[Music] europe [Music] england london heathrow [Music] the world's busiest international airport january 8 1989 it's a sunday evening and many passengers are headed home after the christmas and new year holidays the airport is packed in terminal 1 passengers check in for british midland flight 092 to belfast northern ireland it's a regular hour-long commuter shuttle security is tight it's the height of the ira's terrorist campaign against british targets the ira has killed 416 civilians in nearly 20 years of violence healthcare worker gareth jones started a new job in belfast three weeks ago [Music] security checks are a way of life if you lived in northern ireland at the time you got quite used to security it was a period when there was heightened security there you look after them the ira isn't the only reason for heathrow's high security [Music] locker b scotland three weeks earlier a terrorist bomb blows apart a pan am 747 flying from heathrow to the us the explosion kills all 259 people on board and 11 more on the ground it's the worst ever terrorist attack on a u.s airliner the authorities suspect it's the work of an arab terrorist group today the passengers on flight 092 are in the hands of 43 year old captain kevin hutt he's one of british midlands most experienced pilots with 25 years flying under his belt air conditioning and pressurization attacks on flight flying with him 39 year old first officer david mcclellan tonight they're flying an aircraft just two months old it's one of boeing's new 737 400 series boeing launched the aircraft a year earlier in a blaze of publicity [Music] it boasts significant improvements over its predecessors its new cfm56 engines are the most powerful of their kind and the cockpit display features state-of-the-art technology including computerized tv screens and led dials which replace the traditional mechanical gauges [Music] 7 15 pm cars 118 passengers board the brand new plane and take their seats captain hunt starts up the two engines the 400 series aircraft is still new to him he's clocked just 23 hours first officer mcclelland has 53 hours in the main cabin gareth jones has a window seat over the wing in an emergency exit row excuse me sir a flight attendant asks garrett to read the safety card so that he knows how to open the overwing exit door normally he was pretty blase about it but it was pleasantly done and it would have been ill-mannered not to air traffic control clears flight zero nine two for takeoff zero nine two is perfect take off surface winds two seven zero degrees weather conditions are perfect first officer mcclelland throttles the engines up [Music] 7 52 p.m british midland flight 092 is airborne and on its way to belfast debbie griffith age 24 is one of six cabin crew on board tonight [Music] she was on standby but managers called her in at short notice [Music] she's been a flight attendant for two years i love the job basically because i really enjoyed meeting the people it was a it was a great lifestyle for somebody of that age within minutes of takeoff the cabin crews start the drink service with the hold-ups behind them there's a light-hearted atmosphere passengers know they'll be on the ground in under one hour [Music] 805 pm 13 minutes into the flight the aircraft is climbing through 8 500 meters on its way to a cruising altitude of ten thousand six hundred meters then without warning a massive bang the aircraft starts to vibrate violently routine flight turns into every air traveler's worst nightmare up on the flight deck captain hunt and first officer david mcclelland feel the vibration smoke can only get into the cabin by the air conditioning ducts and since the aircon is jet powered on the 737 they deduce its engine trouble and it sounds serious 20 year old student kieran dynan is sitting over the wing close to the engine all he can hear is a loud clattering sound it was a very definite grinding noise it sounded like heaven's going under the washing machine just back from the cockpit in row one are business partners nick stevenson and chris thompson they're on their way home to belfast they feel the vibration it's so intense they feel the aircraft is breaking up sounds to me as though there's somebody outside with a sledgehammer trying to get into the aircraft trying to make their way through the fuselage at that point he simply stopped froze flight attendant debbie griffiths immediately thinks of the lockerbie disaster this instant sort of terror if you like and my first thought was is there a bomb a huge bang and heavy vibrations rock a british midland flight on route to northern ireland sitting in a window seat over the wing in row 14 is healthcare worker gareth jones he's busy dealing with a panicking fellow passenger the lady was next to me teresa was distressed so i started to talk to her to try and uncalm her but also to help me because it wasn't stress-free for me either gareth has good reason to be worried his seat gives him a clear view of the plane's wing and what he sees fills him with foreboding i could look out of the window and see trailer spark-like emissions from where the engine would be from their seats in the cockpit captain hunt and first officer mcclellan can't see either of the two engines so they don't know about the sparks like all pilots they must rely on their cockpit instrument display to diagnose the problem the new display on the 400 series 737 is unfamiliar to them but it's state-of-the-art technology hunter mcclelland scanned the screens and led instruments they diagnosed an engine problem and shut down the faulty engine hey [Applause] but safety rules call for the crew to land the plane as soon as possible let's get a turn going freeze midlands hunt is in luck air traffic control clears him for an emergency