Seconds from Disaster

Sep 19, 2005

Behind every disaster lies a chain of events. The Concorde was the world's first supersonic airliner, but on a charter flight to New York, 109 people are on board an Air France Concorde as it takes off from Paris. But as it lifts off the runway, the control tower notices flames trailing behind the aircraft. They can do nothing. The Concorde becomes uncontrollable and plows into a hotel in nearby Gonesse. 113 people are killed in the accident. The dream that was Concorde is shattered and the aircraft is grounded. What happened to Air France Flight 4590 could shatter the aviation industry as we know it.

Oct 10, 2005

Mont Blanc is one of the highest mountains in Europe, with a seven-mile long tunnel connecting France and Italy through the Alps. One March day in 1999, a Belgian Truck carrying flour and margarine catches fire in the tunnel, creating a blaze which burns for 53 hours, killing 39 people. A team of investigators set out to prove what caused such a terrible fire, and why all tunnels could be merely Seconds from Disaster

Oct 17, 2005

One April morning in 1995, at Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Timothy McVeigh parks a truck packed with explosives at the front of the government landmark. At 9:02AM, it explodes and the front of the building collapses with a loss of 168 lives. Survivors recount the terrifying experience as investigators attempt to discover what caused the building to collapse.

Oct 16, 2005

On Easter 1990, a fire breaks out on the Scandinavian Star Ferry. After been towed to Sweden, the fire is eventually put out after 10 hours. Then the worst is revealed. 158 people have lost their lives. But why on Earth did they die? An investigation is immediately started, but the truth will shock them.

Sep 26, 2005

June 1998. The new German InterCity Express is a trip from Munich to Hamburg, one of many. Today should be no different. The new train offers the ultimate luxury in high-speed travel. But a terrible accident sets off a chain of events causing the loss of 101 lives when the train derails catastrophically at the town of Eschede. But what caused such a horrible accident?

Nov 4, 2005

September 1993. The captain of a towboat unwittingly causes the collapse of a bridge over the Big Bayou Canot. When an Amtrak train comes along, it derails with 47 lives lost. Why was such a hideous mistake made? How could it have been prevented? Could it have been prevented at all? Wreck of the Sunset Limited explains why over 40 people died that Autumn day.

Nov 6, 2005

We make mistakes every few seconds of our lives. They are unavoidable. But sometimes the results can be disastrous. On April 26, 1986, a series of catastrophic blunders leave dozens dead when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melts down.

Oct 9, 2005

April 1992, Guadalajara, Mexico. On the 19th, residents start complaining of a strong gasoline-like smell coming from the sewers. Three days later, on the 22nd, numerous gas explosions in the sewers over a time span of four hours destroy kilometers of housing estate and killing 206 people. But who, if anyone, is to blame? What caused the inferno in Guadalajara?

Nov 10, 2005

November 11, 2000, started out as a normal day at the Kaprun ski resort in Austria, as a Furnicular train climbing the slopes breaks down in a tunnel. Passengers then realise it's on fire. Only 12 make it out alive, leaving 155 people to die horribly. But how could such a modern train break down and catch fire?

Nov 27, 2005

July 6, 1988. The Piper Alpha stands over 110 miles off Scotland. But on this fateful day, a gas leak causes a catastrophic fire with a loss of 167 workers. Why did the Piper Alpha explode without warning? Was Human Error to blame? What about Mechanical Failure? Or even sabotage?

Nov 20, 2005

On July 1985, Italy's Stava Dam collapses and demolishes 70 structures killing 268 people in the process. Was there a fault in the design of the dam? Is this something that could happen to any dam around the world? Find out how a structural failure leads to a massive catastrophe with Flood at Stava Dam

Oct 3, 2005

Two Jumbo Jets, Pan Am 1736 and KLM 4805 collide on the lone runway at Tenerife, Spain. The two aircraft are then burnt out and 583 people lose their lives. But how come two experienced pilots made a mistake of this magnitude? How come two passenger jets collided on the runway?

Sep 11, 2005

September 11, 2001 is one of the worst days in history. In Washington, D.C, the workers at the Pentagon have only just heard of the chaos going on at the New York World Trade Centre, but are unaware that they themselves have become a target. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 aircraft, collides with the Pentagon killing 189. Pentagon 9/11 recreates the events leading up to the explosion at the Pentagon.

