可以在12号跑道起飞前往大溪地 Cleared for take off for Tahiti, 2
收到 Runway 12. 3
一架最耐用的飞机 One of the most ragged planes ever built... 4
飞行员都把这款飞机称为“空中吉普” Pilots all called it “The jeep in the sky”. 5
在大溪地附近的海域坠毁 … crashes into the sea near Tahiti. 6
飞机不会无端端就会坠毁 A plane doesn’t just crash for no reason. 7
空管员根本不知道是怎么回事 Air traffic controllers have no idea what happened. 8
我们这儿只是小机场 We are a small airport here. 9
是不会装雷达的 We are not equipped with radar. 10
我们预计这次调查 It looked like it was going to be 11
非常棘手 a very difficult investigation. 12
是飞行员突然病发... Was it a medical emergency, ... 13
飞行员有可能身体支撑不住 The pilot might have had a physical breakdown. 14
是恶意破坏... …an act of sabotage, 15
不要啊 No! 16
还是一些更恐怖的东西 ...or something even more alarming, 17
隐藏在全世界的机场里 a hidden threat that lurks 18
威胁着所有的飞机呢？ at commercial airports around the world? 19
求救 求救 Mayday, mayday. 20
空中浩劫 21
这是一个真实的故事 22
本片是根据官方报告及目击者证词重建的 23
天境之劫——莫雷阿航空1121号班机 24
飞行员米歇尔·桑图伦 Pilot Michel Santurenne cruises low over 25
在法属波利尼西亚群岛低空飞行 the islands of French Polynesia. 26
莫雷阿呼叫 请求进场 Air Moorea, requesting clears for approach, # 特效字幕：2007年8月9日 27
12号跑道 Runway 12. 28
每天有大约40班机 It’s one of up to 40 flights a day 29
来往穿梭于莫雷阿岛和大溪地之间 between the islands of Moorea and Tahiti. 30
莫雷阿 可以进入五边 Air Moorea, you are cleared for final, 31
12号跑道 Runway 12. 32
埃里克·利马尔最熟悉这条航线的了 It’s a route Eric Limare knows well. 33
莫雷阿岛距离大溪地很近 Moorea is an island that’s really close to Tahiti. #特效字幕： 34
两者之间相差还不够20公里 The distance between them isn’t even 20 kilometers. 35
飞机只是作为来往两地的交通工具而已 There’s just a channel to cross. 36
大溪地和莫雷阿 Tahiti and Moorea are 37
是法属波利尼西亚群岛 two of more than a hundred islands 38
一百多个小岛之中的两个岛屿 that make up French Polynesia, 39
就位于澳大利亚以及南美洲之间 halfway between Australia and South America. 40
天然的海滩和翠绿的山峰 Pristine beaches and lush mountain peaks 41
每年吸引了成千上万的游客 attract thousands of tourists a year. 42
莫雷阿航空专门为这两个岛屿 Air Moorea specializes in the short flights 43
提供重要的 that provide a vital link 44
短途运输服务 between the islands. 45
波利尼西亚人 生活在莫雷阿岛以及在大溪地岛工作的 Air Moorea and its planes were really part of a 46
居民以及游客 daily landscape for the Polynesians, 47
每天都要乘坐 people working in Tahiti and living in Moorea, 48
莫雷阿航空的飞机 and for the tourists. 49
因为这是最方便快捷的方法 It really was the quickest and most efficient link. 50
我又来了 Me again. 51
米歇尔·桑图伦三个月前 Michel Santurenne joined Air Moorea 52
刚加入莫雷阿航空 just three months ago. 53
可以的话把乘客名单和你准备好的手册都给我 I’ll take the passenger list and logs you did if it’s ready. 54
在军队退役之后 After a career in the military, 55
他就在这个天堂般地方展开了新的生活 he’s beginning a new life in paradise. 56
他打理好一切 就是为了迎接全家搬来生活 He’d taken care of everything to welcome his family. 57
他的妻子即将和他见面 His wife was joining him soon. 58
呵 又是满客呀 Huh, another full one. 59
我喜欢 Just the way we like it. 60
桑图伦会在没有副驾驶和机组人员的协助下 Santurenne flies these short hops on his own, 61
自己驾驶飞机完成这趟短途飞行 with no co-pilot or cabin crew to help out. 62
好 开工了 Okay. Time to fly. 63
在人间天堂都要分秒必争喔 No time to waste in paradise. 64
每半个小时 Every 30 minutes, 65
他就要准备再次起飞 he needs to be ready for another take-off. 66
机长会赶紧检查 The Captain would quickly check the plane 67
飞机有没有一些异常情况 to see if there was anything alarming -- 68
轮胎漏气之类的 a deflated tire... 69
注意到的地方都要检查一遍 anything that might caught their attention. 70
这架加拿大制造可以搭载19名乘客的 The Twin Otter turbo-prop is a 71
“双水濑”涡轮螺旋桨飞机 十分坚固可靠 ragged 19 passenger aircraft built in Canada. #特效字幕：（注：该款飞机正式名称为加拿大哈维兰DHC6-300型） 72
其实 我们飞行员都把这款飞机称为“空中吉普” In fact, we pilots all called it “The jeep in the sky”. 73
这衬衫不错啊 Nice shirt. 74
我们很快就要再次登机迎接新的乘客 We would greet the passengers quickly and reboard. 75
对 你坐那儿 Yeah, your seat. 76
时间真的很短 It was very very short, let’s say. 77
你好啊 How are you doing? 78
把行李放到座位前面就行 Just put the luggage in the seat in front of you. 79
今天是飞行的好日子 Beautiful day to fly. 80
在地面待了还不到15分钟 After less than 15 minutes on the ground, 81
桑图伦就要再次出发了 Santurenne is ready to go again. 82
塔台 我们已经准备好滑行 Tower, we’re ready to taxi. 83
