a dc 10 with 296 people on board cartwheels down a runway and breaks into pieces. >> i felt like the plane was corkscrewing down the runway. a dc-8 runs out of fuel and crashes in a residential neighborhood. >> i thought we were landing at the airport. i was very delighted. and then the delight turned to fear. weather problems wreak havoc

in the air. a 747 caught in a torrential downpour slams into a hill. >> initial contact was 17 seconds. have i to say it's the longest 17 seconds of my life. >> communication with make the difference between life and death. dramatic animations take you inside catastrophic crashes and what caused them. >> i was asking, is there anything you would do different today than did you that day? and insaid, ye said, yeah, i wo in sick. the airline industry can be divided into two eras, pre and

post crm. crew resource management is the training all airlines use to improve communication among flight crews. >> before krm, tcrm, the captai the decision maker. you were expected to talk to him when you had something technical to say. it was very difficult for junior crew members to confront, particularly a very senior captain. there was a strong reluctance to criticize. >> crm breaks down the barrier of communication between two or three crew members in an airplane. it enables pilots to act ace team and come up weapon a common solution rather than individuals coming up with an individual solution. >> having crm training or not could mean the difference between a plane crashing or not. it may seem like a given that this kind of training would have always been around. but it didn't even exist until 1981. since then, crm has been the

gospel in the cockpit. >> it comes down to one word. that is team work. team work solves the problems. >> all of russ smarter than any of us. >> crm makes the wheels resolve smoothly. but you have to have the wheels turning in the right direction to begin with. >> the idea of crm started percolating in the 1970s after several crashes were attributed to communication problems in the cockpit. one accident in particular is the catalyst that puts this new concept on the map. on december 28, 1978, a shocking moment when a united airlines dc-8 slams down in a residential neighborhood of portland, oregon, just six miles shy of the airport. passenger amy ford connor, 17 at the time, is on her way back to

washington state where she's about to finish her senior year of high school. >> what it felt like is the -- when you first land and you do a little bounce. that's what it felt like. so i thought we were going to have a fine landing at the airport. >> it's a nightmarish ending to what started as a routine flight. united 173 takes off from denver at 2:47 p.m. 189 people are on board. first officer is at the controls. >> it was right after christmas. the plane was full. we were all going back to wherever we were going. after spending the holidays elsewhere. it was a perfectly ordinary flight until we started making our final approach to the portland, airport. the first time that we realized that something was wrong was when we heard a very loud thunk and the plane jolted. >> the thunk is the sound of one side of the plane's landing gear falling into position. the other side and the nose

landing gear are extended normally. the force causes the plane to vibrate and yaw or pull to the right. a light in the cockpit to indicate the landing gear is down and locked does not illuminate. >> when the landing gear extends under normal system operation, it's hydraulic. so it extends at a given rate. it extends smoothly. in the case of united 173, what occurred is it fell out and it fell at a very rapid rate. one of the other components of the landing gear also broke free and in so doing damaged the wiring that closes the switch that lights the light. >> the captain, a veteran pilot, doesn't want to land until he is confident the landing gear is locked. that's because if it were to collapse, the plane could be badly damaged and its passengers injured. the captain wants time to

troub troubleshoot the problem. >> the pilot said, we're having a little trouble with the landing gear. we're going to be in the air longer. this is common. don't worry about it. >> the captain was a very experience pilot. had tens of thousands of hours, including over 5,000 hours as a captain on the dc-8 that he was flying that night. so this was mr. dc-8 expert. that may have convinced him that if he just studied a little bit more into the manuals and talked to the people in the maintenance center, he was going to figure out whether or not this landing gear was going to collapse. >> by 5:14 p.m., air traffic control knows united 173 has a problem. portland approach control clears the plane to enter a holding pattern which it does for next hour. during that time, the captain maintains close contact with the cabin crew. >> what he kept asking from the flight attendants was, what was the status?

