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Peter, what happens after they divert, do they just re-fuel and takeoff to the original destination after a breather to give the weather time to improve. Or do they get on a bus and drive up there? 😅
I almost always go into these stories blind, so every time Petter says, "...unfortunately we will never know..." I get that sinking feeling in my gut. Then sometimes it turns out it's just because the information was lost... not the plane. My emotions have to make a go around!
Me too. I never know why certain aspects will never be known, I would think the FDR would have such info. Maybe they just don't download it if there isn't a crash.
Once my flight was delayed because the captain wouldn't take off till they provided enough fuel for the second alternate (and there were some disagreements with the company or provider, as far as I could understand). We ended up in the second alternate because of tornadoes at the destination and first alternate. Still thankful to him!
I hope any passengers who were angry and possibly complaining about the delay understand now how fortunate that was, and appreciate the pilot like you do. It's a tough job and even if it was unpopular he clearly made the right decision. Safety first!
I want this guy to be narrating my entire life. "He _should_ have poured out the coffee grounds over the sink ensuring the safety of the kitchen counter...but that's NOT what happened"
As a Singaporean, thanks for doing this video. This was reported a couple of times on the media here, but I think 99% of Singaporeans did not grasp how critical and close to a crash this incident was - and didn’t expect this, given Singapore Airlines’ solid reputation. It is quite shocking and sweat inducing to know how bad the flight was… great job.
@@huwzebediahthomas9193 it’s quite a different Changi airport today.. nothing remains of British RAF Changi except a few old conserved buildings. Present day Changi Airport is built on 100% reclaimed land that didn’t exist during WW2. Obviously different runways and everything…
@lours6993 how old were u in 2000? It was reported by CNA breaking news before dawn… and I was online in IRC at that moment I can still recall. It was on every media for months… so what rubbish are u saying? LOL.
@@lours6993 how old is your colleague? Was he/she even born in 2000? lol. It was reported daily for months… and multiple follow up documentaries. You don’t even live here and u talk absolute nonsense… does every American know every air crash in the US?
I was a passenger on this flight and, having watched many air crash videos, knew we were on borrowed time. This was a truly horrifying experience, only numbed by the fact that we were stuck at Batam for nearly 13 hours before getting back in the air, and the sleep deprivation softened the memory of what happened. 6 hours into the wait, the pilots greeted the passengers and I was mortified to see them being bombarded with questions as to why we hadn't diverted to KLIA. I shook their hand, said my thanks, and later found out that the crew had all assumed we were water bound some time after the second go around. I'm glad to know this flight is helping in training scenarios now, and ironically having landed in Heathrow the day after that BA flight skidded off the runway over a decade ago, to know that the change of flaps settings in this secanrio may have prevented further issue on the runway in Batam is a bit freaky!
Reminds me of a BA 747 tranatlantic red eye flight into Gatwick, with a snow bound runway. We held for around an hour while ATC decided when the runway would open, and eventually diverted to Souhampton, where we made a texbook landing on a runway almost half the length of LGW and 26 feet narrower. Not suprisingly, the captain had never landed at SOU, and we were stuck there for several hours before fuel trucks came on shift. What got to me was the attitude of the majority of pax, who were complaining like billy-oh. So we'de run out of potable water and all the snacks had finished, but so what, the flight deck had performed with total precision. I quipped with the cabin crew in the galley that although thankful to be on the ground, I appreciated the extra "free" flight time the crew had given us. That perked them up a bit! (Never did find out if they'd proclaimed a mayday, but obviously they knew more than they were telling me.)
Why was that a horrifying experience? Did anyone tell you you were about to run out of fuel? Was there any announcements about it before landing? Otherwise isn’t it just a regular hold and regular go around? What horrifying about that? I’m sure it is now that you know the whole story but inside the airplane before landing how could you know what was really going on?
As an ex paraglider we had a saying, 'it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground'!! This flight was scary AF. My anxiety is off the scale!
In the case of aviation, I would say the prime rule would be "rather be late and* safe than on time and dead". I am very new to this channel, but in most disasters it seems its a 50/50 between need to meet deadlines/get on destination on time and a pile-up of confirmation bias. A close uncle of mine was also a paraglider and he had the same golden rule as you. Sometimes we went to places where he wanted to glide and he just did another thing because the weather conditions where just not there lol. I believe he having a son (my younger cousin) was a key factor in those moments, because I could see the glimmer in his eyes when the wheather was good and the mix of frustration and sadness when it was not. I feel like that if it wasnt for his son, he might have took glides with innapropriate wheather and might have not even been here today tbh
As a retired controller from Chicago I’d like to add this. I spent a lot of my time holding aircraft for KORD. I worked the sectors that included the majority of first the Pullman arrival then the Windy arrival. When ever I went into the hold for something other than routine runway changes I would keep my pilots informed. Once I had my holding established if I thought it would become a lengthy delay I would ask the pilots to give me their max holding time and alternates. I would then use this info to lobby with approach, or plan on how best to help. I was not above taking planes out of sequence if I was sure that I could get everybody in but the sequence meant a diversion for someone else. I had a pretty darn good record of getting as few diversions as humanly possible. But I fully believe it was good communications between pilots and ATC that made the difference.
Good communication and honesty is vital in all situations. If a pilot is told that he needs to go around again due to another aircraft with a fuel emergency, he will not complain. Unfortunately, we still have situations where the two pilots are not even communicating with each other.
My Take away from this video is the following quote 'its always better to slow things down and give yourself more time when the perception is there is less time available.' Its applicable to any timebound stressfull situation we come across in our lives. Your attention to details in presenting every story is top notch. Thank you and your team to the hardwork that goes behind making these videos.
