Pilot Heroically Breaks Rules to Save Boeing 747 & Athens from Disaster!

- A fully loaded Boeing 747 takes off from Athens International Airport. As you turn, straight ahead, you have one of the oldest urban centers in the world, with thousands of people. But during rotation, one of its motors suddenly fails. And now the 747 doesn't have enough engine power to continue climbing; Stay tuned. - 100, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. - A huge thank you to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring this video. The story I'm about to tell you is about Olympic Airways Flight 411. And I want to start with a little disclaimer because this story is not based on the final report. And the reason is that there doesn't seem to be any final report.

Instead, I had to base this video on newspaper articles, my Greek friends, a Wikipedia article, and an interview with the captain who made the flight, but it's an absolutely amazing story. The incident took place on August 9, 1978. The airline involved, Olympic Airways, had been owned by the Greek state for about four years, after the previous owner, shipping magnate Aristotle Socrates Onassis, sold his stake. into the company after his own son died in a plane crash back in 1973. Olympic Airways' flagship was its Boeing 747-200, Queen of the Skies, and it was used on its most prestigious routes, one of them being a direct flight between Athens and New York.

The first Boeing 747 that Olympic Airways took delivery was named Olympic Zeus in honor of the Greek god and was to be used on this flight on August 9. Athens' main airport at the time was called Ellinikon International Airport. It had two parallel runways of which only one was really used, which was runway 33 Right and 15 Left. The other parallel runway was primarily used as a taxiway for Olympic Airways, which had its own private terminal to the south of the airport. On August 9, the temperature was a sweltering 43 degrees Celsius, very, very warm. And when it's very hot in Athens, it usually comes with a breeze from the northwest to the west, as was also the case that day.

Right Runway 33, which was used most of the time, actually looked directly towards the center of Athens. And so the noise reduction procedure after departure was an immediate left turn out of the sea. Now, one thing you should understand about Athens is that locals sometimes refer to it as Lekanopédio. And the English translation will be something similar to sink. The reason is that it is surrounded on three sides by quite high ground. So the only real escape route, if you want to avoid the terrain, is over the sea, which is from the southwest to the west side.

That's going to be really important in this story. On August 9, Olympic Zeus was scheduled to operate Olympic Airways Flight 411 to New York. In charge of the flight was Senior Captain Sifis Migadis, a former military

pilot

with a lot of experience. He was flying together with his close friend, First Officer Kostas Fikardos, and along with them was also the flight engineer named Tribos. The Boeing 747-200 is equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT9D/7A engines. Those engines, under normal circumstances, can produce 46,150 pounds of thrust, which is a lot, but on August 9, there was some maintenance on the number two engine and because of that, that engine was supposed to run at reduced thrust. , only 96% of the available thrust.

Now remember, this was a fully loaded flight. It was full of American tourists returning to New York and the flight is very long. It had almost 140 tons of fuel on board. It was very, very heavy and the temperature outside was very high. And so this plane really needed all the thrust it had. But these Pratt & Whitney engines had a few tricks up their sleeves. What really limits the thrust of a jet engine is the core temperature. If you put too much fuel in the combustion chamber, the core temperature will rise so much that it will begin to damage the components following the combustion chamber, which are the turbine stages.

Now there are ways to mitigate that, lower the temperature so you can put in more fuel and generate more thrust. And in the case of these Pratt & Whitney engines, they actually had a system that could introduce a mixture of water and glycol into the diffuser just before the combustion chamber. And by doing so, it would actually cool the flame, allowing the engine to put in more fuel to start burning. And together with the cooling effect, which actually saved the components behind combustion and the increased mass now flowing through the engine, the engine's thrust could be increased to 110% of its normal rated thrust.

And in this case, this meant going from a thrust of 46,150 pounds to 47,670 pounds. And that's a major increase in thrust. So, were there any hiccups in the system? Yes, of course there were. Firstly, when a mixture of water and glycol is introduced into the combustion chamber in this way, it will also cause a large amount of unburned fuel to exit through the engine. The 747-200 wasn't the only aircraft that did this, you've probably seen B-52 bombers, so it uses the same takeoff system, these huge black columns that come out behind them. It is not very environmentally friendly.

In addition to this, you also had to carry the extra weight of the water-glycol during takeoff. Therefore, you have to be very careful when calculating whether or not it was really worth it to get that extra boost. The water-glycol was stored in two huge tanks just behind the landing lights in the wing root of the Boeing 747-200. Each tank contained about 2,300 kilos of water and once started, would last about two and a half minutes. And during those two and a half minutes, you would get an extra oomph. But after that, you had to be very quick to reduce the thrust again, so as not to damage the engines.

The way this system operated was that the flight engineer was the one who activated it, he did it during taxiing just before the plane entered the runway, he turned on the pumps, and that gave him a pair of low pressure lights that they turned off. when the water pressure was adequate. And that would also give you four green lights, telling you that the system was ready. A very common problem with this was that during shutdown phases, the shut-off valves inside the engines would not close completely. So when the flight engineer activated the system, the pumps would start producing pressure and since the valve was still slightly open, all the water pressure would just go straight to the engine and this would cause something called steam or urine vent.

