The TV King

Aired - 19 April 2010

Episode summary:

Moments after taking off, the right wing of a seaplane falls off, and the plane crashes into shallow waters off Miami Beach, killing all 20 passengers and crew on board. Investigators subsequently discover that the plane crashed due to metal fatigue that resulted from poor maintenence, financial distress at Chalk's, and a lack of appropriate FAA oversight.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 12 April 2010

Episode summary:

March 3, 1989: Moments after takeoff, the passenger plane crashes into trees 962 metres beyond the end of the runway.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 05 April 2010

Episode summary:

January 20, 1992: A French passenger airliner crashes into the Vosges Mountains while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport. The crash kills 87 of the 96 passengers and crew on board.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 29 March 2010

Episode summary:

September 1, 1983: During the Cold War, a Korean Air Lines red eye flight en-route to Seoul from New York via Anchorage strays over restricted Soviet airspace and is subsequently shot down, sparking an international controversy.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 22 March 2010

Episode summary:

February 1, 1991: On a busy night at LA International Airport in 1991, a Boeing 737 lands on a small aircraft, runs off the runway, and hits a building. A grim investigation soon follows.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 15 March 2010

Episode summary:

August 16, 1987: A series of cockpit distractions while on the runway causes the crew to neglect to follow the taxi checklist prior to takeoff. The plane attempts to take off without its flaps or slats deployed, fails to gain sufficient altitude, and crashes. The crash kills 154 of 155 passengers and crew on board, as well as 2 people on the ground. At the time this was the second deadliest air disaster on US soil, second only to the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 eight years earlier.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 08 March 2010

Episode summary:

June 26, 1988: An Airbus A320 operated by Air France fails to regain altitude and crashes after performing a flyby during an airshow at Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport, killing 3 passengers.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 01 March 2010

Episode summary:

August 22, 1985: An engine catches fire during the takeoff phase of a British charter flight from the United Kingdom to the Greek island of Corfu. Despite a successful abandonment of takeoff, 55 of the 137 passengers and crew are killed as the aircraft burns on the runway.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

No Description set.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

No Description set.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 15 April 2009

Episode summary:

On Halloween 1994, an American Eagle ATR-72 suffered a loss of control and crashed near Roselawn, Indiana killing all 68 people on board. While flying in freezing conditions, ice accumulated on the wings. Inadequate de-icing mechanisms failed to remove the ice, resulting in the disruption of the airflow.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 25 March 2009

Episode summary:

In January 2007, an Adam Air Boeing 737 crashed into the Makassar Strait killing 102 people on board. The pilots inadvertenly disengaged the autopilot while trying to fix the inertial reference system, causing the plane to plunge to the water.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 11 March 2009

Episode summary:

On August 2005, a Tuninter ATR-72 ran out of fuel and was forced to ditch in the sea near Palermo, Italy. Of the 39 people on board, 16 lost their lives. The mistake was simply a wrong fuel gauge that sent higher fuel readings than the actual ones.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 25 February 2009

Episode summary:

An attempt to rescue orphans from the chaos of war-torn Vietnam ended in tragedy when a US plane crashed in 1975, killing more than 150 people.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 11 February 2009

Episode summary:

Alternate title: Head on Collision. Find out what went wrong when a Kazakhstan Airlines jet and a Saudi Airways plane collided in the worst mid-air crash in aviation history

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 21 January 2009

Episode summary:

AKA "Deadly Prize" On September 8, 1989, Partnair Flight 94, a charter from Oslo to Hamburg, suddenly begins to dive from 22 thousand feet. The aging propeller plane eventually crashes into the sea, killing all 55 people on board.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 08 December 2008

Episode summary:

Shortly after leaving London Heathrow airport in December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded above Lockerbie, Scotland. Investigators soon discovered that a bomb had taken down the plane.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 01 December 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative title: "Shattered in Seconds" Rescuers have to look to the past to solve the riddle of Flight 611, a China Airlines 747 that disappeared 20 minutes after taking off.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

