Scariest Air Traffic Control Conversations
A hijack attempt by an off-duty pilot, a Boeing 737 ditching in the ocean, an Airbus A320 almost hitting a mountain, and an emergency due to loss of pressurization.
Watch and listen to these real and scary air traffic control conversations.
Air traffic control audio licensed from LiveATC.net.
The positions of the aircraft may not be 100% accurate. Only involved aircraft are shown. Unnecessary communications were trimmed for clarity. Animations are based on air traffic control communications and data from flight tracking services.
⤵ Get the best aviation merchandise:
theaviationcentral.com
⤵ SOCIALS:
Twitter » / officiallucaas
Instagram » / officiallucaas
Discord » / discord
TikTok » / lucaasyt
⤵ MUSIC:
Music is provided by Epidemic Sound » www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Business inquiries? Reach me at » contact.lucaas@gmail.com
A new video concept, please let me know your thoughts! And Christmas sweaters are now available at theaviationcentral.com/ -- get yours today!
Nice video, love the idea! One thought: specify the flight numbers instead of «Pilot» and «Other pilot» in subtitles. It's confusing, because there are two pilots on the one plane :-)
I love this concept and would welcome more videos like this. Thanks @lucaas!
I want to be a pilot and this type of videos is very helpful and instructive, and it's also a good way to get used to the sound, a little difficult to understand sometimes
hands down the best video format. maybe do a mix of the 2 types.
W video
"speed is... that doesn't look good." are truly words i never want to hear a pilot say.
Those were scary, but the training and the professional calmness of both air and tower crew kicked in and did it's job. Well done to everyone involved.
hoonolulu sucked, kept stepping on people
Well, the tower crew did well, anyway.
I'm not a pilot & I'm not going to pretend like I know what I'm talking about but on the last one when the pilots lost pressure made me think that there was crucial time lost when the Tower/ATC communicated with the pilots. For example, when the ATC did multiple "Filled Pauses". ie. "Um" @ 13:16 & 13:33 I'm wondering if because the ATC's training & experience to stay calm could hinder communications? When done correctly elevated stress especially in emergencies can greatly benefit your ability to comprehend logistics & surrounding environments.🤷♂️ *** I understand that the time between the ATC & Pilot communications to each other isn't real world. So because of this there is definitely a strong argument that it wouldn't have mattered. At least in this scenario...
@@Extraterrestrial-With-A-Finger You have to remember that both the Tower and aircrew have check lists they have to go through when any incident happens and the tower is trying to get information to pass on to Emergency services, so a lot is happening on both ends at the same time, luckily other aircraft in the area saw the aircraft go down close to land and the Coast Guard were in the area.
@@Chuck59ish Yeah I can only imagine... I'll tell you this much. I'm completely comfortable with letting the pilots & ATC worry about all that stuff. I get nervous when I'm sitting in the emergency aisle. I feel like I'm going to forget the extra procedures.😏 That's not really saying much though because I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast the other day.😁
The most unfortunate part of the Rhoades 810 ditching is that they misdiagnosed Engine 1 as the failed engine when it was actually Engine 2. So, they shut down the good engine instead of the bad one.
Like Kegworth...
Thank you for posting this I was actually curious because I know those planes are capable of flying and maintaining altitude with just 1 engine but obviously turning a jet into a glider is not going to maintain anything.
Like, why dont they just restart it lul
@@ryanyoung7433 From my understanding the APU has to be activated for at least 3 minutes prior to trying to start engine, so shutting off the wrong engine turned the plane from something that probably could have made it into something that had no chance.
Oh man, is that true? So they didn't "lose" the second engine, they manually shut it down?
I like that the guys assisting American 329 actually said "get back to me when your workload decreases" instead of just pestering the pilots.
Hearing "how many souls on board?" gives me chills.
Curious, I just came across these recordings; why do they say "souls"?
@@cynicalbeotch standard aviation talk. Includes all people on board, so passengers and crew.
In UK we say P.O.B. (persons onboard). I guess in USA they say souls.
@@oobenoobwrong. “Souls on board” is a gobal term in aviation.
Me too.
More of these please man It's fantastic that when it gets super urgent that ATCs can clear everything and just say land any runway, anywhere.
One word, "Emergency". If you declare one, we will move mountains for you.
