this video is sponsored by Incogn More on them later It's just another quiet morning in the city of Batam Indonesia Yet as large metal pieces begin falling from the sky crushing rooftops its residents quickly learned that something is a miss Only a few thousand ft above the world's largest passenger aircraft carrying over 400 passengers is experiencing a dire emergency One of the engines has exploded and the damage has crippled critical systems leaving the remaining engines struggling to keep the giant aircraft in the air Pan pan pan quantis 32 engine failure number two engine maintaining 7,400 ft Maintaining current heading Standby for instructions The crew needs to return and land But as more warning messages pop up indicating a potential fuel leak and flight control issues the stakes are higher than ever Return right away and they risk losing control of the aircraft before landing Stay up in the air to test the aircraft systems and ensure full functionality and they may lose too much fuel to safely make it back A tiny defect caused a chain reaction Now over 400 lives depend on what happens next This is the story of Quantis Flight 32 It's the morning of November 4th 2010 A Quantis Airbus A380 operating as flight 32 is taxiing for departure at Singapore's Changi International Airport Singapore is a scheduled routine stopover for this flagship Quantis route originating in London The aircraft is carrying a total of 440 passengers with 24 cabin crew members and a five pilot crew in the flight deck with Captain Richard Champion Drespini at the helm Captain Drespini is a former military pilot with a total of over 15,000 hours of flight time He is joined by first officer Matt Hicks with 11,000 hours of flight time and second officer Mark Johnson who has accumulated a total of 8,000 hours of flight time The role of a second officer on this flight is to act as a relief pilot during cruise allowing one of the other two pilots to leave the flight deck and take a rest Although these flights are typically operated by just three pilots today Captain Drespini is being monitored and evaluated as part of an annual route check a standard procedure at Quantis His check captain Harry Wubin with a total of 20,000 hours of flight time is undergoing training for this role Therefore he is also being monitored by a supervising check captain David Evans who has accumulated over 17,000 hours With a combined total of more than 70,000 flight hours and years of experience it is safe to say that this veteran flight crew is very skilled and knowledgeable They are well suited to take on the many challenges associated with operating the largest passenger airliner in the world for an airline that has not had a fatal accident since the 1950s But are they prepared to handle what is going to happen next and to keep an impeccable safety [Music] record at 9:56 a.m local time flight 32 lifts off from Changi's runway 20 center Loaded up with enough fuel for the 7 and 1/2 journey back to Australia and 469 people on board the aircraft begins its steady climb to cruise altitude Hello This is a final notice about your unpaid flight to Australia Press one to avoid cancellation Oh come on Please stop calling me I'm in the middle of a new AI video You know what this happens way too often and it's not random These scammers robocalls spam emails they have your data because your information is being collected bought and sold by data brokers all over the internet That's why I use today's sponsor Incogn It's a tool that finds and removes your personal data from data broker databases automatically Using Incogn is super simple You create an account give permission and they contact the data brokers on your behalf to get your data removed They even handle the back and forth if brokers push back And they don't just do it once Incogn keeps monitoring and removing your data again and again so it stays offline So if you're tired of mystery calls sketchy emails or just want to keep your personal info actually personal check out Incogn Click the link in the description or go to incogn.com/air investigation and use my code to get 60% off an annual plan There's a 30-day money back guarantee so it's completely risk-f free to try Now back to the video Nothing in the cockpit is an indication that things are about to turn for the worst But only 5 minutes after takeoff as the airplane is climbing through 7,000 ft the flight crew hears two loud bangs coming from the left side Right after the Airbus yors to the left suggesting that one of the engines has likely failed a warning message appears on the electronic centralized aircraft monitoring system or ECAM indicating that the turbine inside engine number two has overheated The captain decides to level off the aircraft and assess the situation As he programs the autopilot to maintain 7,400 ft and 250 knots of air speed he notices that the auto throttle system is not working Just another sign of trouble and an additional hurdle to worry about Once confident that the aircraft is controllable and stable the captain asks the first officer to start addressing the ECAM warnings The ECAM checklist for an overheating turbine directs the pilot to move the thrust lever for engine number two to idle and monitor it for 30 seconds The crew follows the instruction and decides to transmit a pan pan message to air traffic control and inform them of the situation while they wait for 30 seconds Pan pan pan Quantis 32 engine failure number two engine maintaining 7,400 ft maintaining current heading Stand by for instructions Different from a Mayday call that signals an emergency and the need to land immediately a pan pan call is used to inform air traffic control that an urgency exists And although assistance may be required the situation is not dire at the moment The captain ends the call with a standby for instructions