Page 8 - Captain Collins News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Being torn to shreds as it slams into the side of a mountain. >> the noise of the disintegration of the airplane was so huge, i didn't hear anything else. >> january 20th, 1992, 6:20 p.m. airinter flight 5148 runs down the runway and takes off from lyon, france, on a short commuter flight to strasbourg. 90 passengers are on board, most of them business travelers and 6 crew members. graduate student nicholas is in the last row of seats. >> i was visiting my girlfriend who was living in strasbourg. >> the captain and the first officer are in the cockpit of

Base at the foot of mount erebus. >> i kept a log of everyone that was out and what they were doing just for safety sakes. >> 40 minutes from their frozen destination, passengers on flight 901 are standing at the windows, eager fir their first glimpse at the endless expanse of ice. >> captain collins radios to find out about current weather conditions on ross island and learns there's a huge problem. >> that particular day the mountain was completely whited out. >> robinson cautions captain collins about the low cloud cover that descend to 2,000 feet. >> i was keen to let him know that he shou...

Pretty hard to say much when you can't see anything. >> still sure of his safe position over the sound, captain collins continues his descent. then at 1500 feet, the captain's confidence is shattered. collins tells his crew that conditions, quote, don't look good at all and that he'll have to climb out of it. ominously, a minute later all transmission from flight 901 stops. >> then i started calling the field parties that were still on our listening watch to see if they had heard anything over the aircraft.

Landing. and then they accept a runway change that will speed up their arrival time. but first officer don williams says he'll have to scramble to get down in time for the shorter approach. >> modern jets are so aerodynamically efficient, one of the greatest challenges in flying them is getting them down and getting them to slow down. speed breaks or flight spoilers are devices used to help increase the descent rate to help it slow down. >> the captain deploys 965 speed brakes and types in the letter r for rozo, the code for the radio beacon a few miles short of the runway. but instead of flyi...

Now we're going to take you back to the msnbc special. december 20th, 1995, american airlines flight 965 is about to begin its descent to cali, colombia. its approach is through a narrow corridor in between one of the tallest mountain rangers, the andes. 155 passengers are on board, including mercedes ramirez and both of their parents. they're eager to be reunited with relatives waiting for them at the airport. >> you can tell everybody was excited because this was a christmas back home flight. >> air traffic control clears flight 965 to descend to 15,000 feet and proceed to cali. the captai...