If we found out where the engine would shut down, we would have to shut down the system and then restart the engine. If the system was working correctly, then the system would arm when the

pilot

initiated the takeoff thrust. And when the thrust reached approximately 1.25 EPR points, the valves would open, water-glycol would be introduced, and then additional thrust would be available. Pilots would set a higher than normal thrust setting, higher than the normal EPR. And then they will have to very carefully monitor the EGT, the exhaust gas temperature, because if they were during the takeoff roll and one of the water pumps failed, for example, then the engine would still be set to a higher EPR. , water or wet takeoff thrust and there would be no water cooling, and the engine could fail very quickly.

So this was a system that needed to be monitored very carefully. And it was a system that was not used very often. So the crews wouldn't be very familiar with it. Now we don't know exactly what happened on Olympic Airways Flight 411. Some reports indicate that the flight engineer may have mistakenly turned off the system instead of turning it on during the takeoff roll. However, I find it very, very hard to believe because the pilots would have had green indicator lights in front of them showing them that the system was working, so that is very unlikely. Most likely, as I just told you, one of the pumps failed during the takeoff run and that caused the subsequent failure.

In any case, shortly before two in the afternoon on August 9, Olympic Airways Flight 411 began its takeoff roll. There were 398 passengers and 20 crew members on board the plane, making a total of 418 people. Captain Migadis was pilot in command and would have told his flight engineer to activate the water-glycol system while they were taking off. The aircraft began to accelerate down the runway. He passed his V1 speed which is the decision speed. She reached her rotation speed and Captain Migadis began to rotate when a catastrophic failure occurred to the number three engine. The breakdown was so violent that the engine began to disintegrate and part of it fell on the track and some houses in the exit direction.

Captain Migadis is now trying to fly this huge giant plane and that is without the thrust of his number three engine which just failed and with reduced thrust on his number two engine after the previous maintenance action. At first there was not much extra thrust due to the high ambient temperatures and high weight. That's why they used the water-glycol procedure to begin with. Now, while he is rotating, he calls his flight engineer to confirm that the water-glycol system is still working. And it's probably here, in the confusion and stress of the moment, that the flight engineers will turn around and instead of turning on the system, making sure it's on, they do the other thing, instead of turning it off.

And this further reduces the available thrust. Now the plane can barely fly. Captain Migadis manages to get the plane to take off and climb slightly, but it barely misses the airport's 12-foot-high perimeter fence and is now flying directly toward the center of Athens. The next thing the captain asks is to prepare. Now First Officer Fikardos, who supervises the pilot, is a little hesitant before doing this because Boeing has sent out guidance that clearly says that in a situation like this, the pilots are not supposed to board the gear. Now you might wonder why they wouldn't. And the answer is actually simpler than you think.

During gear retract on a Boeing 747, there is a 15-second segment in which, in order for the gear to retract, the landing gear doors must open into the airstream. And this means that during those 15 seconds, there will actually be even more resistance. And in a low thrust situation near the ground like this, it is not recommended to do this. It is best to wait until the plane has gained some altitude because otherwise it could stall. So First Officer Fikardos, just after a second of hesitation, follows the captain's orders, raises the gear, the gear begins to retract and the plane, miraculously, stays in the air, but the problems are far from over.

Now they are grazing the rooftops of central Athens, in fact destroying some of the television antennas on some of the buildings closest to the airport. And Captain Migadis knows that about a mile, 0.9 mile from the airport, there is a hill in the center of Athens called Pani Hill, and that hill is about 200 feet high. And he needs to be able to lift the 747 enough to get over that hill. You might be wondering, well, why doesn't he just turn around? The fact is that its speed is now much lower than it should be. Their safe climb speed was 180 knots and now they are closer to 170 knots and speed is actually reducing.

And Captain Migadis knows that if he started to maneuver the plane, started to spin, well, then his lift would be reduced even more, and it's very likely that his plane would stop right in the center of Athens. So continue going up in a straight line. He sees the hill rising before him. The plane is still not accelerating and Captain Migadis now has no choice but to back off gently, slightly over its yoke, to sacrifice a few knots of speed and gain those precious 200 feet of altitude in that mile so he can fly over Pani Hill. . He manages to do it but with only three meters to spare.

That's three meters from the top of the hill. At the air traffic control tower, controllers look on helplessly as they watch the plane continue over the rooftops of Athens toward Pani Hill. They think it will crash into the hill, but are relieved to see it just climb slightly over the top and then disappear on the other side. There is now much silence in the cabin. The three pilots are pretty convinced that this plane is about to crash, but they are also determined to try to prevent that from happening. And how they do it, I will tell you right after this short message from our sponsors.

Now I know you're watching my videos because you love learning new things and discovering the nitty-gritty, nerdy details behind each story. And if that's true, you should seriously check out the sponsor of this episode, which is Curiosity Stream. Curiosity Stream is a high-quality subscription streaming service with thousands of great non-fiction stories and documentaries from some of the world's best filmmakers. I'm watching a series right now called: What Went Wrong? and the last video I watched was the Greenfeld Tower fire

disaster

, which was terrible but also very interesting. If you think, Petter, that sounds reallyinteresting, then consider supporting me by supporting my sponsor.

