Boeing | Point of Failure | 3
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It's two thousand and twelve six years before the lion air crash involving a boeing seven thirty seven max eight aircraft. And at boeing's research and development center in ciano, ray greg is about to step into a flight simulator. Prairie is the chief test pilot for bowler's new plane, and it's his job to make sure he will hold up in every scenario of pilot might find themselves in today.

He needs to investigate a problem engineers discovered when testing a scale model of the max aid in a winter. The engineers found that when executing a tight high speed turn, the plane tended to pitch sharply upwards and stall, which could result in a crash. So crag has come to find out of the same thing happens in the simulator.

Cragged steps inside and sits down at the captains chair. The seat and controls are nearly identical to what the actual cockpit of a seven thirty seven max eight will look like, but the windshield in front of them is a digital projection. And cinema quality speakers mimic what he'd hear inside a real plane.

Seated inside the simulator, cragg fires up the controlled, releases the parking break and then launches the plane down the runway. Once he's airborne, he throws the plane into a sharp turn, and sure enough, he feels the nose start to pull upwards. Craig tries to force IT back down, but as a armed blair, he loses control and the plane stalls.

As the simulation winds down, an engineer pops his head into the simulated cockup. See what I mean, right? You know you were right.

Got the same result. We haven't seen any other issues with our test. But when we go into these high speed turns, we only get the same problem.

Well, it's pretty unlikely that a commercial pilot would have to make a turn at that angle and speed. But IT is possible. They're not dealing with turbo insurance, some other kind of sudden event. And and if this is how the plane is responding, it's a concern when we all agree.

Why do you think it's happened? The position of the new engines, now that we mounted them in front of the wings instead of beneath, is changing the plane's erode yna ics, but we can't move them back and still meet the new fuel efficiency requirements. Bigger engines won't fit under the wings.

What could the error dynamics be improved some other way? This could be a serious flaw. We could redesign the wings or tail, but i'll see management, okay, a major design change at this stage under a lot of pressure that gets this built on time.

yeah. But at the end of the day, this is about safety. We need report this issue so the design team can figure something out. The engineer nods and turns to leave, and crag begins shutting down the simulate as alarming as the stall was. Craggs not really worry.

He knows that bordering executives have been added about keeping the max aid on schedule and under budget, but he also knows that boy has a long history of prioritizing safety above all else. In the end, crack trust. They'll do the right thing, make sure the matter is as safe and reliable as every other boeing in the year.

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From wondering islands' gram and this american scanner.

For decades, boeing ing was viewed as one of the most trustworthy and reliable companies in the world. Time and again, company leaders chose priorities, safety over profits and those choices earned in the loyalty of both airlines and pilots. But bowlings culture started to change in one thousand nine and ninety seven when they merged with rival airplane manufactures, mcDonald's glas.

The new leadership team soon prioritize stock Price over everything else. So when two thousand and ten, when boling's european rival airbus announced production of a new aircraft that directly threaten bowings best selling plane, the seven thirty seven going executives knew they had to respond quickly. Soon the company was at work on a redesign, seven thirty seven, that had to meet two specific requirements.

The new plane needed to be more fuel efficient, and pilots needed to be able to fly without any additional training. But to meet both of these goals quickly and cheaply, compromises had to be made, and some of those compromises would have unforseen consequences. This is episode three point of failure.

It's two thousand twelve. Outside seattle, washington, chief test pilot ray crag is sitting in a conference room at the seven thirty seven design headquarters watching as a team of engineers funds in and takes her seat at a long table as he wait for the meeting to begin. Crypt looks up at the giant countdown clock above him, methodically ticking down to the max atee first flight.

Buying managers installed o'clock to make sure nobody forgets that finishing this plane on schedule is top priority. That's why the mood in the room feel so tense right now. Crag and several seven, thirty seven engineers have been called in today to figure out what to do about the max ates pitch problem.

And when the lead engineer kicks off the meeting, he says that they all know why they're here. The wind tunnel and simulator test have revealed a problem with the max. In certain situations, the nose of the plane will pitch up too deeply, causing the max to store.

The reason why this is happening is because of where the new bigger engines have been placed in front of the wings rather than under them. But they can't move the engines. They need to come up with another solution.

An engineer at the end of the table raises his hand and suggests they focus on redesigning the tail. Other engineers chain with more thoughts and suggestions. But after some discussion, they all agree that a new tail would be the best way to fix the issue.

