Flights Gone Wrong
Real stories. Deeper understanding.
Every event we cover, by year.
Event: 1988Published: 24 Oct 2026
A bomb hidden in a cassette player destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
Event: 1996Published: 22 Oct 2026
TWA Flight 800 disappeared from radar 12 minutes after leaving New York for Paris in July 1996, when its centre fuel tank exploded and all 230 people on board were killed.
Event: 1978Published: 23 Sep 2026
An engine failed as a fully loaded Olympic Airways 747 left Athens for New York in August 1978, and the flight engineer then switched off the water injection that boosted the other three engines.
Event: 1996Published: 21 Mar 2026
TWA Flight 800 broke apart over the Atlantic in July 1996 when a short circuit most likely sent excess voltage into the fuel gauge wiring of its nearly empty centre tank, igniting fuel vapour warmed…
Published: 11 Oct 2025
United Airlines Flight 811 suffered explosive decompression while climbing through 23,000 feet over the Pacific when its cargo door tore away, killing nine passengers.
Event: 1977Published: 6 May 2024
This Mayday episode follows Spanish, Dutch and American investigators as they reconstruct how a KLM 747 and a Pan Am 747 collided in fog at Tenerife in March 1977.
Event: 1985Published: 16 Apr 2024
Fascinating Horror's short documentary on Japan Air Lines Flight 123 starts with the aircraft's tail strike at Osaka in 1978 and ends at the memorial on the mountain.
Event: 1985Published: 13 Apr 2022
This four-minute Smithsonian Channel clip explains the mechanism of the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 accident in 1985.
Event: 1988Published: 26 Oct 2021
This Mayday episode follows British air accident investigators and the FBI after Pan Am Flight 103 broke apart over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people.
Event: 1977Published: 3 Jan 2021
On 27 March 1977, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, both diverted to Los Rodeos by a bomb at Las Palmas, collided in fog on the Tenerife runway.
Event: 1985Published: 24 Oct 2020
This Disaster Breakdown episode explains Japan Air Lines Flight 123, the Boeing 747 that crashed in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture on 12 August 1985.
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