A must watch for all interested in aircraft and air safety. However, it is not without its flaws.
The quality of reenactments varies from decent to awful, but they seem to have improved in later episodes. Aircraft sound effects and take off cockpit drills are generally pretty boring, sometimes just plain wrong, and could do with improvement.
Unlike Black Box, an air crash programme from the 1990s, actual cockpit voice recordings are never used; the reenactments often sound rather different to the real thing.
The narrator will often be heard asking questions like "How could a state of the art xxxx aircraft crash?" etc, which can get a little annoying after awhile. Owing to widespread abuse on this programme, the term "State of the art" is pretty meaningless. Furthermore, "state of the art" does not mean "impossible to crash", as evidenced by the fact that new episodes continue to be made.
Also annoying is the delicate manner in which aircraft manufacturers are handled. With a few exceptions, criticism of manufacturers seems to be carefully sidestepped. Aircraft fans might not like my saying this, but praise for aircraft manufacturers and their designs, particularly Boeing, is all too frequent. Just because they are a market leader does not mean their products are the safest permitted by the current level of technological advancement. Manufacturers and their products are highly fallible, as anyone who has looked beyond the detail given in this programme would know.
NTSB bureaucrats really get to blow their trumpet on this show, too.
Perhaps I have been too harsh a judge of this show. With all its faults, I still enjoy watching it.
The quality of reenactments varies from decent to awful, but they seem to have improved in later episodes. Aircraft sound effects and take off cockpit drills are generally pretty boring, sometimes just plain wrong, and could do with improvement.
Unlike Black Box, an air crash programme from the 1990s, actual cockpit voice recordings are never used; the reenactments often sound rather different to the real thing.
The narrator will often be heard asking questions like "How could a state of the art xxxx aircraft crash?" etc, which can get a little annoying after awhile. Owing to widespread abuse on this programme, the term "State of the art" is pretty meaningless. Furthermore, "state of the art" does not mean "impossible to crash", as evidenced by the fact that new episodes continue to be made.
Also annoying is the delicate manner in which aircraft manufacturers are handled. With a few exceptions, criticism of manufacturers seems to be carefully sidestepped. Aircraft fans might not like my saying this, but praise for aircraft manufacturers and their designs, particularly Boeing, is all too frequent. Just because they are a market leader does not mean their products are the safest permitted by the current level of technological advancement. Manufacturers and their products are highly fallible, as anyone who has looked beyond the detail given in this programme would know.
NTSB bureaucrats really get to blow their trumpet on this show, too.
Perhaps I have been too harsh a judge of this show. With all its faults, I still enjoy watching it.