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  • 6/5/2025

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00:00Terrain.
00:01Cool. Up.
00:02MR-17, we have an emergency.
00:04An American cargo plane needs to make an emergency landing.
00:10Bring it around.
00:11They didn't have controllability of the airplane.
00:13Roll out to the right.
00:15Power.
00:16More?
00:17Yeah.
00:18The pilots bring their DC-8 to within sight of the runway.
00:24I said, you know, oh, my God, we've lost an airplane.
00:29It was, like, basically a war zone.
00:32You ready?
00:33To try to understand what went wrong,
00:35investigators call on a friend and colleague of the crew.
00:42I still hear it.
00:44You know, you just don't.
00:46It doesn't stop.
00:59You flew jump seat from Dayton, right?
01:00Yes, sir.
01:01What was the hold-up?
01:02Your windshield.
01:03You flew jump seat from Dayton, right?
01:26Yes sir.
01:27What was the hold up?
01:29Your windshield.
01:31That took, what, four, five hours?
01:34That'll mess up a day.
01:36Rather they just stuck it on with crazy glue?
01:39At least my side would be fine.
01:41Well, that's all that matters then.
01:44Captain Kevin Stables is preparing to pilot Emory Worldwide Flight 17.
01:50His first officer is George Land.
01:54They're flying freight across the country aboard a 30-year-old DC-8 cargo plane.
02:00The DC-8 is a fantastic plane.
02:03The thing was built like a tank.
02:11Captain John Albright has just checked into a hotel after finishing his latest shift for Emory Worldwide.
02:18The DC-8 was kind of a pilot's plane.
02:23It took a lot of work and it took a lot of physical effort.
02:29Getting all prettied up for the load, master?
02:31Hey, at least I try to look like a professional.
02:34The crew was just fantastic.
02:36They were enjoying being with each other and enjoying the job that they were getting ready to do.
02:42I'd flown with George several times.
02:44He was always smiling, always friendly, always had his hair fixed just right,
02:48which we all kind of thought was funny because we were flying night freight and nobody got to see us.
02:53Captain Stable started his day as a passenger on the plane as it flew from Dayton, Ohio to Reno, Nevada.
03:02In Reno, he took over as captain and flew to Sacramento.
03:06Now he and first officer Land are taking the cargo plane back to Dayton.
03:11Hi there. Is that the load plan?
03:16Just before they're finished up and loading the last couple of containers,
03:19they would give us a list of all the freight containers
03:22and how much it weighed and what position on the airplane it was.
03:29There you go, boss.
03:30Then we'd take that information and we would calculate the weight and balance on the airplane
03:34and make sure that it was all correct.
03:38Inspection's complete. Cargo door's closed.
03:40Joining the pilots is flight engineer Russell Hicks.
03:45The flight engineer, he handled all the systems, the electrical systems, the hydraulic systems, the pneumatic systems.
03:53He was the man behind the curtain, so to speak, and kept the airplane running.
03:58All right, boys. Let's hit it.
04:10Left rudder. Center.
04:13Checked.
04:15As they taxi to the runway, the pilots conduct a series of flight control checks.
04:21Right rudder. Center.
04:23Checked.
04:25Elevator forward.
04:27Coming back.
04:29Elevator position indicator. Checks.
04:31It's all calm efficiency in the cockpit.
04:34Taxi checklist.
04:36Taxi checklist. Flaps and slots.
04:3915, 15, 15, slot lights out.
04:4315, 15, 15, slot lights out.
04:45Some days you sit up in the cockpit and you look out the window and you think, boy, I just can't believe anybody's paying me to do this.
04:54Taxi checklist complete.
04:56Helicopter 16719.
04:59Position report to Mather.
05:01Sounds like he's getting a massage.
05:04Once you got assigned the schedule, you'd be with the same three guys for a month.
05:08So, um, you had to be your second family.
05:12I've never been up in one of those Air Star helicopters.
05:15You know, like Cadillac of helicopters.
05:17You'd go eat dinner with them, you'd go hang out with them on layovers, so you got to be very close with who you're flying with.
