Air Disasters (2022) Season 17 Episode 3: Stealth Bomber Down
Air Disasters (2022) Season 17 Episode 3: Stealth Bomber Down
Discover the cause of history's most expensive aviation accident: the 2008 crash of the B-2 bomber Spirit of Kansas.
#documentary #historical
Discover the cause of history's most expensive aviation accident: the 2008 crash of the B-2 bomber Spirit of Kansas.
#documentary #historical
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00One of the world's most sophisticated warplanes speeds down the runway at Guam.
00:11Their mission that day was to return home.
00:16But the takeoff ends in disaster.
00:20A billion-dollar stealth bomber goes up in flames.
00:25We want to know what the heck just happened.
00:29The entire fleet is grounded.
00:32This could be the end of the B-2 bomber program.
00:36Plane goes full nose up.
00:39Investigators analyze the flight second by second.
00:42What about this?
00:43And discover a hidden vulnerability in the B-2's electronic armor.
00:48There's no way a pilot would understand the system well enough to realize what could happen.
00:54What is going on?
00:58Mayday, mayday, mayday.
01:02Oh, fuck.
01:05Airplane 1-0-2, I have a yard. Thank you, I'm on my side.
01:08Airplane 2-0-5, thank you.
01:28You're good to go, sir. Thank you.
01:31Major Ryan Link and Captain Justin Greave are ending a four-month deployment in Guam.
01:39Better?
01:41Yeah, it looks good.
01:44Okay, let's head home then.
01:46Copy that.
01:49Anderson Air Force Base is both a training facility
01:52and a launching point for U.S. military operations in the Western Pacific.
02:02Generator 1 is on.
02:05Engines ground idle, 25% confirmed.
02:09Pre-flight checklist is complete.
02:13Their mission that day was to return home.
02:17Our time was up in Guam,
02:19and they were beginning a 16-hour of continuous flight
02:24back to Nobnasta, Missouri, Whiteman Air Force Base, which was our home base.
02:30They're one of two crews returning home today in a unique warplane,
02:35the B-2 Bomber.
02:38It was a flying wing design and really a marvel of engineering.
02:45The Air Force ended up spending $44 billion to develop
02:50and then field the fleet of B-2 Bombers.
02:57Developed in the 1980s during the Cold War,
03:01the stealth bomber was designed to defeat Soviet radar.
03:06There are only 21 of them in existence.
03:10It can sneak in with much less chance of being detected
03:15either by enemy surface-to-air missile defenses or enemy fighters.
03:25Tower, Death 5, startup is complete. You can activate our flight plan.
03:31Refueling number 1 will be at ARCP Charlie at 0735 Zulu.
03:36We're expecting to unload 51,000 pounds.
03:39Control point Charlie, copy.
03:44Today, the 7,000-mile journey home from Guam
03:47will require the crew to refuel near the Hawaiian Islands
03:51and then over California before reaching Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
04:00Major Link is a qualified instructor on the B-2.
04:05Captain Greaves, an experienced pilot
04:07with more than 2,500 hours of military flying experience.
04:13They are among only 300 pilots qualified to fly the B-2.
04:19The aviators in the B-2 at that time were the absolute best of the best.
04:23They were hand-picked. They were vetted extensively.
04:27They were truly an elite group of aviators.
04:34Greaves and Link are second in line to take off.
04:39The plane they're flying is named Spirit of Kansas.
04:45Every B-2 bomber is named after an individual state,
04:49except for two. There's a Spirit of America and a Spirit of Kitty Hawk.
04:55That's six plus one. Clear for takeoff.
04:58Maintain 5,000.
05:02Pitot heat is on.
05:07Clear right. Good to line up.
05:11The pilots must carefully maneuver the massive 168-ton bomber to the foot of the runway
05:17to ensure they don't put any dents in the B-2's shell.
05:21We try to taxi slowly because you're a low-observable platform.
05:26So, obviously, if you were to scrape the airplane,
05:29you'd degrade the capability of the warfighting machine.
05:38That's 5. Go channel 5.
05:40That's 5. Copy. Channel 5.
05:44That's 5. Channel 5.
05:46That's 5. Copy. Channel 5.
05:50That's 5. Check 5.
05:57Our lead is airborne. We go in 60.
06:00On this flight, Captain Greave is the mission commander.
06:05What's different is the captain, like you would think the aircraft commander,
06:10is actually in the right seat. We call him a mission commander.
