
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.
Investigating the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407; the plane stalls at low altitude and dives into a residential area near Buffalo, N.Y.
When Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashes shortly after takeoff, the catastrophe leads to the grounding of the entire Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet.
Three flight crews face impossible odds: a Boeing 707 loses engines over the Alps as fire spreads, Air Astana 1388 goes out of control over Portugal, and a bomb on PA 434 severs control cables and blasts a hole in the fuselage.
Airplane crashes involving high-profile passengers put added pressure on investigators.