Photo Credits
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Join us as we deconstruct the chain of events leading up to some of the world’s most tragic disasters.
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Blending advanced CGI, re-enactments, archival footage, forensic science, dramatic eyewitness accounts and expert testimony, we recreate in gripping detail the final moments behind some of the most calamitous disasters of modern time.
Comet Air Crash
In early 1954, one of the world’s first passenger jet airliners, the British-made de Havilland Comet, crashes into the Mediterranean 20 minutes after leaving Rome for London. Post-mortem examinations show that many of the 35 people who died suffered highly unusual injuries. Investigators hoped to find answers by piecing together the plane. Three months later a second Comet crashes and victims exhibit the same bizarre injury patterns. What brought down the Comets, and what could have caused such strange injuries?
Montserrat
With its crisp sandy beaches, fertile greenery and picturesque scenery, Montserrat is a true Caribbean paradise. The tiny island suffers a fright in 1995 when its Soufriere Hills Volcano erupts for the first time in over 300 years. Experts establish an exclusion zone around the volcano but on June 25, 1997 it erupts again, expelling tonnes of lava, killing 19 people and devastating several villages. We re-enact the final moments before tragedy struck.
Chicago Flight 191
On 25 May, 1979, a McDonell Douglas - DC10 aircraft, packed with holiday and business travellers takes off from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in the U.S. Only 31 seconds after take-off, the plane loses power from one of its engines and crashes into a nearby trailer park, taking the lives of 273 people. Hundreds of witnesses claim to have seen an engine separate from the wing upon take-off, but the three-engine DC10 should have been able to fly using just one engine. What caused the pilots of the DC 10 to lose control of their plane so quickly? Join us as we unlock the mystery behind one of America’s most catastrophic air accidents.
Texas Refinery Disaster
Texas City houses one of America’s largest oil refineries, which covers 500 hectares and produces more than 41 million litres of gasoline per day. On March 23, 2005 at 1.20pm, a huge explosion rocks the plant. Fifteen people are killed and 170 injured in a blast that is felt a full eight kilometres away. As the debris clears and the refinery’s owner, BP, is hit by a series of multi-million-dollar lawsuits, the terrible truth emerges: the disaster is the result of a tragic error during routine maintenance work.
Space Shuttle Challenger
Excitement and anticipation surrounds the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S. This momentous endeavour would mark the first time that any civilian has been flown into space. On 28 January, 1986, school children and others watch eagerly on the ground and on television, as school teacher Christa McAuliffe prepares to become the first civilian to join the astronauts. At 11:38 AM, Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off, barrelling towards the atmosphere. However, a mere 73 seconds later, onlookers and the nation watch in horror when the shuttle is suddenly engulfed in flames and breaks apart in the sky. A full-scale enquiry of the crash is launched with NASA officials searching for clues to the shuttle’s explosion, desperate to answer the most agonizing question: could this tragedy have been prevented?
Tornado Outbreak
On 3 April, 1974, the United States’ ‘Tornado Alley’ region experiences the full force of Mother Nature’s raw power when a single storm system causes an astonishing 148 tornadoes to touch down in thirteen states in just one day. Several of these storms are F-5 strength, the strongest storms on Earth with winds up to 511 kilometres per hour. The tornadoes rip through quiet rural communities and bustling towns, leaving paths of destruction in their wake. When the weather finally clears, 330 people are dead and more than 5,400 people are injured, causing more than US $660 million in damage. Top meteorologists from around the country must work together to identify how all of these tornadoes could have developed in hopes of creating better warning systems. What they find revolutionizes understanding of a tornado’s structure and modernizes tornado warning procedures.
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Some volcanic lava avalanches called pyroclastic flows can travel at speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour. Temperatures at their core can reach six to seven hundred degrees centigrade.
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