Name: Courage in the Cockpit
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 25 min

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In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, the toughest landings on earth pushed three flight crews.

Air Disasters

Risky Runways

Faced with a midair crisis, pilots must make a life or death decision, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.

Lethal Choices

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

Courage in the Cockpit

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.

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

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

Deadly Confusion

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

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Experts analyze various plane crashes with an aim to figure out how these disasters occurred; they also shed light on how such accidents shaped the aviation industry and improved safety standards.

S20 E18 | Courage in the Cockpit