Is it just me, or does this guy have the most riveting speaking voice you ever listened to? I know nothing about flying but I actually can understand about 90% of what's explained.
"Is it just me, or does this guy have the most riveting speaking voice you ever listened to? I know nothing about flying but I actually can understand about 90% of what's explained." This goes some way in explaining the hypnotic effect of the Funnelbeaker dialect in the 30's. "Honey, is it just me or does the guy with the funny gestures have a most riveting voice. I know nothing about the juice, the slobs, or the jypsees, but I understand about 90% of what's explained."
Despite the poor judgement calls, this pilot had some incredible fortitude to do the right thing and perform that last go around instead of sucumbing to the tunnel vision that could have so easily killed them all.
I read a lot of criticism of the report for this incident, as the report made it sound less concerning than it actually was. So glad you covered this incident!
I love to know what the third pilot was doing, Singapore airlines always has three pilots when they fly. I’ve traveled on Singapore airlines from Manchester to Singapore, no problems except turbulence flying over India. I wouldn’t want be on that flight.
Between this channel and the flight channel I definitely am more aware of what's going on when I step onto a plane. There are just so many things that can go wrong. I definitely don't like to travel in bad weather, especially snow ice
It's always good to be prepared in case the pilots need some tips on how to fly the plane, or for when you have to take over control of the plane when having watched this video makes you the most qualified person to do so. (Good luck should this ever happen to you!)
I absolutely love your detailed and professional videos of incidents with no casualties. If not for your channel, we, general public, would never know. Thank you so much for covering such incidents
What I think. The Pilots were brilliant in a very stressful situation. We all say we could do something different until we are faced with a situation and then training and will takes over. Thank goodness they all landed safely.
I discovered Mentour Pilot about 6 months ago out of curiosity, and because of my constant binge watching, I realized I was getting a supreme flight education, and always appreciated your thorough descriptions of every part of aviation for us non pilots. Fast forward to today, and my husband and I look forward to flying different aircraft each night with our new flight simulator and yoke system. I can’t thank you enough Petter, for helping make this 50yr old gal’s dream of flying come true!
I almost did the same but then saw what would happen if I went for yoke and pedals and flaps/throttle etc etc and decided "nope not for now" lol. I have an old Thrustmaster flightstick/throttle combo in the closet but as a Pettr fan i'm an imaginary Boeing pilot and a stick would only be good for Airbus lol.
That's hilarious.. I recently got my private pilot licence and just want to tell you that at least the Cessna 172 in fs2020 is about 90% true to the real thing, the biggest differences being small things like rudder control and pitch trim sensitivity. If you're good at flying in the sim, you would be able to fly pretty much the same in real life.
@@iBreakAnkles4Fun oh crap, that’s the one I struggle with the most because I fly like it’s a 747! I do love flying the different top gun jets, but landing on an aircraft carrier is so exact, neither one of us has made it, haha. Congrats on the new pilots license! I need a LOT more practice, but it’s so much fun.
@@jennifertwede7142 Thank you, it is mad fun to be fair, shame training costs a kidney and a lung so very few people can afford to become a commercial pilot. I'm doing the EASA airline license theory now and it's a stupid amount of studying full of useless information for the sake of weeding out people who aren't driven enough to study all day everyday for at least 6 months straight. Can't imagine going through this if you don't love flying. Have fun with the sim guys, wish my girlfriend had an interest in aviation :)
@@phillarnach9484 dude the pilot had more than 13K flying hours experience and knew what's at stake. In a very high stress scenario and environment he did good.
Landing in Genova with heavy cross winds, pilots tried twice, ultimately concluded, nope! and off to Torino we went. Pilots were apologizing profusely to all us pax but I gave them a hearty grazie! as I exited the plane.
Incredible how the improvements keep happening on this channel. Peter's storytelling, the editing, animations, sound, music and everything is supremely immersive for a youtube channel. Thanks for the content once again!
This sort of incident is one of the big reasons why I love my job. I'm a dispatcher in the US, and while we do put together flight plans like the dispatcher of this flight, we are also legally 50% responsible for the "operational control" of the flight, which means we are a resource on the ground to help with diversions like this - and a resource that knows what fuel reserves the flight has, at that. We can run fuel numbers, call airports, research available services, and unlike ATC, all of that is stuff we do every day, so we can do it very, very fast. We also have an overview of the weather and where it's moving, and can advise the pilots if what looks good from their perspective doesn't look so good from ours. I don't like handling diversions, but having us there to help is infinitely better than the alternative, and in my opinion, the use of dispatchers for flight following has certainly helped the US avoid similar incidents.
This incident highlights the importance of good fuel planning, and it reminded me of the LaMia Flight 2933 tragedy. Due to a poor flight plan and several mistakes by the pilots, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. You should do a video about it some other time, because the circumstances of this accident were insane. The flight was a carrying a brazillian football team and their entourage for a championship in Colombia, and only 6 souls survived out of 77. It was horribly sad and tragic, and just thinking about it now makes me want to cry. RIP Chapecoense.
One flight from NRT to LHR in the early 1990s. We were holding for a long time at LHR, and then the landing was abandoned at maybe 100 meters hight. The captain came on the PA system and said: “ATC wants us to return to the top of the stack, but we don’t have enough fuel to do so, so we will land at LGW in three minutes!” Which we did.
