Air Disasters (2022) Season 17 Episode 2: Peril Over Portugal
Martinair Flight 495 is seconds from landing at Portugal's Faro Airport when the storm it's flying through takes a sudden turn for the worse. On touchdown, the DC-10 erupts in flames and tears apart as it slides more than 350 feet off the runway. Miraculously, most of the 340 passengers and crew survive the crash, but 56 people are killed, and investigators need to determine the cause of the accident. Bad weather appears to be the main culprit, but the discovery of a two-inch deep cut down the runway raises troubling new questions.
#documentary #historical
Martinair Flight 495 is seconds from landing at Portugal's Faro Airport when the storm it's flying through takes a sudden turn for the worse. On touchdown, the DC-10 erupts in flames and tears apart as it slides more than 350 feet off the runway. Miraculously, most of the 340 passengers and crew survive the crash, but 56 people are killed, and investigators need to determine the cause of the accident. Bad weather appears to be the main culprit, but the discovery of a two-inch deep cut down the runway raises troubling new questions.
#documentary #historical
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TVTranscript
00:00Martin Air Flight 495 is minutes from landing at Faro, Portugal.
00:07The left engine was making a rattling sound.
00:12All of a sudden, we heard an enormous bang.
00:19It was total destruction.
00:23Fifty-six people are dead.
00:28Wow, look at this.
00:30Investigators quickly find some intriguing evidence at the crash site.
00:34There was a two-inch deep cut down the left side of the runway.
00:40This is very strange.
00:43The landing gear is completely severed.
00:46If the aircraft were overweight, it could exceed the design limit, causing it to break and shear.
00:53These guys were 71,000 pounds underweight.
00:58It wasn't too heavy, so what went wrong?
01:24Martin Air Flight 495 is nearing Portugal's southern coast.
01:31Approach, Martin Air 495. Good morning.
01:35The captain is 56-year-old H.W. Van Staveren.
01:4075 DME and out of 240 for level 70.
01:45A highly experienced pilot and flight instructor, he's been with Martin Air for 24 years.
01:52Landing to level 70.
01:54The first officer is 31-year-old R.J. Klemenkoef.
01:58He's been flying with the Dutch company for three years.
02:04The youngest member of the team is 29-year-old flight engineer Gary Glanz.
02:12It was our last flight before the Christmas holidays.
02:15Everyone was in a good mood.
02:18My job as a flight engineer, I'm responsible for the aircraft in general
02:21to make sure that everything is operating properly
02:24and overall trying to be a third set of eyes for the flying pilots.
02:30The crew is flying a DC-10, a three-engine wide-body jet.
02:36In the 90s, the DC-10 was one of the type of aircraft most used for operators worldwide.
02:44They're now less than half an hour from landing.
02:49There are 13 crew members and 327 passengers on board.
02:55Most are residents of the Netherlands.
02:59We were heading for a vacation for a week in the south of Portugal in the Algarve,
03:05going to warmer weather than the Netherlands was and fleeing the busy year we had.
03:12Flight 495 is near the end of a two-and-a-half-hour trip from Amsterdam to Portugal's Faro Airport.
03:22Big letter word for apple sources.
03:27Orchards.
03:31I was traveling with Yvonne, then my girlfriend, now my wife.
03:35I was lucky we could sit at the front row, so I had a lot of leg space to move around.
03:43Oh.
03:46It's raining cats and dogs over there.
03:50As they descend towards Faro Airport, the pilots expect to encounter some bad weather.
03:57We knew that we were going to encounter rain showers.
04:01Thunderstorms are something that you have to be incredibly aware of and ensure that they don't affect your flight path.
04:09We do everything to avoid them because they can produce unexpected wind changes, microbursts, wind shears.
04:17When a thunderstorm moves over an active runway, the potential for wind shear can make it too dangerous for an aircraft to land.
04:26It wasn't something that we felt was going to be a major issue. It was just something to monitor.
04:36If the weather worsens, they can divert north to Lisbon, but right now it isn't necessary.
04:43Martin Air 461, runway visual.
04:47Just minutes ahead, another Martin Air flight is landing at Faro.
