Hey, man, we're going down. We can't keep going down.
Above the Pacific Ocean, the pilots of Transair Flight 810
can't get their cargo plane to climb.
Just hitting the water is going to tear the airplane apart.
We're in the water! We're in the water!
Remarkably, they survive the crash and are rescued by the Coast Guard.
They're covered in gasoline and hydraulic fluid, so it wasn't pretty.
Investigators are eager to interview the crew.
Did both engines fail at the same time?
Most likely. That's my conclusion.
The evidence does not support the pilots' assessment.
It looks fine. No internal damage.
So, it was critical for us to get more information
to better understand what had happened there.
It's the middle of the night at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
in Honolulu, Hawaii.
OK. Let's see.
Crews have just finished loading cargo for Transair Flight 810.
OK, thank you. See you.
The captain of tonight's flight is Henry Okai.
He has almost 16,000 flying hours.
So, this captain is highly experienced in the aircraft
and doing it for a while.
Engine start checklist.
Tail stand removed.
Cargo.
First Officer Gregory Ryan is a lawyer
who recently returned to flying part-time for Transair.
It's not necessarily the best pilot career straight up,
but you do get to be in Hawaii, you get to fly an airplane.
Engine start checklist complete.
And...
Clear right. Clear right.
Transair flights use Rhoades Express as a call sign.
Tower, Rhoades Express 810
Taxi Kilo
Rhoades Express 810, Honolulu Tower.
Runway 8 right. Taxi via Charlie, Romeo, Tango, Romeo, Alpha.
Transair is owned and operated by Rhoades Aviation,
which transports cargo between the Hawaiian islands.
They had the postal contract, which was quite lucrative.
Their focus was on keeping their costs down
to maintain their advantage over more and well-established competitors.
The plane is a Boeing 737-200,
built in the 1960s and 70s for passenger travel.
Today, they're workhorses for transporting cargo.
Between engines, small aircraft,
it was designed for short-haul operations.
It wasn't very sophisticated, no automation.
I love flying that airplane.
The pilots prepare for take-off.
Runway 8 right confirmed.
Before take-off checklist complete.
Rhoades 810 cleared for takeoff
Runway 8 right, cleared for take-off. Rhoades 810.
Tonight's flight is a short hop to Kahului,
on the neighbouring island of Maui, only 100 miles away.
OK, you have control.
OK, I have control.
At 1.33am, Captain Okai hands over the plane to First Officer Ryan.
Engine stable.
80 knots.
Check.
V1.
Rotate.
V2.
Positive rate.
Gear up.
Within seconds of lifting off...
Damn!
Lost an engine.
You got it?
Yeah, I got it.
The pilots have lost thrust in one of their engines,
only 390 feet off the ground.
Losing an engine after take-off is one of the most critical events
that can happen in a flight.
You're close to the ground, you're slow.
However, we also know from our training
that the aircraft will fly perfectly well on one engine.
The First Officer levels the plane
and continues to climb away from the airport.
Flaps.
Turn 220, heading.
I'll give you the flaps.
OK.
Rhoades, 810, we have an emergency.
Stand by.
We're on 220, heading.
You can inch up to 2,000.
The captain wants to put more distance between the plane and the ocean
so they have space to address the problem.
Any time you have an emergency situation,
maintain aircraft control, you fail to do that,
nothing else you do matters.
OK, Rhoades, 810, we've lost an engine.
We're on a 220, heading, maintaining 2,000.
Declaring an emergency. How do you read?
Rhoades Express, 810, you are cleared visual approach.
Runway four right.
You can turn in towards the airport.
The controller clears flight 810 to return to the airport.
OK, Rhoades, 810, we're going to run a checklist.
I'll let you know when we're ready to come to the airport.
Captain Okai wants to assess the situation further
before returning to the airport.
Flight 810 has been in the air less than three minutes,
flying over the Pacific Ocean on a very dark night.
OK, I have control.
Roger.
OK, let's see what's the problem.
What's going on with the gauges?
The pilots troubleshoot the situation.
So it looks like the number one.
Number one's gone?
Gone, yeah.
We still have the number two.
So we have number two. OK.
They confirm they've lost their number one, or left, engine.
They now must rely on their right engine to return to the airport.
Let's do the engine failure shutdown checklist,
and I have the radios now.
OK.
