Yugoslavia's Worst Air Disaster | Zagreb Mid-Air Collision 

This one omitted quite a bit. A slight disappointment. 1. Tasić was actually in his third consecutive 12-hour shift as an ATC, which greatly contributed to his errors. 2. The last communication between Adria 550 and ATC was done not in English; due to stress Tasić reverted to Croatian, so even if the BA crew were listening, they had no idea what the two are saying. 3. The controllers at Zagreb were complaining for years about being understaffed and having primitive and faulty equipment, despite Zagreb being a very busy hub connecting the Middle East and Arabia with western Europe. 4. The radar Zagreb ATC was using was messed up and had a margin error of 500 feet. It showed the BA flight at FL335 (33500 ft), while the FDR clearly showed the Trident at FL330, as cleared earlier. This is why Tasić ordered Flight 550 to stay at exactly 33000 ft. Hope for a remastered and expanded version in the future.

Unfortunately the 2 initial survivors were an infant and a child. Those poor kids. May none of them perished in vain....

There was a lot more to this than reported including that Tasic had not had proper sleep because his house was located by a runway and as said he did not have an assistant. He was not supported during this busy shift but was put up as a scapegoat by the authorities. he did his best.

New York Times, Sept. 11, 1976: “I heard a tremendous noise,” said Marica Boadjinec, a farmer who lives in the village of Vrbovc, about 15 miles northeast of Zagreb. “I looked up and saw a plane burning and coming apart, and the other plane falling on a cornfield about a kilometer from my courtyard.” Other witnesses said bodies and luggage rained down over an eight‐mile area, with the wreckage of the planes falling about a mile apart. A policeman, Garo Tomaevic, was one of the first to arrive at the scene. “I saw parts of the British plane, bodies lying all around,” he said. “There was a baby still giving feeble signs of life near the plane, but it was in last agony. Even if the ambulances had arrived before me, it would have been too late to save it.”

I had genuinely never heard of this tragedy until i watched this, many thanks. RIP to all those affected.

This is why ATC is the most stressful job ever.

Thanks for this report, Allec. You do quote from operations Handbooks of both, British Airways and Inex Adria where they state that it is the pilots responsibility to constantly observe the airspace. While this rule certainly has it's merits, it's worth to note that in the jet age other airplanes are very, very hard to see, especially when they are at the same flight level, also taking into account the high closure rate at these speeds. Add to this the mostly white liveries of the aircraft at this time and you will agree that seeing, let alone identifying another aircraft at these flight levels and at these speeds merely is a coincidence. As an ex ATP i've been there and done that.

I was a flight attendant in the UK and was in the air working on a flight to one of the Greek Islands on that day--it was only my third month flying--I was 21. We were in the vicinity of the collision and when we landed the flight crew informed us of what had happened. It was a very somber trip back and i don't think that our inbound passengers were aware of what had happened. RIP to all lost😢

RIP To the passengers and crew of British Airways Flight 476 and Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 550

Another great video, Allec! One of the watershed accidents in aviation history, and a classic one in which a whole chain of events all had to happen in order for the accident to occur. There was plenty of blame to go around in this one, the ATC folks, the pilots of both aircraft . . . One of the accidents that helped to drive the development of the TCAS systems all airliners fly with today, to provide automated detection of potential collision and guidance to flight crews to prevent them from happening. The technology wasn't available back then, but it's all in place today, and it works.

At least this is more appropriate than the Uberlingen accident because the lone controller was only jailed but later released. Unlike the latter, the controller was killed only because an angry father thinks Peter was responsible for the death of his family, but it was Skyguide's negligence that caused the accident.

This accident has always interested me;so many things about it weren't made available in the "old days".. Well done ,young Captain!🖖

Decades later, the Uberlingen collision proved lessons were not learned. Some things were an exact repeat; a controller was absent or on a break; excess work- load and the resulting stress leading to subsequent mistakes and scapegoating

All that empty space in the sky, yet they found each other.

