Mayday (Canadian TV series)

Hallmarks

The series features re-enactments, interviews (from survivors if there are any, or from people involved in the investigation), eyewitness, CGI or computer generated imagery, and in nearly all of the episodes, voice-actor readings of cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcripts to reconstruct the sequence of events for the audience. Several passengers and crew members (whether they survived the incident or not) are picked and actors/actresses play the roles of those passengers and crew throughout the flight, usually starting from boarding of the flight. The flight routines in the air traffic control, cockpit, and cabin are recreated on screen starting from departure up to the moment of the emergency. At the moment of the emergency, external views of the aircraft from different angles are recreated to show the effect and what had happened to the aircraft. The responses and reactions of the passengers, crews, and air traffic control personnel leading up to the eventual crash or emergency landing are then recreated. Scenes in the cockpit and air traffic control centres are recreated using the transcript obtained from the CVR of the aircraft and other recordings made at the time.

Throughout the episodes, the victims (or the relatives and friends of the victims) are interviewed, adding further information about a case as it relates to them personally. In addition, aviation experts, retired pilots, and investigators are interviewed on the evidence and explain how these emergencies came about and how they could have been prevented.

Production and distribution

Cineflix started production for Mayday on , with a C$2.5 million budget, after Channel Five commissioned the six-part, one-hour-each series. To keep the costs down, most of the production was kept at Cineflix's offices in Toronto. While in production, the series was sold to France 5, Discovery Channel, and Canal D. On , Cineflix announced that it had sold the series to TVNZ, Seven Network, and Holland Media Group. Later that year on 22 October, a month before the airing of the first season, Cineflix announced that it had secured a major international deal with National Geographic Channel to air Mayday in 144 countries and 26 languages.

In 2011, Smithsonian Networks aired season five, renamed Air Disasters, making it the first time in the United States that Mayday had aired on a channel other than National Geographic. On 25 January 2012, Cineflix Rights announced that it would be selling seasons 8, 9, and 11 (23 episodes) to Smithsonian Networks. On 28 March 2014, Cineflix Rights announced a deal with Smithsonian Networks to air seasons three, four, and 13 (34 episodes). Air Disasters is also available on Paramount+, which also carries some Smithsonian Networks programming.

In 2020, The Weather Channel in the United States began airing several episodes of the series under the title Mayday: Air Disaster. Starting in 2021 and continuing to this day, the Wonder and On the Move YouTube channels (owned by Little Dot Studios, a subsidiary of All3Media) uploaded the first nine seasons of Mayday and the Crash of the Century special with the episodes in their full uncut versions and are available in all countries, with the exception of the United Kingdom, where they are geoblocked. In addition to Wonder and On the Move, the official Mayday YouTube channel – owned by Cineflix – has been uploading full episodes of all series, with some geoblocking restrictions depending on region. The channel has also been uploading compilations and highlights from the programme.

In the United States, the show's tenth and twelfth seasons are available for streaming online on free, advertiser-supported streaming services Tubi and Freevee under the title Mayday: Air Disasters, while the show's first season is also made available for streaming online on Amazon Prime Video, provided by MagellanTV, under the title MayDay: Air Disaster Investigations.

Episodes

Main article: List of Mayday episodes

As of 12 January 2025, 276 episodes of Mayday have aired, not including Season 25, including five Science of Disaster specials, three Crash Scene Investigation spin-offs, which do not examine aircraft crashes, and a sub-series labelled The Accident Files that aired six seasons.

Reception

The series has been well received by critics. Franck Tabouring from DVD Verdict said, "It's a well-produced show with plenty of compelling information about tragic accidents, telling how some people survived and others didn't."

The senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Raymond Lewis, conducted a study on teaching strategy loosely based on the series. The study was done with prospective pilots studying the "Aircraft Systems for Aviators" undergraduate course by including "study of air accidents and incidents associated with aircraft systems." The results of the study showed "the use of air accidents and incident scenarios had a positive effect on learning outcomes."

Awards and nominations

Overall, the series has been nominated for nine awards, winning two, both for film editing.

Home media

In 2009, Entertainment One released the complete first season of the show on DVD in Region 1 in Canada.

Shock Records has released Seasons 1–18 in Australia as a 48-disc set, coded NTSC, Region 4. In 2024, Via Vision Entertainment has released Seasons 21-23 on DVD.

References

Informational notes

Citations

References

1. Daingerfield, Michael. (14 November 2022). "Michael Daingerfield – Voice Over".
2. "Original Show – Mayday: Air Disaster {{!}} The Weather Channel Television Network".
3. Lewis, Raymond. (December 2009). "Air Crash Investigators – comments on a pedagogical strategy to increase intrinsic motivation to enhance student learning.". 20th Annual Conference for the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, 6–9 December 2009: Engineering the Curriculum.
4. (13 August 2002). "New Cineflix science series Mayday starts production". Cineflix.
5. (1 January 2003). "No Borders".
6. (2 June 2003). "Cineflix goes global with popular science series Mayday. Germany's Prosieben latest channel to acquire the show". Cineflix.
7. (22 October 2003). "Cineflix International strikes NATGEO deal for new popular science series Mayday". Cineflix.
8. (25 January 2012). "Cineflix Rights seals North and Latin American deals". Cineflix.
9. (28 March 2014). "Cineflix Rights seals multiple deals in advance of MIPTV 2014". Cineflix.
10. (14 October 2020). "Wonder".
11. "Wonder – YouTube".
12. "On the Move".
13. "Mayday: Air Disaster – YouTube".
14. "Watch Mayday Air Disasters".
15. "Watch MayDay: Air Disaster Investigations".
16. "Watch Air Disasters".
17. Tabouring, Franck. (23 April 2009). "Mayday – Air Disasters". [[DVD Verdict]].
18. (July 2016). "Mayday: Air Disasters".