WORST Possible Combination!! The Crazy Tale of Wizz Air Flight 801 

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Ah time to get the mentour pilot bingo out: Well.... No. Terrain Terrain, Pull Up! Noooot exactly... Why did this captain do this? We will never know. Now, as a pilot myself... Remember that bit of information we talked about earlier?...Yeah.. If the pilots just looked down at the instruments for one second... Aviate, Navigate then Communicate! Before we get to the end I want to take this opportunity to...

I love the "pull up" jumpscare, it was so well executed and proves the point perfectly. Hats off to whoever came up with this idea.

This was quite an emotional one for me, at the moment that it looked like they were gone, and then the Alpha Floor protection came it and literally saved them. We hear a lot about the Airbus systems in some of the not so positive stories so it was good to hear it shown in such a positive light in this one.

One minor correction, as a software engineer/pilot who has worked in aerospace: WGS84 is not a database. It's the system which maps lat/lng/altitude into points into 3D space. In other words, it's a map projection. Other map projections are things like NAD83 (which focuses on North America) and GCJ02 which is basically the same as WGS84 but randomly warped in China for the sake of "national security." Points on one datum will differ slightly from points on another, which is why if you look at Google Maps on the Hong Kong/Shenzen border you'll see crazy stuff like buildings in the ocean. The database that makes EGPWS work is a terrain database. This is something like SRTM (the Shuttle Radar Topography MIssion) which actually tells you the shape of the ground.

Hats off to the engineers who designed the systems that gave these pilots time to rectify this situation

That "pull up" jump scare was on point, made me jump. 😅

Its amazing how Peter sounds exactly like the aircraft warning systems when using words like " terrain" or " pull up" etc 😃

Good to hear how well and maturity Wizz Air handled the aftermath of the incident instead of sweeping this under the rug. Greetings from Hungary!

I never click on a youtubers videos quicker than Mentour Pilot. Always quality content.

I have been binging Mentours videos over the past weeks and I must say the production quality is on an insane level that is unmatched anywhere. Kudos to the whole team involved!

Thanks for this story! Im originally from Niš, Serbia and I flew numerous times with WizzAir above those mountains. I’m sure that they lernt the lesson! Cheers, Petar

The "PULL UP" jump scare was so effective that I started pulling on my side stick control (glass full of water).

Thank you for new video Mentour! Fun fact, yesterday was 38th birthday of Niš airport. It was opened on 12/10/1986 and it is second biggest airport in Serbia.

Regarding Nis airport, 5 -10 years ago, during heavy snow, a Wizz plane tried to land at least 5-6 times. After the last attempt, he left for Budapest. I know because I was following on the flight radar and the runway 29 landing corridor is above my head. A wonderful video that explained to me how complicated Niš airport is!

This is the earliest I’ve been to a Mentour Pilot video - keep up the good work man! I’ve watched so many videos of yours that I can’t find ones I haven’t seen!

Niš is pronounced "Nish", a bit confusing, sounds like Nice in France. Budapest is BudapeSHt too, but that doesn't matter 🙂

Hey Petter, my father is a retired pilot and i always translate your videos for him, part by part. He loves them! It would be awesome to have a spanish audio track on them, there’s a whole spanish speaking audience that would love the videos. Keep up the good work!

9:05 it is interesting how the egpws is both the one thing pilots never wanna hear but also the thing they never wanna not hear. And passengers especially don't ever wanna hear it during a pa or something.

Another excellent video in which disaster was avoided but it was looking bad. Put this change in your penny jar and keep these outstanding videos coming! Every time I see one of these aviation videos it makes me realize just how on top the pilots have to be at all times and ready to handle anything! Thanks again to your crew and keep up the high production values!

This story is actually both frightening and reassuring because I also stay close to an airport surrounded by mountains (quite similar landscape to that in Serbia) from which Wizz Air operates. This story actually brought more information about how such landings are done and what systems are helping. Thanks a lot !

30:47 - I’m just thoroughly impressed with the performance characteristics of an empty A320.

As an A320 TCE and Instructor for Airbus in MIA, this excellent presentation gave me food for thought on several levels. In the US, as you may know, every Type Rating and annual PC is accompanied by an FAA Oral. One of my favorite Oral questions is: Describe how you get to Alpha Floor, when does Toga Lock occur and how do you get out of it. There have been many incidents of pilots flying with AT OFF for practice, configuring the aircraft for approach, getting distracted, getting the Low Energy Warning, not reacting properly, going into Alpha Floor and then Toga Lock and completely forgetting that moving the TLs does absolutely nothing! . You have to disconnect the AT. The result are large Flap Overspeeds. I will use this presentation as a learning tool so thank you very much!

