Former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Air Safety Investigator Gregory Feith joins WIRED to answers the internet’s burning questions about aviation accidents. What’s the safest seat on an airplane? How likely are you to be in an aviation accident? At what stage of flight to most accidents occur? Can a flock of birds really bring down a jet? Why don’t planes have parachutes to prevent crashing? What happens if a window on a plane cracks during flight? And what really happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? Answers to these questions and many more await on Aviation Accident Support.
Director: Anna O'Donohue
Director of Photography: Ben Dewey
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Gregory Feith
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Jasmine Breinburg; Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Casting Producer: Nicholas Sawyer
Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache
Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director: Anna O'Donohue
Director of Photography: Ben Dewey
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Gregory Feith
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Jasmine Breinburg; Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Casting Producer: Nicholas Sawyer
Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache
Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00I'm Greg Fyfe, former NTSB air safety investigator.
00:03I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet.
00:06This is Aviation Accident Support.
00:08♪♪
00:13IlldealQ asks,
00:14Got my window seat.
00:16Anybody know where the safest spot is
00:18to sit on an airplane?
00:19The best place to sit is where you can access an exit.
00:23Over the wings or close proximity
00:26to either the forward exit or the rear exit.
00:29Count the seats between the exit in front of you
00:33and the exits behind you.
00:34Because airplane crashes, unfortunately,
00:36don't occur where the airplane is upright.
00:38It could be upside down.
00:39It could be at night.
00:40It could be on fire.
00:41You may not be able to stand up.
00:43You may have to crawl.
00:44Knowing your position in relation
00:46to the closest exit is your best bet.
00:48Cora asks,
00:49What do pilots say to the passengers
00:51of a plane when it is crashing?
00:53Is it like in the movies or is it completely different?
00:56One of the statements that you may hear is,
00:59Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation.
01:01We have a problem with the engine.
01:03It's under control.
01:04Don't worry about it.
01:05We're going to divert.
01:06That's a benign situation.
01:08In a catastrophic,
01:09or at least a more dire or urgent situation,
01:12you may not hear from the flight crew at all.
01:15If anything, you may hear brace for impact
01:18because impact with the ground is imminent,
01:21but you're not going to hear a long discussion
01:23from the flight crew because their priority
01:26is to try and prevent the accident.
01:28Monkey Shine asks,
01:30I am amazed that a flock of birds can bring a plane down.
01:32How can this be?
01:34The size of the bird is what really matters.
01:36There have been a number of events
01:37that have taken place over the years.
01:39The most recent one in history that a movie was made out of
01:43called The Miracle on the Hudson,
01:44involving Captain Sully Sullenberger
01:46and First Officer Jeff Skiles.
01:48The airplane had just taken off out of LaGuardia Airport.
01:51They were climbing out and they ran through a flock of geese
01:54at about 3,000 feet.
01:56Unfortunately, those geese were sucked into the engine.
01:58With engines, they are built to withstand bird strikes
02:02to a certain extent.
02:03But when you look at a 20 pound goose,
02:05that's like throwing a bowling ball
02:07into the front end of an airplane
02:09at two or 300 miles an hour.
02:11The airplane then turned into a giant glider.
02:15The flight crew had to make a decision
02:16and put the airplane down in the water.
02:18There are other elements of bird strikes.
02:20One of the bird strike accidents
02:21that I investigated several years ago
02:24involved an aircraft that was going
02:26into Sioux Falls, South Dakota at night.
02:28And the pilots had forgotten one item on a checklist,
02:32windshield heat.
02:33Now the windows on an airplane,
02:34because it's pressurized, are very thick.
02:36Because it flies at high altitude
02:38and the window gets cold soaked,
02:40we heat the windshields to temper the glass
02:43so that if something does strike it, it will not shatter.
02:46But that one missed item on a checklist
02:48put this flight crew in peril.
02:50This is a picture from inside the cockpit
02:53of a bird that was struck.
02:55It was a two pound duck,
02:56came through an inch and a half piece of glass.
02:58The remnants then struck the captain, almost killed him.
03:01The first officer had enough presence of mind,
03:04got on the flight controls
03:05and actually successfully landed the airplane.
03:08I investigated a small general aviation accident
03:11where a very large bird, 22 pounds,
03:14actually came through the windscreen
03:16and struck both pilots,
03:18a flight instructor and a student,
03:19killed both of them.
