Given its nearly two-decade-long run, it’s no surprise that Grey’s Anatomy has been home to a huge amount of shocks and revelations.
Across more than 400 episodes, fans have watched a revolving door of Seattle’s finest doctors and nurses become swept up in soapy romances, affairs, health conditions, sudden deaths, and bizarre patients.
However, perhaps the most shocking moment (if we’re not counting that outlandish musical episode), arrived in season eight, when a core group of the Grey’s Anatomy cast was involved in a traumatic plane crash.
These characters had administered care to gruesomely injured victims of everything from derailed trains to school shootings, but in this episode it was the doctors in need of urgent care. So when exactly did the fateful plane crash take place?
What episode is the plane crash in Grey’s Anatomy?
The traumatic plane crash in Grey’s Anatomy takes place in the final two episodes of 2012’s season eight. The penultimate episode is titled “Migration”, and follows Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Cristina (Sandra Oh), Mark (Eric Dane), Lexie (Chyler Leigh) Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) as they requested to perform a surgery in Boise, Idaho. While en route from Seattle, the chartered plane crashes in the woods, making for a cliffhanger finale.
The fallout from the crash picks up in season eight’s finale episode, titled “Flight”. While Meredith and Cristina emerge from the wreckage relatively unharmed, Arizona is left with a gruesome open wound on her leg and Derek’s hand is completely mangled. Lexie, meanwhile, fared much worse, with her abdomen and legs crushed under a part of the plane. Lexie dies shortly after, leaving the team, and especially her half-sister Meredith, traumatized.
After four days in the woods, the team is rescued and taken to a Boise hospital. The aftermath of the episode is felt long after season eight, with Arizona forced to amputate her leg and Mark eventually dying from the internal bleeding he suffered in season nine. Some viewers have claimed that the plane crash episode marked a shift in the overall tone and storytelling of Grey’s Anatomy, since season nine revolved around the subsequent plane crash lawsuit.
The doctors use the money they won from the lawsuit to buy the hospital, becoming the board of directors and allowing Grey’s Anatomy to broaden its storylines. This eventually leads to the renaming of the hospital to Grey-Sloan, and solidifies the plane crash episode’s place in Grey’s Anatomy canon.