06:13And the pilot is in the left seat.
06:17Thrust MCT.
06:24Good cues.
06:31The very first time I flew the B-2, I felt like I was a bird.
06:34It was so smooth.
06:37You just slightly touch the flight controls and she does what you want.
06:44100 knots.
06:57What was that?
06:59FCS caution.
07:01Stop or go?
07:03Go. Warning rescinded.
07:06And the B-2.
07:08Go. Warning rescinded.
07:12In the B-2, there's two different kinds of caution lights.
07:15The red one and a yellow one.
07:17In this case, it was yellow, which is just precautionary.
07:20A red caution light, you probably abort the takeoff.
07:24145. Rotate.
07:27Spirit of Kansas lifts off the runway at Guam.
07:33Almost immediately, the massive bomber pitches up dramatically.
07:39Next thing they know, they're going straight up.
07:42The momentum of that maneuver up caused their pilots to experience about 1.6 Gs.
07:50The aircraft's no longer doing what it's supposed to be doing.
07:54Full power.
07:58The B-2 isn't gaining altitude.
08:01It's still only 80 feet off the ground and losing speed.
08:06Make believe you're in your automobile right now.
08:09You turn left, but the car turns right.
08:13What is going on?
08:15That's not the way it's supposed to work.
08:17That's the scenario these pilots were in.
08:20The pilots now feel their airplane shaking violently.
08:25And realize it's on the verge of stalling.
08:28From my 15 years of flying the B-2,
08:30the only time I felt the B-2 shake is in the simulator.
08:34That's the only scenario where you will feel that shake.
08:37You never feel it otherwise.
08:41The plane's left wing drops.
08:45Grieve knows the plane is heading to the ground.
08:49There's only one thing he can do to save his and Major Link's lives.
08:55They are trained to have that gut feel of when to pull the ejection handle.
09:01And don't forget, the Air Force wants these pilots to eject and save themselves.
09:06There is no shame in ejecting ever, even from a billion-dollar bomber.
09:12Grieve doesn't have time to think about his decision.
09:17The B-2's left wing is now scraping the ground.
09:23We gotta get out.
09:25Explosives tear a hole in the fuselage above the cockpit.
09:28And rockets eject the pilots from the aircraft.
09:34The stealth bomber hits the ground and bursts into flames.
09:42Alert one, alert one. Runway six, Romeo. Runway six, Romeo.
09:50I'm stunned. The B-2 has gone through 19 years and three wars without a crash.
09:55This is unheard of.
09:56One of the world's most advanced warplanes has been incinerated during a routine takeoff.
10:03The whole world is left wondering what went wrong.
10:13For two straight days, firefighters at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam battle the flaming wreckage of a B-2 bomber, Spirit of Kansas.
10:23With a price tag of more than a billion dollars, this is the most expensive aviation accident of all time.
10:31The crash at Guam did shake us to the core in that we want to know what the heck just happened.
10:39Operations of the entire B-2 fleet are suspended even before an investigation is launched.
10:46It's bad to have to stand down the B-2 flying operations.
10:50On the other hand, they have no choice.
10:53They have no idea what's gone wrong inside that B-2, and they have to find out before they risk any more B-2s in flight.
11:04The U.S. Air Force appoints the well-respected General Floyd Carpenter to lead the investigation.
11:12Because of the high-profile nature of this accident, I think they expect a lot of media interest.
11:17And so as a senior Brigadier General, I was picked, I think, to get the airplanes back operational and cleared to fly again.
11:25You're never going to believe this.
11:28Investigators watched the accident unfold on security video.
11:34Great to have the video, and we were able to glean a lot of information from it.
11:38Video of the takeoff shows that as the plane lifted off, it pitched nose high.
11:45Your first reaction when you see that airplane pitch up is like, what are they doing?
11:51The plane then drifts left before the left wing scrapes the ground.
11:57Left wing falls off and hits the ground.
12:00And through that whole thing, you're thinking, where is the crew?
12:03First time you see it, you probably don't realize the crew actually ejects.
12:08Can you take it back for me, please?
12:17Stop.
12:20That's the pilots.
12:22One and two.
12:26The video shows the pilots ejecting the plane.
12:30The video shows the pilots ejecting just as the plane hits the ground.
12:36Both pilots have been taken to the hospital for evaluation.
