Mayday (2013) s02e06 Episode Script
Missing over New York
JET ENGINE ROARS Avianca Flight 52 is in trouble.
The crew is exhausted.
They're over New York City and almost out of fuel.
- Are we clear to land now? - Yes, we're clear to land.
Tell me things louder, because I'm not hearing it.
- Glide slope.
- 500 feet.
PILOT: The runway, where is it? Flight 52 is about to crash somewhere over New York.
How could that happen? LOUD CRASH THEME MUSIC January 25, 1990.
Air traffic controllers have been nervously tracking a massive low pressure system approaching the north-east coast of America.
There was a system moving through the Great Lakes, moving east.
There was a couple of other systems converging.
A lot of times they'd converge in the New York area, and the whole north-east would go down.
The weather is already near the safe minimum to land a plane.
Flights will have to be cancelled or delayed.
The terminals will be choked with thousands of angry passengers.
Despite the terrible weather, the air traffic managers in Washington DC order controllers at Kennedy Airport in New York to set a high landing rate.
Air travel is vital and they're under tremendous pressure to delay or cancel as few flights as possible.
There's pressure, because that's the business they're in.
The business is moving passengers from A to B.
That's what the airlines are paid, and controllers are paid to help that work.
Management in Washington DC is pressuring New York to take on more flights than they feel is safe.
Despite the weather, they want them to land 33 aircraft per hour.
We know we're gonna have windshear and missed approaches, and this is gonna be a very bad day.
I've got very bad vibes about this.
No - 33.
You'll shake it.
TOMPKINS: And that set the scenario at about 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, before we left Medellin.
At 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, the scenario was set for this accident to happen.
But within the next few hours, fog and low clouds have closed the main runway at JFK.
Now, whatever their bosses say, the controllers won't be able to land 33 aircraft an hour.
2400 miles to the south, in Colombia, it's a warm, sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky.
Avianca Flight 52 is now boarding passengers for New York.
After a short business trip, Nestor Zarate is travelling home to New York.
NESTOR: I received a telephone call telling me that if I could be at the airport in half an hour, and not ask any questions or request anything, I would get on the direct flight to New York.
In the cockpit, flight engineer Mathias Moyano monitors the loading of over 13,000 pounds of fuel .
.
making a total of 80,000 pounds .
.
enough for the journey, plus an extra two hours flying time.
Avianca 052 heavy, request clearance for take-off, runway 11.
Just after 3:00 in the afternoon, Avianca 52 takes off from Medellin with its maximum allowable fuel load.
The Colombian airliner heads north for the United States with 158 passengers and crew.
By early evening, deteriorating weather has made flight operations at JFK appalling.
Continue to the left, heading 230 vectors and holding for Cameron again.
With no way of turning back the overseas flights, aircraft are forced to circle around endlessly, waiting to land.
Turn left.
There is a windshear alert on final at 1500 feet.
Turn left Controllers work frantically to keep track of the growing number of aircraft now in the skies over New York.
251, you are clear to land When Mother Nature gets involved, problems develop.
The tension gets higher, the pressure gets higher, decisions become more critical.
JFK Airport in New York now only has one runway for landing, and aircraft are queuing up to use it.
In the near black-out conditions, several planes have to abort their landings, which only ads to the delays.
On Flight 52, they know none of this.
The crew neither receives nor requests the weather for New York or for their alternate airport, Boston.
In this case, Avianca 52 had the capability of calling several different stations or could've called their own dispatch operation in Miami, and got an update on the weather.
We don't really have any evidence that they checked with anyone to get the updated weather for JFK and their alternate, Boston.
TROTTER: It's inconceivable to me that someone with a responsibility of other people's lives would fly into a deteriorating condition without checking about, "Hey, do we have a way out of this place?" Avianca 52 enters the airspace near Norfolk, Virginia.
After four hours in the air, New York City is now less than 40 minutes away.
51-year old Captain Lariano Caviades is a seasoned pilot who's been flying with Avianca for 27 years.
But his English is poor.
All communications with Air Traffic Control will be handled by the 28-year-old copilot, Maurizio Clotz.
The third man in the cockpit, flight engineer Mathias Moyano, is experienced but, like copilot Clotz, he has only four months of flight time in the 707.
They were highly experienced flight crew who had been into New York several times previously on behalf of Avianca.
So they were familiar with the route and the procedures, and highly experienced pilots.
Washington, good evening.
Avianca 052 heavy, flight level 370.
Avianca 052 heavy, Washington Centre, roger.
Avianca 052, I'd like you to make a right 360-degree turn and I need you to get a pencil ready for holding instructions at Norfolk.
Okay, 360-degree right turn at Norfolk, Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052, you ready to copy your holding instructions? Go ahead, sir.
Right, Avianca 052, you are clear to the Norfolk vortec, hold south on 174 with right turns in 20-mile legs.
Flight 52's troubles are about to begin.
They're being diverted out over the Atlantic Ocean near Norfolk, Virginia, and placed in a holding pattern.
Here, the aircraft will fly an elliptical racetrack pattern while it waits for further instructions from Air Traffic Control.
They don't know about the bad weather ahead, but with enough fuel for two hours of flying, there's no cause for alarm.
This area, in the north-east corridor of the United States, is one of the most congested airspaces in the world.
Incoming traffic from overseas is routinely directed through a pipeline of controllers before being cleared to land at one of three major airports in the New York area - JFK, La Guardia and Newark.
Tonight, Avianca 52 will come under the direction of more than six controllers, each of whom is trying to get the aircraft, now circling over New York, safely down on the ground.
It's indefinite holding at this time.
We just had three missed approaches on 22-right.
We just went below the minimum, so we had four misses on 22-right, which is our primary runway.
While air traffic controllers try to cope with the increasing backlog of flights, Avianca Flight 52 circles for 19 minutes over the Virginia coast, waiting for permission to continue its journey to New York.
Avianca 052 expedite descent through level 33.
Leave flight level 330 within three minutes, please.
Okay.
We'll leave 330 within three minutes.
Avianca 052 heavy.
The Avianca jet is on its way to New York at last, but they have no idea of the trouble that awaits them.
Avianca Flight 52 is on its final approach to New York, unaware than conditions for landing at JFK are barely above the safe limits to land a plane.
It's a pitch-black night, with heavy mist, rain and sudden, violent winds.
This is Central.
I was wondering how your weather's doing.
The winds are starting to pick up.
20% of the guys that attempted approach went on a miss.
When the north-east goes down, it goes down.
It goes down for a big area.
And a lot of quick decisions have to be made.
You just can't say, "Wait a minute.
Stop.
Everyone's in red.
" The plane has now almost used up the fuel planned for the journey, and will shortly start eating into its reserves.
The crew is considering diverting to their alternate airport in Boston, just 210 miles from New York.
Washington Centre, Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052 heavy, go ahead.
Do you have any information about the lanes to Boston? Boston, I'll check that, sir.
Thank you.
The Washington controller asks his assistant to check on the conditions at Boston, but he gets distracted juggling other aircraft and forgets all about Avianca's request.
While Flight 52 is left waiting for an answer that never comes, their precious fuel supply is slowly draining away.
Ask him about Boston again.
Did you ask about delays at Boston or are we going to approach Kennedy? Okay, Avianca 052, it looks as though New York's centre may have to hold you for possibly up to 30 minutes.
Expect clearance on course, just momentarily with, er stands right now .
.
an additional holding of almost 30 minutes.
With that in mind, do you wanna check on an alternate airport? I believe Boston is I'll check on Boston.
Okay, we're now descending to 1-niner-0 and expecting information about Boston.
Okay, Avianca 052, I've been advised Boston's open and accepting traffic, if you need that as an alternate airport.
Okay, stand by a minute.
Flight engineer Moyano begins to calculate how much fuel they'll have after an additional 30 minutes of holding.
