Saturday

Producer Bruce Nash ("Most Shocking") is behind this adrenaline-fueled series that features civilians and law enforcement officers in risky, selfless rescue missions. Each one-hour episode presents an account of a rescue effort from the dual perspectives of hero and victim.

"November 27, 1987 — A South African Airlines 747 is on a routine flight from Taiwan to Johannesburg when the cabin begins filling with smoke. As passengers struggle to breathe, crew members battle a fire in the cargo hold. Known as a combi, the aircraft is equipped to carry both passengers and cargo on the main level. There are 159 people and six large palettes of cargo on board.Less than an hour from home, the pilots must land their damaged aircraft – but they are over the Indian Ocean and the closest airport is 300 kilometers away on the island of Mauritius. The fire is burning through the plane’s wiring, the smoke is getting thicker, and the passengers are literally choking to death. Time is running out.The pilots attempt a rare maneuver to ventilate the aircraft. They descend to 14,000 feet where they instruct the cabin crew to open the doors. At that altitude, passengers can breathe the outside air – and the difference in pressure will clear the smoke. The pilots remain in contact with air traffic control in Mauritius, but even as the captain is being briefed about emergency landing procedures, the flight disappears without a trace. The next day, an oil slick, floating wreckage, and eight bodies confirm the worst. An investigation is launched to determine what caused the crash. Was there a bomb on board? Had South Africa been the target of terrorists? What cargo had the plane been carrying? Could it be linked to the fire?As the national carrier, South African Airlines is closely linked to the country’s Apartheid government. Conspiracy theories abound. Investigators are keen to figure out what caused the fire on this plane. The floating wreckage shows no signs of an explosion. Investigators now must decide whether to try to find and recover wreckage that’s deeper than the remains of the Titanic. Investigators ultimately commission the most expensive underwater salvage operation in history. After a painstaking exploration on the ocean floor, they finally locate and recover the wreckage, including the all-important cockpit voice recorders.Although the Combi is designed to not allow smoke to move from the cargo compartment to the passenger cabin, investigators discover that’s precisely what happened on this flight. They also learn there were problems with the aircraft’s emergency checklist. The checklist for clearing smoke calls for the crew to activate re-circulating fans and to open the cabin doors. But since the fire was still burning, activating the fans may have increased the amount of toxic smoke in the cabin. Opening the doors may have fed the still smoldering fire, making it worse. Investigators find enough evidence on the ocean floor to conclude that the fire originated in the cargo hold, and that it was more violent than they had originally suspected. But nothing listed on the plane’s manifest could have caused a fire. There are suspicions that the plane was carrying arms. At the time South Africa was under an international arms embargo, and was fighting a war. Even though the official investigation finds no evidence to support that theory, the rumours do not go away.Ten years later, a second commission re-examines the accident, and reaches a controversial conclusion. The investigation confirms the suspicious nature of the accident, and determines that undeclared cargo caused the fire. Without further information, however, investigators accept that the complete story of Flight 295 will forever remain a mystery."