@@stevecreighton3352 With only 2 runways and an air movement every 40 seconds at peak times, LHR ATC have a very difficult job. The biggest problem is that any inbound flight with even minor problems is treated as a mayday. All movements are stopped and the firetrucks line up along the runway. With the number of landing flightpaths that fly over central London and heavily populated areas for the remainder, it makes sense. Short haul BA and Aer Lingus pilots see most of the brunt of the problems, since ATC know that they they could do the go arounds while they were asleep. LOL
@@stevecreighton3352 I used LHR in transit to and from USA between 1983 and 2010. I always needed to add two extra hours each way compared to Frankfurt just to save a few Euros. I'm very fortunate. I don't have to go to England or USA anymore.
@@stevecreighton3352On one occasion, in a storm, we tried to land three times before finally doing so on the fourth attempt. Our plane was the last one to land before LHR closed due to bad weather.
@@wilsjane on crew pick-up airside very early morning at LHR over 20 years ago, I was waiting for an A340 to land on 09R when in fact it lined-up and landed on 09L by mistake. The captain said to me later, "Let's not talk about it". While it was a mistake, I'm sure ATC allowed him to continue on finals as they knew 09L was also clear to land. I think I remember the airline form the Middle East, but I won't mention it. Malaysia Airlines famously got banned from UK arispace in the late '90s for flying with insufficient fuel. The last straw was when one of their a/c ran out of fule taxiing to its stand at LHR.
thank you for this video. i was a passenger on this flight and could feel how dangerous the situation had gotten. but it was nowhere as suspenseful as you had described because we had no idea what the actual fuel state was the entire time the diversion took place. as passengers on board we did collectively get more uneasy each time the plane failed its landing attempt and 3 go-arounds was intense. it was such a pity the flight ended this way because it started off amazing. we took off from heathrow on Diwali night and as we flew into the sky we could see fireworks lighting up all around us. in the end we were stranded for 13 hours in Batam, a good 2 hours of which were on the plane right after we landed - no power, no food, water or toilets. i was with my mother and she was on the brink of a medical emergency because she was overdue on medication but thankfully she had stashed a reserve pill on her. a truly harrowing experience for me.
Such a pity? You should have been thankful the plane was landed safely by the pilots with no casualties despite the rough weather. The pilots ain’t gods, nobody controls the weather or wants delays or diversions. Whilst you had your fair share of problems with your mum, I’m sure all the crew and pilots were already very tired and still had to continue serving and taking care of you guys way after the flight ended. Just be glad for the blessings in disguise.
@@bells2803or it can be looked another way, for the pilot’s mistakes putting them in this situation in the first place. Your asking them to be thankful for pilots landing them safely when they continued to make mistakes and poor decisions that created the very problem they were in.
When Mentour repeated the phrase, “We will never know…” it made me think the worst had happened. But the main thing is that the pilots got the passengers on the ground.
I found it interesting that you have to declare a fuel emergency if you're projected to land below the minimum reserve fuel, even though the "emergency" might not have emerged. We are big mentour pilot fans in my household, often jokingly implementing checklists etc in day to day life, and we've now decided to implement a similar system with loo roll: we should ALWAYS ensure we restock on loo roll BEFORE we get onto the last roll - if we find ourselves down to the final roll, we'll have to declare a loo roll mayday :D
@@Edax_Royeaux Yeah, that one is an interesting story, with many elements contributing to a tragic outcome. Not just an extraordinary number of lengthy holding patterns, but also bad weather (as always, it seems!), confusion about the meaning of "priority", the multiple handoffs of the flight from one controller to another to another, resulting in the controllers not appreciating the seriousness of the flight's fuel situation, a captain whose English was poor and had to rely on his first officer for translations, and a first officer who was not assertive enough when he needed to be.
Last year, on a flight from BWI to IAH, the pilot missed the approach and we had to be diverted to SAT. The weather never cleared up over IAH, and I ended up missing my connection to CUU. It was very frustrating because I saw the ground at IAH before the pilots climbed again and went on to SAT. It was even more frustrating because I was on my way to my brother's funeral. Talk about some rough emotions. But it's videos like these that make me understand that deviation from plans, while frustrating, are for our own safety. Thank you for these!
Sorry for your loss... Ironically, did you know that Singapore loves TLA's? What's a TLA? Well, 'TLA' is a TLA, Friend. BWI is British Wisconsin, right? IAH is Iowa Hampshire, right? CUU is Sioux University... SAT is... Ah... Forget it 😅
There’s some difference between vertical and lateral visibility. Just because you can see the ground doesn’t necessarily mean your forward visibility is good enough to land. Sorry for your loss.
Had a very similar situation a year or two ago. I was booked on a flight from Denver to OKC, with a brief layover in Dallas. We were delayed out of Denver due to weather over Dallas. When we finally left Denver, we circled DFW twice and then diverted to a small airport outside of Lubbock. We had to wait for refuel and a specialized nose-tow there before we could take off again. We eventually landed at DFW, more than seven hours late. I had missed my connection to OKC, but the desk agent didn't understand why I didn't want to rebook it, and instead just wanted to return to Denver. It took me three tries to get through to him that I had been trying to reach my grandmother in OKC before she passed away, and that she had died while we were in the air. I don't hold any resentment for the diversion, but it was such a punch in the gut to turn my phone back on in Dallas, and find out it was too late.
Way back in the 1960s I recall my instructor (An Ex WWII Wellington bomber pilot) telling me many times. Take-offs are voluntary, Landings are not. Still true today.
I was stuck in a United A320 many years ago over the eastern range of the rocky mountains trying to get into Denver during a thunderstorm. Worst flying experience of my life...I was soooo glad when that aircraft touched down. Those are the times that you really appreciate what pilots do.
My family used to fly to the East Coast for Christmas and we were nearly always diverted for weather. I always wondered what made the difference for allowing planes to fly in to weather versus diverting/holding.
