On October 1, 2015, the cargo ship SS El Faro steamed directly into the path of Hurricane Joaquin and vanished with all 33 crew members aboard. Join Alice and Zach as they unravel how a routine "milk run" between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico became America's worst maritime disaster in decades. Discover the deadly combination of outdated weather data, corporate pressure, ignored warnings, and mechanical failures that turned a survivable storm into an unsurvivable nightmare. Through audio recovered from three miles beneath the Atlantic, hear the final hours of a crew fighting against impossible odds—and learn how their deaths changed maritime safety forever.

Sources:

• National Transportation Safety Board Marine Accident Report MAR-17/01: "Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro, Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas, October 1, 2015"
• U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Final Report (September 24, 2017)
• NTSB Voyage Data Recorder Audio Transcript (510 pages)
• Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade (HarperCollins, 2018)
• "The Clock is Ticking: Inside El Faro" by William Langewiesche, Vanity Fair (April 2018)
• CBS News 60 Minutes: "Voices of the Lost" (March 5, 2017)
• House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing transcripts (January 30, 2018)
• The Working Waterfront: "'Into the Raging Sea' details human failings that cursed El Faro"

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.

When a mysterious package in the cargo hold of American Airlines Flight 444 suddenly detonates at 30,000 feet, 80 people find themselves trapped in a smoke-filled Boeing 727. Join Alice and Zach as they explore the chilling story of a midair bombing that failed only because of a single ingredient mistake—and the 17-year manhunt it set in motion. Discover how one of the most intensive investigations in FBI history began with a parcel that was supposed to kill everyone on board. Buckle up for a story that changed aviation security forever.

Sources:

• "Unabomber" - FBI Famous Cases
• "Bomb Jolts Jet" - The Washington Post, November 16, 1979
• "A Chronology of the UNABOM Investigation" - Cornell Law School

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.

On July 19, 1967, Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 collided in midair with a small Cessna over the mountains of North Carolina, killing everyone aboard both aircraft — directly above a children's summer camp at lunchtime. Join Alice and Zach as they trace how a confusing radio clearance, a controller working without radar, and a single misunderstood instruction lined up into catastrophe. Discover the safety technology this disaster helped create, and the questions one investigator was still asking nearly forty years later.

Sources:

• "Aircraft Accident Report AAR 68-AJ" – National Transportation Safety Board
• "The Crash of Piedmont Airlines Flight 22: Completing the Record of the 1967 Midair" – Paul D. Houle (McFarland & Company)
• Asheville Citizen, July 20-22, 1967
• Asheville Times, July 19-20, 1967
• Times-News (Hendersonville), July 19, 1967
• Winston-Salem Journal, July 20, 1967
• Twin-City Sentinel, July 19, 1967
• "Piedmont Flight 22 and the Midair Collision Over Hendersonville" – Legeros Fire Blog
• "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" – Robert McNamara
• The Pentagon Papers

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.