Terror in the Skies

One pilot falls asleep in the cockpit. Another suffers a panic attack in the cabin. Yet another, distracted by his laptop, overshoots his destination by 150 miles. Are these freak occurrences or the new normal in air travel? Witness pilot mishaps, as revealed through shocking footage captured by passengers on their cameras and phones. These firsthand accounts, combined with newly released cockpit recordings, give a chilling view into the world of overstressed, undertrained pilots, and what it could mean to passengers if changes aren't made.

Imagine being aboard a plane with a faulty landing gear and watching the drama unfold on the in-flight entertainment system. Or seeing one of your plane's engines explode mid-flight. When bad things happen on flights, pilots are on their own and passengers have few options other than hoping for the best... and recording the action. See their videos, captured in a moment of terror, and hear their stories as we investigate near air disasters caused by faulty equipment, and ask how these incidents could happen aboard today's state-of-the-art aircrafts.

It takes over a hundred people to keep one modern airliner flying, and almost everyone involved, from manufacturers to ground control to maintenance engineers to air traffic controllers, perform safety-critical roles. That's a lot of people under a lot of pressure in an industry where one tiny oversight can prove catastrophic. See how a loose bolt, a tripped circuit breaker, a fatigue crack and other small issues have led to big problems for pilots and their passengers, with cockpit recordings and footage captured on passengers' cell phones.

Lightning sparks a fire on a plane thousands of feet in the air. Volcanic ash knocks out all four engines of an aircraft. Geese force an Airbus A320 onto the surface of the Hudson River. As passengers, we expect to be able to fly anywhere, anytime. But sometimes nature has other plans. See what happens when wicked storms, wild turbulence, and angry birds strike modern airliners, with newly released pilot voice recordings and never-before-seen passenger cell phone video. This footage puts you in the cockpit, the cabin, and the eye of the storm.