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00:00Continental 1404, Denver Tower, do you copy?
00:03A passenger plane is in flames beside a runway at one of the world's busiest airports.
00:11Get off this thing before it burns up, come on!
00:14Firefighters were prepared to see dead bodies inside, but passengers had tumbled down chutes to escape.
00:20Hey, come take a look at this.
00:22As investigators scour the evidence...
00:26Okay, the plane departs the runway to the left.
00:28Here we had an aircraft that went pretty significantly nose left, where it shouldn't have.
00:33My money's on the rudder.
00:35It wasn't responding.
00:37Clues point to a notorious mechanical problem...
00:40What have we got here?
00:43...that brought down 737s years ago.
00:47Is this situation coming back to haunt us?
00:50Reject, reject!
00:50Get off!
00:57Mayday, mayday!
01:00Oh, fuck!
01:02Continental Airlines flight 1404 is being prepped for its departure from Denver, Colorado.
01:26Captain David Butler and First Officer Chad Lavang will pilot the flight to Houston.
01:37The pilots check the current weather conditions.
01:44Main departure runway 34R, wind 280 degrees, 11 knots, active runway 34R.
01:53The wind is a moderate 13 mile an hour breeze coming out of the west.
02:00The plane is a Boeing 737, a short to medium range twin engine jet that has become the best selling commercial jetliner in history.
02:11There are 110 passengers on board tonight's flight. Among them is Mike Wilson.
02:18I was actually leading software development for a small boulder startup.
02:21I was just going back to Houston to visit family for Christmas.
02:26Flight 1404 will take off from Denver International Airport and fly for two hours to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.
02:41I'm receiving aircraft checklist complete. Want the APU up?
02:48Yeah.
02:49Captain Butler is 50. He joined Continental 11 years ago. He will be the pilot flying to Houston.
02:56First Officer Lavang is 34. He began flying with the airline a year ago.
03:01He will be monitoring the instruments and handling radio communications.
03:063-4 right.
03:083-4 right. That's what we want, right?
03:10Yep.
03:11Good evening folks from the flight deck. Captain Butler here and First Officer Lavang.
03:16We're looking at a 1 hour and 52 minutes en route and don't anticipate any delays out of Denver.
03:23The ride should be pretty good all the way to Houston.
03:26We do appreciate your business. Welcome aboard.
03:31Ground to cockpit.
03:36Good evening.
03:37Good evening, dude.
03:39Dude?
03:40Walk around has been completed. All doors, access panels closed and ramp is ready.
03:49Let me run a checklist and I'll be right back with you.
03:52Dude.
03:54All right. Before start checklist.
03:56Before start. Seatbelt sign.
04:05As the pilots run their checklist, passengers settle in.
04:10But Mike Wilson can only think about a previous flight four years ago.
04:19My father had actually purchased a new aircraft and he invited me out to go flying with him.
04:25You know, we'd taken off from a small airstrip near Galveston Bay in Houston.
04:30And once we got up flying out over the bay, we were kind of losing altitude.
04:35As soon as we hit the water, the plane sank just like a stone.
04:40So it took me a little while to kind of get back on the horse, I guess.
04:46What's the chances of being in two plane crashes?
04:51Flight 1404 is approved to push back from the gate.
04:55Hey dude, brakes released. You're clear to push tail east.
04:58Okay, sir. You're clear to start.
05:04Roger.
05:13I'm waiting for this thing to start slide.
05:15All right, you gotta love winter.
05:16Flaps. Set 5. Controls. Checked. Athletes out checklist complete.
05:31Ramp continental 1404. Ready to taxi.
05:341404, you'll follow a 1900 just off your right wingtip to 3 Whiskey. Have a good flight.
05:40The ramp controller tells the crew to follow a much smaller Beech 1900 turboprop to runway 34R.
05:48As the fifth busiest airport in the world, Denver's air traffic control tower is responsible for coordinating the arrival and departure of about 1700 flights a day.
06:06Continental 1404, Denver Tower. Runway 34R is one of six runways at Denver International.
