On the 18th of May 2011, a regional flight in Argentina suddenly plunged from the sky over a desert of Patagonia, spiraling down in just 44 seconds. All that remained of the Saab 340 and its 22 passengers and crew was a smoking crater in the wilderness and a final, eerie transmission, containing a desperate “mayday” followed only by silence. As the two pilots complained about safety at the airline, their airplane began to accumulate ice at an alarming rate. And then, when they tried to descend toward better conditions, the plane suddenly stalled, rolled, and dived, banking wildly back and forth as it plummeted toward the ground.
