Air Crash Investigations

July 23, 1983. It's a calm summer evening, when an inexplicable failure strikes, causing the loss of two engines on a brand new passenger jet midway between Montreal and Edmonton. Powerless at 12,000 meters altitude, the pilot needs all his skill, and a little bit of luck, to get his plane to the airport. But his saga doesn't end there because the runway he thought was abandoned is anything but.

Investigate how an explosion ripped a gaping hole in the cabin of a brand-new plane and again two years later, but with deadly consequences.

We see how commercial jets rely on a pressurised atmosphere to keep passengers alive and revisit some of the most compelling aviation disasters of the last fifty years to expose the explosive power of decompression. Along the way, we look at the many breakthroughs and design innovations that were implemented only after something went horribly wrong.