06:25They run four parallel runways. They run from north to south and there's two parallel runways east to west.
06:31Set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, it's the largest airport by total land area in the United States.
06:41It's approximately 53 square miles and the numbers don't do it justice.
06:45And once you're out there, it seems even bigger.
06:48Not the ice protection on for takeoff?
06:51No, let's kill it.
06:57Flight attendants.
06:58Flight attendants.
07:10Flight attendants.
07:11Employees.
07:12Flight attendants.
07:14plenty for departure.
07:16Continental fourteen zero four, wind 270 at two seven.
07:21Monkey.
07:22Turn right, heading 0-2-0.
07:23knots and clears them for takeoff heading 020 clear for takeoff runway 34
07:29right content of 1404
07:43we accelerated up to takeoff speed everything seemed like it was going just
07:47fine
07:53suddenly the plane veers hard to the left
07:59i felt this sharp left turn and that's one of the things are definitely going wrong here
08:05damn it the plane careens off the runway at a speed of more than a hundred miles an hour
08:13it's completely out of control reject reject
08:19the first thought in my mind was there's no way this is happening again
08:22the plane hits a steep ridge
08:27sending it airborne it felt like we just went off a cliff
08:35we dropped 50 feet or so when we hit the bottom that's when things got much much worse and i could
08:41see just flames coming from that right side engine
08:48this can't be happening we kept sliding forever
08:54flight 1404 finally comes to a stop
08:57the plane's right engine
09:00it's a frightening repeat of british air tours flight 28 which aborted takeoff due to an engine fire
09:12danger it's a frightening repeat of British Air Tours flight 28 which
09:22aborted takeoff due to an engine fire and had to be evacuated 53 passengers
09:29and two crew members died because they couldn't get off the plane in time
09:42say that again when the controller gets the news he can't account for one of his
09:48flights Continental 1404 Denver Tower Continental 1404 Denver Tower do you
09:54copy
10:03all emergency units this is the tower we have a crash
10:07emergency vehicles race to the scene as flames consume the airliner the cabin
10:16was starting to fill with smoke I looked over at the left-hand overwing exit and
10:21it was already open in the middle of the plane there are no flight attendants no
10:28crew there to help you and so it's kind of Lord of the Flies
10:30Continental flight 1404 is burning up thick smoke is pouring into the cabin
10:44passengers have only seconds to escape and if people aren't working together it can
10:49get a little crazy I carefully made it down the wing got off onto the ground and
10:58then I'm turned and I immediately started walking up the hill I turned around and
11:05that was the first time I actually saw the plane I could see the whole plane just
11:12sort of silhouetted by the flames behind it and the other passengers kind of
11:18straggling out up this hill it hit me that oh I'm I'm gonna survive this
11:26rescue crews search for the crashed plane including firefighter Randall Kemp the
11:34Sun had been down for almost two hours already so it was pitch black you
11:37couldn't see a thing Denver International is challenging because it's such a
11:41large piece of land firefighters finally pinpoint the plane's location off the
11:47runway and begin fighting the fire a lot of people think that it's flat like a
11:53billiard table and I can assure you that is anything but that there's drop-offs in
11:57some areas that go down a few hundred feet very close to where 1404 departed the
12:02runway continental flight 1404 en route to Houston went sharply off the runway
12:09during takeoff burst into flames and nearly broke apart when rescue crews arrived
12:14they described the scene as surreal like something out of a movie firefighters
12:19were prepared to see dead bodies inside we got lucky with that terrain where this
12:26aircraft wound up coming to a halt was on an incline luckily the fuel has flowed down
12:34the slope away from the burning fuselage and escaping passengers all 110 passengers and
12:42five flight crew narrowly escaped death the captain is seriously wounded and the
12:49first officer suffers minor injuries the question now is how could this have
12:56happened in the first place by daylight the charred right side of the plane was visible from the
