Engineers are one of the most important behind-the-scenes groups of people, and most of us just take
them and their work for granted. The truth is that there can only be so many designers,
and the vast majority of engineers do the unglamorous, but no less important work, of
building, testing, and improving things for safety to make sure nobody gets hurt and no
one has to pay for large amounts of property damages. However, when you don’t hire enough
skilled engineers to properly focus on safety, and do that all-important work that they do,
you can end up with examples like the 10 tragic events in today’s list.
10. The Deepwater Horizon Disaster Gushed 130 Million Tons Of Oil Into The Ocean
Back in 2010, BP’s Deepwater oil rig, operated by the Switzerland based company Transocean
Ltd., suffered a massive blowout, and the world watched in shock and horror. Eleven
people died and 17 were injured in the initial blowout, and immediately people wanted to
know how it had happened. But soon, something even more important became apparent: Due to
the fact that the well was 35,055 feet under water, which was far deeper than any well
in existence (and the only one that was in truly deep water), the oil that started leaking
out quickly became a huge concern.
For years BP and Transocean had contended to regulators that their oil rig was fine
because they were prepared for cleanup, but all they had were the same techniques that
worked in shallow water. No company, BP or otherwise, had any real plan for how to stop
a gushing oil leak coming out of the ocean floor in actually deep water. BP took 87 days
before they managed to plug the leak, and during that time an estimated 130 million
gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, with the Audubon Society estimating a good
one million birds and other marine life were killed by the spill. As for how it all occurred,
it turned out there wasn’t a single reason the oil rig suffered a blowout. It was caused
by multiple failures that could have been prevented in time if not for lax regulators,
and a lax company culture from both BP and Transocean Ltd.
9. Earthquakes May Have Damaged The Fukushima Reactors Long Before The Tsunami
Most people know that that there was a meltdown at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
after a tsunami several years back, but many don’t know the official story — or at
least what some suspect is the true cause. The official story is that an earthquake knocked
out the power to the plant, but apart from that it left the plant largely unharmed and
functioning just fine. In fact, according to this official story, the plant only failed
when the tsunami came along and destroyed their backup generators, after which the plant’s
cooling system stopped working and the meltdown occurred.
However, investigative reporters who interviewed workers that had been at the plant when the
earthquake occurred offer a version of events that differs a bit from that of the Japanese
government. Many of them claim they saw significant damage to pipes, some of which led to cooling
systems for the reactors. Others saw serious structural damage or other issues and claim
they were already told to evacuate because of oxygen tanks exploding and pipes bursting
well before the tsunami hit. Then, as they were leaving, the tsunami warning came and
they had to go to the top of the building to wait to be rescued. While the government
version of the events calls into question the safety of a reactor near the coast (due
to the possibility of a tsunami), the second version of events calls into question any
reactor of a similar design that is in any kind of earthquake zone at all.
8. The Challenger Disaster Was Caused By An O-Ring, But Only Because Of Poor Decisions
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was set to launch and it was going to be a
truly epic affair. A schoolteacher had been chosen to join the six astronauts, in order
to show that even normal civilians could go into space, and children around the country
were watching the launch from their classrooms on that cold Tuesday morning. Unfortunately,
the festive atmosphere soon turned tragic as the shuttle exploded before reaching the
upper atmosphere, killing all seven people aboard. The Secretary of the State at the
time, William P. Rogers, formed a commission to find the root cause.
They quickly found that the technical cause was a faulty o-ring. This small piece of plastic
helped form seals in between the parts of the rocket boosters, and doesn’t operate
well in cold — it tends to lose its elasticity. In fact, the commission found that despite
knowing the o-ring didn’t function well below 53 degrees, they went ahead with the
launch despite it being 36 degrees outside that morning. The commission found that there
were concerns about the o-ring, but that they never reached the top of the chain of command.
This is believed to have been due to incredibly poor communication, and that the top brass
was desperate to get the launch done in time for Reagan’s State of the Union, so they
weren’t particularly interested in learning about potential last minute problems that
would delay the launch.
