The Controls DONT WORK!! Airbus Computer Nightmare

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For many people, becoming a pilot is a life-long dream. To be able to touch the clouds and feel that awesome raw power of the engines surging through you on a daily basis is something that they just have to achieve. But, what happens when the pinacle, the crowing of your pilot training turns into a nightmare? Stay tuned...
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode.
SOURCES
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Final Report:
www.flightradar24.com/blog/wp...
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[@MentourPilot]

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[@kgaming7599]

How was this comment posted 23 minutes ago but the video was posted 16 seconds ago? 🤔😂

[@nathm5143]

​@@kgaming7599The comment was made when the video was still unlisted

[@kennethlilliehook7839]

Boeing Biden and you are socialistisk nightmare.

[@Smartzenegger]

This is great, you brought back the *Mentour Pilot Theme Tune - Big Cars - Silent Partner - by Joe Perkins* song! :)

[@moiraatkinson]

Companies are starting to take measures against VPS’s, to try and limit their use. Deep packet inspection, blocking IP ranges etc. (Just a bit of info!)

[@AnthonyWhite-pd7rb]

You can tell Petter is Swedish when he describes temperatures of -13°C as "a bit crispy".

[@MentourPilot]

😂😂😂

[@robertkeyes258]

It's colder than that where I am now in Maine. :)

[@Svenskanorden1]

​@@robertkeyes258Here in Sweden it's been -35c

[@Julia-nl3gq]

A bit crispy - sounds accurate to me, for describing -13 C. That's just a cool, late fall or very early winter temp, to me, here (Saskatchewan, Canada).

[@oscarspark2396]

Yeah that’s even warm. Hi from Yakutsk 👋🏼

[@pjabrony8280]

When "Did you try turning it off and on again?" goes wrong.

[@MentourPilot]

Hahaha! True

[@Canleaf08]

Same with the Air Asia flight.

[@kaeaja]

@@MentourPilot Hey I mean, they didn't try jiggling the cord :I Shame on them, never forget to jiggle the cord or unplug wait 5 seconds and plug it back in again :D Seriously though, I love your videos man and I am glad these people were all able to walk away without injury. These trainees got some very good experience with this I'd say, just wish it wasn't so nightmarish for them. But they did amazing all the same, everyone on this flight did :3 I feel bad for the aircraft itself though. I know it isn't a living entity and all but I still feel bad for it as well.

[@schigger3]

Wouldn't reset the computers after failing to mechanical backup solve the problem? Or is resetting at this stage impossible? Worked the first 5-10 times. But even if that would be possible, that would be the last thing i would think of when it gone down in to mechanical backup.

[@NicolaW72]

@@Canleaf08 Not exactly the same. At the Air Asia Flight the Captain got tired with this off and on and therefore made the mistake which brought them down.

[@EmilyTestAccount]

On one hand: absolutely terrifying On the other hand: for the trainees it can only go up from here!

[@sabrinaleedance]

Really good hands on experience! Way better than simulator emergency training lol

[@jimmahr.4665]

Weeeeelll, I dunno if I would want to go up from here (dirt) again.

[@jabba0975]

Um.....what if they don't survive the next 'issue'?

[@alexandercalder2143]

"Maybe I'll just keep driving a taxi instead of learning to fly"

[@jannehokkanen8175]

yeah, they will never trust fly by wire again.

[@imperial_corner]

I'm a HAZMAT Tanker Commercial Vehicle driver in the USA. I use things I learn from Petter to be a safer driver. I had to stand up to my company yesterday and cause them to lose thousands of dollars in revenue over a safety issue. Watching this video I finally feel proud of my decision, not just full of worry.

[@jabba0975]

If your company is typical corporate, you are now marked as a 'troublemaker'. You can expect to be fired for doing the right thing, unfortunately.

[@imperial_corner]

@@jabba0975 been at the same company for 10 years, and my career is over 15 years at this point. They don't fire people who do their job well, even when we are a pain in the neck, nor has any company I've ever worked for. At the end of the day I save them more money than I cost.

[@theonetheonly9730]

​@@jabba0975😂 yeppers

[@everythingpony]

Nice job ruining your career you had

[@daniel7587]

He did not only cost them thousands, he also most likely saved them millions. Compare Boeing and Airbus stock performance over the past five years to see what I mean. He should get a promotion or look for another company that appreciates his sense of responsibility and strong character.

[@CyberHornet]

Ex SmartLynx pilot here! I remember hearing about this accident and seeing some leaked videos about it back in early 2018 when I had just started my course to become an airline pilot. Fast forward 3.5 years and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting two of the people on board that day, one of the cadets and the safety pilot, who even seated behind me during one of my line training flights. Both of them are still happily flying the A320 as first officers for SmartLynx!

[@ThatRandomEstonian]

nice, i honestly now want to go planespotting in tallinn again, as i dont live that far from tallinn edit 02/03/2024: yeah lol thatw as just my honest reaction

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

That's awesome. The safety pilot is someone I'd be happy to be a passenger of!

[@JayJay-88]

Did the poor 4th student pilot that couldn't rotate continue flying? 😁

[@larryphotography]

​@@JayJay-88 rumour has it he's still pulling back on his side stick 😅

[@danwaudi]

Love these videos. Just keeps getting better and better. Could have been a whole high production value series on “Discovery” channel or the like back in the day. The quality of production and narrative is just amazing. Thank you!

[@shingshongshamalama]

The sheer fortitude of that support pilot sitting there as this barely controlled plane careens toward the runway, the captain is sweating and trying to fly using trim wheels and pedal controls, and then _both engines_ cut out and the power turns off, and he turns to his colleague and calmly says: "Gear's down."

[@jhonbus]

I guess that's why he gets the title of "Safety Pilot"! Unflappability is exactly what you want in a situation like this. (In the crew, anyway. Unflappability is a bad thing if it's the wings)

[@stoffls]

It is basically his job to stay calm. And some people have the great ability to get really cool when things go wrong. And yes, he kept his cool obviously. And with this he was a great help to the captain, so he could stay focussed.

[@koharumi1]

​@@jhonbus😆😆😆

[@StarkRG]

It feels a bit like the "well, at least we can fly upside down" comment from Alaska Air flight 261 but with a significantly better outcome.

[@lenon1980]

Can you imagine him saying "shit's goin down boys" instead.

[@TheLastPhoen1x]

Safety pilot was MVP there. Amazing work by the captain as well.

[@1m3agle]

Captain caused the situation to happen. Absolutely not amazing work

[@lachlanrussell8283]

@@1m3aglehe absolutely didn’t. The captain followed the procedure. This accident was mechanical and procedural in nature- following the guidebook is exactly what he should have done, which he did. And blaming him for not considering the 300ms delay between two computer system’s consideration of flight/ground mode operation would cause the simultaneous shutdown of 4 computers in the 15 odd seconds on the runway that caused the accident to happen is a WILD thing to expect of someone. Captain kept everyone safe- that was, and always is, his job. During the landing, he made some incredibly good calls, and he got them down safely.

[@1m3agle]

@@lachlanrussell8283 he caused it by grabbing the trim wheel when he should not have

[@Demon_Wolfie]

​@1m3agle He did, in fact, need to grab the trim wheel, as it was part of the procedure. If you rewatch the video, it is said that the trim wheel automatically moves back to the neutral position upon the aircraft entering ground mode (~5 seconds after touchdown), therefore resetting the trim, which is undesired in a touch-and-go landing. This can (and has to) be prevented by activating the override mechanism, which is done by doing exactly what the captain did - grabbing the trim wheel. The only problem with the trim mechanism was the incorrect lubricant in the piston.

[@lachlanrussell8283]

@@1m3agle he was supposed to grab the trim wheel. That was the procedure for a touch and go landing.

[@ShimmeringSpectrum]

It truly was a miracle that this aircraft made it down without injuring anyone onboard. Without that combination of the safety pilot's calming influence, the captain's experience, and the engines holding out just long enough for them to reach the runway, this story would have had a tragic ending.

[@franziskani]

And built sturdily enough to take the hit with the landing.

[@alihenderson5910]

Not gonna lie, I was on the edge of my seat for this one. Great video.

[@TheSpacecraftX]

And the presence of mind and willingness to step in of the safety pilot.

[@droneshotsantoine1805]

Actually it did injure a few people. You should read more information about the accident.

[@virtulis]

Oh yes, one of my favorite incidents (as a software developer, not a pilot). A great example of how 1) the most improbable scenario can still happen 2) safeguards can fail and safeguards *for* safeguards can also fail 3) the last safeguard should always be "beep loudly and hope the humans can solve it". Clearly things Boeing (and majority of less mission critical hardware and software vendors) seem to forget too often.