莫雷阿 可以起飞 Air Moorea, you are cleared for take off, 84
12号跑道 Runway 12. 85
可以在12号跑道起飞前往大溪地 收到 Cleared for take off for Tahiti, Runway 12. 86
“双水濑”飞机没什么自动化设备 The Twin Otter has little automation. 87
桑图伦只能靠手动飞行 Santurenne flies this plane by hand. 88
现代的民航客机 The majority of modern commercial planes 89
装满了协助飞行员的设备 are loaded with the help for the pilots. 90
比如说电子仪器 还有屏幕 Electronics, screens. 91
但在这种飞机上 But on this type of plane, 92
你会感受到完全 you have the pleasure of handling the plane 93
手动驾驶的乐趣 and fully controlling it. 94
在这座岛上 At this island airport, 95
1200米的机场跑道 the ocean is just off the edge of the 96
就在海边 12 hundred meter runway. 97
我们在那儿飞行的时候 看见景色非常迷人 When we fly over there, it’s magical. 98
蔚蓝的湖水 壮丽的海岛 Blue lagoons, magnificent islands, 99
还有茂密的丛林交相辉映 the greenery, the mix of colours. 100
简直就是人间天堂 It’s certainly paradise. 101
游客都能看到平时飞机 Vacationers get to watch the 102
不断地起飞和降落 regular take-offs and landings. 103
这是世上最短的航线 The flight is one of the shortest on earth. 104
从起飞到降落只要7分钟 Just 7 minutes from take off to touch down. 105
咦 Uh? 106
见鬼 Damn it! 107
但在1121号班机上 But on Flight 1121, 108
有些东西出了问题 something is wrong. 109
这架“双水濑”飞机正急速下坠 The Twin Otter is losing altitude fast. 110
一头朝下俯冲 It falls into a steep dive. 111
起飞后还不到2分钟 Less than two minutes after take off, 112
1121号班机就坠入太平洋 Flight 1121 crashes into the Pacific. 113
我的天啊 Oh my God! 114
人们将情况报告给塔台 The tower is told what people have seen. 115
飞机浮着还是沉了？ Is it floating or has it gone under? 116
当地的渔民火速前往营救 Local fishermen rush to help. 117
但他们找不到任何生还者 But they find no survivors. 118
找到的只是遗体 Only bodies. 119
机上20人全部丧生 All 20 people on the flight are dead. 120
#特效字幕: 所有人都遇难了 121
#特效字幕: 没有人生还 122
我永远都会记得 I’ll always remember. 123
因为实在太恐怖了 It was terrible. 124
我们还以为无论如何 Because we were still hoping that 125
都会有人生还 despite what happened people would come out alive. 126
哪怕只有几个都好 Or at least a couple. 127
这起空难触动了这座小岛上的 The disaster touches nearly everyone 128
每一个居民 in the tiny island community. 129
在波利尼西亚 大家都互相认识 In Polynesia, everyone knows each other. 130
不是别人的表兄弟 Everyone is someone’s cousin, 131
就是跟这户人家认识 or knows their family. 132
所以这次事故令大家 So people were hit very hard 133
都受到很大的打击 by this accident. 134
由于飞行员拒绝驾驶“双水濑”飞机 The Air Moorea fleet is grounded, 135
莫雷阿航空整个机队停飞 when pilots refuse to fly the Twin Otter 136
直到查出坠机原因为止 until they know what cause the crash. 137
飞机不会无端端就会坠毁 A plane doesn’t just crash for no reason. 138
一定是飞行员犯错 It was either due to pilot error 139
或者机械故障造成 or mechanical problem. 140
所以在继续飞行之前 So before continuing to fly 141
我们要求检查整个机队 we asked that the whole fleet be checked out. 142
（法语）你好 (French) Bonjour. 143
因为莫雷阿岛属于法国领地 Because Moorea is a French territory, 144
法国民用航空安全调查局（BEA）在巴黎 a team from France’s Accident Investigation Bureau, 145
派出了一个调查组进行调查 the BEA, is sent from Paris. 146
他们的职责就是要找出到底是什么问题 It’s their job to figure out what went wrong. 147
别告诉我找到的残骸就这么多 Tell me there is more. 148
阿兰·布亚尔是调查组的组长 Alain Bouillard leads the investigation. 149
“双水濑”这款飞机非常坚固 The Twin Otter was an extremely robust plane. # 特效 阿兰 150
几乎所有崎岖的地带都在用 It was used in all the difficult places 151
而那些地方基本上其他飞机都很难起飞降落的 where other planes can’t normally take off and land. 152
所以我们感觉很奇怪的是 That means us wonder, 153
这架飞机究竟出了什么问题 what could have happened to this plane that 154
才导致它坠海的 would have made it hit the water. 155
调查员一般都会依靠残骸找线索 Investigators usually rely on clues from the wreckage. 156
这东西一点用都没有 This tells us nothing. 157
然而这架飞机大部分残骸都沉在海底 But most of this plane is at the bottom of the ocean, 158
除非把重要的残骸打捞上来 Bouillard will have little to go on. 159
否则布亚尔什么都查不了 Unless he can get vital pieces back on dry land. 160
我们要找一大堆比这更有用的残骸 We are going to need a lot more wreckage than this. 161
还有另外一个原因去找这架飞机的残骸 There is another reason to find the plane. 162
有别于大型客机 Unlike large airliners, 163
“双水濑”飞机并没有要求 Twin Otters are not required 164
安装驾驶舱录音仪 to carry Cockpit Voice Recorders. 165
