How A Piece Of Tape Led To This Plane Crash (Aeroperu Flight 603) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN

If you found this video interesting be sure to subscribe as there is a new video every Saturday. This video also went out to my Patrons 48 hours before going out on KZbin. You can join the Disaster Breakdown Patreon here from £3 per month: / disasterbreakdown
Twitter: / chloe_howiecb
Music/Personal Channel: / @chloehowie
In the very early hours of October 2nd 1996, a modern passenger plane, a Boeing 757 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. 70 people are killed in the disaster. The pilots were facing a situation they had not been trained for. Many of their instruments appeared to be malfunctioning and giving contradicting warnings. With no visual reference in the dark night the pilots were unable to see that they were edging closer to the ocean below.
it would be found that ground staff had covered the sensitive pitot static ports with tape. This was done as a protective measure however, they forgot to remove the tape.
The Aeroperu flight 603 Cockpit Voice Recording is publicly available.
Background Music Credits:
Aloft - LEMMiNO / aloft
Tracker - Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen • Christoffer Moe Ditlev...
Traveling in Binaural - Joseph Beg • Traveling in Binaural
Sources:
www.skybrary.a...
aviation-safet...
• Aeroperu 603 - Cockpit...
www.aerospacewe...
www.scientific...

[@DisasterBreakdown]

CORRECTION NOTICE kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXmVnXmBl7unmJI&ab_channel=DisasterBreakdown it has been brought to my attention that I have made an error in this video with regards as to which part of the aircraft was taped over. In this video I used the terms "Pitot Tube" and "Pitot Static Port" interchangeably. Though part of the same system, they are different components and it was the Static Ports which were covered. This is a rather annoying mistake which I failed to pick up on. Thank you to those who pointed it out. If you found this video interesting be sure to subscribe as there is a new video every Saturday. This video also went out to my Patrons 48 hours before going out on KZbin. You can join the Disaster Breakdown Patreon here from £3 per month: www.patreon.com/DisasterBreakdown

[@KapsBurnsvile]

love your video and content. keep the work up and hit that 50K.

[@archer1949]

This is, by far, the best channel for this type of content and subject matter.

[@MsFreedom1974]

Love how humble you are 🥰

[@czerskip]

Thank you!

[@mortenguld3076]

It a shame that you have portrayed this as a pitot problem and therefore compare with Birgenair, as there in reality except for the type and that both crashed into the sea is no comparison at to be made at all. It is even more of a shame that you like all others who have portrayed (copied) this accident show this aircraft flying at night with the lights and coast of Lima visible. You have obviously used the accident report for research, so I can not understand how you could have missed the weather (cloudy and 6 km vis) and the fact that the tower saw the aircraft entering the clouds (after windshear warning) before the departure end of the runway. This alleviates all the "why didnt they just turn around and land" comments and allows focus to be on the predicaments this crew faced. In my opinion you should redo this presentation (and leave out the airbus cockpit parts as you have a nice B757 sim)

[@jirensan828]

The first officer sounded very bright and a good problem solver. It was an impossible situation but the first officer's intuitions seemed right.

[@leothefirst]

Throughout the emergency he did indeed seem to make better judgment calls on the conflicting information the crew was presented with. It is unfortunate that they didn't act according to the FO's intuition. I can only imagine how disorientating such a situation must be, but I rather overspeed than stall the aircraft and it seems that was what the FO thought too. But ultimately they were presented with an impossible situation (quite possibly one of the hardest situations a pilot could ever face, no flight instruments and no outside references). I think the likelihood of a different outcome was quite low.

[@bluejay7058]

@@leothefirst I fully agree. There's plenty of audio feedback if you are indeed overspeeding, but stalling is a silent killer. It's better to ease up when you hear the plane creak than to believe that you aren't falling.

[@memyself717]

The captain doomed them from the get-go. As soon as they took off and the altimeter weren't operational, he should have made the decision there and then to return.

[@Amilakasun1]

@@leothefirst maybe they could've asked the passengers if they were carrying night vision goggles?

[@ixlr8677]

should have never left the lites. more than that they should have known the readings were not right.

[@dfuher968]

Stick shaker or no stick shaker, the call for a plane to come guide them should be a no brainer. I dont get, why the captain was against it. They had lost all functional instruments, they didnt know their altitude, their air speed, nothing, and its pitch black outside with zero visual references. Asking for a plane to guide them safely back to the airport seems the only logical solution.

[@eggorl]

@hazman232goodness me. Ego is one hell of a killer.

[@rinsy6936]

Yes. I think that asking for a plane to guide them back would be a good solution considering that their instruments were failing.

[@borisgetman9222]

@@eggorl I agree with you. I have been an attending physician for only 3 months now. I ask for a second opinion from more senior and experienced doctors almost on a daily basis. I don’t care if someone thinks less of me because of that. Not making a costly/deadly mistake is much more important.

[@lmndance]

@@borisgetman9222 i agree this is something that should be allowed to happen in every field, not just medical. the fact that there IS judgement at all does no one justice. especially in professions where you are literally taking a life into your hands, getting a firm double check and/or assessing a mistake in action is critical. in this video's situation, even if the pilot didnt want help, even mentioning the faulty equipment, he should have been humbled and allowed his F/O to complete his call for assistance. such a tragedy this happened. im also pursuing a medical based field, and its important that all the i's are dotted and t's crossed, even if that means having someone double check that simple math problem for dosing. im happy to hear there is at least one medical professional out there putting ego aside and ensuring the health and safety of their patients :)

[@clarebrandon5480]

Pride.

[@Criszzs]

My mom was working as a flight attendant at the time this accident happened, she was airborne when the aeroperu crashed and when they arrived to their destination the captain (of the plane my mom was working on) was notified that his brother was onboard the Aeroperu that had crashed in the ocean. She said that the last thing that she knew about him was that that he suffered from depression after his brother’s passing and never worked again for that airline.

[@wattson451]

That’s heartbreaking :( I hope he finds peace. I couldn’t fathom what he went through receiving such devastating news.

[@missvida6251]

That is so heartbreaking 🥺

[@232K7]

God damn dude... imagine if they had informed the captain about his brother while he was still flying; I can easily see that causing another accident

[@TheTrueHistory]

Please ask her if she remember mr. Pe…to, a purser flight crewmember working in Aeroperu in those times. Please confirm if was true everything he said about massive administrative corruption inside this Airline, the greediness to fire honest, capable maintenance workers to hire cheap, unprofessional contractors workers, etc.

[@vangoghsseveredear]

The captain was in absolute denial of the situation. The first mate would've saved them if he was at the controls. He called everything. Jesus that is heartbreaking.

[@LAKD]

Hindsight makes it easy to say the captain was clearly making it worse. You have the bias of knowing what actually was wrong, they had no clue whatsoever and it would be impossible for them to actually make sense of it. They were consistently getting the same faulty data from the ATC, their instruments were clearly not making sense, so why trust any of the alarms anymore without being skeptical? They had no horizon, they were doomed and their only hope was finding a reference point.

