A Decimal Point Decided the Fate of These Passengers... | Varig Flight 254

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“Ladies and gentlemen, we have no idea where we are!”
These are probably the last words you want to hear from your pilots and yet, but a variation of this is exactly what the passengers of Varig flight 254 were about to hear...
Now, what led up to this absurd situation is both a fascinating tale of the limitations of the human mind and a lesson in how NOT to act in a cockpit. Stay tuned.
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode.
SOURCES
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Final Report:
sistema.cenipa...
Amazon Footage: classic old videos
• Nomads of the Rain For...
Football Game:
• 1989 (September 3) Bra...
Radar History:
• How Does ATC Aviation ...
Radio Broadcast: Binu VV
• SAO PEDRO CHURCH | EAS...

[@MentourPilot]

Use code “pilot” at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: incogni.com/pilot

[@reminderIknows]

pilot

[@le_385]

@MentourPilot Can you make a video about it? On Saturday 29 February 1964, British Eagle International Airlines Flight 802/6 crashed into the Glungezer mountain near Innsbruck, Austria.

[@mycosys]

You seemingly forgot the Admiral Cloudberg link? or im blind

[@Hope_Boat]

But... Who won the match?

[@pantern2]

I can't actually find the link to Admiral Cloudberg.

[@Nilboggen]

These passengers are definitely the most proactive crash victims I have heard of. They were sending expeditions, found water, found a way to contact authorities. Basically, rescued themselves.

[@scotthill1600]

“You are your own first responder” “when seconds count the cops are minutes away” etc etc.

[@josuegavi]

There's another example of that, and it's the passengers of the Uruguayan flight that crashed into the Andes mountains, there are two movies about that, one it's called "Viven" (I don't know how it's called in English) and the most recent is "The society of the snow".

[@AfricanLionBat]

​@@josuegavi I don't speak the language and never saw it, but the movie "Viven" translates to "Alive" in English. It's a film about the 1972 Andes plane crash and the survival story of the Uruguayan rugby team members who were on board. The movie is based on the true events and the book "Alive" by Piers Paul Read.

[@josuegavi]

@@AfricanLionBat yeah! That same movie! It's a very hard story and a great, great example of the survival instinct kicking in and helping people to achieve things that are at the most extreme levels of the human capacity. Both "Alive" and "The society of the snow" are such great productions (I've only watched them once, very hard story).

[@EriBarr]

@@AfricanLionBattechnically ’Viven’ translates to ‘Live’….

[@firstnamelastname5474]

I don't know what part of this incident is more ridiculous, the fact that a missing decimal caused this, the lack of what you would think is basic navigational sense or the understanding that you're absolutely lost and going to crash in a rainforest but still not informing anyone. It is, ironically, still pure dumb luck that they had a forest surveyer passenger and that they were actually just a few kilometers out on an open field manned by a farmer. If this wasn't posted here at Mentour Pilot, I would think Hollywood is going crazy at it again.

[@velisvideos6208]

"Brazil"

[@raquellofstedt9713]

@@velisvideos6208 😆

[@hayleyxyz]

I can understand the initial heading mistake, but everything after that is unforgivable

[@sparky6086]

They were lucky, that they found the farmer who had a neighbor w/ a ham radio, rather than some lost cannibalitic tribe of natives!

[@dattebenforcer]

A missing decimal is pretty serious, it also caused a Saturn V rocket to crash.

[@johncrossphd342]

"Lets see, did I input the wrong data, or did someone move a city of a million people? Hmmm, damned bureaucrats must have moved that damned city!"

[@falcon-ng6sd]

"Am I so out of touch? No... it's the children who are wrong!"

[@tjm3900]

And the Sun.....

[@sw7366]

Confirmation bias is powerful!

[@NicolaW72]

Something like that must have happened, yes.

[@robcanisto8635]

​@@NicolaW72 he's not far off on the joke about people who unironically blame "bureaucrats" for every little thing lol

[@lumgs2009]

A passenger named Epaminondas Chaves gave testimony in various interviews and documentaries that, being a frequent flyer of this route, he realized they were in the wrong place and tried to warn the crew. He was ignored. He was also one of the hero passengers who walked over 40 km through thick rain forest to find help. Co-pilot Zille's interviews are numerous. What he depicts about what took place in that cockpit is so much more incredible that it comes close to criminal. I know about confirmational bias, but flying into the sunset to the point you need to put on you sun glasses when you are supposed to go northwest is just mind blowing 🤯 I'll never get my head around this.

[@Miss-Kitty-Cat]

I live in the north of England, and I used to work in a motorway service station, and the amount of (always British) people who would land at Manchester Airport, drive more than an hour north (following signs that say at the top "THE NORTH"), stop to ask me how much further it was to London, and then argue when I told them they were going the wrong way, makes this accident totally believable. I'm shocked it wasn't more common before GPS and near-total radar coverage.

[@071949]

About going the wrong way, a couple or so times when I have been driving I have had to detour because of an accident or fire blocking my usual route. I have found myself in unfamiliar territory and have sometimes driven several blocks in the wrong direction, but eventually I say to myself "this isn't right", turn around, and after a bit find my way back home. RogerC 5/27/24

[@colins2]

@Miss-Kitty-Cat I understand your point and it is shocking how ill-informed British people are when it comes to geography but for 2 pilots to make this mistake really is incredible. I have been 'navigating' for at least 60 years, everything from map reading in the scouts to navigating ships as a profession for 50 years and navigating planes as a private pilot for 40 years. As many others have mentioned, I just can't understand how 2 qualified pilots could have made this mistake. The only saving grace is that they managed to crash in a fairly controlled manner saving most of the lives on board. In this particular accident it was probably better that they did run the tanks dry to prevent a fire.

[@ibrahimsued4906]

I just had a new insight on patients having the wrong limb operated. Its not a simple 'mistake'. Indeed that's someone with laterality problems in the chain of events :(

[@ibrahimsued4906]

@@colins2 Indeed the only fatalities were because of the detachinhg of the seats, besides to one passenger having just been standing when the plane landed

[@selseyonetwenty4631]

I don't believe a word of this! Nobody stops at the services to ask how far it is to their destination. People get lost of course, or take the wrong slip road and end up joining the motorway in the wrong direction, but not as simple as they don't realise they are going north instead of south. I once missed the exit to Stansted airport and was stuck going north on the M11 until I could find a junction to get off and turn, about a 14 mile detour if I remember, but I knew I was going the wrong way I just didn't know how to fix it.

[@KazumaKarasu]

Lost scenarios like this are why we teach our students to "Climb, Conserve, Confess" if they get lost. Getting yelled at for poor navigation practice is better than being dead.

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed, exactly.

[@MothaLuva]

How do you know?

[@seamusburke9101]

​@@MothaLuvaoh do you think you'd be better off dead?

[@freeculture]

I know of at least two fatal crashes of pilots losing their bearings in my country. One: Aeropostal 108 they input bearing 152 when they meant 192, newfangled LCD display made 5 and 9 too similar, and a horrible cockpit opposite of sterile, got in the clouds realized too late the mistake and crashed the mountain. The other Santa Barbara 518 was in a hurry and skipped take off checks, including a critical time wait to allow re-calibration for a navigational instrument, got into the clouds lost himself crashing the mountain.

