
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.

Pilots aboard a hijacked plane are forced to attempt an emergency landing at sea.

When an Illinois turboprop crashes after losing battery power, investigators uncover a series of errors made by the pilots.

Experts investigate the West Air Sweden Flight 294 crash and how the cargo jet nosedived into the Swedish Arctic at speeds nearing 600 mph.

Experts investigate an unfortunate string of events that caused the freshly serviced Air Astana Flight 1388 to become completely uncontrollable.