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00:01A DC-9 crew lost in the fog at Detroit Airport...
00:05What runway is this?
00:08...ends up on the wrong end of an active runway.
00:11I don't know!
00:20The horrifying collision kills eight people.
00:25A tragic event occurred, but that's just really the tip of the iceberg here.
00:29When investigators dig into the crew's background...
00:32The tower controller said, you were on fire, eject. Bam! Like, wow!
00:37He's a little brash, a little cocky.
00:39...they are shocked by what they uncover.
00:42It's clearly embellishing.
00:44Does the sequence of events leading up to the crash start with the relationship between the pilots?
00:50Are you seeing around 217?
00:52We're not sure.
00:53Yes, we are.
00:54Exit that runway immediately, sir.
00:56E-D-E-D-E-D.
01:02Oh, fuck!
01:043-A-1-0, we're out in the air.
01:06We're in the air.
01:07We're in the air.
01:08We're in the air.
01:09We're in the air.
01:10Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
01:25Parking break.
01:26Set.
01:27The crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 299 prepares to depart for Memphis.
01:40Captain Bob Ouellette, First Officer Bill Hagedorn and their flight engineer have been delayed
01:49for more than an hour by a last minute change of aircraft.
01:52Fasten seat belts is on, checklist complete.
01:59They're finally getting underway.
02:04Northwest 299 was a non-stop flight to Memphis, about a two hour flight.
02:08One of your bread and butter routes for Northwest Airlines at that time.
02:12Detroit's airport is one of the biggest in the US, servicing millions of passengers every year.
02:19It's also the hub of the nation's fourth largest airline, Northwest.
02:26I would describe Wayne County as a pretty busy airport.
02:32Man, I don't think I've ever seen fog this bad.
02:45In the tower, controllers are dealing with fog that's blanketed the entire airport.
02:51It's so thick they can't see the planes they're guiding.
02:55The only way they could know where the aircraft were on the airport was to have the pilots give them positions as to where they were.
03:04Northwest 299 ready to taxi.
03:08Northwest 299 Metro Ground taxi to runway 3 center via Oscar 6 Fox and X-Ray.
03:15Oscar 6 Fox X-Ray going to 3 center, Northwest 299.
03:20The ground controller clears flight 299 to taxi to the active runway 3 center.
03:32It will follow a series of taxiways known as Oscar, Foxtrot and X-Ray that will take it to the runway's threshold.
03:41The whole purpose of taxiways is to provide movement for aircraft kind of like highways to and from the runways themselves.
03:49Basically roadways for aircraft to move around on an airport.
04:04Northwest 299, what's your position now?
04:06Okay, we just turned down onto X-Ray 299.
04:11Roger, switch to tower control 118.4.
04:14Roger.
04:16As flight 299 nears the runway threshold, control of the plane passes from the ground controller to the tower controller.
04:30The 727 is now at the runway threshold preparing for takeoff.
04:36All set to go back there?
04:40Yes, sir. Ready to go.
04:42Okay.
04:44Tell them we're ready to go.
04:46Tower Northwest 299 is ready on the center.
04:49If an aircraft is ready for departure, they will call the tower.
04:53I'll say, we're at the end of the runway, we're ready.
04:56Northwest 299 Metro Tower, runway 3 center, clear for takeoff.
05:02Roger.
05:03Flight 299 is cleared for takeoff.
05:06The 727 is seconds away from leaving the ground.
05:0980 knots.
05:10When a flight crew is in departure mode, advancing the throttles, speed is increasing.
05:16But danger lies ahead.
05:17A DC-9 is stopped halfway down the runway.
05:18The 727 is seconds away from leaving the ground.
05:19The 727 is seconds away from leaving the ground.
05:2080 knots.
05:21When a flight crew is in departure mode, advancing the throttles, speed is increasing.
05:28But danger lies ahead.
05:29A DC-9 is stopped halfway down the runway.
05:31It's carrying 40 passengers.
05:35In the cockpit, Captain Bill Lovelace and First Officer Jim Schiffens are lost in the fog.
05:36This is a runway.
05:37Yeah.
05:38This is a runway.
05:39Yeah.
05:40This is a runway.
05:41Yeah.
05:42This is a runway.
05:43Yeah.
05:44This is a runway.
