before you plan your next holiday. did these families check into a killer hotel? >> i have two bodies and i need some help now. >> a double nightmare because it happened just weeks before in the very same room. >> verp falling off like flies. >> how was the killer still in the room? >> get everybody out of the room. >> "20/20," inside room 225. after a year of plane disasters, landing at the wrong airport to the crash in san francisco, david muir takes you inside a cockpit. >> i'll have you do the takeoff. >> how little do we do to fly this thing?

are computers flying? what happens when auto pilot is shut koun? out of control. overboard on a cruise. >> the next thing i knew i was falling. >> seven stories down, plunging into the dark water, all caught on tape. and -- sexed up to taped up. all-stars to amateurs, who gets your vote tonight for the most horrible passenger ever? >> yes, i pee on the plane. "im "imperfect getaways." starting in the middle of memorial day weekend and kickoff to summer geta ways with the family, but when one takes a mysterious and deadly turn. >> a mother and son on a trip to a hotel in the mountains but a kwie etd killer was waiting there and had struck in the same room just weeks wf. here's matt gutman unlocking the mystery of room 225. >> reporter: 3,000 feet up in

the brisk blue ridge mountain air, the busy little town of boone, north carolina, as in daniel boone. he camped here. and 200 years later, the tourists are still coming. >> it's a college town. it's one of those things that's, like, a small community. just about everybody knows everyone. >> reporter: where everybody is welcome at the best western hotel. cable tv, buffet breakfast and indoor heated swimming pool, one of the few in town. and something they may not tell you at the front desk, a dark secret in room 225. the guests were dying. tell me about the day that you decided to drive up to boone. >> we were going to pick up our daughter from science camp that she was up there and -- >> reporter: jeannie williams decided at the last minute to turn a day trip from the family farm in rock hill, south carolina, into an overnight adventure for her homeschooled 11-year-old son, jeffrey. >> he just liked hotels. he liked to travel and he thought it was a neat thing to

do for some reason. and he just enjoyed it. >> reporter: they checked into the best western in boone on june 7th, 2013 but not into room 225. newspaper reporter elizabeth leland -- >> and now in one of those terrible tragic ironies in this case, the room they were in reeked so much of cigarette smoke that they asked to be switched to another room. >> reporter: they were upgraded to room 225. was it a nice room? >> it was a nice room. it was a big room. and it had a fireplace and it had a kind of heart-shaped tub. jeffrey wasn't quite sure about that. he thought that was quite interesting and never had seen that before. >> reporter: was there anything unusual about the room? >> mm-mm. no, there was nothing. >> reporter: jeffrey is in bed, in his pjs. >> my last vision i have of him is just sitting on the edge of the bed and him holding the ad and playing a game.

>> reporter: but something comes over jeannie. >> i started feeling bad and just kind of a stomachache kind of feel. i thought maybe something i had eaten. >> reporter: in the bathroom, it gets worse. 911 worse. but her phone is in the other room. >> and i'm thinking i just got to get to my phone. i just got to get to my phone. and i remember, on the floor, reaching and trying to get to the door to open the door. and i -- i couldn't. and then that's the last thing i remember. and i fell, i guess. >> reporter: the next morning, brianne williams, waiting for her mother and brother -- but they never show. this is not typical of your mother. >> no. i remember sitting at the lunch table and all of my friends are around me, and i said, "you know, something -- something's wrong." >> reporter: she calls her dad. he calls the hotel. a clerk checks on room 225 and finds jeannie and jeffrey. they never left the room. >> ma'am, i've got two bodies and i need some help down here now. >> okay. are they, are they breathing? are they awake?

