Disc 1. Tenerife Air Disaster 1 x 43:00 min On March 27th 1977, the worse disaster in aviation history took place. In an attempt to take off in thick fog, a 747 collides with another on the runway in Tenerife. The fiery explosion kills 583 people leaving just 70 survivors. By using forensic re creations and transcripts of the recorded cockpit and control lower conversations, this programme investigates exactly what went wrong. Disc 2. PAN AM Flight 103, 1 x 45:00 min On the evening of December 21st, 1988, Pan Am flight 103 mysteriously exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Boeing 747 fell to the ground in a million pieces. All 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 Lockerbie residents were killed. An investigation into the accident implicated two Libyan terrorists and a small plastic explosive. Disc 3. TWA Flight 800 1 x 43:00 min In 1996, TWA flight 800 exploded shortly after take off from New York's JFK Airport instantly killing all 230 people on board. The scale of the disaster was enormous and wreckage was scattered all over the ocean. The families left behind needed to know exactly what caused the crash on that fateful day. Disc 4. Last Hour of Flight 11 1 x 47:00 min On 11th September 2001, the world watched in horror as two hijacked American Airlines planes were flown into the Two Towers, devastating the lives of thousands. But what exactly happened in those 60 minutes leading up to the moment when the first plane hit the World Trade Centre. Disc 5. Fear of Flying 1 x 43:00 min When the going gets tough at 30,000 feet and the unexpected happens, it's only the pilots with 'the right stuff' who will bring you safely down to earth. In this programme we see incredible footage of near disasters and meet the pilots whose acts of heroism saved their passengers from almost certain death. Disc 6. When Planes Go Down 1 x 50:00 min On a clear June day in Hollywood, a six seater Beechcraft Bonanza narrowly misses a field of school children before taking a nosedive into an apartment building. The plane crashes through three floors before exploding in a fireball in an underground garage. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Investigators are on the scene within minutes, assuming command. It is their crime scene. Disc 7. Cleared for Landing 1 x 45:00 min After every aircraft incident, there is an investigation. Over the past 30 years, these investigations have spurred the airline industry to change is approach to air safety. This programme highlights some of the major air disasters such as the notorious TWA flight 800 and the Singapore Airlines flight 006 and shows how they helped shape air safety standards of today. Disc 8. Alive: The 1972 Andes Survivors 1 x 45:00 min THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO, in October 1972, a chartered plane carrying members of a Uruguayan rugby team, along with friends and family, crashed into a remote section of the Argentinean Andes. Thirteen people were instantly killed but there were 32 survivors left 14,000 feet up in the harsh, forbidding snow-swept Andes.After two weeks, the search for the missing plane was called off and the remaining survivors soon dwindled to a mere sixteen. In order to survive their ordeal, they had no choice but to eat some of their deceased companions. Left with no other option, two survivors, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, left the crash site and trekked for 9 days over the Andes in order to save the rest.
The Discovery Channel series profiles some of the most shocking airtraffic incidents in aviation history, such as the Tenerife air disaster in 1977.
