Web Video / Allec Joshua Ibay

"Have you ever wondered why air disasters happen? Well, this channel answers that."

— Channel description

Allec Joshua Ibay (born January 3, 1998), is a Filipino YouTuber, most well known for his many videos recreating various aviation disasters in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

Starting in August 2022, he also started a secondary channel named Air Emergencies Simply Explained, which instead opts for short, narrated videos, but still focuses on air disasters. His main channel currently has 265+ thousand subscribers, while Air Emergencies Simply Explained has 496 subscribers.

Also see Mayday and Seconds from Disaster, two similar series with more forensic (and dramatic) approaches.

Allec Joshua Ibay contains examples of:

• Ace Pilot:
  • Deconstructed in the episode on the Tenerife airport disaster, in which Captain Van Zanten's expertise (effectively being the figurehead of the airline, as well as being the person who certified the First Officer on the flight) may have made his fellow crew members feel unable to overturn his actions; in fact, KLM had originally wanted Zanten to help with the investigation, until they learned he was the one involved with the flight. Similar incidents such as United Airlines Flight 173 eventually lead to the introduction of crew resource management (CRM), which is designed to prevent such situations occuring.
  • Played Straight in other episodes such as "Turning Point" (Northwest Airlines Flight 85), where the pilots made a safe landing despite the circumstances.
  • Played Straight and Deconstructed in the videos on United Airlines 232 and Japan Airlines 123, as despite the immense amount of experience and co-operation, they were still unable to save the plane.
• Adapted Out: American Airlines Flight 191 was installed with a closed-circuit camera in the cockpit, allowing passengers to view the outside during take off (and also the inevitable crash); it is mentioned in the original version of the episode, but oddly absent in the remake.
• Aesop Amnesia: Unfortunately, a big reason so many accidents are repeated are due to the warnings of a prior case not being heeded in time (if at all); exmaples include:
  • Several incidents involving the pilots being unable to understand their aircraft have resulted in an autopilot disengaging without noticing (Aeroflot Flight 593), an aircraft going off course and crashing into a mountain (American Airlines Flight 965), and being unaware during a deep stall (Air France Flight 296).
  • Many incidents involving pilots not properly conveying their fuel situation (Avianca Flight 52 and LaMia Flight 2933), or not realizing how low they are (United Airlines Flight 173, Air Canada Flight 143, ALM Antillean Airlines Flight 980, and Keewatin Air Flight 202).
  • Pilots forgetting to extend their flaps and slats on take off due to rushed checklists, and/or having conversations irrelevant to the situation, resulting in a stall and crash (Northwest Airlines Flight 255, Delta Air Lines Flight 1141, LAPA Flight 3142, and Spanair Flight 5022).
  • Inadequate repairs, or airlines using cost-cutting and time-saving measures, at the expense of safety has resulted in an engine separated during take-off (American Airlines Flight 191), an elevator jack screw failing mid-flight (Alaskan Airlines Flight 261), a left horizontal stabilizer being stuck in the pitch-up position (Emmy Worldwide Airlines Flight 17), ,a plane running out of fuel (LaMia Flight 2933), and an aircraft losing its tail (Japan Airlines Flight 123).
  • Poorly packaged or stored material have resulted in at least two in-flight fires (ValuJet Flight 592 and UPS Airlines Flight 6), a plane taking off beyond its maximum capacity (Air Midwest Flight 5481), and the material breaking free and damaging the controls (National Airlines Flight 102).
  • And no less than 7 incidents where the ATC unintentionally sent two aircraft on a collision course (2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident, 2002 Uberlingen mid-air collision, 2006 Mato Grosso mid-air collision, 1991 LAX runway collision, 1979 Chicago-O'Hare runway incident, 1994 St. Louis runway collision, and the American Airlines Flight 182/TWA Flight 37 mid-air incident).
  • For more specific examples, two FedEx flights bouncing two hard on landings and causing the land gear to collapse (FedEx Flight 14 and 80); the former had both pilots survive, while the latter weren't so lucky.
