Mayday: Air Disaster

The crew of Delta Airlines Flight 191 see rain and lightning up ahead, but fly on. Inside the storm, the plane is hit by powerful winds that slam it to the ground. 136 people die.

An explosion rips a hole in the cabin of a new DC-10. Two years later, another DC-10 has the exact same problem, with deadly consequences. The accident could have been prevented.

The cabin of a 747 Combi begins filling with smoke. After the plane disappears in the Indian Ocean, a recovery operation is launched to locate and raise the wreckage.

Moments after takeoff, the nose of a small commuter plane pitches up. The plane is just 350 meters in the air when it stalls, and plummets to the ground, killing everyone on board.

Rain and hail shatter the windshield of a DC-9 aircraft. Both engines give out, and the jet plows into a gas station. Seventy people – including eight on the ground – are killed.

Air India Flight 182 suddenly disappears from radar. Within hours, pieces of the aircraft and bodies are found in the North Atlantic Ocean. All 329 people on board the 747 are dead

The pilots of Birgenair Flight 301 are bombarded by confusing alarms. They struggle to regain control, and the airplane slams into the ocean, killing everyone on board.

Flying at 2,000 feet, none of the crew on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 notice the plane is slowly falling to the ground, until it’s too late. They slam into the Florida Everglades.

A Legacy jet and Boeing 737 collide in mid-air. How had two planes under the authority of Brazilian Air Traffic Control ended up on a collision course?