Even before they can respond, Washington Control directs them to another holding location.
Avianca 052 heavy, make a right turn now to intercept the Cameron 2 arrival.
Cleared on course, enter on flight level 1-niner-0.
Flight 52 is now off the New Jersey coast, in an area known as Cameron, less than 45 miles from Kennedy Airport, but it seems as far away as ever.
CAPTAIN: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain.
I apologise for the delay, but it appears we're going to be holding as we wait to land in New York.
Please remain seated with seatbelts fastened.
We should have you on the ground shortly.
Thank you.
There was a point where the captain announced that there was traffic in the New York City area, and that we'd be on hold for a while, and he'd get back to us.
It will be the last communication the crew has with the passengers.
Flight 52's situation now goes from bad to worse.
Avianca 052, descend and maintain 14000 It's handed over to the New York controllers, who, even on a good day, can be intimidating.
And today is not a good day.
There are up to 39 aircraft trying to land and dozens more on the ground waiting to take off.
Avianca 052, expect further clearance at 0139.
Avianca 052 heavy, roger.
Tired and frustrated, the crew of Avianca 52 continues to circle the crowded airspace over New York while they wait for clearance to land.
New York's centre finally gives the crew of Avianca 52 the message they've been waiting for.
Avianca 052 heavy, avia Kennedy is 2400 feet.
Can you accept an approach? That's an affirmative, sir.
They think they're finally in the clear.
Thencalamity.
The foul weather and zero visibility forces several aircraft just ahead of them to abandon their landing attempts and make a second attempt.
The controllers have bad news for the Colombian airliner.
Avianca 052, continue to the left, heading 230 vectors, holding at Cameron again.
Another hold.
Okay, 230 vectors for holding at Cameron.
Kennedy, Avianca 052.
Avianca 052, go ahead.
Thank you, sir.
Do you have any estimate, sir? Uh, Avianca 052 heavy, I might be able to get you in now.
Stand by.
Thank you.
The crew wait silently and hope, but when the reply comes, it's more bad news.
Avianca 052, we just got off the line.
It's indefinite holding at this time.
Avianca 052 turn left, heading 090, hold at Cameron, maintain 11000.
They've been held up for 48 minutes on the way here.
Now they've been circling around for another 25 minutes, only a few miles from the safety of JFK Airport.
We were progressively moving toward JFK, and they were held in the air for three times.
This certainly would put some stress on the crew, as to the fact they want to go from A to B.
They don't want to fly in a racetrack for an hour just holding.
At 8:55, the cockpit voice recorder begins recording the last 40 minutes of Flight 52.
The crew at this stage seem resigned, or are perhaps too timid to complain.
Moments later, Avianca is given more unwelcome news.
Avianca 052, expect further clearance time 0205.
Expect further clearance in 20 minutes.
It's now that the stress level in the cockpit begins to rise.
0205.
Uh, well I think we need priority.
We're passing out of fuel.
Avianca 052, roger.
How long can you hold and what's your alternate? Okay, stand by a minute.
The flight engineer quickly calculates the remaining fuel.
Yes, sir, we'll be able to hold for five minutes.
That's all we can do.
Avianca 052, roger.
What's your alternate? We said Boston, but it's full of traffic, I think.
Avianca 052, say your alternate again? It was Boston, but we can't do it now.
We'll run out of fuel.
Avianca 052, cleared to land at Kennedy, via heading 040, maintain 11000 at speed 180.
TROTTER: The Avianca crew, when they felt they were being handed off to an approach controller now and given a heading, and a lower altitude .
.
I'm sure in their minds, they thought Well, they even commented on it on the voice recorder.
"We're being handled" or "We're being taken care of.
" RADIO: It's okay if I send four more your way? Casino, I'm back in hold again.
I got full in the stack and there's no end in sight.
I can't give you times.
I'd be guessing, if I did.
This guy's killing me.
Avianca 052 only has five more minutes in the hold.
Can you take him? Or I'll set him up to his alternate? What's the speed now? Not sure, to be honest with you.
Holding speed.
Slow him to 180 and I'll take him.
Uh, say again? Slow him to 180 knots, and I'll take him.
You guys holding a lot? Man! Holding up and down the coast.
Ah, that's good practice, man.
But in this critical hand-off from one controller to the next, there is no specific mention of Avianca's critically low fuel.
Nobody told the next controller that.
So the next controller, when Avianca came in on the frequency, the controller just said, "Right, I've got you.
Proceed to Kennedy.
" Or "I'm gonna put you in a hold.
" And put him in a holding pattern over the last approach fix.
The options were gone.
Now the aircraft could only get into Kennedy.
COPILOT: Descend and maintain 7,000.
Descending to 7,000 Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052, before you go, there is a windshear alert on final at 1500 feet.
Turn left, heading 0-niner-0.
Left heading 0-niner-0 Avianca 052 heavy.
TOMPKINS: The high-level windshear was passed on early on, so he was aware of that.
But the low-level windshear below 500 feet was not passed on.
During the entire flight from Colombia, the plane's autopilot has been unusable.
It was reported after the last flight, but Avianca's maintenance men failed to fix it.
After more than six hours of flying manually, the physical and mental stress is beginning to take its toll on Captain Caviades.
TROTTER: To me it's inconceivable someone would have to fly a Boeing 707 without an autopilot.
I mean, that's a high work load in smooth air.
After more than an hour and 17 minutes waiting for clearance to land, the crew of Flight 52 believe controllers on the ground are at last aware of their fuel emergency and are clearing the 707 for a priority landing.
In the cabin, the flight attendants and passengers have no idea that their plane is dangerously low on fuel.
The go-around procedure is stating that the power be applied slowly In the cockpit, the crew now hastily discuss the go-around procedure - what the manual says they must do if they can't find the runway through the fog and low clouds and have to go around a second time.
It's standard procedure.
.
.
power be applied slowly, and to avoid rapid accelerations and to have a minimum of nose-up altitude.
To maintain what? Minimumminimum nose-up altitude.
That means Flight engineer Moyano is concerned that if the captain were to pull up the plane's nose too sharply, all the remaining fuel would slosh to the back of the tank, causing engines to stop.
.
.
fuel during the go-around.
What it means is it doesn't contain fuel for feeding itself and a flame-out could occur.
And it is necessary to lower the nose again.
Right now we are proceeding to the airport in-bound.
- We have 2717 miles.
- Roger.
This means we'll have hamburgers tonight.
RADIO: Avianca descend and maintain, uh .
.
descend and maintain 3000.
Descend and maintain 3000.
Avianca 052 heavy.
3000 feet.
They got us.
They're already vectoring us.
No, they are descending us.
And they are giving us priority.
Avianca 052 heavy, contact Kennedy Tower, 11-niner.
1.
Good day.
Only minutes before landing, Flight 52 is handed off to a JFK Tower controller whose shift is about to end.
Avianca 052 heavy, Kennedy Tower 22-left.
You're No.
3, following 727 traffic on a niner mile final.
Avianca 052 heavy, roger.
Can I lower the landing gear yet? No, I think it's too early.
If we lower the landing gear, we have to maintain a very high nose altitude.
So desperately low is their fuel that the first officer wants to delay putting down the landing gear, which will increase the aircraft's drag, requiring more power and using more of what little fuel remains.
RADIO: Avianca 052, what is your airspeed? Avianca 052, 140 knots.
Avianca 052, can you increase your airspeed 10 knots? - 10? - Okay, 10 knots increasing.
Increase.
Increase.
10 knots more.
Tell me things louder, because I'm not hearing it.
Lower the gear.
Gear down.
MACHINE BEEPS Avianca 052, 22-left, wing 1-niner-0 at 20 cleared to land.
Clear to land, Avianca 052 heavy.
