A dramatic reconstruction of the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster. 167 of 226 men on the Piper Alpha oil rig were killed when it exploded on 6 July, 1988.
In 1989 the tail engine of a United Airlines DC10 blew up during a flight to Chicago and the plane stopped responding. Archive footage is used to reconstruct the event.
Possibly the worst contamination incident since Chernobyl was a little-known event that began in September 1987, when two thieves broke into a disused clinic in Goiana, Brazil. They stole parts from an old machine and sold them to a scrap dealer, who noticed the metal gave off a strange blue glow in the dark. He broke the machinery open and handed out its blue crystals to members of his family. Within days they were falling critically ill and panic was spreading through the city. The crystals were caesium-137, a deadly radioactive substance, and the machine was an X-ray unit.
For years Britain's 50,000 sheep farmers and workers have been regularly using a dip containing organophosphate chemicals to rid their animals of parasites. The chemicals are, however, related to nerve gas, and dozens of people have become ill as a result. One of them is animal health inspector Peter Tyrer, who since 1994 has been unable to work and who has been carrying out an investigation into the chemicals.
A storm forces a couple sailing in a sloop from Bermuda to New York to take to the life raft. They face severe mental and physical pressures as they struggle to survive.
In 1986,on board a huge Soviet nuclear submarine, fifty metres belowthe surface of the ocean, an enormous ballistic missile exploded. Using carefully obtained classified documents, this film tells the true storyof the cause of the explosion and the heroic three-day fight to save the world from nuclear disaster.
This documentary examines the events leading up to the 1996 Channel Tunnel Fire, an event that nearly cost the lives of 34 people.
A failure to the Space Shuttle Challenger's O-ring seal leads to an explosion 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven astronauts on board. The ensuing Rogers Commission reveals the O-ring was not designed to withstand very low temperatures.
ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Everglades on May 11, 1996, killing all 110 passengers on board. ValuJet's outsourcing of maintenance work and the FAA's struggle to monitor ValueJet's activities lead to major safety lapses.
This film describes the story of the sinking of the dry bulk carrier, the Christinaki, with the loss of all crew members. It also refers to the poor regulation, maintenance, and safety measures in the merchant shipping industry.
A dramatised documentary exploring the implications of the millennium computer bug. Software in many computers can handle only the final two digits of each year. Unless steps are taken, a huge man-made disaster could result as soon as the year 2000 is reached.
The story in the headlines in June 1998 was that of the longest ever inquiry conducted by the General Medical Council. Two surgeons at Bristol Royal Infirmary were heavily criticised for operating on babies despite a poor survival rate and a third for failing to act on concerns expressed to him.
In August 1989, 51 people lost their lives when the Bowbelle dredger collided with the Marchioness passenger boat on the River Thames. The design of both vessels was criticised. Numerous warnings about the inevitability of such an accident had gone unheeded for years.
In December 1991, two passenger trains collided in the 6.5km long tunnel under the River Severn in England, 185 people were injured. Rescuers did not reach the train until two hours after the accident
In August 1985, Japan Air Flight 123 crashed into the side of a mountainNorth West of Tokyo. It was the largest single aircraft fatality in history.520 people died. A poor repair was the cause. But the real story behindthe crash was the scandalous incompetence in reacting to the accident and the rescue attempt in the immediate aftermath.
In 1993,Chief Biomedical Scientist Neil Woodward noticed that there was a problem with the way the Kent & Canterbury Hospital’s laboratory was screening cervical smear slides.It took three years and a leak to the national press before any action was taken.
When Mexican warehouseman Vincente Sotelo dismantled an unused hospital x-ray machine and sold it for scrap, he had no idea he was causing a radioactive spill 100 times worse than Three Mile Island. 6,000 pellets of cobalt-60 were spread across the USA and Mexico. The disaster was only discovered by accident.
In 1957, a fire was discovered inside Britain’s first nuclear reactor atWindscale. At the time emergency procedures were minimal, but its effects are still being felt today.