Pilots Flew Into The Worst Weather (Knight Air Flight 816) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN 

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The obvious problem with having two ADIs is that if they start to disagree when you're stuck in the clouds, you have no way to determine which one is faulty. If you have a third, it's likely that two out of three will agree (although that's no guarantee that they aren't failing in the same way).

In remembrance: Captain John Casson, 49 First Officer Paul Denton, 29 Flight Attendant Helen Leadbetter, 22 Raymond Nettleton, 51 Christopher Tonkin, 32 Irene Wolsey, 73 Dennis Oliver Davis, 46 Catherine Duguid, 35 Philip Hutchinson, 34 William Ingram, 61 Karl McGrath, 27 Philip Race, 46

"...and it was raining. Of course it was." I can hear the eye roll in your voice in that moment. 🤣

It is a hassle if the attitude indicator fails but it is a summary of the other flight instrument information. The heading indicator will show if in a bank/turn/heading. The magnetic compass will show if in a turn and heading. The turn coordinator will show the rate of roll and turn. Altimeter/VSI will show altitude, climbing, and descending. The Airspeed indicator can show if climbing or descending based on set power settings. There are tools if an attitude indicator fails, stops working and or if there is a discrepancy between multiple attitude indicators. This is part of instrument flight training.

It makes me very happy when you aviation/disaster RU-vidrs cover little-known events rather than just rehashing the big stories that have already been covered dozens of times in various places. We learn so much more this way.

"I've lived my entire life in Northern England" Sorry to hear that... there might be support groups and therapies to cope with this condition.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I FELT that 😒😒😒tone in your voice about the weather as I looked out onto yet another soggy day. 😂

Many thanks for covering....LBA is my local airport - only a few miles away - and I had never heard of this, despite flying in and out of there many, many times *and* being so interested in aviation mishaps. You're always guaranteed an interesting approach and landing there in my experience!

Not sure if this was intentional but your intro is kind of hilarious

Thanks Chloe. I’d never heard of this accident even though I’ve spent much of my life living in the North of England. Another great video 👏

ah, a local one! there's a few accidents like this in this area, (one nearer to me is the winter hill disaster) though i wasn't expecting one so recent. great video, as always!

I'm not sure if you've covered this on the channel already, but have you heard about the disaster at East Midlands Airport around the late 80s I think it was. I live pretty close to it and although I wasn't alive at the time, my dad has told me about him being able to see all of the blue lights from the sirens and stuff. If you haven't already I'd love to see you cover it!

Agree on the weather in northern England, I'm from Wigan 😂. Now a US citizen living in Florida, but got to say it's pretty cold here today!

Hi Chloe, yet another superbly produced presentation. The graphics software or simulation software you use is unbelievable. The degree of detail and resolution is truly incredible. I would be fascinated to know what you use. Thank you again for another terrific factual production. These poor characters never had a chance in that degree of reduced visibility with dual U/S ADIs. Excellent work, extremely saddening event.

What clear pronunciation, deserves to be on docs. Not bad for a geordie. Met a few in the middle east. An aussie and subbed.

Great advertising for the Northern tourist board

I flew on that very aircraft just a few months before it crashed and couldn't believe it when i heard what had happened, A very sobering experience. R.I.P. to all those lost 😪. I live just down the road from LBA and have continued to fly from there very regularly.

Speaking of Leeds, I know there isn't a whole lot of info on this one, but British Airtours Flight 101 would be interesting.

Thank you for the upload! You made my drive to work more enjoyable. You deserve the day off

I really appreciate that you cover many lesser known disasters, thanks again Chloe. I hadn't heard of this one before. It reminded me of another crash of the same aircraft type that happened in my neck of the woods in 1988, Wasawings Flight 701. That aircraft crashed in a forest short of the runway in poor visibility, killing six of the 12 people onboard.

