Wednesdays at 9pm from 2 May

When disaster strikes, the first thing we all ask is: why? Massive fires, catastrophic technical glitches, explosions and natural disasters – these incidents shock and fascinate populations across the globe.

Our first concern is for the victims, but eventually we want answers to our questions. What went wrong? Why didn't we see it coming? And how can we prevent it from happening again? Discovery Channel goes behind the headlines of real-life tragedies to relive the human experience, investigate the causes of these traumatic events and look at how science is trying to prevent such tragedies from occurring again.

Each episode of Decoding Disaster focuses on one particular category of accident or disaster – from a human mistake such as a bridge collapse to a natural disaster like a mudslide – featuring two real stories that illustrate the dynamics of danger in that field.