How One Number Almost Crashed A Jumbo Jet | British Airways Flight 029

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747 Image: Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland - British Airways Boeing 747-100; G-BDPV@LHR;04.04.1997
This is the story of british airways flight 029. A while back i made a video about a a british Airways 747, one that flew through a forest and survived. Now if you haven't seen that video i highly recommend that you do as its an incredible story. In that video I made a brief mention of another incident which I dubbed the Nairobi incident. So this winter this incredible story is brought to you by the same people that brought you that incredible story. Starring the 747-100!
On the 2nd of september 1974 flight 029 was on its way from zurich to nairobi, the plane departed nairobi at 9:pm and they expected to reach nairobi at about 5 am in the morning. As they cruised high above the African continent the captain in the left hand seat was the one piloting the plane and the first officer manned the radios. The flight engineer calculated away in the cockpit as they stayed at 33,000 feet. Thats how most of the flight went, hour after hour of nothingness as they cut through the darkness. Two and a half hours before landing they were asked to climb to 37000 feet. When they were about 150 NM away from the airport the pilots started to go through the approach procedures and other checklists for nairobi international.
They also went over the diversion airports that would be available for them. The captain expected to be cleared to runway 06 which was ILS equipped and so he decided to use the ILS system to get close to the runway and then fly the plane down manually once the runway was sighted. All in all it was a solid plan and a simple one at that.
Shortly after this the pilots were in contact with the nairobi radio controller and he cleared them down to 15,000 feet and towards a beacon called golf golf and just as the captain had predicted they were on track to land on runway 06, as the plane descended to 15000 feet they got a weather report from a pilot that had just landed at the airport. The cloud base was a bit low at 300 feet which might cause some problems with sighting the runway. But the pilots continued with the approach now they had to descend to 12000 feet. They were still flying towards the golf golf beacon and they were 30 nm away. The beacon was situated on the summit of mount Ngong which was visible that night. They got further instructions to descend, this time to 10,000 feet and so they closed the throttles and just let the plane lose altitude. As they leveled off the plane had reached the golf golf beacon.the controller gave them the following message. “Speed bird 029 you are passing the gof golf beacon this time descend seven five zero zero feet the QNH is 1020.5” a pretty innocent transmission and it told them what to do next.
The pilots double checked that they were indeed at the golf golf beacon both visually and using the needles in the cockpit. The co-pilot responded with “roger speed bird 029 cleared to 5000 feet on 1020.5” their acknowledgement got no response, they set the autopilot to 5000 feet and the 747 started to descend towards the altitude that they had been cleared to. The cockpit was busy at this time the captain was the one flying and the first officer was busy re-tuning some radios and the flight engineer was busy with the approach checklists.
On its way down the plane passed through some clouds and all visual references were lost as the plane was plunged into darkness. They got a warning that signaled that they were 2500 feet above the ground which was noted by the crew. The 747 slowed down even more and the controller now told them that they were 15 nm from the runway and that they could now line up with the runway. As the pilots selected the ILS frequency the 747 started to turn to the left in an attempt to lock on to the signal. The first officer said 1000 to go indicating that they were just 1000 feet above their targeted altitude. Suddenly in the cockpit the ILS deviation warning light lit up. The plane was telling them that they were way too low. The glideslope pointers were out of view, the captain's first thought was that this was a false alarm there was no way that they could be that low. The pilots thought that their ILS system had failed them. At this point the controller said that they were 8.5 nm from touch down and that they were cleared to land. As the first

[@rilmar2137]

"Your plane should never be 12 Brad Pitts away from the ground" killed me. Great video as always. Merry Christmas!

[@barrydysert2974]

i stopped to tell him the same thing !'-) 👍

[@anessenator]

Ah see, there's your problem. Need to be at least 13 Brad Pitts above the ground.

[@AdrianColley]

Americans will measure with anything other than metric units, part 94.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Totally need that on a t-shirt.

[@thereissomecoolstuff]

12 Lebron James would have been ok.

[@AdrianColley]

The accident report had a few more gems: 1. The flight engineer called out "we have no glideslope!" but the pilot (looking for the special failure flag and not seeing it) immediately contradicted him with "we have it". 2. The groupthink among the pilots was so strong that they insisted the controller had cleared them to 5000 even after listening to the tape twice. The third time was the charm. 3. Both pilot and copilot were new to the QNH business (in which altimeters show height above mean sea level), and they were more familiar with the QFE procedure (in which altimeters show height above airport elevation). Dialing in 5000 at an airport known to be at 5327 feet amsl therefore didn't feel as strange to them as it would to a more modern pilot. I'd also like to add that the root cause wasn't that they misheard, nor that the radar operator didn't question their readback. It's that the pilots didn't monitor their altitude as they made the approach in instrument conditions. That was the pilot's responsibility, and he flunked it.

[@quasarsavage]

Number 3 is crazy very old school.

[@txaggievet]

Honestly, in the end... and I am not a pilot or a controller, but just from what I heard this falls on ATC... yes they misheard what ATC said initially, but then called back 5000... at that moment ATC should have corrected them... that is their Job.

[@AdrianColley]

@@txaggievet The rules are clear: it's the pilot-in-command who has primary responsibility for the safe operation of the aircraft. ATC assists but isn't responsible for pilot errors, legally nor morally.

