It’s the worst single aircraft disaster in aviation history. A Boeing crashes into the mountain north-west of Tokyo. 520 passengers and crew perish in a pile of twisted metal. Seconds from Disaster: Terrified Over Tokyo
2 June 1994: A Chinook helicopter has crashed. Everyone on board is dead. They include Northern Ireland’s top anti-terrorist experts and one of the Royal Air Force’s most experienced crews. Seconds from Disaster: Chinook Helicopter
Somalia: All of a sudden the helicopter pilot informed us we were going to make the assault; this emotional rush of adrenalin. Seconds from Disaster: Black Hawk Down, Matt Eversmann, former ranger
I don’t think it would have ever entered our minds that we could lose two [helicopters] in one day. ibid. Danny McKnight, former ranger
2 June 1994: A Chinook helicopter has crashed. Everyone on board is dead. They include Northern Ireland’s top anti-terrorist experts and one of the Royal Air Force’s most experienced crews. Seconds from Disaster: Chinook Helicopter
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: 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Argentina have been at war for 54 days … The pilots fly low in an attempt to stave off their enemy’ radar … A pair of outdated fighter bombers were able to sink one of the British Navy’s most technologically advanced ships.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.
Hillsborough: Britain’s worst sporting disaster. 97 men, women and children died, hundreds injured, thousands are traumatised. 15-year-old schoolboy Kevin Williams was one of the youngest children killed. His mother Anne was to go on to be one of the most prominent individuals of the Hillsborough campaign. This ordinary housewife spent 25 years fighting the English establishment. In one of the longest fights in British legal history the whole of Merseyside joined Anne and other grieving families to expose a monumental miscarriage of justice. 97 were unlawfully killed but not one conviction for killing them. The Real Anne: Unfinished Business ***** ITV 2022
But as the city and families mourn the police rush to deflect blame saying drunk and ticketless Liverpool fans forcing their way into the stadium caused the tragedy. ibid.
Astonishingly, the coroner’s ruling meant that the quality of the emergency response was barely interrogated. Was it good enough? Could more lives have been saved? ibid.
For the first time an official report confirmed police statements had been changed to deflect blame. ibid.
Finally, the families have the truth. But they now want the Accidental Death verdicts quashed. They want justice. ibid.
With the 1991 Coroner’s Inquest overturned and a fresh Inquest ordered, a criminal investigation begins. And the Independent Police Complaints Commission examine the allegations of a cover-up. But it’s a bitter-sweet victory. Anne is dying from cancer. ibid.
It does now seem likely that some time in the last couple of days there has been perhaps the worst accident in the short history of the world’ nuclear power industry. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes, Sky Documentaries 2022, UK news
Those who survived the disaster were silenced, and the film footage hidden. ibid. commentary
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station is in all respects the leader among nuclear power stations being built. First, it leads in the speed of launching new power-generating units. ibid. Soviet information film
Everyone believed our reactors simply could not explode. ibid. commentary
People enjoyed life there. We wanted for nothing. ibid.
We had to run over the unit, looking for the injured. The conditions were absolutely horrifying. There was fire, smoke, pieces of construction hanging down, hot vapour, extreme radiation. ibid.
36 hours had passed. For 36 hours people had been inhaling contaminated air. After the announcement of the evacuation 2,200 buses came to Pripyat and Chernobyl. The people were told, ‘Don’t worry.’ ibid.
Right after the [helicopter] flights were started getting a metallic taste and a constant scratching in the throat. It was immediately noticeable. ibid.
The explosion at Chernobyl caused a toxic nuclear mess the likes of which the world had never seen before. An eruption of thick nuclear material had poured out over 1,000 square kilometres. ibid. Oleksiy Breus, Chernobyl engineer
We calculated the explosion was equivalent to 400 nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ibid.
Sooner or later each of our bodies showed signs. We all went through it – vomiting, coughing, extreme exhaustion. Some guys couldn’t get out of bed from fatigue by the second day. We called the local medical instructor. He gave them some pills, injections, something to drink. The level of radiation accumulation was strictly concealed. People worked till they fell from their feet … about 80% of the liquidators would die. ibid.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster turned 1,000 square miles of Ukraine into a wasteland. The Chernobyl Disaster: Meltdown, Channel 5 2022
Two miles from Chernobyl, the city of Pripyat, once home to 50,00 people, lies in ruins. A 1,000 mile exclusion zone has restricted access to the site. ibid.
Chernobyl is decades in the making. It began when the emerging Soviet Union’s nuclear power programme threatened the world. A Soviet dream that became a nightmare. ibid.
Engineers will switch off all of the pumps that cool the reactor to test the backup system. ibid.
Xenon gas is poisoning the reactor … Even before the test starts they’re struggling to control the reactor. ibid.
A disaster officials tried to cover up. As a brave few battled to stop radiation spreading across the globe. The Chernobyl Disaster II: Firestorm
They are following orders to get water into the reactor’s system to prevent meltdown. But the electrics have failed so they are doing the job manually. ibid.
The core of the reactor is smouldering, releasing large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. Helicopters battle to stop this deadly radiation escaping from the molten core. The Chernobyl Disaster: Fallout
The sarcophagus is falling apart … 45 countries including the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom all donate towards a new safe confinement shelter. ibid.
Champlain Towers: On 24th June 2021 a 13-storey apartment building Surfside, Florida, crumbles to the ground without warning killing 98 people. It’s the deadliest structural collapse in the US since 9/11. Why Buildings Collapse, BBC 2022
A building in urgent need of repair … What went wrong in Surfside? And could more buildings be at risk? ibid.
Leonardo was haunted by recurring images of natural disaster, and man’s own inhumanity to his fellow man. He wrote of his fears, of a coming watery apocalypse in what he called his riddles. These warnings imbue his art. Nostradamus Effect s1e2: Da Vinci’s Armageddon, History 2009
It was an ordinary night that turned into tragedy. It was every commuter’s worst nightmare. A disaster that killed 31 people and injured many more. Three decades after the deadliest blaze on London’s underground we speak to those caught up in the disaster and those who rescued them. The King’s Cross Fire: 6 Hours that Shocked Britain, Channel 5 2017
30 years ago King’s Cross was the busiest station on the London underground … A small fire was spotted on one of the two old-style wooden escalators. ibid.
Those left in the ticket hall were engulfed in flames. ibid.
Sea-Gem was about to become the first rig to strike gas ... Boxing Day 1965 they started to jack up the rig ready for the move: under the strain two of the steel legs shattered, plunging the platform and its crew into the sea ... 13 of the Sea-Gem’s 39 crew died in the disaster. Crude Britannia 1/3: The Story of North Sea Oil, BBC 2009
Gulf of Mexico 20th April 2010: ‘An explosion ripped through the living quarters … immediately the blare of sirens going off.’ Inferno at Sea: The Deepwater Disaster, worker, Channel 5 2022
41 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico sits the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Owned by the company Transocean, and commissioned by BP, she is the pride of the fleet. ibid.
‘It got the reputation of being called the Well from Hell.’ ibid. engineer
Separate safety checks disagree on whether the concrete seal is insecure. ibid.
A huge explosion of oil and gas has ripped through the Deepwater Horizon setting the drilling rig ablaze and putting its 126 crew members in mortal danger. ibid.
The captain has ordered all crew to abandon ship. ibid.
As the hours pass the oil slick on the surface continues to grow. ibid.
The oil dispersant is a controversial chemical called Corexit. It’s toxic and it’s known to be a danger to health of both humans and wildlife. ibid.