Revealing how US congressman Leo Ryan exposed the true horror behind Reverend Jim Jones' religious community deep in the Guyanese jungle.
Relive the final moments onboard Swissair Flight 111, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Canada in September 1998.
Relive the US Army's botched 1993 mission to capture key lieutenants in warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's clan in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Revealing how nine climbers lost their lives on Mount Everest in 1996, in the deadliest two-day period of the mountain's history.
In the worst single-aircraft accident in aviation history, a Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain in 1985, killing 520 people. How did it happen?
It's a regular morning in the lively town of Amagasaki when a busy commuter train derails and crashes into an apartment building, killing over a hundred passengers and trapping hundreds more inside.
Analyse the controversial claim that the second atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki was essential to bringing a swift end to World War II.
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.
Nineteen sailors lost their lives when HMS Coventry was bombed in the Falklands War. Find out why the ship was unable to defend herself.
25 members of the Northern Ireland intelligence community lost their lives in a helicopter crash in 1994. Was pilot error really to blame?
Naval historian Andrew Lambert takes a closer look at the Royal Navy's battle with Bismarck and how it changed the course of World War Two.
In 1963, a tsunami hit Europe's tallest dam and swamped the valley, taking over 2,000 lives. A number of systematic errors led to the tragedy.
When a 51-day siege at a religious cult's ranch leads to an FBI attempt to force them out with tear gas, a fire erupts, killing nearly 80 people.
With Japan facing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, an expert reveals the critical chain of events which led to the Fukushima crisis.
A look at the series of decisions and failings that led to the the world's biggest accidental marine oil spill and the deaths of 11 rig workers.
On 26th November 2008, terrorists attack two luxury hotels, a Jewish study centre, a café and a train station in Mumbai, leaving 166 dead.
Deconstructing the tragic events and security lapses that led to the worst attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbor.
Peacetime regulations meant that the American fleet in Hawaii were unprepared for the surprise Japanese attack on December 7th, 1941.
Analysing the circumstances surrounding a tragic accident in 1998, which saw 19 tourists and a cable car operator fall 300 feet to their deaths.
Survivors recount the events of October 5th, 1999, when a London-bound express collided with a rush-hour commuter train, killing 32 people.
When two planes collided above Germany in 2002, 71 people died. Having lost his family, Vitaly Kaloyev murdered the air traffic controller.
In 1984, an Indian city became the site of history's biggest man-made disaster, when, in a few hours, 3,000 people choked to death on toxic gas.
In 1974, a storm erupted into 148 tornadoes, killing 315 people and destroying thousands of homes. With a team of scientists, Professor Tetsuya Fujita investigates the worst storm of the 20th century.
In 1995, for the first time in over 300 years, the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat erupts. Two years later, a second eruption occurs, this time with deadly results.
Texas City is home to one of the largest refineries in the USA, but in March 2005 it became ground zero for a huge chemical accident.
On 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was trying to make history by putting the first civilian in space, but 73 seconds into its fateful flight the shuttle was engulfed in a ball of flames.
American Airlines Flight 587 is a popular flight between New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on 12 November, 2001, an Airbus A300-605R takes off on this routine flight. At 9:16 AM, within two minutes of take-off, something goes horribly wrong and Flight 587 is in dire trouble. The tail fin shears off the Airbus fuselage and the plane is doomed. It slams into Rockaway, a residential area of New York City that is home to many firemen, police and their families who had been deeply affected by the events 9/11. The horrifying crash takes the lives of 265 passengers,...
In the golden age of ocean liners, one ship has been built to outpace and outshine them all: the Titanic. Billed as the "Unsinkable" ship, the Titanic is a mechanical marvel, a combination of innovative and luxurious design. However, just days after its voyage begins, the Titanic meets a catastrophic end, becoming one of the biggest shipping disasters of all time. On 14 April, 1912 at 11:40 PM, the Titanic grazes an iceberg, which causes the ship to sink, taking with it the lives of more than 1,500 people. Officials have struggled for decades to sift through the theories and conspiracy speculations to figure out what sank the massive ship. Using...
