Mayday

Also known as Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency, Air Disasters, Mayday: Air Disaster, ACI

Canadian documentary television programme

TV series · TMDB

★ 8.2

Major real-life air disasters are depicted in this series. Each episode features a detailed dramatized reconstruction of the incident based on cockpit voice recorders and air traffic control transcripts, as well as eyewitnesses recounts and interviews with aviation experts.

Aired: 2003–2026
Seasons: 26 · 240 episodes
Status: Returning Series
Created by: André Barro, Bernard Vaillot
Network: 5, Discovery, Sky History, National Geographic, National Geographic
Genres: Documentary, Drama, Crime

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Key facts

Also known as: Air Crash Investigation Air Emergency ( National Geographic Channel , U.S.) Air Disasters ( Smithsonian Channel , U.S.) Mayday: Air Disaster ( Weather Channel , U.S.)
Genre: Documentary Docudrama
Created by: André Barro
Narrated by: Stephen Bogaert for Canada and the U.S. Bill Ratner for the U.S. (Smithsonian Channel) Jonathan Aris for Australia, Asia, and Europe Lance Lewman for the U.S. David Bamber (Season one narrator for Channel Five in the United Kingdom only) Michael Daingerfield for the U.S. (The Weather Channel)
Country of origin: Canada
Original language: English/French
Number span no of episodes: 287 ( list of episodes )
Running time: 45 minutes
Production company: Cineflix Productions
Network: Discovery Channel Canada (2003–2024) USA Network Canada (2025–present)
Release: 3 September 2003 ( 2003-09-03 ) –, present

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

FilmAffinity ID: 953048
Official website: www.cineflixproductions.com/shows/28-Mayday

Show 4 more facts

number of seasons: 25
number of episodes: 287
title: Mayday
start time: 2003-09-03

Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

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Article

Mayday is a Canadian documentary television program examining air crashes, near-crashes, hijackings, bombings, and other disasters. Mayday uses re-enactments and computer-generated imagery to reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to each disaster. In addition, survivors, aviation experts, retired pilots, and crash investigators are interviewed, to explain how the emergencies came about, how they were investigated, and how they might have been prevented.

Cineflix started production on 13 August 2002 (2002-08-13), with a CA$2.5 million budget. In Canada itself, the program premiered on Discovery Channel Canada on 3 September 2003. Cineflix also secured deals with France 5, Discovery Channel, Canal D, TVNZ, Seven Network, Holland Media Group, and National Geographic Channel to take Mayday in 144 countries and 26 languages. The series was received well by critics and nominated for a number of awards. In 2010, Sharon Zupancic won a Gemini Award for her work on the season-seven episode, "Lockerbie Disaster", that depicts the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. A University of New South Wales senior lecturer, Raymond Lewis, conducted a study on teaching strategy loosely based on the series. Lewis's results indicated using the strategy had "a positive effect on learning outcomes" for prospective pilots.