1963, Italy: An alpine landslide … For thousands who live in the shadow of Europe’s tallest dam, unaware of the unfolding spectacle, it’s already too late. Investigators uncover an astonishing plan to control an unstable mountainside. Seconds from Disaster s5e3: Mountain Tsunami
Chunks of Monte Toc slip towards the reservoir … A 70-metre high wall of water swamps Longarone and sweeps on down the valley flattening buildings, killing hundreds … It managed to kill more than 2000 people. ibid.
1993, Waco, Texas, where 76 men, women and children die in a blazing fire. Were cult members led to their deaths by charismatic leader David Koresh? Or killed by out of control federal agents? Seconds from Disaster s5e4: Waco Cult
Cults leader David Koresh is found with a bullet shot to the head. The siege has gripped America. ibid.
The FBI simply escalated tensions. ibid.
A terrible plan that could only have one outcome. ibid.
April 20th 2010 5 p.m.: The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig: An explosion rips through an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The survivors can’t stop the blowout and flee. 2 hours earlier a test showed the oil well was safe. Seconds from Disaster s5e5: The Deepwater Horizon
Crude oil and gas continue to surge from the well feeding the flames and explosions. The emergency disconnect has not worked. Most workers escape using the rig’s lifeboats. ibid.
The drill crew missing an early opportunity to realise the well could blow out. ibid.
Nitrogen foam: Halliburton do not expressly alert BP to the result … The cement foam is seriously unstable. ibid.
Mumbai, India, November 2008: The world watches on as a fire rages at the city’s most famous landmark, the luxury Taj Mahal hotel. It’s rumoured that up to sixty terrorists [Lashkar-e-Taiba] are behind a series of commando-style attacks. 59 hours after the attacks began, 166 innocent people are dead. Seconds from Disaster s5e6: Mumbai Massacre
Two men armed with machine guns enter the Concourse. ibid.
2 car bombs explode in different parts of the city. ibid.
Norway, July 2011: A bomb rips through Oslo city centre killing 8 people. On an island 40 kilometres away over 500 teenagers are running for their lives: a lone gunman is methodically hunting them down. In a 3-hour terror spree, 77 people will die. Over 200 will be injured. Seconds from Disaster s6e1: Norway Massacre: I Was There
It’s now left to Norway’s security services to stop him on the day of the attack. ibid.
909 men, women and children lie dead. Almost all by self-administered poison. It appears an incomprehensible act. Seconds from Disaster s6e2: Jonestown Cult Suicide
5 minutes after the first shot is fired the killing are over. 5 people lie dead including Congressman Ryan. He’s been shot more than 20 times. ibid.
In reality this jungle paradise is in virtual lockdown. ibid.
Families betray families because they live in fear of their leader. ibid.
Swissair flight 111 is en route from New York to Geneva. The passengers are settling back to enjoy the flight. As cabin power is cut some passengers are mildly concerned. But in the cockpit it’s a different story. The pilot’s attempts to control the jumbo are failing. Few on board realise they only have minutes to live. Seconds from Disaster s6e3: Fire in the Cockpit
‘You could smell the fuel from the jet; as we got closer you could see debris floating.’ ibid. local boat rescue
What caused a modern passenger airliner to plummet into the Atlantic Ocean killing everyone on board? ibid.
The fire was raging not in the galley but out of sight above it … The fire started in front of the bulkhead above the cockpit ceiling where the pilots noticed the smell almost immediately. ibid.
Somalia, East Africa: US special forces on a lightning raid into the heart of Mogadishu. Two Black Hawk helicopters are brought down by a hostile militia. 99 US soldiers are trapped in the city overnight as armed Somalis close in on their position. Seconds from Disaster s6e4: Black Hawk Down
High on Everest in the death zone with little hope of rescue a climber contacts his wife. Seven lives have already been lost in Everest’s deadliest storm. Seconds from Disaster s6e5: Into the Death Zone
Japan Airlines flight 123: It’s the worst single aircraft disaster in aviation history. A Boeing [747] crashes into a mountain [Mount Takamagahara] north-west of Tokyo. 520 passengers and crew perish in a pile of twisted metal. Seconds from Disaster s6e6: Terrified Over Tokyo
The plane pitches forward and starts an uncontrolled dive. The plan disappears from radar. ibid.
Miraculously, four survivors are found despite spending a night on the mountainside. ibid.
One bulkhead plate has sheared off along the line of rivets joining it to its neighbour. ibid.
