Catastrophes in the world do not leave anyone indifferent. The tragic events once again confirm that there is nothing more precious than human life.
Tenerife plane crash
The monstrous plane crash that occurred in Tenerife was remembered by many for a long time. On March 27, 1977, two Boeings collided on the runway. One liner belonged to the Dutch airline KLM, and the second belonged to Pan American World Airways. The fatal collision claimed the lives of 580 people. What caused this accident? Finding out the details of what happened indicates that the collision was inevitable and that unknown forces intervened in the course of events.
A chain of fatal coincidences led to such a devastating catastrophe. Los Rodeos International Airport was overloaded on this ill-fated weekend. Both aircraft made maneuvers on a small runway, including difficult turns of 140-170 degrees. On this Sunday, everything went wrong from the very beginning: in the cockpit, due to interference, they could not clearly hear the dispatcher's commands, the weather deteriorated sharply, and visibility became almost zero.
The crew could not understand the instructions of the air traffic controller, speaking with a thick accent. Due to problems with radio communication, the Boeing 747-206B did not abort the takeoff, which led to a collision with the Boeing 747, which was still on the runway.
The Boeing, owned by a Dutch airline, suffered damage to the wings and rear fuselage. A huge liner crashed a hundred and fifty meters from the accident site and rolled along the runway for another three hundred meters. Due to severe damage to the body of the American aircraft, few passengers were able to get out of the aircraft engulfed in flames. The fire also broke out on a KLM aircraft. About 250 people died on the first liner, and 335 on the second. Among the passengers was the American actress and Playboy magazine model Evelyn Eugene Turner.
Explosion in the North Sea
The first place in the ranking of the most destructive man-made disasters is occupied by the burnt oil platform Piper Alpha, which was built in the 70s of the last century. The crash happened on July 6, 1988. The damage is estimated at more than three billion dollars. The accident claimed the lives of 176 people.
This case went down in history: Piper Alpha is the only burnt oil platform on the planet. It was owned by Occidental Petroleum. A powerful explosion occurred due to a gas leak. The human factor was to blame: after the explosion, oil and gas production was suspended, but hydrocarbons continued to flow to the platform through the pipelines of the common network. The fire intensified and did not stop. Ill-considered and indecisive actions led to a massive man-made accident. People jumped into the sea in panic. 59 people survived.
Unsinkable Wilhelm Gustloff
Boat Wilhelm Gustloff
When we talk about the worst disasters on the water, we remember the legendary Titanic, which now rests at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg in 1912, but this disaster is not the largest in human history. In terms of the number of victims, the crash of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff overshadowed the famous British transatlantic steamer.
On April 30, 1945, the Soviet submarine S-13 sank a luxurious ship with ten thousand people on board: cadets of the submarine training division, refugees, mostly women and children, as well as seriously wounded military personnel. The cruise ship entered service in 1938. The ship was designed and built with the latest technology. It seemed that only the Lord himself could send him to the bottom.
"Wilhelm Gustloff" is a real city on the water: dance floors, a gym, restaurants, swimming pools, a chapel, a theater. Passengers enjoyed the comfort of luxurious cabins. Adolf Hitler himself traveled on a cruise ship.
The length of the vessel was more than two hundred meters. Despite its gigantic size, the ship did not need to be refueled for a long time. A real miracle of engineering!
The commander of the Soviet submarine Marinesko worked out a plan of attack and ordered 3 torpedoes to be fired into the hull of an enemy ship. One of them was emblazoned with the inscription "For the Motherland." Today, this giant rests at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, and the world is still mourning, because the catastrophe turned into the death of innocent people.
Ecological catastrophes of the world
The most terrible ecological catastrophe is the disappearance of the Aral Sea from the face of the Earth. It was the 4th largest lake on the planet. The reservoir was located on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The local ecological catastrophe affected the whole world and once again proved that humanity does not protect natural resources and treats them with disdain.
The degradation of the salt lake began in the 1960s. Uncontrolled water intake was carried out from the feeding rivers Amudarya and Syrdarya. Water was taken for irrigation and other household needs, which led to a decrease in its level.
The damage was colossal: plants and animals died, the climate in the area changed and became arid, shipping stopped and 60,000 people lost their jobs. Ecological catastrophes of the world never go unnoticed.
The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
The use of atomic energy to generate electricity has changed our world once and for all. The devastating consequences of nuclear disasters do not go away for decades. The planet shuddered when more than thirty years ago there was an explosion at one of the power units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Radiation radiation covered nearby settlements. Thousands of people were exposed to radiation during the aftermath of the accident. Today, the 30-kilometer zone near Chernobyl and Pripyat is closed to free access, as this territory has been heavily contaminated with radionuclides. Accidents at nuclear power plants and the use of nuclear weapons are the most terrible disasters that change the face of the planet.
We hear about these tragedies in the news and read the horrifying details on the front pages of print publications. Unfortunately, thousands of people die every year in global disasters. We have compiled a list of catastrophes that have left an indelible mark on the history of mankind. There are many videos about the disasters covered in this material on the Web.