were they ready? was the cabin prepared? was it fully prepared? he was very, very concerned about protecting the passengers and what he was not hearing was the fact that the two other pilot, the first officer and flight engineer, were getting increasingly concerned about fuel. >> the crew members are concerned but not expressing it clearly to the captain. they continue to focus on the landing gear problem. >> one of the flight crew came back with a flashlight, because it was dark outside, to check the landing gear. to see if he could see out the window. which i don't know if he saw or not. that was our first clue that something really was wrong. >> on the dc-8 there are mechanical indicators of the landing gear position. it's a pin that actually came up on the top of the wing that could you see. >> if a pin is up, the gear is locked. if not, the gear is retracted. >> so that you have a mechanical indication to either validate or invalidate what the light in the cockpit is telling you about the position of the landing gear.

>> the longer the jet remains in a holding pattern, the more alarmed the first officer and flight engineer are becoming about the fuel situation. at 5:50 p.m., 18 miles south of the airport, one of them speaks up. but still not forcefully. >> the flight engineer is staring at the fuel gauges said, not enough. that's going to run us very close out here. in the pre-crm era, you didn't challenge the authority figures. >> the first officer and the flight engineer both insinuated and made statements but they were not direct. they didn't say, captain, we are running out of fuel. we have to go to the airport right now. >> the dc-8 left denver with nearly 47,000 pounds of fuel. by 5:55 p.m., only 4,000 pounds remain. the captain still thinks they can make it to the airport. the passengers know nothing about the dire fuel situation.

they are concerned about a possible belly landing. >> the pilot got on the pa again and said, we're going to be making a landing in five minutes. we're making our final approach. when we're 60 seconds away, i'm going to let you know so you can assume your brace position and be prepared for a belly landing in case that's what we have. he never made that one minute announcement. >> 6:03 p.m., air traffic control wants to know when they will begin their approach. the captain replies, quote, i guess about another three, four, five minutes, end quote. united 173 doesn't have that much time. coming up, out of fuel and out of options. >> as it became increasingly apparent that they were not going to make the airport, the question comes up is, where are we going to put the jet? >> i thought we were landing at the airport. i was very delighted. and then the delight turned to fear.

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united flight 173 has been flying in a holding pattern near the portland, oregon, airport for more than an hour. the captain wants time to troubleshoot a possible landing gear problem. but now, something far more urgent is on the horizon. >> the passengers start to become aware of the increasingly dire situation. >> the only lights that were on were reading lights. some people realized that something was wrong and yelled for us to get our heads down. >> the plane has run out of fuel and it's coming in fast over a wooded residential area.

the captain heads toward the only unlit spot he can see below, between the houses. the plane barely clears an apartment building. >> i thought we were landing at the airport. i was very delighted. and then the delight turned to fear because i had no idea what was going on. it just felt like it was never going to stop. >> as the plane tears through the tree, the front section violently ripped away. >> it wasn't until after we stopped moving that i grasped the enormity of what had just happened. >> the aircraft is destroyed. ten people, all sitting in the front section that separated, die from the impact trauma. the rest of the passengers are dazed. >> it was so cold. when you are running on

adrenaline, you are don't notice those sorts of things. but we walked off the plane and then we were in this neighborhood. nobody knew where we were. we just were milling about like, what do we do now? >> a four engine plane went down south of the airport. it missed a large compartment complex but smashed through two vacant houses. >> once on the scene, ntsb investigators quickly determined there's no fuel leak, no broken fuel gauges, no problem at all with the airport. so why did the well run dry? the answer comes from the plane's cvr, cockpit voice recorder. >> when i played the cvr for the first time, i realized that we have some explaining to do and that this is an accident that should never have happened. >> dr. al deal at the time a human factor specialist with the ntsb can't help but notice the

