ben lawrie / DIRECTOR
Documentaries for Brands & Broadcasters
extreme mountain challenge
2x60' BBC2 / BBC Worldwide, TX 2016
The plane crash
1x60' & 1x90' Channel 4 / Discovery, TX 2012
The biggest TV stunt in history.
An international team of experts and elite pilots deliberately crash a 170-seat Boeing 727 passenger jet in Mexico's Sonoran desert.
Nomination, Best Science Documentary
Nomination, Best Specialist Factual Documentary
Winner, Best Documentary
Nomination, Best Sound
uk trailer
us trailer
pretitle sequence
crash lab
The Plane Crash generated headlines worldwide. This clip from Good Morning America...
“One of the most spectacular sights you will ever see on TV.”
“An investigative science documentary of jaw-dropping vision and ambition. An amazing and unprecedented television experiment… an extraordinary documentary.”
“The crash is genuinely spectacular, and the lessons learned are valuable. This is a documentary you are likely to remember.”
“Eye-catching… a TV spectacle”
“It was all compelling viewing in an extremely old-fashioned televisual way: we were watching something thrilling that had genuinely never been shown before… arresting… nail-biting… impressive… extraordinary.”
“Plane Crash is giddily thrilling... meticulously co-ordinated experiment… makes for compelling viewing… it's extraordinary television… mesmerising and terrifying, strangely exciting too…”
“Spectacular… dramatic.”
“Remarkable… disturbing but intriguing”
“We also hear moving accounts from real crash survivors…”
“You’ll never forget to do up your seatbelt again. Riveting… compelling.”
“One of the most spectacular documentaries of the year.”
“Remarkable.”
“The sheer gall of it is admirable, and the technological achievement (the 727 essentially becomes the world’s biggest remote-controlled aircraft) remarkable. And that’s to say nothing of the footage of the crash itself, far more tense and impressive than any Hollywood CGI-fest.”
“The moment it hits the ground is both terrifying and visually stunning.”
“Interesting… cool slow-motion footage.”
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“Edge-of-the-seat story… Even though it’s a test, the on-board cameras make it feel all too real.”
“Chilling and spectacular.”
“It makes for amazing viewing.”
“Spectacular television. Completely absorbing and often exciting. When it comes, the actual ‘accident’ is both terrible and stunning.”
“A jaw-dropping new documentary that follows a team of scientists and pilots as they deliberately crash-land a Boeing 727 passenger jet plane… spectacular… amazing.”
“If you find it jaw-dropping watching an empty jet thunder into the ground in this documentary, spare a thought for the team behind the experiment… the scenes from inside the plane crash are spectacular.”