Air Disasters Season 12

As Denver air traffic controllers struggle to keep departures on schedule amid heavy snow in 1987, a DC-9 is delayed on the tarmac. When the crew is finally cleared for takeoff, the plane gets only 20 feet off the ground before banking sharply and slamming back down, killing 28 of the 82 people on board. Follow investigators as they uncover why Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashed in bad weather while others safely took off. The discovery will change commercial flight, and the teams flying these aircraft, forever.

China Airlines Flight 140 is less than three minutes from touching down at Japan's Nagoya Airport. Suddenly, the highly automated A300 gains speed and won't respond to the pilots' nose-dive commands. After an aborted landing and attempted go-around, the aircraft stalls and crashes into the ground, killing 264 passengers and crew. With so many A300s in service around the world, investigators must determine what happened before a similar accident occurs.

A DC-9 lines up for a nighttime landing at Zurich's Kloten Airport. Although the pilots can't see the runway, their navigation instruments indicate the plane is locked onto the proper signal from the airport. But the equipment is wrong. The plane is actually flying more than a thousand feet lower than it should. Discover the series of errors that caused Alitalia Flight 404 to plow into the ground six miles short of its destination.

Qantas Airways Flight 72 cruises at 37,000 feet to Perth, Australia from Singapore. Suddenly, the highly automated A-330 fires off a series of contradictory warnings and repeatedly nosedives toward the Indian Ocean. Thanks to the heroic flying of a former fighter pilot, the accident does not end in all-out disaster, but the danger is far from over. With almost 600 A-330s in service around the globe, investigators must find out what went wrong before calamity strikes again.

In the skies above the Mojave Desert, Virgin Galactic's commercial spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, accelerates toward the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere, guided by test pilots. Suddenly, the aircraft breaks apart and falls from the sky, killing the flight's co-pilot. With the future of space tourism in jeopardy, NTSB investigators must determine exactly what caused the test flight to go so horribly wrong.

The state-of-the-art Russian aircraft Sukhoi Superjet 100 takes flight on what's meant to be a tight, 30-minute loop over Indonesia to impress potential buyers and journalists. But the trip turns catastrophic after pilots lose their way in the clouds and veer straight into a mountain at 240 mph. Just reaching the wreckage will be one of the most challenging salvage operations Indonesian investigators have ever faced. Finding an explanation for the crash will prove just as troubling.

A commercial airliner whisks 283 passengers from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on a flight path that will take them over a conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. Mid-flight, the aircraft suddenly breaks up and crashes to Earth, killing all aboard. Signs point to a surface-to-air missile strike, but with the wreckage resting in the heart of a war zone, finding evidence proves challenging. See how investigators, against all odds, were able to literally piece together the story of what caused the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.

A Boeing 727 leaving Dallas for Salt Lake City on August 31, 1988 crashes just moments after takeoff, killing 14 of the 108 passengers and crew on board. The NTSB is fast to arrive on the scene, but finding the answers to what went wrong won't come nearly as quickly. Revisit the disaster of Delta Airlines Flight 1141, recounted by one of its fortunate survivors, and follow the inquiry, which uncovers a fatal error made during takeoff.

The landing of a TransAsia commuter flight in bad weather goes horribly wrong in July 2014. The plane crashes less than a mile from Magong Airport in the Penghu archipelago, a popular Taiwanese vacation spot. The media quickly claims the storm caused the disaster, but investigators aren't so certain. When another TransAsia crash occurs just seven months later, their suspicions are confirmed: there is a systemic problem with the airline, and if it isn't corrected soon, the lives of more passengers and crew members will be at risk.

Emery Worldwide Flight 17 leaves Sacramento Mather Airport in February 2000 while carrying a load of freight containers. Upon takeoff, the aircraft dives repeatedly and banks to the left. The pilots attempt to regain control of the crippled plane and return to the airport, but the DC-8 crashes a mile from the runway, killing all three crewmembers. Investigators suspect the cargo was loaded improperly, until a much more troubling cause is discovered upon closer examination.