I live local to the airport although at the time was in Scotland and remember it being reported on the news. Another accident at Leeds/Bradford or ‘Yeadon Airport’ as it’s known locally was a British Airtours Tristar going off the end of the newly extended runway. No lives were lost but all sorts of questions were asked about the pilots, grip of the runway surface and if the runway was up to to taking wide body jets. The airport is badly affected by weather and has a distinctive hump on the runway. It is actually uphill/downhill depending on which way you take off. Keep up the excellent work….

I live not too far from Leeds and had never heard of this incident until now. Thank you for making a video about the less-known incidents.

I live in South Australia and I hate the weather so much. I'd give anything for dreary, grey, wet weather all year round 😞 summer is horrible. But I'll probably pass on the plane crashes......

Good work. Thank you for your videos. 👌

Thanks for doing these little known unfortunate crashes. 23 years experience for the Captain with 3,200 hours total? Not much. 139 to 140 hours a year average? Your channel and Juan Brown's Blancolirio Channel are my favorites.

Another great video, thank you for this. And I have to admit, I really love your voice. You speak very clearly (for everyone to understand your words) and it feels so comfortable to listen to the tone of it. English is not my native language, but I only need subtitles for some special words and technical terms - thanks to your great voice, I do understand the rest without any problem. I really appreciate what you do and since the day I subscribed to your channel I am here almost every day to watch another unseen video from your wide range of uploaded material. 😀

You sound as happy about your local weather as I do about my Canadian weather. We just had a spring snowstorm, btw...

Thanks so much Chloe for doing this video!! It's such a sad but little known and covered incident. I don't know how you dig up so much information on obscure incidents! Happy New Year from York!!

The new mic sounds great - nice video

Leeds Bradford is a truly appalling airport - why build it on the top of a hill? Great video, Chloe. Hello from Dubai!

Always love seeing a glimpse of the Toon on your channel! More North East content is always welcome 😉

They should have covered their ADI's and used their turn and bank indicators for wings level and standard rate turns. The ASI and Altimeter can be used for pitch.

I used to live in Harrogate and would drive by the village of Harewood regularly when going into Leeds. Never knew there was a crash site that I was driving by so closely.

I love seeing not so well known accidents getting covered. One not so well known accident I think would make a great video is Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458 due to the extreme conditions the pilots faced as they tried to crash land the plane.

I started my flying career becoming a glider pilot. As an extended training I got instrument certificate. This was very tough and was performed entirely in the airplane. The cockpit glass was covered with yellow and I got yellow glasses causing everything outside to be black and only the interior was visible. The instructor had normal full visibility. He put the airplane in uncontrolled states and my task was to immediately stabilize it before reaching overspeed or g-overload. And I only had a few basic instruments and NO gyro horizon. This was done again and again until I was sure to regain control of the airplane immediately every time. When getting out of the airplane I vomitted but I got my license. I cant help thinking that if all commercial and other pilots had this skill, accidents like this would never happened. I was reminded of this when a young pilot in my glider club lost his visual references under a CB (thunder cloud) and was sucked up in the cloud and due to over speed and g force the plane was broken up and the boy died crashing to the ground. He had not gotten this essential training.

I flew a couple of thousands of hours in this aircraft type the EMB-110. It was a very capable and reliable aircraft. This is a sad story of a pair of aviators who perished doing an honest job.

LBA is my local and had a few choppy landings - even a go around that turned into a divert to MAN which thankfully did come back (guessing once the pilot got his nerve back... 😉). It's on the top of a hill as well... Do vaguely remember this. RIP.

The FO had 300 hours total and was command trained and awaiting a left hand seat. I doubt I've heard anything more absurd unless that wait was to be around 5 years.

love the intro 😂😂 that's how anything but summer is here in helsinki most of the time 😂😂😂

"Gray dreary place". You say that with such utter conviction

I am in the Uk and I don't remember this, one.. thanks for covering it.

*Air O'Dell* Also flies these planes and there was an incident with one pilot of one of the fleet's planes when off Bournemouth it also ran into some difficulties.