No Description set.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 11 June 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative titles: "Radio Silence" and "Death Over The Amazon" A Gol Transportes Aéreos Boeing 737 and a brand-new Embraer Legacy business jet on its delivery flight collide in mid-air over the Amazon. The 737 crashes but the Legacy manages to make a safe landing. 154 people die.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 04 June 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative title: "The Plane That Wouldn't Talk" Birgenair Flight 301 is scheduled to fly from Puerto Plata to Frankfurt. On takeoff, the captain finds that his air speed indicator (ASI) is not reading properly, though the co-pilot's ASI is showing the correct speed. Both pilots become confused and believe that both ASIs are malfunctioning. They lose control of the aircraft and it crashes in the Caribbean Sea. All 13 crew members and 176 passengers die.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 28 May 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative title: "Who's at the Controls?" A Lockheed L-1011 Tristar operating Eastern Airlines Flight 401 to Miami International Airport crashes in the Everglades because the crew is distracted by a faulty landing gear indicator light and accidentally disengage the autopilot. 101 people die.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 21 May 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative titles: "Cargo Conspiracy" and "Mystery Fire". South African Airways Flight 295 starts filling with smoke over the Indian Ocean. A fire has erupted in the rear main level cargo area; the pilots successfully open the doors in flight to clear the smoke from the aircraft, however it crashes with no survivors.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 14 May 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative titles: "Miracle Flight" and "Deadly Glide". A Boeing 767-200 jet, Air Canada Flight 143, ran completely out of fuel at 41,000 feet (12,000m) altitude, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton. The crew was able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former airbase at Gimli, Manitoba.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 07 May 2008

Episode summary:

Alternative title: "Slammed to the Ground". In the summer of 1985, a Delta 191 aircraft was diverted away from a thunderstorm, only to be struck by powerful winds and plummet to the ground. Flames engulfed the front of the plane and more than 130 people died in a tragic accident that would eventually expose, and eliminate, an invisible killer.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 30 April 2008

Episode summary:

A commuter plane crashes shortly after take-off, killing everyone onboard. Investigators are faced with the possibility that overweight passengers were one of the causes of this fatal crash. The airline industry based average passenger weight calculations on 1940s figures. Were they fatally out of date?

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 23 April 2008

Episode summary:

In 1977, a plane was caught in a storm so severe that it cracked the cockpit windscreen. The crew decided to try and land on a nearby highway, but the jet clipped a tree and burst into flames. Together with the cockpit crew, 72 passengers and 8 people on the ground were killed in the inferno but miraculously, 5 people on board survived.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 16 April 2008

Episode summary:

When an explosion blasts a huge hole in the fuselage of a new DC-10 airliner, the crash investigators discover a serious design flaw in the plane’s rear cargo door. Yet two years after the first crash, another DC-10 goes down because of the same problem. Should this accident have been prevented?

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 09 April 2008

Episode summary:

Air India Flight 182 flying over the Ireland coast exploded in mid-air killing all 329 on board. Investigators discovered that a bomb caused the aircraft to disintegrate.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 12 March 2007

Episode summary:

Alternative title: "Unconscious Pilot" 14 August 2005: Helios Airways Flight 522 takes-off from Cyprus. As it flies over Greece, air traffic controllers lose radio contact with it. Fighter jets are sent up to meet with the Boeing 737. One of the jets get close to the plane only to see that the First Officer is alone and unconscious in the flight deck. Everyone in the cabin is also unconscious and oxygen masks are dangling from the cabin ceiling. The captain is missing. Then, the fighter jet pilot witnesses someone enter the cockpit. The mysterious person appears to be trying to regain control of the aircraft, but it is too late. Soon, Flight 522 runs out of fuel and dives into a hill near Marathon. There are no survivors. After a thorough investigation, the mysterious person is found out to be a flight attendant that had been working on the flight who managed to stay conscious by using a portable oxygen mask as opposed to the aircraft's installed oxygen masks. This solved the mystery of who the fighter pilot was looking at before the aircraft went down.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 21 June 2007

Episode summary:

AKA "Desperate Dive" and "Deadly Disorientation". . Flash Airlines Flight 604 departs Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport in Egypt for Paris. Just after take-off, the aircraft banks right and goes off course. The pilot corrects the roll but the aircraft banks right again. This time the pilot does nothing. The Boeing 737 rolls further and descends into the Red Sea 9km south of Sharm el-Sheikh. Everyone on board is dead. Although many people today claim that the pilot was spatially disorientated, the cause of this disaster is still disputed.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 18 March 2007

Episode summary:

