A swordfishing boat is three days from home when it sails into a collision of weather systems that meteorologists say happens once every fifty to a hundred years. Six men are aboard. Two hundred miles away, a sailboat crew is about to be pulled from the same ocean by a rescue swimmer running on fumes. One boat makes it home. Drawing on the Coast Guard's own investigation, join Alice and Zach for the story of the storm that gave its name to every impossible convergence of bad luck since — and the six men who never got the chance to outrun it.

Sources:

• The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger — W.W. Norton & Company
• The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey by Linda Greenlaw — Hyperion
• "Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Disappearance of the F/V Andrea Gail" (16732/91064) — U.S. Coast Guard, Marine Safety Office Boston / First Coast Guard District, finalized 28 January 1994
• "The Original Story of 'The Perfect Storm'" — Sebastian Junger, Outside Magazine
• NOAA / National Weather Service Boston — buoy and storm data archive
• National Hurricane Center — Tropical Cyclone Report, Hurricane Grace and the 1991 Unnamed Hurricane
• U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue logs — Satori rescue and Andrea Gail search operations

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

• Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
• Email: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.com
• Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
• 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.

The world’s largest passenger jet climbs out of Singapore on a routine training flight. Four minutes later, an explosion inside one engine sends debris tearing through the wing — and for several minutes, a fire burns inside it that not one person flying the plane ever knows about. Join Alice and Zach for the story of five pilots, one badly damaged A380, and the manufacturing flaw the size of a few sheets of paper that started it all.

Sources:

• In-flight uncontained engine failure, Airbus A380-842, VH-OQA (AO-2010-089) - Australian Transport Safety Bureau
• Lessons Learned from Transport Airplane Accidents, Airbus A380-842 case study - Federal Aviation Administration
• QF32 - Richard Champion de Crespigny (2012)
• Mayday: Air Disasters, Season 13, Episode 10
• Crippled Airbus A380, saved by Pros! | Qantas flight 32 - Mentour Pilot

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

• Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
• Email: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.com
• Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
• Facebook: Final Boarding Call

Check out this listener's app: https://finaltakeoff.lovable.app

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.

Six minutes after takeoff from Miami, a routine climb turns into a fight for control that lasts less than four minutes. Join Alice and Zach as they trace a chain of small decisions — made in a maintenance hangar weeks earlier — that put something dangerous where nobody expected it, and the regulator that had been warned about exactly this kind of failure eight years before it happened.

Sources

• Aircraft Accident Report: In-Flight Fire and Impact with Terrain, ValuJet Airlines Flight 592, NTSB/AAR-97/06 - National Transportation Safety Board (August 1997)
• United States v. SabreTech, Inc., 271 F.3d 1018 - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (October 31, 2001)
• "Flight crew shared love of aviation" - St. Petersburg Times, May 14, 1996
• "Enough Blame To Go Around In ValuJet Crash" by Mark Sherman, Cox News Service - The Spokesman-Review, August 19, 1997
• "ValuJet Flight 592" original crash coverage - The Miami Herald, May 12, 1996
• "There was another tragedy in Miami after Eastern Flight 401. What happened with ValuJet" by Grethel Aguila - The Miami Herald, December 21, 2022
• "FBI offers $10,000 reward for fugitive mechanic wanted in 1996 fatal airline crash" by Carli Teproff - The Miami Herald, April 6, 2018
• "$250 Million to Families of Passengers who Died in the May 1996 ValuJet crash" - Podhurst Orseck firm landmark cases page
• "Mishandled Hazardous Materials Results in Commercial Airplane Crash Lawsuit: Hyatt v. ValuJet Flight 592" - Slack Davis case summary
• "We're Losing EVERYTHING…" Valujet 592 - Mentour Pilot YouTube channel

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

• Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
• Email: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.com
• Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
• 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.