[@thorminate2429]

This was an Airbus.

[@TheSkcube]

​​@@thorminate2429Think they are referring to MCAS and the Max crashes. Boeing designed the MCAS system to not involve humans, even when things failed.

[@michaelmoses8745]

This truly is a freak accident if there ever was one. First flight of a student pilot led to a manual override due to go arounds during previous flights that led to dual engine failure and a fire in engine two. Literally what are the odds. Worst first flight ever through no fault of the student.

[@paulholmes672]

Yes, also as a Software and controls engineer for Avionics, we always have to be equally cognizant of the hows, but also the What If's. My greatest asset during development was my long time Mechanical Technician Colleague as he would do a perfect job of exercising the system but not testing it to work but trying to make it fail, vs. me trying to make it work, and assuming I'd foreseen enough. After he was done, I knew it was a much better system.

[@tilly6085]

@@michaelmoses8745 that wasn't even all, there was also the wrong oil in the piston that practically never got used otherwise.. The holes in this Swiss cheese were truly microscopic

[@DeclanMBrennan]

I'm not a pilot but that narration had me right in the cockpit for a truly horrifying and chaotic situation. That using the wrong viscosity oil on a minor system could have led to such a unanticipatable cascade of failures is mind boggling. The pilots did an incredible job.

[@dougle03]

Just a shame Airbus didn't have a solution for manual intervention of the pitch trim wheels for pilot training scenarios... I suspect there is now...

[@thiswan1]

But for a nail the battle was lost true even today thankfully not in this case but nearly

[@Blex_040]

If you want to see another great example of a very minor thing having truly terrifying impact on the flight, then I recommend Mentour Pilot's video about British Airways Flight 5390

[@Hellsong89]

More and more complex systems you have in the machine, the failure rate of those parts, the cost of operation and chances of systems fighting each other/not working as intended in weird situations you will have. Jet engine in good day is not simple design on its own, now strap to it 10K more complexity that just are related to engines and then far more to other aircraft systems. When you have that many systems, knowing every detail of them or simple mistake of putting wrong oil in some specific place and it becomes disaster that could have ended far worse.

[@paulis7319]

Huge shoutout to the engine designers for designing the engines tough enough to take such a beating and stay running long enough to get the crew back on the ground alive.

[@rv6amark]

In my 43 year design career, I have been involved with numerous incidents/accidents involving system level failures, and that was the most complex and interactive series I have ever heard of. Your extensive knowledge and ability to explain it was key to this great video. I always suspected that as we moved into more and more complexity in our aircraft systems we would have accidents like this, but this was really mind blowing. Thank you for this video. It really reinforces my belief that the 1 minute news clips that we get from the main-stream media don't really tell us anything, and are a disservice to the public.

[@Kasiek2011]

Especially when at the end they say in the news: "It was a pilot's error". I remember as I heard the phrase when I was a child, and back then I was thinking something like: "OK, so the pilot was poorly trained or just didn't care much about his job". But now, especially after following Peter's channel on YT, I hate the short statement of "pilot's error", because it simply means nothing.

[@briancavanagh7048]

Watching or listening to any main stream “news” which needs to fit into their 1 minute dialogue about almost any subject is a complete waste of time.

[@landrec2]

This one was a roller-coaster that had me at the edge of my seat, everyone is super lucky to be alive. Complex systems help when they work, but insert some random errors and then what's a fella supposed to do? I'm shocked the crew handled this so well. What a nightmare!

[@tbuk8350]

I'm all for more complex systems, and I don't think they were the main problem at fault in this accident. The captain should have paused training to figure out why there were constant ELAC failures, as the computer was trying to tell them something was wrong and they were basically just ignoring it.

[@Hellsong89]

@@tbuk8350 Nah m8. More complex systems are implemented, more failure points you will have, more expensive it is to operate and when all fails and its about the skill, you cant do it since its fly by wire and that wire is dead for one reason or another. Moment we went from relatively simple mechanical flight controls with physical connection to computer control, no thank you, i have no interest to get aboard of such machine pilot is not in control, but computer is. Same thing with cars. If computer controls what engine and transmission does, well as all about the starting and shutting down. Hell now it can steer it self, well as control brakes... NOPE that is far too much control take from the driver away, avenue for malicious actor ether disable you like some new cars already have built in ability from manufacturer in the code, or maybe worse, disable all driver control inputs, lock the doors and accelerate to top speed, steering towards something important, as new cars are like RC cars, but with far worse track record of surviving such collisions. If its EV it can be used to firebomb a city by messing with the BMC and causing thermal runaway. China is already suspected to plan this as attack vector now that they push out cheap EV's at the loss, to flood western market and now with them on the streets all over, just turning them remotely off all at once, or worse causing the thermal runaway, now you have toxic fire storm at worse in whole country at the same times and utterly blocked traffic for several weeks at best. Considering these things there should be always manual control that computer cannot effect anyway shape or form.

[@BoondockMercantile]

Imagine the thrill when you're a Mentour Pilot fan going through type training and then you realize Petter is your instructor. 😎

[@CMDRSweeper]

Then to finish it all off, everything goes sour like this and Petter has to fight to save you and your fellow students lives due to some undiscovered 737 flaw / feature...

[@kurtvanluven9351]

@@CMDRSweeper Boeing basher!

[@ernestoditerribile]

@@kurtvanluven9351737’s are full of flaws, they call features.

[@nerysghemor5781]

@@kurtvanluven9351If Boeing folds it will be their own damn fault. Boeing has done a lot of cool things in the past but the period of bad management and quality control they’ve had lately has been a serious self inflicted wound. (Obviously Airbus isn’t perfect and as an American I would LIKE to have a quality airplane company here but still.)

[@nerysghemor5781]

That would be ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! 😊

[@anastasiskanidis1925]

This is probably the most insane and mind blowing save of an aircraft I've ever heard about. All the time I was anticipating the crash, but it thankfully never happened. I can't imagine the feeling everyone on board got when they landed safely. Massive props to the pilot and safety pilot for managing to save this situation. Truly, communication and staying calm in a situation like this goes a long way.

[@craigmcallister2310]

United 232 would like a word...

[@colinjacobs176]

I felt the same way. Engines smashed, gear (I thought) pulverised, no pitch control, a student in the right seat and a bizarre edge case confusing everyone. The fact they all walked away is amazing.

[@bakhtiyaralbetov4561]

Take a look at Air Astana Embraer case over Portugal

[@t1intern677]

Thanks for spoiling the video, hope ur mom goes sky

[@n2n8sda]

Seriously look at United 232, Mentour has done a video on it too. That plane had no controls at all.

[@martinkarugaba]

Felt like as if I was watching a movie. Glad that everyone made it. The fact that the single remaining engine kept systems on, the landing gear deploying even after they had banged the ground halfway deployed in a previous landing, the safety pilot. What an ordeal! Thanks Peter for the story.

[@phil4986]

This was one of the best Mentour Pilot videos ever. Much respect and massive congratulations to those pilots and the rookie, who got out of the way and didn't make anything worse. What a terrifying flight. Bravo to those heroes.

[@CrowMercury]

This episode is the perfect example of " 1% chances of something happening is NOT 0. "

[@nunziomeli2493]

1% is a lot, probably 0.000000000001% is not 0 :)

[@rosen9425]

Is there anything in aviation that is zero chance? I swear even the vacuum toilet system has a 1 in a googolplex chance of flushing backwards

[@nomennisceo6495]

@@rosen9425 That would be a shit flight to be on

[@gigagurke7364]

You are right, the Chances were calculated by 1 in a Billion ​@@nunziomeli2493

[@mustang19ms]

1% is not seeero

[@Sadlander2]

Wow! This felt like watching an action movie where you're completely invested and your heart rate is about to go through the roof! I got so excited when the safety pilot called out *"Manual pitch trim only, manual pitch trim only!!"* and in my head, I was screaming _"Yes, yes, come on, you can do it now"_ as if this was happening right now and I was with them in that cockpit! This shows how well these videos are made!!!

[@MrSeppei]

With the engine on fire I thought they would go down. Because they would not be able to control the tourn. I wonder how they did that.

[@kevinbrowne1278]

Ditto

[@liam3284]

still had rudder, thank goodness

[@manoelguidialvares6903]

Same here!

[@michaeljohn8905]

I know me too this was the best one yet ! I love when Peter doesn’t tell you if they all perished or they all lived and the way he tells the story I’m literally on the edge of my seat the whole time. It draws out like an amazing thriller or spy novel slash movie ! Then as I saw them cross the threshold I knew they would be ok but still not until the airplane finally stopped and everyone got out did I take a Deep breath and say thank gawwd ! They lived ! Amazing story telling. Pete must be one of the coolest pilots to fly with !