Alternate titles: "Flight 21 is Missing", "Inbound" and "Flight 21 Is Missing". A USAF Boeing CT-43 (operating under the call sign IF021) attempts an instrument approach into Dubrovnik Airport in heavy fog. The passengers are mainly government officials, including U.S. Government Secretaries. The pilots attempt the IFR non-precision NDB approach to Runway 12. The aircraft goes off course and hits mountains north of the airport, killing all 35 people on board, including the United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 24 May 2007

Episode summary:

August 31, 1986: Aeroméxico Flight 498 is descending into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for landing. Meanwhile, a private Piper Cherokee owned by the Kramer family takes-off from an airfield in nearby Torrance. They unwittingly enter LAX airspace but the air traffic controller doesn't notice it due to a distraction by a Grumman Tiger Flight 66R on the screen. Suddenly over the residential district of Cerritos, the Kramers' plane smashes into Flight 498's horizontal stabilizer, shearing off the top of the cockpit of the private plane and snapping half of the tail off from Flight 498. The Kramers die as a result of the impact. The badly damaged DC-9 flips inverted and plummets into the houses below. Everyone on board dies plus 15 people on the ground. The private plane falls out of the sky and crashes into a school playground.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "6 Mile Plunge" February 19, 1985: China Airlines Flight 006 collides with a jet stream while flying to Los Angeles. The no. 4 engine fails and the pilots try to restart the engine at a much too high altitude. The plane banks slowly to the right but the pilot expects the autopilot to steady the plane. The plane slows down and stalls, sending the passengers and crew into a spiraling nosedive. The sudden actions put everyone under incredible G-forces. The Flight Engineer mistakes readings on the gauges for total engine failures on all engines rather than the Captain putting the throttle to idle. The speed increases and the plane pulls out of the dive but stalls again and falls. The extreme forces rip the undercarriage doors off and pieces of the stabilizers rip off as well. The Boeing 747SP clears the clouds and the pilot sees the horizon. The plane is pulled from the dive, pinning the passengers to their seats. The pilot lands safely at San Francisco despite having trouble with the elevators. 2 people are hurt, but everyone is alive.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 12 August 2007

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "Mystery Crashes" The Boeing B-737 is the most reliable plane in the world. But in 1991, United Airlines Flight 585's rudder fails and the plane nosedives during approach. Investigators know nothing about what caused it. T hen in 1994, USAir Flight 427 crashes in the same way after take-off. What is causing the crashes? Is there a Hidden Danger in every B-737 in the world?

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 01 December 2006

Episode summary:

Alternate titles: "Final Approach" & "Blind Landing". Korean Air Flight 801 crashed on August 6, 1997 on approach to Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, Guam. The Korean Air Boeing 747-3B5 jet, designated HL7468, was en route from Seoul, South Korea to Guam. It departed from Seoul-Kimpo International Airport (now Gimpo Airport) at 8:53 p.m. (9:53 p.m. Guam time) on August 5. It carried 2 pilots, 1 flight engineer, 14 flight attendants, and 237 passengers. The flight was uneventful until shortly after 1:00 a.m. on August 6, as the jet was preparing to land. There was heavy rain at Guam so visibility was significantly reduced and the crew was attempting an instrument landing. At around 1:40, the aircraft was cleared to land at runway 6L. At 1:42, the aircraft crashed into Nimitz Hill, about 3 miles (5 km) short of the runway, at an altitude of 660 feet (201 m). Of the 254 people on board, 228 were killed, most of them by the ensuing fire; only 23 passengers and 3 flight attendants survived.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 15 April 2007

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "Fiery Landing" Air Canada Flight 797 was a scheduled trans-border flight that flew on a Houston, Texas-Dallas/Fort Worth-Toronto, Ontario route. While flying over Louisville, Kentucky, an in-flight fire began in the rear lavatory of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32. The pilots made an emergency landing at the Greater Cincinnati Airport, located in Boone County, Kentucky near Cincinnati, Ohio. During the evacuation, the aircraft doors were opened, causing an influx of oxygen that fueled the fire. 23 of the 41 passengers died from smoke inhalation and a flash fire.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 27 March 2007

