A Boeing 767 is completely destroyed.
People were on the ground, too weak to move.
129 people are dead.
I was surprised that anybody survived.
It's the worst air disaster in South Korean history.
What are they doing here when they should be all the way down there?
Investigators face puzzling evidence.
Help me find the runway.
And why he didn't say, "Let's get out of here.
Let's miss the approach," we don't understand that.
Start from the timing again.
Timing.
Could a few critical seconds
aboard Air China flight 129 have made the difference between life
and death?
Must go around! Pull up! Pull up!
That's crazy!
Air China flight 129 has been in the air
for a little less than two hours.
Among the 155 passengers is a group of Korean tourists
flying home from vacation.
Their tour guide is 28-year-old Seol Ik-Soo.
I had just started a new job and my wife was four-months pregnant.
There were about 20 people travelling with our agency.
I had many things to take care of.
Captain Wu Xinlu heads the Chinese flight crew.
He has more than 6,000 hours in the cockpit.
18 degrees, due 0.16.
First Officer Gao Liji has over 1,200 hours in the 767.
Expect radar vectors to the left downwind.
The most junior member of the team is Second Officer Hou Xiangning.
There was a third pilot in the cockpit, a second officer,
who was doing the radio calls
and that was because of his proficiency in English.
They're piloting a Boeing 767-200.
Built in 1985, it's 17 years old.
Air China is the flagship carrier of the People's Republic.
Its fleet of 68 planes flies routes across all of Asia and beyond.
The airline has a stellar safety record with no serious accidents.
Flight 129 is flying southeast from Beijing
to Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea.
It should be on the ground in less than 30 minutes.
Approach checklist?
Cabin pressure set.
OK.
Targeting speed.
127.
- Altimeter setting? - Set to 3,000.
The crew is ready to descend.
They run through their approach checklist.
Recall.
Check complete.
Approach checklist completed.
I just can't believe that happened.
I was working very hard because I had ambitions to be promoted.
I didn't take breaks and worked late. I was trying my best.
But for Seol Ik-Soo,
who's trying to make a good impression in his new job,
today is feeling like a disaster.
I mean, what kind of person does that?
It all started to go wrong this morning when he made a mistake
that he worries could get him fired.
I had arranged for the group to sit in first class.
But right before we got to the airport, I realised
that I'd left my passport and bag in the hotel lobby.
The bus driver had to turn around and go back to the hotel.
The good seats were first come first served.
Because we had to return to the hotel,
my group was pushed to seats at the very back of the plane.
Some of the travellers were very angry.
Don't touch my purse.
I even told the group that I would return my tips.
Seol Ik-Soo has no way of knowing
the far more important impact of this minor mistake.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we're about to begin our approach to Gimhae Airport.
Local weather is foggy with some rain.
We'll be landing in approximately 20 minutes.
Gimhae Tower, Air China 129, good morning. With you now.
15 minutes before landing,
the crew contacts the airport approach controller.
Air China 129, Gimhae approach.
Fly heading 910. Descend to 6,000.
Roger, turn heading 190. Descend to 6,000.
In this case, the co-pilot started the approach.
He was actually the pilot flying.
The captain was really monitoring his altitude because the captain is
the non-flying pilot.
Captain Xinlu has landed at Gimhae three times before.
It should be smooth sailing on approach.
Air China 129, turn left heading 160. Descend to 2,600.
Turn left heading 160. Descend to 2,600.
Visibility is not very good.
Gimhae Airport is near Korea's southern coast,
an area known for unpredictable weather.
Regarding the weather at the airport,
I don't think there was anything unique about this particular day.
There were clouds. There was rain.
Gear down?
Gear down.
Flaps 20.
- Runway in sight. - Runway in sight.
Air China 129, contact Tower 118.1. Circle west.
Circling approach is a visual approach.
The pilot has to maintain sight of the runway the entire time.
