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  • 6/17/2025

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00:00A top diplomat on a secret mission flies into a mystery that will linger for decades.
00:19It's just not possible that Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a common accident.
00:24It had to be something more.
00:27Victory leads to tragedy.
00:29My God, please help us, please help us, oh God.
00:31When pilots gamble with the lives of celebrated football players.
00:35Total electrical failure.
00:39The physics of flying aren't going to change just because someone important is in the back of the airplane.
00:45A US Air Force jet carrying an American VIP crashes in a war-torn country.
00:53Was there some political issues that may have been involved?
00:57Once the airplane shot down.
00:59Three crashes, all with high-profile passengers.
01:03Can investigators withstand the scrutiny?
01:05That's what the investigators are facing.
01:07They know that they'll get the answers, but they need to be able to show the world the process that led them to those answers.
01:13nicht mehr geht, nicht mehr geht, nicht mehr geht.
01:23A United Nations transport plane, the Albertina, is on a vital mission in Central Africa.
01:47Estimate of beam Endola at 2347, arrival time 0020.
01:56The destination is Endola Airport in the British colony of northern Rhodesia.
02:03Controllers and local dignitaries anxiously await the arrival of one of the most important people in the world.
02:12On board the DC-6 is United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld.
02:17At least they're willing to talk. What else do we know about their latest demands?
02:23He's flying in from Congo to hold peace talks with a rebel leader.
02:28Hammarskjöld and most likely members of his entourage on board were pretty aware that this is a difficult mission.
02:38It was a Secretary General for whom a physical risk was integral part of his job.
02:45The United Nations Security Council meeting again to deal with the difficult and dangerous Congo situation.
02:52Congo in the early 60s was of utmost priority in the Cold War. It was of top-tier strategic importance.
03:02A bloody civil war has erupted there. And world powers including the US and the Soviet Union are backing opposing factions.
03:14Hammarskjöld hopes to resolve the deadly conflict and help reunite Congo.
03:19All right. Descending to 6,000. No traffic ahead.
03:286,000. Yes, sir.
03:30The captain of the Albertina is 35-year-old Per Hallenquist.
03:34Our visibility should be pretty good once we get down there.
03:3729-year-old Lars Litton is Hallenquist's first officer.
03:42All right. Give me 2,000 RPM and 20 inches. Minimum descent altitude.
03:49That's 5,000 feet, but we'll have the runway and stay long before then.
03:55The flight left Congo's capital, Leopoldville, just over six hours ago.
04:02They made arrangements in the route of the plane to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
04:09To prevent an ambush, it's flown an indirect route and a flight plan has not been filed.
04:16The pilots have maintained radio silence for most of the flight.
04:21Are you staying in Andola?
04:25They don't know who might be listening in.
04:28Negative.
04:30There were opportunities for counter forces to perhaps shoot at aircraft that were on final approach.
04:40The secretary general and his delegation should be on the ground in about 10 minutes.
04:46Your light's in sight. Overhead, Andola.
04:50Descending.
04:52Roger. Report reaching 6,000 feet.
04:55Roger.
04:56Okay. They're 10 minutes away.
05:02The plane needs to fly past Andola Airport and circle back to land on its only runway.
05:10At that point, the peace mission can begin.
05:13Moments later, controllers in Andola are becoming increasingly concerned.
05:22Albertina, Andola Tower, do you read?
05:26The secretary general's plane is overdue.
05:29The plane carrying one of the most important people in the world is missing.
05:43At first light, a search plane heads out.
05:48On a slope nine miles from the airport, searchers notice a gash in the trees.
06:07The flight clearly ended with a violent impact and an intense fire.
06:13When local authorities arrive, they find bodies amidst badly scorched wreckage.
06:23Dag Hammersholt is dead.
06:25The secretary general had been a very famous guy, a champion of world peace.
06:31So this was a major world event.
06:35I know that I'm speaking for all of my fellow Americans, expressing our deep sense of shock and loss in the untimely death of the secretary general of the United Nations, Mr. Dag Hammersholt.