[@ernestkovach3305]

Nope.

[@gillespriod5509]

Why not try to climb to see if the ground alarm stops? This was very simple to do! He also made the Plane stall and the second pilot noticed they were going down, but he didnt insisted enough with the capitain, i rather have keep It higher waiting the other plane, or of enough fuel even daylight, with no altimeter on the dark Is Indeed a very bad scenario

[@MrFallior]

@@LAKD while I agree hindsight makes it easier to decide that the captain was wrong, some of it is common sense. You'd rather be too high than too low, and you'd rather speed than stall

[@TheZombifiedFairy]

@@MrFallior there are accidents from being too high as well....

[@tahustvedt]

The too low alert should have been a huge warning as that doesn't come from the pitot/static. It's from radalt. The controller saying they were 9700 feet up caused them to also distrust their radalt.

[@reidleblanc3140]

they had no way of knowing the problem was with their pitot things though; reasonable enough to get suspicious of all their readings when for all they knew it could have been a problem with any other step along the way that might also have affected other readings

[@ryjelsum]

@@reidleblanc3140 The GPWS kind of works on its own, doesn't it? Their altimeter and speed readings were wrong, true, but that kind of has no bearing on what the GPWS does. It seemed like the captain wasn't really aware of which systems were producing which warnings, which resulted in him getting extremely confused. The F/O was much more on point, it seemed like he picked out which warnings were out of the ordinary even with the issues they were experiencing.

[@1994TeeJay1994]

@@ryjelsum It seems that the Captain preferred to trust his ATC - not knowing that his plane was feeding the ATC incorrect information. The ATC probably did not know that this was the case too.

[@ryjelsum]

@@1994TeeJay1994 You're right, trusting external information is a better bet in this situation, but again it brings up the issue of the captain not knowing how the systems of the plane that he is flying operate perhaps as well as he should. Maybe the detailed knowledge of what systems feed data into other systems and what systems do their own measurements is more in the realm of a flight engineer, but it feels like a flaw in knowledge.

[@Squirreltasticqueen]

Disclaimer I don't know jack or shit about flying but my instinct is to pull up when the alarm goes off. I imagine fuel issues maybe being a problem until the rescue plane finds them but like Better safe than in the ground/water. Because I don't know much I'm wondering why they didn't. Sure the readings are all jacked up but that's the one that you need to DO something about.

[@powwowken2760]

One of the scariest Cockpit recordings ever released, re-enactments I've seen didn't the situation justice, nor do justice to just how on point the FO really was, he was asking all the right questions and thinking up smart solutions despite his Captain being (understandably) completely lost and also being given junk information by ATC, who didn't seem aware that his tower got their radar altitude data from a planes transponder and not a radar ping, and that's on the training the controller received or didn't receive.

[@riggs20]

Agreed. It was just such a sickening feeling to listen to it.

[@dontspikemydrink9382]

what do you mean

[@rogerspice9604]

The heroic 1st Officer tried his best.Feelnao bad about this

[@meadahagain]

Try the cockpit recording where the autobus was stalling nose up into the ocean without the pilot understanding what was happening the entire time. This was due to the same tubes that were taped over in this video. Instead, the tubes on the autobus was momentarily frozen. This was enough time to incite confusion that the pilot never recovered from, even having 2 other pilots to help decipher the situation. So sad.

[@GCarty80]

@@meadahagain Air France Flight 447?

[@paulgrant421]

Of the hundreds of air disaster videos I've watched, I've never seen a plane crash because the GPWS was inaccurately activated, but I've seen plenty of crashes where the pilots either didn't take the GPWS seriously enough or simply outright ignored it. Knowing what I know, if I were a pilot and "too low terrain" sounds, I'm immediately increasing power and pulling up no matter what.

[@juanp2k3]

That's exactly right

[@riggs20]

Agreed 100%. I know we’ve got the benefit of hindsight, but the terrain warning and the stall warning are two you don’t ignore. Giving it speed and altitude will at least buy you some time.

[@ernestkovach3305]

Yup.

[@EvanBear]

Even if they were higher than they thought, pulling up is much less of a risk than just staying the same altitude.

[@AtarGG]

Shouldn't be anything up but air, down is guaranteed obstacle. Insanity.

[@juanes2292]

Cannot overstate how much your content is appreciated. The best spiritual successor to the air disaster breakdowns of the early 2000's I could ask for.

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Thanks so much for your kind comment!

[@yuvula6394]

Wait till they find out you can make original content ya dang grifter

[@juanes2292]

@@yuvula6394 What in the world are you going on about

[@circumstantiallemon]

@@juanes2292 w we w w

[@louisgarbour2737]

@@yuvula6394 what

[@SomePerson_Online]

First Officer: “We need to go back!” Pilot: “No.”

[@dvdortiz9031]

Pitot was not working

[@eugenebebs7767]

"Mayday, we have no speed or altitude" "Roger. What's your altitude?"

[@batman-telephoneman5479]

The 1st officer had it right. He could have saved the plane... Possibly... If only the pilot would listen.

[@FrostySumo]

Yes this is a very scary situation but if you knew that you were getting faulty speed you can see erratically trying to use VFR techniques and I would have turned back to Lima to use it as a reference. I'm not a pilot and even I know no instruments over the ocean at night is deadly. I'd much rather be over any sort of land to try to find landmarks. But the confusion is understandable. But a lot of mistakes are still made. Instead of stopping and thinking and catching the clues that your being lied to by your speed and altitude and that you should be really listening to is the stick shaker and the ground warning system. Having another plane come up would have also probably been a good idea I don't know why they couldn't have asked the next plane that departed to just go do it immediately. Help from other Pilots might actually have helped the situation.

[@ywe3]

@@FrostySumo no instruments over population centers is even worse

[@ernestkovach3305]

Nope. I don't blame either and neither should anybody else. Ground crew was criminally grossly negligent. Those responsible should have both been fired and gone to prison, LITERALLY.

[@ernestkovach3305]

@@ywe3 no.not true.

[@ywe3]

@@ernestkovach3305 so them crashing into an empty ocean is worse than crashing into a highrise building full of people...

[@misseselise3864]

he sounds really calm for someone expressing that their plane is accelerating when the engines are off

[@SaraU_U]

i felt in their voices that they were mostly confused, the tension and by the end they had a lot of fear. I never felt they were calm but they were trying their best to control and the situation and not freak out

[@jmitterii2]

@@SaraU_U The captain seemed to be panicking. No good. Even feign to yourself that everything will be figured out, laugh at the problems... that has helped me when in weird situations that had my heart rate skyrocket. In fact, the moment I laugh at the various predicaments I've gotten myself into, is when the troubleshooting steps came to me. Firstly, they shouldn't have asked ATC for their altitude. And ATC should have known the data was coming from their aircraft that was having altitude instrument malfunctions; and this should have been relayed by ATC reminding them this data is coming form your plane, is likely false information; that the pilots need a visual reference to ascertain their altitude; direct them to some lights on the ground. Secondly, the airplane is still flying. Altitude and altimeter, pitot and pitot static instruments are malfunctioning; something is blocking them. Don't rely on them. Not sure what equipment they had. 96' GPS was limited due to being military use and only scarce civil use at that time. Today, one could just utilize GPS speed and altitude readouts; they're good enough; ground speed and calculated altitude via GPS. Without that, visual references of lights on the ground work. And then wait for a chaser aircraft to help estimate airspeed for landing. They could fly in formation on glide path to landing to provide their airspeed. Everything would have worked out. Freaking out just doesn't help. No need to panic; you're either going to be dead or injured soon, or fine and dandy. Panicking won't alter this fact... but possibly make the former more likely.