Disaster over the Black Sea
On December 25, a Tu-154 aircraft en route to the Syrian city of Latakia crashed in the waters of the Black Sea. The liner belonged to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Aleksandrov was on board the aircraft. The list of the dead included the famous Dr. Lisa. The disaster claimed the lives of 92 people. The plane took off from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow at two in the morning and landed at the Adler airport for refueling.
Aircraft RA-85572 disappeared from radar screens 2 minutes after takeoff. The artists were heading to Syria to perform in front of the Russian military. The main cause of the Tu-154 crash is a malfunction of the aircraft, which was put into operation thirty years ago. The crew consisted of experienced pilots. Tu-154 was overhauled three years ago. However, the Ministry of Defense claims that the aircraft worked properly, and the disaster could not have occurred due to a breakdown. Versions are being worked out and the investigation continues. Airplane crashes always cause a wide public outcry, as this mode of transport is considered the safest. The web already has a 3D reconstruction of the crash. The video was taken from the words of an eyewitness.
Disaster on the submarine "Kursk"
The list of catastrophes that the inhabitants of our country will remember for a long time would be incomplete without mentioning the nuclear submarine missile-carrying cruiser Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea. 08/12/2000 the submarine, which was on exercises at the combat training ground, did not get in touch. Two days later, the command made a statement that the submarine had sunk to the bottom. When examining the scene of the incident, it turned out that the front part of the hull of the nuclear submarine was destroyed, and it entered the bottom at an angle of forty degrees, and the rescue capsule was out of order. Even then it became obvious that the chances of salvation are minimal.
The rescue operation began on 15 August. A Norwegian vessel and deep-sea submersibles took part in it. Despite the joint efforts of Russian, British and Norwegian specialists, it was not possible to save the crew of the submarine. On August 21, divers were able to get inside the ship, which was completely flooded. No one was left alive, the list of the dead includes 118 people. During the investigation, it was possible to find out that an explosion of ammunition led to the crash. The boat was on fire and filled with water in less than 10 hours. The ship's logbook does not record data on emergency situations.
Disaster of the ship "Admiral Nakhimov"
Admiral Nakhimov
August 31, 1986 "Admiral Nakhimov" was in the port of Novorossiysk. The passengers, exhausted by the hot weather, returned from their cabin tours. The ship was very hot on this hot day, and people hurried to open the windows. At 10 pm the ship left for Sochi. The weather on this summer evening was magnificent: the calm sea looked like a millpond, a gentle wind blew, and visibility was good. At the same time, the bulk carrier "Pyotr Vasev" was heading to Novorossiysk, carrying thirty thousand tons of grain. A command was received on the bulk carrier to let the cruise ship through.
An hour after departure, "Admiral Nakhimov" collided with the cargo ship "Peter Vasyov". The blow fell on the starboard side of the passenger ship. Strong destruction of the hull led to the fact that the ship was completely submerged under water for eight minutes. Such a quick dive was affected by the uncovered portholes and watertight bulkheads, which were also left open. Wrong actions of the crew led to the death of 423 people.
Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
On March 20, 2010, a severe fire broke out on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Fire ships unsuccessfully tried to cope with the fire for more than 30 hours. Two days later, the Deepwater Horizon platform sank to the bottom of the bay. Eleven people were missing, seventeen people were hospitalized with injuries and two people died.
The liquidation of the consequences continued for 150 days. Experts claimed that about 5 thousand barrels of oil fell into the sea every day. The United States Secretary of the Interior said the leak was 100,000 barrels. This amount of oil products got into the water every day. The area of the oil slick reached 75 thousand square meters. km. For 5 months, more than five million barrels of black gold poured into the oceans. An explosion on an oil platform tops the list of disasters that have caused irreparable damage to the environment.
Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster
The best catastrophes sometimes begin with signs of fate. Already during the ship's christening ceremony, those present suspected something was wrong: a bottle of champagne did not break, which is considered a bad omen. This three-hundred-meter vessel impressed with its size, equipment and comfort: one and a half thousand cabins, a two-story fitness center, a museum, a gallery, a cinema, a casino, a library, a concert hall, shops, swimming pools and restaurants. Passengers had a place to roam. 01/13/12 the liner ran into an underwater reef. Due to the large hole, the ship began to rapidly sink under the water.
There were more than 4 thousand people on the ship. Almost all passengers and crew members were evacuated ashore, but 32 people could not be saved. The captain of the ship said he veered off course and approached the shore to greet his friend , who lived on this island. Such a dangerous approach to the coastline was not the first time the Costa Concordia. Experts still wonder why the liner landed on a reef, because the crew knew this route like the back of their hand. The damage from the shipwreck occurred is estimated by experts at 1.5 billion dollars. The causes of the disaster are not completely known, but experts call the notorious human factor and a technical malfunction.