05:45Yeah.
05:46That is a runway.
05:47That is a runway.
05:48This is a runway.
05:49Uh, there it is.
05:50This is a runway.
05:51And a runway is stopped halfway down the runway.
05:53This is a runway.
05:56And a runway is on the runway.
05:57Captain Bill Lovelace and First Officer Jim Schiffens are lost in the fog.
06:04This is a runway.
06:05Yeah.
06:15Oh, no!
06:18Oh, damn!
06:21There's very little time to avoid a collision.
06:27The pilot turned to the left. Maybe he was actually trying to lift that right wing up over that DC-9.
06:33Don't drop!
06:44Inside the DC-9, it's chaos.
06:51John Izzo, one of the flight's 40 passengers, has no idea what's happened.
06:58There was an explosion, and all I thought was the engine blew him.
07:04He's in shock and unsure what to do.
07:08I sat there for a second. I was kind of dazed.
07:12And then all of a sudden I hear click, click, click. I said, oh, yeah, I guess I better get out of here.
07:16He's stunned by what he sees.
07:20I saw a light, thin light between the fuselage, like it was sliced.
07:25I looked back, and I saw fire coming in the back of the plane, like a blowtorch.
07:35Coming up, I said, I can't stay here.
07:38North West 299 aborting. There's an aircraft on the runway, and we struck his right wing.
07:47Incredibly, damage to the other plane is limited to the wing.
07:52And none of the passengers or crew are injured.
07:55The 727, it was virtually intact, except for a pretty good chunk of one wing.
08:04It's a different story on board the DC-9.
08:14John Iso realizes to his horror that the passenger opposite him did not survive the accident.
08:24Everyone sitting in window seats on that side of the plane is severely injured or dead.
08:30I went to the emergency wing exit, and I was just starting to dismantle it.
08:38And a person jumps in front of me, and he's flailing around there and says, hey, easy, easy.
08:43So I took it out, I threw the door on the wing, I said, go ahead, buddy.
08:46And he went out, starts walking down the wing.
08:51In the tower, controllers are trying to get help to the two damaged airplanes.
08:56Northwest 299. Copy. Emergency vehicles are on the runway.
09:01Northwest 299. Roger.
09:04When you hear about something like this, your heart goes out for the folks that are involved.
09:08Not only the passengers on the aircraft and their families, but also the air traffic facility that was involved.
09:14It's devastating for them.
09:18John Iso has escaped the burning plane through the emergency wing exit.
09:24Come on, let's go. Let's go.
09:25Now he's helping others get away.
09:30I'm on the ground and I saw a gentleman that must either jumped or pushed.
09:34You could tell he broke his leg.
09:36So I went over and I got him, moved him away from the plane.
09:38As the inferno rages on, firefighters and emergency response teams race to the scene.
09:55But the heavy fog makes their job much harder.
09:58The aircraft was virtually burned out. The passenger department was gutted.
10:08We knew we were going to lose a lot of evidence because of the fire.
10:12The accident site is a scene of complete devastation.
10:15Good evening. It was a nasty day at the Detroit airport. Rain and fog and confusion.
10:26Confusion that ended with a collision and death.
10:29Two Northwest airliners trying to take off clipped each other.
10:31John Iso survives, but eight other passengers are killed, making it the deadliest incident of its kind on U.S. soil in almost two decades.
10:48A collision on a runway is known as a runway incursion since one of the planes is clearly not where it should be.
10:54Runway incursions are a particularly difficult problem. The reason is, is that aircraft on runways are traveling at such high rates of speed.
11:06If the aircraft come into contact there, there's going to be many fatalities.
11:17The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, opens an investigation into the accident.
11:24The 727's wing sliced right through the fuselage.
11:28Bob Benzen will lead the investigation.
11:31We obviously knew what happened in a gross sense.
11:35Two aircraft came together and a tragic event occurred.
11:39For Benzen, the incident is an eerie reminder of an investigation from 13 years earlier.
11:47It was the worst accident in aviation history.
11:50It was the worst accident in aviation history.
11:57March, 1977.
12:01Two Boeing 747 jumbo jets collided on the resort island of Tenerife.
12:06The crash occurred when a KLM jet initiated its take-off run, while a Pan Am jet, caught in thick fog, was taxiing on the same runway.