  • A design flaw in the DC-10's cargo door leading to two blowouts (American Airlines Flight 93 and Turkish Airlines Flight 981, the latter being the then-deadliest airliner accident), despite receiving recommendations to alter the cargo door design; not only that, it was encountered in testing.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • A rare non-sentient example; the computer on Qantas Flight 72 received incorrect data, causing the plane to think it was about to stall and sharply pitch the nose down.
  • Aeroperu Flight 603 and Birgenair Flight 301 are similar cases, where the blockage of a crucial sensor (static ports for Aeroperu and pitot tubes for Birgenair) resulted in the flight computers receiving incorrect date. For the Aeroperu flight, it left the pilots with practically no way to know their true position, while the Birgenair flight had the autopilot inadvertently stall the plane.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy:
  • The pilot of Aeroflot Flight 821.
  • In the case of Crossair Flight 498, Drug-Induced Idiocy may have played a roll.
• Alien Episode: The videos "An Out of This World Encounter", "An Unearthly Sighting" and "Chasing The Unknown".
• The Alleged Car: Or, I guess in this case, "The Alleged Plane":
  • The Boeing 707 in "Atlantic Plunge" was known to have a faulty auto-pilot that would disconnect without warning at random intervals.
  • Multiple incidents involving faulty repairs, such as Emmy Worldwide Airlines Flight 17 and its faulty right horizontal stabilizer, or American Airlines Flight 191 with its left engine pylon. The latter resulted in the deadliest air accident in U.S. history.
  • The DC-10 had a flawed cargo door design that could result in it separating mid-flight, causing an Explosive Decompression; despite causing an accident (American Airlines Flight 93, and being encountered during testing), the issue remained unfixed until Turkish Airlines Flight 981, which became the deadliest air accident at the time.
• Almost Out of Oxygen: Or, rather, Entirely Out of Oxygen, for Helios 522, the crash that killed Payne Stewart, and VH-FAY.
• Anachronism Stew: Occurs occasionally for particularly old crashes, due to the flight simulator emulating early 21st century geography. A notable example occurs in "Lost Over Manhattan," when many obviously post-war skyscrapers are visible despite the incident taking place in 1945.
• Artistic License – History:
  • A minor case, but excluding cases where there were no survivors, whatever happened in the cabin during the incidents are speculative, as there's no such thing as a cabin voice recorder.
  • Similarly, in cases where the cause was never determined (such as Malaysian Airlines Flight 370), where the CVR was never recovered (American Airlines Flight 175), got overwritten (the crash that killed Payne Stewart), or is locked behind government law (Swissair Flight 111),^note The crash happened in Canada, which considers CVR and even transcripts of it private information, it can be only speculated what occurred on the aircraft.
  • Further, actions can only be guessed based on what is said; we don't know if the Russian crew in the Uberlingen looked to their left moments before the collision, but given what the ATC worker told them, it's likely they did.
  • Contrary to what the episode states (and other recreations including Mayday's), Andreas Prodromou wasn't the only person still awake on Helios Airways Flight 522; his girlfriend, Haris Charalambous, was also reportedly seen trying to help her.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • Auburn R. Calloway, who was a Federal Express employee facing possible dismissal by the company due to lying about his flight hours, which would lead to his $2.5 million life insurance policy being declared null; in response, he brought a speargun and hammer on board in order to murder the pilots, before crashing the plane to make it look like an accident. He didn't succeed, and was handed two life sentences.
  • Similarly, David A. Burke shot several people on PSA Flight 1771 before downing the plane; he had been dismissed by the airline due to stealing receipts totaling thousands of dollars, but was able to bring a firearm on board due to PSA not checking pilots baggage, and because he still had his credentials. Naturally, airlines now require pilots baggage to be searched, and for dismissed employees to hand over their credentials.
  • Francisco Paula Gonzales, a passenger on board Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 who also shot the pilots and put the plane in a dive; he had been suffering financial and marital problems for months leaving up to the incident, and ominously told a casino employee the day before that his loses "won't make any difference after tomorrow".
  • Paul Mukonyi on British Airways Flight 2069, who almost caused the plane to enter an uncontrollable dive after believing everyone on the flight was following him, before being restrained by passengers and crew; prior to 9/11, cockpit doors were not required to be locked, hence why Mukonyi was able to enter so easily.