06:47The cold war politics surrounding the flight to Andola lead many to speculate that the secretary general's plane was shot down.
07:01Was there anyone who wanted to see Hammersholt dead?
07:06Where do you want me to start and where to end?
07:11Rhodesian investigators search for clues.
07:13A difficult task because 80% of the fuselage is melted.
07:26Wrist watches damaged by the sudden impact reveal the exact time of the crash.
07:3212.13.
07:33The secretary general's plane hit the ground three minutes after its last radio transmission.
07:40Your lights in sight.
07:42Overhead Andola descending.
07:44Critical questions about the flight's final moments cannot be answered by a voice or data recorder.
07:50The DC-6 was not equipped with either.
07:53The only chance of getting a first-hand account of what happened rests with a sole survivor, security officer Harold Julian.
08:07It blew up.
08:08He states that the plane blew up before it crashed.
08:17Then there was the crash.
08:19He was not in good shape after the accident.
08:23It's hard to measure the value of his statement.
08:27Investigators hope Julian can provide more details.
08:33But he dies five days after the accident.
08:37Did it really blow up before the crash, like he says?
08:44Investigators comb through the DC-6, looking for evidence that may reveal if it was ripped open by machine gun fire or a missile.
08:53And they test for the presence of explosives.
09:00But come up empty.
09:02They divided the metal parts in small pieces and so on.
09:07And they didn't find anything in that way.
09:10What's more, when investigators study key pieces of wreckage from the DC-6,
09:16everything indicates that the plane was making a routine landing.
09:23Flaps 30.
09:25Flaps 30.
09:27The landing gear was down.
09:29The flaps were extended.
09:31Okay, speed down to 120 knots.
09:41Rhodesian investigators find no evidence of an attack,
09:45or any other type of foul play.
09:47For now, the cause of the crash that killed Dag Hammersholt
09:54remains a mystery.
09:57According to the chart, it should have been 6,000 feet here.
10:09Investigators working on the crash of Dag Hammersholt's plane
10:12now study the navigational chart for Undola.
10:15It tells them that at the location where the Albertina crashed,
10:21it should have been at an altitude of 6,000 feet.
10:24He should have been nearly 1,700 feet above the treetops.
10:29Damage to the trees indicates the plane did not dive to the ground,
10:37but rather came in at a shallow angle.
10:42Investigators wonder, how did the Albertina end up so low?
10:45The transcript says, your lights in sight, overhead,
10:50Nedola, descending.
10:52Roger.
10:54Report reaching 6,000.
10:56The transcript of the radio conversation between the pilots
10:59and the controller clearly shows that less than 10 minutes
11:02before hitting the ground, the crew had the airport in sight
11:06from a safe altitude.
11:08Your lights in sight, overhead, Nedola.
11:10But the transcript reveals something else, a single unexpected word.
11:16Descending.
11:18The Albertina was already descending when it flew past the airport.
11:23But it should have been maintaining its altitude.
11:26He's continuing to shed altitude here and keeps descending
11:32until he hits the hill here at an altitude of 4,290 feet.
11:38For some reason, the pilots began their descent too early.
11:44It's unfathomable that there was any intention to be below 5,000 feet
11:50at that point in the approach.
11:53These guys are experienced.
11:56It's tough to see how they could have screwed this up.
11:58Investigators can't explain what they've just discovered.
12:01Is it possible Dag Hammersholt died because the pilots were unaware of the elevation of the terrain below them?
12:11Your attention to detail, your altitude awareness needs to be extremely high.
12:17I'll stop short of the terminal. You can have the Secretary General disembark there.
12:21The margins are very small. It's a matter of seconds before they hit the ground.
12:26They're going down! Brakes! Brakes!
12:31The Rhodesian investigators have reached a conclusion that will be debated for decades.
12:46The pilots lost track of their altitude and flew the plane into the ground.
12:58Three other reports on the crash agree. There's no evidence of an assassination.
13:03The Hammersholt file is closed.
