The National Geographic documentary programme Seconds From Disaster investigates historically relevant man-made and natural disasters from the 20th century. Each episode aims to explain a single incident by analyzing the causes and circumstances that ultimately affected the disaster. The program uses re-enactments, interviews, testimonies, and CGI to analyze the sequence of events second-by-second for the audience. National Geographic has broadcast many of the programme's episodes under multiple titles. The title currently or most recently listed on the NGC Calendar is shown first. Alternate titles are shown in parentheses.
On July 25, 2000 a Concorde supersonic jet operating as Air France Flight 4590 takes off from Charles de Gaulle Airport. A piece of metal from a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 that fell onto the runway impales the Concorde's tire, which explodes. Debris is flung into the wing, causing a fire and the Concorde's crash into a hotel in Gonesse, killing the 100 passengers and nine crew members on board, as well as four others in the hotel.
A truck carrying margarine and flour catches fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which connects France and Italy under Mont Blanc; 39 people are killed in the inferno.
In retaliation against the U.S. government, whom Timothy McVeigh blames for the Waco Siege two years earlier, McVeigh parks a truck carrying a bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Minutes later it explodes, destroying the building and killing 168 people.
An arsonist sets a fire on Deck 3 of the Frederikshavn, Denmark-bound M/S Scandinavian Star, loaded with passengers and cars at Oslo, Norway. 158 people on board die from smoke inhalation and another person dies in hospital from his injuries, bringing the total of deaths to 159.
5
5
"Derailment at Eschede" ("High Speed Train Crash")
A wheel of the ICE 1 No. 884 'Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen' high speed train fails during travel in Eschede, Germany. The train derails and strikes a bridge, killing 101 people and injuring 105.
After one of a string of barges hit a support of a bridge in Big Bayou Canot near Mobile, Alabama, the Sunset Limited (an Amtrak train) derails as it crosses the bridge, resulting in its collapse and the deaths of 47 people.
Days after residents of Guadalajara, Mexico complained of a foul smell, a series of gasoline-fueled explosions in the sewers kills 206 people. An investigation finds that the accident was caused by an improperly-routed water pipe producing humidity that corroded a steel pipeline, allowing gasoline to seep into the sewer system.
A funicular train catches fire as it travels through a tunnel at the Kaprun Ski Resort, Austria, killing 155 people; 12 people survive, exiting the tunnel past the burning train.
A series of explosions and fires on the Piper Alpha, an oil platform 110 miles off the coast of Scotland that had been converted to natural gas production, results in the deaths of 167 people and the collapse of the platform.
Note: Only episode with the opening narration being "sequence of critical events, locked in time".
Two dams above the village of Stava in northern Italy collapse, causing an ensuing mudslide and flood down the Stava River valley that kills 268 people in the village below.
At Tenerife North Airport, in the Canary Islands, KLM Flight 4805, a Boeing 747 trying to take off through fog, strikes Pan Am Flight 1736, another Boeing 747 that was still on the runway. Both aircraft explode, killing 583 people.
As the World Trade Center in New York City burns after being hit by two hijacked aircraft, another hijacked aircraft is deliberately flown into The Pentagon, killing all 64 people on board and 125 on the ground.
Note: Only episode with the opening narration being "don't just occur".
Season 2 (2005–2006)
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Disaster
Date of disaster
Nature of disaster
Original air date
14
1
"Space Shuttle Columbia" ("Columbia's Last Flight")
As the Space ShuttleColumbia lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center on a 16-day mission, a piece of insulating foam breaks off the external fuel tank and damages the left wing of the shuttle. As it enters the Earth's atmosphere during the return trip, Columbia disintegrates under the massive heat, killing all seven astronauts on board.
At the Austrian alpine village of Galtür, snow on the mountains surrounding the village build up. Due to the changing temperature during the month, a strong but brittle layer of ice forms under the snow. On the day of the disaster, the ice layer collapses and the building ice bank slips down the slope and forms a powder avalanche. Two minutes later, it hits Galtur and buries 57 people in the snow, killing 31 of them.
Note: opening narration changed to "unravel the fateful moments".
British Midland Flight 92, a two-month-old Boeing 737-400, takes-off from Heathrow Airport in London, heading for Belfast. While on route the aircraft's left engine suffers a fan blade failure. The crew shut down the wrong engine and start to prepare for an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport. On approach to the airport the damaged left engine fails completely and then catches fire. With insufficient thrust to maintain altitude, the plane crashes 900 metres from the runway on the M1 motorway embankment at Kegworth, killing 47 people, though miraculously, the plane managed to clear the motorway itself, preventing any further casualties on the ground.
