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  • 5/23/2025

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00:00I can't see the runway. You? I do not have the runway.
00:05What the heck?
00:08A flight from Belfast... Hang on!
00:11..ends in disaster.
00:14It's a time of great sadness.
00:16The wreckage provides a baffling clue.
00:19You know, it doesn't make sense.
00:21How did they manage to flip over?
00:23It's not a normal thing for an aeroplane to land upside down.
00:26The search for answers leads to a startling discovery.
00:29Wait a minute. That can't be right.
00:32It's like peeling an onion, you know?
00:34You cut away one layer and there's another layer underneath it.
00:37Is airline safety slipping through the cracks?
00:40I don't know what you call this mess.
00:42It came as quite a shock to the investigation.
00:48Amazing! Amazing!
01:00The city of Cork, on the southern coast of Ireland.
01:04A place famous for its deep-water harbour and its foggy weather.
01:13Today, that weather has put Manx 2 Flight 7100 into a holding pattern.
01:19It's a time of great sadness.
01:23Today, that weather has put Manx 2 Flight 7100 into a holding pattern.
01:29If the fog isn't clear, we could head for our alternate.
01:34Land at Waterford.
01:36The commuter flight from Belfast, Northern Ireland,
01:39was supposed to land in Cork at 9am.
01:42Mary Kerry.
01:4430 minutes later, it's still circling the airport.
01:47Cork faces out to the Atlantic, so fog is very common.
01:51And fog will roll in and it will roll out, sometimes at no notice,
01:55sometimes it may last for four hours,
01:57other times it may last for two or three days.
02:00In our part of the world, we have a saying, it was like pea soup,
02:04because it was very, very thick.
02:06Hope we land soon. Got work to do.
02:10There are ten passengers waiting to land this morning,
02:13including Lawrence Wilson, travelling to Cork for the day on business.
02:18I was going to Cork to do forklift truck training.
02:21I had been in that same location, doing the same course,
02:25several times before,
02:27so it was sort of a really old hat to come down and have done it before.
02:32Today's flight is aboard a Fairchild Metro 3.
02:37It's a very small plane.
02:39I'm six foot. I couldn't have stood up inside it.
02:43The 19-passenger turboprop is designed for short, low-cost flights.
02:49The airline in question was serving Belfast to Cork,
02:53which is a route that wouldn't be economically justified
02:56in a jet like a 737 or an Airbus.
03:03Flying the plane today is First Officer Andrew Cantle of England.
03:07While he concentrates on circling over Cork,
03:10Spanish Captain Jordi Sola-López is checking the weather at nearby airports.
03:16Surface wind is calm. Visibility is 900 metres and fog.
03:20All copied. Thanks very much.
03:22And the weather, is it improving in Cork?
03:25Often times these aircraft are crewed by two pilots.
03:29Sam Stottero is a flight instructor on the Metro 3.
03:33The pilot flying is responsible for aircraft flight path control,
03:37configuration changes, etc.
03:39The pilot monitoring is going to be focusing his attention outside and inside,
03:43looking for the airport environment, the runway environment.
03:51OK.
03:53Another small improvement at runway 17.
03:56At 9.35, the controller tells the captain the fog has lifted slightly.
04:02Visibility and touchdown zone is 500 metres.
04:07OK. In that case, any chance to perform one approach there?
04:11You are clear to land runway 17.
04:14Clear to land runway 17.
04:19After 20 minutes circling the airport,
04:22the crew must now shift focus to the complex task of getting their plane on the ground.
04:37We're good. I've landed and worked.
04:40There was only one lady on the plane and I was talking as if I had no experience at all.
04:45I just wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be OK.
04:52Glide slope is coming in.
04:54The pilots confirm the plane is lining up with the runway.
04:58OK. Glide slope is coming in.
05:01And they're descending at the correct speed.
05:03Speed's OK.
05:05You're using your heading indicator, your horizontal situation indicator
05:09and other indicators like the attitude indicator
05:13to put the aircraft flight path where it's supposed to be.
