This plane hit WHAT?? American 1572 

Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off your Blinkist membership! www.blinkist.com/greendot Thanks to Blinkist for sponsoring this video!

After the plane hit trees I can imagine how relieving first officer saying repeatedly "You're gonna make it. You got it dude, you're gonna make it." The first officer took the heavy stress off the Captain and was a major factor in completing the flight on the runway.

First I want to say excellent job! As someone who was there that night, I couldn't find a single error in your video. With that said, I was the "late guy" controller on duty in the radar room that night. The late guy took all of the positions and worked them until the mid-shift controller arrived. It was a terrible night with high winds, rain and crappy visibility -- aircraft had been going around and diverting all night. I gave the mid-shift controller the briefing, I signed out and went home. On the way, I thought to myself this is the type of night crashes happen -- and 20 minutes later American hit the trees. I went to see the aircraft the next day and it had tree limbs in the engines and landing gear and not one foot of the wing leading edge was undamaged. Parts of ILS antenna that they hit was still in the landing gear. How close they came...

The positive attitude and uplifting words from the F/O after clipping the trees was amazing to watch and listen too. Amazing the plane was able to be fixed.

i love it when they save the craft and nobody dies. I legit celebrate and am so happy for the pilots.

Gotta love The F/O's positive altitude and resilience- when they hit trouble he didn't back down - seriously inspitrational

It is rather refreshing to hear a captain say “watch me” and “sing out if you see anything.” That exactly what I would tell a first officer, no matter how new they are or experienced I might be. If nothing else, it’ll instil some confidence that they can speak up if they need to.

Loved the support from the FO as the captain brought it in, it actually made me smile to hear such a supportive cockpit environment

I was on that flight. I was grateful for the pilot getting us to the runway. The pilot's brother contacted me later and said that that the pilot asked for "flaps 40" and that gave us that little boost to get us over the perimeter fence and on the runway. We lost both engines and glided onto that runway. I think the pilot was a hero! We had to evacuate the plane in the middle of the runway using the slides and then waited in the rain for transportation to the terminal. About a month later, another AA flight hit a mountain in South America. Those passengers were not so fortunate.

Accidents like these ending on a good note with everybody surviving always leaves me in good spirits!

Man that convo between the Captain and FO was heart wrenching, so glad they all made it.

That first officer is honestly the best hype man anyone could have.

I like that when you read the transcript, you add in other cockpit sounds, e.g. 'dont sink' or 'terrain', etc. It helps get into the mindset of the flight crew a bit, especially when there's a lot of warnings going off at once. Sometimes you wonder 'why were they so confused/overwhelmed?', but when you hear everything else thats going on in the background it makes sense. Also, the way you do the subtitles makes it much clearer; putting the captain's on one side of the screen, the FO's on the other, and ATC at the top. It makes it easier to make sense of who's saying what.

I love the "everyone lives" endings. I was shook when they went 40 on final flap at their slope.

I'm amazed they managed to bring that plane down on the runway, sure they messed up with the altimeters and the MDA but they did an amazing job. Even more amazing that the plane was repairable, it must have been a very strong aircraft!

Incredible, from the moment they hit the trees I thought they were sure to crash. Well done those pilots!

Much like the report states that was some excellent CRM there at the end that definitely saved lives. Compared to some other disastrous accident sequences this crew did not panic in the moment.

Wow. I have thousands of hours in the MD-80 and can feel exactly what was going on. I have to check my heart rate after hitting the trees. Awesome airmanship saving the plane and passengers.

The way the FO talked to the captain while the CA was trying to land was incredible teamwork (and likely a bit of friendship). Almost guaranteed that those words helped to calm him and concentrate instead of panicking and rolling the plane.

Awesome video, it had me on the edge of my seat! Good to see videos that cover non-fatal accidents rather than the usual high profile accidents. Keep up the good work!

Such a relief the crew recovered from the initial tree strike holding it together saving the lives of all the passengers.

I’ve flown all over for decades and candidly, never considered how sketchy flight is. The air pressure thing was a YIKES moment for me. This is a great yet scary channel.

I clearly remember this miraculous landing after hitting trees. Most planes are lost when that happens, so the pilots really held it together until they were down on the runway.

