I’m a commercial pilot. We always tell everybody that in the beginning. Automation is a great thing. It relieves an enormous amount of workload on the pilot flying, allowing us to concentrate on what’s going on instead of making every individual input ourselves.. That being said when the automation fails the automation will shut itself off if it gets into a scenario it was not programmed for. Pilots must be at the top of our game every time we get into the cockpit. There’s going to situations where we are the ones that are going to have to make the split decisions to override the automation if necessary and regain control of aircraft to bring it home safely. My heart goes out to all those lost loved ones on each one of these flights.

This is more of an "airline error" video rather than simply pilot error.

I love it when pilots comment on engineering issues. As a B2/group 3 avionics engineer, I know for sure that the B737-300 c/pit air supply is from the #1 engine. It was the -200, JT8D powered A/C that used the #1 as well for air to the flt. deck. What also was not stated here and is known in the final report, the captain asked a cabin crew member to do a visual inspection from mid cabin to ascertain which engine was at fault. She went from the cockpit and looked out and saw the fire from her right hand side, turned around, returned to the flt. deck and was still violently waving her right hand, but now she was facing the opposite direction. Thus compounding the decision to shut down the # 2 engine. Also in the accident report, the vibration was so severe that both pilots suffered from eyeball resonance which blurred their vision, which is why they asked the cabin member for help. At the time of this incident, the CFM-56 engines had reputation for blade failures resulting in massive vibration. During my 50 year career in aviation, I worked on, and am licenced on A/C powered by both types of these engines. (DC9/B727, JT8D. B737-300,400,thru 700,800.. Only types operated in Oz.). And yes the vibration system on the JT8D engines was a joke. If it read zero, you knew that the engine was no longer attached to the A/C.

I find it weird to conclude pilot error if a pilot is trained to act in a certain way to solve a problem, does so, and is subsequently blamed for causing a crash. It should be called airline error. The pilot can never be to blame for acting as he has been trained to do.

I wouldn't place the full blame on the Midland pilots. Their knowledge of faulty Boing equipment was due to years of dealing with faulty equipment. The manufacturer trained pilots to ignore their equipment and nothing was done to address the issue. Then the industry was on board with it and not enough was done to educate the pilots on the new equipment.

If the pilots didn't trust the vibration instrument because they were accustomed to an earlier model in which those instruments were unreliable then that unreliability and tolerated poor quality control was also a contributor to the crash.

Pilot error????? Most of these accidents are caused by improper training of the pilots. This is an airline issue, not a pilot issue. The companies ARE responsible to ensure their pilots are fully and properly trained. 😡

this is a gross misrepresentation of what happened to that qantas flight. The consensus is that a high energy particle hit some electronic component at just the right time and position to flip a bit causing faulty data. The sensors were working correctly and as intended. This Qantas Flight had absolutely nothing to do with inadequate pilot training. claiming that is an insult to the crew and the passengers... Oh boy and then claiming Air France - which was indeed actual pilot error - is connected to the Qantas flight.... This is an insult to airbus But what do you expect from a documentary that tries to sell a 747 cockpit as a 737 cockpit and a 737 as an a330...

With the invention of the automatic transmission, car sales doubled because it was so much easier to drive. Oddly enough, drivers with manual transmissions still have a better situational awareness on the road. Simply because they MUST pay more attention to how and when they will need to shift.

This reminds me of the 737 max forcing the nose down because the computer was receiving faulty data indicating a stall.

It’s sickening to hear pilot error so many times, when it is so clear that it is defective training! The airlines should be held accountable and sued wherever the so called pilot error is due to defective training. 🙏🏽🥺🙏🏽

"When you solve one problem, you introduce another" *737 MAX enters the chat*

How is it pilot error if the airline never trained the pilot about the aircraft rudder tolerances and the pilots acts as trained ??

'Each new version is better and safer...' 737 MAX?

They should call it 'corporate error' if the pilots aren't properly trained.

Porpoising. The sudden loss of altitude followed by a sudden gain of altitude followed by a sudden loss of altitude followed by a sudden gain of altitude and so on. It makes people on airplanes throw up. Scopolamine patches help depending on how badly a plane is behaving erratically. Good video. Thank you for posting these types of shows!

If pilots are not properly trained, then they are also victims.

For those asking, the difference between the Trident’s “droops” and modern “slats” is that the droops actually rotated the entire leading edge of the wings. So you can imagine how much drag but also lift that would’ve created.

