Mayday - Specials

Run Time: 46 mins
Air Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004
Average Rating: ⭐ 8.198 (265 votes)
5 Discovery Sky History National Geographic Channel National Geographic59 Episodes

Final Hour of Flight 11 Aircrash Confidential Mystery
Season 0 - Episode 1

Crash of the Century
Season 0 - Episode 2
March 27, 1977 – At 2:00 in the afternoon a thick fog rolled into the usually quiet Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. O...

Special Report Season 13: Getting Out Alive
Season 0 - Episode 3
This special looked at how people survive aviation accidents, in part with demonstrations at the Czech Airlines Training Centre. It provided...

Special Report Season 18 : Communication Breakdown
Season 0 - Episode 4
This special looked at how failures in communication lead to disasters

Special Report Season 18 : Bad Attitude
Season 0 - Episode 5
This special looked at how pilots' aggressive or unprofessional behaviour can cause deadly accidents.

Special Report Season 18 : Hero Pilots
Season 0 - Episode 6
This special looked at how pilots safely land their aircraft in emergency situations.

Special Report Season 18 : Plane vs. Pilot
Season 0 - Episode 7
This special looked at how automation in the cockpit causes deadly misunderstandings.

Special Report Season 18 : Explosive Evidence
Season 0 - Episode 8
This special looked at terrorist acts, including bombings and shootdowns.

Special Report Season 18 : Killer in the Cockpit?
Season 0 - Episode 9
This special looked at pilots' carefully planned strategies in deliberately crashing aircraft.

Special Report Season 18 : Missing Pieces
Season 0 - Episode 10
This special looked at foreign items, including ice, a chemical oxygen generator, and a bomb as the cause.

Special Report Season 18 : Controversial Crashes
Season 0 - Episode 11
This special looked at disasters where multiple investigations don't agree on the cause of these accidents.

Special Report Season 18 : Deadly Distractions
Season 0 - Episode 12
This special looked at how pilots' deviation from cockpit duties lead to crashes.

Special Report Season 18 : Fire on Board
Season 0 - Episode 13
This special looked at disasters caused by fires, either on the ground or in the air.

Special Report Season 19 : Headline News
Season 0 - Episode 14
Three devastating crashes make front page news and the media frenzy puts intense pressure to uncover the true cause of these deadly disaster...

Special Report Season 19 : Rookie Errors
Season 0 - Episode 15
While commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.

Special Report Season 19 : Collision Course
Season 0 - Episode 16
Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.

Special Report Season 19 : Engines Out
Season 0 - Episode 17
When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world.

Special Report Season 19 : Fuel Trouble
Season 0 - Episode 18
Three mysterious accidents send investigators hunting for clues. In the end, all three trails lead back to the same source - the fuel tank.

Special Report Season 19 : Perilous Payloads
Season 0 - Episode 19
Three planes fatally out of balance highlight to investigators a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet seemingly not stopping.

Special Report Season 19 : Runway in Sight
Season 0 - Episode 20
If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy as evidenced in these three crashes.

Special Report Season 19 : Deadly Confusion
Season 0 - Episode 21
Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of all air accidents. Even the most experienced pilots are susceptible to its subtle yet...

Special Report Season 19 : Radio Silence
Season 0 - Episode 22
Radio silence between pilots and controllers can mean many different things, but in these stories, the physical evidence reveals the truth.

Special Report Season 19 : Design Flaws
Season 0 - Episode 23
Drawing the attention of the entire world, three fatal design flaws put air crash investigators in a storm of controversy.

Special Report Season 20: Courage in the Cockpit
Season 0 - Episode 24
Devastating systems failures in the air put pilots to the test and shine a light on three astonishing feats of flying, including Qantas Flig...

Special Report Season 20: Death From Above
Season 0 - Episode 25
Mid-air tragedies are particularly horrifying when they occur over a community, and rain terror on the people below.

Special Report Season 20: VIP on Board
Season 0 - Episode 26
Revisit three crashes involving high-profile passengers and the pressurized investigations into the causes that followed.

Special Report Season 20: Lapse in Security
Season 0 - Episode 27
These are three horrific air disasters that provoked fundamental changes to airport security and the measures we follow across the world tod...

Special Report Season 20: Mountain Impact
Season 0 - Episode 28
Follow three horrifying crashes that revealed high-tech blind spots in the technology preventing aircraft from ploughing into mountains.

