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

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A look at the string of events that caused a midair collision in 2002 over the skies of southern Germany; a Bashkirian Airlines Flight collides with a DHL Flight in German airspace near Überlingen.

Air Disasters

Deadly Crossroads

A Swissair passenger jet catches fire midflight and crashes into the Atlantic, leading to one of the largest investigations in aviation history.

Fire on Board

Following the story of the Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 and Captain Rasmussen.

Pilot Betrayed

A British Airways Flight's engines failure to respond cause the plane to crash-land just short of the runway.

The Heathrow Enigma

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.

A 747's cargo door opens at 23,000 feet, causing an explosive decompression that ejects nine passengers from the plane.

S18 E7 | Unlocking Disaster

E16 | Deadly Crossroads

E9 | Fire on Board

E3 | Pilot Betrayed

E2 | The Heathrow Enigma