  • All Nippon Airways Flight 61 is an odd case, as the person involved, Yuji Nishizawa, just wanted to fly it under the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo; the episode was even called "Deranged Wannabe Pilot".
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The crew of FedEx Flight 705; they were able to land before Calloway could kill them, but their severe injuries meant none of them could fly commercially again.
  • The captain of Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751; although he was able to make a crash landing without deaths, the trauma of the incident led to him retiring from commercial flight.
  • United Airlines Flight 93; everyone on board died, but the actions of the passengers and crew prevented the hijackers from reaching their target.
• The Blind Leading the Blind:
  • The captain of Aeroflot Flight 593 had allowed his son to sit in the cockpit and fake control the A320 by using the trajectory dial; the flight crew themselves had little experience on the A320, meaning when his son inadvertently partially disengaged the autopilot, none of them knew how to regain control.
  • A more literal example with Aeroperu Flight 603; the flight computers were giving off false readings to the pilot, leading them to rely on ATC. Unknown to them both, the ATC readings also come from the flight computer, meaning no one knew the aircraft's proper altitude or speed.
• Broken Ace:
  • The pilots of EgyptAir Flight 990 (First Officer al-Batouti) and SilkAir Flight 185 (Captain Tsu) were both retired air force pilots, and both of which downed their own passenger jets; al-Batouti after he learned he would no longer fly to the U.S. for sexual misconduct,^note Reportedly, he was both sexually harassing a hotel maiden, and once exposed himself in front of two girls, and Tsu due to both severe economic trouble, and Survivor's Guilt from an air force incident 18 years earlier.^note On December 18, 1979, exactly 18 years to the day before Flight 185, four of his squadrons were killed after accidentally flying into a mountain; he survived as he left early due to mechanical problems.
  • JAL 350 captain Seiji Katagiri was found to have been suffering from Paranoid schizophrenia; unlike other cases, his suicide attempt failed (likely due to him crashing it into water at a relatively low altitude, although 24 others died), and was last reported living near Mount Fuji (if alive today, he would be around 75).
  • USAF pilot Craig D. Button is theorized to be one due to the actions he made leading up to the crash, however it was never conclusively proven.
• Captain Crash:
  • Hans Ulrich Lutz (the pilot of Crossair Flight 3597) was almost this in real-life, to the point where he once wrecked a plane by retracting the landing gear on the runway.
  • Although not to the same extent as Lutz, the crew of Saudia Flight 163 were noted to have difficulties training; the First Officer reportedly had to pay for his own training to stay in flight school.
  • Exaggerated with the crew of the Learjet that crashed in Mexico City, who were found to not even be properly certified.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the remake of "Fatal Distraction" (Eastern Airlines Flight 401), when the captain turns to look at his co-pilot, there's a short shot of the control stick being moved, and the autopilot being disabled.
  • "Fire in the Hold" explicitly states what is in the cargo hold. As it turns out, the "empty" oxygen canisters were in fact full oxygen generators.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: The captain of US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211.
• Clumsy Copyright Censorship:
  • Due to Cineflix copyright claiming the original upload of Air Florida Flight 90, Allec reuploaded the video with the footage blacked out.
  • A less notable case, but many of the newer uploads of old videos often replace the Mayday footage with still images.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The captain of American Airlines Flight 965 upon realizing they are lost.
• Crying Wolf:
  • Multiple cases have happened relating to pilots ignoring certain warnings (mainly the Ground Proximity Warning System or GPWS) which would occur when landing normally at the same airport, or in the case of Northwest Airlines Flight 255, the take-off configuration warning
  • Something similar happened with Aeroperu Flight 603, where the pilots ignored the GPWS due to all their other instruments being false; although not mentioned in the episode, the GPWS does not rely on static ports, meaning it was the only system working.
  • In the case of the Crossair 498, Aeroflot 821, and China 006 episodes, the pilots thought their Attitude Indicators^note Which shows the aircraft's attitude, "angle of attack", or pitch were malfunctioning, when they were completely fine; the former two due to differences with Western and Soviet indicators,^note Western indicators try to replicate the view outside the aircraft (the artificial horizon moves), while Soviet indicators try to replicate the plane itself (the artificial plane moves); there had already been similar incidents revolving the differences, as a left turn would look like a right turn, and vise-versa, and the latter due to the extreme angle the plane was at.