The report that seemed to criticize the ‘scanning’ for nearby aircraft: it may have been a useful action for biplanes, but closure rates and airframe visibility of modern ships at the same altitude is very limited in usefulness.

Terrible tragedy for all involved. Hard to say if one person was solely responsible for the accident. Usually, it’s a confluence of events in the end.

Hey Allec, great video. You might want to correct the text at 2:41, the Trident was at FL330 and not FL300. A key point I’d like to make is the idea of the pilots keeping a watch out for other traffic is really not a causal factor whatsoever. The pilots were flying IFR, there’s no looking out for other aircraft. I know this was a big point made at the trial, but it was made by people with no aviation experience. The cause was a systemic failure of the ATC system at the time, and you cover much of that. Thanks for posting.

Saw a dramatization of this incident years and years ago: “Collision Course.”

Thanks for making these videos. I been your fan for a while now and you seem very dedicated and knowledgeable in these matters and appreciate your hard work. Thanks.

The CVR had not been working on the DC-9 but the collision jolted it into action. It recorded First Officer Ivanus’s last words as his stricken aircraft tumbled towards the ground: “we are finished. Goodbye” he said, “goodbye” The Trident First Officer seemed more preoccupied by grocery prices than monitoring the airspace around his aircraft. Total tragedy. RIP to everyone lost in this awful accident.

Thankfully this happened over farmland and not the city of Zagreb itself otherwise the death toll could have been much higher. I think this was the disaster that forced big changes in ATC and aviation in general including use of TCAS

Great video, as always!

That was rough.😢

*shows mid air collision *ad pops up: *try our new Kingsland Pasta at Outback Steakhous-*

These accidents, where circumstances upon circumstances pile one on top of another and a miniscule change in any of them would have made this outcome different are always going to happen in commercial aviation. With hundreds of thousands of planes, millions of flight hours and densely packed air routes strung like a spider's web all over the world, it is statistically inevitable. Tenerife, JAL 123, United 191 and dozens of other major disasters all the result of an unimaginable combination of circumstances coming together at the exact moment...its unavoidable.

It is a good video, but many facts are missing. Like the real photos of the accident which has many. Or that poor Tasić died young soon after he was released from prison. Some true facts can be see in the comments. Also, a new documentary about this colission was made by the croatian television where they interviewed many witnesses. It is in croatian language, but some parts are in english like the interview of members of the family of one english passanger that visited the crashing site. The documentary is called "Padala su tijela".

Who would take a job that could result in a long prison sentence for making a mistake? Only a perfectionist who was actually capable of perfection.

7:25 the reason british pilot didn't react was the controller told 550 imminent danger in serbo croatian languange (refer to their natives tongue), british pilot didn't understand that

Horrific!

This was a horrible reminder of too much for one air traffic controller to handle. This sad tragedy and despite it happened 47 years ago, still can haunt anyone to this day. The Inex Adria DC-9, designated as F550 was flying at it's assigned altitude and it's crew were waiting for confirmation to climb at a much higher level, however, they were given clearance to proceed for FL350 from their already "leveled-off" altitude of FL260, and when they were eventually transfered to Zagreb control, they were dealing with a busy airway that was then coupled to hit the presumably "stressed," controller, who was one Gradimir Tasic. The DC-9 crew, were waiting for over a minute to be handed over to Zagreb, while they must've already been flying over Zagreb airspace, and their airplane was exactly where it was supposed to be. The DC-9 was confirming it had passed 290 and climbing, but it's crew was told to maintain at 330. It was seemingly noticable that Mr. Tasic had a lot on his hands to deal with during this point. If Tasic had assistance along side of him, handling traffic in the vicinity around Yugoslavia, and other aircraft, most notably a British Airways Trident operating as F476, which was nearing the area, the tragedy would've never happened. The Trident was cruising at FL330, and the BA 476 crew were apparently not receiving the important calls from the tower about a potential "conflict". The BA airplane was traveling in a southeasterly heading, while the Adria airplane was traveling a northwest heading towards Germany. Tragically, this became a very sad result. Mr. Tasic did his very best to confront the situation at hand, but when the workload goes overboard for such an important task, he could've quickly gotten "side-tracked", and the unfortunate thing is that he was held to blame. It was only Tasic who seemed to be handling two separate sectors on the same airway. The unfortunate horror was that there were only a few seconds to spare, in which the collision could've been avoided. It instantly was not Tasic's fault as they later determined, because his fellow colleagues fought for him. He served a shorter prison sentence. Today, with better equipment, and controller awareness and resource management, should prevent anything like this from ever happening again. Rest in peace to all who tragically died in this tragedy.✝️🙏 Thank you for showing the video!!