Wind check, please? 1-niner-0 at 20.
With the weather deteriorating, and flying on fumes, the crew of Flight 52 will have only one chance of getting their 149 passengers safely on the ground.
Avianca 052, say airspeed.
145 knots.
- Are we clear to land? - Yes, we're clear to land.
Stand by.
Flaps 50.
Landing checklist complete.
It was extremely important that Avianca 52 landed on their first approach at JFK.
The voice recorder revealed that the captain was certainly quite concerned about the fuel state, and he was talking aggressively with the first officer, putting out flaps, getting the airplane configured.
The flight engineer had to know they were out of fuel.
And when it came in for their first approach, it was time for the flight engineer to say, "This is the only approach we're going to be able to make.
" And he didn't.
Give me 50.
Collapse 50 now.
- All set for landing.
- Standing by for lights.
Slightly below glide slope.
1000 feet above field.
Instruments crosschecked slightly below.
- Stand by for lights.
- BOTH: Stand by.
The wind is slightly from the left, 190 x 20.
Below glide slope.
With about 10 minutes of fuel remaining, and just two miles from the runway, Flight 52 finds itself flying into violent windshear, forcing them to slow the plane down.
They were getting, like, 60 knots of wind on the nose.
As they descended on down through about 500 feet to the ground, they were down to 20 knots.
So, that's a 40-knot change at 1000 feet of elevation.
That's a lot.
This is the windshear! Now the wind changes direction.
It's pressing them down towards the ground.
- Glide slope! - COMPUTERISED VOICE: Glide slope.
Sink rate 500 feet.
The captain desperately searches for the runway, but it's shrouded in low clouds and fog.
Lights! - CAPTAIN: The runway, where is it? - I don't see it.
I don't see it! The plane's warning system is telling them that they're about to crash.
MESSAGE REPEATS IN LOOP - Glide slope! - COMPUTERISED VOICE: Glide slope.
500 feet.
Just two miles from touchdown, Flight 52 has been caught in violent windshear.
To save the plane, Captain Caviades applies full throttle, burning up more of the plane's precious fuel.
Give me the landing gear up.
Landing gear up! The airplane was about 200 feet above the ground, about two miles from a runway, which was well below the glide slope, and very dangerous.
So, the airplane almost crashed on its first approach.
When you get a missed approach .
.
now that changes the whole ball game.
Request another traffic pattern.
Executing a missed approach.
Avianca 052 heavy.
The operation of pulling the plane up in the missed approach was a very violent one.
It was a very steep climb.
So, we were all thrown back by gravity towards the back of our seats.
As Captain Caviades pulls back hard on the yoke to climb to safety, the 707's remaining fuel is forced to the back of the tank and away from the fuel pumps.
SCHLEEDE: You cannot accelerate the aircraft forward rapidly, and you shouldn't pitch it rapidly.
ENGINEER: Smooth with the nose.
Smooth with the nose! If you have less than 7000 pounds, you have to be very careful, or you can slosh that fuel to the back of the tank, and unport the inlet to the engines.
Flight 52's violent climb to safety has both frightened and infuriated the passengers.
BABY CRIES (men argue in Spanish) I don't know what happened with that runway.
I didn't see it.
I didn't see it either.
Avianca 052, you are making a left turn.
Correct? Tell him we're in emergency.
- 2000 feet.
- That's right.
2180 on the heading.
We'll try once again.
We are running out of fuel.
Okay.
What did he say? I already advised him we're going to attempt again.
Advise him we're in emergency.
Did you tell him? Yes, sir, I already advised him.
But the tower controller, at the end of his shift, transfers Avianca 52 to his counterpart in Approach Control.
They'll have to begin all over again.
Contact approach on 118.
4.
Approach, Avianca 052 heavy, we just misseda missed approach, and we're maintaining 2000.
Flaps 14.
Avianca 052 heavy New York.
Good evening.
Climb and maintain 3,000.
Advise him we don't have fuel.
Climb and maintain 3,000.
We are running out of fuel.
Okay.
Fly heading 080.
Did you advise him we don't have fuel? Yes, sir.
I already advised him.
We're going to maintain 3000 and he's gonna get us back.
As they get back in the pattern and circle the field and come back again, that again adds to the traffic jam that was being created at Kennedy.
Avianca 052 heavy, I'm gonna turn you about 15 miles northeast, and then bring you back onto the approach, okay? - What did he say? - The guy's angry.
(anxiously) UhI guess so.
Thank you very much.
These guys were out.
And they didn't say, "We're out.
" And he allowed the Approach Control to vector him way out in the original pattern of 15 miles north of the outer marker again.
Flight 52 is instructed to fly a long approach pattern for another landing attempt.
The plane is down to its last dregs of fuel, as the crew waits for final clearance from ground controllers.
In their minds, they were being handled and taken care of, and they had enough fuel to go around and shoot the approach, but on the way, they were given a 360 turn, because of traffic spacing, then they were run way out towards Long Island and vectored all around, which was equivalent to holding for another 15, 20 minutes.
Did you get clearance yet? Can you give us a final yet? Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052 affirmative.
Turn left, heading 040.
Climb and maintain 3000.
Negative, sir.
We are running out of fuel.
Okay, turn left, heading 310.
Say flaps 14.
Okay, you're No.
2 for the approach.
I'll give you enough room to make it without having to come out again.
Okay.
We're No.
2 and flying 360 now.
Avianca 052 heavy, turn left, heading 330.
The lights in the aircraft start to flicker - a sign that the engines are being starved of fuel.
330 on the heading.
Avianca 052.
Once there's no fuel flowing through the pump out of the tank, an amber light comes on to tell you that tank is empty.
- ALERT SOUNDS - Flame out! Flame out engine No.
4! - Flame out on engine - Flame out on engine No.
3! Find the runway.
Avianca 052.
We just lost two engines.
We need priority, please.
Avianca 052, turn left heading 250, intercept the localiser.
- 250, roger.
- Select the ILS.
- ILS.
- Avianca 052.
You're 15 miles from the outer marker.
Maintain 2000 until established on the localiser.
Cleared for ILS 22-left.
- Roger, Avianca.
- You select the ILS.
It's already on 2.
When all the engines flame out and the generators fall off the line, a considerable amount of power's lost - electrical power's lost.
ALERT CONTINUES BEEPING LONG BEEP In the cabin, the screams, the crying And then this terrible sound (screams and cries) .
.
of the wind against the fuselage as the plane drops from the sky.
LOUD CRASH Avianca 052, radar contact lost.
Avianca's missing due to the weather thing.
Yeah, Avianca 52 lost an engine.
We're trying to find out why.
Yeah, we're no longer talking to Avianca.
He's 15 north-east of Kennedy.
Ah, wonderful.
Acupa 18, turn left heading 180.
Six and a half hours after leaving Colombia, Avianca Flight 52 is missing somewhere over New York.
WOMAN OVER TELEPHONE: Yes, hello.
I live in Cove Neck, Oyster Bay.
and there is a plane crashed in our yard in front of our house.
When I woke up, the first thing that I did was put my hand over my head, and I was bleeding as hell Both my legs were broken and I had blood all over the place.
Avianca 52 has crashed on Long Island, New York, less than 17 miles from JFK Airport.
From deep in the woods, medical technician Bob O'Brien can hear the survivors before he can see the shattered 707.
What I first heard was there were just some people who were crying in pain but it was apparent immediately what had happened.
When the plane hit the mountain, it just stopped dead.
SCREAMS AND CRIES WOMAN REPORTER: "It just fell out of the sky.
" That's how witnesses described the crash of Avianca Flight 52, a strangely silent crash MAN REPORTER: There's not a big fire here.
That'll make it easier for investigators to examine if there were any gas or engine problems.
