Descent from Disaster

On July 3rd 1963, a National Airways Corporation DC3 slammed into a rocky ravine deep in the Kaimai Ranges. All 23 passengers and crew were killed. Simon Gault looks back at this tragic story.

West Coast's Leigh Hart revisits his old hometown of Runanga, where in 1967,it was one of several West Coast towns devastated by the Strongman Mine disaster.

135 people lost their lives when the S.S. Wairarapa steamed straight into rocks on Great Barrier Island. Andrew Fagan uncovers the stories of heroism and downright cowardice on that tragic night.

The Hawkes Bay Earthquake of 1931 is New Zealand's deadliest earthquake with over 250 people killed and hundreds more injured. Gary McCormick looks back at this tragic event.

In 1918, 8500 New Zealanders lost their lives in a influenza pandemic that swept the world, Judy Bailey investigates the affect it had on New Zealand.

ONE News meteorologist Karen Olsen revisits one of New Zealand's worst storms. On April 9th, 1968 Cyclone Giselle hit New Zealand with a force so ferocious it sank the Wahine inter-island ferry.

Veteran broadcaster Mark Sainsbury recounts the relatively unknown story of the 1963 Brynderwyn bus crash, which resulted in the death of 15 passengers after its brakes failed on a winding road.

Kiwi yachting legend Peter Montgomery recounts the 1951 Centennial Yacht Race disaster, where ten men died in a brutal storm shortly after setting sail from Wellington.

Toni Street travels to New Plymouth to rediscover the Taranaki Mountaineering Disaster.

22 lives were lost when the Ranui capsized, leaving families heartbroken and the small seaside communities of Mount Maunganui and Tauranga shattered. Presented by Peter Elliott.

Former One News weatherman Jim hickey recounts the tragic 1948 National Airways Corporation plane crash on Mt Ruapehu. At the time this was the worst civilian plane crash in New Zealand.