Air Disasters

Smithsonian Channel

Series

2011

TV14

Documentary

Aviation

Examining 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.

Compilation

8.8

Why
follow?

Cast & Crew

Bill Ratner Narrator

⨁Full Cast & Crew

Where to Stream

2003– Series 21 Seasons262 Episodes

Watch options by

Upcoming TV Airings

The airings below are based on a generic national schedule. Times and dates can vary by TV provider.

Monday, October 20

12:00 AM

Fight for Your Life

Season 6 • Episode 3

Three FedEx employees must regain control of their plane when a coworker attacks them in midair.

Monday, October 20

1:00 AM

River Runway

Season 10 • Episode 8

Pilots attempt to land their Boeing 737 in an Indonesian river.

Monday, October 20

2:00 AM

Blown Apart

Season 21 • Episode 3

In Sept. 1989, Partnair Flight 394 crashes into the sea, killing all 55 people on board.

Monday, October 20

3:00 AM

Head-On Collision

Season 18 • Episode 21

With its conductors sound asleep, a freight train fails to stop and collides with a passenger train.

Monday, October 20

4:00 AM

Bomb on Board

Season 6 • Episode 2

In 1994 on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, a terrorist bombing requires a daring emergency landing.

Monday, October 20

5:00 AM

Ocean Landing

Season 6 • Episode 10

Pilots aboard a hijacked plane are forced to attempt an emergency landing at sea.

Monday, October 20

7:00 AM

Terror in Paradise

Season 5 • Episode 10

A seven-minute island-hop from Moorea to Tahiti ends in disaster.

Monday, October 20

8:00 AM

Attack Over Baghdad

Season 6 • Episode 5

A missile cripples a cargo plane after it takes off from Baghdad International Airport.

Monday, October 20

9:00 AM

Choosing Sides

Season 8 • Episode 1

A tragic misunderstanding is the real cause of the crash of British Midland Flight 92.

Monday, October 20

10:00 AM

Dream Flight Disaster

Season 19 • Episode 7

A British tycoon and his family die in a 2017 Australian seaplane crash.

Monday, October 20

11:00 AM

Pacific Plunge

Season 17 • Episode 5

The pilots of an MD-83 realize something is very wrong with their plane.

Monday, October 20

12:00 PM

Collision Course

Season 20 • Episode 3

A passenger ferry sinks after crashing into rocks off the coast of a Greek island, killing 82.

Monday, October 20

1:00 PM

Deadly Silence

Season 10 • Episode 1

A private Learjet goes rogue before crashing in a South Dakota hayfield.

Monday, October 20

2:00 PM

Fatal Transmission

Season 9 • Episode 1

A runway collision at a small airport turns tragic.

Monday, October 20

3:00 PM

Take Off Tragedies

Season 20 • Episode 20

Three flights ending in tragedy, prove that minor missteps during takeoff can have consequences.

Monday, October 20

4:00 PM

Lost

Season 18 • Episode 17

Investigators struggle to determine why a 757 strayed off course and crashed into a mountain.

Monday, October 20

5:00 PM

Control Catastrophe

Season 19 • Episode 5

Experts investigate a string of events that caused Air Astana Flight 1388 to become uncontrollable.

Monday, October 20

6:00 PM

Cockpit Catastrophe

Season 19 • Episode 6

The cockpit window of an Airbus A319 explodes; pilots land the out-of-control plane.

Monday, October 20

7:00 PM

Phantom Strike

Season 1 • Episode 10

A multibillion-dollar air traffic control system fails to detect two planes on a collision course.

Monday, October 20

8:00 PM

No Warning

Season 15 • Episode 8

Investigators must figure out why the safety systems of a turboprop plane failed to prevent a crash.

Monday, October 20

9:00 PM

Deadly Exchange

Season 19 • Episode 1

A commuter flight crashes mysteriously and investigators examine the final seconds in the cockpit.

Tuesday, October 21

12:00 AM

Ripped Apart

Season 18 • Episode 22

Some design innovations evolve as a result of terrible air disasters.

Tuesday, October 21

1:00 AM

Impossible Pitch

Season 15 • Episode 2

Investigating why a cargo jet took a nosedive into the Swedish Arctic at speeds nearing 600 mph.

Tuesday, October 21

2:00 AM

Deadly Deception

Season 19 • Episode 8

Violent hijackers take over a Bulgarian airliner; the authorities on the ground devise a plan.