13:06air the next day shows the true scope of the disaster the passengers and crew members are lucky to be alive
13:17investigators from the national transportation safety board arrive at the crash site
13:27they need to figure out what could have sent flight 1404 off the runway
13:34they gather evidence from the crash site for analysis can we get 35 up here please bill English is the
13:43investigator in charge it's quite a ride the aircraft was pretty far off the runway it had gone off at a
13:52very high speed went over these other roadways it was mostly intact the fuselage was burned along most of
13:59the right side and some pretty significant impact damage as it went across the infield okay let's see
14:10what those tracks tell us one of the first things we started to see was the tire marks starting to
14:15diverge from the center line heading at a pretty significant angle off to the left yeah right right
14:20there okay the plane departs the runway to the left crosses the taxiway and that service road narrowly
14:27missing this fire station before coming to rest on that slope in the terrain what's it look like to
14:37you some kind of mechanical failure my money's on the rudder for now a rudder is a control surface at
14:49the rear of the aircraft used to both steer the plane and counter side-to-side movement caused by
14:55crosswinds through a cable control system pilots move the rudder by pressing pedals at their feet
15:02investigators know in two separate crashes during the 1990s pilots lost control of their 737s because
15:12of a sudden and unexpected movement of the rudder it's called a rudder hardover where the rudder
15:19controls lock everyone on board both planes died here we had an aircraft that went pretty
15:26significantly nose left where it shouldn't have so one of the first things we want to look at is those
15:31rudder actuators the actuator is a crucial mechanism that converts the hydraulic pressure generated by the
15:38pilot's pedal inputs into a mechanical action that moves the rudder is this situation coming back to haunt us
15:47on another 737. if these rudder issues have resurfaced thousands of lives on board 737s across the world could be in danger
15:57investigators examine the plane's rudder actuator
16:03actuator inspections complete was working okay the rudder did not lock up and cause the plane to veer off the runway
16:17can we get the overheads up please bill english wonders what else could have caused the accident he now focuses
16:27in on the spot where the plane started to turn left next
16:32does it look like the nose wheel was scrubbing
16:36it does
16:38the thick black streak came from the nose wheel
16:43investigators see evidence of what's known as scrubbing
16:46scrubbing occurs when an extreme lateral movement pushes a tire sideways across the surface
16:56grinding the tread down
16:58did the steering system jam causing the nose wheel to scrub
17:03did we have something like a hard over of the nose wheels
17:06investigators catch a break when a cable that controls the steering system is found at the crash site
17:16what do we got here
17:18it's broken
17:19if the cable snapped before the crash it would explain the nose wheel scrubbing
17:25we sent that to the lab and
17:27they could tell the loading and stretching on that cable that was done after the aircraft went off the runway
17:32so this had nothing to do with the accident
17:35so why was that tire scrubbing
17:44another potential mechanical factor that investigators need to consider is whether flight 1404's brakes jammed during takeoff
17:55we're looking for any evidence of a lockup
17:58if the left brake was locked that could pull the aircraft to the left
18:03if you did have that you'll see discoloration in the metal components around the brakes and the in the wheel hub
18:11the examination of the brakes didn't show anything like that
18:18it's clear to bill english and his investigators that whatever happened to flight 1404 was not a mechanical failure but something else entirely
18:29so where does that leave us
18:33he looked at the machine now we have to look at the environment and the man the pilots
18:41those go back there please
18:45with the cause of flight 1404's runway excursion evading investigators
18:52the ntsb must now consider factors outside the plane
18:57that could have contributed to the boeing 737's fate
19:01we're missing anything
19:02no
19:04no we got all i need