Jun 28, 2005

June 28 Columbia's Last Flight (Space Shuttle Columbia) Space Shuttle Columbia disaster February 1, 2003 Texas, February 1, 2003. The Space Shuttle Columbia is re-entering orbit. But something goes horribly wrong and Columbia explodes. All 7 astronauts on board perish. When investigators learn of a small fault which occurred during take-off sixteen days earlier, they are convinced they have found a possible suspect.

Jul 5, 2005

The Alpine village of Galtur, an avalanche buries 57 people in the snow. 31 of them die. But why did the avalanche occur in the first place? Were careless villagers to blame?

Jul 12, 2005

January 1989. British Midland Airways Flight 092, a Boeing 737, is landing at Kegworth, United Kingdom, when it crashes on the M1 motorway, killing 47 people. What went wrong? The B-737 is the most widely-used airliner in the world. Could mechanical failure be to blame? Perhaps human error? Or even sabotage?

Jul 26, 2005

Mount St. Helens, in the countryside of Washington State, has been dormant for 123 years. But on May 1980, it suddenly erupts, killing 57. Why couldn't they predict it?

Aug 16, 2005

On March 1987, the British Car Ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes off Zeebrugge killing 193. Why did this happen? Was it just a terrible blunder? Or something worse?

Aug 30, 2005

On 17 January 1995, the Japanese city of Kobe was rocked by the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which destroyed buildings and killed over 1000 people and left thousands homeless. Why couldn't the top of the art equipment predict a disaster of this magnitude?

Sep 13, 2005

On 19 July 1989, the pilots of United Airlines Flight 232 are shocked to learn they have lost all control of the DC-10 after an engine failure and make an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa, but in a dramatic crash, the aircraft breaks apart and catches fire with 111 lives lost out of the 285 on board. Why did the engine fail?

Sep 20, 2005

Bali, located in Indonesia, is one of the most popular resorts in the world. But 202 die on the night of October 12, 2002, Muslim terrorists detonate several bombs in local nightclubs. Its the horror of 9/11 all over again.

Sep 27, 2005

Hotel New World, budget hotel located in Singapore's Little India, collapses on 15 March, 1986. After a 7 day rescue operation, 17 people are rescued but 33 perish. Why did the hotel collapse? Was it sabotage? Or was it faulty maintenance?

Oct 8, 2005

17 July 1996. TWA Flight 800 leaves New York for Paris. Only 12 minutes into the flight, it explodes catastrophically, breaks in half, then plummets into the sea killing all 230 people on board. There was no mayday call from the crew. Rumours spread that the B-747 was downed by a misguided navy missile, sparking the biggest accident investigation in history.

Nov 1, 2005

In what was no doubt the worst rail incident in French history, a runaway train derails at Gare De Lyon Station, France, killing 56 people. Why did the train crash so horribly? Who is to blame?

Nov 15, 2005

When the zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire at Lakehurst, 35 of the 97 on board and one member of the ground crew are killed. Was the most infamous airship disaster caused by a ticking time bomb smuggled on board? Or was the Hindenburg itself a ticking time bomb?

Dec 13, 2005

The Humberto Vidal Shoe Store was just like any other. But one day in Puerto Rico, a gas explosion kills 33 and injures 69 people.

Jan 10, 2006

On 17 July 1981, 1,500 people had gathered for a dance in the Hyatt Regency Hotel when, in a catastrophic disaster, the skywalk collapses killing 114 people and injuring countless others in the worst US structural failure.

Mar 28, 2006

On 4 October 1992, an El Al Israel Airlines Cargo B747-200F takes off from Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Holland), when the engines on the right wing of Flight 1862 shear off. 8 minutes later, Flight 8162 glides into a high rise apartment building killing 43 people.

Apr 18, 2006

When a training mission goes horribly wrong, the Russian sumbarine Kursk suffers an explosion. 135 seconds later, it sinks. 23 people survive the blast, out of 118 on board. Will they make it out in time? What caused the sinking of the Kursk?

May 19, 2006

On the night of 18 November 1987, a harmless match produced a small flame on the escalator at King's Cross tube station. Suddenly, the containable flame explodes rapidly into a fireball. It charges up the escalator and kills 31 people in the ticket hall 20m away. The inferno leaves investigators stumped. When the answer is revealed, it will shock everyone, adding a new chapter to the laws of fire dynamics.

Jun 27, 2006

Al Queda struck again on August 7, 1998. In Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, a truck bomb destroys the U.S. Embassy buildings killing 257 and injuring thousands.

