Air Crash Investigator Answers Aviation Accident Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

I'm Greg FEI former NTSB air safety investigator I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet this is aviation accident [Music] support IL deal Q asks got my window seat anybody know where the safest spot is to sit on an airplane the best place to sit is where you can access an exit over the wings or close proximity to either the forward exit or the rear exit count the seats between the exit in front of you and the exits behind you because airplane crashes unfortunately don't occur where the airplane is upright it could be upside down it could be at night it could be on fire you may not be able to stand up you may have to crawl knowing your position in relation to the closest exit is your best bet cor asks what do pilots say to the passengers of a plane when it is crashing is it like in the movies or is it completely different one of the statements that you may hear is ladies and gentlemen we have a situation we have a problem with the engine it's under control don't worry about it we're going to divert that's a benign situation in a catastrophic or at least a more dire or urgent situation you may not hear from the flight crew at all if anything you may hear brace for impact because impact with the ground is imminent but you're not going to hear a long discussion from the flight crew because their priority is to try and prevent the accident Monkey Shine asks I am amazed that a flock of birds can bring a plane down how can this be the size of the bird is what really matters there have been a number of events that have taken place over the years the most recent one in history that a movie was made out of called The Miracle on the Hudson involving Captain Sully suberg and first Officer Jeff Skyles the airplane had just taken off out of LaGuardia Airport they were climbing out and they ran through a flock of geese at about 3,000 ft unfortunately those geese were sucked into the engine with engines they are built to withstand bird strikes to a certain extent but when you look at a 20 lb Goose that's like throwing a bowling ball into the front end of an airplane at two or 300 M an hour the airplane then turned into a giant glider the flight crew had to make a decision and put the airplane down in the water there are other elements of bird strikes one of the bird strike accidents that I investigated several years ago involved an aircraft that was going into sou Fall South Dakota at night and the pilots had forgotten one item on a checklist windshield heat now the windows on an airplane because it's pressurized are very thick because it flies at high altitude and the window gets cold soaked we heat the windshields to temper the glass so that if something does strike it it will not shatter but that one missed item on a checklist put this flight crew in Peril this is a picture from inside the cockpit of a bird that was struck it was a 2B duck came through an inch and a half piece of glass the remnants then struck the captain almost killed him the first officer had enough presence of mind got on the flight controls and actually successfully landed the airplane I investigated a small general aviation accident where a very large bird 22 lbs actually came through the windscreen and struck both Pilots a flight instructor and a student killed both of them we build aircraft to mitigate these kinds of dangers but you can't build a bird prooof aircraft nw18 Graphics asked during which flight stages do most Aviation accidents occur takeoff and Landing we rarely have inflight events at Cruise altitude everything is working properly the airplane's typically on autopilot take off you're heavy low and slow so those are the most critical time you're putting the most strain on engines and then of course Landing even though you're lighter you're approaching the ground and so if there's any kind of weather event wind cheer downdrafts your margin of safety is decreased if we're so close to the ground and we're not going that fast are we going to survive or do we have a better chance of survival yes but you also have a better chance of survival even in Flight if you look at an airplane that was built in the 1940s or 1950s or 60s today the airplanes are so much better as far as their structure they have certain collapse zones they have certain structures that break to absorb the energy seats are better on airplanes they can withstand higher g-loads than those accidents that occurred with older airplanes basic Baka which accident investigation reports had the biggest impact on the industry or were the most controversial when they came out the one that is probably the most controversial is Malaysian air MH370 the airplane that disappeared over the South Indian Ocean one of the reasons that I think MH370 has had such an impact is the fact that it's a mystery there's 2,000 ft of silt on the bottom of the ocean floor there if the airplane settled into that 2,000 ft of silt you will never see that aircraft because it's so deep and in fact the geography is like the Rocky Mountains if it crashed into one of the casses in that mountainous terrain it may look like the terrain so any sidescan sonar or any other technology may miss the aircraft one other controversial accident is tww 800 that was the aircraft that blew up off the coast of New York there are a lot of conspiracy theorists out there that still think that that airplane was shot down rather than having a mechanic malfunction in the center fuel tank that ended up leading to an explosion Kate newans asks where is Malaysia Airlines flight 370 where did it go will it ever be found these are questions that keep me up at night where is Malaysia Airlines