12:41Justin Grieve has suffered a serious back injury from the forces of the ejection.
12:49It was a waiting process for us and gathering all the other information while we waited to talk to them and hear their side of what really happened.
12:59Investigators study the mechanical and computer systems that control the jet.
13:04Perfect. What about the actuator?
13:08We had so much of the aircraft already available. Actuators, engines, all those things are what you're really looking for in this type of accident.
13:16They quickly determined that all of the plane's flight control surfaces were functioning on takeoff.
13:21Pretty quickly, we were able to rule out the fact that the engines were not a problem, the hydraulics weren't a problem, the flight controls were not a problem.
13:30Pull these from the video.
13:36Up. Up. Up.
13:41It's a beautiful, sunny morning. Why does a bomber pitch its nose up and crash in a fireball on the runway at Guam?
13:48Is this a weight and balance issue?
13:49Is this a weight and balance issue?
13:53In any deployment like that, it's not uncommon to load aircraft with spare parts or other equipment that you might want to get home and not wait to ship home.
14:02Some classified material going back to Whiteman, personal belongings, gear.
14:09So center gravity became a big issue for us. Could it have been that?
14:15Not enough to disrupt their balance, sir.
14:20The B-2 is capable of carrying 40,000 pounds of weaponry.
14:26But Spirit of Kansas wasn't carrying any bombs or other heavy cargo that could have shifted on takeoff.
14:34We found out that there really wasn't a lot of equipment. There were no munitions being carried.
14:39So everything was in balance as it should have been. And so center gravity was ruled out pretty quick.
14:45Investigators look more closely at the takeoff rules of both B-2s on the day of the accident.
14:52For clues as to why Spirit of Kansas couldn't get airborne like the plane just ahead of it, Spirit of South Carolina.
15:01Okay, pause it right here.
15:06Okay.
15:07Okay.
15:09So South Carolina lifts off just past that taxiway.
15:15Right about here.
15:18Because we did have video, we were able to look at the takeoff roll of the lead aircraft compared to the second aircraft.
15:27And stop.
15:31Okay, our guys lift off just past that.
15:35That runway light, which is this guy right here.
15:42Look at that.
15:44We found out that Spirit of Kansas took off 1,500 feet shorter than its lead aircraft.
15:51What is going on?
15:53Again, video helped us understand that takeoff roll was shorter, but didn't understand why.
16:06The investigators turn to data from the bomber's flight recorder for answers.
16:13The plane is still on the ground, 546 feet above sea level.
16:19Now it's 682.
16:22So the altitude is off by 136 feet.
16:27Now, sir, there is no way he got up to that altitude.
16:31136 feet.
16:33Now, sir, there is no way he got up to 145 knots using only this much runway.
16:40Agreed.
16:42Something happened to cause this airplane to pitch up.
16:45But so far we've ruled out all the easy stuff.
16:47And so now we start looking into other situations that could have caused the aircraft to do what it did.
16:53Now here, sir, the nose is lifting off the ground.
16:57But the plane registers a pitch down of minus 8 degrees.
17:02Now, obviously, this plane is not pitching down.
17:07But the computer thinks it is.
17:09That is why it tried to lift the nose higher and higher and higher.
17:12Until it stalled.
17:15Once we got the performance parameters of the aircraft, and we were able to determine that the airplane thought that it was negative 8 degrees angle of attack,
17:23then you start going back to say, why did it think that?
17:28The heart of the B-2 bomber is its sophisticated onboard computer, known as its flight control system, or FCS.
17:37Without it, it would be impossible for pilots to make all the calculations necessary to keep the unusual aircraft flying.
17:46You don't have a tail. Think about that.
17:50You don't have any kind of vertical empennage.
17:53It's just a big flying wing.
17:55Accurate data is crucial.
17:58On a B-2, pilots tell the computer what they want the plane to do.
18:03And the computer determines how to accomplish that.
18:06The flight computers move the surfaces of this airplane in a way that's not intuitive to any pilot of any other aircraft.
18:18Simply put, it'd be nearly impossible to fly this airplane safely without flight computers.
18:28So, airspeed, climb angle, and altitude are all off.
18:37How does that happen on this plane?
18:40Investigators need to determine why the stealth bomber was getting faulty data.
18:47Let's see what the pilots can tell us.
18:51We weren't looking to blame them or, you know, point the finger at them.
