Smithsonian HD Network

The cockpit window of an Airbus A319 explodes; pilots miraculously land the out-of-control plane; investigators must determine how the freshly serviced aircraft was released with a fatal flaw.

Investigators must figure out why the safety systems of a turboprop plane failed to prevent a crash into an Indonesian mountain.

A look at the commercial flights that ended in disaster because of suspected murder-suicide.

When a commercial airliner goes down in eastern Ukraine in 2014, examiners must conduct an investigation in the middle of a war zone.

A miraculous rescue is launched after a 747 plummets toward the Pacific.

Two identical plane crashes involving the same icy conditions and the same plane design are examined, revealing why neither disaster should have happened.

An MD-82 crash lands in Arkansas during a severe thunderstorm; but investigators believe weather is not the main reason for the accident.

Partnair Flight 394 loses control, breaks up in mid-air and crashes into the North Sea; the aircraft's vertical stabilizer vibrates loose during flight due to excessive wear on substandard bolts, sleeves and pins that have been illegally sold.

With its conductors sound asleep, a freight train fails to stop and collides with an oncoming passenger train, resulting in tragedy.

A 1994 terrorist bombing aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434 forces its pilots into a daring emergency landing.

When a plane carrying Russian tourists crashes in Egypt, investigators face political tensions and terrorist claims in their search for the truth.

A Korean Airlines passenger plane is shot down by a Soviet fighter jet in 1983; political tensions nearly escalate into war.

How the legendary "Dambuster" bomber squadron of WWII fooled Nazi Germany into believing the Allied invasion was going to be at Calais, rather than Normandy, and went to on to destroy Hitler's super weapons.

America's first victory in the Pacific during World War II is retold from the vantage point of the three U.S. attack planes as they overcame the enemy ambush to face off against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a long-range fighter, in the air.

In 1944, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe brings the hope of freedom and the devastation of war to the people of France.

New colorized footage and testimony reveal the cost paid by the Allies and civilians to free Belgium and the Netherlands from Nazi occupation.

In late 1944, Hitler forces the Americans into their biggest battle of the war when he launches a surprise attack into liberated Belgium.

New colorized footage and testimony reveals the cost of victory, the aftermath of war and the liberation of the camps and the destruction of Germany.

A look back at some of President Obama's speeches and statements.

Experts investigate the Saudia Flight 163 tragedy, which killed 287 passengers and 14 crew members following an in-flight fire.

When John F. Kennedy Jr.'s Piper Saratoga crashed in 1999, the NTSB faces big pressure to find the wreckage and the cause.

Pilots aboard a hijacked plane are forced to attempt an emergency landing at sea.