7. The Columbia Disaster Could Potentially Have Been Avoided As Well
The Columbia was a storied space shuttle that had been flying for decades and was set for
its final mission. After many delays, it took off with a crew of seven on January 16, 2003.
As the shuttle was launching, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the propellant tank
and hit the left wing. Engineers at NASA tried to look at it with every camera angle they
could and see how bad the damage was, but it was hard to make out. Now, NASA’s top
management was not particularly concerned, as foam insulation had broken off at three
launches in the past and hadn’t caused any critical damage. However, some felt that this
time it might be critical, and pushed to use satellites to get a closer look.
Unfortunately, no one took that look during the Columbia’s two week mission, partly
because some of the top brass felt there would be nothing they could do at that point even
if critical damage had occurred. Then, on February 1, 2003, the space shuttle reentered
Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart, killing all aboard and scattering debris far into
the distance. The damage to the wing allowed the heat from reentry — along with the wind
— to basically tear it apart, and after that the rest of the shuttle wasn’t far
behind. While those in charge had decided to do nothing while the crew was in space,
thinking nothing could be done, they were wrong. Later studies found that rescue, or
even a possible repair by spacewalk, could have been done — NASA’s top management
just didn’t take the danger that seriously.
6. The Apollo One Fire Almost Put An Early End To US Ambitions To Fly To The Moon
On January 27, 1967, NASA was testing their Apollo One command module, in advance of attempting
a potential flight to the moon. There were three astronauts aboard: Roger Chaffee, Ed
White, and Gus Grissom, and they were bolted into the pressurized compartment to begin
the launch tests. While the tests were not proceeding particularly well and they were
having technical issues, things were not anything beyond frustrating until the call of “Flames!”
came over the communications equipment from inside the command module. The workers outside
did everything they could to get the door open, but by the time they had, it was too
late and all three astronauts were dead — the Apollo program was then shelved for 18 months
while the situation was investigated.
The United States lost three pioneering astronauts that day, but at least NASA did learn something
from the situation. It turns out that a single spark from a faulty piece of equipment had
spread like wildfire in the all-oxygen environment of the cabin, and to make matters worse, most
of the material they were sitting on and around was highly flammable. On top of that, the
highly secured door usually took a good minute and a half to open at the best of times, and
with the extra pressure in the air from the fire, they just really didn’t have a chance.
While this should have been something NASA accounted for to begin with, they made future
doors much quicker to open, replaced the flammable materials, and made the air an oxygen and
nitrogen mix that would not so easily spread fire all over the place.
5. The Boeing 737 Max Crashes And Subsequent Scandal Are Harming Boeing’s Reputation
On October 29, 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 went down over the Java Sea carrying a full load
of passengers — 181 passengers and eight crew members all perished. Then, on March
10, 2019, Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 crashed and took 149 passengers and eight crew members
with it. While plane crashes are always alarming, experts noticed that there were similarities
between the two crashes, and that both involved the new Boeing 737 Max Jet.
The system that allegedly caused all the trouble was called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation
Systems, or MCAS for short. The system used two sensors to determine the nose of the planes’
so called “angle of attack” and adjust it if it thinks it is necessary, even if the
pilot disagrees. On the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, the black box showed that the
plane was dangerously changing the angle of attack, and despite the pilot and copilot’s
constant and best efforts, they could not prevent an uncontrollable nosedive.
Boeing has been under fire because regulators around the world allege the system did not
have enough redundancy to spot malfunctions, that pilots were not given proper knowledge
of it (or proper training for it), and that the limited information they did give on how
to deal with a malfunction was used by the pilot and copilot in the Ethiopian Airlines
crash and that it did not save them. Due to the loss in reputation, Boeing has had to
scale back production to 42 jets from 52 and the 737 Max remains grounded worldwide until
Boeing satisfies people’s fears.
