On Aug 31, 1988 — Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 (Boeing 727): Moments after lifting off from Dallas, a jet settles back to earth and breaks apart, and the NTSB combs the cockpit's final minutes for what went missing.

Deadly Distraction

Stephen Bogaert

Deadly Airspace

Blown Away

On Feb 16, 2000 — Emery Worldwide Flight 17 (DC-8): Immediately after takeoff from Sacramento, a cargo jet pitches wildly and banks out of control, and what investigators first suspect isn't what they find.

Nuts and Bolts

On Jul 23, 2014 — TransAsia Airways Flight 222 (ATR 72): Landing in foul weather on Taiwan's Penghu islands, a commuter flight crashes short of the airport — and a second crash months later deepens investigators' suspicions.

On Jul 17, 2014 — Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 (Boeing 777): Cruising from Amsterdam toward Kuala Lumpur, an airliner breaks up over eastern Ukraine's conflict zone, and investigators must work a crash site in the middle of a war.

On May 9, 2012 — Sukhoi Superjet 100 demonstration flight: A short showcase flight for potential buyers over Indonesia ends against a mountainside, and just reaching the wreckage tests investigators to their limits.

Deadly Display

On Oct 31, 2014 — Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo "VSS Enterprise": High over the Mojave Desert, a commercial spacecraft breaks apart during a rocket-powered test flight, putting the future of space tourism in question.

Deadly Space

On Oct 7, 2008 — Qantas Flight 72 (Airbus A330): Cruising toward Perth, a highly automated jet abruptly nosedives on its own — twice — and investigators race to find the cause with hundreds of the type in service.

Free Fall

On Nov 14, 1990 — Alitalia Flight 404 (DC-9): On a night approach to Zurich, a jet whose instruments show everything normal strikes a wooded hillside six miles short of the runway.

Deadly Inclination

On Apr 26, 1994 — China Airlines Flight 140 (Airbus A300): Seconds from touchdown at Nagoya, Japan, an airliner unexpectedly climbs, stalls, and falls back to the airfield — and the automation itself comes under scrutiny.

Deadly Go Round

On Nov 15, 1987 — Continental Airlines Flight 1713 (DC-9): After a long delay in heavy Denver snow, a jet barely leaves the ground before slamming back down — while other flights took off safely all around it.

Dead of Winter

Catastrophic incidents in aviation history are meticulously reenacted, providing insight into what went wrong and if the crashes and near-disasters could have been prevented. Accounts from survivors combine with cockpit recordings and computer images to weave the gripping tales, and expert testimony reveals the hows and whys behind the events, some of which have resulted in important changes to aviation safety and regulations.

Deadly Distraction

Seasons25

Season 12 Episodes10

Cast1

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