05:20I took control of the air power, OK?
05:23The captain tells the first officer he'll adjust the engine power during the landing.
05:27That's fine, yeah.
05:30All daylights are on. Landing gear is down.
05:38Yes, the weather is much better here.
05:47I was on the left-hand side of the plane looking out just behind the wing
05:52and I remember I couldn't see anything.
05:55I remember I couldn't see anything. No runway, nothing at all.
06:01OK. Minimum.
06:05Continue.
06:08The plane descends through its minimum or decision altitude.
06:13It's called decision altitude because that's the altitude
06:16that if you do not have the runway environment in sight,
06:19the decision to go mist is made.
06:22The captain pulls the thrust levers back to reduce power.
06:31Unexpectedly, the plane rolls hard to the left.
06:34What the heck?
06:39Go around. Go around.
06:47Hang on!
06:49I remember looking out the window and seeing grass about ten foot below me
06:55and I knew that wasn't good.
06:59I thought I was gone. I did, for a minute or two, I thought I was gone.
07:02I thought, this is it. I'm out of here. That's all's about it.
07:20A sudden alarm warns controller Sean Patrick he may be facing a disaster.
07:26The radio in the tower has picked up an emergency beacon from the plane.
07:31Max 7-1-0-0, contact the tower.
07:34We didn't realise there was a problem until the emergency locator,
07:38the transmitter, went off.
07:40Max 7-1-0-0.
07:42With the airport shrouded in fog, he can't see a thing.
07:46Might be nothing.
07:48A heavy landing could trigger that alarm.
07:54There's a minute there where you're in limbo.
07:56You're waiting for the crash crews to ramp up,
07:59for them to actually deploy.
08:01So you're just there waiting.
08:09Power to fire crew.
08:12Power to fire crew. Can you see the plane yet?
08:15You're hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.
08:20The ground controller instructed the fire crews to deploy
08:23to the threshold of runway 17,
08:26and they then entered the runway and commenced a search pattern.
08:30Crash, crash, crash.
08:32And then they called crash, crash, crash on the ground frequency,
08:36and this was only at this frequency.
08:38And this was only at this stage that we became aware
08:41that the aircraft had actually crashed on landing.
08:47Manx 2 flight 7100 has slammed into the mud beside runway 17.
08:55Rescue workers quickly douse the flames
08:57and get to work freeing the survivors.
09:01I remember a day late coming into the plane,
09:04but everything was so crushed and stuff.
09:08Then he got to come to me,
09:10and I had to prise the two chairs,
09:13the one in front and the one behind, to try and get me out.
09:16I had to reach in with a penknife
09:18and reach down in and cut the seatbelt
09:21to actually get me released.
09:25And I got standing up in the part of the plane
09:28which wasn't that badly crushed.
09:30I only realised then that the plane was upside down.
09:33I was standing on the roof,
09:35and I looked up and the chairs were up above me.
09:38Of the 12 people on board,
09:40six have been killed, including both pilots.
09:49It's a huge, significant event
09:51that no controller ever imagines will happen.
09:54But no matter how harrowing it is for them,
09:57it's nothing compared to what actually happened to the people on board,
10:01and our sympathy would lie with those and their families.
10:04It's a time of great sadness for all those who have died.
10:07Their families are grieving,
10:09and we need to maintain time and space for that.
10:12This is Ireland's deadliest crash in nearly 45 years.
10:16Cork Airport is notorious for its fog.
10:19Many people are speculating the poor weather is to blame.
10:23A lot of flights are cancelled in and out of Cork every year
10:27because of the conditions.
10:29There was quite some controversy about the decision
10:32to build the airport there in the first place.
10:35That controversy is sure to be reignited
10:38as news crews descend on the small airport
10:41and begin broadcasting images of the aftermath.
10:44Certainly the airport will not be operational for a good period of time
10:48while they conduct their investigation.
10:50The Manx 2 crash at Cork was a major news story.
10:53Questions were asked about the safety of flying,
10:56so it mustn't have been a very easy thing
10:59for the Irish investigators to approach this.
