The worst disasters in the world. The worst disasters in the world Submarine "Kursk"

The trains are huge, so when they derail or collide with each other, their unimaginable power becomes painfully obvious. During a train accident, the train takes on a life of its own - it becomes uncontrollable, and it is no longer possible to stop it. Passengers can do nothing to prevent injury and are often left hanging from wall to wall in the carriages, suffering broken limbs and internal injuries.

The worst disasters in our history have claimed countless lives, but they have given us important information about how we can improve rail infrastructure as well as keep passengers safe.

10. Al Ayyat train accident - Egypt, 2002 (383 victims)

At 2 a.m. on February 20, 2002, a gas cylinder exploded in the fifth carriage of an Egyptian train. The all-consuming fire quickly spread to other carriages as the train continued to rush along the tracks. This went on for two hours until the driver finally stopped. As a result, seven carriages were completely burned and almost 400 people died. However, the number of victims of this disaster has been repeatedly disputed, since a complete list of passengers was not available. Also, due to the intensity of the flames, many of the corpses were burned to ash, making their identification impossible. Moreover, the train was overloaded and it is believed that many passengers died after jumping from the burning train. Although official figures say 383 people died, many believe a more accurate estimate is 1,000.

9. Awash train accident - Ethiopia, 1985 (428 dead)


The worst train accident in African history occurred on January 14, 1985, near the city of Awash. The city is located on the Awash River. An express train derailed on the way to this town because the driver did not slow down while crossing a curved bridge, causing several cars to fall into a cliff. Of the 1,000 passengers on the train, 428 were killed, and almost all the remaining passengers were seriously injured. Following the horrific crash, the driver was arrested and charged with failing to slow down when entering a corner.

8. Torre del Bierzo train accident - Spain, 1944 (200-500+ victims)


On January 3, 1944, near the village of Torre del Bierzo in Spain, an out-of-control mail train flew into tunnel number 20. In front of it was a shunting locomotive with three cars, trying to avoid a collision. These two carriages were still in the tunnel when the mail train crashed into them. A coal tanker with 27 loaded flatcars was approaching from the other side. The driver of the shunting locomotive tried to warn the coal tanker, but it still crashed into the locomotive. The flames of the disaster burned for two days. Since many people were traveling without tickets and the fire had completely consumed human remains, the exact number of passengers was difficult to estimate, but survivors claimed that the train was overcrowded as many were heading to the Christmas market.

7. Balvano train accident - Italy, 1944 (521-600+ victims)


During World War II, acute shortages led to the development of black market trade. In 1944, adventurers and enterprising entrepreneurs secretly traveled on freight trains to reach suppliers' farms. At the same time, there was a severe shortage of high-quality coal. Burning low-grade substitutes released large amounts of odorless carbon monoxide. On March 2, 1944, significantly overloaded locomotive number 8017 stalled inside a steep tunnel. The service personnel and passengers, including several hundred “hares,” died from suffocation. The only survivors were those traveling in the few rear carriages left exposed when the train stalled.

6. Train accident near Ufa - Russia, 1989 (575+ victims)


The worst train accident in the history of the Soviet Union occurred on June 4, 1989. A gap in the product pipeline allowed a large volume of gas to accumulate in the lowlands between the cities of Ufa and Asha. When staff noticed a drop in pressure, they simply increased the pressure to normal levels instead of looking for a possible leak. At about 1:15 a.m., two trains carrying more than 1,200 passengers, many of them children, passed each other. The sparks caused by their passage ignited the highly flammable cloud, resulting in an explosion that was visible more than 100 kilometers away. The escaping flames burned trees within a radius of 3.86 kilometers and destroyed both trains.

5. Guadalajara Train Crash - Mexico, 1915 (600+ victims)


In 1915, the Mexican Revolution was in full swing. President Venustiano Carranza ordered the families of his army to be transported to Guadalajara, which he had recently conquered. On January 22, 1915, a specially prepared train with twenty heavily overloaded cars left Colima. It is said that the carriages were so packed with people that passengers even clung to the carriages from below and rode on the roofs. During a steep descent, the driver lost control of the train. The train continued to pick up speed as it descended the rails and eventually crashed into a deep ravine. Less than a third of the people on the official passenger list survived the disaster.

4. Railway accident in Bihar (Bihar) - India, 1981 (500-800 victims)


On June 6, 1981, during the monsoon season in India, a nine-car train carrying approximately a thousand passengers fell into the Baghmati River. The weather conditions that day were particularly rainy and windy, and the river level was higher than usual. Just as the train was approaching the bridge crossing the river, a cow crossed the tracks. Trying to avoid a collision, the driver braked too hard, causing the cars to skid along the wet railway rails and go off the tracks into the river. Help arrived only a few hours later, and most of the passengers either drowned or had already been carried away by the water by the time rescuers got to work. More than 300 bodies were never found.

