Bernard Vaillot
Director
Air Disasters (2011)
Season 20
History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.
Released May 15, 2011
Episode 45 min
None+
Genres: Documentary
Watch Providers: The Roku Channel, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount Plus Premium + 3 more, Philo, YouTube TV, Paramount Plus Essential
Network: Smithsonian Channel
Country: United States
Languages:
English
S20E1 - Headline News
American Airlines Flight 77 slams into the Pentagon on America's darkest day of the 21st century. TWA Flight 800 explodes over Long Island minutes after leaving JFK. The supersonic superstar Concorde crashes into an airport hotel after a failed takeoff from Paris. All three air disasters made headline news around the globe, creating media frenzies, igniting conspiracy theories, and putting immense pressure on investigators. In this episode, we revisit these three accidents and follow examiners as they uncover the truth behind the tragedies.
July 30, 2023, midnight
S20E2 - Rookie Errors
While commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.
Aug. 6, 2023, midnight
S20E3 - Collision Course
Authorities scramble for answers when a passenger plane collides with a military fighter jet in California, and two commercial planes meet a similar fate decades later in India.
Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.
Aug. 13, 2023, midnight
S20E4 - Engines Out
When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world.
Aug. 20, 2023, midnight
S20E5 - Fuel Trouble
Three mysterious accidents send investigators hunting for clues. In the end, all three trails lead back to the same source - the fuel tank.
Aug. 27, 2023, midnight
S20E6 - Perilous Payload
Three planes fatally out of balance force investigators to question every calculation. It's a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet repeated disasters reconfirm the need for critical backup systems.
Sept. 3, 2023, midnight
S20E7 - Runway in Sight
If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy.
Sept. 10, 2023, midnight
S20E8 - Deadly Confusion
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.
Sept. 17, 2023, midnight
S20E9 - Radio Silence
Radio silence between pilots and air traffic controllers can mean many different things, but only the physical evidence can reveal the true story. Three shocking cases send investigators hunting for answers.
Sept. 24, 2023, midnight
S20E10 - Design Flaws
When former race car driver Niki Lauda's planes nosedives into a Thai jungle, a one-in-a-million failure reveals a weak spot in every Boeing 767.
Oct. 1, 2023, midnight
S20E11 - Heat of the Moment
Dashcam footage aids in the investigation of a fatal TransAsia crash, experts determine the cause of a botched emergency landing, and a test flight for a revolutionary aircraft turns deadly.
Jan. 7, 2024, midnight
S20E12 - Instrument Confusion
A Boeing 737 vanishes off the radar, a South Korean jet slams into the English countryside moments after takeoff, and an inexperienced crew faces a pileup of errors on a flight over Russia. When critical instruments cause confusion, the consequences can be deadly.
Jan. 14, 2024, midnight
S20E13 - VIP on Board
Airplane crashes involving high-profile passengers—including a top diplomat and a Brazilian football team—put investigators under intense pressure to come up with answers.
Jan. 21, 2024, midnight
S20E14 - Lapse in Security
Traced to a breakdown of vital safety measures, three horrific disasters provoke fundamental changes to airport security procedures around the world.
Jan. 28, 2024, midnight
S20E15 - Mountain Impact
Following three deadly crashes, investigators uncover dangerous mathematical flaws in the very operations systems designed to prevent aircraft from flying into mountains.
Feb. 4, 2024, midnight
S20E16 - Survivors
From the wreckage of three airplane crashes, survivors emerge to tell harrowing tales and provide critical data about what to do in an emergency.
Feb. 11, 2024, midnight
S20E17 - Death from Above
Mid-air tragedies are particularly horrifying when they occur over a community, and rain terror on the people below.
Feb. 18, 2024, midnight
S20E18 - Courage in the Cockpit
Devastating failures in the air put pilots to the test, and shine a light on three astonishing feats of flying.
Feb. 25, 2024, midnight
S20E19 - Maintenance Mistakes
A trio of crashes reveals that when the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.
June 23, 2024, midnight
S20E20 - Take Off Tragedies
Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during takeoff can have disastrous consequences.
June 30, 2024, midnight
S20E21 - Dead of Night
Confused, flying blind, and lost in the dark, three crews lose site of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.
July 7, 2024, midnight
S20E22 - Engine Gone
Three crews experience the same devastating event; but with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.
July 14, 2024, midnight
S20E23 - Lethal Choices
Faced with a midair crisis, pilots must make a life or death decision, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.
July 21, 2024, midnight
S20E24 - Risky Runways
In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, the toughest landings on earth pushed three flight crews.
July 28, 2024, midnight
S20E25 - Landings Gone Wrong
Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.
Aug. 4, 2024, midnight
S20E26 - Frozen Wings
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.
Aug. 11, 2024, midnight
S20E27 - Runway Collisions
Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question; a look at how two planes end up on the same runway at the same time.
Aug. 18, 2024, midnight
S20E28 - Cockpit Breakdown
Three flights end in tragedy after miscommunication mix-ups and personality clashes; Investigators try to unravel what went wrong.
Aug. 25, 2024, midnight
S20E29 - Splash Down
Three last-resort water landings, all handled differently yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on open water.
Sept. 1, 2024, midnight
S20E30 - Northern Extremes
Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky leaving investigators to uncover the cause.
Sept. 8, 2024, midnight
Network: Smithsonian Channel
Episode Runtime: 45 min.
Season Runtime: 11970 min.
Released: May 15, 2011
Last Air Date: July 20, 2025, midnight
Status: Returning Series
Certification: 12
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