I love a good “get your popcorn” video (i.e. - exciting to watch with no loss of life)! 🍿😎 -Greetings from the Patreon crew

This is perfect to watch 1 week before my Wizz flight over the alps😁

SpaceX just caught a Starship booster out of midair! AND a new Mentour Pilot Video! What a great way to start a day!

This sharing of responsibility in the cockpit is burnt into my mind since an approach in a 172 into Page airport. I was on the Right side responsible for Radio coms and navigation, nothing else . On final approach we came in way to high being not familiar with the airport, even though it has a long long runway. But because we where usually trained on landing on short grass strips, I called out go around and in panic then all off a sudden put the flaps to 0 without announcing it. My friend flying was completely startled, the stall warning came on and we sank singnificantly. Fortunately we recovered and landed safely but ever since I don’t blame the pilots in your examples. All of a sudden everything becomes to speed up and happen super quickly… even in a Cessna 172..

Oh yeah the famous phrase in Information Technology (IT). GIGO. Garbage In - Garbage Out.

That "pull-up" jumpsccare at around 33:27ish was GOLDEN I physically leapt forward

As a Serbian i gasped when you mentioned Nis and Serbia, thanks!

That's a video that people working outside the flight industry should watch and that exactly the reason why, as an IT professional, I watch Mentour's video and try to learn. Thank you Petter!

I love episodes that include the airbus protection systems (especially if they actually work as intended). It’s incredible to me how many scenarios and threats the airbus can get you out of on its own. I guess it‘s a bit like flying a computer, but at least a computer knows no startle effect.

PLEASE do more of the Airbus near-crash incident videos. They’re kinda hard to find because they don’t get any press and the general public doesn’t know/care, but most of them are rather astonishing. There’s one about a plane that basically did exactly what Asiana @ SFO did on approach, I believe alpha floor and speed prot kicked in, they were so far behind the plane they didn’t even react to the warnings and got the plane within like 4kts of a stall (IIRC) before it finally just took over everything and flew them out of it. The interesting thing about that case is that the protections are actually predictive, they know that even if you aren’t stalling YET, if you wait any longer the engine thrust delay won’t allow adequate power to avoid the future stall, and adjusts the override time accordingly. People always compare the number of Boeing crashes to the number of Airbus crashes, but never mention the number of AVOIDED disasters (which was basically a huge design philosophy of the A320 family and later models in the first place.) Again, no one really cares about an “almost” crash, so…

I got jumpscared from the "PULL UP", and it feels really startling when you don't expect it, I can only imagine how much pressure you must be under if that happens in a live cockpit

i really appreciate the startle simulation you gave at the end lol that "pull up!" actually made me jump xD great work as always

Having this level of step-by-step detail about real events within a cockpit is most informative. I've never liked seeing just "pilot error" in media reports. That's just lazy journalism and doesn't reveal anything of what actually went on. Thanks, Petter! 🙂

I am a nervous flyer and 2 weeks ago was my first flight - from Skopje to Ljubljana with Wizzair (what a coincidence) after I started watching your channel. I wanted to say thank you because I was more relaxed than previously because of all the videos I watched from which I understood how airplanes fly and how accidents can only happen as a combination or factors and bad luck. I am no longer afraid of landing because I know how ILS approach works…too bad I still have the anxious feeling when we are climbing during takeoff. I am afraid that both engines will fail and stall will happen 😅😅 thats just my pre-flight anxiety…well at least it lasts for 1-2 mins and I can enjoy the rest of the flight

Best graphics out there in the RU-vid universe. Your thorough explanations of these incidents are highly informative. Thank you 😊

It is also worth mentioning that approaches to Nish (Niš) are almost always from the east because of the winds, where most of the mountains are. Also planes have to overfly the whole city. And one more interesting fact, there are still a lot of unexploded cluster bombs near the runway.

I flew the A320FAM 15 years and is a fantastic aircraft. Sidestick-handling is brilliant and that the thrustlevers are not moving is no problem. Watch your FMA at all time!