message A request to not disturb the flight crew so that they can focus on dealing with the aircraft first It's a great example of the classic aviate navigate communicate mantra taught to every pilot early on in their training Moments later another ECAM message appears indicating a fire in engine number two Within 3 seconds the alert goes away Considering the overheated turbine message and fearing that a fire may be developing the pilots decide to shut down the engine and discharge fire extinguisher bottles installed inside the engine As they try discharging the first bottle twice they get no result Confused they try discharging the second fire extinguisher bottle After multiple attempts the crew has no confirmation that either of the fire extinguisher bottles has been discharged After a quick discussion they decide to continue following the procedure for an in-flight engine shutdown and begin transferring the fuel from engine number two A quick look at the engine indicators shows that engine number two has failed Engines one and four are running in a degraded mode and engine number three is running in an alternate mode The alternate and the degraded modes indicate that the onboard computers have stopped receiving one or multiple parameters from the engine Although the engines are still producing power they have to be managed by the pilots manually as the onboard automatic systems cannot control the engines anymore In the cabin the passengers and the flight attendants seated on the left side of the aircraft can see that the wing has been damaged and fuel is pouring out of the fuel tank One passenger notices a small fire inside the wing Anxiety and fear begin to spread around the cabin as everyone prepares for the worst outcome To get an update and share their observations the customer service manager and other flight attendants are trying to call the flight crew using the emergency intercom function Despite their attempts cabin crew members get no response from the flight deck The pilots are completely overwhelmed by a continuous inflow of ECAM messages concerning other aircraft systems and do not notice the call from the cabin One after another ECAM alerts pop up showing that the flight controls fuel electrical braking and hydraulic systems have also been affected in one way or another Overall out of 22 total systems on the aircraft 21 are malfunctioning A pilot's worst nightmare come true It is becoming obvious to the captain that the situation has grown beyond the simple engine failure scenario practiced in airline pilot training A more serious situation is at hand Still not sure what exactly has happened the crew must choose whether to land immediately or address the many critical failures first It is the first of several important decisions that will have to be made during this flight Attempting a landing in the battered aircraft may prove to be disastrous if the flight controls are severely affected while staying up in the air with an active fuel leak creates a risk of an engine out landing It is a tough spot to be in as a captain After spending some time on an internal discussion the crew makes a determination that they have full control of the aircraft and sufficient fuel to remain airborne while they work through dozens of ECAM messages and run the appropriate checklists The captain makes a public announcement using the aircraft's intercom system to give the passengers an update on the situation and to let them know of their intentions to troubleshoot the failures Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking As you may be aware we've uh experienced an issue with one of our engines shortly after departure I want to assure you that the aircraft is stable and we have full control We're currently working through a number of checklists with our team and we have sufficient fuel and systems to remain airborne while we assess everything thoroughly At this stage there's no immediate cause for concern and we'll keep you updated as we go We appreciate your patience and calm Thank you The first officer advises air traffic control of their decision and requests directions for holding near the airport ATC instructs flight 32 to fly a 20 nautical mile long racetrack holding pattern just east of Changi Airport Furthermore they inform the crew that aircraft parts and pieces have been found on the ground Several fragments of the turbine disc flew over Batam Indonesia landing on residential buildings and city streets It was only by pure luck that nobody on the ground got hurt As the news about aircraft pieces falling from the sky quickly spreads around the world there is still no confirmation from official source With so little information available it is rumored that a Quantis super jumbo jet has crashed over Indonesia Before we discuss further actions of the crew and the outcome of the accident it is a good time to cover what caused engine number two to fail as well as the extent of the failure Something that the crew can only guess but has no full understanding of at this point Due to a misalignment within the machinery at the engine manufacturing plant an oil feed stub pipe a pipe designed to transfer oil inside the engine was drilled unevenly making it much thinner on one side Over time a fatigue crack started to develop on the thinner side of the pipe until it grew big enough to let out a significant amount of oil inside the hot engine Due to the high operating temperature within the engine the oil spraying out of the oil feed pipe quickly ignited and caused an internal explosion which was strong enough to break apart one of the turbine discs Rotating at an extremely high speed the fragments of the disc broke through the engine casing puncturing the wing and the fuel tank near engine number two and cutting through the wiring laid out inside the wing One of the hot