Season 5

On Jun 18, 1972 — BEA Flight 548 (Hawker Siddeley Trident): Minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow, a jet bound for Brussels fell from the sky near Staines, leaving investigators without survivors or flight recordings to explain it.

On Jun 6, 1971 — Hughes Airwest Flight 706 (DC-9): Climbing out of Los Angeles, an airliner collides with a Marine Corps F-4 Phantom over the San Gabriel Mountains, forcing civilian and military investigators to work the case together.

On Jan 10, 2000 — Crossair Flight 498 (Saab 340): A commuter flight from Zurich to Dresden crashes two minutes after takeoff — the airline's first fatal accident in 25 years.

On Jan 13, 1982 — Air Florida Flight 90 (Boeing 737): Departing Washington National in a snowstorm, a jet strikes the 14th Street Bridge and plunges into the icy Potomac, just two miles from the White House.

On Nov 12, 2001 — American Airlines Flight 587 (Airbus A300): Two months after 9/11, a flight bound for the Dominican Republic crashes into a Queens neighborhood moments after leaving JFK, and a rattled nation fears the worst.

On Sep 15, 1989 — NOAA 42 "Kermit" (WP-3D Orion): A hurricane hunter crew flies into Hurricane Hugo east of Barbados, where turbulence beyond anything forecast puts the aircraft and its mission in jeopardy.

On Jun 27, 1980 — Itavia Flight 870 (DC-9): On descent toward Palermo, an Italian airliner vanishes into the Tyrrhenian Sea near Ustica — the start of one of aviation's most contested mysteries.

On Nov 27, 2008 — XL Airways Germany Flight 888T (Airbus A320): During a test flight before handover to a new owner, a jet plunges into the Mediterranean off the French coast, and the checkout flight itself comes under scrutiny.

Special — Multiple incidents, including the 2009 "Miracle on the Hudson": Most air accidents are survivable. Survivors' stories reveal what makes the difference, and how the industry works to improve the odds.

On Aug 9, 2007 — Air Moorea Flight 1121 (DHC-6 Twin Otter): A seven-minute island hop from Moorea to Tahiti ends when the small plane suddenly noses over and dives into the ocean shortly after takeoff.

On Nov 4, 2010 — Qantas Flight 32 (Airbus A380): Minutes after leaving Singapore, an engine on the world's largest airliner explodes, and the crew must manage a cascade of failures to bring it home.