Hi Petter, despite not being a pilot I enjoy your videos for quite a while now! I work in quality assurance and therefore I especially appreciate your approach to mistakes and how to deal with them! I have a similar mindset that a mistake made should be a lesson learned! Not reporting a mistake is often far more worse than making the mistake.

Airbus. When the plane ends up flying you being the savioir of the day once again. We already had one of those repositioning flights that didn‘t go so well

Never thought to see Wizz Air on the Mentour Pilot Channel! 🤯

Have you heard of the incident involving two 737s that were forced to land below minima with almost no fuel in 2013? Would love to see a video on it!

Another fabulous video Mentour. This incident shows how quickly things can go very wrong if standard operating procedures aren't adhered to and how one mistake can lead to further complications down the road if not rectified early. I also agree with you concerning Airbus thinking of not having linked/force feedback sidesticks and moving thrust levers. Tactile feedback is a valuable thing to have and to not have it in the Airbus limits you to only visual cues, which alone isn't the best, especially when in a very complex situation, even if it's managed quite well in normal operations everyday. And in regards to the dual input warning, with high workload that is either not heard (due to loss of hearing in stress) or cancelled due to stall warning and ground proximity warning activation. While it's easy to criticize Boeing nowadays for their various problems with their latest aircraft in production, at least they got their flight control system absolutely spot on (excluding how MCAS originally was on the 737 MAX).. Force feedback and synchronized controls and self moving throttle is the way to go. I never understood how unlinked and non force feedback sidesticks and non moving thrust levers was an advance in aviation safety. We have seen enough Airbus accidents and incidents to show that's not the case, especially when it comes to the sidestick. Of course dual control is possible in Boeing too (Egypt Air 961 and Air France 11) but I think the Airbus solution is much worse than having synchronized and backdriven controls. All that said, Bravo to Airbus for the ability for the Autothrust system giving full power automatically whenever the airspeed gets too low in normal law. This is something I wish Boeing implemented in their aircraft. That's a great safety system right there.

Peter, will you ever cover the Germanwings catastrophe? This accident gave me nightmares for months. It was so bad that I developed a fear of flying, even though I was a frequent flier before. It got to the point where I needed help from a psychologist. The therapy helped me get back on a plane, but some fear always remained-until I found your channel! Now, I'm flying and enjoying it like I did before. I think I’m finally ready to hear your take on that catastrophe. Thanks!

Love Petter's random 'sh' insertions, all except in Nis where it's needed:D

You sir are an inspiration! After I started watching your videos my love for aviation increased tenfolds and I am trying to learn more each day. Thank you🎉

Garbage in, garbage out. Learned that from senior engineers very early on in my career.

UK Railways suffer a similar issue. Train moves without passengers are known as "ECS" or "Empty Coaching Stock". They have an unusually high number of incidents, frequently down to the more relaxed approach of the staff as there are no passengers..

In soviet Serbia... the airplane flies YOU! ✈

This incident reminded of Aviateca flight 901 from August 9, 1995 (B737 CFIT), another case of loss of situational awareness before EGPWS was available. Look it up, you may want to produce a video about this terrible accident. Thank you for this excellent review we can all learn from, in this case, that the aircraft will do whatever the pilots tell it to do, including flying into the ground.

I was on a southwest airlines jet from SFO to PHX once with just me and my director on the entire flight after a conference. It was crazy. The staff was like if you want anything just let us know, we are fully stocked, so you guys can have whatever you want anytime you want! Lol. They had to get the plane to PHX for another flight and not sure how no one else was booked, if only our company travel portal was bringing up this flight and no other systems did or something. But we had a long week of drinking and partying and the restful flight was amazing

33:25 that jumpscared startled me lol

Flawless as ever Petter. Except one glaring mistake... making Budapest airport look clean, calm and not rammed wall to wall with frazzled passengers is quite the omission.😊

I commend your research team for a comprehensive research that they're always doing but I'm most impressed by your ability to explain and narrate technical aspects of an airplane that you've got zero experience on especially the Airbus since you're a 737 guy through and through. It can't be an easy task talking about an aircraft you're not rated on and knowing very well that there's thousands of highly experienced pilots on type who follows your page. A job well done in that regard!

