Season 20

2023 · 30 episodes

History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.

1Headline NewsSpecial — Multiple incidents: Three crashes that made front-page news around the world, and how intense media pressure shaped the investigations that followed.
2Rookie ErrorsSpecial — 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.
3Collision CourseSpecial — Multiple incidents: Mid-air and on-course collisions, and the systems built to keep aircraft — and vessels — safely apart.
4Engines OutSpecial — Multiple incidents: When an aircraft loses all engine power, training and airmanship become the last line of defense.
5Fuel TroubleSpecial — Multiple incidents: Flights brought down not by their machinery but by the fuel meant to keep them flying — from mismanagement to mechanical failure.
6Perilous PayloadSpecial — Multiple incidents: Aircraft fatally out of balance from misloaded or unsecured cargo — a risk that's entirely preventable, yet keeps recurring.
7Runway in SightSpecial — Multiple incidents: Crashes that happened with the airport already in view, when the final moments of flight proved the most dangerous.
8Deadly ConfusionSpecial — Multiple incidents: Cockpits overwhelmed by conflicting information, where confusion in critical seconds turned recoverable situations into disasters.
9Radio SilenceSpecial — Multiple incidents: Flights that stopped responding to the outside world, and the race to understand what was happening on board.
10Design FlawsSpecial — Multiple incidents: Hidden weaknesses engineered into aircraft long before takeoff, and the crashes that finally exposed them.
11Heat of the MomentSpecial — Multiple incidents: Crews forced to make split-second decisions under extreme pressure — some heroic, some catastrophic.
12Instrument ConfusionSpecial — Multiple incidents: When the instruments pilots depend on begin feeding them lies, crews must decide what — and whether — to believe.
13VIP on BoardSpecial — Multiple incidents: Crashes that claimed prominent figures, and the extraordinary scrutiny those investigations drew.
14Lapse in SecuritySpecial — Multiple incidents: Disasters that began on the ground, when security measures meant to protect passengers failed.
15Mountain ImpactSpecial — Multiple incidents: Aircraft brought down by terrain, and the technology developed to keep crews from flying into mountains they never saw.
16SurvivorsSpecial — Multiple incidents: Passengers and crew who lived through the unthinkable, and what their stories reveal about surviving a crash.
17Death from AboveSpecial — Multiple incidents: Disasters that reached beyond the aircraft, when falling planes and debris brought tragedy to those below.
18Courage in the CockpitSpecial — Multiple incidents: Crews who faced impossible circumstances and, through skill and nerve, gave their passengers a fighting chance.
19Maintenance MistakesSpecial — Multiple incidents: Small errors in hangars and workshops that grew into catastrophes at altitude.
20Take Off TragediesSpecial — Multiple incidents: The most critical seconds of any flight — and the crashes that happened before aircraft ever truly left the ground.
21Dead of NightSpecial — Multiple incidents: Darkness strips pilots of the horizon and hides danger — these crashes show how quickly night flying can turn deadly.
22Engine GoneSpecial — Multiple incidents: Engines that failed catastrophically — or tore away entirely — and the crews left to fly what remained.
23Lethal ChoicesSpecial — Multiple incidents: Decisions made in cockpits and operations rooms that sealed a flight's fate long before the moment of impact.
24Risky RunwaysSpecial — Multiple incidents: The world's most demanding airports, where terrain, weather, and short pavement leave crews little margin for error.
25Landings Gone WrongSpecial — Multiple incidents: Approaches and touchdowns that unraveled in the final seconds, when nearly home proved not close enough.
26Frozen WingsSpecial — Multiple incidents: Ice — nearly invisible and ruthlessly effective — and the flights it brought down before its dangers were fully understood.
27Runway CollisionsSpecial — Multiple incidents: Disasters that happened entirely on the ground, when two aircraft ended up on the same strip of pavement.
28Cockpit BreakdownSpecial — Multiple incidents: When teamwork in the cockpit collapses — through conflict, hierarchy, or silence — the aircraft pays the price.
29Splash DownSpecial — Multiple incidents: Flights that ended in the water, from controlled ditchings to high-speed impacts, and what determined who survived.
30Northern ExtremesSpecial — Multiple incidents: Aviation at the edge of the map, where cold, isolation, and unforgiving conditions magnify every mistake.

Episodes