[@MothaLuva]

Could have been worse. Imagine they set their altimeter to QDR…

[@CaptainConstand]

Am from Nairobi and the moment I heard decent to 5000ft yet the airport elevation was 5327ft i knew they had fucked up ,, nice explanation

[@samkeyz207]

Something else important that should be mentioned was the fact there are Minimum Safe Altitudes for the approach fixes and if they had cross-checked their charts they would have seen that they're well above 5000ft. In fact, the biggest clue that something was wrong with the clearance should've been that Nairobi's airport elevation is 5330ft. And it would be implausible to be cleared down to 5000ft. Glad they managed to save it though. Merry Xmas.

[@AdrianColley]

There was some discussion about that in the cockpit. The copilot stated that they were permitted to descend below sector MSA because they had confirmed passing the GG fix on course for the approach. The commander concurred.

[@tospubs960]

Thank God that 747 had enough power to lift up the plane from that height at that speed. It's like the old "0 -to-60 mph in 5 secs" hot rod spec!🤪 DJ

[@paradime100]

@@tospubs960 I'm not a pilot but even I knew that Nairobi airport is around 5000 ft elevation. Surely the flight crew must have known that !

[@jesseludenyo6436]

thank God nairobi is not that much developed with tall buildings

[@algermom1]

The most dangerous state to fly into or through...the state of denial. Great video as usual!

[@AttilaAsztalos]

I think it OUGHT to be hammered into pilots that doing nothing about conflicting data/warnings is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Yes, the warnings you receive absolutely might be in error, but YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED to just dismiss them out of hand, until you have checked, double-checked and triple-checked that THEY ARE INDEED IN ERROR. Any pilot with an "it's probably fine" attitude should not only be fired on the spot but have his ass whopped straight into the next century.

[@najaB76]

As far as I am aware BOAD was never a company as such, but was rather an internal designation of what remained of BOAC after the merger with BEA. So the company operating this flight was, unquestionably, British Airways. The internal split between BA long-haul (ex-BAOC) and BA short haul (ex-BEA) still exists to some extent to this day with long-haul and short-haul having different contract terms on the staff side and different service offering on the passenger side.

[@andyhill242]

This was my thought on this matter too.

[@CTCTraining1]

Indeed, although this near miss was in 1974 so only a couple of years after the merger so I could believe the investigation could well be referencing the original organisation elements esp if they had different processes and practices.

[@MothaLuva]

So, they changed it from „Better On A Camel“ to „Better On A Donkey“? After it was „Bursting Open Aboard Comets“…

[@Notamusician2k]

@@MothaLuva BOAC And BOAD Are Concorde Tailcodes Otherwise, What British Overseas Airways Dorperation

[@Threelinkdave]

@@CTCTraining1 It night be the way mergers are rfered to in legal documents . When the railway was being re developed at Ludgate hill theree was public consultation which included the planning aplication. This referred to the owner being the London Chatam and Dover Railway ( 19 centuary) whose responsibilities were taken over by the Southern Raiway (1923) whose responsibilities were taken over by the British Railways Board (1948)

[@egvijayanand]

I understood it the moment FO responded with 5000 ft instead of 7500 ft. The controller should've corrected it, missed it somehow. Defeats the sole purpose of crew reading it again to avoid any misunderstanding.

[@AdrianColley]

Yes, it was a missed opportunity for the radar controller to catch the error. The pilots should never have accepted the clearance if they thought it was to 5000 QNH!

[@JasonFlorida]

It was easy for us to hear first time but we weren't going through checklist after checklists trying to land a 747

[@egvijayanand]

@@JasonFlorida Agreed, we're not in the same situation as they were. But controller should've paid more attention to the FO readback.

[@billtaylor6684]

Today ATC (certainly in the UK) have automatic systems that compare the level the controller has entered on the strip (or equivalent) against the level selected on the FMS (flight management system) in the cockpit, raising an alert for any discrepancy. This is to catch "level busts" such as this or FMS typos.

[@egvijayanand]

@@billtaylor6684 Good use of technology for a safe flight.

[@Mrsournotes]

Let’s see, we have the metric system, the English system, the Hayduke system (distance measured in beers - Monkey Wrench Gang), and now the Brad Pitt system. Excellent! Nicely done video.

[@sivalley]

You're forgetting Smoots en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot

[@Mrsournotes]

@@sivalley Of course! Thanks

[@AdrianColley]

See also the firkin/furlong/fortnight system.

[@Mrsournotes]

@@AdrianColley Good call! I had forgotten about FFF. Now I recall an engineering professor talking about Furlongs per Fortnight in class, long ago.

[@amskeels]

Merry Christmas everyone!

[@shantanumallik8147]

Merry Christmas 🎄

[@bookcat123]

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁❄️

[@jamesharlow7525]

Merry Christmas!

[@greggstrasser5791]

Merry Christmas! 🎅🏻🧑🏻‍🎄🎄

[@AdrianColley]

Ground Proximity bless us, every one!

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

Ah the international unit of measurement, the Brad Pitt. Smaller than a London bus, an Olympic swimming pool and Wales...or Belgium.

[@vuurbeker030]

Just for reference how much is that in bananas?

[@kevinbarry71]

Sounds more impressive if you use Danny DeVito as a unit of measurement

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

@@vuurbeker030This is for weight, rather than length as people may argue about how you'd measure a banana. If we assume that a banana weighs 200 grams, and Brad Pitt weighs 78kg, then 1 Brad Pitt = 390 🍌 (We could round it up for the sake of simplicity to 400🍌)

[@MrNicoJac]

"An Olympic swimming pool and Wales"?? 👀 On which side of Wales do you add the swimming pool? 🤔

[@-Jethro-]

A very important fact that I didn’t hear in the video (maybe I missed it): The airport’s elevation is 5330’ above sea level. In other words, higher than the 5000’ they thought they were cleared to. (Sorry, I did not know how to convert that to Brad Pitts)

[@SalfordMatt]

Everyone knows its 50 Brad Pitts, educate yourself!!