The 1972 Munich Olympics holds significant promise, offering a chance to showcase a new Germany to a post-WWII world. However, this hopeful beginning meets a tragic end on September 5 at just after 4:00 AM when Palestinian terrorists kill two Israeli athletes and capture 9 others. As police struggle to handle the crisis, the terrorists anticipate their every move. By 1:30 AM on 6 September, the fighting finally stops, and all of the athletes, five terrorists and one German police officer are dead. With the circumstances behind the police's actions shrouded in mystery, one athlete's wife vows to uncover the truth. An anonymous source begins sending...
"The fire was everywhere and the thought going through your mind is to just escape". This chilling recap from survivor Dave Dollarhide, a pilot on the USS Forrestal, details one of the most famous disasters in U.S. military history. During the Vietnam War on 29 July, 1967, Dollarhide was one of six Skyhawk pilots on deck, preparing for an airborne attack. However, the danger that day did not come from enemy fire, but from a blazing inferno on the ship itself. At 10:51 AM, as pilots prepare for take off, a sudden explosion occurs, igniting a fire that spread flames across the deck and into the heart of the ship below. Initial explosions wipe out...
In less than 20 seconds on 29 June, 1995 at 5:52 PM, a major superstore in Seoul, South Korea with 1,500 employees and shoppers inside collapses, sending thousands of tonnes of rubble to the ground. Rescue workers begin the agonizing mission of pulling out survivors while investigators scramble to ascertain the cause of the collapse, which killed more than 500 people. Was it terrorism or another gas blast that continually rock the city? What the officials uncover terrifies them and its aftermath affects an astonishing 98 percent of buildings in South Korea. Superstore Collapse highlights the unimaginable stories of survivors trapped for approximately...
On 26 December, 2004, the largest earthquake in 40 years strikes deep beneath the Indian Ocean. Lasting eight minutes and stretching a record 1,600 kilometres in length, the earthquake's massive strength surpasses measurement on the Richter scale. Just after 8:15 AM, billions of tonnes of water speed towards land with a force equivalent to more than 30,000 Hiroshima bombs. Within minutes, the terrifying wall of water makes landfall, engulfing entire towns in its path. Deadly currents and dangerous debris tear buildings apart, as people across South Asia fight for survival. Ultimately claiming the lives of more than 250,000 people, it is the most...
As a winter storm blankets the Washington, DC area with inches of snow, Air Florida Flight 90 prepares for its journey. Just 24 seconds after take-off at 4:01 PM on 13 January, 1982, the plane collides with the Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge, a major commuter bridge for the city, before crashing into the icy river below. As the plane breaks apart, five passengers and one flight attendant survive the crash only to find themselves trapped in water just one degree above freezing. Rescue workers try desperately to save the six badly injured survivors clinging to wreckage. With 78 people dead, U.S. officials now face the daunting task of uncovering...
In early 1954, De Havilland is at the forefront of commercial aviation, introducing the first passenger jet airliner to the world. On 10 January, 1954, a flight takes off in Rome at 10:31 AM to finish the last leg of its international journey, carrying children returning home for the school term, a famous BBC reporter and others travelling to Britain. Approximately 30 minutes later, the plane disappears from radar at high altitude and crashes into the Mediterranean Sea. Authorities confirm that all 35 passengers and crew have died, and post-mortem examinations show unusual injuries to many victims. As officials work to identify a cause, a second...
In Chicago in 1979, a packed aircraft crashes into a trailer park community – 31 seconds after take-off – killing 273 people. The cause of the crash propels aviation maintenance rules into the future.
In Chicago in 1979, a packed aircraft crashes into a trailer park community – 31 seconds after take-off – killing 273 people. The cause of the crash propels aviation maintenance rules into the future.
The shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere after a successful 16-day mission in space, killing all seven crew. NASA had not suffered such a loss since the Challenger in 1986. What caused the accident?
In 1981, at the Hyatt hotel in Kansas City, suspended walkways come away from their fixings, plummeting onto revellers below and leaving 114 dead and 186 injured. What caused this structural failure?
The village of Galtur, nestled in an Alpine valley and surrounded by towering peaks, is a charming picture-perfect ski resort in Austria, which draws up to 4,000 tourists during the peak ski season. Although Galtur had been declared safe from the threat of avalanches, this idyllic winter paradise was changed within minutes on February 23, 1999. Suddenly that winter afternoon, 187,000 tons of snow break loose from the slope of Grieskopf Mountain, reaching speeds of up to 418 km/h, and crashing into the village's 'safe zone'. The avalanche kills 31 people, and injures many others. An investigation later reveals the underlying weaknesses in the snow...
