Watch this... and you'll never want to fly again

Aircrash (C4)

THIS was not a programme recommended to those about to take a flight. Impact, the first of three documentaries, had six survivors talking candidly about their ordeal.

The news wasn't all bad. Although 1,300 people die in air crashes each year, there's only a one in 80 million chance of being killed in one. Nearly half those who get through the initial impact survive.

Most people experience a fear of flying - or rather, crashing - at some point and this documentary series had plenty of statistics to illustrate your chances once the plane hits the ground.

Young men have the greatest chance of survival. The odds are less favourable for children and the elderly, while 12 per cent won't escape in any circumstances as, immobilised by shock, they simply don't act. And if the plane's on fire, you have 90 seconds to get out or perish.

When it's put that you're sitting in an aluminium tube with only six inches - the thickness of the shell - between you and death, you may never want to fly again.

Facts and figures are one thing but the power of this programme came from the testimony of the six who emerged, with varying degrees of mental and physical scarring.

Chief purser Laura Brentlinger was on a Jumbo flight from Hawaii to New Zealand when there was a tremendous hissing and a huge explosion. She was thrown off her feet and left clinging for life on to the central staircase, her body waving in the air like a flag.

The pilot took 25 seconds to regain control from a violent nosedive resulting from a cargo door opening. Back on her feet, Laura saw the whole side of the business class cabin was gone. The seats were missing, and so were the passengers.

She knew people had died, but looking out the gaping hole in the side of the aircraft she thought how beautiful it was: "I saw the sky and the stars and the ocean below. It was a beautiful sight, but the horror was beyond words."

An eerie calm came over passengers as they prepared for an emergency landing. Unlike in Hollywood movies, there was no screaming and panic. Passengers were calm and silent as they held rosaries or kissed loved ones goodbye.

John Diaz's flight took the wrong turning on the runway and collided, at 180mph, with a construction site. His seat was unbolted in the impact, which protected him from the huge fireball that followed. He saw people burning in their seats. Everything around him was melting in front of his eyes, looking "like something out of a Dali painting". Despite the huge explosions and blaze, he heard no sounds. Events unfolded like a silent movie.

For ex-military pilot Joe Stiley, surviving the crash was only the start of his ordeal. The aircraft crashed into the Potomac River and sank to the bottom. He and several others surfaced in the icy waters, but those on the bank had no means of rescuing them from the middle of the river. They had to wait 25 minutes for a helicopter to throw down a rope and drag them to the bank