The documentary

Air Crash Investigation, (also known as Air Emergency in the U.S)is a documentary television program produced by Cineflix in Canada. It is aired on Discovery Channel Canada and the National Geographic Channel.

This documentary investigates many air crashes in modern history after the introduction of the black box flight recorders. It reveals events that led up to each disaster, the causes of the accidents and the measures recommended in the report by the NTSB or the investigating Commission to prevent a similar incident happening again. It features re-enactments, interviews, testimony, computer-generated imagery, and in some episodes, cockpit voice recordings to reconstruct the sequence of events to the audiences. As of March 2008, five seasons of programs have been produced.

As there are many different names to the series, there is some confusion over the proper name of the series. The program was originally produced in Canada under the name Mayday. However, viewers also refer to this series as Air Crash Investigations while National Geographic Channel does not officially use the final s.

There are small differences to the show as released to different regions. This includes the use of a British narrator, titling, and different theme music. In Australia the first season of the show was aired as Mayday whereas the following seasons were aired as Air Crash Investigation

Furthermore, this program, along with the similar series Blueprint for Disaster, for a time were typically billed together as Disaster Detectives on Discovery Channel Canada. It consisted of a short 10-second clip of various scenes aired before the show.

(From http://www.wikipedia.org/)

Episodes and Format

Several passengers and crew members (whether they survived the accident or not) of the accident aircraft are picked and actors/actresses play the role of those passengers and crews throughout the accident flight usually starting from boarding of the flight. The flight routines in the air traffic control, cockpit and cabin are recreated on screen starting from departure up to the moment of the accident. At the moment of the accident, external view of the aircraft from different angles are recreated to show the effect and what had happened to the aircraft. The responses and reactions of the passengers, crews and air traffic control after the accident had happened leading up to the eventual crash or emergency landing are then recreated. All the scenes in cockpit and air traffic control centres are recreated using the actual script obtained from the cockpit voice recorder of the accident aircraft.

The rescue and recovery effort and the investigations process is then recreated in details, showing how the aircraft parts, the flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders are recovered and examined, how the pieces are related together to maintenance records, initial design, training procedures, etc. to draw the final conclusion.
Surviving passengers and crews or surviving relatives and friends of deceased passengers are interviewed throughout each episode. Investigators, from NTSB in most cases, involved in the subsequent accident investigations are interviewed to explain the flow of the investigations and how the conclusion and subsequent recommendations are made. Each episode usually ends with a short interview with one of the survivors (or a relative of a deceased) to summarize their experiences and how they feel.

(From http://www.wikipedia.org/)

List of Episodes

Season 1


American Airlines 1420 - Racing the Storm

United Airlines 811 - Unlocking Disaster

Air Transat 236 - Flying on Empty

Swissair 111 - Fire on Board

Aeroperú 603 - Flying Blind

Alaska Airlines 261 - Cutting Corners



Season 2


British Airways 5390 - Blow Out

Atlantic Southeast Airlines 529 - A Wounded Bird

Air France 8969 - The Killing Machine

Bashkirian Airlines 2937 and DHL 611 - Deadly Crossroads

American Airlines 965 - Lost

Avianca 52 - Missing Over New York



Season 3


Aloha Airlines 243 - Hanging by a Thread

DHL OO-DLL - Attack Over Baghdad

Japan Airlines 123 - Out of Control

FedEx 705 - Fight for Your Life

Iran Air 655 - Mistaken Identity

Philippine Airlines 434 - Bomb on Board

Bristow 56C - Helicopter Down

EgyptAir 990 - Death and Denial

Aeroflot 593 - Kid in the Cockpit

Ethiopian Airlines 961 - Ocean Landing


The following ones are Crash Scene Investigations


Head on Collision

Collison Course

Runaway Train



Season 4


Eastwind Airlines 517 - Hidden Danger

China Airlines 006 - Panic Over the Pacific

Aeroméxico 498 - Out of Sight

United States Air Force 21 - Fog of War

Flash Airlines 604 - Vertigo

Helios Airways 522 - Ghost Plane



Season 5

Air Midwest 5481 - Dead Weight

American Airlines 96 / Turkish Airlines 981 - Behind Closed Doors

Air Canada 143 - Gimli Glider

Delta Air Lines 191 - Invisible Killer

Southern Airways 242 - Southern Storm

South African Airways 295 - Fanning the Flames

Air India 182 - Explosive Evidence

Birgenair 301 - Mixed Signals

Eastern Air Lines 401 - Fatal Distraction

GOL 1907 and ExcelAir N600XL - Phantom Strike