fragments broke through the wing fuel tank and ignited the fuel vapors causing a small fire inside the tank The damage to the wiring caused the loss of monitoring of the fluid level system pressure and reservoir air pressure of the green hydraulic system forcing the crew to shut it down following the ECAM checklists As a result some aircraft controls were no longer operational These included all wing slats outboard ailerons on both sides some landing gear brakes and approximately 1/2 of wing spoilers Although the crew also had to shut down half of the pumps powering the second hydraulic system it remained fully operational and aircraft flaps elevators and rudders were still working properly Having entered the holding pattern east of Singapore the flight crew begins the process of troubleshooting the failures and evaluating the condition of the aircraft For the next hour the pilots go through over 100 checklists that had been cued in the ECAM since the failure addressing one fault after another In the meantime the second officer leaves the flight deck to visually assess the damage to the wing One of the passengers a fellow Quantis pilot shows the second officer a live feed from the tail-mounted camera available to all passengers via the in-flight entertainment system The camera shows a large streak of fuel exiting the left wing confirming the crew's suspicion of a fuel leak As he approaches the middle section of the cabin to look outside the second officer notices several holes in the left wing Passengers seated nearby become even more concerned as they see the pilot's surprised and worried expression Astonished he returns to the flight deck to describe the extent of the damage to the rest of the flight crew Needless to say the aircraft is in a less than ideal shape and the success of the recovery will depend on the crew's cooperation Hence it is crucial for the captain that all members of his crew share an accurate mental model In other words a clear understanding of their situation and the environment To accomplish the unattainable he decides to invert the logic an idea he learned from NASA's Apollo 13 mission Instead of trying to understand what doesn't work the crew will focus on identifying what works Through their review of the aircraft system displays the flight crew learned that eight out of 11 fuel tanks of the aircraft were unusable Furthermore at least half of the fuel pumps became inoperable including the fuel jettison pumps which could allow the aircraft to release some of the fuel reducing the aircraft's total weight and bringing it below the maximum landing weight Although most of the fuel is now unusable the crew determines that they have at least 2.5 hours of fuel available in the tanks to which they still have access With the fuel problem out of the way the next item on the agenda is the controllability of the aircraft Although the crew is able to maintain level flight at this moment the wing has been damaged and the condition of the control surfaces is questionable By having to shut down the green hydraulic system and thus rendering some of the control surfaces on the wing inoperable the crew is now facing a 65% reduction in roll control or the ability to bank from side to side Control malfunctions are a possibility for which military pilots train in case their aircraft gets hit by a missile or experiences a mid-air collision Relying on his air force background Captain Drespini decides to conduct a control check of the aircraft Before a landing attempt can be made it is crucial for him to understand how the aircraft will handle at lower speeds and with the landing gear and flaps extended If there are difficulties and complications it is much better to learn about them at an altitude where there is room for recovery rather than on final approach Moving the side stick side to side in different flap configurations the captain monitors the deflection of the control surfaces using the onboard monitors to ensure they respond properly Satisfied with the results the crew can finally start preparing for an attempt to land the damaged airliner To prepare for the landing the flight crew must calculate the speed at which the aircraft will fly the approach and determine the minimum runway distance required The calculations are performed using the onboard computer system After some initial difficulties the senior check captain is finally able to calculate the landing performance and the required landing distance His projections show that in its current condition the heavy aircraft will require nearly the entire 4,000 m of runway 20 center with only 130 m or 400 ft left to spare Understanding that the landing will have to be very precise with little room for error the flight crew informs ATC that they are ready to land and requests a long approach Per the request of the flight crew by giving out specific heading instructions ATC vectors the aircraft to fly further north before turning the flight around and setting it up for a 20-m long final approach for runway 20 center While a typical final approach begins around 10 mi from the runway having the extra 10 mi of distance gives the crew additional time to configure the aircraft for the approach The extra time is especially important in this case as the aircraft will be in an abnormal landing configuration A fuel leak in the left wing has led to a fuel imbalance between the wing tanks meaning that the aircraft is heavier on one side Due to the damage to the hydraulic system the leading edge slats cannot be extended and the wing flaps will only be extended to flaps three and not the full setting As the aircraft turns onto the final approach course the crew uses the alternative landing gear extension method to release the landing gear from the up position and extend it by means of gravity The aircraft is now ready for landing and the