Krakatoa volcano eruption in 1883
Volcano Krakatoa
Natural disasters always lead to great destruction. The loudest explosion in the history of the planet was caused by the eruption of the Krakatau volcano. It was heard at a distance of about 5 thousand km. The volcano woke up on May 20 after a two-century slumber. Then an eruptive column 11 thousand meters high, consisting of steam, gases and dust, rose into the air. The critical phase of the eruption occurred on 26 August. The column of volcanic emissions was more than 30 thousand meters.
The strongest explosion occurred due to the collision of magma with sea water. The latter got inside due to cracks formed on the slopes of the volcano. 5 thousand inhabitants died. The resulting tsunami claimed the lives of 30 thousand people. The height of the destructive waves was equal to a ten-story building. During the eruption of Krakatoa, gases entered the stratosphere, which prevented the penetration of sunlight. The temperature in these areas dropped by 3 degrees. There are not many catastrophes in the world that have so strongly affected the climate of the planet.
Spitak earthquake
On December 7, 1988, at about twelve o'clock in the afternoon, an earthquake occurred in Armenia, which wiped out the city of Spitak from the face of the earth in half a minute. About 20 thousand people lived in the settlement. The catastrophe not only claimed the lives of thousands of people, but also changed the history of the Armenian Republic. Thousands of local residents were left homeless. Many were injured, which led to disability. An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale caused enormous damage to the country's economy. Experts say that its power can be compared with the explosion produced by ten atomic bombs. The seismic wave from the earthquake reached Australia.
In December 2004, an underwater earthquake struck the Indian Ocean, causing a devastating tsunami. Huge waves hit the coast of Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The natural disaster took the lives of about 300 thousand people. On the Internet, you can find a video where huge masses of water destroy everything in their path, leaving no chance for a person to save. The locals and tourists had only a couple of minutes to escape.
The tsunami developed according to the classical scenario: the water began to recede from the coast into the sea, exposing the seabed, and then crests of giant waves appeared on the horizon. The speed of the water shaft during a tsunami reaches 800 km / h. A modern airliner flies at the same speed. At the depth of the ocean, the waves reached 60 m, and closer to the coast - up to 20 m. The catastrophe is considered one of the most destructive in the history of our planet.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Titanic and Wilhelm Gustlow
Perhaps the most famous maritime disaster of the last century was the shipwreck of the Titanic cruise ship in 1912. As a result, 1,523 people died.
However, this disaster is far from the biggest if you look at the number of deaths. The greatest maritime disaster that has ever happened can be called the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov liner by a Soviet submarine during World War II (in January 1945).
According to the most conservative estimates, the losses amounted to about 9,500 people.
Holifax's Atomic Bomb
December 6, 1917. That morning, the French military transport Mont Blanc entered the harbor of the Canadian port city of Halifax, en route from New York to Bordeaux. While entering the port, the Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian cargo steamer Imo, which was just leaving Halifax.
In the holds of the French transport was ... 3,000 tons of explosives intended for the war with Germany! As a result of the collision, a strong fire broke out on the Mont Blanc.
After unsuccessful attempts to put out the fire, the crew began to hastily evacuate the ship.
And on the embankment of the city, crowds of people who came to stare at the fire were already gathering.
At 9 o'clock in the morning there was an explosion, which the world did not know before the advent of the atomic bomb. The explosion to the bottom exposed the bay - the water under the ship seemed to part.
Dozens of ships in the port sank. Almost all port and coastal facilities within a radius of five hundred meters were literally blown away by the shock wave. More than 3,000 people died that day, 2,000 were missing, and about 9,000 people were injured.
All that remains of the bomb ship is a 100-kilogram piece of the hull that flew as far as 22 kilometers!
The only photograph of the explosion in the port of Halifax on December 6, 1917. The picture was taken from a distance of 20 km.
Major disasters of the 20th century. G Orc Hour "Maxim Gorky"
On May 18, 1935, the largest aircraft of that time, the Maxim Gorky, took off from the Moscow airfield at Khodynskoye Pole. This celestial giant was built as the flagship of a special propaganda air squadron.
The plane was amazing. Length - more than 30 meters, wingspan - 63 meters, 8 motors. The aircraft could take on board 72 passengers and crew members, which was a record figure for the aviation of those years.
On that day, 11 crew members and 36 passengers were on board the plane - employees of a Moscow aviation institute with their families. A few minutes after takeoff, an escort fighter crashed into Maxim Gorky.
The fighter pilot made a mistake in performing a complex maneuver. He was ordered specifically for the press to perform a “dead loop” around a giant aircraft ... The window dressing cost the lives of 47 people.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Superfire on a superairship
May 6, 1937 in New Jersey (USA) there was a catastrophe of the German super-airship "Hindenburg". The airship had unimaginable dimensions: length - 245 meters, diameter - about 40 meters, volume - 200 thousand cubic meters of hydrogen!
It was the largest aircraft in the history of aeronautics.