[@TGraysChannels]

Wow! Wow! Woe! I have 25,283 hours, am now working on my sixth type rating, and I LEARN from you. Undoubtedly what you teach me will help me keep my passengers safe. Thank you, sir.

[@ronaldglider]

Glad to hear you keep learning. Even with 100'000 hours you can still learn (hint for complacent 2000 hour pilots- I have 800 hours in gliders)

[@KrasherJack]

Always remember to fly the D... Plane, quote from my Instructor 50yrs ago, also stick and Rudder, but in their case wouldn't have helped..

[@theonetheonly9730]

2.8 years, it's believable cheers cap keep your crew and passengers safe❤🎉

[@Kasiek2011]

Fly safely! I wish you as many safe and controlled landings as departures. 🙂

[@sapatomaluco]

Hi, ex-airline mechanic here. I watched the video carefully with my attention fixed on the piston that activates the override mechanism of the horizontal stabilizer trim wheel and stop the auto trim during the touch and go. I was very curious to hear by the end of the video more details on what Airbus did to that particular element of the chain, as it appears to be what triggered the whole sequence of electronic oddities. I think this is the most complex and improbable electronic system chain of events that I've ever seen. It is a relief that it didn't close with a mishap.

[@ribosoman593]

I'm equally impressed by the crew managing to land the plane with the smallest set of controls there is and by the investigators who tracked down the entire (utterly improbable) chain of events leading to this incident.

[@dontcallmethat7240]

being able to land a plane without a sidestick is something you would expect from a pilot, but doing that with a variable amount of working engines... that's impersive

[@alexc4924]

@@dontcallmethat7240 How are the ailerons controlled without a sidestick?

[@brucejones2354]

​@@alexc4924, they don't....the only available controls are elevator trim, for up and down, and rudder, for side to side.

[@dontcallmethat7240]

@@alexc4924 roll is somewhat controllable via yaw and pitch, and thrust levers become even more vital part. In the accident, the captain had to correct yaw and pitch for asymmetric and inconsistent thrust while not messing up the roll in the process

[@ggould256]

So much agreement, especially as to the investigators -- as someone who worked for many years in distributed control systems, tracking down timing faults and reset faults is never anything other than a massive, weeks-long nightmare slog. Even if your intuition correctly nails the relevant hazard, proving it from whatever random incomplete logs you have plus static analysis of the components is madness-inducing. And the system-as-deployed, system-as-documented, and system-as-designed never ever quite line up in the details. Some anonymous somebody lost a lot of sanity proving out the fault chain here, and probably saved lives doing so. Most interesting control systems failures never really get properly diagnosed beyond "maybe, probably, and good enough to settle the lawsuit", and it's nice to see aviation once again delivering the win where other fields fail.

[@ConWolfDoubleO7]

I was shocked the gears could even move back into position after hitting the ground so hard the first time. And then they survived being smashed down in the dirt and still held it up and straight for a clean enough landing.

[@BunjiKugashira42]

Yeah, at that part of the story I was fully expecting the gear to malfunction and the plane to land on its belly.

[@nomennisceo6495]

A lot of hydrolic failures happen when a system is locked, valves are closed and a shock to an actuator means that the system gets overpressured and bursts... My guess would be that since the system was actuating there was an open path from the actual landing gear cylinders to a receiver tank/accumulator, meaning that the hydrolics weren't overpressured but rather just slammed into the gear up position

[@muntashirulhaque5937]

​@@BunjiKugashira42 Same here! I was surprised it even took the hard landing on the dirt and did not break off!!

[@kay9549]

I'm sure all involved with this incident, are blessed since on landing they came down pretty hard with or without gear locked, without the craft not breaking apart.

[@johnbonham9422]

nope, in order to prevent a burst as you suggest, the system would have a mechanical max pressure valve which would dump to tank@@nomennisceo6495

[@anjakellenjeter]

"Not a great day..." Ah, Petter, the king of understatement. 😂😂😂 If I was that student, I wouldn't have been able to get out of that seat fast enough when told to switch with the safety pilot. Poor kid.

[@asharpbflat7179]

Lol exactly my thoughts

[@benjamin-austinhebert6072]

With Petter being a 737 pilot, I'm always impressed with how much he knows about the systems on the Airbus. Does this knowledge come from the fact that as an instructor he needs to know these differences? Or is it simply because he enjoys learning this stuff and just does research on his own? In any event, these videos are always so well done. Keep up the good work!

[@griff40532]

I think Petter prefers Airbus, even though he fly's a 737. I'm an airline pilot, check airman, training captain and now manufacturer simulator instructor. I found this video very well done and informative.

[@rolandfernandez1755]

Damn, this one had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. What an incredible amount of research, presentation and editing!

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you for watching! I’m so glad you liked it

[@AaronOfMpls]

Indeed, I was half-expecting much _more_ of a crash than it was! This felt almost as scary as that flight over -Spain- _Portugal_ where the sticks' control cables had been hooked up backwards. _EDIT: Corrected, thanks!_

[@bernadetteprasad8389]

I didn't know the outcome prior and kept saying to my self oh no, this is not going to end well. Petter used the word catastrophic and for sure I thought no one made it. .. phew. Edge. Of. My. Seat

[@NicolaW72]

@@AaronOfMpls Over Portugal🙂 - but: yes!

[@damonk666]

That was intense, fair play to those pilots, I thought it was going to end far worse than it did also!

[@raresmist]

What I absolutely love about this man is you can see the glimmer in his eyes whenever he talks about his experience in the cockpit. You can tell that he was born to do this, the passion and never-ending drive is admirable and it gives me goosebumps just thinking about how accomplished he must feel to have the career that he has. I think we need more people like this in absolutely every job and industry, and I am so happy for him that he was determined and also lucky enough to be able to become a veteran in such a challenging career. Incredibly inspirational.

[@charlesblithfield6182]

The complexity of the circumstances surrounding this event blow my mind. It really drives home all the factors that must be accounted for in the design and implementation of fly by wire systems. Props to those involved in dealing with the event.

[@brucebaxter6923]

Why? The arrogant ass of a pilot kept ignoring the plane telling him it’s broken and needs to land

[@superweedenjoyer]

It's incredible they were able to walk away from this catastrophe, an unbelievable amount of things going wrong an they still managed to avoid a complete disaster. Very admirable

[@myne00]

An unbelievable number of things also went just right enough. The gear not being fully up probably saved the engines from immediate failure. The bounce from the front gear giving them an attitude that was favourable to gain altitude and time. The extra long runoff and no other obstacles on the ground. The engines surviving just long enough for a good enough final approach. The pilot's and check pilot's combined experience. There are probably more, but it's impressive just how many things went just right enough that it wasn't a fatal accident.

[@ahgflyguy]

everyone was okay and walked away: check. But they can't use the aircraft again... so it was only a 50% successful flight.

[@rederos8079]

​​@@ahgflyguy Yeah, I think that phrase needs a little reworking... "Any landing you can walk away from, is a good landing. Any landing after which the aircraft is reusable is a great landing. Any landing, which was not supposed to happen but still did, is to be listed as one of the best landings aviation world has ever witnessed." This miracle, the hudson, and the sioux(yes, not as succesful but heck with it, 184 lives were saved) are some to list. In none of those situations were the pilots in any ways or forms trained for the situations, in all of those situations all the worst things had happened. The pilots just did their best and that was enough.

[@casualclipsco]

I have only heard about this accident about a year ago when I met the captain/TRI personally in Slovenia. It happened as I was preparing for my route and was greeted by a gentleman (captain) accompanying a student who was doing UPRT. After my flight, I was invited for a chat by a UPRT instructor and a gentleman who greeted me before. Through talking, the captain was telling me about his flying experience and some tips on my flying career, when suddenly mentioned this accident (Smartlynx 9001). Firstly I couldnt believe it actually happened and we just listened to him for about an hour talking from first hand experience. Even UPRT instructor was stunned as he is a senior captain on Airbus. Later the captain said he was invited by Airbus to help them understand what actually happened and they calculated the probability for this accident was 1 in a billion. This shows he was the right man for the job and throughout the conversation the captain appeared very humble and down to earth. I dont remember much else but I think he just retired last year.

[@ilfordino-fordfiestatutori8725]

Great move by Airbus by inviting him to help them understand what the hell happened

[@davidmartin123]

But if there are many other yet unidentified catastrophic scenarios with "1 in a billion" probability, the probability of ar least one occurring is much higher.