flight crew gives the flight attendants a command to prepare for the arrival Still having control of three engines the captain sets symmetrical thrust for the outboard engines number one and four while only using engine number three for speed control Only the inboard engines on the A380 have thrust reverses Hence engine 3 is also the only engine on this aircraft with a working reverse thrust that can be used to help in slowing down after landing At 800 ft the autopilot is disconnected and the captain continues to handfly the approach as the aircraft descends toward the runway at 1,400 ft per minute close to double the maximum vertical speed for which the landing gear is certified The captain is presented with yet another difficult decision If he gradually reduces the rate of descent before touching down on the runway the aircraft may float above the runway for too long thus limiting the length of the runway available for the roll out after touchdown Touching down too firmly on the other hand creates the risk of breaking the landing gear puncturing the wings and sliding down the runway while generating sparks near the leaking fuel a recipe for disaster Adding to the series of unconventional practices that Captain Drespini had to utilize while handling this accident he decides to quickly push the control stick all the way forward just before the wheels touch the ground Although it may seem contrary to what a pilot should be doing in the flare this action rotates the aircraft around its center of gravity lifts the main landing gear and creates an additional cushion of air that slows the aircraft's rate of descent and holds it up in the air for an additional second minimizing the impact on the landing gear Finally at 11:46 Contest Flight 32 touches down on Singapore's runway 20 center the runway from which it took off a mere 2 hours ago Deploying only half of the speed brakes installed and with only one working thrust reverser the captain applies maximum braking in the hopes that he can slow the overweight giant before the runway ends Anticipating an emergency landing the airport management has blocked the perimeter road outside the airport to avoid any casualties on the ground in case of a runway overrun Although this action is helpful in minimizing injuries and potential deaths the biggest concern is the fate of 469 people inside the A380 that continues to roll down the runway with the other end coming in very fast Despite the reduction in braking and engine reverse capabilities the Super Jumbo comes to a complete stop roughly 150 m or just under 500 ft from the end of runway 20 center It is a testament to the precision and the skill with which the captain handled the aircraft Once the aircraft came to rest all passengers breathed out a sigh of relief and gave a loud round of applause In the flight deck however the situation is still tense as the flight crew shuts down the remaining three engines They notice on the onboard information display that the temperature of the left landing gear brakes is over 900° C and rising With the fuel still actively pouring out of the left wing tank there is a growing risk of a fire and an explosion To prevent disaster the flight crew contacts emergency services already on standby and requests firefighting foam to cover the fuel leak and landing gear The fire brigade responds with a request to shut down engine number one In confusion the crew verifies that all engine switches have been turned to the off position Yet once the captain looks out the window to his left he notices that engine one is still running Attempting other emergency shutdown procedures has no impact and the engine continues operating It appears as though the engine and its wiring have been entirely disconnected from the rest of the aircraft Knowing that the fire crew has covered the fuel leak with foam and poured water over the brakes to cool them down the captain assesses that the risk of explosion is reduced and there is no need for evacuation Shortly thereafter passengers begin disembarking using the airs provided by the airport While the passengers vacate the aircraft the flight crew continues making attempts to shut down the last working engine including pulling circuit breakers to cut off electrical supply to various aircraft systems and reconfiguring the fuel system in an attempt to stop the supply of fuel to the engine Nothing proves to be a success and the ultimate decision is made to drown the engine in foam and water by continuously spraying it into the engine More than 3 hours after landing at 2:53 p.m the last running engine on Flight 32 is finally shut down Crisis averted Following the events of Flight 32 Quantis grounded the entire A380 fleet for close to 3 weeks until the cause of the uncontained engine failure was identified Fearing that other aircraft may have been affected Rolls-Royce the engine manufacturer instructed all operators to inspect engine turbines for evidence of oil leaks before the next flight was completed Furthermore a long-term solution proposed by Rolls-Royce included a software update with the addition of an intermediate pressure turbine overspeed protection system designed to monitor the speed of the turbine disc and shut down the engine before the critical speed is reached The story of Quantis Flight 32 is a demonstration of how even small errors in the design and manufacturing process can snowball into devastating results Captain Drespee's quick decision-making and extensive knowledge base were instrumental in addressing the issues as they came In one of the postac interviews he rightfully stated that we must commit to a lifetime of learning a solid piece of advice that is applicable within and beyond the aviation industry Thanks to Incogn for sponsoring the video Don't forget to click the link in the description to get an amazing discount