[@-Jethro-]

@@SalfordMatt But how many standard bananas is that?

[@davidjma7226]

I thought that the planes settings took the field elevation into account as part of the flight plan!?

[@Gersti96]

@@davidjma7226 elevation clearances are always given in ASL (altitude above sea level) as far as i am aware. However, it is definetly something pilots are supposed to be aware of on the approach i think.

[@AdrianColley]

Both pilots' initial training was with QFE (feet above airport elevation), and they had only recently converted to QNH (feet above mean sea level).

[@davemould4638]

It's very fortumate that Nairobi does not have any tall buildings within 8 miles under its approach path. This would have been fatal in most other cities.

[@cargopilot747]

The airport elevation is 5,330 feet. More than a bit puzzling that none of the crewmembers thought it strange that the descent clearance they heard was 330 feet below field elevation.

[@diestormlie]

Secret Underground Airport!

[@norbert.kiszka]

​@@diestormlie nope. That was underground flight. Like a train underground = metro. Didnt heard of flying metro?

[@AdrianColley]

They were expecting the Wakanda 1P arrival.

[@dshack4689]

If you were used to QFE instead of QNH then entirely possible to overlook this; I’m astounded that QFE was ever considered fault tolerant; QNH on the other hand does highlight the contradiction you’ve pointed out and this another chance to identify and correct an error

[@georgeconway4360]

The B747 fleet never used QFE according to the published report. I believe QFE was used for the B707 and VC10 fleets. This was the Captain’s last BA flight. I would be curious if the F/O was successful in receiving a Command. This flight was a terrible back mark against the F/O. How can anyone planning to land at an airport with a 5300’ elevation and not know they cannot get a clearance to 5000’. The medication the F/O was taking was developed for astronauts in the U.S. Space program and the RAF has no problem using it while flying.I’ve used it myself many times and it works. The report says it is used for mild diarrhea but my experience is it works for serious diarrhea which is not uncommon in many parts of the world. In most cases it would be unsafe not to take it.

[@fk319fk]

I enjoy these "could have been really bad, but was not" shows. Thank you.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Thank you for covering this. Please understand that, as this is not "mainstream drama TV", most of us are probably just as interested in aeronautical close calls where nobody died as the traditional "oh, the humanity!" corpse-fests.

[@Milesco]

Absolutely. What I find interesting is the series of errors that lead up to accidents, not the accidents themselves. If a series of errors leads to a near-disaster but not an actual one, so much the better!

[@Dmiliunas]

Totally agree. Love nier misses just as much. It's the sequence of events that leads to it that's is most fascinated. Crashes Sadly some times part of it.

[@Rapscallion2009]

I actually prefer these amazing escapes. I feel a bit ghoulish when I enjoy a report about an incident in which a bunch of people died. Also. If the crew & aircraft survive you have a much better level of detail about the incident.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Ah... hell... I just want DETAILS... That's where the Devil is, if you look for the son of a b*tch. If it's a close call, I want as much of the lead up, all the angles, and the fallability inherent in the systems at hand as I can get, down to the quirks of the individual plane... If it's a crash, I want to smell the bloody mist and feel like I can practically taste the gutts and eyeballs hanging off the fairings! It might not be mainstream TV, but we ALL got here onto YT for the RAW, the UN-filtered, and the obscurity that TV just ignores. I'm not going to feel bad about it... AND if you're that interested in the great escapes and antics where everybody lives, there's still LOTS to look up... from Doug Corrigan's famous flight to Ireland to the Mig 9 that couldn't stay in the air if it fired all its guns... Aviation has a LONG and storied history around the world, and it's full of antiquated ideals, dubious mysticism, fixations on the ridiculous, and unorthodox engineering as far as backtracking in the midst of the rise of armoring bombers (you know, with STEEL plates) to make a REMARKABLY SUCCESSFUL fighter-bomber 100% OUT OF WOOD... and following up with the audacity to hold a DAYLIGHT bombing raid into the enemy capital just to knock out their primary Radio Station to screw with propaganda and morale! Get some popcorn and caffeine down, and dive in! ;o)

[@cargopilot747]

At 5:40 - "Your plane should never be 12 Brad Pitts away from the ground." 🤣🤣

[@Flying_fisher]

Professional pilot here, we’re taught to listen to what other planes are saying and doing and what instructions the controllers are giving them to form a better mental model of the airspace we’re flying in. I caught his read back the second you said it and cringed, didn’t need to watch the rest of the video but I’m glad I did. For the record approach plates usually list DH/DA by Brad Pitts or BP in the US. Shows you have clear industry insider information.

[@johanvanzyl8479]

Appreciate the near misses more than the crashes. Thankyou good work and merry christmas.

[@darrellshoub7527]

Merry Christmas, TYVM for another well crafted video !!!!!!!

[@notthatdonald1385]

May 1978 I was returning to the US from Frankfurt on Pan Am flight 73 (A 747). It was teeming rain as we approached Kennedy in NYC. Pilot addressed us we'd be landing, the weather, etc. I heard the gear clunk into position. With rain just slapping at the windows at the very last moment those motors cranked up, and we went around. Nothing was said from the cockpit, but us passengers were ready to kiss the wet ground when we finally did land. I'll never know the reason but the tower, and crew did the right thing.