05:23Emory 17, Sacramento approach. You're released for departure. Report when airborne.
05:28Emory 17 heavy. We'll call you once we're in the air.
05:31The controllers cleared the pilots to be able to take off and actually start to establish and navigate from Mather, Sacramento, to Dayton, Ohio.
05:47That particular day I was laying over in Salt Lake City.
05:50I happened to be laying on the bed and the TV was running in the background.
05:56Hey, it's me.
05:58Yeah, I just checked into the hotel.
06:10Air speed's alive.
06:12Alive here.
06:1380 knots.
06:1580 knots.
06:1780 knots.
06:20Elevator checks.
06:22Just another routine takeoff.
06:26V1.
06:31Rotate.
06:32But as the nose wheel leaves the ground, the DC-8 pitches upward much more steeply than it should.
06:43Watch the tail.
06:44They recognize that they have an issue during the course of the airplane actually starting to rotate as it lifts off the runway.
06:54V2.
06:56Positive rate.
06:58The sudden takeoff is quickly followed by an uncommanded left bank.
07:04I got it.
07:05You got it?
07:06Yeah.
07:08This is anything but routine.
07:12We're going back.
07:13What the hell?
07:15The center of gravity is way out of limits.
07:16They need to return to the airport as quickly as possible.
07:20MR-17 emergency.
07:22MR-17, say again.
07:24When a pilot declares an emergency, that really cues an air traffic controller to know that this isn't just an abnormal situation, this is a critical situation.
07:34MR-17, we have an emergency.
07:37You steer, I'm pushing.
07:39So now you have three pilots trying to work in harmony.
07:42That's good from a cockpit resource management standpoint.
07:47Hooray, hooray, pull up.
07:50The ground proximity warning begins to sound.
07:53Hooray, hooray, pull up.
07:54We're sinking.
07:55We're going down, guys.
07:56Hooray, pull up.
07:57All right, all right.
07:59Hooray.
08:01Okay, we're going back up.
08:03The DC-8 starts climbing again.
08:07Roll out, roll out.
08:09But the pilots are still struggling for control.
08:13MR-17 extreme balance problem.
08:17MR-17, roger.
08:21The airplane started to go into these big perturbations.
08:24Dive and then climb, dive and then climb.
08:27Roll out to the right.
08:32Push.
08:34Push forward.
08:35They push their control columns all the way forward in a desperate effort to level the plane.
08:43Power.
08:44More?
08:45Yeah.
08:47Left turn.
08:51Okay.
08:52What I'm trying to do is make the airplane's position match the elevator.
08:56That's why I'm putting it in a bank.
08:58So we're going to have to land it in like a turn.
09:00They were trying to return back to Mather.
09:03So it was going to be a long, sweeping traffic pattern that they were going to have to fly because they didn't have controllability of the airplane.
09:13Bring it around.
09:15Damn it!
09:17You got the airport?
09:20Mather doesn't have a lot of surrounding lights. It's considered what's called a black hole.
09:27Option. Option. Option.
09:30Bring it around. Power.
09:32Option. Option.
09:34Captain Stables and his crew have managed to get their crippled plane to within sight of the runway.
09:39Option. Option. Option. Option.
09:40It was working very well.
09:42We made it almost all the way around to the backside of the airport.
09:46They knew if they could get back to the airport, there was going to be crash fire rescue that would have been able then to help them.
09:53They've now got less than a mile to go.
09:56They're still trying to look ahead to figure out what needs to be done next.
10:01But they know that sooner or later, they've got to get on the ground.
10:03Emory Worldwide Captain John Albright relaxes in his hotel room on a layover in Salt Lake City.
10:17I had CNN on, and I was talking to my wife on the phone, and there's a lot of sirens and noise and flashing lights on the TV and kind of distracting me from talking to her.
10:30Investigators are collecting clues.
10:32And when I looked up, I saw something about Emory.
10:36A DC-8 that took off from Mather Airport immediately ran into trouble. The plane, along with its crew, went down.
10:42I said, oh my God, we've...
10:45We've lost an airplane.
