Smithsonian HD Network

On 25 July 2000, a Concorde operating as Air France Flight 4590 stalled and crashed into a hotel in Gonesse shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, killing all the 109 people on board and 4 on the ground.

On 15 September 1989, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft tasked with intercepting Hurricane Hugo over the Caribbean islands is jolted by strong winds, causing an engine to catch fire and fail.

A pilot's decision to let his 15-year-old son fly has disastrous consequences on a commercial flight.

A Russian passenger jet crashes into the Volga River, killing almost everyone on board; the incident turns into a national tragedy when rescuers discover the plane carried some of the country's famous athletes.

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

US Airways Flight 1549 suffers a bird strike with a flock of Canada geese, causing both engines to fail.

The crew of a commuter flight over France makes a sightseeing detour that sets off a deadly chain of events.

After experiencing icing conditions, a turboprop slams into an Argentine desert; investigators are mystified by what they uncover.

Five aviation disasters and the changes they have forced air-traffic controllers to make.

On 13 January 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 stalls at 300 feet altitude, strikes a road bridge and crashes into the Potomac River, killing 78 people.

Avianca Flight 52 is delayed numerous times by bad weather en route; it is dangerously low on fuel as it attempts a landing at New York City.

On June 27, 1980, Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the island of Ustica, Italy; all 81 people on board were killed.

A Colorado commuter flight crashes five miles short of the runway and the reasons why rock the airline industry.

Pilots attempt to land their Boeing 737 in an Indonesian river after losing their engines and electrical power.

Two 747s collide on the runway of a small airport in the Canary Islands, resulting in history's deadliest air crash.

A towering inferno that killed 72 residents becomes Britain's deadliest fire; a pedestrian bridge collapses in Florida over eight lanes of traffic, killing six people; how can fatal design flaws happen in such important constructions?

The Allied forces' top-secret rehearsal for D-Day that went wrong.

A retelling of the D-Day invasion and its critical naval operation involving an armada of diverse and ingenious vessels.

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.

On D-Day, Allied forces land in Normandy, France, to beat back the German troops and liberate France; previously unseen archival footage captures the 85-day struggle to liberate Europe and includes rare images of the battle itself.

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.