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  • 5/23/2025

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00:00Aircraft debris litters the frozen ground north of the Arctic Circle.
00:07You know this is going to be bad.
00:09A 737 has just gone down at Resolute Bay.
00:12We kind of looked at each other in disbelief.
00:15A crash at this latitude is almost always a death sentence.
00:20This is my first plane crash.
00:23An incredible coincidence gives a handful of survivors a fighting chance.
00:28There are survivors. Repeat, there are survivors.
00:32To arrive on scene an hour after the accident was just unbelievable.
00:37The big question now, what caused one of northern Canada's deadliest air disasters?
00:58The Canadian Arctic is one of the toughest environments on the planet.
01:20Winters here are brutal.
01:22Eight months long, with temperatures plunging to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:30Even now, during the long days of the Arctic summer,
01:34the average temperature is barely above freezing.
01:38The land is well above the tree line.
01:42It's very barren. There's nothing on it.
01:45There's no tundra, no plants, it's just sand and rock.
01:49There are no roads to this part of the world.
01:53Virtually the only way to get here is by air.
02:00And when a plane crashes in the Arctic,
02:03anyone who survives the impact has next to no hope of a quick rescue.
02:08They may face hours or days battling the elements.
02:12And they may not make it.
02:14It could be quite challenging to actually get to the site.
02:17It might be a matter of 24 hours or longer before you could get response in there.
02:24Fortunately, today, no one has to wait that long.
02:28All right, guys, exercise over. Everybody come on in. Take a break.
02:32This crash site has been meticulously staged.
02:36It's part of a massive military exercise held each year in Canada's high Arctic.
02:44Operation Nanook.
02:46This year, it's a simulated mid-air collision.
02:51The scenario, complete with mock survivors,
02:57is designed to help rescuers and air crash investigators prepare for a real aviation catastrophe.
03:06Operation Nanook in 2011 was intended to simulate a major aircraft incident in our north.
03:15The Canadian forces had the lead, in cooperation with our northern partners,
03:20the Canadian Coast Guard, local fire rescue personnel.
03:24Go ahead and point it in place.
03:26The Transportation Safety Board.
03:28Urgent, pry two.
03:33And also the U.S. Navy was going to be involved in this exercise.
03:39All right, hop to it, guys, now. Come on, time's ticking.
03:43Master Warrant Officer Greg Smit is a search and rescue technician with the Canadian Armed Forces.
03:50The scenarios that we set up, we tend to make them as realistic as possible.
03:56When you see something and it looks real, you tend then to act like you would in a real scenario.
04:04Today's exercise is taking place near Resolute Bay.
04:09Although the town is home to only 230 people, it's a major transportation hub for the high Arctic.
04:16Resolute Bay Airport is the only one in the region equipped with navigational aids for automated landing approaches.
04:24It has an instrument landing system, which is the mainstay of landing systems in all the southern airports.
04:31It's what all the major airliners use to land their aircraft. It's very accurate, very precise.
04:39Because Nanook is such a massive operation, the armed forces will be handling all air traffic control duties for the airport.
04:47Can Force 2 CYRB military continue your approach? Visibility is 10 miles.
04:57One of the planes heading to Resolute Bay is an Air Force C-17.
05:02Military and medical staff taking part in Operation Nanook are on board, as well as investigators from Canada's Transportation Safety Board.
05:11I see that equipment list again.
05:15There's a lot of considerations that have to go into a deployment into a remote part of Canada's north.
05:22There's the logistics of actually getting there, and then once you're in location, surviving is part of the issue.
05:29You need shelter, you need heat, you need food and water.
05:32It's a vital training opportunity for the entire team.
05:37If the day comes where we have to use it for real, those exercises, those lessons, those identified lessons learned will pay out in dividends.
05:46CYRB military, this is first air 6560.
05:50There's also a commercial flight approaching Resolute Bay.
05:54First air 6560, go ahead.
05:57CYRB military, ETA at Resolute 1643.