[@stevebalt5234]

Unless you’re married to my wife

[@birchy188]

"Months after the accident, the flight plan Varig 254 used was shown to 21 pilots of major airlines in the world during a test conducted by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations. No fewer than 15 pilots committed the same mistake that the Varig flight 254 crew had made."

[@frankforster706]

Unbelievable. The decimal being left out most of all but also how confirmation bias apparently adds additional filters to our perception, in this case filtering out very basic navigational knowledge that these pilots had used and practiced for years

[@rnies6849]

which means the airlines are full with amateurs and I wonder why accidents are rare. Is this perhaps a proof that there is God?

[@dcpack]

My aviation experience is as a 20 Coast Guard helicopter flight mech with some basic aerial navigation training. Hard to believe the results of this study.

[@maximilian672]

@@dcpackNever underestimate our brains ability to just accept things that seem ok. If we do not expect an error or mistake, we won't usually go looking for one. It doesn't help that we tend to get overconfident in our abilities the more experience we have either.

[@AaronOfMpls]

The pilots were on autopilot too -- and sadly, I could see myself making a similar mistake if I had a lot of other things to go through when setting something up.

[@COLDB33R]

"The Captain was not worried. He was supremely confident in his navigational skills." The First Officer, not so much.

[@DeltaEntropy]

@@YankeeRebel1348flight plan errors - 1 Pilot errors - too numerous to count

[@barbarachambers7974]

I think the pilot was to arrogant to declare an emergency.

[@brucewilliamsstudio4932]

As a commercial pilot I sadly admit that I have met a few 'low functioning' pilots in my lifetime. Clearly these two pilots fit into that category.

[@erniecolussy1705]

​@@brucewilliamsstudio4932 Unfortunately this is very common in most trades. Often it is hard to identify someone that is low functioning. The captain was a former military pilot. Usually that indicates high function. There are supervisors that at some level prefer lower functional subordinates. This is due to the supervisors own low function or insecurity. (Note, if good CRM existed it would be obvious that the first officer is low functioning. But with the power gradient that existed it is possible that the first officer felt so suppressed that he didn't bother to engage in critical thinking until the reality of the situation slapped him in the face.)

[@NicolaW72]

@@barbarachambers7974 Indeed. It would have meant to "loose his Face". So he digged himself and all the others on board deeper and deeper into the hole.

[@chuuu4610]

This group of passengers were incredibly resilient. They recovered from the fear and went to work doing what they needed to fast. And even went swimming.

[@nw4042]

8:45 As a dude who aced the land nav course at Benning, watched the map showing where the cities are, and knows more than a little bit about Brazil, I saw that "0270" on the nav table, and said, "this moron is about to fly due west out of here and run out of gas in the middle of the Amazon"

[@meagandekkar6377]

Cheers from 1st Mar Div!

[@johncline7518]

The Morse message being displayed in the video at 3:10 is PLEASE/SUBSCRIBE!

[@MentourPilot]

🤘🏻😁😁😁

[@WoodFamilyRu]

​@@MentourPilot what a fascinating easter egg 😊 a cherry on the pie of a perfect storytelling, visualization and technical explanation 😊😊😊😊😊

[@johnrussell6872]

@MentourPilot , for the touch of class I have just subscribed

[@meagandekkar6377]

Very good! 👍

[@hennebux]

Amazing

[@cupofcoffee4251]

I'm speechless. If this was a movie everyone would say this is too absurd.

[@NicolaW72]

Yes, indeed. But as another Commenter here wrode in this Forum: Reality doesn´t need Plausibility.

[@kamakaziozzie3038]

Same here. I am without speech. Unbelievable

[@penguin12902]

Mind blowing that they never even tried to ask for help on the radio....

[@SEOTeamBerlin]

this event should provide enough material for @least 1 movie 🎥🤪👍🏽

[@aarondavis8943]

It is strange that he didn't check the thing that determines where the place flies!

[@SpeedChecked]

Incredible story of how CRM is so important. The copilot's career stopped too early because of this accident. He is now going everywhere in Brazil speaking about the importance of CRM to new pilots and telling his side of the story.

[@MentourPilot]

I didn’t know he did that. Thanks

[@CapitalismSuxx]

@@MentourPilot I never remember if they speak Spanish or Portuguese in Brazil, but you can find an extensive interview with Copilot Zille here on KZbin. Nilson Zille, and his story is extremely interesting. He actually realized kind of early where they might be, but the Capt ignored him so he shut up about it. He also told that a few of the pax had thoughts about travelling into the sun when they were supposed to go north.

[@DianaRozza]

​@@CapitalismSuxx we speak Portuguese

[@Asdayasman]

@@CapitalismSuxx Portuguese. The language code is "pt-BR", that's how I remember it.

[@TheMofRider2]

​@@AsdayasmanExactly, brasilian portugese.

[@jamesrice4072]

As a truck driver, i remember times when i was completely lost and not sure if i would come up on a low clearance bridge or tirn not made for trucks. My stomach was in knots. I can't fathom what they went thru.

[@NeasCZ]

From what I've heard, there was actually a passenger who realized they've been heading in a wrong direction long before the pilots did, by recognizing some landmarks. He was ignored.

[@lizzyluv96]

Do we know who that passenger is or if they survived?

[@rubbishbin2936]

Omg I can’t imagine how torturous that must’ve been for them. The feeling of knowing what is going on but having no way to stop or fix it is awful. I’d imagine it’s even worse of a feeling when you’re stuck in the air.

[@toddsmith8608]

That's even worse when i saw my bag get left on the luggage cart instead of loaded onto the plane. I told the flight attendants before we pushed back and of course they didn't care.

[@salocin6125]

​@@toddsmith8608they cant care. its always possible that passengers are wrong in their assumptions and everything is handled under time pressure

[@toddsmith8608]

@@salocin6125 yeah i knew they wouldn't/ couldn't do anything, i just kinda blurted it out as they drove the cart away with my bag on it. The feeling of helplessness and knowing i wouldn't have my luggage when i got to my destination was just frustrating. In the end it wasn't a huge deal, i got the bag in a couple days but it felt like a big deal in the moment.

[@firstnamelastname5474]

"This was a true testament to how easy it is to dig yourself deeper into a hole when the right thing to do is to get out, look around with a fresh perspective, and start all over again" It's always these philosophical tidbits that I look forward to, I am not a pilot, but watching Petter's videos is always so amazingly educational that you can always learn something from it and apply it in life. Another great one Petter! Kudos to you and the team as always.

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you! I’m hoping it helps someone out there. That’s the point of them.

[@firstnamelastname5474]

@@MentourPilot you're such a precious gem, one of the greatest teachers we're blessed to be alive with at the same time and I mean that fully. You're helping people in more ways than you could ever imagine. Wishing nothing but the best for you, Captain!

[@rnies6849]

@@firstnamelastname5474 true, but I wonder if he can sleep well at night?

[@robertgantry2118]

I'm not a pilot either but these videos make me feel like I could pilot a star ship!