但莫雷阿航空还是决定在每架飞机上都安装了一个 But Air Moorea installed one anyway. Part 2 ENG danninglu CHN 中校锁定标志 英校锁定标志 It could hold the answers investigators are looking for. We were hoping to get, in addition to the voice in the cockpit voice recorder, any kind of, alarms that would sound. But recovering the CVR from the deep water of the coast of Maria will be a huge challenge. The depth out of this area is around 700 meters. So obviously, you can not send any divers. You need to send a remote-control operated submarine. Investigators arranged for a ship equipped with a remote-control submersible to assist in the recovery. The Ile De Ré. There’s just one catch. It’s more than 4,000 kilometers away of the island New Caledonia. It could take weeks for the ship to get to Maria. Flight 1121’s CVR is equipped with a locator beacon, or pinger. But the battery that powers it will only last for 30 days. We try to send that recovery ship as soon as possible and within the 30 days of the battery life of the pinger. It looks like it was going to be a very difficult investigation if we couldn’t recover the cockpit voice recorder. Meanwhile, investigators talked to the controller at the airport. A radar track could provide some clues about what brought the plane down. The first evidence that we like to get to when investigations starts of course is the sense of the trajectory. The last departure point, and the impact point. So we try to get these type of information. But they’re not going to get what they hope for. We’re small airport here, we’re not equipped with radar. It’s yet another setback. When we discover that we did not have any radar data. We were slightly disappointed in the sense that we knew it is going to be harder to recreate the trajectory of the aircraft. I saw the plane climbing and suddenly dove into the water. Until the Ile De Ré arrive investigators must rely on the only evidence they have -- witness reports of the crash. We thought it was critical to gather all the eye witness accounts to help us understand what happened. Most of the witness where either on the beach in Moorea or on the boats fishing. All of them state that they saw the aircraft climbing normally. Every day more than 500 Twin Otters navigates some of the challenging routes on earth, from the Australian outback to the frozen tundra of the far north. If there is a fatal floor in the famously sturdy twin otter, the aviation world needs to know as soon as possible. That fact increases pressure on investigators to figure out what brought down Flight 1121. It was climbing normally, then seems to lose control of the plane. Maybe it was their weight. When you have the weight imbalance issue, you usually have your troubles right after takeoff. Calculating the weight of cargo, passengers and fuel correctly is critical on small commuter planes. Getting it wrong can be deadly. As a crash in the United States demonstrated in 2003, US Airway Express Flight 5481 departs from Charlotte, North Carolina. Just 30 seconds after takeoff the pilots lose control of their Beechcraft 1900. The commuter plane plunged into the ground, hitting an airport hanger and killing all 21 people on board. Investigators discovered the plane with dangerously overloaded, more than 250 kg over its maximum allowable takeoff weight. The crew used incorrect estimates for passenger and baggage weight. It’s very important to know the weight of your aircraft before you take off, and therefore we decide to investigate this issue very soon to the investigation. 