12:19Five hundred and eighty-three people were killed.
12:38The accident at Tenerife affected everybody in aviation.
12:50It's always in the back of your mind that this could happen, that an airplane can inadvertently take off on a runway.
12:57That's not clear.
12:58Since fog was a significant factor in the Tenerife disaster, investigators need to find out what role the weather played in the Detroit accident.
13:10Operations investigator Richard Rodriguez joins the investigation.
13:15From the Weather Service reports, the visibility was a big problem at Detroit on this morning.
13:22Visibility was three-quarters of a mile an hour before the accident, but then it drops to a quarter-mile.
13:29A quarter-mile was the minimum.
13:32We did understand that it was very, very foggy out there, so our job was to try to figure out the overall condition of the weather at the airport,
13:42and then most specifically at the departure end of the take-off runway.
13:45He learns that in the minutes before the collision, visibility dropped to the minimum level allowed at the airport.
13:54Everybody agreed that the visibility was at least one-quarter mile, and that would allow operations to continue.
14:02Before the accident, every other aircraft that took off had no problem at all finding the end of the proper runway and departing.
14:10But our men in the DC-9 didn't do this.
14:15Investigators need to find out exactly how the DC-9 ended up in the path of an oncoming 727.
14:23Did air traffic control lead them astray?
14:27We're hoping to find out from the controllers what they are thinking as they issue instructions to the crew.
14:33I cleared them to use Oscar 6, Foxtrot and X-ray to runway 3 center.
14:42The ground controller gave Captain Lovelace and First Officer Schiffen's specific instructions on how to get to the runway.
14:49North West 1482 taxi to Oscar 6 to Foxtrot, report making the right turn on X-ray.
14:57Oscar 6 to Foxtrot, report X-ray.
15:03They learned that the DC-9 and the 727 were both supposed to follow the same route.
15:09It seemed to be going smoothly at first.
15:14North West 1482, what's your position now?
15:17But when asked for an update from the DC-9's crew...
15:21We're headed eastbound on Oscar 6 here.
15:26Ah, eastbound on Oscar 6.
15:30Their position report didn't make any sense.
15:35They announced that they were eastbound on Oscar 6, which was an impossibility.
15:41It's a northwest, southeast-oriented taxiway.
15:44You can tell by the comments that were made by the crew that they had no idea where they were.
15:50OK, I think we might have missed Oscar 6.
15:52I see a sign here that says, uh, the Aeros to Oscar 5.
16:07The folks in the tower realized that the pilots in the DC-9 were probably becoming a little confused about where they were.
16:12Instead of going straight down Oscar 6, the aircraft turned left and approached taxiway Oscar 5.
16:25The controller pinned down their location to be on the outer taxiway at Oscar 5.
16:31I realized they had made a wrong turn, so I gave them directions to get them back on track.
16:36Northwest 1482 at Oscar 4.
16:38Make the right turn onto X-ray, report crossing 927.
16:45The DC-9 was then directed to continue straight to Oscar 4, turn right onto X-ray, cross inactive runway 927, and then follow X-ray back to the runway for takeoff.
17:01Roger. At Oscar 4, make the right turn onto X-ray.
17:04The DC-9 radioed back, OK, I understand, or something to that effect.
17:09And everybody calmed down and thought that they had straightened everything out.
17:14But somehow, five minutes later, flight 1482 ended up right in the middle of the active runway.
17:21An airplane to be on an active runway, when they shouldn't. Somebody did something wrong.
17:33Investigators need to know what happened in those five minutes.
17:39They interview the crew, starting with Captain Bill Lovelace.
17:46The captain was kind of a mild-mannered fellow. He loved to fly.
17:50We hoped we would find out, why did you miss all this and wind up on an active runway?
17:57I wasn't familiar with the layout of the taxiways and runways.
18:02They learn he was new to the airport in Detroit.
18:05So I asked my first officer, where have you been flying out of?
18:13Where have you been flying out of?
18:15Memphis and Detroit.
18:17Good. You can help me find my way around these taxiways here in Detroit.
18:20I sure can.
18:21I thought, great, someone in the co-pilot's seat who knows where he's going.
18:26But we still got lost somehow.
18:30The first officer had bragged about his knowledge of the airport.