03:21We build aircraft to mitigate these kinds of dangers,
03:24but you can't build a birdproof aircraft.
03:27Nw18graphics asks,
03:30during which flight stages
03:32do most aviation accidents occur?
03:34Takeoff and landing.
03:35We rarely have in-flight events at cruise altitude.
03:39Everything is working properly.
03:40The airplane's typically on autopilot.
03:42Takeoff, you're heavy, low and slow.
03:45So those are the most critical time.
03:46You're putting the most strain on engines.
03:48And then of course landing,
03:49even though you're lighter,
03:51you're approaching the ground.
03:52And so if there's any kind of weather event,
03:54wind shear, down drafts,
03:56your margin of safety is decreased.
03:58If we're so close to the ground
04:00and we're not going that fast,
04:01are we going to survive
04:03or do we have a better chance of survival?
04:05Yes.
04:05But you also have a better chance of survival
04:08even in flight.
04:09If you look at an airplane that was built
04:11in the 1940s or 1950s or 60s,
04:14today the airplanes are so much better
04:17as far as their structure.
04:18They have certain collapse zones.
04:20They have certain structures that break
04:22to absorb the energy.
04:23Seats are better on airplanes.
04:25They can withstand higher G loads
04:27than those accidents that occurred
04:29with older airplanes.
04:30Basic BACA.
04:32Which accident investigation reports
04:34had the biggest impact on the industry
04:36or were the most controversial
04:38when they came out?
04:38The one that is probably the most controversial
04:41is Malaysian Air MH370,
04:43the airplane that disappeared
04:45over the South Indian Ocean.
04:46One of the reasons that I think MH370
04:49has had such an impact
04:51is the fact that it's a mystery.
04:52There's 2,000 feet of silt
04:54on the bottom of the ocean floor there.
04:56If the airplane settled into that 2,000 feet of silt,
04:59you will never see that aircraft
05:01because it's so deep.
05:02And in fact, the geography
05:04is like the Rocky Mountains.
05:05If it crashed into one of the crevasses
05:08in that mountainous terrain,
05:09it may look like the terrain.
05:11So any side scan sonar
05:13or any other technology may miss the aircraft.
05:16One other controversial accident is TWA 800.
05:20That was the aircraft
05:21that blew up off the coast of New York.
05:23There are a lot of conspiracy theorists out there
05:26that still think that that airplane was shot down
05:28rather than having a mechanical malfunction
05:30in the center fuel tank
05:32that ended up leading to an explosion.
05:34Kate Newens asks,
05:35where is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?
05:38Where did it go?
05:39Will it ever be found?
05:40These are questions that keep me up at night.
05:42Where is Malaysia Airlines?
05:44It's in the middle of the South Indian Ocean
05:46on the bottom.
05:47Where did it go?
05:4822,000 feet deep
05:49on the bottom of the South Indian Ocean.
05:51Will it ever be found?
05:52Possibly.
05:53These are the questions
05:54that keep a lot of people up at night
05:56because it's the mystery.
05:58This was an intentional act.
05:59This was not an accident.
06:00The airplane flew for seven hours.
06:02It ended up in a place
06:03where it shouldn't have ended up.
06:04And the only way it could have gotten there
06:06is by a pilot or pilots
06:08who navigated the airplane
06:10to the South Indian Ocean.
06:11People have said,
06:12well, there was an in-flight fire.
06:13Well, there's no evidence to suggest that.
06:16And two,
06:17if there was an in-flight fire,
06:18the airplane wouldn't have been able to fly
06:19for seven hours.
06:20Was there some sort of nefarious act
06:23where somebody got into the electronics bay
06:26and did something with all the navigation stuff?
06:29And of course the airplane
06:30is sitting on an island somewhere
06:32covered by jungle.
06:33No, you can't bury or hide
06:35a Boeing 777 very easily.
06:38There are a lot of other conspiracy theories.
06:40The most likely event
06:41was an intentional act.
06:43God is good for you asks,
06:44why do planes not have parachutes by now?
06:46Because it would cost weight.
06:48You couldn't build a parachute big enough
06:49to bring a 747 down.
06:51And as far as passengers
06:52being issued a parachute,
06:53one, you'd have to train them.
06:55Two, you'd never get out of an airplane.