Note: opening narration changed to "unravel the clues and count down" and used in subsequent episodes. This episode also looks briefly at the Bombing of Pan Am flight 103. exceptions are stated in note.
The British car ferry M/S Herald of Free Enterprise departs the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The crew accidentally left the bow doors open and water enters the car deck, causing the ferry to capsize, taking the lives of 193 passengers and crew.
Note: Only episode with the opening narration being "unravel the decisions that triggered those".
The Japanese city of Kobe is rocked by the Great Hanshin earthquake, which destroys many of its buildings. Many traditional houses collapse due to the heavy roofs and weak walls. Soil liquefaction occurs at the coastal and port areas of Kobe. 6,434 people die in what is then Japan's worst peacetime disaster.
Note: opening narration is "behind every disaster lies a chain of critical events that decides who lives and who dies".
20
7
"Crash Landing at Sioux City" ("Crash Landing in Sioux City")
United Airlines Flight 232, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 en route to Chicago from Denver, experiences a catastrophic failure of the titanium fan disk in its tail engine. The pilots try to land at Sioux City, Iowa. As the DC-10 descends it rolls right just above the ground. The DC-10 crashes and explodes into a fireball, killing 112 of the 296 people on board. 184 people survive the accident, in part thanks to a deadheading training-check and an airman named Dennis Edward Fitch who was able to provide assistance to the flight crew in controlling the DC-10.
Bombers in Bali attempt to detonate bombs in three different places. The first, a suicide bomb, is detonated in a small nightclub across the road from another nightclub, the Sari Club. A second bomb, a truck filled with explosives parked outside the Sari Club explodes 15 seconds after the first. Less than a minute later, a third bomb detonates outside the United States Consulate. The total death toll is 202.
Note: opening narration is "behind every disaster lies a chain of critical events that decides who lives and who dies. unravel the fateful moments in those final".
Hotel New World, a one-star budget hotel located in Singapore's Little India district, collapses due to growing microcracks in the failing structural columns. The cracks were caused by a miscalculation of the building's structural load by the structural engineer. After a seven-day rescue operation, 17 people are saved, but 33 perish.
23
10
"TWA Flight 800" ("TWA 800") ("The Last Flight of TWA 800")
TWA Flight 800 leaves New York City for Paris 80 minutes late. Only 12 minutes into the flight, there are short circuits in electrical wires that cause ignition of vaporised jet fuel in the center fuel tank. The explosion causes the nose of the aircraft to break off. The aircraft continues to disintegrate as it plummets into the sea, killing all 230 on board.
A commuter train bound for Paris is forced to stop at Le Vert de Maisons (Paris RER) when a woman pulls the emergency brake after realising she was about to miss her stop. The crew reset the brake system so the train can resume its trip. Then the train arrives at the Gare de Lyon, it collides with another train parked at the station, killing 56 people.
When the zeppelin LZ-129 Hindenburg catches fire at Lakehurst Naval Air Station for landing. The zeppelin explodes into an inferno and crashes, killing 35 of the 97 people on board and one ground crew member.
For days, a foul smell hangs around in the Humberto Vidal shoe store in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The smell is caused by leaking propane gas coming from an unmapped pipe in the sloping road near the shoe store. The gas goes undetected due to faulty gas searching techniques. Then, an air conditioner with bad wiring is switched on, starting a spark that ignites the propane and the store explodes, claiming 33 lives.
Note: opening narration is "behind every disaster lies a chain of critical events that decides who lives and who dies".
1,500 people gather for a dance in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City. The second and 4th floor skywalks, hung from steel rods, fail. They collapse and crush 114 people to death.
28
15
"Amsterdam Air Crash" ("Schiphol Plane Crash") ("Plane Crash in the Suburbs")
El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747-200F cargo airliner, takes-off from Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, when the engines on the right wing shear off. 8 minutes later, Flight 1862 glides into a high rise apartment building killing 43 people.
29
16
"Russia's Nuclear Sub Nightmare" ("Kursk submarine disaster") ("The Kursk")
During a training mission, a torpedo on board the Kursk leaks hydrogen peroxide. It reacts with iron oxide (rust) in the bow and blasts the front of the submarine. Although the submarine has explosion-proof walls, the explosion spreads through the ventilation shafts, killing everyone at the command post and preventing the sub from performing an emergency blow. 135 seconds later, another explosion rocks the submarine. Then it sinks, killing all but 23 men on board. While the survivors wait to be rescued, special boards that produce breathing oxygen with potassium superoxide drop into the oily floor, starting a reaction that creates a fire, killing them as well.
Note: opening narration is "triggered by a chain of critical events".
