Acceleration AFTER Landing! | Aircraft Accident investigation
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
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On the 14th of September, 1999 a Boeing 757 from Britannia Airways touched down in Girona Airport, Spain. Something went horribly wrong during the last part of the approach and touchdown and the aircraft ended up accelerating uncontrollably down the runway.
In todays episode you will learn the whole story behind this accident, including the technical explanations to the bizarre behaviour of the aircraft after the landing. This is the story of Britania Airways Flight 226A.
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode. Enjoy checking them out!
Crash 1: @ Chris Ware
/ down-into-darkness-the...
Crash 2: @ Grieve Chris/Daily Mirror
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wo...
Cardiff Airport: @ dutyfreeinformation.com
www.dutyfreeinformation.com/c...
Notam: @ thinkaviation.net
www.thinkaviation.net/wp-cont...
Weather Chart: @ Jeppsen
sites.google.com/site/acnetwo...
Ticket: @ South Wales Echo
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wo...
Crash photos: @ Ministerio De Fomento
Cold front image: @Met Office
ugc.futurelearn.com/uploads/a...
Emergency lightning: @stgaerospace.com
www.stgaerospace.com/applicat...
Backup Generator: @ Fuzhou APT Power Co. Ltd
img.everychina.com/nimg/2b/71/...
Backup Battery: @indiamart.com
5.imimg.com/data5/JV/UO/VJ/SE...
Chapters:
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00:00 - Intro
01:16 - Chapter 1: Flight Overview
02:54 - Chapter 2: Flight Crew
03:33 - Chapter 3: Weather Conditions
05:32 - Chapter 4: Cardiff Departure
06:41 - Chapter 5: Approaching Girona
08:29 - Chapter 6: Increasing Turbulence
09:35 - Chapter 7: Race Track Pattern
11:04 - Chapter 8: Approach One
13:42 - Chapter 9: Approach Two
18:36 - Chapter 10: Hard Landing
22:52 - Chapter 11: Evacuation
24:40 - Chapter 12: The Aftermath
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26:05 - EXCLUSIVE Curiosity Stream Offer!
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27:11 - Chapter 13: The Investigation Begins
32:26 - Final Chapter: Final Report
35:04 - Outro
Thanks to CuriosityStream for sponsoring today’s video. Go to curiositystream.thld.co/mentourpilotjune and use code MENTOURPILOT to save 25% off today, that’s only $14.99 a year.
Just watch the gimbli glide video, and it reminded me of the swiss air flight 111 tragedy, maitre of cabin was close friend of my dad and would want have a video with your style of video about it.
Mentor how do you combat strobe blindness in storms?
I'm not a pilot, nor have any type of knowledge to be one. Just found this interesting. But my thought is what if the pilot never actually pushed forward but was a result of the first touchdown and the jolt causing the landing gear to push against the wires causing the acceleration and the second touchdown just enhances the damage caused, causing complete damage and lost of control. Kind of like the landing gears temporary tension on the line causes the other end to read wrong and makes the plane think to accelerate until the second touchdown jolt tearing everything apart.
@mentour pilot, is someone trying to scam me ? I got a message to invest in crypto money from mentour pilot, this not you right ?
Having had to work with backup generators before it's amazing how people assume they come on instantaneously! They take time to get up to speed.
I‘m _very_ surprised one of the main recommendations wasn‘t that at least part of the runway lights must be able to run on battery power in case of a power outage. And even if it’s just every fifth light or so. For an airport that can be approached in the darkness, I would‘ve thought runway lights were of so much importance that _no_ downtime whatsoever were acceptable/permissible.
Yeah, 15 seconds is a whole eternity, and the lights are vital to a successful landing.
Yes I agree, emergency lights in a building are instantly ON. This reminds me the Tenerife "Aeroporto Norte" that had a electrical problem with the lights on their runway and OFF in the fog. Why they don't have solar powered secondary lights for the runway ?
DeR Runoratsu: I listened carefully and immediately came to the conclusion that the goddamn runway lights should be on batteries, back up, uninterruptible power, it is ridiculous to have an 11 second delay. The pilots are already saps enough, they don’t need this.
I fully agree as an electronics designer in defence related equipment - appalling criminally negligent design. If anyone in my family had died as a result of this negligence then i would have sued.
Battery backup on runway lights would have, by itself, prevented this accident, all other factors unchanged. Requires no training revisions and would be relatively cheap to implement. For 11 or 15 seconds, it wouldn't even require particularly strong battery capacity.
I have a lot of sympathy for the crew here. They were coming in high, had terrible weather, challenging approach, and then the runway they just had in sight a second ago fucking disappears. You can understand why this would seriously shake them.
Yes, absolutely
Don't be ridiculous, all the youtube pilots would have easily avoided the crash, they will tell you so themselves, their expertise can't be denied!
There is a solution for this problem, that called a go around!
@@Oferb553 It was too late. They’d passed their minimums
@@nihlify Just press F9 and try again.
I used to live in Melbourne and it always blew my mind the kind of storms Qantas pilots were capable of landing through. One time on final to Tullamarine the turbulence was so bad that a woman a few rows from me was crying and praying; I wasn't worried because I trusted the extremely experienced pilots who fly for Qantas, and I had landed in a similar storm about a week earlier, but it was pretty bad. The visibility was essentially 0 and the crosswind was insane, we initially touched down at what honestly felt like a 45 degree angle to the runway. Now, I doubt our angle was actually that severe, but it was the most severe crab angle I've ever experienced. It was a pretty hard landing for what I'm used to with Qantas, but we didn't bounce, the angle was successfully corrected and we landed safely. When getting off the plane I actually complimented the pilot on the landing and mentioned that I was sure we were going to have to go around, to which he replied (in typical Aussie fashion) "nah, just a little rain". I assure you it was not, in fact we had been delayed leaving Brisbane by an hour because we couldn't get clearance to land in Melbourne due to the weather.
The more I watch your videos the more I realise just how incredibly skilled and experienced the pilots at Qantas are that something like that is almost routine to them. Just incredible.