>> no, no. they're not. please hurry. >> the next thing i remember is waking up in the hospital room. i couldn't talk. i guess that was from being in a coma. they hand me a notepad and a pencil or a pen because i wanted to know where jeffrey was. >> reporter: jeannie scribbles a "b" for bit, her husband's pet name for their son. >> and then he said, "bit." and that's when he told me that, that jeffrey was with jesus. and then he just kept telling me, "be strong. i need you. i need you." >> reporter: how did jeffrey die? the first clue was in that 911 call from the best western. >> this just happened to us last month so please come help us. >> reporter: hear that? "just happened to us last

month." then she says it again. >> you don't understand. we just went through this. >> reporter: for emt mike edmisten, first on the scene to rescue jeannie williams, the call to the best western and room 225 was eerily familiar. >> and i think, "hey. that sounds familiar." >> reporter: turns out he had been on another call to that same room seven weeks earlier. >> i look at my partner, and i said, "if i'm not mistaken, that's the same room we had the last call in." >> reporter: what's your reaction? >> then we walk in and we find two more bodies. same room. >> reporter: suddenly, you realized that room 225 is some sort of death trap. >> yes. >> reporter: four bodies, same hotel room. >> same hotel room. and then you start thinking, "you know, something's going on." >> reporter: the first sign something was going on came seven weeks before, back in april of 2013. just like jeannie and jeffrey williams, daryl and shirley jenkins, a retired couple from washington state, spent the night in room 225. when they didn't show up for

breakfast, someone had gone to check on them too. >> and when she opened the door, she found shirley lying in the front entranceway near the bathroom and daryl was lying in the hot tub and they were both dead. >> hello. >> hello. tell me what's going on there. >> i just got in the room. there's two people. neither one of them are breathing. >> neither are breathing? >> no, ma'am. >> stuff like this don't happen here. that's what everybody thinks, but it does. it does. >> reporter: did a killer slip in and out of a locked hotel room in the dark of night taking the lives of daryl and shirley jenkins without leaving a single clue? damon mallatere's company manages the hotel, which is not owned by best western. he says he heard it was something much more mundane. >> the subsequent conversations i had with the police department indicated to me that the medical examiner was telling them that he was pretty sure it was death by heart attack or natural cause. >> reporter: the medical

examiner, dr. brent hall, had not, in fact, determined daryl and shirley jenkins died of simultaneous fatal heart attacks in room 225 that april. he hadn't determined any cause of death. he had mailed off blood samples to the state lab in raleigh hoping they could help. hard to imagine anything more urgent than finding and stopping the killer of that elderly couple. but for some reason, dr. hall did not ask the lab to put a rush on those samples. >> and they sit there. they sit there for 40 days until the first test is done. >> reporter: eventually, like the morning fog that settles on this mountain town, the mystery just drifted away. unsolved, it was as if the entire town of boone simply shrugged. >> there was no sense of urgency to figure out what happened. it was a mystery that lingered but i don't think it was in the forefront of people's minds. >> reporter: six weeks after the jenkins died, the hotel reopened room 225.

a week after that, jeannie williams and her son, jeffrey, checked in. the killer in room 225 was back. >> okay. get out of the room. everybody, get out of the room. get out of the room. okay, ma'am. we're out. >> okay. >> oh, ma'am. this is awful. please. >> reporter: when we come back, the killer revealed and the businessman who could go to prison. >> i need to cut. please. >> reporter: okay. (vo) average. it's out there, convincing you that one donut hole couldn't possibly lead to another. (vo) average sets the treadmill on mosey.... or stroll... or loiter. (vo) average...has memory issues... (man) i forgot to work out. i forgot to work out. (vo) ... and memory issues. (man) my workout. (vo) but average is average. you can beat it. and it starts at gnc.

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>> announcer: "20/20" continues. once again, matt gutman. >> reporter: room 225 at the best western in the tourist town of boone, north carolina. one room -- in just two months -- three deaths. >> elderly male, elderly female. neither one is breathing. have cpr in progress. >> reporter: first, it was daryl and shirley jenkins found dead in room 225. >> is anyone there willing to attempt cpr, or do you think -- >> they're doing it right now. >> they are doing cpr right now? >> yeah. been doing it since we found them. >> okay. >> four, four people working on them and there's no response.