Crag gLance is over at the bowing manager seated in the back, and they don't look pleased. Redesigning the tail at this stage would be an expensive change, and IT would definitely put the plane behind schedule. So one of the managers asks if the engineers are sure they've exhausted all possible options.

And for a moment the engineers sit quietly, unsure how to respond. But then one pipes up saying there's a piece of software that might be able to help. This software was developed for one of bowling wing's military plans.

IT takes readings from the planes angle of a tax sensors and the excel omer, which measures g forces on the plane. If those sensors indicate the nose is pitching up too much, the software moves the horse zonal stabilizer at the back of the plane to push the those back down. It's called the maneuvering characteristic augmentation system, or m cas.

After some discussion, the group of engineers agrees that m CS could work and installing software would certainly be cheaper and quicker than redesigning the tail. A crag inter jex saying he wanted on record that as a pilot, he prefers a hardware fix to a software one. He rather fly a plane that ero dynamically sound, not one that's dependent on some lines of computer code.

Everyone in the room notice objection. But the engineers point out that the m. cas. Software were only activate during high speed maneuvers, generating a lot of g forces.

For commercial pilots, such maneuvers would be extremely rare, what's known in industry jargon as outside the Normal flight on bela. And at that point, most pilots would probably appreciate or even need an automated system that could help prevent a stall. So with the manager's approvals, the engineers agree on installing m.

Cast in the seven, thirty seven max age, craig leaves a room with mixed feelings. It's not the choice he would have made, but IT does fit with kind of company boeing is now. Plus he reminds himself that m. Cas relies on two sets of censors, the accelerated ter hand, the angle of attacks centers, both of which have to indicate this plane is pitching up too high before the system would activate. So as long as that redundancy is built in and cash should Operate safely, that is, if the faa approves IT.

Installing m cast on the seven thirty seven max may be the cheapest and simple as solution to the plane's pitching problem, but since the software has never been installed on a seven thirty seven before, it's possible that the federal aviation administration will consider IT a new feature. And for boeing, that would be a disaster. The F A, A might Mandate simulator training for pilots, and boeing has explicitly promised its airline customers that the max will not require any additional training.

In fact, because pilot training is so expensive that one of the main selling points of the plane, boeing has been so about about this point that if training is needed, they've promised to pay their biggest customer, southwest airlines, one million dollars per plane, ordered to cover the cost. But redesigning the tail, one of the only other ways to fix the pitch problem, is itself expensive and risky. So boeing executives decide to move forward with a software fix, knowing that when the time comes, theyll need to convince the F A A that m.

Cas is a tweak, not an entirely new feature, but not long after boeing decides to install them cast on its new seven thirty seven, they face another problem that could bring increased regulator's scrutiny. On january seven, two thousand and thirteen, one of bowings newest planes at seven eighty seven dreamliner catches on fire at boston slogan airport. The plane is empty at the time, and firefighters quickly put out the flames, but the incident makes headlines.

Investigators determined that the fire was caused by an overheating lithium iron battery in the planes of ziller power. You it's a kind of discovery that could prove to be a major setback for the dreamliner, which is only recently entered service. So boeing CEO jm mic nerney calls the head of the F, A, A, Michael hara to discuss the issue soon after the F A holds a press conference assuring the public that the dream liner is safe.

But just one week later, boeing CEO mcnerney gets more bad new the evening of january fifth, two thousand and thirteen, and he had his home in an affluent chicago suburb preparing to cook dinner. When his phone starts fine rating, make ney answers. And a boeing official says he sorry to bother math this hour, but they're getting reports of another dream line or fire.

This one happened on an all upon airline flight traveling from a socket to tokyo while I was in the air. Big ney is horrified and asks if everyone's okay and is relieved to learn that thankful the pilot diverted to the nearest airport, and all passengers and crew were able to evacuate safely. But IT does appear that the problem is another blithering iron battery fire.

The pilot reported seeing a warning light about the battery and the copt right before they started smelling smoke. Mckernan passes his kitchen, wondering how bowling should respond, but then he gets even worse news. Both japan airways and all the pon have grounded all of their new seven eighty seven dream liners.

Learning takes a deep breath. Knowing that this would tank boeing stock shifting to damage control mode, he asks to set up another call with Michael head, the head of the fa. magney. Ney needs where ta to understand that there's no reason to think that this is a systemic issue. IT could be just two flukes in a row, and I would be unwise to do something as rh as grounding the entire fleet, especially since the F, A, A has never grounded a boeing plane before. The next morning, when jim mcnerney gets on the phone with Michael weta, he's relieved to hear that tweet agrees with him.