Haha this is awesome! That pilot is a legend.
@@theonlyeskimo Agreed.
I picture the pilot wearing one of those funny Aussie hats with the corks on the brim, a pair of 'Kaaarl Hoopa' shorts covering his budgie smugglers and him shotgunning a pair of Fosters tinnies. He goes on to complain that his aircraft is full of pommie bastards and that he can still hear them whining long after the engines shut off and have stopped their whining!
I was renting (excellent CAAA temporary holiday certification❤️) an Aussie Cherokee at Melbourne Moorabbin when I saw my only BLACK sky. When the rain arrived the door had water pouring down the _inside_ as strong as if it was being poured from a bucket. It was impressive.
Do you know that Australia had its own distinct version of DME?
@@theonlyeskimo so true
that fecking woman, my dad also alway flipped out as a kid of 10 ppl around us suddenly laughed at my dad, when i told him Shut yup my metrosexual dad (when we got to the villa oh I DID GET IT. He raped me the night later
I have no interest in aviation and learning to fly is not on my bucket list. But I find these videos absolutely fascinating. There's no sensationalism, no dry, boring recitation of facts. Just really clear explanation of "what went wrong" and "What we learned from it". As a techie, I find the technical explanations equally engrossing as well. I can't use Patreon, but if you ever get around to using the UA-cam membership thing I'll gladly use it.
You can try a simulator. Flying is great. The fear is temporary. Try a short flight.
.
@@sharoncassell9358 Oh of course. I fly in MS Flightsim, mostly helicopters (Shoutout to Hype Performance Group for the H145)
At this point I'd be reasonably confident in a modern helo but I'd probably never pass whatever mdeical requirements.
@@BazzFreeman Remember, helicopters are _so_ much more difficult to fly than a fix-wing. Planes are built to fly naturally and can glide considerable distances without power thanks to arodynamics, but helicopters fly via several forces working _against_ each other, which are very delicate and same for operating them. Then you got the Chinook CH-47, which has double-rotors on the top that spin at precisely the correct timing to avoid smashing themselves apart. Just so ya know.
@@HANKSANDY69420 Tell me about it! Kacey Ezell (Helo pilot) once said "Fixed wing aircraft ride the boyant air, Helicopters beat it into submission"
@@BazzFreeman *The Air Force are jets and the Marines are the choppers*
Shout out to the passenger who made it across to the terminal to tell them where the plane was!
It was Charles Bronson.
In torrential rain no less!
Yes can u image the passengers waiting in thr terminal for the rtn flight bk to the uk, your planes in bits in the field next to the runway!!
I thought Mentor Pilot was going to say the passenger "made his way to the airport bar & ordered himself a very large whisky".
That dude should've been arrested for unauthorized entry to a secure aviation facility. Further, he should not have been able to enter the apron side of the terminal without a badge.
Do those Spaniards/Castillians/Basquards have no sense of security?!??
2-3 months after leaving this post, I am now adding a
*"Warning!* This Facetious Comment"
disclaimer. These comment threads do not provide enough bleed-through for irony, so it must be flagged as such.
brings back some memories ,my 1st wife 3 of my son's and myself survived this .
Really?! I hope the video made it justice.
Glad to know you were alright
@@MentourPilot yes you done an excellent job , brings home how lucky we really was that night .
Seriously
@@64Deano Someone really kept all of you under protection that night.
That is amazing! Glad all of you survived. You couldn't have imagined then, that 20+ years later you'd be watching a video about it on a computer or phone.
I would like to give you an uncommon compliment: thank you for speaking at an adequate speed and for spelling the words well enough, to make these videos well understandable even for those who are not of English mother tongue. Well done!!
I think it may have to do with his mother tongue not being English as well. It’s very digestible for native or non-native speakers
His pronunciation and pace is just excellent, almost hypnotic! 😃
His tongue isn’t English but his English is easily understood and he is amazing. So thank all of you that can listen in English because at least for America that’s all most of us can speak 🤣
@@trollusa3206pretty sure most people in the Americas don’t speak English as a first language. Just in North America there are sizeable Spanish and French communities.
Or did you mean in Yankeedoodlestan where education doesn’t exist?
@@TheOriginalCFA1979When you're as stupid as you are, nobody needs to refute you...
Chills went down my spine when you mentioned the pilots flying with the speed brakes deployed. It was a critical design oversight to not give the 757 a warning when you add thrust with speed brakes in use. This incident highlights the fact that it was a known issue and for some reason it wasn't corrected until the tragic loss of American 965 due to CFIT. An unfortunate stain on the legacy of one of the greatest airliners ever built.
Yeah if the runway just disappeared in a second then you heard "sink rate" "sink rate" "10" bounce then get knocked out when my head hit the window I would have wholeheartedly assumed the next thing I'd see would be St. Peter.
I would have been even more confused if I woke up in a field in an empty cockpit and also not on fire.
Yes! It's almost miraculous.
It be enough to make a non believer religious!
Well the fuel was very low so no real chance of a big fire
@@masterp443 also the very heavy rain actually may have helped to prevent any fires
@*IOETER* in that situation 13 seconds is an eternity
When he said the runway lights disappeared, Heaven forgive me, but the first thing that came to mind was Johnny in "Airplane!" unplugging the lights.
Just kidding!
Also Die Hard 2
watched it last week,timeless classic.
Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit commenting on UA-cam.
Same, LOL, but in the movie they were still a lot further out.... The irony here is, if he saw the lights disappear he'd still have orientation of where when they blinked out. Looking down and then looking out into total darkness caused instant disorientation & confusion, and then they hit the ground.
I'm not a pilot or in the aviation industry at all but I think your videos are absolutely incredible! Please keep them coming!
I will!
I love them, and each and every one reminds me to stay on the ground.
@@jsmariani4180 🤣
@@jsmariani4180 🤣
@@jsmariani4180 they simply remind me how safe air travel actually is, these situations are all so specific and unlikely that its still way safer to take a commercial airline than drive a car lol
I can imagine the horror the pilot faced when, just before landing, the lights had to be out. Those 11 seconds were life-and-death. I agree with one of the commentators that there should be at least a basic version of backup lights ran by battery every couple lights or so until the generator kicks in. Glad there were few causalities and thanks for this amazing video!