[@leothefirst]

I think he seemed so calm because he didn't believe that it was true. Presented with conflicting information he made up his mind about what he thought the aircraft was actually doing and stopped believing any indication that was contrary to his belief.

[@reidleblanc3140]

fear and panic that great presents itself in many forms. remember fight/flight/freeze. many people in his situation would be so overloaded with fear they'd come off as completely expressionless. that's what a shutdown is

[@dvdortiz9031]

They needed sigourney weber

[@grandv12]

Really nice video, however the pitot tubes were not obstructed, the static ports were the ones blocked with tape that was the same color as the underbelly of the 757, which was also the reason captain Schreiber did not noticed it during the walkaround.

[@justinwallace390]

Was wondering the same. I thought I had just watched a different documentary that showed it was static ports, not the pitot tubes.

[@thetman0068]

Oh that makes sense. If it were a pitot tube the only affected parameter would be airspeed, which would be noticed on the take off roll and cause an aborted take off.

[@simplyrowen]

The same color as the underbelly 🤦🏻‍♀️ I exercise a higher level of concern when writing something that I don’t want others to miss (on my website, a newsletter I send out, etc) by using a different color on the font; and maintenance couldn’t think of using masking tape of a color that stood out? 😩

[@ernestkovach3305]

Same diff. Yes diff but basically either covered would have caused problems.

[@simontay4851]

Using tape that is the same colour as the plane is absolute madness. Thats so fucking stupid. You would think they would be required to use black/yellow warning tape or fluorescent high visibility tape on such a safety critical part of the plane.

[@5amH45lam]

Can you imagine that initial sinking feeling upon hearing the cause, knowing that it was _you_ that had neglected to remove tape from the _pitot tubes?_ (No emoticon for that.)

[@divyak7032]

For real, costing lives of 70 people with just one tape being missed... That would hit the worst blow on anyone

[@232K7]

To be fair, they never should have been using tape in the first place.

[@stevienguyen2047]

Pilots also had to do a walk around check too

[@Mr.Pallanza]

20:18 - ATC gave an altitude reading of 9,700 feet. Where in fact, *_the plane was just mere dozens of feet above the ocean_* That point alone was more horrific than any horror movie I've seen in my life. And that abrupt _cut_ of the recording at the end made me held my breath. In situations such as these, it is required to keep a cool head. The captain was gone, having allowed the warnings and alarms get to him. But the F/O was calling the shots and was at least rectifying the situation with an actual solution by calling an assisting aircraft. All this, in the middle of the night. Imagine just being the passenger in the plane, looking at the black sky, not knowing _you were already staring at the mass of the ocean._ You've earned a sub. I'll be chucking change for the patreon too. This was a harrowing experience to watch thru.

[@robertmcghintheorca49]

No kidding. Just imagine the jumpscare of thinking that you're a few thousand feet about the water, and then suddenly, the wing digs into the water. Must have been absolutely horrific judging by the CVR.

[@macher001]

I'm not a pilot, so I can't understand what's going through their heads in a situation like this, but "captain was gone, having allowed the warnings and alarms get to him"???

[@garden0fstone736]

Imagine being on a boat and watching a commercial airliner cruising 15 feet above the ocean

[@HunterKnightCustoms]

I remember being 16 when this happened. News casts of the day said Schreiber was one of the best pilots in the fleet (The was chosen to fly the Pope during his visit to Peru), but all his experience was playing against him. I remember the news channels in those days didn't censor themselves and they would broadcast the images of the swollen bodies being pulled from the sea. Gema Bruzzone (one of the flight attendants) had survived a crash before, but her luck ran out this time. RIP all victims of flight 603.

[@CYMotorsport]

I now officially prefer this channel to Wonder’s attempted revival of their Mayday IP. Great work. I won’t say I prefer longer content bc I know that’s unfair as all your work is great but here’s to your continued growth to fund your research on these incidents

[@jacob22f14]

Big up Crankee Yankee. Glad to see we have interest in both plane crashes and F1 😂

[@NewscasterNews4]

@@jacob22f14 same lol Cy was the last person I was expecting to see here 😂

[@thomasb1095]

big fan of your chanel and this chanel

[@yuvula6394]

Alic ibay, the flight Channel, and mini air craft investigations don't copy each others content like dis guy.

[@andrewtaylor940]

DB’s pieces are much better. If just that they don’t seem to be soap boxes for the trial lawyers trying to blame shift off their clients and shakedown various nations and manufacturers. The Mayday episode of this crash is particularly heinous. “For less than 2 American cents all these people lost their lives!” Uh huh! They are seeking money from Boeing because the plane could not survive an unsupervised sub poverty wage unskilled airline laborer performing a simple maintenance task in complete variance to the published and documented procedures.

[@mrkipling2201]

Never ignore the GPWS!! So many planes that have crashed like this one, the pilots ignored the GPWS. Unfortunately the F/O knew that it wasn’t overspeed and that the stall warning and the too low terrain warning were right. The captain didn’t.

[@kame_kura]

As an armchair-pilot with hundreds of hours of watching air disaster videos, I can say with confidence that the GPWS is never wrong. If you hear "terrain", pull the fuck up.

[@kestrels.9189]

I sometimes wonder if some pilots are worried about stalls when going too high? And how they could be unrecoverable, but so would crashing into the ground! I’d think that a bit up would help in any scenario. 😢 but I too am but an armchair pilot 😂

[@BlackDiamondYoutub]

​@kestrels.9189 that's exactly the problem. Often they do do 'something', barely pitching up or putting in a very slight climb because they don't believe their instruments, and that's precisely why they crash. You hear terrain terrain, you go TOGA and pitch up 20 degrees until you stop hearing it. Don't just slightly do something to pretend

[@alexandria2623]

when flying thousands of feet in the air, i feel like any error in the equipment is more than enough to turn around and land again. better to be overly cautious than to lose hundreds of lives

[@Chris-lw5po]

except that they can’t just “turn around and land again” when pretty much all of their flight instruments failed in the middle of the night. No altitude, no visual references, no air speed to know about a stall.. they literally NEEDED another plane to tell them how high they were / what to do to get back and down on the ground safely anyways. Sad situation.