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "All Engines Failed" British Airways Flight 009, sometimes referred to as the Jakarta incident, was a scheduled British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Auckland, with stops in Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth and Melbourne. On 24 June 1982, the route was being flown by City of Edinburgh, a 747-200 registered G-BDXH, when it flew into a cloud of dust and ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, and all four engines failed. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and three of the engines were restarted, allowing the flight to divert to Jakarta and perform a safe landing.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 28 March 2007

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "Desperate Escape" Air France Flight 358, an Airbus A340 airliner, departed Paris without incident at 11:53UTC August 2, 2005, later touching down on runway 24L-06R at Toronto Pearson International Airport at 20:01 UTC(16:01 EDT). The aircraft failed to stop and plunged into a nearby shallow ravine, coming to rest and bursting into flames approximately 200 metres past the end of the runway. The Airbus A340-313X had 309 people aboard (297 passengers and 12 crew), all of whom survived without life-threatening injuries

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

No Description set.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

In stormy weather, the Express Samina sails in the Aegean Sea. The ferry is on autopilot with no crew member monitoring the ship's course. The waves push the Express Samina off course, it hits a group of rocks and begins taking on water, eventually sinking. Survivors fight for their lives in the freezing water and giant swells. By the time rescuers finish their task 80 passengers drown.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

No Description set.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 10 July 2006

Episode summary:

Alternate Title: "Ocean Landing" Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked on November 23, 1996 en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum. The plane crashed in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 123 of the 175 passengers and crew on board.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 06 February 2006

Episode summary:

Aeroflot Flight 593 refers to an accident on March 23, 1994 in which an Aeroflot Airbus A310-304 passenger airliner, registration F-OGQS, crashed into a hillside in Siberia. The cockpit voice recorder revealed that the pilot's 15-year-old son, Eldar Kudrinsky, was initially at the controls when the incident began, and that he had unknowingly activated an automatic feature of the A310's autopilot that many pilots at the time were unfamiliar with. All 75 passengers and crew were killed.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 21 February 2006

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "Egypt Air 990". Flight 990 was a Los Angeles-New York-Cairo flight operated by EgyptAir. On October 31, 1999, at around 1:50 a.m. EST, Flight 990 dove into the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Radar and radio contact with the Boeing 767-366ER aircraft (Registration number: SU-GAP) was lost 30 minutes after the aircraft departed JFK Airport in New York on its flight to Cairo. The flight departed from its assigned altitude (FL330: 33,000 feet) and dove to 16,000 feet, then climbed again to 24,000 then continued to dive, hitting the Atlantic Ocean within the span of 36 seconds.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 14 March 2006

Episode summary:

The G-TIGK North Sea ditching was an incident with the Super Puma helicopter G-TIGK on January 19, 1995 in the North Sea. The flight was carrying 16 oil workers from Aberdeen to an oil platform at the Brae oilfield. En route the helicopter ran into poor weather and was then struck by lightning. This caused severe damage to the tail rotor. Though the helicopter managed to limp for a few more minutes, the tail rotor eventually failed completely and the pilot was forced to turn off the main rotor and let the helicopter fall into the rough seas. Emergency floaters on the helicopter allowed the passengers and crew to be evacuated onto a life raft. In spite of the high waves and bad weather, all the people onboard the flight were rescued.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 05 February 2005

Episode summary:

Philippine Airlines Flight 434 (PAL434, PR434) was the route designator of a flight from Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Metro Manila, Philippines, to New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport), Narita near Tokyo, Japan, with one stop at Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Cebu. On December 11, 1994, the Boeing 747-283B on the route was on its second leg, from Cebu to Tokyo, when a bomb exploded, killing one passenger. The rest of the passengers and the crew survived.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 28 January 2005

Episode summary:

Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai. On Sunday July 3, 1988, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children. The Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters at the time of the shoot-down. According to the U.S. government, the Iranian aircraft was mistakenly identified as an attacking military fighter. The Iranian government, however, maintains that the Vincennes knowingly shot down a civilian aircraft.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 21 January 2005

