Mayday

About the show

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. 

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Upcoming episodes

May 7th
400a

Southern Storm

"April 4, 1977 — A DC-9 takes off in heavy rain for a 25-minute flight from Huntsville to Atlanta, Georgia. The flight crew is expecting some turbulence, but is unprepared for the increasingly dangerous weather. Using their onboard radar the crew navigates towards a break in the storm. But within minutes, hail the size of baseballs is beating down on the aircraft. The cockpit’s thick windshield cracks. Suddenly the aircraft loses electrical power, and then, both engines fail. If the crew can’t get to an airport, they’re going to crash. The plane finally emerges from the storm near the town of New Hope Georgia – but they’ve fallen too far to reach an airport. First Officer Lyman Keele directs his Captain to start looking for a place to land. They settle on Georgia State Highway 92, the rural road that runs through the small town of New Hope Georgia. The plane careens down the asphalt and plows into a gas station, igniting a fireball, and causing the plane to break up. The aircraft finally comes to a stop in the front yard of a local home. The survivors flee the flaming wreckage, but 80 people – including eight on the ground – are dead. Investigators must determine why the pilots flew into such a severe storm, and what caused the engines to fail. They learn that the pilots used their onboard radar to find a safe exit from the intensifying storm. The two experienced pilots agreed that there was a “hole” in the storm ahead. But in fact what they flew towards was the most intense part of the storm. It was so intense that the plane’s radar couldn’t read it – making it look like a hole.While examining the remains of the plane’s engines, investigators discover severe damage to the compressor blades. The blades compress air before feeding it to the engine’s combustion chamber. But the torrential rain and pounding hail had disrupted the airflow into the engines. That disruption caused the compressor’s powerful fan blades to bend and rub against each other. The engines then tore themselves apart. The crew could not possibly have restarted the engines.While analyzing the flight path, investigators discover one final, tragic error. There was an airport close enough for Flight 242 to land at. But controllers didn’t know it was there, it just beyond the range of their radar. The investigation’s recommendations lead to an industry-wide upgrade in weather radar systems for both aircraft and Air Traffic Control Centers."
May 7th
500a

Explosive Evidence

"June 23, 1985 — Air India Flight 182 is cruising over the Atlantic Ocean – on its way from Canada to India. Air traffic controllers in Shannon, Ireland are monitoring the flight when suddenly its signal disappears from their screens. Search and rescue crews are quickly dispatched to scour the North Atlantic for the plane. Within hours, pieces of the aircraft and bodies are found scattered on the ocean surface. All 329 people on board the 747 are dead. And investigators begin the painstaking process of unraveling the mysterious tragedy. The wreckage is spread over nine square miles of the ocean floor. This is a vital clue for investigators. It tells them that the plane disintegrated at a great height. Autopsies also show the passengers died before they hit the water – another clue that something catastrophic had happened while the plane was flying. Investigators soon suspect the aircraft was brought down by mid-air explosion caused either by a sudden decompression… or by a bomb. To confirm the cause investigators must retrieve vital clues from the ocean floor. The plane’s data recorders as well as key pieces of wreckage are brought to the surface for analysis. The plane’s recorders indicate that the Flight crew had no warning of the disaster. There were no signs that anything was wrong with the plane – until it vanished from radar. Pieces of wreckage from the floor of the cargo hold are found to have small holes – blown from the inside of the plane to the outside. Investigators come to a horrifying conclusion – Air India 182 was brought down by a bomb.Police investigators soon connect the bombing of Air India to another bombing on the same day. A suitcase had exploded at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. It was being loaded onto another Air India Flight. Investigators find fragments from a stereo tuner which they conclude was carrying the bomb. They trace the tuner to a store near Vancouver, British Columbia. They also discover that on the day of the bombing a passenger in Vancouver checked a bag through to New Delhi, but never boarded the flight.The man who built the bomb is ultimately charged and jailed. The man thought to have masterminded the plot is killed while under arrest in India. Police never find the man who checked the bag onto the Air India Flight.The investigation’s many recommendations lead to major improvements in the way luggage is screened, and to stricter regulations for forwarding luggage on connecting flights. The quality of training for security guards also comes under scrutiny, and continues to be an area of concern for security experts."
May 8th
400a