06:01First air flight 6560 is a charter flying passengers and cargo to the small community.
06:08Everything from fuel to household goods, appliances, to food, to mail is flown in.
06:15Without these flights, the community would run low on supplies very quickly.
06:20To accommodate all that extra cargo, the cabin of the 737-200 has been modified into what is known as a combi configuration.
06:29Which means they carry a combination of cargo and passengers on the same deck of the airplane.
06:36Among the passengers is geologist Nicole Williamson.
06:40She's traveling with her colleague Robin Wiley to do some surveying in the north.
06:45There are also two little girls on board, Gabrielle and Cheyenne.
06:51They're on their way home after visiting their father.
07:00Terry Audler is their uncle.
07:03They were very close, as close as sisters can be.
07:07They laughed together, they played together, they got into trouble together.
07:13The 737-200 left Yellowknife an hour and a half ago.
07:18It's due to land at Resolute Bay in approximately 30 minutes.
07:23Wind 180 degrees at 8 knots.
07:26First officer David Hare studied business before setting his sights on aviation.
07:32He joined First Air four years ago.
07:35First Air 6560, copy. Thank you.
07:44There we go.
07:46Captain Blair Rutherford has been with the airline for more than 15 years.
07:50Might as well do yours too.
07:53Heading 029 degrees.
07:56Got it.
07:58With the skies close to the magnetic North Pole,
08:01pilots need to calibrate their compasses frequently using their GPS.
08:06OK, let's go over the approach. OK.
08:14Do you want some help with your seatbelt? OK.
08:17All right. I'll be up here with you. That's fine.
08:21Altitude alert set to 2200.
08:23Because of the heavy fog, the crew will be relying on their autopilot during the approach.
08:29Checklist complete. Autopilot set.
08:35This way they don't have to worry about lining up with the runway visually.
08:40The computer will do all the work until they're ready to touch down.
08:456560, you're landing on runway 35 true. It's a little wet.
08:51First Air 6560, copy. 35 true.
08:55We're 10 miles from runway.
09:00After spending a few weeks with Dad,
09:03the girls were looking forward to coming back home to Mom and Grandma and Grandpa.
09:07Almost home.
09:15At 11.40 a.m., Flight 6560 begins its final approach to the runway.
09:22Descending through 1,000 feet.
09:25First Air 6560, we're three miles out on final.
09:33We're over the shoreline now. All right.
09:38The sound of an urgent alarm fills the cockpit.
09:42Go around. Go for it.
09:44It's the low altitude warning.
09:47To the pilots, it seems impossible.
09:50They don't even have the runway in sight yet.
09:53Go around. Go around thrust.
09:56The captain decides to abort the landing.
10:00But it may be too late.
10:04Flight 6560 slams into the ground at 180 miles an hour.
10:15The plane skids across the crest of a hill
10:19and bursts into the air.
10:22It's a long flight.
10:25It's a long flight.
10:28It's a long flight.
10:32And bursts into flames.
10:39When the ground support personnel lost communication with this aircraft,
10:43they knew it was on a final approach.
10:46They were not speaking to the crew anymore.
10:55First Air 6560 should be here by now.
10:58You've got to be kidding.
11:01Try them again.
11:03Did people believe that aircraft had crashed?
11:06You don't want to because human beings are involved.
11:09But it very quickly became a reality that this aircraft had crashed.
11:18A 737 has just gone down at Resolute Bay. No duff.
11:28The priority now, get help to any survivors.
11:32Think to yourself, wow, I really hope someone survived this.
11:36But you know this is going to be bad.
11:41At the crash site, Gabrielle Pelkey sits alone in a nightmare.
11:46She found herself with a broken leg,
11:49cuts and bruises and concern for her little sister Cheyenne.
11:59Geologist Nicole Williamson has also survived.
12:09Gabrielle.
12:11Gabrielle.
12:13When Nicole got to Gabrielle...
12:16You're OK. You're OK.