[@10secondsrule]

@@ilfordino-fordfiestatutori8725Boeing will probably just try to lobby FIA for more exceptions instead.

[@chiefdenis]

@@10secondsrule you read my mind😂

[@trophywolfe]

Lies

[@aliencafealien5080]

I rarely comment on videos but I just have to say that I ABSOLUTE LOVE when you give us preliminary knowledge about aviation/engineering/pilot training, etc before starting the actual video. And the best part is that you do it in such a concise, dynamic and fun way that I find myself thinking that it is actually part of the happenings of the rest of the video. Shoutouts from South Korea!

[@sinisterknight9696]

When the student who had been flying went back to the cabin, I can imagine the look he got from the other students, like “what did you do?”

[@firnen_]

As an aerospace engineering student, one of my professors actually taught this incident in out aircraft subsystems class. Partly to show how the logic of the degrading flight laws works, and partly to drive home the point that you can never be too diligent when designing critical systems. No matter how unlikely a fault scenario might be, you always have to consider it and either prevent it, or define what needs to happen when it occurs to keep the aircraft and people on board safe.

[@richardprice5978]

yah id rather engaging in engineering ( i respect those who do it as career pathways as pilots ect 😉 ) and testing the prototype's than daily operations in passenger services ect, but yes id like to have a private pilot and sea captain/yacht club for my personal use and experimenting in say GA-flying getting a GA 🇺🇸 pilot's licences is $$ and time consuming for average 19yo's so yah i haven't gotten it in the 9+ year's of being outside of 2dery/high-school schooling

[@Jebbis]

I used to do human factors for a medical device company working on class III devices. We had to do the same thing. You did not want this coming back to you and have the company put under a consent decree.

[@oleksiistarodub1122]

What did your professor did conclude?

[@spvillano]

The clock offset and sampling rate set up an ideal race condition, which resulted in the error that caused all of the computers to fail out. One problem with "it's so one off, it'll never happen" is, with enough flights, it will inevitably happen. Thankfully, the safety pilot justified their duties by catching what got overloooked and was key to understanding what was going on. Concerning is, with dual engine failure, the recorders lose power. So, get surprised by an event in Iceland, lose all recorders really doesn't sound like a grand idea. There should be some standby power to them and their inputs for at least long enough for the RAT and/or APU to come online and provide power. This one could never be properly conveyed in "Seconds from Disaster", it could only be well covered in milliseconds from disaster!

[@----.__]

I'm a weapon systems engineer for the MoD/DoD now, but I started my engineering career as an I&E engineer designing oil rigs and refineries. For every design we created complex cause and effect charts, FMEA and FTA, for fault analysis. It contained every single component and detailed every single possible failure mode for each given component, no matter how insignificant it may seem. There wasn't a single scenario that wasn't considered and importance was placed upon even the smallest detail. I'm surprised the aviation industry isn't quite as pedantic in regards to failure modes as this video would suggest, flight computer failure would be a high risk failure and not reporting this information based on altitude seems wrong in all regards. I'm not even going to question why the CVR and FDR don't have their own battery backup, I'm just going to remain in awe at the level of incompetence we sometimes see, and work hard to never repeat such fundamental mistakes.

[@MARKSHEA-rf3dz]

I would love to hear a follow up on the pilots who were on that training flight. Did they move on to successful careers as pilots? Did they say hell no and quit? What can you tell us?

[@marinareilly-collette2490]

Seconded! I'd love for Mentour to reach out and ask them for interviews or their own statements on how it impacted their career choices.

[@libbyvalley]

My thoughts as well. What a first time out! 🙌♥️🏆😊👍I love happy endings. How terrifying. Bravo Captain & Safety Pilot. .

[@hbh3144]

Yeah. Imagine having a serious accident and not even some incident on your very first flight. Majority of pilots would never expierence this through entire flying time. Statistically career for trainee number 4 will now be smooth as butter :)

[@mikoto7693]

I would be really disappointed if they didn’t carry on with their careers as pilots.

[@angelinasouren]

It was a wonderful learning experience for them. Of course they continued!

[@DobDob]

The sequence of events here is absolutely horrifying. It's truly incredible that they got back safely, massive props to the pilots. My heart breaks for the poor student.

[@totallyshatteredvids7446]

My question is, Did the cadet continue with training and become a pilot or was this the end of his or her asperations? I thought it was handled very well and you tell the stories so well, with so much knowledge and enthusiasm. I'm still terrified of flying and I get terrified just listening but your voice is calming and soothing. Love the channel!

[@balthazar259]

This story had me literally shaking towards the end of it, I am so glad they made it out of that one alive. Incredible props to the second pilot who managed to calm down a beyond critical situation and to the instructor who handled it as well as it could be. Side note : I'm shocked the landing gear even deployed at all after they slammed it into the ground half-retracted Thanks for the absolutely fantastic video !

[@BrandonNater]

Couldn’t have said it better. I couldn’t believe that landing gear held up !!

[@cmdrclassified]

Same! I was sweating like Ted Striker (Robert Hays) from Airplane! Look, all jokes aside, it was a gripping story.

[@thecompanioncube4211]

I was expecting the same. Damn the engineer who designed the landing gear hydraulics/motor needs a pat on his back

[@notatallheng]

Not to mention, the (damaged?) gear didn't collapse when they touched down short of the runway. Miraculous.

[@balthazar259]

@@notatallheng Yes exactly, that's very surprising to me ! Also the fact that the engines continued running at least for a bit, even the burning #2, after they had been similarly slammed into the runway

[@jonhu4127]

The best two words to hear after such a terrifying ordeal: everyone survived. Another fascinating video, Petter

[@paulstelian97]

I believe it's even better -- everyone survived without any injury, other than perhaps the scare itself.

[@romanhar4151]

Probably they learned something...

[@alexc4924]

@@paulstelian97 TJ was able to make A recovery.

[@paulstelian97]

@@alexc4924 Aw hell naw, don’t bring that guy here

[@franziskani]

In former videos - if Petter at the beginning introduced captain and first officer - that was never a good sign. If it was only their age and flight experience, one could hope they would make it .... Not sure, if that still applies.

[@Wingskull]

The captain and safety pilot deserve recognition for saving the aircraft and all lives on board

[@Paulit025]

This channel is beyond words. I watch the tv series Mayday, and your videos (or should we start calling it 'Documentaries'?) are so much more heart touching and with detailed information, plus being told from the perspective of a Captain. I truly appreciate them. Thank you

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you for those kind words! My team and I work hard to make them as interesting and informative as possible. I’m glad it’s appreciated

[@PaulB__]

For some reason I feel like this was one of - if not - the most mind-blowing stories on the Mentour channel so far. Thank you Petter, I'm glad to be part of the Mentour community.

[@kimwkahler7381]

I absolutely agree, I’ve seen most of the videos on this channels, but they were one so terrifying.

[@worawatli8952]

I think it is on the same level or is even more extreme to the Gimli Glider, it was less catastrophic but was more intense as it happened on take-off with a student pilot and an engine on fire, which they needed to act in very few seconds.

[@franziskani]

@@kimwkahler7381 Athens back in the day (the plane that could not climb). And the Hudson River landing. The plane in Orly that almost crashed into the ground and the pilots did not even notice (it was a g around).

[@user-md6os4nq1b]

My excitement for this incident to be covered can’t be described in words, especially considering it’s being covered by the best aviation channel on KZbin! Thank you Mentour Pilot, the effort always show.

[@MentourPilot]

Ahh, thank you! I’m glad you liked it

[@PureMagma]

​@@MentourPilot on another KZbin channel an argument broke out in the comments section over whether AJ of The Why Files channel or John of MrBallen channel was the best storyteller... but TBH you are every bit as good as anyone on KZbin (which is where the best-of-the-best reside!) 😇🙏🏼🎊🎉💯🏆

[@MentourNow]

@@PureMagmathank you so much! 💕💕

[@marcush.1901]

This is insane..... Lots to learn from these events...

[@Zergling.]

That safety pilot played such a big role, he shouting that the aircraft only had manual trim probably saved them, how many times are we here looking at the screen during this acidentes videos hoping that someone will tell the pilots the problem thats happening, so many times i have imagine that.

[@newwavemusic6065]

That cadet must have been terrified but also was hit with reality that these sort of accidents might actually happen in his career as a pilot. Life long lesson i would say!

[@NikolaiUA]

It is absolutely impressive that the landing gear was functional after that slam into the runway while the gear was in transit! I bet the struts were force thrown into the bays, but it is even more impressive that the gear extended afterwards! I was almost sure there will be a gear failure. Not less impressive is, of course, flying around on fire, I thought that's a memory item which is to be executed immediately after making sure you're in a sustained flight and not falling towards the ground.