Jul 11, 2006

On May 1996, what started out as a normal flight from Miami, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia, when ValuJet Flight 592, a DC-9 with 110 people on board goes down in the Everglades when a fire starts in the cabin and cockpit. The aircraft is swallowed by the swamp and harsh conditions make the rescue operation impossible. Soon there are no survivors. What happened to ValuJet 592 is a one of a kind accident.

Jul 25, 2006

It was known as the "unsinkable ship." The RMS Titanic, on its maiden voyage from Southhampton to New York with over 2,000 people on board strikes an iceberg, and within two hours and forty minutes, sinks taking with it 1,500 lives. Now, Seconds from Disaster re-examines the sinking of the Titanic to find out who-or-what was to blame.

Aug 15, 2006

The massive aircraft carrier USS Forrestal is sailing to Vietnam on July 29, 1967, when a fighter jet explodes, a massive blast rocks the ship, and in just 17 hours 134 men lose their lives. Was it hostile fire, human error, or a fault in the fighter jets.

Sep 6, 2006

Its been more than two months after 9/11 and the event is still fresh in everyone's mind. At JFK Airport in Queens, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, leaves on a three and a half flight to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Shortly after take-off it crashes into Rockaway in Queens, New York. This place is home to people affected by 9/11. 257 people die. Was this terrorism again? Or a fault?

Sep 13, 2006

During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes are been held hostage by Palestinian terrorists. They demand the list of Palestine prisoners in exchange for the release of the ahtletes. But at Furstenfeldbruck Airfield, a rescue attempt goes wrong and soon 17 people are dead.

Sep 20, 2006

On 29 June 1995, the five story Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, Korea, collapses killing 502 people. Is there a fault in the building? Or is sabotage to blame? And how did the last survivor survive under the rubble for 16 days?

Sep 27, 2006

On 13 January 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 leaves Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington DC for Miami with 79 passengers and crew on board. The Boeing 737 is delayed for hours by bad conditions, and only seconds after getting airborne it crashes into the icy Potomac river. Five survivors are pulled out alive but 78-including four motorists-lose their lives.

Oct 25, 2006

On Boxing Day 2004, the second largest earthquake in recorded history with a magnitude of 9.3 strikes the town Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Soon, it unleashes a tsunami which takes over 275,000 lives all along the coast of the Indian Ocean. How come such a disaster happened?

Nov 15, 2006

The DH Comet is the first jet airliner and the pride of the British Overseas Airways Corporation. But on January 10, 1954, BOAC Flight 781, enroute from Rome to London, explodes catastrophically and crashes, killing 35 people. The investigation begins, but when South African Airways Flight 201 crashes exactly the same way taking another 21 lives, all Comets are grounded and the investigation takes a step forward.

Nov 29, 2006

American Airlines Flight 191, a DC-10, leaves Chicago. But when the engine falls off, the plane stalls and crashes killing 273 people. The investigators discover a shocking secret which will turn the aviation world upside down.

Dec 6, 2006

The Texas BP oil refinery is the third largest in America producing more than 437,000 barrels per day. Workmen are starting a routine day, then, and explosion rocks the structure with the death of 15. What went wrong?

Jan 2, 2007

On 3 April 1974, the most violent outbreak of tornadoes in history struck. The well-named "Super Outbreak" produces 148 twisters over 13 American states and in Ontario, Canada destroying thousands of homes and over 5,000 people die. How did a single storm form the 1974 "Super Outbreak" tornadoes?

Jan 31, 2007

On a cold winter day in 1986, space shuttle Challenger takes off from Cape Canaveral to start Mission 51-L. 73 seconds later, Challenger's boosters explode and send it into the ocean in pieces. What happened? Was a fault to blame? Or was there ice on the shuttle?

Mar 7, 2007

On the Caribbean island of Montserrat is the Soufrière Hills volcano. Nearby is Plymouth, the island's capital. In 1995, Soufrière Hills came to life and spewed ash over the island. Everyone is evacuated to the north of Montserrat. Two years on, the eruptions get worse and in 1997, Soufrière Hills erupts violently. Pyroclastic flows rage down the mountain and destroy Plymouth and Bramble Airport, killing 23 people. It generates a small tsunami. People crowd onto ships to escape their home, knowing it's been destroyed.

Sep 5, 2011

On September 11, 2001 two aircraft are deliberately flown into two buildings of the World Trade Center and one is flown into the Pentagon. Another crashes in a field in rural Pennsylvania.

Sep 12, 2011

On December 7, 1941 Japanese forces attack United States military installations in and around Pearl Harbor, thus bringing the US into World War II.

Sep 19, 2011

On October 5, 1999 two trains collide at Ladbroke Grove junction near London's Paddington station after the driver of one fails to stop his train at a red signal.

