
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.

A Korean Airlines passenger plane is shot down by a Soviet fighter jet in 1983; political tensions nearly escalate into war.

Fifteen minutes after taking off from Puerto Vallarta for San Francisco, the pilots of an MD-83 realize something is very wrong with their plane.

An Air Inter flight crashes into the Vosges Mountains while attempting to land killing most of the 96 passengers.

A runway collision at a small airport turns tragic when passengers cannot escape the burning aircraft.