[@SnMC14]

B.S. in Aeronautical Science here. We studied Transport Category Aircraft (Transcat) and their systems and that included the A320’s systems: ELACs, SECs, etc. We studied normal law, alternate law, direct law, and mechanical backup. There were a lot of questions about mechanical backup and what happened during further failures. The word “lawn dart” was a quote from the professor, which was accurate but also haunting that an otherwise fully functional aircraft could become uncontrollable and completely disconnected from the pilot’s inputs in a long (but theoretically possible) failure chain.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

At least it had a lawn dart mode. Imagine if it didn't? 😳

[@cmasterflex]

Lawn Dart Law

[@skayt35]

By the mechanical backups the aircraft actually *is* controllable, however difficult to fly. Trim wheels and rudder pedals are linked to their flight control surfaces via steel cables, thrust levers connect to the engines, and the landing gear can be lowered by gravity. With both engines lost and APU off like in this case, the RAT deploys to provide hydraulic pressure.

[@annajonasson5213]

The safety pilot did really live up to his name that day!

[@MentourPilot]

Absolutely! He did a stellar job!

[@faganfit572]

Man your company is blessed to have you employed with them. Truly outstanding how you are able to break down concepts for everyone to understand. Keep up the great content.

[@virkokoha9866]

I came to land right after the unfortunate bounce. I was so focused on the colleagues in the Airbus, I screwed up my own landing. It's unforgettable really. The transmissions from the plane were all accompanied with "terrain, terrain, pull up" etc in the background. And you can really hear the stress and chaos in the voice of the crew. And I didn't have visual with the plane. Then I see a pluff of smoke in the background, shit. They crashed, completely sure they crashed. And after a while the FO says it's a chimney. Yep, luckily it was. When we just landed to vacate the runway, the Smartlynx crew said they are coming straight for runway 26. We taxied the fastest I've ever taxied to get as far away as possible. I'll probably never forget this day and I'm so happy everyone survived.

[@tomstravels520]

Of course the irony is if the pilot had reset just one of those computers after the mechanical backup activated they would have had pitch control back

[@MentourPilot]

Correct, but this all happened within seconds on the runway and, after that, it was mayham

[@tin2001]

Its also interesting that neither of the 2 observers recognised that either, even after they'd had to do it a dozen times already.

[@NicolaW72]

@@MentourPilot Indeed.

[@MultiChrisjb]

@@MentourPilot Is manual pitch control something pilots tell their children about as a scary bedtime story? Along with microbursts and windsheer at low altitude?

[@MultiChrisjb]

The cameraman seemed to know what was needed, he just stared at the computer reset switches for ages while all this was happening. If only he spoke up.

[@andrewtaylor940]

This one always horrifies me. Because it illustrated a complete failure in the pilot training system. "Well the manual didn't say how many times we can hit the reset switch". You have an ongoing and repeating problem. The problem is something poorly documented and obscure, but is involving the flight control system. And these instructors, with these young pilots ain their very first time in the plane, for the session that they would remember for their entire careers, taught them to just keep hitting the reset switch. These were training flights. The plane was safely on the ground after several of the error alerts. And nobody thought parking the plane and making a phone call might be a good idea? This flight illustrates how bad habits and bad practices go systemic.

[@Pentium100MHz]

Well, yes, the manual did not specify how many times you can reset the computers. After resetting them, everything seems to work fine. Stop the training and then your boss will ask you why you did that if everything worked after you hit reset. There is a problem -> checklist says what to do -> you do it. Also, those intermittent failures probably happened more often, you just reset it and it works. Now the rules have been changed, so that's good as well.

[@Hans-gb4mv]

If the manual states that you can just reset it and that there is no limit on the number of resets than it is not a failure on the training of the pilots. They followed their training, they checked the manual and followed procedure. The aircraft appeared to be handling correct at all time. As a pilot, it is import to follow procedures and trust the manuals that you have been given. Those manuals state everything and you should be able to fully depend on them. The biggest error thus was that the manual was lacking, not the training.

[@Syndur]

I even do that on PC crashes, which are far less security relevant: first crash, I'm concerned. 2nd crash... I'm really concerned. I'd expect that flight computers in a commercial airliner aren't supposed to fail, and certainly not again and again and again... Also, the fact that Airbus lets you hide that failure message. I'm not too concerned about the mere fact that it can be hidden, but -- in my opinion -- when a backup system fails, it should automatically unhide the failure of its twin system, so pilots always see the full picture. If Airbus thinks pilots should know whether it's a new message or an old one, they could just show the old one in a slightly toned down color.

[@myparceltape1169]

After the first trainee landed and they went to find out what was happening there would be pressure to get the others through, because the cost of that aircraft would be so much. Not saying that they were right to carry on

[@tilly6085]

@@Syndur this is what makes me suspect that intermittent ECAM messages about random failures that go away after a while aren't that uncommon. If it was the first time ever they'd had a problem like this, they probably would have freaked out a lot more. I also suspect none of them really understood the gravity of the situation, that if two of the flight computers are failing there probably is a common cause behind it, and if all the computers fail the aircraft will become near uncontrollable. Of course, it still was an extremely unlikely scenario that the aircraft managed to bounce in exactly the way to bypass one more safeguard, so they weren't really being unreasonably unsafe.

[@zachsteiner]

I absolutely love how technical your videos are and that you don’t water them down. I always want to know all the intricacies involved.

[@mentalhaze4226]

The fact that this accident happened with 0 casualties I an absolute miracle. To have that level of control loss at such a low altitude and still manage to save it takes so much skill and a major props to the safety pilot of the flight. Seems he got the Capt. Back in the game at a crucial point

[@BibTheBoulderTheOriginalOne]

I have literally just arrived back in Heathrow from Gibraltar. The pilot truly earned her/his money in this storm.... EDIT: Thank you for all of the comments regarding getting back safely...in no small part due to the skill of the pilots...

[@TheFatcat502]

glad you're back safe and sound :)

[@offshoretomorrow3346]

Why the hell pilots have to land in dangerous weather is worth asking.

[@BibTheBoulderTheOriginalOne]

Thank you. It was actually the same plane that took me out there yesterday and was diverted to Malaga as it had an issue with the brakes....Thankfully the engineers got it sorted so we were able to continue on to Gib...@@TheFatcat502

[@Sicklehead88]

there was a storm? must have developed during the last hours, I departed heathrow at 1:30 today an the takeoff was just a little shaky

[@The_ZeroLine]

That’s why they call him The Rock of Gibraltar.

[@The_ZeroLine]

After Petter send his kid to their room, he probably says “and obviously this is far from over.” Afterward, the poor kid is put in alternate law (grounded) and has to write an after incident report with discipline recommendations. 😂

[@Helena-me6mp]

XDDD

[@indianfan1029]

Also keeps a track of total school hours his kids has accumulated over the years. 😁

[@giancarlogarlaschi4388]

Your Best video ever , Dear Captain Peter ! Former A 320/321 Skipper with Juneyao Airlines ( Shanghai ). Greetings from Vina del Mar, Chile. ( S.A.).

[@Youbetternowatchthis]

Wow. What a story. I really was on the edge of my seat with this one. Well done!

[@PartanBree]

Oh my goodness. The cheese slices just all fell right out of the packet

[@MentourPilot]

Absolutely! It’s one of the most crazy things I’ve ever seen

[@MarinCipollina]

@@MentourPilot One of the most truly bizarre sequences of events I've ever heard.

[@trinity72gp]

😂I see what you did there 🙌🏾

[@nitowa]

Unbelievable that they got this plane on the ground! Loss of almost all controls, on fire, engines dead, one of the people flying on their first day on the job, in a scenario so improbable that there is no training for it. Mad respect to these pilots.

[@kay9549]

nitowa they did experience an engine fire. The question is why did they not pull the fire bottle switch to put it out. Actually the fire continued till it made the engine inoperative, shut itself down.

[@constvoidptr]

@@kay9549 They already only just barely made it to the runway and actually touched down before the threshold as it was keeping all engines running as long as possible. Had they pulled the bottle, shutting down the burning engine, I'm pretty sure they more than likely wouldn't have made it to the field, and that's without mentioning that controlling the pitch would have become more difficult had they done that.

[@PoppyFlux]

You are such an amazing narrator. I've followed your channel for a year or two and I've enjoyed your retelling and expert explanation of aviation mishaps and disasters, but this one.. this is the one that truly got to me! I was hoping and praying they'd all survive, so when the wheels touched down after the failed takeoff I breathed a sigh of relief.. until the bounce that sent them up again! I teared up at the end.