3. Ciurea train accident - Romania, 1917 (600-1000 dead)


During the First World War, a passenger train's brakes failed while descending a steep slope near Churya station. The 26-car train carried refugees and wounded soldiers trying to escape advancing German forces. The driver tried to do everything possible to slow down the train by putting the train in reverse gear and using the sand blower to get better traction, but the train continued to pick up speed. To avoid a collision with the second train at the end of the descent, the runaway train was redirected to an overtaking track. Due to the high speed, the train, unfortunately, left the tracks and caught fire. As a result, hundreds of people died.

2. Crash at Saint Michel-de-Maurienne, France, 1917 (800-1000 victims)


On December 12, 1917, about 1,000 French soldiers were returning home for the winter holidays. Due to a general shortage of both locomotives and insufficient equipment, people were transported by two trains connected together, but under the control of one locomotive. Of the 19 train cars, only the first three had automatic air brakes; the rest had either hand brakes or no brakes at all. Descending into a valley in the French Alps, the driver ordered his assistants to brake, but the train continued to pick up speed. The brakes overheated and flames began to flare up under the carriages. After 6 kilometers, the first carriage left the tracks, and the remaining carriages crashed into it, catching fire within a few minutes. Due to the intensity of the flames, only 425 of the approximately 1,000 victims were identified.

1. Train accident and tsunami in Sri Lanka, 2004 (1700+ victims)


On December 26, 2004, an earthquake in the ocean north of Sumatra caused a giant tsunami that killed 280,000 people. More than 1,500 passengers were traveling on the Queen of the Sea that terrible day. The train was 170 meters from the shore when the first wave hit. The water immediately stopped the train. Local residents and passengers, thinking that the train would provide salvation from the water, climbed onto its roof or hid behind it. The second wave was much more powerful: it swept the train off the tracks and dragged the cars with it into the jungle. Those who were not crushed by the train quickly drowned as they became trapped in the carriages. Only a few passengers survived this tragedy.

That disaster films are bad these days. But I want to look at the collapsing miracles of technology and the surviving heroes! We remembered 10 disaster films, which are based on real events, and not the weak imagination of the screenwriters. Go!

10. “And the Storm Came” (2016)

Director: Craig Gillespie.

Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster.

1952, USA. The oil tanker Pendleton sank off the coast. Only the local coast guard manages to help the crew members. The problem is that she only has light boats at her disposal, which may not withstand the storm.

The film is not bad, but the authors went too far with pathos and seriousness. Sometimes you don’t even believe that everything was filmed based on a real story - the characters shown in the film seem so far-fetched. However, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the writers decided to “tweak” the characters’ characteristics by setting the “heroism” perk to the maximum.

9. “The Perfect Storm” (2000)

Director: Wolfgang Petersen.

Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly.

In 1991, the Atlantic coast of the United States was covered by the so-called “perfect” or Halloween storm. The disaster destroyed the fishing vessel Andrea Gail. The sailors went fishing, trying to compensate for the previous unsuccessful catch. No one ever returned from the voyage.

According to reports from captain Andrea Gail, shortly before the ship stopped communicating, the wave height exceeded nine meters. There are claims that the sailors were killed by a 30-meter wave, although this is considered unlikely. But for the film it’s what you need.

There is only one complaint about the picture. “The Perfect Storm” speculates too much, successfully exploiting the fact that there is no reliable information about what happened to Andrea Gail.

8. Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Director: Peter Berg.

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Douglas M. Griffin.

It seems that the explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico happened quite recently. But no - seven years have passed. The echoes of the event still resonate loudly, and environmentalists continue to sound the alarm. The giant oil spill caused a lot of trouble.

The film, which takes its name from an oil platform, tells the story of station workers who find themselves face to face with fire. Cut off from the world by expanses of water, brave men solve problems as best they can - in their own way, in a simple, but effective way.

The accident killed 13 people. The filmmakers see the British oil and gas giant BP as the only culprit behind the fiery nightmare. This company still cannot recover from the consequences of the scandal.

7. “Earthquake” (2010)

Director: Feng Xiaogang.

Cast: Xu Fan, Zhang Jingchu, Yang Lixin.

The main thing is not to confuse this film with the work of the same name by Sarik Andreasyan. It is best to focus on the year of release: the Chinese film was released in 2010, and the Russian film in 2016.

The film is based on the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. It lasted less than a second, but in terms of the number of victims and the scale of destruction it became the second in the written history of mankind. As a result of the disaster, from 240 to 655 thousand people died, about 5 million houses were destroyed.

Feng Xiaogang's film does not try to embrace the immensity and show all the horrors that the earthquake brought. Instead, it focuses on the story of one family who physically survived a terrible tragedy, but are psychologically unable to cope with it, even decades later.

6. “The Impossible” (2012)

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona.

Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland.

Another film about family life through the prism of a natural disaster. The tsunami that hits Thailand takes the hero Ewan McGregor and his household by surprise when he comes on vacation. The elements will scatter everyone, but in the end the family will be reunited.