06:57When would you use it?
06:58Given the fact that accidents happen
07:00during landing and takeoff,
07:01you're already close to the ground.
07:03Parachute wouldn't be of any value to you.
07:06Andrew Dixon, eight,
07:08asked the question,
07:09can planes fly land during thunderstorms?
07:11Yes, airplanes can land in thunderstorms
07:15to an extent.
07:16Pilots don't intentionally fly in thunderstorms.
07:18Occasionally they will inadvertently
07:20encounter a thunderstorm.
07:22One of the accidents that I investigated,
07:24American Airlines 1420 at Little Rock, Arkansas,
07:27the pilots did unfortunately make a bad decision
07:31to try and fly into thunderstorm activity
07:34landing the airplane at night.
07:36In this particular picture,
07:37the black line represents
07:39the initial flight path of the aircraft.
07:42You can see the red over the top of part of the airport.
07:46In aviation, we say red is dead.
07:49The aircraft started the hydroplane
07:51and unfortunately struck a very stout structure
07:54that ripped the airplane open
07:55and unfortunately resulted in 12 fatalities.
07:58We want to know what was going on with the flight crew.
08:01So we use the flight data recorder
08:03and the cockpit voice recorder
08:04to really put the big picture together for investigators.
08:07The captain made this comment to the first officer
08:10as they were trying to find the airport.
08:12I hate droning around visually at night in weather
08:16without having some clue where I am.
08:19That comment in and of itself requires the pilots
08:23to abandon what they were doing
08:25because it's only gonna get worse.
08:27And unfortunately in this particular accident,
08:29it got worse.
08:30Almost Glow 3D asks,
08:32Denzel Washington saying I was drunk on flight
08:36was diabolical.
08:37It was storyline.
08:38It was compelling.
08:40It was a parody.
08:41On the morning of the accident.
08:42I was drunk.
08:44Yes, Denzel Washington was a spectacular pilot.
08:47He was able even in a drunk state
08:49to roll the airplane inverted and save the day.
08:52But in real life, that would never happen.
08:54While there are issues that we see today in commercial
08:58and in private aviation regarding substance abuse,
09:02the system itself will trap line those pilots
09:05or crew members that have access to the flight controls.
09:09Those pilots would never see the cockpit
09:11and never put that airplane into the same position
09:14that Denzel Washington did.
09:16So the best place to enjoy that kind of storyline
09:19is at the movies.
09:20Mdizzy16 asks,
09:22what happens if a window on a plane cracks?
09:25Does everybody die?
09:26If you're at low altitude,
09:27the aircraft will depressurize,
09:29but it won't be a catastrophic explosion or decompression.
09:33If you're at high altitude, 35,000 feet,
09:36there will be a lot of debris.
09:37And unfortunately, we've had people
09:40that were sucked out of the aircraft.
09:42That change in pressure is what causes the vacuum
09:45or things to then get sucked out of the aircraft
09:48till the pressure equalizes.
09:49If you're strapped in, you will survive.
09:51Nuggetpalooza asks,
09:53is anyone familiar enough with the Sully case
09:56that knows if the NTSB was out to get Sullenberger
09:59in real life as they appear in the movie?
10:01The movie, in my opinion, 10 minutes of fact,
10:0490 minutes of fiction.
10:06Human piloted simulations show
10:07that you could make it back to the airport.
10:09No, they don't.
10:10The NTSB was not out to get Sullenberger
10:13or any other pilot.
10:14The NTSB, in its normal interview process,
10:17always asks, tell us your story, tell us what happened.
10:20Let's look at the procedures you followed.
10:23Why did you make these decisions?
10:24Unfortunately for the movie, it wasn't compelling enough.
10:27Sometimes facts are boring.
10:29FearlessFlyer1 asks,
10:31the probability of being killed
10:33in an airplane accident is one in,
10:37it's actually one in 11 million.
10:39Aviation is the safest form of transportation,
10:41bar none, around the world.
10:43Your chances of getting struck by lightning are greater.
10:46Definitely your chances of getting killed
10:48in an automobile accident are greater.
10:50We have more train accidents, bus accidents,
10:53pedestrian accidents.
10:54You have a higher probability of getting hurt or killed
10:57riding your bicycle or crossing the street
10:59than being involved in a fatal airplane accident.