I've checked out several pilots discussing aircraft issues, and I've gotta say, you're the best I've come across. Your explanations are way better than others. Thanks a bunch!
Thanks Petter, great coverage of this frighteningly close to disaster event. Having way over 25k hours in heavy jets, (and now retired), I can recall many situations where the weather issues we faced were similar, including arrivals in to Changi with storms all around, having come down from Heathrow. One absolutely has to stay ahead of the game, make a positive diversion decision when required, and then NEVER EVER get yourself into a rushed approach situation which can mean an unstable approach and thus an unnecessary go-around…. or much worse. I was literally cringing listening to the events unfolding- it’s a miracle that the outcome was as good as it was- just pure luck rather than good management. As I said- well done presenting it all, nice work!
@@phillarnach9484 Of course not. However there are limits on how much extra fuel you can carry, and carrying extra costs a lot. Also, especially on longer flights, you’ll burn a very large percentage of extra fuel that you carry- simply by carrying extra weight. Also weather forecasting is an inexact science, and a lot can change during a fourteen or fifteen hour flight.
With a tropical climate thunderstorms are not uncommon in Singapore's region, especially during the monsoon season from Nov-Feb, & yes they might get more intense due to climate change. These storms also delay baggage unloading from aircraft already parked at the airport, as the ramp agents work outdoors & lack lightning protection. Imagine if your flight gets delayed though because the aircraft's previous flight's baggage couldn't be unloaded for that reason! & thunderstorms here can last all afternoon!
Yeah, for me there was an element of get-there-itis, which lead to intercepting final approach courses on 5-6nm out. He had 2 attempts to make stable intercepts onto final, perhaps even engage the autopilot to capture the glide and localizer. Happy for the good ending.
For as many times as you said 'we will never know,' I was really expecting this one to end in a much different way. Glad to see that in the end no one was hurt.
Unfortunately if the recorders have been erased or not revealed, we'll never know and clarifying it at that moment in the video means revealing the outcome and that interferes with the flow of the story.
They were hurt mentally. The plane never made it to the gates fuel ran out. They waited 3 hrs in the plane with no ac the we taken to holding rooms for another 6 to 9 hrs definitely not good
Just the other day a brief but intense storm passed over YSSY (Sydney). Many aircraft were doing hold patterns for up to an hour, but I noticed one domestic flight diverted to Canberra, even though it was not on hold for that long. By the time it was on approach to YCBR - not that far from Sydney, YSSY was open and aircraft were landing. While I realised they were forced to divert due to fuel, this video was really helpful in understanding the various thresholds for fuel safety. Thanks!
I was in the car with family the other day when a supercell rolled over and the entire sky turned green. You're functionally blind the entire time and even though I was within walking distance from my home, that experience was terrifying. We couldn't see out of the windscreen crawling along at 20km/ph let alone at the speed of a plane about to land.
Still, by far, my favourite RU-vid channel 👍 As a nervous flyer myself, I've found the way you break down these incidents, and explain things from a pilot's perspective, incredibly helpful and reassuring. Thanks Petter, it's been a game-changer for me 😊
@@MentourPilotI live in a small rural area of the USA. I'm almost 40 years old and I've never been on a plane due to my terrible anxiety. However, your videos have definitely eased my worrying! ☺️ If it's financial feasible for me, I plan to fly and attend the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles! ❤️
@@FigureNasticsas Superman said "well i hope this incident hasn't put any of you off flying,statisticly speaking its still the safest way to travel".......how many people drive their cars every day and they never stop to think they could be in a crash and be killed or seriously injured despite the fact you stand a much higher chance of being involved in a car crash than you do of being involved in a plane crash.
Just keep it to: as Superman said "well i hope this incident hasn't put any of you off flying, statistically speaking its still the safest way to travel".
I breathed a sigh of relief when they landed safely. I am always glad to see these end on a positive note. Thank you for covering these. Your channel makes great pilot training material. Your channel should be a mandatory subscription for all pilots. There is a lot to learn here.
What a crew! Especially the teardrop to the final approach. Thats the kind of flight crew you want in the cockpit when travelling. Real stick and rudder guys.
I absolutely love that you kind of veered off disasters and are now mostly using (serious) incidents to educate us. It's much less sinister, making for a much more entertaining (and just as teachworthy) moment.
Also, at this point, I think he finished documenting most of the major accidents. This shows how rare disasters actually are in aviation. In any case, I loved this video. I was very concerned about the outcome, and I'm glad they managed to land safely in the end (depending on your definition of "safely").
@@SplyfofThere are many, at least one a year and sometimes significantly more than that, especially in decades past. I think he opts to cover the ones where the decision-making and training of the flight crews had the most bearing on the result. There wasn’t much that the pilots of PS752 could have done to avoid being shot down by the Iranians, for example.
Amazing story. Its easy for us passengers to get grumpy about delays and diversions - but we need some confidence in our pilots that they are working for the best result. For me the things that stands out here are 1 - As @MentourPilot said take time, slow things down - I know I can be guilty of rushing to the 'solution' 2 - the pilots should be congratulated for getting everyone on the ground safely. It must have been a horrible moment when they decided to do that final go-round but in that moment (we were not in their seats to judge!) they made the right decision and got the job done.