04:53Clear to land runway 11.
04:58The weather report indicates the closest thunderstorm is approximately seven miles to the west of the runway.
05:05Knowing other airplanes were flying that same approach and nobody had reported any significant issues made us feel we were safe to continue onwards.
05:15495 is turning inbound.
05:19Eight miles out, Martin Air 495 starts its final approach to runway 11.
05:26The captain chose to be the pilot monitoring so he could oversee the whole approach and let the first officer focus on just flying the aircraft.
05:39They descend into the rain clouds, confident the nearest thunderstorm is still miles away.
06:02495, report at minimums or runway in sight.
06:06Runway surface conditions are flooded.
06:09Roger, 495.
06:12With wet runway conditions, the crew configures the plane to make what's called a positive landing.
06:18A positive touchdown is when the main wheels penetrate the water layer on the runway and improve the stopping ability of the aircraft.
06:27Gear down.
06:30Gear down.
06:33With a wet runway, you do want to touchdown at a positive, firm rate rather than trying to float down for a softer touchdown.
06:42Altimeters.
06:45Set three times.
06:47Four miles from touchdown, the pilots make their final checks.
06:51Spoilers.
06:55Arm.
06:57Flaps slats.
07:00Five zero, land.
07:07The left engine was making quite a noise and a rattling sound every time it gave full power.
07:16The plane was pitching up and pitching down.
07:22So that was not reassuring.
07:25Martin Air 495, cleared to land runway one one.
07:28The wind, one five zero, one five knots, maximum two zero.
07:39Cleared to land.
07:41Flight 495 is less than a minute from touching down, when the weather gets much worse.
07:51We've sealed anti-ice. I can't see anything.
07:53I'm on it. Wipers are on fast.
08:06It's okay. It's okay.
08:09I was squeezing hands firmer and firmer with the phone.
08:15It was dead quiet, the plane.
08:25The plane is now just a few seconds from landing.
08:32All of a sudden, we heard an enormous bang.
08:42I fell out of the chair and then I saw the kitchen splinter into pieces.
08:53I was pretty sure we were going to be crushed.
08:59Flight 495 slides more than 350 feet off the runway at Faro Airport.
09:06Firefighter and rescue crews race to the site.
09:13Incredibly, many of the passengers in the flight crew survive.
09:19There were people screaming and crying and running.
09:28I didn't see my girlfriend.
09:31My first thought was, oh, I won't ever see Yvonne again.
09:36Those lucky enough to escape search for loved ones.
09:42All of a sudden, I heard my name.
09:47Then I saw in the distance, I saw Yvonne standing there without each other.
09:56The injured are taken to nearby hospitals.
10:05Of the 340 people on board, 54 passengers and two cabin crew members are dead.
10:14Making this one of Portugal's worst aviation disasters in more than a decade.
10:22A detailed investigation is now underway into why this plane hit the tarmac and burst into flames.
10:41See if we can find the flight recorders.
10:44Got it.
10:46Investigators from Portugal's General Directorate of Civil Aviation and from the American NTSB
10:52arrived to inspect the wreckage of Martin Air Flight 495.
10:57A DC-10 is a big aircraft and there were pieces of it all around.
11:03The right wing had dislodged from the rest of the aircraft.
11:08The wing structure is the strongest structure on a whole aircraft.
11:12So it had to have a major amount of stress to make that wing depart.
11:17It's amazing so many survived.
11:21The record showed that the aircraft was mostly destroyed by fire.
11:2680 to 90% of the people died from the post-impact fire.
11:32We were very concerned because if you have something that's suspect on an aircraft that's being flown all over the world,
11:39you want to find it.
11:41That's great. Nice work.
11:47Let's hope we get the data back quickly.
11:50Investigators recover the black boxes containing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
11:57We needed to try to understand what happened in the final moments of the flight,
12:01in terms of speeds, in terms of decisions, and also what happened just before touchdown.
12:12Wow, look at this.
12:14A quarter of a mile from the runway threshold, investigators discover the aircraft's initial point of impact.
12:21There was a two-inch deep cut down the left side of the runway.
12:27It hit here and veered off to the right.
