The Last 77 Seconds of the Florida Learjet 60 Before The Crash — Transcript

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1. 0:00Right now we're picking up
2. 0:01precipitation. We need to climb.
3. 0:04>> Climb and maintain
4. 0:07722 Bravo Delta. We're descending 8,000.
5. 0:09Mayday. Mayday. We're descending 10,000
6. 0:11ft per minute. We are in an over speed
7. 0:13condition. Descending 20,000 ft per
8. 0:15minute. We're going to crash into the
9. 0:17ground. 72 Bravo Delta.
10. 0:19>> November 2 Bravo Delta. I'm here with
11. 0:20you. Talk to me.
12. 0:23>> 77 seconds. Nine people on board. What
13. 0:27really happened inside that cockpit?
14. 0:30This film is built on the NTSB's first
15. 0:33statements, the real air traffic control
16. 0:36recording and flight tracking data. No
17. 0:38cockpit recording has been released. No
18. 0:41cause has been determined. Where sources
19. 0:44disagree will say so. Sunday the 1st of
20. 0:48November, Austin, Texas, 10:37 in the
21. 0:52morning Eastern time. The aircraft is a
22. 0:54bombardi larger 60 registration November
23. 0:58722 Bravo Delta built in 2004.
24. 1:0322 years old. It's a fast narrow
25. 1:06business jet. Two engines mounted at the
26. 1:09back. A tail shaped like a tea with a
27. 1:12horizontal stabilizer sitting right on
28. 1:14top. Hold on to that. In the left seat,
29. 1:17the captain Jeff Gregory 55. In the
30. 1:20right seat, the co-pilot, Nathalia
31. 1:23Philgay Ross. She's 20. She earned her
32. 1:26pilot's license at 17 before she even
33. 1:29finished high school. And according to
34. 1:31her family, she already has more
35. 1:33than,300 hours in her log book. She
36. 1:37learned to fly from her father. Her
37. 1:39mother calls her responsible and
38. 1:41hardworking. Behind them, seven
39. 1:43passengers. Adam Robinson, a 44year-old
40. 1:47tech entrepreneur from Austin. his wife
41. 1:49Helen, their two young children, their
42. 1:52nanny, and two close friends. They're
43. 1:55heading to the Bahamas. Tracking data
44. 1:57shows the jet climbing to 41,000 ft and
45. 2:01heading out over the Gulf of Mexico. For
46. 2:04almost 2 hours, nothing happens. But
47. 2:07ahead of them, South Florida is under a
48. 2:09flood watch. Showers and thunderstorms
49. 2:12are building across the peninsula. Near
50. 2:15Naples, the jet starts down to 35,000
51. 2:18ft. One weather analysis suggests it
52. 2:21then passes through a stronger storm
53. 2:24cell a few minutes before the trouble
54. 2:26begins. 12:47.
55. 2:29The crew checks in with Miami Center.
56. 2:32This is the real recording.
57. 2:34>> 722 Bravo Delta 350. Moderate turbulence
58. 2:38plus or minus. Okay, now 700 ft. 600 ft.
59. 2:44So, Roger, say outside air temperature
60. 2:4747° C. We're managing the ice, but it is
61. 2:50moderate turbulence. We're directly -
62. 2:5347. At that temperature, liquid water
63. 2:56almost never exists. Ice up there
64. 2:59usually comes as tiny crystals, a known
65. 3:02hazard near storm tops that can clog the
66. 3:05probes a [music] jet uses to measure its
67. 3:07own speed. Whether anything like that
68. 3:10happened here is exactly what
69. 3:12investigators don't know yet.
70. 3:14>> Okay, 722 Bravo Delta. Roger. Let me
71. 3:17know if you need anything else. I'm just
72. 3:18working you into my airspace right now.
73. 3:20>> Thank you. If you have any better rides,
74. 3:22uh, let us know.
75. 3:23>> Better rides. Pilots talk for smoother
76. 3:26air. The NTSB says the jet was moving up
77. 3:29and down by about 700 ft.
78. 3:32>> Roger Bravo Delta. And now we're picking
79. 3:34up precipitation. We need to climb um
80. 3:37370 Bravo Delta
81. 3:40>> 722 Bravo Delta. Roger. Climb and
82. 3:42maintain climbable 370. No further right
83. 3:44than your present. Heading for traffic.
84. 3:46>> Nobody outside that cockpit saw what
85. 3:48happened next. What follows is a
86. 3:51reconstruction built only from the radio
87. 3:54calls and the tracking data. 1248 and 15
88. 3:57seconds. Less than 30 seconds after the
89. 4:00climb is approved, the jet starts down.
90. 4:03A steep turning descent first to the
91. 4:06south, then to the west.
92. 4:09>> 3702 Bravo Delta. 722 Bravo Delta. We're
93. 4:12descending 8,000. Mayday. Mayday. We're
94. 4:14descending 10,000 ft per minute.
