Whether it involves an everyday train journey, an international flight or a climbing expedition, every disaster has its cause, but few understand the chain of events that trigger them. Explore intriguing investigations into some of the world's most famous headline-grabbing catastrophes. "Seconds from Disaster" features in-depth reconstructions and astonishing insights into some truly momentous moments of misfortune.
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 Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attack United States military installations in and around Pearl Harbor, without declaring war, thus bringing the U.S. into World War II; the attack is presented as a Japanese disaster, "A Day of Infamy", missing key targets and provoking a war they could never win. 2,403 US soldiers die, 1,178 are wounded, while Japan loses 129 soldiers, and 1 sub captain is captured. The US has 328 planes and 19 ships damaged or destroyed, the most famous of which is the Arizona.
On October 5, 1999, in morning rush hour 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. The trains collided at a combined speed of 130 m.p.h. producing a spectacular fireball. 31 people die (2 drivers and 29 passengers) and 523 are injured.
On July 1, 2002, a Bashkirian airliner and a DHL freight aircraft collide while they are over Überlingen, Germany and crash, killing all 71 people on board. Having lost his entire family, Vitaly Kaloyev later kills the air traffic controller, even though he did not cause the collision.
On February 3, 1998, a low-flying Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler of the United States Marine Corps hits the support cable of an aerial tramway near the Italian town of Cavalese, severing it. The cabin on the cable falls to the ground, killing the 20 occupants. The aircraft lands safely.
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.
On March 11, 2011, the largest ever recorded earthquake, a 9.0 on the Richter scale, and tsunami off Japan's coast result in 15,893 deaths, 2,572 missing, and 6,152 injured. Finally, there was the meltdown at the TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant causing Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign five months later on August 25, 2011. The meltdown also displaced around 100,000 people from their homes, jobs, and farms in the nearly 12.5 mile exclusion zone around the reactor.
After several engagements over the previous days, on May 27, 1941 elements of the Royal Navy sink the German battleship Bismarck.
In 1963, a landslide from Monte Toc into the reservoir of the Europe's highest dam causes a giant flood wave that destroys the village of Longarone and other villages, claiming over 2,000 lives.
They were the Branch Davidians led by charismatic David Koresh. After a 51-day siege at the ranch of an armed religious cult, the Federal Bureau of Investigation tries to end the standoff with tear gas, but a fire breaks out and engulfs the compound. By the end 76 Davidians died and 4 ATF agents, including 22 children.
A series of decisions and mistakes lead to the deaths of 11 oil rig workers and the world's largest oil spill disaster.
On November 26, 2008, terrorists attack 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. They also placed pipe bombs in two taxis, which killed the drivers whilst driving to a hotel.
On July 22, 2011, a gunman goes on a terrorist rampage – starting with an explosion in Oslo and ending with the murder of dozens of teenagers.
On November 18, 1978, cult leader Reverend Jim Jones and his followers die in Guyana, South America. In all 909 people die from a poisoned 'grape juice', the largest mass murder-suicide of US citizens in history. Congressmen Leo Ryan (D-CA) is assassinated. Jim Jones dies of a gunshot wound to the head, his 'divine socialism' had not succeeded.
On September 2, 1998, a fire breaks out on board a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 while on a transatlantic flight, damaging vital systems and causing the aircraft to crash into the sea off the coast of Canada with no survivors.
On October 3–4, 1993, the United States Army in Somalia is engaged in a battle that kills 18 US Rangers and around 1,000 Somali combatants.
On May 10–11, 1996, nine climbers die on Mount Everest, including New Zealand climbing veteran Rob Hall.
On August 12, 1985, the rear pressure bulkhead of a Boeing 747 bursts, destroying the vertical stabilizer and severing all four of the aircraft's vital hydraulic systems. The crew keep the aircraft flying for 32 minutes until it clips Mt Osutaka and crashes, killing all but four people out of the 524 passengers and crew on board.
On April 25, 2005, a seven-car commuter train derails and crashes just before Amagasaki Station in Japan, causing 107 deaths and 562 injuries.
On August 9, 1945, during the final stages of World War II, the United States of America uses a nuclear weapon in combat for the second time, named Fat Man, against the Japanese city of Nagasaki. It is believed that over 70,000 died from radiation effects by one year later. This helped speedily end World War II.
On May 25, 1982, during the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina, a low level bomb attack from Argentinian jets capsizes the HMS Coventry within 20 minutes.
On June 2, 1994, a Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook helicopter crashes on the Mull of Kintyre, on the west coast of Scotland. The initial investigation cites pilot error as the cause, but several more investigations take place over the next 17 years before this verdict is overturned.
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