Mayday (TV series)

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Mayday

from Season 3 Episode 2: Out of Control
Japan Airlines Flight 123 Crash
Genre Documentary TV Series
Running time 50 minutes
Creator(s) Cineflix
Starring None
Country of origin Canada, France
Original channel Discovery Channel Canada
Original run 2003–present
This article is about a TV series. For other uses, see Mayday.

Mayday (also known as Air Emergency in the United States, and Air Crash Investigation in the rest of the world) is a documentary television program produced by Cineflix in Canada. It is aired on Discovery Channel Canada and the National Geographic Channel. As of February 2006, 3 seasons of programs have been produced. A spinoff detailing non-aircraft disasters, titled Crash Scene Investigation in all parts of the world except Canada, has also been released. In Canada, both the original series and the spinoff are referred to as simply Mayday.

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 imagery (CGI), and in some episodes, Cockpit Voice Recordings (CVRs) to reconstruct the sequence of events to the audiences.

Contents

[edit] Name and versions

As there are many different names to the series, there is some confusion over the proper name of the series. The program was originally produced in Canada under the name Mayday. However, viewers also refer to this series as Air Crash Investigations while National Geographic Channel does not officially use the final s.[1]

There are small differences to the show as released to different regions. This includes the use of a British narrator, titling, and different theme music. Curiously, in Australia the first season of the show was aired as Mayday whereas the following seasons were aired as Air Crash Investigations (with the plural of 'Investigation' used both in titles and voice-overs). It is presumed that this is the same for other English-speaking nations outside the U.S.

Furthermore, the spinoff series Crash Scene Investigation is also billed as the fourth season of Mayday in Canada, and this program, along with the similar series Blueprint for Disaster, are typically billed together as Disaster Detectives on Discovery Channel Canada, leading to further confusion as to the name of the series.

[edit] Format

Several passengers and crew members (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 the 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.

[edit] Trivia

In contrast with all other episodes, "Mistaken Identity" (about the shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 by a U.S. Navy Warship) does not show the passenger cabin, despite the fact that 290 people onboard were killed. Instead, it focuses on the bridge of the ship that shot the aircraft down, and analyses why the warship mistook it for an Iranian fighter jet. This is possibly done because in this episode, unlike the other episodes, the aircraft was shot down and destroyed instantly, giving no premise for a flight-crew/passenger based story to investigate unlike other episodes that are about flights where in most cases, the passengers and/or crew were aware of the emergency prior to crashing.[citation needed].

[edit] Episodes

Main article: Episode Guide


  • Season 4
    • [10 Episodes currently in production for broadcast in 2007]
  • Season 5
    • [13 Episodes currently in development for broadcast in 2008]


  • Off-series episodes

[edit] Channels

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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