19:07ntsb senior meteorologist don ike will investigate the weather conditions at the time of the crash
19:14this accident occurred december 20th is the middle of the winter
19:18we're going to be looking at the runway
19:22the environment the winds any precipitation
19:25reports from the national weather service indicate there was a low pressure system in parts of colorado
19:32around the time of the crash
19:34winter runway contamination is always a concern and a question which occurs due to winds and snow water
19:41but it had no impact on denver airport there was no severe weather at the time
19:47runway 34 surface was bare and dry
19:53well
20:00whatever it was
20:01it happened real fast
20:03investigators now turn their attention to the crosswinds during takeoff
20:09it looks like weather veining to me
20:12weather veining occurs when a crosswind pushes a plane's tail causing the nose to point into the wind
20:23a pilot must apply rudder to counteract this movement
20:28a 737 500 can handle crosswinds up to 33 knots
20:35but if the gusts are stronger
20:38might have been enough to blow the plane off the runway
20:42english needs to confirm that the pilots weren't attempting to take off in crosswinds that exceeded the safety limits for the 737
20:50all right cue up ATIS
20:54main departure runway
20:57prior to takeoff the pilots would have received the current weather conditions from the automatic terminal information service or ATIS
21:05ATIS reported winds of 280 degrees at 11 knots
21:11well under the 33 knot threshold
21:14but pilots don't just rely on ATIS
21:18air traffic control also provides specific runway winds right before takeoff
21:241404 wind 270 at 27
21:28investigators speak with the controller on duty that night
21:34thanks for taking the time for us
21:37of course
21:38okay
21:40okay
21:41so
21:45what were the conditions at takeoff
21:48well I checked the winds just before
21:53continental 1404 wind 270 at 27
21:59the controller told the crew to expect 27 knot winds on runway 34
22:05a speed still below the crosswind limit of 33 knots
22:10anything else that could help explain what happened
22:12no
22:19I'm as stumped as you guys
22:23it's another dead end
22:27okay
22:29let's figure this out
22:31if the winds were within limits and the plane was mechanically sound that only leaves pilot error
22:41all good next
22:43from the plane's flight data recorder investigators get a second-by-second breakdown of the pilot's actions
22:50pilots are trained to flying crosswinds from very early in their training
22:55so we wanted to look for the crosswind controls on the flight data recorder
22:57here it is
22:58here it is
22:59hey
23:00come take a look at this
23:01that's where he gets on the rudder
23:04that's where he gets on the rudder
23:07huh
23:08as the airplane began to gather speed and get up over 40 50 knots
23:13the captain began making rudder inputs and feeling for that correct amount of right rudder to compensate for the left weather veining tendency
23:22the FDR data shows that as the captain feels crosswinds pushing the plane slightly to the left
23:29he applies pressure to his right rudder pedal and brings the plane back to the center line
23:37but when the plane veers to the left a second time
23:41the FDR reveals the captain suddenly relaxes the rudder pedals and starts turning the control column to the right
23:49and then for some reason he stops using his rudder
23:52yeah but why?
24:01captain david butler 50
24:11this guy used to land fighters on aircraft carriers
24:16he knows about wind
24:17investigators need to talk to the captain himself to hear his version of the story
24:25okay
24:26sure you're feeling up for this?
24:28yeah
24:29if the pilot had been killed we wouldn't have a lot of insight into his actions
24:33we'd have to infer a lot more
24:34but in this case we were actually able to talk to him and he was able to tell us what he thought was going on
24:39and how that might have influenced his actions
24:41so in your own words tell me what happened
24:46and all of a sudden it was like someone put their hand on the tail of the airplane and weather veined it to the left
24:53mm-hmm
24:54so why did you let up on the rudder then?
24:57it wasn't responding
25:00as we talked to the pilot he perceived the rudder wasn't working
25:02the rudder wasn't working
25:03well we knew it was working from the FDR
25:06what did you do then?
25:07i reached for the tiller
25:09the tiller?