This kind of battery fire is rare, and the seven eighty seven should keep flying, but on january seventeen, s two thousand and thirteen, only two days after the all upon on airline es fire, the transportation secretary overrules where his decision and orders the F, A, A to ground all dream liners. Immediately, when mick nerney calls to complain, the transportation secretary doesn't budge, he tells mcnealy that he won't let the dream liner fly again until boeing can guarantee that the problem has been fixed. Mcny a furious, but there's nothing he can do.

And while boeing works on fixing problematic batteries, the national transportation safety board launches an investigation to figure out how the batteries made IT through the plane to begin with, they soon discover that an F, A, A engineer had actually flag the batteries as a potential fire hazard litham ii. On batteries, ies are known to overheat, sometimes to the point of bursting into flames. So the engineers suggested building an enclosure around the battery that would vent heat out side of the plane and reduce the risk of fire.

The national transportation safety board then wonders why the F A A didn't require boeing to make this change to the design. And they discover that just as the culture at boeing had been shifting over the past several years, so had the culture at the faa founded in one thousand nine hundred and fifty eight. The federal aviation administration has always had conflicting roles.

On one hand, its job is to ensure safety, but on the other, it's supposed to help the aviation industry grow. For decades, the F, A, A baLanced these roles, but starting in the nineteen nineties, changes were made that seemed to favor their role as industry advocate rather than industry watchdog. In one thousand nine hundred ninety six, congress passed a law that tied F, A, A employee compensation to performance metrics, including how efficiently or quickly they moved playing through the certification process.

This was part of a wave of legislation without the eighties and nineties aimed at minimizing the role of the federal government in favor private business and commerce. And in two thousand five, another law was enacted. They gave the airlines and manufacturers more authority to regulate themselves.

Airplane makers always had deputies embedded within the F. A, A to help government engineers understand the plane's designs. But after two thousand five, those deputies were granted more power.

So when the fa engineer flag that there might be a battery issue in the dreamliner, his concern was sent to one of boing's deputies at the faa. That deputy decided that the risk of fire was small enough. That boy didn't need to change the design.

And that was the end of IT. But now, after the national transportation safety board concludes their investigation, they decide to issue two stations, want to boeing for fAiling to adequately test the battery, and want to the F, A, A for not properly supervising the company. After the ntsb report comes out, congress then holds a series of hearings to determine if the F A, A needs to be reformed.

Ultimately, nothing happens, but boeing executives start to worry that in the wake of the dreamliner scandal, the faa might be inclined to take a closer look at the seven thirty seven max eight. Still, the company sticks with its decision to downplay the maxim new m cas software. They decide to present m cast as a tweet to the existing electronic control system and nothing more.

Their hope is the F A A won't ask too many questions. But after installing the new software, engineers working on the max ates started to see some problems with m. And in two thousand and fourteen, one Young employee named artis uba decides he can't keep quite about IT.

You bank is in his late twenty years, and he's only been a boeing for a few years. But he's a true, ironically, nerd at heart. In college, he worked on a rocket that set a record for reaching the highest altitude ever by a student built device.

So when he sees a potential canasta phil problem with how m cast works, he trusts his gun and ask for a meeting with his manager. On the day of the scheduled meeting, you ban feels a slight buzz of nerves. IT seems like raising concerns is not something boeing engineers are being encouraged to do anymore.

But you bank thinks this issue is important enough to break company norms. He knocks on the office door in this manager. Consume hey, curtis, come on in heavy.

Thanks and thanks for agreeing. Meet with me. Yeah, no problem.

What's on your mind? Well, i've been thinking a lot about m cas. I have some concerns. What kind of concerns that just worries me that it's so reliant on the angle of attack sensors. I mean, they're so vulnerable, easily damage. What happens if a broken angle, the tax cents or causes them cast to kick in when the plane isn't stalling? Well, there is a way to turn IT off.

Yeah, but but shouldn't we have a beauty in backup system to avoid the air in the first place? Well, i'm sure that necessary m cases designed the kicking only if the excell onder also registered the right level of g force IT won't happen just based on the angle of attack data, but more redundancy is always Better than less, right, generally speaking. Yeah, well, I was thinking maybe we could load the max with the same synthetic air speeds software that's on the dream.