Got to admire the F/O's faith in the Captain with his "You're gonna make it!". I wonder if they eeked out a few extra feet of flying as a glider because the wings are cleaner without engines slung beneath them? They screwed up handsomely, but showed their mettle in getting their aircraft down safely.

these two's CRM is something else. they work so well together you'd think they were best friends "you got this dude." how many other crashes could have been avoided if every flight crew got along that well?

With almost 3000 hours in an md-83 I felt like i was right there with em

8:30: I love technical detail because I love learning how things work.

Since you spoke of Charles Lindbergh. My Great Grandfather used to fly with Charles Lindbergh on his US mail delivery mail route. My grandmother was born at the end of one of the runways at the St Louis International airport where our family house used to be. The airport was much smaller way back then but they bought their farm house and land to expand. Mr Lindbergh used to stay with my family when the weather was to bad to fly or just to visit as good friends. I met my great Grandfather afew times but was to young to talk to him about Charlie. My grandmother had some good stories though. I'm a new subscriber so you might see several comments as I'm binging on your other videos. Thanks

Change #1 -- if the wind is so strong that you have to evacuate the control tower -- you probably shouldn't try to land.

Another exceptional video dude. Looking forward to whatever is next! Refreshing to hear the captain actually encouraging his FO to call out any mishaps he sees. Even if its ALWAYS encouraged, im sure it gives the FO even more confidence with the captain verbally telling him.

That First Officer is an absolute chad level officer. Literal bro. His giant balls of steel literally kept the aircraft pinned safely to the runway.

Man pilots dont get enough money for all this knowledge and awareness. The pilots in this case did an excellent job with what they had and saved many lives👍👍

If I keep watching these air disaster vids, I’m taking the bus to Europe next year-and I live in Hawaii 😊

Absolutely excellent video in every way. Just one suggestion. It is my understanding that runways are always identified by calling out the two numbers separately, so runway 15 would not be runway "fifteen," but runway "one five." Runway 08L, would be "zero eight left." Thanks for doing such a great job on such an interesting aviation mishap.

That was like being their. Not sure if I would want that, but all the same, excellent.

wow, I was expecting a crash into the hill I was nit expecting a 100% survival

Presumably they did not have a radar altimeter. Seems to me; if the weather is so bad they have to evacuate the control tower it's probably time to divert

Pilots are amazing , talk about holding your nerve in a stressful situation . Take My hat off to them

Once they struck the trees the pilots did an amazing job of insuring each and every 'soul on board' had the best chance for survival. I always dreaded flying (and driving), during 'frog-washer' storms, visibility is almost nil and it can be disorienting. I trust the pilots were able to keep their jobs. The lessons learned will never be forgotten.

This is great endorsement of the invaluable services that commercial pilots provide. They are called upon infrequently but earn their pay when they need to.

One of my CFIs had an acronym she’d write down on approach WAR: winds, altimeter, remarks. This way, if everyone in the cockpit lost their mind, at least you had the critical info. Also, as to outdated ATIS information, at no point is it mentioned “which” information the pilots had. I don’t know of any controlled airport that’ll let you take off/land without reading back which ATIS information you have (alpha, bravo, whatever) and if that is in fact the current information. Seems like there were lots of omissions on the part of ATC and crew.

Kudos for your outstanding narration and clear explanation of the factors affecting the outcome of this flight, that even a know-nothing like myself could understand. So very glad the ending was happier than the one I was expecting right up to the last minute. I've bitten my thumbnail clean off!

What a relief the crew were able to save the plane

I've so much respect for pilots , ATC folk and engineers alike, they are all literally heroes on a daily basis!

Does it make any sense to have a 908' MDA, when the terrain peaks at 819' almost directly under the glidepath? That is just 89' (27m) difference. It seems insanely low, clearence. Would a 1000' MDA make sense? I'm not a pilot, I don't know how close to terrain ure usually allowed to fly, but 89' seems a bit too tight, even with all instrument settings done right.

I've flown in and out of Bradley many times. In fact, my house is in the landing pattern for one of Bradley's runways although it's the northeast facing runway 24, not the northwest facing runway 15 where this incident took place. I often see the bottom of aircraft as they fly directly over my house at altitudes between 2,500 and 3,000 feet. The hill this plane clipped is called Metacomet Ridge and runs from Long Island Sound to northern Massachusetts. It sits only some 750 feet from the end of runway 15, jutting up out of nowhere to around 650 feet at its nearest point to the runway. You can plainly see it from the airport and it's rather a scary sight when you're taking off in a westerly direction which is common since that's the usual wind direction. It's fairly rare to land on 15 because that would usually mean a tailwind.

