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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 1710 of 10 Episodes

  • Flydubai Flight 981 enters a rapid descent and crashes nose-first at Rostov-on-Don Airport in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, after aborting its second landing attempt in poor weather conditions.

  • On December 21, 1992, Martinair Flight 495 crashes off the right side of the runway while attempting to land at Faro Airport in Faro, Portugal, in severe weather conditions, killing 56 of the 340 people on board.

  • When a USAF stealth bomber crashes after takeoff, investigators search for a reason.

  • Trans-Air Service Flight 671 suffers an in-flight separation of its two right engines while en route to Kano, Nigeria, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Istres-Le Tubé Air Base in France.

  • Fifteen minutes after taking off from Puerto Vallarta for San Francisco, the pilots of an MD-83 realize something is very wrong with their plane.

  • After a Boeing 727's near-fatal nosedive over Michigan, investigators risk their own lives to determine what caused the aircraft to lose control.

  • After a passenger jet miraculously survives a collision with trees while landing, investigators attempt to uncover why the plane was flying so low.

  • When an Illinois turboprop crashes after losing battery power, investigators uncover a series of errors made by the pilots.

  • When a turboprop stalls and crashes into a North Carolina forest, investigators resort to a risky test flight-and uncover an industry-wide safety problem.

  • When basketball legend Kobe Bryant is killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, investigators examine the data, the wreckage, and the pilot's actions for clues.

Record to Watch Later

104 episodes will be broadcast over the next two weeks

    The Death of JFK Jr.
    Ocean Landing
    Pitch Black
    Impossible Pitch
    Cold Case
    Racing the Storm
    Fight for Control
    The Invisible Plane
    Grounded: Boeing Max 8
    Carnage in Sao Paolo
  • The Death of JFK Jr.

    When John F. Kennedy Jr.'s Piper Saratoga crashed in 1999, the NTSB faces big pressure to find the wreckage and the cause.
    Upcoming
  • Ocean Landing

    Pilots aboard a hijacked plane are forced to attempt an emergency landing at sea.
    Upcoming
  • Pitch Black

    When an Illinois turboprop crashes after losing battery power, investigators uncover a series of errors made by the pilots.
    Upcoming
  • Impossible Pitch

    Experts investigate the West Air Sweden Flight 294 crash and how the cargo jet nosedived into the Swedish Arctic at speeds nearing 600 mph.
    Upcoming
  • Cold Case

    Two identical plane crashes involving the same icy conditions and the same plane design are examined, revealing why neither disaster should have happened.
    Upcoming
  • Racing the Storm

    An MD-82 crash lands in Arkansas during a severe thunderstorm; but investigators believe weather is not the main reason for the accident.
    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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