Addicted to these vids

Reference the lost vertical stabilizer. The engines of the 747 did not create the wake turbulence, the wings do. It is the wing tip vortacies that create wake turbulence.

I always remember a Swiss flight from New York to Zurich back in 2004, on an A330. Just a few minutes from touchdown the engines spool up to takeoff-power, and the plane starts ascending. Another minute later the plane resumes landing path, and one the the pilots reports on the intercom "we were not really sure what the autopilot was doing, so we decided to proceed manually, just sit back and relax". The landing was uneventful, but I still remember this incident like it was yesterday. Also now realizing what COULD have happened, it's actually scary. I have never read anything about it being reported, but I do hope Airbus got the memo.

This video is a good example of corporate corruptions. Its very clear and obvious that these big companies were trying to save money on pilot training courses but still calling pilot error when disaster occurred. Recent BOEING MAX crashes are another good examples.

Thank you for these very good explanations. This documentation is really recommended.

I would argue this isn't solely a pilot error but a failure by all involved. In fact, the insider knowledge of their previous aircraft is commendable. Analyzing the issue as smoke coming from air conditioning vs say an onboard fire, knowing which engine manages which of the many complex systems on the aircraft, and coming to that conclusion is entirely logical. The outcome was obviously awful but it wasn't solely "pilot error"

Thanks for posting a new episode!! I’d seen some of the individual episodes before but not this interesting mix narrated with a British accent. I learned a new British expression. Flaps = “Droops”

This video says the use of rudder in Wake Turbulence is normal. That is incorrect, rudder should NOT be used in these conditions ever !

Amazing that over 70 people survived such a violent slam down crash like that..

Wow, this was produced and released within the two years the 447 boxes were missing.

New airplanes are more challenging to fly; newer vehicles are also more challenging to drive. When I was but a wee lad, I quickly and safely operated any vehicle I had ever drove. Now that I'm older, there's been a few vehicles that I was unable to drive without help from the owner. Vehicles should be easier to operate, not more difficult.

The airline industry holds the weight of responsibility for not properly training their pilots.

Too much ad on this video U can't even watch it completely

The narrator needs to be provided with the correct information on some of stories he was saying.

That first crash was poor training. Completely unfair to the pilot.

Great documentary, thanks, though the final report on the Air France crash is inaccurate. That's because this show was made in 2010, and the black box flight recorders revealing what happened were not recovered until 2011. It was pilot error - but not the simple kind assumed in this report. In fact whole documentaries have been made on that crash, the worst in Air France's history (expert David Learmount appears in most of them), it was such a bizarre combination of technical AND pilot error. Ice crystals paralysed the plane's pitot tubes, meaning the autopilot cut out, and inaccurate airspeeds were provided to the pilots. The crisis was worsened by a storm, and the fact the captain Marc Doubois was tired from partying in Brazil with his mistress, so disappeared off to bed early in the flight. He left the most inexperienced of two co-pilots in charge - a fateful mistake. Inexplicably when the plane fell into a stall due to travelling slower than the instruments stated, that pilot reacted by constantly pulling back on the side stick - an action his co-pilot knew nothing about, as the Airbus is designed so each pilot's stick is hidden from their colleague. Pulling on the stick caused the plane to rapidly lose altitude. By the time Capt Dubois returned, the cockpit was in chaos, with neither pilot aware of why the plane was suddenly in trouble. By the time the pilot's action in pulling on the stick was realised by his two colleagues, it was too late to recover the plane. It had gone from cruising with no issues to crashing into the sea, in just a matter of minutes. It initially confused me that this programme failed to tell that now infamous story - till I spotted the year at the end of the credits. I wish uploaders would put the year of the documentary in the video's title/written description!

Air France 447 was brought down by the copilot stalling the plane. This video was made before the FDR and CVR were found 2 years after the crash. The pitot tubes plugged with ice resulting in false airspeed readings, if I remember correctly.

Liked, subscribed and notifications are on!

Most of these are definitely not pilot error. They are airline errors. These pilots did the best they could with the information available to them. That the airlines did not fully disclose information or did not properly train is the airline’s fault. These pilots are not around to defend themselves.

It is when something goes wrong that you find out how good a pilot is.

On 7:38 the narrator said the B737-400 is 400tonnes which is quite far from the truth, the MTOW of the 737-400 is 68t.

I remember watching this episode in national Geographic when i was going to school, now im part of designing aircraft and structures, im shocked to realize how i manifested my dream career

The CVR and Black box for Air France A332 were found. Mentour Pilot narrated the story excellently

AA587 air turbulence- this is why they say Heavy (as in AA587 Heavy] or Super for A380) as an indication of the size and hence potential for wake turbulence of an aircraft.

