Ep 5. Lost

Mayday is a Canadian documentary series that investigates air crashes, near-crashes, or other incidents involving commercial flights. In every episode, the show reconstructs the events leading up to the accident, interviews experts, survivors, and witnesses, and explores the root causes of the tragedy.

Season 2, episode 5 of Mayday is titled "Lost," and it follows the story of Northwest Airlink Flight 5719, a commuter flight that crashed on December 1, 1993, in Northern Minnesota, killing all 18 people on board.

The flight was operating a short hop between Minneapolis and International Falls, a small town near the US-Canadian border, on a cold and snowy day. The plane, a turboprop Saab 340, was carrying 15 passengers, including two infants, and a crew of three.

The flight took off at 4:22 pm and soon encountered moderate icing conditions as it climbed to its cruising altitude of 23,000 feet. Despite the adverse weather, the crew made no mention of the icing to air traffic control or the company dispatch, and continued the flight as planned.

However, as the plane approached International Falls, the pilots encountered a problem with their navigation equipment. The plane's GPS and VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) systems, which provided the pilots with their position and heading, respectively, started malfunctioning and giving conflicting information.

Without reliable navigation, the pilots were quickly disoriented and unable to determine their exact location. They tried to communicate with air traffic control for assistance, but the transmissions were garbled and interrupted by static.

As the situation deteriorated, the pilots made a fatal mistake. They decided to descend below the clouds, hoping to spot the ground and find their way to the airport visually. However, the decision was reckless and violated basic safety rules, as the plane had no clearance to descend and was flying in a mountainous terrain.

As the plane descended, it struck trees and crashed into a frozen swamp, disintegrating on impact. None of the passengers or crew survived the crash, and the wreckage was spread over a large area, making the rescue and recovery operations difficult and dangerous.

The episode of Mayday explores the circumstances that led to the crash and the lessons learned from it. It interviews the surviving family members of the victims, as well as the investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) who worked on the case.

The show reveals that the crash was caused by a chain of errors and oversights, from the pilots' failure to properly manage the icing conditions to the malfunction of the navigation equipment to the lack of clear communication between the crew and air traffic control.

The investigation also exposed systemic issues with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline industry, such as inadequate training and oversight of regional airline pilots, outdated and unreliable navigation equipment, and poor communication protocols in emergencies.

As a result of the crash and the subsequent investigation, the FAA and the air industry implemented several safety improvements, such as better training and certification requirements for pilots, updated navigational technology, and more effective communication protocols between pilots, dispatchers, and air traffic control.

Mayday's "Lost" episode is a poignant and insightful account of a tragic aviation accident and a cautionary tale of the importance of following safety rules and procedures. It highlights the importance of continuous improvement in air travel safety and the need for transparency and accountability in investigating accidents.