In the USA, ATC controllers are required to retire at 56.

Very sad one. RIP to all those lost. God bless them

crazy to think this has happened in my city when i wasn't born yet......

No blame should be attached to the flight crews. This tragic accident was caused entirely by inadequate ATC services. Flying on an IFR flight plan in VMC conditions, see and avoid does play a part in collision avoidance, however, numerous other flight deck duties and the airspeeds involved, it cannot be relied upon.

It seems to me that everyone involved was guilty of mistakes that made this disaster happen.

How the crazy 2 people survived this collision

Jesus that thumbnail look absolutely brutal

Goldenwest Flight 261, I don't think Allec has ever done this one.

The odds, at that speed and altitude of reaching that exact point at that exact time? Unbelievable(ly) sad.

Ha! And people want flying cars. Sheesh! If a massive airspace such as in this video can result in a collision, then flying cars operated by humans is not a great idea. We can't keep our shit together on the relatively flat plain of a road, so the thought of a bunch of suburbanites flying into their garage/hangars at the end of the day, with Tarquin waving to Dolly, in a hope that she'll accidentally flash him an acknowledgment, after dropping from 5000 metres to sea level as he chugs a coldy after stopping on the way home at the sky-high bottle store, does fill me with some trepidation. Over thinking things? Probably.

Looks like "Corporate" was trying to cut corners & have just one person instead of 2.. The other is having Situational Awareness as we're not traveling on some Interstate..

My late father flew Tridents for BA and knew one of the First Officers lost in this accident, most likely FO Flint since he was the same age as my father at the time. It is entirely unfair to blame the BA crew for not reacting to the radio transmissions to the other aircraft that preceded the collision, since those transmissions were made in Serbo-Croat, which of course none of them spoke. Worth mentioning also is that Tasic’s display incorrectly showed the BA flight at FL335, which is why he instructed the Adria flight to level off at FL330, if they had continued climbing at the rate they were then the collision would most likely have been avoided. One minor detail, BA did not operate the Trident with a Flight Engineer, but with a third pilot manning the Technical Panel.

You missed a critical detail. The warning radioed by Granimir Tasic to the yugoslav aircraft was in serbo-croat language. This way the BA crew even if they heard it they could not understand it and get alerted of traffic conflict. Also first officer of BA aircraft was not looking out for traffic, from the CVR recording it appeared he was busy with a crossword puzzle.

The upper controller should have stated the altitude he wanted them to hold, not state their "current altitude". Far too ambiguous and this cost precious time as the pilots tried to clarify. The mid controller's request to squawk standby should have been investigated. Overall the ATC in that area needs a complete retraining

How do you find the photos of the actual airlines involved in the crashes you post ?? I've always been curious about that

What are the odds of this happening? Tragic

How accurate are altimeters? 309 foot separation seems cutting it very close.

i went to zagreb earlier this month omg

Brilliant Video as usual, but sadly the Trident is in the wrong livery. It was the BEA 'Speedjack' colours, but had British Airways on as opposed to BEA.

The text is difficult to read. A more solid, darker version is needed.

🤔🤐🤨 , A lack of clear comunication in the control tower was the reason for this tragedy .

Yugoslavia's Worst Air Disaster | Zagreb Mid-Air Collision

The ATC really dropped the ball on that one. Horrible loss of life, I remember the report on the evening news, I was really shocked.