cvr reveals a similarity to a number of other recent crashes. >> the giant tri-star left a half mile long path of debris. >> we looked at eastern airlines crash, we lost over 100 people. started out as landing gear and the crew became distracted and flew into the swamp. another united dc-8, same thing, landing gear unsafe light. they were troubleshooting that and flew into a mountain. >> the common link, inefficient or non-existent communication in the cockpit. this failure to communicate is literally crashing planes. deal knows something has to be done to stem the tide. he begins building a case for airlines to adopt a new training procedure being developed by nasa. it's called crew resource management. crm. >> crm is basically promoted

that if you are going to work together as a team, you are going to make a decision as a team. you come to a joint solution, not an individual solution that is then worked into the equation. >> up until that point, we only taught the technical aspects of flying. they had the stick and rudder skills, but we never taught decision making and judgment in a fonormal way. i got with one of the top air safety investigators on the board. he said, al, if you can sell this to the board, this is going to be a revolutionary recommendation. >> the deadliest accident in aviation history provides deal with even more compelling evidence to take to the safety board. two 747s collide in 1977. the accident kills 583 people and is blamed in large part on bad communication. >> the whole cabin next to me was just completely gone.

>> less than six months after the portland crash, the ntsb issues its final report. it cites probable cause as, quote, the failure of a captain to monitor properly the aircraft's fuel state and the crew members advisories regarding fuel state. a contributing factor, the failure of the other two flight crew members to successfully communicate their concern to the captain. >> communication in the cockpit is 95% of the success of the airplane flight itself. >> united 173 is a catalyst for change. the faa, federal aviation administration, approved dr. deal's crm recommendation. in 1981, united airlines kicks off the industry's first crm training program. sg >> united was an easy sell. united had just lost three and

fatal accidents. united was ready to jump on board. they spent the money to develop this course. >> as veteran united captain al haines recalls, the training was initially received with a dose of skepticism. >> those captains that needed it didn't want it. they wouldn't do it. we thought, this is a waste of time until it got into the flow of things. then we understood what it was about. >> coming up, captain haines has no way of knowing that a few years later, training to improve communication between crew members will help him get through one of the most terrifying situations a pilot could ever face, a catastrophic loss of control of a jumbo jet. if you're going to make a statement... make sure it's an intelligent one. ♪ the all-new audi a4, with available virtual cockpit.

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killing more than 100 people and leaving investigators to solve a troubling aviation mystery. july 9, 1989, united airline flight 232 takes off from denver bound for chicago. first officer william records, who has logged 20,000 hours of flying time, is at the controls. with him second officer dudly devorack with 15,000 hours and captain al haines who has logged 27,000 hours, 7,000 in the dc-10. on this picture perfect midwestern summer day with three highly experienced pilots in the cockpit, it should be an easy flight. >> scattered clouds, good visibility, smooth air. very fortunate weather-wise.

>> as we're flying along and everything is smooth as could be and service is humming and we're working as a team, out of the blue here comes this explosion. i mean, it was a huge, loud explosion. >> passenger rod vetter, a seasoned traveller isn't phased. >> my first thought was a bomb went off. then i realized that it had depressurized so it wasn't a bomb. then i realized that it was probably an engine blowing and my first thought was, okay, good, we got off a little late maybe and we're going to get right into chicago right on time because a dc-10 can fly with two engines. >> the explosion happens at 3:16 p.m., an hour and seven minutes into the flight. the jumbo jet is at 33,000 feet over alta, iowa. after the explosion, the plane begins to vibrate and shudder.

the pilots determine the number two engine has failed. >> i began to realize how serious it was when i saw the flight crew come back. and they were trying to look out the windows -- the passenger windows just to observe what was going on with as much as they could with the physical condition of the airplane. you could tell by looking at these men and women, flight crew, that something seriously was up. >> as the crew performs the engine shutdown checklist, the first officer who was flying the plane realizes they have a far more serious problem than they thought. >> we were shutting the engine down. we were going through the procedure. bill said what he likes to call the attention getting statement of the day, he said, i can't control the airplane. it was in a right turn. he had the control wheel to the left and all the way back in his lap. we were at maximum climbing.

