19th December 1982: Just outside Harwich harbour the Townsend Rollo ferry the European Gateway smashed into a cargo vessel: water flooded the ship and within ten minutes capsized … six died. ibid.
By the late ’80s the English channel was in a golden age. ibid.
A vast oil platform packed with hazardous equipment. A rig worker whose warnings were ignored. And a pump that should never have been switched on. James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain III: Piper Alpha
The discovery of oil drew some new guests to Scotland. ibid.
They constructed a massive new platform. Christened Piper Alpha, it weighed around 14,000 tonnes and would be able to pump a quarter of a million barrels of oil every day. It soon earned the nickname The Monster. ibid.
An oil industry spreading rapidly across the North Sea. ibid.
There were 241 men on the platform but unknown to them inside one of the high-pressure gas units the equipment was overheating. At 1 pm it exploded; highly flammable gas poured on to the platform and quickly caught fire … The crew of Piper had been lucky. ibid.
Workers who tried to push for union action over safety could find their careers in trouble. ibid.
It was the handover between day and night shifts Occidental had been warned about before. (Disaster & Accident & Oil) ibid.
The order was given to turn on Pump A. Gas poured out and quickly ignited. The blast tore threw the gas module and wiped out Piper Alpha’s control room. ibid.
Piper was a vast inferno visible for miles. ibid.
This is the story of a group of brilliant young footballers and one visionary manager. A snow-covered runway in West Germany. Two brave wartime fighter pilots. And a state of the art aircraft with a flaw. This is the countdown to an infamous plane crash that shook Britain to its core. James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain IV: Munich Air Crash
The loss not just of life but what might have been. ibid.
In the years after the war there were hundreds of crashes. ibid.
It skidded off the end of the runway, crashed into the fence and then hit a house. ibid.
A warren of underground tunnels with no escape route. A fire chief warning again and again of the dangers yet no-one would listen. A wooden escalator and a match. This is the countdown to the worst fire in British transport history. James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain V: King’s Cross Fire
7:45 pm on 15th November 1987: a vast fireball exploded into King’s Cross underground station turning the ticket hall into an inferno. It’s a story of wooden escalators, piles of rubbish, carelessly dropped matches, but also carelessness and a sense of complacency. ibid.
Three months earlier a fire had gutted Oxford Circus station. ibid.
Families trapped in an unimaginable nightmare from which for many there would be no escape. James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain VI: Grenfell Tower
The fire at Grenfell Tower: In the early hours of 14th June 2017 a fire ripped through Grenfell Tower in west London. 71 people lost their lives and an entire community was left devastated. ibid.
The problems began decades earlier. ibid.
It would be constructed using the latest building techniques: precast concrete blocks. ibid.
The Utopian dream of tower-block heaven began to fade. All over the country poor maintenance, vandalism and social deprivation turned the streets in the sky into slums in the sky. ibid.
Grenfell Tower is 24 storeys high. Inside are 128 homes. On 14th June 2017 a fire breaks out in Grenfell Tower. What happens over the next 24 hours will change how we view social housing forever. Grenfell Tower: Minute by Minute, captions, Channel 5 2018
‘You can’t imagine how quick it is.’ ibid. resident, re spreading of fire
There is one staircase in Grenfell Tower: it is quickly filling with black smoke. ibid.
‘You felt the generosity and the warmth of people.’ ibid. resident
‘It was like a goodbye message.’ ibid. brother, re sister
A public inquiry into the causes of the Grenfell tower fire has begun. 71 people are confirmed to have died in the Grenfell Tower fire. ibid.
Accidents will happen: so someone got shot in the face by a T-shirt gun … David Brent: Life on the Road 2016 starring Ricky Gervais & Ben Bailey Smith & Andy Burrows & Tom Basden & Jo Hartley & Mandeep Dhillon & Rebecca Gethings & Nina Sosanya & Tom Bennett & Andrew Brooke et al, director Ricky Gervais
You have been in an accident. Can you tell me your name? … You were the only passenger. The taxi you were in went into the river. Your heart stopped for several minutes. It’s Thursday November 24th. You have been in a coma for four days. Unknown 2011 starring Liam Neeson & Diane Kruger & January Jones & Aidan Quinn & Frank Langella & Bruno Ganz & Sebastian Koch & Stipe Erceg & Olivier Schneider & Rainer Bock et al, director Jaume Collet-Sera, doctor
There may be certain accidents where you may be drunk or high on drugs. Trailer Park Boys s1e5: I’m not Gay, I Love Lucy, Ricky
[kitten meows] I could have been killed. ibid.