>> reporter: that was april 16th. three days later, the solinski family throws a birthday pool party and sleepover at the hotel for their daughter, levi, and eight friends. they check into room 325. no one tells them about the jenkins tragedy in the room just below. and soon enough, they have a disaster of their own. >> all girls were very sick -- puking in bathtubs, sinks, toilets, while i'm calling their parents. they were falling off like flies and it was pretty scary. >> it was just supposed to be fun and then it turned to dangerous. >> reporter: solinski says she complained to the front desk. >> i told them again in the morning, "there is an environmental hazard in this room. you need to get somebody in here." >> nobody ever said, "well, actually, last week, this happened below you." >> my name was written on a yellow sticky note and i was told the general manager would be told. >> reporter: but damon mallatere, whose company managed the hotel, swears the clerk never told him. so you were not informed by your employees that people had gotten sick in the room right above 225? >> i was not. >> reporter: and then, even

though the medical examiner had not yet determined what killed the jenkinses, six weeks later, mallatere reopened room 225. >> reporter: you thought there was no reason to be suspicious of something inside the room? >> we never would've reopened that room if we had any thoughts whatsoever that there was something wrong or that that would hurt somebody. >> reporter: the death trap was ready for its next victims, jeannie williams and her 11-year-old son, jeffrey. >> i think he was laying on the covers, just like he had went to sleep. >> reporter: in his pajamas? >> yes. >> reporter: somehow, jeannie survived. >> reporter: she's not talking, right? she's unconscious. >> she's unconscious but she is alive. >> reporter: but this time, an alert 911 operator realizes the deadly danger is right there in room 225. >> okay, i'm gonna need you to just to go aad and, and get out of that room. >> okay. get out of the room. everybody, get out of the room. get out of the room. >> reporter: first responders arrive. their hazmat detectors go crazy. they follow a toxic trail downstairs, past the pool and at

last corner the killer, a faulty pool heater, which generates carbon monoxide, an odorless, invisible and deadly gas. the heater's exhaust pipe was supposed to conduct the carbon monoxide safely outside. but hidden under a drop ceiling, right under room 225, state investigators find the pipe is busted, full of holes propped up with a vhs cassette tape and a hotel ice bucket, spewing poison gas into the room above. mallatere, the manager, says he knew nothing of these problems. why wasn't the killer in room 225 stopped before jeffrey williams died? the police investigation and "20/20" reporting shows he died of a tragedy of errors. attorney chad poteat says soon after the jenkinses were killed, their family warned the best western that they suspected carbon monoxide was to blame. that was before jeffrey died. so they were warned before jeffrey died that there could be a carbon monoxide problem -- >> absolutely.

>> reporter: -- by the family of people who had just been killed in that same room, and they didn't do anything about it? >> apparently, if they did, it wasn't enough. >> reporter: the hotel manager at the time says authorities never mentioned carbon monoxide. do you feel any responsibility for what happened? >> i don't believe that anybody in any way involved, whether it be the authorities or the contractors or my employees or myself, should go to bed tonight and not feel responsibility. >> reporter: but what you're saying is that doesn't mean you're criminally culpable? >> i would never willfully hurt a guest if i knew that i could keep that from happening. >> reporter: the most outrageous failure of all, the state tells "20/20" it sent shirley jenkins' toxicology report showing she'd

been killed by carbon monoxide to medical examiner brent hall on june 3rd, in plenty of time to save a little boy's life. jeffrey williams would not check in for another four days, but not a peep from dr. brent hall. not a single warning. is it possible that had the medical examiner who had the report, the autopsy saying that it was carbon monoxide poisoning that had killed the jenkinses in the same room in which jeffrey williams was staying, and he had delivered that report to the hotel or the police, jeffrey might still be alive? >> i absolutely agree with that. >> reporter: we went to dr. hall's office where a receptionist was unreceptive. >> reporter: hi there. >> can i help you? >> reporter: yes, ma'am. i'm matt gutman from abc news. hi. >> okay. i'm not interested. thank you. >> reporter: hall has resigned as the medical examiner. this isn't the first time carbon monoxide has killed in a hotel. dr. lindell weaver has been warning about the danger for years. >> the reason a hotel is particularly dangerous is really because of the sheer number of

people who could be there. >> reporter: weaver studied carbon monoxide incidents in motels, hotels and resorts. in one five-year period, more than 750 people were poisoned. like the group of five boys celebrating a birthday in a miami hotel, all of them killed. >> it is exceedingly dangerous. if the levels are high enough, it can kill people in minutes. >> reporter: unlike smoke detectors, there is no federal requirement for carbon monoxide detectors in hotel rooms. a handful of states, now including north carolina, do require them in some areas of the hotel. jeffrey williams' family is starting a foundation to raise awareness. >> and it's very simple. carbon monoxide detectors are cheap in the grand scheme of life. >> reporter: in january, a grand jury handed up indictments in the case. three counts of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault for jeannie williams' injuries. >> the d.a.'s office decided to submit to the grand jury one name.

