
Statistically, traveling by airplane is safer than driving and other forms of transportation, but when something goes wrong during a flight, it can be catastrophic with potentially hundreds of lives at stake. This series examines some of the world's worst air disasters, using official reports, transcripts and interviews with people involved to tell the stories of midair mishaps and discover what went wrong in each case. Episodes include a discussion of how the weather affects flights -- including stories of aviation disasters and near-misses -- and a New Year's Eve flight that fell from the sky into the Florida Everglades.

The U.S. Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City, Miss.; the importance of accurate weather forecasting to the aviation industry.

The consequences are disastrous when ice forms on an airplane's wings; three planes are brought down by ice, and it's up to investigators to determine how modern aircraft could possibly end up with frozen wings.

The cockpit window of an Airbus A319 explodes; pilots miraculously land the out-of-control plane; investigators must determine how the freshly serviced aircraft was released with a fatal flaw.

Three flights ending in tragedy, prove that minor missteps during takeoff can have disastrous consequences.