There's a number of things this checklist is going to do for you.
It's going to confirm the failed engine,
and you're going to want to secure that engine.
OK.
Engine failure or shutdown.
When one of these occurs, an engine failure,
an engine flame-out,
another checklist directs an engine shutdown.
As the pilots zero in on the problem engine,
the situation intensifies.
We're redline here.
The right engine is now overheating,
and they're losing altitude.
We should pull back on the right one a little bit.
OK.
We should head back to the airport.
Yeah, we should. Yeah.
The pilots now face the possibility of losing both engines.
Problems on your second engine is going to significantly change your outlook,
because you've got the dark water below you,
and you know you're running out of options.
OK, Rhoades 810.
We'd like to come to the airport now.
We might lose the other engine.
Rhoades Express 810, Roger.
Confirm you still have the airport in sight?
Negative.
The pilots have descended too low to see the airport.
Only the lights on the shoreline are visible.
Hey, man, we're going down.
We can't keep going down.
We're descending.
The captain has no other option but to increase power to the overheating engine,
risking a double engine failure.
How's the EGT?
It's max. It's beyond max.
The temperature of the right engine is now dangerously high,
and the pilots suspect it could fail at any moment.
Here we go, flaps. Flaps one.
Fearing the worst, the first officer suggests
configuring the plane for a water landing.
No, no, not yet.
OK, we're very slow, though.
The captain's efforts to reduce the loss in altitude aren't working.
Shoot. OK, flaps one.
Just hitting the water is going to tear the airplane apart,
so you want to be at the lowest possible airspeed.
The flaps will facilitate that.
Rhoades Express 810, low altitude alert.
As Transair Flight 8-10 descends below 400 feet,
the controller is automatically alerted to the aircraft's dangerously low altitude.
Are you able to climb at all?
Negative.
Can you let the coast guard know?
We will.
Watchdesk, please call the Coast Guard.
Flight 810, 737 is probably going to be in the water.
How's the EGT?
If the engine temperature has improved, they might be able to climb.
Hot. Way over.
The chances of reaching the airport six miles away deteriorate
as the plane descends even further.
The controller has an idea.
Express 8-10, do you want Kaleiloa?
There's a closer airport. It might be the pilot's last hope.
We want the closest runway available, please.
Anything we can land on.
If they can't make it to the closer airport,
there might be no other option than to ditch the 737
into the Pacific Ocean and hope for rescue.
Too low. Gear.
OK, give me a heading.
The pilots of Transair Flight 810 have one last chance to reach land.
Rhoades Express 810, the airport is about a 310 heading from you.
But it's too late.
Twelve minutes after takeoff, Transair Flight 810 hits the ocean
just two miles from the Kaleiloa airport.
Watchdesk, 810's in the water two miles south-east of Kaleiloa.
Coast Guard air rescue is immediately dispatched.
Hearing that there's a 737 that crashed, I didn't believe it.
But if there is, and there's 200 people in the water,
What am I going to do?
They told me two souls on board, and we're like,
all right, two's a lot more manageable than, like, 200.
45 minutes later, there's still no sign of the plane or the pilots.
Rescuers fear the worst, until...
There were a bunch of boxes now floating by us.
I figured, all right, this might be the start of a debris field.
So we started our second pass,
and grabbing onto the vertical fin of the tail was one of our pilots.
It's Captain Okai.
I was like, all right, he is still OK, great.
Still want to find the second pilot.
They soon spot the first officer on a cargo pallet,
bleeding from the head.
Right before we started to make the moves
to put me in the water to go up to him, the plane moved.
The tail section the captain had been clinging to
sinks beneath the waves.
The captain's drowning right now.
They race back and deploy the rescue swimmer.
As soon as I grabbed his hand,
it's like his eyes rolled back and he went limp.
They're dripping wet, covered in gasoline and hydraulic fluid,
so it wasn't pretty.
The first officer is soon rescued by a fire department vessel
as the captain is rushed to a local hospital.
Both pilots survive.
Good planning, good crew, good decision-making,
and then implementing those decisions is how we came out on top.
While the pilots recover from their injuries,
investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board,
or NTSB, arrive on the scene.
Right now we're in the fact-gathering phase.
Once we finish the fact-gathering,
we'll switch into the analytical side,
and then that's when we'll go into determining
the probable cause and contributing factors.
What can you tell me about last night?