11:04Ireland's Air Accident Investigation Unit
11:07is immediately under pressure to find out what went wrong.
11:21Oh!
11:26Pictures from the scene in Cork show the aircraft wings were shorn off
11:30and the entire front half of the fuselage was crushed.
11:34News that Manx 2 Flight 7100 crashed in dense fog
11:38provides an immediate suspect.
11:41Investigators ask controllers to tell them more
11:44about the weather the pilots were facing...
11:46Sean Patrick, how can I help?
11:48..and how it affected the flight.
11:50The controller will be a crucial part of any investigation.
11:54They can advise exactly what information they gave,
11:57what the weather conditions were like at the time
11:59and what was actually said.
12:01They immediately hear something troubling.
12:05They'd already done...two.
12:08Two go-arounds.
12:10They attempted a third.
12:12The pilots had already tried landing twice before they crashed.
12:16A go-around or a missed approach procedure
12:18is any time an aircraft arrives at the bottom of the runway threshold
12:22and is unable to continue the landing attempt,
12:25they will power up and reconfigure for a climb and climb away.
12:30Cleared to land runway 17.
12:32The pilots attempt their first landing just after 9am.
12:36They try to line up with runway 17
12:39and descend to about 100 feet from the ground.
12:44But all they can see is the fog.
12:47Damit, I can't see the runway.
12:49You?
12:50Negative. I do not have the runway.
12:53Pilots are not supposed to land unless they can clearly see the runway.
12:58Go around.
12:59Roger.
13:00Go around.
13:08Ten minutes later, the crew decides to try a different tactic.
13:12Any possibility of proceeding to runway 35?
13:15Maybe on the other side. The sun won't be shining on us.
13:19They ask if they can circle around to a runway on the other side of the airport.
13:26They hope they'll be able to see more clearly with the sun at their back.
13:30Doesn't seem much better.
13:33This time they descend to just 91 feet from the ground.
13:37Lower than a ten-story building.
13:43But they still can't see the runway.
13:47Go around.
13:54He really came up very, very steep, up out of the fog.
13:59And that was the only time that I would say all the passengers really got excited
14:03because we all went, whoa, because of the steepness that he pulled it up out.
14:08Controllers don't know what went wrong on the third landing attempt.
14:12Visibility at touchdown zone is 500 meters.
14:15Only that the pilots opted to try runway 17 again,
14:19instead of diverting to a different airport.
14:22Okay, in that case, any chance to perform one approach there?
14:26You are cleared to land runway 17.
14:29After making a second go around,
14:31there are significant stresses and internal pressures that exist
14:35because there's now two attempts that were unsuccessful.
14:38So oftentimes pilots will feel internal pressure to make it happen.
14:42Go around. Go around.
14:53Graham Liddy.
14:55On runway 17, engineering lead Graham Liddy surveys the crash site.
15:01Most of the plane has come to rest upside down at the side of the runway.
15:06For Liddy, the first question is obvious.
15:09It doesn't make sense. How did they manage to flip over?
15:14It was immediately obvious that the airplane traveled a long distance in an inverted position.
15:19And that immediately starts to suggest that control was actually lost.
15:24It's not a normal thing for an airplane to land upside down.
15:27Liddy and his team are desperate for any information
15:30that might explain why the landing went so horribly wrong.
15:34Their best hope, the plane's flight recorders.
15:38They capture what the pilots do and say in the cockpit.
15:42We were very anxious to get this information as quickly as possible.
15:46But patience is required.
15:48It's too soon to say exactly how long it might take
15:51to retrieve the crucial data from the recorders.
15:54Invariably, the data from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder
15:59takes a little bit of time to download and to analyze.
16:05Okay. No one touches anything until we record exactly where it is.
16:11Meanwhile, he focuses on the wreckage strewn along the runway.
16:15The big issue is never to speculate.
16:18It's to go and evaluate the evidence.
16:21And then come up with an analysis of what actually happened.