19 passengers with fuel and cargo. The BEA team checks the load and balance sheets from the Air Mooera flight and finds no issue. We find out that everything is within the manufacturer’s limits. They should have been fine. Whatever brought down the plane, it had nothing to do with weight. Until help arrives to search the plane’s sunken cockpit voice recorder, there is no more evidence to go on. Bouillard decided to take a chance on an unusual tactic to try to figure out what went wrong. Yeah, I need a small plane and a good pilot. We’ll see. Above the island of Moorea, Allan Bouillard takes an unusual flight aboard a small commuter plane. A flight he hopes when enhance the memory of those who witnessed the crash of flight 1121. OK, let’s make a pass over all the lagoon. Pilots have a specific task to do at each stage of the flight. If witnesses can identify how high Santurenne climb, it might help investigators figure out what he was going to do when he lost control of the plane. They ask witnesses to watch as Bouilllard’s plane climbs from the airport. If you ask them what was the maximum altitude, they might not be able to tell you, For this course, 500 ft or 1,000 ft or 2,000 ft. But if you actually show them the aircraft in the air and said: “This is 500 ft, did it match what you saw? ”, they can say more easily yes or no. No, it’s too high. Ok, let’s make one low pass ,this time a little lower. We ask the witness to tell them which one of the recreated flights match the most when they remember from the day of the accident. Yes, that’s exactly where I saw the plane. The right height. Excellent! We’re at an altitude of almost 400 ft. OK,let’s go back. The test flight gives Wier a good idea of how high Michel Santurenne manage to climb. The flights we did allowed us to estimate the altitude at which the plane changed its trajectory. Whatever went wrong, it happened when it was still climbing. But he still doesn’t know what cause the plane’s sudden dive, or why the pilot couldn’t recover. When you have an airplane going nose-dive after takeoff you can think of engine failure obviously. Dual engine failure? A twin otter can fly safely with only one engine, but if both engine failed, that could cause a steep dive like the one the witnesses saw. That was a possibility. It would match in terms of trajectory. But having two engine failed at the exact same time is an extremely rare event. Dual engine failure could be caused, of course by fuel starvation, but that’s quite unlikely while after takeoff. Or it can be also..let’s don’t forget, bird ingestions in both engines, but that’s quite unlikely also. Most witnesses also report hearing engines as the plane dove towards the sea. Dual engine failure now seems even more unlikely. Sounds captured by the cockpit recorder could confirm if the engines were running. Part 3 ENG Paris CHN 中校锁定标志 英校锁定标志 Part 4 ENG ISS CHN 中校锁定标志 英校锁定标志 1
见鬼 Damn it! 2
不久之后 飞机就一头栽进海里 Moments later, the plane slams into the sea. 3
Even with a lot of experience, 4
Cockpit Voice Recorders are always... 5
hard to hear, 6
especially when you know there's a tragic ending. 7
He's committed to the flaps. 8
Just uh... 9
I don't understand how. 10
Investigators learn that on flights to Tahiti, 11
Twin Otter pilots retract their flaps 12
when they reach about 400 feet -- 13
the same altitude where Flight 1121 began to dive. 14
They wonder if the flaps malfunctioned. 15
Before take-off, 16
pilots routinely extend their wing flaps 17
to increase lift while they climb. 18
Once the plane approaches cruising altitude, 19
extended flaps increase drag, 20
so pilots must retract them 21
when they approach cruising altitude. 22
Investigators study the mechanism 23
that operates the flaps. 24
We did recover the flap actuator, 25
and we were able to analyze it. 26
They find that it's in the correct position, 27
and shows no sign of any malfunction. 28
Flaps are fine. 29
Results of the examination showed that 30
the flaps were retracted on impact. 31
After weeks of work, 32
Bouillard still can't explain 33
why Flight 1121 fell out of the sky. 34
Now, let's take a good, 35
close look at these cables. 36
He focuses on the cables 37
that operate crucial control surfaces in the tail of the plane. 38
We were left with a possibility of a mechanical breakdown, or failure. 39