18:56But there were tough questions to ask.
19:05Three weeks after the accident, the pilots of Spirit were on their way to the airport.
19:10The pilots in the airport of Kansas agree to be interviewed by investigators.
19:20OK, Captain. How about we take it from the top?
19:27We started up at 9.15. A few minutes later, Major Link saw the calibration message during startup.
19:34The pilots tell investigators that they received an unusual computer message shortly after startup.
19:40Never seen that.
19:42Me neither.
19:46Hey, Chief, we're seeing an Air Data Cal message. Can you send someone up here to clear that up?
19:52Air Data Cal stands for Air Data Calibration.
19:56In the simplest terms, the Air Data Calibration gives the aircraft its orientation to the universe.
20:05There are 24 sensors flush-mounted near the nose of the B-2 that constantly measure air pressure.
20:12The plane's computer uses those readings to calculate altitude, airspeed, and angle of attack.
20:17All 24 systems have memory in them, and they're measuring themselves against all the others.
20:22And so if they get out of balance, if one is reading too low or too high, it calls for an Air Data Calibration.
20:28And the pilots see that.
20:30When that occurs, they call out maintenance.
20:36OK. Let's see what we can do to clear this for you.
20:40Can you put it in maintenance mode for me?
20:48That's good.
20:55You're good to go, sir.
20:58So they have these 24 sensors. They make sure that all the sensors are working properly.
21:03You're good to go, sir.
21:06So they have these 24 sensors. They make sure they're communicating correctly.
21:10And if they do, they let it go forward.
21:15Keto heat is on.
21:18Less than an hour later.
21:20Clear right. Good to line up.
21:22The pilots maneuver the massive bomber to the start of the runway.
21:29OK. Go on.
21:32Everything was 100% routine until we hit 100 knots.
21:35That's when we got the FCS Master Caution.
21:38You got a Master Caution while you were still on the ground?
21:42Yes, sir. Just a flicker.
21:48100 knots.
21:58Before I could even push the button, it rescinded itself.
22:01What was that?
22:03FCS Caution.
22:05After 100 knots to our decision rotate speed, we will abort for safety of flight items.
22:11We define safety of flight as we are unable to control this airplane or there's something on the runway you're going to hit.
22:20Stop or go?
22:21Go.
22:22Warning rescinded.
22:25In that scenario, if I was the pilot in command, I would continue.
22:28Why? It's not safety of flight.
22:31145. Rotate.
22:34When we hit 145, I called for Major Link to rotate.
22:39Then it all very quickly went to hell.
22:43They lift off.
22:45The flight control computer senses a problem, so it pitches up.
22:50Pilots try to go nose down.
22:53Full power.
22:54They go max power, but the airplane is trying to stall them.
22:59Major Link was trying to push it back down, but it wasn't working.
23:02He wasn't having any effect on the plane.
23:04We were basically just along for the ride.
23:09Then the left wing just drops.
23:12And I know we're done.
23:14We gotta get out.
23:15Then I pulled the handles.
23:17If the airplane did not perform as advertised,
23:20it was time for them to get out and give the aircraft back to the taxpayers.
23:25Thank you for your time today, Captain.
23:28Thank you, sir.
23:30They were extremely forthcoming in their testimony.
23:34They survived it, but they had no understanding of what happened either.
23:39They didn't know what was going on.
23:41They survived it, but they had no understanding of what happened either.
23:49Investigators need to know more about the calibration that Greave reported in his testimony.
23:55It's not part of the plane's regular startup procedure.
24:01If a sensor provides a reading that differs significantly from the others,
24:05a recalibration is done that tells the wayward sensors how much they're off
24:10in order to bring them back into agreement with the others.
24:14These three weren't just off by a little.
24:17They are way off.
24:20And they need a very big adjustment to get them in line with the rest.
24:24And we're not sure why, sir.
24:30100 knots.
24:31100 knots.
24:33A master caution alarm that flickered on for a few seconds just before takeoff
24:38becomes a key piece of the puzzle.
24:41At that point, we really didn't know how they're related, but we figured they might be.
24:46There was too much coincidence starting to happen that pointed to these things.
24:50What was that?
24:52FCS caution.
24:55The recalibrated sensors started providing faulty air data again.
24:59Six seconds later...
25:01Stop or go?
25:03Go.
25:05The flight computer resolved the discrepancy between the sensors and canceled the warning.
