Final Boarding Call

Alice Stern
  • 4.2 (10)
  • 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. 9h ago

    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.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.

  2. 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.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. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Jul 22

    Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster

    On a warm July night in 2013, patrons at a popular Quebec bar heard the screech of metal on metal as an unmanned train barreled toward their town at highway speeds. What followed was a cascade of explosions that turned half the downtown into an inferno, killing 47 people and exposing a corporate culture that valued profits over lives. Discover how a cheap repair, inadequate training, and regulatory failures turned a routine freight run into one of North America's deadliest rail disasters—and why similar conditions persist on railways today. Sources: Railway Investigation Report R13D0054, "Runaway and Main-track Derailment: Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Freight Train MMA-002" — Transportation Safety Board of CanadaLac-Mégantic criminal trial testimony, 2017–2018 proceedings — Court record"The Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster: Public Betrayal, Justice Denied" by Bruce Campbell — James Lorimer & Company"Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk" by Justin Mikulka"The public health response during and after the Lac-Mégantic train derailment tragedy" by Généreux et al. — Disaster HealthInvestigation series on MMA corporate culture and safety record — The Globe and MailTrial coverage and witness testimony — CBC News"Lives lost: Remembering Lac-Mégantic's victims" — Montreal Gazette"Five Years after Lac-Mégantic, U.S. Freight Rail Going Backward on Safety" — The Century FoundationReporting on former engineer Jarod Briggs's warnings about single-person crews — Bangor Daily 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.

  8. Jul 15

    Air France Flight 447

    On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 vanished over the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people aboard. For two years, the world could only speculate about what happened to a state-of-the-art Airbus A330 during a routine overnight crossing. Join Alice and Zach as they explore how a brief sensor malfunction triggered a catastrophic chain of confusion — and why, seventeen years later, the question of who bears responsibility was finally answered in a French courtroom. Sources: Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) Final Report, July 2012"Should Airplanes Be Flying Themselves?" by William Langewiesche, Vanity Fair"Air France 447: Vanished" — Mayday/Air Crash Investigation"TITANIC of the Skies! The Untold Story of Air France 447" — Mentour PilotBBC News coverage of the May 2026 appeal verdict 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.

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4.2
out of 5
10 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
    76
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Alice Stern
  • Show Website
    Final Boarding Call

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