'Mysteries of the Abandoned' Explores Eerie Abandoned Aircraft Project in Exclusive Clip

Exploring some of the world's most mysterious and deserted areas, the Science Channel is kicking off a brand new season of Mysteries of the Abandoned Thursday, diving into the secrets of an abandoned Cold War-era aircraft project in the special two-hour premiere: The World's Strangest Disaster Zones.

In a PopCulture.com exclusive sneak peek of Thursday's premiere, the experts dive into "the crypt for ancient aircraft" pieces — an unassuming looking warehouse filled with a "mammoth" fuselage and a scattering of other unconnected parts. While the experts know there has got to be a connection between the aircraft and the Cold War, they're trying to figure out what the project's ultimate goal was, and how it got so far on such a massive scale without ever being completed.

There's plenty more mystery to be had as well, as the two-hour special dives into sites that have been laid to waste by destructive forces, bringing to the spotlight "incredible human stories of struggle and survival," including "a deserted Caribbean city partly buried in a mysterious substance, Indonesian villages swallowed by the earth, Taiwanese temples turned to rubble, an American ghost-town that still burns today, and an otherworldly landscape in eastern Africa that proved too hard to tame," according to the Science Channel.

Some of these fell victim to natural disaster, but others were destroyed by "the hubris of mankind."

Also included in the disaster zones special is just the global impact of these catastrophes, including an area in eastern Japan that is still on partial lockdown after a triple disaster that gave people just minutes to pack up and leave their homes. Meanwhile, on the edge of the arctic circle, a town that appears completely normal is feeling the heat, literally, as it has come to become the fastest-heating place on earth amid the climate change crisis. How will the people who call these areas home manage to push through and triumph over the odds?

The new season of Mysteries of the Abandoned premieres Thursday, March 26 at 9 p.m. ET on Science Channel, kicking off with a special-two hour episode, The World's Strangest Disaster Zones.

Mysteries of the Abandoned is produced for Science Channel by Like A Shot Productions. For Like A Shot, Henry Scott and Bruce Burgess are executive producers. For Science Channel, Neil Laird is executive producer.

Photo credit: Science Channel