He took on board about a hundred passengers and crew members, developed a speed of up to 140 kilometers per hour and could stay in the air for several days. The Hindenburg was on its 18th transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to New York. The landing site was Leyhurst, a suburb of New York. However, during landing, a fire broke out on the airship. The flame in 34 seconds completely destroyed the "pride and greatness of Germany." The tragedy claimed the lives of 35 people. With this catastrophe began the rapid decline of the era of passenger airships.
The airship caught fire while docking with the mooring mast.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Admiral's death
And yet the biggest disaster in the history of aeronautics occurred on April 4, 1933. During a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, the Akron airship, which belonged to the US Navy, crashed. Of the 76 people on board, 73 were killed.
Akron was one of the largest airships in the world.
So he could carry five aircraft. As Akron flew past the Barnegat Lighthouse in New Jersey, a strong wind picked up. The airship sank and collapsed on impact with the water. 73 people died. Only three managed to escape. This disaster was the end point of the service of airships in the fleet. After all, the main supporter of this, Admiral Moffet, died on the Akron.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Mercedes victims
The biggest accident in the history of motor racing occurred in 1955 at Le Mans (France). A Mercedes-Benz driven by famous racer Pierre Levegh crashed into the stands at high speed and exploded. 83 people died, including Pierre Levegh.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Boeing to Boeing
On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife Airport (Canary Islands), killing 583 people. This plane crash was the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of civil aviation.
And the largest plane crash in the history of Soviet aviation occurred on July 10, 1985. As a result of a crew error, the Aeroflot Tu-154 went into a tailspin and crashed near the city of Uchkuduk (Uzbekistan). All 200 people on board were killed ...
Major disasters of the 20th century. 73 seconds of Challenger
On January 28, 1986, the largest catastrophe in the history of astronautics occurred. On that day, the Challenger spacecraft with seven astronauts on board was launched from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome (Florida, USA). This event received special attention. TV broadcasters broadcast this launch directly from the cosmodrome.
The crew included two women. One of them, teacher Krista McAuliffe, was supposed to teach a geography lesson for the first time in the history of mankind while in low Earth orbit. In addition to thousands of spectators, President Ronald Reagan and his wife were also present at Cape Canaveral.
At the 73rd second of the flight, at an altitude of 17,000 meters, due to a malfunction in the engines, the Challenger exploded. Several hundred tons of rocket fuel incinerated the ship in the blink of an eye, leaving the astronauts no chance of salvation.
Fifteen years later, on February 1, 2003, another American space shuttle, the Shuttle Columbia, broke apart while returning from orbit. All seven crew members on board were killed.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Disappeared area
On June 4, 1988, a powerful deafening explosion was heard on the northwestern outskirts of the city of Arzamas.
Three wagons of freight train No. 3115 exploded, en route to Arzamas-16 from Dzerzhinsk. The wagons contained about 118 tons of explosives intended for mining enterprises. As a result of the explosion of monstrous force, 1530 residential buildings were swept off the face of the earth, a huge funnel with a diameter of 52 meters and a depth of 26 meters (the height of a nine-story building) was formed.
The blast wave lifted into the air everything in the region of half a kilometer from the epicenter. In a matter of seconds, a whole neighborhood of Zheleznodorozhnikov was wiped off the face of the earth.
According to the most rough estimates, 1,500–2,000 people suffered that day.
Major disasters of the 20th century. deadly cloud
On June 4, 1989, the largest railway accident in the history of Russia and the USSR occurred near Ufa. At the time of the passage of two passenger trains, there was an explosion of gas that oozed from the pipe of a nearby pipeline.
According to official data, 573 people died (according to other sources - 645), 623 became disabled, having received severe burns and bodily injuries. There were 181 children among the dead. The power of the explosion was estimated at 300 tons of trinitrotoluene. The fire caused by the explosion covered an area of about 250 hectares.
PS.
It is impossible not to mention another catastrophe that occurred on September 11, 2001. On the morning of this day, a group of 19 terrorists captured 4 aircraft at once. Two of them were aimed at the towers of the World Trade Center, which led to the complete destruction of skyscrapers. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, and another crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Then 246 people died in the planes. In total, as a result of the global attack of terrorists, 2977 people became victims. Footage of those events spread around the world.
Scientific and technological progress makes life easier for a person, but also leads to man-made accidents. So it was at all times. We will talk about the five most severe disasters in the history of the USSR.
Kurenevskaya tragedy
The Kurenevskaya tragedy occurred in Kyiv on March 13, 1961. On December 2, 1952, a decision was made to create a landfill from construction waste in the notorious place of Babi Yar. This place was blocked by a dam, which protected the Kurenevsky district from the merged waste from the brick factories. On March 13, the dam broke, and a mud wave 14 meters high rushed down Teligi Street. The stream had great strength and washed away everything in its path: cars, trams, buildings.
Although the flood lasted only an hour and a half, during this time a wave of waste managed to claim the lives of hundreds of people and cause catastrophic damage to the entire city. The exact number of victims could not be established, but this figure is close to 1.5 thousand people. In addition, about 90 buildings were destroyed, about 60 of which were residential.