WOMAN: There have been reports of lightning in the area just before the plane went down MAN: The Controllers' Union says that Kennedy is critically understaffed - a problem compounded by bad weather.
WOMAN: Rescuers have not yet given up on finding more victims.
MAN: Over here! VICTIM: Oh, my leg.
We managed to get on top of the fuselage, and there's that door handle that says, "In case of emergency, pull.
" So I pulled that door handle, and that door handle just went 'pshhhh'.
The door came open about four inches.
I was able to flip that over, and I could just see piles and piles of people trapped in their seats.
The extreme G-force of the crash has broken off the cockpit and catapulted it through a stand of trees and into the deck of a home some 100 feet from the impact site.
We couldn't get into the cockpit to get to the pilot and copilot.
All those chairs, they all just hit that cockpit door and just piled into that fuselage.
And just all that added weight and all that inertia now took over and the front of that popped it off and it rolled to its left side and stopped up against the tree.
CHILD SCREAMS, RADIO CHATTER SIREN WAILS Come on.
Somebody get the back here.
SIRENS WAIL 37 fire and rescue companies from Nassau County are quickly mobilised.
The rescue is the largest pre-9/11 operation of its kind in the New York area.
That little girl was sitting up on the fuselage and she was crying, "Mi madre, mi madre.
" And that imprint of horror just was .
.
you know, in your mind's eye focus right back in on, I saw "mi madre".
I saw her mother.
I know what that little girl was seeing.
It was horrible enough for me, and I'm a professional rescuer.
The plane has crashed in the wealthy neighbourhood of Cove Neck.
near the home of the father of tennis star John McEnroe.
Medics set up a makeshift triage unit on his lawn.
When daylight breaks 10 hours later, 85 survivors have been pulled from the wreck.
The lead flight attendant is the only member of crew to survive the crash.
Of the 11 babies on board Flight 52, all but one are found alive.
Among the dead are several passengers with drugs hidden inside their bodies.
Known as 'drug mules', they're poor people paid by the Colombian drugs cartels to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
O'BRIEN: It became an issue later on.
They posted police officers at the morgue, because they were afraid that the drug cartel would come in and try to steal the bodies, because they were worth $1 million apiece, they were waiting for this shipment and there were a lot of them.
Bob O'Brien scours the tail section for survivors and finds FAA investigators struggling to remove the aircraft's black boxes.
I grabbed the handle and just pulled the whole box out and took that out and brought that out the door and gave it to them.
Even as people are being pulled from the wreckage, the on-site investigation begins.
In charge on the ground is Barry Trotter of the National Transportation Safety Board.
A former airline pilot, Trotter became an investigator after losing his right arm in a motorcycle accident.
The condition of the aircraft was really astonishing.
To see that that much of the structure was left and the condition that it was in.
It hit right on about a 28-degree embankment, and with the wings in all the other trees, it only slid 28 feet, so it hit and stopped instantly.
Unaware of the details of Avianca's troubled flight, investigators quickly find a valuable piece of evidence.
You could look at the engines right away and you could tell the engines were not turning.
So there was no power in the engines.
That was the firstfirst big clue.
Trotter and his team examine the fuel tanks and find just a few gallons of jet fuel still onboard.
It becomes clear why the 707's engines stopped turning.
But the question of who's to blame is still to be answered.
In the community of Cove Neck, New York, salvage workers begin the task of dismantling the shattered remains of Avianca Flight 52.
MACHINE GRINDS But there's still one critical question - who is responsible for Flight 52 running out of fuel and causing the death of 72 passengers and crew? The answer will be worth millions of dollars and affect dozens of lives.
At the lab of the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington DC, investigators are eager to recover data locked inside the two black boxes.
The most telling of these is often the flight data recorder, which records critical information, such as the plane's altitude, airspeed and heading.
When we recovered the flight data recorder, and brought it to our lab in Washington, we opened it and found that the foil wrap was not hooked up.
Someone had actually intentionally taped the end of the foil so it wouldn't fly around and put it back in the airplane.
Without the crucial flight data recorder, investigators rely heavily on Flight 52's cockpit voice recorder, which is found with more than 40 minutes of voice recordings of the crew and communications between the first officer and air traffic controllers.
COPILOT'S VOICE: We are due to land.
Stand by.
And it was apparent from the voice recorder transcript and tape that the captain was not understanding the first officer's radio communications that were being made in English.
Everybody wants to blame the pilot.
But he may be the last person to make a decision.
The scenario which caused him to be in that position where he makes the decision was created by several other people along the route.
The captain asked the first officer about nine times "Clarify information" or repeat it, or to pass on information.
- We're going to attempt again.
- Advise him we're in an emergency.
Did he make a conscious decision to run out of fuel? No.
He was sucked into a situation by the air traffic controllers where he ran out of fuel.
Once the airplane got into the JFK area, there was certainly a serious breakdown in communications on the part of the pilots, within the cockpit, on the part of the pilots talking to controllers, and controllers talking to the pilots.
And the controllers amongst themselves, because there were hand-offs, and some of the urgency was not passed on within the controllers' system.
So, we had multiple breakdowns in multiple areas here that ultimately led to this accident.
The cockpit voice recorder reveals a crew desperate to land the 707 in near zero visibility and in extreme windshear, without the aid of an autopilot.
In this case, the captain had a difficult time maintaining the glide slope during the approach, with the windshear, didn't see the airport and had to make a go-around.
That almost doomed the airplane at that point.
The information being given to pilots en route was a windshear up as high as 1500 feet.
But the pilots on approach were encountering windshears as low as 300 feet.
That wasn't passed on to the Avianca pilot.
COPILOT: This is the windshear! The crew of Flight 52 is caught off-guard.
As they descend below 500 feet and slow down, a violent vertical wind forces them towards the ground, nearly causing the plane to crash two miles short of the runway.
Ironically, Avianca 52's lack of fuel resulted in no fire or explosion, saving the survivors from almost certain death.
TROTTER: If the flight would've found some level ground, it was conceivable he would've slapped the fuselage down and slid to a stop.
With no fuel, there'd have been no fire.
I think it's very possible most people would've survived it in that case.
As the hearings into the crash begin, lawyer George Tompkins is confronted by controllers who maintain that the Avianca crew failed to use the word 'emergency', instead using the word 'priority' to communicate their situation.
The government took the position that the pilot never declared an emergency, so no-one knew that he had a problem.
But saying you're getting low on fuel, and saying you cannot make your alternate .
.
the word 'emergency' is not necessary to say.
COPILOT: Negative, sir.
We are running out of fuel.
We just, uh, lost two engines and we need priority, please! TOMPKINS: And they thought they weren't telling them when they said "we need priority".
To me, 'priority' means a priority.
If you ask a child, "What is a priority to you?" what are you gonna say? He doesn't need to say any more.
Avianca 052 only has five more minutes in the hold.
You able to take him, or send him up to his alternate? What's the speed now? Not sure, to be honest.
Holding speed.
The NTSB concludes that Air Traffic's handling of Avianca 52 was proper, considering the information they were getting from the flight crew.
Many of the passengers are shocked and outraged by what they feel is a gross injustice.
That Air Traffic Control is found blameless.
Avianca sues the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs the air traffic controllers, saying they should've done more when Flight 52 told them they were running out of fuel.
The FAA settles, and ends up paying around 40% of the estimated $200 million compensation due to the victims.
If you listen and read the tapes, the transcripts of the tapes of each air route traffic control centre along the route, and the final to New York tower, Kennedy Tower, you'll find 20 places where this accident could've been avoided if somebody had done something differently.
For many of the survivors, recovering from their injuries has been easier than coming to terms with the reason why Flight 52 ran out of fuel.
I had to learn to walk from scratch.
It's difficult enough to deal with the injuries.
It makes me very angry to think thatthat a plane went down with 161 souls .