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "Suicide Attack" FedEx Flight 705 was the scene of an attempted hijacking of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 on April 7, 1994. Auburn Calloway, a FedEx employee, was due to be fired for lying on his résumé about his previous flying experience with the United States Navy. He boarded the San José, California-bound aircraft, which was loaded with electronic equipment bound for Silicon Valley, intending to murder the flight crew with hammers, and then use the aircraft for a kamikaze attack on FedEx Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. His reason for using hammers was so that the injuries inflicted would resemble those occurring in a plane crash - Calloway wanted to disguise the attack as an accident so that his family would benefit from his work's $2.5 million life insurance policy. As a last resort, he was also armed with a speargun, smuggled on board in a guitar case. Calloway attempted to disable the Cockpit Data Recorder to cover his tracks. Unbeknownst to Calloway, the 2 man flight crew that was supposed to fly that flight was replaced by a new 3 man crew, consisting of Pilot Dave Sanders, Co-Pilot James Tucker, and Flight Engineer Andy Peterson. Calloway, a former Navy pilot and a martial arts expert, decided to attack just minutes after take-off. He brutally wounded the flight crew with hammers, and fractured the skull of Co-Pilot James Tucker. A lengthy struggle ensued with the flight engineer and pilot. Co-Pilot James Tucker, also an ex-Navy pilot, managed to control the plane as the 3 men struggled in the cockpit.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 14 January 2005

Episode summary:

Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a JAL domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport in Haneda to Osaka International Airport in Itami. The Boeing 747-SR46 that made this route, registered JA8119, crashed into the ridge of Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, Japan 100 km from Tokyo, on Monday August 12, 1985. The crash site was on Osutakano-O'ne (Osutaka Ridge), near Mount Osutaka. It remains the worst single-aircraft disaster in history, and the second-worst aviation accident of all time, second only to the Tenerife disaster. All 15 crew members and 505 out of 509 passengers died (including the famous singer Kyu Sakamoto): a total of 520 deaths. The four female survivors were seated towards the rear of the plane: Yumi Ochiai, an off-duty JAL flight attendant, age 25, who was jammed between a number of seats; Hiroko Yoshizaki, a 34-year-old woman and her 8-year-old daughter Mikiko, who were trapped in an intact section of the fuselage; and a 12-year-old girl, Keiko Kawakami, who was found sitting on a branch in a tree.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 07 January 2005

Episode summary:

The DHL shootdown incident in Baghdad occurred on 22 November 2003, aboard an Airbus A300B4-203F cargo plane, registered OO-DLL, operating on behalf of DHL. The aircraft was hit by a missile, which resulted in the loss of its hydraulic systems. It was the first time an aircraft in this condition was landed safely.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 01 January 2005

Episode summary:

Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Aloha Airlines Boeing 737-200 flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii. On April 28, 1988, the aircraft suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression in flight, but was able to land safely at Kahului Airport on Maui. One crew member was blown out of the airplane and another 65 passengers and crew were injured. The extent of the damage was only just below that which would have caused the airliner to break up, and the survival of the aircraft with such a major loss of integrity was unprecedented and remains unsurpassed.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 05 February 2004

Episode summary:

Avianca Airlines Flight 52 was a regularly scheduled flight from Bogotá's El Dorado International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport via Medellín, Colombia's José María Córdova International Airport. On Thursday, January 25, 1990, the aircraft performing this flight, a Boeing 707-321B registered as HK-2016, crashed into the town of Cove Neck, Long Island, New York after running out of fuel. 73 out of the 158 passengers and crew on board were killed.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 28 January 2004

Episode summary:

Alternate title: "Crash on the Mountain" American Airlines Flight 965 was a scheduled flight from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia. Flight 965 crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia on December 20, 1995.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 21 January 2004

Episode summary:

Alternate title "Mid-Air Collision". Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, registration RA-85816, was a Tupolev 154M passenger jet en route from Moscow, Russia to Barcelona, Spain. DHL Flight 611, registration A9C-DHL, was a Boeing 757-200 cargo jet flying from Bergamo, Italy to Brussels, Belgium. The two aircraft collided in mid-air on July 1, 2002 at 21:35 (UTC) over Überlingen, Germany (near Lake Constance), killing all 71 aboard both aircraft. German investigators determined that the accident had been caused by problems within the air traffic control system; and the controller who was on duty at the time, Peter Nielsen, was later stabbed to death by an architect who lost his wife and both of his children in the accident.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 14 January 2004

Episode summary:

AKA "Hijacked" Air France Flight 8969 (AF8969, AFR8969) was an Air France flight that was hijacked on December 24, 1994 at Algiers. The crisis was ultimately solved with minimal casualties to innocents by the GIGN, the intervention group of the French Gendarmerie, a law-enforcement agency.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 07 January 2004