[@kevin6293]

I’d like someone to do the crash that led to the 1972 miracle in the Andes. Every documentary focuses on what happened AFTER the crash, but not much to the crash that caused it all. I know a little bit about it. The plane was cheap and had problems generating lift. One of the last planes you would want flying you through the Andes. Heavy cloud cover gave them zero ground visibility, so they had to use their instruments and calculate when the plane had crossed over the range. Somehow they badly miscalculated and thought they cleared the mountains when they were still over the middle of the range, literally. They thought they had traveled twice as far as they really had, which is quite an egregious mistake. Was it an instrumentation problem, pilot error, or both?

[@MrNicoJac]

Sounds like they had a strong head wind, and either didn't have the instruments to measure that or failed to account for it in their math.

[@kevin6293]

@@MrNicoJac no, it wasn’t a head wind.

[@MrNicoJac]

@@kevin6293 How do you know it couldn't have been that? 🙃

[@kevin6293]

@@MrNicoJac because airplanes have speedometers. The most likely cause is that the navigator incorrectly charted the plane’s course over the Andes, thus incorrectly measuring the distance they needed to travel across the mountains, and neither of the pilots bothered to check him.

[@MrNicoJac]

@@kevin6293 I'm no expert. But a speedometer can only measure airspeed, not groundspeed, right? So, if it's 1972 and a crappy plane, they wouldn't have GPS to get their groundspeed. And their airspeed might make them trick into thinking they've flown far enough when they haven't yet. Maybe I misunderstood how it works, in which case I hope you can correct me. Your hypothesis also seems pretty plausible to me.

[@MatthewTaylor3]

The first officer would have resolved this issue on his own.

[@leothefirst]

He did indeed seem to make better use of the conflicting information they were receiving. If both pilots had had his same problem solving skills maybe they could have changed the outcome of this flight

[@ernestkovach3305]

Unlikely. Had this been so , they would not have crashed. He may have guessed right ...but mostly his decisions were too late , wrong and or guesses . Skill, experience, etc. Was of limited value here. The ground crew should be fired and imprisoned for years for their gross negligence. Blame them not the revered,respected,, veteran captain.

[@GarlicOasis]

@@ernestkovach3305 I mean the first officer's plan was to simply go back. So I'd say it would've saved them in this case. It's still not the pilot's fault.

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

​@@ernestkovach3305Sorry but have you heard the no's? The FO was trying to pull the plane up, stabilize it and wait for the rescue plane. The Captain kept overuling him at every turn. First he rejects going back, then attempts to reject the rescue plane and finally he continues to descend. The captain was a liability, revered my left foot, if you mess up then I don't care if you are the Pope's son-in-law

[@RonaldrDeleon]

​​@@LuizAlexPhoenixnlikely, they were doomed the minute they took off, maybe if this was during daylight they wouldve been able to save it, but during the night and over the ocean they were flying blind no one wouldve been able to save this plane crash

[@ferbzz273]

This one is worse than the others. Sheer panic, distrust, and uncertainty on how to get out. The only thing i could think of would be to try and use a compass back toward land? Or just climb up manually until a plane found them to guide them back? But they are pilots… and i am not. Dead of night, pitch black, nothing onboard can be trusted, and it ends fatally. This one hurts worse than the others. Can’t even imagine what these pilots were thinking internally during this fiasco.

[@ryanlittleton5615]

The lead investigator for this crash was actually the First Officer's Uncle.

[@Vanilla0729]

That's an unenviable position to be in.

[@kayleighvossen]

@@Vanilla0729 It also shouldn't happen. When personally involved with a tragedy, one should never be put in an official position to oversee or even act in that investigation. It can and probably will be be subjected to heavy bias, blindspots and tunnel vision.

[@AldanaBalarezo]

@@kayleighvossen Despite the circumstances, he did a marvelous job at separating himself from the case. My grandpa personally knew him and he was commended by the NTSB

[@kayleighvossen]

​@@AldanaBalarezo Oh I do believe that, I'm just saying it just shouldn't have happened. Both for the investigation and in this case the uncle... it's just not good practice (very bad actually). It's not an attack on him but more so the person/people in charge of deciding who'd do the investigation.

[@AldanaBalarezo]

@@kayleighvossen oh absolutely. It’s insanely important for there to be no connection between the subjects of an accident and the investigators. I totally agree with your point. That being said, despite the circumstances he handled it admirably. He was my grandads friend and he mentioned how he had to forget that it was his family in interviews in order to be objective. It was very admirable what he did

[@dkbardillon]

It's been so long since I've seen this accident (as a NatGeo documentary). Until now, I still can't fathom that 2 pieces of tape claimed the lives of 70 people. I don't... I can't... I can't.

[@LathropLdST]

... AeroPeru for you. I never used it when I had the chance (two times) They had a rather poor reputation.

[@jhoughjr1]

isnt technology grand

[@JFJD]

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

[@dvdortiz9031]

Two pieces of duct tape overrode all the engineering behind the plane design and construction!!

[@dvdortiz9031]

​@LathropLdST, when your time comes, no matter what vessel you are in!! Titanic 1812!!! Indestructible

[@bisexualsmoothtalker1270]

I just watched this on Wonder and now re-watching it here… I cannot imagine the confusion, stress and sensory overload they must’ve experienced in the cockpit…

[@littlefishiesinthese]

It’s frustrating listening to the first officer make good calls but the captain to then dismiss them - I think the captain was struggling the most to stay cool under the immense and confusing pressure. What an awful disaster.

[@alexhoe02]

I just want to thank you for covering this accident. It’s personal to me, especially with the amount of research Ive done on it. I really really appreciate the level of effort you put into this video.

[@carotcarotcarot]

Mr Disaster Breakdown you should be so proud of yourself for producing stellar content every week !!!

[@leothefirst]

Indeed!

[@Shaun-90s]

I the pronouns would be her/she to be fair.

[@framebuffers]

I've watched Mayday probably 20 times each episode by now, but this video really sent shivers down my spine. I was pretty desensitised to air accidents until this video. Holy shit this is so well done, amazing work!

[@cocusar]

the fact I speak Spanish is just weird in this case, the translation doesn't reflect most the things they're talking about since it's a literal 1:1. thanks for the video, as always it's a great watch

[@thetman0068]

Could you expand on that? I’m interested if there was something lost in the translation.

[@jorgecaimanque6951]

@@thetman0068 I find it to be that their emotions feel different between text and audio. The pilot expresses himself as if it's all over and he's fighting an unwinnable battle since the moment the instruments start going off, all resigned that even if he makes it out his professional life is over.

[@silviafarfallina]

"¡TODO SE FUE A LA MIERDA!"

[@potat19]

True. It was way scarier for me to pay attention to their conversation instead of reading. I feel like the FO had good composure and was trying to solve the problem quickly but the pilot sounded defeated :/ such a tragedy since none of the crew were reckless (as seen in other cases) Nombre, y pensar que un error tan pequeño como cinta en un tubito pudiera acabar con tantas vidas de forma tan horrible :/

[@StarrySkyyyy]

Same. Es muy diferente de la traducción que ponen los subtítulos, pero es dificil de explicar a alguien que no habla español

[@shahir10]

I've been binge watching this channel for a couple of days now. So good! It's like watching air crash investigation without any of the filler and poor acting.