[@krognak]

Nothing like getting cosy on Christmas and watching tragedies unfold from afar! 💜

[@thatguyalex2835]

Merry Christmas sir 🎄. :) BTW, aircraft safety is an interesting study, cos I like science, technology and human culture (like psychology of our decisions)

[@ernestbywater411]

British Airways Overseas Division (BAOD) appears to be the name of an administrative operations group within the British Airways structure and what they changed the name of BOAC to when it merged to be part of the British Airways structure in 1974. Ross Stainton was CEO of BOAC from 1972 to 1974 the he was the CEO of BAOD from 1974 to 1977 before becoming the CEO of BA in 1977.

[@davidjma7226]

I was on a 737 from Melbourne to Brisbane in seat 1A in 2005. We were at 30,000 over NSW West of Sydney when a BA 747 tail suddenly loomed up at us out of the clouds. It was fast, obviously but it was waaaay too close for comfort! I was flying twice a week on average - so I know what an API is! This one was reported by me to the crew at the time when I stepped off in Brissie. They seemed very cool about it as if it happened every day!

[@tobynorris5074]

Another fantatstic video! "Your plane should never be 12 Brad Pitts away from the ground"! Thank you so much for you hard work. I think there better than the "profesional" series such as "Air crash investigation" I really do. Please keep going, you make a lot of airplane nerds like myself very happy. Happy holidays to you and your loved ones.

[@patriciamariemitchel]

Near misses that teach us something are so much better than crashes. 😲

[@steffenscheibler5849]

BAOD is a division within British Airways. It isn't an independent company. BAOD used to be BOAC, which was "British Overseas Airways Corporation", but upon merging (with 2 other airlines) with BOAC the former BOAC was turned into an internal division named BAOD. FYI: The 3 merging airlines became British Airways, in 1974.

[@kcindc5539]

“12 Brad Pitts, 26 Tom Cruises….. same thing”

[@inkypinky643]

When BOAC and BEA combined to make BA there was still a distinction between BA overseas and BA European. The staff at that time made sure everyone knew which division they came from! A lot of people did not like the joining of the two airlines. My Dad worked for BOAC at the time and I remember him going on about it.

[@pylt93]

Dude the quality of your videos keeps improving and I love it

[@yorkshirebikerbitsnbobs]

Could you imagine that thing passing your rooftop at about 30 feet!

[@shivammishra1380]

There was an air india flight bound from Kolkata to Mumbai when pilots forgot to retract there landing gear and pilot got to know there mistake when they were near nagpur and they got a fuel warning or something like that they got to know there when they were approaching the nagpur runway but they had some clues during flight like aircraft was not able to climb as quickly as it should or unusual vibration on there way

[@AdrianColley]

That kind of reminds me of the time Top Gear gave a bad review to a sports car because of its sluggish acceleration, and then realized they had the handbrake on the whole time.

[@siesaw1]

@@AdrianColley LMAO

[@MaxusR]

I can't remember I've seen a video where the GPWS had prevented a crash. But I've seen a lot of videos where the "Pull up" message was the last thing on the CVR.

[@AdrianColley]

There was a memorable crash where "pull up!" was the _second-last_ thing on the CVR, right behind the crew of the dry-leased plane discussing (in their non-English language) what it might signify.

[@smd-tech]

Is that beacause they are less likely to make a video where the gpws alerted the pilots and they recovered safely with plenty margin?

[@MaxusR]

@@smd-tech Maybe. But it'd still be an accident. I'd like to see a few of such videos.

[@todddembsky8321]

Excellent video. You do a wonderful job of reviewing the incident and then a quick analysis of what went wrong. Far better than the Flight Channel reviews which are more drama than reviews. If you could, there was an incident at Denver Stapelton in the mid 80's (I think, could be sooner) where a DC-9 was taking off and ended up alongside the runway inverted. There were survivors, however, I cannot remember if the deaths were due to the impact, or the cabin of the plane slowly collapsing and crushing people.

[@edwardcoe7293]

The TV ones also repeat everything about 10 times before and after each ad break. These videos are smashing :).

[@jimmooney8195]

At 4:47 - a bit confusing regarding who interrupted the FO, probably the FE. Unless there was another FO in the jump seat, which often happens on long-haul flights.

[@TRDiscordian]

Haha yeah that's confused me too. Edit: Finished video, must have been FE yeah.

[@AdrianColley]

According to the official incident report, it was the "co-pilot" (first officer) on the radio being interrupted, and the flight engineer who did the interrupting ("two hundred feet decision height!").

[@TRDiscordian]

@@AdrianColley thanks for the clarification, and merry Christmas!

[@AdrianColley]

@@TRDiscordian As you know, a Discordian is prohibited of believing what he reads back to ATC.

