"Air Emergency" on National Geographic TV

[Manny 1,293]

If you have TIVO.. Look for the program "Air Emergency" on National Geographic TV and record it.Its amazing. I just saw an accident where the aircraft cleaning person had put a sticky on the air Static port of the 757 and forgot to remove it. This is something even a Cessna 172 Pilot is taught to check during pre flight.And this caused the 757 to go berserk and since they were flying at dark night over the ocean they had no visual reference and they crashed. They had no reference to air speed and no reference to altitude. They had the over speed warning and the stall warning stick shaker go on at the same time. They didn't know if they were climbing or descending.I can't believe that the 757 is dependent on such a silly static port/hole without a backup. WOW... What they teach you about the static port in IFR flying... applies to a modern 757.Amazing!Manny

[slashed2 53]

Love that show, it's just amazing sometimes how a culmination of small events causes such devastation.

[Guest 247]

You said that even a cessna pilot is taught that on pre-flight checks, actually the crew of the 757 did check for it, but as the sticky tape was silver with a white aircraft at night and with only a torch it becomes very difficult to see.

[RobertVA 0]

I too found it odd that here wasn't alternate instrumentation. I thought such a late model would haves altitude and airspeed capabilities through a GPS receiver. I also thought most jets used for over water flights were equipped with inertial navigation systems before GPS gained popularity.

[dfish 1]

If you're familiar with the show Mayday on Discovery, this is the same show repakaged for Nat. Geographic. Good show though, I've watched it over and over.Dave F.