13:08It's a big thing when a Secretary General of the United Nations dies in an aeroplane crash. A very big thing.
13:1740 years later, in 2011, the mystery is reignited when former US intelligence officers make a stunning claim.
13:28Dag Hammersholt's death was no accident.
13:30On the night of the crash, one of those officers, Paul Abram, was working for the National Security Agency at a signal monitoring base in Crete.
13:40He claims to have heard a remarkable recording.
13:43The most important chatter came down to, we have the plane in sight.
13:47Yes, we've checked. It's the plane.
13:51I've hit it. There are flames. It's crashing.
13:58Dag Hammersholt was murdered. Period. He was shot down.
14:03The claims lead to a fresh look at the evidence.
14:08In 2013, Sven Hammerberg joins a new investigation looking for answers for the United Nations.
14:17My task was to look into the details and see if there were any new information available.
14:26And I was asked to evaluate the investigations that had been performed before.
14:31When I look into the basic facts around the crash, I look at the trees and the crash site and the statements over radio and so on.
14:45Okay.
14:47To re-evaluate the previous investigations, Hammerberg studies the terrain around Ndola Airport.
14:54He notes the heights of the hills.
14:59He compares what he finds to what's shown on the chart used by the UN pilots.
15:06And he makes a shocking discovery.
15:08There's a hill here. A hill here. A hill here. A hill here. But there's nothing marked here.
15:21Here. Where the crash site is.
15:27The terrain around the airport includes hills west of Ndola that rise to more than 4,300 feet.
15:34But they're not on the chart.
15:37The crew might have been unaware of the height west of the fields and there were no signs of it on the chart.
15:46Sven Hammerberg believes he knows what went wrong during the final three minutes of the flight.
15:53And it has nothing to do with assassins.
15:56Overhead Ndola.
15:58Descending.
15:59Descending.
16:02Passing the airport, the pilots descend below the minimum safe altitude of 5,000 feet.
16:0840,000 feet.
16:12As they turn back towards the runway,
16:14They suddenly lose sight of the runway lights.
16:21I don't have the runway in sight.
16:24The pilots don't realize that a hill is blocking their view.
16:28Because the hill isn't marked on their chart.
16:31Before they even know they're in danger, it's too late to save themselves.
16:35Going down!
16:36Going down!
16:37Going down!
16:38Blakes!
16:39Blakes!
16:40Blakes!
16:41Blakes!
16:42I think that all the ingredients of a controlled flight into terrain, they are there.
16:57To finally put the issue to rest, investigators request NSA files and audio recordings from the night of the crash.
17:06The answer was that they remain classified as top secret and will not be released.
17:15Given my knowledge of the recordings, tape logs, facsimiles, etc. that they have concerning this incident,
17:23I'm not the least surprised that they haven't been released.
17:28It's just in their nature.
17:32It's been over 50 years since the mysterious crash.
17:37And in 2019, a UN report accuses several nations, including the United States, of withholding critical information.
17:47And without access to those records, doubts about the cause of the crash remain.
17:53The common thing about VIP flights in general is they tend to be non-routine flights.
17:59And oftentimes the mission has a few nuances that make it sometimes more dangerous.
18:05And given that this was an airport where the crew had never flown in before, there were several risk factors involved here.
18:12So in a sense, this was a more unsafe flight than was necessary.
18:17But any lessons learned from the Albertina crash are forgotten when a charter flight is within sight of the runway and a football team's dream comes to a horrifying end.
18:29It's just before sunset in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
18:35La Mia Flight 2933 is about to take off.
18:39On board is Brazil's underdog football team, Chapecoense.
18:43Colombia, here we come!
18:44The team is heading to Colombia to play in their first ever final in the prestigious Copa Sudamericana.
18:53We were always a really united team, a team that wanted the best for everyone.
19:03We were a family, and that made us strong.
19:06The team has hired a small Bolivian airline called La Mia to take it to Colombia.
19:19V1, rotate.
19:22The plane departs Santa Cruz, Bolivia at 6.18pm.