25:10What is going on with this plane's sensors?
25:14They have a mystery flaw in the B-2,
25:18which puts the 509th and the Air Force under a lot of pressure.
25:22They have to find out exactly what went wrong with the flight controls
25:26in order to return that fleet to safe operations.
25:31And the world will be watching them.
25:40Okay, so, let's start at the top.
25:45Why the need to recalibrate in the first place?
25:49It was a procedure that a lot of pilots had never seen,
25:53and maintainers didn't do very often.
25:57Investigators look for any abnormalities in the mission
26:02that might have had an effect on the B-2's sensors.
26:06Huh. So, they got delayed by a day.
26:12What had happened was,
26:14Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri had a severe snowstorm.
26:17It was snowing quite heavily, visibility was near zero.
26:21So, what we did is, we delayed the mission to come home 24 hours.
26:28Spirit of Kansas was left in the tarmac
26:31while the pilots waited to resume their mission.
26:37Okay, so, the jet was left outside for 24 hours because of the delay.
26:44So, what?
26:46Check the weather.
26:48Second to last page.
26:50Okay.
26:55Holy smokes.
26:57That is one hell of a lot of rain.
27:02Weather records show that a tropical rainstorm
27:06settled over the airbase the night before the accident.
27:11Tell me a rainstorm didn't take down a $2 billion airplane.
27:17Decisions were made and these B-2's were left outside
27:23in this particularly heavy rainstorm.
27:31Okay, let's flood these two.
27:36Investigators run tests on B-2 sensors
27:39to determine the effect rain may have had on them.
27:47And stop.
27:52You've got to be kidding me.
27:54Tests confirm that the sensors exposed to the heaviest rainfall
27:58got saturated and needed recalibrating.
28:03Even prior to that, when it was in test and development,
28:07we'd never experienced that much rain on the system.
28:10So, no one really knew how that would adversely affect
28:14the operations of the B-2.
28:17The reason no one realized how heavy rain affects the B-2
28:22is that it's almost always parked inside a hangar
28:26at Whiteman Air Force Base overnight.
28:28Even if it's flying a mission over Afghanistan or Libya,
28:32it returns to Missouri.
28:38The B-2's occasional deployment to Guam
28:42presented different weather conditions.
28:45Could heavy rain be the simple explanation for this accident?
28:50This would not have happened in a desert environment.
28:54This would not have happened at Whiteman.
28:56But Guam is very unique.
28:58They left the B-2 parked out all night in the rain.
29:00The moisture got in there.
29:04See, something just doesn't add up.
29:09They did the recalibration.
29:12You're good to go, sir.
29:14But they still ended up with faulty data.
29:17They nearly killed him.
29:19Yeah.
29:21Full power.
29:23A state-of-the-art military jet put itself into a storm
29:27because it was getting faulty data about its climb angle.
29:31Investigators still don't know why.
29:35The B-2 has always operated under so much pressure and scrutiny.
29:40If they can't figure out what went wrong that morning on Guam,
29:45honestly, this could be the end of the B-2 bomber program.
29:51Okay.
29:53So, they recalibrate at 0934.
30:01Nearly an hour later,
30:04the master caution lights up because of an error data issue.
30:09So, what happens in those 56 minutes?
30:14Investigators review what the pilots told them about the flight.
30:19Routine taxi.
30:21They hit the pitot heat,
30:23wait for the timer,
30:25and they're off.
30:27So,
30:31what about this?
30:32What about this?
30:37There are small heaters connected to each of the plane's sensors.
30:41Just before takeoff,
30:43the pilots activate the heaters so the sensors don't freeze up
30:47when the plane reaches cooler temperatures at higher altitudes.
30:51We can't take off, advance the power, and go down the runway
30:55until we put the pitot heat on.
30:57Pitot heat is on.
30:58It's essential that those sensors are getting heated.
31:04Investigators wonder if the pitot heat could have affected the recalibrated sensors.
31:10Clear right.
31:12Good to line up.
31:14We didn't know enough to really put them together,
31:16and so we had to go get a better understanding of the system,
31:19and we did that through engineers that actually built the system.
31:24When he saw the frequency of our calibrations,
31:26he was surprised and concerned.
31:30And then they turn on pitot heat when they get to the runway.
31:34And then he was really concerned when he saw and understood,
31:39like he only could, that with moisture in the system
31:42and the data that we were putting into it to fix it,
31:45could cause such a problem.