controls can't move that far. that's when i said, i've got it. >> with expert airmanship, captain haines whrestles it bac. >> the aircraft started to roll over and it would have continues to roll over and dive into the ground and be destroyed except for the fact that at that moment, al haines reached over and he advanced the throttle on the right wing and he retarded the throttle on the left wing and that asymmetric thrust, picked the wing up and steadied the aircraft. if he hadn't done it within a few seconds of when he did it, it would have been unrecoverable. >> united 232 still has monumental problems. from the cockpit, pilots call the fly attendants phone to make sure the cabin and passengers are prepared for an emergency landing. >> i picked it up and they said, come to the cockpit. the minute the door opened, the

atmosphere just hit me full force. it was like, oh, no, this is not an emergency, it's a bleep, bleep crisis. >> the situation is grave. the plane has lost all of its hydraulic fluid. >> hydraulics in a modern large jet airplan is the life blood of the airplane. it's how you physically move the flight controls. it provides the muscle to move the very large surfaces against very fast moving air in a controlled manner. >> we were keeping it in the air. i will put it that way. control, no. we were just trying to keep it flying. it was doing what it wanted to do. >> in the midst of the chaos, a flight attendant informs the crew there's a united captain who was a dc-10 flight instructor sitting in first class. he is offering to help.

>> he said, tell them i'm here, can i help? as soon as he said he was there, yes, he could help. he's an instructor. >> in the past, bad communication has led to disaster. now, all hope is riding on team work to avoid a catastrophic outcome. coming up, the final shocking seconds of united flight 232. >> there was an announcement that this is going to be a seriously difficult landing. i'm terrible at golf. he is. people say i'm getting better. no one's ever said that. but i'd like to ke being terrible at golf for as long as i can. he'sust happier when he's playing. but he's terrible. for the strength and energy to keep doing what you love, try new ensure enlive. only patented ensure enlive has hmb, plus 20 grams of protein to help rebuild muscle. and its clinically proven formula helps you stay you. oh. nice shot. new ensure enlive. always be you.

officials in england are saying a suspicious device found inside a soccer stadium was actually a training device left behind by a private company. the bogus bomb forced the evaluation of around 75,000 fans who were inside to catch a manchester united premiere league matchup. in canada, officials are saying

homeowners displaced by a wildfire can use a smart phone app to check on the property. some 80,000 people have been displaced since the blaze was sparked two weeks ago. now back to "why planes crash." on july 19, 1989, united airlines flight 232 is in deep crisis. after an explosion, the dc-10 loses its tail mounted number two engine, along with all of its hydraulic fluid, which operates the landing gear, flaps, slats, brakes and steering. the only control pilots have is over the throttles which determine engine speed. by adjusting thrust on one side or the other, a pilot is able to steer the plane. but even under this unimaginable pressure, captain al haines manages to crack a joke with air

traffic controller kevin bachman. >> you are cleared to run on any runway. >> you want to be particular and make it a runway? >> united flight instructor denny fitch flying in first class has offered to help and is in the cockpit. captain haines willingness to accept fitch's officer is crew resource management in action. >> he would not have said anything prior to crm. because you don't go in the cockpit and bother a captain when you have a problem. >> captain fitch was a perfect addition to an already effective crew. but it was an additional asset. >> take the throttle. i was asking him to do this and that. he kind of fell into the pattern of what to do. we didn't have to say so much anymore. >> as united 232 approaches the airport, the pilots dump as much fuel as they can. this lightens the plane which increases their ability to control it. meantime, in the cabin, senior flight attendant jan brown

following faa protocol advises parents to place lap children on the floor, those are kids under 2 without paid seats. she's about to announce that pare passengers should brace for impact when captain haines overrides her. >> there was an announcement this is going to be a seriously difficult landing. >> he said, i won't kid you, it's going to be rough. do the best you can. >> the plane is traveling at 247 miles per hour, 100 miles an hour too fast for a dc-10 to land. without hydraulic fluid, the controls that would normally slow the plane down don't work. because they can't be properly configured, the ground proximity warning system doesn't realize pilots are trying to land. it begins to sound adding to the chaos in the cockpit. >> the left wing was coming up.