"January 8, 2003 — A small commuter aircraft prepares for a half-hour flight from Charlotte to Greenville, North Carolina. Following standard procedure, the flight crew calculates the weight of all baggage, passengers, and fuel. Handlers raise concerns about heavy luggage, but the crew’s calculations show the plane is not carrying excess weight. After checking flight controls and being cleared by the tower, the pilots takeoff.Within seconds, the nose of the aircraft pitches dramatically upwards. The crew struggles desperately to right their plane. They’re just 350 meters off the ground when the plane stalls and plummets to the ground. Air-traffic controllers watch helplessly as the plane clips a packed US Airways hangar and explodes.The resulting fire threatens to engulf the entire hangar along with the planes and people still inside. Firefighters eventually get the inferno under control. But there are no survivors – all 21 people who were on board the plane are dead.Investigators comb the wreckage for clues. Among the debris, investigators discover the shredded remains of the aircraft’s elevator control cables. These cables control the pitch of the plane’s elevator which moves the plane up and down. One of the cables is far shorter than it should be.Investigators eventually learn that the cables had been adjusted by mechanics days earlier. They are shocked to learn that the mechanics performing the work had skipped nine of the required 25 steps in the cable-tightening procedure. That mistake caused the elevator’s downward movement to be cut in half. When the plane’s nose pitched up, the badly rigged elevator prevented the crew from regaining control of their plane. Investigators conclude that there was nothing the flight crew could have done to save their aircraft.The conclusion is a victory for investigators – but it also leaves them stumped. Why had the plane been able to fly successfully on nine occasions after the faulty maintenance? They determine that the crew performed their weight calculations correctly, using an industry accepted average weight of 175 pounds per passenger. Investigators subsequently weigh passengers at airports around the world and discover that the average passenger actually weighs 200 pounds. That discrepancy meant that Flight 5481 was in fact overweight, with too much weight at the rear of the plane. The excess weight caused the plane’s nose to tilt up, the faulty cables prevented the crew from getting the nose back down. Investigators had uncovered an error which had been putting millions of passengers at risk.As a result of the investigation industry weight averages were adjusted, and technology was developed to weigh passengers before they board small planes."

With Hurricanes Igor and Julia bearing down on the fleet, each captain has to make a decision to either stay on the fishing grounds and risk their crews’ lives for a paycheck, or head for the safety of the docks and deal with losing valuable fishing time. The 55-foot fiberglass Big Eye is no Grand Banks boat, and Chompers is forced to put his season on hold with just one haulback’s worth of fish in his hold. To add to his bad luck, Chompers is caught off guard when the brunt of the storm meets him at the dock in Trepassey. The crew of the Big Eye scrambles for hours to keep the boat from crashing into the rocks, but once docked, the tiny vessel isn’t secure. Battered by hurricane-force winds, a cleat securing the Big Eye to the dock gets ripped from of the side of the boat and nearly ends deckhand Woody’s season. On the Eagle Eye II, Captain Scotty is able to lay 40 miles of mainline in the soon-to-be tumultuous seas. After putting a small trip aboard the boat and coming to terms that his boat and crew are right in the way of the intensifying storm, Scotty makes the decision to play it safe and head to the dock to offload and ride out the storm. Unfortunately, Hurricane Igor, like Scotty, takes a turn for land, forcing the crew to batten down the hatches and hold on tight as the storm exerts its great strength at the dock. Distinguished veteran Linda makes a last-minute decision to follow the rest of the fleet to the docks when suddenly she receives a phone call informing her that the hurricane is headed for land rather than the fishing grounds. Despite this information, Captain Greenlaw decides to ride out the effects of Hurricane Igor. The 200-ton Hannah Boden finds itself in yet another vicious storm and Kenny Puddister is reminded of the nightmare he lived through while riding out the “Perfect Storm” on the Hannah Boden.

This season, Captain Linda is determined to be the top boat…whatever it takes. Hurricane Igor wasn’t a good enough reason to leave the fishing grounds, and her valiant decision has left her and her crew on the best fishing spot. Looking out for her crew’s best interests, Linda refuses to share her hot spot with any of the other captains and ends up with a stellar haul back putting her above the rest of the boats in the fleet. With a now empty fish hold, Scotty steams the Eagle Eye II back to the Grand Banks after riding out the hurricane at the docks. As they arrive back on the fishing grounds, Scotty finds Linda firmly planted on the spot he was fishing before the storm. Hoping Linda will return the favor, Scotty asks if he can share the sweet spot with her. To his dismay Linda declines, leaving him scrounging for a place to fish amongst a fleet of boats. Also on the Grand Banks searching for a spot to fish on the crowded fishing grounds is the Big Eye. Already behind the rest of the fleet and thousands of dollars in debt, Chomps and his crew are desperate to see some fish on the line. Knowing that Scotty has been successful in previous seasons, Chomps tries works with the Eagle Eye II in order to find the payday they are looking for. Scotty agrees but with one condition—a condition Chomps isn’t ok with. 1200 miles south on Georges Bank, the Frances Anne continues to pick away in hopes of putting a decent trip aboard the boat. Early into the haul, deckhand Lemmy suffers a severe injury, but it is quickly swept under the rug. Captain Slick has no time for crybabies and injuries. As the day progresses, Lemmy's pain becomes intolerable forcing the Frances Anne back to the dock earlier than crew expected.