[@melbionic]

that philosophy applies to other fields as well. It's always ideal to take a step back and think about your situation!

[@marceloskyrioca]

@mentourpilot your video is very precise. My name is Marcelo DaSilva and I was member of the rescue team (Para-Sar) that found the airplane in the jungle, I still have many pictures of the accident and I remember that day like was today. Great job.

[@Solarstormflare]

thank you for your hard work saving the survivors.

[@theaureliasys6362]

What I find most amazing was just how resilient the plane was. Even with all the adverse conditions, it still landed with a lot of survivors.

[@bigdata9605]

They don’t build them like that anymore

[@naaat]

it also helps that they're out of fuel, so no explosion

[@TestTestGo]

Being a smaller plane probably helps too, less total kinetic energy that can go into deforming the structure before it comes to a halt.

[@mercurybard9794]

​@@bigdata9605I'm sure all my colleagues are tired of hearing me say this.

[@AJxbox1x]

these videos are better than most aviation movies while teaching you the most interesting things

[@patmitskey839]

Absolutely🤔👌👍

[@pjabrony8280]

Yes, because Petter isn't going for drama, he's going for information and letting what really happened create the drama.

[@orion_13]

I've been watching his episodes for a while now and they are amazingly produced. The only fault with this one was the music level at the very end.

[@Detlock07]

​@@orion_13I was thinking the exact same thing.

[@TheNeighborhoodCat]

indeed

[@Robert_N]

This has to rank as one of the most bizarre accident in aviation history.

[@bradsanders407]

It's up there. It really came down to one mistake which led to a complete and total blunder of not orienting the river with the sun. But it's somewhat understandable as they are trained to fly by their instruments and not by outside cues. So in a high stress situation and hoping beyond hope you are going the right direction it's actually pretty easy to understand how the radio frequencies made them disregard common sense.

[@bradsanders407]

I put the alligator crashing the plane at the top of the list. And Air France 447 slightly above this one based on how a airline pilot could pull back on the stick from cruising level til impact. That is by far the most egregious pilot error I've ever heard of. That is like ground school day 1 type stuff and he did it as a commercial pilot. That and the confirmation bias of the other pilot that it was the right thing to do once he fought for control and got the plane to finally believe they were at the attitude it was saying causing the stall warning to come on and shut off when the pilot pulled back on the stick getting the plane in an attitude it simply didn't belive was possible so it would quit sounding. The pilots in the video didn't give much consideration to navigate and communicate but the air France pilots didn't give much if any to the 1st one, aviate and very little to communicate.

[@tommcglone2867]

I raise you the Let-410 crash in DR Congo. A freaking crocodile had been smuggled on board in a duffle bag and it escaped. The resulting stampede towards the fromt of the plane caused it to nosedive and crash.

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed, exactly. And you cannot explain everything of it with confirmation bias and get-there-itis - not following established procedures, lack of CRM and not at least simply Stupidity played a huge role here.

[@juliadagnall5816]

It’s up there, but the plane that crashed because they forgot to factor the difference between magnetic north and true north ranks just a little higher for me.

[@greenbeenie2]

I am a pilot, was trained mostly with the military. I always made a habit in my flight planning stage to find my destination on the map, and take a "bearing" in my mind, then confirmed with the compass. I was flying prior to the introduction of GPS. I guess I am one of the "strange" ones, I kind of liked flying the NDB. To me, it was not that much different than VOR. As long as you have the numbers and approach plates to go along with them. Of course, GPS makes is so much easier, but also, makes pilots that much more lazy. They assume that everything will go fine and just plug in the destination airport and fly the pretty line on the screen. (I also enjoy that, but, that was ALWAYS the last part of my planning). Thank you "mentor" for your videos. I watch most of them, don't reply much.....This flight really "pissed" me off because of how stupid it was. Yes, we have all the correct "terms" to use, but the fact was, the pilots just did not do the dam basics....in planning, in CRM, with pilot decision-making, with believing their instruments, which kind of important when flying instruments. TWO "EXPERIENCED" pilots, and neither of them did just the BASICS.............AND PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE OF IT, MANY LIVES CHANGED FOREVER "LIFE IS TOUGH, IT IS TOUGHER IF YOU ARE STUPID"..... THANK YOU Mentor for all your videos and your input on them. God bless, be safe.

[@paullindberg7242]

Absolutely right. It made me angry too. As an engineer, we do a lot of complex calculations, but in the end, we always sit back and ask ourselves "Is my answer reasonable?" Flying into the setting sun when wanting to head NE is simply not reasonable. Those pilots never got a mental map of where they were going.

[@thecrazyswede2495]

@@paullindberg7242 An earlier generation talked about _sanity check_ . 10*10 = 100 11*11 = 12100 Well...😁

[@djinn666]

I don't think it's a generational thing. It's people who are detail-oriented versus people who like to go by feel. I'm the former so I'm always looking for alternate, independent data points to validate my initial thinking. For example, despite having GPS, I'm always double checking that what the GPS is showing matches up to what I'm expecting in terms of the general direction. While it's very rare for the GPS itself to not work, its database of roads can be inaccurate at times, and occasionally I put in the wrong destination, e.g. 2 stores with the same name but it opposite directions.

[@nevilleneville6518]

@@djinn666 Yes and no. In my profession (radiotherapy), its increasingly technical, computerised and automated. More experienced radiographers understand the theory and background knowledge behind this because they used to have to do it manually. Less experienced radiographers will push the buttons and trust the computer to do it for them and as such are less likely to realise when something could be a potential issue. But I agree some people are more detail orientated. I would class myself in that category, but I simply don't have the old school knowledge that my more experienced colleagues do.

[@HortaPlaying]

Great episode, thank you for covering it. This was one of the craziest plane crashes in Brazil, but if you have time, I'd very much like to see your take on the 3 most recent, and unfortunately, deadliest ones there: TAM flights 402 (Fokker-100, reversor deployed during takeoff) and 3054 (A320 runway overrun while landing in bad weather with a very strange engine behavior), and GOL 1907 (737NG cruise-altitude collision with a private Embraer Legacy 600).

[@Legendaryrabbit567-rj4nt]

The level of these videos is INSANE 🔥🔥 ! As a boy who dreams to be a pilot one day, your videos help me a lot . Thank you so much peter and the team for their hardwork 🙏

[@MentourPilot]

Persistence make dreams a reality. Keep dreaming and keep persisting. Enjoy!

[@AugustusLarch]

You are 'legendary'. And always learn to keep a paper chart on flights. Every aid could fail. Then you have that chart.

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

Good luck there young fella... I hope you can realise your dream. Pros like Captain Hornfeldt here set a great example and knowing the next generation takes such a keen interest learning from him give me such a sense of confidence that there are plenty of young people out there using the internet for more than social media and p*rn. I work in the world of elite performing arts, with a focus on finding young talent and some of the skills I see kids learning are truly superhuman. I'm amazed by the quality of upcoming talent on a daily basis. Largely that's thanks to the essentially free access to all of the knowledge and examples, from the world's very best professionals in their respective discipline and it's things like that which give me hope that the future is going to be okay. If young people are given the resources, the examples and (critically) the encouragement to succeed... The talent always rises to the top. I'm so sick of hearing people of my age (I'm 37) naysaying the potential of the next generation and writing off the amazing access to the internet as merely rotting the minds of our kids. A little bit of encouragement goes a long way and I encourage you to make the most of this technological age we're living in. Make tomorrow a better place to be than today and achieve your dreams young man, it's never been more possible than it is right now.