and that name being barry damon mallatere. >> reporter: mallatere says his legal troubles don't compare to what the families of the victims have gone through. how often do you think about this? >> every day. >> reporter: that boy? that elderly couple? >> every day. i need to cut. >> reporter: heartbreaking. all that sweet blue ridge mountain air right outside the window and inside room 225, people literally dying for a breath of fresh air. amidst all that grief, the williamses can't seem to catch theirs. jeannie williams was reminded of what she lost at a recent wedding. >> when it came time for the mother and the groom dance, i won't have that.

i won't have the mother and the groom dance. but i just take it one step at a time, and i just know i'll see him and i'll dance with him in heaven one day. >> should there be a federal law to require carbon monoxide deneshths every hotel room in this country? tweet us at #abc2020. the cruise nightmare, you'll see a passenger go overboard seven stories down but it's what happens next that you won't believe. next, amazing video. that spec is a person plummeting seven stories overboard. even more amazing, she survived. >> it's pitch black outside, you're in the middle of the ocean all alone. >> waiting for a rescue. coming up.

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nightmare, all of it caught on infrared video. some 20 million people a year take to the seas come plootly safely but there are those very rare cases of passengers who do go overboard. tonight here, one woman who went over the edge literally. seven stories down. into the darkness of the night, bobbing in the water and living to tell about it. here's abc's reena ninan. >> reporter: nearly 18 million people took cruises last year. and if you were one of them, you probably stood at the ship's railing, enjoying the view and wondered even for a moment, "what would happen if i went overboard?" what you've probably never seen is a vacation video like this. >> i remember looking over the water, looking at the ship. and the next thing i knew i was falling. >> reporter: sarah kirby is the woman in freefall on the video.

it happened about a year and a half ago. she was on a 30th birthday cruise, miami to jamaica. sarah, along with her fiancé and best girlfriend, are spending the first night of the trip barhopping, ending up getting their drink on at the point after nightclub. >> everybody was drinking to excess, and i was enjoying it with everybody on the cruise. >> reporter: and honestly, you got pretty drunk that night. >> yes, ma'am. we decided to leave the bar, go back to our room. the next thing i remember is going out onto the balcony. >> reporter: it's 12 minutes past midnight. one second, she's holding the rail of deck seven, the next, she's plunging straight down to the unforgiving sea. a shipboard camera recorded it all. she plummets about two stories, slamming into a lifeboat, then dropping another five stories into the water. it's pitch black outside. you're in the middle of the ocean, all alone. >> i was so scared. and i was gonna do everything in my power to survive. >> reporter: but she's badly hurt. broken bones in her face,

fractured ribs and a torn artery. >> i remember being in a lot of pain. so i would swim for a little bit, and then i would be out of breath, and i would float in the water with my face up. but then the water would crash into my mouth and i would choke. >> reporter: ten minutes pass, they feel like hours. and all sarah sees is the ship sailing away towards the horizon. as you watched the ship fade away in the distance, what's going through your mind? >> words can't even describe the feeling i felt at that moment. i just prayed to god over and over, "please don't let me die out here." >> it's actually one of the rarest events that happens on cruise ships, a rate of one overboard for every 1,650,000 passengers. >> reporter: cruise industry lawyer, larry kaye, is correct. few people go overboard. and yet, in a three-week period earlier this year, it happened on no less than five different ships. >> you don't get blown or swepti

