The worst traffic accidents in the world. The biggest disasters of the 20th century

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 was whole line deficiencies and safety 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. A train with a running diesel locomotive 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, social and economic spheres region.

At the time of the accident, the HPP was carrying a load of 4100 MW, out of 10 hydroelectric units, 9 were in operation. At 8:13 local time on August 17, hydroelectric unit No. 2 was destroyed, with significant volumes of water flowing 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 included a heliport 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 accidental release of methyl isocyanate vapor, which heated above the boiling point in the factory tank, which led to an increase in pressure and rupture 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. Big number The number of casualties 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 negligence resulting in 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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You can’t even blame the designers of the dam for this disaster, 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 a few more days heavy rains, the dam could not resist and was washed out on August 8.

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.

17.04.2013

Natural disasters unpredictable, destructive, unstoppable. Perhaps that is why humanity fears them the most. We offer you the top rating in history, they claimed a huge number of lives.

10. The collapse of the Banqiao Dam, 1975

The dam was built to contain the effects of about 12 inches of precipitation daily. However, in August 1975 it became clear that this was not enough. As a result of the collision of cyclones, Typhoon Nina brought with it heavy rains - 7.46 inches per hour, which means 41.7 inches daily. In addition, due to clogging, the dam could no longer fulfill its role. In a few days, 15.738 billion tons of water broke through it, which swept through the surrounding area in a deadly wave. More than 231,000 people died.

9. Earthquake in Haiyan, China, 1920

As a result of the earthquake, which is on the 9th line in the top ranking deadliest natural disasters in history, affected 7 provinces of China. In the Hainan region alone, 73,000 people died, and more than 200,000 people died nationwide. Tremors continued for the next three years. It caused landslides and large ground cracks. The earthquake turned out to be so strong that some rivers changed course, in some natural dams appeared.

8. Tangshan Earthquake, 1976

It happened on July 28, 1976 and is called the strongest earthquake of the 20th century. The epicenter was the city of Tangshan, located in the province of Hebei, China. From a densely populated, large industrial city, almost nothing remained in 10 seconds. The number of victims is about 220,000.

7. Antakya (Antioch) earthquake, 565

Despite the small number of details that have survived to this day, earthquake was one of the most devastating and claimed more than 250,000 lives and brought enormous damage to the economy.

6. Earthquake in the Indian Ocean / tsunami, 2004

It happened on December 24, 2004, just in time for Christmas. The epicenter was off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and Thailand were most severely affected. The second earthquake in history of magnitude 9.1 -9.3. it was the cause of a number of other earthquakes around the globe, for example in Alaska. It also triggered a deadly tsunami. More than 225,000 people died.

5. Indian cyclone, 1839

In 1839, an extremely large cyclone came to India. On November 25, a storm nearly destroyed the city of Coringa. He destroyed literally everything he came into contact with. 2,000 ships that were parked in the port have been swept off the face of the earth. The city was not restored. The storm surges it attracted killed over 300,000 people.

4. Cyclone Bola, 1970

After Cyclone Bola swept through the lands of Pakistan, more than half of the arable land was polluted and spoiled, a small part of the rice and grains were saved, but famine was no longer avoided. In addition, about 500,000 people died from the heavy rains and floods that it caused. Wind force -115 meters per hour, hurricane - category 3.

3. Shaanxi earthquake, 1556

The most destructive earthquake in history happened on February 14, 1556 in China. Its epicenter was in the Wei River valley and about 97 provinces were affected as a result. Buildings were destroyed, half of the people living in them were killed. According to some reports, 60% of the population of Huasqian province died. A total of 830,000 people died. The tremors continued for another six months.

2. Flooding of the Yellow River, 1887

The Yellow River in China is extremely prone to flooding and overflowing. In 1887, this led to the flooding of 50,000 square miles around. According to some reports, the flood claimed the lives of 900,000 - 2,000,000 people. Farmers, knowing the characteristics of the river, built dams that saved them from the annual floods, but in that year, the water swept away the farmers and their homes.

1. Flood of central China, 1931

According to statistics, the flood that occurred in 1931 was scariest in history. After a long drought, 7 cyclones came to China at once, bringing hundreds of liters of rain with them. As a result, three rivers burst their banks. The flood killed 4 million people.