These types of situations on aircraft that make me not want to fly.

Ain't that funny that during the whole video we hear lack of training or known mental issues with the pilots yet they blame everything on the pilots. Why would you allow a flight when you are aware of issues? And then blame it on pilots.

Blame the pilot for the Airline negligence and mistake.

Hunt is the Hero. He did the best could with what little training he had.

Its very interesting how they use so strange design for the British Midland's cockpit-specificly the from panel with instruments.And those 4 747 throthes on 737😂😂

good work

A computer is only as smart as the programmer feeding it information. Anything can defeat smart technology!!!

Knowing what I do about computers, that is the first thing I would suspect. Garbage in, garbage out.

12:44 this seems more a training issue than a pilot issue. Why would any commercial line allow pilots to fly a new plane design they're not yet familiar with and haven't yet had training in???? That's insane to me!

The plural of vortex is vortices.

Thanks!

i subscribed! :D

Airbus characteristically denied all responsibility but subsequently added software to limit rudder excursion so the pilot couldn’t accidentally rip the tail off the aircraft

Self driving airplanes self driving cars - If I was in a self driving car and the computer hickuped I wouldn't have the agility to correct it before....

Old, old programme rolled out yet again. And why not. The best series ever made about aviation. Also just as certain the uploader is one of the many who ride off the efforts of others.

My husband is a pilot, he began flying at 9 years old in the 60s, so he’s been flying for many years- one thing in all areas of aviation that has only became worse every year, rather than better, is *greed* before *safety,* money always, always trumps safety. Companies large & small, even maintenance, FBOs, fuel companies, etc, only seem to be very strict about it for insurance reasons, but they put all their work into paperwork & red tape to cover themselves, rather than do what’s needed for safety AND saving money. They waste money, time, & effort on things that don’t matter rather than do the real work involved.

As someone who constantly travels internationally for work in both planes and helicopters I can honestly say the average person has no idea how common potentially dangerous actions and alarms in day to day operations. Pilots are typically the best of the best and are able to troubleshoot on the fly and figure things out before passengers even have a clue something is going on.

This documentary gives me chills .

Pilot error well never go away No matter What hi tech cockpit the aircraft has When u put a human in control of an airship and he or she is having a bad day or just wants to take his or her life Anything can happen And just cause its hi tech cockpit Dont mean the computers wont glich

They did that one pilot dirty filming specifically the side of his face that looks as if he’s sporting a black eye of sorts 😂

The explanation at the end about the sensors feeding the autopilot system bad information and the plane taking it as a fact and inputing sporadic actions is absolutely insane. Also, the BEA Flight is also pretty unfortunent

Finally New One!

I think of pilot error as a pilot who does something he should know not to do. If a pilot is trained to aggressively use the rudder and he does as he was trained to do -- you can call that a lot of things, but pilot error is not one of them.

Expect more pilot errors now that the standards have been lowered. From now on, I'll drive.

We need to stop conflating "pilot error" with "training error." If pilots are being certified on a new plane, and significant information like, "oh, that vibration measurement issue that was on the old one, we fixed it" and "oh, the entire way air is coming into the cockpit is different now" aren't communicated properly, how is that pilot "error?"

Nice one ☝️

21:15 The vertical stabilizer was gone? Reminds me of the JAL flight disaster. 47:50 A pilot obsessed with fixing one problem and ignoring the basic functioning of the plane. This reminds me of the Portland OR crash where the pilot became so fixated on a landing gear indicator light that he ignored the plane's fuel level.

How many “pilot error” crashes stem from improper training? Should the term not be “company/training misinformation” instead? It seems that companies do everything in their power to place blame on the pilots following procedures laid down by the companies themselves. Especially where it is cheaper to pay out rather than train and avoid incidents in the first place. This type of culture will only improve when it becomes prohibitively expensive to pay out for a crash.

45:25 "the computers weren't wrong" Yes they were! They were wrong assuming the sensor were right. It is true that you can only make informed decision if you are getting correct data from good sensors. That's why you should be able to detect faulty sensors. You should have multiple sensors (and redundant computers). But the computers should also have some sanity checks. Even if you only have a single sensor and it suddenly tells you a significantly different orientation that the previous data, then you should know that it is physically impossible to have an infinity turn rate. Discontinuity in a lot of physical measurement data indicate sensor failure. (It is possible for a sensor to fail in such a way that produces plausible but wrong data, I don't know it that could have happened here.)