Episode summary:

AKA "One Wing Flight" Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, registration N256AS, was a Embraer Brasilia aircraft that crashed near Carrollton, Georgia on August 21, 1995 while on a flight from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Gulfport, Mississippi. Nine of the 29 passengers and crew on board eventually died due to injuries suffered in the accident

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 01 January 2004

Episode summary:

British Airways Flight 5390 was a British Airways flight between Birmingham International Airport in Birmingham, England and Málaga, Spain. On June 10, 1990 the airplane suffered an explosive decompression when an improperly installed pane of the windshield blew out; the flight crew managed to perform an emergency landing in Southampton with no loss of life.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 22 October 2003

Episode summary:

AKA "Fire in the Sky". Swissair Flight 111 (SR-111, SWR-111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On September 2, 1998 the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 km from shore, roughly equidistant between the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board were killed. The resulting investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) took over four years and cost US$39 million (CAD$57 million). Their main conclusion was that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in the loss of control and crash of the aircraft

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 15 October 2003

Episode summary:

AKA "Fatal Error " (Air Emergency, Mayday) Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a flight route operated by Alaska Airlines that provided service between Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, San Francisco International Airport, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. On January 31, 2000, the flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles, killing all on board. During the initial climb, the crew realized that there were problems with control of the aircraft. They determined that the horizontal stabilizer had jammed. Thus, the aircrew could not trim the aircraft, which involves making fine adjustments to the positions of the flight control surfaces to keep the plane stable in flight. This left the aircraft flyable, but difficult to keep level. In an effort to correct the problem, the pilots attempted to overcome the jam with the primary and alternate trim systems. At first, their efforts had no effect. After discussions with airline mechanics and dispatchers on the ground, the crew decided to divert the flight to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Meanwhile, the crew continued to troubleshoot the problem. Seven minutes after the decision to divert, the crew was successful in moving the stabilizer. However, the stabilizer moved all the way to a full leading edge up position. This unexpected movement had the effect of causing the aircraft to pitch down suddenly, entering a dive. Only by exerting large forces on the control columns were the pilots able to regain some control of the airplane and continue flying toward LAX. After consulting with a mechanic on the ground, the pilots debated attempting to adjust the stabilizer trim again. They finally decided to leave the stabilizer as it was. Less than a minute after that decision, about ten minutes after the first dive, an "extremely loud noise" was recorded on the cockpit voice recorder and the aircraft entered a second and final dive. The plane inverted and impacted the Pacific Ocean at high speed. All 83 passengers and five crew members died on impact. The flight crashed about twenty miles (thirty-two kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles International Airport into the water off Point Mugu, California. The last radio contact with the aircraft occurred while the plane was passing 17,000 feet at a low speed of 119 knots.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 08 October 2003

Episode summary:

Air Transat Flight 236 was an Air Transat route between Toronto and Lisbon flown by Captain Robert Piché and First Officer Dirk Dejager. On August 24, 2001, the flight ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean with 306 people (293 passengers + 13 crew) aboard. The flight crew was able to successfully land the plane in the Azores with no loss of life.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 17 September 2003

Episode summary:

AeroPeru Flight 603 was a scheduled flight from Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima(LIM), to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, which crashed on October 2, 1996. The flight originated in Miami, Florida. On October 2, 1996, just past midnight, the Boeing 757 airliner crew, shortly after takeoff, reported receiving contradictory emergency messages, such as rudder ratio, overspeed, underspeed and flying too low, from the onboard computer; asked for an emergency to be declared and decided to return to base. Faced with the contradictory warnings, the pilot decided to descend. It was only when one wing touched water, almost an hour after emergency declaration, that the pilots realized how confused and disoriented they were. All nine crew members and sixty-one passengers died.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 10 September 2003

Episode summary:

United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747-122 (registration number N4713U), took off from Honolulu International Airport bound for Sydney, Australia, via Auckland, New Zealand with 3 flight crew, 15 flight attendants, and 337 passengers aboard. As the 747 climbed to between 22,000 and 23,000 feet the R5 cargo door tore open, decompressing the cabin and leaving a gaping hole. Five rows of business class seats were blown out of the aircraft, along with nine passengers. Severely injured, a flight attendant was lying down beside the hole caused by the decompression. Because the cabin was no longer pressurized, the pilots initiated an emergency descent to reach an altitude with breathable air. The explosion had knocked out the number three engine and the number four engine caught fire. Despite only partial flaps (a portion of the shed fuselage damaged the flaps on one wing) and concerns over the plane's landing gear and structural integrity, the crew made a perfect landing and deployed all ten evacuation slides on the aircraft. The evacuation was completed in 90 seconds, with no additional injuries occurring.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 03 September 2003