.
and almost half the people lost their lives because of aa word?
The crew is exhausted.
They're over New York City and almost out of fuel.
- Are we clear to land now? - Yes, we're clear to land.
Tell me things louder, because I'm not hearing it.
- Glide slope.
- 500 feet.
PILOT: The runway, where is it? Flight 52 is about to crash somewhere over New York.
How could that happen? LOUD CRASH THEME MUSIC January 25, 1990.
Air traffic controllers have been nervously tracking a massive low pressure system approaching the north-east coast of America.
There was a system moving through the Great Lakes, moving east.
There was a couple of other systems converging.
A lot of times they'd converge in the New York area, and the whole north-east would go down.
The weather is already near the safe minimum to land a plane.
Flights will have to be cancelled or delayed.
The terminals will be choked with thousands of angry passengers.
Despite the terrible weather, the air traffic managers in Washington DC order controllers at Kennedy Airport in New York to set a high landing rate.
Air travel is vital and they're under tremendous pressure to delay or cancel as few flights as possible.
There's pressure, because that's the business they're in.
The business is moving passengers from A to B.
That's what the airlines are paid, and controllers are paid to help that work.
Management in Washington DC is pressuring New York to take on more flights than they feel is safe.
Despite the weather, they want them to land 33 aircraft per hour.
We know we're gonna have windshear and missed approaches, and this is gonna be a very bad day.
I've got very bad vibes about this.
No - 33.
You'll shake it.
TOMPKINS: And that set the scenario at about 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, before we left Medellin.
At 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, the scenario was set for this accident to happen.
But within the next few hours, fog and low clouds have closed the main runway at JFK.
Now, whatever their bosses say, the controllers won't be able to land 33 aircraft an hour.
2400 miles to the south, in Colombia, it's a warm, sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky.
Avianca Flight 52 is now boarding passengers for New York.
After a short business trip, Nestor Zarate is travelling home to New York.
NESTOR: I received a telephone call telling me that if I could be at the airport in half an hour, and not ask any questions or request anything, I would get on the direct flight to New York.
In the cockpit, flight engineer Mathias Moyano monitors the loading of over 13,000 pounds of fuel .
.
making a total of 80,000 pounds .
.
enough for the journey, plus an extra two hours flying time.
Avianca 052 heavy, request clearance for take-off, runway 11.
Just after 3:00 in the afternoon, Avianca 52 takes off from Medellin with its maximum allowable fuel load.
The Colombian airliner heads north for the United States with 158 passengers and crew.
By early evening, deteriorating weather has made flight operations at JFK appalling.
Continue to the left, heading 230 vectors and holding for Cameron again.
With no way of turning back the overseas flights, aircraft are forced to circle around endlessly, waiting to land.
Turn left.
There is a windshear alert on final at 1500 feet.
Turn left Controllers work frantically to keep track of the growing number of aircraft now in the skies over New York.
251, you are clear to land When Mother Nature gets involved, problems develop.
The tension gets higher, the pressure gets higher, decisions become more critical.
JFK Airport in New York now only has one runway for landing, and aircraft are queuing up to use it.
In the near black-out conditions, several planes have to abort their landings, which only ads to the delays.
On Flight 52, they know none of this.
The crew neither receives nor requests the weather for New York or for their alternate airport, Boston.
In this case, Avianca 52 had the capability of calling several different stations or could've called their own dispatch operation in Miami, and got an update on the weather.
We don't really have any evidence that they checked with anyone to get the updated weather for JFK and their alternate, Boston.
TROTTER: It's inconceivable to me that someone with a responsibility of other people's lives would fly into a deteriorating condition without checking about, "Hey, do we have a way out of this place?" Avianca 52 enters the airspace near Norfolk, Virginia.
After four hours in the air, New York City is now less than 40 minutes away.
51-year old Captain Lariano Caviades is a seasoned pilot who's been flying with Avianca for 27 years.
But his English is poor.
All communications with Air Traffic Control will be handled by the 28-year-old copilot, Maurizio Clotz.
The third man in the cockpit, flight engineer Mathias Moyano, is experienced but, like copilot Clotz, he has only four months of flight time in the 707.
They were highly experienced flight crew who had been into New York several times previously on behalf of Avianca.
So they were familiar with the route and the procedures, and highly experienced pilots.
Washington, good evening.
Avianca 052 heavy, flight level 370.
Avianca 052 heavy, Washington Centre, roger.
Avianca 052, I'd like you to make a right 360-degree turn and I need you to get a pencil ready for holding instructions at Norfolk.
Okay, 360-degree right turn at Norfolk, Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052, you ready to copy your holding instructions? Go ahead, sir.
Right, Avianca 052, you are clear to the Norfolk vortec, hold south on 174 with right turns in 20-mile legs.
Flight 52's troubles are about to begin.
They're being diverted out over the Atlantic Ocean near Norfolk, Virginia, and placed in a holding pattern.
Here, the aircraft will fly an elliptical racetrack pattern while it waits for further instructions from Air Traffic Control.
They don't know about the bad weather ahead, but with enough fuel for two hours of flying, there's no cause for alarm.
This area, in the north-east corridor of the United States, is one of the most congested airspaces in the world.
Incoming traffic from overseas is routinely directed through a pipeline of controllers before being cleared to land at one of three major airports in the New York area - JFK, La Guardia and Newark.
Tonight, Avianca 52 will come under the direction of more than six controllers, each of whom is trying to get the aircraft, now circling over New York, safely down on the ground.
It's indefinite holding at this time.
We just had three missed approaches on 22-right.
We just went below the minimum, so we had four misses on 22-right, which is our primary runway.
While air traffic controllers try to cope with the increasing backlog of flights, Avianca Flight 52 circles for 19 minutes over the Virginia coast, waiting for permission to continue its journey to New York.
Avianca 052 expedite descent through level 33.
Leave flight level 330 within three minutes, please.
Okay.
We'll leave 330 within three minutes.
Avianca 052 heavy.
The Avianca jet is on its way to New York at last, but they have no idea of the trouble that awaits them.
Avianca Flight 52 is on its final approach to New York, unaware than conditions for landing at JFK are barely above the safe limits to land a plane.
It's a pitch-black night, with heavy mist, rain and sudden, violent winds.
This is Central.
I was wondering how your weather's doing.
The winds are starting to pick up.
20% of the guys that attempted approach went on a miss.
When the north-east goes down, it goes down.
It goes down for a big area.
And a lot of quick decisions have to be made.
You just can't say, "Wait a minute.
Stop.
Everyone's in red.
" The plane has now almost used up the fuel planned for the journey, and will shortly start eating into its reserves.
The crew is considering diverting to their alternate airport in Boston, just 210 miles from New York.
Washington Centre, Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052 heavy, go ahead.
Do you have any information about the lanes to Boston? Boston, I'll check that, sir.
Thank you.
The Washington controller asks his assistant to check on the conditions at Boston, but he gets distracted juggling other aircraft and forgets all about Avianca's request.
While Flight 52 is left waiting for an answer that never comes, their precious fuel supply is slowly draining away.
Ask him about Boston again.
Did you ask about delays at Boston or are we going to approach Kennedy? Okay, Avianca 052, it looks as though New York's centre may have to hold you for possibly up to 30 minutes.
Expect clearance on course, just momentarily with, er stands right now .
.
an additional holding of almost 30 minutes.
With that in mind, do you wanna check on an alternate airport? I believe Boston is I'll check on Boston.
Okay, we're now descending to 1-niner-0 and expecting information about Boston.
Okay, Avianca 052, I've been advised Boston's open and accepting traffic, if you need that as an alternate airport.
Okay, stand by a minute.
Flight engineer Moyano begins to calculate how much fuel they'll have after an additional 30 minutes of holding.
Even before they can respond, Washington Control directs them to another holding location.