The Plane That Wouldn’t Talk

"February 6, 1996 — A group of German tourists in the Dominican Republic is waiting impatiently to board their flight to Frankfurt. Mechanical problems have grounded their plane – and the airline is forced to substitute the original aircraft with a Boeing 757 owned by Birgenair. This plane has been sitting idle on the tarmac for almost three weeks. After hours of preparation, the plane and the crew are finally ready to take off.As the plane is accelerating for take-off, the flight’s Captain notices a problem with his airspeed indicator, it doesn’t match his First Officer’s gauge. In spite of the conflicting readings, the crew lifts off, and engage the auto pilot for the climb over the Atlantic Ocean. Within moments, the plane’s computer begins bombarding the cockpit with confusing alarms. The first indicates that the plane is traveling far too fast. But when the Captain reduces power slightly, he hears a warning that he’s suddenly flying too slowly. Then the cockpit fills with the sound of the most distressing alarm known to flight crews – the stick-shaker alert. The alarm warns the crew that the plane is moving so slowly, that it’s about to stall. Is the plane traveling too fast or too slow? The bewildered Captain doesn’t know which warnings to trust. The plane begins falling from sky, losing altitude and spinning wildly out of control. The crew never regains control of the plane, and less than five minutes after takeoff, it slams into the Atlantic Ocean. All 189 people on board are killed.When investigators recover the plane’s black boxes from the ocean, they learn that the crew took off with a faulty airspeed indicator, and then faced a baffling sequence of conflicting warnings from the plane’s computer. Investigators now confront a new mystery: How could the failure of one single instrument – the airspeed indicator – cause the crash of one of the world’s most sophisticated jetliners?Investigators turn their focus to the device that feeds information to the airspeed indicator – the pitot tube. They eventually determine that because these tubes had not been properly protected during the aircraft’s three-weeks on the ground, local insects had built nests in the tubes, and blocked them. That’s what caused the Captain’s airspeed indictor to malfunction. Investigators also discover that the same blocked pitot tube that fed the Captain’s airspeed indicator, also fed information the Auto Pilot. The plane was never traveling too fast, the auto pilot was getting faulty readings. The Captain’s decision to slow the plane down caused the jet to stall. But because he was getting so many conflicting warnings, he was never able to understand the problem, and take the necessary steps to recover. As a result of the crash, Boeing changed the potentially confusing alarms on their 700 series of airplanes. Boeing also made it easier for pilots to recognize that the auto pilot was getting faulty airspeed readings, and correct the problem in the flight. The crash of Birgenair Flight 301 also led aviation authorities to require that all commercial pilots undergo simulator training for a blocked pitot tube situation. "
May 8th
500a

Fatal Distraction

"December 29, 1972 — Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is preparing to land in Miami. 163 passengers are on board the sophisticated new L-1011 jet. When the crew try to lower their landing gear, only two of three indicator lights turn green. The crew can’t be sure their landing gear is locked. Without the confirmation, it would be dangerous to land. Captain Robert Loft decides to circle away from the airport and trouble-shoot the problem. The auto-pilot is programmed to keep the plane circling at 2,000 feet. Freed from the task of flying, all three crew members focus their attention on the faulty indicator. Co-Pilot Bert Stockstill works on removing the assembly to check the bulb. Second Officer Don Repo is sent to an area below the cockpit where he should be able to see if the landing gear is locked.But in the Miami Tower, the controller notices something unusual – Flight 401 is no longer flying at 2,000 feet, it’s down to 900. He radios the crew but it’s too late to pull up. The jet crashes into a remote part of the Florida Everglades. 101 people die, but incredibly 77 survive. Many are badly wounded. Jet fuel burns the skin. Alligators lurk nearby. It takes almost an hour for the Coast Guard to find the remote crash site and begin ferrying survivors to nearby hospitals.This is the first-ever crash of a jumbo jet and, at the time, the largest death toll in US civil aviation history. Investigators need to figure out why this sophisticated jet, fell from the sky without anyone in the cockpit noticing. They examine the engines for signs of failure, but find none. They recover the plane’s Auto Pilot computer and test it on another plane. There’s nothing wrong with it. Only when they listen to the Cockpit Voice Recorder do they discover that the crew was so obsessed with a light bulb, that they didn’t hear the warning that their plane was dropping. The discover that Captain Loft unintentionally disengaged the auto-pilot when he accidentally nudged his control column while turning to talk to his Second Officer. Investigators ultimately blame the accident on pilot error. The crew was so focused on the light-bulb that they didn’t look at their instruments, and didn’t notice that the plane was falling. Following the crash pilots are warned that a slight nudge of the control column can disengage their auto-pilot. But there’s a much more lasting legacy to this accident. Until this disaster investigators had never had to consider that the dynamic inside a cockpit could cause a crash. This accident changed that and forced investigators to examine human relations when considering the cause of a crash. Italso led to a whole new area of study, Crew Resource Management. As a result of this accident, pilots would be taught, not just how to fly planes, but how to convey instructions, and delegate responsibility in the cockpit. Flight 401 is taught to this day as an example of poor Cockpit Resource Management."
May 9th
400a

