As athletes sleep at the Olympic games, masked gunmen launch an attack. The terrorists kill two people and take nine hostage. After hours of negotiations, a desperate rescue operation is launched. But it ends in catastrophe. Seventeen people are dead, and the world faces a terrifying new reality. Seconds from Disaster s3e4: Munich Olympic Massacre
The snipers fail to eliminate the terrorists. A furious gun battle erupts … For thirty minutes they exchange gunfire with the terrorists … Two massive explosions … The media reveals the full extent of the carnage. ibid.
South Korea: A bustling department store in one of the busiest cities in the world. 1,500 people are crammed inside the building. Suddenly, an explosion erupts from the top floor. In less than 20 seconds the entire store crashes to the ground. In its place lies a massive pile of twisted steel and concrete. Over 500 people are dead. Seconds from Disaster s3e5: Superstore Collapse
1,500 people are crushed under 42,000 tons of rubble. ibid.
Built in the late ’80s from reinforced concrete the complex has 4 basement levels and 5 storeys above ground. It stands on 15,000 square metres of real estate … The area was one a landfill site and the city’s wastedump. Now in a remarkable turnaround it’s one of Seoul’s most affluent areas. ibid.
The entire structure came straight down … Some kind of structural failure must have caused this disaster. ibid.
One of the world’s most modern planes lies at the bottom of the sea with 187 dead passengers and crew inside. The Boeing 757 left the Dominican Republic in February 1996 with a planeload of German holidaymakers. Minutes later it plunged into the sea in shark-infested waters. There were no survivors. Seconds from Disaster s3e6: Plane Crash in the Potomac
The atmosphere on the flight deck was poisonous. ibid.
It’s Sunday morning on a paradise island in Asia. Home to 40 mission people. Just offshore lies one of the largest geological faults on the planet. Scientists have been studying it for decades hoping to understand its seismic behaviour. Then the biggest quake for 40 years rocks the region. Seconds from Disaster s3e7: Asian Tsunami
Freak waves destroy entire communities. ibid.
1954 and one of the world’s first jet airlines takes off from Italy … Just 26 minutes into the flight it explodes catastrophically. 35 people are dead. Seconds from Disaster s3e8: Comet Air Crash
Since the Comet entered service 20 months ago they’ve been 2 accidents with the loss of 54 lives. ibid.
Sunday, January 10th: BOAC flight 781 [de Havilland DH106 Comet I] climbs to an altitude of 11,000 metres … Flaming wreckage falls from the sky … At 11.15 a.m. Air Traffic Control receives word that a plane has crashed into the sea. ibid.
The lungs of all the victims are extensively damaged; many have ruptured like an exploding balloon. ibid.
6:32 p.m. on April 8th, 16 days after the resumption of flying, a Comet takes off from Rome bound for Egypt. 14 passengers and 7 crew members are on board: a further 21 people are dead … Similarities between the 2 accidents are uncanny. ibid.
An explosion at the front of the cabin … The rapidly escaping air causes a tremendous release of energy … ‘The pressurised cabin exploding is the same as a 500-pound bomb going off inside the cabin.’ ibid.
The entire fleet seems to be fatally flawed … The supports around the windows are riveted, not glued as designed. ibid.
One of America’s biggest oil refineries. 1,800 people are busy at work. Without warning, a massive explosion rocks the plant. The blast is felt 8 kilometres away. Seconds from Disaster s3e10: Texas Oil Explosion
America’s third biggest refinery is left a smouldering wreck … 170 people are injured; 15 are dead; 11 died in the trailer. ibid.
Liquid was seen spewing out of the blowdown stack, and the pickup truck was parked less than nine metres away … A single spark from the running engine is all it would take to ignite the vapour. ibid.
1974: America is hit by the most destructive tornado outbreak in recorded history. 148 tornadoes rip through 13 states leaving millions of dollars of damage … 5,500 people are injured; 330 are dead. Seconds from Disaster s3e11: Tornado Outbreak
When space shuttle Challenger launches on a January morning in 1986, a key engineer is sure a catastrophe is coming. He thinks the ship is going to explode. 73 seconds later disaster strikes. 7 astronauts die in front of their families and millions of television viewers. Seconds from Disaster s3e12: Space Shuttle Explosion
‘Could they have made it? That question haunts me.’ ibid. Nasa dude
The shuttle has never made good on its promise to provide a routine bus service to space. ibid.