18:34That would have enhanced the likelihood that the captain would have trusted the first officer to help navigate in Detroit.
18:42So why wasn't the first officer able to guide the DC-9 across Detroit Airport?
18:48The investigators hope Jim Schiffens, the first officer on the DC-9, can give them the answer.
18:56He was a little brash, perhaps a little cocky.
19:01I wouldn't say a know-it-all, but he'd been around the horn.
19:05Captain Lovelace misunderstood.
19:09What I meant was, I knew the procedures for pushing back from the gate, not the physical layout of the airport.
19:15They learned the first officer was also inexperienced with the taxiways at Detroit.
19:22It's hard to look at what the first officer did, feigning confidence about his knowledge.
19:28It was clearly unsupported when he himself wasn't sure.
19:32Investigators conclude the first officer misled the captain, intentionally or not, about his knowledge of the airport.
19:39The captain can be faulted for excessively trusting the first officer.
19:45The first officer clearly contributed by claiming expertise that he did not have.
19:50How did we end up with two guys in the cockpit who don't know the way around?
19:53Investigators now wonder why neither pilot knew the layout of Detroit's airport, a major hub for Northwest Airlines, the company where they both worked.
20:05Our DC-9 crew was really not familiar with the Detroit airport.
20:11And then you bring in all the other things, like low visibility, it all comes together to create a dangerous situation.
20:19Investigators try to understand why neither of the pilots of Flight 1482 knew the layout of Detroit airport.
20:34Are there gaps in their training or experience that could account for it?
20:46They study the personnel files of the DC-9's crew.
20:51Medical leave. The captain has been on medical leave for six years.
20:58Six?
20:59Yeah.
21:01He just started back to work.
21:05In fact, Flight 1482 was his first unsupervised flight since resuming his duties.
21:12He was very grateful to get back to work.
21:16He knew he had catching up to do because the procedures had changed, modernized.
21:24Investigators then look into First Officer Schiffen's background.
21:29They discover he was an ex-military pilot who had joined Northwest earlier that year.
21:35The first officer had an Air Force background, B-52s and T-38 Talons, and quite an extensive experience.
21:43He also was an experienced pilot, except not in the DC-9.
21:47He only had a few hundred hours at most in the right seat of a DC-9.
21:55Both pilots had tons of experience, but they were both new recruits to Northwest.
21:59That doesn't explain how they got lost on a routine taxi.
22:05The pilot's experience alone doesn't provide enough clues to determine what went wrong during a routine taxi.
22:14Investigators need to look elsewhere.
22:18It was paramount for us to try to figure out exactly where the DC-9 was almost to the second during the whole sequence of events here.
22:27We had some help from the tower, not a lot, because they couldn't see what was going on.
22:31By listening to the cockpit voice recording, investigators hope they will be able to figure out where the DC-9 went astray.
22:44All ready?
22:46Yeah.
22:48Let's begin.
22:49I haven't even got a uniform yet.
22:55Even before 1482 pushes back from the gate, investigators hear a conversation that gets their attention.
23:03Not even a jacket.
23:05Captain Lovelace had returned to flying so recently, he hadn't yet received the Northwest uniform.
23:12Nah, only got my old company's jacket.
23:14The cockpit voice recorder recorded the last half hour of voices in the cockpit.
23:20So we got to know a little bit more about the crew members in a more casual setting before they really started taxiing.
23:27One thing I miss, I've always flown with an ejection seat.
23:31I've used it twice.
23:36As the pilots waited, the first officer began to boast about his military service.
23:41Yeah, I bet that was scary when you punched out.
23:45Yeah.
23:46I got shot down once over Southeast Asia, and I didn't have time to get scared.
23:52Oh, is that right?
23:54And then, uh, when I was flying T-38s one time, I had an engine fire.
23:59Tower controller said, you were on fire at Jack.
24:02Bam! Like, wow.
24:04Wow.
24:06At that time in the NTSB, a lot of us had military backgrounds.
24:10He and I were in the same place at nearly the same time, so my ears perked up.
24:15How long were you in the service?
24:1720 years.
24:19Retired as a lieutenant colonel.
24:21Okay, you can stop it there.
24:25Is he some kind of war hero?
24:27Sounds like it.
24:29Let's look at his military record, check out his story.