Phantom Strike

"September 29, 2006 — Fresh off the factory floor in Southern Brazil, a sleek $25 million Legacy business jet is being delivered to its new owner in New York. An hour into the flight the plane is powering through the skies over the Amazon Rain Forest. Suddenly a violent jolt sends shock waves through the plane. Passengers look out the window and are horrified to see that part of the plane’s wing has been sheared off. The jet has become hard to control, and the damage to the wing is getting worse. The crew must land. Below them, a dense jungle stretches as far as the eye can see. Luckily the crew spots an Army base with a runway long enough for their plane. But with the damage to their wing they know it could be a rough landing. They come in fast, but manage to bring the plane to a stop before the end of the runway. That’s when a whole new problem develops. The passengers and crew are detained and interrogated by police. Another plane, a Boeing 737 with 154 people on board has crashed nearby. Everyone on board GOL Flight 1907 was killed. Investigators suspect that events on the Legacy and the crash of the GOL flight are related, but how? Investigators studying the crash of the GOL plane make a telling discovery. They find paint on the GOL’s wing that matches the paint on the Legacy jet. It’s clear that the two planes collided high above the Amazon. How had two planes under the authority of Brazilian Air Traffic Control ended up on a collision course? The investigation would uncover a string of technological and human errors that would lead to criminal charges and an unprecedented crisis in Brazilian aviation.Investigators learn that both planes were assigned the same altitude by air traffic controllers at opposite ends of the country. The small jet was supposed to drop to 36,000 feet part way through its flight. If it had, it would not have collided with the 737. But for some reason air traffic controllers never gave the Legacy the crucial order to descend. Instead, the plane stayed on its collision course. Investigators uncover a dangerous flaw in Brazil’s computerized air traffic control system. The computer led controllers to believe that the Legacy was flying 1000 feet lower than it actually was. Both aircraft were equipped with a safety feature designed to prevent mid-air collisions. The system relies on signals from an airplane’s transponder. But the Legacy jet’s transponder was mysteriously silent for more than fifty minutes leading up to the crash. This meant there was no system to warn either crew that a plane was closing in on them. The investigation ultimately reveals that Brazilian air traffic controllers are overworked and poorly trained. Two of the controllers on duty that day are charged with manslaughter. The tragedy of GOL Flight 1907 leads a major overhaul of Brazil’s air traffic control system"
May 9th
500a

Scratching the Surface

"Twenty minutes after taking off from Taipei, a China Airlines 747 suddenly disappears from radar. A massive rescue mission is launched — but all 225 passengers and crew are dead.After ruling out both a bomb and a gas tank explosion, investigators are stumped. They examine hundreds of pieces of wreckage, until they uncover a single piece of the hull, which solves the riddle. The destruction of Flight 611 began with a much smaller problem — twenty years in the past. "
May 10th
400a

Lockerbie

December 21, 1988. Shortly after taking off from Heathrow Airport, Pan Am Flight 103 suddenly explodes in the skies above Lockerbie, Scotland. As the wreckage rains down on the small town and countryside below, fires break out, and homes are vaporized. All 259 people on board are killed. Eleven more in the tiny town also die. The wreckage is scattered over 2,000 square kilometers, and when investigators find proof the aircraft was bombed, the area becomes the largest crime scene in the world… Who brought down Flight 103?
May 10th
500a

Blown Apart

"September 8, 1989 - On a charter trip from Oslo to Hamburg, Partnair Flight 94 is cruising at 22,000 feet -- when it suddenly begins diving toward the sea. The aging propeller plane crashes into the water. All 55 people on board are killed. It is the biggest airline disaster in Norwegian history.As investigators piece together what happened, they uncover a problem so serious, it sends shock waves through the industry. How had a single bolt caused the plane to fall out of the sky? And why is it a potential problem for every passenger plane in the world? "
May 11th
400a

Sight Unseen

November 12th, 1996 — Shortly after take off from New Delhi, Saudi Airways Flight 763 levels off at 14,000 feet. As the crew waits for clearance to climb to their cruising altitude, the plane is hit by a Kazakhstan Airlines jet. The collision cripples both planes. They spiral violently to the ground, killing all 349 people on board. It’s the worst mid-air collision in the history of aviation. The two wreckage fields are five miles apart. As investigators comb through the charred debris for evidence, they try and answer troubling questions: Why did the two planes collide? Who’s responsible? And can they stop it before it happens again?
May 11th
500a

Operation Babylift

April 4, 1975.  In the final, chaotic days of the Vietnam War, US President Gerald Ford orders an urgent mission of mercy called ‘Operation Babylift’. Its goal: to rescue Vietnamese orphans from the chaos of the war and take them back to the safety of the US.   Nearly 250 Vietnamese babies and children are loaded onto an Air Force C5A Galaxy, one of the world’s largest planes.  But after a steep and rapid ascent to get out of missile range, the aircraft’s cargo door is violently blown off and the plane crashes to the ground.  What caused the tragic accident?  And can investigators find out before they have to flee the country