A fully loaded El-Al 747 cargo flight takes off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on October 4, 1992. As it climbs, the two engines on the right wing fall to the earth and the jumbo jet ploughs into a crowded apartment block.
A Boeing 737-400's engine fails shortly after take-off on a routine flight. The flight diverts to a nearby airport, but something goes wrong and the plane crashes into a busy freeway, killing 47 people. What went so wrong?
On May 11, 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 en route to Atlanta takes off, with no one aware there's a fire in the cargo hold. Nine minutes into the flight, the jet crashes into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
It is a beautiful spring morning in picturesque Washington State, U.S. on May 18, 1980. In the shadow of Mount Saint Helens, one of the most active of the continent's volcanoes, people are waking up, having breakfast and starting to go about their daily business. Suddenly and brutally, this idyllic scene is shattered when the mountain violently erupts. In a matter of minutes, ash fall has turned day to night, 600 square kilometers have been laid waste and 57 people have lost their lives in one of the biggest recorded explosions of all time.
November 18, 1987: during rush hour at King's Cross, Britain's busiest Underground rail station, a carelessly discarded match sparks the deadliest fire in the Underground's history, killing 31 people.
Nairobi, Kenya, 7 August, 1998. Terrorists detonate a truck bomb at the rear of the US embassy, killing 213 people and injuring 4,000 more. The embassy in Tanzania is also hit, resulting in an FBI manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
On March 6th, 1987, the Herald of Free Enterprise set sail from Zeebrugge, but 20 minutes after leaving port the ferry began to capsize. 193 people lost their lives in Britain's worst peacetime maritime accident since the Titanic.
In January 1995, the residents of Kobe, Japan, woke up to a violent earthquake rocking the city. Within 20 seconds almost 400,000 buildings were destroyed, leaving 250,000 people homeless and more than 5,500 people dead.
The Kursk, a Russian submarine, is on a military exercise when two explosions send her plunging to the bottom of the sea. What caused the tragedy? Theories include sabotage, friendly fire, and a collision with a US submarine.
On July 19th, 1989, United Airlines flight 232 experienced a failure of its tail-mounted engine. The plane dropped out of the sky and onto the runway at Sioux City, erupting in a massive fireball. Of the 285 passengers, 112 died.
On October 12, 2002, the peaceful island of Bali, Indonesia was stunned by the worst terrorist attacks since 9-11. At 11:07 pm a bomb explodes at the busy Paddy's Bar in Kuta Beach, Bali. Fifteen seconds later, a second, massive blast devastates the Sari Club across the road. Then a smaller third bomb - a calling card - explodes outside the US Consulate in another part of Bali. Paddy's Bar and Sari Club are situated on a popular strip of nightclubs and restaurants on Kuta Beach. The streets are packed full foreigners out for the night. Balinese whizz around on motorbikes and the street is bumper-to-bumper with cars. This is a hugely popular place,...
Gare de Lyon, Paris, 27 June 1988, a frantic train driver calls the stationmaster at Gare de Lyon, with terrible news. His train is out of control, heading downhill towards one of Paris' biggest stations. After desperate attempts to slow the train and hysterical calls to the Paris station, he leaves his cab and moves passengers to the rear of the runaway train. Seconds after his last call, the train careers into the station and ploughs into the back of a packed stationary commuter train which sits still on the platform. Fifty-six people die in what, at the time, was the worst disaster in French railway history. There is an enormous public outcry...
On March 15, 1986, Singapore experiences the worst national disaster since the end of the Second World War. At 11.25 a.m., Hotel New World, a popular budget hotel, bank and nightclub in Singapore's Little India District collapses like a pack of cards. In less than a minute the occupants of the building are buried under a mammoth pile of concrete and debris. Fifty people are trapped - many in the upper layers of the rubble but a number have fallen into the basement car park below the building. They are plunged into complete darkness with 6 storeys of concrete on top of them. Rescue team crawl through small tunnels in the rubble to pull out bodies...