Avianca 052 heavy, make a right turn now to intercept the Cameron 2 arrival.
Cleared on course, enter on flight level 1-niner-0.
Flight 52 is now off the New Jersey coast, in an area known as Cameron, less than 45 miles from Kennedy Airport, but it seems as far away as ever.
CAPTAIN: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain.
I apologise for the delay, but it appears we're going to be holding as we wait to land in New York.
Please remain seated with seatbelts fastened.
We should have you on the ground shortly.
Thank you.
There was a point where the captain announced that there was traffic in the New York City area, and that we'd be on hold for a while, and he'd get back to us.
It will be the last communication the crew has with the passengers.
Flight 52's situation now goes from bad to worse.
Avianca 052, descend and maintain 14000 It's handed over to the New York controllers, who, even on a good day, can be intimidating.
And today is not a good day.
There are up to 39 aircraft trying to land and dozens more on the ground waiting to take off.
Avianca 052, expect further clearance at 0139.
Avianca 052 heavy, roger.
Tired and frustrated, the crew of Avianca 52 continues to circle the crowded airspace over New York while they wait for clearance to land.
New York's centre finally gives the crew of Avianca 52 the message they've been waiting for.
Avianca 052 heavy, avia Kennedy is 2400 feet.
Can you accept an approach? That's an affirmative, sir.
They think they're finally in the clear.
Thencalamity.
The foul weather and zero visibility forces several aircraft just ahead of them to abandon their landing attempts and make a second attempt.
The controllers have bad news for the Colombian airliner.
Avianca 052, continue to the left, heading 230 vectors, holding at Cameron again.
Another hold.
Okay, 230 vectors for holding at Cameron.
Kennedy, Avianca 052.
Avianca 052, go ahead.
Thank you, sir.
Do you have any estimate, sir? Uh, Avianca 052 heavy, I might be able to get you in now.
Stand by.
Thank you.
The crew wait silently and hope, but when the reply comes, it's more bad news.
Avianca 052, we just got off the line.
It's indefinite holding at this time.
Avianca 052 turn left, heading 090, hold at Cameron, maintain 11000.
They've been held up for 48 minutes on the way here.
Now they've been circling around for another 25 minutes, only a few miles from the safety of JFK Airport.
We were progressively moving toward JFK, and they were held in the air for three times.
This certainly would put some stress on the crew, as to the fact they want to go from A to B.
They don't want to fly in a racetrack for an hour just holding.
At 8:55, the cockpit voice recorder begins recording the last 40 minutes of Flight 52.
The crew at this stage seem resigned, or are perhaps too timid to complain.
Moments later, Avianca is given more unwelcome news.
Avianca 052, expect further clearance time 0205.
Expect further clearance in 20 minutes.
It's now that the stress level in the cockpit begins to rise.
0205.
Uh, well I think we need priority.
We're passing out of fuel.
Avianca 052, roger.
How long can you hold and what's your alternate? Okay, stand by a minute.
The flight engineer quickly calculates the remaining fuel.
Yes, sir, we'll be able to hold for five minutes.
That's all we can do.
Avianca 052, roger.
What's your alternate? We said Boston, but it's full of traffic, I think.
Avianca 052, say your alternate again? It was Boston, but we can't do it now.
We'll run out of fuel.
Avianca 052, cleared to land at Kennedy, via heading 040, maintain 11000 at speed 180.
TROTTER: The Avianca crew, when they felt they were being handed off to an approach controller now and given a heading, and a lower altitude .
.
I'm sure in their minds, they thought Well, they even commented on it on the voice recorder.
"We're being handled" or "We're being taken care of.
" RADIO: It's okay if I send four more your way? Casino, I'm back in hold again.
I got full in the stack and there's no end in sight.
I can't give you times.
I'd be guessing, if I did.
This guy's killing me.
Avianca 052 only has five more minutes in the hold.
Can you take him? Or I'll set him up to his alternate? What's the speed now? Not sure, to be honest with you.
Holding speed.
Slow him to 180 and I'll take him.
Uh, say again? Slow him to 180 knots, and I'll take him.
You guys holding a lot? Man! Holding up and down the coast.
Ah, that's good practice, man.
But in this critical hand-off from one controller to the next, there is no specific mention of Avianca's critically low fuel.
Nobody told the next controller that.
So the next controller, when Avianca came in on the frequency, the controller just said, "Right, I've got you.
Proceed to Kennedy.
" Or "I'm gonna put you in a hold.
" And put him in a holding pattern over the last approach fix.
The options were gone.
Now the aircraft could only get into Kennedy.
COPILOT: Descend and maintain 7,000.
Descending to 7,000 Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052, before you go, there is a windshear alert on final at 1500 feet.
Turn left, heading 0-niner-0.
Left heading 0-niner-0 Avianca 052 heavy.
TOMPKINS: The high-level windshear was passed on early on, so he was aware of that.
But the low-level windshear below 500 feet was not passed on.
During the entire flight from Colombia, the plane's autopilot has been unusable.
It was reported after the last flight, but Avianca's maintenance men failed to fix it.
After more than six hours of flying manually, the physical and mental stress is beginning to take its toll on Captain Caviades.
TROTTER: To me it's inconceivable someone would have to fly a Boeing 707 without an autopilot.
I mean, that's a high work load in smooth air.
After more than an hour and 17 minutes waiting for clearance to land, the crew of Flight 52 believe controllers on the ground are at last aware of their fuel emergency and are clearing the 707 for a priority landing.
In the cabin, the flight attendants and passengers have no idea that their plane is dangerously low on fuel.
The go-around procedure is stating that the power be applied slowly In the cockpit, the crew now hastily discuss the go-around procedure - what the manual says they must do if they can't find the runway through the fog and low clouds and have to go around a second time.
It's standard procedure.
.
.
power be applied slowly, and to avoid rapid accelerations and to have a minimum of nose-up altitude.
To maintain what? Minimumminimum nose-up altitude.
That means Flight engineer Moyano is concerned that if the captain were to pull up the plane's nose too sharply, all the remaining fuel would slosh to the back of the tank, causing engines to stop.
.
.
fuel during the go-around.
What it means is it doesn't contain fuel for feeding itself and a flame-out could occur.
And it is necessary to lower the nose again.
Right now we are proceeding to the airport in-bound.
- We have 2717 miles.
- Roger.
This means we'll have hamburgers tonight.
RADIO: Avianca descend and maintain, uh .
.
descend and maintain 3000.
Descend and maintain 3000.
Avianca 052 heavy.
3000 feet.
They got us.
They're already vectoring us.
No, they are descending us.
And they are giving us priority.
Avianca 052 heavy, contact Kennedy Tower, 11-niner.
1.
Good day.
Only minutes before landing, Flight 52 is handed off to a JFK Tower controller whose shift is about to end.
Avianca 052 heavy, Kennedy Tower 22-left.
You're No.
3, following 727 traffic on a niner mile final.
Avianca 052 heavy, roger.
Can I lower the landing gear yet? No, I think it's too early.
If we lower the landing gear, we have to maintain a very high nose altitude.
So desperately low is their fuel that the first officer wants to delay putting down the landing gear, which will increase the aircraft's drag, requiring more power and using more of what little fuel remains.
RADIO: Avianca 052, what is your airspeed? Avianca 052, 140 knots.
Avianca 052, can you increase your airspeed 10 knots? - 10? - Okay, 10 knots increasing.
Increase.
Increase.
10 knots more.
Tell me things louder, because I'm not hearing it.
Lower the gear.
Gear down.
MACHINE BEEPS Avianca 052, 22-left, wing 1-niner-0 at 20 cleared to land.
Clear to land, Avianca 052 heavy.
Wind check, please? 1-niner-0 at 20.