  • The crew of British Midland Flight 98 shut off the right engine despite the vibration readings indicated the left engine, as vibration readings were notoriously unreliable on older 737s, and because the right engine supplied the oxygen. However, on 737-400 models, not only were vibration meters much more accurate, but both engines supply oxygen.
• Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: When the Pan Am crew involved in the Tenerife airport disaster asked where they should exit at, the controller only said "the third one", while the crew had already passed C1. This, combined with C3's overly sharp turn, only reinforced the idea they were meant to exit at C4.^note Investigators later determined that even if they had figured out it was C3, the turn itself would be too sharp to achieve with a 747.
• Cutting Corners: Title Dropped in the episode on Alaskan Airlines Flight 261; a cost-cutting elevator repair caused the jack screws to eventually fail, resulting in the plane continually heading nose down.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • Several crashes have been caused by pilots either attempting to use on trick on another aircraft, or because the simulator they were trained in used a different configuration than the accident aircraft; this is brought to head in the episode on China Airlines Flight 140, as the simulator allowed the captain to disengage go-around mode by pitching down, rather than needing to enter an entirely different mode.
  • Also, as mentioned above, Western attitude indicators often resulted in confusion by Soviet pilots, as the different working displays (Western replicates the view, Soviet replicates the plane) could make a plane turning left look like it's turning right.
• Dangerously Loaded Cargo: Ends up being the cause of both the National Airlines 102 crash, and just about every cargo fire in the series.
• Death from Above: There have been several incidents in which aircraft debris has caused deaths on the ground; the most infamous is Pan Am Flight 103, as bits of the plane fell down to Lockerbie, Scotland.
• Disaster Dominoes: Too many cases to count; for more notable cases...
  • The Tenerife airport disaster/"Crash of the Century"; two jumbo jets containing over 600 people combined are diverted to a small airport on the small island of Tenerife, then a series of communication errors (including the KLM pilots missing several calls that would've indicated the Pan Am was still on the runway) results in them both colliding, resulting in 583 deaths, and the worst aviation disaster in history.
  • Swissair Flight 111/"Fire on Board"; an overheated in-flight entertainment system (one of the first of its time) combusts, and begins to burn through important electrical systems. At first, the pilots are only slightly concerned, but after switching off the air conditioners in the cabin, the fire suddenly spreads into the cockpitp; the Captain leaves to fight the fire, but is incapacitated, leaving the First Officer to fly alone; obscured by smoke, without instruments, on a Moonless night.
  • Eastern Airlines Flight 401/"Fatal Distraction"; a single faulty nose gear light (and only the light) causes the pilots to enter a holding pattern at 2000 feet, only for the captain to bump the control column and inadvertently disable the autopilot. While focusing on the light, all of them fail to hear the warning indicating they are below the assigned altitude, and by the time they do notice, it's too late. They crash into the Florida Everglades, and 101 of the 163 people on board die.
  • ValuJet Flight 592/"Fire in the Hold"; mislabeled Oxygen Generators^note Not only were they mislabeled, but some of them were wrapped in bubble wrap, because that's safe, get carelessly thrown on board and ignite, eventually sparking a fire that burns through the electrics and, soon, the cabin floor. The pilots attempt to turn back to Miami, but are quickly incapacitated and crash into the Florida Everglades.
  • UPS Airlines Flight 6/"Fatal Delivery"; another fire starts in the cargo hold due to batteries igniting and begins to burn away the manual control. The captain attempts to retrieve oxygen from the back, but never returns, likely being incapacitated by the smoke. As the First Officer attempts to turn towards the airport, he puts in the wrong information, and barely manages to crash the plane into an empty yard (as the plane's original end trajectory was a residential area), killing him.
  • Aeroperu Flight 603/"Flying Blind"; a single piece of duct tape causes nearly all the instruments to display false readings to both the pilots, and ATC; attempting to get back to land, they ignore the seemingly false (but actually true) "TOO LOW TERRTAIN" warning until they crash into the ocean. And whoever did survive the initial impact ends up being dragged down with the plane, leading to one of the largest compensations by a non-US carrier.^note Compensation is dependent on several factors, including how much the victims suffered during the incident; since most of the people initially survived only to sink down with the wreckage, it was nearly $1 million per victim.
