America's stories told by the Smithsonian

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

Air Disasters

Falling Fast

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.

Operation Babylift

Saudi Airways and Kazakhstan Airlines jets hit each other at 14,000 feet sending both planes spiraling to the ground.

Sight Unseen

America has so many stories to tell. And nobody brings them to your home like Smithsonian Channel.

Smithsonian Channel HD

A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 103, causing the aircraft to disintegrate in mid-air and the wreckage of the aircraft to crash into the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.

Lockerbie Disaster

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Statistically, traveling by airplane is safer than driving and other forms of transportation, but when something goes wrong during a flight, it can be catastrophic with potentially hundreds of lives at stake. This series examines some of the world's worst air disasters, using official reports, transcripts and interviews with people involved to tell the stories of midair mishaps and discover what went wrong in each case. Episodes include a discussion of how the weather affects flights -- including stories of aviation disasters and near-misses -- and a New Year's Eve flight that fell from the sky into the Florida Everglades.

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After taking off from Taiwan, a China Airlines 747 suddenly disappears from radar and crashes, killing 225 people.

S21 E1 | Scratching the Surface