we wanted the left wing down. so we said, left, left, left. i never thought we would be fine. i knew something was going to happen. >> at exactly 4:00 p.m., 44 minutes after the problem began, a violent impact. >> as its right wing hit the ground, the tail snapped off. the entire tail broke off and went rocketing down the runway at 250 miles an hour. >> i heard explosions and loud noises. flashes of light. it had to be with the plane breaking apart. >> al could have kept telling us that it would be rough. but i could never in my wildest dreams have imagined smashes into the earth the way we did. >> as the jumbo jet careens out of control, it breaks into

pieces and fires erupt. it's hard to fathom anyone surviving the flames and the thick black smoke. the nose of the plane, which contains the cockpit, is crushed beyond recognition. the pilots are presumed dead. incredibly, all four are alive but injured. this photo captures first responders talking to the crew. >> they don't just start cutting. they have to size it up because with all those wire bundles and all of that sheet metal and the very small compact environment, you could actually inflict greater harm or injury to those occupants trying to rescue them. >> of 296 passengers and crew, 112 are killed, including 11 children, one of them is a lap child without a paid seat. >> they can't be in a car by law without being in a seat.

what are they doing in an airplane going over 500 miles an hour? it's russian roulette. >> in the wake of the crash, the questions begin immediately. how could this plane with its clean safety record suffer such a catastrophic failure in flight? right away, there are some key clues. at the accident scene, a critical component called the fan disc is missing from the number two engine. it isn't found until three months later in a field 70 miles away in atla, iowa. that's where the plane experiences that initial violent jolt. these photos taken by a witness on the ground as united 232 is about to slam into the runway also provide investigators with critical information. >> you can see there are holes in the stabilizer from the

debris as the fan disc had separated from the engine core and created shrapnel taking a large chunk out of the horizontal stabilizer. in the second picture, you can actually see the back side of the engine where the fan disc actually came out. >> by november 1990, 15 months after the crash, the ntsb pieces together what happened to united 232. over a farm in alta, iowa, the plane's fan disc imploded. >> it sent shrapnel going in a multitude of directions. it just happens that the shrapnel ended up cutting lines to all three systems. the statistical likelihood is extremely low. but in the case of 232, it actually happened. >> the titanium fan disc is determined to have a crack dating back to its fabrication.

every time the engine is used, the crack grows. the ntsb determines probable cause to be united inspectors failure to detect the crack. united airlines disputes the finding but in the end the ntsb upholds its report. >> i think that the united inspection team did what they believed to be a proper and complete job or they wouldn't have signed the component off as airworthy. we have gotten better at testing. that was one of the takeaways is we had to get better. >> not only does the inspection process improve as a result of this accident, so does the manufacturing process used to create titanium fan discs. beyond those lessons learned, united 232 was a testament to team work in the cockpit. executed with perfection that day, crew resource management implemented only eight years

earlier helps save 184 lives that might otherwise have been lost. >> left, left, left, left, left. >> i was asked is there anything would you do different today than that day? yeah, i would call in sick. >> this team made very, very good decisions out of an airplane that was virtually unflyable. one individual, no matter how skilled an airman, would not have been likely to have been able to do that. >> coming up, unfortunately, that kind of teamwork is not in play eight years later on the tiny pacific island of guam. >> they were screaming, burned. skin was hanging off their arms and faces. what's it like to be in good hands? like finding new ways to be taken care of. home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks.

