Crashing Just 20 Seconds After Takeoff (The Invisible Killer)

Pilots learn early on, you don't mess with thunderstorms! On one of my training flights, we saw a thunderstorm settle over the airport while my instructor and I were still out at the practice area. We wait for the thunderstorm to pass before returning to landing. The edge of the thunderstorm was a good 5 miles away and everything looked clear, but as I came in to land, just before crossing the threshold, the aircraft was pushed sideways by a good 60 feet such that I was no longer over the runway. Of course, I immediately performed a go-around, came back and landed safely, but that was quite the learning experience.

I met this Southwest captain who was flying that day and they were ahead of the Pan Am for take off, he lined up, looked at the weather and canceled his takeoff and decided to wait. He knew it did not look good. He said he saw the Pan Am lift off, bank a little and flew into the wall of rain and clouds and never saw him again

Microbursts are incredibly strong. Last one here snapped my large beech tree in half. I was hoping for some survivors of this accident.😢

Microbursts are terrifying. Delta 191 also crashed because of one, and 137 people died. Never underestimate Mother Nature!

Have to admit when I see TWA, Panam or Eastern I relax knowing this was a long time ago.

That was a bad one. But it's also the clearest explanation I've seen of wind shear and microbursts. Well done!

I had a retired airline captain tell me a long time ago that he and a group of pilots flew that New Orleans scenario in one of the airline's simulators multiple times and none of them could make that plane fly no matter what they did.

Since you did a plane crash in New Orleans.. do a stimulator on a plan crash involving a News Anchor.. her name is Nancy Parker.. she did a story on an old airplane at the LakeFront Airport in the East of New Orleans.. she did the story and minutes later she got into airplane with the Captain and flew but minutes later something went wrong the plane and it crashed.... Nancy Parker was a kind beautiful and caring news reporter who work in New Orleans for almost 3 decades before death

I remember when this happened because I was home and lived in New Orleans East. The aircraft crashed one block from my friend's house (he was at home when it happened) and saw the carnage. NTSB tried to blame the crash on "pilot error", then changed their accusation when they discovered that a microburst had occurred at that moment. It went down as we were going thru a typical thunderstorm which happened all the time in the South. All souls on the aircraft and some on the ground were lost and it was a very long time before the neighborhood recovered from the tragedy.

Fun fact, the Qantas 747 was repaired and put back into service. Qantas are still ranked #1 in safety for never having a 'hull loss' accident. Mentour pilot has a good reaction video to a turboprop encountering a microburst on take off. Scary to see!

A situation I haven't seen yet on The Flight Channel is one I remember long ago, a plane was either taking off or landing at Newark Airport in NJ and it ended up landing on the NJ Turnpike. The cause was identified as wind shear. I think this was when wind shear was first being recognized.

My father always said, when you're not gaining altitude, the throttles go thru the instrument panel and you pray.

The industry simply didn’t know that much about microbursts at the time. It wasn’t until Delta 191 went down in Dallas in 1985 did a more aggressive stance toward the phenomenon Take place. With the technology and procedures in place the last 30 years neither the PanAm nor the Delta accident would have happened.

Great video's. I look forward to them weekly, yesterday I was missing them. And coincidentally, I had re-watched the Kenner one this morning. Before this appeared. Wind shear and microbursts, powerful weather phenomenon. And I had not seen the Quantas incident before.

Wiki says: The damage was such that the aircraft was initially a write-off, but to preserve its reputation Qantas had it repaired at a cost of approximately AU$100 million (the exact figure was never disclosed by Qantas).[4] Returning the aircraft to service enabled Qantas to retain its record of having no hull-loss accidents since the advent of the Jet Age, and also proved to be the more economical option for the time, as a new 747-400 was listed close to $200 million.

I'd be fibbing if I said that I didn't hold a carrier like Qantas to a higher standard of flight crew communication and risk management standards. The accident flight, Flight 1, was an absolute crap show of preventable errors.

Aw, this was a very sad and tragic accident which I clearly recall. Pan Am (1980) had acquired National Airlines which gave PA immediate access to domestic routes in the US. Pan Am had previously been well known for her international destinations. This Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Diego trip was formerly National's - a solid airline back in the day.

Question on first scenario: Takeoff thrust is usually determined by a combination of the plane's takeoff weight, runway length, and environmental conditions, so that if you don't have to burn fuel at maximum thrust, you can save the airline some money. Can I assume that, given the bad weather, the 727 pilot would have selected maximum thrust for takeoff?

In the second crash, there was poor communication between the Captain and First Officer, which would have also been a contributing factor in the overrunning of the runway.

Fantastic graphics as always, and the new shorter format is great , thanks