Criminal Skies: Aviation Crime, Culture and the Popular Imagination

Presented by Aviation Cultures & PopCRN

Online

17-18 June 2027

Aviation has long captured the cultural imagination as a symbol of freedom, technological progress, and global connectivity. Yet it has also provided the backdrop for stories of crime, transgression, mystery, and fear. From hijackings and sabotage to smuggling, cybercrime, and high-profile investigations, aviation crime has inspired enduring narratives across popular culture, shaping public perceptions of safety, risk, and justice.

This symposium, a collaboration between Aviation Cultures Conference Inc. and PopCRN (The Popular Culture Research Network), invites scholars, practitioners, researchers, writers, and creators to explore aviation crime as both a lived reality and a cultural phenomenon. We welcome contributions examining the representation and interpretation of aviation crime in popular culture, including film, television, literature, digital media, journalism, true crime, gaming, and public memory. Bringing together diverse perspectives, the symposium seeks to examine how aviation crime is represented, experienced, remembered, and imagined.

We welcome papers from enthusiasts, experts and researchers across the academic spectrum and encourage papers from postgraduate researchers and early career researchers, as well as contributors from the wider, non-academic community as well.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • From Headlines to Hollywood – Aviation Crime in Film, Television and Popular Media
  • Who is DB Cooper? – Folklore, Myth and Unsolved Mysteries
  • The Investigation continues – Journalism, True Crime and Public Memory
  • Picture Perfect Crime – Art, Illustration and Visual Culture
  • Paperbacks in the Seat Pocket – Fiction, Crime Writing and Literary Culture
  • To be continued… – Comics, Graphic Novels and Popular Print
  • If You See Something, Say Something – Security, Surveillance and Risk
  • Going Viral – Digital Media, Social Networks and Online Communities
  • Surely, you can’t be serious? – Humour, Parody and Camp
  • Crime at 30,000ft – New Directions in Aviation Crime Studies
  • Flygirl, Femme Fatale, Fugitive – Women in aviation crime fiction and film

Why are we still captivated by D.B. Cooper? What makes aviation crime such a powerful source of fascination in film, television, literature, true crime, and digital culture? From real-world events to fictional narratives, Criminal Skies brings together scholars, practitioners, writers, and creators to investigate aviation crime’s enduring place in the popular imagination. We invite you to join this interdisciplinary conversation and help chart new directions in the study of aviation, crime, and popular culture.