12:18She made sure that Gabrielle was kept warm
12:22and that was something that probably helped her with her own survival.
12:28This is my first plane crash.
12:32Yeah.
12:34Me too, sweetie.
12:36Me too.
12:38For Nicole to hear that from a child,
12:41it sort of brought home the innocence of it all.
12:45OK. All right.
12:48Trying to survive at that moment,
12:52As they stumble through the wreckage,
12:55they find only one other survivor, Robin Wiley.
12:59All right.
13:01They managed to get to a location where they felt,
13:04OK, this is probably a safe location
13:07and wait and hope for the best.
13:10This is my first plane crash.
13:13Me too, sweetie.
13:15Me too.
13:17And wait and hope for the best.
13:21The three survivors are suffering from shock
13:24and shivering in near-freezing temperatures.
13:27If help doesn't arrive soon, they may die from exposure.
13:37News of the disaster reaches air crash investigators still in flight,
13:43including the TSB's Brian McDonald.
13:47We kind of looked at each other in disbelief,
13:50as if, you know, is somebody changing the start of the exercise
13:54to create more realism, or is this really happening?
13:59We need to hit the ground running.
14:03Now you're quickly changing gears
14:05into thinking about all the things we have to do now
14:08to get ready and start reacting to this actual accident.
14:13As the investigators touch down,
14:16they grapple with the realisation that the mock exercise
14:19they were expecting is now a very real catastrophe.
14:27But there is some good news.
14:30Because of Operation Nanook,
14:32rescuers are able to reach the survivors
14:34just 20 minutes after the accident.
14:39There are survivors. I repeat, there are survivors.
14:43Having been to several aircraft crashes
14:46throughout my 20-year career,
14:49shock would be an understatement that these people had survived.
14:53They didn't appear to have any life-threatening injuries,
14:56so we elected to fairly rapidly stabilise some immediate fractures,
15:00get them on some stretchers, and get them down to a facility
15:03that could properly evaluate and treat them
15:06in an environment that was more stable.
15:09Rescuers comb through the wreckage,
15:13but they quickly realise no-one else has survived the crash.
15:1812 people are dead.
15:22Did you find Cheyenne?
15:26Including Gabrielle's sister, Cheyenne.
15:32For a child to be given that type of information
15:35I mean, it's always a difficult moment.
15:42This is one of the worst air disasters ever in Canada's far north.
15:52Are you guys with the TSB?
15:54That's what the hat says. Show me what you got.
15:57It's up to investigator Brian MacDonald and his team
16:00to figure out what happened.
16:02We're here. They came down here, two clicks east.
16:06Well, I'd like to get a team up there as soon as possible.
16:10And we're going to need a space to work.
16:13To arrive with a fully assembled and equipped team
16:17on scene within an hour after the accident was just unbelievable.
16:24I got pretty close to the runway.
16:27The plane has crashed into the shoulder of a hill
16:30a little more than a mile east of the runway.
16:36Maybe it was the fog.
16:38We knew that the visibility had been poor earlier during the flight,
16:42so we knew that the weather was a factor
16:45that would need to be looked at.
16:47We're going to need a team.
16:49We knew that the weather was a factor that would need to be looked into.
17:00What a surprise. Fog.
17:03Resolute Bay is often fog-bound,
17:05forcing crews to rely on their autopilot
17:08and the airport's sophisticated guidance equipment.
17:14The Instrument Landing System, or ILS,
17:17is technology that can be installed on runways
17:20to help planes land in low visibility.
17:23The ILS emits a signal known as a localizer beam.
17:27It can be picked up by the plane's autopilot,
17:30which uses it to navigate the plane safely down to the runway.
17:34When you can't see the runway, when you're on approach,
17:37you rely on this ILS system to get you to a point
17:40where hopefully you can see the runway.
17:42OK, let's go over the approach. OK.
17:45It's not great, but it's nothing that we can't handle.
17:48At least we'll be able to do an ILS approach there.
