Aircraft that nearly crashed into Athens .

An engine explodes during takeoff, the water injection system is switched off and communication is lost. Now, this doomed plane faces the imminent threat of crashing into Athens or a hill. Will the captain be able to defy all odds and save over 400 lives on board? Stay tuned.

It's 2 in the afternoon, and a Boeing 747 starts rolling down the runway, picking up speed. Just as Captain CI Madis lifts the nose of the aircraft, he's surprised by a loud bang. He has no idea what's just happened, but he's left with no options. The fully loaded plane is moving too fast to stop on the short runway space still left. The airplane begins its risky takeoff, and it's now heading straight for downtown Athens, which is crowded on a hot summer evening in August.

After the loud explosion, a flight attendant in the back takes the income and warns the crew about the catastrophic failure of engine number three located on the right side of the airplane. The flight attendant says, "I think we're screwed," and the captain responds with an honest, "Yeah, I know."

The original plan of the Olympic Airways flight 411 was a direct shot from Athens to New York, but now, this massive 370-ton jumbo jet simply doesn't have enough power to keep going up. The stress is through the roof. The flight is fully loaded with 18 crew members and 400 passengers who are mostly US citizens returning from their Greek summer vacation. Little do they know that the pilot still has to face four major problems in 93 seconds to ensure everyone stays alive.

The first issue has to do with water injection. You see, this Boeing has four engines. Engine number three has just exploded, and engine number two is operating with reduced power after maintenance. So, the pilot needs the remaining engines to give their all to get this plane climbing. The thing is, pushing the engines to the max creates a ton of heat. So, Captain Madis asks the onboard flight engineer to double-check if the cooling system is on, preventing the engines from getting too hot and maintaining a safe temperature.

It's a bit tricky to explain what went wrong at this point, but experts think that in the heat of the moment, the flight engineer might have gotten a little mixed up. Instead of ensuring the water injection is on, he does the opposite and switches the system off. Just 9 seconds after takeoff, this mistake further reduces the power in the engines, limiting the plane's ability to climb by causing a loss of 4,500 lb of thrust. So now, the plane finds itself in a seriously bad situation, barely cruising over the rooftops at below-minimum speed.

The second issue with this doomed aircraft involves the landing gear. The 55-year-old pilot had already had over 30 years of experience when he was assigned to command this flight. So, he decides to make a bold move by telling his co-pilot to pull up the wheels at 35 ft above the runway. This move isn't just risky; it's straight up against Boeing rules. In situations like this, pilots usually have to wait until the aircraft gains a bit more altitude to pull up the wheels because popping those landing gear doors open for 15 seconds adds more resistance against the plane's forward motion. In other words, it slows the plane down. And that's why the co-pilot hesitates for a second before agreeing to break the rule.

Do you remember that the airport is surrounded by mountains? Well, this is problem number four. The pilot knows that, in about a mile, the airplane will face a hill that's about 2100 ft tall. As Madis watches Pony Hill getting closer and closer, he decides to give up a few knots of airspeed to gain the altitude he desperately needs to fly over the hill. Madis feels relief when he sees that his risky plan has worked. The airplane flies over the hill with only 9 ft to spare. Yet, the relief fades quickly. He still needs to come up with an emergency landing plan. Imagine the cockpit eerily silent. They don't have contact with the tower anymore, while the two pilots are doing everything they can to keep Flight 411 from crashing. The flight engineer is also trying to help, but they only have a few minutes to act before it's too late.