19:26It's a 1,600-mile trip to Rio Negro, just outside Medellin, Colombia, the site of the championship game.
19:39Captain Miguel Quiroga and First Officer Fernanda Goitia are veteran Bolivian pilots with more than 6,000 flight hours each.
19:51Gear up.
19:54Gear up.
19:56The crew is flying an Avro 146 regional jet.
20:02The 146 has always been a very, very sound airframe and a very good design.
20:07It's a little more expensive to operate because you've got four engines, but that's a lot of reliability.
20:13Just under four and a half hours later.
20:16Rio Negro 2933, good evening.
20:19As they are approaching Rio Negro, First Officer Goitia checks in with air traffic control.
20:25The controller instructs the crew to go into a holding pattern because other planes are in a queue waiting to land.
20:40They choose a holding point called Gemli.
20:43Holding at Gemli.
20:48Seven minutes later, a request from the Lamia cockpit takes air traffic control by surprise.
20:53Lamia 2933, request priority for approach.
20:57We have a fuel problem.
20:59You ask for priority, you're basically making a request that if they can fit it in, get you in a little bit faster.
21:04And I have an aircraft below you on approach.
21:08Additionally, they are doing a runway inspection.
21:13But within seconds, the situation in the cockpit suddenly appears more urgent.
21:19We have a fuel emergency.
21:21That's why I'm asking you at once for final approach, requesting immediate descent.
21:30It's very unusual to declare a priority and then 30 seconds later say they're out of fuel.
21:38Lamia 2933, make a right turn now.
21:41To begin your descent, you have traffic one mile below.
21:46When you declare an emergency, the Red Sea parts, now everybody is concentrating on doing exactly what you need,
21:52especially to get to the airfield as soon as possible.
21:58We're already starting to descend.
22:00I'm heading for the runway.
22:02In the cabin, the lights go out and the engines fall silent.
22:09The team feels the plane descending.
22:12Nobody said anything to us.
22:16We didn't know anything.
22:182933, total electrical failure, without fuel.
22:22Runways cleared. Firefighters alerted.
22:25We need vectors.
22:27Vectors.
22:28Vectors to the runway.
22:30The crew needs the controller to provide directions to the runway, but the plane has disappeared from radar.
22:36Lost your radar signal. I don't have you. Report heading now.
22:39Heading 360.
22:41360.
22:43When they told me their altitude was 9,000 feet, I thought the worst.
22:47I remember asking God to make the lights and motors turn back on.
22:59Emergency crews rush to the crash site.
23:14They discover that seven passengers are still alive, including four Chapecoense players.
23:19You feel desperate. I was terrified. I didn't want to die. I didn't want any of us to die.
23:27But 70 people are dead.
23:31It's one of the worst tragedies in the history of sport.
23:34The morning light reveals that the Lamia plane hit the crest of an 8,700-foot mountain.
23:48A team from the Colombian air accident investigation group is already on scene.
23:53Landing gear was down.
23:56Investigators can see the plane was configured for landing.
24:00Look. The flaps are extended.
24:05The record showed the plane's position in relation to the runway and the crew's intentions of heading there.
24:14It's clear that the crew was descending towards the airport.
24:25But their biggest clue is what they don't find.
24:32There was a very light smell of fuel at the accident site.
24:38Normally, when planes crash with fuel on board, the smell is much stronger.
24:51The fuel level indicators are at zero.
24:55The plane was out of fuel.
24:58Investigators wonder, how did the fuel get to zero?
25:03Was it a mechanical failure or human error?
25:08As Brazilian fans grieve the loss of their beloved Chapecoense football team in the crash of La Mia Flight 2933.
25:23Investigators hope the flight data recorder contains clues as to why the jet was completely out of fuel when it hit the ground.
25:31Let's isolate the fuel flow rate.
25:33If there was a leak or some other problem, it should show up here.
25:36Okay, let's go.
25:40They consider the possibility that a fuel leak led to an unexpected engine shutdown.