17:51If the ILS system at the airport failed,
17:54or if the plane's autopilot wasn't able to detect the signal,
17:57it could explain the crash.
17:59What we do during any investigation is run a process of elimination
18:04where we look at all the possible aspects of the operation
18:10and verify that things were working normally.
18:15It doesn't take investigators long to figure out
18:18that the airport's ILS was working.
18:21Another plane used the signal to land
18:24just 25 minutes after the crash of Flight 6560.
18:29We determined that the system was operating
18:32within normal operating parameters.
18:35But investigators won't know if the 737's autopilot
18:39was detecting the ILS properly
18:41until they download the plane's flight data
18:43and the cockpit voice recorders.
18:46The first responders had found them in the first 12 hours.
18:49We were able to get them on an aircraft
18:52and down to our laboratory in Ottawa on the following day.
19:01Meanwhile, Operation Nanook provides investigators
19:04with some unexpected data.
19:07So this will show us exactly what the radar recorded.
19:11Resolute Bay Airport is not equipped with radar,
19:14but the military had set up a temporary radar system
19:17to handle the increased air traffic for Operation Nanook.
19:22The radar data was crucial to the investigation
19:25because it provided us with the flight path for the aircraft,
19:29which we wouldn't have had otherwise.
19:32It's a lucky break for investigators.
19:35When they watched the playback,
19:37they immediately noticed something very unusual.
19:40Where the hell are they going?
19:42The radar shows Flight 6560 was flying parallel to the runway,
19:47not lined up with it as it should have been.
19:51The question that came to our minds immediately there was, why?
19:56Why did the aircraft track in that direction?
20:01How could a modern airliner equipped with an autopilot
20:05crash into a hill more than a mile from the runway?
20:10A painstaking investigation will uncover a troubling explanation.
20:19With the toxic fire fully extinguished,
20:22it's now safe for investigators to head to the crash site
20:26and get a close-up look at the wreckage.
20:30They're searching for any clue that might explain
20:33why the plane drifted off course on approach to the runway.
20:37We needed to understand, you know,
20:39what was happening with the navigation.
20:41We needed to understand how did the aircraft get right of track
20:45and why did it stay right of track?
20:47They begin by charting the location of every single piece of wreckage.
20:56You could see where the wheels had touched down
20:59and the aircraft had gone airborne for some distance.
21:03Bits of the aircraft had started to shed
21:06and then it touched down again on the belly
21:09and came apart into three main sections.
21:12To investigators, the pattern of debris suggests
21:15a possible explanation for the crash.
21:18The wreckage seems to line up directly
21:21with a navigation tower called a VOR.
21:24When you draw a line between where the aircraft turns final
21:27and where the aircraft accident occurs,
21:30it's pretty much right at that antenna.
21:33Investigators wonder if the pilots locked onto the wrong beacon
21:37to guide their plane to the ground.
21:41The airport's VOR beacon transmits a radio signal
21:45which helps pilots find the airport.
21:48However, it's not meant to guide them onto a specific runway.
21:52For that, the crew must switch their navigation controls
21:56so the autopilot can follow the airport's ILS frequency.
22:03You have an ILS which has a beam that goes out
22:07and if you stay right on that beam, not left, not right, but right on it,
22:11it'll take you right to the centre of the beginning of the runway.
22:18It's not great, but it's nothing that we can't handle.
22:21At least we can do an ILS approach there.
22:24If the crew programmed their navigation system
22:27to follow the VOR signal from the hillside antenna
22:30instead of the ILS signal on the runway,
22:33it would explain this tragedy.
22:36It wouldn't be the first time a pilot made that very mistake.
22:40There was a previous occurrence back in the late 1980s
22:44involving a Boeing 737,
22:47and in that instance they were tracking to a navigational aid
22:51very similar to the one located in Resolute Bay
22:55rather than to the approach aid at the runway.
23:00If the pilots of Flight 6560 made the same error,
23:04the heavy fog would likely have made it impossible
23:07to see the hill until it was too late.
