ALL engines OUT!!? | KLM Flight 867

-----

On December 15th, 1989, All four engines suddenly failed on a KLM airlines Boeing 747-400, miles above the Alaskan Wilderness. Smoke filled the cockpit, and the pilots tried desperately to restart the engines as their aircraft began falling towards earth. The lives of all 245 people on board depended on whether they could restart their engines before they hit the mountains below.

This video uses publicly available sources to piece together the series of events which led to the near-crash of KLM Airlines flight 867.

------

All music licensed through Epidemic Sound

BA 747 Livery:

KLM 747 Livery:

Volcano clips from Pexels:

Final Report:

VACC picture:
​​U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

ATC Tape:

-----

00:00 ATC recording
01:11 Intro and Flight Background
03:00 Trouble brewing in Alaska
04:16 Descent into Anchorage
04:55 Encounter with ash
06:45 Engine restart attempts
08:30 Salvation through solidification
09:33 Aftermath and damage
10:21 Safety Improvements

[misterdupey]

That first ATC recording was truly terrifying. The panic in the pilots voice.

[ruthlessadmin]

$150mil repair bill on a roughly $400mil aircraft is pure pain.

[morgan]

I was on the last flight to leave from Honolulu on 20 December 2020, and during takeoff and climb Kilauea volcano on the big island erupted violently. I didn't know it at the time but the crew was extremely worried and on edge, I saw an orange glow out of the window but thought it was just light from the engines in weird fog. It wasn't until we landed that the crew showed how frazzled and relieved they were. The plane was too far into the takeoff to abandon or return to Honolulu, and no other planes were able to leave after us. We got pretty lucky

[sandcrushlove]

Nice to hear stories of survival every now and again. I'd rather hear more of these and how disaster was averted. The cockpit recording still had me on edge!

[burntsider]

I like your presentations. No buffoonery, just the facts. A few other documentarians could take the hint. Thank you for producing these.

[alwaysprepared]

Love hearing the actual radio communications on these videos! It gives the videos a bit more life and a feeling of what the state of mind of the pilots were...

[NameNaameNameeNaamee]

Amazing video. These real life radio transmissions really pull you right into the story. Kudos to the pilots of KLM for not giving up and making it back safely!

[CsendesMark]

After British Airways Flight 009, this should not happened. Especially not with a major carrier like KLM.

[tangatoto]

Like many others who have commented, this story has managed somehow to slip under the radar ( or … stay in the ash cloud) . Thanks yet again for the splendid research and resulting video.

[ZombieSazza]

Considering Speedbird 9 (British Airways Flight 009) was in 1982, I’m very surprised this incident happened at all, but I’m very happy they got onto land safely and everyone lived! Really glad there’s so much information available to pilots now to avoid flying into ash clouds!

[commerce-usa]

Was unaware of this incident. Amazed that the switch from generators to batteries and back wasn't instantaneous in a glass cockpit aircraft, especially so in one as large as the B747-400. Another terrific video, thank you.

[neodonkey]

That poor F/O sounded terrified, I'd have pissed myself probably, if captain was starting engines that means she was doing the flying right? With essentially no instruments and being in an black ash cloud . Kudos to her.

[aamslfc]

I'd never heard of this incident, so it was a fascinating watch - thanks for bringing it to us and telling this story so well.

Also, from a production perspective, it was a great move to put the real ATC transmissions as the opener. That cold open set up the story brilliantly.

[EannaButler]

Fair play to the pilots to recover from the impending disaster. Must be terrifying.

[smoothmicra]

Nice, controlled airmanship in extreme circumstances. You could hear the fear in the co-pilot's voice, bravo to the crew in getting the old bird down with no loss of life.

[pete-phxc]

My brother was in Alaska when Mt McKinley blew (iirc). He has some jars of the ashes. He said it fell like snow. People would go outside to go to work, start their cars, only to watch them sputter out in seconds and be useless until it was cleaned out and the air filter replaced. Ash is crazy that way. It looks like snow, but it's superfine and will coat every surface and starve an engine super fast.

[Roscoe.P.Coldchain]

I watched this without any knowledge of the incident and I’ve got to be honest I didn’t think it was going to end well..Thank goodness the plane landed safe and well ❤👍

[jasonpauljones]

Amazingly good result after going through a terrifying ordeal. Those engines must have been extremely tough to fire back up after the damage they sustained. I bet everyone from the flight couldn't quite believe their feet were safely back on the ground. The Captain's truly frightened voice conveyed the seriousness of their situation. Wow.

[annnee]

This is one of the few channels where I can learn about accidents I've never heard of before. I'm impressed. Thanks!

[blindgt]

He should have at least 50K subs, his videos are AMAZING