24:31To bail out or reject out of two different airplanes, you know, that's very rare.
24:39So it started to make me look a little askance at what's going on.
24:46Investigators wonder if the first officer was being honest about his military record.
24:50They study his military discharge form.
24:54Check this out.
24:56He's clearly embellishing.
24:58It turns out that he didn't bail out of any aircraft at any time.
25:03He said that he retired as a lieutenant colonel.
25:07Well, in fact, he retired as a major.
25:09We even have a phrase for that, stolen valor.
25:13It kind of set things on edge a little bit for us.
25:16Why would he lie?
25:18That's a good question.
25:20Benzen rechecks the first officer's file for any clue.
25:25Why would somebody give themselves a higher status than they were really entitled to?
25:31Why would they brag about things that didn't happen to them?
25:33He was still on probation.
25:34So he needed the captain to give him a good report.
25:36I think the first officer was bragging to impress the captain, because the first officer was still in his probation stage, and a bad mark would be tantamount to not getting a career with Northwest Airlines.
25:58The boasting is not normal for a professional commercial pilot, but it doesn't explain the cause of the crash.
26:09No coming!
26:16Let's continue.
26:20After sitting at the gate for 40 minutes, the DC-9 gets the call to taxi.
26:25Northwest 1482, right turn out of parking taxi to runway 3 center, exit ramp at Oscar 6.
26:33Okay, let's see where they go.
26:36And let's confirm any directional changes with the FDR data.
26:40Investigators combine the cockpit voice recording with the heading changes from the flight data recorder from Northwest Flight 1482 to better understand the plane's every movement on the ground.
26:51Every time the compass swung, we could see the aircraft turning almost in our minds.
26:57It had to be on this taxiway if it's this heading. It had to be on this taxiway if it's another heading. So it worked out well.
27:03Three center, exit the ramp at Oscar 6. Did you get all that?
27:07Yeah, but I'm going to need you to have it.
27:08Just kind of wind around here and Oscar 6 is going to be right around the corner here.
27:12Okay.
27:14Just kind of stay on the ramp here.
27:16Okay, Jim, you just watch, make sure I go the right way.
27:26Okay.
27:30Investigators discover that as they began to taxi, Captain Lovelace asked his first officer to navigate.
27:37The first officer was correct in offering up help to the captain, and the captain was correct in accepting the help.
27:45I mean, this is just the way things should work. This didn't surprise us.
27:50Uh, left turn or right turn?
27:53Yeah, well, this is the inner taxiway here. We're still going for Oscar 6.
27:57So, left turn?
27:59Left turn.
28:00Yeah.
28:11So, when they should go straight through Oscar 6, they turn off it and go east.
28:20Seems like the first officer is calling the shots.
28:29Just keep going straight.
28:31Okay.
28:33It was a gradual thing at first.
28:35The first officer was kind of taking on a bit more responsibility, a bit more, a bit more, and then he started to direct the taxi itself.
28:44We're headed eastbound on Oscar 6 here.
28:47Just as the controller said, you can't go east on Oscar 6. Oscar 6 runs north-south.
28:55Northwest 1482, you were on the outer taxiway.
28:59Yeah, that's right.
29:01The investigators next hear the course correction that was supposed to get flight 1482 back on track.
29:09Northwest 1482, at Oscar 4, take the right turn on X-ray. Report crossing 927.
29:18Roger. At Oscar 4, make the right turn onto X-ray.
29:22The DC-9 crew was definitely told to continue eastbound and make a hard right turn onto X-ray to get back on track.
29:36The captain is now relying completely on his first officer.
29:37Once you break down the dialogue between the captain and the first officer in the DC-9, it becomes very obvious that this role reversal was going to happen.
29:39So, what do we do here?
29:40So, what do we do here?
29:41You make the right turn and report crossing 27.
29:42The captain is now relying completely on his first officer.
29:54Once you break down the dialogue between the captain and the first officer in the DC-9, it becomes very obvious that this role reversal was pretty total.
30:07By the time the accident occurred, the reversal was complete.
30:10There's Oscar 4, and this is X-ray.
30:20The first officer was pulling him around by the nose, so to speak, and the captain was simply going along.
30:27As a personal note, I liked the captain very much.
30:32He was a very sweet and gentle person.