12:30It's deep. It must have come down hard.
12:34The scratches we saw on the runway revealed to us that the plane had landed very hard,
12:40so that's why the marks were deep.
12:42Maybe one of the engines failed.
12:44Why did the plane land so hard?
12:47Was it a problem with the landing gear, or was it a problem with speeds, or was it a problem with the engines?
12:53So we need to investigate that.
12:57Is that all of them?
12:59Let's see what we've got.
13:01Let's see what we've got.
13:03You always look at the engines, and there was substantial damage.
13:10We had to determine, was there some kind of malfunction in the engine?
13:17Investigators examine a key component from the engine's oil block, called a magnetic chip detector.
13:25A magnetic chip detector is a small cylinder-shaped device located inside the engine's oil filter.
13:32When an engine part wears, pieces or chips of broken metal adhere to a magnet as they pass through the oil filter.
13:41It's known as making metal.
13:43Why is there more metal on this detector than expected?
13:47What part of the engine is wearing?
13:50The alloys are slightly different.
13:53They wear at different rates.
13:55So they can tell by laboratory analysis what part of the engine is wearing and how rapidly.
14:02These look clean. No chips.
14:07There's no evidence of metallic debris inside the oil system.
14:14The engines look fine.
14:16From the tests conducted on the engines, it was concluded that the engines did not contribute to the accident.
14:24At this point in the investigation, we really didn't have a good idea of what to look for next.
14:30We just had to keep going.
14:41This is very strange.
14:43They soon realize that part of the right landing gear is broken.
14:49The fact that part of the right landing gear fractured is very unusual.
14:54It's almost impossible to make it fail.
14:57The forces necessary to shear the landing gear like that is massive.
15:04Landing gear is designed and tested to be able to withstand the shock of a 200-ton landing.
15:10It should never fracture.
15:14We had to confirm whether there was something wrong with that gear in the metal used or maybe the maintenance on it.
15:21Anything that could cause the gear to fail in any way.
15:25And if it was a design problem, that's a big deal.
15:29The landing gear failing on impact would explain this tragic accident.
15:34Did we get this piece of landing gear in yet?
15:38Not yet. We'll put a rush in.
15:44The landing gear collapsed.
15:47That was perhaps the most important question that we had to deal with.
15:58While investigators wait for the right landing gear of Flight 495,
16:03they consider what could have caused it to fracture.
16:06Maybe the plane was too heavy.
16:09If the aircraft were overweight and made a very firm touchdown,
16:14then the loads imparted could exceed the design limit, causing it to break and shear.
16:23Let's check the load manifest.
16:27The plane and the cargo were roughly 280,000 pounds.
16:32There was 340 people on board. Let's call it 53,000 pounds.
16:39The fuel?
16:40The fuel was 20,000 pounds.
16:46What was the weight of the cargo?
16:49The fuel?
16:50The fuel was 20,000 pounds.
16:59So, total weight on landing was 353,000 pounds, give or take.
17:06Max weight is 424,000 pounds.
17:11424,000 pounds.
17:17So, these guys were 71,000 pounds underweight.
17:23It wasn't too heavy.
17:26The weight of the plane is not what caused the landing gear to fail on touchdown.
17:33What about weight distribution?
17:36You have to have the baggage and the weight distributed properly
17:41so the aircraft will fly the way the pilots want it to.
17:47By the book.
17:50It was properly loaded, properly stored, properly locked down,
17:54so it wasn't really an issue.
17:59With weight and balance ruled out,
18:01investigators are finally able to test the right landing gear itself.
18:07Service records are up to date.
18:10Let's see if the steel wasn't strong enough.
18:15Another thing they were looking for is any pre-existent weaknesses on the steel.
18:21If this occurred in the manufacturing process,
18:24it could affect the aircraft in operations all around the world.
18:28They perform something called a Vickers hardness test.
18:32A Vickers hardness test is an industry standard test
18:35to evaluate the strength of a particular component or piece of metal.
18:42A pyramid-shaped diamond is pressed into the steel,
18:45leaving an indent or dimple.
18:48You can measure the depth and the diameter of the dimple
18:52and derive the metallurgical strength of what you're testing.