landing at east midlands airport just 10 minutes flying time away control fly [Music] [Music] 8 10 p.m the captain goes on the intercom to calm his 118 passengers and to tell them he shut down the malfunctioning engine he says they'll be safely on the ground in 10 minutes gareth jones is relieved to see that the problem engine has stopped throwing out sparks he's convinced the captain now has everything under control [Music] 8 17 pm the aircraft descends through two thousand meters they're eight minutes from touchdown six zero four zero flight level four zero zero one minute later air traffic control tells captain hunt to make a right turn to line up with the runway 0-9-2 altitude 3000 feet they're on final approach the cabin crew take their seats for the remaining few minutes 8 20 pm another even louder bang rocks the aircraft the passengers realized that the noise must come from the plane's last remaining engine the whole plane shook it was like something touched the plane stopped in midair and at that point frankly my blood just had cold now there are more vibrations worse than ever vibration was incredible it was almost impossible for me to focus on chris who was sitting in the seat beside me and i remember thinking if this keeps vibrating like this the aircraft is going to fall apart being absolutely terrifying not really knowing what was going on air traffic control clears captain hunt to descend to 600 meters they must get the plane down and fast before their last engine fails altogether then everything goes silent the plane's last engine has given out the passengers now know they're going down i actually can't remember the noise of wind going by the plane just this rushing sound and the plane then dropped it started just to be dying like going over the top of a roller coaster i remember thinking to myself well there's nothing you can do about it if him upstairs wants to take you now captain hunt has lost both engines with no forward thrust the plane is now fighting a losing battle with gravity six six two ten knots hunt orders the first officer to try to restore power mcclellan begins the re-ignition sequence but they're losing height rapidly now the left engine catches fire the 737 is dropping out of the sky [Music] captain hunt's control column starts to shake violently the ground proximity warning system tells him he's coming down too quickly the pilots can see the airport runway lights less than two kilometers away but there are more lights closer to the plummeting plane the lights of the m1 motorway the uk's major north south artery if they crash on the motorway the death toll could be horrendous but captain hunt is all out of options the ground is coming up fast somebody on board said jesus we're gonna die 8 24 p.m british midland fight zero nine two is just one minute from east midlands airport captain hunt can see the runway lights but he's lost both engines and one's on fire his only hope to keep the aircraft airborne long enough to crash land on the runway the passengers haven't heard from the captain for 10 minutes but they know they're going to crash stupid thoughts go through your head like who's going to cut the grass part of your brain is saying this this plane is crashing and part of it was saying it can't be because it doesn't happen now captain hunt can see the village of kegworth desperate to avoid crashing into it he raises the nose to stretch the glide the 737 passes over the village at an altitude of just 60 meters wherever i noticed what i think was a church spa which actually went by the window and i sort of thought the church spark went through a good past the window i'm on a plane but beyond cape worth lies the m1 motorway if captain hunt can get across this six-lane road the safety of the runway is just 900 meters away get it going it's not going get it out it's not going but he can't keep the plane airborne any longer he makes a final announcement to the terrified passengers prepare for crash landing prepare for crash landing and he said brace brace grace prepare for crash landing and there's tone of his voice said at all i can remember going into the brace position and just thinking this is it just before the plane hit the ground i remember thinking nobody survives a plane crash i wonder will i 30 meters before the motorway the tail section hits the ground and bounces back into the air the plane smashes through trees near the edge of the motorway it was horrendous it just seemed to go on forever sort of suck the breath out of you it careens across the road destroying a light on the central reservation the aircraft slams into the embankment on the far side of the m1 and breaks into three it is from being crushed and crushed and then nothing total silence it comes to rest just 900 meters from the safety of the runway captain hunt made it across the motorway just incredibly no cars are passing at the moment of the crash inside the wreckage of the 737s middle section gareth jones and his fellow passenger teresa are alive they're sitting over the wing the strongest part of the aircraft [Music] gareth is not even badly hurt he cannot believe his luck but the danger isn't over yet when i opened my eyes i could see the little bush that was on fire and thought um hang on this is dangerous we're right over the wing the wings full of fuel we'd better get out of this place pretty quick it's a miracle the plane's 5 000 plus liters of aviation fuel haven't caught fire but the fuel is now pouring out of the damaged wings and one of the engines is still in flames if the fuel ignites gareth and any other survivors will have little chance having lived through an air crash they could still burn to death gareth desperately pulls the emergency door handle but it won't open fortunately i remembered um