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When does Air Disasters Season 20 come out?

Air Disasters Season 20 premiered Sunday, July 30, 2023 on Smithsonian Channel and ended Sunday, September 8, 2024. The season has 30 episodes.

History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.

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Air Disasters Season 20 release schedule

Air Disasters Season 20 episode release dates
Episode Release date

1. Headline News

Special — Multiple incidents: Three crashes that made front-page news around the world, and how intense media pressure shaped the investigations that followed.

Sunday · 3 years ago

2. Rookie Errors

Special — Multiple incidents, including LAPA Flight 3142, American Airlines Flight 587, and Colgan Air Flight 3407: Even highly trained crews can fall prey to the most basic mistakes — with devastating results.

Sunday · 3 years ago

3. Collision Course

Special — Multiple incidents: Mid-air and on-course collisions, and the systems built to keep aircraft — and vessels — safely apart.

Sunday · 3 years ago

4. Engines Out

Special — Multiple incidents: When an aircraft loses all engine power, training and airmanship become the last line of defense.

Sunday · 3 years ago

5. Fuel Trouble

Special — Multiple incidents: Flights brought down not by their machinery but by the fuel meant to keep them flying — from mismanagement to mechanical failure.

Sunday · 3 years ago

6. Perilous Payload

Special — Multiple incidents: Aircraft fatally out of balance from misloaded or unsecured cargo — a risk that's entirely preventable, yet keeps recurring.

Sunday · 3 years ago

7. Runway in Sight

Special — Multiple incidents: Crashes that happened with the airport already in view, when the final moments of flight proved the most dangerous.

Sunday · 3 years ago

8. Deadly Confusion

Special — Multiple incidents: Cockpits overwhelmed by conflicting information, where confusion in critical seconds turned recoverable situations into disasters.

Sunday · 3 years ago

9. Radio Silence

Special — Multiple incidents: Flights that stopped responding to the outside world, and the race to understand what was happening on board.

Sunday · 3 years ago

10. Design Flaws

Special — Multiple incidents: Hidden weaknesses engineered into aircraft long before takeoff, and the crashes that finally exposed them.

Sunday · 3 years ago

11. Heat of the Moment

Special — Multiple incidents: Crews forced to make split-second decisions under extreme pressure — some heroic, some catastrophic.

Sunday · 2 years ago

12. Instrument Confusion

Special — Multiple incidents: When the instruments pilots depend on begin feeding them lies, crews must decide what — and whether — to believe.

Sunday · 2 years ago

13. VIP on Board

Special — Multiple incidents: Crashes that claimed prominent figures, and the extraordinary scrutiny those investigations drew.

Sunday · 2 years ago

14. Lapse in Security

Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that began on the ground, when security measures meant to protect passengers failed.

Sunday · 2 years ago

15. Mountain Impact

Special — Multiple incidents: Aircraft brought down by terrain, and the technology developed to keep crews from flying into mountains they never saw.

Sunday · 2 years ago

16. Survivors

Special — Multiple incidents: Passengers and crew who lived through the unthinkable, and what their stories reveal about surviving a crash.

Sunday · 2 years ago

17. Death from Above

Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that reached beyond the aircraft, when falling planes and debris brought tragedy to those below.

Sunday · 2 years ago

18. Courage in the Cockpit

Special — Multiple incidents: Crews who faced impossible circumstances and, through skill and nerve, gave their passengers a fighting chance.

Sunday · 2 years ago

19. Maintenance Mistakes

Special — Multiple incidents: Small errors in hangars and workshops that grew into catastrophes at altitude.

Sunday · 2 years ago

20. Take Off Tragedies

Special — Multiple incidents: The most critical seconds of any flight — and the crashes that happened before aircraft ever truly left the ground.

Sunday · 2 years ago

21. Dead of Night

Special — Multiple incidents: Darkness strips pilots of the horizon and hides danger — these crashes show how quickly night flying can turn deadly.

Sunday · 2 years ago

22. Engine Gone

Special — Multiple incidents: Engines that failed catastrophically — or tore away entirely — and the crews left to fly what remained.

Sunday · 2 years ago

23. Lethal Choices

Special — Multiple incidents: Decisions made in cockpits and operations rooms that sealed a flight's fate long before the moment of impact.

Sunday · 2 years ago

24. Risky Runways

Special — Multiple incidents: The world's most demanding airports, where terrain, weather, and short pavement leave crews little margin for error.

Sunday · 2 years ago

25. Landings Gone Wrong

Special — Multiple incidents: Approaches and touchdowns that unraveled in the final seconds, when nearly home proved not close enough.

Sunday · 2 years ago

26. Frozen Wings

Special — Multiple incidents: Ice — nearly invisible and ruthlessly effective — and the flights it brought down before its dangers were fully understood.

Sunday · 2 years ago

27. Runway Collisions

Special — Multiple incidents: Disasters that happened entirely on the ground, when two aircraft ended up on the same strip of pavement.

Sunday · 2 years ago

28. Cockpit Breakdown

Special — Multiple incidents: When teamwork in the cockpit collapses — through conflict, hierarchy, or silence — the aircraft pays the price.

Sunday · 2 years ago

29. Splash Down

Special — Multiple incidents: Flights that ended in the water, from controlled ditchings to high-speed impacts, and what determined who survived.

Sunday · 2 years ago

30. Northern Extremes

Special — Multiple incidents: Aviation at the edge of the map, where cold, isolation, and unforgiving conditions magnify every mistake.

Sunday · 2 years ago

Air Disasters Season 20 FAQ

When does Air Disasters Season 20 come out?

Air Disasters Season 20 premiered Sunday, July 30, 2023 on Smithsonian Channel.

How many episodes are in Air Disasters Season 20?

Air Disasters Season 20 has 30 episodes.

Are new episodes of Air Disasters Season 20 released weekly?

New episodes are released weekly.

How do I get notified when new Air Disasters Season 20 episodes are released?

Download the Streambay app and follow Air Disasters. You'll get a push notification the moment each new episode is out.

Never miss Air Disasters Season 20.

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