[@hayleyxyz]

Good luck mate :)

[@Balrog-tf3bg]

If you do end up being a pilot, watch as many of these types of videos as you can and soak up as much knowledge as possible

[@GoianoAmazonia]

As an Amazonian person, living near the Xingu River, and who dreams of being a pilot someday, I can't thank you enough for this video, Peter! Your accent when saying 'Goiânia', which is the city where I was born, sounds really amusing to me. But that was the only part where I remembered that you're not from here. Because on the whole video, I was amazed at how much details you could find. I've been looking on stuff about this accident for years. Yet you managed to bring up some details that I never knew of. I really liked the part where you debunked the theory that the pilots were listening to the match, a theory in which some Brazilian people still believes to this day.

[@TheMofRider2]

I knew only about ATC, especially in Maraba being accused of paying more attention to the match than the plane.

[@mikefoehr235]

Being a surveyor and using GPS to survey, i still use my key chain compass to see where north is. Flying into the sun at heading 270 is a mighty colossal blunder. I know 45 degrees is north east and if you have a hi qulaity compass where you can adjust for declination, you can navigafe quite well. I did in my younger years as a hunter in northern ontario bush. Being a surveyor is one of the most inportant parts...navigatjon. i love how you give such great detail in these videos.

[@mrblc882]

I'm mountaineering guide and when I was in, both, general mountaineering school and mountaineering guide training, main focus was on map, compass and triangulation. But recently, we shifted our focus little bit to common sense specifically to avoid mistakes like this. If you check your map periodically, you can basically locate yourself more precise than with compass triangulation. You can also early detect any drift and if you are aware your surrounding, you can both, sanity check your compass triangulation if one is needed and locate yourself more precise inside triangle you get with triangulation. Common sense is most important navigation instrument.

[@IngoSchwarze]

Yeah, once we were stuck at Rifugio Cassati (which is located in the middle of a large glacier plateau) in dense clouds and decided to ski down the Langenferner to the Rifugio Nino Corsi since the weather was no good for climbing any of surrounding 11&12,000ft mountains. Our guide was quite young and inexperienced and ended up using the wrong edge of his compass to get his bearing on his printed map, so he departed at an angle of 90° to the correct course, almost like in the video: in this case he went SE, but should have gone NE. It took him several minutes to realize that he was going slightly uphill while the plan was to go slightly downhill. So 90° errors like this can even happen to professionals (even though they are indeed extremely rare). Exactly as you say, his common sense (up or down?) told him "something must be wrong here", so he stopped and re-checked the map and compass and of course promptly discovered and corrected the mistake. My father told me later he noticed right away something was off when departing from the hut because he knew that particular mountain hut very well, including how exactly the building is oriented. He chose not to intervene because he knew for sure there was nothing dangerous on the glacier for the first km or so and he wanted to see what would happen. And for sure nothing much happened at all: the professional just used his common sense, soon found his own mistake, corrected it way before there was the slightest danger, and apologized. Not using common sense was likely among the worst contributing factors in this video: Does the heading of 270° make any sense? Should we be flying into the sunset? Are there any forests North of Belem? Is there more than one river in the Amazon basin? If we have flown to the West, made a U-turn to the East, and then reach the Amazon, should we then really turn right along the river? (Hint: no, even if it actually were the Amazon, turning left along the river would make more sense.) 🤔

[@MikkoRantalainen]

9:20 This makes me think that pilot training should contain tasks where the input data is intentionally so incorrect that the students should be able to figure it out and ask for clarification. If students learn that all input given by somebody else is always correct, they will never learn to always verify if any input they receive seems to make sense in big picture. Of course, such a sanity check cannot fix small problems but those are probably not dangerous enough to create a safety issue, unlike flying in totally incorrect direction and potentially running out of fuel even if they notice the problem later. And if something this happens in mountain range, then it could turn fatal very fast.

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed, exactly.

[@indianfan1029]

We are going in the exact reverse direction of that. People are becoming more and more like robots, without any independent thinking. Only work in a preset routine.

[@JeffreyHeydenKaye]

Drinking my coffee and almost spit it out and Mentour Pilot says “I’m sure you almost spit out your coffee”. Me looking around to see if he’s in my house 😅

[@jimmyzhao2673]

Omigosh ! I was drinking coffee too. good thing I had set my cup down at that part.

[@Mssmaimone]

From a Brazilian fan of yours, and huge aviation addict since I was a kid, I'm very pleased to have the chance to hear words from a professional from another country, in fact another continent, about such a famous accident, one that I grew up reading and watching things about! Cheers, Petter, really enjoy your work!

[@Wulthrin]

imagine being a passenger two hours into a 40 minute flight. freaky.

[@peteking8063]

Happens a lot with diversions due to poor flying weather conditions

[@Comradez]

@@peteking8063 Yeah, but usually with a deliberate diversion the captain would communicate that to the passengers at some point...

[@luiskp7173]

I’d hope at least they consider back-tracking if the conditions are bad enough or if they get lost (Taking in account they’re not past some point of not return), but as Petter said they dug themselves into a deeper hole.

[@peteking8063]

@@Comradez correct

[@paternusowen2106]

"Today marks the 700th's anniversary of our 5 year cruise" -The Captain, Wall-E

[@rolandolero9825]

The details you bring are incredible, I'm a pilot in Brazil and I've rarely seen a reconstruction as detailed as yours. The lack of CRM, the Captain's power distance and arrogance were the preponderant factors for this emblematic accident in Brazil.

[@BruPadov]

The captain's last message to the passengers was: “We ask everyone to remain calm because a situation like this is really difficult to happen, we leave everyone with hope that this is nothing more than just a scare for all of us. Thank you very much for your attention and may everyone have a good ending.” message taken and translated from the original Flight Recorder from the plane.

[@connielentz1114]

From a doctor: we are required to be extremely precise with decimal places and zeros when ordering medications or writing prescriptions. In my hospital an elderly patient died from being given 10 times the correct dose for his age. Another young healthy patient fortunately survived a milligrams dose of adrenaline instead of the micrograms he should have been given with cardiac resuscitation. Precision is critical. And yes, I did spit out my tea!

[@apatheiajane4863]

I’ve seen a vet make the same mistake, 10x the valium dose for cat size. Thankfully, it just led to a very stoned cat - we quickly noticed it seemed way too strong, so we took her back in and the clinic’s other vet was on duty and caught the dosage mistake.

[@connielentz1114]

It's interesting how often the issues Petter uncovers in aviation apply in medicine, and other areas

[@SpamMouse]

I recall a radiation therapy patient accidently given a lethal dose because of a mistyped exposure amount, I was shocked that the machine's software just accepted whatever value was entered without any "That's a big number - are you sure?". When I used to code things I always included what I called a sanity-check on non-normal values.