Go to the description, click on the link which is curiositystream.com/mentourpilot and the coupon code, mentourpilot, which will give you a whopping 25% off the annual subscription fee which is, wait for it, only $14.99 per year, which is crazy. value for money. Now let's go back to the video. As Captain Migadis reaches the other side of Pani Hill, the terrain begins to descend a little and he feels that he can sacrifice a little of his precious altitude gain to get a few more knots of speed. Then he lowers the nose and, from 209 feet indicated altitude, descends to 157 feet.

This gives them a little more speed but the problem is that they still don't accelerate. In fact, the plane continues to reduce speed and reaches 164 knots, well below the stall speed with the current configuration. So why isn't this plane stalling? Well, they're probably in ground effect right now. Ground effect is something that happens to an airplane when it flies about half its wingspan off the ground. When you do this, the ground will stop some of the downward flow from the wings and will also prevent some of the wingtip vortices from forming. Altogether this will mean that the aircraft will gain a little more lift than at the same angle of attack and will have a little less drag.

So this is probably what really kept this plane flying at this point, but the pilot knows that if the speed starts to slow down any more than it is now, it will eventually crash. So they are starting to look for ways and places where they can leave this plane without causing harm to third parties. The first thing they are looking at is a large soccer stadium that if they put it there, since there is no soccer game, it will cause less havoc than in the surrounding street, which is full of houses. But what they really want to try to do is reach the Egaleo Mountains, which are on the other side of Athens.

If they do that, there will be almost no buildings around, which means minimal damage to third parties, but they could also control the plane to make a forced landing. And if they can do it, there is also a high probability that some crew members and passengers will survive. This is now the plane's goal. They are still flying at an extremely low altitude, so low, in fact, that when they passed the Inter-American Tower, which is a 14-story building in the center of Athens, they were actually flying at the same altitude in that building. And some of the flight attendants later told the press that they were so close to this building that they could look in and see the faces of the people inside.

By the way, the flight attendant also realized that something was clearly wrong. Some of the flight attendants sitting in the back of the cabin saw the catastrophic failure of engine number three and called their flight attendant at the front saying, "I think we're screwed." And the flight attendant simply replied, "Yes, I know." But they maintain their composure and, in fact, seem so calm that the passengers around them don't realize anything is wrong. And some of them are taking pictures while this is happening. The plane has already been flying for about 90 seconds and now three things are about to happen.

Number one, they are now passing outside the most densely populated area of ​​Athens. And one thing that happens to the temperature in cities is that it tends to be higher in the center of the city. So when the plane moves away from that zone, the outside temperature actually drops from 43 degrees Celsius to about 38 degrees Celsius, and this provides additional thrust to the engines. Additionally, they are coming into an area where the wind is picking up a little and is turning slightly to the north, which means they are getting more headwinds, which also gives them more speed.

And the last thing, the flight engineer has finally gotten the water-glycol system working again, most likely, at least that's what we think, because the engines suddenly start producing more thrust. And all three of these things combined mean that the plane is now starting to accelerate from the indicated 164 knots; in fact, on the flight data recorder, speeds were indicated as low as 160 knots up to 170 knots up to 180 knots, which is the safe climb speed. . When this happens, Captain Migadis begins to relax his yoke a little, causing the plane to ascend. But they will not be able to pass the mountains but with this speed Captain Migadis now realizes that he has enough to start maneuvering the plane slightly and turns it first towards the northwest and then towards the west following a small valley towards the sea.

Once he is over the sea, he has gained enough altitude to begin retracting the flaps. He does it at 300 feet in the air. And then he descends on the bay outside Athens and starts dumping fuel. They dump fuel for about 30 minutes before returning and landing on the same runway they just took off from. The plane is still slightly overweight when it lands, but it lands safely. Everyone on board is safe. The plane returns to the terminal, they disembark and Captain Migadis is surprised to know that his two daughters have been called there because when the traffic controllers saw the plane disappearing beyond Pani Hill, they sent a message that this plane would probably crash. , and his daughters heard this message and came to the airport.

Anyway, based on media reports, we don't know if this is true or not, but apparently, Captain Migadis boarded another 747 and took off for New York that same afternoon. Now, as I said at the beginning of the video, I don't have the final report of this event. So all you've heard so far are kind things I've found on the internet about this incident. The reason there was no final report is probably because no one was actually hurt. It was in 1978 and when this data and story was sent to Boeing, Boeing initially didn't believe it, because they said that at that speed, this plane should have crashed.

They tried to replicate this flight in a simulator and every time they tried, the plane stalled and crashed into the city. Another reason why there is no final report on this is that Greece at the time did not have an independent investigative service like the NTSB in the United States. In fact, they didn't have that for a long time, until this accident happened. After that, they implemented an independent research service. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this. Have an absolutely fantastic day. Tell me what you want to know more about and I'll see you next time. Bye bye. (quiet music)