Bad weather had delayed launch for over a week. ibid.
Suddenly, Challenger is engulfed in a massive fireball. ibid.
The right solid rocket booster malfunctioned … Due to the freezing temperatures, the O-Rings in the right booster’s lower most field joint did not enlarge as they should have. ibid.
‘Something else must have been going on beyond a simple O-Ring disaster.’ ibid. expert
[Roger] Beaujolais [engineer] had actually tried to stop the launch … All four managers agreed to launch. ibid.
A Caribbean island paradise and a volcano wakes after lying dormant for centuries. With the lives of 10,500 people at stake, volcanologists rush to the scene. Then a catastrophic eruption sends an avalanche of re-hot rock and ash cascading down the mountain. Seconds from Disaster s3e13: Eruption at Monserrat
Montserrat lies directly on a geological subduction zone; this is one of the most seismically active parts of the planet’s crust. ibid.
A month after the first blast, another larger phreatic eruption fires a cloud of ash, mud and steam two kilometres into the air. The vibration rocks Montserrat. The locals stare nervously at the darkening skies. The south-west of the island is showered in a thick cloud of volcanic dust. ibid.
Pyroclastic Flow: They have caused over 40,000 deaths in the last century alone. ibid.
The volcano hasn’t finished yet: nearly three months later it fires its first pyroclastic flow down the eastern slope of the mountain heading for the coastline. The flow travels just two kilometres and no-one is hurt, but it is clear that volcanic activity is intensifying again. ibid.
The island experiences its first magmatic eruption. ibid.
It’s prepared to blow with a deadly force that will destroy this island paradise. ibid.
A daring helicopter rescue gets underway. ibid.
The scene is like a modern-day Pompeii. ibid.
19 people lost their lives on 25th June. ibid.
9/11/2001: Four planes change America and the world for ever. 19 men armed with boxcutter knives strike a stunning blow against the mightiest superpower on the planet. Seconds from Disaster s4e1: 9/11, National Geographic 2011
In the space of 102 minutes, the four hijacked planes have claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people. ibid.
December 7th 1941: An aerial strike force gathers and executes a surprise on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. Its aim: to bring a nation to its knees. Thousands die in one of the most devastating defeats in military history. Seconds from Disaster s4e2: Attack on Pearl Harbor
In spite of their often heroic efforts, the sailors struggled to cope with the combined aerial assault of low level torpedo bombers, dive bombers and high altitude bombers. ibid.
Flying in precise formation, ten high-level bombers target USS Arizona. ibid.
20 to 30 minutes after the first wave of bombers hit, another 170 aircraft strike … The other main targets are the airfields. ibid.
Over 180 US aircraft are destroyed with more damaged. In total 4 American battleships are sunk, 4 damaged, and 13 more major ships destroyed or seriously damaged. In return, the Japanese have lost just 29 planes. ibid.
It has in fact totally failed … The attack is launched even though there is no chance of hitting the US Navy’s vital aircraft carriers. It is a critical mistake. ibid.
Ship repair yards were ignored … ‘18 of those ships were salvaged within a few months’ … The attack misses another important target … In the end it’s the submarines operating out of Pearl Harbor that strangle Japan into submission totally cutting it off from supplies of food and resources. But perhaps the most devastating blow the Japanese could have struck on the day was an attack on the US Pacific fleet’s fuel storage facilities. ibid.
Nagumo’s decision not to launch the second strike is the final critical mistake in the execution of the attack on Pearl Harbor. ibid.
London, Rush Hour, a train leaves Paddington station. Another train approaches. When two commuter trains collide investigators must discover what went wrong in the UK’s worst rail disaster in a decade. Seconds from Disaster s4e3: Paddington Train Disaster, National Geographic 2011
They collide at a combined speed of over 200 kph. ibid.
31 people are dead; and more than 400 injured. ibid.
The automatic warning system has an inherent design flaw. ibid.
A difficult signal for a driver to see clearly. ibid.