Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alex Stone. ABC News is joining us now and boy
Alex watching the footage from earlier today because they I
guess there's you know, some different angles or different type
footage of this UPS cargo plane. Yeah, you know, they're
beeping out the video because people that took the video,
(00:21):
but this plane is it just seems like it's like
right in front of them, like they could have tossed
a golf ball and hit it, you know, the plane
that was going, and it is just it is so
shocking to watch that. And look, we talk about this
all the time. You fly quite a bit. I fly
a decent amount. You can't help because you're human, but
(00:42):
at least I can't. You know, I get on an aircraft.
As a matter of fact, when we were going to
Vegas a week and a half ago, when I was
getting on that plane, the guy that was standing in
line with me started talking about the UPS crash way. Well,
we're walking down the walkway to get on the plane,
(01:04):
and there was a lady behind him and she goes, oh,
that's fantastic. You guys are talking about disaster and we're
climbing on an aircraft. And I thought to myself, you know,
she makes a great point. I'm like thinking to this guy, like,
are you an idiot? Like why would you bring this up?
You know kind of a thing. But we were just
kind of lamenting how the freaking engine just fell off
(01:26):
the wing. It's like, how does that happen? And there's
just so many head scratching, you know, facts that are
connected this whole thing, Alex and man. The investigations are
clearly you know, hot and heavy right now, Well.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
They really are.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And yeah, the NTSB is out with some new information now.
So this goes back to November fourth. You remember, for
folks who were like, didn't that happen a couple of
weeks ago? It hasn't happened again. This is the one
from number of weeks ago in Louisville where fourteen people
were killed, three on board the plane and the rest
on the ground. And he was at MD eleven full
of fuel. They were going to Honolulu, and very early
(02:00):
on the NTSB said they were focused in on that
left engine. An aging aircraft, which many of the aircraft
that we all fly on are as old or older
in many cases, and you may not know it because
they repainted and they redo the interior and airplanes can
really fly for a very long time and be great
aircraft as long as they're inspected to know if there's
(02:21):
any kind of metal fatigue or anything else. But it
appeared that in the case of the UPS aircraft that
the engine came off while they were on their takeoff role,
and the NTSB immediately was saying.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Bok of the left engine palon was still attached to
the left engine when the engine separated from the wing.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So key there that the pylon was still attached, and
very early on that told them that this was probably
metal fatigue. That from airport surveillance video that they now
have that you see the left engine coming off, just
snapping off while they were rolling down the runway and
they were rolling, it came up, flew up over the plane.
The whole engine just came off and went over the plane.
(03:04):
And as it came off the MD eleven, the raw
fuel was in spewing out and out of the wing
that caught fire. The plane only got about thirty feet
off the ground. Then it went down into the business
park and erupted from there. But it looks like this
was probably metal fatigue in the pylon, which can happen
with an aircraft over many years of many cycles of
(03:24):
takeoffs and landings, and eventually they get little microscopic cracks
in the metal which can typically only be seen if
they do X rays and things on it when they're
doing high end checks. But our aviation analyst Stive Ganyard saying, yeah,
I mean, this is kind of what it went back to,
and it looked like early on it is probably this.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We do know that the aircraft underwent some maintenance two
weeks prior where they were supposed to look at this area,
but you can't always visually identify these kinds of fatigue cracks.
They're very very fine and often takes an X ray
machine to find them.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So all the MD elevens and DC tens are grounded
right now while the NTSB make sure that this isn't
going to happen to another aircraft. Now, this is only
cargo aircraft. Nobody no humans are flying well, no passengers
are flying on MT eleven's or DC tens any longer,
but they do fly around a lot of the cargo
around the world, so they got to inspect these things.
But it looks like that this may have been just
(04:18):
an undiagnosed metal fatigue situation. We've seen it in previous
air crashes, sometimes airlines, passenger airlines, sometimes cargo. There is
one very similar to this, and I believe nineteen seventy
nine that they're looking to see. Was this the same
thing as back then? But it looks like that. I
mean that it just incredible. If you've seen the images,
it sounds like you have mark of the engine just
(04:40):
popping off and then flying over the aircraft.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's really sad, really shocking, really terrifying.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
All those words.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Describe this footage now that has surfaced, And you know,
it was already chilling just a little bit that we
had kind of seen, and now that this new stuff
has kind of ser Do you see the diner that's
right there too that they spoke about where people had
a front row seat. Yeah, these people are sitting there.
