Air Crash Investigation

A look at three plane crashes that made global news and put intense pressure on investigators to uncover the true cause of the accidents.

The simplest mistakes are at the heart of some of the worst airline accidents, and while commercial pilots undergo hundreds of hours of training and testing, even experienced pilots can make deadly rookie errors.

Facing deadly tragedies that could have been avoided, investigators comb through the wreckage of three separate midair collisions in a race to prevent another fatal impact.

When an aircraft loses total engine power, a pilot's training can make all the difference in the world, but it's still up to investigators to determine what went wrong.

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

Three planes fatally out of balance force investigators to question every calculation. It's a flight risk that's entirely preventable, and yet repeated disasters reconfirm the need for critical backup systems.

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

JFK Jr. disappears on the way to Martha's Vineyard, a captain loses his bearings and crashes over the Red Sea and pilots crash a plane over Indonesia. ALL NEW

The business jet carrying PGA golfer Payne Stewart and former Alabama football quarterback crashes. A look at how loss of pressurization and structural failure led to this crash and the deadliest aviation accidents in both Greek and Taiwanese history NEW

When former race car driver Niki Lauda's planes nosedives into a Thai jungle, a one-in-a-million failure reveals a weak spot in every Boeing 767. Radio silence between pilots and air traffic controllers send investigators hunting for answers. ALL NEW

Failsafes are built into every aspect of aviation, but in the heat of the moment pilots can make fateful decisions that lead to tragedy.

When critical instruments in the cockpit can't be trusted, the consequences can be fatal.

Airplane crashes involving high-profile passengers make international headlines, placing investigators under tremendous pressure to come up with answers.

Traced to a breakdown of vital safety measures, three horrific disasters provoke fundamental changes to airport security procedures around the world.

Following three horrifying crashes, investigators uncover fatal flaws in the very operations designed to prevent aircraft from flying into mountains.

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

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

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

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

Three flights ending in tragedy, prove that minor missteps during takeoff can have disastrous consequences.

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

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.