It's 1993 and the new Russia is gearing up for the new age with a fleet of Airbus A-310s, very sophisticated. The pilots are a specialized group too, carefully trained. One flight takes off from Moscow. It will fly on an untroubled night across Siberia and then south to land at Hong Kong. Of the three pilots aboard, one has brought some of his family who fly at a discount. It's the kids' first trip abroad and they pay him a surprise visit in the cockpit. The airplane is flying safely on autopilot and Dad lets his daughter sit in the pilot's seat and make a gentle bank, and then his fifteen-year-old son, just as I've done with my kid in an empty parking lot.
The son, Eldar, has only been in the seat for four minutes when the airplane rolls into a 45 degree bank and pins everyone to his seat. The crew and passengers are subject to G forces that barely allow movement. Eldar can't climb out of the seat and his father is desperately giving him orders and trying to reach the control panel with one hand. The airplane goes into a precipitous dive towards the Siberian earth. For a moment, normal G forces prevail and the pilot is able to regain his seat. He and the first officer are wrestling the aircraft successfully when they run out of air space. There are no survivors. The usual overflight for family members is arranged by Aeroflot. The Russians and Brits drop flowers out of the helicopters. The Chinese drop colorful strips of paper with messages written on them. There's nothing "good" about a disaster like this but it's heartening, even if only momentarily, to see the way it draws survivors and families together in doing what Freud called grief work.
The team of investigators is large and determined. The Airbus A-310 is one of the most modern airplanes flying. Is there something wrong with it? Was there a terrorist bomb aboard? What exactly happened? The cockpit voice recorder tells the team that Eldar was in the pilot's seat and allowed to turn the airplane a little bit to the left. In 1993 it wasn't unusual for family members or selected other passengers to visit the cockpit. Now -- since 9/11 -- the rules are far more strict and most cockpit doors are kept locked. But of course every event outside of a physics lab is multi-determined. Eldar, turning the airplane slightly, held the controls in the same position. After 30 seconds the autopilot disengages from the ailerons that control banking without any alarm being sounded. Eldar has flung the airplane into a steep bank and the airplane begins to lose altitude rapidly.
The autopilot, still engaged with the other flight controls, tries desperately to correct the situation but it results in nothing but violent gyrations. The pilots fought the autopilot all the way to the ground, but in fact all they needed to do was let go of the controls and the airplane's safety mechanism would have prevented a stall and brought it back to level flight.
The remains were mostly unidentifiable so all the bodies were cremated and buried in a hero's cemetery that also contains the bodies of the firefighters who died at Chernobyl. The usual corrective measures were deployed. This is an exemplary documentary, both dramatic and informative.
The son, Eldar, has only been in the seat for four minutes when the airplane rolls into a 45 degree bank and pins everyone to his seat. The crew and passengers are subject to G forces that barely allow movement. Eldar can't climb out of the seat and his father is desperately giving him orders and trying to reach the control panel with one hand. The airplane goes into a precipitous dive towards the Siberian earth. For a moment, normal G forces prevail and the pilot is able to regain his seat. He and the first officer are wrestling the aircraft successfully when they run out of air space. There are no survivors. The usual overflight for family members is arranged by Aeroflot. The Russians and Brits drop flowers out of the helicopters. The Chinese drop colorful strips of paper with messages written on them. There's nothing "good" about a disaster like this but it's heartening, even if only momentarily, to see the way it draws survivors and families together in doing what Freud called grief work.
The team of investigators is large and determined. The Airbus A-310 is one of the most modern airplanes flying. Is there something wrong with it? Was there a terrorist bomb aboard? What exactly happened? The cockpit voice recorder tells the team that Eldar was in the pilot's seat and allowed to turn the airplane a little bit to the left. In 1993 it wasn't unusual for family members or selected other passengers to visit the cockpit. Now -- since 9/11 -- the rules are far more strict and most cockpit doors are kept locked. But of course every event outside of a physics lab is multi-determined. Eldar, turning the airplane slightly, held the controls in the same position. After 30 seconds the autopilot disengages from the ailerons that control banking without any alarm being sounded. Eldar has flung the airplane into a steep bank and the airplane begins to lose altitude rapidly.
The autopilot, still engaged with the other flight controls, tries desperately to correct the situation but it results in nothing but violent gyrations. The pilots fought the autopilot all the way to the ground, but in fact all they needed to do was let go of the controls and the airplane's safety mechanism would have prevented a stall and brought it back to level flight.
The remains were mostly unidentifiable so all the bodies were cremated and buried in a hero's cemetery that also contains the bodies of the firefighters who died at Chernobyl. The usual corrective measures were deployed. This is an exemplary documentary, both dramatic and informative.