It was like, I from what I understand, the diner
(05:09):
was full. It's like some bar and grill that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
There, that's really popular right there.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And there was so much fuel on board because they
were going I think it was a nine and a
half hour flight from Lowellville to Honolulu that they were
totally full, and all of that was burning and Yeah,
they went right by the diner, and had they hit
the diner, a lot more people would have been dead.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Is there new information on the United Airlines flight that
hit the wether you know, that hit the weather balloon
as it?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, one where people thought it was aliens. Yeah, it
was like a UFO.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
So the other big thing out now is, yeah, the
NTSP has their preliminary report on this United flight. They
were at thirty six thousand feet They're going Denver to
La October sixteenth, and something.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Slammed into it.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And initially there were theories it was space junk or
a meteor or aliens, And quickly the space junk or
meteor got debunked because the speed of something coming back
would have gone right.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Through the aircraft.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
You know, it would have been like a bullet right
through it had it been coming back. So there was
thinking they hit something else, but what was it? Well
turns out that it is now confirmed to have been
a weather balloon. What they hit, I mean just the
exact moment that they're in the right spot. You think
of how big the sky is and that they were
at thirty six thousand feet and they hit it, but
it shattered the windshield of the cockpit and shards of
(06:23):
glass rained down on the pilot's captain had a bloody arm,
superficial injuries. Luckily, it did not depressurize or multiple panes
of glass in the cockpit window, and while it shattered
some of them, it did not completely break the whole thing.
Had they depressurized at thirty six thousand feet, they probably
everybody would have been dead, The plane would have gone down,
(06:44):
the pilots immediately could have been sucked out, and all
of that.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Heather Ramsey was on board the plane.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
He said, the aircraft has collided with an object and
a window in the cockpit has shattered, so we need
to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So that's what they did.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
They made the emergency land In this NTSP preliminary report
now we have says yes it was a weather balloon,
but we know from this report that the captain of
the seven thirty seven Max said he and he told
investigators he noticed something coming toward the plane, but it
was so quick that before he could advise the first officer,
it went boom and there was a loud bang and
it hit the windshield.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
But he didn't know what it was.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Can you imagine you're just out there, you know, open sky,
and all of a sudden boom. You know, it's not
a bird at thirty six thousand feet. So the windshield shattered,
luckily didn't go all the way through. Back to Steve
Ganyard our aviation analysts, he says how lucky they were
where they hit this, that the sensors hanging down on
the bottom of the balloon didn't completely come through the window.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
If this airplane had hit the sensor package just one
or two inches lower, that sensor package could have come
all the way into the cockpit. All that plastic could
have wrapped around the wing, It could have gotten into
the engine. So this could have been much much more
serious than it actually.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Was, because it was clear from the beginning that whatever
hit was right at the top of the windshield of
the aircraft. Had been just a little bit below, it
would have been like right through the heart of that window.
But the company that launched the balloon, they say they
lost contact with it shortly before collided with the United plane,
and that the Captain's gonna be okay, it was not aliens,
It was not space junk, luckily, or would have gone
(08:16):
right through the plane at that speed, but they do
now know it definitely was a weather balloon and they
got very lucky.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I would think if that pilot and I don't know
if you know anything about the captain, had he been
at it a while or whatever, but I you know,
you're taking aback easily. If you're somebody who's been flying,
you know, thousands of hours, you've been doing this for
a long time, cruising a lot going on, You're the
last thing you're thinking is you're going to run into something.
(08:45):
That sky is enormous, clearly, and what are the odds?
And then also, if you're a pilot that's been doing
it a long time, are you going all right?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Time for me to retire? I just watched in the
middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean, you just the the probability of them
being at the exact same altitude as it is, bobbing
around and in the exact same spot in the sky,
you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery,
and that they hit in that exact moment and that
they're all okay to tell about it.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I'm picturing a cockpit in my head right now and
I'm trying to imagine where.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
They keep the depends.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, because I'm telling you what man's that will be
the first order of business.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
If I were that pilot, well, if they weren't already
on him, it would have been too late.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Trying to scramble for him.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Because yeah, I mean we heard the air traffic control.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
They were very calm, as they always are, and they
said they that they had hit something and they needed
to divert to Salt Lake City to get on the
ground because the captain was injured. And they got the
plane on the ground no problem at all. But and
it was all superficial. I mean, it was just you know,
shards of glass that had hit his arm, but there
was blood all over his arm, and.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, but very scary.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Like you pointed out, Alex, that if the plane would
have depressurized, probably would have killed everybody on board.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, the pilots right there, they probably didn't have their
seatbelts on when they were at altitude typically have to
take off, a pilot will take it off, and that
he would have gone right out the window.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Oh my gosh, which clearly leaves the plane unattended and
then you know or whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I mean. Luckily that didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, I's so thank you when.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You say, well, I've flown Microsoft flight simulator before I'll
land this aircraft
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Ride Alex Stone, ABC News out of Los Angeles, have
a great weekend, man you too, Bye, guys, thanks to you,
Alex Stone. ABC News is joining us now and boy
Alex watching the footage from earlier today because they I
guess there's you know, some different angles or different type
footage of this UPS cargo plane. Yeah, you know, they're
beeping out the video because people that took the video,
(00:21):
but this plane is it just seems like it's like
right in front of them, like they could have tossed
a golf ball and hit it, you know, the plane
that was going, and it is just it is so
shocking to watch that. And look, we talk about this
all the time. You fly quite a bit. I fly
a decent amount. You can't help because you're human, but
(00:42):
at least I can't. You know, I get on an aircraft.
