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  • 6/8/2025

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00:00I can't get power on the engines.
00:04A Boeing 777.
00:05Mayday, mayday, speed burn, speed burn.
00:08Crash lands at London's Heathrow Airport.
00:11Just a huge bang.
00:14Bits falling off the ceiling.
00:17A commercial jet plunges into the Florida Everglades.
00:23You could smell the jet fuel.
00:26You could smell death.
00:30And a devastating crash shatters a Scottish village.
00:34Scattered all around were bits of debris, human tissue as well.
00:39Three horrifying disasters capture the world's attention.
00:43It's a question of what evidence you find and which direction to take the investigation.
00:48Each one a complete mystery that has investigators stumped.
00:52My first thought is, how am I going to pull this off?
00:55Can they find the clues they need to solve these puzzling cases?
01:00Some of these events, we can figure them out within a day or two.
01:05But others take years.
01:06B-Day, B-Day.
01:09Okay.
01:16B-Day, B-Day.
01:29Hi there, good afternoon.
01:35Good afternoon.
01:36Oh, that's right there.
01:40Value Jet Flight 592 is a short one-and-a-half-hour trip from Miami to Atlanta, Georgia.
01:50Let me help you with that.
01:53In command is 35-year-old Candeline Kubek.
01:56She's an experienced pilot with nearly 9,000 flight hours.
02:01Okay.
02:03The first officer is a former Air Force pilot, 52-year-old Richard Hazen.
02:11Clear to start?
02:13Received.
02:15Today's flight is loaded with almost 2,000 kilograms of cargo,
02:20which includes passenger luggage, Value Jet Company material, and U.S. mail.
02:26After the crew signs off on the cargo, the flight is ready for departure.
02:33Here we go.
02:35Critter 592, taxi to runway 9 or left.
02:39At 9 left, Critter 592.
02:42They're piloting a DC-9 with more than 68,000 hours of flight time.
02:47Critter 592, runway 9 left, cleared for takeoff.
02:51Get off.
02:56Power is set.
03:00Rotate.
03:07Gear up.
03:09Takeoff from Miami Airport is normal.
03:11The sky was relatively benign that day,
03:20and they were just looking forward to getting home.
03:26Today's route takes flight 592 northwest over the Florida Everglades
03:31and then straight up to Atlanta, Georgia.
03:33Who was that?
03:42I don't know.
03:44We've got some electrical problem.
03:46We're losing everything.
03:49It's just six minutes after takeoff.
03:51Suddenly, the DC-9 is in trouble.
03:55The crew faces a barrage of failures.
03:58We need to go back to Miami.
03:59Flames are burning through the cabin floor.
04:14Smoke in the cabin.
04:16Passengers are in a desperate fight for survival,
04:19but there's no escaping the flames.
04:22This is heavy, poisonous smoke.
04:24People are breathing it in.
04:29Completely on fire.
04:37The jet plummets towards the ground at over 400 miles per hour.
04:41Flight 592 has crashed into one of the most inhospitable spots on Earth,
05:02the Florida Everglades.
05:04A large jet aircraft has just crashed out here.
05:07Large, like airliner-style.
05:09Need to get your choppers in the air.
05:15All 110 people aboard the flight are dead.
05:20National Transportation Safety Board investigators face one of the most hazardous accident scenes
05:25they've ever encountered.
05:27A swampland.
05:32The wreckage was in the hostile environment.
05:36It wasn't clear at that point how much we'd be able to learn from the wreckage or be able to recover.
05:42Leading the team is veteran investigator Greg Fyfe.
05:46All right, let's get to work.
05:48My first thought is, how am I going to pull this off?
05:51We've drawn up a grid.
05:52We're going to scour this swamp quadrant by quadrant.
05:56What's left of the aircraft has sunk into the vast swamp.
05:59There was no evidence of the airplane.
06:07There was just debris.
06:08Very little present.
06:09No evidence of passengers.
06:12Recovery teams continue to battle the hostile environment,
06:16looking for any clues they can find.
06:19You're trudging through in your waders,
06:22and you're stepping on stuff you have to bend down,
06:27and you have to pick it up and see what it is.
06:29There were times where, you know, you think you're picking up a wire bundle.
06:33You're picking up the back end of a snake.
06:41While Fyfe's rescue team scours the dense grasses of the swampland,
06:46investigators turn their attention to the only lead they have.
06:50Roger, 40-592.
06:52What kind of problem are you having?
06:53The pilots reported smoke in the cabin.
06:56Smoke in the cabin.
06:56They dig through Flight 592's records,
07:00looking for clues as to what might have caused it.
07:06They learn that the flight was delayed earlier in the day
07:09due to minor electrical problems.
07:11It raises concerns that an electrical fire brought down the plane.
07:15We were looking at any explanation.