On the night of 18 November 1987, a dropped match produced a small flame on a wooden escalator at the King's Cross tube (underground railway) 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. This effect is now called the trench effect.
ValuJet Flight 592, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 with 110 people on board, is bound for Atlanta, Georgia from Miami, Florida. Suddenly a fire starts in the cabin and cockpit, so large it consumed in flames and the crew are incapacitated by the smoke. The jet loses control and goes down in the Everglades, leaving no survivors.
Note: opening narration is "the result of a chain..".
The RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City with over 2,000 people on board, strikes an iceberg. The rivets holding the hull together fail upon impact, allowing water to enter the first five compartments, one more than she can handle and remain afloat. Plus, it also happens that the ship is equipped with insufficient lifeboats. Within 2 hours and 40 minutes, she sinks, taking with her about 1,500 lives.
Fighter aircraft on the aircraft carrierUSS Forrestal prepare to launch for a sortie over Vietnam. Suddenly a fighter jet explodes and a massive blast rocks the ship. Despite the crew efforts the fire spread to the below deck. The disaster kills 132 personnel with a further 161 wounded and 2 missing, presumed dead.
It's been more than two months after 9/11 and the event is still fresh in everyone's minds. American Airlines Flight 587, operated by an Airbus A300-600R, leaves John F. Kennedy Airport for Santo Domingo. Shortly after take-off, the aircraft spins out of control and crashes into Rockaway, Queens, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.
During the Olympic Games in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes are held hostage by Palestinian terrorists. They supply a list of Palestinian prisoners whose release they demand in exchange for freeing the athletes. But at Fürstenfeldbruck Airport, a rescue attempt goes wrong, and by 12am the next day, 17 people are dead.
37
5
"Superstore Collapse" ("Department Store Collapse")
Three air conditioning units on the roof of the five-story Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea are moved across the roof. Two years later, a column on the fifth floor fails causing the building to collapse. The store had been kept open, despite reservations about its safety, and 502 people in the store were killed.
Air Florida Flight 90 leaves Washington National Airport for Miami with 79 passengers and crew on board. The Boeing 737-200 is delayed for hours due to undesirable weather, and only seconds after getting airborne it crashes into the 14th Street Bridge. It bounces off and slams into the icy Potomac River. Five people are rescued, but 78 lose their lives, four of them motorists on the bridge. Lenny Skutnik and Arland D. Williams Jr. emerges as the heroes of that fatal day.
The second largest earthquake in 40 years, with a magnitude of 9.3, strikes the town of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Shortly after, it unleashes a tsunami, which takes nearly 230,000 lives around the coasts of the entire Indian Ocean.
A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1, the world's first passenger jet airliner, takes off from Rome but explodes over the Tyrrhenian Sea 26 minutes into the flight, killing all 35 people on board. The investigation begins but three months later, another Comet crashes evidently in the same manner taking another 21 lives. All Comets are grounded and the investigation takes a step forward. The investigation results in improved metallurgical understanding, from which all aircraft design greatly benefits, even over five decades after the incidents.
Note: This episode mainly focuses on BOAC Flight 781, the first to crash.
41
9
"Chicago Air Crash" ("Flight Engine Down") ("Chicago Flight 191")
American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, takes-off from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. But when the engine falls off, the plane stalls and crashes into a trailer park, killing all on board plus two on the ground. The investigators discover a shocking secret which will turn the aviation world upside down.
42
10
"Texas Oil Explosion" ("Texas Refinery Disaster") ("Oil Fire in Texas")
At the BP Oil Refinery in Texas City, a test on the distillation tower goes wrong. The next day workmen are starting a routine day when a carelessly parked pickup truck with its engine left running backfires when it is engulfed triggering a massive explosion which cause the death of 15 workers.
The most violent outbreak of tornadoes in history, the 1974 Super Outbreak, releases 148 tornadoes in 13 American states and one province in Canada. Thousands of homes are destroyed and more than 330 people die; 5,000 people are left homeless or injured. A team of meteorologists led by Ted Fujita will examine the tragedy to provide new methods to predict more precisely the future tornadoes.
Space Shuttle Challenger blasts off from Cape Canaveral to start the STS-51-L mission. 73 seconds later, Challenger's boosters explode and send it into the ocean in pieces. All seven astronauts on board are killed.
45
13
"Eruption on Montserrat" ("Montserrat") ("When the Volcano Blew")
In July 1995, the Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat spews ash over the island. The nearby capital of Plymouth is evacuated. Two years on, Soufrière Hills erupts violently. Pyroclastic flows rage down the mountain and destroy Plymouth and Bramble Airport, killing 19 people. The eruption generates a small tsunami.