I mean, its whole function is compare values from several sensor, and if one is out of align, nate, the rest I deactivate that sensor. Well, you you, that's not a bad idea. But we don't even know if synthetic airs p would work on the max, I mean, the dream line or has sensors.

The max just doesn't what we could test IT, make adjustments if needed. But at what caused, I mean, really all that additional work could put this uber budget and behind schedule to mention that might require pilot training. These are all things we need to avoid.

So it's worth looking into this. And I mean, we can look, I don't think you understand the way things are around here. Someone's gone to have to die before going changes. New bank is done to the science.

He knew that boeing had become increasingly cost conscious and that safety was not the priority was, but he's never heard IT laid out in such stark terms reform for the first time. You bank now truly believes that boy is gambling with passenger lives american scandal sponsored by dell technologies who invite you to shot their black friday event for their lowest Prices of the year. The future is on sale today with limited time deals on select pcs like the X P, S sixteen that accelerate I with intel core ultra processors.

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At the beginning of two thousand and fifteen, many engineers at boeing are feeling disillusion. They believe that their concerns of a rush production timelines and quick fix solutions like damn cas are being ignored by the company's stocked, Price obsessed leadership.

So when CEO jm make nerney announced that he's planning to retire and he's handing over the rains to denis mullion's g, the engineers get a glimmer of hope that the company's culture, my change millburg is an engineer himself who work his way up under boiling old guard and seems well position to return the company to its roots. But when mellinger g officially takes over a CEO, he continues the cost cutting practices of his predecessors. In mEllen, berg's first year in charge, boeing cuts its workforce by seven percent, including jobs on the flight crew Operations team, which looks for flaws in the way pilot to fly the planes.

Meanwhile, work progresses on the seven thirty seven max, and for mark forker er, that means shepherding the new plane through the faa certificate tion process. Fortner is part of boeing flight technical and safety team, the division that rides the manuals for new planes. Before coming to boeing, he served as a pilot in the air force, and that mission oriented spirit is still strong with him right now.

His mission is clear. He needs the ava to sign off on the new plane without requiring additional training for its pilots. The person in charge of fa certification is static client. She's also an experience ed pilot, but he doesn't have an extensive engineering background and fork tener in the technical team decide they'll use that to their advantage.

So when can visits boeing systems integration lab in seattle in may of two thousand and fifteen forker in his team, bring her into a conference room for a presentation? A screen at the front of the room is showing a powerpoint on the flight mechanics of the max, one of fork kern colleagues, poors client and glass of water. And as he slides IT in front of her, fortune hears him remind client the boy wants to make sure that no additional simulator training is needed for pilots.

He also says any pilot who flew the last iteration of the seven thirty seven should be able to fly the max after just a few hours orientation on an ipad. Cline nods SHE understands bowings call, but says he wants to make the best decision for the safety of the passengers. Then once everyone settled, one of the engineers moved to the front of the room and tells cine that the team wants to lead her through the data.

The lights go down, the screen illuminates. And then one after another, the engineer stand up and talk her through their charts and sentences crame. So full of jargon that even foreign isn't quite sure what they're saying.

So he sneaks a look at call, the image that comes to his mind as of a dog watching T. V. She's staring at each graph.

The engineers present to her with intense concentration. But fortuna doesn't think he understands much, which is exactly how they planned IT. When the demonstration is over, forker walks client to the exit and ask her if he knows which way she's leaning.

Yet klein refused to answer and says he needs to take time to evaluate all the information. But if this meeting isn't enough to confuse into a submission, forker knows there are many more to come, and bowen can bury her in data. In january two thousand and sixteen, the seven thirty seven max eight makes its first official test flying.

It's a huge milestone in the development of a plane, and IT goes off without a hitch. But there are still many chAllenges ahead over the next several months, a team of test pilots pushed the plane to its limits. They take IT through tight turns, steep percent, and try to create stalls in the back of the plane.

Engineers said hunch over computer screens that displayed data about the plane's performance. Theirs surrounded by barrels of water, which are empty or field, and shifted around the cabin between each test flight to represent the way to passengers. The pilots and engineers also test the m cas software, and IT works as expected, forcing the planes knowed down to prevent stalls at high speeds.

But about a month into testing, they discover a problem the max ates knows also has a tendency to pitch up at low speed, including during takeoff. So now, instead of having an issue that occurs only in rare situations, the max age has an issue that could occur every time IT gets in the air. What's worse, m cats was specifically designed not to activate at low speeds.

