Air Disasters

Season 15

Harrowing stories of tragedy and triumph are brought to life through official reports, transcripts and interviews with the pilots, air traffic controllers and lucky survivors of history's most terrifying crashes. Widely considered to be the safest form of travel, air transportation is still in its infancy and when midair calamity strikes, the results are often catastrophic. From the cockpit to the cabin, from the control room to the crash scene, we uncover just what went wrong.

Where to Watch Season 15

10 Episodes

Kathmandu Descent
E1
Kathmandu DescentWitness the final minutes of PIA Flight 268 and discover why it crashed into a mountain just minutes from landing.
Impossible Pitch
E2
Impossible PitchWitness the doomed flight of a West Air Sweden jet and see how the failure of a single instrument led to catastrophe.
Explosive Touchdown
E3
Explosive TouchdownMost passengers relax after their plane touches down, but when Uni Air Flight 873 landed, that's when the terror began.
Taxiway Turmoil
E4
Taxiway TurmoilFollow the investigation to see how a DC-9 ended up on the wrong runway and in the path of an oncoming 727.
Runway Breakup
E5
Runway BreakupLanding on a Caribbean island in a severe tropical storm, a Colombian airliner crashes short of the runway. Investigators need to find out why.
Icy Descent
E6
Icy DescentInvestigators are stumped when a turboprop slams into an Argentine desert, and it's a microscopic filament that provides the first tangible clue.
Atlantic Ditching
E7
Atlantic DitchingA helicopter carrying offshore oil workers crashes into the ocean off the coast of Newfoundland and a far-reaching investigation reveals a fatal flaw.
No Warning
E8
No WarningInvestigators are stumped when a turboprop crashes into an Indonesian mountaintop.
Cockpit Killer
E9
Cockpit KillerWhen an African airliner mysteriously crashes, Namibian investigators rule out a host of possible causes before reaching a chilling conclusion.
Stormy Cockpit
E10
Stormy CockpitA brand-new 737 falls from the sky over West Africa during a major storm, but investigators eventually discover weather had nothing to do with it.