30:36But that was sort of his undoing, the fact that he did not exercise his authority in any forceful way.
30:43Let's hold there.
30:48But did that passiveness cause them to miss the crucial right turn?
30:54OK, so the last instruction was that Oscar 4 turn right onto X-ray.
31:01Northwest 1482, cross 927.
31:06This is... should be 927.
31:12You're sure?
31:14That's what he said.
31:17Yeah.
31:18Yeah, this is 927.
31:20In the fog, the crew is still struggling to follow the controller's directions to get back to the runway.
31:27Right over here, then.
31:30Yeah, that way.
31:35I think we're on X-ray here now.
31:40There is no way they're on X-ray.
31:42They never make it onto X-ray.
31:44The investigators learned the DC-9 crew wasn't able to navigate the critical right turn onto X-ray.
31:57That turn onto X-ray was quite a difficult turn.
32:00It was not a 90 or 70 degree turn that pilots are used to.
32:03It was about 120 degrees.
32:06What runway is this?
32:08Turn left over there.
32:11Now, wait, wait. That's a runway, too.
32:13They are totally disoriented.
32:18Tell them we're out here. We're stuck.
32:21Somehow, they've made it here.
32:25We've got two planes facing each other on the same runway.
32:29But there's signs and surface markings all along here.
32:37I don't get it.
32:39When an aircraft gets lost on the airfield, usually the pilots will spot signs or something like that,
32:45help clarify the position in the controller's mind of where the aircraft is exactly.
32:50Investigators are baffled.
32:53Why didn't the airport's signage and runway marks prevent the pilots from losing their way?
33:00This is a runway.
33:09To better understand why the crew of a DC-9 couldn't follow the signage at Detroit Metropolitan Airport...
33:16Let's do this.
33:17Investigators retrace their route.
33:22The only way to fix this in our minds was to perform what we call a taxi demonstration.
33:27We get in a DC-9, taxi around the same route that the accident aircraft taxi down.
33:34Wow. Will you look at that?
33:37At the Oscar 6 intersection, where Flight 1482 made the initial wrong turn, Rodriguez finds something disturbing.
33:45They discover that the yellow taxi center line the DC-9 was supposed to follow is badly faded.
33:54We noted things like painted markings on the taxiways that were worn in places.
34:01I could barely see it on a bright day.
34:05It was obvious that if we got confused in broad daylight with no fog, perfect visibility, that the issue was more acute when you could barely see your hand in front of your face out there.
34:20Now investigators make their way to the Oscar 4 intersection, where the DC-9 crew failed to make that critical right turn.
34:34So which way is the Oscar 4 sign point? Right or straight ahead?
34:42We're straight ahead.
34:48Rodriguez discovers the signage at the intersection is deficient.
34:56It was amazing, the problems with the signage.
34:59When you get to Oscar 4, it's just a very wide mass of concrete with no lighting and no indications of where they are.
35:06Now we're supposed to turn right on X-ray.
35:22It's actually back there.
35:26The investigators find that if the plane actually reaches the Oscar 4 intersection, they've already missed the right turn to get onto X-ray.
35:36And the only right turn here, it gets you onto the active runway.
35:44The team determines the signage on Oscar 4 contributed to the DC-9 crew getting lost.
35:52Instead of turning right on X-ray, the crew passed X-ray and turned up the active runway instead.
35:59We're out here, we're stuck. We can't see anything, but I believe we're on a runway.
36:05Okay, are you on the taxiway or the runway?
36:09Ground, it looks like we're on 2-1 center here.
36:13Northwest 1482, you say you're on 2-1 center?
36:16I believe we are, we're not sure.
36:19Yes, we are.
36:21Northwest 1482, exit that runway immediately, sir.
36:24When you have multiple intersecting runways, the only way for pilots to really be certain of where they are is to have unmistakable signs that offer pilots clear and readily interpretable information.
36:39And that's what was missing in this accident.
36:44But there's still an unanswered question about the tragedy.
36:48Northwest 1482, exit that runway immediately, sir.
36:51Once flight 1482 reported being on the runway, why didn't air traffic control stop the other plane from taking off?
36:59They should have been able to stop that aircraft and avoid a collision completely.
37:08For them!
37:10AutoComp!
37:16To understand what happened just before the crash.