18:55Hardness value 658.
18:58So the steel was strong enough.
19:02Investigators find no weakness in the metal used to make the plane's landing gear.
19:07It was determined there was nothing wrong with the landing gear.
19:12Whatever went wrong, it happened before the aircraft touched the runway.
19:18There are still no clues that can help explain why the landing gear
19:22The next step in the investigation was to look at how the crew was operating
19:27during the last phase of the landing.
19:41This is interesting.
19:43Official statements made by the pilots
19:45may shed some light on the final moments of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life.
19:49The pilots may shed some light on the final moments of Martin Air Flight 495.
19:54After the accident, the investigators came to all three of us.
19:59We had closed sessions.
20:04The captain said the flight was normal.
20:06The approach was normal.
20:08At 200 feet, we were on the center line.
20:12So they should have been okay.
20:15But a few seconds later, the captain sees lightning.
20:18I suddenly felt a high sink rate.
20:20It all happened so fast.
20:21The aircraft actually fell out of the sky.
20:26According to the captain, he saw lightning
20:28just seconds before the aircraft began to lose altitude rapidly.
20:34Sink rate.
20:37The airplane felt like God took his hands and rammed it into the ground.
20:42Well, get this.
20:43The first officer stated the weather was bad and it was raining heavily.
20:48It was gusty and very turbulent.
20:51Investigators wonder if sudden wind changes
20:53could have contributed to the crash of Flight 495.
20:58The flight crew indicated to the investigators
21:01that they were in an area with a lot of wind shear,
21:05a very dynamic weather condition.
21:08They were in turbulence.
21:10Things were changing very rapidly.
21:13Did the pilot encounter wind shear on final approach?
21:19The team interviews the air traffic controller
21:21to better understand the conditions the pilots were experiencing.
21:26Can you tell me what happened with Flight 495?
21:29Everything seemed perfectly normal.
21:32They were on their final approach
21:34and confirmed they had the runway in sight.
21:37Then I cleared them to land.
21:41Martin Air 495, cleared to land runway 11.
21:45The wind, 1-5-0, 1-5 knots, maximum 2-0.
21:50The controllers were quite confident that they performed well the tasks,
21:54so they didn't find that they did anything wrong
21:57and they gave the correct information.
22:00Did they report any issues with the plane?
22:04No, not at all.
22:06What about the weather?
22:07There was rain, but other planes were taking off and landing without difficulty.
22:14Martin Air 461, runway visual.
22:18Just minutes before the crash,
22:20the controller was in contact with an aircraft that took off
22:23and another that landed on the same runway.
22:27Cleared to land runway 11.
22:30Neither flight reported extreme weather over the runway.
22:33What about wind shear?
22:35Did the runway sensors pick up anything?
22:40Faroe Airport is equipped with two anemometers
22:43that measure both wind speed and direction,
22:46located on runway 29 and runway 11.
22:51If the anemometers detect a sudden change in wind speed of 15 knots or greater,
22:56a wind shear will occur.
22:58If the anemometers detect a sudden change in wind speed of 15 knots or greater,
23:03a wind shear warning is automatically triggered.
23:14Yes, there were wind shear warnings.
23:17But they happened after the aircraft had already crashed.
23:21If flight 495 was hit by an extreme gust of wind before it crashed to the runway,
23:27the system would have detected it.
23:30It didn't.
23:32There was conflicting information between what the crew said
23:36and what the air traffic controller reports.
23:40The crew's statements don't match with the controller's account of the weather.
23:45The crew's statements don't match with the controller's account of the weather.
23:55The best thing to substantiate what went on
23:58was to take a really deep look at what the pilots were saying to each other in the cockpit.
24:10Let's start with their approach brief.
24:11Let's start with their approach brief.
24:13A week after the crash of flight 495,
24:17data from the cockpit voice recorder is ready to be reviewed.
24:21Fly the approach with 50 flaps.
24:24You call approaching minimums and field in sight.
24:27You look outside.
24:29Wet runway.
24:31Here are the wipers.
24:33Roger.
24:35As the crew prepares for the approach,
24:37they become aware of weather conditions at Faro Airport.