For hundreds of years of sailing on various ships, sailboats and barges across the expanses of the seas and oceans, there have been many kinds of accidents and shipwrecks. Films have even been made about some of them, the most popular of which, of course, is the Titanic. But which shipwrecks were the largest in terms of the size of the ship and the number of victims? In this ranking, we answer this question by presenting the biggest maritime disasters.

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The rating opens with a British passenger liner that was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915, in a zone designated by the Kaiser government as a zone of submarine warfare. The ship, sailing with a painted over name and not raising any flag above it, sank in 18 minutes, 13 kilometers from the coast of Ireland. 1198 people died out of 1959 who were on board. The destruction of this ship set public opinion in many countries against Germany and contributed to the entry of the United States into the First world war two years later.

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Single-screw steamer, had a capacity of 7142 register tons, a length of 132 meters, a beam of 17 meters, a maximum speed of 11 knots. On April 12, 1944, a steamship with explosives with a total mass of more than 1,500 tons stood up for unloading at the pier of the port of Bombay. There were other cargoes on board - 8,700 tons of cotton, 128 ingots of gold, sulfur, wood, engine oil, etc. The ship was loaded in violation of safety regulations. At about 2 p.m. a fire broke out on board, and no actions contributed to its elimination. At 16:06 there was an explosion, which generated a tidal wave of such force that the Jalampada ship, with a displacement of almost 4,000 tons, ended up on the roof of a 17-meter warehouse. After 34 min. there was a second explosion.

Burning cotton scattered within a radius of 900 meters from the epicenter and set fire to everything: ships, warehouses, houses. A strong wind from the sea drove a wall of fire to the city. The fires were extinguished only after 2 weeks. It took about 7 months to restore the port. Official statistics announced 1376 deaths, 2408 people were admitted to hospitals. The fire destroyed 55,000 tons of grain, thousands of tons of seeds, oil, oil; a huge amount of military equipment and almost one square mile of city blocks. 6 thousand firms went bankrupt, 50 thousand people lost their jobs. Many small and 4 large ships, dozens were destroyed.

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It was with this ship that the most famous disaster on the water occurred. The British White Star Line steamer was the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers and the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of construction. Gross tonnage 46,328 register tons, displacement 66,000 tons. The ship is 269 meters long, 28 meters wide and 52 meters high. The engine room had 29 boilers and 159 coal fireboxes. Maximum speed 25 knots. On its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 2224 people on board. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.

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In the harbor of the Canadian city of Halifax on December 6, 1917, the French military cargo ship Mont Blanc, which was fully loaded with one explosive - TNT, pyroxylin and picric acid, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. As a result of the strongest explosion, the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2,000 people died as a result of an explosion under the rubble of buildings and because of the fires that arose after the explosion. Approximately 9,000 people were injured, 400 people lost their sight. The explosion in Halifax is one of the strongest explosions arranged by mankind, this explosion is considered the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.

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This French auxiliary cruiser served as a flagship and participated in the neutralization of the Greek fleet. Displacement - 25,000 tons, length - 166 meters, width - 27 meters, power - 29,000 horsepower, speed - 20 knots, cruising range - 4,700 miles at 10 knots. She sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece on February 26, 1916 after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-35. Of the 4,000 people on board, 3,130 died, 870 escaped.

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After 1944, this German passenger ocean liner was converted into a floating hospital, participated in the evacuation of mostly wounded soldiers and refugees from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army. The liner left the port of Pillau on February 9, 1945 and headed for Kiel, there were more than 4,000 people on board - wounded military personnel, soldiers, refugees, medical staff and crew members. On the night of February 10 at 00:55, the Soviet submarine S-13 torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The ship sank 15 minutes later, killing 3,608 and saving 659 people. When the liner was torpedoed, the submarine commander was convinced that in front of him was not a passenger liner, but a military cruiser.

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The passenger ferry Dona Paz, registered in the Philippines, sank on December 20, 1987 at about 10 p.m. near the island of Marinduque after a collision with the tanker Vector. Approximately 4,375 people died in the process, making this the largest maritime disaster in peacetime.

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This passenger-cargo ship of the "Adzharia" type was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928, and on November 7, 1941, it was sunk by the Germans near the Crimean coast. The death toll was, according to various estimates, from 3,000 to 4,500 people. On the ship were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens, including the staff of 23 military and civilian hospitals, the leadership of the pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of the Crimea. The loading of the evacuees was in a hurry, and their exact number is not known. There is a version that the cause of this maritime disaster was the criminal mistakes of the Black Sea Fleet command. The crowded motor ship, instead of making the transition to the Caucasian, was sent by the command to Yalta.