Bittersweet is the word on the Frances Anne. Lemmy’s injury forces them to the dock early, but they offload 16 thousand pounds, leaving each deckhand with a pretty penny to put in their pockets. Boat owner, Rick Mears, pulls Lemmy off the Frances Anne until his finger is healed. Lemmy is replaced and the boat and crew head out for their second trip of the season. On the Hannah Boden, Linda receives a lucrative offer for her catch if she can offload by the end of the week. With a deadline in sight, the crew to races to pull up their last 40 miles of gear. Though the price offered for her fish puts more cash in the crew’s pockets, it is little consolation for deckhand Carl Maxcy who has had enough of Kenny’s poor work ethic. When at the dock, the Hannah Boden offloads their catch and one crew member. Hoping to continue their good luck streak, the Big Eye steams to the beginning of their 40 mile mainline when all hopes of having a smooth day are dashed as the buoy that signals the end of the gear was placed somewhere in the middle of the mainline. Captain Chomps blames greenhorn Matt and takes his anger out on the rest of the crew as well. Because of the greenhorns mistakes the Big Eye is behind the eight ball once again. A costly mistake is made on the Eagle Eye II as deckhand Tommy Fox loses a day because of a rookie move. It’s halfway through the season and losing a fish could mean losing the top spot. Though Scotty is competitive, he is quick to remember that there is more to fishing than being number one. In the wheelhouse, Scotty remembers his friend, John Bachorowski, who took his place on the Hannah Boden a few decades ago and lost his life in an unfortunate event.

The season begins with the TIV team and their Doghouse support vehicle, the TVN team in their SRV Dominator, and the Twistex Team. Reed and the TVN team have early success, nearly driving their new vehicle directly into an EF-1 tornado in Oklahoma. The TIV team, still chasing in TIV1, while waiting for the repairs/modifications on TIV2 to be completed, has a bad first day when communications and navigation problems cause them to miss a potential intercept.

Sean and Reed have a tense and awkward meeting at the New Mexico border. Sean, who was already annoyed at Reed's early success and general attitude, was further annoyed by Reed's new vehicle, the SRV Dominator, which he felt was a blatant attempt to copy his TIV idea. The Twistex team has a successful day, coming within a few hundred feet of an EF2 tornado. The TVN team enjoys slightly less success without their usual driver, Joel Taylor. The TIV team has another bad day, as communication problems once again cause them to miss a valuable intercept, and taking a muddy road causes both TIV1 and Doghouse to get stuck.

Reed steps up his science to take on Dr. Josh Wurman's massive research project. However, when his decision to mount a small radar on his vehicle threatens to interfere with Dr. Wurman's project, tensions between the two rise. TVN's driver Joel Taylor has second thoughts about chasing with the team, when his and Reed's relationship becomes strained. With his much improved TIV2 finally out of the shop, Sean is feeling confident and happy to rejoin his old chasing partner, Dr. Wurman and his new VORTEX2 project. However, when Dr. Wurman seem less than thrilled to see Sean, and makes it clear that getting TIV2 inside a tornado is no longer high on his list of priorities, Sean is somewhat offended, and decides to resume chasing alone with Doghouse, at least temporarily.

During his electrical engineering student days, 21-year-old Harry Smith dropped anchor in Birmingham, splashing out £4,500 on a 1970’s canal boat as a first-time home. Now, the budding entrepreneur has £1,000 to modernize his modest vessel.

Now that their six children have finally all fled the nest, Allen and Jill want to create a new home – and one that floats on the Annacis Channel, just south of Vancouver, Canada. Their million dollar mansion will be the perfect place to entertain with its enormous open plan living area, three outside decks, luxury master bedroom with their own steam room and a huge hot tub on the top terrace with amazing views across to Annacis Island.