25:10yeah
25:13at low speed
25:14pilots of larger jet aircraft steer the nose wheel by turning a tiller on the left side of the cockpit
25:22the pilot mentioned that he tried to use the tiller as well which seemed to be a last-ditch effort
25:28try for what he could to get the airplane back at least straight on the pavement
25:37you could see the tiller was moving to the right
25:40but at these speeds there really wasn't much that the tiller was going to do
25:43with no clear cause of the crash investigators turned to the plane's cockpit voice recorder
25:53listening to the cockpit voice recorder gives us insights into what is happening that may be different from the pilot's recollections
26:00queued up
26:02ok
26:04let's hear it
26:06continental 1404 denver tower
26:09runway 34 right
26:12position on hold
26:14position on hold 34 right
26:17continental 1404
26:19the conversation in the cockpit is entirely routine as the pilots run their checklists and taxi to the runway
26:26looks like he got some wind out there
26:29and then something jumps out at them
26:33looks like he got some wind out there
26:35yeah
26:38look at them clouds moving
26:42the pilots were looking up at the clouds and reporting how these low clouds at 4,000 feet were moving like at 50 knots
26:50continental 1404 wind at 270 at 27 turn right heading 020 runway 34 right is cleared for takeoff
27:05heading 020 clear for takeoff runway 34 right continental 1404
27:10left crosswind 27 knots
27:12so the pilots were aware of some strong winds aloft and were questioning the report showing winds of only 27 knots
27:23but with no reports of winds exceeding the plane's 33 knot threshold
27:26all right look for 90.9
27:29the captain decides to proceed instructing the first officer to look for a power setting of 90.9 for takeoff
27:37this airplane should be able to handle those kind of winds
27:43maybe we've got some local effects something else going on where this aircraft experienced even higher winds than were reported
27:50the CVR doesn't help explain what the captain told bill english
28:08so then all of a sudden it was like someone put their hand on the tail of the airplane and weather veined it to the left
28:16investigators are at an impasse
28:20so far nothing explains what happened to flight 1404
28:27weather reports indicate flight 1404 was taking off in winds under the 33 knot threshold
28:35but the fast moving clouds observed by the pilots
28:39and the sudden drastic movement of the plane
28:47lead investigators to question the accuracy of those reports
28:53the next logical question is was it a massive gust of wind
28:57i mean was it something way well beyond the capability of the aircraft to counteract
29:01investigators look into the systems that measure and report winds at denver airport
29:06so what were they being told about the winds
29:10um
29:13ATIS told them 11 knots
29:15well where did that speed come from
29:17this weather tower
29:19right here
29:21okay
29:23that is miles from the runway
29:25it's not very helpful
29:27in fact the source of ATIS information is more than two miles away from the point where flight 1404
29:34left the runway
29:42in denver's case with all the runways the real estate we have a little distance issue
29:48the ATIS report broadcast to the pilots is augmented by a wind shear measuring system on the ground
29:55dozens of wind shear sensors scattered throughout the airport collect additional wind readings
30:01controllers use these readings to provide pilots with more localized wind information
30:09continental 1404 wind at 270 at 27
30:15the controller gave them a wind speed of 27 knots
30:19where does that rating come from
30:20from this sensor here at the departure end of 34 right
30:24it averages out wind speeds sends them out every 10 seconds
30:29but the sensors near the runway don't provide the speed of every gust it records just an average
30:36average was 27 knots
30:39not enough to blow a 737 off a runway
30:41bet there's a heck of a gust in there
30:44bet there's a heck of a gust in there
30:46so we had the wind system data
30:49that was taking observations every second giving you a 10 second reading
30:54that system is not designed to provide any gust information or crosswind factors
31:00investigators now wonder if the close proximity of the Rocky Mountains which lie to the west of the airport
31:08played a role in this crash
31:11when you have a nice east-west mountain range like the Rockies
31:15that strong high mountain range with a steep slope on the eastern side
31:21will typically cause winds to go down heat by compression and then go back up
31:26it creates this wave-like pattern
31:30so we started looking at the upper air conditions
31:33and we determined that mountain wave conditions with some strong downslope winds were occurring
31:38these harmonic wind patterns coming off the Rocky Mountains
31:42can create strong gusts which can be felt hundreds of miles from the mountains
31:47and can create hazardous conditions for pilots
31:50we knew that it wasn't just going to be enough to answer