[@bobvicki]

Big difference between blocked pitot & blocked static. Blocked pitot would have been caught at the 80 kt speed check on take off. Blocked static would only show up on the climb out. No mention was ever made of referencing ATC ground speed read out to get a rough idea of their actual airspeed or using radio altimeter to see that they were less than 2,000 ft from the surface.

[@megyskermike]

A perfect storm of of wrong choices and events, so many lives lost for such a simple problem. Rest in peace; hope their families are well today.

[@More_Row]

Simple problem? You try to fly in pitch dark without working instruments, where you can’t differentiate between the sky and the water. They no idea what their pitch up and down even was.

[@atfsurrey]

He is saying the problem was caused by something simple, not that the solution was simple or even possible. Go have a beer or something.

[@leothefirst]

Indeed. If the same situation had presented itself during the day, nothing too bad would have happened. But at night and over the ocean, I don't think any other outcome would have been possible.

[@shrekwazowski413]

Agreed. They heard the alarm right after takeoff and had time to turn around and double check the plane.

[@789know]

@@shrekwazowski413 good luck turning around in the dark with no instruments and in pitch darkness.

[@georgegonzalez2476]

One might hope that one of the recommendations was to use fluorescent green tape with like two foot trailing ends. And maybe future pitot tubes might be enhanced to have a little hose with which to pressure-test that the tubes are open.

[@232K7]

They entirely stopped using tape due to this accident; the procedure was updated to use specific, fitted covers on exposed ports. I remember reading that the classic red "remove before flight" tags were also emphasized and more widely adopted by ground crews due to this accident.

[@Schwertsan]

I have been wondering if a small, internal laser light system couldn't be used to confirm the tubes are open to air? A reflection system of some sort, like a CD, essentially.

[@georgegonzalez2476]

@@Schwertsan The problem there is that if they're prone to false alarms, like from harmless spiderwebs, in the third world the pilots are going to quietly start pulling those circuit-breakers, leading to an even more unsafe situation. It's happened with flap warning horns and the like.

[@Puddincess]

man I just binged this entire channel in about 2 days. I dont know anything about planes but its all very interesting. Your content quality has also improved a lot so keep it up

[@AndreFlores-Is-Party-Poison-]

I was filled with emotion thru the end. your storytelling techniques are top notch. This captain failed his crew and those poor souls. So far Grade A content.

[@grapeshot]

When it said inverted in the title. I immediately thought of Alaska Airlines Flight 261.

[@marcello7941]

@@convernus7340 Aeroperu, alaska 261, mid air crash uberlingen and japan airlines flight 123 ( 30 minutes of despair and horror for the passengers) are probably the most terrifying ones out of all the ones I have seen.

[@StarrySkyyyy]

this is even more heart-wretching to watch when you're native spanish-speaker who does not need the subtitles to understand at all

[@donnyjones7803]

I downloaded and listened to ur videos on a 12 hour flight. That’s how u know it’s good content

[@TheYottaTube]

It must be hard to concentrate during all those warning sounds that go on and on.

[@trishayamada807]

I think that too. Not even being in a plane it makes me anxious just listening to it.

[@TheYottaTube]

@@trishayamada807 Exactly

[@ywe3]

@@TheYottaTube those alarms are almost as loud as a smoke detector...very scary

[@TheYottaTube]

@@ywe3 Today my spare smokedetector alarm went off for no reason. I was walking home and heared it from outside.

[@ywe3]

@@TheYottaTube imagine that but 10x more that's the situation they were in I listened to the ENTIRE CVR tape [it's on KZbin] I implore you to listen to it with a blindfold on or just your phone and tablet as background lights...truly terrifying

[@leothefirst]

Great video! This accident is absolutely terrifying. Losing all essential instruments during a night flight, I don't think there are much worse scenarios out there.

[@avgeekviggi8360]

You and The Flight Channel are the best air disaster channels! Keep the good job up!

[@pokakoka69]

I found this channel from the space shuttle video and I'm now addicted these videos are made extremely well feels like I'm watching a legitimate documentary

[@Itssarahbabyy]

Fabulous job on this one! The music, the recording right at the beginning, everything is 👌

[@chistinelane]

I think the main problem here, is that so many vital systems can be disabled, with fatal consequences, so easily. A simple backup altitude sensor would have saved them

[@ByzantineDarkwraith]

They had a backup altitude sensor, it's called a radar altimeter. It's how the GPWS knew how far from the water they were (and it could have also told them how far from the water they were a long way above that as well, had they decided to look at it). So I guess they're saved then... someone should let them know.

[@clyde_krs]

Found your channel today and am on a binge watching spree lol 😆 Really enjoy your format, pacing and narration. The technical information breakdown is also really helpful as I'm not well versed in aviation tech/lingo^^ Hope you're doing well and have a great week ahead!

[@joecolclough3775]

I reckon the F/On would’ve managed that situation alot better. He understood that the shaker stall alert must mean that the altitude readings they were getting were false and needed to increase speed. I also reckon he would’ve made the decision to increase the altitude after the alert. Although it was a very stressful situation I feel the Captain was incompetent in this situation.

[@ByzantineDarkwraith]

Though the stickshaker was probably not working correctly because it depends on indicated airspeed to tell when the airspeed is low enough that you’re risking a stall, it’s definitely still a better bet to believe you’re potentially stalling when you have the engines at idle, a level flight attitude, and the freaking *speedbreaks* out, and so you should increase engine power, retract the speedbreaks, and if it were me I wouldn’t push the nose down if I didn’t know my altitude (unless it actually stalls and starts dropping by itself in which case you’d just have to perform a stall recovery by pushing the nose over and hope to god you have enough altitude). And then after a bit of flying like that, level and at TO/GA power (especially if I had just gotten an EGPWS warning as well), I would fly at around max continuous thrust in a tight holding pattern with a slight nose up attitude until it could be figured out, or another plane could reach me to guide me back to the airport. (Alternatively, I could get vectored back to the airport and ask to be guided only through very low lying areas with the assumption that I may be at only 1000 feet above the ground or so, and then attempt to establish a visual frame of reference by looking at city lights. Also I could decide to trust my radio altimeter and gain a much better appreciation for the situation that way as well)

[@Elias-nj6gi]

@@ByzantineDarkwraith may I ask where you got this information that the stick shaker deoends on indicated airspeed? I always thought the stick shaker depends exclusively on flap position and the angle of attack sensors which measure the direction of airflow. As such, those sensors should not be affected by covered static tubes or pitot tubes. And I don't see a reason why they shouldn't have been working correctly on this flight as well.

[@rhuancandeia7468]

I can only imagine the panic these pilots were going trough with all these important and contadicting alarms going on at the same time, with no way to be sure which is right

[@LathropLdST]

I was in university then. One detail about the flight was covered extensively in Chile, beyond the tape misgiving: Writer Poli Delano's daughter, Barbara, was among the passengers killed.

[@antoniobranch]

I thought the Static Ports (which are almost flush with the fuselage) than the Pitot Tubes (which resembles a metal tube), were covered with duck-tape by a mechanic doing maintenance on the plane.