[@georgeconway4360]

Reading the report on the incident cleared up a few things for me. The F/O was taking Lomotil which I had on occasion taken, This medication was developed in the early years of the U.S, Space program. The drug was sold over the counter in the Third World and the original package had a drawing of the Gemini Capsule on it. I used it many times while flying but later found out the FAA normally does not approve of its use while flying. The RAF says it is just fine while flying according to the report. I found it works great, with not noticeable effect except it stop you from having to run to the toilet. This flight was the last flight operating a BA airplane for the Captain. On the B747 BA used QNH for landing so the altimeters were not an issue. The Captain had previously use QFE with other airplanes except at high elevation airports. I myself flew the SVC10 as a F/O out of Nairobi and used QFE at all airports which was about 841 mbs+/-. NBO has low clouds many mornings and the airport elevation is just over 5300’. This BA crew left their brains at home this day. The GG beacon is not on Mt. Ngong. It is located on the Ngong Hills which go up to about 8000’ and overlook Karen, Langata, Nairobi on one side and the rift valley on the other. drive.google.com/file/d/1lGXmSv7NoNCSYgPrdcAF7sSn3kLOLng8bA/view?usp=drivesdk

[@FutureSystem738]

Yep, picked that read back altitude error immediately when you said it. There were plenty of other cues that were missed, including (but NOT limited to) the glide slope full scale deflection and the rad alt.

[@BattleMachine13]

5:35 man americans use any type of measurement except metric system XD (ik hes joking)

[@kevinbarry71]

He's not American, genius

[@BattleMachine13]

@@kevinbarry71 yea no shit sherlock

[@XRP747E]

Always so well done - your presentations are superb and concise. Thank you and happy festive season!

[@royalewithchz]

Great video man as always! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[@mbryson2899]

Another well-done and engaging vid. Happy and safe holidays to you and yours!

[@MajoradeMayhem]

Even I heard the mistake, and I even I snapped at them to check their altitude when the warning went off. How does it not occur to a professional pilot to actually look at the numbers? It's right there!

[@MarkPMus]

I wonder even if a terrain warning and a voice shouting PULL UP would’ve brought these pilots to their senses. I was watching Aircrash Investigation on NAT Geographic, about pilots on a demonstration flight of a new Russian plane. They were flying somewhere off the coast of Indonesia, an area unfamiliar to the pilots. The pilots had an off duty pilot in the cockpit, and decided to extend their flight by doing an extra 360. They got distracted and forgot to enter the final part of the 360 turn. They went way off course and were headed towards a mountain that they didn’t even know was there. So the GPWS starts blaring away, the pilots thought the warning went off in error and moments later they smashed head first into a mountain. It’s a similar situation to flight 029 - pilots refusing to believe their instruments when they’re all honking away alerting them to take action. I know nothing about flying, but if I’m a pilot in a reincarnation, I hope I’ll have picked up enough to do what the instruments say, then question later! Merry Christmas!

[@davetaylor812]

I have just watched that one, straight into a cliff face.

[@MarkPMus]

@@davetaylor812 Aeroplane: “ PULL UP! PULL UP! PULL UP!” Pilots: “Eeeer, Derrrrrrr, we won’t pull….” SMASH!!! On a completely different note, I wish someone would tell the British narrator of that programme that the metal tubey thing with wings on is called an aeroplane, not an “airplane”. I get that the North Americans call it something different and can adjust, but it grates on the nerves that the British bloke doesn’t use British English terminology.

[@eyetrapper]

Always a pleasure to watch. Fantastic work bud

[@FightTheByte_]

British Airways are the only airline i feel comfortable flying in because their pilots are godlike, recovering from impossible situations.

[@edwardmccain5099]

Excellently narrated with precise details. Merry Christmas to you. Thank you!

[@kevinbarry71]

These pilots seem pretty determined to crash.

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

Just as well this wasn't a city full of skyscrapers. I don't know what the Nairobi skyline is like, but I don't imagine it's like Manhattan.

[@MikeOgana]

Nairobi has skyscrapers alright but not to the extent of Manhattan. The flight path is over a game park that borders the airport so chances of a giraffe strike were higher

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

@@MikeOgana I'm not familiar with the Nairobi skyline, but being a capital city I'd surmised that it must have some tall buildings, certainly well in excess of 60' (18.289m), but I didn't imagine that it would be anything like Manhattan, (or any other similar cityscape) at least not yet. Merry Christmas 🎄

[@GB-qo1ct]

Thank you, Merry Christmas and God bless you Mr Aircrash🎄🎁🙏

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

4:30 *Trust. Your. Instruments.* It's a super basic thing you learn in flight school in order to get IFR-certified. How did this yokel get so far in his career without being able to trust his instruments? Yes, failures do happen, but if you have no reason to suspect a failure, then it's probably working just fine.

[@halb37]

This is similar to the C-141 that crashed approaching Torrejon AB (Spain) in 1973. The controller cleared the Air Force jet to 5000 but they read back 3000 and ended up controlled flight into terrain with 24 fatalities (the one survivor was the nav who was not buckled in). It was the end of a long day with obvious crew fatigue as several settings were missed (radar altimeter, pressure altimeter settings, descent checklist) and the obvious big one: lack of situational awareness as the airport elevation was 2028. I was stationed in Germany at the time and the next morning flew down to take crash-site photos (RF-4C)...still remember seeing those 24 body bags lined up on the ground.