The news of the disaster reached the population of the country only on March 16, and on the day of the tragedy, the authorities decided not to advertise what had happened. For this, international and long-distance communications were disabled throughout Kyiv. Later, the expert commission issued a decision on the causes of this accident, they called "mistakes in the design of hydraulic dumps and the dam."
Radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant
The radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, which was located in Nizhny Novgorod, occurred on January 18, 1970. The tragedy occurred during the construction of the K-320 nuclear submarine, which was part of the Skat project. When the boat was on the slipway, the reactor suddenly turned on, which worked for 15 seconds at its maximum speed. As a result, radiation contamination of the entire machine assembly shop occurred.
At the time of operation of the reactor, there were about 1,000 people working at the plant in the room. Unaware of the infection, many went home that day without the necessary medical care and decontamination treatment. Three of the six victims taken to a hospital in Moscow died of radiation sickness. It was decided not to make this incident public, and all those who survived were taken non-disclosure subscriptions for 25 years. And only the next day after the accident, the workers began to process. The liquidation of the consequences of the accident continued until April 24, 1970, more than a thousand workers of the plant were involved in these works.
The Chernobyl accident
The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The reactor was completely destroyed by the explosion, and a huge amount of radioactive material was released into the environment. The accident was the largest in the history of nuclear energy. The main damaging factor in the explosion was radioactive contamination. In addition to the territories located in close proximity to the explosion (30 km), the territory of Europe was affected. This was due to the fact that the cloud formed from the explosion carried radioactive materials many kilometers away from the source. The fallout of iodine and cesium radionuclides was recorded on the territory of modern Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, while over the next 15 years, another 60 to 80 people died from the consequences of the accident. More than 115 thousand people were evacuated from the 30-kilometer affected area. More than 600,000 servicemen and volunteers took part in the liquidation of the accident. The course of the investigation was constantly changing. The exact cause of the accident has not yet been determined.
Kyshtym accident
The Kyshtym accident was the first man-made disaster in the USSR, it happened on September 29, 1957. It happened at the Mayak plant, which was located in the closed military city of Chelyabinsk-40. The accident was named after the closest city of Kyshtym.
The reason was an explosion that occurred in a special tank for radioactive waste. This container was a smooth cylinder, which was made of stainless steel. The design of the vessel seemed to be reliable, and no one expected that the cooling system would fail.
An explosion occurred, as a result of which about 20 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere. About 90 percent of the radiation fell on the territory of the Mayak chemical plant itself. Fortunately, Chelyabinsk-40 was not damaged. During the liquidation of the accident, 23 villages were resettled, and the houses themselves and domestic animals were destroyed.
No one died as a result of the explosion. However, the employees who carried out the elimination of the infection received a significant dose of radiation. About a thousand people took part in the operation. Now this zone is called the East Ural radioactive trace and any economic activity in this territory is prohibited.
Disaster at the Plesetsk cosmodrome
On March 18, 1980, an explosion occurred while preparing for the launch of the Vostok 2-M launch vehicle. The incident took place at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. This accident led to a large number of human casualties: only in the immediate vicinity of the rocket at the time of the explosion there were 141 people. 44 people died in the fire, the rest received burns of varying severity and were taken to the hospital, later four of them died.
The fact that hydrogen peroxide was used as catalytic materials led to the fact that in the manufacture of filters. Only thanks to the courage of the participants in this accident, many people were able to get out of the fire. The liquidation of the disaster lasted for three days.
In the future, scientists abandoned the use of hydrogen peroxide as a catalyst, which made it possible to avoid such incidents.
Humanity will never forget about the accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. The explosion and fire happened on April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers from the coast of Louisiana, at the Macondo field. The oil spill was the largest in US history and effectively ruined the Gulf of Mexico. We remembered the largest man-made and environmental disasters in the world, some of which are almost worse than the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
15 biggest man-made disasters in the world disasters, man-made disasters
Source: therichest.imgix.net
Could the accident have been avoided? Technogenic disasters often occur as a result of natural disasters, but also because of worn-out equipment, greed, negligence, inattention ... The memory of them serves as an important lesson for humanity, because natural disasters can harm people, but not the planet, but technogenic threaten absolutely the whole world around.
Spill of red-hot steel - 35 victims
On April 18, 2007, 32 people died and 6 were injured when a ladle containing molten steel fell at the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation plant in China. Thirty tons of liquid steel heated to 1500 degrees Celsius fell from the overhead conveyor. Liquid steel broke through the doors and windows into the adjacent room, where the shift workers were.
Perhaps the most horrifying fact that the study of this catastrophe uncovered is that it could have been prevented. The immediate cause of the accident was the misuse of substandard equipment. The investigation concluded that there were a number of safety deficiencies and breaches that contributed to the accident.
When emergency services reached the crash site, they were stopped by the heat of the molten steel and were unable to reach the victims for a long time. After the steel began to cool, they found 32 victims. Surprisingly, 6 people miraculously survived this accident, and with severe burns were taken to the hospital.
