Major real-life air disasters are depicted in this series. Each episode features a detailed dramatized reconstruction of the incident based on cockpit voice recorders and air traffic control transcripts, as well as eyewitnesses recounts and interviews with aviation experts.
Showing Season 0 of 26
Specials
2004
No overview available.
01. Final Hour of Flight 11 Aircrash Confidential Mystery
2004-06-26
No overview available.
02. Crash of the Century
2006-08-13
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.
03. Special Report Season 13: Getting Out Alive
2014-05-09
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
04. Special Report Season 18 : Communication Breakdown
2018-07-09
This special looked at how failures in communication lead to disasters
05. Special Report Season 18 : Bad Attitude
2018-07-16
This special looked at how pilots' aggressive or unprofessional behaviour can cause deadly accidents.
06. Special Report Season 18 : Hero Pilots
2018-07-23
This special looked at how pilots safely land their aircraft in emergency situations.
07. Special Report Season 18 : Plane vs. Pilot
2018-07-30
This special looked at how automation in the cockpit causes deadly misunderstandings.
08. Special Report Season 18 : Explosive Evidence
2018-08-06
This special looked at terrorist acts, including bombings and shootdowns.
09. Special Report Season 18 : Killer in the Cockpit?
2018-08-13
This special looked at pilots' carefully planned strategies in deliberately crashing aircraft.
10. Special Report Season 18 : Missing Pieces
2018-08-20
This special looked at foreign items, including ice, a chemical oxygen generator, and a bomb as the cause.
11. Special Report Season 18 : Controversial Crashes
2018-08-27
This special looked at disasters where multiple investigations don't agree on the cause of these accidents.
12. Special Report Season 18 : Deadly Distractions
2018-09-03
This special looked at how pilots' deviation from cockpit duties lead to crashes.
13. Special Report Season 18 : Fire on Board
2018-09-10
This special looked at disasters caused by fires, either on the ground or in the air.
14. Special Report Season 19 : Headline News
2019-10-05
Three devastating crashes make front page news and the media frenzy puts intense pressure to uncover the true cause of these deadly disasters.
15. Special Report Season 19 : Rookie Errors
2019-10-12
While commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.
16. Special Report Season 19 : Collision Course
2019-10-19
Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.
17. Special Report Season 19 : Engines Out
2019-10-26
When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world.
18. Special Report Season 19 : Fuel Trouble
2019-11-02
Three mysterious accidents send investigators hunting for clues. In the end, all three trails lead back to the same source - the fuel tank.
19. Special Report Season 19 : Perilous Payloads
2019-11-09
Three planes fatally out of balance highlight to investigators a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet seemingly not stopping.
20. Special Report Season 19 : Runway in Sight
2019-11-16
If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy as evidenced in these three crashes.
21. Special Report Season 19 : Deadly Confusion
2019-11-23
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.
22. Special Report Season 19 : Radio Silence
2019-11-30
Radio silence between pilots and controllers can mean many different things, but in these stories, the physical evidence reveals the truth.
23. Special Report Season 19 : Design Flaws
2019-12-07
Drawing the attention of the entire world, three fatal design flaws put air crash investigators in a storm of controversy.
24. Special Report Season 20: Courage in the Cockpit
2020-07-20
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.
25. Special Report Season 20: Death From Above
2020-07-27
Mid-air tragedies are particularly horrifying when they occur over a community, and rain terror on the people below.
26. Special Report Season 20: VIP on Board
2020-08-03
Revisit three crashes involving high-profile passengers and the pressurized investigations into the causes that followed.
27. Special Report Season 20: Lapse in Security
2020-08-10
These are three horrific air disasters that provoked fundamental changes to airport security and the measures we follow across the world today.
28. Special Report Season 20: Mountain Impact
2020-08-17
Follow three horrifying crashes that revealed high-tech blind spots in the technology preventing aircraft from ploughing into mountains.
29. Special Report Season 20: Survivors
2020-08-24
From the wreckage of three airplane crashes, survivors emerge to tell harrowing tales and provide critical data about what to do in an emergency.
30. Special Report Season 20: Instrument Confusion
2020-08-31
Follow three mid-air tragedies that rained terror on those below when they happened over crowded areas.
31. Special Report Season 20: Heat of the Moment
2020-09-07
When aviation decisions are made in the heat of the moment, even minor issues can have fatal consequences.
32. Special Report Season 20: Maintenance Mistakes
2020-09-14
A trio of crashes reveal that when the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.
33. Special Report Season 20: Take Off Tragedies
2020-09-21
Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during take-off can have disastrous consequences.
34. Special Report: Dead of Night
2021-01-10
Confused, flying blind and lost in the dark, three crews lose site of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.
35. Special Report: Engine Gone
2021-01-17
Three crews experience the same devastating event, but with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.
36. Special Report: Lethal Choices
2021-01-24
Faced with a mid-air crisis, pilots must make life-and-death decisions, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.
37. Special Report: Risky Runways
2021-01-31
In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, three flight crews are pushed to the limit by the toughest landings on earth.
38. Special Report: Landings Gone Wrong
2021-02-07
Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.
39. Special Report: Frozen Wings
2021-02-08
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.
40. Special Report: Runway Collisions
2021-02-11
Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question: How could two planes end up on the same runway at the same time?
41. Special Report: Cockpit Breakdown
2021-02-12
Illustrating the deadly consequences of a mismatched crew, three flights end in tragedy, leaving investigators to unravel what went wrong.
42. Special Report: Splash Down
2021-02-14
Three last-resort water landings-all handled differently-yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on open water.
43. Special Report: Northern Extremes
2021-02-15
Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky leaving investigators to uncover the cause.
44. Special Report: War Zone
2022-09-12
Misidentification and accidental bombing of enemy territory are among the many risks pilots face in military zones around the world.
45. Special Report: Time Critical
2022-09-19
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.
46. Special Report: Ticking Time Bomb
2022-09-26
No overview available.
47. Special Report: Impossible Landings
2022-10-03
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.
48. Special Report: Deadly Data
2022-10-10
No overview available.
49. Special Report: Trained to Fail
2022-10-17
No overview available.
50. Special Report: Accidents in the Air
2022-10-24
This special looked at mid-air collisions caused by either pilot error or meltdowns within air traffic control.
51. Special Report: Dangerous Winds
2022-10-31
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.
52. Special Report: Sabotage
2022-11-07
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.
53. Special Report: Poor Piloting
2022-11-12
No overview available.