25:48They're consuming just over 1,000 pounds of fuel an hour throughout their cruise. Very steady.
25:55The fuel consumption, according to the data recorder, was normal for the duration of the flight.
26:03The fuel system checks out.
26:07Let's look at the warning system.
26:09If the fuel warning system malfunctioned, the pilots may not have been aware there was a problem.
26:14The warning goes on here at 9.15.
26:21Well, that can't be right.
26:23They don't declare the fuel emergency until 9.52.
26:27They knew they were low on fuel for nearly 40 minutes without declaring a fuel emergency.
26:32Investigators can't believe what they're seeing.
26:36At 9.15, a low fuel warning light turns on.
26:42That's got to be about 180 miles to Medellin.
26:47They should have found somewhere closer to land.
26:49They're here.
26:50The Bukatá airport is here.
26:5177 miles away.
26:52Why didn't they land at Bukatá?
26:54According to the manufacturer, when the low fuel warning comes on in this aircraft, you are only guaranteed 23 more minutes of flight.
27:11But the pilots flew 13 minutes beyond that limit.
27:23They should reroute the plane to Bogatá.
27:26But instead, they continued to Medellin.
27:30So you look at this and you say, oh my God, you violated the basic procedures.
27:33We know how to stay safe.
27:35We know how not to run out of gas in the air.
27:37And you guys didn't do a single thing in accordance with the rules.
27:44As Chapecoense's fans mourn their heroes.
27:48Looks like we have a problem.
27:50Investigators turn to the plane's cockpit voice recorder for answers.
27:55But they discover it cut out one hour and 40 minutes before the end of the flight.
28:00It's a huge setback.
28:02Investigators still don't know why the plane ran out of fuel.
28:09Did the pilots make mistakes calculating their fuel load before the jet left Santa Cruz airport?
28:16So they take off with about 20,000 pounds of fuel.
28:22Should I do it?
28:25Taxi before takeoff, 441 pounds.
28:29Julian Echeverry and his team calculate how much fuel the plane legally needed to make a direct flight to Medellin.
28:35You have to have enough fuel to take off, fly to your destination and land.
28:40You have to have enough fuel to go down and make an approach and come back up.
28:44And then you have to have enough fuel to fly to an alternate destination and to hold for 30 minutes and then to descend and land.
28:50Total 26,570 pounds.
28:56So they were short by about 6,570 pounds.
29:03They left with enough to get to Medellin but barely a drop more.
29:07Investigators then discover a disturbing pattern.
29:10Three times earlier in the year this crew had made the same flight but in the opposite direction without any reserve fuel.
29:21Each time they landed successfully.
29:26Less fuel is used because Rio Negro is higher in altitude.
29:30You ascend a shorter distance therefore saving more fuel.
29:34No doubt that contributed to the flight arriving safely at Santa Cruz.
29:40Investigators now see that in addition to disregarding the need for reserve fuel, the crew didn't account for the additional 6,000 foot climb.
29:53They didn't just press the limits, they did something really criminal because they put the airplane right at the edge of its capability to burn fuel and get them back on the ground safely.
30:04Now investigators need to know why these pilots didn't follow the most basic protocols.
30:12The answer lies back in Bolivia.
30:15It emerges that Captain Quiroga was a Lamia co-owner with a financial stake in the company.
30:23Did he gamble dozens of lives just to save money on fuel?
30:28When you've got somebody who is flying the airplane and responsible for the airplane who also is a part owner and knows the finances, you've got a conflict of interest.
30:38When investigators get their hands on company records.
30:41Looks like they owed everybody.
30:44Even the employees weren't getting paid.
30:46They discover the company was in big financial trouble.
30:50The captain likely skimped on fuel to save money.
30:55I think the crew knew they were doing something illegal.
31:00The crew knew they were below the appropriate fuel levels from the beginning of the flight.
31:05This is a sad and unfortunate part of the accident.
31:07Lamia's co-owner Vargas Gamboa is charged with manslaughter and the airline's operating license is suspended.