31:54what were the weather conditions occurring at the time of the accident
32:03we need more than averages
32:05investigators need to confirm if a mountain wave blew into flight 1404 as it rolled down the runway
32:13only a second-by-second analysis of the winds can tell them that
32:18so they recruit experts from the National Center for Atmospheric Research
32:25to create a computer model of the winds at the exact moment of the crash
32:30using every bit of wind data they have
32:32we also had them include the low-level wind shear data
32:39which was something that hasn't been done in the past
32:42and using this model we came into a surprising findings
32:47impressive
32:49and it did show strong winds reaching a surface
32:52some of these winds were over 40 knots
32:57all associated with mountain wave conditions
33:02there were gusts in excess of 40 knots out there
33:07but none of the airport sensors reported those gusts
33:11just averages every 10 seconds
33:14how the pilots wouldn't have known
33:17investigators are getting close to solving the mystery of flight 1404
33:21but there's still one thing they don't know
33:24just how strong was the gust that hit the plane
33:27good check, good check
33:32okay
33:34what's it take to blow a 5810 airplane off that runway
33:35investigators are determined to figure out what blew flight 1404 off the runway
33:43now we sort of work our way backwards and say
33:46what wind exactly was affecting this aircraft
33:49the answer's in here somewhere
33:51they run hundreds of computer simulations using various possible wind gust speeds
33:58in an effort to replicate 1404's actual path
34:01these simulations are not animation of a little 3D airplane
34:06but they're squiggly lines and values on a chart
34:11our performance engineers had to take the aerodynamic model of this airplane
34:15and back the wind out of this
34:17it's a very time consuming process
34:21thanks
34:26they got it
34:27it's 45 knots
34:32calculations reveal several gusts were much more powerful than the 27 knot winds reported to the pilots
34:39some were as high as 45 knots
34:43or 50 miles an hour
34:45no trouble with the wind
34:47until they get right here
34:50and then bam
34:52they get hit with a 45 knot gust
34:54what gust
34:57that'll get your attention
34:59how did we get into something as seemingly simple as
35:02a crosswind runway excursion
35:04a wind gust
35:06that's it
35:08a pilot with thousands of hours of experience
35:10former naval aviator
35:12been working for the airline for a long time
35:14what's going on here?
35:16how did this happen?
35:17now
35:19now Bill English wonders
35:21should an experienced pilot like Captain Butler
35:24have been able to keep the plane under control
35:27how far outside the range of normal experience is this for airline pilots
35:30and
35:32in order to answer that question we had to actually get operational data
35:37hey Bill
35:39you're not going to believe this
35:40the NTSB reviews data from all the 737 takeoffs they can find
35:46to once in a lifetime
35:48if that
35:50they discover that out of 250,000 takeoffs
35:55only four 737s experienced crosswinds stronger than 30 knots
36:01that's much less than the 45 knot gust the pilots of flight 1404 faced
36:08the odds that a pilot is going to encounter that kind of crosswind
36:13it's not even guaranteed that they will encounter it in their career
36:17as an airline pilot
36:19and they might encounter it once
36:21okay
36:23let's see how he handled this
36:25with this new information on wind speeds
36:28investigators now take a second look at the captain's actions
36:32okay so let's add the gusts to the captain's rudder inputs please
36:35all right
36:39you sit with a small gust
36:41applies right rudder
36:45it works for him
36:48then the big one hits right rudder again
36:51but not enough to bring him back
36:54the second time the wind is so strong the rudder doesn't immediately bring his plane back on course
37:01the captain assumes his rudder has stopped working
37:05damn it
37:07during the second input he got hit by a blast of 45 knots of wind almost directly from the left side of the airplane
37:12and so that effectively cancelled out the effect of his input
37:16what he needed to do was put in another one
37:19instead as he relaxed the rudder pedals the airplane just began to drift in the wrong direction
37:24Reject! Reject! Reject!
37:34Taking off in cross winds is part of the routine that pilots undergo in flight simulators
37:40but it turns out there are limits to that training
37:43we discovered that the simulator does not actually inject gust into the simulated wind values until you're at least 50 feet above the ground
37:55they were training pilots but they weren't actually getting the practice of compensating for the gusts on the ground
38:00and in the real world mother nature will come back and grab you
38:04in this case push you off the runway
38:07so as the airplane began to veer toward the side of the runway
38:11and the captain began to panic
38:13damn it!