10:47They now know that the DC-8 clipped a building on the salvage yard.
10:50She said, what do you mean?
10:52So I turned the TV on and said, I'm watching right now, and the plane's crashed.
10:56It's one of ours.
10:58Billowing orange flames and black smoke mark the fiery end of Flight 17.
11:02An Emory Worldwide Cray DC-8 bound for Dayton, Ohio.
11:10Emory Flight 17 has crashed into a car scrapyard one mile east of Sacramento's Mather Airport.
11:19All three crew members are dead.
11:21Our fire crews arrived, they had a large fire, and there was no chance of rescue.
11:32The next day, the site is a smoldering scar of twisted metal.
11:38It was like basically a war zone because the airplane had crashed into this auto salvage yard.
11:48The job of figuring out why this happened now falls to the National Transportation Safety Board.
11:54Hey.
11:55There were hundreds of cars out there, many of which had burned.
11:58And then, of course, the airplane just cut a swath through all of these cars.
12:04There were still smoking automobiles and car parts and airplane parts.
12:11This place is a mess.
12:13Yeah.
12:14With so much fire damage and thousands of car parts on site,
12:18just finding the airplane wreckage is going to be a huge challenge.
12:21The NTSB's John Golia helps lead the effort.
12:26Put this in the plane bin for me, please.
12:29Mechanical pieces, especially after they're burned,
12:31it's very difficult to tell a piece from an automobile to a piece from an airplane.
12:36So I looked at the scene and said,
12:38well, we got a real tiger by the tail here.
12:41You can't just get everybody out there and start rummaging through parts.
12:45You have to have a very systematic and methodical process.
12:48All right, guys, listen up.
12:51Let's build the grid. All right?
12:53Let's go.
12:55Investigators will have to sift through a debris field about 450 feet wide
13:01and a quarter of a mile long.
13:04That looks like wiring from a car.
13:08We actually had all of the investigators working through this very methodical grid process,
13:13deciphering car parts from airplane parts, making that separation,
13:18and then moving on systematically.
13:21They went down less than a mile from the airport.
13:23Whatever went wrong, went wrong right away.
13:26They're a cargo plane.
13:28Maybe it was a load problem.
13:30Make sure we get those load sheets sent to the office.
13:32I want to take a look at those, all right?
13:34I want to take a look at those.
13:35I want to take a look at those.
13:36I want to take a look at those.
13:40The team soon makes a crucial find.
13:43The most important items of evidence in any air crash investigation.
13:47Well done, guys.
13:49We did find both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder,
13:52which actually sped up that part of the investigation
13:55because we could send those two boxes back on the airplane that we had flown in on.
14:00The description that was given to me regarding the two boxes
14:04were that they had sustained some fire damage, but they were in relatively good shape.
14:09The NTSB sends the critical recording devices to Washington,
14:13where lab technicians can begin the job of processing the data.
14:16At the same time, investigators hunt down as much other evidence as they can.
14:25Morning.
14:27Just spoke with the air traffic controller.
14:29It said that the pilots called in a center or gravity issue immediately after takeoff.
14:3617 extreme balance problem.
14:40Sounds like a problem with the cargo.
14:43Well, could be.
14:44Because the initial report was that there was a possible center or gravity issue,
14:48we had to confirm what was on the airplane.
14:50All right, so there's supposed to be 18 positions, right?
14:53One container for each pallet.
14:55We had to get the load manifest.
14:56We had to understand what was in the pallets, how many pallets were loaded,
15:00how many containers were on the aircraft, and what was in those containers.
15:04And then you got that load sheet.
15:06They learned that Flight 17 was carrying nothing unusual, mostly clothing.
15:11But they wonder, did the positioning of the freight cause a dangerous imbalance?
15:17If you look at an airplane, there is a point in the middle of the airplane that is the center,
15:24and everything flows around it.
15:26So if you have too much weight in the back, the center of gravity is going to shift to the rear,
15:31and the airplane is going to fly differently.
15:32All right, this looks a little lighter than usual, but it's well within the center of gravity limits.
15:38Load distribution was not the culprit.
15:41Something else must have caused the crash.