The collapse of the composition with oil in Lac-Megantic - 47 victims
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The explosion of the train with oil occurred on the evening of July 6, 2013 in the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec, Canada. A train owned by The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, carrying 74 tanks of crude oil, has derailed. As a result, several tanks caught fire and exploded. It is known about 42 dead, 5 more people are missing. As a result of the fire that engulfed the city, approximately half of the buildings in the city center were destroyed.
In October 2012, epoxy materials were used on the GE C30-7 #5017 diesel locomotive during engine repair in order to complete the repair as soon as possible. In subsequent operation, these materials collapsed, the locomotive began to smoke heavily. Leaking fuels and lubricants accumulated in the turbocharger housing, which led to a fire on the night of the crash.
The train driver was Tom Harding. At 23:00 the train stopped at Nantes station, on the main track. Tom contacted the dispatcher and reported problems with the diesel, strong black exhaust; the solution of the problem with the diesel locomotive was postponed until the morning, and the driver left to spend the night in a hotel. The train with the diesel locomotive running and dangerous goods was left overnight at an unattended station. At 23:50, the 911 service received a message about a fire on the lead diesel locomotive. The compressor was not working in it, and the pressure in the brake line was decreasing. At 00:56, the pressure dropped to such a level that the hand brakes could not hold the cars and the uncontrolled train went down the slope towards Lac Megantic. At 00:14, the train derailed at a speed of 105 km/h and ended up in the city center. Cars derailed, explosions followed, and burning oil spilled along the railroad.
People in a nearby cafe, feeling the tremors of the earth, decided that an earthquake had begun and hid under the tables, as a result, they did not have time to escape from the fire ... This railway accident became one of the deadliest in Canada.
Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP - at least 75 victims
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The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is an industrial man-made disaster that occurred on August 17, 2009 - a "rainy day" for the Russian hydropower industry. As a result of the accident, 75 people died, serious damage was caused to the equipment and premises of the station, and electricity production was suspended. The consequences of the accident affected the ecological situation in the water area adjacent to the HPP, the social and economic spheres of the region.
At the time of the accident, the HPP was carrying a load of 4100 MW, out of 10 hydraulic units, 9 were in operation. At 8:13 local time on August 17, the destruction of hydroelectric unit No. 2 occurred with the flow of significant volumes of water through the shaft of the hydroelectric unit under high pressure. The power plant personnel, who were in the engine room, heard a loud bang and saw the release of a powerful column of water.
Streams of water quickly flooded the engine room and the rooms below it. All hydroelectric power plants were flooded, while working GAs experienced short circuits (their flashes are clearly visible on the amateur video of the disaster), which put them out of action.
The non-obviousness of the causes of the accident (according to the Minister of Energy of Russia Shmatko, “this is the largest and most incomprehensible hydropower accident that has ever been in the world”) caused a number of versions that were not confirmed (from terrorism to a water hammer). The most probable cause of the accident is the fatigue failure of the studs that occurred during the operation of the hydraulic unit No. 2 with a temporary impeller and an unacceptable level of vibration in 1981-83.
Piper Alpha explosion - 167 victims
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On July 6, 1988, the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea was destroyed by an explosion. The Piper Alpha platform, installed in 1976, was the largest structure on the Piper site, owned by the Scottish company Occidental Petroleum. The platform was located 200 km northeast of Aberdeen and served as the site's oil production control center. The platform had a helipad and accommodation for 200 oilmen working in shifts. On July 6, an unexpected explosion occurred on the Piper Alpha. The fire that engulfed the platform did not even give the staff the opportunity to send an SOS signal.
As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that moment died, only 59 survived. It took 3 weeks to extinguish the fire, with strong winds (80 mph) and 70 foot waves. The final cause of the explosion could not be established. According to the most popular version, there was a gas leak on the platform, as a result of which a small spark was enough to start a fire. The accident on the Piper Alpha platform led to serious criticism and subsequent revision of the safety standards for oil production in the North Sea.
Tianjin Binhai fire - 170 victims
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On the night of August 12, 2015, two explosions broke out at a container storage area in the port of Tianjin. At 22:50 local time, reports of a fire began to arrive at the warehouses of the Zhuihai company, which transports hazardous chemicals, located in the port of Tianjin. As investigators later found out, it was caused by spontaneous combustion of nitrocellulose dried and heated in the summer sun. Within 30 seconds of the first explosion, a second one occurred - a container of ammonium nitrate. The local seismological service estimated the power of the first explosion at 3 tons of TNT equivalent, the second at 21 tons. Firefighters arrived at the scene for a long time could not stop the spread of fire. The fires raged for several days and there were 8 more explosions. The explosions created a huge crater.
The explosions resulted in the death of 173 people, 797 injured, and 8 people are missing. . Thousands of Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia and Hyundai vehicles were damaged. 7,533 containers, 12,428 vehicles and 304 buildings were destroyed or damaged. In addition to death and destruction, damage totaled $9 billion. Three apartment buildings were found to have been built within a one-kilometer radius of the chemical warehouse, which is prohibited by Chinese law. Authorities have charged 11 officials from the city of Tianjin in connection with the bombing. They are accused of negligence and abuse of power.
Val di Stave, dam burst - 268 victims
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In northern Italy, over the village of Stave, the Val di Stave dam collapsed on July 19, 1985. The accident destroyed 8 bridges, 63 buildings, 268 people died. After the crash, an investigation determined that there had been poor maintenance and a low operational safety margin.
In the upper of the two dams, rainfall made the drainage pipe less efficient and clogged. Water continued to flow into the reservoir and the pressure in the damaged pipe increased, which also caused pressure on the coastal rock. The water began to seep into the soil, liquefy into mud, and weaken the banks until, finally, erosion occurred. In just 30 seconds, water and mud flows from the upper dam broke through and poured into the lower dam.
The collapse of the waste heap in Nambia - 300 victims
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By the 1990s, Nambiya, a mining town in southeast Ecuador, had a reputation for being an "aggressive eco-environment". The local mountains were pitted with miners, riddled with holes from mining, the air is humid and filled with chemicals, toxic gases from the mine and a huge waste heap.
On May 9, 1993, much of the coal slag mountain at the end of the valley collapsed, killing about 300 people in a landslide. 10,000 people lived in the village on an area of about 1 square mile. Most of the city's houses were built right at the entrance to the mine tunnel. Experts have long warned that the mountain has become almost hollow. They said that further coal mining would lead to landslides, and after several days of heavy rains, the soil softened, and the worst predictions came true.
Texas bombing - 581 victims
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A man-made disaster happened on April 16, 1947 in the port of Texas City, USA. A fire aboard the French ship Grandcamp detonated about 2,100 tons of ammonium nitrate (ammonium nitrate), which led to a chain reaction of fires and explosions on nearby ships and oil storage facilities.
The tragedy killed at least 581 people (including all but one Texas City Fire Department), over 5,000 people were injured, and 1,784 were hospitalized. The port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed, many enterprises were razed to the ground or burned down. More than 1,100 vehicles were damaged and 362 freight cars were wrecked - property damage was estimated at $100 million. These events sparked the first class action lawsuit against the US government.
The Court found the Federal Government guilty of criminal negligence committed by government agencies and their representatives involved in the production, packaging and labeling of ammonium nitrate, aggravated by gross errors in its transportation, storage, loading and fire fighting measures. 1,394 compensations were paid out, totaling about $17 million.
Bhopal disaster - up to 160,000 victims
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This is one of the worst man-made disasters in the Indian city of Bhopal. As a result of an accident at a chemical plant owned by the American chemical company Union Carbide, and producing pesticides, the poisonous substance methyl isocyanate was released. It was stored at the factory in three tanks partially dug into the ground, each of which could hold about 60,000 liters of liquid.
The cause of the tragedy was an emergency release of methyl isocyanate vapor, which heated above the boiling point in the factory tank, which led to an increase in pressure and a rupture of the emergency valve. As a result, on December 3, 1984, about 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the atmosphere. A cloud of methyl isocyanate covered the nearby slums and the railway station, located 2 km away.
The Bhopal disaster is the largest in terms of the number of victims in modern history, resulting in the immediate death of at least 18 thousand people, of which 3 thousand died on the day of the accident, and 15 thousand in subsequent years. According to other sources, the total number of victims is estimated at 150-600 thousand people. A large number of victims is explained by the high population density, untimely informing residents about the accident, lack of medical staff, as well as adverse weather conditions - a cloud of heavy vapors was carried by the wind.
Union Carbide, responsible for the tragedy, paid the victims $470 million in an out-of-court settlement in 1987 in exchange for a waiver of claims. In 2010, an Indian court found seven former Union Carbide Indian executives guilty of negligent loss of life. The convicts were sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 100,000 rupees (approximately $2,100).
Banqiao dam tragedy - 171,000 dead
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The designers of the dam cannot even be blamed for this catastrophe, it was designed for severe floods, but this one was completely unprecedented. In August 1975, a typhoon broke through the Banqiao Dam in western China, killing about 171,000 people. The dam was built in the 1950s to generate electricity and prevent floods. Engineers have developed it with a margin of safety for a thousand years.
But on those fateful days in early August 1975, Typhoon Nina immediately produced over 40 inches of rain, exceeding the area's annual rainfall total in just one day. After several days of even heavier rains, the dam gave way and was washed away on 8 August.
The break of the dam caused a wave 33 feet high, 7 miles wide, which traveled at a speed of 30 miles per hour. In total, more than 60 dams and additional reservoirs were destroyed due to the destruction of the Banqiao Dam. The flood destroyed 5,960,000 buildings, killed 26,000 people immediately and another 145,000 died later as a result of famine and epidemics due to natural disaster.
You can’t live in the past, dream about the future, you need to appreciate the present, enjoy every day you live. The horrors that befell mankind in the twentieth century cannot be forgotten. You will find the most tragic events, shocking lessons of fate in our review.
