Smithsonian Ch. - Air Disasters: Series 13 (2018)

Harrowing stories of tragedy and triumph in the sky are brought to life through official reports and interviews with flight crews, investigators, and survivors of history's most terrifying crashes. Widely considered to be the safest form of travel, air transportation is still in its infancy, and when midair calamity strikes, the results are often catastrophic. From the control room to the crash scene, we uncover what went wrong, then reveal what's been done to ensure these disasters never happen again.

Part 1: Deadly Descent
Just twenty minutes from touching down in Hong Kong from Indonesia, a sudden engine malfunction transforms an airbus A330 into a 200-ton glider. The plane appears destined to ditch into the South China Sea unless the captain can come up with a better plan.

Part 2: Death Race
Legendary pilot Jimmy Leeward is determined to make news at the 2011 Reno Air Races by pushing his World War II P-51 Mustang to a record-breaking speed of 500 MPH. He succeeds, but at a tragic cost. Mid-race, Leeward loses control of his plane and crashes, killing himself and ten air show spectators.

Part 3: Fatal Approach
KLM Cityhopper Flight 433 leaves Amsterdam en route to Wales, carrying 21 passengers coming off a long Easter weekend. Within minutes, a right engine oil pressure warning comes on, triggering a sequence of poor decisions by the pilots that ultimately doom the flight and send the dual turboprop crashing to Earth. After investigating the accident, the Netherlands Aviation Safety Board determines the cause of those errors goes beyond the cockpit.

Part 4: Borderline Tactics
Firefighters preparing for a practice drill at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay are interrupted by an explosion. They look up to discover an American cargo plane in flames near the Cuban border. Remarkably, the three-man crew is still alive, but barely.

Part 5: Deadly Pitch
Fine Air Cargo Flight 101 takes off from Florida en route to the Dominican Republic with an 87,000-pound payload. A miscommunication between the freight loaders and flight crew regarding the weight of the cargo and how it was distributed leads to a cascading series of events that ends in a deadly crash in the heart of Miami.

Part 6: Fatal Climb
How could a state-of-the-art airbus A-310, flown by two excellent pilots, crash less than two minutes after takeoff? Romanian investigators call in the FBI to determine if the crash of Tarom Flight 371 was a terrorist act, but the cockpit recording reveals the true reason for the disaster.

Part 7: Runway Runoff
A Boeing 737, seconds before liftoff from Denver to Houston, races off the runway, hits a steep ridge, and briefly goes airborne before slamming to Earth and bursting into flames.

Part 8: Lethal Limits
Two Russian pilots with limited experience flying Boeing 737s attempt to land one in the middle of the night with both of the aircraft's engines operating at different power levels. The pairing of a new captain with an unproven first officer was enough to put passengers at risk, but there was one more factor at play that sealed the fate of Aeroflot Nord Flight 821.

Part 9: Soccer Tragedy
LaMia Flight 2933, carrying Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team, is approaching Medellin, Colombia to play for the prestigious Copa Sudamericana championship when its crew suddenly declares a fuel emergency. Before air traffic control can clear a path, the plane loses power and crashes to the ground, killing all but seven passengers.

Part 10: Slam Dunk
At the end of a quick trip from Washington, D.C. to Columbus, Ohio, the captain of United Express Flight 6291 grows concerned over reports of icy rain ahead. He opts for a risky "slam dunk" landing, a maneuver where a plane descends rapidly to the runway to avoid bad weather, but something goes wrong. The plane crashes into a warehouse just a mile from the airport.