Increasingly in busy airspace, it’s necessary to brief ‘chops and changes’ and how flexibility will be managed ie what is a GATE or a BOTTOM LINE for NOT accepting a change, and discussing how it will be managed if it does happen. Only the other week I was flying into a large London airport on a pretty ‘ordinary’ day, and with a little to talk about I briefed a runway switch, which hardly ever happens. On this occasion the aircraft in front reported a PAN and we were offered a switch to the other runway. Bizarre coincidence, but both pilots had a clear idea of what was to be done and the approach was completed successfully. It is obviously not possible (or practical) to brief every eventuality but to have a clear idea about the circumstances we can exercise flexibility, the gates beyond which we will not and HOW we will react covers a lot of situations. This is particularly important in the US, where controllers often keep you guessing in very busy airspace. Great content, thought provoking. ‘Startle’ remains one of the biggest threats to aircrew.

33:25 it actually was a real startle

It never ceases to amaze me how you can so fully explain the intricate details of these accidents. Keep up the good work!

I must be honest, the transition from the risk of flying in mountains to the ad was really smooth, well done!

This must be at least the second or third (if not more!) incident video of yours where the dual interpretation mode from the control sticks of the airbus has been a critical part of the accident chain. I'd love to see a video explaining why its an advantage and showing some data to back that up, because all I can see it as is a liability. It's a system that changes the controls of the aircraft without requiring the crew to communicate.

Would be great to see you cover Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 if possible! The impact on Pyramiden was massive, I visited ten years ago or so and it's just fascinating.

I know there's a lot wrong with the film Sully but i did like the fact that they highlighted the startle issue, even if they did it by basically making things up re the NTSB investigation. I also love the way you constantly remind people of the way this industry operates: be honest, taking the training and get back on the horse. Its something i try to enforce in my workplace.

At first hearing i was thinking "Hey ! Nice is in France ,not Serbia !" ,then i rewinded and watched the video :)

Hey Petter,I absolutely love your videos...I very recently had a dream where I was on a Ryanair flight from Knock into Birmingham,and one if the air stewardess's asked if there was anyone who could get the plane down safely?.. I put up my hand and told them about your videos that I watch...anyway I managed to get the plane down,admittedly with a hard landing..the only real problem I had was getting in touch with ATC,but it all worked out in the end..you have one of the best jobs in the world...keep up the good work!!!

Captain Petter, Thank you for yet another absolutely fascinating air incident investigation video. I especially enjoy your European episodes like this one. 5*

the way I would have immediately screamed "YOUR CONTROLS". now, we might not have made it but we sure wouldn't have had that dual input problem. it's very cool the software initiated the required TOGA thrust, even if it took them a moment to realize it was on

If I ever find myself on an airplane with Petter and I hear him say, "This is going to be very important later", I'll immediately start looking at that flight safety card thing in the seat pocket.

Hey Petter, great video as always. Have been watching your videos for years. I just took my first flight ever because I was always really scared. But your videos explaining everything made me feel at ease. I could imagine what was going on during take off and landing. So thank you for all your work.

Your videos eased my fears of flying… good job

Nice that you showed us your team! Keep up the good work!

Worked for Wizzair and flew to Nis quite a lot, it's a tricky one for sure.

One quick little thing for your animation team - in the A320, if the PF is the FO, it would be AP2 that's engaged. That's on purpose so it's using data from the FO's side. Otherwise, though, great video on another incident I had never even heard of. As an A320 FO, I would hope to never make these sorts of mistakes but it's easy to see how they can spiral without the proper approach prep. I always look over all the potential arrival procedures before we even take off, and then again while at cruise during the flight; I feel like the real root cause here is that the pilots were seemingly not even aware of the existence of the procedure they were finally assigned. There's really no excuse for being surprised by something like that even at an unfamiliar airport.

Man Mentour, you are a bloody legend at this, honestly, I hope you reach 10 million soon

I am impressed with how accurate your videos are. In your video, the interior of Budapest airport looks very similar to how I remember it from the one flight I took a few years ago.

Thank you so much for your videos Peter. They are always explained so well on a lay-person level. 🤓🤗🛩️✈️

Your ability to recreate these cockpit scenarios in such vivid detail makes these videos so interesting to watch, but I think also speaks to your ability and knowledge as a pilot.

"Worst possible combination "....is a understatement! After the second bizarre MCP input, I'm clicking everything off, calling ATC, circling back to take a fresh run at it or ask for Vectors.... I applied for Wizz back during the Covid year...guess I dodged a bullet!