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A cargo ship built in Oslo, Norway, launched on 4 April 1940. It was confiscated by the Germans after Norway was occupied by Germany. At first it was used as a conditional target for training the crews of German submarines. Later, the ship took part in the evacuation of people by sea from the advancing Red Army. It was armed with cannons. This ship managed to make four trips, in which 19,785 people were evacuated. On the night of April 16, 1945, the ship making the fifth trip was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine L-3, after which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea. More than 6,900 people died in the disaster.

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On May 3, 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, the victims of which were approximately 8,000 people. The German liner "Cap Arkona" and the cargo ship "Tilbek", transporting prisoners from the evacuating concentration camps, were fired upon by British aircraft. As a result, more than 5,000 people died on the Cap Arkon, and about 2,800 on the Tilbeck. According to one version, this raid was a mistake on the part of the British Air Force, who believed that German troops were on the ships, according to another, the pilots were ordered to destroy everything enemy ships in the area.

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The most on the water happened with this German passenger liner, which since 1940 has been converted into a floating hospital. During the Second World War, it was used as an infirmary, a hostel for the 2nd training brigade of submariners. The death of the ship, torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko, is considered the largest disaster in maritime history According to some historians, real losses could be more than 9,000 people.

At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were, and the last one hit the engine room. By the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some lifeboats were launched, and yet in ice water turned out to be a lot of people. From the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats, full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.

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 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 biggest aircraft throughout the history of aviation.

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, strong wind. 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, from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) launched spaceship Challenger with seven astronauts on board. 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 passing 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 shopping 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.

Every year, dozens of terrible man-made disasters occur in the world, which cause significant harm to the world ecology. Today I invite you to read about a few of them in the continuation of the post.

Petrobrice is the Brazilian state oil company. The company headquarters is located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, a disaster at an oil refinery spilled more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) into the Iguazu River. For comparison, 50 tons of crude oil recently spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison drinking water for several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several protective barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially constructed diversion channels.
Petrobrice paid a $56 million fine to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

On September 21, 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse, France, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a salt of nitric acid) exploded, which were in a warehouse finished products. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame, which did not ensure the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people died, the total number of wounded was more than 300, thousands of houses and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left without a roof over their heads, more than 130 enterprises have actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.

On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige fell into a severe storm, in the holds of which there were more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long formed in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil fell into the sea.

Cleaning the sea and coasts from fuel oil cost 12 billion dollars, the full damage to the ecosystem cannot be estimated.

On August 26, 2004, a fuel truck carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell off a 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.
This accident is considered one of the most costly man-made disasters in history - temporary repairs to the bridge cost $40 million, and full reconstruction - $318 million.

On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovsk mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. Following the first explosion, four more explosions followed in 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. perished Chief Engineer and almost all the management of the mine. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the HPP's hydroelectric units. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water conduits were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the engine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to the Siberian regions was disrupted, including the limited supply of electricity in Tomsk, and several Siberian aluminum smelters were cut off. As a result of the disaster, 75 people died and 13 were injured.

Damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including environmental damage. The other day in Khakassia, a trial began on the case of a man-made disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station in 2009.

October 4, 2010 in the west of Hungary there was a major ecological catastrophy. At a large aluminum smelter, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir of toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of caustic substance flooded the cities of Kolontar and Decever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest, with a 3-meter stream.

Red mud is a residue that forms during the production of alumina. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts on it like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

April 22, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana, after an explosion that claimed the lives of 11 people, and a 36-hour fire, a controlled drilling rig sank. deepwater platform Horizon.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster, the platform was operated by British Petroleum.

On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan, at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest in the last 25 years after the disaster at Chernobyl nuclear power plant crash. Following earthquakes of magnitude 9.0, a huge tsunami wave came to the coast, which damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions, melting the core.

The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. The complete elimination of the accident, including the dismantling of the reactors, will take about 40 years.

NPP "Fukushima-1"

On July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of an economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the president of the republic, Dimitris Christofias, of negligently handling the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored right on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

Destroyed Mari power plant in Cyprus