Someone else mentioned that it was 1999, lights were probably extremely power hungry incandescent bulbs and battery technology wasn't as good. I can see why airports didn't have it back then. Today I'd say they absolutely should, and giving a recommendation (in the report) to change it would make sense to me. But yeah even just every fifth light would probably be like thousands of watts of power. Plus, they're probably wired together so the changes to make it every 5th or so would be substantial. Additionally, other lights could be on the same power circuit (taxiways etc) so the total power needed without rewiring everything would be massive.
Although, for just 10-15 seconds, even a stack of 30 car batteries or so could handle that (if we're talking 10 kilowatt for example).
@@LuLeBe Lead-acid batteries were already a mature technology by then, and are still used at scales like that to handle loads like datacentres until the generator kicks in. (And historically were used at large scales in stuff like WWII submarines.) Lithium batteries are not a good choice of battery chemistry for uninterruptible power-supplies (UPS) in fixed installations; their weight and size advantage has zero benefit.
Wiring is the problem if you want to light only a fraction, but might be less hard if you light just the runway centre line, instead of every 4th or 5th light in all strings.
Probably easier to just scale up the amperage of the batteries; a humble 12V car battery can put out hundreds of amps at 12V (well over 1kW) for a few seconds, which is all that's needed until the generator comes online. A cabinet full of those should get the job done.
You are very good mentor thank you very much
In case anyone is wondering why the logo is painted out, this is standard procedure after accidents to hide the carrier's logo so as not to alarm further customers that might fly with the airline in the future.
Yea this was way before social media. Nowadays 200 of the passengers would’ve uploaded a TikTok or snap chat video titled WTH I JUST CRASH LANDED
@@Dmoneyaka TikTok would have video of the evacuation inside the aircraft. Reminds me of a sign on the wall at my old job. “In case of fire, exit building before Tweeting about it.”
@@tomcorwine3091 holy s*** that's funny!
As if I would fly anywhere, I've watched the videos, don't give me that "safest form of travel" BS!
Wikipedia mentioned missing pilot training! Good reason to blank the logo. And Spanish speed firies took an hour to locate crash as the first surviver managed to walk to them and take the beer out of their hands?
The cabin crew is always on top of it. Shout out to them
More impressive given that they also have just crashed in the fricking plane.
@GRDNANGL172 First of all: the spoiler wasn't the cause of the incident at all. The plane is able to fly with them on. Second: the cabin crew is not capacitated to asses if what the pilots are doing is OK, and moreover from hints seen from the cabin itself. What you said makes no sense.
What I really love about your videos is that you light up the psychological effects on the flight crew. That is something, that is often completly dismissed or ignored. But it is so very important! After all: Pilots and their crew are just humans, too. They aren't perfect, and even if they did something "wrong", like in this case do not abandon the landing as soon as the runway light disappeared, there is a reason for that.
Love goes out to every pilot who was faced with an unexpected, untrained situation. Your incapability to do something doesn't make you a bad person or even a pilot. It makes you human.
I'm a health care worker and after discovering this channel I'm now thinking about what I do in the terms used in these videos 🙂
I’m very shocked that a safety recommendation to the airport wasn’t to eliminate downtime of airfield lights. Could this not have been avoided without the most important visual cue you have in a night time landing?
It was 1999. All the runway lights were incandescent and lithium-ion batteries were a nascent invention. It wouldn't be practical to build a UPS to run those lights. Maybe they could have barely put something together for the 15-30 seconds it takes the backup generators to start but you're talking about a mountain of lead-acid batteries that need to go somewhere.
@@tissuepaper9962 mountains of lead acid batteries in the name of safety seems worth it in my opinion.
@@tissuepaper9962 Even today most UPS are still using lead acid batteries (much cheaper, safer and weight/density doesnt really matter) but with the power requirement you made a point.
they could just have a policy of keeping the backup generator running when there are electrical storms in the area. that would have solved everything.
@@thomasneal9291 Good point, but as Mentour Pilot explained, most of the year there are electrical storms in the area!
12:03 Good example of why checklists are important! (They recognized that the speed brakes were still engaged.)
The irony is in this instance, they may have been better off with their speed brake deployed.
@@jeebus6263 They probably decided to land anyways because of being low in fuel, how could the air speed brake deployed be an irony? Besides it does not do much at low ground speeds.
@@j.o.1516 So you're an expert commercial pilot for that airframe? And low fuel means nothing to you?
Sure. /s
I worked on this aircraft that morning and pushed AG out for its morning flight before it returned for its evening flight to Girona 226A 😔
I’m sure you were relieved to hear the electrical failure was due to the hard landing when the report came out 🙂
I can’t imagine the stress you guys deal with in servicing airplanes. *tips cap
Remember that night well. We were walking back from our J41 we’d just parked on the end stand as she pushed back from the mid part of the terminal. Remember being woken that night with the news. Not a nice feeling.
I imagine it seemed quite surreal only seeing the aircraft in one piece a couple of hours before hearing of the accident?
@@cavok1984 very surreal to hear of the accident later , even more so knew of some ramp colleagues who was on that aircraft with his family going on holiday.
It's a close knit industry, that's for sure. I was working at Gatwick that night, and the Girona crash was the first of three incidents that night... With everyone on edge waiting for news after the initial report.
It's a shame that one passenger died. I hope they are resting in peace. I was so hopeful that you would mention everyone survived after the evacuation ❤️
Great coverage as always 👊🏿
Wow…This story is almost too crazy to believe. So many issues intersecting at the worst possible time. Glad they recommended changing the design so a really hard landing on the front gear doesn’t actually cause the plane to accelerate and become uncontrollable. Sounds like the fatality could have been prevented by proper medical care… that is just really sad.
This is a bit close to my heart as this particular 757, G-BYAG, was one I flew on. When I was 11, I was allowed to sit in the jump seat during landing (back in the days when such things were possible) and took photos during the approach with the aircrafts registration badge on the flight deck clearly visible.
Same here, flew on most of their 757 fleet back in the day, was lucky enough to fly on one of their 737 200's before they were retired once, too.
This like "a perfect storm" of events! Feel sorry for the crew, and passengers 😑
😞😞
Talk about a bad day, that's a bad day
and literal storm
I don't know the crew was a big part of this catastrophe
the last and deciding factor in this crash was the power failure at the worst possible moment. if that hadn't happened, that bird would probably have touched down in one piece.
this is why every airport needs batteries to supply the critical systems like runway lights and ILS while the emergency generators are starting up.
I am no aviation expert, but this is the second of these (great) videos where I have noticed emergency warnings suppressing standard messages and in the process appear to be more of a hindrance than a help. And that "sink rate" warning to me is somewhat like certain email applications and websites that like to describe the date of an event as "last week" or "1 month ago" instead of just simply showing the date.
I'm not an aviation expert either, but I think that if you have a sink rate warning and you're already at low altitude, you should just go around and not worry about the precise altitude -- just abort the landing and go around.
But I do agree with you about the "last week" or "1 month ago" indications instead of just giving you the date!
@@Milesco I think one potential issue with the "sink rate" warning may be that - and I may be wrong in this, anyone feel free to correct me - but the sink rate warning possibly wouldn't be a warning heard very often, which could've initiated an automatic response if it were...whereas the GPWS callouts for 50...40...etc are heard in every landing, so they might've had a chance of eliciting a direct response, whereas the sink rate warning may have created even more confusion given it was likely even more unexpected than hearing "50" at this point in the approach
Incredible that only one passenger died. My condolences to all of their loved ones.
I love your videos. Excellent explanation of the aviation accidents.
Wow! It's amazing how many people survived this accident!
It's arguable too that the one death was avoidable as well but their internal injuries were missed at the hospital for too long resulting in their unfortunate death. :(
I was one of the three Britannia agents appointed by Britannia in Girona and went to pick up the pilot and the crew at rhe hospital on the next day. He wanted to visit all the passengers that were hospitalized before going to the airport to see the aircraft, against the wishes of the company who preferred that he didn’t talk to anyone yet. To avoid the press we went to buy clothes for the crew somthey weren’t recognized entering the airport. I still have nightmares of that event.
That is very honorable from the captain. A captain is responsible for passengers and crew and that's understandable. The owners are of course afraid that it might be something like an admission of guilt ?! As a ship's officer I went to sea and I find the behavior of the captain honorable and I would hopefully do it that way, it also takes courage.
Nightmares why? From picking up the Captain?
@@RuminatingWizard no, nightmares where the crash was fatal and there were lots of dead people. Now I see that the sentence seems to say that I have nightmares for picking him up! on the contrary, he was a really nice person
much respect to him
@ are you sure this is the incident? Video says only one dead and that was a few days after the accident from some undiagnosed internal injury.
I'm a lapsed private pilot, but I'm still amazed how *interesting* this type of flying/accident story is. While training, I devoured several years of the accident reports magazines and such.
The more of these videos I watch. The more respect I have for pilots dealing with constantly changing conditions.
I can imagine this is a very nice training scenario in a simulator. Just the surprise of all the runway lights disappearing while struggling with an aircraft in a thunderstorm.
That's gotta be the ultimate "Jesus take the Wheel " moment. A total miracle took over there....
I had an experience like this, thankfully it was a clear night we continued landing as we could still see the runway through our landing lights
With a sink rate of 1000 ft/min? I can't imagine anything happening differently under those circumstances.
I think It's amazing that the final report didn't mention the insufficient backup power systems for the runway lights...
Why are 15 seconds of downtime allowed for safety critical systems like runway lights while data centers - and even the tower in this case - have zero downtime backup batteries?
Maybe that has changed since? It was a long time ago. I don't know for sure.
Nearly 22 years of progress. And no one could have foreseen the power cut just as the aircraft crossed the threshold. Even if the crew had elected to go around again at that moment, they'd have probably still slammed the runway🤔
It was 1999, so the bulbs were likely incandescent - meaning they used a fuckton of power, and battery technology wasn't at advanced. I think it probably could've been done in 1999, but only 10 years earlier, I'm pretty sure having a battery backup might've been a stretch, and you need time to deploy systems all over the world.
In 2021, I'm sure that it *must* be the norm, as everything is LEDs and batteries are cheap.
@@MeMe-gm9di my thoughts as well, people don't realize how big of a difference leds have made.
FWIW many data centers would probably accept 11 seconds if the computers could keep going after that, instead of restarting. imagine you go to some website and it hangs there for 11 seconds then keeps working - how much money would you spend to avoid that possibility? Probably not very much. But in reality even 1 second turns into 10 minutes while everything reboots.
As an engineer, what I love about this channel is the technical detail, and how watching this can improve all sorts of responding to engineering mishaps and situations.
I really love the way in which you do not overly dramatize nor simplify things for your viewers! Also, the background information like about the speedbrakes, you keep your hand on them because they are for temporary adjustments are really helpful to understand the procedures. It helps me appreciate and understand the challenges facing aircrew much better. The visuals and simulations and really well done as well!
It's dark out. Driving rain. Bad winds. Low Fuel. Aircraft hit by lightning. Relatively green first officer. ATC speaking with a funny accent. Then the captain looks out and sees the runway lights are gone. Thinks to himself "Damn, I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue". Hopefully the company didn't give him too much shit, he was dealt a really bad hand that night.
"Shirley you can't be serious"
@@dohc22h "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"
@@dohc22h and don’t call me Shirley !!!
Reminds me of that time over "Macho Grande".... Over Macho Grande?.... No, I'm afraid I'll never be over "Macho Grande".
hmm...is there ever a good day to stop sniffing glue?... And starting sentences with and. And like. Like this one...haf koff
The amount of work and research you out on your videos is amazing. Much respect. Greetings from Brazil!
It takes some time but I enjoy and learn from it. Glad you appreciate it!
Thank you Mentour Pilot for your accurate and insightful reporting. As a member of the aviation community, I often find other sources of accident reporting by the mainstream media to often be both lacking and inaccurate. The results often mislead the flying community through a lack of understanding and mistrust of aviation professionals and all the training and hard work that goes into aviation safety. For those of us who view these reports to learn and prevent similar accidents hats off to you.
I vividly remember this day when I was driving muy car from Perpignan to Girona at the same time that this accident was happening and I can tell that the weather was such an horrendous one and very very scary.
I didn’t expect that second power failure. Eeep. The whole turbulence/go-arounds must have been stressful enough for the passengers (naturally putting myself in their shoes, as I’m not a pilot of any kind), but being in the dark as well? This must have been utterly terrifying. And then waiting, too. The outcome surprised me - I braced myself for something much, much worse.
No recommendations related to emergency lights for runways in the report? Is that so rare a possibility that they didn’t think it worth a mention?
Thank you!
I think as a passenger I'd rather stayed inside the aircraft and avoid the rain. Fuel was burnt up anyways so better wait for the bus to get you to the airport from an outside position. Better in an aircraft seat than in the airpot mud.
As an electrical engineer, there's no way to make a cost effective, reliable and large enough battery to power all the runway lighting before the generator can spool up with 90's technology, even nowadays one would be extremely expensive and hard to make reliable for such a rare event
@@jaalcaid solar charged batteries? Should keep the running costs down, and these days solar panels are pretty cheap (relatively speaking) and battery technology has come a long way. Would only need to last as long as dusk to the time of the last landing or takeoff due. Depending on noise laws, could be as little as 3-4 hours during summer.
@@y_fam_goeglyd It would also need to be modern LED lights for that to work... (It seems like halogen approach lights are 200W each...)
For a minute or so it might be practical though...
@@y_fam_goeglyd The problem is not where the energy comes from, is the fact that you need a stupid amount of power for runway lights, and you need it to come online fast. and that means big, really big batteries and really complex control circuits and power delivery, doable with current technology but expensive and probably not proven enough for an airport (what if the battery fails or catches fire?) you need to be able to isolate it and make it redundant so it doesn't bring down the backup generator or burns down the wiring for the lights. The backup batteries used by the tower don't need to deliver that much power and are really proven and commercially available because they are the type as the ones used for data centers or hospitals.
Eleven seconds can be a horrible long time when they´re happening at the wrong time.
Very true.
They were extremely unlucky
I wonder why it was not part of the recommendation list to power the airfield lights from the batteries during these 11 seconds.
Ultimate bad timing combo.
Perhaps now 20 years later, a battery back up system assures that lights NEVER actually fail, or return within max of 1 or 1.5 seconds.... Eleven seconds at that speed is an eternity!! Sorrow for the family the hospital did not diagnose in time thus the one fatality.. Is 15 minutes spare fuel time adequate ?? Seems to be a bit on optimistic side considering a varying weather report for all of the alternative landing options... Hats off to all of the crew. And enhancing steps were taken all around ... Great reporting Mentour Pilot, as always..
The 757 is possibly my favorite aircraft too. I would fly to Iceland regularly between 2007 and 2010. Iceland express used the Ex Iron Maiden 757 G-STRX which used to make me feel lucky indeed. I would listen too Hallowed Be Thy Name As we crossed the North Atlantic Ocean, before arriving in "the land of the gods". 🤘 🎸 🍻 🇮🇸
I also worked as a baggage handler at Keflavik airport and have seen many times the Antonov 225 that landed weekly from Russia before continuing to America, it was epic watching it take off, a cathedral of the sky!
I flew on another 757 with Icelandair that was ex British Airways and still had the British Airways blue leather seats throughout, and so much legroom.
I really appreciate the hard work that you put into the graphics and animation of these accident investigation videos. But more than that your insights and the way you explain systems, procedures and aviation concepts is fantastic. Keep up the good work.
Captain: *Look away for 1 sec*
Runway's lights: Adios
Why did the runway lights disappear?
@@jayrermars8493 the thunder made it turn off
@@firekid1940 and the lightning too.
11 seconds blind is an eternity even driving a car. When I sneeze my eyes close for a second and even that's scary when driving
@@briank10101 Great response. YYMD :-D
As soon as I heard you mention Girona, I knew this was was gonna be a good one! Your personal familiarity with the area made the this a top-notch production. You made the entire story feel so real and authentic. Definitely one of your best IMO. Thank you for probably the best account of this story that will ever exist.
This was a fascinating video! I had never heard of this accident before. 11 seconds is an awfully long time for critical elements like runway lights, especially at this low altitude. One time the power went out at my grocery store and it was pitch black, and it took 10-15 seconds for the generator to power on, and already that felt like an eternity. I can only imagine how shocking this must have been under such a high workload at such a critical time. I’m so glad it didn’t ended up worse than it did!
Absolutely LOVING the new format! The old videos were good, but this new format takes you to the next level and beyond. Awesome job dude, keep up the amazing work!
Incredible everyone survived the initial crash fabulous content everytime, this crew had everything against them.
@Night Rider Not at the initial crash.
@Night Rider Everyone did survive the initial crash.
@Night Rider yeah mainly because theguys at the hospital didn't detect his internal injuries, had they detected them he probably would have survived
'Fabulous'? I think you meant to write 'fanTAHstic'.
Keep that blue up and brown down.
The crew had nothing against them other than their own get-there-itis. This was completely preventable. Should have gone to Barcelona as per their company policy, should have done a second go around when the approaches too high, etc.
This video was so well made!!! I've watched "videos" where all you hear is someone talking about what happened or worse, just reading the final report. Sometimes, they add a few pictures and that's it. Here, it was very well explained and the animations really helped to understand how it must have felt like, to be there!
This was so scary! I can only imagine the level of stress of the pilot, trying to get lower, looking at his instruments for a second and when he looks back up, the runway has disappeared...and then he hears "10"!
This is a very weird incident, hardly believable that all the many factors occured on the same landing.
This video is just extremely detailed, with animated maps, sources of the information and pictures, the final report and great edition. As an enthusiast and old subscribed from the channel is great to see such an evolution. Thumbs up for that great piece of work.
This is one of the few air accidents I have never heard about before. A truly fascinating episode, especially for you with Girona as your familiar base I imagine; a very unusual combination of events - the shock of the runway lights going out during short final must have been truly mind boggling for the crew. The production values are so impressive on your videos Petter, they rival the Air Crash Investigations series! Keep up the amazing work, sharing you detailed, rational insights and analysis! Thank you indeed.
Agree. I'm surprised ACI hasn't covered this incident.
It's good that the investigation didn't try to put all the blame on the pilots. It was so many things gone wrong all at the same time. Yes, they should've gone around. Now they know.
@youdont needtoknow Just...no
They should have diverted when they missed their first approach, like they had already decided to do.
Could have had a nice smooth landing at the alternate airport.
It's entirely the crew's fault.
@youdont needtoknow why did it went up after auto pilot was disengaged ?
@@CollaredDom just... yes.
Always a technically balanced and engrossing presentation of the highest order.
Your videos are so good. Phrasing, pacing, everything works so well with your delivery. Really excellent, informative and compelling without any sensational stuff.
Girona area is one of the most violent weather areas in the whole Spain. It's very close to Barcelona, but weather stability is like a day and night between those two cities
Indeed!
Best regards Mr Mentour
B-757 is a stretch body not a wide body aircraft, and is my favorite too 😊
Same here. The thrust to weight ratio was impressive.
Actually, it is a narrow body with a stretched variant. The accident aircraft was a -200, while the stretched variant is the -300. The 767 is the wide-body. They both have the same type rating I believe as the 757 used design elements of the 767.
Another absolutely fantastic video otherwise.
@@patrickmitchell6968 exactly. The 757s have a single aisle.
I was searching for exactly this comment. When this was a common airplane I initially made the error Petter made, too thinking that the 757 is just a shorter 767 and hence a widebody. I thought this, because they share most of the glass cockpit and pilots can quite easily switch between both types. However when I realized my mistake I corrected my thinking so that I now think of the 757 as a stretched 737. This was manifested during the last 5 years or so when it became obvious, that Boeing has no successor in the "middle of the market" and therefore gives away this market share to Airbus with their A321((X)LR) - which of course is a narrowbody, too.
Wow you are so good at explaining things, I haven’t realized how complicated concepts I just learnt until I actually understood what the final report says at the end despite being written in such a difficult way!! Well done!!
Fantastic job on bringing us the reports. The visual material is excellent and your explanations are very, very helpful for us. It has the perfect balance between too technical and too superficial explanations. Keep on the great job.
Mentour I absolutely love your videos especially the one where you look at aviation incidents and accidents like this one! Thanks for the amazing work!
Ah, Britannia Airways is a name I haven't heard in a while. One of Mum's friends used to work for them. Then it became ThomsonFly, then ThomsonAirways and now TUI. Logically, they will probably change their name again soon!
Aye. Right enough lol!
With the current state of the industry, thanks to corona, it might well be "rest in peace airlines".
@@andreasu.3546 you mean thanks to crazy governments
@@Nebbia_affaraccimiei No, I don't. Troll.
@@andreasu.3546 Not TUI - and almost not TUI UK. Especially not since Thomas Cook disappeared.
Petter: "From that moment onward, things start to happen very quickly."
Me: "Oh boy... it's NEVER a good moment when Petter says that."
💕😂😂
Absolutely perfect description!
You give knowledge with illustration of the accident.
It is precious for next generations to learn and understand how to react in difficult situations, congratulations my friend.
I am a person from aviation family.
We had a standard procedure that lightning within 10 miles meant we automatically switched the systems to backup generators due to the risk of a power outage. Yes, the system was designed for automatic switchover in the event of a power outage but the automatic switchover was very hard on the equipment and could easily result in damage to the equipment. It wasn't uncommon to lose the primary or secondary radar or other NAVAIDs during an automatic switchover. To help ensure flight safety we always manually switch our systems.
Áll Aieports should have D-UPS as backup energy with no power blackout at no second to load, as Hospitals have for surgery areas.....
I got out to a local ex military airport that was one of the diversions for a big local commercial one on foggy day for a telecom call out, no power and the radar not turning. Turned out both the separate mains diverse feeds had failed and 15 minutes after the generator cut in it spat a con-rod.
@@IMBlakeley I worked in Eurocontrol in the 1970s at Maastricht, Netherlands. I came in for the morning shift and a colleague told me that the previous evening the whole ATC building, radar, comms, etc, had shut down due to an outage. Apparently a farmer had gone over the main cable in the adjacent field with his tractor and plough. The cable was supposed to have been buried deep, but someone had saved a few bucks. It was serious, but Eurocontrol handles overflying traffic, so no arrivals/deps were safety compromised.
@@travelbugse2829 Reminds me of a story I heard years ago where some business carefully bought Internet from two different ISPs, so when one failed, they'd still have the other. Then, one excavator later, both lines went out simultaneously. Turned out, one ISP had no cables of their own in the area, so they rented cable from the other - so both connections were over the same cable. Sometimes, redundancy isn't.
@@KaiHenningsen - Now that's funny.
Yet another incredible video. It's amazing that you manage to explain such technical points in such a straightforward manner while at the same time ratcheting up the suspense.
Question about pilot training: when pilots attend training on the simulator, are they told in advance what scenario(s) are going to be practiced?
Hi! Thank you so much!
We are getting information about the technical systems involved but the scenarios are largely kept secret. The simulator exams are very similar each time though but the training exercises differ a lot.
@@MentourPilotMakes sense- thanks!
Not usually. Its sudden so they can be ready in a flash.
Love your videos. Although I’m not a pilot I’m an aviation enthusiast and your videos clearly explain everything so that even non pilots can understand the events. Thank you!
I’m really intrigued with your explanations & the first thing (immediately) that pops into my mind, when you say “he sees no runway lights …“ is that he’s looking straight down at the ground (not being horizontal)!
That airline had the best livery ever imho. Really miss it.
"Get-Home-Itis” is quite real. Thunderstorms that developed after landing (to pick up my wife) were blocking my return path home. They were pretty much stationary (Airmass thunderstorms not associated with any front). I was tempted to takeoff and go through the narrow window I had to miss the thunderstorms, but I still would’ve been too close for comfort. The last thing I needed was a lightning strike. There was another pilot in the FBO wanting to leave also, and we both talked each other out of leaving. It meant renting a car and a motel room for one night, so the pressure was definitely there to leave, but we obviously made the correct decision. Actually, the decision was made months before when being trained about “Get-Home-Itis”, and knowing when not to succumb to it.
I wonder if a training in decision making would be helpful. Like: What is the order of importance for your goals: Staying safe in flight (by avoiding one) or see your wife (of many years only to come if not too eager try your luck). Pay for car and hotel or save money and inconvience and pay with your life? So to go down to essentials in life and safety and face the consequences with less guilt and annoyance. These preparatory steps would look into your motives, analyze them and find peace with an educated decision instead of following an superficial and emotional drive. Menas hormons vs. brains. I think to be aware of emotional pressure we create for ourselves by wrong priorities has to be as important as CRm. Call it self-management and management of expectations and projections. Like dealing with wheather created by nature we should deal with emotions created by biology.
Awesome. I'm reminded of the helicopter pilot in NYC a few years ago who tried to fly in storms and ended up crashing onto a skyscraper roof and dying. He was apparently in the AP telling people "I have a narrow window to get out" ... you guys definitely did it right!
NOT a pilot but definitely live by CALCULATED risk vs. inaction. My "calculations" are such that if I were expecting to land and there was a thunderstorm at the expected landing site, I'd go elsewhere WITHOUT having to calculate a thing! Don't pilots of ALL AIRCRAFT try to avoid flying through thunderstorms let alone LAND in a thunderstorm smack dab over the airport?
Thank you for your work in bringing this channel. My childhood friend is a retired pilot. You have to be alert and smart and a whole lot of other essential traits to fly in a wide variety of conditions. Please be safe.
As always, thanks for an incredibly insightful and thorough explanation of a situation which must have been a nightmare for the cockpit crew, and later, the cabin crew and passengers. The graphical photo-realism of the presentation was of broadcast standard! I'm a little surprised the possibility of airstrip light failure for circa 11 seconds didn't prompt a requirement in the final report for skeleton lighting backup to give at least minimal immediate light instantaneously. Boeing's design of the control cables' routing over the (potentially) collapsing front wheel seems like an accident waiting to happen.
As an aviation enthusiast, I'm amazed I'd never heard of this very interesting incident. As always, thanks for the video - beautifully done.
same.
It was like this landing was ripped right out of the movie "Airplane!" even with the runway lights going dark.
Just kidding!
@@nicknumber1512 surely you're not kidding?
@@larryphotography I am Shirley. And don't call me kidding.
I do live literally at 3km from Reus's Airport. I was excited to hear such common paces for me in a truly international channel. Also surprised to hear that you are based in Girona, I would love to hear you some word in catalan or spanish.
As always the video has been very clear, graphic and informative. Keep on your job, you are a truly master!
Love how detailed your videos are. Great job.
I am not a pilot, but I've gotta imagine glancing down for a second then looking back up and seeing nothing but blackness right before landing would be pretty terrifying.
I feel he didn't even have time to be terrified, it would have been confusion and disorientation and then "10" and they hit.
On one hand I agree it would be disconcerting. On the other, they were performing an ILS approach. Ability to see the runway at all times is not required to perform a safe landing.
@@kurttappe I agree! He didn't mention this. Surely you could safely land a plane using ILS without even looking through the cockpit window?
@@kurttappe what do you mean? They have to have the runway environment or the runway in sight to descend below their minimums and they still land by hand
I hadn't realized that there was a later fatality due to this flight. What a darn shame the internal bleeding wasn't detected sooner. I am really enjoying this series and love the way you break down these accidents. I look forward to your next one.
My colleague was squashed in a truck crash in heavy rain. Sometimes the internal organs are damaged beyond repair and cannot be revived.
You are the most professional person I've ever watched. Wish i could just shake your hand real quick and say thank you for the brilliantly told stories.
As an aviation tragic I find these videos fascinating. Keep up the good work!
As a retired road / vehicle safety engineer two points occur to me:
1. We never use the word "accident" because, as you so adequately show, there is no such thing. All such incidents have multiple causes.
2. I would be interested to know what caused the internal injuries that killed that unfortunate passenger. It is possible that the huge central seat belt buckle was the direct cause. These are expressly prohibited in motor vehicles.
There's a whole bunch of lined up holes in this Swiss Cheese.
I think the Swiss cheese got melted for fondue on this one
Which just shows exactly no matter how much training and precautions taken there will always be that one path through all layers. Thankfully, more layers means a lot of other incidents get caught up. :-)
If you put this many horrible coincidences onto a work of fiction, no one would accept it as it would be regarded as far too unrealistic...
@@j.o.1516 quite ignorant. Planes land in these conditions every day.
@@j.o.1516 You obviously have no real idea what you are talking about! The weather was obviously within limits, but the Pilots were faced with an unforeseeable combination of events. It would seem likely that they were above glideslope, due to a tailwind on short final. They were dealing with that when suddenly the runway lights went out. This would have given them a surprise and it would have taken a few moments to react. As they did so they got a further alarm ''Sink Rate'', another reaction time immediately followed by a call of 10 feet. It doesn't matter how good you are and with 16,000 hours we can assume the Captain was very good, the sensory overload of all that would have been very difficult to overcome. Being completely and suddenly in the dark would not have helped the situation or landing at all!
I'm not sure how technically difficult this is, but I would also have recommended that the airport, and frankly all other airports in areas with high lightning activity, also implement a battery/ generator backup system for their runway lights, so the battery can take over in those few seconds it takes the generator to come online
It would be more technically efficient to put batteries in the light fixtures. Four 18650 batteries would do it.
@@jmowreader9555 Wouldn't have lasted long back in 1999... high power LED wasn't really a thing back then.
@@ziiofswe It wouldn't have needed to last long. One minute would be enough to get the airport's backup generator running.
they could just have a policy of keeping the backup generator running when there are electrical storms in the area. that would have solved everything.
@@jmowreader9555 Batteries inside each light, especially the batteries at that time, would probably need replacement quite often, including opening up hundreds of light fixtures to replace them, let alone the ffort for the installation. All of that seems quite complex compared to just putting a stack of 30 car batteries next to the generators.
Regarding the idea to run the generators during every such storm, I'm not sure how many of them there are, could that be an issue? And how's the percentage of power outages during those events compared to other times? If only 20% of airport power outages are during storms then the generator wouldn't run for most outages, could also have been a consideration. But yes, addressing the light issue in some way would have been good.
Only just discovered this channel. The research and knowledge that goes into this videos is just fantastic.
I know from personal experience that a lot,and I mean A LOT can go wrong in mere seconds. Even though one passenger unfortunately succumbed to injuries later on,I’m glad to hear that all made it out…even if they did get their feet wet on the escape slides.
Great video and great information.
Wow! Petter, these videos just keep getting better and better. Highly technical yet understandable to us non-pilots and the graphics are amazing. To be honest, I don't want you as a pilot on any flight I may take. I want you to be training the pilots on any flight I take.
"Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing..." It is a miracle that only one person died. Amazing. Great job on the explanation and this video!
And even that one seems as much on the medical error as on the crash itself.
(Though of course, there would have been no medical error to make if there had been no crash.)
That quote is bs and annoying every time someone repeats it. Just because you don't die doesn't mean it's a good Landing. People who like to recite that expression have very low expectations...
@@jerseyshoredroneservices225 I would say the one you can walk away from is a lot, a LOT better than the ones you don't walk away from.
@@maxxdahl6062
Better than dead is a very low standard 😞
This presentation was incredible. So engrossing from beginning to end. Very well done on explaining everything.
I was working in Florida welcoming passengers arriving from the UK on Britannia, Virgin and BA flights when this incident happened. Watching this took me back. Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing and they should have instigated a go-around but what shocking bad luck for the pilots. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. I’m sure both pilots have taken this with them for the rest of their lives so well done for a superb, insightful and fair analysis of this incident. Shout out to the cabin crew as well for an unbelievable job in the most horrendous of situations. Great job as always Petter 👏👏
That was a classic situation for another go around . Runway gone , captain lands anyway ..
I think this is a situation that called for a diversion once it became obvious someone, or something, didn’t want them landing there… I think his being HIGH was his subconscious telling him that the aircraft wasn’t going to be able to safely land at Girona.
Honestly, considering where they were on the approach, that even if the pilot had reacted in the normal human reaction time, called for go around, began pulling back and throttling up, they likely would have hit and bounced anyway, but yeah, likely would of been off into the air and without major damage at that point... I'd hope.
The issue here was probably the lack of training to do so under minimums.
@@KrK007- That’s not true if they react appropriately at the 300’ “Go, No Go”, altitude when they couldn’t see the runway or even as soon as they entered the cloud. One thing they needed that they never got was a CURRENT weather report from the tower as they were descending.
High-quality content. Can't stop watching all the videos. The recent ones' production is astonishing! Keep up the great work!
As with many others, I'm surprised some sort of battery-backed runway lights wasn't recommended. I'd also have suggested some sort of alert in tower to let them know airport went dark - as well as them getting notice if more than 2-3 outages in surrounding areas have been reported - so that tower can notify incoming flights to be on alert for it.
That aside. Love the videos.
I can't get enough of your videos!! I've watched them all!!
Takes me back, did my line training in Girona.
Your accidents analyses are really nice, editing is great and makes it really clear.
Mentour, so much to say here. Amazing piece of work. Felt like I was there. Just quality man. I didn’t think that the crash recreation content out there could be topped....well topped!
For some reason this is the most terrifying situation of all the videos I have seen so far... imagine the lights just suddenly going out on both the runway AND in the cockpit... while you are just about to land :(
Your videos are top notch. The sim and your narration are superb. I’m not sure why I haven’t seen this channel until now.
The plane went off the runway at 350km an hour, it is amazing everyone survived that.
If it's Mentour Pilot, it's time to watch another engaging aviation video!
Outstanding as always, I learn so much about flight from these super detailed, well informed and fair videos.
Great video man , thanks !!! Your attention to detail is awesome!!! Keep up the good work. Thanks again
Hi Mentour... I always enjoy your video of accident analysis because you give additional insight from the pilots' POV, giving much needed context at how or why things probably went wrong. I believe I speak for all of us non-pilots if I say that you truly answered some of our "why the heck?" questions by delving into the possible situation in the cockpit.
Well researched & well produced video. Keep up the great work!
Fly safe, stay safe, and see you in the air.
Shouldn’t there be some kind of emergency light on runways? I can’t imagine driving downhill in the mountain at night and heavy rain and all the sudden the car loose head lights.
But it can happen. That's why I get frustrated at people who continue to drive their cars for days after one headlight goes out. I always think, "What will happen to them if the remaining headlight goes out on a dark curvy road at night? The result wouldn't be good.
@@skyhawk_4526 Cars, unlike airplanes, usually have the option to just be stopped wherever. Also, while I not only keep both headlights working, but also have a spare lightbulb in my car, I very rarely drive in conditions where it would be impossible to see without headlights.
@@Pentium100MHz We had a car that broke a lightbulb regularly every 6 months. During a 800km Trip back home from vacation the car killed both lightbulbs in the 1st 100km.
Advice is often given that if one headlamp fails, replace both because it's typically failure due to lifetime and the second will fail "shortly".
There is emergency lighting, the backup generator.
What there should be is a battery backup that powers everything till the generator kicks in but that would cost a lot more.
Thank you Petter for another great video. All the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