[@PabloA64]

What an incredible description, it kept me hooked the entire time! Really remarkably and clear description and graphics! Excellent work Petter!

[@tomselier9307]

Amazing video! I wanted to highlight that good CRM seemed to be the unsung hero of this video. The safety pilot really helped the captain, initially by calling out those ECAM messages, helping the captain recover from his initial shock, and then later by calling out the airspeed to the captain. Well done!

[@CharlieTheNerd91]

I don't generally get too invested in these stories, but when the second engine quit, that hit hard. From that point to the result was an insane rollercoaster of emotions.

[@Skullet]

I came here to basically say much the same thing. I usually stay a little detached while watching these videos, but I almost felt like I was with them in the cockpit when that second engine failed. I actually clapped quite loudly when the plane touched down safely, what an absolute rollercoaster.

[@CharlieTheNerd91]

@@Skullet Yeah, I yelled out and held my fist up high. The captain had such an intense situation and workload dumped on him in an instant, the fact that they realized what it was and were prepared to fly it manually AND after a rough hit is crazy... I was 100% sure this would end in a tragedy.

[@TormodSteinsholt]

I am hugely impressed by the production value in your videos. Just getting the video clips for the introductory part, which look like stock picture quality, and editing this together as a backdrop in what you casually iterating through the points. Nothing seems forced, the pictures are perfect for your words. The pacing of the transitions match your words..... must be some major work. It's relaxing to watch. I watch these videos on quite a few channels. But yours and pilot debrief are ones I never skip forward while watching. You really show respect for my time as a viewer. Thank you very much.

[@NightStalkerDNS]

Wow, I am blown away with how good your videos are. Such great content. I also cannot believe how robust these aircrafts are that they can take off and land after touching down and bouncing on the engines and partially retracted gear and then still landing, bursting tires and the gear still held up. It is truly amazing how this is possible and how all the failures and backups failing, damage and still managing to land without hurting anyone.

[@sigalendab]

I live in Tallinn and heard about this accident the moment it happened. I remeber that it was communicated to the news that an airplane has made an emergency landing. I drove to the airport, saw a crazy amount of emergency vehicles and understood right away that it was a serious accident. Interestingly smartlynx and/or Tallinn airport in my opinion minimized the seriousness - they told that the airplane bounced while landing and that caused the breaking of the landing gear. Some months later there was a video of the damaged plane being transported on trucks and cranes on a highway, someone had bought the plane I remember. For years I have wondered what really happened. Thank you for the video. Also, I dont know which programs do you use for graphics but I can confirm this is 100% accurate to the visuals of Tallinn and the Tallinn Airport. So that also gave me an idea of how professional the videos are.

[@rath6599]

I'm guessing the software is the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. They have an in-game marketplace for landscape assets like cities, airports, aircraft liveries, etc. Wonderful stuff really.

[@vr_vlad]

@@rath6599 more specifically, this looks like the Drzewieski EETN add-on, available for both FSX and MSFS2020 since last year. It includes a lot of familiar Tallinn scenery as well.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

To add to the airplane being trucked off; it was written off; those trucks were probably trucking it off to be stripped for parts. Not surprising, considering the extensive damage. Frankly shocked the plane didn't break apart! 🤯

[@IamDootsdoot]

I think it speaks to your personality that what you do on youtube and professionally, is to be a teacher.

[@MentourPilot]

That’s what this channel is all about.

[@mikoto7693]

I hope Mentour Pilot is pleased with how much his videos have taught people, pilot and non pilot alike.

[@MarinCipollina]

@@mikoto7693 I'm sure it's deeply gratifying

[@KCLIBURN-mj9qx]

Thanks for sharing this documentary with us! There is SO many things the pilots and cockpit personnel have to know to safely fly. The technology complexity is overwhelming and shows the absolute need for multiple qualified crewmembers, as sometimes even very well experienced pilots encounter nightmares they have to handle. It is very easy to see even if they train constantly something can still happen which renders them incapable. Definitely a testament for continual ongoing training and awareness. Docs like this make non pilots like me aware of just how harrowing their jobs can be. From sheer uneventful boredom to afraid for your life and your fellow crewmembers not to mention the passengers. Excellent documentary and VERY well explained

[@robertreeve6586]

Thank you so much for your great work and the many hours of entertainment. I was a private pilot back in the '70s until I lost my medical and missed progressing. In the late '90s and early 2000s I worked for Pan AM Intel Flight Academy as project engineer building their new training centers, until 9/11 killed that job. You make me feel like I'm still part of it all.

[@dancomerford3506]

I am a student pilot about to start my type rating on the Airbus a320. As such I can sympathise greatly with the cadet pilots from this video and easily imagine being in their position. Petter, I have watched your videos all throughout my flight training, and find that this one does an excellent job explaining the systems of this aircraft, with a real life, hair-raising example as to why this system is so important. I only hope that my base training will be far less eventful than it was for these unfortunate cadets!

[@sentientdogma1206]

I miss the days when pilots were actually good decent human beings and not low IQ foreign exchange students getting their affirmative action job. You people are all the same. Explains why flying is so much more dangerous now.

[@ashokvijay8714]

All the best 👍

[@helloworld_lovepeople1051]

Don't be scare ,this kind of event is really really RARE. Most of FC may be retired without ever facing this kind of event. However, lesson learn don't be surprised if some incident happen even it is not in your QRH or non-normal checklist ,be calm try best to come back in the loop fly,navigate,communicate. Be confident on your skill.

[@roses.9181]

I jumped for joy at the end when they landed safely! I thought for sure this was going to end in tragedy! INCREDIBLE story of resilience and professionalism from everyone. So glad everyone is safe.

[@muntashirulhaque5937]

I CRIED MAN!!! I CRIED OUT OF JOY WHEN THEY LANDED!!!! 😅😅😅

[@roses.9181]

@@muntashirulhaque5937 I hear you!! I definitely teared up as well! What a relief to hear, I was on the edge of my seat for the whole video!

[@parastan91]

Same. This played out like a thriller with really tense moments at the end. And since I knew it wasn't a movie, I was even less expecting the happy ending. Especially after hearing "disaster" and "accident" so many times during the narrative. Well done in keeping the suspense up

[@roses.9181]

@@parastan91 Totally! Petter kept us on our toes lol!

[@myriam_Antunes]

I'am obsessed by your videos. Thank you so much for your help and work❤🎉😊 I wish all pilots were like you outstanding and reliable and devoted... Thank you

[@paullanyi516]

The most complex handling situation I've ever seen you take on . . but your explanation of the events outstanding ! And great work by the crew !

[@MrStoooooo]

I remember as a computer science student, when writing a report on critical-safety software I chose Lufthanas Flight 2904 where among the factors causing the incident was the A320's logic delaying the deployment of spoilers until all gear switches was set. One important thing was the interaction of the logic in the pilot's heads along with the logic of the A320. How you design both such systems must be very difficult, as you can't consider every circumstance and the interaction between all of these systems, especially when you consider the possible interleaving of the timing. This was one of the most tense, and for which I'm glad there was a positive outcome. While I don't need to know, I'm wondering what happened to the trainees after this - I hope they went on to have successful flying careers.

[@user-jh5fm7ci6o]

It's crazy that they do not test software properly. The bugs should be worked out before deploying it.

[@RichTapestry]

@@user-jh5fm7ci6o You could test for a thousand years and there still might be a new circumstance that causes a bug.

[@mnxs]

​​@@user-jh5fm7ci6oProgrammer here. In certain situations, when there is a confluence of factors playing together in a complex system where events and faults can have cascading and even subtle effects elsewhere, it becomes impossible to test fully. At some point, it comes down to that you can only really test what you can predict may happen. In mathematical terms, the theoretical number of fault pathways is exponential; a rough, and probably low, estimate would be something like the average number of (known) fault modes per subsystem to the power of the number of total subsystems. Worse, planes work in extremely dynamic environments where you have to contend with such things as the _damn weather_ and human f*kery in general, and the theoretical number of test scenarios might just become truly *infinite.* Trust me, software engineers worth their salt would usually *love* to be able to fully test their systems, at least (and especially so) if they're critical systems. But it's just not feasible, even _possible._ And I'm confident Airbus actually has some _really_ good software engineers.

[@keithhowell3023]

Edsger Dijkster stated:Testing can only show the presence of errors you cannot prove their abscence

[@MrRedstoner]

@@user-jh5fm7ci6o Any system that isn't extremely trivial is practically impossible to test exhaustively and Lord help you if you want to test for mechanical failures, electronics behaving out of spec etc.

[@dynad00d15]

The captain and the backup pilot deserves all the credit for this incredible save! The students were in good hands!

