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00:00The world watches in horror when an airliner is turned into a weapon of terror.
00:07American 77 being part of September 11, 2001 was front page news.
00:14A massive blast tears apart a jumbo jet and shocks the world.
00:19TWA jet aircraft flight 800 has exploded in midair.
00:26And a supersonic marvel becomes a flying inferno.
00:30It captured the attention of the world because this was the first major accident involving this airplane.
00:38Three devastating crashes make headline news around the world.
00:42The attention puts intense pressure on investigators to uncover the true cause of these deadly disasters.
00:49We don't care about blame. We don't care about speculation. We want to know what the hard facts really are.
01:00It's nearly 8am at Dulles Airport near Washington DC.
01:29American Airlines Flight 77 will soon be heading to Los Angeles.
01:3839-year-old David Charlebois is the first officer.
01:42Any plans for the big day?
01:45We're going to take in the ball game at Angel Stadium.
01:47Oh yeah? That'll be great.
01:49The captain, Charles Berlingame, turns 52 tomorrow.
01:54He's a former Navy Top Gun pilot with years of experience flying airliners.
01:59Can I help you with that?
02:01The Boeing 757 is less than half full this morning.
02:06There are only 58 passengers and 6 crew on board.
02:11On the roll.
02:14At 8.20am, American Airlines Flight 77 gets underway.
02:20V1.
02:23Broke.
02:23The trip from Washington to Los Angeles is approximately 2,300 miles across the country.
02:38At 8.46, Flight 77 reaches cruising altitude, 35,000 feet.
02:44American Airlines Flight 77, clear direct, Falmouth.
02:52Clear direct, Falmouth, American 77.
02:56The air traffic controllers guide the 757 to the next waypoint en route to Los Angeles.
03:02All right.
03:03Time for a bit more coffee.
03:04But 34 minutes into the flight, controllers notice something odd.
03:19What are you guys doing?
03:22Flight 77 is veering off course.
03:25American 77, center.
03:28At the point where the controller noticed the aircraft take a turn that he did not instruct him to do,
03:33that's when he would become concerned.
03:37Two minutes later...
03:39American 77, radio check.
03:43Flight 77 vanishes from their radars.
03:49Center.
03:51Then a phone call from American Airlines brings unbelievable news.
03:55Thousands of people are feared dead after two planes crash into the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan.
04:07The United States is under attack.
04:14Almost everybody that saw what happened said, this is not an accident.
04:19While the world watches the horrifying news in New York, concern grows over the missing 757.
04:30Supervisor.
04:31Controllers fear they may have another hijacked plane in the sky.
04:34I've got a target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed.
04:37At 9.32, more than half an hour after losing contact with the plane, controllers spot a mysterious radar return.
04:44If it is flight 77, it means the plane has turned back towards Washington.
04:56It's got to be our plane.
04:59Center calling American 77.
05:00American 77.
05:03But the 757 is ignoring all radio calls.
05:06And at 9.35 a.m., the plane slams into the Pentagon.
05:27All 64 people on board are dead.
05:31125 others inside the building are killed.
05:36We have watched the tragedy of an outrageous act of barbaric terrorism carried out by fanatics against both civilians and military people.
05:49American 77 was front-page news and changed America.
05:55It stayed in the news a very long time.
05:59The crash of Flight 77 turns the Pentagon into a federal crime scene.
06:03The FBI is in charge of this investigation.
06:11Because the crime scene is also an aviation crash site, the National Transportation Safety Board joins the high-profile investigation.
06:19Tom Houter was one of the first NTSB investigators at the scene.
06:27The FBI is experts on criminal investigations, and that covers many areas.
06:32They aren't necessarily airplane experts.
06:34While recovery teams raced to find the plane's black boxes, FBI agents gain valuable details about how the plane was turned into a weapon of terror.
06:48Everyone's in the back of the plane!
06:50Now!
06:51Some passengers managed to make phone calls from the air describing their ordeal.
06:58Those phone calls revealed that the hijackers were equipped with box cutters and knives.
07:03They forced the pilots to leave the cockpit.
07:07Please stay calm.
07:08Everybody move to the back.
07:10Prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, all flight crews were told to cooperate with the hijackers and buy for time.
