Seconds from IMPACT! United Airlines flight 1722

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Thank you for the explanation. I was a passenger on the flight and we were never given any. The only thing the pilot did was come on the PA and remark that we just experienced 2.7 g's. As a Physics teacher it was great to experience that force. I also had my students do some calculations and we found that we were just under or at 2 seconds from hitting the water. Our numbers could have been a bit off since we did not know the exact angle. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone. The pilot kept us alive and for that I am grateful.

“First officer weather” for the walk around. I’m sure 74Gear couldn’t agree more

In my flight sim, flying a Kodiak (don't remember which one) I have twice looked away at my kid messing around with a hot stove, almost crashed twice with a vertical speed of 996 At my work unloading lorries I have looked away at my boss trying to show me paperwork and once almost destroyed a pallet with goods worth about 230K Euros At home I have been distracted while handling electrical tools and almost cut my left hands fingers Walking across the street when I was younger I have not seen a bus fast approaching who thankfully stamped on the brakes while I at the last moment ran out to the curb My lesson is always keep your attention in one place and do not start with demanding tasks while not having finished less demanding tasks Never underestimate this, it can cost you dearly. Very nice incident report otherwise, it is so valuable when you guys teach people through such videos. Top presentation as usual!

It's good that he emphasizes how rapidly the situation deteriorated. I get the impression sometimes from viewers who watch these air crash investigation-type videos that they're critical of how "long" it took for the crews to react to a developing emergency, when really these things often happen in a matter of seconds. Just because the video/documentary is taking the time to detail every (mis)step leading up to the crash, doesn't mean that's how long it took in real time.

Relieved that an incident like this was (a) reported (b) investigated and (c) learned from. It's a sign of a healthy safety culture and responsible crew. Safety advances should be written in blood pressure spikes, not in lost blood.

I guess the question I have is this: why don’t commercial pilots do what submariners do? Captain: “Flaps 5”; FO: “Flaps 15”; Captain: “Negative, flaps 5”; FO: “Flaps 5”. I’ve watched several videos of mishaps where one of the pilots misheard, assumed, or wondered silently why the other was doing or asking for something but either did it anyway or said nothing. This feels like something avoidable, no?

I'm not a pilot but I watch this series of videos every chance I get. My personal interest is in accident analysis and understanding how errors happen. These lessons learned have application in many, many areas of our lives. Thank you, Petter, for an outstanding line-up of informative videos. Cheers from British Columbia, Canada.

Hi guys, I'm flying as a 777 captain in Seoul, Korea. Personally, I would like to commend the United Airlines captain for his appropriate response. Because all of us with flying experience know that any pilot can find himself in an unexpected situation. If that situation was not what the captain had intended, I think the captain handled it well in a situation that could not have been expected. As you all know, the B777 engine is powerful enough, so if you are in manual flight, you must use appropriate trim during acceleration. Otherwise, it shows a powerful tendency to pitch up with increased speed. However, the video shows that the situation got worse due to the pitch-down during the climb. Due to the sudden increase in speed, the Nose Up Pressure would have been felt very strongly. Afterwards, as it reaches the acceleration altitude, the climb power decreases and flaps up and out of the wind shear area, causing a sudden increase in speed. It appears to have changed to Pitch Down. It is believed that the captain, who had to scan many things simultaneously, such as adverse weather, ATC, flap instructions, and instrument monitors like speed significant change, lost situational awareness for just a few seconds due to the suddenly increased workload. The unintentional nose-down occurred, probably because of the down-trim the captain set a few seconds ago to protect the pitch up high with significant speed increases. It is believed that the nose-down occurred in an instant. As a fellow pilot, I respect the captain who completed the flight safely without panicking in such a situation and without losing focus on the mission. If a pilot flew safely until the end, he accomplished his mission and could review any mistakes later on the ground.

Friday upload we struck lucky today

Would closed loop communication have avoided this? Cap: "Flaps 5" FO: 'Flaps 15 selected" Cap: "No flaps 5" FO: "Oh, selecting flaps 5 now. Flaps 5."

I've been in a plane taking off in a storm. I could tell that the crew set the speed for full throttle and held it that way until they got above the turbulence. I felt the plane get bumped pretty good, but I'm guessing since the plane was pointed slightly upward to climb and had the throttle cranked up the plane handled it very well. I was grateful the pilot decided to handle it this way. I know it puts a little more wear on the engines and uses more fuel, but it's rare I feel comfortable landing or taking off near a storm, and because I could tell what the pilot was doing I didn't worry about those downdrafts pushing the nose down and I never felt that happen. And yes it was nice getting above that storm quickly and then I hear the engines spin down a little and there was then clear sky and a nice smooth ride. So thank you to the pilots that handle that situation this way.

I'm an electrical engineer for medical technology in Germany and I love investigating a fault on a critical machine (human lives affected), why it did happen, how it did and what can be done to fix and avoid the fault/malfunction. Watching your detailed and fascinating videos makes me overthink my job career and rather become an aircraft engineer. :D Thank you so much for your amazing work Petter! You are really making impacts on people in many different ways. :)

I'm a Hawaiian Airlines pilot (captain).. and with regard to the other incident mentioned, I can say without any doubt that the pilot of the A330 that same day did everything he was supposed to but encountered that severe turbulence completely by surprise .. there was no indication of any convective weather on the radar nor visually just prior to the incident.

Really appreciate your thoughtful and detailed approach to these incidents. Speculation was rampant before the final report came out including stuff like "the captain was an overbearing jerk that spent the whole time berating the FO instead of paying attention", thank you for clearing this all up. After watching all these videos I've found myself not jumping so quickly to finger-pointing blame game conclusions and asking myself "but why?" and "what could have led up to this?" more often in my every day life. Thanks for another great episode!

Man if only everybody had such a rational logical approach to situations instead of just pointing the finger immediately. You sir are a gem.

I flew that day on a 717 from ITO to HNL. I've flown dozens of times between the islands as I'm born and raised here. As such, I've never flown through a storm like that and it was the 1st time I was scared to be in am airplane. The turbulence was next level but it's a good thing that the 717 is built like a tank! I have a bunch of lightning vids from this flight that I'll upload one day. Literally, lightning on all sides of the plane, and you could see how towering the clouds were with each flash. Had to been 30 to 40 thousand feet high.

Sometimes it just feels scary how quickly a situation can escalate making your position very bad. To be honest when I saw the 10 degree pitch-down at thirteen hundred feet I was expecting your saying "unfortunately it was too late". Other than that, great video and can't wait for next week's. It's always a great excitement when I get the notification! Love from a 14 yo Greek hoping to become a pilot some day.

Can't wait for the Hawaiian flight video. Love the precision and factuality of your videos. I don't think anyone does it better

As a materials and mechanical engineer who has had a only "few" aerospace projects, I am overly impressed with goosebumps the level of detail you go to. To a level that I can promise you actual aerospace engineers that designed the airplane would probably have to re-read and re-study the fundamentals to even come to know all the kinetic dynamics going on, and for you to explain it in the way you do......my wannabe captain's hats off to you Captain Mentour :D impressive. thorough. insightful. technically proficient. wow