[@kay9549]

Previous made a comment earlier, why did not extinguish fire on eng 2. Actually re reviewed clip, they did not do that because they required thrust. Like the clip mentioned that eng2 was still working after it burnt out, still supplying thrust, rat was deployed, so they did not go into a complete failure. Well done Petter on this one as well !!

[@dynad00d15]

@@kay9549 the danger was that, in order to extinguish the fire, they had to shutdown the engine without knowing if it'll start back again.

[@kay9549]

@@dynad00d15 perhaps if they had shut down engine to extinguish fire, they may like you mentioned not been able to do a restart. Perhaps it was a good call on the captain to let the engine burn out on its own. Its actually amaxing after the engine burnt out, it was still windmilling to provide thrust.

[@dynad00d15]

@@kay9549 Right? what were the odds that the rotors would rotate just enough to supply power to hydraulics?

[@kay9549]

dynad00d15 really not sure, perhaps other features that were intergrated in the overall system, since in may have been in the Airbus configuration. Thankfully they were able to continue flying land safely even though landing gear may or may not have locked in place on landing.

[@22vx]

Love the analysis and explanation of all the technical stuff 👍 Thank you Petter!

[@JuanCastro-dx1jk]

I just love these stories they are so amazing and terrifying at the same time, Petter story telling skills are remarkable

[@axelBr1]

As an engineer, I can't believe that the pilot so casually reset the flight control computers, so many times without freaking out.

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

At least he wasn't a software/system engineer. He would have made a script that automatically reset them as a "fix", not documented other than outputing resets to a random log file nobody knows about.

[@larryroyovitz7829]

@@Blazo_Djurovic Ha ha, that's so true.

[@5Andysalive]

not dealing with aircraft but other machines, when something, even harmless, fails multiple times i get extremely sceptical. These things tend to get worse, not better.

[@Nefville]

@@Blazo_Djurovic And then quit or retired without telling anyone

[@wbfaulk]

​@@Blazo_DjurovicHey, don't paint all systems engineers with that broad brush. I always try to figure out what a problem actually is. I'm not going to say you're always wrong, though, but I really hate working with those people.

[@Omegabigb]

Watching this series I am frequently astonished about the robustness and amazing design of modern aircraft, even so I can still hardly believe this A320 made it back to the runway (I actually said so out loud in an empty room). It is simply mind boggling that a plane that just literally crashed into the ground and had barely any of it's controlls still working could make it back around, and yet it did. Amazing video as always Petter & Mentour Team.

[@Skullet]

I started clapping quite loudly in my room when the plane touched down safely, the crew were absolutely amazing.

[@michaellindley4500]

The thing that astonishes me isn't the robustness or design of modern aircraft - quite the contrary - it's the Daedalean fragility of modern computer science and software. The fact that even with FIVE - I'll type it again - FIVE - built-in redundancy systems, this terrifying and convoluted situation still occurred.

[@Omegabigb]

@michaellindley4500 I'm afraid I must disagree, while there are five different systems, remember 1 of those systems was disabled by the time the accident happend, and of the remaining systems some of them were fed by the same broken sensor, so they weren't redundant in this case. Watching the video, it's clear that the software error that eventually occurred was an extreme freak occurrence, with odds so low that it makes getting hit by lightning seem frequent. Nevertheless, there was, of course, a weakness in the software that resulted in degraded flight controls, but as Petter said in the video, this software vulnerability was fixed so that even this 1 in a million glitch cannot happen again.

[@akse]

If only had they used a proper lubricant :) Mechanical issues obviously!

[@rainaldkoch9093]

@@Omegabigb I'm afraid I must disagree. The reaction to shut down two computers based on a tiny discrepancy between inputs is a huge design error. The 1 in a million probability is no excuse (and probably an exaggeration).

[@additive8924]

Thanks for all the info over the years. I'm just an aviation geek, but thanks to the information i've learned from you as well as other pilots on youtube. I have playcated the fears of a few nervous flyers.👍

[@WingsWheelsMore]

Petter, I’ve flown on “your airline” many times without incident and observing your incredible knowledge and expertise as a type rating /training captain can understand why. I hope your fellow pilots realise how lucky they are to be “Mentoured” by you and that the senior management of the airline similarly appreciate your skills and commitment to safety. Flying MAN-AGP next week and can’t wait, thanks for the continuing content.

[@user-hy8gn4tu7p]

As a software engineer and not a commercial pilot, I have a hard time understanding how the captain could have nonchalantly decided to reset the computers so many times. You can’t really assume the manual is perfect. If the same error happens 2 or 3 times in a row, it’s an issue, but if on top of that there’s no explanation for why, then it’s a problem. And I’d rather be dealing with a problem on the ground and not in the air.

[@sparcnut]

Yeah, as a computer engineer who has worked on real-world safety-critical stuff this seems absolutely nuts to me. If I were that captain, as soon as those ELAC fault(s) came up a 2nd time I'd have taken the controls, cancelled the rest of the training session, and had the safety pilot take the right seat. I would then have asked the safety pilot to declare a Pan-Pan and tell tower we'd like to land ASAP. There had to be something SERIOUSLY wrong for repeated flight computer faults to occur, and in a situation like that I'd want the most experienced pilot available with me in that right seat pronto. The training session is OVER. (And that should in no way reflect badly on the trainee - they did nothing wrong here) The redundant systems are there to enable the plane to fly and land in as many different failure scenarios as possible, but really shouldn't be (ab)used to continue operating it any longer than necessary once a severe and/or persistent fault has been detected in a safety-critical system. I see NO sane reason to not only proceed with the rest of the 1st trainee's touch&gos, but to then continue with the next trainee after successfully landing. The airplane is not a Windows computer - it is unthinkable to me that someone would reset a flight computer and then proceed with the rest of their day as if nothing had happened, especially more than once! I don't care what the book says (or in this case doesn't say); this should just be common sense. I mean, does it really seem right to continue operating a FLY-BY-WIRE AIRCRAFT that is having PERSISTENT FLIGHT COMPUTER FAULTS if the crew could have chosen otherwise? (Though one could argue that the actual outcome of this incident was the better one: there were no casualties, and it resulted in both Airbus and the airline investigating the incident and making improvements. The severity of this particular failure scenario probably wouldn't have been recognized if the captain had prevented it from playing out fully. The counter-argument would be that this crew had luck on their side that day, and that it's generally quite ill-advised to rely on that.) That said I'm not even close to being a pilot, just another one of those armchair "experts" with no direct experience on the topic - so what would I know about any of this. (To be honest, I've never even been a passenger either 🙃)

[@andrewferguson3535]

You spotted it in one. As a 21,000 Airbus TRI I can tell you that you are 100% correct. There is no procedure to override the trim in the manner described. I’ve done this procedure many many times over the years and I’d never allow this to be done. This training Captain should be removed from training. This is just another example of pilots departing from standard operating procedures and the consequences. The fact he kept doing it is beyond belief!

[@JanicekTrnecka]

I also have a problem with supressing indication of failure under certain flight level. I know that its because of workload, but computer results discrepancy and hand over to backup system is serious enough to be at least displayed.

[@NiklasVWWV]

I don't agree with you guys above about how to attribute blame as to what caused this accident. As you may know, on modern aircraft weird fault messages and indicators are appearing every now and then, in many cases not indicating anything serious, and in many cases just noted down for next maintenance check or inspection by technicians. A message or indicator normally doesn't prompt serious action right away (such as aborting a flight), and in this case the pilot in command didn't violate the flight manual, as Petter stated. If all minor messages were taken seriously all the time (even reoccurring ones), not many aircraft would be operating on a normal day. My taking of this accident is what caused it is a major and almost fundamental flaw with Airbus' computer logic and programming, and especially with the way data is presented to the pilots. This is not the first time data is presented to Airbus pilots in a way that's impossible for them to understand, and not the first accident caused indirectly by logics and programming of Airbus flight computers and "flight laws". As Petter mentioned, changes to those things were made as a result of this accident. I hope it is enough. An aircraft fully capable of flying almost went down due to Airbus computer logic and programming in this accident. An aircraft fully capable of flight reverted to a mode in which it was almost impossible to control, for a minor reason that's just plain stupid. I hope they have prevented similar accidents from occurring again.

[@robbiejames1540]

​@@andrewferguson3535 Wow, you really showed him there. Really rebutted his points...

[@peternamai8303]

Now that is what we call a baptism of fire. What an experience it was for those new pilots

[@user-rv5be3du2b]

When I heard about this incident the first time, I believed that it was just another gear-up tuch-and-go - it happens during flight training. But when I read the report, I was shocked. I am A320 Captain, and this story is absolutely amazing and unbelievable for me.

