System Breakdown

Air Disasters: System Breakdown

Our air traffic control system has reached a breaking point. There are simply too many planes in the sky and the tools on the ground are in dire need of upgrading. Take a harrowing journey into the past, aboard five flights doomed by communication breakdowns, and chart the changes these air disasters forced. Then peek into the future as we join FAA test pilots experimenting with NextGen, a whole new system of air traffic control. If successful, it will greatly ease the mounting stress in control towers, and ultimately save countless lives.

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People Make Mistakes

Airlines have learned the hard way that people make mistakes. Even in the tightly controlled area surrounding airports, pilots and air traffic controllers sometimes miss key information.