Plane Crash Diaries

About Plane Crash Diaries

I'm a pilot obsessed with flying and all things aviation. This podcast series covers more than a century of commercial aviation and how its shaped the world. Aviation is now safer than its ever been, but it took one hundred years of learning and often through accidents and incidents to reduce the risk of flying.

Publisher

Desmond Latham

Category

science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Jun 2019

Latest episode

14 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

3 of 45 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   14 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 45 - The Pitot-Tube Loving Mud-Dauber Wasp and Birgenair Flight 301

   Host [Host Name] interviews entomologist Dr. Athayde Tonhasca about how a mud-dauber wasp's nest in a pitot tube led to the tragic Birgenair Flight 301 crash.

2. 

   1 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 44 - The Curious Case of Captain Button and the Pink Porn Kamikaze Pilot

   Host Des Latham interviews industry experts about the puzzling pilot suicides of Captain Craig Button and Mitsuyasu Maeno, revealing how extremism can hide in plain sight.

3. 

   9 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 43 - Lithium on Board: UPS Flight 6 and the Battery Threat Airlines Fear Most

   This is episode 43, and I thought instead of taking a closer look at the plethora of pilot suicides, another topic is heating up fast. The dangers of lithium-based batteries, lithium polymers, now playing probably on your wrist theatre, or perhaps in your hand, or gauging your heartbeat, monitoring the baby, inside your laptop, powering your GPS and your vaping device. They’re everywhere. Lithium has revolutionised our lives – and simultaneously poses a risk to aviation. The number of incidents of recharging battery packs and phones overheating is growing by the week. I am certain that the next major airline fire is going to be caused by a battery burn. And I’m not alone in this concern, IATA has just published data which revealed that 83% of pax carry a phone, 60% a laptop and 44% a power bank. So what you say. It’s what they found about what pax know about that dangers that’s of concern. While 93% of travelers consider themselves knowledgeable on the rules for carrying lithium-powered devices, half of those surveyed or 50% incorrectly believe it’s OK to pack small lithium-powered devices in checked luggage, 45% incorrectly believe it’s OK to pack power banks in checked luggage and 33% incorrectly believe that there are no power limits on power banks or spare batteries. Most spare lithium-ion batteries and power banks are limited to 100 Wh without special approval. This covers standard phones, tablets, and most consumer power banks while batteries between 101 Wh and 160 Wh - such as larger laptop batteries, professional camera/video batteries, or massive power banks are liimited to two spare batteries per person and require airline approval. Batteries over 160 Wh are banned in either carry-on or checked baggage, with limited exceptions only for certain mobility aids like wheelchairs. Airlines are collecting data through the Thermal Runaway Incident Program and we now know that across the world, an average of two flights a week have reported thermal runaways and one in five of these events led to a diverted landing. Crucially, we also discovered that two out of five passengers are packing rechargeable batteries in checked luggage. That is tantamount to playing Russian roulette. Back during these days, authorities underestimated the dangers – that was until the terrible UPS Airlines Flight 6 disaster of 2010. UPS Flight six was a scheduled international cargo flight operated by the parcel service which departed Dubai on September 3, 2010 heading to Cologne in Germany.

Inside a recent episode

Episode 45 - The Pitot-Tube Loving Mud-Dauber Wasp and Birgenair Flight 301

Published 14 Aug 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] Eight seconds later, the plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean at a relatively slow speed of 220 knots. All 189 occupants were killed. The Boeing was destroyed. Search and rescue teams mobilized. The Dominican Republic General Directorate of Civil Aviation investigated the accident and quickly came to the conclusion that the pitot tube was behind the catastrophe. They also concluded the probable cause of that obstruction was likely to have been mud from a small insect that built a nest inside the pitot tube during the three weeks the aircraft was on the ground at Puerto Plata. Pilots and operators knew about that risk. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

161 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

56 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 18 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

9

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

67

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