Final Hour of Flight 11 Aircrash Confidential Mystery

Crash of the Century

March 27, 1977 – At 2:00 in the afternoon a thick fog rolled into the usually quiet Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. On the runway sat two fully loaded jumbo airliners, blanketed in fog. A bomb explosion at a nearby airport had re-directed air traffic to the undermanned airfield at Tenerife. Within three hours, a KLM 747 slams into a taxiing PAM 747, killing 583 people. The planes never left the ground.

Special Report Season 13 : Getting Out Alive

This special looked at how people survive aviation accidents, in part with demonstrations at the Czech Airlines Training Centre. It provided case studies on the following flight: - Asiana Airlines Flight 214 - Air France Flight 358 - Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 - Air Canada Flight 797 - US Airways Flight 1549

Special Report Season 18 : Communication Breakdown

This special looked at how failures in communication lead to disasters

Special Report Season 18 : Bad Attitude

This special looked at how pilots' aggressive or unprofessional behaviour can cause deadly accidents.

Special Report Season 18 : Hero Pilots

This special looked at how pilots safely land their aircraft in emergency situations.

Special Report Season 18 : Plane vs. Pilot

This special looked at how automation in the cockpit causes deadly misunderstandings.

Special Report Season 18 : Explosive Evidence

This special looked at terrorist acts, including bombings and shootdowns.

Special Report Season 18 : Killer in the Cockpit?

This special looked at pilots' carefully planned strategies in deliberately crashing aircraft.

Special Report Season 18 : Missing Pieces

This special looked at foreign items, including ice, a chemical oxygen generator, and a bomb as the cause.

Special Report Season 18 : Controversial Crashes

This special looked at disasters where multiple investigations don't agree on the cause of these accidents.

Special Report Season 18 : Deadly Distractions

This special looked at how pilots' deviation from cockpit duties lead to crashes.

Special Report Season 18 : Fire on Board

This special looked at disasters caused by fires, either on the ground or in the air.

Special Report Season 19 : Headline News

Three devastating crashes make front page news and the media frenzy puts intense pressure to uncover the true cause of these deadly disasters.

Special Report Season 19 : Rookie Errors

While commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.

Special Report Season 19 : Collision Course

Investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.

Special Report Season 19 : Engines Out

When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world.

Special Report Season 19 : Fuel Trouble

Three mysterious accidents send investigators hunting for clues. In the end, all three trails lead back to the same source - the fuel tank.

Special Report Season 19 : Perilous Payloads

Three planes fatally out of balance highlight to investigators a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet seemingly not stopping.

Special Report Season 19 : Runway in Sight

If pilots aren't prepared when the runway is in sight, a landing can quickly become a tragedy as evidenced in these three crashes.

Special Report Season 19 : Deadly Confusion

Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of all air accidents. Even the most experienced pilots are susceptible to its subtle yet deadly effects.

Special Report Season 19 : Radio Silence

Radio silence between pilots and controllers can mean many different things, but in these stories, the physical evidence reveals the truth.

Special Report Season 19 : Design Flaws

Drawing the attention of the entire world, three fatal design flaws put air crash investigators in a storm of controversy.

Special Report Season 20: Courage in the Cockpit

Devastating systems failures in the air put pilots to the test and shine a light on three astonishing feats of flying, including Qantas Flight 32.

Special Report Season 20: Death From Above

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

Special Report Season 20: VIP on Board

Revisit three crashes involving high-profile passengers and the pressurized investigations into the causes that followed.

Special Report Season 20: Lapse in Security

These are three horrific air disasters that provoked fundamental changes to airport security and the measures we follow across the world today.

Special Report Season 20: Mountain Impact

Follow three horrifying crashes that revealed high-tech blind spots in the technology preventing aircraft from ploughing into mountains.

Special Report Season 20: Survivors

From the wreckage of three airplane crashes, survivors emerge to tell harrowing tales and provide critical data about what to do in an emergency.

Special Report Season 20: Instrument Confusion

Follow three mid-air tragedies that rained terror on those below when they happened over crowded areas.

Special Report Season 20: Heat of the Moment

When aviation decisions are made in the heat of the moment, even minor issues can have fatal consequences.

Special Report Season 20: Maintenance Mistakes

A trio of crashes reveal that when the nuts and bolts of maintenance go unchecked, it can spell catastrophe.

Special Report Season 20: Take Off Tragedies

Three flights ending in tragedy prove that minor missteps during take-off can have disastrous consequences.

Special Report: Dead of Night

Confused, flying blind and lost in the dark, three crews lose site of the horizon and fall into the same deadly trap.

Special Report: Engine Gone

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

Special Report: Lethal Choices

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

Special Report: Risky Runways

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

Special Report: Landings Gone Wrong

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

Special Report: Frozen Wings

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.