It was a normal night, slow.
There was another Transair flight inbound around the same time.
And when did Flight 810 alert you that there was a problem?
Investigators turn to the controller
to determine what might have caused Transair Flight 810
to ditch into the Pacific.
It was about two minutes into the flight.
They reported they'd lost an engine.
OK, Rhoades 810, we've lost an engine.
We're on a 220 heading, maintaining 2,000.
Declaring an emergency. How do you read?
They wanted to work on the problem before turning back.
Did they say which engine?
No, but not long after they said
that they might lose the other engine as well.
Really?
OK, Rhoades 810, we'd like to come to the airport now.
We might lose the other engine.
Could Transair 810 have really lost both engines?
The only information we had to go on initially
was the communications between the airplane and the controller,
but the airplane and its recorders
were at the bottom of the ocean.
Thank you.
Another NTSB team is tasked with recovering the airplane
and its engines lying 350 feet deep on the ocean floor.
At the depth that the airplane was at,
it's difficult to get divers down there.
So in order to actually hook all of our equipment
up to the aircraft and pull it up,
we needed to use ROVs.
It will take time for the investigation
to secure the necessary equipment
from a salvage company on the mainland.
Good morning.
I'm glad to see you here.
So am I.
Very glad. Yeah.
Investigators meet with Captain Okai
to determine if Transair Flight 810 did lose both engines.
The purpose of this investigation
is to determine probable cause and prevent recurrence.
Our role is not to assign fault.
I understand.
It's critical to speak to pilots as soon as we can
because we want to get those fresh memories.
Walk me through what happened.
Everything was normal up to about 400 feet.
Gear up.
Damn!
There was a whoosh sort of a sound, not a pow.
It was a whoosh.
Then it wasn't a roll.
My first officer was able to counteract that.
Lost an engine.
You got it?
Yeah, I got it.
Eventually, we leveled off at 2,000 feet,
and I go, Greg, what do we have?
So it looks like the number one.
Number one's gone?
Gone, yeah.
We still have the number two.
So we have number two, OK.
I'm looking at number one EPR.
There's no power.
I'm looking at number two in EPR.
It's coming down.
The captain explains he first lost power in the left engine
and was losing power in the right.
How's the EGT?
It's max. It's beyond max.
Did both engines fail at the same time?
Most likely. That's my conclusion.
Thank you.
Thanks.
We'll be in touch.
What could have caused both engines to fail so soon after takeoff?
The purpose of this investigation...
A dual-engine failure seemed improbable,
but both the crew seemed to agree that that is what had occurred.
We couldn't confirm or deny it
unless we could actually look at the wreckage and get the recorders.
But those vital clues remain out of reach,
deep on the bottom of the sea.
Could contaminated fuel have brought down Transair Flight 810?
You're looking for an item that's common to both engines
would cause them both to shut down at the same time.
For that would be most likely the fuel.
So one thing that we did do at the airport
was take samples from the fuel truck
that had been used to fuel the airplane before it departed.
The U.S. Navy conducts the testing.
If you have water in your fuel,
that was most likely to be the cause of fuel contamination.
When the fuel samples are analyzed, the results are conclusive.
We actually found that the fuel that was in the aircraft
conformed to standards as we would expect.
So according to the pilots,
they lose the left engine first and then the right.
All the samples from the fuel truck tested clean.
What was the weather like on that night?
Any volcanic activity?
Hawaii is in an active volcano zone.
Could volcanic ash have caused the engines to fail?
Volcanic ash is very bad for jet engines.
It's like throwing sand in the gears.
Jet engines will shut down.
In 1982, a British Airways 747
traveling from England to New Zealand
flew through an ash cloud over Indonesia.
All four engines failed.
The plane was high enough for pilots
to be able to restart the engines,
find an airport, and land safely.
Nothing here.
Clear night.
So that leaves maintenance.
There were no reports of volcanic ash on that night.
The only information that we have to work on
is what the crew is telling us,
that they had a dual engine failure.
So we're going to look at the maintenance on the engines.
In the meantime, recovery crews pinpoint
the exact location of the plane.
It has settled on the ocean floor in two large pieces.
Often with water recoveries,
we have an airplane that's in multiple different pieces.
They're smaller pieces and they're less heavy.
So to bring them up intact was a bigger engineering problem.
It means another delay for investigators.