[@azzapeters2923]

How have you only got 120k subscribers? U should be at a couple of million

[@gregorylenton8200]

Hello...enjoy all your vlogs..they make my day......hope you have a great 2022........many thanks

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

First of all I was literally on the edge of my seat when we arrived at that critical part when the crew broke through the cloud at 200 feet - truly a gripping tale - told with our host's usual sweet and engaging style that, along with the tight writing, always conspire to make each and every episode so entertaining. Incidentally, it sounds like our intrepid Investigator on this channel is related to Alex the Trucking Guy, but apologies I digress 😄😄 It is also a relief to note that the power of the narrative is in no way correlated to the amount of death and destruction - I constantly question myself over that point and as already stated, of the dozens of MACIs I have watched, this for me was one of the most absorbing and far from missing a body count, breathed a sigh of relief as if I was an eye witness in real time that had watched a 12-Brad--Pitt near miss unfold before my very eyes!! Not only, in fact, was the level of drama higher, I think, the way it played out, compared to any other outcomes in alternative Universes, but managed to be so exactly as it happened instead of a burning wreck and a body count.☺️ I won't need to book therapy just yet. The other feature which really stood out for me and in fact the main reason for my wishing to comment is that, especially having just mentioned how many MACIs I've now seen, it really shows how well I've been paying attention (not forgetting of course, the quality of the telling!) but literally 4 seconds before the part in the analysis when the topic of the GPWS was raised, I'd thought to myself why the hell didn't they get a "Terrain!Terrain!" warning? Mere moments later, my puzzlement was answered. Most satisfying😃 Interestingly - and I acknowledge I may have misunderstood - but if in fact my interpretation is correct, the suggestion seems to be (by the authors of the report? Or if not, by whom?) that given the number of clues the crew already had concerning their unbelievably low altitude, that a ground proximity warning would have made no difference. I instantly disagreed with that since, exactly as then clarified by our expert host, whatever other warnings had up til that point been flagged, there is nothing like having a loud, urgent, vocal, repeated "Terrain" and "whoop whoop" cut through the fog of a great wall of instruments that may well already be showing you, even with flashing lights and messages in red letters with exclamation marks, what you need to know and the urgency of your situation. Yes, we have all heard how even the stark alert generated by the GPWS in some other situations has apparently failed to rouse the pilots into action - or at least a DIFFERENT action to what they were just doing - but I find it unlikely in the extreme that that would have applied here. There is no question in my mind in this situation, an unmistakable "Terrain!Terrain!" would have got the crew to review their situation - and find it desperate - well before it got to quite the absolutely skin-of-their-teeth criticalality which it did. That in turn, even with the max TOGA power which of course was applied, would have given just a bit more margin than hardly more than the hair's breadth they actually got. One final detail, a lot was made of the mix up between 7500 and 5000 feet. Again - and please somebody correct me if I have totally failed to grasp this properly - that may seem initially confusing as, to the uninitiated, 5000 feet still sounds like a lot. To my own surprise (it normally takes me much longer to catch on!) I quickly recollected that the altimeter - and therefore the autopilot - works from height above sea level rather than height above whatever ground the aircraft is above at that moment. While I often bemoan the simplicity of my old Nokia, on this occasion having a literal computer in your hand, rather than a mere phone, allowed instant access to my own query as to at what height Nairobi (presumably Jomo Kenyatta) airport is situated. With the quick Google search possible on a smartphone, I rapidly discovered 5330 feet - and all the pieces of the drama then fell into place. Great work on the clip and I'm sure I am not alone in reassuring our host that the several variations on a fascinating-but-often-grim topic that he chooses to present, are absolutely as welcomed and appreciated as all the other incidents with far less fortunate outcomes....

[@parrotraiser6541]

For most of the video, the model of 747 is irrelevant, but a -100 would have had "steam" gauges, which would have presented a different picture. The ILS indicator would have had the needle pinned at the top, instead of crossed in the centre. Still, 3 busy, tired pilots missed it.

[@AdrianColley]

Well actually. The flight engineer saw the glideslope needles pinned at the top, and he called out "we have no glideslope!". The commander looked for the glideslope failure flag and didn't see it, so he responded "we have". In other words, he explained the FE's objection away as due to equipment failure, just like he did with the ILS deviation warning indicator.

[@Al-ih1en]

Amazing video!

[@timelwell7002]

Very good and informative video. It's quite a worrying scenario, because this could happen again.

[@ulfstrom]

Superb video. Merry Christmas from Sweden.

[@MiniAirCrashInvestigation]

Merry Christmas!!

[@gingivitis9148]

BAOC is weird but I found a paper from 1974 that said "BOAC (now British Airways Overseas Division) is essentially a long-haul airline operating a global network using BAC VC 10 and Boeing 707 aircraft." Honestly my brain is mush rn but I think it's fair to say that whatever BAOD is its probably the fault of a solicitor

[@gingivitis9148]

So like in an article explaining the history of BEA it mentions that, British airways overseas was replaced in 1977 unified structure of departments within BA. But it also says that both BAOC and presumably BAOD had the same IATA airline identification code??? I think I'm just illiterate. "These organisational changes were accompanied by the adoption of a single, two-letter, IATA airline identification code for the entire airline, i.e., BA, the old BOAC/Overseas Division code."

[@yorkieandthechihuahua]

So the new SI unit of height is the "Brad Pitt"? Love it. Great work with the video report as always, have a great year ahead.

[@markherzog9484]

BAOD and BAED were internal transitional divisions created after the merger between BEA and BOAC, at Heathrow that meant there was also a division across two terminals, T1 which was short haul operations, principally to Europe, and T3 for long haul flights. The structural divisions also existed in the back room operations as each airline ad historical (or legacy) bases and offices, and indeed London sales offices. These gradually were restructured out in time and when BA moved into T4 in the mid 1980’s, all longhaul and some short haul services moved there. It was not until the late 2000’s that BA was able to move the majority of flights into one terminal, T5, but by that time, T5 was not big enough to accommodate all, some remained in T1 and then migrated to T3. After the pandemic and 9/11 recessions in air travel, now BA has a reduced operation and it is all in one terminal. This was a gestation amalgamation period of nearly 50 years after BA was created.