So during take off, IT won't do anything to help prevent installed. Boeing knows the F A, A will never certify a plane with a problem of this magnitude. They also know that at this late stage, updating the design would mean months, if not years, of delays.

So again, IT falls to boeing engineers to figure out a solution that will keep the plane on schedule and under budget working quickly in march two thousand and sixteen. These decide that the easier solution is to expand the scenario when m cast can kick in. Now, instead of activating only in high speed situations, m cats will also activate at low speed to prevent the plane from stalling during takeoff.

But the change has an unintended because the accelerator only measures g forces at high speeds. Its reading is not used to activate the m cast at low speeds. In these scenario, m cats will activate off the angle of attack sensors alone following these adjustments, bowing and lists its test pilots to figure out how m cast response to bad data from bult sensors, knowing that angle of attack sensors are prone to damage.

One of these test pilots is craig bombing. He is a graduate of the navy famous top gun program and used to fly experiments air craft for NASA. So when he climbs into a simulator with another pilot in the spring of two thousand and sixteen, bombing is as prepared for a system failure as any pilot could be.

Bomb and check's instruments and turns to his copilot. Let's confirm toy's simulation is to test a runaway stabilizer scenario caused by failure or loss of both hanger of tax sensors, a bad and cast activation. Yeah, that's my understanding.

And you're ready. I'm ready. Let's take up through their assistance later. Windsor, a video screen shows the ground receding, penneast them.

And after a few seconds, m cast kicks in, pushing the nose down. Bomb and grips of controlling. Okay, here we got, we have accumulated.

This is strong. My first instance is to pull up on control. Mom pulls back on the control calm, but the nose keeps staring down. Okay, this bad boy is really fighting him. Look at the trim wheel is spinning like crazy.

Definitely a runaway stabilizer come out, switches a firma copilot reaches down and flips two switches on the center council, turning off the electronic trim system as soon as he does m caste, activites and bomb, and is able to bring the nose of the plane back up. And there we are, back in control. How long did that take us? Well, from the time we identify the problem four seconds, it's not too bad, not bad at all, and it's all following standard procedure yeah but that's if they recognize what the problem is.

Real question is what happens when they don't recognize that? Well, this we run and find out the copilot switches the electronic trim system back on and bomb and pulls back on the controls, taking the simulator into another club. Once again, m cast activites, but this time the copilot does not reach for the cut outs, which is on, and yanks back on the controls, with all his mind still losing out to you.

How much long? Six seconds, five, four, three. M cash should switch off automatically after ten seconds to prevent the plane from going into an unstoppable dive.

And right on you IT turns off. That was not fun, but, you know, it's workable. But then just seconds later, bomb and feels the nose of the plane dipping down again.

Some of m classes firing and know I hit this, which the copilot does, as is told in the simulator levels often yet. Bomb and shakes IT two faulty angle of the tax sensors and the looks like m caa just gonna ep. Firing to the pilot switches over the menu.

That's not right, no. But any pilot worth resolve should recognize what's happening. Go through the procedure for a runaway stabilize, certainly before m cause fires the second time after shutting IT down bombing in his copilot, step out of the simulator and head off right up their findings.

And by june from the reports of bombing another test pilot. Engineers working on the max aid are aware that a faulty recurring m cast activations are a potential problem. Still, they remain convinced that is nothing.

The average seven thirty seven pilot can handle. One engineer even writes in an email. I don't think this is a safety issue older than the pilot could fight the m cast input and over time find themselves in a large mystery.

No one seems to acknowledge that during takeoff, when a plane is at a relatively low altitude, a large Miriam good result in a catastrophe crash. American scandal is sponsored by uncommon goods. Spark something uncommon.

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In the summer of two thousand and sixteen, boeing appears to be on track to release the seven thirty seven max eight on schedule. In August, the plane completes the last of its safety tests, including nearly three hundred certification flights. The same month the F.

A, A approves billings training plan. Pilots who flew the previous generation of seven thirty can fly the max after just a few hours of training on an ipad. No costly time and flight simulators will be required for mark fortner and his colleagues in the flight technical and safety department.

This training approval is a massive coup. In a text conversation with one of his friends, fortino brags that he jedi mind trick the faa into giving boeing the training requirements IT wanted. But fortin's tune changes when, just a few months later, he learns that m.

cas. Is now also activating at low speeds. No one at bowering had told him about the change now working, or wonders about the system safety and worries that he unknowingly lie to the F A, A.

