January 1st, 2007 - After taking off from Indonesia's Suribaya airport, Adam Air Flight 574 settles in for the two-hour trip to Manado. The Boeing 737 is loaded with New Year's travelers taking advantage of the country's recent discount travel boom. But somewhere over the Java Sea, the plane hits turbulence, and air traffic controllers notice the jet is hundreds of miles off course…and headed for a major storm. Air traffic controllers get in touch with the lost plane - and try guiding it back on course. But the jet's navigational systems aren't working. And the bad weather is closing in. The crew struggle to find their way - when suddenly, flight 574 disappears from radar. Rescue teams search a section of the sea the size of Ireland - but it's a fisherman who finds the first piece of wreckage. There's no hope of survivors - 102 people are killed. After months of arguing over who will pay for the salvage operation, investigators eventually retrieve the aircraft's data and voice recorders. The rest of the wreckage is left behind. When they study the black boxes, investigators realize that the crew made a series of small mistakes that doomed their plane. When they took manual control of their jet, they were betrayed by a poor understanding of their automation systems - and flew the aircraft into the sea. But pushing further, investigators find that Adam Air did not properly maintain their jets. Problems with the navigational system were well known - but never fixed. Pilots also received poor training when it came to dealing with mechanical problems. Investigators conclude that the country's entire fleet of discount carriers - not just Adam Air -- was riddled with safety issues. The investigation eventually brings about Adam Air's suspension, and large-scale reforms to Indonesia's airline industry.

Twenty minutes after taking off from Taipei, Taiwan a China Airlines 747 suddenly disappears from radar. A massive rescue mission is launched, ut all 225 passengers and crew are dead. After ruling out both a bomb and a gas tank explosion, investigators are stumped. They examine hundreds of pieces of wreckage until they discover a single piece of the hull that solves the riddle. Tragically, the crash of Flight 611 began with a problem that began twenty-two years earlier.

September 8, 1989 - On a charter trip from Oslo to Hamburg, Partnair Flight 94 is cruising at 22,000 feet -- when it suddenly begins diving toward the sea. The aging propeller plane crashes into the water. All 55 people on board are killed. It is the biggest airline disaster in Norwegian history. As investigators piece together what happened, they uncover a problem so serious, it sends shock waves through the industry. How had a single bolt caused the plane to fall out of the sky? And why is it a potential problem for every passenger plane in the world?

April 4, 1975. In the final, chaotic days of the Vietnam War, US President Gerald Ford orders an urgent mission of mercy called 'Operation Babylift'. Its goal: to rescue Vietnamese orphans from the chaos of the war and take them back to the safety of the US. Nearly 250 Vietnamese babies and children are loaded onto an Air Force C5A Galaxy, one of the world's largest planes. But after a steep and rapid ascent to get out of missile range, the aircraft's cargo door is violently blown off and the plane crashes to the ground. What caused the tragic accident? And can investigators find out before they have to flee the country?