With the weather deteriorating, and flying on fumes, the crew of Flight 52 will have only one chance of getting their 149 passengers safely on the ground.
Avianca 052, say airspeed.
145 knots.
- Are we clear to land? - Yes, we're clear to land.
Stand by.
Flaps 50.
Landing checklist complete.
It was extremely important that Avianca 52 landed on their first approach at JFK.
The voice recorder revealed that the captain was certainly quite concerned about the fuel state, and he was talking aggressively with the first officer, putting out flaps, getting the airplane configured.
The flight engineer had to know they were out of fuel.
And when it came in for their first approach, it was time for the flight engineer to say, "This is the only approach we're going to be able to make.
" And he didn't.
Give me 50.
Collapse 50 now.
- All set for landing.
- Standing by for lights.
Slightly below glide slope.
1000 feet above field.
Instruments crosschecked slightly below.
- Stand by for lights.
- BOTH: Stand by.
The wind is slightly from the left, 190 x 20.
Below glide slope.
With about 10 minutes of fuel remaining, and just two miles from the runway, Flight 52 finds itself flying into violent windshear, forcing them to slow the plane down.
They were getting, like, 60 knots of wind on the nose.
As they descended on down through about 500 feet to the ground, they were down to 20 knots.
So, that's a 40-knot change at 1000 feet of elevation.
That's a lot.
This is the windshear! Now the wind changes direction.
It's pressing them down towards the ground.
- Glide slope! - COMPUTERISED VOICE: Glide slope.
Sink rate 500 feet.
The captain desperately searches for the runway, but it's shrouded in low clouds and fog.
Lights! - CAPTAIN: The runway, where is it? - I don't see it.
I don't see it! The plane's warning system is telling them that they're about to crash.
MESSAGE REPEATS IN LOOP - Glide slope! - COMPUTERISED VOICE: Glide slope.
500 feet.
Just two miles from touchdown, Flight 52 has been caught in violent windshear.
To save the plane, Captain Caviades applies full throttle, burning up more of the plane's precious fuel.
Give me the landing gear up.
Landing gear up! The airplane was about 200 feet above the ground, about two miles from a runway, which was well below the glide slope, and very dangerous.
So, the airplane almost crashed on its first approach.
When you get a missed approach .
.
now that changes the whole ball game.
Request another traffic pattern.
Executing a missed approach.
Avianca 052 heavy.
The operation of pulling the plane up in the missed approach was a very violent one.
It was a very steep climb.
So, we were all thrown back by gravity towards the back of our seats.
As Captain Caviades pulls back hard on the yoke to climb to safety, the 707's remaining fuel is forced to the back of the tank and away from the fuel pumps.
SCHLEEDE: You cannot accelerate the aircraft forward rapidly, and you shouldn't pitch it rapidly.
ENGINEER: Smooth with the nose.
Smooth with the nose! If you have less than 7000 pounds, you have to be very careful, or you can slosh that fuel to the back of the tank, and unport the inlet to the engines.
Flight 52's violent climb to safety has both frightened and infuriated the passengers.
BABY CRIES (men argue in Spanish) I don't know what happened with that runway.
I didn't see it.
I didn't see it either.
Avianca 052, you are making a left turn.
Correct? Tell him we're in emergency.
- 2000 feet.
- That's right.
2180 on the heading.
We'll try once again.
We are running out of fuel.
Okay.
What did he say? I already advised him we're going to attempt again.
Advise him we're in emergency.
Did you tell him? Yes, sir, I already advised him.
But the tower controller, at the end of his shift, transfers Avianca 52 to his counterpart in Approach Control.
They'll have to begin all over again.
Contact approach on 118.
4.
Approach, Avianca 052 heavy, we just misseda missed approach, and we're maintaining 2000.
Flaps 14.
Avianca 052 heavy New York.
Good evening.
Climb and maintain 3,000.
Advise him we don't have fuel.
Climb and maintain 3,000.
We are running out of fuel.
Okay.
Fly heading 080.
Did you advise him we don't have fuel? Yes, sir.
I already advised him.
We're going to maintain 3000 and he's gonna get us back.
As they get back in the pattern and circle the field and come back again, that again adds to the traffic jam that was being created at Kennedy.
Avianca 052 heavy, I'm gonna turn you about 15 miles northeast, and then bring you back onto the approach, okay? - What did he say? - The guy's angry.
(anxiously) UhI guess so.
Thank you very much.
These guys were out.
And they didn't say, "We're out.
" And he allowed the Approach Control to vector him way out in the original pattern of 15 miles north of the outer marker again.
Flight 52 is instructed to fly a long approach pattern for another landing attempt.
The plane is down to its last dregs of fuel, as the crew waits for final clearance from ground controllers.
In their minds, they were being handled and taken care of, and they had enough fuel to go around and shoot the approach, but on the way, they were given a 360 turn, because of traffic spacing, then they were run way out towards Long Island and vectored all around, which was equivalent to holding for another 15, 20 minutes.
Did you get clearance yet? Can you give us a final yet? Avianca 052 heavy.
Avianca 052 affirmative.
Turn left, heading 040.
Climb and maintain 3000.
Negative, sir.
We are running out of fuel.
Okay, turn left, heading 310.
Say flaps 14.
Okay, you're No.
2 for the approach.
I'll give you enough room to make it without having to come out again.
Okay.
We're No.
2 and flying 360 now.
Avianca 052 heavy, turn left, heading 330.
The lights in the aircraft start to flicker - a sign that the engines are being starved of fuel.
330 on the heading.
Avianca 052.
Once there's no fuel flowing through the pump out of the tank, an amber light comes on to tell you that tank is empty.
- ALERT SOUNDS - Flame out! Flame out engine No.
4! - Flame out on engine - Flame out on engine No.
3! Find the runway.
Avianca 052.
We just lost two engines.
We need priority, please.
Avianca 052, turn left heading 250, intercept the localiser.
- 250, roger.
- Select the ILS.
- ILS.
- Avianca 052.
You're 15 miles from the outer marker.
Maintain 2000 until established on the localiser.
Cleared for ILS 22-left.
- Roger, Avianca.
- You select the ILS.
It's already on 2.
When all the engines flame out and the generators fall off the line, a considerable amount of power's lost - electrical power's lost.
ALERT CONTINUES BEEPING LONG BEEP In the cabin, the screams, the crying And then this terrible sound (screams and cries) .
.
of the wind against the fuselage as the plane drops from the sky.
LOUD CRASH Avianca 052, radar contact lost.
Avianca's missing due to the weather thing.
Yeah, Avianca 52 lost an engine.
We're trying to find out why.
Yeah, we're no longer talking to Avianca.
He's 15 north-east of Kennedy.
Ah, wonderful.
Acupa 18, turn left heading 180.
Six and a half hours after leaving Colombia, Avianca Flight 52 is missing somewhere over New York.
WOMAN OVER TELEPHONE: Yes, hello.
I live in Cove Neck, Oyster Bay.
and there is a plane crashed in our yard in front of our house.
When I woke up, the first thing that I did was put my hand over my head, and I was bleeding as hell Both my legs were broken and I had blood all over the place.
Avianca 52 has crashed on Long Island, New York, less than 17 miles from JFK Airport.
From deep in the woods, medical technician Bob O'Brien can hear the survivors before he can see the shattered 707.
What I first heard was there were just some people who were crying in pain but it was apparent immediately what had happened.
When the plane hit the mountain, it just stopped dead.
SCREAMS AND CRIES WOMAN REPORTER: "It just fell out of the sky.
" That's how witnesses described the crash of Avianca Flight 52, a strangely silent crash MAN REPORTER: There's not a big fire here.
That'll make it easier for investigators to examine if there were any gas or engine problems.
WOMAN: There have been reports of lightning in the area just before the plane went down MAN: The Controllers' Union says that Kennedy is critically understaffed - a problem compounded by bad weather.