  • American Airlines Flight 191/"Catastrophe at O'Hare"; an improper maintenance procedure results in the left engine pylon gaining a crack that continues to grow, until the engine separates two weeks later. When it separates, it not only takes out important hydraulics on the left wing, it also disables vital warnings in the cockpit, causing the plane to stall without the pilots knowledge. Oh, and the same damage was found on eight other DC-10s.
  • BEA Flight 548/"Fight to the Death"; an impending workers strike causes the captain to have a outburst against his co-workers, possibly causing heart failure. When the flight occurs two hours later, the combination of stress, pain, and a similar lever design causes him to accidentally retract the droops shortly after take-off; the stall warning occurs, but the captain and his in-experienced co-pilots handle it incorrectly, sealing the fate of everyone on board.
• Dissonant Serenity: For whatever reason, despite the severity of the fire onboard, the pilots of Saudi Flight 163 were apparently not worried about it at all, which was probably the reason why everyone died in the end.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • His channel was originally named "The Tomcatter" (at least, according to the archives), and originally focused on Movie Maker-esque music video.
  • Prior to the episode on Air France Flight 447, the Air Disaster videos were produced at a lower resolution and aspect ratio. His videos would also often have music through-out the entirety, rather than just the ending.
• Engrish: Although not that common, this can occasionally appear in Ibay's videos.
• Epic Fail: Plenty to come by:
  • One time, Hans Ulrich Lutz, who would eventually pilot Crossair Flight 3597, damaged a plane beyond repair by retracting the landing gear on the runway.
  • The reason for the world's most expensive plane crash? A few droplets of water, which got into the AOE sensor and caused false readings, causing the plane to pull up to steeply and crash.
  • The Gimli Glider (Air Canada Flight 143), which ran out of fuel in mid-air since they accidentally refilled the tank using pounds instead of kilograms.
  • The crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, which was caused by the captain accidentally bumping the control stick (which disables the autopilot); additionally, there is a warning for when the aircraft goes above/below its designated altitude, and despite it being audible to the crew, none of them took notice.
  • Aeroperu Flight 603, which crashed as the maintenance crew accidentally left duct tape on the static ports, leading to false readings.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: Sadly, all too common to list.
• Everybody Lives: Fortunately, also tends to happen quite a bit.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Air Emergencies Simply Explained.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • The pilots of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, who failed to notice the loud alarm indicating the aircraft was below its assigned altitude.
  • The captain of United Airlines Flight 173, who was so fixated on a landing gear problem, that he failed to notice the hints by his fellow First Officer and Flight Engineer that they were running out of fuel.
  • The entire Varig Flight 254 crew failed to notice that they were flying towards the sunset, rather than away from it; this should have been an easy indication they were heading the wrong way.
• Failsafe Failure: In the rare case of a fail safe actually working and causing an accident, Eastern Airlines Flight 401; L-1011 Tristars have a safety feature where grabbing the control stick would automatically disable the autopilot... except that just bumping it slightly does the same thing. The inevitable happened, and it was slightly redesigned to require more force.
• Failure Is the Only Option: As "Invisible Killer" shows us, the pilots could be doing everything correctly, but still be unable to save the plane.
• For Want Of A Nail: Often a major factor in air accidents is a seemingly inconspicuous thing having big consequences:
  • "Flying Blind"/Aeroperu Flight 603: The maintenance crew forgot to remove a piece of duct tape over the static ports, that was invisible to the ground crew and captain due to it blending into the fuselage (hence why maintenance often use brightly-colored magnetic tape); the covered static ports lead to the indicators giving off false readings to both the crew, and the ATC.
  • "Up in Flames"/Air France Flight 4590: A single strip of metal from a Continental Airlines DC-10 lands onto the runway the Concorde was taking off from; it hits one of the wheels, causing it to burst and not only puncture a fuel tank, but also several wires for the landing gear, resulting in the fire catching on fire.
