Mayday
2003– · Continuing · 26 seasons
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Sign in- First aired
- Sep 3, 2003
- IMDb rating
Overview
Revealing the dark truth that aviation safety improves one crash at a time, Mayday investigates legendary aviation disasters to find out what went wrong and why. Based on cockpit voice recorders, accident reports and eyewitness accounts, every episode also features interviews, state-of-the-art CGI and gripping reenactments.
3 wins & 7 nominations total
via OMDbEpisodes
Specials · 59 episodes
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Jun 26, 2004 45 min
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Aug 13, 2006 45 min
March 27, 1977 – At 2:00 in the afternoon a thick fog rolled into the usually quiet Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. On the runway sat two fully loaded jumbo airliners, blanketed in fog. A bomb explosion at a nearby airport had re-directed air traffic to the undermanned airfield at Tenerife. Within three hours, a KLM 747 slams into a taxiing PAM 747, killing 583 people. The planes never left the ground.
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May 9, 2014 45 min
This special looked at how people survive aviation accidents, in part with demonstrations at the Czech Airlines Training Centre. It provided case studies on the following flight: - Asiana Airlines Flight 214 - Air France Flight 358 - Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 - Air Canada Flight 797 - US Airways Flight 1549
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Jul 9, 2018 45 min
This special looked at how failures in communication lead to disasters
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Jul 16, 2018 45 min
This special looked at how pilots' aggressive or unprofessional behaviour can cause deadly accidents.
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Jul 23, 2018 45 min
This special looked at how pilots safely land their aircraft in emergency situations.
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Jul 30, 2018 45 min
This special looked at how automation in the cockpit causes deadly misunderstandings.
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Aug 6, 2018 45 min
This special looked at terrorist acts, including bombings and shootdowns.
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Aug 13, 2018 45 min
This special looked at pilots' carefully planned strategies in deliberately crashing aircraft.
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Aug 20, 2018 45 min
This special looked at foreign items, including ice, a chemical oxygen generator, and a bomb as the cause.
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Aug 27, 2018 45 min
This special looked at disasters where multiple investigations don't agree on the cause of these accidents.
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Sep 3, 2018 45 min
This special looked at how pilots' deviation from cockpit duties lead to crashes.
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Sep 10, 2018 45 min
This special looked at disasters caused by fires, either on the ground or in the air.
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Oct 5, 2019 45 min
Three devastating crashes make front page news and the media frenzy puts intense pressure to uncover the true cause of these deadly disasters.
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Oct 12, 2019 45 min
While commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.
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Oct 19, 2019 45 min
Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.
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Oct 26, 2019 45 min
When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world.
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Nov 2, 2019 45 min
Three mysterious accidents send investigators hunting for clues. In the end, all three trails lead back to the same source - the fuel tank.
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Nov 9, 2019 45 min
Three planes fatally out of balance highlight to investigators a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet seemingly not stopping.
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Nov 16, 2019 45 min
If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy as evidenced in these three crashes.
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Nov 23, 2019 45 min
Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of all air accidents. Even the most experienced pilots are susceptible to its subtle yet deadly effects.
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Nov 30, 2019 45 min
Radio silence between pilots and controllers can mean many different things, but in these stories, the physical evidence reveals the truth.
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Dec 7, 2019 45 min
Drawing the attention of the entire world, three fatal design flaws put air crash investigators in a storm of controversy.
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Jul 20, 2020 45 min
Devastating systems failures in the air put pilots to the test and shine a light on three astonishing feats of flying, including Qantas Flight 32.
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Jul 27, 2020 45 min
Mid-air tragedies are particularly horrifying when they occur over a community, and rain terror on the people below.
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Aug 3, 2020 45 min
Revisit three crashes involving high-profile passengers and the pressurized investigations into the causes that followed.
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Aug 10, 2020 45 min
These are three horrific air disasters that provoked fundamental changes to airport security and the measures we follow across the world today.
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Aug 17, 2020 45 min
Follow three horrifying crashes that revealed high-tech blind spots in the technology preventing aircraft from ploughing into mountains.
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Aug 24, 2020 45 min
From the wreckage of three airplane crashes, survivors emerge to tell harrowing tales and provide critical data about what to do in an emergency.
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Aug 31, 2020 45 min
Follow three mid-air tragedies that rained terror on those below when they happened over crowded areas.
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Sep 7, 2020 45 min
When aviation decisions are made in the heat of the moment, even minor issues can have fatal consequences.
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Sep 14, 2020 45 min
A trio of crashes reveal that when the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.
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Sep 21, 2020 45 min
Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during take-off can have disastrous consequences.
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Jan 10, 2021 45 min
Confused, flying blind and lost in the dark, three crews lose site of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.
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Jan 17, 2021 45 min
Three crews experience the same devastating event, but with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.
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Jan 24, 2021 45 min
Faced with a mid-air crisis, pilots must make life-and-death decisions, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.
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Jan 31, 2021 45 min
In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, three flight crews are pushed to the limit by the toughest landings on earth.
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Feb 7, 2021 45 min
Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.
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Feb 8, 2021 45 min
Three planes are brought down by ice, and it's up to investigators to determine how modern aircraft could possibly end up with frozen wings.