jamie's instructions on the card and grabbed the handle pulled the door in and threw it out before the crash gareth told fellow passenger teresa that if they survived the impact he would get her out i remember sticking my head back in through the hatch and shouting teresa give me a hand and his little hand appeared out the blackness and i remember pulling her out through the door now gareth climbs back into the plane to look for other survivors he finds a horrifying scene [Music] twisted wreckage injured people shouting for help and others were ominously silent there were people clearly struggling to get out and others that were not moving and you knew what had happened to those that were not moving and that's one of the memories that carry with me to my grave [Music] in row one in the plains broken front section business partners nick stevenson and chris thompson chris is unconscious and severely injured but nick is one of the luckier ones he comes around quickly the first thing i thought is i'm alive the second thing i thought is there's going to be a fire get out he doesn't have the strength to help chris he tries to get up but a searing pain in his left leg stops him and yet he knows he must overcome the pain to get out you know the survival instinct just takes over the drive isn't it's incredible i just knew i was going to get out i had to get out nothing else was of any importance whatsoever he reaches a break in the fuselage and shouts to passing drivers who've stopped the help he said we see you're okay you know we'll get you carried me down the embankment still trapped in the wreckage of the nose section flight attendant debbie griffith she's in a bad way but her main fear is a fuel explosion i was having real problems breathing and actually felt like i was dying i was really sort of fighting to live and i just expected the engines to go and i can actually remember thinking it hurts to me quickly and 20 year old kieran dynan hangs right over the edge of the shattered midsection [Music] he's badly injured and drifts in and out of consciousness all the seats in front of me were gone there's nothing it was just dead for you nothing 8 30 p.m five minutes after the crash the fire crews reached the aircraft they start to dash the whole area with foam the fireman shouted through we've got the engines out so at least then i knew that we're in with a fighting chance within two minutes the engine fire is out the rescue can begin now firefighters scour the plane for survivors they have the grim task of checking which passengers are dead and which still have a spark of life i literally just woke up as he showed the torch light in my eyes and he said quick this one's still alive and then i blacked out again kieran is pulled out of the plane and rushed to hospital eight hours after the crash rescuers pull the last survivor from the wreckage of british midland flight 092 the time is 4 20 in the morning of the 126 people on board the impact kills 39 8 more die in hospital from their injuries among the survivors the two pilots david mcclelland and captain hunt both are seriously injured by the impact captain hunt is paralyzed the survivors have been describing what happened and praising the skill of the plane's pilots but what could cause a brand new aircraft to simply fall out of the sky sabotaged by terrorists is one possibility it's just three weeks since a pan am 747 exploded in mid-air above the village of lockerbie in scotland killing 270 people did a terrorist bomb down this plane too [Music] now by rewinding the bay and by going deep into the investigation we can reveal what really happened on fight zero nine two advanced computer simulation will take us where no camera can go into the heart of the disaster zone eddie trimble is the chief investigator from the uk's air accident investigation branch he's worked on all the major air disasters in the uk over the last 30 years when news of the kegworth disaster breaks team of nine crash investigators is still in lockerbie scouring the wreckage of the downed pan am plane now he fears another terrorist outrage has claimed lives on british soil [Music] trimble arrives at the crash scene around midnight just four hours after the accident [Music] as the hours pass he finds none of the telltale signs of damage from explosives [Music] the team quickly rule out a terrorist attack as the cause of the crash this is not another lockerbie investigators now turn to the possibility of mechanical failure survivors report a double engine failure it seems almost incredible but the theory soon surfaces in news reports the experts say the chances of both engines on a brand new airliner failing at the same time are a hundred million to one but that seems to be what happened last night eddie trimble knows that if both engines failed almost simultaneously the implications are enormous there are 18 of the new 737s in service could they all be flying with a fatal flaw the investigators need to find out and fast chief investigator eddie trimble and his team of nine scour the crash site of british midland flight 092 they desperately need clues to explain what could cause both the 737s jet engines to fail accounts of the plane's final moments are coming in from eyewitnesses they report planes in the left-hand engine trimble starts to probe the left engine it's not an easy job the crash impact seriously damaged it but he soon finds something that's clearly not crash related the fan blades most of them are severely damaged or fractured trimble concludes that the fan blade fracture through debris deep inside the engine the resulting damage was fatal [Music] he must send the left engine for further tests to discover what caused the fan blade to fracture in the first place now trimble and his team turn