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The consequences are disastrous when ice forms on an airplane's wings; three planes are brought down by ice and it's up to investigators to determine how modern aircraft could possibly end up with frozen wings.

Air Disasters

Frozen Wings

Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.

Landings Gone Wrong

Three crews experience the same devastating event; with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.

Engine Gone

Confused, flying blind and lost in the dark, three crews lose sight of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.

Dead of Night

Devastating failures in the air put pilots to the test and shine a light on three feats of flying.

Courage in the Cockpit

Lapse in Security

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

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

Collision Course

Rookie Errors

Three devastating crashes make front-page news around the globe; the media frenzy puts intense pressure on investigators to uncover the causes.

Headline News

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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 E18 | Courage in the Cockpit

E26 | Frozen Wings

E25 | Landings Gone Wrong

E22 | Engine Gone

E21 | Dead of Night

E18 | Courage in the Cockpit

E14 | Lapse in Security

E7 | Runway in Sight

E6 | Perilous Payload

E5 | Fuel Trouble

E3 | Collision Course

E2 | Rookie Errors

E1 | Headline News