WOMAN: Rescuers have not yet given up on finding more victims.
MAN: Over here! VICTIM: Oh, my leg.
We managed to get on top of the fuselage, and there's that door handle that says, "In case of emergency, pull.
" So I pulled that door handle, and that door handle just went 'pshhhh'.
The door came open about four inches.
I was able to flip that over, and I could just see piles and piles of people trapped in their seats.
The extreme G-force of the crash has broken off the cockpit and catapulted it through a stand of trees and into the deck of a home some 100 feet from the impact site.
We couldn't get into the cockpit to get to the pilot and copilot.
All those chairs, they all just hit that cockpit door and just piled into that fuselage.
And just all that added weight and all that inertia now took over and the front of that popped it off and it rolled to its left side and stopped up against the tree.
CHILD SCREAMS, RADIO CHATTER SIREN WAILS Come on.
Somebody get the back here.
SIRENS WAIL 37 fire and rescue companies from Nassau County are quickly mobilised.
The rescue is the largest pre-9/11 operation of its kind in the New York area.
That little girl was sitting up on the fuselage and she was crying, "Mi madre, mi madre.
" And that imprint of horror just was .
.
you know, in your mind's eye focus right back in on, I saw "mi madre".
I saw her mother.
I know what that little girl was seeing.
It was horrible enough for me, and I'm a professional rescuer.
The plane has crashed in the wealthy neighbourhood of Cove Neck.
near the home of the father of tennis star John McEnroe.
Medics set up a makeshift triage unit on his lawn.
When daylight breaks 10 hours later, 85 survivors have been pulled from the wreck.
The lead flight attendant is the only member of crew to survive the crash.
Of the 11 babies on board Flight 52, all but one are found alive.
Among the dead are several passengers with drugs hidden inside their bodies.
Known as 'drug mules', they're poor people paid by the Colombian drugs cartels to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
O'BRIEN: It became an issue later on.
They posted police officers at the morgue, because they were afraid that the drug cartel would come in and try to steal the bodies, because they were worth $1 million apiece, they were waiting for this shipment and there were a lot of them.
Bob O'Brien scours the tail section for survivors and finds FAA investigators struggling to remove the aircraft's black boxes.
I grabbed the handle and just pulled the whole box out and took that out and brought that out the door and gave it to them.
Even as people are being pulled from the wreckage, the on-site investigation begins.
In charge on the ground is Barry Trotter of the National Transportation Safety Board.
A former airline pilot, Trotter became an investigator after losing his right arm in a motorcycle accident.
The condition of the aircraft was really astonishing.
To see that that much of the structure was left and the condition that it was in.
It hit right on about a 28-degree embankment, and with the wings in all the other trees, it only slid 28 feet, so it hit and stopped instantly.
Unaware of the details of Avianca's troubled flight, investigators quickly find a valuable piece of evidence.
You could look at the engines right away and you could tell the engines were not turning.
So there was no power in the engines.
That was the firstfirst big clue.
Trotter and his team examine the fuel tanks and find just a few gallons of jet fuel still onboard.
It becomes clear why the 707's engines stopped turning.
But the question of who's to blame is still to be answered.
In the community of Cove Neck, New York, salvage workers begin the task of dismantling the shattered remains of Avianca Flight 52.
MACHINE GRINDS But there's still one critical question - who is responsible for Flight 52 running out of fuel and causing the death of 72 passengers and crew? The answer will be worth millions of dollars and affect dozens of lives.
At the lab of the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington DC, investigators are eager to recover data locked inside the two black boxes.
The most telling of these is often the flight data recorder, which records critical information, such as the plane's altitude, airspeed and heading.
When we recovered the flight data recorder, and brought it to our lab in Washington, we opened it and found that the foil wrap was not hooked up.
Someone had actually intentionally taped the end of the foil so it wouldn't fly around and put it back in the airplane.
Without the crucial flight data recorder, investigators rely heavily on Flight 52's cockpit voice recorder, which is found with more than 40 minutes of voice recordings of the crew and communications between the first officer and air traffic controllers.
COPILOT'S VOICE: We are due to land.
Stand by.
And it was apparent from the voice recorder transcript and tape that the captain was not understanding the first officer's radio communications that were being made in English.
Everybody wants to blame the pilot.
But he may be the last person to make a decision.
The scenario which caused him to be in that position where he makes the decision was created by several other people along the route.
The captain asked the first officer about nine times "Clarify information" or repeat it, or to pass on information.
- We're going to attempt again.
- Advise him we're in an emergency.
Did he make a conscious decision to run out of fuel? No.
He was sucked into a situation by the air traffic controllers where he ran out of fuel.
Once the airplane got into the JFK area, there was certainly a serious breakdown in communications on the part of the pilots, within the cockpit, on the part of the pilots talking to controllers, and controllers talking to the pilots.
And the controllers amongst themselves, because there were hand-offs, and some of the urgency was not passed on within the controllers' system.
So, we had multiple breakdowns in multiple areas here that ultimately led to this accident.
The cockpit voice recorder reveals a crew desperate to land the 707 in near zero visibility and in extreme windshear, without the aid of an autopilot.
In this case, the captain had a difficult time maintaining the glide slope during the approach, with the windshear, didn't see the airport and had to make a go-around.
That almost doomed the airplane at that point.
The information being given to pilots en route was a windshear up as high as 1500 feet.
But the pilots on approach were encountering windshears as low as 300 feet.
That wasn't passed on to the Avianca pilot.
COPILOT: This is the windshear! The crew of Flight 52 is caught off-guard.
As they descend below 500 feet and slow down, a violent vertical wind forces them towards the ground, nearly causing the plane to crash two miles short of the runway.
Ironically, Avianca 52's lack of fuel resulted in no fire or explosion, saving the survivors from almost certain death.
TROTTER: If the flight would've found some level ground, it was conceivable he would've slapped the fuselage down and slid to a stop.
With no fuel, there'd have been no fire.
I think it's very possible most people would've survived it in that case.
As the hearings into the crash begin, lawyer George Tompkins is confronted by controllers who maintain that the Avianca crew failed to use the word 'emergency', instead using the word 'priority' to communicate their situation.
The government took the position that the pilot never declared an emergency, so no-one knew that he had a problem.
But saying you're getting low on fuel, and saying you cannot make your alternate .
.
the word 'emergency' is not necessary to say.
COPILOT: Negative, sir.
We are running out of fuel.
We just, uh, lost two engines and we need priority, please! TOMPKINS: And they thought they weren't telling them when they said "we need priority".
To me, 'priority' means a priority.
If you ask a child, "What is a priority to you?" what are you gonna say? He doesn't need to say any more.
Avianca 052 only has five more minutes in the hold.
You able to take him, or send him up to his alternate? What's the speed now? Not sure, to be honest.
Holding speed.
The NTSB concludes that Air Traffic's handling of Avianca 52 was proper, considering the information they were getting from the flight crew.
Many of the passengers are shocked and outraged by what they feel is a gross injustice.
That Air Traffic Control is found blameless.
Avianca sues the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs the air traffic controllers, saying they should've done more when Flight 52 told them they were running out of fuel.
The FAA settles, and ends up paying around 40% of the estimated $200 million compensation due to the victims.
If you listen and read the tapes, the transcripts of the tapes of each air route traffic control centre along the route, and the final to New York tower, Kennedy Tower, you'll find 20 places where this accident could've been avoided if somebody had done something differently.
For many of the survivors, recovering from their injuries has been easier than coming to terms with the reason why Flight 52 ran out of fuel.
I had to learn to walk from scratch.
It's difficult enough to deal with the injuries.
It makes me very angry to think thatthat a plane went down with 161 souls .
.
and almost half the people lost their lives because of aa word?