to the right-hand engine the one the cockpit voice recordings reveal is the first to malfunction they carry out an inspection of its internal mechanisms after hours of examination trimble reaches a terrible but inescapable conclusion i thought gosh it really does look as though they may have shut down a good engine trimble realizes that when the left-hand engine starts to go wrong the flight crew inexplicably shuts down the perfectly good right-hand engine now the whole focus of the investigation shifts it's not a terrorist bomb or double engine failure that killed 47 people on flight zero nine two it's a catastrophic human error [Applause] this astonishing discovery rocks the aviation world how could such experienced pilots shut down the wrong engine on a brand new aircraft [Music] trimble knows that the plane is one of the new 737 400 series launched a year earlier [Music] first officer mcclelland has flown just 53 hours on the 400 series captain hunt even fewer only 23 hours could the pilot's unfamiliarity with some aspect of the new design have caused the fatal error to find out trimble must probe every twist and turn of events on flight 092 using the cockpit voice recordings he starts to analyze every decision the pilots took on the flight deck okay fully established 805 pm just under 20 minutes before the crash on the left engine a fan blade fractures the broken piece lodges inside the engine casing the damage to the fan blade throws the finely calibrated engine out of balance the engine now starts to shutter violently setting up a vibration that rocks the whole plane the fracture fatally damages the left-hand engine it's now just a matter of time before it fails altogether the flight crew feel the vibration and smell smoke escaping through the damaged engine seals into the air conditioning ducts they wrongly assume there's a fire in one of their two engines captain hunt asks which is the problem engine the cockpit voice recorder reveals the first act in a terrible chain of events first officer mcclelland starts to say left but then changes his mind no it's the right one eddie to find out why mcclellan hesitates and then gets it wrong he knows that the pilots can't physically see the engines they must rely on their instrument display to diagnose the problem the cockpit display on the new 400 series boasts led dials and screens in place of traditional mechanical instruments did hunter mcclelland have trouble interpreting its unfamiliar instrument display the new display has a meter to monitor unusual vibration on each engine these should allow the pilots to see at a glance which engine is in trouble the meters have always been a feature of the 737 cockpit display but on the 400 series they look very different [Music] on the new 737 the engine vibration meter has an led needle it swings around the outside of the dial instead of the inside as in earlier versions and it's only the size of a 20 pence piece trimble learns that hunter mcclelland went on a one-day course to learn about the new 400 series but he finds that neither of them received any simulator training on the engine instrument system or eis my other pilot had the opportunity to fly a simulator and learn how to interpret the eis of whether in normal operation or very important during abnormal operation [Music] the crew's unfamiliarity with the new plane means they lose their first opportunity to diagnose the problem correctly but it's still a mystery why they reach the conclusion that it's the right hand engine that's malfunctioning the cockpit voice recordings give trimble another clue when the pilots smell smoke from the damaged engine they know the only way it can reach the cockpit is by the air conditioning in captain hunt's experience the air conditioning on a 737 is powered by the right-hand engine he assumes that is where the smoke is coming from probably back but boeing has made another change to the latest 737 on the new planes the air conditioning is powered not just by the right engine but also by the left-hand engine 807 pm [Music] misled by the smoke the pilots missed their second chance to diagnose the left-hand engine as the problem now first officer mcclelland throttles back and shuts down the perfectly functioning right-hand engine [Music] everything seems to return to normal [Music] the heavy vibration and banging was stopped [Music] a relieved captain hunt even goes on the intercom to tell passengers what he's done the right engine down but hunt's mention of the right engine confuses many passengers student kieran dynan recalls seeing sparks and flames coming out of the engine on the left-hand side of the plane i thought it was strange why is he turned off the good engine was so so obvious this engine is all on fire [Music] but captain hunt and the first officer cannot physically see either of the two engines from the flight deck someone from the passenger cabin would have to tell him which engine is in trouble investigators want to know why kieran dynan and other worried passengers don't raise the alarm i remember thinking he still must know what he's doing because he's the professional trimble and his team conclude that this trust in the captain prevents anyone on board from raising the alarm but the investigators still face a big mystery [Music] why does the aircraft seem to return to normal function after the pilots turn off the wrong engine to solve this mystery eddie trimble and his engineering specialists delve deep into the workings of the 737s jet engines all 737s have an auto throttle a form of cruise control that maintains the desired airspeed by automatically sending the right amount of fuel to the engines to shut down the engine first officer mcclelland must disengage the auto throttle this returns the plane to full