[@XBelliboniX]

Being a Brazilian pilot myself, this accident is used since in every single pilot course as an example of how a small detail (the misinterpretation of a coma), the lack of CRM and the overconfidence can (and might take) an aircraft down. In every single license I did, the Varig 254 was quoted in one way or another. As curiosity, there is a transcript from the CVR with the last PA made from Captain Garcez: "Ladies and Gentleman, this is the captain speaking. We had a disorientation malfunction in our compass. We have our fuel in the last 15 minutes. We ask everybody to remain calm because this is a very difficult situation to happen. We leave everyone hoping that this is nothing more than a scare. Thank you very much for your attention and may everyone have a good ending".

[@NicolaW72]

😮

[@robertamenegheloapezzattom5372]

I was anxious waiting for the day you would tell us this history! As a Brazilian and an aviation fan I already watched videos and interviews about this accident. Thank tou for showing details that I didn’t hear any where else. It is also sad to watch interviews from the FO (the Captain made sure to never say a word as he also knew all the mistakes he did and the hierarchy that he never left behind, even when needed). Nilson Zille, the FO, has a book and a bunch of interviews where he tells us everything that was said in the cockpit, after the accident when he woke up from his head injury AND after being rescued (reports needed to be written, right?). Thank you for all your work Petter. It ia amazing to hear our history from overseas 🇧🇷

[@fallandbounce]

I never got past that two pilots who were supposed to fly north were perfectly comfortable flying into the sunset.

[@jimmyzhao2673]

ikr. That part staggers the mind.

[@joelazaro461]

Absolute clowns. Same as the GPS drivers who will drive their car into a lake instead of using common sense.

[@AnikaBren]

​@joelazaro461 I tell everyone coming to my place to not trust GPS, and then I give them directions. At best it will take them 10 or 20 miles out of their way, or it may take them to an address 20 miles to my NE. At worst it will get them stuck in a bog. 15 to 20 percent of people will still use GPS. One lady even blamed me for her getting stuck(she dug herself in to her frame) and expected me to do something to get her out.

[@oalternativo]

This event is well known in Brazil. The captain was known for being arrogant and intolerant with what he considered insubordination. It’s very much likely that he did realize the course was wrong early on, but his pride stopped him from admitting such a stupid mistake. And certainly the first officer noticed too, but was too affraid to challenge the captain’s authority. There were events during the investigation that weren’t told on the video. The captain threatened the first officer to force him to back up his version. He never spoke to the press and remained arrogant to this date. I don’t know if he arleady passed away or not. Anyway, the pilots’ version was s way too absurd to be believable. What really happened was pure arrogance, stubbornness and cowardice.

[@pranjulmishra2286]

Exactly what I thought

[@whocarescrapsa]

As a software engineer, one of the first lessons I learnt was to pay special attention to decimal places. I wrote software that was scheduling the maintenance on equipment. There was dropdown with the usual minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and a text box to put the value in. An engineer entered 0.5 years while I had tested for 6 months. You can imagine what happened.

[@elina35462]

Also a software dev and this is the reason why I go by the rule: give people a text box and you'll get the most horrendous inputs known to humanity. Your example is a great showcase of how any input types other than a text box (e.g. drop down, etc) should be preferred as they can offer much better UX and reduce the surface area for errors. Thanks for sharing

[@aspuzling]

Well, this is not a mundane detail, Michael!

[@jonathannorris-green1466]

That’s how you end up in a federal pound me in the A$$ prison

[@alanhaywood01]

Ex software guy here, no, I cannot omsagine what happened. So, what did happen?

[@nosuchanimal6947]

@@alanhaywood01 4 possibilities present themselves: a) it gets parsed as 0 years; a maintenance interval of 0 would mean that the equipment would always be flagged as "needing maintenance", raising some eyebrows and someone chasing down that issue before it actually turns into a problem b) it gets parsed as 0 years; a maintenance interval of 0 is interpreted as "does not need maintenance ever" c) it gets parsed as 05 years. 10 times as long as the planned cycle. also not a good outcome d) some data corruption occurs due to the unexpected data, causing who knows what kinds of problem with whatever other equipment gets caught up in this. but from context, that's unlikely. still, there's that story about the guy with the vanity plates reading "null", getting assigned all the unassigned speeding tickets in the system

[@iurisilveira]

Brazilian here, I was about 20 years old when that happened, and the company was from the very state I was born. Nowadays the flight industry in Brazil is at international level, but back then it was not up to par, and I can see the pilot initially applying the "Brazilian way", we say "dar um jeitinho" to fix situations using off the book methods, and then later realizing how screwed they got and even became afraid of career implications for declaring an emergency. A total mess. So sorry for the ones losing their lives in this gross error. I don't remember hearing a lot in the news about this accident (and may be I wasn't paying much attention back then in 1989) but traffic accidents were at a high number "making the news", probably shadowing it. Glad we are far from those days in Brazil, now the flight industry is very safe, similar to any first world country, thanks to investments and progress in technology.

[@PappaMike-vc1qv]

This channel should be mandatory training for flight crews and ATC. Excellent production quality and accurate details. Your analysis takes accident investigation to a new level. Thanks.

[@StevenBanks123]

“We’re going down? … cocktails!” What a fantastically weird event.

[@jimmyzhao2673]

ikr. I totally wasn't expecting that.

[@guy9360]

Then you are stuck in the jungle with these people for several days

[@Mangolorian-je3eo]

If you were going down in an airliner, wouldn't you want to be drunk?

[@marinareilly-collette2490]

It's like the Baker (Charles Joughin) on the Titanic getting totally sauced before she sank. Since it's a known fact that the relaxation of muscles caused by extreme inebriation makes drunk drivers more likely to survive their accidents than their victims are, I wonder if it actually helped some of them survive...

[@danielbishop1863]

@@marinareilly-collette2490 : I was just about to make the same reference, but you beat me to it. Alcohol can disable a person's panic reaction, which is helpful in situations where conserving physical energy is needed for survival.

[@jjares]

I learned something today. Situational awareness is a crazy thing, even though they definitely knew Belem was to the north they were more than happy to fly more than an hour straight west and then to the south just because their own biases threw them that way. I found myself doing that in exams, just forcing an answer into my own bias instead of taking a very close look to the actual question. This video has helped me more in my ppl exams than actual theory books.

[@kenbrown2808]

I was in a high school class, where half the class was a member of the "donut club" when our own bias resulted in not actually reading the instructions on a test, and giving completely wrong answers.

[@nlwilson4892]

Not just flying west but flying west into the sunset. Every bit of basic knowledge of how the sun and earth interact should have been screaming at them that they were flying in the wrong direction.

[@bradsanders407]

It's easy to monday morning quarterback a detail like that (even though you are wrong, it should have been northeast) but you have to remember they been flying in a zigzag pattern all day so seeing the sun in the wrong location wouldn't be as alarming to someone who is flying their first flight of the day. Also remember an ifr pilot is trained to fly without looking out the windows so visual cues wouldnt be as noticeable/concerning as it would be to a nonpilot or vfr pilot for thay matter. Mistaking that river for the Amazon was pretty egregious but by then their stress level would have been through the roof making confirmation bias that much more intense. My biggest problem wasn't even the mistakes that got then in the situation they were in. They were mistakes. Everyone makes them. What I have a problem with is them not sending out a mayday. That's something they made a conscious effort not to do which may or may not have cost a life or two.