23:14But is there any way to know for sure if that's what happened?
23:21Investigators hope the plane's cockpit voice recorder
23:24can provide the answer.
23:28All right, let's see what these guys were thinking.
23:31The TSB's Jon Stewart is an expert at analysing
23:34crew conversations captured on voice recorders.
23:37The cockpit voice recorder was going to tell us
23:40what was going on inside the cockpit.
23:44What could they be seeing? What were they listening to?
23:47What were they talking about?
23:49We wanted to understand their view of the world
23:52and how they were making decisions.
23:55Flaps 5. Flaps 5 selected.
23:59Initially, it doesn't sound like anything is wrong.
24:05Checklist complete.
24:08Autopilot... set.
24:12Localiser alive.
24:15Glide slope alive.
24:17The first officer acknowledges the autopilot is locking on
24:20to the airport's instrument landing system.
24:24Sounds like they were following the ILS signal all right.
24:28The words glide slope alive confirm that the autopilot
24:32is homing in on the correct signal, the runway's ILS,
24:36not the VOR beacon from the hillside tower.
24:40From the cockpit voice recorder, we knew the crew was flying
24:43the ILS approach.
24:45We were conclusively able to determine that where they ended up
24:49was not related to that beacon.
24:51But they still have no idea
24:53why the plane drifted dangerously off course.
24:56They listen for more clues.
24:59What they hear is stunning.
25:02GPS has us going off to the right.
25:09The first officer knew they were off course.
25:12We could tell from the conversation that the crew were concerned
25:15about the positioning of the aircraft.
25:21So, are we too far to the right?
25:26We'll get there.
25:28As they continue to listen, the mystery deepens.
25:33If we're going right, Resolute Hill is right of the runway.
25:36Not only did the first officer realise they were off course,
25:40he knew they were headed towards the hill next to the runway.
25:45We're not on the localiser.
25:47No, we're fine.
25:48The autopilot's tracking the localiser.
25:51I think we should abandon the approach, go around and sort this out.
25:54No, we're good.
25:55We'll continue the approach.
25:58OK.
26:00Continuing approach.
26:03As the flight progresses, you can see in the conversation
26:06between the two of them that the two pilots have differing views
26:09as to what needs to be done.
26:12Even though they were speeding towards the hill, they continued on.
26:19Go around, go for it!
26:23Go around!
26:24Go around for us!
26:28It's a mistake that cost 12 people their lives.
26:34Why it happened remains a mystery.
26:37Why on earth did they keep flying toward that hill?
26:45The crash of First Air 6560 has touched the lives of nearly everyone
26:50in the tiny community of Resolute Bay.
26:54For a mother to have to go through that, I'd never wish that on anyone.
27:00The families want answers.
27:02There was a tremendous amount of pressure on everybody involved
27:06to find out any information.
27:09We wanted to know what happened.
27:13The wreckage tells us they were off course.
27:16They're flying parallel to the runway.
27:18And the CVR tells us they knew it.
27:20So far, the investigation into what caused the crash
27:23is only raising more questions.
27:26Why was it that corrective action came too late?
27:31Autopilot set.
27:35Localiser alive.
27:37Glide slope alive.
27:39Investigators know that the ILS beacon the pilots were tracking
27:43should have guided their plane all the way to the foot of the runway.
27:49They need to figure out why that didn't happen.
27:52This is what we've got to go on, so let's see what the data can tell us.
27:56We had the downloaded information from the flight data recorders.
28:00They hope the plane's flight data recorder will provide them with some answers.
28:06OK, pitch up two degrees.
28:08Using the FDR data...
28:10Speed to 168 knots.
28:13...investigators create a detailed flight path of the plane's approach.
28:17Turn left two degrees.
28:19The key aspects of any flight were on there.
28:22You know, altitude, speed, heading, power setting, flight control positions.
28:27Can we have the localiser beam, please?
28:33They focus on the plane's final turn toward the runway.