@@FUMan661Ah, that was the first pilot’s mistake. Didn’t say “emergency”, so the mountain he was about to fly into couldn’t get moved 😂
@@josipbagi exactly. Oh well, live and learn. 🤣
@josipbagi plenty of paperwork when you declare emergency 😅
The ditching off of Oahu was caused because the pilots misidentified the failing engine and shutdown their only working engine, the damaged engine was unable to provide the power needed to return to the airport. Both pilots survived thanks to the effort by the coast guard and local ships.
I am so in awe of how calm the controllers and pilots are in these situations. As an RN, staying calm was essential in emergencies. I cannot imagine being in a hurtling airplane!
@@bonnie3232yeah me too as a Bronx firemen… we definitely don’t use the word thank you… as a recall.. the first arriving chief at 9/11 went on the air and screamed “ 10-60 send me everything you got” 10-60 is radio code which means major emergency
That Hong Kong ATC - cool as ice. Amazing work.
Very!
I bet the ATC was wearing some cool dark shades as well! 😎
Don’t think I’ve seen so many blocked calls by a controller…
Honestly it was kind of irritating.. there was no patience or courtesy to each other. They both constantly stepped on eachothers comms without letting the other finish the transmission..
Airline Pilot here. Terrible comms between ATC and the pilots.
That controller needs some serious retraining. The flight declared an emergency, and she still instructed them to turn to V2 and continue outbound TWO MORE TIMES. Clueless.
@@thekill2509I concur!
how first guy who landed in water stayed calm through whole thing blows my mind. by looks horrible weather with horrible water. dark. and knowing your doing water landing. (one most dangrous landings you can do) Hats off for how he handled that.
It's amazing how calm these people can be in an endangerment of life
It's exactly what you need. Going apeshit isn't going to help the situation. Training training training
@@kleetus92😂😂😂😂😂
@@kleetus92Precisely! Always have confidence in, and rely on your Training.
@@BirdTalk13 This is true in firefighting as well.
It’s almost like that’s what they were trained their whole life to be like
These are awesome, lucaas! Hope to see more! Always impressed by how calm the pilots and ATC are in these scary emergencies. Clear signs of *aviate, navigate, and communicate* rules in an emergency, in case others wondered why the pilots didn't respond right away to ATC.
111 likes but no comments? lemme fix that
Well let's hope that's what it was that they were dealing eith a flight issue , but a quick ATC controller who stayed calm you like to think good but do soon after take off you do have yo think about other intentions either way the ATC controller saved a lot of lives I guess the pilots would have to explain what it was about
Lucaas, if I have one request from you though, it’s to PLEASE CHANGE THE VOICE
The professionalism of the controllers and pilots is very impressive. You could hear a little stress in the controller for the aircraft that landed in the water, but she handled it expertly. The thing I was wondering, especially in the first two incidents, was why were the radios so garbled if they just took off from the airport they were communicating with? It would seem being that close, the transmission would be much better.
I don't even understand how pilots are able to talk on radio. Between the quality of the signal and fast unarticulated english, I can barely catch half the words.
@@krostouin You get an ear for it with a bit of practice. Usually you're expecting a certain type of information in a certain format so that helps too.
The audio was most likely received and published on LiveATC by volunteers nearby but with inferior equipment like a VHF scanner and short antennas placed on a house, not on a tower. These aren't the official audio tapes recorded by ATC. Pilots and ATC would have better reception.
I suspect the Hawaii one was due to someone else trying to transmit at the same time. T2 said he was trying to contact tower, could have been him.
@@krostouin I was thinking about that as well. They do get used to their "language" of ATC - Pilot talk after enough experience, but in some foreign countries, it still has to be difficult.
Rhoades 810 being told cleared for any runway and then requesting coastguuard gave me goose bumps!
That ditching clip was painful with all the interference.
The "interference" was the Honolulu ATC kept stepping on the pilot's transmissions before he finished his sentences. Sometimes he wasn't even halfway his sentence when ATC started talking over him. Making things very confusing for both sides.
Yeah, she was awfully quick on the button. 😳
@@Mash4096 Yeah. The lack radio discipline was jarring.
I’m just a layman in this so take it with a grain of salt but that pilot was hard to listen to as well.
Once a threat level 4, it remains a threat level 4 until the person is off the aircraft.
As for the aircraft with the loss of pressure, the "alarms sounding" in the background was indeed the cabin altitude alarm. I'm sure the controller could immediately tell what the issue was upon hearing that.
"Uhhhh 'merican 329 whats yo- *BRR BRR BRR BRR BRR* "I see"
Disagree. When the controller heard the alarm sounding, I'm sure that they could immediately tell that there was a problem - but it's unlikely that they could identify what the specific problem was. An Air Traffic Controller may or may not be a pilot in their spare time, but it's not part of their job requirement to be able to fly. Even if the Controller is a trained pilot, it's extremely unlikely that they're trained in the specific aircraft type that has the problem.
As a controller, aircraft beeps coming through the mic mean nothing to me, but maybe some controllers with pilot experience would know.
ATC are usually amazing at their jobs but no they don't all have pilot experience. A colleague of mine previously did tower control for a military airfield and he controlled fast jets and cargo planes and VIP planes but never flew anything.
Communication in the second video is ridiculous. The ATC is constantly talking while the pilot is talking to her….
Agreed I would expect a highly paid air traffic controller to perform better than that!
That was very frustrating, all the blocked radio traffic
sometimes he wasn't even halfway his sentence when she steps on his transmissions.
The fact that you can hear the master caution alarm blaring in the back is terrifying 13:58
Tower at Honolulu did a very bad job, they could have asked them if they would prefer to land at Kalaeloa MUCH earlier in their flight.
Pilots on flight 810 thought engine 1 was broken when it was the working one
8:29 imagine the situation the pilots faced as their plane is mere meters above the sea
Kept it cool all the way down too.
Yeh and ditching in the dark as well. Terrifying
Both people surviving a water ditching is impressive flying
I should note all of it is impressive flying, but ditchings don't normally end with a 100% success rate
Impressive ditching sure, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. They shut down their only good engine after improperly doing the checklist.
That Honolulu controller needs to learn to let people finish their transmissions. She was talking over everyone
As a pilot she mad my blood boil
Very entertaining! Thank you for this Lucas, much appreciated!
I don’t understand why that honolulu atc kept that flight 810 on hold when he wanted to come back and land beside one of his engine was out already. That’s an emergency and she told him to maintain at 2k feet. When she cleared everything up for them it was clearly too late.
Wow! The first clip is INSANE! She is so, So Calm and Professional! If that's me ( and of course that will Never happen) I will SCREAM Non-Stop - RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHTTTTT >>>>>>>
She was fantastic!! Kept it together and spoke very quickly and was able to get all the information across. That was a really tense moment.
That second atc needs some serious training. She constantly keep stepping on 810.
I think they were having trouble hearing her thed got a problem I eould say the e got oxygen masks on why as moo e developed microphones inside pilots and air stewardess oxygen masks wee passengers ideally as well, if I was married and 2as hoping on holiday with loved ones if we know we were going to crash I'd want to say to person I love you etc she sounded ecpasarted I guess she was shocked when plane had gone down in sea, I never heard her say when captain said we've got problems has your oxygen masks come done, if they said yes we'll the ATC could have then said don't go below blah very sad
someone call 911, @@bunglejoy3645 is having a stroke!
@@bunglejoy3645 the depressurizing plane was different from the one who had ATC stepping on them.
Wow, the new video format looks amazing! I really like it! Especially the timelapses of planes and airports!
I appreciate it!
lol furry with stolen google pfp. get your own art, thief
I hope the crew of 428 took time to personally thank ATC for saving their lives. Whew . Also great video.
Thanks, Lucaas, that was a brilliantly intense video. Well done on sharing it with us, cheers.
Love this type of video lucaas! Thanks mate ❤
This was great Lucaas, really enjoyed it! Thankfully, no on was injured!
Wow, very entertaining! I'd like to see (hear) more of this stuff. Much appreciated!
Thanks for sharing. The professionalism and calmness are incredible! I feel I am having panic attacks just by watching the videos…
I’d heard about the Rhoades Express incident in other videos and from reading about it, so while that clip was playing I slowly started to realize it was that same flight. It was a really cool feeling to have that realization!
You should do another series of these including FedEx Flight 705 which was an incident in the 1990’s when an off-duty pilot attacked the pilots and tried to hijack the aircraft. The pilots acted heroically to subdue him and eventually succeeded but not without serious injury to all three of them, and to the would-be hijacker. Later all the pilots were awarded a gold medal for heroism. I actually expected the attempted hijacking incident in this video to be FedEx flight 705, but the one in the video was certainly terrifying too, though the outcome was less dramatic as it turned out.
As a firemen in da Bronx USA… these pilots are brave and get my total respect… How calm the remained is unbelievable….. knowing the plane was going down into the water….
Well produced video! Visuals were very addicting and satisfying to watch, kudos.
Incredible video. Please more of these conversations
Gosh! ATC almost cut off Rhodes Exp 810 on almost all transmissions, and she isn’t the one with a failed engine and loosing altitude! The crew had to repeat so many transmissions!
Jesus and God loves everyone so much turn to them before its to late
@@christianvr7805 Please keep God and miracles out of aviation please. Are you suggesting God wasn't there for the number of crashes of the Boeing 737 Max, MH370, AF447 etc??
I don’t understand, she was quick and clear the pilot wasn’t. The whole problem was caused by the first officer and pilot. They had to repeat because they weren’t being clear how is that her fault.
@@cara.777 that controller needs to get some basic training. She stepped on almost all the transmissions made by the pilots, even when they declared an emergency and also when they said they might loose the other engine too.. That should have jump started her brain to give them the shortest vector possible. As an after thought, she tell them about the other airfield which was just 3 miles off to their left. Please compare this transmission with the ATC that handled Capt Sully's emergency. Cheers! 🍺🍺 Safe flights 👍🏻👍🏻
please make more of these, theyre great
Great format, just wish you would add more color to each situation. You pretty much say everyone was safe and end it. With anticipation so high, it would be nice to hear additional details like the aftermath, cause, etc. rather then the abrupt endings. cheers!
😊
I really like this concept bro. I expect you do more of this.
On the Rhodes Express 810, actually only engine number 2 was lost but they misidentified and instead thought number one was lost which caused this whole thing, if they would have moved both the throttle sticks instead of only the one for the engine 2, they would be able to perfectly land. the pilot who spoke had actually been through 4 engine failures, but he had a lot of respect for the first officer because the first officer hadn’t ever been wrong in anything in front of the captain, that’s why when the first officer said engine 1 was the failed one, the captain went along with it
the captain was also distracted talking to ATC, and I'm sure all the stepping didn't help with that
Good video , great for pilot training, all pilots & atc's remained calm
What a selection of incidents!! I was on the edge of my seat 😳
Love the new concept- edge of the seat stuff! 2 thumbs up!
Excellent jon by Rhodes emergency controller. She was upset but stayed cool. Her voice showed great concern
Hawaii controller just stepping over and loosing all essential communications. Had a real stress
i loved this concept vro its very interesting hoping to see more of these videos
Nice work from everyone involved.
This format is great, really interesting, but I have one suggestion: please make sure there is a pause between the stories. I didn't even have time to think "OOOFF the pilots survived ditching" and the next story started already. You know, I was "in a moment", a bit emotional... and suddenly next thing starts. I needed a second or two after the last one. But overall this concept is really cool.
Appreciate the feedback!
Agreed. The monotonous delivery also makes it difficult. Try separators such as “in another story…”
The off - duty pilot incident has been covered in detail by @Mentour Pilot on youtube.. Highly recommend it for understanding why he tried to shut the engines off.. (For those who are interested)... Overall a great video man... Would like to see more of these...... You my man just earned a subscription.... Keep it up...
Me my first day as air traffic controller: “Sorry bro I can’t understand anything you’re saying. You’re talking way to fast
i really like this new video concept i hope you continue with it :)
This is a serious interesting video! I hate to ask but want to…can we have some more of these type videos too? Thank you much love
the rhoades express 810 pilot was so calm as well. Respect !
he was even calmer than the controller for sure
Maybe a little too calm lol
Very interesting - thanks for going in this direction!
The ATC tower of the ditching accident was the worst tower I've ever heard, she kept interfering all the time way before they could finish their speech, she definitely should have waited just 2 seconds more before pushing the button, it would have eliminated literally every single interference...
They both were interrupting each other. Maybe it’s better to let the pilot talk but he was pretty slow to relay any information and she was way too quick to keep asking.
Yeah, she was really bad.
WOULD LOVE TO SEE MORE. YOU HAVE A NEW SUBSCRIBER!
Man the Honolulu controller needs to calm down and wait for transmissions to finish. Lots of confusions and missed information because they were trying to fire back so fast. Slow down, it is not JFK and it's an emergency. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
That second one in Hawaii seemed like pilot and controller were not very experienced. Either of them should have realized Kalaeloa was probably doable, but she mentioned it way too late. Seems like they could have made it there
Nice new content in the mix. I also would be interested to know what the investigations showed
More videos like this!!!! PLEASE 🙏
The Roades 810 video... it's amazing to me that even though ATC and the pilot were very calm, they both seem to have needed more training on how to use a radio. They kept talking over each other, thus NOT getting their transmissions delivered. Stuff like this is what adds more danger on top of al already disaster.
This style of video is very entertaining, would love to see more of them :0
MAKE MORE OF THIS PLEASE.
Watching this after landing from an international flight. I would not have lasted the first 8 minutes if I were preparing for my next flight!
Love your vids
Love the new concept
That's a nice change of video. Thanks for that upload. Are you from India? Respect.
Nice! How have I been missing these long videos? wtf
Jeez, Honolulu ATC doesn't like waiting for people to finish talking before interrupting and stepping on them...
lool furry
3:06 wow that controller is one of the worst I've heard. I could barely listen to that clip anymore
She was just fine, there was a lot of mutual stepping at the beginning causing the confusion. The steps also occurred at what would normally be a break in the transmission. Also, she had significant workload as it seems she's working tower and approach/departure radar ops for some reason.
@@mobius7089 She kept stepping on him, making him repeat transmissions, and couldnt understand anything going on. She did get better towards the end
@@AlexFlies Maybe it was the first time she had an emergency. Of course ATC has to be professional and have the training. But there's still a massive difference between a simulated emergency and a real one, can't imagine anything could prepare you for the real thing. Not justifying some of it, but it's a stressful situation and something you can only really experience for real. Hence why she calmed down towards the end.
You think the other Rhoades flight would stop talking on radio so the emergency traffic could talk. Thats so much time wasted.
I love it, and i hate it... I work at Serbian ATC, technical dep, and i'm one of the guys that plays back the "video situation"... Luckily, in 36 years, personally, i had only one, military accident... BTW, love your work.
This layout and video User Interface Design is well done. All in RT
Everyone nailed their jobs it's really reassuring to be honest
Very Good video. Interesting with a new type of video.
ANNIE ARE YOU OK??? ANNIE WILL YOU TELL US UR OK??? -Air traffic control
Rhoades comms were brutal with all the doubling.
The most intense thing you hear someone ask you is how many souls on board. The question must be asked but wow....
I never knew they refer to passengers and personnel as souls
it's passengers+crew
The Rhoades 810 actually shut down the wrong engine, otherwise, they would've made it
The ditching one, isn't that the one where the pilots mistakenly shut down the wrong engine ?
The American Airlines comms transcript seemed a little chaotic but given that so much was going on in that cockpit at the time it seemed to be handled pretty well. The alarm sounding is the cabin altitude alarm for the Boeing 737 so it was a pressurization issue.
Isn't it the exact same alarm as the 737 takeoff config?
Yes it is but Boeing likely used the same horn because the two scenarios in which they would sound are very different from each other and would be easy to differentiate which horn signified what based on the stage of flight
Not sure if you can call that a hijacking, that suggested he wanted control of the plane, no he wanted to crash the plane - letting off the engine fire suppression system means effectively rendering the engines useless as they will not restart afterwards. That was a suicide attempt.
Bro made the entire intro Rhyme and thought we would notice
Sheer professionalism 🙏🏻
Daily dose of ATC horror!
That dude who tried to crash the plane that landed at PDX was about as big a news event as the Horizon ground crew dude who stole the plane several years ago, took off, and eventually crashed near Sea-Tac. But he was mentally off balance anyway.
I would call Kahului airport on Maui an international airport (as opposed to regional) as more than 20% of their traffic is from international routes. It does take quite a few daily island hoppers and routes from the US mainland but the international side is quite busy second only to Honolulu and it's growing much faster than Oahu. When Lahaina burned down much of the aid Oahu received was international.
these were amazing,..
honolulu tower really need to avoid keeping stepping on ongoing transmissions...
If not for the subtitles It would be mostly hard figuring out what they are saying, especially the pilots with static and engine disturbances
soothing commentary
Really liked the concept bc you explain a bit more of everything, but it will be good if you continue with the other videos.
For the Horizon Airlines flight. I was actually in the flight just ahead of them before they landed in Portland. I believe I filmed them landing just behind us but I can't be certain...
Nice, More!