Watch a Boeing 727 Passenger Jet Crash in the Mexico Desert...on Purpose

The UK's Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel have teamed up for a groundbreaking documentary on air safety, ironically crashing a Boeing 727 in the middle of a Mexican desert in the name of the cause.

According to the Daily Mail, the duo is investigating the effects of a "serious, but survivable" crash landing-- though with its fuselage torn in two and twisted metal surrounding the crash site, it seems unlikely many could have survived.

Fortunately the jet, which can carry up to 170 people, was transporting only test dummies and internal cameras at the time of the crash-- the adventurous pilot having ejected minutes before impact.

The event marks the first time in almost thirty years that a passenger plane has been crashed intentionally, the last having occurred in 1984 by NASA and the FAA.  That time, a Boeing 720 was crashed in California's Mojave Desert.

While the show simulating the 727 crash in Mexico isn't due to air until later this year, one individual managed to capture amateur footage of the dramatic event, though the area was cordoned off in cooperation with Mexican authorities:

Sanjay Singhal, the executive producer of the upcoming documentary explained: "It has never been safer to fly, but we want to use this as an opportunity to provide scientific data that might help to improve passenger safety in those extremely rare cases when a catastrophic aircraft accident does occur."

And the senior commissioning officer for Channel 4 remarked:

"This is a ground-breaking project, allowing a team of leading international scientists and crash investigators the first chance for a generation to study the crash of an entire passenger jet. 

"The scientists are also looking at passenger safety, plus new 'black box' flight data recording technology.

"They have been hugely enthusiastic supporters of the project and couldn't wait to get to the crash site. Despite long careers, none of them have seen a plane crash before their eyes like this before.

'We hope that this documentary will provide valuable new scientific results as well as giving passengers vital information about how they can improve their own chances of surviving the extremely unlikely, but frightening, prospect of being in a serious plane crash.'

Channel 4 will be releasing the official footage, plus that of the internal cameras, when the documentary airs later this year.