28:41That's where it started to go wrong.
28:44They turned too wide and never got back on the beam.
28:47The detailed flight path reveals the precise moment
28:50Flight 6560 began to veer off course.
28:54But investigators still don't understand why.
29:02They know the autopilot system was working properly.
29:05The flight data recorder indicated that the autopilot system
29:08was working properly.
29:10Autopilot set.
29:13To carry out an ILS landing, the crew should have set their autopilot
29:17to a mode called VOR LOC.
29:20Localiser alive.
29:22Which is exactly what they seem to have done.
29:25We were struggling with trying to understand, you know,
29:28how did the aircraft get off course if it was properly tuned in?
29:32We were struggling with trying to understand
29:35how did the aircraft get off course if it was properly tuned in?
29:38Properly tuned in. Switches properly set up.
29:41Crew is following their processes down to do an ILS approach.
29:47Investigators are at a loss to explain how a properly configured,
29:51functioning autopilot steered the plane off course.
29:55Until they take a closer look at the flight data.
29:59Let me just see the control wheel inputs.
30:03So the turn started out OK. Nice and smooth through here.
30:07Definitely the autopilot in control.
30:10We could determine that the turn was initiated by the autopilot.
30:14And then there was a change in the technical information
30:18that would indicate something happened in the turn.
30:21Something changes right here.
30:25These jagged corrections have got to be human.
30:28They must have been flying on manual.
30:31For some reason, it seems the autopilot switched to manual mode
30:35partway through the final turn.
30:38In this new setting, the autopilot was no longer guiding the plane to the runway.
30:47Autopilot systems have built-in capability for pilots to override it.
30:51If the aircraft is not reacting quick enough
30:54or it's doing something too quickly,
30:57then the pilot can, using the control wheel,
31:00apply some pressure, override it momentarily.
31:03But there's nothing on the CVR to indicate
31:06that the captain intended to override his autopilot.
31:10Investigators now consider a frightening possibility.
31:14He may have done it by accident and never realized his mistake.
31:18If the autopilot mode changed from this mode of forelock
31:23to the manual mode at that timing,
31:26you could end up with the aircraft staying wings level
31:30and just maintaining that heading instead of tracking the beam.
31:34Investigators can see that at the exact moment
31:37the autopilot stopped guiding the plane to the runway,
31:41there was a slight bit of pressure on the captain's control column,
31:45just enough to switch the autopilot
31:48from the fully automatic flight mode into manual.
31:51We believe it was likely an inadvertent pressure on the wheel.
31:55Perhaps someone was leaning over to check something
31:59or reach for a publication.
32:02It's not a lot of pressure that's required.
32:05With neither the autopilot nor the crew
32:08steering the plane toward the runway,
32:11the wind pushed it further and further off course.
32:15The autopilot wasn't locked in any longer to the localizer beam,
32:19but was maintaining wings level and that heading.
32:22And so the wind did the rest.
32:27The finding is another small step towards understanding this accident.
32:32The big question now, if the pilots knew they were flying off course...
32:37So, aren't we too far to the right?
32:41..why didn't they do something about it?
32:44We'll get there.
32:46The crew was aware that they were off course.
32:50The challenge for us was to determine
32:53why the captain continued the approach.
32:58Descending through 1,000 feet.
33:05Let's see what this flight looked like from inside the cockpit.
33:09Investigators need to understand
33:11why the pilots didn't take corrective action
33:14when they saw the plane was going off course.
33:17To do that, they need to get inside the pilots' heads.
33:21The key thing that we try to do is to understand
33:24why events made sense from their point of view.
33:27I wanted to see what could each pilot see in their positions.
33:31What could they hear? What could they see of dials moving?
33:34What are the factors in that cockpit
33:36that might have led them to make the decisions they did
33:39over and above what we'd already heard from the CVR?
33:42Using the combined information from the FDR and the CVR,
33:46investigators recreate the flight, hoping to find their answer.
33:54Autopilot set.