15:44The team is soon chasing a new lead.
15:50Past complaints to the FAA from Emory pilots.
15:54It seems some pilots were worried about how the company was securing its cargo.
16:00They reported seeing frayed straps and netting.
16:02You know, if Emory was lax with their loading practices, the load could have shifted.
16:09We had to talk to the folks that actually did the loading.
16:12What was the position of the pallets and the containers?
16:14How did you load them? How did you secure them?
16:17What if the cargo wasn't properly secured?
16:23To understand just how secure the cargo was on Flight 17, investigators head to California.
16:29I decided I would take a trip out to Sacramento and to see who was loading, how they were loading.
16:38The NTSB's John Golia tracks down the freight handlers who worked on Emory Flight 17.
16:47I actually had a company that loaded and unloaded airplanes, including Emory's airplanes.
16:53So I was very familiar with the loading process.
16:55Gentlemen.
16:58Hi, how are I? I'm with the NTSB. Mind if I ask you a few questions?
17:02At first they were standoffish and then as the conversation went on,
17:06and naturally I mentioned that I used to work for them and I did the job that they were doing.
17:10So then it opened up.
17:12Just like I told you, it was routine.
17:14Nothing we haven't done a thousand times before.
17:17Any chance any of the cans were misloaded?
17:20No. We did everything by the book.
17:21Any problems with any of the equipment? Like maybe a bear claw that you had trouble locking up or something?
17:27We wouldn't load anything if we felt it was unsafe.
17:32Gotcha. Okay. Well listen, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
17:35And they were very vehemently opposed to a load shift. They said they couldn't possibly have a load shift.
17:45Despite the assurances from the load team, investigators need hard evidence that the cargo was secure.
17:51The NTSB goes by facts, right? So even though we have a thought, you have to prove the thought.
17:58They examine cargo fasteners recovered from the wreckage.
18:02If there was a load shift, the metal clamps, known as bear claws, should display distinct damage.
18:09Look at these things.
18:11When we're looking at these bear claws, we're looking for physical evidence.
18:14That is, if the pallet was clamped in place and the energy from the impact pushed it, it would typically break it or leave a witness mark or impact mark.
18:23They find no such evidence.
18:27All of these restraints look just fine.
18:30The thing is, if there wasn't a problem in the cargo hold, why were the pilots reporting a problem with their center of gravity?
18:42Is that the CVR? Oh, finally. All right, let's do this.
18:47They hope the cockpit voice recorder from Emory Flight 17 will provide some answers.
18:52There you go, John.
18:56The NTSB asks Emory Worldwide Captain John Albright to listen in.
19:02You want somebody that knows the pilots.
19:04I was the only one out there that was able to say, this is Kevin or this is George. I know the voices.
19:10You ready?
19:12Okay.
19:14They told me that one of the things I had to be concerned about is that a very high percentage of people that go out and listen to the CVR
19:21within two years, quit flying.
19:24When you hear the voice recorder on flights where the crew has perished, it can be quite painful and be emotional.
19:32Because you know that the person you're hearing is no longer with us.
19:36Uh, 15, 15, 15, slot lights out.
19:4215, 15, 15, slot lights out.
19:46That's Kevin, uh, Captain Stables.
19:48Okay.
19:50Then George Land, the FO.
19:52Set right.
19:53Taxi checklist complete.
19:55Taxi checklist complete.
19:56When you listen to it, of course, they're very professional.
19:59They're doing their checklist items.
20:02They respond appropriately.
20:04And everything appears to be normal.
20:07Helicopter 16719, position report to Mather.
20:11Sounds like he's getting a massage.
20:14Airspeed's alive.
20:17Alive here.
20:2180 knots.
20:2380 knots.
20:25Elevator checks.
20:26So at 80 knots, they'd do their, uh, elevator check.
20:29You'd push the control column full forward to verify that the elevator is in fact moving.
20:34V1.
20:35They'd call V1.
20:38And as they got close to VR, the airplane rotated all on its own.
20:43Rotate.
20:46Watch the tail.
20:49The captain sounds concerned that they're pitching up too quickly.
