Final Boarding Call

Alice Stern
  • 4.3 (12)
  • True Crime
  • Updated Weekly

Final Boarding Call dives into the true stories of aviation disasters, survival tales, and near misses that have shaped history. Hosted by Alice, a disaster-obsessed frequent flyer, and her reluctant, homebody husband Zach, each episode explores the history, mechanics, and human decisions behind these harrowing events. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, we examine how small oversights and miscommunications can cascade into catastrophe, revealing the fragility of complex systems and celebrating the heroism that emerges in crisis. From ghost planes circling on autopilot to pilots sucked out of windshields at 17,000 feet, we unpack these incidents with equal parts fascination and respect for the lessons they've taught us. So stow your tray tables, fasten your seatbelts, and prepare for turbulence—because not every trip reaches its final destination.

  1. 47m ago

    The Takata Airbag Disaster

    What happens when the safety device meant to save your life becomes the weapon that kills you? Discover how a cost-cutting decision to use explosive chemicals, a 15-year corporate cover-up involving destroyed evidence and manipulated test data, and catastrophic regulatory failures turned millions of ordinary cars into ticking time bombs. Learn why a 17-year-old's "fender bender" became a crime scene, how executives fled to Japan to avoid prosecution, and why—even in 2026—an estimated 10 million of these defective airbags are still on the road. This is the largest and deadliest automotive recall in history, and it's not over yet. SOURCES: Senate Commerce Committee Investigation Reports (2015, 2016) - Takata airbag defect inquiryNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall database and safety notices"What Caused Takata's Airbag Problems?" - Wharton Business School analysis (February 2016)"Takata's Deadly Airbags" - The New York Times investigative series by Hiroko Tabuchi and Bill Vlasic (2013-2017)Department of Justice criminal case documents and settlement agreements (2017)Internal Takata emails and documents obtained through lawsuitsVictim testimonies and survivor interviewsNHTSA "Do Not Drive" warnings and coordinated remedy program documentationCongressional testimony from whistleblowers Mark Lillie and Bob Schubert FIND FINAL BOARDING CALL ONLINE: Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.comEmail: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: @FinalBoardingCallPodFacebook: 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.

  2. Sep 9

    Varig Flight 254

    On a clear evening in the Brazilian Amazon, a routine forty-minute hop between two small airports turns into hours of confusion, radio silence, and a jet with a shrinking fuel supply over some of the most remote rainforest on Earth. Join Alice and Zach for the story of the people aboard Varig Flight 254 — the ones flying it, and the ones who had to save themselves after it went down. SourcesFinal Report on the Accident to Boeing 737-241 PP-VMK — CENIPA"Survivors Airlifted From Brazil Crash Site; Pilot, Teen-Ager Hailed" — Los Angeles Times (wire services)"How Did A Decimal Point Doom Varig Flight 254?" — Mentour Pilot"The Mystery of Flight 254 — 700 Miles Off Their Course" — Mayday: Air Disaster 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.

  3. Sep 2

    Pan Am Flight 103 Part 2

    Seven days after Pan Am Flight 103 came down, forensic scientists confirmed what investigators already suspected: this was a bomb. That answer opened a much harder question. Join Alice and Zach for the reconstruction of a Boeing 747 inside a five-acre shed, the false lead that pointed at the wrong country, a pair of trousers with an order number stamped on them, and the green circuit board half the size of a thumbnail that broke the case open. Plus the few minutes of delay that are the only reason any of that evidence exists — and the trial happening in Washington DC right now. Part two of two. Sources: Aircraft Accident Report 2/90: Report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988 — Air Accidents Investigation Branch, UK Department of TransportAffidavit in Support of a Criminal Complaint, Case 1:20-mj-00252, sworn by Special Agent Rachel F. Otto — Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States District Court for the District of Columbia"Former Senior Libyan Intelligence Officer and Bomb-Maker for the Muamar Qaddafi Regime Charged for the December 21, 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103" — United States Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs"Judge allows Lockerbie suspect's alleged confession to be used at US trial" — BBC News"Lockerbie bombing accused says he was forced into false confession" — BBC NewsVictims of Pan Am Flight 103 — victim registry and memorial recordsRemembering Pan Am 103 — Syracuse UniversityMayday: Air Disasters, Season 7, Episode 2 — "Lockerbie" Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online: Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.comEmail: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: @FinalBoardingCallPodFacebook: 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.

  4. Aug 26

    Pan Am Flight 103 Part 1

    On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was seven minutes into level cruise over southern Scotland when the cockpit voice recorder captured a single loud sound and stopped. What happened over the next three seconds is one of the most precisely reconstructed events in aviation history — and almost none of it came from the black boxes. Join Alice and Zach for the story of the people aboard Clipper Maid of the Seas, the thirty-eight minutes of a completely ordinary flight, and the night a small Scottish town became the largest crime scene in the world. Part one of two. Sources: Aircraft Accident Report 2/90: Report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988 — Air Accidents Investigation Branch, UK Department of TransportVictims of Pan Am Flight 103 — victim registry and memorial recordsRemembering Pan Am 103 — Syracuse UniversityThe Crew of Pan Am Flight 103 — Confessions of a Trolley DollyMayday: Air Disasters, Season 7, Episode 2 — "Lockerbie" Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online: Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.comEmail: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: @FinalBoardingCallPodFacebook: 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.