33:58Localiser alive.
34:01Glideslope alive.
34:03On track. Autopilot set to VOR low.
34:07The pilots' conversation provides an intriguing clue.
34:11First air 6560, we're 10 miles from runway 35 true.
34:14Gear down.
34:16It's clear they were both extremely busy preparing to land.
34:20Flight 6560, report 3 miles final.
34:22Flaps 15. Please repeat last transmission.
34:25Gear down, 3 green.
34:27Report 3 miles final.
34:30There.
34:32So busy, it seems, they failed to notice
34:35when the autopilot switched to the manual mode.
34:38That's where the autopilot mode switched.
34:40There's a lot going on in the cockpit,
34:42also in the churn at this time.
34:44They're lowering landing gear, there's some radio calls,
34:47there's flaps coming down.
34:49So they're not necessarily looking to see
34:52if there's one light in a sea of lights that's no longer lit.
34:56And there was no discussion on the CVR
34:59that they saw anything related to the autopilot mode.
35:03But there were other clear signs
35:05that the plane was not lining up with the runway.
35:09We're not on track here.
35:12We're off to the right a bit.
35:15GPS has us going off to the right.
35:18Here and here.
35:20It's as clear as day they're well off course.
35:23Both the GPS and the horizontal indicator
35:26were clearly showing the plane was drifting
35:28further and further from the runway.
35:31Yet the captain did nothing to correct the problem.
35:38OK. What's he thinking?
35:43The answer to that critical question
35:45is finally revealed by the FDR data.
35:48His compass is drifting.
35:51He's off.
35:53By about 17 degrees.
35:55An inaccurate compass reading
35:57gave Captain Rutherford the impression
35:59that his plane was flying back towards the runway.
36:03The captain had a perception
36:05that they were on a correction course
36:08back towards the localizer beam
36:10instead of actually what they were doing was paralleling.
36:14This far north,
36:16a pilot should recalibrate his compass frequently.
36:20That's because a compass will always point
36:22to the magnetic north pole,
36:24not to the geographic north pole,
36:26two different points on the globe.
36:29The further north you travel with the compass,
36:31the more inaccurate the compass is.
36:35Pilots have to use their GPS to get the true heading
36:38and adjust their instruments.
36:41There we go.
36:43Might as well do yours too.
36:46Heading 029 degrees.
36:49Investigators only hear the pilots
36:51recalibrate their compasses once during the flight,
36:55but not on final approach.
36:58The two compasses then drifted at different rates
37:01as they descended towards Resolute Bay.
37:09Rutherford's compass was telling him
37:12that he was flying 331 degrees,
37:16straight back towards the centre line of the runway.
37:24But he was actually flying 348 degrees
37:32straight towards the hill.
37:35The inaccurate compass reading
37:37finally convinced Captain Rutherford
37:39that his autopilot was bringing the plane back on track.
37:43Each pilot had a completely different understanding
37:46of what was going on.
37:48We're not on the localiser.
37:49No, we're fine.
37:50The autopilot's tracking the localiser.
37:52Having two pilots that have different perceptions
37:56of the situation is problematic,
37:59and what you need to do
38:01is bring those perceptions back together,
38:04and in this instance that never happened.
38:07The first officer kept trying to warn the captain
38:10that they were in trouble.
38:12I think we should abandon the approach,
38:14go around and sort this out.
38:16No, we're good.
38:17Well, continue the approach.
38:19Okay.
38:20Continuing approach.
38:22As the flight progressed,
38:24the gap between each pilot's understanding
38:26of the situation widened.
38:28Green light.
38:29Gear down.
38:30Three green.
38:32Flaps 40.
38:33Green light.
38:35You can see that things are starting to happen fairly quickly.
38:39The workload's starting to pile up.
38:41You can hear it happening in their voices.
38:45So you think it's fine?
38:47No, look, there's nothing to worry about.
38:49Same thing just happened to another pilot.
38:51We'll get back on the runway.