As a matter of fact, when we were going to
Vegas a week and a half ago, when I was
getting on that plane, the guy that was standing in
line with me started talking about the UPS crash way. Well,
we're walking down the walkway to get on the plane,
(01:04):
and there was a lady behind him and she goes, oh,
that's fantastic. You guys are talking about disaster and we're
climbing on an aircraft. And I thought to myself, you know,
she makes a great point. I'm like thinking to this guy, like,
are you an idiot? Like why would you bring this up?
You know kind of a thing. But we were just
kind of lamenting how the freaking engine just fell off
(01:26):
the wing. It's like, how does that happen? And there's
just so many head scratching, you know, facts that are
connected this whole thing, Alex and man. The investigations are
clearly you know, hot and heavy right now, Well.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
They really are.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And yeah, the NTSB is out with some new information now.
So this goes back to November fourth. You remember, for
folks who were like, didn't that happen a couple of
weeks ago? It hasn't happened again. This is the one
from number of weeks ago in Louisville where fourteen people
were killed, three on board the plane and the rest
on the ground. And he was at MD eleven full
of fuel. They were going to Honolulu, and very early
(02:00):
on the NTSB said they were focused in on that
left engine. An aging aircraft, which many of the aircraft
that we all fly on are as old or older
in many cases, and you may not know it because
they repainted and they redo the interior and airplanes can
really fly for a very long time and be great
aircraft as long as they're inspected to know if there's
(02:21):
any kind of metal fatigue or anything else. But it
appeared that in the case of the UPS aircraft that
the engine came off while they were on their takeoff role,
and the NTSB immediately was saying.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Bok of the left engine palon was still attached to
the left engine when the engine separated from the wing.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So key there that the pylon was still attached, and
very early on that told them that this was probably
metal fatigue. That from airport surveillance video that they now
have that you see the left engine coming off, just
snapping off while they were rolling down the runway and
they were rolling, it came up, flew up over the plane.
The whole engine just came off and went over the plane.
(03:04):
And as it came off the MD eleven, the raw
fuel was in spewing out and out of the wing
that caught fire. The plane only got about thirty feet
off the ground. Then it went down into the business
park and erupted from there. But it looks like this
was probably metal fatigue in the pylon, which can happen
with an aircraft over many years of many cycles of
(03:24):
takeoffs and landings, and eventually they get little microscopic cracks
in the metal which can typically only be seen if
they do X rays and things on it when they're
doing high end checks. But our aviation analyst Stive Ganyard saying, yeah,
I mean, this is kind of what it went back to,
and it looked like early on it is probably this.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We do know that the aircraft underwent some maintenance two
weeks prior where they were supposed to look at this area,
but you can't always visually identify these kinds of fatigue cracks.
They're very very fine and often takes an X ray
machine to find them.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So all the MD elevens and DC tens are grounded
right now while the NTSB make sure that this isn't
going to happen to another aircraft. Now, this is only
cargo aircraft. Nobody no humans are flying well, no passengers
are flying on MT eleven's or DC tens any longer,
but they do fly around a lot of the cargo
around the world, so they got to inspect these things.
But it looks like that this may have been just
(04:18):
an undiagnosed metal fatigue situation. We've seen it in previous
air crashes, sometimes airlines, passenger airlines, sometimes cargo. There is
one very similar to this, and I believe nineteen seventy
nine that they're looking to see. Was this the same
thing as back then? But it looks like that. I
mean that it just incredible. If you've seen the images,
it sounds like you have mark of the engine just
(04:40):
popping off and then flying over the aircraft.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's really sad, really shocking, really terrifying.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
All those words.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Describe this footage now that has surfaced, And you know,
it was already chilling just a little bit that we
had kind of seen, and now that this new stuff
has kind of ser Do you see the diner that's
right there too that they spoke about where people had
a front row seat. Yeah, these people are sitting there.