Holy hell what a rollercoaster! Can't believe they made it. That's amazing work

What I learnt from this channel is never fly at night … cuz almost every crash has been in the dark

i just found your page, absolutely gripping storytelling. i really can’t believe there’s not a movie for every single one of these stories - pilots, crew, and air traffic control/engineers are truly heroes.

That was INTENSE. I didn’t think videos like these could put me on the edge of my seat. Crazy

amazing video great detail immediately after striking the trees the pilots did everything perfectly

Hats off big time to the captain and first officer! Two awesome men to keep their calm and bring it in after that mess.

I am somebody who is scared of airliners at the best of times and hights in general so these videos give me a nervous injection whenever I follow the plot but when the crew and souls on board are this lucky I feel like jumping for joy literally, absolutely amazing that aircraft got away with that landing.

Excellently done mate. Not rushed or too long. Just....excellently done

I'm kindly surprised for the quality and detail on which this new channel deals with the stories it shows. I believe it's a great future.

Your ability to explain aviation concepts in layman's terms and to only explain things that need explaining makes these videos great. I never find myself confused or asking any questions, i am always 100% invested.

Regardless of other factors the pilots displayed amazing airmanship during this emergency. Thank god they had 2 military pilots in the cockpit that refused to give up. Mistakes were make howevee lives were saved thanks to cool heads that never panicked

Al I can say that as a non-pilot its clearly the slightest little mistake can cause a crash, as in this case thank God we had two exceptional pilots that overcame extreme weather conditions and I pray they are still flying as this will only make them better. As the report said they had made a fractional error with a 1000 thanks they had going on with that flight. I 'm just thankful everyone is ok. Awesome pilots

I think this is the 20th? Video of yours I have watched and it’s the first one where I 100% was convinced that it was a game over and was very happily surprised they survived. The way you described the hill and how crucial mistakes were made that gave me dread for the passengers and crew. Some of your videos you try this, but the thumbnail gives it away. I very much enjoyed this one. Please keep me guessing at the outcome. Love your videos

i've been waiting for a good sim/reenactment of this one ever since they theaticalized it in that CVR play/film -- thanks for doing it, absolutely heart-stopping to get it from the cockpit perspective, and all the atmospherics are great.

As usual great explanation and visuals, keep up the great work

You’re so talented at this. Also, thanks for profiling lesser-known crashes/excursions/incursions.

Really glad I found your channel, you should have a lot more subscribers. Your videos are very high quality, extremely educational, and the visuals are stunning. Love the work!

There's always that one smart passenger with a good lawyer that insists on being escorted out in a neck brace and a stretcher.

Very good and well thought out video ... Truly appreciated the explanation, (or the pointing out), of the "check sum" yielded by the two altimeter settings that yielded the actual height above sea level of the runway, (at 13:00 ), .Never had anyone explained that before .. not even "Mentour Pilot".

The MD-80/90’s seem to be rather tough airplanes! I flew on one and flew through a thunderstorm on approach to Orlando Fl… could feel the plane sinking and yawing, and as I sat in the back I noticed how incredibly much the fuselage flexed!

Those pilots kept their cool and flew their plane. I panicked and I wasn't even there!

Great vid. I believe the years of Air Force training helped them save all on board. Keep up good work

it's absolutely incredible that the pilots managed to keep the plane one piece at the end, fantastic video !

Am baffled...but relieved everyone survived. Love the MD 9. Thank you for posting such excelent video and clear walk through

I do think I can say I was in severe turbulence once as a child because I remember feeling the plane suddenly dropping like a stone. I felt the freefall sensation one gets on a roller coaster, though it was far more terrifying in this context. After what felt like an eternity but was likely a few seconds, the plane leveled out. To this day I'm not entirely sure how that drop happened. It was a stormy flight, but I've never experienced a drop like that since. I've also been on a flight where the plane landed so hard that some of the oxygen masks dropped. The pilot came on the PA system and simply said, "Oops."

very well done as always, thankyou. Such a great story in itself given the nail biting finale, superb subject matter!