off of a cruise ship. it does not happen. all of these incidents, unfortunately, are accompanied by some reckless or deliberate act. >> reporter: sarah can't say exactly why she fell. but alone in the water, it didn't really matter. were you panicking? >> i was most definitely panicking a lot. >> reporter: and did you have a sense that someone knows that you're overboard? >> i prayed. i prayed that somebody had saw me. >> reporter: her best friend as well as another passenger alert the crew right away. and, of course, the ship's camera had recorded the whole thing. >> reporter: why wouldn't the captain just turn around right away? >> i think that's the million-dollar question. >> reporter: kirby's lawyer michael winkleman claims carnival cruise line personnel searched the ship for nearly 20 minutes before informing the captain. >> the vessel should have been stopped. they should have been throwing life wings overboard so that she could have grabbed onto one, and they should have immediately gone and looked at the video. >> reporter: according to carnival cruise lines' own records, it's 12:36 before anyone sees the video. sarah's been in the water for

24 minutes, petrified of sharks and trying to stay afloat. >> things would sweep across my foot in the water and i would just try to continue swimming and not focus on that. >> when you fall overboard, god forbid, and you disappear in the dark, in the deep waters, no one's gonna see you. >> reporter: maritime lawyer, james walker, has seen this sort of thing before. he makes a living suing cruise lines. >> they may have a closed-circuit television camera on the deck but it's not monitored and it's not connected to an alarm. >> reporter: walker is representing the family of jason rappe, a man who didn't survive when he went overboard off another ship. >> the way systems work now is there's no detection system. the ships will continue to sail on for two or three hours. >> reporter: by the time the coast guard searched for jason, they couldn't find the body. but in sarah kirby's case -- >> folks, i have some very good news. we have found -- >> reporter: the video gave them a specific time and place.

it's 1:43 am when sarah is spotted, an hour and 31 minutes after she fell. >> the relief of seeing something in the ocean other than me was unbelievable, that something was out there that could help me. >> and we are now bringing her back on board the vessel. >> reporter: 1:53 am, she's back on board. what would it take to make rescues at sea happen faster? >> what we have here is a camera, a laser sensor, and we have software that is running on that screen behind us. >> reporter: dave leone says his company, radio zeeland, has got a ship-shape system already. >> reporter: so, i guess you need someone to jump off the boat to demonstrate this. >> if you're up for it. >> reporter: to see how it works -- i gotta put this on. >> sure. >> reporter: i will take the plunge. here we go. >> let's do it. >> reporter: three, two, one. by the time i hit the water, an alarm is sounding, and the system indicates exactly where i

went overboard. from this demonstration, it seems like it works. so, why don't cruise ships use it? >> that's the question we've been asking. >> the vendors of these systems are very anxious to bring them to market. you can have birds set it off. you can have debris of any kind floating in the air set it off. these detection systems are not perfected. >> reporter: obviously, this demonstration was on a boat, not a giant cruise ship, and on calm water. carnival cruise line, the industry's largest, tells "20/20" extensive testing at sea has yet to reveal any system that meets its standards. in fact, few ships have one. our parent company, disney, tells "20/20" it does have the technology on its ships. as for sarah, she's recovering. but even though the ship saved her life, she hired a lawyer and is suing. you're suing a cruise line that did ultimately rescue her within a short period of time. and she was, by her own admission, intoxicated.

is this suit really fair? >> absolutely, 100% fair. what carnival did was wrong. they overserved her alcohol, and when she went overboard, they had awful policies and procedures in place. what's the point in having a camera if there's no one there watching it? >> reporter: in a statement to "20/20," carnival cruise lines says that the claims in this suit "are completely unsupported and contradicted by the evidence in the case." >> i call it sail and sue. we deal with it all the time. i think cruise ships are probably the safest vacation option available to most people. for me, the only safer vacation option would be in my backyard. >> reporter: no word if sarah's next vacation will be in her backyard, but it's a sure bet she won't be cruising again anytime soon. next -- airplanes out of control, from landing at the wrong airport to the asiana crash. are computers in the cockpit doing too much and pilots tooly the snl.