If the weather is accurate, he should be able to conduct this
approach and still keep his eye on the runway.
The controller didn't get a response to his last radio call.
The wind is too strong. It's very hard to fly.
Changing weather conditions are posing a challenge for the crew.
Cleared to land runway 18.
- Reduce speed. - OK.
Seol Ik-Soo worries that the bad weather will delay their arrival
in Busan.
I thought the plane was circling because of foggy weather.
The tower controller struggles to track the incoming 767
through thick clouds.
Air China 129, are you able to land?
- Pull up. - Must go around! - Pull up! Pull up!
Ahh!
I heard people screaming.
I was sliding.
I couldn't keep my body straight because the speed was too fast.
Then...bang!
All of a sudden, the plane stopped.
I thought I was dead.
I wasn't able to think about anything, not even my family.
Light was coming through a gap.
I realised it was coming from outside.
Flight 129 crash survivor Seol Ik-Soo
inches his way through a tangle of wires, crushed cabin debris,
and razor-sharp aluminium fragments.
Finally, he emerges into daylight - alive,
but still not sure if he's out of danger.
After the crash, I smelled fuel.
I was certain it was aeroplane fuel.
Air China flight 129 has crashed into the side of Mount Dotdae,
miles from the intended runway.
More than 3,000 emergency responders swarm the site.
The crash site was horrible.
It was truly a miracle that they were able to
find a number of survivors from such a massive crash.
Of the 166 people on-board, 37 survive.
Almost all those who made it out alive
were seated near tour guide Seol Ik-Soo.
90% of the tour group I was travelling with survived.
The fact that the young tour guide forgot his passport,
something he thought was a shameful mistake,
will be remembered forever as a lifesaving stroke of luck.
Korean air accident investigators arrive on the scene,
along with American investigators
from the National Transportation Safety Board.
You could tell the whole area had been cleared out by the impact of
the whole aircraft and pieces were spread all over the place.
I was surprised that anybody survived.
Let me borrow those.
From the crash site, investigators can see the airport
nearly three miles away.
There is no simple explanation for why flight 129 hit terrain
so far from the runway.
What are they doing here when they should be all the way down there?
It was obviously in a landing mode.
What would cause him to get this low this far out?
He should have been well above this terrain.
You wondered, "Why did this guy hit a hill?"
Keep me posted.
The captain survived.
Let's hope he can tell us something useful.
Investigators learn that the only surviving member of the flight crew
is Captain Wu Xinlu.
It was surprising that the captain survived the crash because
the impact forces are usually worse in the front of the aeroplane.
If he does survive and he's truthful,
it can help an investigation a lot
because then you find out what really is going on.
With the captain on his way to hospital, investigators focus on
what the crash site can tell them about the accident.
Debris is scattered for hundreds of yards down the hillside.
It was over a large area.
I was surprised it was so big.
Normally, when an incident occurs,
the wreckage and debris tend to stay within
the area of their initial impact point.
The widely scattered wreckage begins to paint a picture.
Hey, take a look at this.
The tail section landed over there.
The front of the plane is all the way over there.
The back of the plane must have landed first,
meaning the pilot was pulling up as the plane hit the ground.
Flight 129 did not nose-dive into the ground.
Instead, the evidence suggests that at the last moment,
the crew was trying to avoid hitting the mountain.
If that's the case, it would help explain why some people survived.
If he hadn't have done that, it may have been worse, but he...
The aeroplane kind of cushioned itself a little bit into the trees
and impact forces were lessened as the aeroplane hit the ground,
tore the engines off and slid through the trees
and so the people survived.
But the central question remains unanswered.
Why did flight 129, in the midst of a seemingly routine landing,
crash into a mountainside?
The answers investigators need may lie with the plane's black boxes.
Searchers have pulled the critical devices from the wreckage.
But it will take expert lab analysis before anyone knows
if the data can be recovered.
I'm gonna go down to the airport,
talk to air traffic control and see if they've got anything to say.