07:18There could have been a fault in the wiring or a short circuit,
07:21and we realized it's going to be a very difficult investigation.
07:25With this new lead,
07:27NTSB fire investigator Merritt Berkey studies clumps of tangled wiring pulled from the swamp
07:33to determine whether a short circuit could have caused the in-flight fire.
07:37When faulty wiring sparks a fire,
07:42electrical arcing causes the wires to burn and melt.
07:46When we recovered more of the electrical harness on the plane,
07:49we saw some damage there,
07:51but it wasn't evidence of electrical arcing on the wire.
07:57Careful examination rules out faulty wiring as a potential cause of the fire.
08:02Investigators are still without answers.
08:09All they have to go on are random pieces of wreckage
08:12they've been able to find in the swampland.
08:19So we had parts coming in that were damaged,
08:22almost all limited to the cargo compartment.
08:25We had melted structure components
08:28that were in the overhead of the cargo compartment,
08:31which made up the floor of the passenger compartment.
08:38As Merritt Berkey hunts for evidence of what started the fire,
08:42he makes a chance discovery.
08:44It's stainless steel.
08:47You don't normally see burned stainless steel in in-flight fire.
08:52Planes are made of lightweight material like aluminium and titanium,
08:56not stainless steel.
08:57Investigators conclude that if the stainless steel wasn't from the plane,
09:04then it must be from the cargo.
09:07The operations group more and more became concerned
09:10about the cargo that was loaded on the airplane
09:13and what possible significance it could have to the accident.
09:16They pulled the cargo documentation for flight 592
09:21and discovered that the plane was transporting three tires
09:25and five cardboard boxes
09:27containing 144 empty stainless steel oxygen generators.
09:34Oxygen generators are small devices
09:36installed above the passenger seats of certain airplanes.
09:39They're connected to oxygen masks that drop down
09:42in the event of cabin depressurization.
09:45When deployed, several chemicals combine to create oxygen.
09:51The chemical reaction generates a lot of heat.
09:54The canisters can reach 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
09:57These things get pretty hot, Greg.
10:03Really hot.
10:06An oxygen generator that is not mounted in its proper position
10:10in a heat sink cradle in the passenger service unit
10:13is lethal because if it's anywhere near a combustible material,
10:18you're going to have a fire.
10:19Regulations require that all oxygen generators removed from an aircraft
10:26be deactivated and emptied of volatile chemicals before transporting.
10:31We have five boxes of these, there are 144 of them,
10:35thrown in a box, carried as cargo.
10:38They're supposedly empty.
10:41What danger is there carrying them as cargo?
10:45There's no question.
10:47They're clearly listed as empty.
10:49Investigators wonder whether the oxygen generators
10:52were improperly dismantled before shipping.
10:55Did they have a potential for creating a fire or a fire situation
11:00that could have jeopardized the safety of this aircraft?
11:08Recovery teams in the field catch a lucky break
11:11and recover a batch of oxygen generators at the bottom of the Everglades.
11:16The discovery confirms their hunch.
11:19While some of them are empty...
11:22This one's never even been triggered.
11:24...many others are full.
11:27The oxygen generators that we had found had been damaged.
11:31Some were completely flattened.
11:33Some of them were charred and crushed.
11:35Some of them still had the material in them,
11:37but the case had been dented and damaged.
11:40It now seems that the highly volatile chemicals were shipped on board Valujet 592.
11:49Had the pilots known what was actually on board,
11:52it's unlikely they would have signed off on the manifest.
11:56Here you go.
11:56But to prove their theory,
11:59investigators need to find out how the canisters got on the flight
12:02and how they might have ignited.
12:05Hazardous materials specialist Jim Henderson joins the investigative team
12:16to figure out how highly volatile oxygen generators
12:20were shipped on Valujet Flight 592 as cargo.
12:23He tracks down shipping papers and uncovers a shocking mistake.
12:30The shipping clerk mislabeled the generators as empty
12:33when in fact they were merely past their expiration date.
12:38Did someone actually think that expired meant empty?
12:40This was a big problem because these oxygen generators weren't empty.
12:46They had expired,
12:47but expiration just meant that they had exceeded their shelf life.
12:52They were still capable of generating oxygen.
12:56They hadn't been properly safed.
12:58They hadn't been properly packaged.
13:00So we were really concerned that this might be
13:03either what caused the accident
13:06or what made the fire worse.
13:10Investigators conclude that airport workers
13:14loaded potentially flammable cargo onto Valujet 592
13:18because of an error in shipping papers.
13:21But the mistake still doesn't explain
13:24how the fire spread to the rest of the plane.
13:29The DC-9's cargo hold is airtight.
13:33It's specifically designed to contain a fire.
13:36But if oxygen generators were creating their own oxygen,
13:39could the cargo hold still contain the fire?