38:53Okay, but we're way off course.
38:55When the plane didn't head back to the runway
38:58like he thought it would,
39:00the captain couldn't understand why.
39:05Go around, go for it.
39:07By the time the crew decides to abandon the landing...
39:10Go around.
39:11Go around thrust.
39:13...it's too late to get the power they need
39:15to climb out of trouble.
39:18Two seconds later...
39:22...they slam into the hill beside the runway.
39:26There were so many things that had to have happened
39:30for this outcome
39:32that if any one of those didn't happen,
39:35he wouldn't have had the accident.
39:38The mystery of the first air disaster
39:40is finally becoming clear.
39:42But there is one last question investigators must answer.
39:46Why didn't the captain listen to the one person
39:49who was trying so hard to warn him of the disaster?
39:54We're not on the localizer.
39:56No, we're fine.
39:57The autopilot's tracking the localizer.
39:59Investigators believe the captain of Flight 6560
40:02didn't understand that his aircraft was in danger
40:05despite his first officer's repeated warnings.
40:08GPS has us going off to the right.
40:10I counted 18 statements that the first officer made
40:13from the first time he landed on the runway.
40:16He said,
40:1818 statements that the first officer made
40:21from the first time he indicated that they were off course
40:25until they collided with the hill.
40:27So you think it's fine?
40:29No, look, there's nothing to worry about.
40:31Same thing just happened to another pilot.
40:33We'll get back on the runway.
40:35Okay, but we're way off course.
40:37The first officer could see something was wrong.
40:40We're over the shoreline now.
40:42All right.
40:43But did not clearly state that he felt they were in danger.
40:48We could see that the first officer
40:50was trying a number of different tacks,
40:53talking about the GPS,
40:55talking about their relative position,
40:57trying to find different ways of approaching the problem
41:01and communicating it to the captain.
41:03Blair, I don't like this.
41:05The pilot's records paint a picture
41:08of 2 men with vastly different experience.
41:14First officer Hare was new to the 737
41:17and had fewer than 5,000 hours in the air.
41:21Captain Rutherford had more than twice as many hours in the cockpit
41:25and much more experience flying in the north.
41:28Yet for some reason he didn't pick up
41:30on what first officer Hare was trying to tell him.
41:34They weren't resolving the problem.
41:37And so the questions keep piling up.
41:39Why does the first officer keep focusing on this?
41:42We should be configured, we're not.
41:44So his problems are mounting up and mounting up.
41:46It gets harder to pull yourself out of all of those things
41:49that you need to put right.
41:53Maybe we should go around.
41:55Continue configuring for landing.
41:57As the less experienced pilot,
41:59first officer Hare may have felt reluctant
42:02to voice his concerns more forcefully.
42:09As a result of their conclusions,
42:11the TSB makes some important recommendations.
42:14Our job is to illuminate where the deficiencies are
42:18and the industry and the regulator will take action
42:21to mitigate those risks.
42:23That's why the Transportation Safety Board exists.
42:27The Safety Board urges First Air
42:29to review how pilots calibrate their compass...
42:32Night.
42:34..and to institute clear policies
42:36on how first officers should take control in dangerous situations.
42:45First Air made changes
42:47to their crew resource management training,
42:51when and who can call a go-around,
42:55how they deal with unstable approaches.
42:59They've made changes to maintenance procedures.
43:03And so there's a fair bit of safety action
43:06that First Air has taken.
43:10The crash of Flight 65
43:12The crash of Flight 6560
43:14brought terrible grief to Canada's north.
43:17But there is one ray of light that continues to shine.
43:21Gabrielle Pelkey returned to school in the autumn of 2011.
43:26She's happy-go-lucky.
43:28She's still, I'd say, a star in her classroom.
43:35Geologist Nicole Williamson has remained close with Gabrielle,
43:39building a friendship that is helping the young student rebuild her life.
43:44She's coping quite well.
43:47She's an amazing little girl.
43:50A miracle.