After any plane crash near a runway, some of the first people
investigators want to speak to are the air traffic controllers.
They were slated to perform a straight-in approach,
but it was changed to a circling approach.
- Why the sudden change? - The wind changed direction.
I changed the approach so they can land into the wind.
Switching from straight in to a circling approach is something
that happens routinely at airports around the world.
Some airports, you have to come one way in because of mountains
or whatever, and then once you get to the airport, because of winds,
you may circle and land.
Flight 129 was originally scheduled to land on runway 36 left,
coming in from the south.
But after the change, they were headed for runway 18 right,
coming in from the north instead.
We're close to the sea. The weather is always changing.
We do this all the time.
Air traffic control gave them clearance for a circling approach,
which was appropriate for the weather conditions at the time.
Is there anything else you can remember?
Communications.
Their radio communications were all wrong.
How do you mean?
Air China 129, contact Tower 118.1. Circle west.
Shortly after he instructs flight 129 to do a circling approach,
the tower controller tells the pilots to switch
to a new radio frequency.
Air China 129, contact Tower 118.1.
When the controller told the crew to switch to the tower frequency,
they didn't acknowledge.
Air China 129, please contact 118.1.
The tower had to remind them, call them a couple times.
This is Gimhae Tower on guard.
Air China 129, if you hear me, please contact 118.1.
The tower eventually called the cockpit
on the emergency frequency.
All airports use a standard frequency to communicate in
emergency situations.
If air traffic control even suspects a plane is in distress,
they will use this frequency to contact the crew.
Gimhae Tower, Air China 129, circle approach 18 right.
Air China 129, check wheels down, wind 210 at 17 knots.
Cleared to land runway 18 right.
They finally called me back.
It seemed like we were finally back on track.
Then, less than a minute later, they crashed into the mountain.
The Air China crew was slow to respond to air traffic control.
Investigators need to know what was going on in the cockpit
during the unusual delay.
If air traffic controllers make a statement and the crew either
doesn't answer or misinterprets it,
it can cause the accident, basically.
Thank you. Oh. Just a minute, please.
Hello?
Thank you.
The captain's OK. Let's go see if he's ready to speak.
Captain Wu Xinlu is the only member of the cockpit crew
from Air China 129 to have survived.
He may be the one person alive who knows what led to the fatal crash.
It was hard to tell what injuries he had,
but he was not in good shape.
It wasn't life-threatening, I don't think, but it was not good.
It was gonna take him a while to recover.
Was there anything mechanically wrong with the plane?
No. Everything seemed fine.
Then suddenly, the mountain seemed to come out of nowhere.
Must go around! Pull up. Pull up!
Did you have any difficulty communicating with the tower?
No. Everything was normal.
Controllers have already told investigators that the radio
communication was far from normal.
It's a troubling contradiction.
Is there anything else you can tell us?
Investigators wonder if the last-minute change
to the approach presented any problems.
Air China 129, this time active runway change 18 right.
Wind 210 at 17 knots.
Expect circling approach.
Circle approach runway 18 right?
Using runway 18 right.
Pilots should be alert for anything and they should be thinking ahead.
They should be thinking, "Well, I'm gonna land on this runway
but what happens if I have to do a circling approach?"
Did this cause you any difficulties?
No.
It was fine.
This is what we're trained to do.
Nothing I heard in the interview in the hospital indicated that there
was anything wrong,
I mean, aside from,
well, what happened.
The crash near Busan is the worst air disaster ever on Korean soil -
129 fatalities.
As family members mourn the victims,
pressure mounts on the investigation.
How could a plane coming in for a routine landing
suddenly hit a mountain?
Lab technicians have managed to recover all the data
from the Air China flight data recorder,
things like the plane's speed, altitude, heading
and other critical flight parameters right up to the moment of impact.
Investigators are eager to learn more about the circling approach,
an approach the captain says posed no difficulties.