it's in the middle of the South Indian Ocean on the bottom where did it go 22,000 ft deep on the bottom of the South Indian Ocean will it ever be found possibly these are the questions that keep a lot of people up at night because it's the mystery this was an intentional act this was was not an accident the airplane flew for 7 hours it ended up in a place where it shouldn't have ended up and the only way it could have gotten there is by a pilot or pilots who navigated the airplane to the South Indian Ocean people have said well there was an inflight fire well there's no evidence to suggest that and two if there was an inflight fire the airplane wouldn't have been able to fly for 7 hours was there some sort of Nefarious act where somebody got into the electronics Bay and did something with all the navigation stuff and of course the airplane is sitting on an island somewhere covered by jungle no you can't bury or hide a Boeing Tri 7 very easily there are a lot of other conspiracy theories the most likely event was an intentional act God is good for you asks why do planes not have parachutes by now because it would cost weight you couldn't build a parachute big enough to bring a 747 down and as far as passengers being issued a parachute one you'd have to train them two you'd never get out of an airplane when would you use it given the fact that accident happen during landing and takeoff you're already close to the ground parachute wouldn't be of any value to you Andrew Dixon 8 asked the question can planes fly land during thunderstorms yes airplanes can land in thunderstorms to an extent Pilots don't intentionally fly in thunderstorms occasionally they will inadvertently encounter a thunderstorm one of the accidents that I investigated American Airlines 1420 at Little Rock Arkansas the pilots did unfortunately make a bad decision to try and fly into thunderstorm activity Landing the airplane at night in this particular picture the black line represents the initial flight path of the aircraft you can see the red over the top of part of the airport in aviation we say red is dead the aircraft started the hydroplane and unfortunately struck a very Stout structures that ripped the airplane open and unfortunately resulted in 12 fatalities we want to know what was going on with the flight crew so we use the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder to really put the big picture together for investigators the captain made this comment to the first officer as they were trying to find the airport I hate droning around visually at night in weather without having some clue where I am that comment in and of itself requires the pilots to abandon what they were doing because it's only going to get worse and unfortunately in this particular accident it got worse almost glow 3D asks Denzel Washington saying I was drunk on flight was diabolical it was storyline it was compelling it was a parody on the morning of the accident I was drunk yes Denzel Washington was a spectacular pilot he was able even in a drunk state to roll the airplane inverted and save the day but in real life that would never happen while there are issues that we see today in commercial and in private AV avation regarding substance abuse the system itself will trapline those Pilots or crew members that have access to the flight controls those Pilots would never see the cockpit and never put that airplane into the same position that Denzel Washington did so the best place to enjoy that kind of storyline is at the movies M dizzy 16 asks what happens if a window on a plane cracks does everybody die if you're at low altitude the aircraft will depressurize but it won't be a catastrophic explosion or decompression if you're at high altitude 35,000 ft there will be a lot of debris and un unfortunately we've had people that were sucked out of the aircraft that change in pressure is what causes the vacuum or things to then get sucked out of the aircraft till the pressure equalizes if you're strapped in you will survive nugget paloa asks is anyone familiar enough with the Sully case that knows if the NTSB was out to get solenberger in real life as they appear in the movie the movie in my opinion 10 minutes of fact 90 minutes of fiction human piloted simulation show that you could make it back to the airport no they don't the NTSB was not out to get solenberger or any other pilot the NTSB in its normal interview process always asks tell us your story tell us what happened let's look at the procedures you followed why did you make these decisions unfortunately for the movie it wasn't compelling enough sometimes facts are boring Fearless flyer one asks the probability of being killed in an airplane accident is one in it's actually one in 11 million Aviation is the safest form of transportation Bar None around the world your chances of getting struck by lightning are greater definitely your chances of getting killed in an automobile accident are greater we have more train accidents bus accidents pedestrian accidents you have a higher probability of getting hurt or killed riding your bicycle or crossing the street than being involved in a fatal airplane accident mind of Rob asks what if Snakes on a Plane really happened if they really happened put your feet up on the seat and don't piss off the snake mukami asks do you have any tips or advice for someone who has aerophobia yes relax one of the things that we say in aviation is time to spare go by air you have to have patience because if you don't have patience your anxiety level increases the biggest and best thing I think that passengers can do is familiarize yourself with the noises when the airplane takes off you hear all this clunking sound that's the landing gear being retracted if you look out the window you see parts of the wing move those are the flaps those are designed to not only increase lift during slow speeds like the takeoff but also increase drag for landing if you go into turbulence don't think about oh my gosh the wings are going to break off which they won't think about the fun part of it that yes it feels like a roller coaster the bottom fell out I've sat with people who I mean their White Knuckle on the seat I explain all the noises I try to educate them to the basics of Aviation and once they understand that it doesn't make them feel so bad before we kiss asks 400 a.m. thoughts first off what are you doing up at 4:00 a.m. wouldn't all planes landing be controlled crashes you could look at it that way yes you are controlling that weight you are controlling the energy with the thrust of the and of course the controls that Pilots have the good thing is the airplane isn't damaged and you get to taxi to the terminal Jiggy jigs asks any of y'all remember Value Jet flight 592 I remember it because I was the investigator in charge and I used this particular accident in a lot of the safety presentations I do worldwide there was a radio call shortly after departure by the pilot 52i 1324 return toam what kind of problem are you having uh smoke in the smoke in the cabin they had smoke in the cockpit smoke in the cabin that right there gave us an indication that we had possibly an inflight fire in the meantime we were looking at the aircraft in the Florida Everglades we were really going to depend on the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder one question by one investigator changed the entire course of the investigation in 30 seconds what are oxygen canisters in AV iation we typically use oxygen bottles they're typically painted green this is the remnant of what we started to find of these 144 oxygen canisters we knew that they had been exposed to fire this final picture is the key this is an Exemplar oxygen generator there is a 32 Caliber percussion cap and it starts an exothermic reaction when you ship these you need to have a plastic cap to prevent inadvertent firing none of these oxygen generators had that protective cap the fact that there was a 2cent cap that was not put on cost the lives of 110 people qu asks what does a airplane crash investigator look for apart from the black box as investigators were're constantly looking for the best available evidence physical evidence that is the aircraft wreckage itself we're going to examine the propeller we're going to look at the engine we're going to look for damage was there an inflight breakup was there a structural failure we want to know if there was a fault in the Comm computer or the software that may have caused or contributed to the accident a very famous issue that came up early on with Airbus was the fact that the computers on their Airbus airplanes would go to sleep in Flight Airbus had to fix that problem we use meteorologists to study the environment if there's a weather accident a lot of aircraft accidents now are being captured on video This Ring doorbell video shows the moment right before impact of a general aviation aircraft a single engine Mooney where the wings actually broke in Flight part of the tail section is missing this is the cockpit section of a Gulf Stream Business Jet that unfortunately crashed on takeoff there was a post crash fire but there's still valuable evidence for investigators you can look at handle positions here's the flap handle right here here's trim these are the control yolks that gives us an understanding of whether or not they properly configured the airplane for takeoff one of the other tools that we use as investigators is taking information that we know into a simulator we try to recreate based on factual data did the pilots have options could they have recognized the situation with the aircraft before it got out of control Blackwell 110 asks what does the flight data recorder Telemetry technical recordings show it shows a lot it tells investigators what the airplane was doing pitch roll yaw altitude it also gives us flight control positions and things like that some of that data is used to create a profile this is the flight profile of an aircraft that crashed that had just taken off what we found from the flight data recorder is that the pilot didn't initiate the takeoff the airplane actually started to become airborne by itself and the key was right in this section we knew that the control position was different than the actual attitude of the aircraft the pilot was actually pushing forward because the nose was rising and he could not control it unfortunately because of their low altitude ude they struck the ground before they were able to make it back to the runway Cyclone Dave asks this isn't the first time a plane was brought down deliberately by a pilot among others are Egypt airf flight 990 and silk Air flight 185 there is a distinct difference between an intentional act in an accident Egypt Air 990 was a 767 that crashed off the coast of New York because the first officer basically pushed the nose over at a low altitude the airplane went into the ocean silk Air flight 185 is an accident that I represented the United States over in Indonesia on because it was a 737 that from 35,000 ft the pilot had an intent to kill himself and the passengers and crew on that airplane by Rolling it inverted hitting the water at almost Mach One Speed FSD podcast asked what role does pilot training play in preventing accidents Pilots are trained not only to understand what's going on but if there is going to be some level of an accident or serious incident they are there to mitigate the damage to the aircraft and increased the survivability of crew