Great vid. I truly believe that this aircraft and its passengers and crew were blessed. I have never before heard of an airplane striking the trees and then recovering ... and then without a single loss of life or critical injury! So interesting, too, to see the comment from North Maine Guy, below!

Applause for the captain and first officer, even though they were decending faster than they shouldve, thats just one example of human error, but i still have to give the pilots a massive applause for making jt onto the runaway safely

Couldn’t agree more that although the pilots are to blame, they’re also to credit for the recovery. This was a phenomenal recovery. In fact, I was shocked I’d never heard of this accident. I’m extremely familiar with Bradley (every time I think of it, I still remember the flipped planes right near the entrance after the rare tornado that struck the airport). How could I not know about this incredible event? Likely, because there were no deaths and only one minor injury. I don’t know what happened to the pilots, but I really hope that they were sent for refresher training to ensure they don’t make similar mistakes again, but were NOT fired, reprimanded or otherwise disciplined. They did a fine job on the recovery, and as this video mentions, the CRM was exceptional. The captain went so far as to tell the first officer to advise him. They did a phenomenal job. They just made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I really hope this captain and first officer went on to have brilliant, successful careers. Yes, they made a mistake. But their recovery from it was textbook perfect. Yes, they should receive criticism… they caused the problem. But they should receive more praise than criticism. I’d ask anyone who disagrees this question…. they were hitting treetops prior to the recovery, so: “How many times have you heard of a plane literally already in the trees that ends up recovering.” I can think of zero. There are one or two accidents I can think of where they ALMOST pulled it out, but zero who did. And in every case, since they’re just below flight speed (obviously… since they’re falling slowly, scraping tree tops), the speed is high enough such that the majority of passengers and crew perish. This is the ONLY flight I know of which struck tree tops and there were not only zero fatalities but almost zero injuries (just one minor… which makes you wonder if that’s the passenger’s fault… not buckled in, perhaps?). This is simply unheard of. The pilot and first officer did a spectacular job. I know… they are ultimately to blame. And without their mistake, their heroics are never needed. So, I get it if some people want to give them more blame than credit. But no one is perfect. We all make mistakes on our job. And in this case, the mistake made (entering the wrong altimeter setting) does not appear to be an error that is in any way nefarious (careless, neglectful, etc)… just a simple, innocent mistake. These pilots deserve incredible praise.

FINALLY, someone explained what radio altimeter settings mean!! 👍😉✌️

"Omg omg, hs, hs, oh f---, oh f---, wt....oh THANK GOD". I was on this flight, though I was delayed by 27 years I was on this flight. Your vids are so engrossing, I seem to lose perception of anything going on around me. Pilots and ATC's, y'all are fascinating creatures to me and I'll never comprehend how you do what you do but I'm grateful. Something that is so prevalent among pilots is their ( your) uncanny knack for detail and excellent memory. My Dad was a TG pilot/ fighter / instructor and I was always amazed at his ability to recall

Super cool graphics, really accurate. I love the chipped paint on the control yokes, very realistic!

Any landing, where passengers and crew can walk out of the plane on their own is a good landing. And I think this definitely qualifies as one considering the circumstances.

My dad was on the flight landing in front of this one. And his plane as it was getting closer to touching down hit an air pocket and it dropped rapidly. He’s never been known to be scared of flying or such but he said this experience did. To be honest though, out of all the landings I’ve experienced all the ones at BDL have been the worse. It is such a bad place for landings due to the mountain wind.

I came across your channel by accident (no pun intended), but have to say I am hooked. You have a brilliant narration voice and tell the stories so well. Clearly you research each of these incidents thoroughly. I have learnt so much about flight controls and how the flying surfaces work. Who knows if I am ever on a flight where both the captain and first officer spotaniously combust I may jump in the cockpit and use some of the information I have gleaned from your channel. At least I would have an awareness where things are when pilot at the other end of the radio trys to talk you down. As that is unlikely to happen anytime soon I will continue to work my way through your posts. Great job and keep this good work up. Clive

Great storytelling! Makes it easy for the viewer to recall the banging sound a plane makes when it hits heavy turbulence at night, jolting it down a couple times, and it makes flying a bit scary.

