Mayday — Specials

Jun 200445m

Aug 200645m

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.

May 201445m

This special looked at how people survive aviation accidents, in part with demonstrations at the Czech Airlines Training Centre. It provided case studies on the following flight: - Asiana Airlines Flight 214 - Air France Flight 358 - Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 - Air Canada Flight 797 - US Airways Flight 1549

Jul 201845m

This special looked at how failures in communication lead to disasters

Jul 201845m

This special looked at how pilots' aggressive or unprofessional behaviour can cause deadly accidents.

Jul 201845m

This special looked at how pilots safely land their aircraft in emergency situations.

Jul 201845m

This special looked at how automation in the cockpit causes deadly misunderstandings.

Aug 201845m

This special looked at terrorist acts, including bombings and shootdowns.

Aug 201845m

This special looked at pilots' carefully planned strategies in deliberately crashing aircraft.

Aug 201845m

This special looked at foreign items, including ice, a chemical oxygen generator, and a bomb as the cause.

Aug 201845m

This special looked at disasters where multiple investigations don't agree on the cause of these accidents.

Sept 201845m

This special looked at how pilots' deviation from cockpit duties lead to crashes.

Sept 201845m

This special looked at disasters caused by fires, either on the ground or in the air.

Oct 201945m

Three devastating crashes make front page news and the media frenzy puts intense pressure to uncover the true cause of these deadly disasters.

Oct 201945m

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

Oct 201945m

Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.

Oct 201945m

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

Nov 201945m

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

Nov 201945m

Three planes fatally out of balance highlight to investigators a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet seemingly not stopping.

Nov 201945m

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

Nov 201945m

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.

Nov 201945m

Radio silence between pilots and controllers can mean many different things, but in these stories, the physical evidence reveals the truth.

Dec 201945m

Drawing the attention of the entire world, three fatal design flaws put air crash investigators in a storm of controversy.

Jul 202045m

Devastating systems failures in the air put pilots to the test and shine a light on three astonishing feats of flying, including Qantas Flight 32.

Jul 202045m

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

Aug 202045m

Revisit three crashes involving high-profile passengers and the pressurized investigations into the causes that followed.

Aug 202045m

These are three horrific air disasters that provoked fundamental changes to airport security and the measures we follow across the world today.

Aug 202045m

Follow three horrifying crashes that revealed high-tech blind spots in the technology preventing aircraft from ploughing into mountains.

Aug 202045m

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

Aug 202045m

Follow three mid-air tragedies that rained terror on those below when they happened over crowded areas.

Sept 202045m

When aviation decisions are made in the heat of the moment, even minor issues can have fatal consequences.

Sept 202045m

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

Sept 202045m

Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during take-off can have disastrous consequences.

Jan 202145m

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

Jan 202145m

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

Jan 202145m

Faced with a mid-air crisis, pilots must make life-and-death decisions, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.

Jan 202145m

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

Feb 202145m

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

Feb 202145m

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.

Feb 202145m

Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question: How could two planes end up on the same runway at the same time?

Feb 202145m

Illustrating the deadly consequences of a mismatched crew, three flights end in tragedy, leaving investigators to unravel what went wrong.

Feb 202145m

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

Feb 202145m

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

Sept 202245m

Misidentification and accidental bombing of enemy territory are among the many risks pilots face in military zones around the world.

Sept 202245m

As they rush to finish, some pilots overlook important steps and danger signs and make decisions that threaten the lives of the passengers as well as their own. A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 crashes into the ground minutes after landing at Amsterdam Airport. A Continental Airlines flight crew ignores normal procedures in Denver amid heavy snow and ice and as the pilots of Ansett New Zealand Flight 703 try to resolve a minor landing gear failure, they hit the ground and their approach ends tragically wrong in the New Zealand slopes.

Sept 202245m

Oct 202245m

The pilots avoid three dangerous situations where there was no room for error and manage to land damaged planes. A female passenger is sucked out the window of Southwest Flight 1380. The cabin of a Boeing 737 explodes over Hawaii and Air Canada Flight 797 catches fire 90 seconds after an incredible crash landing.

Oct 202245m

Oct 202245m

Oct 202245m

This special looked at mid-air collisions caused by either pilot error or meltdowns within air traffic control.

Oct 202245m

Approaching Charlotte, US Air Flight 1016 crashes violently into the ground after a gust of wind. A 737 drops like a rock while flying blind over Perú half a mile from the jungle, and a scientific expedition into the eye of Hurricane Hugo goes terribly wrong.

Nov 202245m

Three flights are sabotaged. When hijackers break into the cockpit of an Ethiopian plane, the captain manages to make a life-threatening sea landing. Scientists debate a pair of conflicting theories when an Italian plane explodes in the sky and Namibian investigators come to a chilling conclusion after examining clues found in the wreckage of LAM Mozambique Flight 470.

Nov 202245m

Jul 202445m

Accidents caused by pitch problems are dramatic and destructive, and survival is almost impossible. Very few clues are available to the investigators. Alaska Airlines Flight 261, American Eagle Flight 4184 and United Airlines Flight 585

Jul 2024

Pushed to the limits of their training and willpower, three flight crews fight against almost impossible odds to land their crippled aircraft. Transair Flight 671, Air Astana Flight 1388 and Philippine Airlines Flight 434.

Jul 2024

With all the advances in technology and safety, sometimes a safe flight is still at risk when the data used is incorrect or misleading. USAF B-2 Bomber, Independant Air Flight 1851 and Birgenair Flight 301

Jul 2024

Three disasters reveal how poor weather threatens a safe landing, with heavy rain, thunderstorms and treacherous crosswinds. Martinair 495, American Airlines Flight 1572 and Air France Flight 358

Aug 2024

Even the most highly trained pilots in the world can be caught out if they ignore their training when it is needed most. Island Express Helicopter, Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 and Comair Flight 5191.

Aug 2024

An argument with no runway in sight, ignoring a critical signal and an exhausted pilot - three problems leading to three crashes. Execuflight 1526. American Eagle Flight 3379. American International Airways Flight 808.