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with all of your summer trips ahead you would like to think the high tech cockpits are making flying safer. they are but what happens when the computers suddenly shut off? are pilots really ready to take over? i take you inside the cockpit and how quickly can we turn the flight over to computers? >> a big passenger jet landed at the wrong airport. >> wrong airport. >> the wrong airport. >> reporter: southwest

flight 4013 landing at the wrong airport in missouri. the runway, far too short. pilots slamming on the brakes -- >> the brakes were applied forcefully. we were lurched forward a little bit. i was glad i had my seatbelt on. >> reporter: investigators suspect pilot error. just listen to the confusion in the cockpit. >> i assume i'm not at your airport. >> southwest 4013. uhm, have you landed? >> yes. >> reporter: in november, this giant cargo jet landing at the wrong airport in kansas, too. again, suspected pilot error. and last july, southwest flight 345 slamming down nose first at new york's laguardia airport. >> the whole plane just went down very quickly. >> reporter: a suspected pilot error, the captain fired. >> they're down at 214 heavy. >> reporter: these stunning images released of that crash landing in san francisco, asiana flight 214 slamming down far too short on the runway. >> whoa. >> reporter: and the latest video to emerge of the chaotic moments just after the crash -- >> just don't go in there.

anybody who's in there right now, they're dead. >> reporter: when, in the confusion, firefighters accidently run over a 16-year-old survivor, killing her. inside that cockpit, faa still investigating pilot error. california dad, ben levy, was on that flight. >> reporter: you had picked up toys for the boys. and what were they? >> they were actually fire trucks. they were both into, you know, fire rescue mode. >> reporter: ironically having no idea -- >> yes. yeah. >> reporter: that's what you would find landing. those asiana pilots telling investigators they thought computers were controlling the speed as they came in. coming home, ben knew that jet was far too low. >> we're too low. i saw walls of water splashing from the thrust of the engine above the windows of the airplane. >> reporter: the water was splashing above the windows? >> literally, i'm thinking we're gonna miss the runway and hit the water. >> reporter: in san francisco bay, ben remembering the moment he sensed the pilots were trying to regain control. you said it felt like the pilot was trying to takeoff suddenly all over again. >> the guy put full throttle on the engine to start to gain some

altitude again. >> reporter: the tail breaking off, the plane skidding, flipping into a cartwheel, slamming back to the ground. and what did it feel like? >> extremely violent shock, everybody screaming. >> reporter: this crash brings new questions about whether pilots have become too reliant on computers, on automation. the ntsb has ruled out mechanical failure. they're still investigating why those pilots could not land on a perfectly clear day. >> to me, that was a gross example of a loss of airmanship skills, basic skill set that every pilot should have when they get into any airplane. >> reporter: retired american airlines pilot, tom casey, says pilots are now relying too heavily on automation. >> when the technology has grown to such sophistication, the pilot has kind of been squeezed out of the process. the pilot's been turned into a passenger. >> reporter: cockpits are so sophisticated now he says that pilots are flying with little more than a press of a few buttons. we ask casey how many buttons did he push on a typical flight from new york to london,

3,400 miles. how often would you actually touch something in the cockpit on one of those long flights? >> seven times. >> reporter: seven? >> seven times. >> reporter: how many minutes are we talking where you're actually working the cockpit? >> three minutes. >> reporter: he says the rest of the time, the jet flying itself to london, until, of course, pressing that approach button to land. >> you press the "app" button. and the airplane makes a beautiful approach, it lands, and it stops. and you sit there -- >> reporter: with a press of a button? >> yeah, with a press of a button. >> reporter: is it really that easy? "20/20" given access to this simulated cockpit at embry riddle aeronautics university in daytona, florida. so i'm gonna literally learn what it's like to takeoff. >> yeah. >> reporter: they take us inside this $15 million simulator. i've never flown before -- >> okay. >> reporter: so, this is my first attempt. i was about to learn how to take off. >> i'm gonna have you do the takeoff. try to stay on the center line as we roll on down the runway. >> i'm trying to keep on the runway here. >> yeah. and we're at 100 knots and v-1 and rotate. >> reporter: rotate.