Around here, they should be circling in for a landing,
but they just keep going, then they crash into the mountain.
Why didn't they turn here?
They were a lot farther out than they realised.
How are they supposed to do this approach?
Pass me the training manual.
Every airport has detailed procedures on how to approach its runways.
Pilots are trained to follow these procedures to the letter.
Gears down. Flaps 20.
Turn 45 degrees parallel to end of runway start timer.
Let's get this on the board.
The landing procedure for Busan calls for pilots to
use a cockpit chronometer to aid with a circling approach.
By timing manoeuvres to the second, they should be more precise.
But a cockpit timer can't guarantee a safe landing.
If you set a timer and it's your procedure to do that and you don't
make sure that that procedure is followed,
you're defeating your whole purpose
of having a timer in the first place.
So, gear down here.
Then they're supposed to do a 45-degree turn for 20 seconds here.
Then they're supposed to make a 45-degree turn for 20 seconds here.
You time it out, 20 seconds. You turn parallel to the runway,
and then you make what's called a base turn, 180-degree turn,
and land on the runway.
Here, they should see the end of the runway.
20 seconds later, they should have made their base turn.
Despite what the captain has said,
it looks like he got off to a bad start on the approach.
The flight recorder showed that the pilot did not execute
his first turn.
He was supposed to make a left turn to begin the circling approach
and he's supposed to do that aggressively.
He didn't turn steep enough, with a steep enough bank.
How fast were they going?
They soon learn that bank angles
weren't the only problem on the approach to Busan.
158 knots?
That's much too fast.
The aircraft was flying about 20 knots faster than it should have.
Flying at too high a speed,
they covered the downward leg more quickly than expected,
which left them less time to prepare for the final turn.
It's interesting that such a thing as 20 knots fast
can make such a difference.
But the truth is it does make a difference.
They're doing this all wrong.
What were the pilots thinking?
It's now clear that the crew of Air China 129
mishandled the early stages of their approach to Busan.
But what's still a mystery is why the experienced pilots
failed to correct the problem in time to make a safe landing.
In 1992, an Air Inter flight bound for Strasbourg, France,
met a tragic end similar to Air China 129.
Flying in low cloud on final approach, the Airbus A-320
ploughed into a mountainside 12 miles from the runway.
87 people died.
The investigation revealed that the crew was unfamiliar
with the plane's sophisticated computer interface.
The pilots accidentally selected a dangerously fast descent speed,
3,300ft per minute.
By the time they realised they were in danger, it was too late.
Were the Air China pilots unfamiliar with some critical task,
something that might explain why
they failed to execute a fairly routine approach?
Korean investigators dig into their work histories in search of clues.
Certified as a first officer in January 2002.
Completed his first flight on the Boeing 767 in February.
That's just two months ago. What about the captain?
He had close to almost 6,300 hours on the 767.
They learn that while the first officer was relatively new
to the 767 cockpit, the captain was very familiar with the plane.
But then, they uncover something remarkable.
He's never done a circling approach at Gimhae Airport before.
Records show that not even in his simulator training
had the captain attempted the approach.
His training was only done in the simulator simulating
a circling approach at Beijing Airport.
That doesn't get you prepared for an airport like this
with the high terrain around it.
They had plenty of flight time,
but I guess they never encountered this kind of a situation.
To me, the fact that the crew had never done a circling approach is
not good.
Still, pilots have charts in the cockpit
that explain landing procedures.
Crews land at unfamiliar airports all the time.
There must be more to the story.
Is the cockpit voice recorder ready yet?
So far, investigators have uncovered evidence of a crew
flying too fast on approach and mishandling an initial turn.
Now they need to figure out why the rest of the approach went so
catastrophically wrong.
Everybody ready?
Let's start from the very beginning of their approach.
They hope the cockpit voice recording will provide some answers.
- Approach checklist. Cabin pressure set. - OK.
