The True Story of Netflix’s 'Flight 3054' Documentary: What Caused One of South America’s Worst Airline Crashes?

Every other sensational documentary that has been made lately has found a home for itself on Netflix. The streaming giant has now many years of experience in real-life sensitive issues and exhibiting them in a heart-touching manner. A similar documentary, based on the tragic case of Flight 3054's 2007 crash at Brazil's Congonhas Airport, hit the platform earlier this month.
As Netflix has introduced this three-part documentary to the world on April 23, learn all about the heartbreaking incident that happened almost two decades ago, and resulted in many tragedies.
What actually happened on that unfateful night at Sao Paulo Airport in 2007?
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 is the untold story of human tragedy behind Latin America's deadliest air disaster, which is investigated in this three-part documentary series. It zeroes in on the TAM Airlines' domestic passenger flight that took off from Porto Alegre, on the evening of July 17, 2007, but overshot the runway and had a massive crash when it was trying to land at São Paulo's Congonhas Airport. The Airbus A320-233 aircraft got off the runway and crashed into a TAM warehouse close to a petrol station, which ended in an unexpected explosion.
What made this accident more horrific was that everyone on board, including 187 passengers and all the crew members, lost their lives. Also hurt were 12 people on the ground during this scuffle, who passed away. This crash has been called the deadliest aviation accident in the history of South America and has also raised many concerns about aviation safety in Brazil. Later, many issues like underfunding, overcrowding, weather, training deficiencies, and more were considered as the reasons behind it in an official query.
Netflix's take on the incident is a deep study of the happening, the reasons behind it, and the repercussions that generated from it.
Netflix takes a deep dive in airline crash issue in A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054
Divided into three episodes, which are named after their venue, The Ground, The Air, and The Landing, this Netflix series explores the changes in the field of Brazilian aviation brought on by the accident. Along with that, it also takes a look at its devastating impact on the victims' families. Created and directed by Angelo Defanti, in its making, the production investigated all the failures in the events that caused the accident in detail.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad

To keep it as true and authentic as possible, Netflix looked at the accident within the months of the aviation crisis, because of which Brazil's civil aviation sector suffered heavily with delays and cancellations in all domestic flights over the country. Making it easier for its Southern viewers, it is also available to watch in Brazilian Portuguese. The series joins Netflix's tight pack schedule of true-life documentaries, which has been slated for a summer release in 2025.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Did you know the real story behind the tragic Brazilian crash or did you just learned about it? Tell us below.
ADVERTISEMENT
Edited By: Hriddhi Maitra
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT