Air Disasters

Season 20

30 episodes · Jul 30, 2023

History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.

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  • Headline News
    S20E1

    Headline News

    Jul 30, 202344m

    American Airlines Flight 77 slams into the Pentagon on America's darkest day of the 21st century. TWA Flight 800 explodes over Long Island minutes after leaving JFK. The supersonic superstar Concorde crashes into an airport hotel after a failed takeoff from Paris. All three air disasters made headline news around the globe, creating media frenzies, igniting conspiracy theories, and putting immense pressure on investigators. In this episode, we revisit these three accidents and follow examiners as they uncover the truth behind the tragedies.

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  • Rookie Errors
    S20E2

    Rookie Errors

    Aug 6, 202344m

    While commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.

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  • Collision Course
    S20E3

    Collision Course

    Aug 13, 202344m

    Authorities scramble for answers when a passenger plane collides with a military fighter jet in California, and two commercial planes meet a similar fate decades later in India. Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.

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  • Engines Out
    S20E4

    Engines Out

    Aug 20, 202344m

    When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world.

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  • Fuel Trouble
    S20E5

    Fuel Trouble

    Aug 27, 202344m

    Three mysterious accidents send investigators hunting for clues. In the end, all three trails lead back to the same source - the fuel tank.

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  • Perilous Payload
    S20E6

    Perilous Payload

    Sep 3, 202344m

    Three planes fatally out of balance force investigators to question every calculation. It's a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet repeated disasters reconfirm the need for critical backup systems.

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  • Runway in Sight
    S20E7

    Runway in Sight

    Sep 10, 202344m

    If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy.

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  • Deadly Confusion
    S20E8

    Deadly Confusion

    Sep 17, 202344m

    Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of all air accidents. Even the most experienced pilots are susceptible to its subtle yet deadly effects.

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  • Radio Silence
    S20E9

    Radio Silence

    Sep 24, 202344m

    Radio silence between pilots and air traffic controllers can mean many different things, but only the physical evidence can reveal the true story. Three shocking cases send investigators hunting for answers.

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  • Design Flaws
    S20E10

    Design Flaws

    Oct 1, 202344m

    When former race car driver Niki Lauda's planes nosedives into a Thai jungle, a one-in-a-million failure reveals a weak spot in every Boeing 767.

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  • Heat of the Moment
    S20E11

    Heat of the Moment

    Jan 7, 202444m

    Dashcam footage aids in the investigation of a fatal TransAsia crash, experts determine the cause of a botched emergency landing, and a test flight for a revolutionary aircraft turns deadly.

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  • Instrument Confusion
    S20E12

    Instrument Confusion

    Jan 14, 202444m

    A Boeing 737 vanishes off the radar, a South Korean jet slams into the English countryside moments after takeoff, and an inexperienced crew faces a pileup of errors on a flight over Russia. When critical instruments cause confusion, the consequences can be deadly.

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  • VIP on Board
    S20E13

    VIP on Board

    Jan 21, 202444m

    Airplane crashes involving high-profile passengers—including a top diplomat and a Brazilian football team—put investigators under intense pressure to come up with answers.

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  • Lapse in Security
    S20E14

    Lapse in Security

    Jan 28, 202444m

    Traced to a breakdown of vital safety measures, three horrific disasters provoke fundamental changes to airport security procedures around the world.

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  • Mountain Impact
    S20E15

    Mountain Impact

    Feb 4, 202444m

    Following three deadly crashes, investigators uncover dangerous mathematical flaws in the very operations systems designed to prevent aircraft from flying into mountains.

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  • Survivors
    S20E16

    Survivors

    Feb 11, 202444m

    From the wreckage of three airplane crashes, survivors emerge to tell harrowing tales and provide critical data about what to do in an emergency.

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  • Death from Above
    S20E17

    Death from Above

    Feb 18, 202444m

    Mid-air tragedies are particularly horrifying when they occur over a community, and rain terror on the people below.

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  • Courage in the Cockpit
    S20E18

    Courage in the Cockpit

    Feb 25, 202444m

    Devastating failures in the air put pilots to the test, and shine a light on three astonishing feats of flying.

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  • Maintenance Mistakes
    S20E19

    Maintenance Mistakes

    Jun 23, 202444m

    A trio of crashes reveals that when the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.

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  • Take Off Tragedies
    S20E20

    Take Off Tragedies

    Jun 30, 202444m

    Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during takeoff can have disastrous consequences.

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  • Dead of Night
    S20E21

    Dead of Night

    Jul 7, 202444m

    Confused, flying blind, and lost in the dark, three crews lose site of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.

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  • Engine Gone
    S20E22

    Engine Gone

    Jul 14, 202444m

    Three crews experience the same devastating event; but with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.

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  • Lethal Choices
    S20E23

    Lethal Choices

    Jul 21, 202444m

    Faced with a midair crisis, pilots must make a life or death decision, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.

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  • Risky Runways
    S20E24

    Risky Runways

    Jul 28, 202444m

    In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, the toughest landings on earth pushed three flight crews.

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  • Landings Gone Wrong
    S20E25

    Landings Gone Wrong

    Aug 4, 202444m

    Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.

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  • Frozen Wings
    S20E26

    Frozen Wings

    Aug 11, 202444m

    Three planes are brought down by ice and it's up to investigators to determine how modern aircraft could possibly end up with frozen wings.

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  • Runway Collisions
    S20E27

    Runway Collisions

    Aug 18, 202444m

    Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question; a look at how two planes end up on the same runway at the same time.

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  • Cockpit Breakdown
    S20E28

    Cockpit Breakdown

    Aug 25, 202445m

    Three flights end in tragedy after miscommunication mix-ups and personality clashes; Investigators try to unravel what went wrong.

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  • Splash Down
    S20E29

    Splash Down

    Sep 1, 202444m

    Three last-resort water landings, all handled differently yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on open water.

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  • Northern Extremes
    S20E30

    Northern Extremes

    Sep 8, 202444m

    Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky leaving investigators to uncover the cause.

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