Mayday: The Accident Files

Three crews experience the same devastating event, but with radically different outcomes when an engine falls off their commercial airplane.

Faced with a mid-air crisis, pilots must make life-and-death decisions, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.

In Sao Paolo, the Himalayas, and on the Norwegian coast, three flight crews are pushed to the limit by the toughest landings on earth.

Relying on instinct rather than the rule book, three flights end in tragedy when crews improvise on their final approach.

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.

Three catastrophic runway collisions raise the same pressing question: How could two planes end up on the same runway at the same time?

With communication mix-ups and personality clashes in the cockpit, three flights end in tragedy leaving investigators to unravel what went wrong.

Three last-resort water landings—all handled differently—yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on open water.

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