Air Disasters

September 1978: A Boeing 727 is preparing to land at San Diego's Lindbergh Airport. The pilots are warned of a prop plane flying immediately ahead of them. The crew confirms that they see the small aircraft, but within minutes, the two planes collide, spiral out of control, and slam into a small neighborhood. The crash claims the lives of 144 people, including 13 victims on the ground. It is one of California's worst aircraft disasters. Join the investigation and see how investigator's findings lead to major changes in aircraft landing procedures across the U.S.

Disaster strikes a Munich airport and rocks the sports world when a charter aircraft carrying the Manchester United soccer team crashes during take-off, killing eight players. Soon after the 1958 accident, a dispute pits German examiners against the plane's pilot, a celebrated RAF captain. Revisit the crash of BEA Flight 609 as investigators try to determine if it was an icy wing or a slushy runway that brought the plane and its pilot's career to a bitter end.

"I'm the problem." These are the last words heard on the cockpit voice recording of Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771. The words are spoken shortly before the plane crashes into the California hills. Those three words, following sounds of gunfire, quickly transform an NTSB air disaster examination into an FBI murder investigation. Who was the man behind the voice? How did he sneak a gun onto a commercial airliner? And finally, what triggered his cold-blooded crime, one that took the lives of all 43 passengers aboard.

In July of 1989, halfway through its journey from Denver to Chicago, United Airlines Flight 232 is rocked by an explosion. Its tail engine is gone. Its entire hydraulic system has shut down. The crew is working with no flight controls, no slats, and no flaps..but there is still hope. One of the passengers on board happens to be an expert on landing DC-10s, but even he may be powerless to save the crippled plane. No commercial jetliner has ever been successfully landed without hydraulics. The team struggles against impossible odds to try to save the lives of all 296 people on board.

More than 35,000 feet above the Bering Sea, the crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 85 are battling with a crippled aircraft. The 386 passengers aboard are unaware of the potentially fatal drama unfolding in the cockpit. But they soon find out when the aircraft suddenly turns back to Alaska for an emergency landing. See how the pilots of this Boeing 747-400 apply their collective experience, and all of their physical strength, in a desperate attempt to bring their plane safely to the ground.

In a blink of an eye, a commuter plane carrying 11 passengers from Laredo to Houston plummets to Earth, dropping thousands of feet in mere seconds. The aircraft slams into a farmer's field with an impact so violent, the wreckage is not even recognizable as an airplane. What caused the crash of Continental Express Flight 2574? Was it human error? Mechanical failure? An act of terrorism? Investigators sift through the scattered remains for answers but it isn't until they question the plane's inspectors that the tragic details come to light.

Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 races back to a Saudi Arabian airport just a few minutes after takeoff. The hydraulics system has failed, the cabin is filling with smoke, and flames in the wheel well are seconds away from igniting into a deadly fireball. Will the pilots be able to safely land the crippled DC-8 and save the lives of 247 passengers? Witness the harrowing 1991 emergency landing of Flight 2120 and the tragic truth behind its mechanical troubles.

A foggy morning in Milan turns deadly when an MD-87, leaving Italy's Linate Airport, collides with a Cessna crossing the same runway. Tragically, the crash site goes unnoticed in the control tower for several minutes because of near-zero visibility. It's only after the wounded come looking for help that authorities realize the magnitude of the catastrophe before them. Revisit the 2001 collision that claimed 118 lives, and discover the airport's shocking history of similar runway incursions and near misses.

December 1999, just days before Christmas, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 crashes after takeoff. Experts quickly determine the cause of the disaster, but what they can't figure out is why no one aboard the plane did anything to stop it from happening. Join this baffling investigation as it shifts from a crash site examination to a lesson in Korean culture. The facts suggests the seeds of this deadly crash were actually sewn hundreds of years before the 747 even left the ground.

What was supposed to be a joyous homecoming for the elite 101st Airborne Division ends in a tragic plane crash. Returning home from a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East, Arrow Air Flight 1285 fails to takeoff after a refueling stop in Newfoundland. Families in Kentucky awaiting the return of their loved ones are stunned and heartbroken when 248 soldiers perish in the crash. Exactly what caused the disaster is still a hotly debated subject. Conflicting reports, cries of terrorism and accusations of a cover-up circulate around this aviation disaster.

Caught in a severe thunderstorm en route from Belize to New Orleans, TACA Airlines Flight 110 is in trouble. Just 20 miles from the airport, the engines quit, effectively turning the Boeing 737 into a multi-ton glider. With no thrust and dropping 1,500 feet a minute, the crew needs to find a place to land, and fast. Brace for impact along with 38 passengers as the pilots, armed with little more than calm nerves and determination, attempt one of the most remarkable landings in the history of commercial aviation.