manual operation and allows him to start throttling back the engine trimble suspects that this routine step holds the key to the mystery he turns to the plane's black box to try to find out exactly what's going on inside the computer-controlled engines at the critical moment what trimble discovers about the behavior of the auto throttle explains why the plane appears to fly normally on a badly damaged engine it's a major breakthrough the investigation team can now unravel exactly what happened aboard flight 092 in the final fateful seconds from disaster 805 pm when the fan blade fractures on the left engine its fragments damage the engine severely causing a reduction in fan speed the auto throttle reacts by pumping more fuel to the stricken engine trying to maintain the fan speed this causes the damaged engine to shutter violently and throw out sparks these ignite surplus fuel causing the flames seen by the passengers [Music] 807 pm misled by the smoke coming through the air conditioning the crew misdiagnosed the problem engine captain hunt orders the fully functioning right-hand engine to be shut down okay throttle pay trouble first officer mcclelland disengages the auto throttle and instantly pulls back the thrust lever on the right engine the minute he does so the vibration stops and the smell of smoke disappears eddie trimble now knows why [Music] data from the black box reveals that when the pilots disconnect the auto throttle in order to shut down the right engine both engines return to manual throttle sensors inside the damaged left engine detect that it's spinning slower than normal which triggers a reduction in fuel flow with the fuel flow now at a level the engine can handle the vibration of flames disappear now the left engine appears to be functioning normally when in fact it's fatally damaged [Music] the crew naturally think they've shut down the correct engine what they don't realize is that it is disconnecting the auto throttle that solves the problem not as they believe closing down the right hand engine that particular effect of the euroform was the clincher which caused both pilots to believe that in retarding the right engine they had identified the engine which was malfunctioning a revelation to the investigators that the behavior of the 737s auto throttle might mislead pilots during an engine malfunction and investigators are about to discover our last terrible twist of fate snatches away the final chance to save flight zero nine two one they're only closing the localiser from the right eddie trimble has one piece of the puzzle still to fit why did the flight crew not notice that they'd shut down the wrong engine in the 20 minutes they had between the initial crisis and crashing [Music] trawling through every nuance in the cockpit voice recordings trimble finds a poignant moment [Music] 12 minutes and 15 seconds to disaster the plane seems to be back to normal but captain hunt's training tells him that after an in-flight crisis it's essential to review all decisions to make sure no mistakes were made what did we actually get we got vibration but just as he starts his review air traffic control interrupts him the surface wind is indicating westerly at five knots they clear captain hunt to descend to 1200 meters for landing in 12 minutes time he does not resume the review of events with his first officer had he continued he may have spotted his error but tragically the crew missed their last chance to prevent the crash four minutes and 40 seconds to go you can arm approach now the pilots increase throttle to the left engine to control their descent what they don't realize is this act will deal the engine its fatal blow increasing the fan speed throws more debris from the fractured fan blade deep into the engine [Music] it's now tearing itself apart and the runway is still 21 kilometers away [Music] one minute to go the engine loses all power it now catches fire [Music] has run out of time he's lost both engines in desperation he tries to restart the right-hand engine with a windmill start using the plane speed to spin up the engine blades it's not going get it out it's not going live but it's too late their air speed is too low hunt pulls the nose up to stretch the glide he keeps the aircraft in the air long enough to clear the village of cake with but captain hunt knows it's all over ten seconds from impact captain hunt makes his final announcements at 8 24 and 43 seconds british midland flight 092 crashes into the motorway embankment at kilometers per hour [Music] midland zero nine two this is east midlands raid algeria midland zero nine two this is east midlands raid raid midland zero nine two smithlands durade [Music] the plane comes to a stop just 900 meters from the airport runway but five months after the crash there's a final twist in the tail a shocking discovery that grounds more than 30 of boeing's brand new 737-400 aircraft worldwide june 1989 five months after the cake with crash two more boeing 737 400 series aircraft suffer identical fan blade fractures in flight in both cases the pilots read the signs correctly and land safely the civil aviation authority has tonight grounded all britain's boeing 737-400 aircraft aviation authorities around the world ground all planes with the same type of engine for urgent inspection cfm the engines manufacturer discovers a design fault in the fan blades running at maximum power above 7600 meters the low air density sets off a previously undetected vibration in the blades the resulting stress can lead to fractures it emerges that the engine was never tested in flight the 737 400 aircraft and its engines are an upgrade of the 300 series the engine was only bench tested in a laboratory a flight test was not mandatory if it had been the potentially