31:19Lamia is out of business by the end of the year.
31:22Surviving player Jackson Fulman is walking again with a prosthetic leg.
31:31But the pain and memories of that night endure.
31:35I want people to pray for us and remember all of those people that left us.
31:41Those fighters who fought until the end.
31:43I'd like to see everyone honor the people who unfortunately left us that night.
31:52Those decisions to press the airplane beyond its limits and the unwillingness to advise air traffic control of the criticality of their fuel situation directly resulted in the accident.
32:05And it's one that I could not believe a professional pilot would do.
32:12But when pilots flying a high level delegation make a bad decision.
32:16The top official on board never reaches his final destination.
32:20Heavy rain soaks a small airport in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
32:29Heading towards it is a U.S. Air Force 737 carrying 35 people on a trade mission.
32:37Leading the delegation, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
32:42A star in the Democratic Party who helped Bill Clinton get elected.
32:48Ron Brown was a Washington insider and he had all the skills that go with that.
32:55The goal of his mission is to help Croatia and Bosnia rebuild their economies.
33:01A destructive war in that region has just ended in an uneasy truce.
33:06The pressures to get the passengers to scheduled news conferences and other activities were probably pretty high.
33:20Ashley J. Davis is the captain.
33:23He's a military pilot who flew mid-air refuelers high above the Persian Gulf.
33:28Tonight, the bad weather is just one of the challenges the crew is facing.
33:37The airport was totally trashed by the Serbs who had taken over the airport during the 91 War.
33:44They destroyed the instrument landing system.
33:49The crew must rely on a signal from a navigational beacon to guide them to the airport.
33:54Hey, H. At Kila Lima Papa, we're tracking outbound at 119 degrees.
34:01119 confirmed.
34:03Mr. Secretary, we're landing.
34:08We'll take this up later.
34:11No problem.
34:15It's not very broken up down there.
34:18I can't see through it.
34:20Tim?
34:21The clouds are thick.
34:23The crew can't see the ground.
34:25They have to trust their instruments as they descend through the storm.
34:29IFO 2-1.
34:31Sir, we are inside the locator. Inbound.
34:34IFO 2-1, roger.
34:36Cleared for beacon approach.
34:38For now, A.J. Davis is flying blind.
34:42But he expects to see the airport soon.
34:43IFO 2-1, do you read?
34:44Just before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Dubrovnik Tower loses all contact with IFO 21.
34:57IFO 2-1, Dubrovnik approach. Do you read?
34:58IFO 2-1, Dubrovnik approach. Do you read?
35:00IFO 2-1, do you read?
35:02IFO 2-1, do you read?
35:04With no radar to track the plane, controllers have no idea where it is.
35:12IFO 2-1, Dubrovnik approach. Do you read?
35:16IFO 2-1, do you read?
35:19With no radar to track the plane, controllers have no idea where it is.
35:31Four and a half hours later, it's confirmed that IFO 21 crashed into a nearby mountain range.
35:3735 die as a result of the accident.
35:45The fatal flight of the U.S. Air Force jet carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown becomes a high-profile investigation.
35:54The Vice President and I wanted to come here to be with the employees of the Commerce Department at this very difficult hour.
36:04In every accident, there's always a lot of speculation. In this particular case, you had a high-ranking U.S. government official.
36:18So my idea was to get as much information, the physical evidence as I could.
36:24The investigation team is at a disadvantage. They discover that there is no cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder on the plane.
36:35It's not required on Air Force jets.
36:38I had assumed that the Air Force and these VIP flights had higher safety standards than commercial flights.
36:48And so I was really shocked to learn that the standards were generally lower than those for commercial aviation.
36:54The crash site is just over two miles from the airport. Investigators wonder what happened during the flight's final moments.
37:06The team plots the plane's fatal descent using data from a surveillance plane that was patrolling the region.
37:17The radar track that I was given showed that the en route portions of the flight from about 100 miles prior to the airport were entirely nominal.
37:26But on its final approach, the plane begins to head off course and straight towards the mountains.