Ben and his wife Michelle have always been caravan fanatics. When they found an antique caravan on an auction website, they immediately decided to buy and bring this “Caraboat” back to life, into a fun and functional holiday getaway home that can travel by road or by river. The renovation tackled everything from engine problems, to re-wiring and updating the interiors, but the brutally cold temperatures of winter wreaked havoc on the process. After months of hard work its ready to launch next to the famous SS Great Britain, in Bristol City harbour, but will this blast from the past actually float?

Laurence’s dream is to move into an upgraded floating pad that’s big enough for his grandson to visit but small enough to fit in his own marina. With help from an expert engineer in building floating micro homes, Laurence hopes to fit out the interior himself and re-design the layout with an open living plan. When it finally comes down to the final stages of the build, snow and flood warnings add to the already challenging task of getting the home to his marina.

Kurt and Roberta want to escape their busy city lives in Seattle and build a three-story floating house in Maple Bay, the perfect mooring site with idyllic surroundings and stunning sea views. Their new home will include modern finishes and be cutting edge in style.

Buyers in the Atlanta area searching for those one-of-a-kind items -- a vampire hunting kit, anyone? -- know exactly where to go, but the quantity is always limited and the prices fluid. "Auction Kings" follows the action at Gallery 63, a storied auction house in Hotlanta with a reputation for selling both bizarre and high-end items. Its owner, Paul Brown, manages his feisty staff and mingles with his customers, bidders and buyers who come from all walks of life.

This week at Gallery 63, a pit crew suit from the movie Talladega Nights brings out Cindy’s inner redneck; a custom-built Hydroplane Speedboat pushes Paul’s aquatic skills to the test; and a guitar labeled “Bigsby” arrives that could be worth a quarter of a million dollars.

This week at Gallery 63, a seller claims he has President Thomas Jefferson’s desk; Jon tries his luck with an antique horse racing game, and Paul gives his teenage son Elijah a shot at his first consignment – a 2.5-ton US Army truck that can drive underwater!

This week at Gallery 63, a seller brings in buckets full of sterling silver; a father and son consigns a seaman’s locker from the USS Yorktown, and Jon takes in a Kidde Ride that pays homage to WWI Ace, the Red Baron.

This week at Gallery 63, a rare 1956 Mustang Pony motorcycle goes on the block; Delfino consigns his first item – an eardrum-shattering siren; and a Star Wars enthusiast retires his Stormtrooper costume.

This week at Gallery 63, Paul sells a super sleek Dodge Viper that he’s on the hook for; a seller brings in a saddle that may be from the king of Morocco; and Delfino tries to get a pair of classic Drive-In Movie Speakers to work for auction.

Big Dog Driller Justin has his first doubts about Derek, the rig’s worm. Driller Wayne and the brand-new Viking rig struggle to reach total depth. Gerald rides his Longhorn crew hard during a rig move and one of his roughnecks is injured.

Two roughnecks are injured during Viking’s rig move. Justin and his Big Dog crew are struggling to finally finish their first well, but unreliable worm Derek is holding them back. And on Longhorn, Driller Gerald pushes his roughnecks past their breaking point.

Big Dog moves to its new home, but old tensions still flare between Derek and Justin. The Viking rig overcomes killer snakes and killer hangovers to reach oil. Josh and his young crew take over on the Longhorn and oilman Mike LaMonica isn’t happy about it.

New super team the Gold Devils set their sights on a record-breaking 1000 oz total, a gold drought causes one member of the Poseidon Crew to question his future and the Gold Retrievers gamble on a new wash plant.

The Gold Devils move their multi-million-dollar operation in search of big gold, new team Vince, Bibi and Murray break ground on their dream lease and Jacqui and Andrew return to Australia’s wildest gold field: The Palmer River.

The Ferals are on the gold when a four-wheeler crash leaves them man down, while the Poseidon Crew battles to overcome a catastrophic mechanical failure and Shane an Russel are reunited to hunt for an ancient Paleo channel that could hold the motherload