Sep 26, 2011

On July 1, 2002 a cargo airliner and a passenger airliner collide while they are over Überlingen in Germany. The two aircraft crash, killing all on board.

Oct 3, 2011

The Cavalese cable car disaster of 1998 (as distinct from a cable car disaster in the same location in 1976), occurred on 3 February 1998 near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort located in the Dolomites, some 40 km north-east of Trento. The disaster, which led to the death of 20 people, occurred when a U.S. military plane cut a cable supporting a gondola of an aerial tramway.

Oct 10, 2011

On December 2, 1984 in Bhopal, India, a toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide chemical plant results in the deaths of 3,000 people.

Mar 11, 2012

On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami off Japan’s coast caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Mar 18, 2012

Maritime Historian Andrew Lambert looks at the Royal Navy's battle with the German battleship Bismarck.

Mar 25, 2012

In 1963 a landslide from Monte Toc into the reservoir of the Europe's highest dam caused a giant flood wave that destroyed the village of Longarone and other villages, claiming over 2,000 lives.

Apr 1, 2012

After a 51-day siege at the ranch of an armed religious cult, the FBI tries to force people out with tear gas, but a fire breaks out and almost 80 people die.

Apr 15, 2012

A look at the series of decisions and mistakes that led to the world's largest oil spill disaster, and that 11 workers on the rig died.

Apr 22, 2012

On 26 November 2008, terrorists attacked two luxury hotels (one of them the famous Taj Mahal Hotel), a Jewish educational center, a café and a train station in Mumbai, killing 166 people.

Jul 22, 2012

On July 22, 2011, a gunman goes on a terrorist rampage – starting with an explosion in Oslo and ending with the slaughter of dozens of teenagers.

Nov 5, 2012

On November 18, 1978, when enigmatic cult leader Reverend Jim Jones calls all his followers together in South America, the resulting tragedy becomes the largest mass murder-suicide of US citizens in history - 909 are dead.

Nov 12, 2012

On September 2, 1998, a fire broke out on Swissair Flight 111 while in-flight, damaging vital systems and causing the aircraft to crash into the sea off Peggy's Cove with no survivors. The fire was caused by faulty wiring in the onboard first class entertainment system.

Nov 19, 2012

On October 3–4, 1993, what should have been a simple snatch and grab operation for the US Army in Somalia turns into a battle that kills 18 US Rangers and around 1,000 Somali civilians.

Nov 26, 2012

On May 10–11, 1996 saw the death of nine climbers, including New Zealand climbing veteran Rob Hall. Was it a fierce storm, extreme ambition or something else that caused their demise?

Dec 3, 2012

On August 12, 1985, the rear pressure bulkhead burst on Japan Airlines Flight 123, destroying the vertical stabilizer and severing all four of the aircraft's vital hydraulic systems. The crew kept the aircraft flying for 32 minutes until it clipped Mt Osutaka and crashed, killing all but 4 people out of the 524 passengers and crew aboard.

Dec 10, 2012

On April 25, 2005, a seven-car commuter train came off the tracks and crashed just before Amagasaki Station in Japan causing 107 deaths and 562 injuries.

Dec 17, 2012

On August 9, 1945, the United States of America, during the final stages of World War II in 1945 bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki causing a huge death toll.

Dec 24, 2012

On May 25, 1982, in the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina a low level bomb attack from the Argentinian jets capsizes the HMS Coventry within 20 minutes - why did the ship sink so quickly?

Jan 7, 2013

On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board.

Feb 15, 2018

This compilation of Seconds from Disaster combines two helicopter tragedies of a military nature. Chinhook HC-2 crashed into a hill on the west side of the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland after taking a group of VIP passengers from Northern Ireland to Fort George. The following day would bring a mysterious crash that remains unsolved. When a US Black Hawk falls on the streets of Mogadishu, all hell breaks loose. In this infamous story of the daring escape of the surviving US military personnel, we learn about the seconds that meant the difference between life and death.

Feb 22, 2018

This compilation of Seconds from Disaster combines two airplane tragedies that took hundreds of lives and were caused by the smallest issues. Swiss Air 111 fell from the sky due to microscopic fault in the wiring that sparked a fire in the cockpit. This fire grew uncontrollably and led to the demise of 229 people onboard. JAL123 mysteriously crashed just after take-off into a remote mountainside. Through thorough investigation, it's learned that wear and tear on small repairs caused the untimely death of the 520 people on board.