Probable Cause: Airline Accident Investigations on DVD

Description

Probable Cause is a series that explores some of the most terrifying airline accidents from around the world over the last 30 years - many of which killed hundreds of passengers. The series follows air safety investigators as they discover what really happened, what was learned and what lessons have been applied to make the skies safer for all of us. Their worldwide search for what happened and why, is both painstaking and precise. They deal with a lot of factors -- weather, design flaws, and mechanical failure and human error. Episode One looks at The Human Factor in regard to the worst plane crash in history, when two fully laden passenger jumbos collided on the runway at Tenerife in 1977. It also examines the mid-air collision over San Diego in 1978 between a Boeing 727 and a Cessna light aircraft. Episode Two looks at how a chain of small mechanical failures can tear an airliner from the skies, as such a chain of events did with two Boeing 737s in 1991 and 1994. The episode also looks at why an El Al Cargo 747 crashed at Schipol in 1992. Episode Three examines two famous air disasters where the causes could be described as due to unseen factors . The first was the loss of a Jumbo which ploughed into a hillside on approach to Guam. The second disaster concerned the loss of a Boeing 737 which plunged into the Potomac river in Washington shortly after take off. Episode Four is devoted to mechanical failure, with the destruction of two DC-10s and the loss of a third airliner in the depths of the Florida Everglades...