16:25The trail of aircraft debris stretches almost 600 feet.
16:29From the point the plane first touched down
16:32to where the main fuselage came to rest in the mud.
16:35Each small piece along that trail could be an important clue.
16:39A lot of useful information about the history of those events
16:43or the sequence of those events can be derived from the marks
16:47that the aircraft makes when it makes initial contact with the ground.
16:51What the heck?
16:54Hang on!
16:59Cockpit sign there, please.
17:03Wiper blade, please.
17:06Recording the location of every piece of wreckage can be a time-consuming task.
17:12Liddy decides he needs to find out exactly where the wreckage is.
17:16He decides he needs some high-tech help.
17:19How quickly can you get me a laser scanner?
17:22The laser scan is a facility where you can actually scan the entire area
17:27and produce a three-dimensional picture of the accident site.
17:30And it records all the positions of these pieces of wreckage.
17:36Until he can finish his work, the runway at Cork remains closed.
17:40There's obviously a lot of pressure to get the airport back into operation again.
17:45That's a pressure you just have to accept.
17:48But it's not the only pressure Liddy faces.
17:51He's all too aware that travellers across Ireland are nervously waiting
17:55to hear what caused the island's deadliest air disaster in decades.
18:07Read about checks.
18:09The 3D scanner has arrived,
18:11and Graham Liddy can get to work surveying the Manx 2 crash site.
18:18The spinning head uses laser light to capture the exact position of every piece of wreckage,
18:24as well as the contours of the runway.
18:27It creates a virtual crash site that investigators can revisit down the road.
18:32You may not need it all, but at least you have it captured now
18:35and you're not faced with the embarrassing situation of,
18:37well, we've moved it all and we've destroyed this and we've restored the runway
18:40and all these marks are now gone.
18:42With the scan complete, the wreckage is taken to a hangar for further study.
18:49Every system needs to be checked for signs of mechanical failure.
18:55They focus first on the control surfaces on the wings and tail
18:59that pilots use to control the plane.
19:02This particular aircraft, all the control systems are cable operated,
19:06as is normal of an airplane of this size and vintage.
19:10What the hell? Do you need to go right? I am!
19:13If any of the cables break mid-flight, it can lead to a catastrophic loss of control.
19:20That's exactly what happened three and a half years earlier and half a world away in Tahiti.
19:27A twin otter climbs out after take-off from the island of Moria.
19:33At 400 feet, a badly worn control cable suddenly snaps.
19:40There's nothing the pilot can do as his plane speeds towards the ocean.
19:45The impact kills all 20 people on board.
19:53Do you have those cables matched?
19:55In Cork, investigators soon discover that not all the Metro 3's cables are intact.
20:02Some are broken, raising the critical question,
20:05did they wear out and snap just as the plane was about to land?
20:10The team studies the cables carefully to see if they can figure out why they broke.
20:17There's a distinctive difference between a cut cable and a cable that is actually fractured.
20:23They find no evidence of metal fatigue and no sign the cables wore down gradually through the years.
20:30So we were able to determine that in this particular case,
20:33the separation of the cable wasn't caused by a mechanical failure over a period of time.
20:40Investigators conclude the cables were cut during rescue operations.
20:45They have nothing to do with the crash.
20:47They had to cut into the belly of the aircraft in the cockpit floor area,
20:51which is unfortunately an area through which all the control cables run in this particular kind of airplane.
20:57The finding rules out one potential cause.
20:59Yes.
21:00But leaves investigators with no new leads as they endure intense pressure to explain the crash.
21:07It's a very, very demanding, very specialised role and it's vital that it is done properly.
21:18Investigators hope the results of the 3D laser scan will give them the breakthrough they so desperately need.
21:25Bring up the crash site.
21:27The scan lets investigators see the exact position of the plane as it careened down the runway.
21:34We're actually able to determine all these marks with precision of millimetres.
21:39Almost immediately, the strategy begins to pay dividends.
21:43We know the first bit of debris came from the right wing tip.