Your presentations are so good. As an aviator I see how this errors can develop so quickly into disaster

When I took a stab at designing an autopilot (for a computer flight simulation), it only took me until day 2 to implement a GPWS automatic terrain avoidance. It was an extremely simple system - the plane calculates ground clearance 15 seconds ahead and for every 30 feet below threshold it pitches up 1 degree on top of normal autopilot control or manual input. Even something this simple prevents CFIT and rectifies this exact kind of problem where the navpoint altitude is below ground. So I'm a little baffled that something similar didn't exist in real life airplanes. I mean, I can't possibly imagine any scenario in which GPWS alarm shouldn't automatically result in a terrain avoidance maneuver, vs simply warning the pilots about imminent crash and giving them the option to ignore it.

The boom pull up shows so well how you actually fell when you hear it. Great detail

Another beautiful example of a plane saving itself from a crash, despite its pilots' best efforts to the contrary... Very enlightening video! Keep up the good work.

A great one for you to do, Petter - the Feb '63 crash of Northwest Orient Flight 705. A disaster that forever changed the way pilots fly jet aircraft. Would be great to hear a pilot's take on this!

Can you make a video if the Air India Flight in Trichy? It happened yesterday and i would love to see a new video about it!

Astonishing production quality in this one and all Mentour Pilot series. Don't know how you do it. Truly impressed.

Garbage in, garbage out.

9:30 The aircraft knows where it is at all times, it knows this because it knows where it isn't.

Hungary mentioned! 🇭🇺🇭🇺👑🧄✈️ !bojler elado! 🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺✈️💕💕

I watched a couple of days ago the "Rogue Pilots" episode and I can say that the quality and the narative have improved dramatically. Kudos Peter and the team. Great job and great content.

As an Airbus and Wizz Air pilot I’d like to clarify a few things. 1. Regarding the mentioned cumulative input on the side stick, there is a mistake in the video. The inputs are not just added together for one big input, they are averaged. If CM1 pulls full aft, and CM2 pulls 50% aft, the result is 75%. If both pilots pull full aft the result is 100%, not 200% and if both pull around 40% then the resultant flight control input id around 40%, not 77% like we’ve seen in the video. 2. Regarding the A.FLOOR, it’s clearly announced on the FMA, I’m not sure how was the Airbus and Wizz Air training back in 2016, but today it’s drilled into pilots from day one of TR to always monitor FMA. Now Airbus even modified the famous “Aviate Navigate Communicate” to “Stay aware of automation and modes, Aviate, Navigate Communicate” Other than that as usual great content

To be clear: The speed washing off in the terrain escape manoeuvre is good and desirable, you don't want to be flying quickly towards the mountain you want as much vertical height gained as possible for as little horizontal distance covered as possible. Pulling full back (with full thrust) is what you want to do on an airbus because the plane won't let you stall it. Obviously in a boeing it's a little more complicated in that you have to manually maintain a flying angle of attack and push right up against the stick shaker rather than just full nose up full thrust.

thank you for your continued work on these aviation incidents which remind us of the complexity of this field

Also Niš is pronounced „Neesh“ not like the French city of Nice

Sosek1RA was RNAV STAR followed by RNP approach and it didn’t require any turns shown at the start of the video. After NI102 a final approach was to be flown. SOSEK2A STAR was followed by VOR/DME appch and it did not require a procedural turn either. The procedural turn was there for the planes rejoining the appch after leaving holding over ZO NDB. The crew had planned the wrong arrival for VOR/DME appch.

No, but I've heard of GIGO, garbage in garbage out. From a 1976 Sci-Fi story by Harlan Ellison, or Bruce Sterling? I don't remember, I'm old, don't judge me.

It's cool seeing the flight sim graphics get better and better over time on the Mentour Pilot videos.

Terrain terrain

My favorite Channel to Watch very informative and perfect to fall a sleep with. You got a calming voice

Is Petter looking to improve his abs? (See 7:41) ! 😎

I'm not a pilot, but i am a frequent traveler and i did used WizzAIR as a low-cost airline, for a couple of times. The reason for stop using them was the lack of communication of their terminals from airport to airport. To be more specific, their site had various options for check-in, baggage etc. that even if you paid for them, the terminal denied the option. That gave me, the customer, the feeling that they are sloppy and badly managed as this video emphasizes. I have nothing of respect for pilots, but most of the mistakes we are watching are usually an error of company operational procedures. IATA has to have more aggressive policies for operational procedures of the carriers (IMO).