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those hot dogs look good. oh yeah, hebrew national. they're all-beef like yours but they're also kosher. is that a big deal? i think so. because not just any beef goes into it. only certain cuts of kosher beef. i guess they're pretty choosy. oh, honey! here, have some of ours. oh! when your hot dog's kosher, that's a hot dog you can trust. hebrew national a 747 gets caught in a heavy downpour over the tiny western pacific island of guam.

then just three miles from its destination, korean air flight 801 slams into the side of a hill and breaks into pieces. eight minutes later, two air traffic controllers come to the sickening realization, the plane has crashed. >> one of the 254 people on board is new zealander barry small. unluke many of his fellow passengers who are tourists and

honeymooners, he is on his way to work as a helicopter pilot and mechanic on a large fishing boat. the jet lifts off from south korea about 8:53 p.m. local time. the date, august 6, 1997. >> the flight itself from seoul to guam was nothing out of the ordinary. >> with a mean annual temperature of 81, guam has an agreeable climate. there's a grim flip side. august is rainy season with an average rainfall of more than 12 inches. as the 747 approaches the airport, it runs right into a cell of heavy rain moving in from the northeast. but small, in 36k, doesn't worry. >> i could see the lights of guam out of the right-hand side of the aircraft. we were going down. everything seemed normal to me.

i reached down to get my shoes. as i was about to grab them, there's a great thump. i thought, we have landed earlier than expected. initial contact with the ground, myself and the passengers weren't really all that surprised. it was a firm one. >> at first, remarkably, small doesn't even realize they have crashed. as the 747 careens out of control and starts breaking apart, the horror of the situation becomes clear. >> the shaking of the aircraft got worse and worse to the point that you couldn't control your body. we were just like rag dolls being thrashed around in their seats. >> the plane has slammed into a rugged piece of terrain just three miles short of the destination runway. as it continues on its violent trajecto trajectory, the landing gear

strikes an oil pipeline pushing part on the road and spilling 1,000 gal lob lons of oil in th process. >> from initial contact to stopping was 17 seconds. i've got to say it's the longest 17 seconds of my life. >> five erupts in the cabin. small is trapped. his right leg broken by the metal cross bar on the bottom of the seat in front of him, a common injury in plane crash victims. small's left leg is saved because of a bag he placed under the seat in front of him. he manages to unbuckle his seat belt and hobble to the rear of the aircraft where he jumps out, escaping the flames. he drags himself nearly 200 feet away and just as he turns around for another look, small says a series of explosions rocked the cabin with people still trapped inside. >> there were pieces falling short of us.

like bombs. screaming got horrendous. the flames just increased again and the screams slowly faded away. they never came back. >> small has survived the impact. but he desperately needs help. >> got maybe a quarter mile down here, we stopped and we all ran to the crash site to get down to where we could hear screams. you could see the fire. >> the governor of guam at the time lives just three minutes away. he rushes to the rugged site with members of his staff. >> i ran down and i found barry small with his leg broken and bone sticking out and gave him a cover also because the rain was -- he was incapacitated that he couldn't cover his eyes. >> by the time rescuers arrive, 52 minutes after the crash, barry small is stabilized.

but for most of the other passengers encore recent air flight 801, it's too late. coming up, what could lead a highly experienced crew to mistake a hill for a runway? >> when you have fatigue, it affects decision making. you don't process information. >> they were finding things were stacking up and then suddenly they are closer to the ground than they expected. hmmmmmm..... [ "dreams" by beck ] hmmmmm... hmmmmm... the turbocharged dream machine. the volkswagen golf gti. part of the award-winning golf family.

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you have burns. you have a broken leg. >> other than that, good. >> passenger barry small has survived a violent impact of a 747 slamming into a hill three miles short of the runway of the u.s. territory of guam. more than 200 of his fellow

passengers are killed. within hours, the rescue effort becomes an investigation scene. the ntsb has challenges from the outset. >> we're talking about a day and a half to get there. then once there, it was very rugged terrain getting down to the accident site. it was hot, humid. it was kind of a difficult condition to work from. >> as with virtually all plane crashes, there's no single cause. investigators quickly uncover a long list of problems leading up to the accident. to begin with, a key navigational aid is out of service for a scheduled reconstruction. >> the glide slope is a radio signal beamed up from the ground to the airplane that provides electronic vertical guidance. >> together with a localizer which provides lateral guidance, pilots align the plane with the