and passengers these are screenshots of an animation created for an accident that I investigated American Airlines MD80 the aircraft is off center from the runway that's a critical issue the pilot should have abandoned the approach these other screenshots show that the airplane landed sideways the pilots lost control overran the runway and unfortunately struck obstructions at the end of the runway which resulted in 12 fatalities this is an aircraft accident involving a small business type jet you actually see the airplane has rolled 90° that's because they deployed the thrust reversers in flight and they deployed asymmetrically which caused the aircraft to roll the pilots tried to do something that wasn't in the flight manual and unfortunately it cost them their lives ATM v1h ha asked the question why are Boeing planes suddenly falling out of the sky they aren't falling out of the sky and there's nothing sudden about it unfortunately Boeing has had an issue over the past 10 years with their aircraft and aircraft accidents it started really with the 787 and their initial battery issues which caused inflight fires there was also the 737 Max accidents both in Indonesia and Ethiopia that has really drawn the attention of the public Boeing does have issues with quality control in their manufacturing process and some design issues but every manufacturer has issues Airbus embri it does not matter there have been Airbus accidents in the recent past they just haven't drawn the scrutiny like the Boeing accidents Steven dyx won they should put GPS trackers on airplanes so that they don't disappear like Malaysia Airlines flight 370 well Stephen guess what we do track airplanes we track them all over the world we've always used conventional radar as the radar signal is bounced off the airplane it's returned an air traffic control controller can actually see it on a scope now we have a new technology called automatic dependence surveillance broadcast and it actually is providing information directly from the airplane back to the air traffic controller with a lot more specificity every second so we know speed we know altitude we actually know the GPS position of the aircraft a lot of the the commercial aircraft actually the engines are pumping down data to the manufacturer so that they have tracking data for the air Airlines so that they can understand the health of the engine during a flight so we're tracking these airplanes all the time the biggest problem especially with MH370 is that there are black spots that is voids in the coverage around the world we have over the horizon looking radar typically 12 to 1500 miles from the radar site but we don't have a Radar Site positioned in the middle of the Indian Ocean MH370 really wakened the eyes of the aviation community that we need better tracking worldwide so that we do get rid of these voids or these blackout areas produs asks how often can Pilots actually prevent crashes during dangerous catastrophic events if it leads to a major crash it's probably because it was beyond the Pilot's control one example United Airlines 232 Sous C Iowa dc10 the fan section in the center section of the aircraft failed cut the Hydra hydraulic lines rendering the airplane incapacitated the pilots had to use differential power on both the wing engines to not only help the airplane climb or descend but maintain control and steer the aircraft the Miracle on the Hudson accident involving an Airbus A320 captain solenberg and first Officer Jeff Skyles the pilots had to make split-second decisions based on the best available evidence and information that they had solenberg actually took control of the airplane he could F the performance he knew that really his only viable option was to land in the river that was seed of the pants flying as it's called an aviation and they landed it with the least amount of damage they were all able to survive Evacuate the aircraft and they were able to be rescued AJ 73 asks Korean Aire flight 801 missed Final Approach how bad well I actually represented the United States in that investigation because I was the investigator in charge the fact is they did not miss the Final Approach they actually crashed on Final Approach unfortunately it was 6 mil from the airport because they hit a hill and that's because the flight crew didn't understand how to fly a non-precision electronic approach unfortunately 250 plus people died in that accident but we did learn about spous signals affecting navigation systems on the airplane she's fishy asks what happens if you don't use your cell phone in airplane mode on a plane the signal coming off of your phone or or your iPad or even your computer can disrupt a lot of times the navigation system even the ground proximity Warning Systems on an airplane the wires on an airplane are insulated from spous signals but you don't want to take a chance aircraft manufacturers don't want to check a chance and definitely the FAA and other certifying authorities don't want to take a chance in the interest of Aviation safety turn off your phone Marlo dour asks anyone else who isn't afraid of flying ever just remember a OHA Airlines flight 243 and just have a good think on that unfortunately it was a fatal accident because it happened at altitude and we lost a flight attendant when the top of the airplane separated from the rest of the structure that accident will never happen again the reason for it is because we have better inspection process that was an older 737 that had developed a crack the crack was missed during an inspection so those are all the great questions we have for today thanks for watching aviation accident support and fly safe [Music]

2024-12-19 18:25

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