21:48We found navigation light glass from the right-hand side of the airplane.
21:53It's green glass to the left of the centre line.
21:57Aircraft wings have colour-coded navigation lights.
22:02Red on the left, green on the right.
22:05So other planes can tell which direction they're flying.
22:09What the heck is going on?
22:11What the heck?
22:12Go around!
22:19It gave us an initial clue that the wingtip was attached to the aircraft at the point of initial ground contact
22:24and the aircraft was severely rolled to the right.
22:27Now the plane would have been inverted by this point.
22:30Yes, that looks good.
22:32Using the position of other pieces of debris, investigators plot the entire sequence of the crash.
22:37Well, we know one thing.
22:40The plane was out of control before it hit the ground.
22:43Part of the process of an accident investigation is to find out what happened.
22:47And then we go on to the next stage, which is to find out why it happened.
22:51The bizarre wing-down position of the Metro 3
22:55leads investigators to search for defects in the cockpit flight instruments.
23:00In particular, the dials and gauges that tell pilots the position of their planes.
23:06Do you need to go right?
23:07I am.
23:09If one of the flight instruments malfunctioned,
23:12it may have confused the pilots, which could explain the sudden roll.
23:20So the only way you can check all that out is actually take those instruments out of the aircraft
23:24and send them away for testing.
23:28But when investigators examine those instruments,
23:31they are no closer to solving the mystery of Flight 7100.
23:35There was some impact damage on this instrumentation, on the aircraft,
23:39but we were actually able to verify that the instruments actually were working OK.
23:46Investigators will need another strategy
23:49if they ever hope to understand why a passenger plane lost control and fell from the sky.
23:56OK, let's hear it.
23:59Black-box data from Flight 7100 is finally in the hands of investigators.
24:05But will it give them the breakthrough they're hoping for?
24:09All copy, thanks very much. And the weather, is it improving in port?
24:13The voice recorder has captured the pilots' conversation
24:16in the crucial moments of flight 7100.
24:19Speed's OK.
24:21Liddy listens as the pilots discuss their landing preparations.
24:26At this stage, everything seems normal.
24:29I took control of the air power, OK?
24:32Then, he hears something unexpected.
24:35Yeah, that's fine, yeah.
24:39The captain's going to have to do something about it.
24:43He's going to have to do something about it.
24:45That's fine, yeah.
24:48The captain's going to handle the power? What kind of plan is that?
24:52They're starting to deviate from standard procedures
24:55by doing things like splitting command of the aircraft,
24:59or control of the aircraft, which is not a good idea.
25:03Normally, the pilot flying the plane would be the one adjusting the engine throttles.
25:08If someone else is making those changes,
25:11there's going to be a delay in the response from the pilot flying,
25:15an unnecessary and undesired response.
25:19OK, minimum.
25:21But it's not only that decision that seems off.
25:25There's also something odd about the sound of the engines.
25:29The cockpit voice recorder can also give you a lot of information
25:32about the acceleration of the engines,
25:34the engines being powered up, the engines being powered down,
25:37so you can actually glean quite an amount of information about that.
25:41Goin' out.
25:42Goin' out.
25:43Can you try and just bring up the engine sounds?
25:57Sounds like those two engines were operating at different power levels.
26:02The difficulty in this situation is that it's a twin-engine aircraft,
26:06so the cockpit voice recorder will tell you something is going on,
26:09but it doesn't tell you which engine it actually is.
26:12Searching for something that could explain the mysterious sounds coming from the engines,
26:16Liddy studies engine performance data from the flight recorder.
26:21It confirms his suspicion.
26:23The left engine was producing more power than the right engine,
26:27something not uncommon on prop planes like the Metro 3.
26:33Uneven engine thrust does make it slightly more difficult to keep the plane flying level,
26:39especially at low airspeeds.
26:42It's one more thing for pilots to think about during a complicated landing.
26:49Wait a minute.
26:51Liddy notices something even more troubling.
26:54It looks like engine number one went into reverse.
26:59Turboprop engines use the angle or pitch of the blades to change the direction of airflow.