runway. with 9,000 hours in the cockpit, the captain is experienced. he knows the faa has issued an advisory that the guam glide slope is out of service. but in the last two and a half minutes of the flight, the glide slope needle starts to move. >> he believed that that movement was, in fact, due to the fact that the glide slope may be working. >> because the glide slope is down, korean 801 is flying a non-precision approach, which is more complex. that means the plane closes in on the runway in a step down procedure. each step is a predetermined minimum altitude which planes must stay above. but according to the ntsb, the captain appeared to become preoccupied with the status of the glide slope, allowing the plane to descend prematurely. >> he misinterest prepreted how

approach was being handled. the captain never actually understood. >> fatigue played a role by degrading the captain's performance. in the days prior to the crash, he has flown between three continents, suffering from bronchitis and it's the middle of the night. >> when you have fatigue, it affects decision making. you are impaired mentally because the fatigue takes over. you don't process information. >> there are more factors at play. august is the height of rainy season in guam. the counting on a visual approach but the jet flies into a downpour making it difficult to see. >> they were suddenly finding things were stacking up. they're not 100% sure where they are on the ground track. they are looking for visual cues that the heavy rain is preve preventing them from seeing. suddenly, they are closer to the ground than they expected.

>> flight 801's mounting problems are compounded by the crew's failure to communicate. >> the first officer and the flight engineer make comments that indicate their increasing level of concern. but they are soft comments. >> the cockpit voice recorder shows up until 40 seconds before the plane crashes, the captain is still confused over the status of the glide slope. even though the first officer has finally stated, it's not usable. the crew complies with the captain's commands, despite their concerns. probable cause according to the ntsb, the captain's failure to adequately brief and execute the non-precision approach and the first officers and the flight engineer's failure to effectively monitor and cross check the captain's execution of the approach. >> one of the findings that we made after listening to the cvr and bringing all the other

additional information in as far as their culture and their training program was the influence of this societal culture. junior officers who basically hinted and hoped to the captain, you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't follow the glide slope but weren't assertive in actual actually correcting him or taking command away to prevent an accident. >> any one problem might not have been significant. but together, for 228 of 254 people on board this jet, all of those problems are fatal. this is the first time guam's former governor has set foot on the hill since the time of the accident. like many of the survivors he assisted on that night, he hopes for closure on that painful chapter. >> i just wanted to get there and see if there is still some spirit lingering around in that area. because there was a lot of agony

that morning. a lot of agony that i haven't been back since. i haven't been as close as to where we were at today. in the 1980s and '90s, korean air has more than a dozen accidents with a death toll of 750. the airline is seen as so problematic, the u.s. department of defense prohibits employees from flying on its planes. and canada threatens to ban korean air from flying over its airspace all together. but then a major turnaround. korean air hires david greenberg, a retired pilot turned vp from delta airlines. he institutes new policies and procedures and completely revamps communication in the cockpit. >> you have a national culture. corporate culture, pilot culture. you can't change national culture. but what the corporate culture does to mold and shape the pilot

culture is critical. >> the incredible changes that happened in a short period of pi time was impressive. it was for the benefit of the airline and they did it. >> the industry has come a long way since the days of authoritative captains and crews reluctant to assert themselves. since crew resource management, crm, has been instituted, the number of aviation accidents has decreased significantly. >> crm is one of the reasons that aviation is as safe as it is today. it's one of the quantum leaps that aviation safety was able to make was making pilots better team members. >> it has probably been one of those things that you can't quantitatively measure, but the effect that it has had on the success and safety of aviation today has been enormous.

zero visibility in bad weather. cockpit confusion. total destruction. lost in a whiteout, a jet plows into a huge volcano and explodes. >> when we came around the side of the mountain, i was shocked. >> trees tear apart a plane's hull on a towering ridge. >> i kept on saying, just straighten it out. just straighten it out. >> the world's most computerized jet disintegrates as it slams into the side of a snowy mountain. >> i thought to myself, you have to find a way out of the plane. >> pla