20:54When something like that happens, you run through it in your mind as fast as you can.
20:59What's going on?
21:01We're going back.
21:03The hell?
21:04The center of gravity is way out of limits.
21:06So immediately he ran through the scenarios in his head and came up with this is probably load shift.
21:15But the investigation hasn't found any evidence of a load shift.
21:19They keep listening for any sign of what else might have caused the sudden upward pitch.
21:26Power.
21:28Yeah.
21:29Left turn.
21:31Okay.
21:33What I'm trying to do is make the airplane's position mesh in the elevator.
21:37That's why I'm putting it in a bank.
21:38Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
21:40What did he just say about the elevators?
21:41The elevators are part of the tail and control the aircraft's pitch.
21:48When tilted upward, the force of the deflected air pitches the plane's nose up.
21:55When the elevators move downward, they cause the nose to pitch down.
22:00Okay.
22:02What I'm trying to do is make the airplane's position match the elevator.
22:07That's why I'm putting it in a bank.
22:10Investigators now wonder if there was a problem with the elevator.
22:15Your elevator isn't where you think it is.
22:18An airplane can take off by itself.
22:22You got the airport?
22:24Too low.
22:25Terrain.
22:26Bring it around.
22:28Power.
22:29It seems the pilots were trying to control the plane by dipping the left wing to bring the nose down.
22:39I think the crew did a remarkable job of working together.
22:44And this technique that they were doing, trying to control their pitch with roll, that was very, very advanced.
22:51They did a very good job with it.
22:53A set of cards that they were dealt, but their hand was not a winnable hand.
22:57Airspeed.
22:59Come on.
23:00Come on.
23:01Come on.
23:02Pull up.
23:03Pull up.
23:04Airspeed.
23:05Pull up.
23:06Pull up.
23:08Pull up.
23:14You start listening to that thing early in the morning, a couple seconds at a time.
23:19So you listen to your buddies die for three days straight, ten seconds at a time.
23:24They did everything that they could.
23:25Right?
23:26Something doomed them right from the start.
23:31Hey, uh, John.
23:32I still hear it.
23:34You know, you just don't.
23:36It doesn't stop.
23:38Okay.
23:39Take care of yourself.
23:40The cockpit recording has focused investigators' attention on the DC-8's elevators, but their job is far from done.
23:51It will take more digging and more hard evidence to understand what caused Flight 17 to crash.
23:58Performance data from Emory Worldwide Flight 17 is now in investigators' hands.
24:10For the first time, they can see exactly how the plane was moving during its short, erratic flight.
24:17Okay, everything's up.
24:18They hope the data will also hold clues that will explain why the flight went so horribly wrong.
24:23All right, let's see what the data says about the load shift.
24:28The critical part of a flight data recorder is that it gives us performance of the airplane.
24:34We can find out, is that characteristic of a cargo shift when the airplane pitches up like that?
24:40You know what, let's put up the data from the flight that crashed because of the load problem.
24:44It's a fine-air 101.
24:46The investigators know that just three years earlier, in Miami, a fine-air DC-8 crashed on takeoff when its cargo load suddenly shifted.
24:55Five people died in the disaster.
24:57One of the things that the performance engineers will look at is they'll compare it and contrast it to previous flights.
25:06All right, let's take a look at them side by side.
25:14And the rotation rates, please.
25:20Rotations are totally different.
25:22Definitely not a cargo shift.
25:23What about the elevators?
25:36Look at that. Look at that right there.
25:38First officer, he pushed the column forward and the elevators did not respond. Look at that. Boom!
25:45The data clearly shows that there was something wrong with the right elevator.
25:49The big thing, of course, is the FDR shows the elevator nose up and he's pushing.
25:59Push!
26:01Obviously, then the pilot can't fly if the elevator is not doing what he wants it to do.
26:06That became the crutch of the matter.
26:08Push forward!
26:10Why was that elevator nose up when the pilot was commanding nose down?
26:15Let's take a look at that wreckage.
26:18And everything, everything to do with those elevators.