[@kenbrown2808]

@@bradsanders407 here's a thing. The front windows on a 747 have a wide enough field of view that the setting sun would be visible to the pilots.

[@jjares]

@@bradsanders407 270 is straight west, 027 is between north and northeast. Still my point is that people know the general location of things in their country. If I have to go from Barcelona to Madrid and my heading is 90 degrees I should suspect something is not quite right.

[@biltrex]

The thin line between confidence and arrogance is probably the most important psychological factor to balance when you’re a pilot. And it’s something that everyone around that pilot should know and frequently reevaluate.

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed, exactly.

[@peterkiedron8949]

Arrogance is confidence for Latinos.

[@gman83090]

Shortwave propagation refers to the ability of radio signals to travel long distances through the Earth's atmosphere, particularly at night. During the day, the sun's radiation ionizes the atmosphere, creating a layer of charged particles that absorb and scatter radio waves. However, at night, this layer dissipates, allowing radio signals to travel farther without being absorbed or scattered. This enables radio stations to be received at much greater distances than would be possible during the day. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable on the shortwave frequency bands (2.3-26.1 MHz), which are used for long-distance communication and broadcasting. As a result, many radio enthusiasts and hobbyists enjoy listening to distant radio stations at night, taking advantage of the improved propagation conditions.

[@filanfyretracker]

AM radio does this too, Some countries call it medium wave. Because of this the US FCC has certain stations called "clear channel" on the AM band. These are stations that can remain at full power 24/7. I once picked up KDKA Pittsburgh in Connecticut, it was the 2003 blackout so not much errant RF around such as the nearby transmission lines.

[@HiyaPokharna]

This channel has recently become one of my favourites on KZbin. As someone from a non-aviation background, the way you explain things is just superb. Keep it up, Petter!😄

[@bicivelo]

I was lost in a rural area at night in New England, pre gps, and was sure I was going in the right direction because i recognized some of the little town names I was driving through but they were a little off. After a LONG time I figured it out… i was in the WRONG state!

[@duartesimoes508]

For those who read Portuguese there is an outstanding book about this accident, _Caixa Preta_ (Black Box) by Ivan Sant'anna, himself a Brazilian pilot. It covers this accident, the Varig 707 who had an in-flight fire in 1973 because of a cigarette smoked in the bathroom and made a forced landing one minute before touch down in Paris LFPB, and a B737 from VASP which was hijacked and his co pilot shot in the head, in 1988. Superb book. Edit: I forgot the most important: nowadays you can download it free in the Internet as a Pdf. 😀 This accident is the second chapter: _Varig 254 - the night as witness._ In the year 2000 I had to order my book, from São Paulo to Lisbon... In all cases, many passengers were interviewed by the author which makes the book exceedingly interesting. The fate of the pilots is not mentioned here. Both lost their licences forever without appeal and served time on probation.

[@jordanjoestar-turniptruck]

There are striking similarities to the infamous 1972 crash of Uruguayan AF flight 571 where a catastrophic navigation error (turning north way too early directly into the path of the terrain of the Andes mountains) sent passengers into a remote and deadly wilderness. Navigation errors in South America with its vast inhospitable regions, without modern positioning technology, sounds so terrifying

[@GoianoAmazonia]

I'd also like to hear Peter's inputs on that one

[@TheMofRider2]

Was this the one heading for Kali, Columbia?

[@celiakfouri9386]

@@TheMofRider2no, they’re referring to the one with the Uruguayan rugby team, who did what they had to do in the months they spent in the Andes - a true epic!

[@TucsonDude]

@@celiakfouri9386 Yeah, I read that book. Wasn't it called SURVIVE! or ALIVE!?

[@whichgodofthousandsmeansno5306]

Changing it to 4 digits without a decimal point was a very poor decision.

[@NiHaoMike64]

I wonder if the decision was based on the thought that the extra bit of ink over many thousands of papers would become significant.

[@glenpaul3606]

IT WAS JUST PLAIN STUPID..

[@eFootballChamps]

The experience of the passengers must have been astonishing. For me, it is a real-life story and that no one would believe if they were to tell this incident . Thanks Captain Peter for entertaining us. Your hardwork is appreciated by many!

[@Piaz1n]

As a Brazilian, you have no ideia how much I wanted to see this story in the channel. I'm watching it with a smile on my face, just like a child who was gifted a with new toy. Also, it creeps me out everytime I hear or remender the last capitain's words in his PA (which were in portuguese, of course): "we hope this is all just a bad dream. May we all have a good end".

[@GoianoAmazonia]

You and me both, pal! :D

[@ATX-GEEK]

Concordo.

[@toastiiieee2000]

I’ve never considered getting lost in a plane before and now I’m convinced it’s something that would happen to me in the alternate universe where I became a pilot

[@jenniferdurby6552]

😂😂😂

[@RavenMobile]

The episodes on this channel where the pilots get lost are always the weirdest for me. Seems like misplacing an elephant in your apartment. How does one not know where a giant multi-tonne machine is?

[@mnxs]

​@@RavenMobileI mean, without GPS? That one piece of technology is basically dark magic (eg., did you know that it corrects for _time dilation_ experienced by the fast-flying satellites? 🤯), and we all rely on it to a colossal degree. Nothing else can quite just tell you with certainty what your absolute position is without a _lot_ more legwork and general complexity. And now imagine you're flying over the repetitive, vast expanse of the Amazon rainforest, in the dark... I'm not saying they didn't eff up, they did (and majorly), but let's not trivialise how tricky navigation sans GPS can be :)

[@baptistebauer99]

Honestly I felt the same thing. Inputting 270 instead of 27.0 is something that would happen to me, particularly if it was as ambiguous as the format they used. I am confident, however, that I would get the clue of the Sun setting "North".

[@daverose8082]

Reminds me of the British Army soldier, in WW2, who was driving his truck along the North African coast road when he ran out of fuel. He reasoned that if he walked North he would reach the sea. However, he followed the wrong pointer on his compass and was found, days later deep in the Sahara Desert. He just kept walking even though he knew he was less than half a days walk from the sea. It is unclear why he set off in the first place as another vehicle would eventually come along.

[@stevie-ray2020]

As I spent most of my teens in Scouts, becoming quite proficient at reading maps, navigating, & orienteering, but even before that I found that I could visualise things in 3-Dimensions, which is why I ended up doing design & art! If my school hadn't scheduled Art at the same time as Technical-Drawing, I think I may have become an engineer instead of manufacturing jewellery, because I really enjoyed calculus & differential equations (but don't ask me to do any after almost 50yrs!). However, some people like me have a really good sense of direction, with or without a map, while others will get lost i a shopping centre/mall!