The control surfaces in the tail of a Twin Otter 40
are activated by just four cables. 41
Two move the plane's rudder right and left, 42
and two move the elevator up and down. 43
All four were damaged in the crash. 44
Bouillard looks for anything that might tell him 45
when and how they snapped. 46
Aviation cables are made up of multiple strands of thin wire 47
that are twisted and then braided together for extra strength. 48
Three cables have unraveled, 49
clear indication that they were ripped apart 50
suddenly on impact. 51
And... impacted damage. 52
But one cable looks different. 53
Now, this... 54
This is interesting. 55
This one did not snap on impact. 56
One cable was broken 57
in a different manner than the three other ones. 58
So it was something that we had to investigate. 59
Two cables run to the elevator on the tail. 60
One pulls it down to pitch the nose down. 61
The other cable pulls it up 62
to pitch the nose up. 63
That's the one that broke before impact. 64
If it snapped in flight, 65
the plane would have been thrown into a severe dive. 66
Damn it! 67
The failure of the pitch-up cable 68
was consisting with the trajectory 69
that was described by the eyewitnesses. 70
Dove into the water. 71
Finally investigators understand 72
why Michel Santurenne lost control of his Twin Otter. 73
An extremely rare mechanical failure 74
that came without warning. 75
It's a relevation that leads to a more urgent question. 76
Okay, let's send these to Estelle in Paris, 77
and see what she thinks. 78
They must now figure out why the cable snapped... 79
...before it happens to someone else. 80
When the pitch-up cable arrives in Paris, 81
material specialist Estelle Bancharel examines it closely. 82
She sees something strange. 83
The cable shows clear evidence 84
that different strands broke at different times, 85
and for different reasons. 86
The external strands were worn 87
and those in the inside were not. 88
They had snapped. 89
Distinctive on the outer strand 90
suggests something has been rubbing against the cable. 91
It looks like 50% worn down over time. 92
When we looked at this cable under the microscope, 93
we were able to see that 94
every external strand showed these signs of wear, 95
which added up to very substantial damage. 96
The pitch-up cable runs 97
from the control column in the cockpit 98
to the elevator, 99
passing through a series of plastic guides. 100
Every time the pilot pulls the nose up, 101
the cable rubs against the guides. 102
Planes experience the most wear and tear 103
during take-off and landing. 104
It's important for mechanics to monitor 105
the number of flights to help assess wear. 106
48. - Airline records provide a troubling clue. 107
More than 50 flights here. 108
Air Moorea, you are cleared for... 109
Air Moorea planes make frequent short hops, 110
and make many more take-offs and landings 111
than most large airliners. 112
On average, it performed 50 to 70 take-offs a day 113
and landings too. 114
The same plane. 115
Investigators need to know how 116
all that back-and forth movement 117
could have affected the pitch-up cable. 118
They devise a test 119
that replicates the friction on the cable. 120
But there's another factor that must be taken into account. 121
This is the only plane in the Air Moorea fleet 122
with stainless steel cables. 123
Then we found out there was... 124
there was a different type of control cable 125
used for this particular aircraft. 126
The accident plane is a new addition 127
to the Air Moorea fleet. 128
The airline's other planes have control cables made of carbon steel. 129
But Flight 1121's cables are made of stainless steel. 130
Stainless steel withstand salt corrosion better than carbon steel. 131
It would make sense, 132
to make the decision to use stainless steel 133
so that your cables would corrode less 134
in a very saline environment. 135
Cables could be susceptible to corrosion 136
