diverted over the open ocean while fighting for control so that they wouldn't crash into a populated area. Air Disasters did an episode on this and it is heartbreaking.
Simon, a small correction: Those people who sit in the cockpit are the flight crew. Cabin crew are those who take care of us and make sure we are safe in the... cabin. Yes, they also serve coffee and take all the complaints, but that's only one part of their job. Together, both groups are "the crew".
@Patrick Hudson Is it, though? Think about doctors and nurses. Yes, most people think doctors are somewhat more valuable, or "professional", than nurses, but that's not the case, as it's not in aviation either. Both groups together form a working crew, but you wouldn't want to be confused about their different roles (neither would professionals in either group). I'm not trying to be pedantic, rather I'm trying to encourage the Fact Boi (or his writers) to perform even better.
In regards to the USAF losing nuclear bombs that occurred around 30 times (I think), but nobody knows how many nuclear bombs the Soviet Union lost. So sleep well tonight.
as safe as air travel is every time my wife flies from Boston To Indiana and back with my granddaughter I'm a basket case. I'm not happy until she's on the ground. when I flying I'm ok.
Every day there are fatal car crashes. So many everywhere they’re impossible to all reports. By contrast, airplanes are so safe that when there is an accident it’s a major news, and so it makes headlines. Not saying plane crashes are any more or less tragic, just why people may think airplane travel is less safe than it is.
Well, the reason plane crashes also make the news is that they often kill more people. Sure, there aren't as many of them so you're more likely to die in a car accident than in an aircraft, but I don't think even the biggest road pile-up is going to kill 500+ people at a stroke.
Of note: Recovered from the Air New Zealand flight was a camera. The film was developed and the pictures turned out very clearly. You can search for them online. They are not pictures of the crash or anything gruesome but they are eerie. The people on board all look excited or happy and none of them knew what fate awaited them just minutes later.
Crew Resource Management was a major consequence of the Teneriffe disaster. Van Zanten wasn't just the captain of that flight, he was THE BEST MAN KLM HAD. Like, they used him for advertising and for training. In fact, when news of the accident reached KLM they wanted to call him to get him on the investigative team before they figured out that he was dead.
A fact known to most in the business is that aviation safety is built on a foundation of tombstones. Always was and always will be so. “It hasn’t killed anyone yet” was actually said (NOT by me!) in a NASA safety meeting prior to a flight!
When going through training in any aviation discipline, be it as a pilot, maintenance technician dispatcher or ai traffic controller, all students are told very early on and reminded frequently that all the rules and regulations that they must adhere to are written in blood, other peoples blood.
I was just leaving home at 0330 hrs too go to work as a milkman, the news was that the DC 10 had crashed, a married couple lived just around from where I lived, it's still a controversial accident today plus the memorial has sadly been fought over to this day, we have had a number of disasters over the years but this definitely has been the most controversial.
I thought of a suggestion, I watch the Vin Wiki channel on RU-vid sometimes and they have a lot of videos on Cannonballers, those guys that run across the US coast to coast as fast as they can. I thought that would make a good sideproject video as it is literally a side project for some of those guys. They have to get the right car that's fast enough, get the right fuel setup, plan their route, set the car up with the right police protection, call up people who'll scan the road ahead even get people to speed ahead of them to run as a blocker. They've paid each others speeding tickets to keep the cops busy. One record holder hired a plane to scout traffic ahead. These guys go all out. I think the current New York to LA time is 26 hours and 38 minutes that was April of 2020 during the pandemic, but prepandemic the time was 27 hours and 25 minutes, I'm not sure if they count that pandemic run it seems like an unfair advantage to me.
At 15:52, I think you meant to say one of the safest ways to travel, not safest ways to fly, seeing as they’re about the only way for us to fly. Get it right, Fact Boy!!!! 😬