I gotta say one thing that pisses me off about almost all aircrash videos is the willingness to take chances with people’s lives to save a relatively small amount of time, effort, or convenience. All these employees should have the mindset that ANY risk of human life is too great. If it’s risky to land the plane at Bradley LAND THE DAMN PLANE AT BOSTON. People will miss meetings and be pissed off, but at least they will live long enough to be pissed off and complain about their missed meetings. I guarantee you they would much rather that than risk being smashed into the side of a mountain.

Adding full flaps when flying into a very strong headwind will shorten your approach, as they introduce more drag than lift. Most glider pilots understand that only up to 15 deg of flaps will produce lift and get you onto the runway, any more than that and you could end up short. I think every airline pilot should have a few years experience in gliders before starting their airline careers. After all, when the engines quit, you are just flying a very heavy glider.

Any time I hear about these aircraft still being in service I wonder if at any point some aviation enthusiast recognized the tail number and told someone "oh it's the one that almost crashed 10 years ago" or so. I'm sure many people wouldn't take that well.

To the creator of this content: I have watched quite a few "RU-vid? videos like this (aviation incidents/crashes/investigations, etc) fewer such videos than some have watched, but no doubt more than many others have watched---anyway, you told a damn good story well and told it all stupendously. Had me on the edge of my seat all the way! Bravo! A good story, told well!

As a person who flies from Bradley (due to no lines and it being close) this is, just, weird to see an accident trying to get to the airport I use

Did you do what the first officer did on purpose?😄 You stated a difference of 40 feet when the video text read, "70 feet." It made me think it must be easier to do than I'd originally thought. 😄 I'm absolutely addicted to your videos!

Beautifully produced. Bravo!

Awesome job by the pilot to land the plane. That plane was pretty scratched up for a landing configuration! Thanks Dot! 👍🇦🇺👍

Pilot error wrecked the engines, but he saved the day with some fancy flying. 🙂

I haven’t flown more than a dozen times in my life but the MD83 is the plane on which I’ve flown most of them. Love that plane!

Great video as always but your narration at around 5.15 may be misleading to some viewers. In the cruise, aircraft set their altimeters to standard pressure so that they are all using the same regardless of where they set off or where they are going to. This gives them a ‘flight level’ rather than a true altitude (which is height above sea level). As they approach the airport they then need true altitude as that is how obstacles and MDA are charted. That’s when they need the local atmospheric pressure at sea level (known as QNH). The elevation above the ground is ‘height’ and for the runway would be given by setting the atmospheric pressure to the pressure at the airport (known as QFE) or using a compensation factor as you described.

The encouraging words from the FO probably could have me landing in that position. I always love safe airmen with great CRM amongst all on board especially leading to a landing without anything lost but some planes pieces and perhaps a little bit of ones nerves only. However, having someone calmly and positively encourage you through something of which you may be fully capable of handling but with the stressors, tiresome time, weather, false reports, human error and just bad luck like this, there is nothing more lovely than hearing the crew have genuine words of encouragement like this for another above the standard CRM procedures and I personally know how much a difference having someone you trust just give you this above all else allow you to overcome the most fearsome of trials. Often having someone else believe enough in your efforts and/or ability despite you not even believing in such yourself can be solely enough to get to the place where you achieve things you never knew or believed possible until you did so. And all because of a supportive and calming presence keeps us all in our best tests yet to defeat with some genuine words of simply, you got this, you can do it. Im sure many others have noticed this crew speak really be above the usual in times of distress like such, but hearing it, feels like allowed the captain to keep his control to safely land the stricken craft without injury most. Certain words may be simple but hold such power when needed most and like this, timely spoken.

I feel both anger and exuberance at these men. The Top Gun types that got into military aviation during its heyday. A blessing and a curse.

I'm my lowly opinion, they should have gone to their alternative airport. Weren't the winds at or higher than the maximum for landing? I'm always amazed how well so many pilots react when diaster is imminent. They go into a zone, pilots make mistakes, but this shows how well trained they are for crises. Great video.

Maybe why that did so well after hitting trees was both of them where combat pilots, and they are probably trained to deal with complex issues.

Again so clear, thank you so much for all your hard work

Really enjoy the format of these excellent videos. The narration and comprehensive background information regarding the pilots actions, explain quite clearly the cause of these incidents.

At first I thought they were going to stick to the go around and was thinking please just drop it on the tarmac now. Right then they immediately spoke about going for it. This would have been fatal if they diverted.