Special Report: Runway Collisions

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

Special Report: Cockpit Breakdown

Illustrating the deadly consequences of a mismatched crew, three flights end in tragedy, leaving investigators to unravel what went wrong.

Special Report: Splash Down

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

Special Report: Northern Extremes

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

Special Report: War Zone

Misidentification and accidental bombing of enemy territory are among the many risks pilots face in military zones around the world.

Special Report: Time Critical

In a rush to complete their flights, distracted pilots skip key procedures, ignore signs of danger, and make deadly decisions. A Turkish Airlines 737 crashes just short of the runway in Amsterdam. Amid heavy snow and ice, a delayed flight crew ignores standard procedures in Denver. And, when a captain helps a struggling first officer, their botched approach ends up in a New Zealand hillside.

Special Report: Ticking Time Bomb

From metal fatigue to faulty repairs, three doomed airlines are brought down by gradually deteriorating parts. On a flight in Tahiti, a frayed steel cable snaps sending a turboprop to the ocean floor. Shortly after take-off, a Boeing 747’s tailfin blows off and the aircraft slams into a mountain near Tokyo. And, tourists on Miami beach watch in horror as a sea plane’s wing tears off in mid-flight.

Special Report: Accidents in the Air

With zero margin for error, three catastrophes are narrowly averted by pilots who somehow manage to land their damaged planes. A passenger is sucked out of a window after Southwest Flight 1380 is rocked by a mid-air explosion. While flying over Hawaii, the cabin of a Boeing 737 is blown wide open. And, Air Canada Flight 797 erupts in flames just 90 seconds after an heroic emergency landing.

Special Report: Impossible Landings

With zero margin for error, three catastrophes are narrowly averted by pilots who somehow manage to land their damaged planes. A passenger is sucked out of a window after Southwest Flight 1380 is rocked by a mid-air explosion. While flying over Hawaii, the cabin of a Boeing 737 is blown wide open. And, Air Canada Flight 797 erupts in flames just 90 seconds after an heroic emergency landing.

Special Report: Deadly Data

Three flights suffer catastrophic computer errors that force investigators to dig deep for clues. A seasoned Alitalia crew somehow flies a DC-9 into the ground just miles from a Zurich runway. En route from Singapore to Perth, Qantas Flight 72 suddenly nosedives toward the Indian Ocean. And, without a key instrument to guide them, the pilots of a Venezuelan turboprop crash into a mountainside.

Special Report: Poor Piloting

Critical errors in the cockpit cause three planes to fall out of the sky. It’s the computer versus the pilots on board China Airlines Flight 140. Foul weather and a deadly chain of mistakes, causes a turboprop to flip over and crash while landing in Ireland. And on a doomed flight over Siberia, a terrifying lapse in judgment puts a child in the pilot’s seat.

Special Report: Dangerous Winds

Three planes fall prey to fearsome winds, and it’s up to investigators to find out why. On final approach to Charlotte, US Air Flight 1016 is thrown to the ground by a deadly microburst. Flying blind over Peru, a 737 drops like a stone and cuts a mile-long swath through the jungle. And, a scientific expedition into the eye of Hurricane Hugo goes horribly wrong.

Special Report: Sabotage

Three flights are hijacked by acts of sabotage. When the cockpit of an Ethiopian airliner is stormed by hijackers, the captain manages an heroic yet deadly ocean landing. Investigators are torn between competing theories after an Italian passenger plane is blown out of the sky. And, Namibian investigators reach a chilling conclusion after piecing through the wreckage of LAM Mozambique Flight 470.

Special Report: Trained to Fail

Failures in pilot training lead to catastrophe in the cockpit. Amid heavy turbulence over the Caribbean, a charter plane falls out of the sky—when pilots react to a crisis that never happened. After a lightning strike, a commuter turboprop nosedives toward the North Atlantic as the pilots misdiagnose the problem. And, a top Russian hockey team is wiped out when a pilot botches a routine takeoff.

Special Report: Pitch Problems

Pitch problems, or the incorrect position of the aeroplane nose, lead to catastrophic impacts that leave little evidence behind.

Special Report: Fight to the Finish

A Boeing 707 loses both right engines, an out-of-control aircraft needs managing and a bomb explodes aboard PA 434.

Special Report: Bad Data

Bad data can be deadly. When a Stealth Bomber crashes at a US Air Force base, it becomes the most expensive aviation disaster ever.

Special Report: Landing Hazards

Three harrowing disasters reveal the threat of poor weather to a safe landing, with heavy rain, thunderstorms and treacherous crosswinds.

Special Report: Training Ignored

Situations can turn deadly if training is ignored. Basketball legend Kobe Bryant is among the casualties when a helicopter crashes in LA.

Special Report: Reckless Approaches

Three catastrophic approaches provoke questions, from a turboprop disaster to an invisible culprit on the Cuban border.