The plane is what, like 40-something years old?
The team digs into the engine history
of the accident aircraft
to determine why both engines might have failed.
Forty-six.
Flown over 69,000 cycles.
The engines have been around, too.
Left engine, 32,000 flyings.
And the right, over 70,000.
Engines that old are going to need upkeep.
Jet engines are very solid machines
with proper inspection and maintenance.
They can fly on forever.
Anything in the FAA database?
Investigators look into service reports filed by Transair
with the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA,
to see if the aircraft had any history of engine troubles.
I've got three reports on this aircraft.
The most recent was two-and-a-half years ago.
Left engine failure at 2,000 feet.
That's something.
Did an aging aircraft put the lives of two pilots in jeopardy?
The team researches the repair work
that's been performed on the engines over the years.
Both engines were serviced two years ago
and underwent a daily check the day before the accident flight.
Did they report anything?
No discrepancies.
It's possible that maintenance could have missed something.
Call your contacts at the FAA.
Maybe they can shed some light on Transair.
And I'll speak to maintenance personally.
Because of the possibility that there had been a dual engine failure,
we did a deep dive on the maintenance organization at the airline,
trying to find potential theories for something that could have gone wrong.
Bit of a mess over there at Transair Maintenance.
What did you find out?
Chief Maintenance Inspector quit six weeks ahead of the accident,
citing chronic maintenance issues and being understaffed.
Also found multiple reports from different pilots about engines overheating.
Investigators uncover internal Transair reports,
revealing issues with the engines.
We noticed so many of these reported issues with temperature
that we were starting to think that this might really involve a maintenance issue.
There was just so much smoke, we thought there had to be some fire.
Anything specific to the accident aircraft?
No, they involved other airplanes, not exactly a smoking gun.
Anything from the FAA?
Most of the current inquiries into the company are policy and procedure related.
Nothing to do with engine maintenance.
Investigators don't find any maintenance
issues that would have brought down Flight 810.
We need those engines.
So even though we were discovering these issues
with pilot reports and maintenance records,
there wasn't anything clearly indicating a specific problem
that would have led to this reported dual engine failure.
With a salvage company in place and the weather clearing,
the NTSB is finally able to attempt the recovery of Flight 810 from 350 feet of water.
This was one of the largest water recovery
efforts we have done in a couple of decades.
The wreckage is successfully raised in two large pieces.
The black boxes are recovered from the rear
fuselage and sent to Washington for analysis.
The engines are retrieved separately and brought to a warehouse for inspection.
To be able to see that wreckage come up just creates immense satisfaction
because you're like, OK, now, now we can start this in earnest.
Let's start with this one.
Investigators begin with an examination of the right engine,
the one the pilots say was overheating.
It's in better shape than I expected.
They were in pretty good shape. There was damage due to the water impact.
Let's take a look inside.
They perform a bore scope inspection of the right engine.
It enables them to examine the engine interior without the need for disassembly.
There. Take a look.
Broken fan blades.
See if there's any damage downstream.
Multiple puncture marks on the turbine.
With that type of damage, the engine could have easily overheated.
Investigators discover two fractured turbine blades,
which caused shrapnel damage inside the right engine.
The pilots were correct. The right engine was giving them trouble.
So from the examination on the right engine,
they were able to see that there were blades
that had fractured in the high-pressure turbine.
But it was only those two.
And they knew that it would still be able to produce power,
so it wasn't like a complete failure.
Looks like rust and corrosion inside of the blades caused them to rupture.
The routine maintenance inspection procedures contained in the maintenance manual
would not necessarily have revealed the presence of cracks or one fractured blade.
So this is the engine the pilots said failed first.
Investigators turn their attention to the left engine.
Let's see what we got.
It looks fine.
No internal damage.
The pilots said the left engine failed, followed by the right.
But investigators can't find anything wrong with the left engine.
When we found out that the left engine was undamaged prior to impact,
it really changed the course of our investigation
in terms of focusing more on the crew actions.
We pulled a flight path from the radar data.
Got the CVR data.
And here's a copy of the transcript.
Investigators turn to the cockpit voice recorder, or CVR, of Flight 810
to determine why the pilots thought the left engine failed,
as the evidence suggests it did not.
Let's hear it from take-off.
80 knots.
Check.
V1.
Rotate.
V2.
Positive rate.
