When a plane unfortunately crashes there's no shortage of photos and video of the wreckage, but rarely footage of the actual impact. So to appease our morbid curiosity of what really happens when a large airliner crashes, the Discovery Channel deliberately downed a 727 in the desert for an upcoming show.


The episode, for season two of the series appropriately titled Curiosity, will literally start out with a bang—as well as crunching, scraping, and all manner of sounds as the plane packed with crash test dummies, scientific equipment, and most importantly cameras, was crashed in Mexico's Sonoran Desert.

To ensure nothing went wrong, figuratively speaking, the 727 was brought down by an actual pilot who ejected moments before the impact. And to ensure ratings gold, the crash was also captured on the ground by countless cameras that should not only provide some spectacular footage, but will also give researchers and engineers more insight into how to design planes better suited to protecting passengers in a worst case scenario. [Los Angeles Times]


Image by Vance Jacobs/Discovery