About 8:30 a.m. on November 21, 1996, a commercial building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, explodes due to a natural gas leak. Thirty-three people were killed, and at least 69 were injured. The building was situated in Rió Piedras, a shopping district in San Juan. The structure was a six-story mixture of offices and shops, owned by Humberto Vidal Inc. Investigations revealed that an inactive gas service line that had once serviced the Chicken Kingdom. restaurant leaked though a corrosion hole caused by excavation damage. How could have the gas leak been prevented? Why wasn't it detected earlier?
July 17, 1996, it's a hot summer's day in New York and TWA flight 800 from JFK to Paris is running 90 minutes late. The 230 passengers and crew swelter on the runway awaiting take off. There is no reason to suspect anything is wrong, but in less than 30 minutes the Boeing 747 explodes and plummets 16,000 feet into the waters off Long Island, killing everyone on board. There is no mayday call from the crew. The mystery spawns a theory that the plane was accidentally downed by a US Navy missile and prompts the biggest crash investigation in U.S. history. Could it have been a missile attack? Or a catastrophic mechanical failure caused by the overheated...
The largest airship ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany's government, the Hindenburg met its fatal demise on May 6, 1937. Named after the president of Germany, Paul Von Hindenburg, the airship was 245 meters long and could cruise grandly across the Atlantic at 1268 km/h. The Hindenburg epitomised an era of luxury travel. But on her first trip of the 1937 season, disaster strikes. As she approaches at Lakehurst Naval Station in New Jersey, U.S., fire breaks out and the ship is engulfed in a flames. In less than a minute, the airship is destroyed. Miraculously, only 36 of the 97 passengers and crew are killed. The Hindenburg disaster spelled...
In July 2000, the world's first supersonic airliner crashed into the ground, killing all on board and putting an end to its 25-year reign as the high-speed symbol of luxury and human achievement.
In 1999 a freight truck caught fire in the seven-mile Mont Blanc tunnel, creating a deadly inferno and one of the world's worst tunnel accidents.
A reconstruction of the terrorist attack on the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in 1995, which left 168 dead and 674 injured. The programme looks at why the building collapsed and why some people died whilst others lived.
In 1990 a lethal fire broke out on the Scandinavian Star ferry during the early hours while passengers slept. Many were overcome by fumes and died. Investigators piece together the events and ask whether it was accident or arson.
Behind every disaster lies a catalogue of events, a series of trigger points that combine to create a catastrophe. "Seconds From Disaster" examines those pivotal moments, some of which changed the course of history itself.
Behind every disaster lies a catalogue of events, a series of trigger points that combine to create a catastrophe. "Seconds From Disaster" examines those pivotal moments, some of which changed the course of history itself.
At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a routine test is being carried out. But the situation spirals out of control. The nuclear reactor core breaks down and within 56 seconds one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in history occurs
Piper Alpha oil rig churned out 120,000 barrels of oil a day until a lapse in communication during maintenance led to a gas leak and a ferocious fire. The resulting explosions killed 167 men and destroyed the rig.
Behind every disaster lies a catalogue of events, a series of trigger points that combine to create a catastrophe. "Seconds From Disaster" examines those pivotal moments, some of which changed the course of history itself.
Stava dam consisted of two basins, one on top of the other. Due to poor design they could not cope with waste from a nearby mining operation and collapsed, causing sludge to flow down the valley to the village of Stava at 90kmph.
Behind every disaster lies a catalogue of events, a series of trigger points that combine to create a catastrophe. Seconds From Disaster examines those pivotal moments.
The world's worst aviation accident occured when two jumbo jets collided in fog on the runway at Tenerife. Both planes, fully loaded with fuel, burst into flames leaving 583 people dead.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a temperate and nearly cloudless morning over the eastern United States. Millions of men and women ready themselves for work. Among them is an air traffic controller in Boston, Mass. Based on sheer intuition, he will break all protocol this morning, alerting the Air Force that a potential disaster is unfolding on his radar screen. Air Force Colonel Bob Marr, commander NEADS (North East Air Defense Sector] will scramble all he has to try and avert a catastrophe - but it will consist of only two F-15's that begin "searching for a needle in a haystack". Meanwhile, a group of 19 young men armed with simple box cutters...
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