26:24We went through the storage facility where we had collected everything that we could and we dug through there looking for any pieces whatsoever of the flight controls, the elevators in particular.
26:41The elevator wasn't hydraulically powered. It had control tabs on it to move the elevator. Everything was analog of cables and pulleys.
26:53They closely examined the recovered elevator assembly, looking for signs of failure.
26:59So these are the push rods from the elevator assembly.
27:02The push rods are a key part of the elevator mechanism. They move a crank that in turn moves a control tab that makes the elevator swing up or down.
27:15Investigators know there are two push rods, one to control the right elevator and one for the left.
27:21The left control rod was broken. Why isn't the right one damaged like the left?
27:28When we looked at the right control rod, we didn't see the same kind of damage. We didn't see what we would have expected if it had been properly secured in the linkage.
27:39And in fact, all it was, it was relatively intact.
27:44Have we got the crank tab fitting to this one somewhere?
27:47They hunt down the part that the push rod was supposed to be attached to.
27:52Once again, the kind of damage they see is not what would occur in a catastrophic crash.
27:58It looked like they were hitting each other or had an interference rub against each other, but that was not what we would have expected to see if they had actually been linked together in their proper position.
28:13We didn't see the typical overload type damage.
28:16It all leads to a disturbing conclusion.
28:18This right push rod wasn't even connected.
28:22It was clear that one of them had been disconnected.
28:25There was physical damage shown. On the one side it was still fully connected. On the other side it wasn't the case.
28:33It's a major discovery. An important flight control mechanism somehow became disconnected before the DC-8 hit the ground.
28:41The big question now, is that what caused the crash?
28:45Can a disconnected push rod really have brought down this plane?
28:50Metal doesn't lie.
28:52So we've got physical marks on there. Now we can actually do some analysis and try to determine what those bang marks were caused by.
29:04The NTSB is ready for some real-world testing.
29:07A DC-8 just like the one flown by the Emory pilots is the test subject.
29:12All right, let's do this.
29:13Investigators want to study how the plane's elevator assembly moves.
29:19All right, hand me the ratchet please.
29:22And see what happens when a push rod is disconnected.
29:26So this is the rod in question and this is the bell crank right here.
29:31And you can see this little slot inside the bell crank and this is where this would fit into.
29:37All right, let's see what happens when we move the elevator.
29:42Go ahead, move the elevator.
29:46So as this rod moves and this rod is connected to the control column in the cockpit, as it moves up and down, it pulls on this bell crank which is attached to the elevator and causes it to move in the proper direction that the pilot wants it to move in.
30:01All right, cut it, I'm going to disconnect it now.
30:02It would be attached with a nut and a bolt.
30:17And the nut is what they call castellated, so it looks like a castle.
30:23And inside those castellations, you would put a cotter pin that would lock it in place.
30:30With the right side rod assembly disconnected, they call for the elevator to be moved again.
30:37Okay, now try it.
30:42It seems that disconnecting the push rod neutralizes the elevator, but it does not jam it in the nose up position.
30:51All right, you can stop.
30:56There's nothing here.
30:58It's looking like their experiment has failed to reveal any answers.
31:03Let me try one more thing.
31:07Then, in a final effort, they attempt to simulate the kind of vibration experienced during an actual takeoff.
31:1380 knots.
31:1880 knots.
31:20The air forces on that elevator are rather severe, so it's not wiggling around like I show it here.
31:27It's banging.
31:28It's showing some real force.
31:30With the extra force, they discover that the push rod can jam the elevator in the nose up position.
31:36This rod is jammed in, even though the elevator is trying to move, and the crew is trying to move it.
31:44Push!
31:46It's not going to go anywhere because it's jammed in place.
31:49No matter what you did with the flight controls, that interference fit would always be there, and it would jam the flight control.
31:54So that was more of a eureka moment.
32:05Without the cotter pin on the bolt, the push rod can jam.
32:11That gave us a good indicator of why this airplane was commanding nose up all the time.
32:17It's the breakthrough investigators have been hoping for.
32:23Evidence that a disconnected push rod assembly jammed the right elevator on Emory Worldwide Flight 17,
32:31making the plane practically impossible to fly.