11:02Mind of Rob asks,
11:03what if snakes on a plane really happened?
11:05If they really happened, put your feet up on the seat
11:08and don't piss off the snake.
11:10Minukami asks, do you have any tips or advice
11:14for someone who has aerophobia?
11:16Yes, relax.
11:18One of the things that we say in aviation
11:20is time to spare, go by air.
11:22You have to have patience
11:23because if you don't have patience,
11:25your anxiety level increases.
11:27The biggest and best thing, I think,
11:30that passengers can do is familiarize yourself
11:32with the noises.
11:34When the airplane takes off,
11:35you hear all this clunking sound.
11:37That's the landing gear being retracted.
11:39If you look out the window, you see parts of the wing move.
11:43Those are the flaps.
11:44Those are designed to not only increase lift
11:46during slow speeds like the takeoff,
11:48but also increase drag for landing.
11:50If you go into turbulence, don't think about, oh my gosh,
11:53the wings are gonna break off, which they won't.
11:56Think about the fun part of it,
11:57that yes, it feels like a roller coaster.
12:00The bottom fell out.
12:01I've sat with people who, I mean,
12:03their white knuckle on the seat.
12:04I explain all the noises.
12:06I try to educate them to the basics of aviation.
12:09And once they understand that,
12:11it doesn't make them feel so bad.
12:13B4WeKiss asks, 4 a.m. thoughts.
12:17First off, what are you doing up at 4 a.m.?
12:19Wouldn't all planes landing be controlled crashes?
12:22You could look at it that way.
12:24Yes, you are controlling that weight.
12:26You are controlling the energy
12:28with the thrust of the engines.
12:29And of course, the controls that pilots have.
12:32The good thing is the airplane isn't damaged
12:35and you get to taxi to the terminal.
12:36Jiggy Jigs asks, any of y'all remember ValueJet flight 592?
12:41I remember it because I was the investigator in charge
12:44and I used this particular accident
12:46in a lot of the safety presentations I do worldwide.
12:49There was a radio call shortly after departure
12:52by the pilot.
12:53Flight 592, contact Miami Center 132.45.
12:56Flight 592, there's an immediate return to Miami.
12:59What kind of problem are you having?
13:01Smoke in the cabin.
13:02Smoke in the cabin.
13:02They had smoke in the cockpit, smoke in the cabin.
13:05That right there gave us an indication
13:08that we had possibly an in-flight fire.
13:10In the meantime, we were looking at the aircraft
13:12in the Florida Everglades.
13:14We were really gonna depend on the flight data recorder
13:17and the cockpit voice recorder.
13:18One question by one investigator
13:21changed the entire course of the investigation
13:25in 30 seconds.
13:26What are oxygen canisters?
13:28In aviation, we typically use oxygen bottles.
13:31They're typically painted green.
13:33This is the remnants of what we started to find
13:36of these 144 oxygen canisters.
13:39We knew that they had been exposed to fire.
13:42This final picture is the key.
13:44This is an exemplar oxygen generator.
13:47There is a 32 caliber percussion cap
13:50and it starts an exothermic reaction.
13:52When you ship these, you need to have a plastic cap
13:55to prevent inadvertent firing.
13:57None of these oxygen generators had that protective cap.
14:01The fact that there was a two cent cap that was not put on
14:04cost the lives of 110 people.
14:06Quora asks, what does a airplane crash investigator
14:09look for apart from the black box?
14:12As investigators, we're constantly looking
14:14for the best available evidence, physical evidence.
14:17That is the aircraft wreckage itself.
14:19We're gonna examine the propeller
14:21we're gonna look at the engine,
14:22we're gonna look for damage.
14:23Was there an in-flight breakup?
14:24Was there a structural failure?
14:26We wanna know if there was a fault in the computer
14:29or the software that may have caused
14:31or contributed to the accident.
14:33A very famous issue that came up early on with Airbus
14:36was the fact that the computers on their Airbus airplanes
14:39would go to sleep in flight.
14:41Airbus had to fix that problem.
14:42We use meteorologists to study the environment
14:45if there's a weather accident.
14:46A lot of aircraft accidents now are being captured on video.
14:50This ring doorbell video shows the moment
14:53right before impact of a general aviation aircraft,
14:56a single engine Mooney,
14:58where the wings actually broke in flight.