Very frustrating to have crashed because of pilot error and even more so when more than one pilot is at the controls.

Man. Even today with non vacuum system based artificial horizons becoming more prevalent, flying in IMC is stressful. Even when I get my IFR rating I don’t think I’ll choose to fly in IFR conditions.

I used to fly with this airline and aircraft. Leeds to Belfast. There was just a curtain between the pilots and the passengers which was left open so you could see them flying. The co-pilot used to come out and do the coffee and biscuits.

Hey! I live in Newcastle and have done most of my life. It’s not a dreary, cold, wet place and we have a great football team 😂. I’m quite familiar with Leeds Bradford too and have flown from there quite a lot, though the number of flights now are a lot less than in the past. I’d not heard of this accident though and enjoyed the video, if not the outcome of the flight. What was the washing line across the plane for? I’ve never seen that on an aircraft. I wonder how the accident investigators thought the pilots could have managed without an accurate artificial horizon? I would have thought that was essential for any pilot flying in IMC, the one instrument they absolutely needed.

The Day before the crash, I visited KnightAir and discussed a wet lease for Dutch commuter F'airlines..... A very sad story altogether.....

I feel like ive already heard of this disaster as i remember an emb-110 crash due to a faulty indicator somewhere (either on yt or google)

I was scared of instrument-only training the 10 hours or so of my lessons (never got a license). Instructor made sure it was cloudy so I couldn't see sun beams with "the helmet" on--a cross between The Mandalorian and Daft Punk.

Back in the mid 1970s when I got my PPL you had to perform 3 hours usually as 2 x 90 minute flights in simulated IFR conditions. To simulate IFR conditions you had a hood/visor arrangement that prevented you from seeing out of the aircraft without obstructing you view of the instruments, well at least the flight instruments, the engine instruments were a bit hard to monitor. Nevertheless, the hood was lowered shortly after takeoff (around 200 feet above the ground) and left on until you were about 200 feet above the ground on final approach some 90 minutes after taking off. This wasn't meant as part of an IFR rating, but rather to demonstrate how difficult flying in IFR conditions is and how they should be avoided at all times until you have done the full IFR training. On my second 90 minute flight my instructor decided to make it more interesting by sticking a cover over the artificial horizon about 30 minutes into the flight and made me fly without it for the next hour using only the directional gyro, bank & turn Indicator, altimeter and air speed indicator. To this day I have never done anything even remotely hard as that 60 minutes off IFR flying without an artificial horizon. Which brings me to a couple of observations: 1/. While it takes extreme concentration and is phenomenally dificult it is nonetheless possible to fly an aircraft in IFR conditions without an artificial horizon. 2/. The pilots in this situation almost certainly had one good artificial horizon, but were probably unable to determine which one was working and which one was not. However, by cross checking both artificial horizons with the bank and turn indicator they should have been able to determine which artificial horizon was operational and which one was giving false readings. Hindsight is 20/20 vision and in an emergency, high pressure situation like this things can get out of hand quickly. However, pilots are trained specifically to handle such situations and even have something called the "Quick Reference Handbook" that tells them what to do in situations like this and I'm certain the QRH would have directed them to using the bank and turn indicator as a reference. I'm not certain this is an absolute requirement, but on the aircraft I have flown the artificial horizon and bank & turn indicator operate differently. For example the artificial horizon may be powered electrically while the bank & turn indicator uses a vacuum. This way something like an electrical or vacuum failure wont take out both the artificial horizon and bank & turn indicator simultaneously.

Thank you for this it is a fascinating video! I really wonder if they DID have a double failure. Surely they were busy concentrating at discovering which of their ADIs was the functional one to the point of not noticing other instruments, sadly. I feel bad for all who passed. Seriously, if you are in a turn, you would notice a change in the heading indicator for example. I think they became fixated, and a double instrument failure would explain that happening.

