America's stories told by the Smithsonian

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When former race car driver Niki Lauda's planes nosedives into a Thai jungle, a one-in-a-million failure reveals a weak spot in every Boeing 767. Radio silence between pilots and air traffic controllers send investigators hunting for answers.

Air Disasters

Design Flaws

The business jet carrying PGA golfer Payne Stewart and former Alabama football quarterback crashes; how loss of pressurization and structural failure led to this crash and the deadliest aviation accidents in both Greek and Taiwanese history.

Radio Silence

Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of all air accidents. Even the most experienced pilots are susceptible to its subtle yet deadly effects.

Deadly Confusion

America has so many stories to tell. And nobody brings them to your home like Smithsonian Channel.

Smithsonian Channel HD

JFK Jr. disappears on the way to Martha's Vineyard, a captain loses his bearings and crashes over the Red Sea and pilots crash a plane over Indonesia.

If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy.

Runway in Sight

Three planes fatally out of balance force investigators to question every calculation; it's a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet repeated disasters reconfirm the need for critical backup systems.

Perilous Payload

History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.

Fuel Trouble

Engines Out

A passenger ferry sinks after crashing into rocks off the coast of a Greek island, killing 82, and leading to a shocking investigation.

Collision Course

Rookie Errors

Headline News

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.

S20 E4 | Engines Out