Since he told them that m cast only fires at high speeds. But ultimately foreign er remained silent about his concerns when he represented IT from line air contacts foreign r to request mac simulator training for their pilots. Forker even goes out of his way to convince them that such training is unnecessary.

In an email to a colleague, he dismisses line air, calling them idiots. And in july two thousand and seventeen, four months after the F, A, A officially certified, the max a, lian air becomes the first airline in the world to put the new planes into services. And just over a year later, by october of two thousand eighteen, they have eleven max ates Operating in their fleet.

But on october twenty eighth, something goes wrong with one of those planes. That night, after flying a plane from bali to jacta, the lion air captain finds a maintenance worker and tells him that something very odd happened on the flight. The captain says that the takeoff started Normally, but after a few seconds, his control colum started shaking and several alarm started blaring in the cock pit.

At first, the captain thought they had a flight control problem, but when he looked over at his copilot, he noticed that his control column was not shaking. The captain knew that meant there was some kind of sensor failure on his side of the plane, so he transferred control of the plane to the copilot, and at first that seemed to work, but then without warning, the plane suddenly a lurch downward and happened so fast. And with such force, the captain heard passengers screaming in the back.

The copy tried to bring the plane up, but IT was as if he goes to take in the controls over and over. The plane pushed itself down, while the copy IT struggled to bring the nose back up. The captain look through the max ates quick reference handbook, trying to find a checklist for what to do in this situation.

But with all the alarms blaring in the plane, bucking in mid air, I was nearly impossible to read. Hearing this story, the maintenance worker leans forward and asks the captain how in the world they were able to correct. IT captain says, unfortunately, there was a third pilot in the copy who happened to be hitching a ride in the jump seat.

He noticed that the trim wheel was turning like crazy and suggested that the captain cut the electronic trim he did. And suddenly the plane stopped pitching down. Everything went back to Normal.

The rest of the trip was unevenly, but the captain is still on edge. He's never felt anything like that in a plane before. The captain then hands over his flight log and asked the mechani C2Check the pla ne sen sors and ele ctronic tri m sys tem to try and fig ure out wha t hap pened.

The mechanic assures him that he will. But that night, as the maintenance crew reveals the cattle s long book, for some reason, the only issue IT mentions is that three warning lights had gone off. There is no written record of the extreme runaway trim, nor any mention of the captain theory about a failed sensor on the left side of the plane.

It's unknown if the captain thought that verbally telling the maintenance worker would suffice as an official report, or if he did produce a written report that somehow got lost or destroyed. Logs do show that the crew back in bali, where the plane originated, had replaced the left angle of attack answer earlier in the day, but the captain didn't report any warnings coming from that sensor, so the maintenance crew in jacta didn't check IT. Instead, they ran basic tests, cleared the logs and followed the procedures to check the warning lights.

The captain did report. The crew decides there's no reason to hold the plane, so they they power IT down for the night. And then the following morning, october twenty nine, two thousand and eight, the plane is ready for flight from java to punk that morning, while the sky is still dark.

Flight six tenth, captain bob I sun aga, eats breakfast with his wife. He promises to call her when he lands as part of their usual routine and then kisses her goods. Ye, captain sun aga and his first officer harvy round of you at the airport and begin their preflight checklist, just as his son is starting to come up.

Scenario checks the plane maintenance flogs and seize that three warning lights came on during the prior flight. But he's not concerned because he sees that all three were cleared by the mainland crew. Then at six twenty A M, sun ager eases the plane down the runway.

He pulls back on the control column and the plane lives off, but only a minute after the plane is in the air, his control colum begins to vibrate in his hands, alarm, go off, warning of disagreement in the sensors, reading altitude and speed. Zena's copilot harvy looks at him with concern, you want me to take over my size is not shaking. No, get on the radio.

Ask for a holding altitude so we can figure out what's gone on. R, vo picks up the radio. This is L N I six one zero, second in command, requesting approval for holding altitude.

What's the problem? We have a flight control problem. Watch the intended altitude. Five thousand. L N I six one zero, you are a clear for five thousand.

Eight teenager takes a plane higher and continues to follow standard takeoff procedure, or right, or at twenty one fifty feet, retract wing fly copy, retracting wing flaps. But suddenly the plane lunches down sharply soon ago, pulls back on the control. Come the hall, the plane back up.