okay, so we're going up. >> all right. >> reporter: keep it right around magenta. >> you can go ahead and turn your yoke a little bit there. >> reporter: yeah. >> there you go. now you see -- >> reporter: wow. >> you got us, we're banking. okay? and normally, the flight crew would bring the gear up, and we're at a safe speed. >> reporter: so, i've just taken off? >> you just took off. and i haven't touched it yet. you're still flying us. >> reporter: we timed it, just three minutes, 27 seconds before we're able to turn on the autopilot, the computers taking over the job. how does a pilot not get rusty then? >> a pilot does get rusty. here's the most important thing to understand. will the pilot know he's rusty? that's the problem. >> reporter: in san francisco, the pilot of that asiana flight now saying that a radio beacon, technology on the runway that helps you land, was out of service, that they were forced to do it manually. aviation experts arguing that's the point. you should be able to. other pilots had been landing without that radio beacon for weeks. >> can a pilot, who has been seduced into over-reliance on

technology, handle those situations when the airplane gives it up and says, "captain, you've got it. you're the captain." >> reporter: the faa now issuing sweeping new guidelines for cockpit training. demanding pilots have more stick and rudder skills. in other words, more practice on their own without computers. remember the miracle on the hudson? that was no autopilot. it was captain sully sullenberger. >> and he has no auto systems. none. zero. everything's gone. he touched down with such perfection. he did everything right. >> reporter: but can the new breed of pilots handle something like that? >> i'm not sure the question has an answer yet. >> reporter: in the meantime, researchers are trying to help pilots better prepare for those times when computers fail, much like they did to us in that simulator when suddenly the autopilot is not functioning and we're in a spiral. now, we're about to stall? >> now we're about to stall. try and pull back one more time. >> reporter: i'm trying to pull back. >> we're speeding down. and we'll take some bank out.

and that was it. >> reporter: did we hit? >> yes. >> reporter: proof that in those final seconds, it comes down to the pilot and their skills. >> you can make a plane pilot-proof, but the pilot is always there. the pilot has to have those skills. >> reporter: that california dad says his boys won't know until they're much older about the crash their father was in the day they got those new fire trucks. he says on every flight, he now fears what happens if the pilots are forced to save the flight on their own. does it anger you? >> those people put my life, along with 310 passengers, at risk that day for something that should never have happened. the worst passenger ever, from crying babies to brid bridesmaids on a bender. >> party! >> to that guy who had to get all taped up. what did he do to deserve that? get ready to cast your vote. when we return.

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we've all been there before, on a flight next to someone who is, let's just say, isn't ideal, snoring, loud head knowns, taking up too much room, talking too much. what happens when they fall asleep in your lap? abc's nick watt with the contenders tonight for the worst passenger ever. >> reporter: we're talking about a volatile mixture of crowds, delays, security, fear of flying, screaming babies and a bucket load of liquor. and anything can happen. what about this? a pair of tipsy moms taking the security check too seriously. and then, there's this. a sweet senior falling in with the wrong crowd en route to cabo. >> women can pull off -- >> reporter: funny man hal sparks has seen it all. >> some people just aren't good in normal life.

and then they get on a plane and they don't understand how it stays in the air. they're slightly claustrophobic, agoraphobic. they all come together on a plane. >> reporter: heather poole is a flight attendant. you're on the front line. >> i'm the punching bag. >> reporter: she says it's a poteial powder keg up there. >> you've got half a millimeter between the person sitting next to you and there's 160 passengers in a flying tube at 30,000 feet. >> reporter: now for a more buttoned-down perspective, mary schiavo, a former inspector general for the department of transportation. >> alcohol and aviation do not mix. >> reporter: she's now a lawyer who defends passengers accused of being unruly. >> oh, look at that. >> reporter: she's talking, you know, kristen wiig on "bridesmaids." >> ready to party. >> reporter: but for our unscientific survey of the worst airline passengers, let's just start with the naughty nakeds.s.

