Mayday episodes vs their SFD counterparts
As a kid I often watched Mayday and Seconds From Disaster where I greatly enjoyed both series but now it's time to compare which version of each case was better. Note, the Space Shuttle accidents, Hindenburg and BOAC 781 have not been featured on Mayday so they will not be listed.
Original SFD run
Air France 4590: Mayday
Tenerife: Crash of the Century is the ultimate winner of them all though I admit that Captain van Zanten and First Officer Meurs were greatly mischaracterized; but between SFD and Disaster at Tenerife, the winner goes to SFD (had a decent exposition and went more in detail of the evacuation than in DaT. It doesn't portray Captain van Zanten as a bully, outlines how his time training pilots in the simulator versus flying in the real world played a major role in the crash, and that the KLM crew didn't hear two messages to wait and the Pan Am was still on the runway.)
American 77: Mayday
British Midland 092: Mayday (was pretty close but Mayday addressed the need for a stronger cabin floor, seats and overhead bins)
United 232: Tie
TWA 800: Mayday (hands down)
EL Al 1862: Mayday
ValuJet 592: Mayday
American 587: SFD (by a strand of hair)
Air Florida 90: Mayday
American 191: Mayday
Revival series and versus Mayday remakes
Uberlingen: SFD (I will admit however that Vitaly Kaloyev should NOT have interviewed for this)
Japan Air Lines 123: SFD (hands down. This is what the remake should have aimed for. Note: Patrick Smith who was interviewed for this, also appeared in the SFD Tenerife episode).