Can A Plane Fly Too High? (West Caribbean Airways Flight 708) – DISASTER BREAKDOWN

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Flying high above South America, this passenger plane flew into some serious problems. On board were 160 people. The pilots were left confused as an unfolding crisis meant the plane was falling from the sky in the middle of the night and the two pilots diagnosed the problem differently. The plane fell to the ground at a high speed, in this video let’s examine the events leading up to where things began falling apart. We’ll be able to pinpoint the origin of the crisis that lead to a disaster that claimed so many lives.

West Caribbean Airways was a relatively short lived airline that operated in the years between 1998 and 2005. West Caribbean started as a charter airline connecting Colombia with various islands in the Caribbean. Based out of Bogota and Medellin, the air carrier expanded and also operated domestically within the country with a fleet of very small turboprop planes. As the airline grew over the following years, the airline acquired three McDonnel Douglas MD-80 series airplanes.

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22 thoughts on “Can A Plane Fly Too High? (West Caribbean Airways Flight 708) – DISASTER BREAKDOWN”

  5. Pulkovo flight 612 involving a Tupolev 154 crashed in this same way. It is scary to think how dangerous it is when a T-tail plane stalls because you need airflow over the horizontal stabilizers to pitch your nose down and recover from the stall.

    Also I feel like manufacturers should make the pylons of engines able to change pitch instead of welding them to the fuselage. This would help in recovering from stall situations where the engines are angled upward.

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  6. i did fly with West Caribbean. We travelled to San Andrés for my sister's 10th birthday.

    Same year the accidents happened and therefore the airline ceased to exist.

    We wen't out there in January, I wonder what the real state of the MD-80s we flew on was, since they were grounded after the L410 accident in march…

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  11. High altitude stall caused by the crew's mismanagement of aircraft systems and their lack of knowledge regarding it's impact on performance, leading to an unrecoverable aerodynamic upset. It's eerie common these days. AF447, Air Sweden CRJ, Sol SAAB340, Austral DC9 in Uruguay…

    This is gonna sound like an old man yelling at cloud, but I'm 22 and my interest in aviation spans half that and to be honest, pilots of the yesterday were more professional. I'll take a 2,000 hr guy who progressed from Dakotas to 727 over a glorified passenger who rode over 10,000 in 737NG and most of the time was busy with solving logistical and paperwork issues instead of flying, and wondering whether the lowcost employer will fire him next month without notice

    Today's pilots are only expected to follow checklists, fill out paperwork, flip switches and make sure they spare every last droplet of fuel for the company. We need back the times where pilot knew every quirk and trait of his airframe, and had a knowledge how its engines, electrics, avionics, flight controls etc work, instead of simple buttonology.

    Stick and rudder airmanship is trated as a necessary evil to be passed during training and forgotten, as are aerodynamics, performance limitations etc.

    For most people it's just a corporate job, and they don't care shit and don't take pride and responsibility those three or four strips deserve. They should be earned with hard work and presented only to the pinnacle of aviators, as there's no such thing as an average pilot – you're either confident in your skills and do everything at 100%, and give 100% from yourself at all times, or you're a threat who shouldn't be flying. The pilots are just another megacorp yuppies, and are treated as such by the megacorp airlines, who don't give shit about ethos, fire and hire people as they please, delivery pressure on pilots in regards to punctuality or fuel, and demand the rules to be violated

    The days when pilots were taught extensive technical details on their aircraft and what did what and how, and the days when it was obvious that in the end, it's down to stick and rudder, everything else is but an addition, need to come back. The days when airline pilots were an elite need to come back. The days when they had powerful unions, strong position in their company and strong ethos, need to come back. We need 1950s aviation back (but with modern safety standards if possible)

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  14. 11:17 Having such additional debriefs as these and not just letting is be a podcast based on final reports.. is what makes Disaster Breakdown special, better and different.
    .
    Thank you for the detailed yet crisp explanation.

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  17. I was so happy when I saw that the West Caribbean Airways video was uploaded! So much of this is scary and sad. The absolute negligence of the airline and the atrocious communication between the pilots wer beyond disturbing.

    Reply

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