- Targeting speed? - 127.
Everything seems to be in order so far. Let's keep listening.
Air China 129, Gimhae approach.
Fly heading 190, descend to 6,000.
Roger, turn heading 190.
Descend to 6,000.
So now they're on approach about nine minutes away from scheduled landing.
Up to now, they think they're coming in here.
But the controller changes it to here.
Remember, the pilots have never done this before at this airport.
Air China 129, this time active runway change 18 right.
Wind 210 at 17 knots.
Expect circling approach.
Circle approach, runway 18 right.
We are using runway 18 right.
So they immediately acknowledge their circling approach.
The flight is now just minutes from disaster.
Investigators listen closely for anything that might explain
the fatal flight path.
Minimum descent altitude is 700ft?
600. Seven... 700ft.
The pilots continue their checklist.
Do we exit on this side taxiway?
- What's it called? - Charlie Six.
It soon becomes clear they've missed a critical step.
After we land, we can leave directly using taxiway Charlie Six.
Stop.
They're talking about what to do after they land
but they never did a proper briefing for the actual landing.
Flight rules require commercial pilots to review every aspect
of a landing beforehand.
It's called the approach briefing.
The approach briefing should have every eventuality that could take
place during the approach.
Now, switching from a straight in to a circling is unusual,
but it should have still been discussed.
They didn't fully review their landing procedure,
let alone what they had to do to execute their final approach.
Someone's supposed to call a checklist and say,
"Approach briefing."
And then someone's supposed to give an approach briefing.
When that didn't happen,
somebody's supposed to speak up and say, "Hey, Captain,"
or First Officer, "We didn't do an approach briefing."
That's crew coordination.
The missed briefing helps explain why the crew botched
their initial turn.
It also points to a level of carelessness in the cockpit.
But what the CVR reveals next
will leave investigators in total dismay.
OK. Let's see what else they say.
- Runway in sight. - Runway in sight.
Investigators listen as the Air China crew,
now just moments from a fatal impact,
continue an approach that they never discussed in advance.
Air China 129, contact tower 118.1. Circle west.
Do you see the end of the runway?
End of runway is to the right.
This is Gimhae Tower on guard.
Air China 129, if you hear me, contact 118.1.
The crew is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar approach
and fails to respond to the controller.
- Timing. - Wait. Where's my stopwatch?
Investigators know that a circling approach demands precise timing
of the turning manoeuvres.
OK. Start from the timing again.
If you hear me, contact 118.1.
Here's where they start the timer.
Timing.
The captain relies on his cockpit chronometer.
In exactly 20 seconds, he must begin his final turn.
They had to fly the aircraft away from the airport and then
turn onto final and then land in the opposite direction.
The wind is too strong. It's very hard to fly.
I have control.
Remarkably, Captain Wu Xinlu responds to his first officer's concern
over wind speed by taking over the flying duties.
He makes the switch at the worst possible moment.
What is happening in that cockpit?
One of the critical things in this particular accident
was the switching of control during the 20 seconds.
In the middle of the 20-second timer, he decides to take control.
That's crazy.
By suddenly taking control of the plane,
the captain increases his workload at a critical moment
and diverts his attention from the timer.
Not only does he have to fly the aeroplane, he's gotta manage
the crew and other activities. He's got to monitor the radio calls.
It confused the first officer.
It made the division of duties uncertain.
They didn't know what person was supposed to do what.
When he takes control, the captain should clearly
spell out the division of duties.
Most critically, he needs to tell the first officer
to keep track of the timer.
But that never happens.
Once he gets to the end of the timer,
he said he's gonna turn but he doesn't.
There was a lot of confusion listening to the CVR,
a lot of confusion and a lack of coordination in the cockpit.
Turning right.
The U-turn back to the runway should begin at the 20-second mark.
But with the captain now flying
and the first officer looking for the runway,
no-one starts the turn.