13:42We knew about the oxygen generators.
13:45We knew the potential they had for being a fire source,
13:47but we didn't really know their real potential
13:50for bringing down an aircraft.
13:53At a Federal Aviation Administration fire test facility...
13:57Okay, let's do this.
13:59Investigators hope to recreate the fire that consumed Flight 592.
14:03We put five boxes of oxygen generators,
14:07put them on top of a tire,
14:10and put some luggage around them.
14:13One minute to ignition.
14:15We had to trigger one of the oxygen generators manually.
14:21Investigators activate one of the generators
14:23to simulate a canister being jostled in the cargo hold
14:26during take-off.
14:27It made an unbelievable noise.
14:35It sounded, it was a high-pitched scream.
14:37We all looked at each other, we were kind of startled.
14:39I mean, the sound was deafening.
14:41Ten minutes after ignition,
14:54the ceiling of the test cargo container
14:56reaches 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
15:01Lord Almighty.
15:02We had a raging fire,
15:04and none of us had expected a fire
15:06to be that big and that hot.
15:09And it was just amazing to see
15:11how destructive
15:12something this long
15:15and that big around could be.
15:19The experiment supports the NTSB theory.
15:24Improperly dismantled and mislabeled oxygen generators
15:27caused the crash of ValueJet 592.
15:31Even in an airtight cargo hold,
15:34the fire would have burned fiercely enough
15:36to bring down the DC-9.
15:39It only took 3 minutes and 42 seconds
15:43for the fire to bring down the plane.
15:50There was no chance of getting the plane to ground safely.
15:53In the wake of the accident,
16:10the Federal Aviation Administration
16:12grounds ValueJet indefinitely.
16:15The airline is eventually sold.
16:16The NTSB recommends better training
16:20for employees who handle oxygen generators.
16:25It's the stubborn and unrelenting efforts
16:27of investigators
16:28that solves the case of ValueJet 592.
16:33Kind of a Sherlock Holmes type thing.
16:35There's a process of elimination
16:37to winnow things down to a cause.
16:48British Airways Flight 38
16:50is nearing the end of a ten and a half hour journey
16:53from Beijing to London's Heathrow Airport.
16:56Captain Peter Burkhill has made this trip many times before.
17:01I was operating that route a lot.
17:04It was one of my favourite flights
17:05because it was daylight.
17:07You could see the views
17:08the whole way along the route.
17:11Burkhill and First Officer John Coward
17:13both have thousands of hours
17:15flying the 777 under their belts.
17:17It's a joy to fly.
17:19She handles really well.
17:20She's got modern equipment.
17:22The computers are easy to use.
17:25Powered by two massive Rolls-Royce engines,
17:28the Boeing 777
17:29is one of the safest planes in the industry.
17:35The autopilot is in control
17:37as the crew lines up with the runway.
17:39At 1,000 feet above the ground,
17:42the plane is buffeted by some high winds.
17:45Just a little turbulence.
17:48It's the first wrinkle
17:49in an otherwise smooth journey.
17:54Two minutes before landing,
17:56Coward takes over flying the plane.
17:58You have control?
17:59I have control.
18:00Speedbird 38.
18:01Prepare to land. 27 left.
18:03Clear to land. 27 left.
18:04Speedbird 38.
18:06But suddenly,
18:08there's a problem.
18:11I can't get power on the engines.
18:15It's not giving me power.
18:17What's going on?
18:18What do you mean?
18:19I was looking at the engine instruments
18:22and they didn't make sense to me
18:25because we were asking for full power,
18:27but the engine instruments
18:28were not giving us any power at all.
18:31Less than three miles from the runway,
18:34What's coming on?
18:35What?
18:35Flight 38 is crippled
18:37in the worst way imaginable.
18:38It looks like we have double engine failure.
18:41The plane is falling
18:42towards southwest London.
18:43This can't be happening.
18:44This is one of the most modern jets
18:47in the world.
18:48Mayday.
18:49Mayday.
18:50Speedbird.
18:51Speedbird.
18:54The pilots of a Boeing 777
18:56need to find a way
18:58from keeping the plane
18:58from crash landing
18:59in a London suburb,
19:01potentially killing scores of people.
19:03Both engines aboard British Airways
19:08Flight 38 have failed.
19:10Airspeed low.
19:13There isn't enough power
19:15to make it to the runway
19:16at Heathrow Airport.
19:17I knew I had about 15 seconds
19:27to make a huge decision.
19:29I needed to get past those buildings.
19:34I needed to raise the flaps.
19:38Retracting the flaps
19:39will reduce drag,
19:40but also lift.
19:42The plane will fly further,
19:44but drop faster onto the grass
19:45in front of the runway.
19:47It's a dangerous move,
19:49but it's Captain Burkill's
19:51best option for saving lives.
20:04It was hard, very hard.