Water disasters
The death of thousands of people in the water spaces is caused by various reasons: the human factor, structural errors, military operations, natural disasters. Consider the most large-scale tragedy in terms of the number of victims that occurred in the last century on the water:
1. "Goya". On a warship confiscated by the Germans after they occupied Norwegian territories during the Great Patriotic War, 7,000 people died. On April 16, 1945, a torpedo was fired at a powerful ship from a Russian submarine, as a result of which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea.
2. "Wilhelm Gustloff". The German ship is named after a Nazi party leader. At the time of construction, it was considered the largest ship in the world. Before the war, it was used as a means of recreation. The ship sank on January 30, 1945. The reason is the attack of the Soviet military from a submarine. The exact composition of the passengers is unknown, but according to the official version, 5,348 people died. There were women and children on board.
3. "Mont Blanc". On December 6, 1917, a French military ship exploded in the Canadian harbor, which collided with the ship "Imo" (Norway). Few survived the fire. The death rate is 2,000 people (1,950 people have been identified), and the cause is a banal human factor. Apart from the pre-nuclear era, this explosion was the most powerful in the history of mankind. About the terrible tragedy, you can watch a film shot in Canada in 2003 - "Destruction City".
4. "Bismarck". German battleship sunk by British aircraft on 12 June 1944 during the course of the war. The number of victims was 1,995 people.
The sinking of the Titanic At the time of commissioning, the ship was considered the largest on earth. The giant ship sank on its first voyage on April 15, 1912, colliding with an iceberg.
Horror and death in the air
In the middle of the twentieth century, air travel gained mass character. The active development of passenger aviation has led to an excess of deaths in the sky compared to "water" mortality. Here is a list of "bright" tragedies that claimed the lives of many innocent people:
1. Collision in Tenerife. The crash happened on March 27, 1977. Location of the event - Canary Islands (Tenerife). The fatal "meeting" of the two liners caused the death of 583 people. 61 people managed to escape in the tragedy. For the period of the twentieth century, this air crash is the largest in terms of the number of civil aviation.
2. Disaster near Tokyo. On August 12, 1985, the Japanese airliner lost control 12 minutes after its takeoff, losing its vertical stabilizer. For 32 minutes, the crew fought to save the aircraft in the air, but a collision with Mount Otsutaka affected the devastating outcome of events. 520 people died, and only 4 survived. The disaster is called the largest in the history of "one plane".
3. Charkhi Dadri (city in India). The plane crash occurred as a result of a collision between the flagship and Kazakh airliners at an altitude of 4,109 meters. All passengers were killed, including the crew of both aircraft (a total of 349 people).
4. Air crash near Paris. On March 3, 1974, a wide-body airliner built by a Turkish company killed 346 people. A few minutes after takeoff, the cargo bay door suddenly opened.
Explosive compression destroyed all control systems. The plane picketed and crashed into the forest. The conducted investigation pointed to the imperfection of the locking mechanism in the compartment. After that, many airlines made changes in aircraft designs to avoid catastrophic repetitions.
5. Terror attack near Cork. On the way to London, India's flagship carrier was the victim of a brutal terrorist attack. Literally a few minutes before arrival, an explosion occurred on board the plane and all those on board died (329 people). This is the largest terrorist attack in Canadian history.
Tragedies on earth
Some tragedies that happened in the last century on earth still cause concern and fear, continuing to destroy the health and lives of ordinary people, namely:
1. Bhopal disaster. The man-made tragedy is the largest in history. There was an accident at a chemical plant in India (1984). 18,000 people died. 3,000 of those who died were victims of instant death, and the rest died in the months and years following the tragedy. The cause of the horrific event could not be determined.
2. Chernobyl. April 26, 1986 there was a major fatal accident, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine). The release into the air of a huge amount of radioactive substances caused the death of hundreds of people, and not immediately, but gradually.
3. Piper Alpha. At the oil station in 1988, 167 people (members of the staff) died, 59 people were lucky, they managed to survive. In the oil industry, this disaster is the largest.
In addition to man-made tragedies, many other shocking events took place in the 20th century - a warrior, the total number of millions of victims of which can no longer be counted: the First World War (1914-1818), the Civil War in Russia (1917-1923), the Second World War (1939 -1945), Korean War (1950-1053).
Natural disasters
1. Cyclone "Bhola". The disaster happened in 1970. Tropical elements swept several territories of Pakistan and Bengal, wiping out cities and small villages. The researchers failed to find out the exact number of deceased citizens (approximately 5,000,000 people).
2. Valdivskoe earthquake (1960 - Chile). The resulting tsunami did not save many innocent people. The number of victims reached several thousand people. In addition to death, the natural phenomenon caused significant damage to the affected territories (estimated cost - $ 500 million).
3. Megatsunami in Alaska (1958). Earthquake, landslides, collapse of rocks and ice into the water, the world's highest tsunami. The element has victims in the amount of 5,000,000 people.