[@mikeh.7499]

well said there Stevie,something to think about😮

[@rcfalcon56MkII]

As a VFR pilot before GPS and glass cockpits, I always had to verify headings and VOR freqs BEFORE takeoff. A simple look at a chart would have shown that a heading of 270 was way off course. Apparently, neither of these pilots were familiar with the route and simply "rubber stamped" the computer-generated flight plan without double checking anything.

[@sudhindrakopalle7071]

Another spectacular episode. I always sit up when Petr says "This fact will become very important later on."

[@MentourPilot]

Great! That’s the point 😂

[@mon4711]

I listen to him better than my teachers 😅

[@Roonasaur]

I like it because I can spend the next few minutes wondering, ok, how could that* be the mistake here . . .

[@timfitzsimmons8663]

Yes, Chekhov's Gun in this instance is Chekov's NAVAID NOTAM

[@robcanisto8635]

ohmygod Petr's ominous foreshadow catch phrases are my favorite lol

[@lukanovak1492]

I watch movies only twice per month... and thats when Mentour Pilot posts a new video! The level of these vids keeps getting better!

[@pamelabassi]

as a brazilian, good to see this case here! this is such a nasty story, terrible how the captain dealt with the situation and the whole lack of CRM, but it’s really good that these horrible cases changed the culture inside cockpits

[@GoianoAmazonia]

and it's always a good opportunity to remember that GPS, that was launched shortly after this crash, was named after the captain of this flight, Cmte. Garcez. GPS stands for Garcez Perdido na Selva (Garcez is Lost in the Jungle)

[@pamelabassi]

@@GoianoAmazonia hahahaha

[@mariokovacic-garaza8461]

​@@GoianoAmazonia i really hope you joking 😂😂

[@pamanderson4690]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@RavenMobile]

@@GoianoAmazonia They really could have used a Garcez Positioning System after the crash.

[@theautistictransitfan]

You simply cannot stress enough just how incredibly lucky this accident turned out to be. The fact that only 12 people ended up dying is truly incredible, and to think of what wouldve happened if they had continued straight west, instead of turning south...they couldve quite literally been trapped for weeks.

[@_Cactyss]

I don't know whether you have heard of the incident in 2013 where two Boeing 737s (Qantas 735 and Velocity 1384) qere forced to land in Mildura Vic, Aus) below minima almost blind due to fog with virtually no fuel left. I would love to see a video on it!

[@zeinaaaaaa7468]

this really reminds me of uruguayan air force flight 571 "the miracle of the andes" , pilots got lost due to navigational error, had the seats collapse on impact trapping and killing passengers yet most of them survived the initial impact, and the passengers had to go on expeditions to find help for themselves, though unfortunately their ordeal lasted 71 days not 2 days like those luckier folks and many more people died in the subsequent weeks

[@davebaz8142]

That part about some passengers storming forward to raid the booze is just fecking wild. If we are going down in the jungle, the last thing I want is to be pissed if we survive the crash

[@adrianaalbuquerque5747]

Hi, Petter! I'm Brazilian and I'd love for you to look into Vasp flight 168 accident, one of the worst in the country's history.

[@MentourPilot]

I’ll have a look at it

[@gui123dias]

@@MentourPilot There's also gol flight 1907, and tam flight 3054. 2006 and 2007 respectively. Those were the last plane accidents from major airlines in Brazil. None since then. And both are quite interesting. One accelerated after landing and the other had a middair collision with a private jet from Embraer

[@Mssmaimone]

@@gui123dias TAM 3054 is definetely worth a look from Petter, as the pilots and the national aviation crisis at the time played such a big whole.

[@HAFBeast91]

When you said that one of the passengers was a young forest surveyor, my reaction was "Lucky they had a boy scout!"

[@GoianoAmazonia]

On the first day, he managed to find water, based on the wind, the inclination of terrain, and the singing of birds. The next day, he climbed a very tall tree, and was able to see the farm, kilometers away from them

[@mudi2000a]

This was one of the craziest stories in aviation that I heard. Even when I thought it can’t get worse it still did. Excellent video with great storytelling as always! Thank you Petter!

[@gregoryfabre7471]

The incompetency is staggering! How they managed to get their pilots licenses is beyond me!

[@WilczekAnia]

I discovered this channel only a few days ago and I'm absolutely astonished of great work you Petter put in. So much love for details and storytelling. Now every day I start with coffee and Mentour Pilot videos. I absolutely love your passion for aviation and I would like to thank you so much with sharing it with us. Now thanks to your hard work I can learn new things about aviation and I absolutely love that, so much joy. One of the best channels ever no doubt. I wish you and your family all the best and thank you once more. 🙇‍♀️👏😊🌹

[@Forgottenace9]

Babe wake up, mentour pilot dropped a new top class documentary

[@weidergonga2997]

As a matter of fact, I live in the region (Altamira) close to Marabá, today we have two flights per day to Belem and every time I’m on my way there I think about this flight and all the missed cues and most important, how they survived in the forest

[@GoianoAmazonia]

I live near Rio Xingu, and I often think about locals who say they saw the big B737 flying at a low altitude, which was very rare, as there was no active airways nor big airports nearby

[@DanDauzacker]

A famous Brazilian aviation channel "Aviões e musicas" did a interview with the first officer about 1 year ago. It is worth to watch. The CRM was insane

[@FilmsOfGreatness23]

The last 2 minutes of this video is excellent. I was actively shaking my head yes as you explained that the right thing to do is admit your mistake early and make a new plan, not continue digging your hole deeper. This applies to so many things in life, not just aviation.

[@AugustusLarch]

When I was in primary flight training, we were instructed to keep a course on the sectional chart. This with a dead reckoning projection of the chart with course and waypoints with ETA's calculated with the e6b. During a cross country the timer used for IFR was employed to track the time to waypoints. Also, the course was corrected on the chart by recent weather updates. So, at our flight school the students learned to be dead reckoning continuously. It is very good practice to keep a real-world chart. If these pilots would have done this, they would have been able to understand the new format on the company flight plan immediately. But then there wouldn't be this video. The internet controls everything.

[@richardcunneen150]

Ng ?,(!(6 7:46

[@TheMrdhyde]

Your videos are great. As a MSFS pilot I learn something every video you upload. Great work!!!

[@rafabeton609]

The infographics and animations on your channel are very professional. Better than many tv channels.

[@barbarawilcox182]

Belem is a city of 1.5 million people and a state capital. Hard to believe Varig flight crew wouldn't know where it was.

[@indianfan1029]

They knew where bellem was. They just didn't know where THEY were.

[@atulgokuyamaha7]

That was 1989 with limited navigational tecnology.Underneath there was no city light as it was the largest forest in the world..Imagine and understand anyone can lost the way.They input wrong cordinates in plane"s navigational computer before the flight took off.They were going wrong direction from the start

[@NicolaW72]

@@indianfan1029 Indeed, exactly.

[@Shadow__133]

@@atulgokuyamaha7Sad that they didn't have compass or stars like we do today.

[@CubeApril]

Maybe it’s not done at the commercial level but it seems saying something out loud like “we are flying northeast to maraba at a bearing of 270” would have immediately clued their brain in that something wasn’t correct.

[@LemonCamel]

Stupid shit like this has to happen for things to get better, sadly

[@cruisinguy6024]

These pilots were so deep into confirmation bias that I’m not sure even that would have altered the outcome here.

