On May 5th, 2019, Aeroflot Flight 1492 took off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with 73 passengers and five crew members. After a lightning strike, the plane's primary radio and autopilot became inoperative. The pilots attempted to return to the airport, but during the landing, the plane bounced three times, rupturing the wing and fuel tanks, leading to a fire. Despite evacuation efforts, 41 passengers died. An investigation revealed that passengers had prioritized retrieving their luggage over evacuating, which likely cost them precious seconds.
The incident highlights the importance of following safety instructions and not prioritizing belongings over lives in emergency situations. The video also explores other instances of passenger and pilot errors, including kicking out windows mid-flight, ignoring safety instructions, inflating life jackets prematurely, bringing fake service animals, and allowing children to fly the plane.
Additionally, the video discusses the Tenerife Airport Disaster in 1977, which resulted in the deaths of 583 people due to a miscommunication between pilots and air traffic controllers. The incident led to the implementation of standardized phraseology in radio communications to avoid similar tragedies.
The video concludes by emphasizing the importance of following safety protocols and regulations to prevent such incidents from occurring.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Aeroflot Flight 1492 was scheduled to fly from Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow to Murmansk Airport, Russia on May 5th, 2019.
2. The flight had 73 passengers and 5 crew members on board.
3. The plane took off at 18:03 and began its climb.
4. Five minutes later, a lightning strike rocked the plane, causing damage to the right-hand angle-of-attack sensor, right-hand ice detector, temperature probe, and upper sections of the fuselage.
5. The primary radio and autopilot systems were also damaged in the strike.
6. The pilots activated the secondary radio and began their return to the airport.
7. The plane overshot its initial approach and had to turn around to begin its approach again.
8. As the plane descended to runway 24L, the pilots checked that they had all the right settings in place.
9. An alarm sounded at 1000 ft, warning of windshear ahead, but the crew did not acknowledge it and continued their descent.
10. The plane landed heavily on all three of its landing gears, 3000 feet beyond the runway threshold, at a speed of 158 knots.
11. The aircraft bounced to a height of 6 feet and then two seconds later, when an attempt to engage the reverse thrusters failed, the aircraft touched down again and bounced to a height of 18 feet.
12. Passengers were thrown around the cabin, and the captain hit the thrusters in an attempt to take off and salvage the situation.
13. The aircraft hit the runway for a third and final time at 140 knots, rupturing the landing gear and causing a fuel leak.
14. The leaking fuel quickly set fire to the back half of the plane, and it slid down the runway with a thick plume of smoke and fire trailing behind it.
15. The fire spread quickly, and passengers and crew had to evacuate the plane.
16. Three seconds before the official evacuation order was given, crew members instructed everyone to leave their bags and evacuate immediately.
17. One crew member kicked open the forward right exit door and triggered the inflatable escape slide just eight seconds after the aircraft came to a halt.
18. The first passenger slid out of the escape slide 17 seconds after the aircraft came to a halt.
19. A total of 41 people died in the crash, and only 37 passengers made it out safely.
20. Experts claimed that passengers in the rear of the plane stood a very limited chance of survival once the fire had taken hold.
21. In 2015, British Airways flight 2276 suffered catastrophic engine failure and caught fire on a runway in Las Vegas, but all 157 passengers and 13 crew evacuated without issue.
22. On August 3rd, 2016, Emirates Flight 521 was landing in Dubai when it experienced a sudden and significant wind shear, causing the plane to bounce and skid along the runway.
23. Despite being told to evacuate, passengers on Emirates Flight 521 were seen blocking the aisle and scrambling for the overhead bins instead of getting themselves and their families out of the plane.
24. Everyone on board Emirates Flight 521 made it out safely, but many passengers had found the time to block the aisles and get their belongings from the overhead compartments before exiting the flaming craft.
25. On September 14th, 2022, a passenger on Pakistan International Airlines Flight 283 attempted to kick out the windows of the aircraft while it was in the air.
26. The passenger had caused several disturbances on the flight, including lying down in the aisle to pray and begging cabin crew to let him off the plane.
27. On April 17th, 2018, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 experienced a left engine failure, resulting in explosive decompression and the loss of one passenger.
28. Passengers on the flight were seen wearing their oxygen masks incorrectly, with some not covering their mouths and noses.
29. On July 22nd, 2019, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 3306 brought an emotional support dog on board that lunged forward and bit a flight attendant on the hand.
30. Less than two years before, a similar incident had occurred on Delta Flight 1430, where an emotional support dog bit a passenger on the face repeatedly.
31. Airlines have since become more stringent with their emotional support animal policies, limiting the types of animals that can fly and refusing requests at their discretion.
32. On February 13th, 2022, American Airlines Flight 1775 was headed from Los Angeles to Washington DC when a passenger attempted to enter the cockpit.
33. The passenger was restrained by cabin crew and passengers, and was later handed over to security forces and banned from flying with the airline again.
34. On March 27th, 1977, KLM flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736 collided on a runway in Los Rodeos Airport, resulting in the deaths of 583 people.
35. The disaster was caused by a combination of factors, including a bomb threat, a thick fog, and non-standard phraseology used by pilots and air traffic controllers.
36. The tragedy led to major reforms in the use of standardized phraseology in radio communications.
37. On March 23rd, 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a mountain, killing all 63 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
38. The crash was caused by a 16-year-old boy who was allowed to sit in the pilot's chair and accidentally disengaged the autopilot, causing the plane to stall and enter a spin.
39. Regulations have since been put in place to ensure that only licensed pilots can be at the control columns during a flight.