15:00Part of the tail section is missing.
15:02This is the cockpit section of a Gulfstream business jet
15:06that unfortunately crashed on takeoff.
15:09There was a post crash fire,
15:10but there's still valuable evidence for investigators.
15:13You can look at handle positions.
15:15There's the flap handle right here.
15:18Here's trim.
15:19These are the control yokes.
15:20That gives us an understanding of whether or not
15:23they properly configured the airplane for takeoff.
15:26One of the other tools that we use as investigators
15:28is taking information that we know into a simulator.
15:32We try to recreate based on factual data.
15:35Did the pilots have options?
15:36Could they have recognized the situation with the aircraft
15:39before it got out of control?
15:41Blackwell110 asks,
15:42what does the flight data recorder,
15:44telemetry, technical recordings show?
15:47It shows a lot.
15:48It tells investigators what the airplane was doing.
15:51Pitch, roll, yaw, altitude.
15:53It also gives us flight control positions
15:55and things like that.
15:56Some of that data is used to create a profile.
16:00This is the flight profile of an aircraft that crashed
16:03and that had just taken off.
16:04What we found from the flight data recorder
16:06is that the pilot didn't initiate the takeoff.
16:09The airplane actually started to become airborne by itself.
16:12And the key was right in this section.
16:16We knew that the control position was different
16:19than the actual attitude of the aircraft.
16:21The pilot was actually pushing forward
16:23because the nose was rising and he could not control it.
16:26Unfortunately, because of their low altitude,
16:29they struck the ground before they were able
16:31to make it back to the runway.
16:32Cyclone Dave asks,
16:34this isn't the first time a plane was brought down
16:36deliberately by a pilot.
16:37Among others are Egypt Air Flight 990
16:40and Silk Air Flight 185.
16:41There is a distinct difference between
16:44an intentional act and an accident.
16:45Egypt Air 990 was a 767 that crashed off the coast
16:49of New York because the first officer basically pushed
16:51the nose over at a low altitude.
16:53The airplane went into the ocean.
16:55Silk Air Flight 185 is an accident that I represented
16:58the United States over in Indonesia on
17:00because it was a 737 that from 35,000 feet,
17:04the pilot had an intent to kill himself
17:07and the passengers and crew on that airplane
17:09by rolling it inverted, hitting the water
17:12at almost Mach one speed.
17:14FSD Podcast asks,
17:16what role does pilot training play in preventing accidents?
17:19Pilots are trained not only to understand what's going on,
17:22but if there is going to be some level of an accident
17:26or serious incident, they're there to mitigate the damage
17:29to the aircraft and increase the survivability
17:32of crew and passengers.
17:33These are screenshots of an animation created
17:36for an accident that I investigated.
17:37American Airlines MD-80,
17:39the aircraft is off center from the runway.
17:42That's a critical issue.
17:43The pilot should have abandoned the approach.
17:45These other screenshots show
17:47that the airplane landed sideways.
17:49The pilots lost control, overran the runway,
17:52and unfortunately struck obstructions
17:54at the end of the runway, which resulted in 12 fatalities.
17:57This is an aircraft accident involving
18:00a small business type jet.
18:01You actually see the airplane has rolled 90 degrees.
18:05That's because they deployed the thrust reversers in flight
18:08and they deployed asymmetrically,
18:10which caused the aircraft to roll.
18:12The pilots tried to do something
18:14that wasn't in the flight manual,
18:15and unfortunately it cost them their lives.
18:18AtmasterV1H0HA asked the question,
18:22why are Boeing planes suddenly falling out of the sky?
18:25They aren't falling out of the sky
18:27and there's nothing sudden about it.
18:29Unfortunately, Boeing has had an issue
18:31over the past 10 years with their aircraft
18:34and aircraft accidents.
18:35It started really with the 787
18:38and their initial battery issues,
18:39which caused in-flight fires.
18:41There was also the 737 MAX accidents,
18:44both in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
18:46That has really drawn the attention of the public.
18:49Boeing does have issues with quality control
18:53in their manufacturing process and some design issues,
18:56but every manufacturer has issues.
18:59Airbus, Embraer, it does not matter.
19:01There have been Airbus accidents in the recent past.
19:05They just haven't drawn the scrutiny
19:07like the Boeing accidents.