31:48On the day of the accident,
31:50turning on the pitot heat had a consequence that no one anticipated.
31:57Recalibrating the sensors brought the three wet ones in line with the others.
32:03But turning on the pitot heat boiled away the moisture,
32:07bringing the sensors back out of alignment.
32:10First MCT.
32:12So the data that was put in on the calibration now is invalid again,
32:16and the flight computers are now trying to resolve the issue with these sensors.
32:21But the discovery doesn't explain another key event during the short flight.
32:26Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
32:30What was that?
32:32FCS caution.
32:35Why did the faulty air data warning disappear six seconds after it came on?
32:41Stop or go?
32:43Go. Warning received.
32:45Warning received.
32:54It's seconds from takeoff.
32:56U.S. Air Force investigators look into the logic guiding the B-2's flight computer.
33:02So it has to make a choice.
33:05The flight data computer needs a solution,
33:08and what we mean by that is it can't spend even a second or a millisecond
33:12wondering where it is and what needs to be done.
33:17The B-2's flight computer is constantly receiving four separate data streams from all 24 sensors.
33:25If there's a discrepancy in the values of those channels,
33:29the computer is programmed to select any two of the channels to proceed.
33:36It just chose wrong.
33:39Yeah, we should fix that.
33:40Yeah, we should fix that.
33:42Now it's voting as to throw out bad data, what they think is bad data, keep the good data,
33:47and it resolves the issue.
33:49The light goes away. The flight computers are now good to go.
33:52And so the pilots are now, okay, well that must have just been a glitch.
33:56Let's keep going.
33:58Stop or go?
34:00Go. Warning rescinded.
34:02The flight computer chose the two channels that included the faulty sensor data.
34:08145. Rotate.
34:1112 seconds later, the plane pitched up abnormally because of the faulty air data readings.
34:20Once they rotated the aircraft on speed, as they thought, and left the ground,
34:26they were long for the ride at that point.
34:29But if recalibrating the plane's sensors before turning on the pitot heat can be catastrophic,
34:35why was that the official procedure?
34:41So hardly any at all then?
34:44Investigators learned that recalibrations are rarely done while the B-2 is at its home base in Missouri.
34:52But during a deployment in Guam in 2006, maintenance personnel were performing frequent recalibrations.
35:01Copy that. I'm on my way.
35:04They knew there was a challenge, but they didn't know what it was.
35:07And they did speculate that because of the weather in Guam, raining a lot more than at home,
35:14that it might be an issue of moisture.
35:18Technicians in Guam spoke to an engineer in the U.S.
35:22who suggested a procedure to remedy the frequent air data calibrations.
35:27Yeah, then we have to do an onboard recalibration.
35:31And they were able to talk to an engineer that said,
35:34well, before you do a data calibration, try turning on the pitot heat
35:38and burning that water out of the system and see if that'll take care of it.
35:42I haven't tried that. Good idea, though.
35:47The technician passed on the suggestion to the B-2 pilots in Guam.
35:52Try turning on your pitot heat for 40 seconds instead.
35:56Copy.
35:57Apparently I should do it.
36:05Yeah, but our guys didn't do that.
36:09Can you think of a reason why?
36:12Investigators learned from technicians at Whiteman Air Force Base
36:17that the procedure for activating pitot heat in response to an air data calibration message
36:22was not officially adopted.
36:24Really?
36:26Why the heck not?
36:29Some crews knew about it. Some did not.
36:33Pilots back at Whiteman who were not there never heard of it,
36:37and the maintainers had never heard of it.
36:48There's nothing.
36:50There's nothing anywhere about using pitot heat
36:52when a calibration message appears.
37:00You're good to go, sir.
37:02Neither Ryan Link, Justin Grieve, nor the maintainer assigned to their plane
37:07was ever told about the moisture issue
37:10or the informal procedure for rectifying it.
37:13Better?
37:15Yeah, it looks good.
37:17Yeah, it looks good.
37:20The maintainers that morning were following the tech orders
37:24which tell them exactly what to do in the pre-flight.
37:27But for some reason, this new workaround to compensate for the moisture
37:32just hadn't made it into the manual.
37:35And that's a little bit of a tragedy.
37:38So, these three are wrong.
37:41What if they'd used pitot heat instead of recalibrating?