20:07I remember the couple of impacts
20:09and the noise.
20:13Good God.
20:14The landing was hard.
20:18Just a huge bang.
20:21The noise, bits falling off the ceiling.
20:28Rescuers rush to the scene.
20:30Miraculously,
20:31there isn't a single casualty.
20:35Still, the crash of Flight 38
20:37is the most serious accident
20:38at Heathrow in 30 years.
20:40More significantly,
20:42the 777
20:44is one of the world's
20:45most modern and reliable jets.
20:48The accident
20:49unsettles the airline industry.
20:51The 777 is as safe
20:55as an aeroplane can be.
20:56It had such a superb safety record.
21:01What on earth happened?
21:03You don't like not knowing
21:04whether it might happen
21:05to the rest of your fleet.
21:07Investigators quickly arrive on the scene.
21:10Phil Sleight is the lead engineer
21:12for Britain's AAIB,
21:14the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
21:16When you first approach
21:18an accident site like this,
21:20the first thought you've got is,
21:22where do I start?
21:23Just hours after the crash,
21:25investigators interview the crew.
21:28Captain Peter Burkill
21:29has a first-hand account
21:30of what happened.
21:32We tried to give them
21:33more power manually,
21:34but there was nothing.
21:37Burkill explains
21:38that something had caused
21:39both of the jets'
21:40Rolls-Royce engines
21:41to roll back at the same time,
21:44robbing the aircraft of power.
21:45When you hear something
21:48of a double-engine failure,
21:49you start looking at
21:50what's common.
21:52What could cause both engines
21:54to fail at the same time?
21:56So our first thoughts were
21:58that it may have run out of fuel.
22:00At the crash site,
22:02investigators look at
22:03the aircraft's fuel levels.
22:05They confirm that two of the tanks
22:07did in fact have fuel.
22:09The power loss on Flight 38
22:12must have been caused
22:13by something else.
22:14An explanation should be
22:16simple to find,
22:17since every piece of evidence
22:18investigators could ever want
22:20is readily available.
22:23We were quite fortunate
22:24to have the amount of data
22:26that we had on this aircraft.
22:27Because the aircraft
22:28remained intact,
22:30we were able to get
22:30lots of data from the recorders
22:32and also computers.
22:34The 777's advanced computers
22:37handle most of the flight's systems.
22:39A massive failure of those systems
22:42could explain why the engines
22:43stopped working.
22:48After reviewing the flight recorders,
22:50investigators rule out
22:51computer failure
22:52as a factor in the crash.
22:54But that's not all
22:55the recorders tell them.
22:59The two most significant parameters
23:00from the Quick X recorder
23:02were the fuel metering valves.
23:03Both those valves indicated
23:05that they had opened
23:06to their fully open position.
23:08The plane's computers
23:09were working
23:10and the fuel valves
23:11were open.
23:13So why wasn't the fuel
23:14reaching the engine?
23:16Investigators are stumped.
23:17They had the pilots,
23:21they had the passengers,
23:22they had the aircraft,
23:23they had everything there.
23:25Except the thing that caused it.
23:27That had disappeared.
23:29As if by magic.
23:32Unable to explain
23:33why British Airways Flight 38
23:35crash-landed at Heathrow,
23:37investigators now turn away
23:39from the clues they have
23:40to those they don't.
23:42Phil started coming out
23:43of a mantra,
23:44which was a quote
23:45from Sherlock Holmes.
23:46Whatever is left,
23:47however improbable,
23:49must be the cause.
23:52Has to be.
23:53In this case,
23:54we always kept coming back
23:56to what's there,
23:57what could have been there
23:58that's not there now.
24:00And we come back to ice.
24:03Investigators wonder
24:04if ice built up
24:05in the fuel lines
24:06while flying over Siberia
24:08could have clogged the system.
24:12Ice in the fuel lines
24:13has long been a concern
24:15for jets of all kinds
24:16flying in cold air masses.
24:18If you have water in the fuel,
24:21then that water will freeze
24:22and form ice crystals.
24:24Decades ago,
24:25engineers found
24:26an ingenious way
24:27to deal with the ice
24:28forming in the fuel lines
24:29of passenger jets.
24:32The heart of the system
24:34is the fuel oil heat exchanger,
24:36or FOHE.
24:38Cold fuel runs through thin tubes,
24:41which are surrounded
24:41loaded by the hot oil
24:42used to lubricate the engines.
24:45The purpose of a fuel heater
24:47is to heat the fuel up
24:49to prevent icing
24:50of the delicate fuel control system.
24:53If ice built up
24:55in the fuel lines
24:55and somehow the FOHE
24:57failed to melt it,
24:59how can investigators prove it
25:01if the evidence of ice
25:02is no longer present?
