Seconds from Disaster

Seconds from Disaster

Paul Bernays/NGCI
Seconds from Disaster

Synopsis

Accounts of famous technological disasters and their subsequent investigations.

Episodes

Season 6

  • Jonestown Cult Suicide

    +

    Friday 17th December 1978, deep in the Guyanese jungle, US congressman Leo Ryan and a team of journalists have just arrived at Jonestown - a religious community run by the enigmatic Reverend Jim Jones. They are there to investigate rumours of abuse and oppression.

  • Fire In The Cockpit

    +

    On September 2nd 1998, Swissair Flight 111 came crashing into the Atlantic Ocean near Canada's eastern coastline. All 229 people on board were killed instantly by the impact. The recovery effort and subsequent investigation that followed remains the largest and most expensive in Canada's history.

  • Black Hawk Down

    +

    On 3rd October 1993, US soldiers from the elite units of the U.S. Army's Rangers and Delta Force stormed a building near the in Mogadishu, Somalia, to capture key lieutenants in warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's clan. What should have been a simple snatch and grab operation lasting under an hour, turned into a day and night battle that resulted in the deaths of 18 Rangers and an estimated 500 to 1,000 Somali civilians.

  • Into The Death Zone

    +

    Over two days in spring of 1996, 9 climbers died on the descent from Mount Everest. A fierce storm, hubris and ambition and a series of errors contributed to make this the deadliest day in the history of the mountain.

  • Terrified Over Tokyo

    +

    When a Boeing 747 crashes into a remote mountain-side 45 minutes after take off in 1985, investigators are left baffled. This is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history, with 520 passengers and crew left dead. Was the crash due to a bomb on board, or could something be flawed in the very structure of all 747s?

  • Runaway Train

    +

    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.

  • Nagasaki- The Forgotten Bomb

    +

    The use of the atomic bombs in World War II still excites controversy, particularly the necessity for the second bomb on Nagasaki. The argument that it was the only way to bring a swift end to the war, and save thousands of American lives, wins the day in public.

  • Norway Massacre

    +

    On July 22, 2011, lone gunman Anders Behring Breivik emerges from a western Norwegian suburb to commit one of the worst terrorist atrocities in Europe since World War II. The massacre starts with an explosion in Oslo and finishes with the slaughter of dozens of teenagers at a youth camp on the isolated island of Utoya.

  • Sinking The Coventry

    +

    May 25 1982, The Falklands War. HMS Coventry, a Type 42 guided-missile destroyer is on operations with HMS Broadsword. They are tasked with shooting down Argentinian jets. They face a low level attack from 4 fighters which leads to the loss of Coventry.

  • Chinook Helicopter Crash

    +

    June 2nd 1994 and RAF Chinook helicopter was engaged in a routine but important task transporting 25 members of the Northern Ireland security and intelligence community from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George near Inverness. This journey was brought to a dramatic end when the Chinook crashed into the Mull of Kintyre.