  • "Crash of the Century"/Tenerife airport disaster: Might as well be the crown jewel due to the absurd number of factors that caused the accident; this includes a bombing diverting the two large aircraft to a tiny airport not equipped to deal with such situations, a dense fog rolling in, the ATC not clearly communicating where the Pan Am pilots to turn at, topped off with vital transmissions being missed by the KLM crew.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the Eastern Air Lines 401 episode, if you look closely in some shots, you'll notice that the front landing gear is down as normal, showing it was working correctly despite the burnt-out light.
• Ghost Ship: Helios Airways Flight 522, the 1999 South Dakota Learjet crash, and VH-FAY.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: The crew (and the passengers) of the Embraer involved in the 2006 Mato Grosso mid-air collision... until they learn why their winglet is gone.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Arland D. Willams Jr., who survived the initial crash of Air Florida Flight 90, but died after repeatedly passing a helicopter rescue line to other survivors; the part of the bridge the crash occurred at (the 14th Street Bridge) was even renamed in his honor.
  • The passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, who forced the hijackers to crash their plane, and miss their target.^note It isn't known exactly which target they were aiming for, but common speculation suggests the the Capitol Building, or the White House.
• Hollywood Heart Attack:
  • Defied in the episode on BEA Flight 548, which correctly refers to the captain's possible condition as heart failure rather than a heart attack.^note Heart failure is the inability of the heart to properly pump blood throughout the body, rather than the complete cessation of it.
  • Zig-Zagged in the episode on TAROM Flight 731. While Captain Bătănoiu did suffer a heart attack, the symptoms he described was general sickness before he collapsed, with no indication on if he was clutching his chest.
• Honest John's Dealership:
  • ValuJet were notorious for their aggressive cost-cutting measures including purchasing old fleets and outsourcing their maintenance to the almost notorious SabreTech.
  • The crash of Partnair Flight 394 was caused by the inclusion of counterfeit parts.
• Improbable Piloting Skills: Yes, even in real life can this occur.
  • Special mention goes to Federal Express Flight 705; both the captain and First Officer performed stunts with it that would make stunt pilots shit their pants, including a inverted nose dive. With a jumbo jet.
  • Aloha Airlines Flight 243, which lost a significant amount of its front roof and walls, effectively having it hanging by a thread; despite this, the pilots landed it regardless, with only one fatality (a flight attendant, who was blown out when the Explosive Decompression occured).
  • The Embrarer involved with the 2006 Mato Grosso mid-air collision; despite it suffering damage to its left wingtip, it nonetheless made a successful emergency landing at a military airport.
• Irony: Flight 19 got lost while conducting a navigation exercise.
• Just Plane Wrong:
  • The training program for American Airlines would train pilots to apply overly aggressive commands to the rudder in the case of wake turbulence, due to their simulations having the plane bank at extreme angles; although such things are possible with small aircraft (including the later 2008 Mexico City crash), not only would larger aircraft such as the A300 would only be mildly effected by it, but the autopilot would automatically correct the bank regardless.
  • Ironically, the same episode also has an unintentional case; when the plane loses its stabilizer, it would start making uncontrollable yawing motions rather than simply falling down at an angle.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The investigation into the crash of Partnair Flight 394 ended up exposing an international black market for counterfeit parts, polished to look like they were certified for use in aircraft. It was massive enough that some parts were found in Air Force One.
• Misplaced a Decimal Point: Varig Flight 254. The airline began printing flight plans with four digits while the captain was on vacation, with the fourth intended for decimals (which planes had started implementing for better accuracy) and the plan for the flight reading "0270". However, the Boeing 737-200 did not accept them, resulting in them inputting heading 270 rather than heading 27 (flying south-west rather than north).
• Narrative Profanity Filter: US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211's captain; the actual full rant is extremely misogynistic and NSFW.
• No One Could Survive That!:
  • What the Japanese thought when Flight 123 crashed. They were wrong, as when they finally reach the crash site the next day, they learned that not only were 4 people alive, but others (mainly in the tail) had survived the initial impact, only to succumb to either their injuries, or hypothermia.
  • Similarly, many had thought the captain of British Airways Flight 5390, who was near completely blown outside the aircraft, was dead upon landing. However, not only did he quickly regain consciousness, he eventually returned to flying despite the injuries incurred.