25:03Three months after the crash,
25:11Brian McDermid flies
25:13to the Boeing headquarters
25:14in Seattle
25:14to test whether ice
25:16was a key factor
25:17in bringing down Flight 38.
25:21First,
25:22they reconstruct
25:23the entire fuel system.
25:26Then,
25:26they replicate
25:27the temperature conditions
25:28the Boeing 777
25:29encountered
25:30during its flight.
25:31When the temperature
25:36gets to
25:36about minus 20 degrees centigrade,
25:39then those ice crystals
25:40will start to stick together
25:41and will also stick
25:43to the inside of the pipes.
25:47There was a certain amount
25:48of surprise
25:49as to how much
25:50could actually grow.
25:52Now we're getting somewhere.
25:57While investigators
25:58can prove that ice crystals
26:00likely formed
26:01during the flight,
26:02it doesn't explain
26:03if it could have
26:04taken down the plane.
26:06The FOHE
26:06should have melted it.
26:10Investigators simulate
26:12Flight 38's journey.
26:16During the long voyage
26:17from Beijing,
26:19the autopilot
26:19maintained constant speed
26:21and low power
26:22for hours,
26:23never demanding
26:24an abrupt increase
26:25in engine power
26:26until just before
26:27they reached the runway.
26:30The approach
26:31into Heathrow
26:31was quite a turbulent approach
26:33and the engines
26:35were demanding
26:36various levels
26:37of thrust power.
26:40The problem
26:41that we were looking at
26:42is very, very difficult
26:43to replicate
26:44and during what was
26:45one of the last tests,
26:46we actually managed
26:47to get all the elements
26:48together.
26:50After simulating
26:51running engines
26:52at constant speed,
26:53investigators increase
26:54the power,
26:56just like the autopilot
26:57did after the plane
26:58hit turbulence.
27:01What happens next
27:02breaks the case
27:03wide open.
27:05The sudden demand
27:06for more engine power
27:08causes the fuel pressure
27:09downstream
27:10of the fuel oil
27:11heat exchanger
27:12to drop
27:13dramatically.
27:16And when investigators
27:17examine
27:18this vital component...
27:19We then saw
27:23that ice
27:24had formed
27:24across the face
27:25of it.
27:26The system
27:27designed to melt
27:28the ice
27:28failed.
27:30Soft ice
27:31that had formed
27:32deep inside the fuel
27:33lines broke free
27:34when the pressure
27:35was abruptly increased.
27:37The variegated design
27:38of the intake tubes
27:40caused the ice
27:40to clog the FOHE,
27:42preventing fuel
27:44from reaching
27:44the engines.
27:45The fuel
27:47will continue
27:48to flow through,
27:49but the flow rate
27:50is much lower
27:51than it should be.
27:53Pete,
27:53I can't get power
27:54on the engines.
27:55It's not giving me power.
27:57Facing a threat
27:58no one knew existed...
27:59Mayday!
28:00Speedbird!
28:01Speedbird!
28:02The pilots
28:02didn't have a chance
28:03to solve the problem.
28:09The ice
28:10that brought down
28:11one of the world's
28:12most sophisticated
28:13airplanes
28:13was gone
28:14by the time
28:15the investigators
28:16showed up.
28:17The weird thing
28:18about this investigation
28:19was that
28:20the culprit
28:21had fled the scene.
28:23Soon after
28:24the Seattle tests,
28:26the engine maker
28:26Rolls-Royce
28:27redesigned
28:28the fuel-oil
28:29heat exchanger.
28:31But it's
28:32the unrelenting
28:33diligence
28:33of investigators
28:34and a little
28:35inspiration
28:36from Sherlock Holmes
28:37that solves
28:38this mystery.
28:39So the philosophy
28:40is that you leave
28:41no stone unturned.
28:42If there's any
28:43stone left unturned,
28:44any piece of metal
28:45that needs to be kicked
28:46over, looked at,
28:46and analyzed,
28:47then your job
28:48is not done yet.
28:54Pan Am Flight 103
28:56is on its way
28:57from London
28:57to New York.
29:00The jet has just
29:02taken off
29:02from Heathrow Airport.
29:03Good evening, Scottish.
29:08Clipper 103,
29:09we are level
29:09at 310.
29:14103,
29:15you are identified.
29:20Most of the passengers
29:21are Americans,
29:22on their way home
29:23for the holiday season.
29:25The first part
29:26of the trip
29:27to the United States
29:28takes the plane
29:28northwest
29:29over Scotland.
29:30then across
29:32the Atlantic Ocean
29:33to New York City.
29:3737 minutes
29:38into the flight,
29:39the plane
29:39flies over
29:40Lockerbie.
29:42It's one of
29:42several small towns
29:44in Scotland
29:44the plane
29:45will pass over.
29:47Michael Gordon
29:47is chatting
29:48with a friend.