24:41You have to make a positive landing.
24:43Yes.
24:46Okay.
24:48So, obviously they're worried about the runway conditions.
24:55In a positive landing,
24:56the aircraft touches down firmly enough to penetrate the water,
25:00allowing the wheels to grip the tarmac and slow the airplane.
25:06They want to put it down hard to avoid hydroplaning and running out of runway.
25:10So, what went wrong?
25:12Did the pilots somehow botch their plan as they approached the runway?
25:21500.
25:23Cleared.
25:25Speed a bit low.
25:27Speed is low.
25:30Low.
25:32Okay.
25:34Now, speed is an issue.
25:35Going onto a wet runway,
25:37the airspeed control is very, very important
25:40so that you don't have too much and the airplane floats,
25:43but that you don't have too little and you end up impacting the runway quite hard.
25:48All right, let's hear more.
25:51Speed is okay.
25:52We sealed anti-ice.
25:53I can't see anything.
25:54I'm on it.
25:56Wipers are on fast.
25:58As the plane gets closer to the ground,
26:00the crew contends with stormy conditions.
26:03A bit low.
26:05Low.
26:07Yes.
26:11Throttles.
26:21Why does the captain yell throttles?
26:26For the captain to say this at this moment,
26:29For the captain to say this at this moment,
26:31it raises the question,
26:33did they have an issue in the final phase of landing?
26:37All right, let's look at the descent profile.
26:40If Flight 495 flew in on the right trajectory,
26:43the FDR will confirm it.
26:45Here we go.
26:47The flight data recorder gives objective, clear data
26:51on what the airplane was actually doing.
26:55Was the airplane being flown at the proper speed?
26:59Were the changes in the airspeed,
27:01were they indicative of a severe weather condition?
27:05And how were the pilots responding to those changes?
27:10Autopilot is on.
27:11Okay, so they're descending at the standard angle.
27:16And they dip here and recover.
27:21Looks fine.
27:25At 200 feet, which is about 20 seconds from landing,
27:28they were on a normal glide path.
27:32Something happened between that and touchdown.
27:38Let's look at the airspeed data.
27:43So, looks like they're flying steady at 145 knots until here.
27:49And airspeed jumps and then drops all the way to 139 knots.
27:55Investigators spot evidence of airspeed fluctuations
27:58during the last minute of the flight.
28:01These fluctuations in airspeed can be caused by wind gusts
28:06as they get closer to landing.
28:16Speed is a bit low.
28:19Speed is low.
28:21Speed is low.
28:29Speed is okay.
28:31Was the captain concerned their speed wasn't fast enough
28:35to compensate for the strong headwind?
28:41These fluctuations seem too extreme to be caused
28:43by the 20 knot winds reported by the controller.
28:47We need a full analysis of the weather conditions
28:49on final approach.
28:54Investigators asked the Netherlands Aerospace Laboratory
28:57to perform an in-depth weather study
29:00to determine if the winds were stronger
29:02than what was reported to Flight 495.
29:05What about auto throttle data?
29:08Let's take a look.
29:15Yeah, the fluctuations in auto throttles
29:19correspond to the airspeed fluctuations.
29:26If there is an increase in airspeed,
29:29the auto throttle system will decrease the power
29:32that is being commanded,
29:34the amount of thrust that the engines are producing.
29:38If the airspeed falls low,
29:40the auto throttle system will command increased thrust
29:44to bring the airplane up to the commanded airspeed.
29:49The auto throttles were indeed adjusting
29:52for the dramatic changes in airspeed.
29:54Wow, look at that, 102% power.
29:58Investigators discover a very high surge in engine power
30:02three quarters of a mile from the runway threshold.
30:05The 102% command by the auto throttle system
30:09is a massive amount of power.
30:11It would be similar to the amount of power
30:13that you would use for takeoff.
30:15Too much power to try to land with.
30:18And then here, power drops to 40%.
30:23The team discovers that the power dropped to a minimum
30:26or engine idle shortly thereafter.
30:30That's way too fast for the auto throttle system
30:32to perform on its own.
30:37For the engines to decelerate as quickly as they did
30:41means that the levers were moved faster than the auto throttle.
