Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...

'', known as ''Air Crash Investigation(s)'' outside of the United States and Canada and also known as ''Mayday: Air Disaster'' (

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...

) or ''Air Disasters '' (

Smithsonian Channel The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facil ...

) in the United States, is a Canadian

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

produced by

Cineflix Cineflix Media is a Canadian global media production and distribution company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, it has branches in Toronto, New York City, London, and Dublin. Subsidiaries include United Kingdom-based Cineflix Rights, ...

that recounts air crashes, near-crashes, fires, hijackings,

bombings A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanic ...

, and other mainly flight-related

disaster A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...

s and crises. It reveals the events that led to each crisis or disaster, their causes as determined by the official investigating body or bodies, and the measures they recommended to prevent a similar incident from happening again. The programs use

re-enactment Reenactment, re-enactment or reënactment may refer to: Legislation * Consolidation bill, a bill that consolidates several Acts of Parliament into a single Act in the United Kingdom * Repeal with reenactment, where a law is replaced with one more ...

interviews An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...

eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation. Ideally this recollection of events is detailed; however, this is ...

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...

, cockpit voice recordings, and official reports to reconstruct the sequences of events. This does not include "Crash of the Century", a 2005 90-minute special investigating the

Tenerife airport disaster The Tenerife airport disaster occurred on 27 March 1977, when two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on the runway at Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport, Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport) on the Spa ...

, as the program is not branded as ''Mayday'' by Cineflix, even though the program was produced similarly to ''Mayday''. This includes five ''Science of Disaster'' specials, each examining multiple crashes with similar causes. For broadcasters that do not use the series name ''Mayday'', three Season 3 episodes were labelled as ''Crash Scene Investigation'' spin-offs, examining marine or rail disasters. A sub-series labelled ''The Accident Files'' began airing in 2018 and, as of 2024, has aired six seasons. The first five seasons consisted of ten episodes per series and the sixth season consisted of six episodes. This sub-series consists entirely of summarized versions of air disasters previously investigated in the primary ''Mayday'' series, but combined based on similarities between the incidents, such as fires or pilot error. Each episode covers three accidents and 15 minutes is dedicated to each of the disasters that are covered.

Series overview

Episodes

Note: ''Episodes are ordered by their production number, not by their original air date.''

Season 1 (2003)

Season 2 (2005)

Season 3 (2005)

Note: This is the first season produced in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

Season 4 (2007)

Season 5 (2008)

Season 6 (2007–08) Special

Season 6 of ''Mayday'' is the first ''Science of Disaster'' season, consisting of three episodes. With the exception of

BOAC Flight 781 BOAC Flight 781 was a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation passenger flight from Singapore to London. On 10 January 1954, a de Havilland Comet passenger jet operating the flight suffered an explosive decompression at altitude and crash ...

, all the incidents described in these episodes are summarised versions taken from their respective full episodes from the previous five seasons.

Season 7 (2009)

Season 8 (2009) Special

Season 8 of ''Mayday'' is the second ''Science of Disaster'' season, consisting of two episodes.

Season 9 (2010)

Season 10 (2011)

Season 11 (2011–12)

Season 12 (2012–13)

Season 13 (2013–14)

Season 14 (2015)

Season 15 (2016)

Season 16 (2016–17)

Season 17 (2017)

Season 18 (2018)

Season 19 (2019)

Season 20 (2020)

Season 21 (2021)

Season 22 (2022)

Season 23 (2023)

Season 24 (2024)

Season 25 (2025)

''The Accident Files''

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

Season 3 (2020)

Season 4 (2021)

Season 5 (2022)

Season 6 (2024)

Alternate titles

The following table lists the alternative titles used by broadcasters for ''Mayday'', the original Canadian series; ''Air Crash Investigation'', the British and Asia-Pacific (

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

) versions; and ''Air Emergency'' and ''Air Disasters'' (

), the American versions of the series. The American column also shows the Smithsonian Channel's season and episode numbers, which differ significantly from the official season and episode number designations by Cineflix. Episodes are ordered by their production number, and special episodes and spin-offs are ''italicized''.

Notes

References

External links

Cineflix: ''Mayday''Cineflix: ''Mayday – Science of Disaster''
(

Archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

)
''Mayday''
on

Discovery Channel Canada Discovery Channel is a Canadian exempt discretionary service owned by Rogers Sports & Media. Based of the U.S. cable network of the same name, the channel focuses primarily on programming related to nature, science, and technology. History D ...

''Air Crash Investigation''
on National Geographic Channel UK
''Air Crash Investigation''
on National Geographic Channel Australia
''Air Disasters''
on

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayday Lists of Canadian non-fiction television series episodes