Gear up.
Stop.
Did you hear that?
Play it again.
Gear up.
Definitely sounds like an engine surge.
They discover that Flight 810 suffered engine trouble 17 seconds after take-off.
Most likely the blades breaking apart in the right engine.
Keep playing.
Lost an engine.
You got it?
Yeah, I got it.
Yep, looks like you lost number...
Number two.
Hold it right there.
They both said number two, the right engine.
They were correct.
The pilots' original assessment matches what investigators have discovered.
The initial problem was with the right engine.
So why did they think that the left engine had failed?
We were able to hear the crew discuss.
They had correctly identified the right engine.
So at some point, you know, in their mindset, it had flipped to the wrong engine.
Let's hear what happens next.
Flaps.
Turn 220, heading.
I'll give you the flaps.
Rhoades, 810, we have an emergency. Stand by.
We're on 220, heading.
You can inch up to 2,000.
Captain calls in the emergency.
Tells the first officer to climb to a safe altitude.
All sounds good.
And we're on 220, heading.
Say again. Heading 240.
240, heading. Rhoades, 810.
No, Rhoades, 809. Rhoades, 809. Left 240.
Sounds like there's some overlap with another transair flight.
According to these transcripts, the captain spends the next
minute and 40 seconds communicating with the controller.
That's a long time in a critical moment.
Investigators learn that instead of monitoring the engines...
Rhoades Express, 810, you are cleared visual approach runway four right.
...the captain is distracted by a conversation with the controller.
OK, Rhoades, 810. We're going to run a checklist.
I'll let you know when we're ready to come to the airport.
When you have an emergency situation, it is
important to aviate, navigate and communicate.
Your third priority is communicating your emergency.
What happens next?
OK, I have control.
Roger.
OK, let's see. What's the problem? What's going on with the gauges?
The captain starts flying the plane and turns his attention to the engines.
So it looks like the number one. Number one's gone? Gone, yeah.
We still have the number two. So we have number two. OK.
Stop.
The FO changes his diagnosis.
Investigators confirm that the first officer correctly
assesses that the right
engine lost power on takeoff.
Yep, looks like you lost number...
Number two.
But less than four minutes later, he tells
Captain Okai it's the left engine that's failed.
So it looks like the number one. Number one's gone? Gone, yeah.
Why?
It wasn't clear why they had changed their minds about it.
The captain then instructs the FO to do the engine shutdown checklist,
but he only gets through the first step.
Hey, we're redline here. We should pull back on the right one a little bit.
OK.
The right engine overheats because of the internal damage,
leading the pilots to believe they're losing both engines.
Once the crew had convinced themselves that they had a dual-engine failure,
They were focused almost exclusively on altitude and airspeed,
and eventually they ran out of options and had to ditch.
It's clear that the right engine, the one with the issue,
is overheating and not producing full thrust.
But what led them to think the left engine wasn't working?
Let's see what the flight data recorder can tell us.
OK, let's see what the engines were doing.
Investigators examine the
engine power data of Flight 810
to determine what actions the pilots took
that led them to believe their perfectly
working engine, the left one, had failed.
After the right engine failed,
both engines are brought back to flight
idle once they level off at 2,000 feet.
That's proper procedure to get the speed down.
But the first officer never told the captain he brought the engines back to idle.
They discover a key step missing in the pilots' actions.
It was procedure for a crew member to verbalise when they moved the engine controls.
In this case, the first officer actually did not do that,
and that could have affected the captain's situational awareness
of where those engine throttles were.
Why did the first officer fail to inform the captain of his action?
Send someone to interview the first officer again about bringing the throttles back.
So it was critical for us to get more information
to better understand what had happened there.
Did anyone actually ever test the throttles?
After they levelled off,
the pilots could have increased power to the
left engine to confirm which engine had failed.
No, the left engine throttle stayed at idle for the rest of the flight.
If you're going into the water and you have no other option left,
you're going to firewall both throttles, just in case it might help.
Why didn't the captain check the first officer's misdiagnosis?
Let's ask him.
When the first officer subsequently said it was the number one,
the captain had just accepted it.
He didn't effectively cross-check that erroneous assertion.
So we wanted to ask him why.
Why did he accept that?
Captain Okai, thanks for meeting with me again.
You're muted.
Investigators speak to Captain Okai one more time
to find out why he thought the left engine had failed.
