Mayday: Air Disasters

En route from Cold Bay, Alaska, to Seattle, Washington, Reeve Aleutian Airlines Flight 8 is 19,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean when the propeller from one of its four turboprop engines flies off and tears a huge hole in the fuselage. Rocked by explosive decompression, the pilots fight to control the plane as the cabin and cockpit fill with heavy fog.

Headed for Atlanta in an aging DC-9, the crew of ValuJet Flight 592 hears a mysterious sound shortly after taking off from Miami. Almost immediately, they are hit with a barrage of mechanical failures. At first, they notice an electrical problem. The plane’s batteries are draining fast. But within minutes, the situation gets much worse. The pilots hear screams of "fire" coming from the cabin.

En route from Jakarta, Indonesia, to the airline’s home base in Singapore, SilkAir Flight 185 is 35,000 feet above the jungles of Sumatra when the plane banks sharply to the right, takes a nosedive, and crashes into a remote jungle river. All 104 people on board die in the disaster and then it’s up to investigators to figure out what happened. At first, they suspect mechanical failure.

Investigators face a major challenge when looters make off with the Flight Data Recorder from the crash of TANS Peru Flight 204. Wreckage allows investigators to rule out engine failure. But with no FDR, it will take all their ingenuity to reconstruct the final moments of the flight and figure out why the 737 crashed into the jungle, just 4 kilometers short of the runway.

In 1956, a mid-air collision sends two planes crashing into the Grand Canyon killing all 128 passengers and crew on board. Armed only with the rudimentary tools of the time, investigators from the Federal Civil Aviation Board must determine what caused the crash. Their conclusions will uncover a frightening problem that threatens the safety of the entire aviation system.

Seconds after American Airlines Flight 191 lifts off from Chicago, the left engine falls off the plane. The crew loses control of the aircraft and it and crashes moments later. 273 people are killed, making this the deadliest aviation accident in US history. The FAA grounds DC-10s across the country while investigators try to figure out why one of the popular planes in the sky broke apart.

United Airlines Flight 173 is troubleshooting a minor landing gear problem when the plane suddenly loses all four engines. Unable to make it to the airport, the DC-8 crash lands in a wooded suburb of Portland, Oregon. 10 of the 189 people on board die in the disaster and it’s up to investigators to figure out how a small mechanical problem somehow brought down a plane.

One of Russia’s most popular hockey teams is on its way to Minsk, Belarus, for their first game of the 2011 season. Their Soviet built Yak-42D starts down the main runway at Yaroslavl’s Tunoshna Airport. But instead of lifting off, the plane runs off the end of the tarmac, strikes a tower, and crashes into the Volga River. Only the plane’s mechanic survives the disaster.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski is killed after his plane crashes in fog on approach to a Russian military airport. Poland and Russia both launch official investigations to discover the cause of the crash and at first, it seems that the pilot’s decision to attempt a landing in heavy fog may be to blame. But investigators soon learn that there’s a lot more to this accident than simple pilot error.

En route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 takes off from Beirut, Lebanon, with 90 people on board. As the plane climbs to cruising altitude, tower controllers ask the pilots to turn on to a new heading. The pilots acknowledge the instruction. But just moments later, the plane spirals out of control and crashes into the Mediterranean Sea.

After taking off from Mérida, Venezuela, Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518 is high above the Andes Mountains en route to Caracas. But after just six minutes in the air, an alarm tells the pilots they are dangerously close to the ground. Before they can react, the aircraft smashes into a mountaintop and is pulverized on impact instantly killing all 46 people on board.

On 1 June 2009, Air France Flight 447 stalls and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people on board. The disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean launches one of the most difficult air crash investigations of all time. With the wreckage lost at sea, it will take nearly two years for investigators to uncover the shocking reasons behind the crash.