[@rodolfoayalajr.8589]

Great video. Scary 😨

[@hughsonj]

British Airways came into being with the merger of British Overseas Airway Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) in 1974. BOAD was the internal name for the legacy BOAC flights.

[@stevenjaggers9038]

Thanks another great video.Happy Xmas everyone.

[@Spidey-tb3tu]

Christmas not Xmas!!!

[@peterjf7723]

@@Spidey-tb3tu Why? Writing Xmas rather than Christmas is perfectly acceptable English and has been used for hundreds of years.

[@stevenjaggers9038]

@@Spidey-tb3tu Good point. Happy Christmas

[@stevenjaggers9038]

@@peterjf7723 You’re right. Happy Christmas

[@skunkrat01]

Yeah I totally clocked it the first time through. Reading through the comments it looks like a lot of more knowledgeable people have explained a lot more about it. Thanks guys

[@moosifer3321]

Trying to land 330ft BELOW the airport elevation is inexcusable, no wonder that the flight engineer is also a Pilot, and in this case the only crew member with his eye on the game. Incidents such as this are far more interesting than fatal crashes, less wellknown and have much happier outcomes - Bravo Mini, more please - Air Maroc `Double Dip`? and Happy New Year!

[@georgeconway4360]

What makes you think the F/E was a pilot. He may have been, it probably not. BOAC/BA had PFEs.

[@Ztbmrc1]

On the ils approach map there would be an altitude indicated to maintain to intercept the glidepath. They should have noticed that the 5000 ft that they thought they were cleared to, was below the altitude on the approach chart to intercept the glidepath on. But given all the circumstances (darkness and a long flight -> fatigue) this could happen. Fortunately this time it ended all well. Tnx for sharing!

[@robertgtaylor]

As has been said, an internal designation one BOAC and BEA meged to create British Airways. What had been BOAC was refered to as the overseas division of British Airways (BAOD) and BEA as the eupropean division (BAED).

[@vjfeefeecat586]

Brad Pitts!! OMG 😂🤣😂🤣😂 So funny and such a good video mini my friend 🙃🙂😉

[@richardhill2643]

I love the new unit of measurement. “The Brad” approximately 1.8m or 5’11”!

[@queeny5613]

Wow amazing

[@gilbertfranklin1537]

Usually when you hear that the pilot had to go full throttle to try to avoid crashing, the next words are; "But it was too late." I am so glad that this crew was "just in time". 😏

[@abdullahsherdil1446]

You never mentioned that Nairobi airport is at 5300 feet above sea level so by sitting 5000 feet on the altimeter, they were pretty much telling the auto pilot to dig a 300 feet hole on the ground.... If they had a better situational awareness and briefed properly the approach, they would have caught that mistake immediately.

[@Steve-gc5nt]

That could have got very messy for those 12 Brad Pitts.

[@blakhorizon915]

Great Christmas present right here.

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

Merry Christmas everyone ✌️

[@pastorjohn4337]

Thanks tor your videos. I appreciate the work you put into them. I do have a question on this one though. At the beginning of the video you said the captain was expecting a clearance to land in Nairobi on runway 06. As you show him landing after the go around, he is landing on runway 24. I'm wondering why it changed if in fact it did or whether you just had the opposite runway in the video. Thanks.

[@bartskinthepro3138]

Yay! New video!

[@DIDCOTTWIST]

I was on a BA 747-200 G-BDXG coming back from Florida in 1992 and it was heavy rain over UK and we were turning as you can feel that even if you cannot see anything in cloud as we carried on turning over the UK we came out of the cloud still heavily banked and all I could see was fields even as I looked up out the wind see the horizon we were way to low and aircraft levelled out and heard the engines rev as we climbed quick back above the cloud.

[@Giac0966]

very good video with clear and useful info... what was the reg of the aircraft?

[@cosmasmutungi8017]

Nairobi JKIA is 5331 feet Above seal level. They had selected a target altitude lower than level of the runway.

[@johns1009]

But how high above walrus level?

[@jpoconnor5744]

A couple of close calls I observed as a passenger: Long final to runway 26R at KATL in a Delta 767. Daytime VMC with a thin scattered layer above. I see a another airliner make a left base to final turn and end up directly underneath us. About 5 seconds later I see it reappear as it correctly moves over to the localizer for 27L where it belonged in the first place. Our pilots were not happy. On final to runway 33L at KBOS in a Delta 767. Mid-morning VMC with clear skies. We are quite low over the water in normal descent just short of the threshold. Suddenly, I feel the landing gear start to retract, while still descending, and hear the engines starting to spool up. Moments later, we are pressed into our seat backs in hard acceleration, rate of climb goes positive, and the nose is rapidly raised quite high. The pilots are clawing for every foot of altitude they can find in an aggressive full power climb. We cross over the threshold, then the runway 27 intersection, and moments later cross the runway 22L intersection. As we cross 22L, directly below - seemingly close enough to reach out and touch - is another airliner moving at high speed. Had our pilots not been on the ball, two airliners would have collided on the ground at high speed. After a couple minutes of silence, the PIC got in the PA and told us they had been cleared to land and noticed the aircraft on 22L, which had been instructed to line up and wait, started their take off roll. You could still hear the adrenaline in his voice! He said they had already informed ATC and would be meeting with them after landing to file an official report.

