Avianca Flight 052

It's a story about people and how they react and don't react when pushed to the edge.

This is the story of Avianca Flight 52.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon in Medellin, Colombia.

An Avianca Boeing 707 had just arrived in from Bogota, the nation's capital, for a stopover on its way to New York.

It would be taking 149 passengers on what was expected to be a 4-hour and 40-minute flight, operating as Avianca Flight 52.

Most of the passengers were Colombian, though there were also some Americans on board.

Some of them were travelling to New York on business, while others were going on holidays, and some were returning home to the US after a stay in Colombia.

There are strict regulations governing how much fuel planes must carry.

The passengers and crew of Flight 319 were lucky, but not all crews have been this fortunate.

Check out my video on Avianca Flight 52 to see what happens when things don't go so well.

Ever check out online and think, wow, that was easy? That might have been Link.

No card hunt, no address typing, no checkout obstacle course.

Fast-forward to the 1930s, and you start seeing fatal crashes that could have been avoided if one pilot had understood another's call.

The infamous crash of Avianca Flight 052 in 1979 is a textbook example.

Pilots misinterpreted altitude instructions because their communication wasn't standardized.

That tragedy was a catalyst for formalizing phraseology, turning ad hoc radio chatter into a set of precise commands.