Note: This episode mainly focuses on the events of June 25, 1997.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacks Pearl Harbor in the United States which is neutral in World War II, thus bringing the U.S. into the conflict; the attack is presented as a Japanese disaster, "A Day of Infamy", bombing a neutral country, missing key targets, and provoking a war they could never win. 2,403 victims are killed and 1,178 are wounded, while Japan loses 64 personnel, and 1 sub captain is captured. The U.S. has 328 planes and 19 ships damaged or destroyed, the most famous of which is the USS Arizona.
On July 1, 2002, a BashkirianTupolev Tu-154 and a DHLBoeing 757 cargo plane collide while they are over Überlingen, Germany and crash, killing all 71 people on board, including 45 Russian schoolchildren on a trip to Barcelona. Having lost his entire family, Vitaly Kaloyev would later murder the air traffic controller.
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 immediately plummets to the ground, killing the 20 occupants. The aircraft, though severely damaged by the cable, lands safely.
On March 11, 2011, the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan's history, at magnitude 9.0, causes a tsunami off the country's east coast that results in 15,893 deaths, 2,572 missing, and 6,152 injured. The tsunami causes a meltdown at the TEPCOFukushima 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 plant.
After several engagements over the previous days - including the sinking of HMS Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait three days prior - on May 27, 1941, elements of the Royal Navy sink the German battleship Bismarck, Germany's largest battleship ever made, and one of the largest warships of the Second World War.
In 1963, a landslide from Monte Toc into the reservoir of the Europe's highest dam causes a giant wave that destroys a number of villages including the town of Longarone, claiming over 2,000 lives.
In 1993, an armed religious cult called the Branch Davidians were led by the charismatic David Koresh. After a 51-day siege at the Davidians armed compound in Waco, Texas, 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 and 4 ATF agents die, including 22 children. This motivates Timothy McVeigh to retaliate by perpetrating the Oklahoma City Bombing.
On November 26, 2008, 10 Islamic terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba organisation 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. Note: The episode features interviews with survivors like Dara Huang and Gulam Noon.
Season 6 (2012)
Season 6 of Seconds From Disaster premiered on the one-year anniversary of the 2011 Norway attacks (July 22, 2012). The episode was promoted as a one-off special. The other nine episodes aired from November 5, 2012 in Australia with the episode "Jonestown Cult Suicide".[1]
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 at a summer camp organised by the Worker's Youth League on the island of Utøya.
On November 18, 1978, cult leader Reverend Jim Jones and his followers die in Guyana, South America. Congressmen Leo Ryan (D-CA) is assassinated, and Jim Jones dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at a sermon in which 909 people of the cult die from drinking poisoned 'grape juice', the largest mass murder-suicide of U.S. citizens in history.
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, killing all 229 people on board.
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 Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture and crashes, killing all but four people out of the 524 passengers and crew on board. Tragically, the investigation discovers that more than the final four people survived the crash, but died as a result of the JSDF's hesitance in travelling to the crash site, believing that no one could have survived such a dramatic accident.
On April 25, 2005, a seven-car commuter train derails and crashes just before Amagasaki Station in Japan, causing 107 deaths and 562 injuries. Investigations reveal that the driver made numerous mistakes during the minutes prior to reaching the derailment site, and the prevailing theory regarding the crash's cause uncovers a harsh and systematic 'retraining system' that led the driver to fear being punished for his numerous mistakes, leading him to push the train beyond safe operating limits.
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 industrial Japanese city of Nagasaki.
On May 25, 1982, during the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina, a low level bomb attack from Argentinian jets causes HMS Coventry to capsize within 20 minutes.
On June 2, 1994, a Royal Air ForceBoeing Chinook helicopter crashes on the Mull of Kintyre, on the west coast of Scotland. All 29 people aboard die, 25 of them being counter-terrorism officers who battled the IRA. 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.
Season 7 (2018)
Episode 1, "Chopper Down", aired on 15 February 2018 at 8pm on National Geographic UK,[2] while Episode 2 aired on 22 February with the title "Deadly Design".[3]
This compilation of previous Seconds from Disaster combines two helicopter crashes of a military nature. In 1993, a US Army Black Hawk crashed in the deserted streets of Mogadishu. In 1994, a Royal Air Force 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.
This compilation of previous Seconds from Disaster episodes combines two airliner crashes that took hundreds of lives. In 1998, Swissair Flight 111 fell from the sky due to a wiring fault that sparked a fire in the entire cockpit. This fire grew uncontrollably and led to the demise of all 229 people on board. In 1985, Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into a remote mountainside after its rear pressure bulkhead failed, killing 520 people, making it the worst single aircraft accident in aviation history.