29:51Hang on,
29:52there's something
29:53odd of size here.
29:54and I heard this noise
29:57and the noise
29:58sounded like thunder
29:59and the noise
30:00got louder and louder
30:01and I could hear
30:04the noise
30:05then got to the stage
30:06of being similar
30:07to a jet fighter
30:09and at that time
30:10we had a lot
30:11of military aircraft
30:12passing through
30:13the area.
30:15I saw dark objects,
30:17dark things
30:17falling from the sky
30:19against the lights
30:20of Lockerbie
30:20and then I could see
30:24a long, thin
30:25black object
30:26which had a fire
30:27on the upper surface
30:28coming in
30:29and it was making
30:31its way
30:31towards Lockerbie.
30:44When it hit
30:45there was a most
30:46horrendous explosion.
30:47Pan Am flight 103
30:54has fallen from the sky.
30:56Lockerbie is burning.
30:58Air crash investigators
30:59are dispatched
31:00to the town.
31:03Mick Charles
31:04is the AAIB's
31:05lead inspector.
31:07One of the first sites
31:08we went to
31:08was the site
31:09of the crater
31:10that was still
31:12smelling very much
31:13of aviation fuel
31:14for a start
31:15and scattered
31:17all around
31:18were bits of debris
31:20and in some cases
31:22human tissue as well.
31:24All 259 people
31:26on the flight
31:27are dead.
31:28Eleven people
31:29from Lockerbie
31:29have also been killed
31:31in the disaster.
31:32Charles is under
31:33intense pressure
31:34to explain
31:35what caused
31:35the tragedy.
31:37You'll be organized
31:38into groups
31:38headed by an
31:40AAIB inspector.
31:41Does anyone
31:43have any questions?
31:46The sooner
31:47we start
31:47the better.
31:50It was all
31:51heaving.
31:52It was happening.
31:53There were loads
31:53of people
31:54and it was
31:56to some extent
31:56chaos.
31:59But from the outset
32:00the investigation
32:01is without leads.
32:03The crash
32:03of Pan Am 103
32:04is a complete
32:06mystery.
32:11You always
32:12have this
32:12sense of
32:14wanting to get
32:15to grips
32:16with what it is.
32:18It was quite clear
32:19that whatever it was
32:20was colossal.
32:26More than
32:27a thousand
32:28police officers
32:29and 600 members
32:30of the military
32:31pour into Lockerbie
32:32to help.
32:33At the start
32:36of the investigation
32:37what we were
32:38doing was
32:40finding all
32:41the aeroplane.
32:42From the ground
32:43the sheer scale
32:44of the disaster
32:45is difficult
32:46to comprehend.
32:48Chris,
32:48the RAF
32:49have offered
32:49us a helicopter.
32:50Can we use it?
32:52Absolutely.
32:53Investigators
32:54need to get
32:54a bird's eye view
32:55so they can locate
32:57and begin to map
32:58the field of debris.
33:01When they survey
33:02the site
33:03from above
33:03they're shocked
33:05by what they find.
33:07Pieces of the plane
33:08are scattered
33:08over an area
33:09larger than
33:10all of London.
33:12It quickly
33:13becomes clear
33:13that Pan Am 103
33:15was coming apart
33:16long before
33:17it hit the ground.
33:18Normally
33:18you're seeing
33:19a fairly contained
33:20accident site.
33:22In Lockerbie
33:22it was nothing
33:23like that.
33:24The police
33:25had identified
33:26half a dozen
33:27discreet sites.
33:29A 747
33:30is made up
33:31of more than
33:31six million parts.
33:33In the mangled
33:34remains of the jet
33:35investigators
33:36need to find
33:37the one
33:37that will tell
33:38them what happened.
33:41Inside the plane's
33:43severed cockpit
33:43investigators note
33:45the position
33:45of various switches
33:46and controls.
33:48They find
33:49the autopilot
33:50is on
33:50and the oxygen
33:51masks are still
33:52stowed.
33:53Nothing at all
33:54untoward
33:55found in the cockpit.
33:56everything was
33:57consistent with
33:58cruising flight.
34:00While the
34:01painstaking work
34:02of collecting
34:03evidence continues
34:04investigators wonder
34:06if sabotage
34:07could be at play.
34:09Tom Thurman
34:10of the FBI
34:11arrives to help
34:12the investigation.
34:14If it was a bomb
34:15there's a chance
34:16that important
34:17evidence can be found.
34:18We were looking
34:20for blast damage
34:21on these pieces
34:22of metal
34:24but until
34:25we found
34:26something that said
34:27it was a bomb
34:27physical evidence
34:29it was an accident.
34:34On Christmas Eve
34:35just three days
34:36after the crash
34:37of the plane
34:38the investigation
34:39gets an enormous
34:40break.