[@NicolaW72]

@@cruisinguy6024 Exactly.

[@maximilian672]

Well, in theory you are required to do a flight briefing before every single flight. (Nowadays that is, no idea about back then)

[@polarvortex3294]

@@LemonCamel Surgeons and their helpers go to ridiculous lengths to make sure they're operating on the correct eye, cutting off the right limb, taking out the right organ, etc. It's down to a "stupid" level, like you say, but several tragic past acts of surgical idiocy make the precautions worth it, I guess.

[@aerissliney633]

rest in peace to the 12 people who lost their lives :( this was a super gripping and incredible story, it really shows how fatal pride can be. thank you for another amazing video :)

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed.

[@N330AA]

Is there anything more spine-tingling on the internet than when Mentour Pilots says "Remember that"? I do not think so.

[@stephaniecorwin6438]

I recognize this story from Air Flight Disasters AND I really like your presentation of it! Nice that I found this channel with so much great content. Thanks!

[@humbleguy9908]

The introduction reminds me of a flight from Zurich to Dubai: "Welcome on board. We have started from Zurich and are now flying ... umh.... east ... uhm ... out of Europe ...". Fortunately, the electronic navigation had no malfunction and brought us to the destination.

[@richardkeilig4062]

CRM is so important. The aviation stories can be used elsewhere. As a safety officer on a fire department, it makes me more thoughtful in analyzing what the heck is going on on the fireground. If something does not look right, say something.

[@VKM-xs5tv]

Hello Petter, I do not know if this is true (since I found this on Wikipedia and they are citing a book written in Portuguese which I do not understand), but apparently (directly copied from Wikipedia) "Months after the accident, the flight plan Varig 254 used was shown to 21 pilots of major airlines in the world during a test conducted by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations. No fewer than 15 pilots committed the same mistake that the Varig flight 254 crew had made". I thought this was worth sharing, 70% of the pilots tested would have done the same first mistake, but of course this accident only happened because of multiple mistakes together.

[@pamelabassi]

I saw some videos and interviews in portuguese about this accident and it’s stated that this error occurred already a few times prior to this flight, but the crew were able to sort it out without major problems. but in this particular flight, the co-pilot stated that the pilot was really harsh since the beginning of the whole schedule , so by the time they were at the last flight the communication between them was so bad that they just completely missed the problem… but anyway, it was a terrible decision that the company changed something that made so much confusion for the pilots without proper addressing the change

[@richardclegg8027]

I think it is that 0270. It is super unfortunate. If you do any navigation 270 is a really familiar number to you. You just recognise it. Oh look, very well known bearing. Let us just enter that.

[@Alfablue227]

TY you so much Captain for this episode. I had just started working for Varig Airlines in NYC and never forgot how shocked I was over this disaster, and how hush hush the management was about the whole thing. 😮

[@plusplusplusplusp]

All Varig needed to do was print a damn decimal point on the page. It's still a spectacular failure of airmanship, but it all started with that stupid sheet. No wonder a large percentage of other pilots made the same mistake.

[@Antikyth]

I'm amazed so many people survived a 15 G crash. I mean I'm not familiar with exactly how much force people can survive but that seems like a VERY hard crash to me...

[@revivalcycle]

You are the only channel, of all subjects, that produces such a consistent page turner that you fulfill every minute of the video. Thank you!

[@priscilam.9808]

Awesome video!!! My uncle was a domestic flight controller for Varig in the 80s. I remember going to the tarmac to see those Boeing planes taking off. It was the 80s we didn't even wear seatbelts haha. Varig was massive here at that time. Thanks for always bringing interesting information in your videos.

[@gregwochlik9233]

During my flight training, the school had a student who flew 060 in stead of 006. It was a VFR flight, but eventually he landed at an airport and contacted the school by cellphone (2008)

[@graantmnz]

its also amazing that at least one passenger would notice after takeoff they were not going in the right direction- surely many were used to flying towards where they were meant to be going...

[@jiristefka3177]

I appreciate how much you give these videos. The details you go into for them if just amazing and i love it.

[@JoyJacques]

I was so happy to hear you speak about the admiral. Her write ups are must read for me. I look forward to every new drop and I've gone back and read most all of her archive. I really hope that this shout-out will expand her audience.

[@barbarachambers7974]

I love the honesty.... it's terrifying, and disturbing. Resignation is a terrible attitude for a pilot.

[@NicolaW72]

Yes.

[@hannamiros]

I've just finished writing an academic paper about possible training and CRM improvements (as an english as a foreign language teacher student), and your videos were the base for my knowledge. Thank you so much for making them after hoing through 40 reports, some of those in Spanish, and 1800 pages of EASA, I have even more respect for you and your team

[@zardoz_ii2061]

I've heard in other tellings of this event that even a couple passengers who regularly flew this route had questioned the cabin crew regarding the heading of the plane.

[@mapleext]

Having watched your videos so long Petter, I wonder how often I experience confirmation bias in my regular life and don’t even know it. That’s a lesson for any human any where! Very good video as always. RIP those poor people.

[@Owen_loves_Butters]

More people need to understand confirmation bias, and the fact that no one is immune to it.

[@sara.othman]

Excited! Thank you Petter 🫡

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you for being here

[@XMan-tu4iu]

Years ago (I was 33 years old) I went sailing with friends of my partner sailing out of Southampton in the UK. We were just off the Isle of Wight and my friend said let’s sail to Poole to the West. He wanted to teach me some navigation and I aimed my arm towards Poole and said the heading was 271.(I had done map reading in the Biy Scouts). He went through the entire electronic navigation system and a few minutes later he said it’s 271!! The waves were big due to high winds and my friend sent me below to make some tea. Within 30 seconds I had to rush up on deck and threw up over the stern of the yacht. My friend knew I’d probably be sick and did it just to show me that I didn’t know much about sailing! Lesson learnt!

[@vasilisconstantinides7950]

Channels like these always humble current and aspiring pilots, which ultimately makes you have a better attitude and a better pilot.

[@lborate3543]

I am honestly surprised that forced landing with fuel is the better option. I would think the ensuing fire would be more dangerous. I guess with fuel and Peter's notes in the video, you can at least "pick your spot". Thanks Peter for informing us all :)

[@jamesphillips2285]

I think the phrase "use your last bit of fuel" was relevant. 100kg of fuel should not burn too much.

[@neth77]

Empty tanks are more dangerous and will explode (Full of vapour), that's why at indoor car shows tanks must be full. Luckily the wings containing the tanks were removed from the plane so either way not much of an issue.

[@stevencooke6451]

That's what I was thinking too. I still think it's a tradeoff.

[@meneldal]

It's better to have 10 mins worth of fuel left than nothing, at least you get to pick your final descent a bit better.

[@LazyDaisyDay88]

What a story!! Its both fascinating and horrifying in equal measures. Happy that so many survived the impact and were ultimately rescued. RIP to those who died before their time. And here's to continuously improving safety standards around the world.

[@rd12th]

Captain every one of your video is like a movie to me. I can't resist watching them from start to finish.