Dad, I’m sorry to call so late. I’ve got myself into the deepest pile of trouble. It was an accident. Chappaquiddick aka The Senator 2017 starring Jason Clarke & Kate Mara & Ed Helms & Bruce Dern & Jim Gaffigan & Taylor Nichols & Clancy Brown & Olivia Thirlby & Lexie Roth & John Fiore & Vince Tycer et al, director John Curran, Ted
Every year more than 3,000,000,000 air passengers head for the skies. The vast majority return safely to earth without incident. But a small number experience life changing moments they will never forget. World’s Wildest Flights s1e1: LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16, Channel 5 2018
A terrifying mid-air smash 12,000 feet over Wisconsin. The sickening end to a sky-high love pact, and the horror of engine failure over Australia’s shark-infested western seas. ibid.
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16: November 2011 New Jersey USA … an evening departure from Newark Airport … There is a critical malfunction to the control system … The terror of an emergency landing in a near 200-ton plane without any wheels … The pilot finally announces to the passengers he has been unable to lower the undercarriage and the plane will be making an emergency landing without any wheels … ‘He did a fantastic job.’ ibid.
November 2013 North Wisconsin USA: ‘We could hear the propellers kind of chewing into our aeroplane’ … ‘It was like a war zone in the sky’ … ‘You could not recreate this kind of a crash and have this good an outcome ever.’ ibid.
California: Darrell Hamilton junior … he made a sign asking her to marry him – Merry Me [sic] – and then chartered a plane to fly her over his unfortunately misspelt love letter … ‘he immediately went down and started throwing up’ … It’s straight back to base. ibid.
June 2017 Perth Australia Air Asia D7237: ‘There was a massive bang’ … a stomach-churning vibration kicks in … a catastrophic failure to the left-hand engine … in an area known as Shark Bay … A fearful two-hour journey home for the shaken passengers. ibid.
It’s one of our greatest fears: being on a plane when something goes badly wrong. This series reveals what it’s like to live through catastrophic events on board an aircraft. World’s Worst Flights s1e1: Landings aka Flights From Hell, Channel 5 2018
Worldwide 100,000 flights take off and land each day. But coming back down to earth safely is not always straightforward. Almost 60% of all fatal airline accidents occur during approach and landing. ibid.
21st September 2005 Los Angeles: At 3:31 pm JetBlue flight 292 took off with 141 passengers on board … ibid.
Pilot error is the leading cause of airline accidents … Sometimes extreme weather conditions are to blame. ibid.
1:51 pm: the airbus A319 turned back towards Dallas … 25 minutes after the engine failure flight NK165 began its final approach … ibid.
At 12:55 pm: Cathay Pacific flight CX884 took off for LA … Flight XC884 prepared to ditch into the middle of the Pacific ocean … Eight and half hours after takeoff they were safe … An equipment cooling fan below the floor had failed and the crew noticed smoke around the cockpit area. ibid.
Landing is fraught with danger. 29th December 2014 Gatwick … Virgin Atlantic flight V43 … The Boeing 747 was close to full capacity … The hydraulics were malfunctioning, and one of the main sets of landing gear was jammed inside the plane … First, they needed to lose weight … A dangerously unstable landing … ibid.
This is the story of Aimee Spencer who plummeted to her death in mysterious circumstances aged just 27. How did the life of a girl raised by a loving family come to such a tragic end? The Death of Aimee Spencer, ITV 2019
Brighton police are alerted by the ambulance service that a young woman has fallen two floors from a window. ibid.
The man in the flat has admitted taking class A drugs … The music from the night before is still playing. ibid.
‘It’s not a window you would accidentally fall out of.’ ibid. rozzer
Was she pushed? Did she fall of her own free will? ibid.
As well as class A drugs, police are finding large amounts of prescription pills. ibid.