Thanks Chloe, I grew up just down the road from Leeds.

It’s worth noting that runway 14 is very rarely used at LBA, 32 is the dominant runway due to the westerly wind. This may have added a little additional confusion for these pilots, considering the flight deck wasn’t overly experienced and the IMC they were flying into.

She's a beautiful aircraft! Love at first sight 😍

I would love to see a video on the Air France A340 crash at Pearson Airport

Thank you for this. And thank you for remembering the souls lost. It's so bizarre to me how a crash with 15 ppl gets little or no coverage but an accident with 175 people does. I dont get it. And accident is an accident, loss of life is loss of life, no matter.

Hey you should video of the Continental Express flight 2574 disaster

u should make a vid on the anz dc-8 disaster at auckland, not many people have heard about it

love the frying eggs opening background track :P

New Disaster Breakdown video right for my birthday! Best present ever 💕✨

Your weather sounds magnificent to me! I live in Las Vegas Nevada. I'd Gladly swap you anytime you want to trade up! LOL Really enjoy your content. Thanks for all the effort you put into your videos!

Whenever I watch a video about a crash due to the artificial horizon packing in, it always makes me think, that if they had a cup of coffee or even a bottle of water they could look at that, which would show the aircraft's attitude.. It's mind blowing to think how many aircraft have crashed because of instrument failure, I say mind blowing because just a standard smart phone these probably has everything you need to fly. GPS, accelerometers, and all the other sensors built in to a phone. I assume there are apps available for this purpose?

Very very interesting, thank you! I would really love to hear how to fly without artificial horizon at all? Is there any special technique for this kind of task? There must be one...

Partial Panal situational awareness in case of instrument failure is basic in all levels of training & ops. Even IMC it is an essential prerequisite. Safety, safety....train, practice, demonstrate

So sad... I just wonder if there could be some method to check the ADI working, being on the ground.

I'm from the North East of England too. Your accent has little bits of Irish, Scottish and a slight American lilt at times. I can hear the geordie in you a little bit though but I wouldn't have thought you'd been born and bred in Newcastle by your voice.

Travelled there most weeks for work for a couple of years, way aye

YES LEEDS , the WHO played there and it was probably one of , if not their greatest album!! 'Live at Leeds'

I see the problem with just 2 Artificial Horizons, when one fails (ie different readings from each) in cloud and fog, which one do you believe ? They should have pulled stick back and max power, watching altitude still rising, to climb and find the cloud top, to then be able to visually verify which AH was working.

Ouch. Never realized just how helpless one would feel to have just two sets of instruments: that's only enough to tell you ONE of them is malfunctioning, but which one?!

I would think that if the artificial horizon indicators were displaying conflicting readings they would compare them to the other instruments like compass and altimeter to determine the properly functioning one. Maybe that just comes with the experience the pilots were lacking here.

Use the turn quardinator ball and wing and check the altimeter

Thank-you for doing little known accidents.

Hey Disaster breakdown love ur vids recently there has been a crash in Nepal once the accident report has on it has been completed can u make a vid for it

Air Crash Investigation originally planned to make an episode about this plane crash for Season 23, however they scrapped the plan.

even to this day.. i always find it odd the gyroscopic artificial horizons don't have a built in spirit level.. while I know some planes may have a spirit level as one of their separate backup displays, really no reason why it couldn't be built into the main display, such as along the edges, or even a mode switch that when pressed it disconnects the gyro and the spirit level takes over.

I trained in 1976. Flying without the attitude gyro was required for instrument rating and airline. The instrument was covered and you flew needle ball and airspeed. Harder but had ro Learn it. These are suction powered. Back up is electrical. I believe they panicked which is easy to do if you're Don't stay calm. The very time you need to take your time and save yourself and everyone else.

Such a tragedy.. wouldn’t it have been possible to guesstimate basic (up/down) pitch orientation with the vertical speed indicator? Or could the same malfunction have effected it as well?