[@andylane247]

I was on a Qantas 747 from Frankfurt to Heathrow in 90 or 91. I was sat by a forward door, with two cabin crew pull out seats opposite. We were on finals and appeared to be over the boundary fence, with the cabin crew still up. Captain came onto the pa and (loudly ) said cabin crew IMMEDIATELY to landing positions. They quickly sat down in front of me and exchanged a glance with each other that worried me !! We landed almost immediately and hit the brakes etc hard. Interesting... Had an interesting flight with Southern Air from Stewart Island to Invercargill in 93. Sat next to the pilot in an islander. In turbulence I grabbed my seat unfortunately realising it, it slid forward and my size 12 walking boots jammed for a few seconds under the rudder pedals. Happy days!!!!

[@mromniscient117]

"Your plane should never be 12 Brad Pitts away from the ground" is a hell of a quote.

[@Peacich]

Could we use the Brad Pit scale in every video? It makes it very easy to imagine how high they were

[@konstantinosbanitsas616]

americans will use anything BUT the metric system!

[@Rapscallion2009]

@@konstantinosbanitsas616 one Brad Pitt equals 180cm.

[@johnnorth9355]

Any indication that proximity to the ground is not as expected should be taken with the utmost seriousness.

[@roberttodd5338]

There was an airline once called British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). This airline and others like British European Airlines (BEA) were consolidated into one company and called British Airways.

[@ryanfrisby7389]

Amazing video and the Brad Pitt comment was hilarious! Merry Christmas! Also, a close call that I’m not sure if you covered was QF72!

[@tomstravels520]

I wouldn’t really call it a close call. They were at 37000ft and never descended below 36000ft

[@user-ec6ix9ck2k]

That's why you have distance/altitude informations on the approach charts. You have to check that when on the glideslope! But nobody did ....

[@PelenTan]

Merry Christmas. Thank you for posting this. I'm an early riser so I'm waiting for everyone else to get up. So... Yes, the pilots and engineer made mistakes. But they were in a cockpit-bubble. And the fact that all three thought they heard 5,000 feet is telling. The primary fault goes to the air traffic controller here. He is supposed to be the final check. The fact that me blew off a transmission from an airplane on final should have made sure he never worked in the airline business again. He has _one_ job and he failed it. Honestly, I'm reminded of the sequel to the greatest Christmas movie ever. And that is, of course, Die Hard 2. When the terrorist controller brought a plane in ILS conditions into a crash on the runway.

[@AdrianColley]

I have to disagree on two grounds. First, the flight engineer heard 7500 but didn't know that the pilots had read back 5000. Second, the primary fault must go to the copilot who accepted what he thought was a clearance to descend to 5000 (QNH) when he knew full well that the airport elevation was above 5300. The commander failed to pick up the error, and he flew the plane down without ever reconciling the progress of the approach with the approach chart. He never flew for the airline again. Yes, the radar controller could have caught the error, but it wasn't primarily his responsibility to do so.

[@michaelschwartz9485]

Your Brad Pitt comment was great! I'd love to use it in my everyday conversation but I don't think anyone would get it! You do one hell of a great job!!

[@clover5172]

You should cover United Airlines Flight 863 A 747 that almost crashed into a mountain due to an Engine failure and pilot error

[@roymackenzie-jy4lr]

According to a timetable from 1972 i think boac/ba operated flight 29 as London-Zurich-nirobi-johannesburg

[@davidfarrow875]

Great videos. Aircraft incidents fascinate me from the point of view of understanding what happened and how things changed to improve safety as a result. Some years back, in the early to mid 1980s I think, I heard about an incident when the pilot of a 747 on approach to Heathrow at night made a bit of a boo-boo and mistook the lights on the adjacent A4 main road for the runway lights. When he realised his mistake he as on short finals to the car park of the Heathrow Sheraton Hotel and almost removed the roof of said hotel when he applied power to abort the landing. There was also another incident much earlier, 1960s I think, when an Air India 707 completely messed up his approach and accidentally landed at the RAF base at Northolt instead. The runway there is much shorter and they had to remove a lot of equipment from the aircraft so it could take off again. If either of these incidents are known to you, it would be great to understand what actually happened.

[@iAPX432]

Hot as usual! Merry Xmas!

[@fhowland]

Amazing how many close calls like This that we never hear about

[@LakshmananLM]

BAOD operated the joint BA and SIA (Singapore Airlines) concorde service in1977. The only aircraft with 2 paint jobs. BA markings on the right, SIA on the left. Terminated in 1981.

[@jamestyrrell4632]

Saw that in Bahrain flying in the late 70s for gulf air.

[@davedenham8697]

In my 19 years experience as a navigator and ops control dispatcher, I’m still amazed at how many pilots don’t know what the difference between QNH and QFE are….frightening….basic, but they don’t know it in the main

[@ron234halt]

I'm curious how many survived this incident, but I haven't been able to find this on Wikipedia; could you post a link in the comments?

[@spetzspas]

With such a loss of SA I think (hope) even the GPWS "too low glideslope" might have been enough to get them to go around, which would have been much earlier.

[@scottpaul7427]

The altitude readback error was obvious, but I wonder if saying that the First Officer cut themselves off at 4:46 was to see if people were really paying attention

[@gavinlee1153]

An Merry Christmas! from gavin

[@gursimarsingh5961]

When making the iLS approach to the runway, the controller said 7500 feet after passing the GG beacon, but the first officer took it as 5000 feet.

[@hb1338]

I lived in Nairobi for 5 years. Since then I have known that the city is 5000 feet above sea level, so I would never have accepted a clearance to 5000 feet i.e ground level. I wonder whether this is the sort of information that pilots could/should have at their fingertips.