Tuesday, October 21

3:00 AM

Accidents in the Air

Investigators dig deep into three mid-air collisions that seem to defy logic.

Tuesday, October 21

4:00 AM

Maintenance Mistakes

Season 20 • Episode 19

When the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.

Tuesday, October 21

5:00 AM

Kobe Bryant

Season 17 • Episode 10

Basketball legend Kobe Bryant is killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.

Thursday, October 23

1:00 AM

Cockpit Failure

Season 18 • Episode 1

Bad weather and a series of errors lead to the crash of a plane on its approach to Zurich Airport.

Thursday, October 23

2:00 AM

Engines Out

Season 20 • Episode 4

An aircraft loses total engine power; investigators determine what went wrong.

Thursday, October 23

3:00 AM

Instrument Confusion

Season 20 • Episode 12

When critical instruments in the cockpit can't be trusted, the consequences can be fatal.

Thursday, October 23

4:00 AM

Fight for Control

Season 4 • Episode 1

The emergency landing of a Reeve Aleutian Airlines plane over the Pacific Ocean.

Thursday, October 23

5:00 AM

Queens Catastrophe

Season 5 • Episode 5

A plane crash in New York just two months after 9/11.

Friday, October 24

12:00 PM

Carnage in Sao Paolo

Season 9 • Episode 6

TAM flight 402 slammed into a residential neighborhood and burst into flames.

Friday, October 24

1:00 PM

Peril Over Portugal

Season 17 • Episode 2

A plane crashes off the right side of the runway while attempting to land in Portugal.

Friday, October 24

3:00 PM

Mission Disaster

Season 16 • Episode 7

U.S. Air Force pilots abort their refueling mission and try to land their damaged plane.

Friday, October 24

4:00 PM

Sight Unseen

Season 21 • Episode 4

Two jets hit each other at 14,000 feet sending both planes spiraling to the ground.

Friday, October 24

5:00 PM

Terror in San Francisco

Season 9 • Episode 2

The 2013 crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco shocks the nation.

Friday, October 24

6:00 PM

Caution to the Wind

Season 4 • Episode 3

As a typhoon approaches, a 747 crashes and burns before it even makes it off the tarmac.

Friday, October 24

7:00 PM

Survivors

Season 20 • Episode 16

Friday, October 24

8:00 PM

Invisible Killer

Season 1 • Episode 1

A strong gale slams Delta Airlines Flight 191 to the ground, killing most people on board.

Friday, October 24

9:00 PM

Catastrophe at O'Hare

Season 4 • Episode 7

The 1979 crash in Chicago nearly grounded DC-10's forever.

Friday, October 24

10:00 PM

Deadly Discussions

Season 11 • Episode 9

An error in the cockpit causes the crash of a 737 on takeoff and leaves an entire nation reeling.

Saturday, October 25

1:00 AM

No Clear Options

Season 8 • Episode 9

When a commuter turboprop plane crashes at an Irish airport, investigators uncover a startling gap.

Saturday, October 25

3:00 AM

Poor Piloting

The crews of three doomed aircraft make catastrophic blunders.

Saturday, October 25

4:00 AM

Northern Extremes

Season 20 • Episode 30

Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky.

Saturday, October 25

5:00 AM

Grounded: Boeing Max 8

Season 16 • Episode 4

Indonesian investigators must determine why a Boeing 737 Max 8 plunged into the Java Sea.

Monday, October 27

12:00 AM

Runway Collisions

Season 20 • Episode 27

Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question.

Monday, October 27

1:00 AM

Storming Out

Season 11 • Episode 6

US Air Flight 1016 is engulfed in intense rain obstructing the view from the cockpit.

Monday, October 27

2:00 AM

The Invisible Plane

Season 3 • Episode 8

Moments after take-off, SAS Flight 686 collides with a Cessna on the runway.

Monday, October 27

3:00 AM

Southern Storm

Season 1 • Episode 6

Pilots of Southern Airways Flight 242 must try to land on a Georgia highway after the engines die.

Monday, October 27

4:00 AM

Cracks in the System

Season 2 • Episode 1

Chalk's Ocean Airways flight 101 crashes just after take-off from Watson Island in Miami.

Monday, October 27

5:00 AM

The Final Blow

Season 2 • Episode 9

An Air Inter flight crashes into the Vosges Mountains while attempting to land.