C4, Discovery take a crash course

A Boeing 727 airliner was deliberately crashed in Mexico for a new documentary to air on Channel 4 in the UK and Discovery Channel in the US.

Aftermath of the crash

Shine-owned prodco Dragonfly Film and Television Productions is working on a one-off doc that aims to examine the effects of plane crashes on the human body and investigate ways to increase passengers’ chances of survival.

National Geographic was originally onboard the project, which was first announced in 2009, but Discovery has now taken its rival’s place.

The 727 was set on course to crash in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert in Mexico on Friday by a pilot who then ejected. The plane was filled with cameras, science experiments and crash-test dummies and the effects of the crash closely monitored.

The results will form part of an as-yet unnamed programme that will air later this year on ProSieben in Germany as well as on C4 ad Discovery.

C4’s senior commissioning editor David Glover, said: “We hope that this documentary will provide valuable new scientific results as well as giving passengers vital information about how they can improve their own chances of surviving the extremely unlikely, but frightening, prospect of being in a serious plane crash.”

Sanjay Singhal is executive producer for Dragonfly.