''Why Planes Crash'' is a

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 ...

TV 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 platf ...

based on aviation accidents and crashes. The series was created, named and produced by Caroline Sommers for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

. The series premiered on July 12, 2009, featuring Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's ditching of

US Airways Flight 1549 US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States. On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight struck a flock of birds shortl ...

on the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

on January 15, 2009, popularly known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." Three other ditchings were also featured in this episode:

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from A ...

ALM Flight 980 ALM Flight 980 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight that originated in John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, to Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, on May 2, 1970. ...

, and

Pan Am Flight 6 Pan Am Flight 6 (registration N90943, and sometimes erroneously called Flight 943) was a round-the-world airline flight that ditched in the Pacific Ocean on October 16, 1956, after two of its four engines failed. Flight 6 left Philadelphia on Oct ...

. Originally run on

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

, each episode was narrated by

Lester Holt Lester Don Holt Jr. (born March 8, 1959) is an American journalist who was the news anchor for the weekday edition of ''NBC Nightly News,'' NBC Nightly News Kids Edition, and is currently news anchor for '' Dateline NBC''. On June 18, 2015, Ho ...

. Original production ceased in 2015. The series is still in heavy rotation on

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 ...

Plot

Normally, each episode would feature three to four accidents. Over the course of the 43-minute program,

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

experts such as veteran pilot and founder of Safety Operating Systems John M. Cox, as well as former

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inc ...

investigators John Goglia and

Greg Feith Gregory Allen Feith is an American former Senior Air Safety Investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He currently works as a consultant on aviation safety and security matters in the private sector, and as the aviation e ...

, would discuss the events and what caused or led up to the crash. Similar to ''

Air Crash Investigation ''Mayday'' is a Canadian documentary television program examining air crashes, near-crashes, hijackings, bombings, and other disasters. ''Mayday'' uses re-enactments and computer-generated imagery to reconstruct the sequence of events lead ...

'', the show also featured state-of-the-art CGI recreations and visuals to graphically illustrate what occurred during the accident. In some episodes, a survivor (or multiple survivors) would explain what they experienced during the accident. For example, in the very first episode, Captain Balsey DeWitt,

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

, was interviewed.

Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

Notes

In the episode "Sudden Impact", the date for Flight 148 is first given as December 20, 1992 (the correct date), but later it changes to December 22, 1992.

References

External links

UKTV Shows legacy webpage
– does not link to actual programs American documentary television films Documentary television series about aviation MSNBC original programming 2009 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings {{US-documentary-tv-prog-stub