27:06The propeller has an angle and through rotation takes a bite out of air like a screw.
27:13When selecting reverse, what's happening to the propeller pitch is it's flattening out
27:17and going into a negative blade angle causing air to be pushed forward instead of aft.
27:23That is one thing you don't want to happen in flight
27:25because it can actually reduce the airplane from below its stalling speed
27:27so the airplane will actually stall.
27:30The data suggests...
27:32What the heck?
27:34...the captain brought the power levers back too far,
27:37putting the more powerful left engine into reverse.
27:41If one were to do that in flight, you're going to have a forward moment on the right wing,
27:45you're going to have an aft moment on the left wing.
27:48In this case, it caused a severe roll to the left.
27:54Go around.
27:56Go around.
27:58The captain immediately tried to correct his mistake by pushing the throttles forward.
28:04But again, the uneven engine thrust caught him off guard.
28:12Hang on!
28:18Left engine, powered up faster, pushed them over to the right.
28:22That roll and yaw was quite vicious
28:25and actually caused the airplane to go right over on its side.
28:30I took control of the power.
28:32After two aborted landings,
28:34perhaps the captain was trying to help the first officer deal with the power imbalance
28:38by taking control of the throttles.
28:41OK, minimum.
28:45But it only made matters worse.
28:47If the first officer, who is the pilot flying,
28:49had had control of the power levers and the yoke, the flight controls,
28:53he would have felt and known where the power levers were at.
28:58It makes the whole task of steering the aircraft much more difficult
29:01because you don't have control over the power.
29:10These guys made a lot of rookie mistakes.
29:13Investigators are left with a chilling prospect.
29:16That a stunningly bad decision by the crew of Flight 7100
29:20may have led to the deaths of four passengers.
29:24They need to know more about both pilots.
29:27How experienced were they?
29:29And what kind of training did they bring to the job?
29:33Focusing on how the crew handled the situation.
29:37It should have been within their competency to deal with it in a satisfactory manner.
29:41They didn't quite.
29:43Both pretty young. Not much experience either.
29:47They soon learn both pilots were new to their roles in the cockpit.
29:51The captain had been promoted to captain four days previously
29:55and the first officer had been hired three weeks previously.
29:58So both of them had minimal experience in their respective duty positions.
30:06Even more troubling, Sola López had the same experience.
30:10Even more troubling, Sola López hadn't finished all the training required to captain this plane.
30:19And first officer Cantl never completed his final check flight.
30:24A must for any pilot.
30:28For an airline to pair a new first officer with a new captain is not standard practice.
30:34Most airlines have what is called a green-on-green prohibition.
30:38So new captain, new first officer cannot be paired together.
30:42Most often air carriers will require a captain to have 100 hours in his duty position
30:48prior to serving with a newer first officer.
30:52Was there anything unusual or out of the ordinary?
30:55The discoveries lend new weight to some unusual details about the flight from surviving passengers.
31:03The flight crew seem to have no support from the airline.
31:08They had to do everything, even adjust the cabin seats.
31:12Some of the passengers on the flight thought that this was highly unusual.
31:17This plane was flying around the clock.
31:20Investigators learn the plane was used to transport cargo the night before.
31:26The Fairchild Metro operated by Manx 2 had an alter ego in the night time
31:33when it operated as a mail plane on behalf of the British Post Office.
31:38Royal Mail.
31:39And the seats were taken out every night.
31:42The seats had to be reinstalled for the morning passenger flight.
31:47Just a moment gentlemen, we'll be right with you.
31:51Broken my board.
31:53Don't worry, just a little last minute adjustment.
31:56These safety cards can be found in the pockets in the seat backs in front of you.
32:00With no flight attendants on board, the first officer had to take on extra duties.
32:05The seat belt is fastened and adjusted like this and unfastened like this.
32:13One of the pilots came out and actually done something and showed us how to put on the belts
32:17and how to pull it up and stuff like that there and showed you the emergency exits and stuff like that.