  5. Aug 19

    Cessna N333LD

    A single-engine plane is over the Atlantic between the Bahamas and the Florida coast when the pilot goes silent at the controls. In the back sits a 39-year-old flooring salesman who has never touched an airplane, a magnetic compass, a friend frozen with fear, and a voice on the radio who wasn't supposed to be working that day. Join Alice and Zach for the story of a routine flight home that becomes one of the most improbable emergencies in modern aviation — and the strangers whose paths collide on a single May afternoon in South Florida. Sources: "'Not today': The twin miracles of Palm Beach" by Joe Sexton - The Sunday Long Read"Miracle in the Air: Air Traffic Controllers Guide Passenger to Land Plane Safely" - FAA "The Air Up There" podcast"A passenger with no flying experience landed a plane at a Florida airport after the pilot became incapacitated" - CNN"'Absolutely incredible': Pilot reacts to passenger with no flight experience landing plane at PBIA" - WPBFATC audio archives from Fort Pierce Tower and Palm Beach International - LiveATC.netAircraft registration record for N333LD - FAA Aircraft RegistrySurface weather observation for Palm Beach International, May 10, 2022 - Iowa Environmental Mesonet "Aortic Dissection" - Cleveland Clinic"Aortic Dissection" - American Heart Association Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online: Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.comEmail: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: @FinalBoardingCallPodFacebook: 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.

  6. Aug 12

    American Airlines Flight 587

    On the morning of November 12, 2001, ninety seconds after leaving JFK, an Airbus A300 bound for Santo Domingo came apart in clear air over Queens. All 260 people aboard and five more on the ground were killed. In a city nine weeks removed from September 11th, there seemed to be only one possible explanation — and the FBI, the NTSB, and an entire grieving neighborhood spent the next three years finding out whether it was true. Join Alice and Zach for the second-deadliest aviation disaster in American history: the flight that served as a lifeline between New York and the Dominican Republic, the three-year investigation that followed, and the finding that quietly rewrote what pilots around the world are taught about their own airplanes. Sources: "Aircraft Accident Report: In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer, American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, N14053, Belle Harbor, New York, November 12, 2001" (NTSB/AAR-04/04) — National Transportation Safety Board"Mayday: Air Disaster," Season 13, Episode 5 — Cineflix Productions"Government Indicts Second 'Shoe Bomber' In Boston" by Howard Schwach — The Wave"Crash of Flight 587 Remembered 21 Years Later" — The Rockaway Times"Dominican Americans Cope With Lasting Impact of Flight 587 Crash 20 Years Later" by Gaby Acevedo — NBC New York"The Grief of a Forgotten Plane Crash in Elizabeth Acevedo's 'Clap When You Land'" by Rigoberto González — NBC News Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online: Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.comEmail: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: @FinalBoardingCallPodFacebook: 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.

  7. Aug 5

    Antis, RAF No. 311 Squadron

    A Czech gunner is shot down in no man's land in the winter of 1939 and finds something alive in an abandoned farmhouse. What follows is the story of how a German Shepherd puppy crossed occupied France, went to war, and was decorated for it — a dog who, according to the paperwork, was never there at all. Join Alice and Zach for a story about loyalty, an escape that happened twice, and a war record that officially does not exist. This episode is dedicated to Benji. Sources: "Antis: Dog of War" by Damien Lewis - Royal Air Forces Association"The story of a Czech WW II airman and his remarkable dog" - Radio Prague InternationalDickin Medal Roll of Honour - People's Dispensary for Sick AnimalsRecorded interview with Gary Manley, owner of the Antis Dickin Medal Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online: Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.comEmail: finalboardingcallpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: @FinalBoardingCallPodFacebook: 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.

  8. Jul 29

    Delta Air Lines Flight 1141

    A Boeing 727 lifts its nose on a clear Texas morning, and the rest of the plane refuses to follow. Twenty-two seconds later it's a burning wreck in a field a mile from the runway. Join Alice and Zach as they unravel how a routine takeoff at America's third-busiest airport went catastrophically wrong — a disaster that looked at first like an engine failure, then like a freak mechanical fault, and turned out to be something far more unsettling. Discover the chain of small human decisions, a silent alarm, and an airline's buried problems that put 108 people on a runway they were never going to leave cleanly. Sources: Aircraft Accident Report AAR-89/04, Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 — National Transportation Safety BoardCrashing after 22 seconds?? Delta 1141 — Green Dot AviationDelta Air Lines Flight 1141 crash coverage — WFAAMayday: Air Disaster, Season 18 Episode 3 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.

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4.3
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Final Boarding Call dives into the true stories of aviation disasters, survival tales, and near misses that have shaped history. Hosted by Alice, a disaster-obsessed frequent flyer, and her reluctant, homebody husband Zach, each episode explores the history, mechanics, and human decisions behind these harrowing events. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, we examine how small oversights and miscommunications can cascade into catastrophe, revealing the fragility of complex systems and celebrating the heroism that emerges in crisis. From ghost planes circling on autopilot to pilots sucked out of windshields at 17,000 feet, we unpack these incidents with equal parts fascination and respect for the lessons they've taught us. So stow your tray tables, fasten your seatbelts, and prepare for turbulence—because not every trip reaches its final destination.

Information

  • Creator
    Alice Stern
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    78
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Alice Stern
  • Show Website
    Final Boarding Call

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