On July 1, 2002, two aircraft collided at 36,000 feet over southern Germany, claiming 71 lives—including 45 Russian schoolchildren on what should have been the trip of a lifetime. Discover how a series of seemingly small mistakes—a short-staffed air traffic control center, malfunctioning equipment, and confusion over emergency protocols—created a perfect storm of disaster that could have been prevented at multiple points. Learn about the heartbreaking aftermath that devastated families across two continents and the unimaginable grief that followed one father home from the crash site.

Sources:

1. Mayday: Air Disasters episode "Deadly Crossroads" (Season 4, Episode 7)
2. Official BFU (German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation) Final Report
3. Cockpit Voice Recorder Database (tailstrike.com)
4. Swiss Federal Court rulings on Skyguide liability (2007, 2011)
5. Wikipedia articles on 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision and Vitaly Kaloyev
6. Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (BAAA)
7. Communicatio Optima aviation safety analysis
8. China Daily court coverage (2007)

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

1. Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
2. Email: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.com
3. Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
4. Facebook: Final Boarding Call

Credits: Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.

Three people survived the Olympic collision in 1911, the Titanic sinking in 1912, and the Britannic disaster in 1916. Six months later, two of them were on the same ship when a German torpedo struck. One survived this fourth disaster. One didn't. The survivor was then rejected by every shipping line in Britain—not because he lacked skill, but because sailors refused to work with "the jinx." Discover the devastating true story of Violet Jessop, Arthur John Priest, and Archie Jewell—the only three people to survive all three maritime disasters.

Sources:

1. "Titanic Survivor: The Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessop Who Survived Both the Titanic and Britannic Disasters" edited by John Maxtone-Graham (1997, Sheridan House Inc.)
2. British Board of Trade Official Inquiry into the Loss of the SS Titanic (1912) - Lord Mersey's Report
3. U.S. Senate Inquiry into the Titanic Disaster - Senate Subcommittee Hearings chaired by Senator William Alden Smith (1912)
4. White Star Line Crew Agreements and Official Logs - National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK
5. Encyclopedia Titanica - Biographical entries for Violet Jessop, Arthur John Priest, and Archie Jewell (www.encyclopedia-titanica.org)
6. Commonwealth War Graves Commission Records - Archie Jewell memorial entry, Tower Hill Memorial, London
7. WreckSite.eu - SS Donegal sinking documentation (torpedoed April 17, 1917 by UC-27)
8. Tower Hill Memorial Records - Merchant Navy casualties with no known grave
9. "Official History of the War: Naval Operations" - documentation of SS Donegal torpedoing by German submarine UC-27
10. Southampton Stories - local historical accounts of White Star Line crew members
11. The Old Salt Blog - "Arthur John Priest: The Unsinkable Stoker" and related maritime history articles
12. BBC History - biographical profiles of Titanic survivors
13. Maritime Archaeology Trust - White Star Line vessel documentation and crew records
14. National Maritime Museum Collections - Olympic-class ship records and crew manifests

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

1. Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
2. Email: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.com
3. Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
4. Facebook: Final Boarding Call

Credits: Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.

On October 30, 2025, a JetBlue flight from Cancun suddenly dove without warning, slamming passengers into the cabin ceiling and hospitalizing 15 people. The pilots hadn't touched the controls. The plane was on autopilot. What investigators discovered wasn't pilot error or mechanical failure—it was something aviation engineers had never prepared for, a vulnerability hiding in plain sight that would trigger the largest emergency grounding in Airbus history within weeks. Join Alice and Zach as they unravel how a burst of solar radiation exploited a software flaw, why 6,000 aircraft were pulled from service during Thanksgiving week, and how this incident transformed aviation safety forever.

Sources:

1. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) preliminary investigation documents
2. European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2025-0234-E
3. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2025-24-51
4. Airbus Alert Operators Transmission (AOT) A320-27-3301
5. "WHAT Actually Grounded the Global Airbus A320 Fleet?!" - Mentour Pilot YouTube channel
6. "Solar Flare Fallout: Airbus A320 Global Grounding" - Aviation analysis
7. "When the Sun Strikes Back: How a Solar Flare Nearly Took Down an Airbus A320" - Pavel Zlatník, Medium
8. India Today: "How a solar explosion grounded 6,000 Airbus planes globally"
9. CNN Aviation: "Thousands of passenger planes need emergency maintenance"
10. NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center solar activity reports (October 2025)
11. University of Surrey Space Engineering Department radiation data
12. FlightRadar24 flight tracking data for JetBlue Flight 1230
13. Reddit r/aviation passenger testimonials
14. LiveATC audio recordings

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

1. Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
2. Email: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.com
3. Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
4. Facebook: Final Boarding Call

Credits: Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.