32:35But they still don't know why the assembly came apart.
32:39We had to determine, really, what caused that separation of that control rod.
32:44We know it was a bolt, a nut, and a cotter key.
32:47The question is, did it fail?
32:49Was it properly installed?
32:50And who was responsible for it?
32:53Investigators scan maintenance reports, checking to see if any work had been done on the right elevator assembly recently.
33:01So it looked like the plane was in for a major overhaul just three months before the accident.
33:04The elevators, the control tabs, the rudder, and its tab, all of that had been removed for overhaul and then reinstalled during this very inclusive and invasive check.
33:17Have you got that work card?
33:19The work was carried out by Tennessee Technical Services, TTS, in Smyrna, Tennessee.
33:26The question is, did the maintenance folks actually follow the proper procedure and then inspect it as it was supposed to be inspected?
33:38It looks like everything was done properly.
33:40The paperwork from Tennessee is all in order.
33:49It seems the DC-8 was perfectly fit to fly after the major overhaul.
33:54All right, so is there any other work done on this aircraft?
34:01One of the things that you always look at is what was the last thing touched on the airplane.
34:06Oh, well, well, well, look at this.
34:09TTS wasn't the only place to do maintenance on this plane.
34:15Well, after it left the facility in Tennessee, there was one other piece of maintenance on the tail of this airplane.
34:21And it was done over the weekend in Dayton, which is where many of the airplanes spend the weekend for Emory.
34:29Twelve weeks before the fatal flight, Emory mechanics swapped the aircraft's elevator dampers, parts located near the control rod.
34:39It could be an important new lead.
34:42I think it's about time we go pay a visit to Emory's mechanics.
34:48Agree?
34:49Oh, great.
34:51So, can you show me how you go about swapping the dampers on this DC-8?
34:52Hmm?
34:53Reach over here.
34:54In Dayton, they talk to the last mechanic to have worked on the plane's tail.
34:55Detach it from the elevator.
34:57One of the things that the mechanics are always looking for is an easier way to perform the plane's tail.
34:59Can you show me how you go about swapping the dampers on this DCA?
35:03Reach over here.
35:05In Dayton, they talk to the last mechanic to have worked on the plane's tail.
35:10Detach it from the elevator.
35:12One of the things that mechanics are always looking for
35:15is an easier way to perform their responsible duties.
35:21That looks tricky.
35:23You ever just disconnect the elevators to get it out of your way?
35:26Well, we're really not supposed to.
35:29All right, I know.
35:31Is it hard to do?
35:36An easy way to do it is to relieve the control tab
35:40by removing the bolt, the nut, and the cotter key
35:43and allowing the elevator tab to flex down.
35:50That makes getting into this damper easier and quicker to replace.
35:55Well, that was easy.
36:00You ever do it that way on an actual job?
36:04Like I said, we're really not supposed to.
36:08Right.
36:08It says that you were the one who did the actual work.
36:17Was there anyone here to help you?
36:19One of the things that came through loud and clear was how thin they were with labor,
36:26how thin they were with management of their workforce.
36:29You ever done this procedure before?
36:31Well, I followed the manual.
36:34And now if you take that and look at a young mechanic, relatively inexperienced, working alone
36:42on the weekend, doing something that he had never done before, nobody to ask for advice
36:47and nobody to provide him guidance or supervision.
36:49So, he was between a rock and a hot place.
36:53One more question.
36:55Since they gave this plane a complete overhaul, why did you bother swapping the dampers?
37:01The guys in Tennessee put them on the wrong way.
37:10Okay.
37:10Well, thanks very much for your time.
37:13I appreciate it.
37:15A mishandled overhaul in Tennessee and a disturbing lack of supervision at Emery's maintenance facility
37:22lead investigators to wonder, does the airline have a systemic problem with aircraft maintenance?
37:34Investigators dig deeper into Emery's maintenance practices, eager to learn if they played any
37:40role in the crash of Flight 17.
37:44We were the best of the worst, which is what the saying was.
37:47We weren't FedEx, we weren't UPS, we weren't airborne.