07:19But how did terrorists get weapons past security at a modern airport?
07:24And how were they able to fly a sophisticated airliner straight into the Pentagon?
07:36At the crash site, the exhaustive search effort has paid off.
07:40Agents recover the plane's two black boxes.
07:45If their data can be successfully downloaded, it might reveal what was going on in the cockpit when controllers lost contact.
07:54Center calling American 7-7.
07:56American 7-7.
08:01While investigators wait for the black box data, they scan Flight 77's passenger manifest, checking to see if any suspicious names are listed.
08:12Didn't take too long to figure out who the hijackers were.
08:16The trail leads to five attackers.
08:19But how did they get past airport security?
08:21The computer-assisted passenger pre-screening system flags you if you have certain suspicious indicators.
08:31Investigators wonder if the pre-screening system failed.
08:37They study the records for Flight 77 and discover that the screening system flagged three of the five hijackers for extra security checks.
08:46Yet they still got through.
08:48Customer service and moving people through the airport was the top priority, not security.
08:59A review of airport security video shows one of the hijackers set off an alarm.
09:07Mental detector got the weapon.
09:10An officer scans the suspect with a handheld detector.
09:13When nothing shows up, he's allowed through.
09:20None of the hijackers get a rigorous inspection, and all five board the flight without issue.
09:26At the time, the bar was set very low for individuals coming through the checkpoint.
09:33Knives of no greater than four inches in blade length were allowed on board at the time under FAA policy.
09:41But getting on board was only the first step.
09:46Everyone to the back of the plane!
09:48Now!
09:48The big mystery to solve now is how the hijackers were able to carry out the rest of their murderers' plan.
09:56While the news from 9-11 dominates international headlines,
10:06FBI agents unearth a trail of documents connected to American 77's hijackers.
10:12They come up with a crucial lead.
10:14One of the suspects, Hani Hanjur, spent several years training to become a commercial airline pilot.
10:24Ended up doing flight training in Arizona, and was kind of unusual in his flight training,
10:30because he flunked a lot of checks along the way.
10:34As part of his preparation, Hanjur also practiced on small, private aircraft.
10:41You're done right, American 77.
10:42But flying a sophisticated airliner is very different from piloting a small, private plane.
10:49How did the hijackers steer a 757 towards a target 35,000 feet below?
10:58Investigators hope the plane's flight data will provide some answers.
11:03Unfortunately, the copied voice recorder was too damaged, and no information could be recovered from it.
11:09But we were able to read out the flight data recorder.
11:12Banking left, nice and smooth.
11:19Must be the autopilot.
11:20The data reveals how the hijackers managed to turn the 757 around.
11:26This heading should take us back to D.C.
11:28They relied on the plane's automation.
11:31You don't need to be a pilot at all in the autopilot zone.
11:35He can put a heading into the autopilot.
11:37He can put airspeeds into the autopilot.
11:39Everything can be done for him very smoothly.
11:43Descending now.
11:44But the autopilot isn't pre-programmed to fly to the precise location of the Pentagon.
11:50It's just ahead.
11:52Autopilot off.
11:52Eight minutes from impact, the hijacker must fly the aircraft by hand.
11:57It's quite clear, looking at the data, this is somebody who has never handled a big airplane before.
12:05This guy is really struggling.
12:07Keep it steady.
12:09We're way too high.
12:11We're never going to head it.
12:12To shed altitude, they make a sharp diving turn to the right.
12:16The aircraft can only come out of the sky so fast without breaking up.
12:22So he makes a circle to get the aircraft lower and get it into position to hit the Pentagon.
12:29In the final seconds, they accelerate to top speed, almost to the point of break-up.
12:36The airplane's overspeed warnings are probably going off.
12:40He doesn't care.
12:40He doesn't care.
12:40Investigators now understand the deadly flight path of American 77.
12:58They have no doubt the attack was planned down to the last detail.
13:05Investigators speculate that a flight attendant was forced to hand over the keys to the cockpit.
13:10Open the door.
13:14Cut your throat.
13:15Okay, okay.
13:17There was no time for the pilots to warn authorities.
13:23Once inside the cockpit, investigators believe that hijacker Hani Hanjur took control of the plane.
13:32You have to let me back in the cockpit.
