A Scandinavian Air DC-9 takes off from Stockholm for Copenhagen. It doesn't get far. In a few minutes one engine quits, and then the other. The pilot is too far and too low to make a 180 degree turn and go back to the airport so he follows procedures, keeps the airplane in a level descent, and looks for a landing place. There is a field of snow surrounded by pine forest but the field is small and after brushing the tree tops the DC-9 lands hard and breaks into three pieces.
The pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendant were interviewed for this program and it's the only one I've seen in which the pilot, even years later, showed a sensible reaction while recounting the event. He was scared to death and gulped dryly throughout his comments. He was a good airman though. He did exactly what he had to do and although there were many injuries there were no deaths.
I was also impressed, as usual,by the panoply of instruments and control and alarms. The autopilot does everything for you. In a light plane, the kind I was used to, you need to maintain constant vigilance -- both wing tips must be on the horizon, the nose must be on the horizon, and you need to check your half-dozen instruments and constantly be on the lookout in three dimensions for other traffic. It's exhausting.
In this case the investigators discovered that the engines had more or less blown themselves apart. An invisible layer of ice had been left on the wings and had blown off during takeoff. The DC-9's two engines are tucked against the fuselage at the rear and the chunks of ice had damages them. The pilot had done the right thing in reducing power but a safety measure in the computer misinterpreted his adjustments and over corrected, destroying both engines. The safety feature was so new that no one at Scandinavian Airlines knew about it. The conditions causing the crash have now been corrected.
The co-pilot recovered from his injuries and returned to flying, but not Captain Rasmussen. He found the retraining procedure in the flight simulator too disturbing and left aviation. Rasmussen says it's because he lost confidence in airplanes but psychologists would call in "one-trial conditioning." Fishermen would call it being "bait shy." The symptoms are similar to those of PTSD.