32:22Sit back, relax and thanks for choosing manx2.com.
32:27Working on the seats, loading bags, doing the safety briefing.
32:32Seems like these guys were doing everything.
32:35Question is, how did that affect their flight?
32:48Investigators scrutinized the pilots' activities in the days preceding the crash.
32:53It's very important that we have a full understanding of how focused on flying the aircraft
33:00the flight crew actually are and whether they're being to a certain extent distracted by peripheral duties
33:05such as fixing seats, giving safety briefs to passengers.
33:11Looks like neither of them was getting enough sleep.
33:14With all their extra duties, neither pilot has enough time to rest between shifts.
33:21It's a dangerous violation of aviation regulations.
33:24A pilot that extends his working day, even if he's not flying, is clocking up fatigue.
33:30He's clocking up his sleep deficit.
33:34Damit, I can't see the runway. You?
33:36Negative. I do not have the runway.
33:40Go around.
33:42Fatigue could explain why the pilots were overwhelmed by a challenging landing at a fog-bound airport.
33:49Investigators are desperate to learn more about the operation of the airline they worked for, Manx 2.
33:56If you don't hire the pilots, who does?
34:00What they uncover is stunning.
34:02Manx 2 isn't an airline at all. It only sells the tickets.
34:08Manx 2 was what people call a virtual airline.
34:12The aircraft were not under the direct control of Manx 2.
34:18Manx 2 was a shell company which basically just sold tickets on the flight.
34:24It came as quite a shock to the investigation.
34:26So that immediately alerts you to the fact that there's something a bit non-standard going along here.
34:33How does Manx fit into the daily operations of the airline?
34:37Investigators suddenly realize that understanding the full story behind what went wrong
34:42now depends on tracing a convoluted international paper trail.
34:47They don't do maintenance. That's farmed out to a company in Spain.
34:52It's like peeling an onion, you know. You cut away one layer and there's another layer underneath and you keep on going.
34:58It was a fascinating experience.
35:00It's like peeling an onion, you know. You cut away one layer and there's another layer underneath and you keep on going.
35:06It was a very difficult process for the investigation and it took a long time.
35:11The only plane on earth that never breaks down.
35:14Investigators pore over the logbooks pilots use to keep track of maintenance problems during flight.
35:20More than a hundred hours of flight. Not so much as a worn gasket. Nothing.
35:26Almost unbelievably, not a single recent mechanical issue has been logged.
35:33It would be extremely unusual for an aircraft to operate for 106 hours
35:38without having some kind of defect that should have been noted in the maintenance log.
35:42And yet the maintenance log and the tech log is as clean as a whistle.
35:46The history of aviation is littered with examples of poor aircraft maintenance leading to disaster.
35:53In September 1991, Continental Express Flight 2574 is on approach to Houston, Texas.
36:02It's clear and calm when the commuter plane suddenly plummets from the sky.
36:08The pilots have lost all control.
36:11The twin turboprop slams into a farm below.
36:17All 14 people on board are killed.
36:20Mechanics had neglected to replace a row of screws on the plane's horizontal stabilizer the night before.
36:28When the piece came loose in flight, the pilots never had a chance.
36:37Investigators in Cork have uncovered more disturbing facts about Manx 2.
36:43That's never a good sign.
36:45That's never a good sign.
36:48The airline hasn't been paying its crews on time.
36:52Smaller airlines like Manx 2 are always operating on the margins economically.
36:58They're always struggling to survive.
37:01The plane is owned by a Spanish bank, leased to a Spanish company,
37:08which then subleased it to another company.
37:13And none of those companies are Manx 2.
37:19It was a fairly complicated, convoluted arrangement.
37:23It didn't have structures that would guarantee confidence, shall we say, in its safety.
37:36Play it again for us, please.
37:38The shockingly inadequate management of Manx 2, along with the company's financial difficulties,
37:45leads investigators to suspect the young pilots felt extra pressure to land in Cork as scheduled, in spite of the bad weather.
37:53If the fog isn't clear, we could head for alternate land at Waterford.
