A Boeing 737 takes off in the pitch black of pre-dawn from a popular resort town on the Red Sea headed for Paris, filled with French vacationers. The flight crew are experienced and the pilot complains that one of the instruments isn't working, but the engineer reports that the problem isn't serious.
However, the Flash Airlines plane must turn left towards Paris but instead banks and turns to the right. The pilot engages the autopilot which doesn't work. By this time the aircraft is flying almost on its side and all hell is breaking loose in the passenger cabin.
It's only a few minutes after takeoff and the airplane is spiraling down towards the Red Sea, picking up speed as it drops, threatening to tear itself apart. The pilot has no idea what's wrong but manages to slow down, too late. The 737 crashes into the Red Sea and shatters, killing all 148 people aboard.
One of the more admirable features of this series is the lack of sensationalism. The emotional impact is inherent in the description of the events themselves. There are virtually no shots of sobbing relatives, no dead bodies.
As it turns out, Flash Airlines was one of many companies offering cheap, no-frills flights, and the only way they could turn a profit was by keeping all of their airplanes flying day and night. Shortcuts are taken, some serious, according to complaints from passengers on previous flights. Several European countries had already banned Flash Airlines from operations.
Since most of the passengers were French, France is quick to send help, and one of their robot submarines is able to recover both of the black boxes from the bottom of the sea -- the CVR which records cockpit conversations and the FDR which contains a running record of the flight controls.
The investigators continue to amaze me. They're able to construct a computer model of the airplane and its gyrations based on data recovered from the black boxes. They brainstorm 53 theories of what happened and reduce them to only four. The pilot may have been disoriented because of the lack of ground clues. His inner ear was misleading him. Vertigo is the same problem that killed John Kennedy, Jr. The crew had had no training as a team and were instead operating as individuals, so the First Officer may have been reluctant to correct the Captain's mishandling.
None of the explanations is definitive and here, as in real life, the episode ends in ambiguity. The most likely flaws are made public and corrective measures are taken. Flash Airlines goes out of business.
However, the Flash Airlines plane must turn left towards Paris but instead banks and turns to the right. The pilot engages the autopilot which doesn't work. By this time the aircraft is flying almost on its side and all hell is breaking loose in the passenger cabin.
It's only a few minutes after takeoff and the airplane is spiraling down towards the Red Sea, picking up speed as it drops, threatening to tear itself apart. The pilot has no idea what's wrong but manages to slow down, too late. The 737 crashes into the Red Sea and shatters, killing all 148 people aboard.
One of the more admirable features of this series is the lack of sensationalism. The emotional impact is inherent in the description of the events themselves. There are virtually no shots of sobbing relatives, no dead bodies.
As it turns out, Flash Airlines was one of many companies offering cheap, no-frills flights, and the only way they could turn a profit was by keeping all of their airplanes flying day and night. Shortcuts are taken, some serious, according to complaints from passengers on previous flights. Several European countries had already banned Flash Airlines from operations.
Since most of the passengers were French, France is quick to send help, and one of their robot submarines is able to recover both of the black boxes from the bottom of the sea -- the CVR which records cockpit conversations and the FDR which contains a running record of the flight controls.
The investigators continue to amaze me. They're able to construct a computer model of the airplane and its gyrations based on data recovered from the black boxes. They brainstorm 53 theories of what happened and reduce them to only four. The pilot may have been disoriented because of the lack of ground clues. His inner ear was misleading him. Vertigo is the same problem that killed John Kennedy, Jr. The crew had had no training as a team and were instead operating as individuals, so the First Officer may have been reluctant to correct the Captain's mishandling.
None of the explanations is definitive and here, as in real life, the episode ends in ambiguity. The most likely flaws are made public and corrective measures are taken. Flash Airlines goes out of business.