i did, when i was stuck over christmas one year, i met a girl in the airport, and we pretended to be a couple so that we could get on the flight together. and by the end of the flight, we were. that's all i'm saying. >> i myself don't usually touch any blanket on the plane that isn't wrapped for that reason. >> reporter: like this pair of strangers fined nearly five grand for getting ridiculously friendly on a flight from dallas to england. >> and it turns out they were each married to other people. so the consequences were great. >> reporter: even more alarming, the solo nude. >> so imagine you're rolling the cart back, and you get to the last row, and there's a naked lady sitting in the row. but the great thing about her was she stl had her seatbelt on. >> reporter: that's just unsanitary. next, the biggest category. the belligerent boozers, like our duct-taped man who apparently drank a bottle of duty free liquor on a flight from iceland to jfk and started screaming, "the plane is gonna crash", so he was taped to his

seat. just listen to the moaning. >> 50 shades of plane. those were the passengers who duct-taped him. did you see that? >> reporter: in-flight intoxication is such a problem in russia that -- >> russian lawmakers are thinking of banning people from carrying duty free alcohol on board. >> here's the catch, though. there is no law in russia that would allow airlines to restrain, much less to punish unruly customers. >> reporter: since this rt news report aired, russia's largest carrier came out in support of making boozy behavior onboard a criminal offense. in january, jennifer lauren, niece of ralph, was fined $2,700 for allegedly getting drunk and air ragey. a flight attendant claims lauren called her a "fat, ugly, unhappy blonde [ bleep ]." lauren pled guilty but later told "the new york post" the allegations are all lies.

she claims flight attendants, "threatened me." the law is very strict about alcohol up in the air. >> an airline is not allowed to board a passenger who appears to be inebriated. and an airline cannot, by federal law, serve any passenger to the point of inebriation. >> reporter: do you cut people off if you think they're too drunk? >> of course. we have to. they might not know it. we have tricks. their jack and coke might become a lot of coke and very little jack. >> reporter: it's fine if you get drunk and just pass out. >> no, it's not okay if you pass out. something goes wrong in flight, we can't be taking 140 limp noodles by the ankles and pull them off the airplane. >> there's basically a sobering spray that's on the horizon. in the next five to ten years, there will be a spray that you spray somebody's mouth. you just hold them down and they kind of come to. "wow, i'm sorry about that, everyone. who pulled up my pants? i know it wasn't me." >> reporter: remember

gerard depardieu? >> hello. >> reporter: the inexplicably attractive star of "green card?" apparently, after a glass or two, he relieved himself not in the traditional place but in the aisle of a plane. he came clean on the bbc's "graham norton show." >> yes, i pee on the plane. >> reporter: there you have it. our next category, the scoffws of the sky. cue alec baldwin -- >> alec. this way, alec. alec. >> reporter: kicked off a plane because he wouldn't stop playing words with friends on his phone. and he showed no remorse, appearing on "snl" to basically totally not make an apology. >> i mean, what harm would it do to let him keep playing his game? not any game, mind you, but a word game for smart people. >> reporter: but still, it's little kids, raucous rugrats, who are, by far, the most unpopular class of traveler. even though -- >> i really never saw an air rage incident caused by a kid.

and i've never seen a drunk and disorderly kid. >> reporter: they're just loud. >> they need to drive or have a plane for just babies. you know, you wanna scream. go ahead. get that, the screamer plane. >> reporter: glozell is a comedian, an internet star and frequently furious flier. >> get on a plane with kids and everybody's saying, "oh, we understand. we understand." but i don't. >> reporter: so next time i take my kids home to scotland, maybe i should take a boat. our thank to nick. have you ever survived a nightmare see themate a passenger you'll never forget? tweet us. #abc2020. i'm sure you have stories. we'll be right back.

sfx: car unlock beep. vo: david's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. this is martin. he likes to put but not veggie kebabs. he also likes "that's what she said" jokes. martin: that's what she said! you may not like what martin likes, and that's ok. a.1. for almost everything. almost.

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that's our program for tonight. thank you for watching. don't go way, "nightline prime" is coming up next with some

high-flying death-defying adventures on pushing the limb its. i'm elizabeth vargas of a. >> i'm david muir. have a good evening. enjour your holiday weekend. "nightline prime" starts right now. thousand of feet above the ground and just this one inch keeping them up in the clouds. we're with these daredevils as they attempt to do something they've never done before. they are the skyliners. can they teach one woman with a paralyzing fear of heights how to face what scares her most in life? this is "nightline prime." tonight, we're pushing the li t limits, and there's more, we're riding shotgun with 100 bikers, out to shut down one american city. >> so much going on around you, the slightest little mistake and it's over. >> are you a menace to society? >> yeah. >>