By Chris Lawrence, CNN
The stunning and deadly crash of a 747 cargo plane was all caught on camera, falling from the sky seconds after taking off from a U.S. air base in Afghanistan.
The video above is dramatic, and disturbing. A 747 just stalls and falls back to earth.
While CNN can't fully confirm how authentic the video is, it does appear to show a cargo plane that crashed Monday in Afghanistan. That crash killed seven American crewmen, including Brad Hasler.
"If I could trade places with him so that he could be with his family, I would in a heartbeat," said Brad's brother, Bill Hasler.
Bill says Brad's wife is pregnant.
"This is his daughter Sloan, who is two. And who we don't see is what's in here, the baby that's on the way who we expect to see in October," said Bill.
The 747 was bound for Dubai, carrying equipment as part of the U.S. military's drawdown from Afghanistan. The civilian cargo plane was loaded with five MRAPs, each weighing about 27,000 pounds.
"So securing them is absolutely critical for safety," said aviation expert Steven Wallace.
Wallace is the former director of the FAA's Accident Investigation Unit. He says there's no forgiveness in a plane's center of gravity.
Reporter: "So basically there can only be so much weight at each part of the plane?"
"It's critical that the total weight be within the limit and that the plane be balanced," said Wallace.
The 747 can take off a couple different ways. When it's carrying passengers, it'll take four to five minutes to reach 15,000 feet, but in Afghanistan, there's always the danger of being shot out of the sky. The pilots need to gain as much altitude as possible while they're still over Bagram.
A 747 carrying cargo can reach altitude almost two minutes faster.
"The typical concern with a cargo aircraft and that has caused accidents before, is that when the airplane is rotated with the nose up, the cargo moves back if not properly secured," said Wallace.
Cargo is chained down, but if an attachment point fails, it could shift.
"We don't know that happened here. That has happened in prior accidents, then the airplane becomes uncontrollable," said Wallace.
It's much harder to have a massive shift of weight on a commercial 747, because the passengers, and the weight, are evenly distributed in chairs.