38:15he reverted toward sort of overlearned patterns of behavior
38:18it is what you would do in a car if you were trying to drive away from the side of the runway
38:23but if the conditions were so severe
38:26investigators need to know how the pilots of flight 1404 ended up in this no-win situation in the first place
38:39NTSB investigators now know that the pilots of flight 1404 were taking off in a crosswind they've probably never experienced before
38:49what they need to know now is why nobody told them about the powerful gusts that day
38:56we've checked the wind readings at the time of the crash
39:00some gusts clocked in a lot higher than 27 knots
39:04if the controllers issued a higher wind value or the gust value that was reported by other sensors
39:09would that have made a difference?
39:14looks like we got some wind out there
39:15yeah
39:16look at those clouds moving
39:18continental 1404
39:21wind 270 at 27
39:24controllers have a ribbon display terminal which shows up to seven different wind readings
39:30one is the wind speed detected by the sensor closest to the far end of the runway
39:35that's the speed given to the crew
39:3727 knots
39:38but it also shows the wind speed detected by the sensor at the near end of the runway
39:45just before the crash it had reported 35 knot winds with gusts to 40
39:51why didn't you report the 40 knot gusts to the pilot?
39:54we provide pilots with the departure runway winds only
40:01but only if they ask?
40:03right
40:07that's standard operating procedure
40:10huh
40:11he was following the policies that they had
40:14standard operating procedure
40:15but you know i mean what it looks like is sort of a classic information transfer kind of issue
40:20where the information wasn't being passed along due to the way they had
40:24designed things and proceduralized the flow of information at the tower
40:28it was a combination of events that led to the crash of Continental 1404
40:37receiving aircraft checklist complete
40:39you want the APU up?
40:40yeah
40:42because the fierce gusts were so localized
40:44the plane would not have been affected had the pilots delayed their takeoff
40:48or requested a different runway
40:523-4 right
40:543-4 right
40:55that's what we want right?
40:56yep
40:57they observed the speech 1900 takeoff ahead of them without incident
41:01and that has a big impact on pilot decision making
41:04that's a phenomenon known as social proof
41:07everyone else is doing it then must be alright
41:10Continental 1404
41:12wind 270 at 27
41:15turn right
41:17heading 020
41:19runway 34 right
41:21is cleared for takeoff
41:23the pilots are given winds of 27 knots
41:26which turn out to be much lower than what they would soon encounter
41:30left crosswind 27 knots
41:33there was information available that would have changed the outcome if it had been communicated to the flight crew
41:39but the way the system was designed to disseminate that information meant that it was not conveyed
41:45if the pilots were aware of the mount wave conditions
41:51they might have been alert for some of the potential gusts
41:53the airplane could have been controllable even at that high gust
42:04had enough rudder input been put in and stayed in
42:08it could have held on at the center line of the runway
42:10dammit
42:11in this case the pilot lost the association between
42:14what inputs he was making and what the aircraft was doing
42:17and what the aircraft was doing
42:23Reject! Reject! Reject!
42:27Reject!
42:28Reject!
42:30Reject!
42:31Reject!
42:32Reject!
42:33Reject!
42:34Reject!
42:35Reject!
42:36Reject!
42:37Reject!
42:38Reject!
42:40Reject!
42:41The Continental Airlines 1404 accident was significant
42:44in the fact that it was not just a normal runway excursion accident
42:49this one occurred due to mountain wave activity
42:52one of the key recommendations we came up with was for the FAA to study this
42:59the hazards of mountain wave were out there
43:03mother nature's always there and every now and then she can be violent
43:08the FAA made a profile that was based on crosswinds experienced by this crew
43:15and they now require that that be included in training programs
43:22investigators also recommend new Federal Aviation Administration guidelines
43:28requiring air traffic controllers to provide multiple sources of wind information to pilots
43:35when we start talking about severe weather
43:41we need to remind the traveling public that airport delays may be a little inconvenience
43:47but those events are kingpin in our environmental factors that cause accidents
43:54the
44:00so
44:01they
44:02are
44:03so
44:04they
44:05are
44:06so
44:08they
44:09are
44:10so
44:11they
44:13are
44:14there