30:45Clutches can physically move them.
30:47The only way the throttles would move that quick
30:50would be if the pilot was manually adjusting them down to 40%.
30:57The auto throttle system could make large corrections
31:00and you have to make manual adjustments
31:02if the throttles aren't keeping up.
31:10The first officer who was a flying pilot
31:13made the decision to override the auto throttle system
31:16and to pull the power way back.
31:22And in fact, he pulled it all the way back to flight idle.
31:25With so little power, they would have dropped like a rock.
31:29According to the data,
31:31they were dropping 1,000 feet per minute.
31:351,000 feet is well beyond the operational limit
31:38of 600 feet per minute for the DC-10.
31:42As a consequence of the reduced power,
31:44the plane hit the runway with enough force
31:47to crack the landing gear.
31:51I've never experienced a landing as hard as that.
31:55I crushed my teeth and my mouth.
31:59It was hard beyond compare.
32:02Investigators are left with a key question.
32:06Why would the crew reduce power by so much,
32:09so far from the runway threshold?
32:26This is the Dutch weather report.
32:29Investigators turn to a weather analysis
32:31prepared by the Netherlands Aerospace Laboratory
32:34to determine if the weather affected the crew's actions
32:37during their final approach.
32:39Looks like the weather was worse than we thought.
32:42Really?
32:44They hit no less than three separate microbursts
32:47in the last minute of flight.
32:49Wow. Okay.
32:53A microburst is a column of air
32:55that descends from rain clouds,
32:57hits the ground and fans out horizontally.
33:01It leads to significant fluctuations
33:03in a plane's airspeed.
33:08When exactly?
33:14The first one was at 700 feet.
33:19The second was between 600 and 300 feet.
33:26And the last one was between 200 and 110 feet.
33:37Now, this last one was the worst.
33:40The windspeed jumped from the reported 20 knots to 40 knots.
33:46Wow. That would have triggered a windshear alert
33:49if one was installed on the plane.
33:52Then the wind shifts from a headwind to a tailwind.
34:00A sudden shift from headwind to tailwind
34:02is the worst type of windshear
34:04because a headwind improves your angle of attack
34:07to ensure that the aircraft has good lift.
34:11When the wind switches around to a tailwind,
34:14you lose that aerodynamic performance.
34:18If you don't have the thrust to compensate for it right away,
34:21the aircraft will drop.
34:25Let's compare this to the autosprouted Dana.
34:35Why not?
34:38For every microburst,
34:40there's a corresponding increase in engine power
34:43as the autothrottles try to maintain the plane's speed.
34:47The autothrottle was going up and down.
34:50It was struggling very hard
34:52to fight against those heavy downbursts.
34:56The downburst causes a decrease in stability,
35:00which means turbulence-induced roll and pitch oscillations.
35:08Would have been a bumpy ride.
35:10Yeah.
35:12As they passed through each microburst,
35:15the autothrottles were adjusting to the shifts in wind gusts.
35:20In the final moments,
35:22the approach was under extreme weather conditions.
35:26There were a lot of oscillations in speed,
35:29and that created a lot of stress
35:31for the pilot flying at that time.
35:34The first officer,
35:36who was in charge of the autopilot,
35:38was the pilot who was in charge of the autopilot.
35:41He was in charge of the autopilot,
35:43and he was in charge of the autopilot.
35:47The first officer likely would have been overwhelmed
35:52by the unexpected change in the weather.
35:58And knowing that he needed to make a positive landing
36:01at the runway threshold,
36:03he sees the power spike to 102%
36:06and takes corrective action.
36:09In order to get the plane on the ground,
36:12the first officer overrides the autothrottle
36:15and reduces the power to idle.
36:18Investigators now see just how unfortunate his timing was.
36:24We cut the power at the exact same time
36:27that last downburst hit them.
36:34Throttles!
36:36The captain tries to stop the plane's uncontrolled descent,
36:41but he's too late.
36:46Thrust!
36:51The captain should have stepped in sooner.
36:56He should have recognized something was not right.
37:00The captain really should have taken over and landed himself.
