Smoothest air I’ve seen all month.
Captain, don’t say it out loud, Dev.
My aircraft.
Left engine fire.
Throttle idle.
Tyrell, the engine is on fire.
Look at me, baby.
Just look at me.
Stay seated.
Seat belts tight.
Your pilots are handling it.
Handle pulled.
Bottle one away.
Give it 10 seconds.
Fire’s out, but the fuel’s draining.
Captain, we [music] have a leak.
And the controls are heavy.
Hydraulics.
Salt Lake Center.
[music] Hion 417.
Mayday.
Mayday.
Mayday.
Left engine failure.
Fuel leak.
Hydraulic.
Halion 417, Mayday received.
Billings, 12 mi.
Turn left, heading 140.
At this leak rate, we have [music] 15 minutes of fuel.
Billings is 22 minutes away.
Then Billings isn’t an airport.
It’s a wish.
Harland County Airfield, 28 m 10:00.
Runway 5,200 ft.
[music] Closed for repaving.
I read the notice.
Closed is still concrete center.
Anything closer than Billings 417 Harland County is closed for construction, barricades and heavy equipment on the runway.
I cannot clear you to land there.
Understood.
Ma’am, this cooler holds a donor heart.
It has under two hours.
A man in Denver dies without it.
I’ll tell the captain, doctor.
Mr.
Lockage, 417 declared Mayday.
Left engine failure.
Which engine number?
316.
Sir, get me the company frequency.
Captain Branvolt, Conrad Lockidge, flight operations.
Continue to Billings.
We have a team and a hanger waiting.
My numbers say otherwise.
Mr.
Lockidge, we’re leaking fuel and hydraulics.
Billings is beyond our range.
That engine does not leave Houseion on hands.
Captain Billings, that’s an order.
Captain, Mr.
Lockidge hired me.
He signed my training file.
If we disobey, then ask yourself why a man worries about an engine.
More than 142 people.
I don’t know.
Neither do I yet.
If this is the last video, put the phone down, son.
Hold the lady’s hand.
Thank you, dear.
Promise me we still go to Maui.
Next week, Mrs.
Washington, I promise.
11 minutes of fuel.
11 minutes.
That’s the number that matters.
Gideon, the engine 316 file, the bulletin 7 inspection history goes missing tonight.
Sir, I flagged that blade four times.
Missing.
Understood.
My father flew for Hion.
He warned them a blade like that would crack.
They called it pilot error.
Warren Branvold.
They ended his career.
They won’t end this.
Dev, we’re landing at Harland.
Captain, if we disobey flight ops, we’re finished.
Careers are for people who live to retire.
Salt Lake Center, Houseion 417 is landing at Harland County, runway 27 [music] under pilot and command emergency.
417, I cannot clear you.
Understood.
Then please clear everyone else.
Good luck.
She’s left our frequency, sir.
She’s landing at Harland.
Get Sloan Ravenscraftoft on the phone now.
Pilot error.
Unauthorized landing.
Draft the statement.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Branvold.
We’ve lost an engine and we’ll land at an airfield about 7 minutes ahead.
Your crew will prepare you.
Please trust us.
Sir, I need strong hands at this exit.
Can you do it, ma’am?
I was built for it.
The passenger in seven carries a donor heart.
Under two hours, then we land smooth and fast.
Get everyone braced.
Cabin’s ready.
If this story is holding your heart, tap like, subscribe, and tell us where in the world you’re watching from.
Now, let’s see if Captain Tessa can bring them down.
That is no sightseeing flight.
Cal, a jet’s in trouble heading for the old strip.
Lahy, the runway is full of paving equipment.
Then we move it.
Every truck, every tractor.
Harland volunteers roll.
Captain, the runway is blocked.
PA, trucks, barrels.
Then somebody down there had better be fast.
Lahy, that’s a 100 ton airplane.
Then drive faster.
Chain it.
Pull everybody off the pavement.
4 minutes.
Gear by gravity.
Do it.
Three green.
Gear down.
Flaps 20.
Brace.
Brace.
Heads down.
Stay down.
Brace.
Heads down.
Harland Unicom.
Lahi Harrove.
Runways clear.
Mostly wind west at 12.
Bring her in, Captain.
Just land it, honey.
Harland Unicom Hion 417.
We hear you.
Thank you.
Who is that?
An angel with a radio.
800.
500.
Gusting.
Steady.
Steady.
100 100 50 Come on, old girl.
Brakes are soft.
[music] Dev, reverse, right, right, reverse.
We landed.
We’re not done.
Evacuation checklist.
Evacuate.
Unbuckle and get out.
Leave everything [music] this way.
Easy, ma’am.
I’ve got you.
Young man.
Young man, you have wonderful arms.
Doctor, what’s in the cooler?
A heart.
It must fly within 90 minutes.
Cal, call the air ambulance.
Billing’s flight is wheels up now.
Cabin’s clear, Captain.
Then out, [music] everyone.
I don’t even know your name.
Tessa.
[music] You just bought a stranger 40 more years.
Go save him.
They’ll fire us.
They’ll try.
I’m sorry I hesitated.
You flew?
That’s what counts.
My husband flew crop dusters.
Said a pilot wears two things: wings and a conscience.
My father [music] said the same.
Honey, you’ve got both.
Hion says the captain disobeyed direct instructions and is under investigation.
That’s a lie.
[music] We were there.
Hion is deeply grateful you’re safe.
Please accept these travel credits and sign this release.
A release from what?
From, dear, you filmed it.
Keep your credits.
Chin up.
It’s up.
Captain, you’re suspended pending investigation.
You disobeyed flight operations.
I obeyed the sky.
And you’ll answer for the airframe.
You’re father’s daughter.
My father told the truth.
And look where it got him.
Come home, sweetheart.
Your father left something for you.
I’m coming, Mom.
You look just like him after the Fargo landing.
Mom, what did he leave?
He told me never to open it unless the sky repeated itself.
Same engine family, same crack.
Dad wrote bulletin 7.
Conrad Lockidge signed his termination 20 years ago.
I Dad knew that blade would break.
They buried it and it broke over my head.
Then don’t let them bury it again.
Sources say the captain’s father was also dismissed [music] from Hion in disgrace.
He’s leaking dad’s story.
He’s afraid.
Beta, your father drove a taxi 20 years so you could look any man in the eye.
G.
Do right.
A rogue pilot.
A simple story.
The NTSB has the recorders.
Then make sure nothing is added to the [music] story.
This fracture is old fatigue.
That crack grew for months.
Somebody knew.
That’s my [music] next question.
Nobody touches this aircraft.
Take it anyway, sir.
That’s obstruction.
Your father would say, “Pilot, the storm doesn’t care if you’re scared.
I’m calling a lawyer.”
Hearing in 9 days.
Their case.
You disobeyed, risked lives, damaged an airfield.
We need proof.
My father’s box and a witness inside.
Miss Castellanos.
I’m the mechanic who flagged Bulletin 7.
Mr.
Ferraro.
I’ve been hoping you’d call.
Sign here, first officer.
It says the captain overrode your advice.
Captain by next [music] spring.
Give me the pen.
He’s 29 and scared.
[music] Don’t hate him.
He’ll be their star witness.
Then we’ll [music] have to win anyway.
Houseion wants us silent.
I say we testify.
I’ll bring cookies and a subpoena.
I’ve got the video.
[laughter] Resign quietly and receive severance.
I wore this uniform for 20 years for the passengers, not the company.
I’m not resigning.
I’m testifying.
They want to build the county for the runway.
What do we tell them?
Put it on my tab.
I’ve got tractors.
Delete the July dispatch memo and the deferral list.
Sir, that’s not a request.
Original logs, photos, four warnings I wrote.
They fired me this morning.
Thank you.
I’m scared.
So was I.
Look how that ended.
He’d be proud of you.
Bring his voice into that room.
A mechanic, a dispatcher, a pilot with a family grudge.
Nobody believes the little people.
The panel is waiting.
Nobody came.
We have the truth.
This board will determine whether Captain Branvold acted recklessly.
Miss Ravenscraftoft, you’re opening.
A captain defied her airline, landed a jet on a closed airfield, and nearly destroyed a hundred million dollar aircraft.
Call it courage if you like.
The law calls it reckless.
Captain Branville didn’t defy safety.
She defied a man who feared what an engine would reveal.
I begged her to continue to Billings.
We had crews, fuel, a hanger.
She chose a wheat [music] field.
Did you instruct her repeatedly?
First officer Malhotra, did Captain Branvold ignore a direct order?
Yes.
How much fuel did you have when Mr.
Lockidge gave that order?
11 minutes.
[music] And Billings?
22 minutes away.
Could you have reached Billings?
Objection.
Overruled.
Answer: No.
Engine 316 passed every inspection.
[music] No defect.
Spotless.
Captain, your father was fired by this airline.
Isn’t this revenge?
My father was fired for telling the truth.
I landed because I had 11 minutes.
He warned them that blade would crack.
They called it pilot error.
20 years later, it cracked over Montana.
I won’t pretend that didn’t cross my mind, but I landed because 142 people were breathing.
Do you have proof of any defect?
The defense calls Gideon Ferraro.
Gideon Ferraro, chief mechanic, 26 years.
I wrote four warnings on that engine.
Service bulletin 7 required a blade replacement in March.
Mr.
Lockage deferred it to keep 11 jets flying.
Then he ordered my file missing.
Objection.
A disgruntled employee.
Fired yesterday.
Doesn’t change the unverified copies.
Madam Chair, is there an original source?
Dispatch records show Mr.
Lockidge’s July memo deferring the inspection.
I was ordered to delete them.
I copied them instead.
NTSB preliminary finding.
Fatigue fracture months.
And the 2004 incident and the 2004 incident, same blade [music] design, same defect.
Mr.
Lockidge, you signed Captain Warren Branold’s termination in 2004.
Correct.
A routine personnel matter.
That engine does not leave Houseion hands, Captain Billings.
That’s an order.
Is that your voice, Mr.
Lockidge?
Taken out of context.
The context is a captain telling you she was out of range and you saying saying the engine mattered more.
Who are these people?
Her passengers, ma’am.
I have flown for 20 years.
I have never seen a captain tell passengers the truth in the worst moment of their lives.
She did.
Ma’am, I’m no lawyer.
I dragged a paving machine off that runway with my tractor.
That captain landed 40 ft from my wheat.
That’s skill.
A man named Bernard Alvarez is alive today because that heart arrived in time.
Billings would have killed him.
Madame Chair, I request to correct my statement.
Sit down.
Captain Branvold saved my life.
I won’t repay her with a lie.
You lied to me.
Madam Chair, I withdraw from representing Mr.
Lockidge.
This board finds Captain Branvold acted within her authority as pilot in command and Sean’s maintenance and Mr.
Lockage’s conduct are referred for criminal investigation.
[applause] Your father’s [music] smiling.
Captain Hion reinstates you and first officer Malhotra.
Your father’s record is cleared and we’re adopting the Branvold rule.
No one may overrule a captain’s emergency authority.
Director of safety now.
First order, nobody flies a cracked blade again.
They told me I had weeks.
You gave me years coffee sometime on the ground.
I’d like that.
[laughter] County voted.
Harland stays open as an emergency field.
My husband [music] carved this.
He’d want you to have it.
Mayday, Harland County.
Landed [music] safe.
They listened this time.
Same flight number, son.
Is it smooth, dear?
Captain says smooth as silk.
Denver tower.
Hion 417 ready for departure.
Hion 417 cleared for takeoff.
This time with [music] permission.
Dad, we made it home.
