Season 1 Episode List

[Chris]

Season 1

1. Racing the Storm (Fatal Landing)
   - The crew of American Airlines Flight 1420 is warned about crosswinds from a thunderstorm during approach to Little Rock National Airport but they attempt to land instead of diverting to another airport. Due to their impatience to get to the airport, during their pre-landing checks the crew forget to preset the spoilers to extend automatically when the aircraft touches down. The MD-82 overruns the runway and eleven people are killed.
   
   
2. Unlocking Disaster (Ripped From The Sky)
   - A Boeing 747 operating as United Airlines Flight 811 from Honolulu to Auckland is above the Pacific Ocean when part of the RH forward fuselage rips off. An improperly closed cargo door was blown open by the force of the cabin pressurization. Nine people are ejected from the aircraft; some are still strapped to their seats. The Boeing 747 safely lands back at Honolulu without any more loss of life.
   
   
3. Flying on Empty
   - Air Transat Flight 236 leaks large amounts of fuel, but the pilots discount the ECAM warnings and the aircraft runs out of fuel. The pilots glide the aircraft to a naval base in the Azores where it lands safely, although at higher than normal speed and with limited braking power. The post-incident investigation determined that improper maintenance actions during an engine change caused a hydraulic oil pipe and a fuel pipe to touch each other, resulting in the fracture of the fuel pipe.
   
   
4. Fire on Board (Fire in the Sky)
   - A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 operating as Swissair Flight 111 experiences a fire in the cockpit due to faulty wiring. The pilots divert the aircraft toward Nova Scotia, Canada with the intent of landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, but vital systems start failing as the plane approaches St. Margaret's Bay, where they can safely dump fuel in preparation for landing. Halifax ATC loses contact with the plane; six minutes later, it slams nose-first into the ocean near the town of Peggy's Cove and disintegrates on contact. There were no survivors, and only one body was found intact. The investigation into the crash took nearly four years to complete and uncovered a fatal flaw common to nearly all passenger jets: The mylar covering atop the airplane's insulation blankets was far more flammable than first believed and could sustain and propagate a fire for several minutes or longer, clearly exceeding industry regulations requiring flammable coverings, etc. to extinguish themselves within 60 seconds.
   
   
5. Flying Blind
   - The pilots of Aeroperú Flight 603 are confused by false speed and altitude readings and contradictory warnings from the aircraft's air data system, caused by duct tape over the static ports. The pilots descend the aircraft over the Pacific Ocean in preparation for an emergency landing, but it is much lower than the altimeter indicates. One wingtip touches the water and the aircraft crashes seconds later, killing everyone on board.
   
   
6. Cutting Corners (Fatal Error)
   - Alaska Airlines Flight 261 is heading for Seattle via San Francisco but its trimmable horizontal stabilizer eventually jams due to a worn underlubricated jackscrew assembly. The pilots try to resolve the situation but the stabilizer breaks free from its control system and the aircraft dives inverted into the Pacific Ocean, causing the death of all on board. Ironically, the plane had been previously inspected by an Alaska Airlines mechanic two-and-a-half years earlier; the mechanic recommended replacing the jackscrew immediately because of signs of wear, but after he came off-shift, a supervisor overruled his decision and marked the plane "Fit for Service". The mechanic blew the whistle to the FAA about Alaska Airlines' shoddy maintenance program (which got him suspended with pay afterward) only months before the crash; meanwhile, the plane crashed just two months shy of another full nose-to-tail inspection that would have shown the jackscrew had not been replaced as recommended.