Movies - Air Crash Investigation

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	Movies - Air Crash Investigation

Air Crash Investigation is a science television program on National Geographic Channel. The series is produced by a Canadian company and was broadcasted by the channel in USA, Great Britain, Australia and Asia. As of February 2006, 3 seasons of programs have been produced. It also airs on Discovery Canada, but only once in a while.

It is a documentary that investigates the air crashes in modern history. It reveals events that led up to each crash and the causes to the crashes. It features reenactments, interviews, testimony, computer generated imaging (CGI) to reconstruct the sequence of events to the audiences.

Name of the Program

The series is, actually, produced by Cineflix in Canada with the name of Mayday. Air Crash Investigation is only the name used by National Geographic Channel to market the series. Many viewers also refer this program as Air Crash Investigations (with an "s" at the end) while National Geographic actually does not put an "s" at the end. ()

Format

Several passengers and crews (whether they survived the accident or not) of the accident aircraft would be picked and actors/actresses would play the role of those passengers and crews throughout the accident flight usually starting from boarding of the flight. The flight routines in the air traffic control, cockpit and cabin would be recreated on screen starting from departure up to the moment of the accident. At the moment of the accident, external view of the aircraft from different angles would be recreated to show the effect and what had happened to the aircraft. The responses and reactions of the passengers, crews and air traffic control after the accident had happened leading up to the eventual crash or emergency landing are then recreated. All the scenes in cockpit and air traffic control centres are recreated using the actual script obtained from cockpit voice recorder of the accident aircraft.

The rescue and recovery effort and the investigations process is then recreated in details, showing how the aircraft parts, the flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders are recovered and examined, how the pieces are related together to maintenance records, initial design, training procedures, etc. to draw the final conclusion.

Surviving passengers and crews or surviving relatives and friends of deceased passengers are interviewed throughout each episode. Investigators, from NTSB in most cases, involved in the subsequent accident investigations are interviewed to explain the flow of the investigations and how the conclusion and subsequent recommendations are made. Each episode usually ends with a short interview with one of the survivors (or a relative of a deceased) to summarize their experience and how they feel.

Episodes

Season 1
* Episode 1: Unlocking Disaster (United Airlines Flight 811)
* Episode 2: Racing The Storm (American Airlines Flight 1420)
* Episode 3: Fire on Board (Swissair Flight 111)
* Episode 4: Cutting Corners (Alaska Airlines Flight 261)
* Episode 5: Flying Blind (AeroPeru Flight 603)
* Episode 6: Flying on Empty (Air Transat Flight 236)

Season 2
* Episode 1: Wounded Bird (ASA Flight 529)
* Episode 2: Blow Out (British Airways Flight 5390)
* Episode 3: Hijacked (Air France Flight 8969)
* Episode 4: Mid-Air Collision (Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937/DHL Freighter)
* Episode 5: Crash on the Mountain (American Airlines Flight 965)
* Episode 6: Deadly Delay (Avianca Flight 52)

Season 3
* Episode 1: Kid in the Cockpit (Aeroflot Flight 593)
* Episode 2: Out of Control (Japan Airlines Flight 123)
* Episode 3: Attack over Baghdad
* Episode 4: Suicide Attack (FedEx Flight 705)
* Episode 5: Hanging by a Thread (Aloha Airlines Flight 243)
* Episode 6: Mistaken Identity (Iran Air Flight 655)
* Episode 7: Death and Denial (EgyptAir Flight 990)
* Episode 8: Bomb on Board (Philippine Airlines Flight 434)
* Episode 9: Helicopter Down
* Episode 10: African Hijack (Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961)

Channels

National Geographic Asia
National Geographic Australia
National Geographic Canada
National Geographic UK
National Geographic USA
Seven Network (Australia)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Air Crash Investigation ]

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