37:52But there was a whole other sub-tier of freight hauler.
37:57They discover that the once-respected airline's maintenance program was causing serious concern among its pilots.
38:06I mean, look at this.
38:07We have improper repairs.
38:08We have mechanical irregularities.
38:11We have pilots that are reporting the same problems on the same planes over and over and over again.
38:18Emery had had a sordid history with regard to the maintenance of their aircraft and their maintenance practices.
38:25It's unbelievable.
38:28Unbelievable.
38:29We were extremely concerned that we were going to have an accident, to the point so we wound up writing letters.
38:38Here are the things that are happening.
38:39If we don't do something, people will die.
38:43As I went down this pathway and starting to see all this, it really bothered me.
38:48Because it wasn't the Emery that I know.
38:51When you have hands-off management style, you're going to have problems.
38:55And that's exactly what we saw at Emery.
38:59It's pretty clear what happened.
39:00After months of detective work, NTSB investigators finally believe they understand what caused the crash of Emery Worldwide Flight 17.
39:13They know that in the weeks leading up to the accident, two different teams of mechanics worked on the plane's tail.
39:23The NTSB can't be 100% sure where the error occurred.
39:29The routine maintenance in Tennessee or the damper swap at Emery.
39:33I believe that when this work was done on the damper the second time, he simply put the rod up, put the nut on it, did some other work, closing up, and forgot to put the car to pin in the nut.
39:54Investigators believe that the DC-8 flew for some time without incident, despite the loose nut.
40:00So now over the next few weeks, the nut comes loose because there's nothing holding it on, essentially.
40:06And now the bolt starts to work loose.
40:13Yeah, there it is.
40:15Boom.
40:16A slight bump on the FDR data indicates that the bolt likely came out eight minutes before the plane's last landing in Sacramento.
40:25The crew would have had no idea what was going on in the tail of their plane.
40:34And because the disconnected pushrod didn't jam the elevator controls,
40:39the captain was able to land safely.
40:48The subsequent takeoff is a very different story.
40:52Air speed's alive.
40:54Alive here.
40:5780 knots.
40:5980 knots.
41:02As the plane accelerates down the runway, air speed increases, pushing the elevator control tab up,
41:10forcing the crank fitting against the pushrod,
41:13and jamming the elevator in a nose-up position.
41:20Watch the tail.
41:22The plane instantly pitches up, even as the first officer pushes down on the yoke.
41:31You got the airport?
41:36Bring it around.
41:40Power.
41:41Pull up.
41:43The crew works valiantly to try and get back to the runway,
41:47but their fate is sealed.
41:50Power.
41:50Take it.
41:51Take it.
41:51Take it.
41:52Come on.
41:55Come on.
41:57Come on.
42:01Come on.
42:10Nobody's out there to intentionally do something that would cause harm to anybody else,
42:16but sometimes we get a little bit of lackadaisical attitude or complacent.
42:22We get distracted, and those little things end up resulting in a big tragedy.
42:28On behalf of all the employees of Emory Worldwide Airlines, we want to express our sympathies to the families of the victims of this tragedy.
42:38In their final report, investigators recommend that air carriers explicitly highlight all maintenance procedures to help ensure that no steps are missed.
42:51Emory Worldwide is also singled out for responsibility.
42:56Emory said, well, this is the first fatal accident we had in 50 years, basically, at that time.
43:01Well, that's great, but three pilots lost their lives because of a bolt, a nut, and a cotter key.
43:09Before the report is published, however, the air carrier goes out of business.
43:13At the end of the day, when it was all said and done, the FAA moved in and pulled the certificate and grounded the airline.
43:24To this day, John Golier has kept a poignant reminder of the tragedy.
43:29I kept this because I use this to teach other mechanics.
43:34I spend a great deal of my time sharing these experiences so that they don't have to repeat and feel the pain that I have felt observing maintenance accidents.
43:48The airline had a horrible attitude towards safety.
43:53If you want to be safe, you've got to make an effort.
43:55You have to try to be safe, and you have to work at it.
43:59You have to try to be safe.