What was that? We just drop seven hundred review, I don't know, extend the wing flies copy wing flaps, extended plane comes down, and sun ager resumes his ascent towards five thousand feet. But just when he feels he has a moment to think, a new warning, life flashes to life overspeed warning.

We're going too fast for this attitude, retracting willam copy, retracting wing flaps and hang on, I don't know if we're going to plunge again once those flats retracted. My last time arvo hits the switch that retracts the wing class and the plane immediately punches down. But this time scenario is ready for IT.

He hits a thun, switched on his control column, which manually controlled the stabilizers are responsible for pitching the plane's nose over down. And he pulls on his controls, fighting to keep the plane steady. Okay, think we got to figured out.

But then the plane lunches again, what is going on? Why do we keep losing altitude? Go through the checklist. We need to figure out how to turn this off.

Arvo grabs a hampole and start flipping through IT, trying to find anything that might explain what's happening while he does, this plane continues to plunge down. Teenager does his best to fight IT, but it's like the plane has a mind of its own over and over. The nose pitches down, takes all of teenagers strength to pull back up.

Have you found anything still looking? L N I six one zero this year traffic control rar shows your decending R V O grants radio. This is L N I six one zero second in command.

We have a flight control problem. We are flying the plane manually. L N I six one zero transfering you to arrival control for return to the airport.

A second aircraft controller comes on and direct the pilots to head for a clear runway, but snaggy is still fighting the plane. IT lunches again. So nager pulls back as hard as he can.

He's sweating his arms thing. Have you found? What do I do? I'm still looking. You fly. I'll look.

Teenager transfers control with the plane, harvin, and almost immediately the plane plunges again, I know, hit his thumb switches and restless at back to level. But now that soon asia isn't totally focused on keeping the plane from diving. He has time to survey his instruments, what he sees, alarms.

And this is L N I six one zero pilot in command. We have no accurate readings of altitude. All instruments are in disagreement.

We need the altitude blocked three thousand feet above and below us for traffic avoidance. And I six one zero receive blocking altitude three thousand and beautiful and low zenza goes back to the checklist. But in the copilot, vino struggles to control the plane as IT dies down steeper.

And now on I six one zero, this is A T. C. Do you read? But harvin, o and sonja don't respond, but too busy trying to control the plane won't come back up.

I'll take over scenario halls back on the control column as hard as he can put. Its too late. The momentum of the plane cannot be fought.

Low altitude alarms begin to blair, and through the windows teenager can see the ocean directly ahead, barreling toward them. They're flying almost straight down, and there's nothing he can do to stop IT. The last thing capp in boba suitor here is, is his copilot repeating a muslim prayer, then that five hundred miles per hour is bowing.

Seven, thirty seven, max, eight crashes into the indian ocean. From wondering, this is episode three of boat for american skin. In our next episode, journalists, politicians and family members of victims ban together to hold boeing account. If you're enjoying american scandal, you can unlock exclusive seasons on wander plus binge new seasons first and listen completely and free when you join wondering plus in the wondering APP apple podcast or specify and before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a survey and wander dot com slash survey.

If you like to learn more about boeing and the seven thirty seven magazine, we recommend the book flying blind by Peter robson, and the article what really brought down the boeing seven thirty seven max by William langer wisha, published by the new york times magazine. This episode takes reenactments and dramatized details. And while in most cases we can't know exactly what percent all our dramatizations are, based on historical research, american scandal is hosted, edited and executed ced by me, linsey grand for air ship audio editing by Christian baroni, sound designed by gavial gool music violence I ground. This episode is written by australia, edited by amazon, fact checking by elisa junk purry produced by john re, managing producer Olivia, senior producer andy. Her development by steffy gents executive producers are gentler, back man, martial, lewi and arena flaring from wondering.

This is a story that begins with a dying wish. One thing I would like you to do, my mother's last request, that my sister and I ve finished writing the memoir. She's started about her german childhood when her father designed a secret super weapon for adolf hitler. My grandfather, Robert lesser, had IT the nazi project to build the world's first cruise missile, which terrorized millions and left the legacy that dogged my mother.

Like a curse SHE some create.

I'm suzann rio joined my sister and me as we searched for the truth behind our grandfather's work and for the first time, fed the ghost .

of our past. Please listen .

to the man who calculated death exclusively with wondering plus. Join wondering plus in the wondering APP apple podcast or spotify.