37:46It would have burned off the excess moisture.
37:49They solved the problem.
37:51No faulty air data.
37:54No accident.
37:56If information had been shared from previous deployment 2006 to 2008,
38:02this accident could have been prevented.
38:05Hey, Chief, we're seeing an air data cal message.
38:08Can you send someone up here to clear that up?
38:10The maintenance personnel that came out to the aircraft that day of the accident
38:14did everything exactly right.
38:16They were just doing the procedure they were taught.
38:22It doesn't seem like anybody understood what these recalibrations could do.
38:28The investigation has uncovered a catastrophic gap
38:32in the B-2 crew's understanding of the link
38:35between calibrating sensors and flight controls.
38:39145, rotate.
38:41There's no way a pilot or a maintainer
38:43would understand the system well enough
38:46to realize what could have happened when they did that data calibration.
38:51That lack of understanding left the crew of Spirit of Kansas
38:55vulnerable to the effects of the faulty data.
38:59Investigators now wonder if there was something
39:02the pilots could have done to save their plane.
39:1418 seconds to get this plane under control.
39:20Was it even possible?
39:22Investigators re-examine the crash sequence
39:25to see if the pilots of the B-2 bomber, Spirit of Kansas,
39:29could have prevented their aircraft from crashing at Guam.
39:34145, rotate.
39:35145, rotate.
39:39Certainly no B-2 pilot wanted to be the first to eject from a B-2.
39:48The plane goes full nose up.
39:51He pushes full forward and goes full power.
40:00The plane starts yawing and rolling left.
40:04He applies right stick.
40:07He's fighting.
40:09Investigators determined that Major Link
40:12took the correct action to save the B-2 bomber.
40:17But because of its low altitude and slow speed,
40:20disaster was unavoidable.
40:23Ultimately, this was a no-win situation for the crew.
40:27As we determined with hundreds and hundreds of simulations afterwards,
40:32no one could have flown this aircraft out of that situation.
40:40The data also shows just how close the pilots came to losing their lives.
40:47They are seconds away from impact,
40:50and they still hadn't pulled the handle.
40:54If they had delayed even a fraction of a second later to eject,
40:58they most likely would not have survived.
41:04The video of the accident shows that the plane's left wing
41:08was already scraping the ground when a pilot's ejected.
41:13We got to get out.
41:14We got to get out.
41:25They are heroes in the sense that
41:28these guys waited until the very last possible second.
41:31I don't know of many other people that can say
41:34that they waited until the wingtip hit the ground before ejecting.
41:38Can you imagine that?
41:40All pilots in the Air Force are good, or maybe even great.
41:44But these guys were truly outstanding,
41:48and they were very, very close, despite everything,
41:52to actually saving that aircraft.
41:56One of the most sophisticated warplanes on Earth
41:59was brought down by a combination of poor weather...
42:02Who would have guessed that a bit of moisture would have led to all this?
42:07...and poor communication,
42:09which left Greve and Link without an understanding
42:11of how recalibrating their sensors
42:14could lead to a serious flight control issue.
42:18100 knots.
42:21This accident didn't happen because of bad data,
42:25not because of bad software, not because of bad weather,
42:28not because of bad decision-making.
42:30145, rotate.
42:32It happened because of bad communication.
42:35In the end, safety is everything.
42:37It doesn't matter if it's an airliner, a fighter jet,
42:41a space plane, or a stealth bomber.
42:44Full power.
42:46Safety is critical, and safety depends on communication.
42:52The Air Force investigation underscores the need for pilots
42:56to be kept informed about the technology controlling their airplanes.
43:01Do you really, really want to leave the defense of your families,
43:05your children, your grandchildren to a computer?
43:08Or do you want to leave it to the greatest asset that we have,
43:14and that is the human brain?
43:18In spite of being involved in the most expensive aviation disaster in history,
43:24Major Ryan Link and Captain Justin Greve
43:27went on to have successful military careers.
43:30The B-2 fleet was back in the air two months after the accident.
43:33The flight computer was redesigned to prevent faulty air data.
43:39The procedure for using pitot heat instead of recalibrating the sensors
43:44is documented in Air Force manuals and technical documents.
43:50There hasn't been an issue with faulty air data since.
43:55Northrop produced an amazing aircraft,
43:58and I commend them and the maintainers to their success.
44:01And the aviators that continue to make the B-2 the envy of the world.