Episode summary:

American Airlines Flight 1420 was a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Little Rock National Airport. On June 1, 1999, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (registration number N215AA) overran the runway upon landing in Little Rock and crashed. According to the NTSB's report, the crew of Flight 1420 learned that the winds were changing direction and that a windshear alert had sounded on the airport due to a thunderstorm nearby. The crew was originally told to expect Runway 22L for landing but requested a change to Runway 4R. As the aircraft approached Runway 4R, a severe thunderstorm arrived over the airport. The controller's last report to the crew prior to landing stated that the winds were 330 degrees at 28 knots. During the rushed approach, the pilots had failed to arm the spoilers, devices atop the wings that reduce lift by "spoiling" airflow. After landing, the first officer stated, "We're down. We're sliding." The aircraft never fully settled onto its landing gear and therefore braking was ineffective. Despite the application of brakes and reverse thrust, the aircraft skidded off the far end of the runway at high speed and crashed into an approach lighting tier, ending up on the banks of the Arkansas River. Such structures are usually frangible - i.e. designed to shear off on impact - but because the approach lights were located on the unstable river bank, they were firmly anchored and the impact destroyed the aircraft. It broke into three pieces and ignited. The pilot, one of six crew members, died in the crash, along with 10 of the 139 passengers.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - 06 July 2004

Episode summary:

As a Concorde supersonic jet operating as Air France Flight 4590 takes off from Charles de Gaulle International Airport, it catches fire and crashes into a hotel in Gonesse, killing all 109 people on board and four in the hotel.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

This special looks at the role of bad weather in disasters, and tours the US Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City, Missouri to see how information on weather is transmitted to pilots in the sky. Episodes revisited: 5x03-Southern Storm, 5x05-Invisible Killer, 1x01-Racing the Storm, 4x02-Falling From the Sky.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

This special looks at the role of air traffic controllers in the airline industry, and takes a look at the Next Generation Air Transportation System, a new technology meant to eliminate mid-air collisions by reducing overall dependence on radar and radio, as well as delegating some of the air traffic controllers' tasks to computers onboard each plane. Episodes revisited: 4x07-Out of Sight, 2x07-Missing Over New York, 5x10-Phantom Strike, 2x04-Deadly Crossroads

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

This special looks at accidents and incidents where problems with the interface between crew members and onboard avionics were a factor, and the causes of those problems. Episodes re-visited: 1x05-Flying Blind, 4x06-Panic Over the Pacific, 3x09-Kid in the Cockpit, 4x09-Vertigo, 1x03-Flying on Empty.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

This special looks at accidents caused by seemingly minor defects or errors. Episodes re-visited: 1x06-Cutting Corners, 3x03-Out of Control, 2x02-A Wounded Bird, 1x04-Fire on Board, 4x05-Hidden Danger

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

This special looks at accidents and incidents where pressurization failure or explosive decompression played a part. Episodes re-visited: 3x01-Hanging by a Thread, 2x01-Blow Out, 1x02-Unlocking Disaster, 4x10-Ghost Plane.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

March 27, 1977 – At 2:00 in the afternoon a thick fog rolled into the usually quiet Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. On the runway sat two fully loaded jumbo airliners, blanketed in fog. A bomb explosion at a nearby airport had re-directed air traffic to the undermanned airfield at Tenerife. Within three hours, a KLM 747 slams into a taxiing PAM 747, killing 583 people. The planes never left the ground.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review

Aired - Air date unknown.

Episode summary:

SilkAir Flight 185 was a scheduled passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Singapore. On 19 December 1997, the ill-fated flight was being operated by a Boeing 737-300. All 97 passengers and 7 crew (a total of 104 people) died when the aircraft, in a nearly vertical attitude, impacted the Musi River near Palembang, Sumatra following an abrupt descent. The circumstances are still disputed.

Reviews

No Reviews. Add your review