Special Report Season 20: Survivors
Season 0 - Episode 29
From the wreckage of three airplane crashes, survivors emerge to tell harrowing tales and provide critical data about what to do in an emerg...

Special Report Season 20: Instrument Confusion
Season 0 - Episode 30
Follow three mid-air tragedies that rained terror on those below when they happened over crowded areas.

Special Report Season 20: Heat of the Moment
Season 0 - Episode 31
When aviation decisions are made in the heat of the moment, even minor issues can have fatal consequences.

Special Report Season 20: Maintenance Mistakes
Season 0 - Episode 32
A trio of crashes reveal that when the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.

Special Report Season 20: Take Off Tragedies
Season 0 - Episode 33
Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during take-off can have disastrous consequences.

Special Report: Dead of Night
Season 0 - Episode 34
Confused, flying blind and lost in the dark, three crews lose site of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.

Special Report: Engine Gone
Season 0 - Episode 35
Three crews experience the same devastating event, but with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.

Special Report: Lethal Choices
Season 0 - Episode 36
Faced with a mid-air crisis, pilots must make life-and-death decisions, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.

Special Report: Risky Runways
Season 0 - Episode 37
In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, three flight crews are pushed to the limit by the toughest landings on earth.

Special Report: Landings Gone Wrong
Season 0 - Episode 38
Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.

Special Report: Frozen Wings
Season 0 - Episode 39
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.

Special Report: Runway Collisions
Season 0 - Episode 40
Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question: How could two planes end up on the same runway at the same time?

Special Report: Cockpit Breakdown
Season 0 - Episode 41
Illustrating the deadly consequences of a mismatched crew, three flights end in tragedy, leaving investigators to unravel what went wrong.

Special Report: Splash Down
Season 0 - Episode 42
Three last-resort water landings-all handled differently-yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on open water.

Special Report: Northern Extremes
Season 0 - Episode 43
Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky leaving investigators to uncover the cause.

Special Report: War Zone
Season 0 - Episode 44
Misidentification and accidental bombing of enemy territory are among the many risks pilots face in military zones around the world.

Special Report: Time Critical
Season 0 - Episode 45
As they rush to finish, some pilots overlook important steps and danger signs and make decisions that threaten the lives of the passengers a...

Special Report: Ticking Time Bomb
Season 0 - Episode 46

Special Report: Impossible Landings
Season 0 - Episode 47
The pilots avoid three dangerous situations where there was no room for error and manage to land damaged planes. A female passenger is sucke...

Special Report: Deadly Data
Season 0 - Episode 48

Special Report: Trained to Fail
Season 0 - Episode 49

Special Report: Accidents in the Air
Season 0 - Episode 50
This special looked at mid-air collisions caused by either pilot error or meltdowns within air traffic control.

Special Report: Dangerous Winds
Season 0 - Episode 51
Approaching Charlotte, US Air Flight 1016 crashes violently into the ground after a gust of wind. A 737 drops like a rock while flying blind...

Special Report: Sabotage
Season 0 - Episode 52
Three flights are sabotaged. When hijackers break into the cockpit of an Ethiopian plane, the captain manages to make a life-threatening sea...

Special Report: Poor Piloting
Season 0 - Episode 53

Special Report: Pitch Problems
Season 0 - Episode 54
Accidents caused by pitch problems are dramatic and destructive, and survival is almost impossible. Very few clues are available to the inve...

Special Report: Fight to the Finish
Season 0 - Episode 55
Pushed to the limits of their training and willpower, three flight crews fight against almost impossible odds to land their crippled aircraf...

Special Report: Bad Data
Season 0 - Episode 56
With all the advances in technology and safety, sometimes a safe flight is still at risk when the data used is incorrect or misleading. USAF...

Special Report: Landing Hazards
Season 0 - Episode 57
Three disasters reveal how poor weather threatens a safe landing, with heavy rain, thunderstorms and treacherous crosswinds. Martinair 495, ...

Special Report: Training Ignored
Season 0 - Episode 58
Even the most highly trained pilots in the world can be caught out if they ignore their training when it is needed most. Island Express Heli...

Special Report: Reckless Approaches
Season 0 - Episode 59
An argument with no runway in sight, ignoring a critical signal and an exhausted pilot - three problems leading to three crashes. Execufligh...