I mean. We don't WANT to talk about it, but we absolutely DO. Ep 68 - You're Cleared for Disaster: The Tenerife Airport Crash of 1977 Ep 77 - Cloudy with a Chance of Terror: Cumulonimbus Ep 80 - Stratospheric Secrets: SR-71's Classified History Ep 90 - Echoes of the Sky: Amelia Earhart's Enduring Influence Ep 116 - Off by a Milli-something: How Tiny Mistakes Doomed Space Exploration Ep 138 - Touching the Face of God: Challenger Ep 140 - Foggy with a Chance of Disaster: When Planes Hit Buildings in NYC Ep 161: Flight to Oblivion - The Lockerbie Bombing Ep 170: Another reason to fear flying - the Überlingen disaster Ep 186: Flying the Skies above India & Breaking Barriers - Sarla Thukral Ep 190: Suicidal pilots: Germanwings Flight 9525 Ep 192: A Scenic Crash in Antarctica - Air New Zealand Flight 901 Ep 205: Under Pressure - Japan Airlines Flight 123
Ep 68 - You're Cleared for Disaster: The Tenerife Airport Crash of 1977
The world’s deadliest aviation disaster didn’t happen in the air—it happened on the runway. Two jumbo jets, thick fog, and a fatal misunderstanding.
Ep 77 - Cloudy with a Chance of Terror: Cumulonimbus
Towering thunderclouds that can tear planes apart. Pilots fear them, passengers don’t see them coming.
Ep 80 - Stratospheric Secrets: SR-71's Classified History
The fastest jet ever built, shrouded in Cold War secrecy. We peek inside its classified missions.
Ep 90 - Echoes of the Sky: Amelia Earhart's Enduring Influence
Her disappearance remains a mystery, but her influence on aviation—and women in flight—is undeniable.
Ep 116 - Off by a Milli-something: How Tiny Mistakes Doomed Space Exploration
The smallest measurement errors can doom billion-dollar space missions. The details will make you triple-check your math.
Ep 138 - Touching the Face of God: Challenger
A cold morning, ignored warnings, and a tragedy broadcast live. The shuttle disaster that changed NASA forever.
Ep 140 - Foggy with a Chance of Disaster: When Planes Hit Buildings in NYC
Before 9/11, there were still collisions. Fog, skyscrapers, and pilots flying blind.
Ep 161: Flight to Oblivion - The Lockerbie Bombing
A mid-air explosion over Scotland that became an international terrorism case.
Ep 170: Another reason to fear flying - the Überlingen disaster
Two jets collide over Germany in the dead of night—while air traffic control is running on skeleton staff.
Ep 186: Flying the Skies above India & Breaking Barriers - Sarla Thukral
India’s Amelia Earhart - Sarla broke barriers in pre-WWII India with the support of her husband, who died in a plane crash.
Ep 190: Suicidal pilots: Germanwings Flight 9525
A pilot locks his co-pilot out of the cockpit. Minutes later, the plane is gone.
Ep 192: A Scenic Crash in Antarctica - Air New Zealand Flight 901
A sightseeing trip over Antarctica turns deadly when whiteout conditions hide a mountain until it’s too late.
Ep 205: Under Pressure - Japan Airlines Flight 123
The deadliest single-aircraft crash in history. A blown repair job and a crew fighting for control until the end.
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Doomed to Fail is a podcast about historical disasters and failures
>> Taylor: Hello and welcome to Doomed to Fail. My name is Taylor, and along with my best friend Fars, we tell you stories about historical disasters and failures. And it's kind of turned into anything we find interesting. We're learning a ton and we're weaving a web to tell a story about human history. Today I want to focus on some of our plain stories. So I am doing better. But I went to a lot of therapy, very seriously, a lot of therapy to be able to get on an airplane and not have a panic attack and not feel extremely nervous. I think there is a part of it that I will always sort of blame on being in New York on September 11th and knowing someone who died in the plane that hit the Pentagon. My German teacher from high school, her name was Barbara Edwards. She was a lovely, hilarious old German woman. We played pranks on her. We watched Far and Away in her class like four times. We made donuts like she was just an absolute trip. And her son got married in Boston and she was on her way home and I think she even like maybe stayed an extra day. I don't know if that's a rumor, but her plane hit the Pentagon and I think about her all the time. She wore lovely brooches of animals and I don't know. So I feel scared of being on a plane. But I go, I've never not gone. And I'm doing much better now as, as I get older and as I. As I work on it. But I understand it's like a real thing. But also I think about historically how insane it is that we have not been flying for very long.
We have plenty of episodes on planes. Episode 68 is on the Tenerife crash
So anyway, back to the stories, some episodes that I want to share with you. Episode 68 is on the Tenerife crash, which is the worst cross crash in history, I think, until September 11th, we put those together. About 538 people died on the tarmac. And it's so interesting because one of the KLM pilots who was like the KLM pilot was involved in it. And it's a business story as well. I think Ben on episode 77, Faris talks about clouds. And there's some times where there's a man who has plane, I don't know, broke and he was like hanging in a cloud, in a parachute for a long time. And it's interesting the things he saw. It's just like not a thing. There is episode 80 on the SR71, Blackbird. It's about a very stealth plane the United states made. Episode 90 is about our dear, dear, dear, dear Amelia Earhart. We love her. Also, don't forget Frank Noonan, who, Fred Noonan, who died with her in her. In her plane. There is episode 116 on Little Astounding little mistakes that kind of messed up space travel. So there's in that. Episode 138. Considering more space travel is on the Challenger. I know it's not a plane, but also like how freaking far we've come from the Wright brothers to the Challenger to today. It's insane. Episode 140. I did an episode on times when planes hit buildings in New York city. Obviously not September 11th because they're not talking about that. But other times there's not just one, there's several. Episode 161 is on the Lockerbie bombing when a plane exploded over Ireland. It was a terrorist attack. Episode 170 is on the Uberlingen disaster where two planes collided mid air. Episode 190 is of the German Wings flight that was pretty recent where the pilot crashed the plane into a Mountain. Episode 192 is about the. A New Zealand flight that crashed in the Antarctic. They hit a mountain and they didn't know that it was there. And it's actually super interesting. And then Flight 122, 23 is about Japan Airlines. Oh no, I'm sorry. Episode 205 is about Japan Airlines Flight 123 which was the worst single aircraft crash in history. So maybe that came after. Come back, come listen to all of them. We have plenty of episodes on planes. Oh, and also I think I forgot to add, I have an episode about Sarlath who is the melee Airport of India. So on her too, as well as in our women's history stories. There's a lot. It's a lot and it. And I feel like we are very lucky to be able to do that because a lot of the stories we tell are about people who traversed mountains and lands to find other people. Like can you imagine being a Roman when the Celts walked across the mountains into your land and you saw these people who were, you know, inches taller than you, big red haired peoples that you'd never seen before. If you were in the Mediterranean or in Africa or places like you didn't know there was snow unless you were near a mountain. Like the things that we've learned that we're able to see because of how quickly we can get from place to place. We take it for granted. We, you know, let it be a joke. But we're very lucky that we get to do this because in the past you would get to maybe drive your horse a mile away or you always had to walk and all the things. So anyway, it's scary, but it's a miracle and we're very lucky. And please listen to our plane episodes. If you have a plane story, email us doomtitfellowpodgmail.com. thank you.