more than if you would operate overland. 137
But stainless steel cables also have a disadvantage. 138
They wear down more quickly from friction. 139
Something Air Moorea failed to take into account 140
when drawing up the maintenance schedule 141
for the Twin Otter that crashed. 142
A stainless steel cable contains chrome, 143
which makes it better at resisting corrosion. 144
It also contains nickle, 145
which can make it more sensitive to wear. 146
Lab results confirmed that the frequent short flights 147
helped wear away the outside of the stainless steel cable. 148
The stainless steel is worn. 149
Just like on Air Moorea. 150
The wear was the result of rubbing against parts of the plane. 151
It could be a crucial discovery, 152
one that finally explains why 153
a critical control cable broke in flight. 154
Investigators suspect friction weaken the cable so much 155
that it snapped as Santurenne 156
was pulling his elevator up to climb. 157
At first we thought that the cable broke because of the wear. 158
That was our first impression, 159
because the wear was significant. 160
Bancharel puts the theory to the test. 161
She recreates the force used by Santurenne 162
to pull up the nose of the plane. 163
If she's right, 164
the worn cable should snap. 165
But it doesn't break. 166
Once we performed this test, 167
we saw there was 50% wear. 168
You still needed much more force, 169
a force ten times stronger 170
then what you'd find in flight 171
during this phase of flap retraction. Part 5 ENG ISS CHN 中校锁定标志 英校锁定标志 1
Thanks to the tests, we realized that 2
even a cable worn down by 50% 3
could have withstood the stress of the entire flight. 4
Cable remained intact. 5
We had to figure out 6
what phenomenon could have weaken the cable. 7
Something else helped to snap that cable. 8
What? 9
Investigators know that planes sometimes 10
sustain hard-to-detect damage 11
from small impacts with ground vehicles. 12
If an airport vehicle accidentally 13
ran into the plane's elevator, 14
the impact may have broken wires 15
in the already worn pitch-up cable. 16
Bouillard checks the records 17
at both airports on the Twin Otter's route -- 18
Moorea, and the larger airport in Tahiti 19
where it parks overnight. 20
Thank you. 21
He needs to know if the plane was ever involved in an accident. 22
Nothing. 23
No impact reported. 24
We didn't find any evidence of impact on the control surfaces, 25
which eliminated the possibility of contact with another vehicle 26
during overnight parking. 27
It's another dead end. 28
There seems to be no way to explain 29
why a cable would snap in flight, 30
until Bouillard notices something on the taxiway 31
at the busy Tahiti Airport. 32
Tell me, 33
how close do those jets get to the Air Moorea planes? 34
We targeted the phenomenon 35
of the exhaust from a jet engine, 36
a phenomenon called "jet blast". 37
Jet blast is the powerful exhaust expelled from jet engines. 38
The hurricane force winds can reach speeds over 160 km/h. 39
A plane at full power, 40
a plane like an Airbus or like a Boeing 41
whose power can flip a plane a few dozen feet behind it. 42
It's a phenomenal force. 43
Investigators study the layout of Tahiti's Airport. 44
They need to know if the Air Moorea planes 45
could have been damaged by jet blast. 46
Okay. 47
The Air Moorea Twin Otters are parked here. 48
They learn that Air Moorea parks its planes very close 49
to a taxiway used by powerful jets. 50
Airports routinely set up jet blast barriers 51
to protect planes from the dangerous force. 52
There should be barriers to protect the Twin Otters at Tahiti's airport, 53
but they've been removed. 54
Now look at this. 55
It's an important discovery. 56
The jets, they back out here. 57
These barriers were removed to make it easier 58
to go from one parking lot to another. 59
There was no longer this physical barrier 60
to protect the Twin Otter planes. 61