• Only Sane Man: Nearly every single case involving pilot error has one of the pilots (usually the co-pilot or a less-experienced captain) correctly identify the problem, but are too unquestioning of the senior's authority to speak up. Perhaps the biggest example is the KLM Flight Engineer in the Tenerife disaster realizing the Pan Am was still on the runway, but decided not to challenge the captain due to his superstar status.
• Poor Communication Kills: Rather literally in most cases:
  • The Charkhi-Dadri mid-air collision, as the Kazakhstan First Officer thought they were cleared to 14,000 feet.
  • Both the crashes of Avianca Flight 52 and LaMia Flight 2933; in both cases, the pilots only used the phrase "priority", but never directly declared an emergency until they were already out of fuel. The former also notes that the phrase "prioridad" often conveys a more serious problem than "priority" in Spanish.
  • Occurs twice in "Deadly Solution"/AirAsia Flight 8501; the first is when the captain says to "pull down" rather than "push down", causing the First Officer to pull up and put the plane into a stall. The second case, and the smoking gun, was when the captain asked another pilot whether he could pop a certain circuit breaker, but didn't specify in-flight; said circuit breaker disabled the autopilot.
• Retired Badass: Many of the pilots in the series are former Air Force or Navi pilots.
• Ret Irony:
  • The captain of American Airlines Flight 320 was only three months from retirement.
  • Inverted for American Eagle Flight 4184, whose junior flight attendant died on the first day of her job.
• Serendipitous Survival:
  • One passenger on board of KLM Flight 4805 opted to leave early due to wanting to see her boyfriend on the same island; the same plane would be the one where everyone died, making her the only survivor.
• Shout-Out: The video on Buddy Holly's plane crash is titled "The Day The Music Died". Justified, since the song is based on the same event.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: The captain of Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518; there's even more in the full CVR transcript.
• Smash to Black: Occurs in more recent episodes where there's no animation or footage of the crash itself.
• Sole Survivor: Normally Averted, but Played Straight a few times; most notably, Northwest Airlines Flight 255.
• Stupid Crooks: The men who hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 believed they could fly to Australia because the in-flight magazine boasted that the plane could fly from Ethiopia to Australia nonstop, and they refuse to believe the captain when he tries to explain that they only have enough fuel to fly to Kenya.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • The pilots involved in the 2008 Mexico City Learjet crash definitely qualify, as investigators found that they had faked their records and credentials; this, combined with needing to fly a complex route, effectively sealed their fates.
  • As mentioned above, the men who hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 fought they could fly a 10-hour flight to Australia with 3 hours of total fuel; not only that, when the captain was trying to make an emergency water landing, one of the hijackers opted to wrestle for controls in the co-pilots seat. None of the three hijackers survived.
• Ultimate Job Security:
  • Hans Ulrich Lutz was allowed to keep his job despite how his poor safety record; same with the captain of LAPA Flight 3142.
  • Subverted with Gameel Al-Batouti; he was the oldest First Officer working for EgyptAir, and was nearing retirement. However, his continual history of sexual conduct would eventually catch up to him, as an exiled captain for the airline would state that EgyptAir Flight 991 captain Hamdi Hanafi Taha had given him a stern warning that he would no longer be allowed to fly to the U.S., and could possibly be fired. However, since he still had at least one flight left...
• Unit Confusion: The cause of Korean Air Cargo 6316's crash, as the first officer confused 1500 meters with 1500 feet.
• The Unsolved Mystery:
  • Enforced whenever the plane or the cause of the accident is never found, such as MH370.
  • Downplayed with cases where the cause was identified, but the reason wasn't (Qantas Flight 72, where investigators couldn't solve why data for one computer was read by another), or where separate investigation teams gave contradictory reports (EgyptAir Flight 990, SilkAir Flight 185, Flash Airlines Flight 604).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Peter Nielsen, who was the Air Traffic Controller during the 2002 Uberlingen mid-air collision, had told the Russian plane to descend despite the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) telling them to ascend; Russian pilots were generally trained to obey the ATC commands, rather than the aircraft, hence why they ignored their TCAS. Not helping matters was that, instead of telling the DHL plane to descend, he instead told them that the Russian aircraft was coming from their left, when it was actually coming from their right, which effectively sealed their fates.