I've not heard of Air Disasters or Mayday, but do watch Air Crash Investigation (?) on NatGeo. I'm not afraid of flying but I can see how people who are would avoid these programmes. However, these programmes show us that yes it's terrible there's been a crash, and lives were lost, but there are people out there doing their damnedest to find answers from what is essential a pile of twisted metal. Every answer saves saves later as every major advance in air safety (on land and in the sky) is the result of a crash ("tombstone technology"). Well... unless the airline, e.g. SilkAir, EgyptAir, chooses to ignore the findings because it's an inconvenient truth.