I remember too when my father's flight to Dalian in NE China got diverted to Shenyang a further ~300km north due to fog at the former's airport, which also lacked radar at that time to support IFR landings
I am reminded of an incident when I got a call to clear a parking lot for an air ambulance to land, and they mentioned low fuel. the local hospital hadn't yet installed ILS equipment, so alternate landing sites weren't uncommon. interestingly, in this case, the only reason for the air ambulance was because there were no ground ambulances available to do a scheduled non critical patient transfer. the upshot was I had time to chat with the pilot while we waited for the passenger to arrive. I asked him about the low fuel mention, and he laughed and said, "we just didn't want to wait to see if visibility improved, because that would mean we had to take on fuel before we returned to base."
@@ProctorsGamble the people on the ground misinterepreting choosing an alternate LZ for fuel reasons, or not wanting to waste fuel circling because it would mean detouring to get fuel instead of just fueling at base?
I genuinely love the structure of your videos, explaining the specific background of each topic in detail before even getting to the incident. I always feel like an expert because you give us the info to anticipate the problem ourselves in each video. :) You must be great at giving presentations!
Never hard anyone tell a story like you. He is second to none i can pay a flight to nowhere just to be in his flight I will feel safe just like I'm in my living room. Great pilot with wisdom
Your comment about the need to slow down especially when time is critical really resonated with me. Thank you! You made it abundantly clear that the pilots' decision to cut into the approach path so close to the runway was what made it impossible to capture the ILS. I've been there, done that! But never again!
You are such a good narrator. I was captivated until the very last second and wasn't hoping they can make it. I can't explain the relief when they safely landed. Good job on your part!
The one thing I remember from a flying lesson I took on a flight sim is a good landing starts with a good approach. I would imagine the reality in this situation was far more stressful.
Takeaways from this incident. 1. Trust people to do their jobs. They are in the position they are in for a reason. 2. Captains should not believe that they have to do everything themselves. Learn to delegate tasks, or just stay in the lane of the role that you have chosen when taking off. 3. Make a plan and stick to it. 4. If you realize you're out of position, and will not be able to make a landing, go around early. There is no shame in not getting the plane down on the first attempt. There is plenty of shame in crashing one.
Points 3 &4 seems so contradictory though. How do you make a plan and stick to it but still know when to abandon your plan early. If they had stuck to the plan they would’ve still been circling over Changi Airport praying the weather would get better. It’s easier said than done, and I think the captain trusted his guts to do what he could.
@sohsaraaa Not contradictory, as they are not simultaneous actions. It means stick to your plans unless there is a valid need to change the plan. i.e. have discipline and do not impulsively deviate from the plan on a whim. There is a corollary to this principle: Do not obstinately proceed with a plan when indications are that you need a new plan. The Captain lingered on, hoping to land at Changi even when it was fairly clear that the weather may not improve in time and they needed to divert, accepting one more circuit in the hold, then another one, then bargaining for a 360° instead of a full circuit… while the big engines were gulping down the dwindling fuel to critical level.
Yes; do most airlines have specific regulations around when pilots must save flight data? Esp. in the instance of go-arounds, and most particularly after a mayday call! Feels like their allowing an over-write here was pretty dodgy given severity of incident...? Couldn't help wondering if the airline's desire to protect their high corporate reputation is what allowed that action to go without penalty or reprimand in the final report (speculation only).
The plane never made it to the gates. It ran out of fuel while taxing the passengers were stuck 3 hrs in the plane with no electricity or ac. Maybe thats why
Petter, this one had me on the edge of my seat. As a layman and non-pilot, I was hanging on your every word in the re-telling of this story. You told it well, with plenty of explanations and detail. I can only say that I am glad the pilots were able to land that airliner safely. BTW, when you were using Belfast, UK in your graphics it seemed to me that there was something odd about the orientation of the city with the Irish Sea. Excellent video.
Hi Brian, Lough Neagh is a massive freshwater lake (largest lake in Ireland), just a few kms to the west of Belfast International Airport. I suspect you were mixing up Lough Neagh and the Irish Sea.
@@MrKingjjjI once defecated on the edge of Loch Neagh. I had Chinese takeaway about 6 hours earlier and by the time I reached the Loch with four friends, my poo was halfway out of my poophole and I just had to unzip and take a dump. And a massive dump it was, too. Moral of the story: never eat Chinese commie food if you are visiting a place with no nearby loos.
For me as an Indonesian avgeek, it's pretty much a stress situation in my opinion and i am a little bit imagine of what the pilots must have felt during the last few holdings with limited fuel. Unfortunately, i have never visited Batam Island and the airport. Fun Fact : Hang Nadim Airport was even certified for an Airbus A380 because the runway was long enough for any widebody such as the A380, 747, or 777. I think this is an excellent video. Well done👍, sir
One thing I reckon is this: The crew was very disciplined in not getting gettheritis, especially on the last go-around. They stayed with procedure and saved their airplane. (Although the CRM was not idea)
I do believe they had _some_ get-there-itis, in that they waited far too long trying to get into Singapore before finally diverting to Batam. If they had made that decision earlier, they would've had much more fuel to work with when they needed it.
Your excellence is unmatched, Petter. These videos are the best available. This one was a nail biter. Had they not nailed that last landing, this would have been an entirely different video.
I remember when an Avianca was trying to land at JFK during a delay and the pilot did not make a mayday call just said he was low on fuel. It crashed into the Long Island Sound.
Avianca Flight 052 was a regularly scheduled flight from Bogotá, Colombia, to New York City, United States, via Medellín, Colombia, that crashed on January 25, 1990
10 месяцев назад
Yes, the Avianca 052! This video also made me think about the charter flight Lamia 2933 that crashed near Medellín, Colombia, after running out of fuel. All but three members of a Brazilian football team died in that accident.
This is a classic example of getting led into a gradually deteriorating situation. It was caused by both an extreme deteriorating weather situation and a bit of “gethomeitis”. So glad it turned out ok. Another fascinating video very well presented, thank you Petter and the team.
I've never had to divert as a fellow 738 pilot, and a captain since earlier this year. However, I lived this scenario as if I was on the left hand seat. Great commentary Petter. Thank you. Again if diversion is very likely, don't waste any valuable time/fuel. Just fly to your alternate or any airport suitable in the circumtances. Drink your tea and sleep happily ever after.
738?? What kind of aircraft is that ? Must be some new kind of superjet I never heard of. Just spelling mistake otherwise you are absolutely right about safe way to fly 👍
@ asokoniso: If what Edax says is true, may I respectfully suggest that you avoid using obscure abbreviations and jargon that are known only to industry insiders -- at least if you want your comments to be understood by more than a small handful of readers. 🙂
@@Milesco a quick google search of "738 aircraft" will tell you Edax is right. Also, this is an aviation focused channel so I don't see any issue with using aviation terminologies. Oh also, the aviation community is not small.
It stroked my heart as I faced similar situation (from thinking point of view) in my ultralight having an imminent engine failure & fire indication after a sunset with poor visibility near my destination airport (I only have 100hours in total). I stayed too close to the runway and ending up too long and going around twice! Then I took 10-20seconds in the air to breathe so my brain could restart and only then I landed. Faulty instruments and freezed brain almost made me land into a fence behind the runway. Normally I would land on a landing strip with 1/3 of the length without any problem, but the !! stress really kills your brain beyond your imagination !! Valuable lesson for me, so I always land before sunset since then and hopefully this has shorten my possible startle/surprise effect.
Thank you very much for sharing this Experience! - Indeed! The same Failure happened here (as one of a couple of Errors), only with a much larger Aircraft and much more People on Board!
I’m not a pilot, but this level of critically low fuel made even me break out in a cold sweat! Thank you for the excellent report, and congratulations to the crew for getting this aircraft on the ground!
I agree that fuel was low but let's say they did not have fuel at all couldn't the pilots just initiate a water landing ? Just curious because batam is surrounded by water.
@@bharat-dz9wi Yeah, something like the landing on the Hudson River in New York. There was also a flight in Scandinavia or Europe, where the aircraft ran out of fuel and made a belly landing, landing gear up, in a snow-covered field in a forest in the middle of nowhere. That was a heart-stopping story. Fortunately, all were saved. Don't know if it's been featured on Mentour.
The captain should have made a firm decision earlier and stuck to it, instead of waiting for clearance which kept getting delayed and then making risky decisions. They were saved by the skin of his teeth.
What surprises me when hearing about this, is that it doesn’t happen more often! Storms are everywhere, all the time! And not very predictable. Especially at adjacent airports… I think having to take 3 go-arounds due to do the impulse to take a shorter path on 2 of them really may have been the biggest problem.
Two questions. 1. Changi to Batam Airport is just 29 kilometres away which hardly makes it an alternate bad weather option in my opinion. This would have been evident to the pilot with the weather radar. 2. A 13 hour flight from the UK surely involved additional flight crew for rest breaks which would have been an added resource for the pilots flying but there is no mention.
My thoughts exactly. In 56 the RAF lost 6 out of 8 Hunter's because the Div airfield was very close and quelle surprise socked out shortly after the homebase. Lessons are only learned for as long as they are remembered....
Oh no, cockpit voice recorder 'lost' ..... yet again. It happens over and over. It must be really hard to keep these things secure - somehow I manage to keep things backed up at home though.
Got into this channel through Mentour Now. These videos and animations are just tremendous ! Always fantastic graphics, and explained in a way that seems tailor made for me, a very ineterested, but decidedly amateur, aviation enthousiast with very limited knowledge. Although that knowledge is certainly LESS limited since watching this channel. Keep up the great videos, just a brilliant channel.
I've always had immense respect and awe of pilots, there are so many things to consider even when flying in normal weather let alone unstable conditions. I've been watching your videos for a year now and I always love how in-depth you get when getting into the mechanics of flying, it makes it easy to understand for those of us who aren't in the aviation industry. Brilliant video as always, much respect to the whole team who puts their time into making these!
This was the most incredibly suspenseful story I have heard you tell. Absolutely heart-stopping. I am a sailor and know the feeling of being caught out by weather and unable to get anywhere safe and storm coming etc. But times ten for those guys, up in the air. So we'll told as always, you are one of my YT stars.
Yikes, I was a passenger on that flight! I was concerned about the fuel situation - we had been able to watch all the go-arounds on the in-flight entertainment system, but obviously had no idea how serious the situation really was. Certainly, we were never told. I suppose we have to say that the flight crew recovered a very difficult situation, even if it was to some extent of their own making. On the one hand, we all survived - no-one was even slightly hurt and there was no damage to the plane, so I guess there is no other hand to consider. However, I won't ever choose to fly with Singapore Airlines again, not because this incident occurred - but because of the lack of consideration Singapore Airlines showed to us passengers in the aftermath and subsequently with a lack of information, truthful explanations etc. Thanks as ever, Petter, for an informative video.
The story telling quality just keeps getting better and better. I was in the edge of my seat. I’d love to hear the story of United 173 that crashed in Portland in December of 1978.