The whole idea of timing on a circling approach
is to get your certain spacing from the runway.
And, again, if there's winds,
you have to adjust your timing and your angles of turns.
Turning right.
In this case, the breakdown in communications within the cockpit,
they did not take account of the timing and they just
kind of maneuverer the aeroplane where they thought it should go.
It was a total breakdown in approach procedures.
And, as investigators are about to discover,
the confusion in the cockpit only gets worse.
- Do you have the runway in sight? - No. I can't see out.
Low cloud is now blocking the pilot's view of the runway.
Turn. Turn now!
A circling approach falls under visual flight rules.
If pilots lose sight of the runway at any time, they are trained to
immediately abort the landing and go around to try again.
Passenger safety should have been the pilots' primary concern, and
so maintaining visual contact with the runway the highest priority.
I was truly surprised to find out that they proceeded
with the landing approach without having the runway in sight.
Turn. Turn now!
It was getting pretty nasty and why he didn't say,
"Let's get out of here. Let's miss the approach,"
we don't understand that.
Flying a 767 into a cloud on a visual circling,
which all circling approaches are, is unacceptable.
It's not professional.
This shouldn't have happened.
They've just lost sight of the runway and they're here,
seconds from the mountain.
Investigators have discovered that the pilots of Air China flight 129
continued with their approach to Busan even though they could
no longer see the runway.
The captain is supposed to go around
when he can't see the airport and he didn't do that.
He continued turning and following the instructions
trying to get back to the runway, which was totally wrong.
Help me find the runway.
They have also now dropped below the minimum safe altitude,
but only the first officer seems to have noticed.
Pay attention to your altitude.
They were supposed to level off at a certain altitude.
They went right through it.
It's getting hard to fly. Watch your altitude!
The captain continues to descend for almost 30 seconds
before his first officer finally speaks up.
Must go around! Pull up. Pull up!
No, no. No!
But it's too late.
No!
Pull up. Terrain. Terrain.
Terrain. Terrain. Pull up.
This is an anatomy of a botched approach.
You never fly into a cloud on a circling approach.
If you do,
you should be initiating a go-around to get out of that situation.
It's pretty basic stuff. It really is.
It's something a Cessna 172 pilot should be able to do,
as well as a 767 pilot.
The captain is interviewed eight times over the next three months.
Investigators never learn why he failed to initiate
a missed approach after losing sight of the runway,
the most basic of all visual flight rules.
Who knows what the captain was thinking?
It's just hard to tell.
Though investigators can't know for sure,
the captain might have been able to react to his mistake sooner
if he'd been flying a newer version of the Boeing 767.
His 17-year-old plane was not equipped with the latest technology
used to warn pilots if they are flying too low.
This aeroplane had in it a ground proximity warning system.
Unfortunately, this was an older model and it did go off.
It gave a warning but it was way too late for the pilot to react.
In this accident aeroplane, Air China
did not have the enhanced GPWS that was recommended.
They just hadn't done it.
If it had been installed, they may have missed the mountain.
After the accident, my life changed a lot.
Instead of being happy about being alive,
I had to live for the people who died in the crash.
It has been very difficult.
Three years later, on March 4, 2005,
the Korean Aviation Accident Investigation Board
finally publishes its accident report.
The causes of this accident are basically human factors.
It was poor crew coordination.
It was poor communications intra-cockpit
and between the tower and the cockpit.
It reinforced the need for proper training of flight crews.
Key recommendations include providing better training for pilots
on circling approaches
and a review of in-flight briefing procedures.
In the aftermath of the flight 129 disaster,
Air China designates Gimhae as a special airport.
All pilots are now taught how the area's challenging terrain
may affect take-offs, landings and go-arounds.
This should be used as a teaching point for aviators,
why you give an approach briefing,
and a thorough one, not just a standard one.
And the hard part is, if you're flying day in and day out,
to do this again and again and again, but it's necessary.
It really is. You can see why.