Mayday

Southern Storm (Southern Airways Flight 242)

Aired Apr 23, 2008 · 1:00 PM ET · 45 min

In 1977, a plane was caught in a storm so severe that it cracked the cockpit windscreen. The crew decided to try and land on a nearby highway, but the jet clipped a tree and burst into flames. Together with the cockpit crew, 72 passengers and 8 people on the ground were killed in the inferno but miraculously, 5 people on board survived.