13:34Stay where you are now or die.
13:37I've got a target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed.
13:40By the time controllers spot Flight 77's radar return, the plane is only five minutes from D.C.
13:48There was nothing the controllers could have done.
13:54Oh, my God!
13:559-11 shook us to our core.
14:03Anybody that was of age during that time, it has marked our generation.
14:09The 9-11 attacks bring about the most profound changes ever to commercial aviation, both in the U.S. and around the world.
14:21Just two months after the attacks, the U.S. government creates the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA.
14:32It establishes strict new rules on what passengers can carry on planes.
14:37Airports start screening passengers with full-body scanning machines.
14:44There are also major changes to cockpit security.
14:47The most important takeaway is this.
14:51We must, absolutely must, deny access to the cockpit to anybody who would use the airplane as a weapon.
14:58And we have been marvelously successful in building that kind of defense system.
15:01But not all front-page stories are criminal cases.
15:09An explosion on a passenger jet sends investigators on a four-year search for answers.
15:16People couldn't understand how a modern jetliner could just blow up in flight.
15:22PWA 800 was a front-page story on the news for over 18 months.
15:27It's a hot summer evening at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
15:38Transworld Airlines Flight 800 is delayed due to a baggage problem.
15:47212 passengers are on board the Boeing 747 en route to Paris.
15:51Captain Ralph Kevorkian is an experienced pilot on his second training flight as a 747 captain.
16:07$20 on us getting out of here before sundown.
16:10I'll take that bet.
16:12First officer Steve Snyder has flown for TWA for more than 30 years.
16:21After over an hour, the luggage issue is finally resolved.
16:27Ladies and gentlemen from the flight deck, we've been cleared to go.
16:31We'll be pushing back from the gate shortly.
16:36Takeoff thrust.
16:41At 8.19 p.m., TWA Flight 800 is airborne, steadily climbing to 15,000 feet.
16:49Climb thrust.
16:52Climb thrust.
16:55Power set.
16:59But 11 minutes into the flight, disaster strikes.
17:07Talk to me.
17:08What do you have for it?
17:09In front of the airplane that broke off, the centrifugal force had to be just horrendous as the nose fell down.
17:22What's left of the plane continues skyward, engulfed in flames.
17:28Went up at least another 1,000 feet, maybe 1,500 feet, you know, in flames pouring off of it.
17:35We now know that a TWA aircraft, Flight 800, has exploded in midair, apparently landing in the Atlantic Ocean tonight.
17:54Debris litters the water nearly 75 miles east of Manhattan.
18:02There are no survivors.
18:06A media swarm descends as recovery efforts are underway.
18:10The large debris field tells investigators that the plane likely came apart in midair.
18:18Me and my cousin Joe, we was over by the dock over there.
18:21He said, yo, Darren, look up in the air, there's a big ball of fire.
18:24The high-profile crash of TWA 800 leaves the nation in shock.
18:33Did a bomb take down the plane?
18:37It was so horrific, so many people were lost.
18:39747s do not normally come apart in the air.
18:42So there's something extraordinary that happened here.
18:46The NTSB's lead investigator, Al Dickinson, faces an urgent task.
18:51It was extremely important for us to find out what happened,
18:58because there were so many 747s flying at that time.
19:04The NTSB will lead the investigation.
19:09You can take that just down over there.
19:11But the FBI launches its own parallel criminal inquiry.
19:16Nice to see you.
19:17Just wish it was under better circumstances.
19:19The FBI believes the mid-air explosion could be linked to terrorism.
19:26I'm sure this was a bomb, and that we'll find the evidence of that in this wreckage.
19:30Just keep me posted.
19:32All right.
19:33Three years earlier, in 1993, terrorists drove a bomb into the World Trade Center.
19:40And just one year prior, Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal building in Oklahoma.
19:45NTSB investigators carefully searched the wreckage for any sign of foul play.
19:55No pitting.
19:56No cratering.
19:59Nothing.
20:02Investigators know the plane exploded in mid-air,
20:05but they are convinced this was not a terrorist act.
20:09In a way, it made the safety board's job much more difficult,
20:13because we had to now determine what happened if there was no bomb or missile that caused the airplane to come down.
20:19All right, let's get to it.
20:21But news reports continue to fuel the FBI's terrorism theory.
20:25The pressure is on the NTSB to find the cause and provide answers to grieving families.
20:35Excuse us.
20:39Seven days into the investigation, the Ocean Salvage team makes a major find, the black boxes.
20:47Recovering the CVR and the FDR is very important in every investigation.
20:52The trouble is, you never know what you're going to get.
20:54Technicians in Washington recover the data.
20:59TWA 800.
21:01But it gives investigators little to go on.
21:03Receiving 1,000.
21:05They hear no cockpit alarms or signs of panic from the crew.
21:09Normal conversations in the cockpit, normal readouts in the flight data recorder,
21:15up until a point where a sharp noise was heard, and then nothing after that.
21:21With no help from the flight data, investigators scour the wreckage for clues.
21:29Give me a hand with this.
21:31The wreckage recovery started to teach us some things.
21:33They uncover a piece with significant scorching.
21:39Where it's found tells investigators it was one of the first pieces to come off the plane.
21:44But what part of the plane did it come from?
21:50A piece of Spanwise beam from the center wing fuel tank.
21:56I think this could be it.
21:58It's a discovery that changes the direction of the entire investigation.
22:02The explosion must have started somewhere inside the fuel tank.
22:08To prove their theory that an exploding fuel tank took down TWA 800.
22:14We're going to put all this back together again.
22:16The NTSB decide to attempt something that has never been done before.
22:20We're going to rebuild the entire plane.
22:23Piecing together the shattered 747 will be the only way to convince the world it was not a terrorist attack.
22:30But investigators still don't know what sparked the blast.
22:37If you find evidence of an explosion in a fuel tank,
22:43you have to look for what could cause an explosion to start, and you work backwards.
22:52We need to prove three things.
22:54The fuel was flammable.
22:56The explosion has to be powerful enough to rupture the tank.
23:01And finally, something created a spark to ignite the fuel.
23:06Jet fuel in its liquid form is not flammable.
23:10But when heated, the fuel starts to vaporize.
23:14When combined with oxygen already present in the tank,
23:17this vapor can become highly flammable.
23:19At 14,000 feet, jet fuel needs to reach 96 degrees Fahrenheit to become combustible.
23:32Investigators examine the design schematics of the aircraft.
23:36An intriguing detail catches their eye.
23:38The placement of the air conditioning units were underneath the center tank.
23:45And those generate a fair amount of heat.
23:50On the day of the fatal flight,
23:52the air conditioning units were working extra hard to keep the cabin cool on a hot evening.
23:58Could heat from the units have boosted the temperature inside the tanks to a dangerously high level?
24:04We had to prove that the temperature inside the tank would be flammable.
24:11Because if we couldn't prove that, how is it going to explode?
24:17Only one way to find out.
24:19Investigators decide to recreate the fatal flight.
24:22But it puts them in the same dangerous situation...
24:25Air conditioning on.
24:26...that took down TWA Flight 800.
24:30All right, let's start it up.
24:31Investigators perform a risky flight test.
24:40They need to prove the fuel on board TWA Flight 800 became flammable.
24:47It was a bit disconcerting because we were, in a sense,
24:50in an aircraft that was identical to the accident flight.
24:53Now, if you're going to ask me whether I would do it again,
24:56I'd probably say no.
24:57When the test flight reaches the same altitude as TWA 800...
25:03Holy crow.
25:05This is off the charts.
25:07...the temperature readings in the tank are terrifying.
25:11The air conditioning packs heat the fuel to 127 degrees Fahrenheit,
25:1830 degrees above the flashpoint.
25:20Okay, let's get back down to the ground.
25:26So we've proved flammability.
25:28Now for the second challenge.
25:30Can the tank rupture?
25:32They rig up a scale model of the center wing fuel tank.
25:36Gentlemen, level's good?
25:38They fill the tank with the same ratio of jet fuel
25:42and heat it to the same temperature as on TWA 800.
25:49Investigators then ignite the fuel.
25:55The results are clear.
25:57The explosion creates double the amount of force necessary to rupture the tank.
26:02The tank simply wasn't strong enough to contain a full-scale explosion.
26:10NTSB investigators need one last critical element of proof.