It was like, I from what I understand, the diner
(05:09):
was full. It's like some bar and grill that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
There, that's really popular right there.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And there was so much fuel on board because they
were going I think it was a nine and a
half hour flight from Lowellville to Honolulu that they were
totally full, and all of that was burning and Yeah,
they went right by the diner, and had they hit
the diner, a lot more people would have been dead.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Is there new information on the United Airlines flight that
hit the wether you know, that hit the weather balloon
as it?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, one where people thought it was aliens. Yeah, it
was like a UFO.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
So the other big thing out now is, yeah, the
NTSP has their preliminary report on this United flight. They
were at thirty six thousand feet They're going Denver to
La October sixteenth, and something.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Slammed into it.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And initially there were theories it was space junk or
a meteor or aliens, And quickly the space junk or
meteor got debunked because the speed of something coming back
would have gone right.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Through the aircraft.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
You know, it would have been like a bullet right
through it had it been coming back. So there was
thinking they hit something else, but what was it? Well
turns out that it is now confirmed to have been
a weather balloon. What they hit, I mean just the
exact moment that they're in the right spot. You think
of how big the sky is and that they were
at thirty six thousand feet and they hit it, but
it shattered the windshield of the cockpit and shards of
(06:23):
glass rained down on the pilot's captain had a bloody arm,
superficial injuries. Luckily, it did not depressurize or multiple panes
of glass in the cockpit window, and while it shattered
some of them, it did not completely break the whole thing.
Had they depressurized at thirty six thousand feet, they probably
everybody would have been dead, The plane would have gone down,
(06:44):
the pilots immediately could have been sucked out, and all
of that.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Heather Ramsey was on board the plane.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
He said, the aircraft has collided with an object and
a window in the cockpit has shattered, so we need
to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So that's what they did.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
They made the emergency land In this NTSP preliminary report
now we have says yes it was a weather balloon,
but we know from this report that the captain of
the seven thirty seven Max said he and he told
investigators he noticed something coming toward the plane, but it
was so quick that before he could advise the first officer,
it went boom and there was a loud bang and
it hit the windshield.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
But he didn't know what it was.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Can you imagine you're just out there, you know, open sky,
and all of a sudden boom. You know, it's not
a bird at thirty six thousand feet. So the windshield shattered,
luckily didn't go all the way through. Back to Steve
Ganyard our aviation analysts, he says how lucky they were
where they hit this, that the sensors hanging down on
the bottom of the balloon didn't completely come through the window.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
If this airplane had hit the sensor package just one
or two inches lower, that sensor package could have come
all the way into the cockpit. All that plastic could
have wrapped around the wing, It could have gotten into
the engine. So this could have been much much more
serious than it actually.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Was, because it was clear from the beginning that whatever
hit was right at the top of the windshield of
the aircraft. Had been just a little bit below, it
would have been like right through the heart of that window.
But the company that launched the balloon, they say they
lost contact with it shortly before collided with the United plane,
and that the Captain's gonna be okay, it was not aliens,
It was not space junk, luckily, or would have gone
(08:16):
right through the plane at that speed, but they do
now know it definitely was a weather balloon and they
got very lucky.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I would think if that pilot and I don't know
if you know anything about the captain, had he been
at it a while or whatever, but I you know,
you're taking aback easily. If you're somebody who's been flying,
you know, thousands of hours, you've been doing this for
a long time, cruising a lot going on, You're the
last thing you're thinking is you're going to run into something.
(08:45):
That sky is enormous, clearly, and what are the odds?
And then also, if you're a pilot that's been doing
it a long time, are you going all right?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Time for me to retire? I just watched in the
middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean, you just the the probability of them
being at the exact same altitude as it is, bobbing
around and in the exact same spot in the sky,
you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery,
and that they hit in that exact moment and that
they're all okay to tell about it.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I'm picturing a cockpit in my head right now and
I'm trying to imagine where.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
They keep the depends.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, because I'm telling you what man's that will be
the first order of business.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
If I were that pilot, well, if they weren't already
on him, it would have been too late.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Trying to scramble for him.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Because yeah, I mean we heard the air traffic control.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
They were very calm, as they always are, and they
said they that they had hit something and they needed
to divert to Salt Lake City to get on the
ground because the captain was injured. And they got the
plane on the ground no problem at all. But and
it was all superficial. I mean, it was just you know,
shards of glass that had hit his arm, but there
was blood all over his arm, and.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, but very scary.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Like you pointed out, Alex, that if the plane would
have depressurized, probably would have killed everybody on board.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, the pilots right there, they probably didn't have their
seatbelts on when they were at altitude typically have to
take off, a pilot will take it off, and that
he would have gone right out the window.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Oh my gosh, which clearly leaves the plane unattended and
then you know or whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I mean. Luckily that didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, I's so thank you when.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You say, well, I've flown Microsoft flight simulator before I'll
land this aircraft
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Ride Alex Stone, ABC News out of Los Angeles, have
a great weekend, man you too, Bye, guys, thanks to you,
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