Its not pilot error if he's acting as trained. How disgusting airline companies and manufacturers are to shift blame as fast as possible. And still they will tell you that planes are safe and everything has a back up .. no it doesn't. Blame someone else is always the final back up.

Not a pilot but a automotive mechanic. We need to have a human presence in any transportation of lives. I see folks dying or hurt do to the false or misleading information of data. Fly the plane, drive the car.

This kind of thing is why I quit flying in 2007. Haven't missed it since.

In the BMA crash, it was proven that the engine gauges were the fault - they were too easy to misread.

That's clearly the f*cking Airline's fault...

Ive often wondered why thee are not cameras on various points on planes for pilot to see i.e. veiwing the front & rear of engines Landing gear etc, in the midland crash this but the time a request for visual from cabin staff on the engines could have saved it from being a tradgedy. But also airlines seemed not take some of the planes not re training pilots on different versions of the same plane.

They train for a minimum of 4 years to get a ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License). A new ATPL pilot is trained in actual flight with an experiences Captain. Do some basic research!

Well, investigators NEED a fall guy, no pun, If pilot was trained for that senario , he performed correctly. Which he was instructed as such. They needed to look into design flaws , possibly irecords. Which was probably carried out. Pardon some spelling, in a ruch.

What a wonder

Amount of commercials makes it impossible to enjoy

I have watched a lot of these airline disaster videos and it seems like in most cases the co-pilot is in control when things go bad

They sacked the pilot, which I don’t necessarily agree with. Shouldn’t the bulk of it be the airline’s fault, seeing as they were the ones that didn’t train their pilots sufficiently?

Friends tease me about my manual Miata but it’s all about having a full driving experience.

I don't understand why pilots don't have a cam on the wings to see engines and landing gears

Why don't they put Night Vision Camera's on Each Sides and on the top of the Airplane Aiming At the tail of the Airplane.. So the polit Can See the Wing and See on Each Sides and See the Engine of the AirCraft.. Screen inside the 🛩 🛬 Cockpit that Way if the Captain Can have a Veiw of the Airplane ✈️ and he or She Can See Clearly 👀 Whenever he or She Want to See.. if they ever have a Problem.. and Want have to Guess or Wait for Someone to tell them What's Wrong.

17:01 uh it's not 21st November 2001 it's 12th November 2001 you see American Airlines Flight 587 has crashed on 12th November not 21st just 12th

Always alerts & updated pilots when to fight news planes in handy pdf at all times The faulty here all at faulty not only one pilots ,lesson learned All my condolences to victims & family Keep it strong 🇬🇧

So an engine malfunctions and the pilot turns off the engine he has learned from previous knowledge on a previous version of the aircraft to ignore unreliable instruments, and still it is his fault? Unbelievable. Talk about kicking a man when he's down. It was not a pilot error that caused the problem, it was mechanical failure. In another one of the crashes portrayed in the video, again the crash was deemed as being due to " pilot error, he had not been trained on how to deal with the problem." How on this earth is that pilot error? More like instructional error.

even as an untrained pilot you should know the basics. turning off an engine by accident?? not believeable! Its definitely a company error rather than a pilot error. They should train their pilots!

Could listen to CPT Wood speak all day long. Classy dude.

Why would the manufacturer not slow down the controls on the rudder so it wouldn't get ripped off from a violent input? It seems like a no brainer.

"Mr Chief Accident Investigator, can we stop you working right now in the critical first hours to chat on TV?"

A plane should not be designed with a flaw where a pilot can accidentally knock the tail off! That’s a design problem not a pilot problem!!!

Being ex-airforce in Australia, is that we make split moment decisions. Not all automations on all aircraft are foolproof. Things do go wrong and systems do fail. Computers do FAIL. Talking from experience.

Isn't that mind boggling responsibility that pilots have? Killed 47 in one and 250 in the other case just like that.

I see this video, and I am glad I have not been on an airplane in 30 years. The last one I was on, I was going to Traverse City, Michigan, from Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Well, we got hit by a strong downdraft of air, and thank goodness I had my seatbelt still on. That plane did drop a bit, with my stomach following after it. 😳

wow this can easily be added down to 5 or 10 min without losing any content

41:00 "The airplane won't let the pilot do anything to make the plane crash" - "apart from take off" 😂

"Particularly energetic" is a wierd way to describe someones wreckless actions that killed over 200 folks