Rush hour, Osaka, Japan. A Monday morning. A commuter train is carrying hundreds of people to work. Anxious over connections, many of the passengers are unaware this will be their last journey until it’s too late. Seconds from Disaster s6e7: Runaway Train, National Geographic 2012
It hurtles past the platform at 120 km per hour. As the train approaches the next station, Itami, an alarm activates inside the driver’s cab. Rapid Train 5418M is over the speed limit … The train has overshot the platform by the length of more than three carriages … The train hurtles towards Amagasaki station … ‘There was a bang and everything flipped over.’ ibid.
The Amagasaki disaster leaves 562 injured and 107 dead, with 99 of the fatalities in the front two carriages. ibid.
The culture within the train company many have been a contributing cause of this accident. ibid.
The skies over Japan, August 9th 1945: America is about to drop its second atomic bomb in three days. Within seconds 30% of Nagasaki is flattened, and more than 30,000 people are vaporized. Seconds from Disaster s6e8: Nagasaki: The Forgotten Bomb
With the force of 22 kilo-tons of TNT, Fatman generates heat of over 4,000 degrees Celsius, and winds of up to 1,000 kilometres an hour that surge across the city. ibid.
6.7 square kilometres of the city has been turned to rubble. More than 70,000 men, women and children are vaporized. 70,000 more are injured. ibid.
Argentinian fighter bombers on a deadly low-level mission. A British warship tasked with being the bait. They are on a collision course that could cost hundreds of lives. And change the course of a war. Seconds from Disaster s6e9: Sinking the Coventry
The Falkland Islands, May 25th 1982: Britain and Argentina have been at war for 54 days … The pilots fly low in an attempt to stave off their enemy’ radar … A pair of outdated fighter bombers were able to sink one of the British Navy’s most technologically advanced ships. ibid.
2 June 1994: A Chinook helicopter has crashed. Everyone on board is dead. They include Northern Ireland’s top anti-terrorism experts and one of the Royal Air Force’s most experienced crews. When the report is published, tragedy turns to shock and outrage. A firestorm of controversy ignites over what really happened on that barren hillside. Seconds from Disaster s6e10: Chinook Helicopter Crash
Northern Ireland, Belfast: After 14 years service with the RAF, the Chinook has undergone an extensive refit. ibid.
The passenger list is so sensitive, it is shredded on takeoff. ibid.
At 1.23 a.m. on the morning of April 26 1986 the world was seconds away from its worst ever nuclear accident. Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union exploded. Zero Hour s1e1: Disaster at Chernobyl, Discovery 2004
Many see it as the first step in break up of the communist regime. ibid.
On this night Chernobyl is harbouring two deadly secrets: the first is a potentially fatal flaw in the reactor’s design which the engineers are not aware of. The flaw that makes it highly unstable when run at low power; the second secret concerns the man in charge Anatoli Dyatlov’s own history is scarred by the very technology he is seeking to dominate. ibid.
The water shortage continues to set off alarms. But none of these engineers believes a serious accident is possible. ibid.
They are the victims of years of cover-ups and negligence. ibid.
Safety came second. Accidents were common and hushed-up. ibid.
The few boron control rods still in the reactor are only partially inserted at the top. So power is building into a hotspot at the bottom of the core, where the sensors don’t always detect it. ibid.
On the evening of September 11st 2001 the FBI were called into Logan Airport in Boston to examine two check-in bags. The bags had missed their flight, an American Airlines Boeing 767 bound for Los Angeles. The owner of the luggage was Mohamed Atta. Zero Hour s1e2: The Last Hour of Flight 11
The crew relayed valuable information about their attackers to the outside world. ibid.
One of the last passengers to board was Mohamed Atta. ibid.
Eric Harris’s House 28 April 1998: In the middle-class suburban town of Littleton, near Denver, Colorado, a 17-year-old’s murderous fantasy is beginning to take shape. He and a friend, known as Vodka or V, intend to commit an act so violent that it will secure their place in history. One year later on April 20th 1999 Eric Harris and another Columbine student, Dylan Klebold, committed the worst high school massacre in American history. They killed 12 students and 1 teacher, injured 23 others and then turned the guns on themselves. Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High s1e3, Discovery 2004
They both seemed hell-bent on revenge against the school itself. ibid.
Eric and Dylan have arrived with a huge arsenal of weapons. ibid.
Perhaps the answer is there is no single cause. ibid.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold die from self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. ibid.