Scoop: The Smithsonian Channel's March Premieres

Below are THE MARCH premieres on the Smithsonian Channel:

Sunday, 3/3
AIR DISASTERS: DEADLY DISPLAY (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
On a high-stakes demonstration flight in Indonesia, a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet slams into a mountain killing everyone on board. It's one of the most challenging salvage operations Indonesian investigators have ever faced. And once they reach the wreckage, they must figure out how a brand-new jet with an expert crew and sophisticated navigation system could crash into an infamous mountain.

Sunday, 3/3
AERIAL AMERICA: YELLOWSTONE (new special) - 9 p.m. ET/PT
Yellowstone. It's the world's first national park; 2.2 million acres of protected wilderness and home to more mammals than anywhere else in the lower 48 states. It's a wild place of steaming hot exploding geysers, raging rivers, massive grizzly bears and roaming WOLF packs. It's a dangerous place, with an unforgiving winter and raging forest fires. But in its vast open spaces, its hundreds of miles of hiking trails, its dizzying peaks, and wide open glassy lakes, there is also extraordinary peace and solitude. A special place, set aside, where mankind can recharge, reconnect, and reflect. A place welcome to all, "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people". There is no better way to explore such a vast park, in all of its seasons, than from the air, in Aerial America: Yellowstone!

Monday, 3/4
AMERICA'S HIDDEN STORIES: SALEM'S SECRETS (series premiere) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
SALEM'S SECRETS follows a team of scholars as they reexamine a 300-year-old case: the SALEM witch trials. Over 200 men, women and children were accused of witchcraft in 17th-century Salem, Massachusetts and in the end, 19 were hanged on a hillside in town. Salem's story has become legend, yet AMERICA'S HIDDEN STORIES: SALEM'S SECRETS reveals new discoveries. Using old documents to uncover fresh clues about the town's dark past and 3D computer mapping techniques along with ground-penetrating radar, experts have rediscovered the true long-lost site of the witch hangings.

Wednesday, 3/6
MY JOURNEY WITH A POLAR BEAR (new special) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
This is an unpretentious and sensitive film on the meeting between Frost, a beautiful polar bear mother, and Asgeir Helgestad, a Norwegian wildlife filmmaker. It is a four-year journey, since their first encounter in 2013 at her Arctic home on Svalbard. Climate change, and especially rising temperatures, are responsible for dramatic changes in her ecosystem as the ice is melting away at record speed. As Asgeir travels from site to site filming, he experiences changes that make it almost impossible for him to locate Frost again. Asgeir is determined to find her and document all that is being lost, but his task is far from easy. With feelings alternating continually between hope and despair for Frost and her small cubs, the film explores the question "this planet is home to all of us, can we afford to ignore it?"

Sunday, 3/10
AIR DISASTERS: DEADLY SPACE (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
In California's Mojave Desert, Virgin Galactic test pilots are at the controls of a revolutionary aircraft designed for sub-orbital flight. But as the spaceship accelerates toward the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere, approaching the speed of sound, it breaks apart and falls from the sky. With the future of commercial space travel hanging in the balance, it's up to investigators to figure out what went wrong.

Sunday, 3/10
EPIC YELLOWSTONE: FIRE & ICE (series premiere) - 9 p.m. ET/PT
FIRE AND ICE showcases the park's toughest inhabitants who remain year round, and tells surprisingly intimate stories of survival in Yellowstone's most spectacular season - winter. After the first storms blanket the park, a bobcat is lured to the banks of the Madison River, kept open by geothermal springs, to hunt for waterfowl. A family of otters makes the long trek to find isolated fishing holes that haven't frozen over, while a bison matriarch leads her herd on its annual migration to the warmth of Yellowstone's geothermal core. An unprecedented look at the park's iconic geysers and hot springs through thermal imagery illuminates the otherworldly landscape inhabited by both predators and prey that are drawn to this beating heart of the park.

Monday, 3/11
AMERICA'S HIDDEN STORIES: TARGETING JEFFERSON DAVIS (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
In March 1864, Union soldiers, led by Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, were ambushed outside of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia in what is now known as the "Dahlgren Affair". After secret plans were discovered on Dahlgren's body - a plot to burn the city to the ground and murder REBEL President Jefferson Davis - a firestorm of outrage swept through the Confederacy. This little-known chapter in Civil War history may have changed the course of the conflict; experts argue that the Dahlgren Affair was the driving force behind the Confederacy's final retaliation: the assassination of President Lincoln.

Sunday, 3/17
AIR DISASTERS: FREE FALL (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
En route from Singapore to Perth, Qantas Airways Flight 72 takes a sudden nosedive over the Indian Ocean. Sudden G-forces are so violent passengers are lifted out of their seats. A series of over-speed and stall warnings flood the cockpit display, and it's clear something is captain manages to safely land the plane. It's up to Australian investigators to uncover the mysterious and potentially deadly malfunction that's putting one of the world's most popular planes at risk.

Sunday 3/17
EPIC YELLOWSTONE: RETURN OF THE PREDATORS (new episode) - 9 p.m. ET/PT
Having been reintroduced to YELLOWSTONE in 1995 after a 70-year absence, wolves have reignited an age-old battle between predator and prey. The Wapiti Pack, the largest in Yellowstone, has earned a reputation for ferocity. Now a young, lone wolf, "Blacktail," seeks to join their ranks as they master the art of taking down a mighty bison. But wolves aren't the only force keeping Yellowstone's herds in check. The endangered YELLOWSTONE grizzly population has made a remarkable comeback, rising from a low point of fewer than 150 bears to more than 700 today. Many are DESCENDANTS of legendary matriarch "Quad-Mom," who, at more than 20 years old, is raising two new cubs - perhaps the last of her litters. She must defend the cubs against giant boar grizzlies and teach the cubs to hunt newborn elk. As THE FAMILY ventures to the high alpine IN SEARCH OF a rare treat, DARKNESS descends on YELLOWSTONE during a total solar eclipse.