37:19Yes, absolutely no question about that.
37:21Investigators interview the tower controller responsible for clearing the 727 for takeoff.
37:30We found out there was a plane on the runway.
37:37The DC-9's crew informed the ground controller, sitting next to the tower controller, that they were lost on the runway.
37:44Northwest 1482, exit that runway immediately, sir.
37:48I've got a lost aircraft out here.
37:50It may be on the runway.
37:52Okay, all aircraft on this frequency, just stop. Stop your taxi right now, please.
37:56Investigators learned the ground controller stopped all taxiing traffic around the airport.
38:02But the 727 had already switched to a different radio frequency and didn't hear that instruction.
38:08The tower controller never issued his own warning to the crew.
38:15The tower controller had a decision to make and decided to not do anything, not say anything for the aircraft.
38:26Investigators now question the tower controller about why he didn't warn the 727 that there was a DC-9 lost on the runway ahead of them.
38:36I thought they were already airborne.
38:40The controller said nothing because he figured that the 727 had already taken off and was airborne.
38:48Because it had been a full minute since he cleared the 727, the tower controller thought the plane had taken off.
38:56But the 727 was still at the runway threshold.
38:59I think they would have been able to stop that aircraft or at least eased over to the left side of the runway as they continued to roll out in an aborted takeoff.
39:11Now investigators need to know why it took the 727 so long to begin its takeoff.
39:17Let's hear it.
39:23They listened to the plane's cockpit voice recorder to determine what happened just before the plane began its takeoff roll.
39:29They learned that shortly after getting permission to takeoff.
39:40Final items. Anti-skid. On.
39:44The crew of the 727 delayed takeoff to perform a final checklist.
39:50Takeoff check complete.
39:58With thick fog obscuring the runway, the tower controller did not know they had not yet taken off.
40:04But was the checklist the only factor that affected the plane's takeoff?
40:12Definitely not a quarter mile.
40:15Investigators also discovered that the pilots noticed the fog was getting worse.
40:21They knew that they needed one fourth of a mile of visibility, forward visibility, before they could takeoff.
40:29But when they got to the end of the runway, it became very, very iffy whether they had that type of visibility.
40:38But nonetheless, they went ahead and took off.
40:41Investigators finally think they know what happened on the day of the collision.
40:56Now what runway is this?
41:01This is a runway.
41:03Yeah. Turn left over there.
41:06No way, this is runway 2.
41:10A dysfunctional and disoriented DC-9 crew mistakenly taxied onto an active runway.
41:1580 knots.
41:16A 727 crew took off in visibility it knew was below minimums.
41:30I've got a lost aircraft out here. It may be on the runway.
41:38Okay, all aircraft on this frequency, just stop. Stop your taxi right now, please.
41:45And a tower controller failed to warn the 727 crew about the lost plane on the runway,
41:51because he thought the 727 was already airborne.
41:55Oh, no.
41:57Oh, damn!
41:58It took all of these things in sequence for this accident to happen.
42:01And that's one of the things that makes it unusual.
42:04Not just the number of errors, but their uniqueness and what it says about human interactions.
42:10That is really remarkable.
42:11Donald Duck!
42:13Donald Duck!
42:14Oh!
42:19Oh, my God!
42:20Oh, my God!
42:25Oh, my God!
42:31Oh, my God!
42:32In the end, almost everybody involved in this accident did something wrong.
42:43There really just are no heroes in this one.
42:48And flying was my life.
42:54Captain Bill Lovelace never worked as an airline pilot again.
42:58Neither did First Officer Jim Schiffens.
43:03He became a first responder and firefighter.
43:08In the aftermath of the crash, Detroit Metropolitan Airport improved signage
43:14and now uses highly visible reflective paint for all airfield markings.
43:20All U.S. airports are required to use the same signage to avoid confusion.
43:26The confusing Oscar 4 intersection was rebuilt.
43:34Dozens of U.S. airports have installed new technologies
43:37that allow controllers to monitor taxiing aircraft.
43:42Ground radar with audible and oral warnings as well
43:45to tell controllers of an impending collision
43:47is in place at most major airports at this point in time.
43:52That's gone a long ways to preventing actual collisions from happening.
43:55Dozens of U.S. airports are required to use the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the same signage for the