[@Racera1]

You're right. This video is wrong. Its a massive difference

[@lbowsk]

@@Racera1 The "80 Knots" call supports this conclusion. Some of these comments are truly idiotic.

[@kristita_888]

Woo hoo! Up to 40K subs! You deserve every single one. 👏👏 Thanks for this video. This crash was an awful one, but I appreciate the quality of your work - as always!

[@mrjayjay124]

You make some of the best air disaster content. Love it.

[@Henoik]

This is why it's so important to understand the mechanisms of the alarms and warnings that are triggered. The stick shaker and stall warning is linked to the AoA, overspeed and the speed reading itself is linked to the pitot tube, and the EGPWS system is linked to the FMS and to the RA.

[@shuttle_aero9399]

Great work today mate.

[@DisasterBreakdown]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@shuttle_aero9399]

No problem! Cheers!

[@fsega3669]

I’ve been keeping up with you videos for sometime now and the way you describe these accidents in detail are amazing. Keep up the great work 👍🏽

[@nerdyandnatural]

That captains ego was getting in the way. It's like he didn't want anyone to help because it would make him look bad. Kudos to the FO for at least trying despite everything that happened

[@caniscanemeditbully214]

First of all, your spanish is AWESOME. Your pronunciation of Perú, Lima, Santiago, Chile and Quito were PERFECT. Thank you for taking the time to correctly pronounce the cities and countries!!! Second... wow, that pilot got the Pitot maintenance failure right... too bad his ego or excess confidence ended up costing 69 lives... really heartbreaking. I'm thankful of LATAM, and luckily when I flied to Denver, AA had a good maintenance crew and pilots, if not, maybe I would've been here in a video some day. Amazing video!!!

[@jorunnafunebris8413]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought a key detail here was that the maintenance workers used the wrong tape to cover the ports. Typically, they're supposed to use brightly colored orange tape that's marked to remove before flight; but they instead used grey duct tape, making it easier to miss during the flight staffs' inspection of the plane.

[@leslieferrao269]

Great presentation and Insight in to the crash. May all the Souls Rest in Peace.

[@jtveg]

It is absolutely inexcusable that the flight crew and ATC did not know that altimeter readings are transmitted to the ATC radar by the plane's transponder via the plane's own instruments. So whatever erroneous reading are in the cockpit are also being sent to the ATC radar. Also the crew should have had enough experience to be able to hear if the engines were at idle or at max revs. So when they set the engines to idle but the IAS was showing that they were accelerating while in level flight (according to the ADI), they should've realised that they in fact weren't. Set the throttles to 71% or cruise thrust and turn back towards the coast so that you can discern the horizon by the city lights. Get vectors to the airport and configure for a high speed landing.

[@789know]

No one will know all the details of how the system work. I doubt most pilots are inform about the attitude of ATC comes from transponder. Some ATC has their own radar that independently read attitudes as well. So it varies depends on system. ATC staffs are not technically staff as well. They are trained to guide aircraft, not knowing the inner working if the system. Also hearing noise is a very inaccurate way to tell thrust and there is a fee second delay between throttle and the thrust of the engine It is very difficult to know the actual attitude since it is inaccurate. Turning back without accurate speed, attitude and gryo data at night is very dangerous, especially if there are also dozens of alarms, sometime contradict each other. They already requested vectors, but missing 2 of the most important equipment is next to useless as you can’t fly. Since you can’t really fly safely. Therefore there is another plane taking off to guide them, but it is too late before it crashed. Hindsight is easy, but in their situations, at night it is difficult, especially if you have no idea what equipment is really working at that time. Even you, when you are using a computer, don’t know all the working of a computer and software, and inner working of programs and hardware, you can’t really says it is inexcusable as you can’t expect a these staff to learn all inner details that sometimes differ from airport to airports

[@789know]

Also turning at night not knowing what other equipment is accurate is extremely dangerous. And without knowing the speed, and having stick shaker and overspeed warning screaming at you at the same time, you don’t really know whether turning will result in a stall as heavy planes can’t really turn that much and the equipment is not really useful and not know which of the other equipment is potentials faulty. Also there is mountain nearby, without attitude information, at night, you may risk flying into the mountains, unless you expect the pilot to be geologist where he can tell where the mountain is at night with only a few city light while still need to solve the problem

[@jmitterii2]

@@789know As far as US regulations and aviation and ICAO rules, civilian ATC does not have any means of altitude scanning. It's custom So both pilots and controllers should have known where the data was coming from: the aircraft. Only military radar systems provide altitude estimates of targets for intercepting and surveillance purposes. It's also why Mode C or S with altimeter encoding is required in the US in airspace A, B, and C and where ever other as indicated on a FAA map unless prior clearance before flying through airspace with that controlling agency per 14 CFR § 91.215 It's common custom on initial contact with controllers as a pilot to say your altitude. If you don't, they will ask you. It's called altitude verification; controllers must identify and ensure the data your plane provides on their scopes is what your seeing on your altimeter too. If it differs, they may have you as a pilot turn off the altitude encoding on your transponder so they don't reference it while providing you radar services. www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/91.217 www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/91.215

[@jhoughjr1]

@@789know kinda important to know

[@ywe3]

A pilot should know that but a controller wouldn't necessarily know it...add to that the stress of the alarms and warning lights the thought may have a fleeting one...but what REALLY should scare you is the fact 99% of the "flying" is done via the computer and the pilots spend 98% of the flight monitoring them...THAT is the issue

[@hollymorris785]

Excellent episode, thank you!

[@bassett_green]

So I'm not a commercial pilot, but as a small craft pilot, if you have a faulty instrument it's not uncommon to just put a sticky note over it so you don't accidentally rely on it.

[@jetsetradio5441]

Gonna use up the whole sticky pack. Man...why would they even have ever designed a system that would go to shit if one pitot static port was covered.

[@spongebubatz]

Speed and altitude aren’t the most unimportant things to know when flying, you know? Even more when it’s night

[@jmitterii2]

I was thinking the same... I would have been covering all the faulty stuff up. Not sure what instruments are on board, but if available I would have used the GPS... it can give a good altitude reading and ground speed reading good enough when nothing else is available. The captain seemed to sort of panicked. I've had some heart thumping moments at various times. Key is to always stay calm. Just look out the windows... can't see much, stay with in the lights you can see, or have the controllers direct you to places you can get a visual reference. Panicking only makes things worse. Use the freak out feelings for acting with a sense of urgency... but don't lose your mind. Of course with GPS and some other training today makes me a real arrogant saying that. But sometimes the truth is rather arrogant. Panicking never helped anyone. So you have to take a deep breath... force yourself to smile and even laugh at the predicament... and even fool yourself into thinking no matter the problem, you'll figure it out. Either way, you're going to live through it... or die... okay... let's see what nonsense we got ourselves into... and start going through the troubleshooting steps.... with another pilot aboard this means listening to them... the captain seemed out of ideas. The copilot seemed to be full of ideas, and he was in fact correct each time. Sucks they all died. Makes me sick to my stomach.