Great analysis. Singapore and the southern part of peninsula Malaysia are always prone to severe weather conditions particularly during the afternoon periods (3 pm to 6 pm) where heavy thunderstorms are common. It's a very frequent occurrence around the equatorial regions. I had a similar experience in 1996 while traveling from Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia to Senai Airport in Johor Bahru (north of Change Singapore). The weather on arrival at Senai was inclement with severe thunderstorms and visibility was very poor. The aircraft type was a B737-400. The captain made a first attempt to land and had to go around (I believe Senai was only cat I ILS). The second attempt was also unsuccessful and the captain attempted a third approach. I don't really know what happened but I felt like we hit wind shear on the third attempt and felt the aircraft going down like rock. I almost soiled my pants. I heard the engines screaming at full thrust but we were still dropping like a stone. A few seconds later we could feel the aircraft climbing away just as I could see the tree tops of oil palm trees that were a bit too close for comfort. Finally, we diverted to KLIA and landed safely and then waited for the weather to clear down south before departing for Senai. I still wonder even today as to why did the captain not make the decision to divert after the second attempt. He must have had his reasons (like company policy or pressure or even a family commitment), which I will never know I guess.
Probably the hairiest experience I had as a passenger was coming out of Singapore Changi during a heavy storm. There was lightning and thunder everywhere and we were surprised and perturbed the captain said we were going to fly ahead and there was a path through the eye of the storm we could fly through. I was terrified, but it worked. I don't actually remember if the captain said the bit about the eye of the storm or whether it was rumour. It was shaky, but it did calm down after 20 minutes or so and I could breathe normally. I know there are other aviators who go into the eyes of storms routinely to get accurate weather data, I salute them.
Agree. His over 10,000 hours should have prompted him to decide on his course of action much earlier than he did and stick to it, instead of risking running out of fuel. His 3 aborted landings shows incompetence, IMO.
3rd go-around was chilling AF... I'm glad they landed safely. 1st, they were lucky that storm clouds moved away and 2nd, great airmanship of pilot to land safely from very very unstabilized approach. I always love happy endings in this playlist xD
And now there’s flight 321, which is also London to Singapore also on 777 hit by turbulence and caused a death of a passenger. Would like to see you do the video on that.
Is there evidence that the pilot stayed cool? The voice tape has been "lost" as I understand things and my suspicious mind tends to wonder what was on it that someone didn't want to gain a wider audience.
He got the aircraft down, but a certain amount of luck was involved. Perhaps he should be censored for poor CRM, taking on too much, and not communicating properly?
I completely lack knowledge on mechanics of airplanes and English is not my first language, which makes it difficult for me to understand a lot of technical details, yet the clarity of MP's explanations, the addition of many visuals and English subtitles make it way easier for me to digest necessary information. I’m glad I can enjoy this great channel, greetings from Poland. :> I also really appreciate how respectful MP is in his storytelling and how his perspective as a pilot enriches these videos.
Excellent video, as usual. As a Captain with 19000+ flight hours (9000 on 777) I would add some considerations.. First I strongly agree that in difficoult and demanding situation the Captain shoud be monitoring and supervising everything instead of handflying a plane like a monkey, unless Company regulations dictate otherwise. Second: One thing is what the regulation says (e.g. Final Reserve fuel requirement), another thing is how different airplane models work (e.g. Fuel QTY low on 777 ) This warning , promting to a Near Suitable Airport Landing, triggers when the first main tank fuel reading reaches less than approx. 2100 kgs. This means that for a perfectly balanced fuel distribution 4200 kgs or less. In case of unbalanced fuel the total reading will be more (2100 X 2 + imbalance). As You can see it's a lot more than "Final Reserve". When the QRH procedure is shown in the video, it's only the second part of it. The first page impose to avoid "high nose attitude" and "abrupt power changes", that is exactely what happens during a Go Around... Furthermore the limitation for Flap 20 Landing configuration has a significant effect on Landing Distances, expecially on wet and contaminated runway. This oftes renders the "Planned Alternate" often unusable if it has a runway not very long. That's why, when a diversion was likely MY personal Final Reserve Fuel was not less than 4500kgs. I understand the economical aspects of carrying extra fuel, but gambling with that is just like playing at Russian Roulette: You often , almost always, win, but if the bullet is in the right place you (and your passengers) lose everything. One more question, because it's not clearly evident in the video: does Singapore Airline fly the LHR-SIN leg with a crew of two pilots only? Happy landings M
Maybe it is a good thing that I am not an airline pilot, because 1) I have a severe case of not blindly adhere to authority 2) I would have ignored such a company policy if it meant a safer flight for me, the crew, and the passengers.
Thank you very much for this statement and the informations! According to what I readed there was a third Pilot on board, but he was engaged the whole time of the event into a crossword puzzle and so he did not joined the flight crew.
Sir, You're one of my favorite guys. This was a fantastic story. I'm not a pilot and can't judge but The captain needed to include his crew more to help him and at one point he was 130 ft over a runway and I imagine might have set down, unless he couldn't see it. I'm just very thankful they had a miraculously safe landing, and may all of yours be safe too.
I like before I even watch a second of every video from Petter, each fascinating story really serves to teach important lessons not just essential to be a great pilot, but also your general self.
The scary thing in this incident is, that It looks like no safety regulations were deliberately breached, but the crew made a decision out of the available options, which turned out the be eventually wrong
You can't regulate for critical thinking, and whether their decision was right or wrong depends on perspective, ultimately they have the experience and training to make the calls, and in this situation, they were carefully navigating between significant risks on both ends of the equation (bad weather vs low fuel).
As a Singaporean, I was not expecting this at all, Singapore Airlines has a stellar reputation as one of the safest and most highly rated airlines in the world
In a way this incident shows where that reputation comes from: even at critical fuel, the captain had the discipline to go around rather than try to force a landing from an unstable approach. If he hadn’t, this would have been a crash investigation.