26:15The final question that we had to answer was, what caused the spark?
26:20Investigators take a closer look at the aircraft's electrical system.
26:29After hours of examining the 180 miles of wiring,
26:33they notice a disturbing pattern.
26:36The condition of these wires is abysmal.
26:40High-voltage and low-voltage wires are mixed together,
26:43making it possible for strong currents to travel where they shouldn't.
26:47If you have cross currents into these wires,
26:53something drastic could easily happen.
26:57The condition of the aging wires leads investigators to a logical conclusion.
27:03This was certainly a short circuit.
27:06It was more than enough to create a short circuit
27:09that would go into the fuel tank and ignite the vapors.
27:11And now, we have all the conditions for a fuel tank explosion.
27:21The full sequence of events is now clear.
27:25While idling at the gate for an hour,
27:27the air conditioning system heats the fuel in the center wing tank.
27:31The liquid turns to vapor as its temperature rises above the ignition point.
27:40In the plane's aging electrical system,
27:43some wires are so warm that they short-circuit.
27:47In the blink of an eye,
27:49deadly voltage reaches the fuel probe inside the center wing tank.
27:53And then it blew up.
27:58Talk to me.
28:00What do you have for us?
28:01The NTSB's ambitious reconstruction of TWA 800 is finally complete.
28:15It confirms the investigators' fuel tank explosion theory,
28:20finally putting any bomb conspiracy theories to rest.
28:23I was really pretty proud of the definitive nature
28:27in which we were able to show where the airplane's breakup began.
28:31After more than four years of investigation,
28:35the NTSB recommends in its official report
28:37that all Boeing 747s undergo a review and repair of older wiring.
28:44They also call for additional insulation
28:47between the fuel tanks and the air conditioning system.
28:50There was a lot of design challenges.
28:53There were a lot of certification challenges,
28:55and these recommendations went forward to both the FAA and Boeing.
28:59But it was all hardware-related.
29:01Despite the constant speculation in the news,
29:05the NTSB persevere in finding the true cause.
29:13Just four years later,
29:15investigators face a similar challenge
29:17when another devastating crash makes international news.
29:23one of the busiest airports in Europe
29:31and the only place in France
29:32to catch sight of the world's most famous passenger plane,
29:38Concorde.
29:39Concorde flying was a real show.
29:43I mean, everybody was watching.
29:46It was spectacular.
29:49Air France 4590,
29:51do you want Whiskey 10 or Romeo?
29:53I need all the runway, eh?
29:55Okay, taxi for Romeo.
29:57Air France 4590.
30:00Today, Captain Christian Marti will be flying the Concorde.
30:04Clear on the right.
30:07On the right is clear.
30:09First officer, Jean Marcot, will monitor the instruments.
30:14With more than 23,000 flight hours between them,
30:18Captain Marti and First Officer Marcot
30:20are among the world's most elite pilots.
30:27Air France 4590, runway 26R,
30:30clear for takeoff.
30:34Everybody ready?
30:36Yes.
30:41The Concorde is a technological marvel.
30:44It's the world's only supersonic airliner.
30:50Far green.
30:51Its takeoff speed is 198 knots,
30:5540 knots faster than a 747.
31:01V1.
31:02They've reached V1,
31:03also known as decision speed.
31:06They are now going too quickly
31:07to abort the takeoff.
31:13Watch out!
31:15Suddenly, the plane begins veering left.
31:23They're running out of runway.
31:27Captain Marti has to lift the jet into the air.
31:344590, you have flames behind you.
31:37Roger!
31:42Watch the airspeed.
31:43The plane has lost two of its engines.
31:52No time!
31:55The crew can't outfly the fire
31:57that is rapidly consuming their plane.
32:02No!
32:03The supersonic marvel of modern aviation
32:05crashes into an airport hotel.
32:06All 109 passengers and crew on board Concorde are dead.
32:22Four more people have been killed on the ground.
32:24Everyone had a dream of flying on the Concorde.
32:30And when you saw those horrific pictures,
32:33you had the sinking feeling
32:36that this might be the end
32:37of supersonic travel for a while.
32:39The crash of the Concorde makes headline news around the world.
32:48And all eyes are on French investigator Alain Bouillard,
32:51who leads the inquiry into what caused the first fatal crash
32:55in its 31-year history.