[@spongebubatz]

@@jmitterii2 speed and altitude are important when flying, especially at night. Covering the instruments up just won’t help. Also, GPS would give you a speed above ground output, not airspeed

[@RacinZilla003]

Odd piece of encouragement but I want you to take "small craft" out of your vocabulary. You're a pilot. PPL, CPL, or ATPL, you have your wings and have a strong understanding of the machinations of aviation. With that said, I'm sure you can appreciate the lack of Alternate Static Source. As much as I defend these pilots for their efforts, the fact that it was never mentioned or considered boggles my mind. Especially for an aircraft of this size and renown. Safe flying to you

[@sebastianparks6402]

Great work on this video! Keep up the great job

[@nohoneynomoney7072]

I just thought if they have tried to pull back once when the GPWS warning has sounded, they may figure out that the GPWS system is actually working. Just a trial, that seems very reasonable to me and I think both pilot will agree to have a shot on this if they have come up with this idea

[@ByzantineDarkwraith]

They could have just increased power to TO/GA and kept level using the attitude indicator and it seems they would have gotten away just fine as well without even needing to go nose up and have to worry about a potential stall. (As long as they did it soon after the warnings started. It did seem like they had a long time after the first warning)

[@garden0fstone736]

Because they’re going 200 knots. That would’ve been just as fatal

[@tdestroyer1882]

Amazing video! I can’t get enough of these!

[@citizensnips2348]

If I heard the gpws I wouldn't care what anyone was telling me, I'd punch it and pull up. Aren't they supposed to do that by default?

[@Taladar2003]

It seems really weird to pull back power, get a stick shaker and then a GPWS alarm and not connect the dots that maybe the overspeed alarm is the wrong bit since everything else fits together.

[@ernestkovach3305]

Yes.

[@mckungsmakong]

Thanks!

[@jglbeaufort]

I love you Disaster Breakdown

[@_cogojoe_]

Almost exactly one year after this disaster, a malfunctioning pitot tube ultimately brought down Austral flight 2553. The DC-9 aircraft crashed almost at a vertical angle while going at the speed of sound, leaving a huge crater in rural Uruguay. The cockpit voice recording never fails to give me the chills, even when remembering about it.

[@NickDalzell]

the most chilling CVR for me (albeit not related to the cause of this accident) will be the last words from ComAir 3272 'shit! we're gonna fuking die!''

[@Motionwarning]

Many mistakes were made but the captain’s stubbornness put the final nail in the coffin of flight 603

[@AaronShenghao]

A minor correction is that it wasn’t pitot tuber gets taped, it was the static ports got taped. Static ports are just holes on the fuselage which takes static air pressure, which is needed to calculate the relative airspeed. Aeroperu’s lower fuselage is also similar to the color of the tape used… spotting them at night is going to be hard without strong flashlight.

[@LieseFury]

she literally corrected this in a pinned comment that you didn't read

[@riliryrimaddyvia9630]

Oh wow,your videos came so far

[@LogieT2K]

This channel is honestly so good Keep up the great work

[@meisterpear]

Why did Lima ATC ask them for their altitude after they declared emergency after the Captain literally just told them they have no altimeter? Is it just protocol?

[@megyskermike]

I don't think he understood the situation completely a bit after the mayday call.

[@objective7042]

I would believe it is to make sure other airplanes are kept out of the problematic airplane's altitude and prevent further problems occuring.

[@meisterpear]

@@objective7042 Well, I understand why ATC needs the altitude, but why bother asking if the captain just said they don’t know their own altitude?

[@Cecrophia]

Intriguing as always. Especially with that opening. Great video!

[@StephenLuke]

RIP To the passengers and crew of Aeroperú Flight 603

[@NicholasGuccione]

Awesome content, thank you! *NOTE:* Imagine how many prayers of thanks the people who got off in Lima are saying?!!

[@ebiUsher]

so you're flying in a metal tin in the middle of the night when it's pitch dark and your only point of reference to where you are in space is going bonkers on you. i know it's easy to point the blame to the captain, but at that point, when you finally realize you've been following random data as your guide for who knows how long, you start doubting everything. had they known what caused the miscalculations they might have been able to tell which of their readings were right and which weren't, but that wasn't the case, so i don't blame them for thinking the too low terrain alarm might also had been tempered with.

[@carguy4811]

Just found your channel and I am glad you narrate your videos. There's a lot of other similar channels that are amazing but expect you to read everything.

[@bkoraycalcalioglu959]

Pilot: We are declaring an emergency. No speedometer, no basic instruments, no altimeter. Tower: Roger. What is your altitude?

[@MrWaheedulHaque]

Disaster Breakdown only second to Aircrash Investigations, you are amazing

[@whaateverrify]

Excellent video once again! I imagine all the faulty warnings contributing to a very stressfull environment, I dont blame the pilot for being too confused to reject the FO's suggestions. Also is it not possible to see any stars in the night sky?

[@ByzantineDarkwraith]

are you actually suggesting that they keep track of their altitude by keeping track of how far away the stars are, or? (and also they always had a radar altimeter available to give them an altitude reading... that's what the ground-proximity warning system/"too low, terrain" alarm works off of)

[@whaateverrify]

@@ByzantineDarkwraith not actual position obviously, but flight direction

[@inkedmore2937]

Your videos are so well done

[@patriciaa4451]

I can't even imagine the sheer terror the flight crew might have gone through

[@robertjenkins6132]

This video is Pure Anxiety. (But 10/10 production quality.) 👍👍

[@jamesx4952]

I think this was the first video he didn’t use the music I saw a documentary on this accident crashing into the ocean in complete darkness and you don’t know until it’s too late is completely terrifying R.I.P

[@decl_n]

favorite time of the week! thanks for making these, they're always super informative and interesting to watch. i barely knew anything about planes before i started watching these but now i know just a little bit more

[@joesmith6442]

I'm not a pilot, but I don't understand why in situations like this, the pilots don't just turn the eff around, and land IMMEDIATELY. They had indications of a very serious problem (critical instruments not functioning) just 2 seconds after leaving the ground. How does that lead to "oh, well, let's just keep on flying, and let's go out over the ocean; yeah, that'll work!!" Why not say to the tower right away, "we need an immediate return to the airport!" Then have maintenance take a look, fix it, and be back in the air in less than an hour. Maybe there's something I'm missing here, but I just don't get it. In my layperson's opinion, if at all possible when you have a problem, just freaking LAND!!!! Immediately! Why is that so often not the case???

[@ayanomar1408]

I thought so too! so many of these airplane crashes there is a window to go back! but they dont turn around at all they just keep going. what irks me the most is that they have the lives of hundreds of people with them.