34:41Mick Charles
34:41had a bag
34:42and had a piece
34:44of metal
34:44in the bag.
34:45What is it?
34:46We think
34:47it's a piece
34:48of luggage rail.
34:49It helps guide
34:50the cargo containers
34:51into place.
34:53Small marks
34:55are identified
34:55on the metal
34:56craters that are
34:57the telltale signs
34:58of a bomb.
34:59The hot gases
35:00of the combustion
35:03process
35:03of the explosion
35:04hits a piece
35:05of particular
35:06metal
35:06and it puts
35:08pits in it
35:09like you would
35:10take a blowtorch.
35:12We were very
35:13suspicious
35:14that it was
35:14a bomb
35:15which had
35:15caused this
35:16destruction
35:16but we were
35:18not prepared
35:19to say anything
35:20until we'd had
35:21those details
35:22confirmed by
35:22the forensic experts.
35:25Investigators
35:25send the luggage
35:26rail to a
35:27British forensics
35:28lab for analysis.
35:30The results
35:30are conclusive.
35:32Traces of two
35:33chemicals used
35:34to make plastic
35:34explosive are found
35:36on the debris
35:36recovered near
35:37Lockerbie.
35:40On December
35:41the 28th
35:42just seven days
35:43after the crash
35:44air crash
35:44investigators have
35:45their proof.
35:46It has been
35:47established that
35:48two parts of the
35:49metal luggage
35:50pallets framework
35:51show conclusive
35:53evidence of a
35:54detonating high
35:55explosion.
35:58Pan Am flight
35:58103 was bombed.
36:01The investigation
36:02takes on a whole
36:03new urgency.
36:05It falls upon the
36:06FBI to answer
36:07one clear question.
36:09Our mandate with
36:10regard to Lockerbie
36:11was find out who did
36:12it and prove it
36:13because what we wanted
36:14to do is bring
36:15someone to justice
36:16and make them answer
36:17for killing 270 people.
36:19The Pan Am 103
36:23tragedy becomes a
36:24criminal case.
36:26But the FBI
36:26still needs the
36:27expertise of
36:28AAIB investigators
36:30to solve the
36:31mystery.
36:37Finding the bomb
36:38is one thing.
36:39Finding who
36:40planted it
36:41is quite another.
36:42It will push the
36:43skills of the
36:44AAIB team
36:45to the limit.
36:46AAIB engineers
36:51reconstruct the
36:52hull from fragments
36:53of the wreckage
36:54retrieved from
36:55the crash site.
36:56They soon pinpoint
36:57the location of
36:58the blast.
37:00Peter Claydon is
37:01responsible for
37:02reassembling the
37:03cargo containers
37:04that were directly
37:04behind the
37:05shatter zone.
37:06The main goal
37:07I had was to
37:08identify the
37:09baggage container,
37:11the container
37:12device.
37:13The investigators
37:14concentrate on the
37:15cargo containers
37:16that were found
37:17in the southern
37:17debris field,
37:19wreckage that
37:19was ejected
37:20shortly after
37:21the explosion.
37:24The metal
37:24container AVE-4041
37:27is of particular
37:28interest.
37:30It was resting
37:31in front of the
37:32wing, where the
37:33blast damage is
37:34the worst.
37:34The damage caused
37:38to the metal
37:39container is quite
37:40severe.
37:41The damage to
37:43the adjacent
37:44fiberglass container,
37:45I think you might
37:46call it collateral
37:47damage.
37:49Investigators create
37:50a simple framework
37:51and attach the
37:52pieces of the
37:53real cargo container
37:54to it.
37:56As they do,
37:57it becomes clear.
37:58AVE-4041 carried
38:01the bomb that
38:02brought the plane
38:02down.
38:07Closely examining
38:08damage to the
38:09floor and the
38:10side of the
38:11container,
38:11investigators are
38:12also able to
38:13pinpoint the
38:14height of the
38:14bomb, where it
38:15was in the
38:16container when
38:17it exploded.
38:17What that said
38:22to me was that
38:23the device was
38:25probably in a
38:26suitcase, and
38:28that suitcase was
38:28probably not on the
38:30floor of the
38:30container.
38:31It looked like it
38:32was one level up.
38:33According to
38:34luggage records, it
38:35means the bag
38:36containing the
38:36bomb had come
38:37from a connecting
38:38flight.
38:43But whose
38:44suitcase was it,
38:45and at what point
38:46was it put on the
38:47plane?
38:50Investigators hunt
38:51for the suitcase
38:52that held the
38:52bomb that took
38:53down Pan Am
38:54103.
38:56Studying small
38:57pieces of
38:58wreckage, British
38:59forensic experts
39:00identify the
39:00suitcase, a
39:01hard-sided
39:02Samsonite
39:034,000.
