The BEST episodes of Mayday season 5
Every episode of Mayday season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Mayday season 5!
Revealing the dark truth that aviation safety improves one crash at a time, Mayday investigates legendary aviation disasters to find out what went wrong and why. Based on cockpit voice recorders, accident reports and eyewitness accounts, every episode also features interviews, state-of-the-art CGI and gripping reenactments.
#1 - Fanning the Flames (South African Airways Flight 295)
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/21/2008
Alternative titles: "Cargo Conspiracy" and "Mystery Fire". South African Airways Flight 295 starts filling with smoke over the Indian Ocean. A fire has erupted in the rear main level cargo area; the pilots successfully open the doors in flight to clear the smoke from the aircraft, however it crashes with no survivors.
#2 - Gimli Glider (Air Canada Flight 143)
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/14/2008
Alternative titles: "Miracle Flight" and "Deadly Glide". A Boeing 767-200 jet, Air Canada Flight 143, ran completely out of fuel at 41,000 feet (12,000m) altitude, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton. The crew was able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former airbase at Gimli, Manitoba.
#3 - Southern Storm (Southern Airways Flight 242)
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/23/2008
In 1977, a plane was caught in a storm so severe that it cracked the cockpit windscreen. The crew decided to try and land on a nearby highway, but the jet clipped a tree and burst into flames. Together with the cockpit crew, 72 passengers and 8 people on the ground were killed in the inferno but miraculously, 5 people on board survived.
#4 - Mixed Signals (Birgenair Flight 301)
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/4/2008
Alternative title: "The Plane That Wouldn't Talk" Birgenair Flight 301 is scheduled to fly from Puerto Plata to Frankfurt. On takeoff, the captain finds that his air speed indicator (ASI) is not reading properly, though the co-pilot's ASI is showing the correct speed. Both pilots become confused and believe that both ASIs are malfunctioning. They lose control of the aircraft and it crashes in the Caribbean Sea. All 13 crew members and 176 passengers die.
#5 - Fatal Distraction (Eastern Airlines Flight 401)
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/28/2008
Alternative title: "Who's at the Controls?" A Lockheed L-1011 Tristar operating Eastern Airlines Flight 401 to Miami International Airport crashes in the Everglades because the crew is distracted by a faulty landing gear indicator light and accidentally disengage the autopilot. 101 people die.
#6 - Dead Weight (Air Midwest Flight 5481)
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/30/2008
A commuter plane crashes shortly after take-off, killing everyone onboard. Investigators are faced with the possibility that overweight passengers were one of the causes of this fatal crash. The airline industry based average passenger weight calculations on 1940s figures. Were they fatally out of date?
#7 - Behind Closed Doors (American Airlines Flight 96 and Turkish Airlines Flight 981)
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/16/2008
When an explosion blasts a huge hole in the fuselage of a new DC-10 airliner, the crash investigators discover a serious design flaw in the plane’s rear cargo door. Yet two years after the first crash, another DC-10 goes down because of the same problem. Should this accident have been prevented?
#8 - Explosive Evidence (Air India Flight 182)
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/9/2008
Air India Flight 182 flying over the Ireland coast exploded in mid-air killing all 329 on board. Investigators discovered that a bomb caused the aircraft to disintegrate.
#9 - Phantom Strike (Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907)
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 6/11/2008
Alternative titles: "Radio Silence" and "Death Over The Amazon" A Gol Transportes Aéreos Boeing 737 and a brand-new Embraer Legacy business jet on its delivery flight collide in mid-air over the Amazon. The 737 crashes but the Legacy manages to make a safe landing. 154 people die.
#10 - Invisible Killer (Delta Air Lines Flight 191)
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/7/2008
Alternative title: "Slammed to the Ground". In the summer of 1985, a Delta 191 aircraft was diverted away from a thunderstorm, only to be struck by powerful winds and plummet to the ground. Flames engulfed the front of the plane and more than 130 people died in a tragic accident that would eventually expose, and eliminate, an invisible killer.