Thanks again, Chloe! Always appreciate your very thorough examination of an incident as much as I love your propensity to find smaller known and obscure moments of aviation history that others overlook, or have simply forgotten to time... Always looking forward to the next one, BUT you certainly deserve a day (or two?) off for your excellent work and behavior. have a shot for me (or whatever it is you do)... lolz ;o)

Third and nice video dude

Hmm, I wonder how hard it would be to acquire level flight by compass heading and altimeter alone?

That's the same model of plane that crashed in Georgia on the year 94 or 1995, killed 10 people but not from the crash but because of the resulting fire that came after the crash.

you should do one on Qantas flight 72

The rule of thumb for being in IMC without either training or functioning aids before a crash is said to be 178 seconds... almost exactly 3 minutes.

I flew this very aircraft many times when it was operated by BusinessAir based at Aberdeen. Following the crash I had numerous calls from friends checking to see if I was alive and well. I then took part in a BBC documentary based on the accident which included myself and a copilot together with the documentary crew, flying into Leeds while describing the instrumentation we rely on as pilots. It will never be known if a problem existed with both ADIs. For them both to fail on the same flight would involve astronomical odds, in 11,000 hours of professional flying I've never experienced an ADI failure of even one instrument, but nothing was recorded in the Technical log of any failure prior to that fatal flight. In any event, with only two ADIs for reference, it would take valuable time to ascertain which was providing false information. We are trained to operate on what is known as 'partial panel', ie. the most basic of instruments, compass, VSI, TBI, but this requires frequent, recurrent training not generally included in our training programs. If a failure was to occur during cruise, straight and level flight under visual conditions, it should be possible for the crew to recognise and adapt to the failure, however, should the problem occur during a dynamic state of operation as was the case here, not only in a climbing departure involving heading changes and, as was the case, turbulent conditions, to be able to recognise the problem and adapt in a very short time to flying partial panel would be almost impossible for any average pilot to contend with. The aircraft would be out of control in a very short space of time and likely irrecoverable before entering a condition whereby the airframe would be overstressed to the point of failure.

Oh yes, Look North has done many, many, many clips and pieces on weathr with shots of planes all but sideways at Leeds/Bradford. Why am I not surprised, really. Why am I not surprised...

Old school: Hang a necklace somewhere in the cockpit - make sure it remains vertical

Wasn't there a plane once with a similar problem, and they used a glass of water to get an idea of pitch and bank?

You should do Pan-Am flight 7

How about the 1972 crash of Mohawk Airlines flight 450. Crashed in Albany, NY. I was at the copilot funeral. He was my cousin Bill Matthews. Thanks

you should do one on Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 it has little coverage about it and I want to know more on this accident

The only way left to these pilots was to cross check with their direct indicating compass system and correlate with both ADIs to find out which one was showing correctly. But being in such ahighly stressful situation it is unlikely that even more experienced pilots would be able to do that. Sad incident.

Thanks for doing this video. I have no idea why Air Crash Investigation planned but cancelled this episode. Weird

You think you get a lot of rain in Leeds? Leeds, England 620mm per year Bergen, Norway 2400mm per year. 😵‍💫

Northern England sounds like Vancouver British Columbia 😂

Great video, I do laugh at this supposed 'British weather' In Scotland we get far worse weather and sometimes it can be around -6 degrees difference between norther Scotland and Newcastle and -10 between London.

Sir I live in India...there was a horrible plane crash in Nepal yesterday...nearly 70 people lost their lives....the crash was happened 10 sec prior to landing near pokhra...kindly make a video on this .......

it’s too bad airplanes aren’t required to have 7 ADI’s. this would eliminate any possibility of pilot confusion. Every crew member should have their own ADI and maybe even a couple for first class travelers just to have an extra set of eyes on things.

If you can't see out, then you can't know if one or both are broken. That would be terrifying. Loss of spacial relations would be nearly inevitable.