32:57We were dealing with a very complicated plane
33:04that had been completely destroyed by fire.
33:06There were very few pieces left.
33:11Bouillard's team begin their investigation
33:13on runway 26 right.
33:16Looks like they were bleeding fuel.
33:18We became interested in the runway
33:23because the event happened
33:25during the acceleration for take-off.
33:32First of all, it was obvious
33:34that there were traces of fire
33:35that were still visible on the runway,
33:37as well as traces of fuel
33:38and many airplane parts.
33:41So we had to collect all these parts
33:43to preserve them for the investigation.
33:48The two black boxes are recovered
33:49from the crash site.
33:52They are rushed to the lab
33:53to see if their data survived the fire.
33:58Among the runway debris,
34:00something captures Bouillard's attention.
34:04Well, I know this is a piece of the fuel tank.
34:10Among the first pieces recovered from the site
34:12was a part that was quickly identified
34:14as being from one of the fuel tanks.
34:18Concorde has 13 fuel tanks,
34:23one in the tail section,
34:24and 12 more that combine
34:26to fill almost the entire Delta wing.
34:30It means at least one of the plane's 13 fuel tanks
34:34ruptured during take-off.
34:36It must have been a massive fuel leak.
34:41It's the only way to explain a fire like that.
34:45But what could have caused such a massive leak?
34:50Fortunately, technicians have salvaged
34:52the cockpit voice recording.
34:54Okay, let's get going.
34:57Bouillard hopes the pilot's cockpit conversation
35:00will shed some light
35:01on the puzzling collection of leads.
35:03But just before liftoff,
35:10there's a loud noise.
35:12Watch out!
35:14That sounded like some kind of explosion.
35:18Bouillard knows the precise moment
35:20the deadly fire began.
35:22But he still doesn't know what caused it.
35:25Failure! Engine 2!
35:27Because Concorde includes American-made tires...
35:32I would love to get a look at that runway debris.
35:35...the National Transportation Safety Board
35:38sends Bob McIntosh to join the team.
35:42Among the debris found on the runway,
35:44there are large torn pieces of aircraft tire,
35:47some weighing more than nine pounds.
35:50Looks like a blowout.
35:53There's a whole lot of structure
35:55and rubber belt around the tire
35:58that's probably going to separate.
36:01And that's, of course, a potential for damage.
36:06Concorde's tires are reinforced
36:08with a strong rubber belt
36:10and filled with high-pressure nitrogen.
36:12When they rupture,
36:15they can act like small bombs.
36:18Maybe a piece of the tire flew up
36:21and burst the fuel tank
36:23here in the wing.
36:27So what could have caused
36:29a relatively new tire to erupt?
36:33We uncovered many incidents
36:35where tires were punctured or destroyed,
36:37and in some cases, the rims as well.
36:40Investigators take a closer look
36:43at the debris from the runway.
36:48Maybe something cut into the tire.
36:54They discover a strange metal strip.
37:00The shape of the metal strip that we found
37:03was exactly the same shape as the tire debris.
37:05I want to know what this is
37:09and where it came from.
37:11It didn't look like anything
37:13that came from an aircraft to me.
37:16But metallurgical tests show
37:18it was made of lightweight titanium,
37:20often used in aircraft parts.
37:24It's covered in a reddish-orange adhesive
37:26used in aviation repairs.
37:27But it doesn't match any known pieces
37:34of the Concorde.
37:37Investigators work to narrow down
37:38which plane it comes from.
37:40We searched by elimination.
37:48We knew that it was a strip of metal
37:50that didn't come from the Concorde.
37:54Investigators pour over aircraft schematics.
37:59What is this?
38:01The metal strip looks like it could be
38:03from the engine of a DC-10.
38:05Certainly there was a great deal
38:09of anticipation.
38:11Could this be really from a DC-10?
38:15Investigators search through the flight records
38:17for runway 26 right
38:18and make a crucial discovery.
38:21A DC-10 took off
38:23just minutes before the Concorde.
38:28Investigators are convinced
38:29the thin strip of metal fell from that DC-10.
38:32where it ruptured a massive Concorde tire
38:38that fatally burst the fuel tank.
38:41The investigators' theory
38:43may explain one of the most shocking
38:45aviation disasters the world has ever seen.
38:51Now, all they have to do is prove it.
38:59Investigators test their theory
39:00that a metal strip could have burst
39:02the brand-new Concorde tire.
39:05Using an identical tire,
39:07they run over a replica of the metal strip
39:10with a weight equal to flight load,
39:1325 tons.
39:16They get their answer.
39:18You can't ask for a better proof than that.
39:21However,
39:22if a piece of flying debris ruptured the tank,
39:25the tank should be bent from the outside in.
39:27But the tank fragment from the runway
39:30is bent in the opposite way.
39:36Investigators face an unprecedented mystery.
39:39What punctured the Concorde's fuel tank
39:41from the inside?
39:43The only thing in the fuel tank
39:49is the fuel.
39:54Maybe what bears the tank
39:56is the fuel itself.
40:00When a high-speed projectile
40:02hits a container full of liquid,
40:05it can set off a tsunami-like wave
40:07powerful enough to rupture the container
40:09at a different point
40:11from where it was struck.
40:13Set it so the fuel tanks
40:14are completely full.
40:17We are hopes a computer simulation
40:19will show if that's what happened.
40:21Okay.
40:23Let's watch what happens.
40:27Fire.
40:30Investigators work to recreate
40:31the exact moment
40:33the tire fragment hit the fuel tank.
40:35But conditions have to be just right.
40:40Fire.
40:43And when they are...
40:47We've got it.
40:49Well done.
40:50Firing a piece of tire at the tank
40:52can make it burst from the inside out.
40:56It was a revelation to all of us
40:57and indeed a very plausible explanation.
41:00We were convinced
41:04that from the moment
41:05the plane rolled over the metal strip,
41:07a catastrophe was inevitable.
41:11When the tire blows
41:13and the fuel ignites,
41:14the crew faces
41:15an unprecedented dilemma.
41:17At V1 speed,
41:18the massive jet
41:19needs more than a mile to stop.
41:24But there's only
41:25a thousand yards of runway left.
41:27The pilots have no choice
41:29but to put the burning plane
41:31in the air.
41:36Aborting the take-off
41:38at 180 knots
41:39would also have led
41:40to the total destruction
41:42of the aircraft.
41:46Watch the airspeed.
41:48The crew fights hard
41:49to keep the plane flying
41:51right up to the very end.
41:54No!
41:54No!
41:54No!
41:59The accident report
42:05makes a number of recommendations
42:06to make Concorde safer.
42:09Engineers design stronger tires
42:11that can better withstand
42:12the plane's high speed
42:13and immense weight.
42:16Fuel tanks are reinforced
42:18with Kevlar
42:19to prevent leaks.
42:23Airport authorities
42:24also implement
42:25a better system
42:26for monitoring runways
42:27and removing debris.
42:30What is puzzling
42:30is that you have
42:31a piece of metal
42:33on the runway.
42:34It turns out
42:35to trigger
42:36one of the most
42:37catastrophic crashes
42:39in aviation history.
42:41The Concorde does fly again.
42:49But the return
42:50of the world's only
42:51supersonic plane
42:52doesn't last long.
42:55Two years later,
42:56with rising costs
42:57and failing profits,
42:59the Concorde is retired.
43:01It makes its last flight
43:03on November the 26th, 2003.
43:06It was such front-page news
43:10because people were sad.
43:13I think the public realized
43:14it was probably
43:15the end of an era.
43:22When tragedy strikes,
43:25whether in the middle
43:26of an ocean
43:26or in the heart
43:28of a city,
43:29aviation disasters
43:31grip the public's attention
43:32and make headlines
43:34around the world.
43:35What people really
43:36want to know
43:36is they want to know
43:37that somebody's got the facts
43:38and it's being addressed.
43:40So it doesn't happen again.
43:42But even in the midst
43:43of a media frenzy,
43:45investigators persevere
43:47and solve critical cases.
43:50We don't care about blame.
43:51We don't care about speculation.
43:53We want to know
43:54what the hard facts are
43:55and we want to follow it
43:56wherever it beats.
43:56We want to know
43:57how can I killinya?
43:58We want to know
43:59who is going to see
43:59the