The Airbus or Boeing jets were found 62
let's say, about 50 metres away from Air Moorea's parking. 63
Very close. 64
The Air Moorea planes 65
are parked right in the path of the jet blast. 66
This plane had been parked in an area that was 67
prone to receiving blast 68
from the large carriers during their departure. 69
We therefore arrived at this hypothesis, 70
that there was a very high probability 71
that the cable was weakened by jet blast. 72
Alain Bouillard learns that Air Moorea's planes 73
are especially vulnerable to jet blast. 74
Because of an airline policy designed to prevent accidents, 75
the Twin Otters are parked with the elevators 76
locked in a nose-down position. 77
It makes it impossible to get off the ground 78
with the elevators locked. 79
It was locked by a device that stopped the cables from moving 80
and prevented the elevator from moving. 81
But the nose-down position likely increased 82
the damaging effects of the jet blast. 83
Investigators suspect that like a sail in the wind, 84
the tilted elevators caught the full force of the blast, 85
putting extra strain on the locked pitch-up cable. 86
If the controls are locked, it pulls, 87
and transfers this energy directly to the cable. 88
They now wonder if the force of the jet blast 89
is enough to break a worn cable even further. 90
Another cable test provides the answer. 91
There was a cable worn down by 50%, 92
a cable that was still able to resist a hefty amount of strain. 93
And then, a jet blast phenomenon left the cable so fragile 94
that it only had one or two strands left intact. 95
Rather then tearing the cable completely apart, 96
the jet blast left a few strands of wire, 97
just enough for Flight 1121 to take off, 98
but not enough to survive the rigours of a seven-minute flight. 99
They were hanging by a thread. 100
If the jet blast had severed the cable completely, 101
Captain Santurenne would not have been able to get his plane off the ground. 102
But once airborne, 103
Captain Santurenne and his 19 passengers 104
are one thin strand of wire away from disaster. 105
Investigators reproduce the forces 106
created as the pilot adjusts his controls. 107
Captain Santurenne reaches 400 feet, 108
and retracts his flaps, 109
causing his Twin Otter to pitch down slightly. 110
He adjusts his elevator to pitch back up. 111
It's enough to snap the final strand of the worn and damaged cable. 112
He didn't have a chance. 113
We determined that the force 114
needed to correct the pitch of the plane 115
was strong enough to break the last strand. 116
There was nothing the pilot could do 117
to save his plane and his 19 passengers. 118
You can imagine his reaction. 119
What's going on? 120
The cable broke. 121
The control column came back, 122
and by the time you analyzed what happened, 123
the plane drops very quickly, 124
and a few seconds later, you've hit the earth. 125
The Air Moorea accident killed 20 people, 126
and forever changed the lives of the victims' families. 127
Bouillard and his team leave French Polynesia, 128
determined to make it safer to fly on Twin Otters. 129
The first recommendation was an urgent request 130
to check the cables on all planes 131
equipped with stainless steel cables. 132
Today, there are tougher maintenance and inspection standards 133
around the world for stainless steel control cables. 134
The main lesson from this investigation is 135
the risk of jet blasts at airports. 136
The Air Moorea disaster raised awareness throughout the industry 137
of the vital safety role played by jet blast barriers, 138
especially at airports that handle both large jets 139
and small commuter planes. 140
Eric Limare hopes it will be enough 141
to stop such an accident from happening again. 142
I dare to hope. 143
If not, what purpose did this accident serve? 144
To have 19 passengers die, 145
and have the same thing happen again without learning anything? 146
It would be a shame.