TV Schedule for Smithsonian Channel USA - Pacific

Air Disasters Gimli Glider

A pilot heads for a decommissioned air force base when the Boeing 767 jet he is flying unexpectedly runs out of fuel.

Air Disasters Deadly Crossroads

A look at the string of events that caused a midair collision in 2002 over the skies of southern Germany; a Bashkirian Airlines Flight collides with a DHL Flight in German airspace near Überlingen.

Air Disasters Operation Babylift

A United States Air Force transport aircraft conducting the inaugural flight of Operation Babylift suffers an explosive decompression when the rear cargo door fails and crashes into a paddy field while attempting an emergency landing.

Air Disasters Falling Fast

Investigators discover a shocking mistake when pilots must ditch their plane in the Mediterranean, killing 14 of the 34 passengers.

Air Disasters Hero Pilots

Three flights headed for disaster are saved at the last moment by heroes in the cockpit.

Air Disasters Stormy Cockpit

Pilots leaving Cameroon steer their plane clear of a storm, but the aircraft begins rolling to the right, and they are unable to regain control.

Air Disasters Seconds to Survive

On 21 February 2008, Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 strays off course and flies into the side of a mountain shortly after takeoff.

Air Disasters Death in the Arctic

On 20 August 2011, First Air Flight 6560, a charter flight, crashes near its destination of Resolute Bay Airport, Resolute, Nunavut, Canada, in poor weather conditions; out of the fifteen passengers and crew members, only three survived.

Air Disasters Who's Flying the Plane?

A look at accidents and incidents where problems with the interface between crew members and onboard avionics are a factor, and the causes of those problems.

Air Disasters Death from Above

Mid-air tragedies are particularly horrifying when they occur over a community, and rain terror on the people below.

Air Disasters Afghan Nightmare

When a cargo plane crashes at a U.S. airfield in Afghanistan, investigators reach a conclusion that ultimately proves incorrect.

Air Disasters A Wounded Bird

A blade on the left-side propeller of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight breaks off; the imbalance of the rotating propeller causes the engine to partly tear itself from its mounting.

Air Disasters No Clear Options

When a commuter turboprop plane crashes at an Irish airport, investigators uncover a startling gap in aviation safety.

Air Disasters Pitch Problems

Alaska Airlines 261 nosedives into the Pacific leaving investigators stumped . A rare storm and a deadly design flaw intersect cause American Eagle 4184 to fall from the sky. And, investigators suspect a fatal flaw in the Boeing 737.

Air Disasters Poor Piloting

The crews of three doomed aircraft make catastrophic blunders.

Air Disasters Northern Extremes

Faced with the extreme conditions of the far North, three flights fall out of the sky leaving investigators to uncover the cause.

How Did They Build That? 401

Witness amazing buildings, bridges, lifts, and other structures that pushed structural concrete engineering to the edge.

Air Disasters Grounded: Boeing Max 8

Indonesian investigators must determine why a Boeing 737 Max 8 -- one of the world's best-selling new airplanes -- plunged into the Java Sea.

Air Disasters Runway Collisions

Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question; a look at how two planes end up on the same runway at the same time.

Air Disasters Storming Out

On its final approach to Charlotte, N.C., US Air Flight 1016 is engulfed in intense rain obstructing the view from the cockpit; the pilots abort the landing, but the aircraft crashes to earth, hurtling along a road and breaking apart.

Air Disasters The Invisible Plane

SAS Flight 686 takes off from Milan's Linate Airport and moments later collides with a Cessna on the runway.

Air Disasters Southern Storm

Pilots of Southern Airways Flight 242 must try to land on a Georgia highway after the engines die and the windshield shatters.

Air Disasters Cracks in the System

Chalk's Ocean Airways flight 101 crashes just after take-off from Watson Island in Miami on December 19, 2005, killing 20 people.

Air Disasters The Final Blow

An Air Inter flight crashes into the Vosges Mountains while attempting to land killing most of the 96 passengers.