37:06Investigators suspect the sudden change in weather,
37:09combined with the pilot's decision to cut power too early,
37:13caused the aircraft to land with more force
37:16than it was built to withstand.
37:19But one question remains unanswered.
37:22If the winds were gusting at 40 knots,
37:26a half mile from the runway,
37:29wouldn't the winds at the runway be gusting stronger
37:33than the 20 knots reported by the controller?
37:44The team returns with their findings
37:47to the air traffic controller who oversaw Martin Air Flight 495.
37:52You reported that the winds on runway 11
37:56were gusting up to 20 knots.
37:59That's correct.
38:01But that doesn't seem right.
38:03The Dutch weather study confirmed that there were
38:06three microbursts in the last minute of flight,
38:09with gusts much higher than that.
38:13Can you show me the actual data for runway 11?
38:33According to the raw data,
38:36the winds were actually gusting at 35 knots.
38:42That sounds more like it.
38:45But how could you have underreported the wind conditions?
39:00We receive wind data every 30 seconds from this device.
39:06It must have been switched to runway 29.
39:15Instead of runway 11.
39:20Investigators discover that air traffic controllers at Faro Airport
39:25had mistakenly selected the wind reading on runway 29
39:29instead of runway 11.
39:32Airports are large places,
39:34so when you have anemometers on opposite ends of the airport,
39:37you would expect that frequently there would be a difference
39:40in direction and velocity of a reported wind.
39:44Martin Air 495 cleared to land runway 11.
39:48The wind 150, 15 knots, maximum 20.
39:54Cleared to land.
39:56The controllers' information that they provided to the crew
40:00was not representative of what was actually occurring on the runway.
40:11Wet runway, crosswinds,
40:14and a lot of wind.
40:18Wet runway, crosswinds,
40:21that's a completely different picture.
40:24If the pilots were aware, they would have gone around.
40:29Investigators have figured out what brought down Flight 495.
40:41495 is turning inbound.
40:45495, copy.
40:47Report at minimums or runway in sight.
40:50Runway surface conditions are flooded.
40:53Roger, 495.
41:00Gear down.
41:03Gear down.
41:05With the runway at Faro underwater,
41:08the crew plans a positive touchdown at the runway threshold.
41:12Cleared to land runway 11.
41:15The wind 150, 15 knots, maximum 20.
41:20But they're unaware of the severity of the weather conditions.
41:24I can't see anything.
41:26I'm on it.
41:28They're hit by a series of unexpected microbursts,
41:32causing the engine power to shoot up automatically.
41:37Concerned that the excess power is too great for a positive landing,
41:42the first officer reduces the power to idle
41:45just as the last microburst occurs.
41:48That makes them vulnerable to strong winds,
41:51and the aircraft dropped from 150 feet.
41:56Flight 495 slams to the ground at 1,000 feet per minute.
42:09The danger of being slow and encountering a downdraft
42:14is you may not be able to recover in time
42:18and be able to land safely.
42:21The danger is you may not be able to recover in time
42:25and that can be disastrous.
42:29They could have come with a higher speed.
42:32They could have performed a missed approach.
42:35But the truth is the flight crew tried their best.
42:39This wasn't an accident where we can see negligence or gross error.
42:46In the aftermath of their report into the crash of Martin Air Flight 495,
42:51investigators make a series of recommendations.
42:56This accident was going to be yet another example
43:00of inappropriate windshear recovery being applied in a timely fashion.
43:06So this is additional pilot training.
43:10This is windshear detection systems on airplanes.
43:15This is a more aggressive approach to go-arounds in unstable conditions.
43:21Shortly after the crash,
43:23Faro Airport modernized their wind sensors and displays
43:27to comply with international regulations.
43:31The critical information that controllers provide to pilots
43:36needs to be accurate.
43:38So these are some of the lessons that the industry learned and implemented
43:43following this accident.
43:48You know, one of the things I was told when I was becoming a pilot
43:51is never let your guard down.
43:53You can be having a beautiful, wonderful flight
43:56and in the blink of an eye things can change.
44:00It's just ingrained in my mind,
44:03always be ready for the unexpected.
44:08NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology