Boeing 727 Crashes in Mexico—as Part of TV Show

A Boeing 727 crashed in a Mexican desert on Friday—on purpose. The staged event was carried out by the Discovery Channel, which will air the "groundbreaking" footage as part of a documentary series called Curiosity. With a name like that, it doesn't take much of a stretch to figure out what the network was trying to do: answer "the big questions about how to make plane crashes more survivable." To do that, it orchestrated what it calls a "serious, but survivable, passenger jet crash" using a plane stuffed with crash-test dummies and cameras, reports the Los Angeles Times.

No word on what conclusions it drew, but Discovery did seek to allay a few concerns: The pilot is just fine (he ejected just before the crash); the network made sure to keep things safe (Mexican military and police and private security were present); and it didn't junk up the desert (the plane will be salvaged and Discovery hired a group to perform an "extensive environmental cleanup operation").