Air Disasters
Season 20
202330 episodes
History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.
Episode 1
Headline News
Jul 30, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Three crashes that made front-page news around the world, and how intense media pressure shaped the investigations that followed.
Episode 2
Rookie Errors
Aug 6, 202344m
Special — 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.
Episode 3
Collision Course
Aug 13, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Mid-air and on-course collisions, and the systems built to keep aircraft — and vessels — safely apart.
Episode 4
Engines Out
Aug 20, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: When an aircraft loses all engine power, training and airmanship become the last line of defense.
Episode 5
Fuel Trouble
Aug 27, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Flights brought down not by their machinery but by the fuel meant to keep them flying — from mismanagement to mechanical failure.
Episode 6
Perilous Payload
Sep 3, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Aircraft fatally out of balance from misloaded or unsecured cargo — a risk that's entirely preventable, yet keeps recurring.
Episode 7
Runway in Sight
Sep 10, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Crashes that happened with the airport already in view, when the final moments of flight proved the most dangerous.
Episode 8
Deadly Confusion
Sep 17, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Cockpits overwhelmed by conflicting information, where confusion in critical seconds turned recoverable situations into disasters.
Episode 9
Radio Silence
Sep 24, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Flights that stopped responding to the outside world, and the race to understand what was happening on board.
Episode 10
Design Flaws
Oct 1, 202344m
Special — Multiple incidents: Hidden weaknesses engineered into aircraft long before takeoff, and the crashes that finally exposed them.
Episode 11
Heat of the Moment
Jan 7, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Crews forced to make split-second decisions under extreme pressure — some heroic, some catastrophic.
Episode 12
Instrument Confusion
Jan 14, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: When the instruments pilots depend on begin feeding them lies, crews must decide what — and whether — to believe.
Episode 13
VIP on Board
Jan 21, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Crashes that claimed prominent figures, and the extraordinary scrutiny those investigations drew.
Episode 14
Lapse in Security
Jan 28, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that began on the ground, when security measures meant to protect passengers failed.
Episode 15
Mountain Impact
Feb 4, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Aircraft brought down by terrain, and the technology developed to keep crews from flying into mountains they never saw.
Episode 16
Survivors
Feb 11, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Passengers and crew who lived through the unthinkable, and what their stories reveal about surviving a crash.
Episode 17
Death from Above
Feb 18, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that reached beyond the aircraft, when falling planes and debris brought tragedy to those below.
Episode 18
Courage in the Cockpit
Feb 25, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Crews who faced impossible circumstances and, through skill and nerve, gave their passengers a fighting chance.
Episode 19
Maintenance Mistakes
Jun 23, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Small errors in hangars and workshops that grew into catastrophes at altitude.
Episode 20
Take Off Tragedies
Jun 30, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: The most critical seconds of any flight — and the crashes that happened before aircraft ever truly left the ground.
Episode 21
Dead of Night
Jul 7, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Darkness strips pilots of the horizon and hides danger — these crashes show how quickly night flying can turn deadly.
Episode 22
Engine Gone
Jul 14, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Engines that failed catastrophically — or tore away entirely — and the crews left to fly what remained.
Episode 23
Lethal Choices
Jul 21, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Decisions made in cockpits and operations rooms that sealed a flight's fate long before the moment of impact.
Episode 24
Risky Runways
Jul 28, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: The world's most demanding airports, where terrain, weather, and short pavement leave crews little margin for error.
Episode 25
Landings Gone Wrong
Aug 4, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Approaches and touchdowns that unraveled in the final seconds, when nearly home proved not close enough.
Episode 26
Frozen Wings
Aug 11, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Ice — nearly invisible and ruthlessly effective — and the flights it brought down before its dangers were fully understood.
Episode 27
Runway Collisions
Aug 18, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that happened entirely on the ground, when two aircraft ended up on the same strip of pavement.
Episode 28
Cockpit Breakdown
Aug 25, 202445m
Special — Multiple incidents: When teamwork in the cockpit collapses — through conflict, hierarchy, or silence — the aircraft pays the price.
Episode 29
Splash Down
Sep 1, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Flights that ended in the water, from controlled ditchings to high-speed impacts, and what determined who survived.
Episode 30
Northern Extremes
Sep 8, 202444m
Special — Multiple incidents: Aviation at the edge of the map, where cold, isolation, and unforgiving conditions magnify every mistake.