[@RacinZilla003]

Yes, I've heard this many times and I'll attempt to explain as concisely as I can If this exact situation had occurred in Houston or JFK, then yes, turning back would be smart as the areas are flat, well lit, and no sizable terrain. However, Lima has steeply climbing unlit mountains very close to the airport that turning around is far more dangerous than going out into the ocean and troubleshooting there. You wouldn't even be able to use the city lights for reference. To showcase this, if you would indulge me, I would like you to place your hands flat underneath your nose, parallel to the ground like a giant mustache. Tilt your head up some 10-15° and answer honestly: Can you see anything below you? Edit: I should also add, the pilots don't know what's wrong. Loss of control was a very real possibility needlessly risking the lives of Lima below

[@ayanomar1408]

@@RacinZilla003 Thank you for your comment!! It makes so much more sense to me now. I did not know the terrain was that rough nor that the city lights could not be of help. this was so sad all around😔

[@richardcranium3417]

@@RacinZilla003 This may be a stupidity question but if all your instruments are acting crazy, it’s dark, can’t see the ground,……. Wouldn’t a clear container of water (bottled water) set on the console give you a fighting chance? You can see when the plane turns or rises and falls etc. The instruments may be having a bad day but gravity never changes. Directions on the fastest way back from ATC and the bottle give you two things that tilt the odds in your favor.

[@annabethchase2569]

@@richardcranium3417 While this may help check if you were level, I don't think that was the problem in this scenario. They lost the speedometer and altimeter because of the pitot tubes. They seemed to be able to keep their plane level but couldn't find out at what altitude that was. They only started to descend because of the overspeed warning from the faulty altimeter so in that scenario, them descending was to be expected since they applied the brakes. They were supposed to be at 10000+ feet when they did that, but they actually were at something closer to 1000 feet (obviously exact values weren't known)

[@jmarth523]

Excellent video as always. Your channel is growing quickly!

[@blowingfree6928]

Is it strange that the controller and two pilots did not question the fact that the radar was getting it's flight data from the transponder of an aircraft with malfunctioning equipment?

[@mantolis33]

It is unbelievable that the radar operator does not know where his data is coming from, same for the pilots. Such stupidity.

[@NickDalzell]

it is a shame they didn't get the altitude data from the same source that the GPWS did since it was the only thing working. Also would've been nice to have that rescue plane up like 20 minutes earlier.

[@louigee1450]

Great video. Love the length format

[@Dallas_AWG]

I don’t think 70-80% of pilots would save the plane. Literally the definition of flying blind.

[@scltxn8062]

i think the fo could’ve done really good, but imagine being in the scenario with no instruments flying completely dark over water.. it’s like flying blind with no clue on how to fly a plane

[@mantolis33]

@@scltxn8062 You have artificial horizon and you can put throttle to mid position and fly

[@Val.Kyrie.]

The FO had enough grasp if it had been turned to him he might have got the plane level enough to last for the rescue plane.

[@greymark420]

Once again a excellent video presentation, thank you.

[@fanatic26]

The entire video I was yelling at the captain in my head for all the stupid decisions he made.

[@kirilmihaylov1934]

I also thought the pilots could ve done better

[@EM_life-gr8sn]

You’re both ignorant - ever fly an airplane? At night? With confusing airspeed, altitude indications? And non-stop warning horns telling you you’re overspending the aircraft and no- you’re too slow the aircraft is falling out of the sky? And all the while you can’t see a thing… I am an airline pilot- 25years and 15000 hrs. I can tell you these guys faced an incredibly difficult situation. I’ve practiced this in simulators quite a few times and it is incredibly confusing.

[@kirilmihaylov1934]

@@EM_life-gr8sn that's true but why did they go into open ocean with faulty instruments . This was fatal mistake in my opinion . The rest is history

[@jmitterii2]

@@EM_life-gr8sn What everyone did in this scenario was horrible though to a degree. It was insufficient training and perhaps just not the required airspace to have that knowledge? Controllers verify altitude on their scopes because it's coming from the transponder on the airplane. If it differs from their altimeter when the pilot says the altitude, controllers know they cannot use the altitude encoding information... usually have them turn ALT encoding off so they don't reference while providing radar services... as it's wrong. Controllers should have advised this to the pilots. I can give you what we're seeing on our scopes, but this same information is coming from your aircraft that is having altimeter problems... so it is likely faulty information. You need visual references, let us direct you to the coast line where you should see lights to provide you with something to reference your altitude with. To continue to state altitude information on the scope is sort of odd. Altitude verification is a common step on initial contact with a radar services controller. Perhaps they had radar, but they weren't really a radar servicing controller so they didn't know? As a pilot, things can become very stressful. That's why training is essential and watching these videos is very helpful. Hope this helps to prevent from ever being that "that guy". Today's training is very nice... simulations with various instrument failures and you have to figure out which ones have failed... I got really good at it. Did the lesson twice with a different instructor, he tried to throw all sorts of things at me. I figured it out super quick, he had no idea that I had already did that particular lesson in advance with someone else. Without that training though... this is what can happen :(

[@RacinZilla003]

@@kirilmihaylov1934 I answered this in another comment so I'll just copy and paste here: Yes, I've heard this many times and I'll attempt to explain as concisely as I can If this exact situation had occurred in Houston or JFK, then yes, turning back would be smart as the areas are flat, well lit, and no sizable terrain. However, Lima has steeply climbing unlit mountains very close to the airport that turning around is far more dangerous than going out into the ocean and troubleshooting there. You wouldn't even be able to use the city lights for reference. To showcase this, if you would indulge me, I would like you to place your hands flat underneath your nose, parallel to the ground like a giant mustache. Tilt your head up some 10-15° and answer honestly: Can you see anything below you? I should also add, the pilots don't know what's wrong. Loss of control was a very real possibility needlessly risking the lives of Lima below

[@kevinm5857]

This is the best video you've released. Fantastic!

[@daFroschn]

In this case I am so amazed and shocked that nobody seemed to know what secondary radar is… I mean I am not a pilot and have nothing to do with aviation but I know what it is… how is it possible that the personnel is so badly trained in the systems they use? I don‘t blame the persons, they did what they could, but it shows how Important it is how the systems Zouber work with, work on a technical perspective and not just how the gui works and the system is used and thats something that is true not only for aviation.

[@mattamiller2002]

The plane's computer systems should have done a better job of sanity checking their inputs. If the pitot tube says the plane is standing still and everything else says the plane is moving it should be be smart enough to figure out something is wrong and issue a warning instead of putting out a bunch of garbage output.

[@macher001]

Is this every pilots' worst nightmare? Flying in the dark, over a dark ocean with no visual reference whatsoever, knowing that all your instrument are f****d? That must have been absolutely horrifying....

[@sleepyhollow783]

This is among the most horrific & heartbreaking accounts of a doomed airliner. All because of masking tape blocking the sensors. I was not sure I could finish this video. There is much blessing in technology, but dependence on it be dammed.

[@NickDalzell]

would've been a great idea to carry an old barometric altimeter in one's pocket just in case (the kind that you used to stick on a car dash). at least you'd have the same thing WWI pilots had.

[@thewatcher5248]

At 1st I hate computer videos of airplane crashes but glad I waited this was great even though sad situations and them poor people I wanna say ty a lot I’m surprised how good video was so thanks you changed my mind on watching this computer generation videos ty