catastrophic vibration effect on the blades might have been detected the engine manufacturer has to redesign the engine and refit 99 400 series aircraft [Music] aviation regulations now require manufacturers to flight test all new engines just over 18 months after the cake with air crash the air accident investigation board publishes its report it concludes that although the pilots made an error in shutting down the wrong engine there were mitigating factors the pilots had received no flight simulator training for the 737-400 series [Music] that meant the first time they faced an emergency it was for real [Music] the vibration meters weren't prominent enough and if a member of the cabin crew had alerted the captain to the flames coming from the left engine which he couldn't see from the cockpit the crash could have been averted but for the survivors the flight crew are heroes it was just very very sad that it was so so close to have made it and you know to have those two pilots put at such risk and to have worked so hard to have got so close it it's upsetting the lessons learned from the cake with crash have had a wider impact on aviation safety boeing redesigned cockpit displays for new aircraft making them easier to interpret [Music] simulator training is now mandatory if the design of an aircraft changes substantially [Music] and airline training around the world now emphasizes and encourages full communication between cabin and flight crews particularly during an in-flight emergency of the 126 passengers and crew on board 47 lost their lives for the survivors nothing can erase the memory of that dreadful night but they have rebuilt their lives chris thompson and nick stevenson both recovered from their injuries they're still in business together in northern ireland kieran dynan is now married with a young daughter you know he's still worried about things but i don't worry more i think all my bad luck came at once and nothing ever is going to happen again debbie griffith left the airline industry to train as a nurse you can't go through a plane crash without changing it's made me live for the moment i've always been fairly happy-go-lucky but i've never felt bitter i've never felt why me why not me i'm nothing special gareth jones's physical injuries on the nights were minor but the emotional scars are still with him you did feel dirty afterwards that you know why me why did i survive what had i done that was special i'm to a degree that loses me to this day i don't know why i i escaped apart from picking a lucky seat [Music] the boeing 737 is still the world's most popular aircraft today a 737 takes off somewhere in the world every five seconds its safety record is one of the best in aviation [Music] [Music] a new boeing 737 flying 126 people on a short hop from london to northern ireland it's one of the safest planes in the sky [Music] suddenly a series of explosive noises and severe vibrations rock the plane it crashes just meters from the safety of a runway 47 people die are they victims of a terrorist act or was this a freak accident now using advanced computer simulations we reveal what really went wrong on flight 092 disasters don't just happen they're a chain of critical events unravel the clues and count down those final seconds from disaster [Music] europe england london heathrow the world's busiest international airport january 8 1989 it's a sunday evening and many passengers are headed home after the christmas and new year holidays the airport is packed in terminal 1 passengers check in for british midland flight 092 to belfast northern ireland it's a regular hour-long commuter shuttle security is tight it's the height of the iras terrorist campaign against british targets the ira has killed 416 civilians in nearly 20 years of violence healthcare worker gareth jones started a new job in belfast three weeks ago [Music] security checks are a way of life if you lived in in northern ireland at the time you got quite used to security it was a period when there was heightened security there you look after things the ira isn't the only reason for he throws high security locker b scotland three weeks earlier a terrorist bomb blows a part of pan am 747 flying from heathrow to the us the explosion kills all 259 people on board and 11 more on the ground it's the worst ever terrorist attack on a u.s airliner the authorities suspect it's the work of an arab terrorist group today the passengers on flight 092 are in the hands of 43 year old captain kevin hunt he's one of british midlands most experienced pilots with 25 years flying under his belt air conditioning and pressurization attacks on flight flying with him 39 year old first officer david mcclellan tonight they're flying an aircraft just two months old it's one of boeing's new 737-400 series boeing launched the aircraft a year earlier in a blaze of publicity [Music] it boasts significant improvements over its predecessors its new cfm56 engines are the most powerful of their kind and the cockpit display features state-of-the-art technology including computerized tv screens and led dials which replace the traditional mechanical gauges 7 15 p.m booming carlsbad 118 passengers board the brand new plane and take their seats rick's release daniel i'll going to push without starting just two and one on push captain hunt starts up the two engines the 400 series aircraft is still new to him he's clocked just 23 hours first officer mcclelland has 53 hours in the main cabin gareth jones has a window seat over the wing in an emergency exit road excuse me a flight attendant asks garrett to read the safety card so that he knows how to open the overwing exit door [Music] normally he was pretty blase about it but it was pleasantly done and it would have been ill-mannered not too