Monday, 3/18
AMERICA'S HIDDEN STORIES: PANDEMIC 1918 (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
The flu pandemic of 1918 is the hidden apocalypse of the 20th century. Killing as many as 50 million people worldwide, it was even more deadly than WWI. Few know that the "Spanish" flu probably began in America and spread due to oversight and neglect -suppressed by government agencies as it overwhelmed communities, confounded doctors and forced citizens to resort to mass graves. With evidence from a mass gravesite, once-locked-away diaries and cutting edge scientific research, the horrific truth behind this killer pandemic may offer answers to key questions, most urgent among them: Could it happen again?

Sunday, 3/24
AIR DISASTERS: DEADLY INCLINATION (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
On its final approach to Zurich, Alitalia Flight 404 plows into a forested hillside killing everyone on board. Checking the DC-9's radar track, Swiss investigators immediately notice the aircraft was flying too low. But closer analysis of the evidence only deepens the mystery. Did a hidden flaw in the navigation system lead two pilots down a deadly path?

Sunday, 3/24
EPIC YELLOWSTONE: LIFE ON THE WING (new episode) - 9 p.m. ET/PT
Soaring above Old Faithful, the cascading Lower Falls and the brilliant Grand Prismatic Springs, Yellowstone's winged creatures survey an extraordinary landscape. Winter's silence is broken only by the song of the American dipper, North America's only aquatic songbird, which feasts on tiny insects gathered from the river bottom. Spring heralds a dramatic chorus as seasonal migrants flock to the park, nesting in every niche provided by its MOSAIC of forests, grasslands and wetlands. Breeding sandhill cranes perform their annual courtship dance as they renew lifelong partnerships with their mates. Summer brings opportunities for birds to take advantage of the season's bounty alongside bears and bison as the park's wildlife population swells with new arrivals. A pair of bluebirds works feverishly to deliver food to two consecutive broods nestled inside a treehole, while an osprey fends off a peregrine falcon's attack to defend his catch. As chicks compete for food, aggressive siblings turn on the weakest with dramatic effect.

Monday, 3/25
AMERICA'S HIDDEN STORIES: PEARL HARBOR SPIES (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
For 250 years Benedict Arnold has been burned in effigy. Meanwhile Arnold's wife, Peggy, was thought innocent of her husband's betrayal. But a steady drip of new evidence has emerged that point to guile, treachery, and cover up. Did Mrs. Benedict Arnold secretly mastermind her husband's treason?

Wednesday, 3/27
WOLF VS. BEAR (new special) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
In the far reaches of the North, WOLF and bear come head to head. Winter has been long. The melting ice reveal scattered carcasses in the Swamp: a feast worth fighting for. The bears must fatten up before Winter comes again, the wolves must strengthen their pack. The swamp has been their battleground for decades, who will rule the North?

Thursday, 3/28
EUROPE IN CHAOS: BREXIT (new special) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
BREXIT tells the story of how British Prime Minister David Cameron - who favored remaining in the EU - caved to the Euro-skeptic wing of his party and ended up calling the referendum that plunged his country into its biggest political crisis since World War II. For the first time on television, Former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs William Hague, Former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recreate the internal arguments that led to Cameron's fateful decision.

Thursday, 3/28
EUROPE IN CHAOS: MIGRANT CRISIS (new special) - 9 p.m. ET/PT
MIGRANT CRISIS goes behind the scenes to show how European leaders desperately struggled to address one of the century's greatest humanitarian crises: the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving on Europe's borders in 2015 from Syria and North Africa. Again, the EU faced a threat that challenged a core conviction - the principle of open borders within the Union - against the intractable political problem of a flood of migrants, with no end in sight. The crisis exposes a sharp division between East and West, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others offering sanctuary while Eastern European countries argue fiercely to stem the tide and send migrants back.

Sunday, 3/31
AIR DISASTERS: DEADLY GO ROUND (new episode) - 8 p.m. ET/PT
Just minutes from touching down, China Airlines Flight 140 falls out of the sky at Japan's Nagoya Airport. By morning, investigators are already sifting through the charred debris on the runway, but what they find only deepens the mystery. At first it looks as though the pilots are entirely to blame for the disaster, but by the end of the exhaustive two-year investigation, it's clear the causes are far more complex.

Sunday, 3/31
EPIC YELLOWSTONE: DOWN THE RIVER WILD (new episode) - 9 p.m. ET/PT
As the longest undammed river in the United States, the YELLOWSTONE River moves untamed through its 700-mile journey. In the heart of winter, trumpeter swans congregate at the river's outlet on YELLOWSTONE Lake's northern end, sheltering in its geothermally warmed waters. The river's biggest vertical drop over the iconic Upper and Lower Falls poses a danger for even the strongest swimmers - a family of river otters makes a daring portage down the cliffs to reach fishing grounds at the bottom of the waterfall. Spring's thaw unleashes millions of gallons of meltwater and transforms the tranquil river into a raging torrent, forcing a sow grizzly and bison herd to ford treacherous rapids while protecting their young. Summer brings an easier flow to the river as it leaves the confines of the park and winds through Paradise Valley. Fly fishermen take advantage of the seasonal swarm of salmon fly hatch as fireworks from Livingstone's Fourth of July rodeo light up the sky. The river leaves the mountains behind and enters the prairie, where new creatures emerge - distant echoes from the muddy Mississippi that grow stronger as the river's journey nears its end.