19:09Stephen Dyer, one, they should put GPS trackers
19:12on airplanes so that they don't disappear
19:15like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
19:17Well, Stephen, guess what?
19:19We do track airplanes.
19:20We track them all over the world.
19:22We've always used conventional radar.
19:24As the radar signal is bounced off the airplane,
19:26it's returned, an air traffic controller
19:29can actually see it on a scope.
19:30Now, we have a new technology
19:33called Automatic Dependence Surveillance Broadcast,
19:36and it actually is providing information
19:38directly from the airplane
19:40back to the air traffic controller
19:41with a lot more specificity every second.
19:44So we know speed, we know altitude,
19:46we actually know the GPS position of the aircraft.
19:50A lot of the commercial aircraft,
19:52actually the engines are pumping down data
19:55to the manufacturer so that they have tracking data
19:58for the airlines so that they can understand
20:00the health of the engine during a flight.
20:03So we're tracking these airplanes all the time.
20:05The biggest problem, especially with MH370,
20:09is that there are black spots, that is voids,
20:12in the coverage around the world.
20:14We have over-the-horizon looking radar,
20:16typically 1,200 to 1,500 miles from the radar site,
20:20but we don't have a radar site positioned
20:22in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
20:24MH370 really wakened the eyes of the aviation community
20:29that we need better tracking worldwide
20:32so that we do get rid of these voids
20:34or these blackout areas.
20:36Proteus asks, how often can pilots actually prevent crashes
20:40during dangerous, catastrophic events?
20:43If it leads to a major crash,
20:45it's probably because it was beyond the pilot's control.
20:49One example, United Airlines 232, Sioux City, Iowa, DC-10,
20:54the fan section in the center section of the aircraft
20:57failed, cut the hydraulic lines,
20:59rendering the airplane incapacitated.
21:02The pilots had to use differential power
21:04on both the wing engines
21:06to not only help the airplane climb or descend,
21:09but maintain control and steer the aircraft.
21:12The miracle on the Hudson accident
21:14involving an Airbus A320,
21:16Captain Sullenberg and First Officer Jeff Skiles,
21:19the pilots had to make split-second decisions
21:22based on the best available evidence
21:24and information that they had.
21:25Sullenberg actually took control of the airplane.
21:28He could feel the performance.
21:29He knew that really his only viable option
21:33was to land in the river.
21:34That was seat of the pants flying,
21:36as it's called in aviation,
21:38and they landed it with the least amount of damage.
21:40They were all able to survive, evacuate the aircraft,
21:43and they were able to be rescued.
21:45AJ73 asks, Korean Air Flight 801 missed final approach.
21:50How bad?
21:51Well, I actually represented the United States
21:54in that investigation
21:55because I was the investigator in charge.
21:57The fact is they did not miss the final approach.
21:59They actually crashed on final approach.
22:01Unfortunately, it was six miles from the airport
22:04because they hit a hill,
22:05and that's because the flight crew didn't understand
22:07how to fly a non-precision electronic approach.
22:11Unfortunately, 250-plus people died in that accident,
22:15but we did learn about spurious signals
22:18affecting navigation systems on the airplane.
22:21She's Fishy asks, what happens if you don't use
22:23your cell phone in airplane mode on a plane?
22:26The signal coming off of your phone,
22:28or your iPad, or even your computer,
22:30can disrupt, a lot of times, the navigation system,
22:34even the ground proximity warning systems on an airplane.
22:37The wires on an airplane are insulated
22:39from spurious signals, but you don't wanna take a chance.
22:42Aircraft manufacturers don't wanna take a chance,
22:45and definitely the FAA and other certifying authorities
22:48don't wanna take a chance.
22:50In the interest of aviation safety, turn off your phone.
22:53Marlo Dejour asks, anyone else who isn't afraid of flying
22:57ever just remember Aloha Airlines flight 243,
23:00and just have a good think on that?
23:02Unfortunately, it was a fatal accident
23:04because it happened at altitude,
23:06and we lost a flight attendant
23:08when the top of the airplane separated
23:10from the rest of the structure.
23:11That accident will never happen again.
23:14The reason for it is because
23:15we have better inspection process.
23:17That was an older 737 that had developed a crack.
23:21The crack was missed during an inspection.
23:23So those are all the great questions we have for today.
23:25Thanks for watching Aviation Accident Support, and fly safe.