Sorry about that. Glad I can help.
When Greg told you the left engine had failed,
do you recall initially thinking the right one had failed?
No. The thing with Greg is I've flown with him so many times.
He's never made a mistake.
If Greg says the left is gone, the left engine is gone.
Investigators learn the captain put his faith in his first officer's diagnosis.
While trust is very important when it comes to crew resource management,
you also want to verify.
The captain did not verify the information that the first officer was giving him.
OK. Thank you.
Sure thing.
It's really critical when you do have an engine failure
to look at all the available information
and cross-check and agree that you have identified the correct engine.
In this case, that didn't occur.
What were the power readings when the engines were at idle?
Even if the captain trusted the first officer,
wouldn't there be other indicators showing which engine had failed?
The left engine was 1.05.
The right, 1.12.
The team discovers the power was a little bit lower on the left engine,
even though both engines were set to idle.
OK. Let's see what's the problem. What's going on with the gauges?
They did have slightly different power outputs,
and that is something you would see with two different engines.
That could have really affected the captain's decision-making.
If the captain had checked the gauges,
the readings would have supported his first officer's report
that the left engine had failed.
So it looks like the number one.
Number one's gone?
Gone, yeah.
So we have number two. OK.
But this doesn't explain why the first officer never told the captain
that he brought both throttles back in the first place.
If the first officer had said,
hey, I pulled the thrust back on both engines,
then that might have caused the captain to engage
in a different thought process about what might be going on.
First officer follow-up interview.
Why didn't the first officer of Transair Flight 810
tell the captain he brought the power levers back
after the right engine failed?
He has no recollection of bringing either thrust lever back to idle.
We believe that the first officer forgot because he was busy.
That leads to stress.
Stress leads to tunnelling of attention.
That can lead to fixation on a small number of parameters.
Even if the first officer didn't tell the captain about the thrust levers,
there must have been other signs which engine failed.
Check out the rudder data.
Immediately after the right engine failed on take-off,
5.5 degrees of left rudder is applied.
You got it? Yeah, I got it.
After the right engine lost power on take-off,
the plane pulled to the right.
When the first officer applied the left rudder,
the plane straightened out.
The foot that isn't pressing on the rudder pedal
is the side with the bad engine,
so it's usually a pretty clear indication of which engine has failed.
He held that left rudder
for three minutes.
He had a clear indicator.
But it never registered.
The fact that the first officer was applying left rudder
was an indication that the right engine had lost power.
It's very possible that under those stressful conditions
in the middle of the night over the
water, you could make that mistake.
They made the right assessment initially,
but in the end,
the stress of the situation
degraded their ability to fly the plane.
Investigators now know the series of events
that led to the ditching of Transair Flight 810.
When the right engine loses power after take-off...
Damn!
...both pilots make the proper assessment.
Yep, looks like you lost number...
Number two.
But while the captain communicates with air traffic control...
OK, Rhoades, 810.
We're going to run a checklist.
..the first officer reduces engine power.
OK, let's see what's the problem.
In a moment of stress, he forgets to tell the captain.
What's going on with the gauges?
The slightly different readings on the gauges
lead the pilots to believe the fully
functioning left engine has failed
So it looks like the number one.
Number one's gone?
The captain relies on the
first officer's assessment
without doing his own
analysis of the situation.
Gone, yeah.
We still have the number two.
So we have number two, OK.
Instead of confirming which
engine had actually lost power
and forgetting their original assessment,
the pilots end up flying
on a damaged engine.
How's the EGT?
It's max, it's beyond max.
Setting them up for an inevitable ditching.
We're in the water! We're in the water!
Before the NTSB's final report is published,
Rhoades Aviation is shut down
by the Federal Aviation Administration
for numerous safety and maintenance violations.
While it may be disappointing
that the crew never actually touched their left engine
that was working properly,
it is a testament to the human limitations
that actually arise when you have stressful,
high-workload situations,
and that's what we need to account for.
With 50 737-200s remaining in service,
it's deemed impractical to fit them with engine sensors
that would alert pilots to a failed engine.
But it's now standard in most passenger airliners.
Engine monitoring technology has improved considerably
since this aircraft was manufactured.
Newer airplanes actually give very clear indications
to the pilot regarding which engine is bad
and reduces the risk of the crew misidentifying it.