95. 4:16>> November 722 Bravo Delta. Roger.
96. 4:19>> Declaring emergency. 722 Bravo Delta. We
97. 4:22are in an over speed condition.
98. 4:23Descending 27 ft per minute.
99. 4:26>> Every jet has a speed it must never go
100. 4:28past. above it. The air loads on the
101. 4:31wings and the tail grow faster than the
102. 4:33structure was built for. In a dive this
103. 4:36steep, a jet can blow through that limit
104. 4:39in seconds. When a Learjet loses control
105. 4:42at altitude, aviation attorney and pilot
106. 4:45Mike Slack says it tends to go vertical
107. 4:48and descend very fast.
108. 4:50>> November 722 Bravo Delta, roger
109. 4:52altitude, your discretion. Let me know
110. 4:53what you need. Within 45 seconds, the
111. 4:56tracking data shows it falling at 32,600
112. 5:00ft per minute. That's the most its
113. 5:03transponder can even report. About 360 m
114. 5:07an hour straight down.
115. 5:10>> We're going to crash into the ground
116. 5:13delta. I'm here with you. Talk to me. We
117. 5:15are descending 22,000 ft and we are
118. 5:19banking 60.
119. 5:22>> In the last 9 seconds of data, the jet
120. 5:24drops more than 8,000 ft. The final
121. 5:28signal comes at 1249 and 32 seconds, a
122. 5:32few hundred ft above Greenacers, 77
123. 5:35seconds after the descent began.
124. 5:38Military trail, a busy road in Palm
125. 5:41Beach County. It's raining. Dash cameras
126. 5:44on the road catch the jet coming down
127. 5:46almost vertically. It looked like a
128. 5:48missile going down. Florida's governor
129. 5:51says it hits the roadway and leaves a
130. 5:53crater right next to a mobile home park.
131. 5:56Nobody on the ground is killed. One
132. 5:59person is hurt. About 600 residents have
133. 6:03to leave their homes for the night.
134. 6:05>> November 2 Bravo Delta.
135. 6:07November 2 Bravo Delta. How do you hear?
136. 6:11November 2 Bravo Delta my
137. 6:14>> according to flight safety foundation
138. 6:16data it's the deadliest accident ever
139. 6:19involving a larjet 60 the next day the
140. 6:23national transportation safety board
141. 6:25gives its first briefing we do have some
142. 6:27indication says board member Tom Chapman
143. 6:31that the aircraft was breaking up before
144. 6:33impact in the dash camera video flying
145. 6:36magazine reports the horizontal
146. 6:39stabilizer the piece on Top of that
147. 6:41T-shaped tail appears to be missing.
148. 6:45Investigators haven't confirmed it. The
149. 6:47main wreckage is buried in the crater.
150. 6:50Pulling it out, the investigator in
151. 6:52charge says is the biggest obstacle they
152. 6:55face. The jet was built with a cockpit
153. 6:58voice recorder. Investigators are still
154. 7:01working out whether it was on board and
155. 7:03where it is now, and the weather,
156. 7:05Chapman says, is a major focus. So,
157. 7:08these are the open questions. What did
158. 7:10the storm do to the jet in those 30
159. 7:13seconds? Did ice affect what the pilots
160. 7:15were seeing? Did something fail or come
161. 7:18apart before the dive or because of it?
162. 7:21A preliminary report usually comes
163. 7:24within about 30 days. The final answer
164. 7:27can take a year or two. Nine people took
165. 7:30off from Austin on a Sunday morning. A
166. 7:33captain, a 20-year-old co-pilot who
167. 7:36learned to fly from her dad. A family
168. 7:38heading to the islands with two little
169. 7:40kids, their nanny, two friends. In the
170. 7:44last minute, the crew kept talking and
171. 7:47on the ground, a controller kept
172. 7:48answering.
173. 7:50>> Climb 3702 Bravo Delta. 722 Bravo Delta.
174. 7:54We're descending 8,000. Mayday, mayday.
175. 7:56We're descending 10,000 ft per minute.
176. 7:58>> November 722 Bravo Delta. Roger.
177. 8:01>> Declar 722 Bravo Delta. We are in an
178. 8:04over speed condition. 720 ft per minute.
179. 8:07>> November 722 Bravo Delta. Roger.
180. 8:09Altitude your discretion. Let me know
181. 8:11what you need.
182. 8:12>> We're going to crash into the ground. 72
183. 8:14Bravo Delta.
184. 8:14>> November 2 Bravo Delta. I'm here with
185. 8:16you. Talk to me.
186. 8:17>> We are descending 22,000 ft and we are
187. 8:21banking 60.
188. 8:26>> November 2 Bravo Delta.
189. 8:29November 2 Bravo Delta. How do you hear?
190. 8:33November 2 Bravo Delta.