Thank you, Petter. As a huge avgeek, it's always nice to learn something new. I knew about holding patterns, and their shape.....but I didn't know about the stacking, and that the lowest planes are vectored in first, and the newest stacked on top. Cheers from California.
I once took a BA flight from London Heathrow to Miami, which departed at about 10 am. I and my then wife left home at the same time - I on my way to the airport and she on her way to work. Everything was fine until the plane arrived near Miami, when the captain announced that security had closed the airport because President Clinton was there, so we'd have to wait till he left. After being stuck in a holding pattern for ages, he came back on the intercom and announced that the plane was running low on fuel, so we had to divert to Orlando. Big groan from all on board. Anyway, we eventually landed in Orlando during a massive storm. After refuelling, we were ready to depart, but according to the captain, the storm was too heavy for the 747 to take off, so we had to wait. After another delay, we eventually got going. On reaching Miami, the captain was back on the intercom to say that the storm we experienced at Orlando had now reached Miami and we couldn't land, so we were again put into another holding pattern. After what seemed like ages, a very apologetic captain was back on the intercom to explain that the storm hadn't lessened and since we were getting low on fuel again we were now returning to Orlando a second time. Even bigger groan from the passengers. So, back to Orlando we went for a second time. But of course, we weren't the only jumbo affected and Orlando was overwhelmed. They kept us on the plane for a further 7 hours, while they dealt with the unexpected flood of arrivals. By this time all food and drink on board was long gone and the toilets were overflowing. Fortunately, I was in business class, which was bad enough, but cattle class must have been truly awful. There was one final announcement from the captain to say that the crew had exhausted their allowed flying hours, so rather than fly back to Miami, we would be put up in hotels for the night and then taken by bus the next morning to Miami. Eventually, busses were hired and I reached a hotel: "Welcome to sunny Orlando. Would you like a smoking or non-smoking room?" "Err, non-smoking." "Would you like a balcony or a sea view?" "Err, What? Look, I don't care, just get me a bed - any bed will do." "There you are Sir, have a nice day." "Yeah, right." When I finally reached my room, I rang my then wife, who by now was at work on the FOLLOWING day. The journey had taken over 24 hours so far and we weren't even there yet. We were later taken by bus to Miami, but of course, I missed half the conference that I was supposed to attend. Everywhere was waterlogged since they had had over 29 inches of rain in 24 hours!
Just flew on Singapore Airlines from Japan to Italy and will fly again on my way back and one of my favorite youtubers just uploaded a video about the airline what a coincidence!
Another great video Petter! As I am sure others have commented, I really like the amount of technical detail you include in your reporting (eg fuel calculations, the workings of the ILS, rules regarding communications with ATC etc). I don't work in the industry, but I am fascinated with airline operations. All to often, when I watch other documentaries on these types of incidents, a lot of the technical info tends to be watered down or omitted entirely. However, in your videos, you always seem to strike a perfect balance in how you carefully and methodically walk us through the information we need to know in order to help us understand what has occurred.
Agree. Its the balance in deductive and inductive reasoning coupled with observation of known flight information that makes such interesting case studies.
As you asked what we think: I’ve seen enough of these to know what a cockpit voice recording going “missing” means. I am also interested in views and policies on manual flying vs autopilot. The captain here wanted to take control of the situation, but interestingly still preferred auto land. This seems crazy to a completely non-expert that I am. Once again thank you Mentour for a *fantastic* video
Autoland's main use is when visibility is too poor to fly the landing manually. Either in normal SOP where the required visibility is higher than actually needed, but required by policy or, in theory, in an emergency where everything is up to the Captain's judgement but he thinks he can't physically see the runway well enough to land. This is the only case of someone trying to rely on it in an actual emergency that I can think of. Regardless of reasoning, any reason to use it in this case shows that either the Captain didn't trust his flying skills under stress or bad judgement in the expectation that visibility would be near-zero which only really is possible in the absolute worst of fog. It is well known that some airlines, particularly in Asia, discourage handflying and use autopilot whenever possible and have historically had more crashes/incidents with poor airmanship for whatever reason. Anyway, my point I guess is that Autoland is or was basically reserved for when runway view was too poor to land it manually, with good handflying preferred and valuable despite the automation long having been capable. As the video shows though, Autoland requires a stable approach from some distance as the AP and Autoland have conservative authority of controls versus manual inputs and it's really basic knowledge that these approach attempts were nowhere near the ranges autoland would accept.
I flew in Indonesia and sometimes the weather can be nasty everywhere except some airports. And in this condition it is very tempting to chose the closest airport ro divert. But others gonna think the same as well.. Been in a situation at night (less available option to divert) when we decide to divert but our alternate is closed cuz of full capacity.. theres other airport but its gonna burn our reserve fuel.. lucky were given approach clearance and able to land safely at our destination.. That taught me to always be pesimistic when planning a diversion and has been saved ever since in that similar situation.
Simply amazing. As a passenger, I have never had any clue as to how complex and all that pilots have to deal with to get from A to B. I am fascinated by your channel. Your narratives are truly awesome and you help a lay person like understand complex systems quickly.
Fantastic video, one of the best on this channel. True, there hasn't been a lot of media coverage. Still shows that the captain was very experienced, to be able to do the quick turn and visual landing in the end
My heartrate was throughthe roof with this one So incredibly scary situation. And ik most of your comments are praising you for the amazing vosuals but here i am yet another one praising for your amazing visuals. Seriously props to you guys
@@MentourPilot It's no wonder so many allied WW2 bombers ended up in the North Sea out of fuel. Researched an Halifax for a friend - his uncle radio/gunner Sergeant ended up in the North Sea all lost.
