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Air Disasters

Air Disasters

Statistically, traveling by airplane is safer than driving and other forms of transportation, but when something goes wrong during a flight, it can be catastrophic with potentially hundreds of lives at stake. This series examines some of the world's worst air disasters, using official reports, transcripts and interviews with people involved to tell the stories of midair mishaps and discover what went wrong in each case. Episodes include a discussion of how the weather affects flights -- including stories of aviation disasters and near-misses -- and a New Year's Eve flight that fell from the sky into the Florida Everglades.
14 seasonsDocumentary, DramaTV-14Violence
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Season 19 of 10 Episodes

  • During a storm, a strong gale slams Delta Air Lines Flight 191 to the ground, killing most people on board.

  • A pilot heads for a decommissioned air force base when the Boeing 767 jet he is flying unexpectedly runs out of fuel.

  • A design fault leads to an explosion on a DC-10 and two years later the same design fault causes another tragedy.

  • A complex recovery operation is launched to find out if a 747 which disappeared into the Indian Ocean was carrying illegal weapons.

  • Air Midwest Flight 5481 plummets to the ground just after takeoff, killing all on board and injuring one on the ground.

  • A bomb explodes on Air India Flight 182 en route from Canada to India causing it to disintegrate over the coast of Ireland.

  • Within five minutes of takeoff, the Dominican Republic bound Birgenair Flight 301 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean; a series of confusing signals crashes the plane.

  • Pilots of Eastern Airline Flight 401 try to determine why both landing-gear lights do not function on an L-1011, tragically distracting them.

  • In September 2006, a brand-new legacy business jet collides with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon forest.

Record to Watch Later

133 episodes will be broadcast over the next two weeks

    Deadly Inclination
    High Rise Catastrophe
    Deadly Disturbance
    Training Ignored
    Pressure Point
    Head-On Collision
    Who's In Control
    Deadly Space
    Out of Control
    The Pentagon Attack
  • Deadly Inclination

    An Alitalia airliner crashes into a forested hillside just a few miles from a Zurich runway.
    Upcoming
  • High Rise Catastrophe

    A large cargo jet slices into an apartment complex in Amsterdam and reveals a potentially lethal problem threatening every 747 in the sky.
    Upcoming
  • Deadly Disturbance

    How routine flights can turn catastrophic in mere seconds when the pilots become momentarily distracted; three flights end in a disaster.
    Upcoming
  • Training Ignored

    Kobe Bryant dies when a high-tech helicopter crashes on a routine L.A. route-training ignored with deadly results; in Missouri, cockpit chatter dooms Corporate 5966; in Lexington, a twin-engine jet crashes after taking off from the wrong runway.
    Upcoming
  • Pressure Point

    Investigators race to determine the cause of the deadliest single aircraft accident in history: the 1985 crash of Japan Airlines 123, which claimed 520 lives.
    Upcoming
  • Head-On Collision

    With its conductors sound asleep, a freight train fails to stop and collides with an oncoming passenger train, resulting in tragedy.
    Upcoming
Air Disasters

More about Air Disasters

Statistically, traveling by airplane is safer than driving and other forms of transportation, but when something goes wrong during a flight, it can be catastrophic with potentially hundreds of lives at stake. This series examines some of the world's worst air disasters, using official reports, transcripts and interviews with people involved to tell the stories of midair mishaps and discover what went wrong in each case. Episodes include a discussion of how the weather affects flights -- including stories of aviation disasters and near-misses -- and a New Year's Eve flight that fell from the sky into the Florida Everglades.

Starring

Bill Ratner

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