Air Disasters

On a challenging descent into the Himalayas, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 suddenly slams into a mountain, killing all 167 aboard. It's the second air disaster near Tribhuvan International Airport in just two months and examiners are under tremendous pressure to find out what has made landing at the Kathmandu airport so treacherous. Follow the multinational investigation into the 1992 crash and see how a complicated descent and a cluttered approach chart put the plane on a collision course with a mountainside.

West Air Sweden Flight 294 is on a late-night postal run over the border of Norway and Sweden. Suddenly, the captain discovers his plane is in a steep climb. He pushes the nose down, unaware that he is actually sending his cargo jet speeding towards the ground. It slams into the Earth at almost 600 miles an hour. Investigators soon reach a troubling conclusion: the plane was never pitching up in the first place. But they still don't understand why the failure of a single instrument led to such a sudden and catastrophic crash.

A twin-engine MD-90 has just touched down in Hualien, a popular vacation spot in Taiwan. As the plane slows down, a sudden explosion rocks the cabin and fire and smoke quickly spread. Passengers panic and rush for the exits. By the time the plane is cleared, one passenger will lose her unborn child and another will later die in the hospital. Witness actual footage of the runway inferno, then follow investigators as they dig through the scorched wreckage and uncover the ingredients for catastrophe hiding in one of the overhead bins.

On a foggy night at Detroit Airport, a DC-9 carrying forty passengers finds itself on the wrong end of an active runway. At the same moment-and on the same taxiway, a 727 is cleared for takeoff. The result is a horrifying collision that kills eight people. Investigators are tasked to find out exactly how the DC-9 got lost and what role the pilots, the weather, and traffic control had to do with it. What they discover is a combination of issues, including poor signage, poor visibility, and poor communication in the cockpit.

A bumpy ride from Bogotá to the tiny Caribbean island of San Andres gets much worse for Aires Flight 8250 as it comes in for a landing. Pummeled by an intensifying storm and reduced visibility, the 737 crashes mere feet from the runway, setting off a scramble to get the flight's 125 passengers off the plane. Not everyone makes it out alive. Relive the harrowing last minutes of the 2010 disaster, then follow detectives as they investigate lightning, wind shear, and engine failure before finally discovering the shocking cause of the accident.

A turboprop heading south from Neuquén to Comodoro Rivadavia on the Patagonian coast encounters icing conditions while flying through the area's mountainous terrain. Suddenly the aircraft begins pitching down and banking before it slams into a remote desert, instantly killing everyone on board. Argentinian investigators gather the few remaining remnants of SOL Flight 5428 after the fiery crash and look into engine failure, a cracked propeller, and weather conditions before a microscopic filament provides the first clue to solving the case.

The 2009 crash of Cougar Flight 91 off the coast of Newfoundland stunned the aviation world, not simply because one of the most advanced helicopters in the world failed, but because one of the disaster's passengers survived. We examine the doomed flight from St. John's to an offshore drilling platform, and follow investigators as they piece together clues that ultimately reveal a fatal flaw in the state-of-the-art Sikorsky S-92's design. Then we reveal how one passenger's previous experience in a cold sea accident ultimately saved his life.

On approach to a remote town in Indonesia's Papua province, Trigana Air Service Flight 267 vanishes. A treacherous search on Tanggo Mountain leads to the worst possible news: the plane is demolished and there are no survivors. Local investigators face intense pressure to determine why the turboprop crashed, but without recorded flight data, the plane's cockpit voice recorder becomes their last hope. What they discover is a series of deadly factors-chief among them two overconfident pilots who thought they knew the route better than they had.

November 29, 2013. A jet flying over Namibia plunges 30,000 feet to the ground, killing all 27 passengers and the flight crew. Investigators discover the pilots had enough time to signal for help, from when their plane began its descent to the time it disappeared from radar. So why didn't they? The chilling answer will lead to cockpit safety measures initiated by the Mozambican government. Unfortunately, the airline industry fails to apply the same measures, leading to a similar-and more deadly-air disaster in the French Alps two years later.

A brand new 737 takes off from Cameroon during an intense storm. 90 seconds later, it's submerged in the muddy waters of a mangrove swamp and all of its passengers are dead. What happened? Did bad weather overtake the plane? The government faces intense pressure to find answers but there's one problem: Cameroon has no agency in charge of air accident investigations. When an international team comes together to analyze the wreckage and black boxes, they discover the flight was doomed by a different type of storm, one taking place in the cockpit.