Season 20
July 30, 2023
History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.
30 Episodes
Episodes
Headline News
July 30, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Three crashes that made front-page news around the world, and how intense media pressure shaped the investigations that followed.
Rookie Errors
August 6, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents, including LAPA Flight 3142, American Airlines Flight 587, and Colgan Air Flight 3407: Even highly trained crews can fall prey to the most basic mistakes — with devastating results.
Collision Course
August 13, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Mid-air and on-course collisions, and the systems built to keep aircraft — and vessels — safely apart.
Engines Out
August 20, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: When an aircraft loses all engine power, training and airmanship become the last line of defense.
Fuel Trouble
August 27, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Flights brought down not by their machinery but by the fuel meant to keep them flying — from mismanagement to mechanical failure.
Perilous Payload
September 3, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Aircraft fatally out of balance from misloaded or unsecured cargo — a risk that's entirely preventable, yet keeps recurring.
Runway in Sight
September 10, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Crashes that happened with the airport already in view, when the final moments of flight proved the most dangerous.
Deadly Confusion
September 17, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Cockpits overwhelmed by conflicting information, where confusion in critical seconds turned recoverable situations into disasters.
Radio Silence
September 24, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Flights that stopped responding to the outside world, and the race to understand what was happening on board.
Design Flaws
October 1, 2023
Special — Multiple incidents: Hidden weaknesses engineered into aircraft long before takeoff, and the crashes that finally exposed them.
Heat of the Moment
January 7, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Crews forced to make split-second decisions under extreme pressure — some heroic, some catastrophic.
Instrument Confusion
January 14, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: When the instruments pilots depend on begin feeding them lies, crews must decide what — and whether — to believe.
VIP on Board
January 21, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Crashes that claimed prominent figures, and the extraordinary scrutiny those investigations drew.
Lapse in Security
January 28, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that began on the ground, when security measures meant to protect passengers failed.
Mountain Impact
February 4, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Aircraft brought down by terrain, and the technology developed to keep crews from flying into mountains they never saw.
Survivors
February 11, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Passengers and crew who lived through the unthinkable, and what their stories reveal about surviving a crash.
Death from Above
February 18, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that reached beyond the aircraft, when falling planes and debris brought tragedy to those below.
Courage in the Cockpit
February 25, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Crews who faced impossible circumstances and, through skill and nerve, gave their passengers a fighting chance.
Maintenance Mistakes
June 23, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Small errors in hangars and workshops that grew into catastrophes at altitude.
Take Off Tragedies
June 30, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: The most critical seconds of any flight — and the crashes that happened before aircraft ever truly left the ground.
Dead of Night
July 7, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Darkness strips pilots of the horizon and hides danger — these crashes show how quickly night flying can turn deadly.
Engine Gone
July 14, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Engines that failed catastrophically — or tore away entirely — and the crews left to fly what remained.
Lethal Choices
July 21, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Decisions made in cockpits and operations rooms that sealed a flight's fate long before the moment of impact.
Risky Runways
July 28, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: The world's most demanding airports, where terrain, weather, and short pavement leave crews little margin for error.
Landings Gone Wrong
August 4, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Approaches and touchdowns that unraveled in the final seconds, when nearly home proved not close enough.
Frozen Wings
August 11, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Ice — nearly invisible and ruthlessly effective — and the flights it brought down before its dangers were fully understood.
Runway Collisions
August 18, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that happened entirely on the ground, when two aircraft ended up on the same strip of pavement.
Cockpit Breakdown
August 25, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: When teamwork in the cockpit collapses — through conflict, hierarchy, or silence — the aircraft pays the price.
Splash Down
September 1, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Flights that ended in the water, from controlled ditchings to high-speed impacts, and what determined who survived.
Northern Extremes
September 8, 2024
Special — Multiple incidents: Aviation at the edge of the map, where cold, isolation, and unforgiving conditions magnify every mistake.