37:39My initial look at the flight track of the aircraft showed a seven-degree bearing error in the final segment of the approach.
37:47How could a military crew flying a very high profile government official end up seven degrees off course and headed towards elevated terrain?
38:05Investigators need to find out why U.S. Air Force jet IFO-21 veered off course just before it crashed.
38:12An important clue turns up in the wreckage.
38:19It's the plane's ADF, or automatic direction finder.
38:23The device listens to signals put out by two navigational beacons.
38:30The first beacon transmits Morse code to the plane.
38:34When the crew hears the signal, they follow a heading specified on their landing chart.
38:39That should take them straight to the runway.
38:43But if the crew hears the second beacon before they see the runway, they must declare a missed approach and circle around to try landing again.
38:56To land in Dubrovnik safely, a plane needs two ADF receivers, one for each beacon.
39:02We're still not past it. I'm tuned back to KLP.
39:08But investigators discover this jet had only one receiver.
39:13And only having one ADF restricted their ability to follow the approach accurately.
39:17The crew would have to switch the ADF back and forth between the two signals, adding a complication to an already difficult landing.
39:30It's going to become rather difficult in trying to dial both to keep listening to the code if you're also trying to search for your course and heading.
39:39In fact, Flight IFO-21's erratic flight path suggests to investigators that the flight crew gave up on the ADF navigation
39:48and used an even older piece of technology to find the runway, the INS, or Inertial Navigation System.
39:57An INS system uses gyroscopes to maintain an awareness of how much the airplane turns and banks.
40:07But the INS has a potential flaw.
40:11If the gyroscopes don't calculate each maneuver perfectly, a pilot can drift off course.
40:18It's not very broken up down there. I can't see through it.
40:24Down.
40:26INS drift in this case was probably, in my view, the primary reason the aircraft ended up where it was.
40:37Investigator Howard Swansea recovers the Jeppesen approach chart.
40:41Hampered by poor visibility and relying on the INS, the chart would have been a key aid to the crew.
40:52On close inspection, Swansea notices something peculiar.
40:57A key figure, the minimum descent altitude, is wrong.
41:03Given the height of the surrounding mountains, they should have been flying at 2800 feet.
41:08But the chart's minimum descent altitude is 700 feet lower than that.
41:15The chart made the pilots think they were still safely above the mountains as they searched for the airport.
41:21Pull up!
41:24Pull up!
41:25Pull up!
41:26Pull up!
41:27Pull up!
41:28Pull up!
41:29Pull up!
41:30Pull up!
41:31Pull up!
41:32Pull up!
41:33Get up!
41:39Investigators now understand the circumstances that led to the crash that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
41:46In the end, a fatal combination of factors caused the accident.
42:01Dubrovnik approach, IFO 2-1, level 1-0-0.
42:06Dubrovnik approach, good afternoon.
42:08Maintain 10,000 feet for beacon approach.
42:11Run away, 1-2.
42:13IFO 2-1.
42:15The crew were fighting bad weather.
42:19They were landing in an unfamiliar airport and hampered by old technology.
42:31In the final report, Dubrovnik airport is singled out for an improperly designed approach procedure.
42:36I got CV.
42:37A.J. Davis and his crew are found responsible for flight errors they made in their push to get their mission on the ground.
42:48In response, the Air Force also orders all military aircraft to carry flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders.
43:01Down.
43:02Down.
43:03And prohibits aircraft, including those for high-ranking diplomats, from flying into an airport without approval from the Department of Defense.
43:12In all three of these cases where you have VIPs on the airplane, there was complex environment and also the desire to get these important people where they need to be on time.
43:26And the crew put pressure on themselves to push the edges of their capabilities to make sure that these people arrived on time.
43:36The basics for flying an airplane doesn't change based on who's on the airplane.
43:43Whether it's a VIP or a regular everyday passenger, the same risks have to be dealt with.
43:50The physics of flying aren't going to change just because someone important is in back of the airplane.
43:54Is in back of the airplane.