[@MrBadTrader]

Wow. I was really expecting the worst, and was so happy to hear they landed safe 💪 love your videos they’re amazing ❤️

[@verdunluck1578]

Congratulations on explaining the intricacies of the Airbus flight control system. After flying the aircraft for many years it reminded me of some of the darker corners of the system. The Airbus does send out the odd random flight control warning, but as they often seemed to clear by themselves (or with a reset) a line crew would not be very alarmed. However, this illustrates how using an aircraft for something it was not specifically designed for (in this case repetitive circuits and landings) you can end up in uncharted waters. I think I might have tried an ELAC reset, after all if you are in Mech with two failing engines it can hardly make it worse. I do take your comments about "The Fog of War" in the middle of a serious incident. There, but for the grace of God, go I. In the simulator I have managed a landing with the aircraft in Mech, but it requires a very long stable approach and a very gentle flare (don't close the throttles until the wheels are on the ground) and anyway, who knows if the sim is accurate reflecting how the real aircraft would behave. However, I have no idea how they managed an asymmetric approach with the rudder not only being used to stop the yaw from the failure, but also as your only roll control. Very well done.

[@Swm9445]

When they got off the ground due to only the nose wheel being out during the bounce near the end of the runway…. That’s when I realized, that this, is the most, completely and utterly, insane, report I’ve seen in years of watching. Christ on a bike Peter. This is truly bonkers.

[@foxyfarhad]

I’m happy everyone survived. He may not have known it at the time but that is the best training the new trainee can ever receive. He will likely be able to handle any stressful flying situation for the rest of his career.

[@bjjthaiboxing]

I'm so glad nobody got hurt... I love your Channel. You are a very charismatic storyteller. Skol!

[@jannepeltonen2036]

Complex systems will fail in unexpected ways... What a story, and so well told! Thank you!

[@nomennisceo6495]

Murphy's law is a right bastard like that

[@kay9549]

jannepeltonen2036 reviewed this video numerous times. Its always nice to hear they landed safely, even though they had a lot to deal with. Well done !! It would be nice to hear an update of the students, did they pass, were they taken on by other aircraft companys.

[@Marc443]

Great video again, thanks! With over 9000hrs on the A320FAM I can not understand how an experienced colleague continues with touch&goes with an definitely flight control computer-problem especially on their homebase with most probably maintenance available etc. Manual backup is created for holding the aircraft in the air until an computer reset is successful. But if I ignore that all other computers are failed or making problems, I have definitely not understand the Airbus philosophy.

[@JL-db2yc]

Thank you for writing this. Regardless of there being or not any recommendations for such scenarios, there is such thing as common sense and the captain had the authority to stop the tests after the second time the ELAC failure occurred. In my view, it was his fault for letting this continue far too long, which then led to the mayhem that could have ended in tragedy. Also, the safety pilot should have called out for the flight exams to be suspended.

[@lloydhayne2488]

You continue to outdo yourself with your content and technical acumen. Kudos to you as the reporter and to the pilots who saved the day!

[@Rollermonkey1]

That safety pilot's an absolute hero. So little experience, yet had the presence of mind to start calming things down. *Relatively little, the safety pilot has 3000 hours total, compared to the instructor with over 24,000 hours. The Captain had 13,500 hours, on type alone! I mean, he had more than double the hours just as an instructor. That the safety pilot was able to calm the guy with a lifetime more experience and was 'losing the ball ' is what I'm referring to, @shevi7774

[@Historymaker-xw9wf]

Right? One wonders what might have happened if he hadn’t.

[@CyberHornet]

I have flown with him, he’s a pretty cool guy 😁

[@Argonaut320]

ahahaha i have flown also with the Capt bro :) @@CyberHornet

[@QuicknStraight]

While he was, yes, the captain did an incredible job landing it in one piece.

[@shevi7774]

3,000 hours is not “so little experience”

[@Kristjan_N]

A brilliant documentary as usual! Very interesting to read as an Estonian, where the local news barely even covered this, at least I don't remember anything of the sort.

[@Kenionatus]

I find it odd that the guidance resulting from this is to not reset flight computers in flight. The computers responded correctly and intuitively each time they were reset. The problem was (imo) that it wasn't seen as a critical issue and that operation was continued. To me, it would make more sense to instruct pilots to divert to the closest airport and ground the plane until the fault was investigated by maintenance.

[@MentourPilot]

Yeah, but that effectively became the outcome when the pilots weren’t allowed to reset it.

[@wbfaulk]

Yeah, but now, if it is a transient fault, you're now in the situation where all of your computers are dead and they don't have to be.

[@zalfredo325]

@@wbfaulkit’s not like they can’t reset them, they just instructed them not to unless you HAVE to

[@MatthijsvanDuin]

@@zalfredo325 No it simply says resetting in flight is "Not authorized". I agree that it's an odd conclusion to this accident since much of it was caused by computers shutting themselves off due to transient issues that would otherwise have completely self-corrected.

[@igor3v]

Moreover, wouldn't the computers get back online (to normal law) if pilots would reset them again (while being in the mechanical backup)?

[@jedi9577]

The timing for the bounce on the last touch and go was extremely bad luck. Any shorter and both SEC channels would have agreed that the aircraft was flying, and any longer and both of them would have agreed that it was on the ground. I completely understand why this situation wasn't considered by the engineers who designed the flight control computers. Great video and I'm glad everyone survived this accident!

[@jacobsan]

You can never test enough!

[@redyau_]

I/We deal with this kind of desyncing all the time in UI and when trying to keep the state the same between the user and the server. A lot of the time a compromise like this is taken, conciously allowing an edge-case to slip trough. But with an app a user at worst has to reload and use a couple hours of work. Not their life. I find it crazy that the SEC backup computers could desync in this way - indeed that their state relied on their respective inputs. It also seems incredibly weird design that the state of these computers is not clearly indicated in the cockpit next to their power buttons or what have you. ECAM should be a place to collect and manage this information, not the only place it's available. Questionable design choices all around.

[@skayt35]

@@redyau_ with all due respect, there's more to computer science than your typical ui/web/app/db server architecture which is specifically built for interacting with a human "processor". A flight computer is fundamentally different, it's continuously fed with multiple sensor data and has to process them very reliably within a specified guaranteed amount of frame ("real time"). It can't just rely on storing/retrieving information via a database and otherwise count on a human's intelligent input and typical characteristics of human interaction such as being slow and forgiving regarding delayed response. Furthermore, it's a fundamental Airbus design choice not to overload the pilot with multiple simultaneous error indicators, especially if the errors are MEL'ed. Under time pressure and stress of having to aviate and navigate, the sheer complexity of the system increases the likelihood of making the situation not better but worse. Btw it's not limited to forgetting to push a button or pushing a button erroneously, but complicated by further critical issues like underlying errors, individual computer reboot times etc. This is most likely what Airbus led to the "hands off" approach. I'm not aware of _any instance_ in which all flight computers failed without interference by a pilot or a complete power outage. In this video's case, the PIC should have landed the aircraft after both ELACs failed simultaneously, which was the first failure. (EDIT: in case of a complete power outage by both engines failing, you need to start the APU to restore flight controls. Pushing flight computer buttons won't help even if they were lit by battery or RAT power)

[@johnny_eth]

Concurrency is a thing pretty much every software developer gets wrong at some point, specialy with complex systems.

[@kay9549]

jedi9577 it seems that the SEC channels perhaps may have cancelled each command out. Did they actually went into a shut down mode.

[@makhkamergashev]

Thanks so much for your efforts, captain! Great job, so far!!!

[@Outofcontrol39]

Excellent video explaining the events. Many thanks for your hard work Mr Mentour, it is much appreciated.

[@TheAnirude]

As an ERJ 145 captain for over 5 years I would like to say that your videos are really very informative!! Thanks for your hardwork!

[@asystole_]

Lucky you, those 145s are beautiful planes! What are they like to fly?

[@TheAnirude]

@@asystole_they are great, really forgiving and great to land!

[@user-ju3zg3xs2r]

Out of 890 ERJ 135/145 produced, there were no fatalities until to the year 2023, (and it was rocket or bomb on board). That is absolutely the best safety record (no casualties for almost of 1000 planes flying). Truly amazing. Great airplane

[@eliaseriksen4809]

Your ability to explain complex aircraft systems and procedures in a relatively simple manner is one of the many reasons I love these videos. They really elevate my understanding of the aviation world.

[@basta118]

Incredible story especially thanks to Petter bringing vital technical peculiarities in light ! And the sound track is just right. Thank you Petter and the team for this episode.🙏