China Eastern 583’s Poor Plane Design Causes Chaos In The Sky

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On April 6 1993, China Eastern Flight 583 was filled with 255 passengers and crew, on the way to Los Angeles. After the pilot makes a simple mistake, a terrifying series of events leads to the realisation that this poor plane design could be deadly.
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Final Report:

DC-10: Danielkang7744

CHAPTERS
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00:00 - Intro
00:31 - Crossing The Pond
02:17 - The Crew
04:24 - A Little Physics
08:04 - Stability
10:47 - Flaps and Slats
13:22 - Too Fast or Too Slow?
16:46 - The Ride Begins
21:15 - Too Late For Seatbelts
25:24 - Dumping Fuel
29:18 - Analysis

[MentourPilot]

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[akchuck]

My wife was in management at the Hospital in Anchorage when this happened. It was called a 'CODE External" over the hospital wide speakers. That meant that there were a large number of casualties coming into the hospital from outside the hospital (as opposed to a code internal, casualties from an 'In Hospital' emergency'). The emergency plan was designed for emergencies like a plane crash at the airport in town. The expectation was that employees would rush to the hospital to give help within 20 minutes or so. However, even though Providence Alaska Medical Center was the closest Hospital and because of the distance from the incident over the Aleutian Islands, it was still another 6 hours before the first casualties were expected to arrive at the hospital. There were 150, non-English speaking Chinese nationals who needed medical help.

Great praise should go to not only the hospital personnel who rushed into work and then waited for the emergency to arrive, but to the passengers and crew who dealt with the victims for A LONG F-ING TIME before they could get real medical help. Also, great appreciation should go to all the employees of every Chinese restaurant in town (especially 'Charlies Bakery') who supplied VOLUNTEER translators to the hospital at a moments notice.

[JG-zstr]

20:10 Part of me is just glad to hear a story where the pilot responded to a stall by putting the nose down. It’s insane how many people have lost their lives to pilots pulling up or doing nothing.

[djmech]

I remember this very well. I was a World Airways 31:51 mechanic on the MD-11 and after this incident we had to install a mechanical lock on the flap/slat handle. RIP to the two people who died.

[michaelmeyer]

I was stationed at Ellmendorf AFB, AK (just on the edge of Anchorage, AK) when this happened. Since Shemya was primarily an Air Force base, we were tasked with generating cargo aircraft to ferry passengers from Shemya to Elmendorf, where the passengers were then transported to area hospitals. Everything went smoothly with everyone involved working together admirably. It was later noted that it would have been quicker (it was about a 4 hour flight from Shemya to Ellmendorf or 8 hours round trip) for the passengers to be transported to Japan than to Anchorage since Shemya is actually closer to Japan than to Anchorage. Because of the Aleutian Islands being part of Alaska no one realized this till later.

[h]

No better way to start my morning than eating breakfast and watching a mentour video

[ELBURNITO]

This channel is - without a doubt - a piece of masterwork. No BBC or NG Aviation docu can keep up with what Petter is providing.

[RenOfRaven]

You have explained the flight specifics without condesention, no extra drama, very educational. I wish more flight docu would talk like this, its usually the same information repeated over and over. I actually learned something! Will be watching more! 😊

[michaelallen]

I was working for DynCorp in LAX when this plane stopped overnight to de-cater the plane on it's way to Long Beach McDonnell Douglas Aircraft factory about 25 miles from there. I got inside the plane with the China Airlines rep and we walked through the cabin, I will never ever forget what I saw and I wear my seatbelt at all times on airplanes if I'm seated.

[stormix]

I love watching Mentour Pilot as an adult the way I loved Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. Great way to start the weekend.

[snappycattimesten]

Back in the 90s when the seatbelt light went off, you heard the clack-clack of hundreds of belts being thrown open and off like it was a shackle. Different times today, as most now know the risk of unexpected turbulence.

[vertrox]

As a recently-graduated aerospace engineering student, you did a great job describing how planes achieve stability!

[dayscents]

I always keep my seatbelt on from beginning to end (meaning full stop @ gate!) of every flight I take. Also, I absolutely love roller coasters but I would not have enjoyed this ride! Thanks for thoroughly explaining exactly what happened on this flight. It is sad that there were two deaths and so many injured, mainly due to not wearing seatbelts!

[Tcb]

After a 'difficult' flight back from Spain a few years ago, I became something of a nervous flyer. Since discovering your channel, I've got to the point where I actually listen to your videos to go to sleep at night...now THAT'S progress 😂 Thank you Petter, you're a miracle worker 😁

[stephaniebaker]

This isn’t related directly to this story, but your channel has gotten me really into aviation. I started off by binge listening to every story and then trying out Microsoft flight sim. After countless hours with my plug-in yoke, I decided to actually go for it. I found a CFI and I’m loving it so far!

Thank you!

[trekkiepro]

The aircraft involved in this incident continued flying with China Eastern, was eventually sold to China Cargo Airlines, and finally SkyLease Cargo in the US after that. It was scrapped in November 2016.

[kavanamanjunath]

Your content is so accessible (especially to someone like me who is not a pilot, not an engineer or in no other way connected to aviation at all), your narration is on point and I can only imagine the work that goes into every video you make because its such a high quality production. Extra kudos for never sensationalizing any of these stories!

[mateuszkryszkiewicz]

As a Bachelor of Aerospace engineering I got over a dozen of "oh" and "ah" moments during the technical part of this episode due to its extreme correctness. Pleasure to watch such a good content!

[thegloomcookie]

Fresh student pilot here and videos like this are so helpful in illustrating the theoretical concepts taught in ground school ❤

[stormchasingirl]

I just want to thank you for your channel. I flew for the first time this week and it went great thanks to all your educational content. I was fully prepared and knew all the noises and what they were and what turbulence was. I owe a successful flight to you @Mentour