37:59I think it would be safe to assume that there were certain implied pressures from the air carrier
38:04that not making it to the destination was ill-favoured.
38:10I would imagine that there were pressures for them to complete the job, regardless of the risks.
38:21The pilots seem uncertain what to do in the face of bad weather.
38:25They really don't want to divert.
38:33OK. Well, at least we know that the weather's all right there, so we've got to, you know, there's a backup.
38:39The crew checks the weather at a number of nearby airports, but seems reluctant to land anywhere but Cork.
38:46All copies, thanks very much. And the weather is improving in Cork.
38:50Another small improvement at runway 17.
38:53Bad idea, guys.
38:55If they land at a strange airport, they've no infrastructure to support them.
38:59They probably don't even have a credit line to buy fuel.
39:02Landing at an alternate airport could leave the pilots on the hook for a range of expenses.
39:08Everything from airport fees to the cost of transporting all their ten passengers by bus or taxi back to Cork.
39:18OK. Minimum.
39:22Continue.
39:24It looks more and more like the pilots' lack of support from the airline
39:28forced their hand when they decided to go ahead with the fog-bound landing at Cork.
39:35These were two guys flying at the very long end of a very, very narrow stick,
39:40with very, very little support.
39:49The Manks 2 crash investigation has revealed there is no single cause behind the accident.
39:55Instead, it stemmed from a deadly chain of mistakes and circumstance.
40:01Heavy fog that put an inexperienced and overworked crew under extra pressure,
40:07leading to a piloting error that was compounded by poorly maintained engines.
40:14The engines were producing uneven power for more than 100 hours of flight.
40:19And not one pilot reported it.
40:21It's a fairly major red flag if maintenance issues are not to the fore.
40:28OK. Minimum.
40:31If the uneven engine power had been reported, it might have been fixed.
40:36But investigators find no record of anyone trying.
40:40Continue.
40:43The fault went unnoticed, or if it was noticed, it wasn't attended to.
40:49If the Metro 3's engine power had been properly balanced,
40:53Go around! Go around!
40:55there's a chance they could have recovered after the captain mistakenly reduced the throttles too far.
41:01Instead, the uneven engine thrust sent the plane into a severe roll that resulted in the crash.
41:19The investigation has also exposed the virtual airline at the centre of the disaster.
41:26Owned by Spanish interests but operating from the Isle of Man,
41:30Manx 2 has somehow slipped through the cracks of aviation oversight.
41:35The day-to-day management of the airplane seemed to fall between the ticket seller and the aircraft owner.
41:41And in actual fact, the Spanish authorities stated that they were unaware of this remote operation.
41:48I don't know what you call this mess, but it's not an airline.
41:52The investigation team generally was appalled when we actually discovered what was actually going on.
42:01This crash focuses the world's attention on a growing safety threat.
42:07Massive holes in the regulations that govern small commercial airlines in Europe.
42:15Companies where crews are generally younger, less experienced, and expected to work long hours with limited ground support.
42:23There's a lot of blame and fault with the crew members themselves.
42:27However, the air carrier has significant fault in this accident as well.
42:31Because they allowed for the situation to arise where you had two inexperienced crew members paired together
42:37with a real lack of leadership and overall oversight from the part of the company.
42:46In December 2012, Manx 2 ceased operations and the company was liquidated.
42:55The final report lists a number of factors contributing to the crash,
42:59including fatigue, pilot error, and a malfunctioning engine.
43:04I have a huge amount of empathy for the passengers in the back of the airplane.
43:09We're good. I've landed in Warth.
43:12They went out and they bought tickets to fly on a scheduled airline service within Europe.
43:18And as a result, these passengers, four of them were killed and four of them were seriously injured.
43:25And that should never have actually happened.
43:30This accident was 100% preventable.
43:36Looking into it and discovering what was wrong is good, but it's ten times better if that's acted on
43:46and something permanently done to make sure that this doesn't repeat itself.
43:51Don't want history repeating itself with this type of accident.