4. The Chernobyl Disaster Was Caused By A Poorly Done Safety Test And Inadequate Design
The Chernobyl disaster occured on April 26, 1986, when Soviet engineers were doing a test
on the number 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in order to ascertain if the emergency
water pumps could be run on inertial power. In order to prepare for their test, they actually
disabled the emergency safety systems of the reactor the night before. They also removed
quite a few of the control rods for the reactor as well, which are used to control power output.
When their experiment didn’t work and they started to worry about meltdown, they reinserted
all 200 control rods at once, which turned out to be a fatal mistake. The rods had graphite
tips, which when inserted under already volatile circumstances caused a chemical reaction that
blew the concrete and steel roof right off the reactor.
The disaster killed two people immediately, and at least 28 workers later succumbed to
radiation poisoning. The fallout is said to have poisoned thousands and it led the entire
world to put a lot more thought and effort into nuclear safety. The disaster was such
a gigantic blow to the Soviet Union that Mikhail Gorbachev later lamented that it may have
been Chernobyl that truly led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
3. The Grenfell Tower Fire Highlighted The Possibility Of Future, Similar Tragedies
On June 14, 2017, a fire rapidly spread through Grenfell Tower in West London. By the time
the smoke had cleared, upwards of 80 people had died and dozens more were injured. The
tragedy became global news and the entire world looked on in horror, as we all watched
the building burn before our eyes. It was quickly discovered that the reason the fire
was able to spread so rapidly was due to a cladding on the outside of the building, which
was there both to spruce up the design and also slightly increase energy efficiency.
Now, this cladding is usually aluminium, and has some kind of filler inside, and those
fillers can be fire retardant. Unfortunately, the filler in the cladding at Grenfell tower
was highly flammable, and the fire quickly raced all around the building.
After the tragedy, authorities in London have now inspected a lot of buildings that have
cladding, and found that most of them failed safety tests. This highlights a serious public
safety concern, as it means there are many, many more buildings at risk of simple fires
raging out of control.
2. The Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse Killed 114 People And Injured Another 216
On July 17, 1981, there was a Tea Dance at the Hyatt Regency Hotel In Kansas City, and
the ballroom was hosting about 1,600 people. The hotel had four floors, and upper walkways
that extended across the main lobby area. The fourth floor walkway was positioned above
the second floor walkway, and a couple dozen or so people were watching the dance from
the walkways above the lobby. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the fourth floor walkway collapsed
on top of the second floor walkway, which then collapsed the whole pile onto the dancing
couples below.
The aftermath was utterly appalling and rescue workers likened it to a war zone. 114 people
were killed and 216 were injured. Many of them were crushed in half, and others were
suffocated or dealt with other awful injuries. Unsurprisingly, an inquest into the matter
occurred as people wanted to know why such a catastrophic failure would happen. The issue
was the second floor walkway had originally been intended to be suspended from the stronger
ceiling supports, but was instead suspended from the fourth floor walkway. As for how
such a bad decision could be made, the change was actually approved over the phone.
1. The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 Killed 21 People And Injured 150 More
If you haven’t heard of this tragic story before, it’ll likely sound too bizarre to
be true. On January 15, 1919, a tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses ruptured
in Boston’s North End. The stories say that its initial speed was 35 miles-per-hour, and
that it reached a wave of 25 feet high and 160 feet wide; 21 people were killed and at
least 150 more were injured by the time all the molasses had settled. Many who were close
to the explosion were simply pulverized, and others drowned in the goop as the kinetic
forces dissipated and it turned back into its highly viscous consistency.
Back in the day they were never really sure what happened, but recent investigations have
discovered that the tank was almost certainly just not adequate for the job. It was too
thin, and while built to hold 2.5 million gallons of liquids, it wasn’t designed for
a thicker liquid that might weigh more — like molasses — and had even shown signs of cracks
that were ignored by the owners and operators of the tank. Some reports even say it was
leaking so badly before it burst that children would come with cups to fill up from the cracks.
It just goes to show that sometimes, on rare occasions, molasses actually flows quickly
in January.