39:06Several pieces of
39:07clothing have also
39:08been identified that
39:09were very close to
39:10the explosion, likely
39:12in the suitcase that
39:13concealed the bomb.
39:14most of these
39:16clothes were made
39:17by a single
39:18manufacturer, and
39:19were only sold on
39:20the tiny island of
39:22Malta.
39:24So Malta became
39:24the focus of the
39:26investigation because
39:27of the manufacture
39:28and eventually
39:30distribution of some
39:32of the clothing that
39:32was found at
39:33Lockerbie.
39:35Investigators find
39:36the shop in Malta
39:37where the clothes
39:38were sold.
39:39The owner gives
39:40them another clue.
39:41The key thing
39:43that he told us
39:44was the person
39:45had a Libyan
39:46accent, something
39:47we didn't really
39:48have evidence yet
39:49that tied Libya
39:50to the bombing.
39:52In 1998, Libya
39:55was reeling from
39:56a number of
39:56confrontations with
39:57the American
39:58military.
40:00It will not
40:02surprise any of
40:02you to know that
40:03in addition to
40:04Iran, we have
40:05identified another
40:06nation, Libya,
40:08as deeply involved
40:09in terrorism.
40:11The country was
40:13isolated, and its
40:14leader, Muammar
40:15Qatafi, aggressively
40:17anti-American.
40:19Perhaps the bombing
40:20of the Pan Am flight
40:21was an attack by
40:23Libya against the
40:24United States.
40:27Pouring through
40:28baggage records for
40:30the Pan Am flight,
40:31police discover a
40:32suitcase that had
40:33been carried from
40:34Malta to Frankfurt
40:35earlier that day.
40:36Bag number B8849
40:39had been sent
40:40through to
40:41Heathrow Airport.
40:44It was then
40:45placed on the
40:45second level of
40:46cargo container
40:47AVE-4041.
40:51It was the
40:51Samsonite case
40:52investigators now
40:54know carried the
40:54bomb.
41:02More than a year
41:03after the crash,
41:04a new discovery
41:05in Lockerbie
41:06helps investigators.
41:08Forensic experts
41:09discover a circuit
41:10board among the
41:11clothes that came
41:12from Malta.
41:16This circuit board
41:17is half the size
41:19of your thumbnail.
41:21Furman takes the
41:23photo of the circuit
41:23to the Central
41:24Intelligence Agency.
41:29Wait a second.
41:32That could be the
41:33same.
41:35Do you have this
41:36timer?
41:38Sifting through
41:39reports on various
41:40bombings,
41:41Furman finds a
41:42match.
41:46Within a few
41:46minutes,
41:47literally,
41:48I started getting
41:49cold chills.
41:51And right now,
41:51as I talk about it,
41:53cold chills start
41:54on me,
41:54because I can still
41:55see that moment so
41:56vividly in my mind
41:58that I'm looking at
42:00circuit track that's
42:01just like what I'm
42:01seeing in the
42:02photograph.
42:03This is what we're
42:04looking for.
42:06The timer the CIA
42:07has was seized in
42:09Africa a few years
42:10earlier.
42:11Two Libyan men were
42:12trying to get it and
42:14several pounds of
42:14explosives passed
42:16airport security.
42:17It's identical to the
42:19timer used to bring
42:20down Flight 103.
42:21This is a long delay
42:28timer that brought down
42:30that aircraft.
42:31But now we want to
42:33know, okay, where'd
42:33this come from?
42:35In 1999,
42:3611 years after the
42:38bombing, they finally
42:39have the bomber.
42:41At the time of the
42:42disaster, Abdel al-Megrahi
42:44was an intelligence
42:45officer for the
42:45Libyan government.
42:46He's arrested and
42:48charged.
42:49In 2001, Scottish
42:52judges sentence him
42:53to life for the
42:54murder of 270 people.
42:57A hunt for evidence
42:59involving FBI agents
43:00and AAIB investigators
43:02brings justice to the
43:04case.
43:04Lockerbie was a rare
43:10occasion that we felt
43:11honoured to be a part
43:12of.
43:13Everybody played small
43:14roles to make big
43:15contributions to an
43:16overall success.
43:18It's not true.
43:18When an airliner becomes
43:20crippled high in the
43:21sky.
43:21Mayday.
43:22Speedbird.
43:23Speedbird.
43:24We hear stories of
43:26hero pilots.
43:29When a plane crashes.
43:30We hear of heroic
43:33rescue efforts that
43:35save lives.
43:36But there are other
43:38heroes amidst the
43:39tragedy of an air
43:40disaster.
43:41The men and women
43:41that crack a case
43:43against all odds and
43:45work to make sure it
43:46never happens again.
43:47If you've been doing
43:48this for a few years,
43:49you understand that the
43:50work is pretty darn
43:52important.
43:53You convince yourself
43:54that you actually end
43:55up saving lives.