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Feb 11, 2021 45 min
Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question: How could two planes end up on the same runway at the same time?
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Feb 12, 2021 45 min
Illustrating the deadly consequences of a mismatched crew, three flights end in tragedy, leaving investigators to unravel what went wrong.
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Feb 14, 2021 45 min
Three last-resort water landings-all handled differently-yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on open water.
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Feb 15, 2021 45 min
Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky leaving investigators to uncover the cause.
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Jul 11, 2022 45 min
Misidentification and accidental bombing of enemy territory are among the many risks pilots face in military zones around the world.
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Jul 10, 2022 45 min
In a rush to complete their flights, distracted pilots skip key procedures, ignore signs of danger, and make deadly decisions. A Turkish Airlines 737 crashes just short of the runway in Amsterdam. Amid heavy snow and ice, a delayed flight crew ignores standard procedures in Denver. And, when a captain helps a struggling first officer, their botched approach ends up in a New Zealand hillside.
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Jul 17, 2022 45 min
From metal fatigue to faulty repairs, three doomed airlines are brought down by gradually deteriorating parts. On a flight in Tahiti, a frayed steel cable snaps sending a turboprop to the ocean floor. Shortly after take-off, a Boeing 747’s tailfin blows off and the aircraft slams into a mountain near Tokyo. And, tourists on Miami beach watch in horror as a sea plane’s wing tears off in mid-flight.
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Jul 24, 2022 45 min
With zero margin for error, three catastrophes are narrowly averted by pilots who somehow manage to land their damaged planes. A passenger is sucked out of a window after Southwest Flight 1380 is rocked by a mid-air explosion. While flying over Hawaii, the cabin of a Boeing 737 is blown wide open. And, Air Canada Flight 797 erupts in flames just 90 seconds after an heroic emergency landing.
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Jul 31, 2022 45 min
With zero margin for error, three catastrophes are narrowly averted by pilots who somehow manage to land their damaged planes. A passenger is sucked out of a window after Southwest Flight 1380 is rocked by a mid-air explosion. While flying over Hawaii, the cabin of a Boeing 737 is blown wide open. And, Air Canada Flight 797 erupts in flames just 90 seconds after an heroic emergency landing.
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Aug 14, 2022 45 min
Three flights suffer catastrophic computer errors that force investigators to dig deep for clues. A seasoned Alitalia crew somehow flies a DC-9 into the ground just miles from a Zurich runway. En route from Singapore to Perth, Qantas Flight 72 suddenly nosedives toward the Indian Ocean. And, without a key instrument to guide them, the pilots of a Venezuelan turboprop crash into a mountainside.
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Aug 21, 2022 45 min
Critical errors in the cockpit cause three planes to fall out of the sky. It’s the computer versus the pilots on board China Airlines Flight 140. Foul weather and a deadly chain of mistakes, causes a turboprop to flip over and crash while landing in Ireland. And on a doomed flight over Siberia, a terrifying lapse in judgment puts a child in the pilot’s seat.
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Aug 28, 2022 45 min
Three planes fall prey to fearsome winds, and it’s up to investigators to find out why. On final approach to Charlotte, US Air Flight 1016 is thrown to the ground by a deadly microburst. Flying blind over Peru, a 737 drops like a stone and cuts a mile-long swath through the jungle. And, a scientific expedition into the eye of Hurricane Hugo goes horribly wrong.
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Sep 4, 2022 45 min
Three flights are hijacked by acts of sabotage. When the cockpit of an Ethiopian airliner is stormed by hijackers, the captain manages an heroic yet deadly ocean landing. Investigators are torn between competing theories after an Italian passenger plane is blown out of the sky. And, Namibian investigators reach a chilling conclusion after piecing through the wreckage of LAM Mozambique Flight 470.
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Sep 11, 2022 45 min
Failures in pilot training lead to catastrophe in the cockpit. Amid heavy turbulence over the Caribbean, a charter plane falls out of the sky—when pilots react to a crisis that never happened. After a lightning strike, a commuter turboprop nosedives toward the North Atlantic as the pilots misdiagnose the problem. And, a top Russian hockey team is wiped out when a pilot botches a routine takeoff.
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Jul 8, 2024 45 min
Pitch problems, or the incorrect position of the aeroplane nose, lead to catastrophic impacts that leave little evidence behind.
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Jul 15, 2024 45 min
A Boeing 707 loses both right engines, an out-of-control aircraft needs managing and a bomb explodes aboard PA 434.
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Jul 22, 2024 45 min
Bad data can be deadly. When a Stealth Bomber crashes at a US Air Force base, it becomes the most expensive aviation disaster ever.
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Jul 29, 2024 45 min
Three harrowing disasters reveal the threat of poor weather to a safe landing, with heavy rain, thunderstorms and treacherous crosswinds.
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Aug 5, 2024 45 min
Situations can turn deadly if training is ignored. Basketball legend Kobe Bryant is among the casualties when a helicopter crashes in LA.
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Aug 12, 2024 45 min
Three catastrophic approaches provoke questions, from a turboprop disaster to an invisible culprit on the Cuban border.
Cast 5
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James Murray
- Dylan Ramsey
- Michelle Arvizu
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Stephen Bogaert
Himself
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Jonathan Aris
Himself