"Sliced through the cockpit" I feel bad for those pilots. Jesus.

I thought it was a JAT airplane that had issues with their radio

Good but personally the sad music just gets to me, especially as it crescendos louder. Unnecessary. Thanks

How were there two survivors from a plane crash at 30000 feet?

So the pinned the blame on one guy and made no procedural changes.

As a pilot believe your instruments

Video Request: northwest airlines flight 253

Remake of United Airlines Flight 175, please

5:57 *OMG* 😱

both aircraft were in controlled airspace, but the controllers did not have situational awareness due to the lack of manpower and equipment. The BA crew would not have been able to see the DC 9 against the background as it was in a level that obscured it; the Adria crew would not have seen the Trident as they were looking for traffic above them but having overshot the FL that the controller thought they were at weren't advised correctly, so they were given wrong information. This crash was a product of the p*ss poor ATC at Zagreb, both sets of pilots were let down badly by the Zagreb controllers and the Yugoslavian government.

can make korean air flight 858 with the crash animation from the movie but in the movie the plane is a airbus a300 but in real life the plane is a boeing 707.

Scanning for traffic at 800 kts? Really? You expect pilots to see an airplane coming, at that speed, in any direction, and react in time to avoid a collision? Impossible. But sure, pilots always to blame... This one is all controllers fault. They didn't coordinate between themselves and sent a plane right to the path of the other. 99% middle sector's fault. Simple: Do not send a plane to a FL you don't control and you are not aware of its traffic. You send them there blind.

Tragic

5:27

1976 Zagreb mid-air-collision British airways and inex-Adria airways aircraft

British Airways is still the only MAJOR airline to have never lost a passenger in the air due to airline negligence. The best of the best.

Chad still using FS 2004 in 2023

interesting

😢😢😢😢

Were either of the aircraft repaired and returned to service?

La collision est le résultat d'une erreur de procédure de la part des contrôleurs aériens de Zagreb.Honteux il à fait que deux ans de prison ,,,,,,,, honteux, honteux, honteux

Sickening and scary

Wasn’t TCAS available by this date? How do you expect flights to be safe when pilots have to look out for crossing traffic? What about the 1000ft separation rule? What would be expected of crews in bad visibility? Upper level controller was certainly a scapegoat for an appalling setup on the ground.

It baffles me why airplanes have no side/rear view mirrors and signal/break lights.

Yes but if same ATC conttoller had been directing same planes they eojlfnt have bern within 50 feet of each othervif domeone had checked heading hiven go them snd it had befn same controller as other plane doneone woupd have spotted it and quickly got over plsne to divert yes they dhould hsvs scanned but isnt TCAS for that purpose they were at gailt pilots but not 100% fault

Inex-Adria Aviopromet's Flight 1308 was the worst.

No excuse.

China Airlines 611

It was the ATC’s fault who spoke his native Serbo-Croatian language contacting the second airline.

you keep chewing this almost forty-year-old stuff, missing the point all the time

Didnt the accident happen at night? why does this show as if it happend during the day edit it did happen on daylight... weird since most mid air collisions happend at night

Didn't come here to "read" a video! 😩😩

Technology is great...but sometimes you have to look out the window.

As usual it was the ‘Soviet’ side that caused the crash, this time with their ridiculous ATC working pattern. No wonder Aeroflot has the worst safety record. They can barely drive cars

The sub-titles are so rushed (especially towards the story building part) that it ruins the continuity of the video. TFC does a much better job of timing the sub-titles consistently. No thumbs up, or "like" today because of this. Are you still angry folks prefer the sub-titles over the narration? Would still rather have sub-titles rather than narration, although it spoils the video when I have to "pause" the video so many times.

Trump was supposed to be on one of the planes but cancelled at the last minute. I vaguely recollect a news article from that time.

Very poorly reaearched video. VERY DISAPPOINTED

Damn! I knew what he meant as soon as he said it, stop your climb and maintain current flight level. Not proceed up to 33!!! Damn it, confusion!