The tragedy occurred at the very end of 2004. An underwater earthquake caused a giant tsunami over 15 meters high in the Indian Ocean. As a result, about 300 thousand people died.

This time, it's not just the tsunami backdrop that's real, but also the family's story. The film was based on the story of a Spanish family that was lucky enough to survive the tsunami.

5. “K-19” (2002)

Director: Kathryn Bigelow.

Starring: Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard.

They say that the sailors called the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 “Hiroshima” due to frequent accidents. Kathryn Bigelow's film tells about one of these accidents, which can easily be included in the ranks of man-made disasters.

During one of the submarine's cruises in 1961, the reactor cooling system was damaged, as a result of which gamma radiation began to increase sharply. Despite the efforts of the crew, within several hours the ship and its crew were completely contaminated with radiation. Eight crew members soon died due to radiation sickness.

Participants in the event generally reacted negatively to the release of K-19. According to survivors, too much in the film is fictitious, from technical aspects to relationships between submariners. There was neither rebellion nor desire to surrender to the Americans. Well, that's what a movie is, even if it's based on reality - the main thing is that it's interesting to watch.

4. “Survive” (1992)

Director: Frank Marshall.

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton.

On October 13, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force airliner operated charter flight FAU 571 on the route Montevideo - Mendoza - Santiago. There were 40 people on board the plane - the Old Christians rugby team, relatives of the athletes and support staff. Not far from its destination, the ship was caught in a cyclone, crashed into a mountain and collapsed. 12 people died immediately, and the rest had to fight for their lives against cold and hunger. The guys waited for help for more than two months. He managed to survive by eating the corpses of his comrades.

Thanks to a strong story, the film turned out strong. But “Survive” is exactly the case when it’s not the visual effects that come first, but the psychology. What would you do in the shoes of these unfortunate people? Condemn, forgive or understand? There's plenty of action too. The film was even nominated for an MTV award for the episode with the plane crash.

Some scenes of the film today look too naive - the considerable age of the film affects it. Still, we recommend watching this movie, because it will certainly encourage you to learn more about what happened to the castaways in the Andes in the fall of 1972.

3. “Miracle on the Hudson” (2016)

Director: Clint Eastwood.

Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart.

A film adaptation of a true story that happened on January 15, 2009 with an Airbus A320 flying from New York. One of two films in our rating in which there is a disaster, but no deaths. Yes, the movie came out a bit bland, but it looks great as a thorough reconstruction of events.

The plane had just taken off from the New York airport runway when, a minute and a half later, it collided with a flock of birds. The crew had to make several decisions that were fateful for dozens of passengers. As a result, a huge colossus flopped onto the Hudson River. After this, the pilot Chesley Sullenberger was dragged through the courts, but in the end everything worked out.

Clint Eastwood records everything that happened in a detached manner, without particularly trying to evoke an emotional response from the viewer. But as always, the lead actor, Tom Hanks, did his best.

Disaster films are always interesting to watch. The plot keeps the viewer in suspense until the very end. It is difficult to predict what will happen to the main characters, whether anyone will survive. This is a selection of the best disaster films.

10. Sign

“The Sign” opens the ranking of the best disaster films. The beginning of the plot takes the viewer back to 1959. At a school festival, students are tasked with drawing a world in the future, and their illustrations must be sealed in a time capsule for 50 years. A girl named Lucinda draws numbers from 0 to 9 in a chaotic order, after which she is found locked in one of the rooms in a state of mental agitation. 2009 – the time has come to open the time capsule. Lucinda's drawing accidentally falls into the hands of astrophysicist John Koestler. Studying the numbers, he realizes with horror that the girl predicted all significant disasters 50 years in advance. There are still three tragedies left, will John have time to prevent them?

9. 2012

"2012" is a film about the end of the world, released in 2009. This is one interpretation of the Mayan calendar prediction. In 2009, a group of scientists discovered strange activity on the Sun. The star emits a large number of neutrinos, which heat the Earth's core. The US government is immediately informed of this. The president gathers a council of rulers from different countries, at which it is decided to build several arks, selling tickets for them for 1 billion euros. Thus, only the rich can be saved. year 2012. Jackson Curtis is a writer who accidentally becomes aware of an impending disaster and the location of the arks. Will he be able to save his family by becoming a stowaway on the ship of life?

8. And the storm struck

“And the Storm Came” is a historical disaster film, which premiered in 2016. The plot is based on real events of 1952, which are also described in the novel “Selfless Hours” by Michael Tojais. During a storm, the oil tanker Pendleton sank off the coast of Massachusetts. A coast guard team led by Bernard Webber was sent to help. Bernard's fiancée, Miriam, considers this mission too dangerous and useless; she is sure that the rescuers will die without being able to save anyone. However, she fails to convince the coast guard leadership of this. Miriam is left to wait for her lover on the shore; are they destined to meet?

7. Subway

Metro is one of the best Russian films about the disaster, based on the novel of the same name by Dmitry Safonov. The piles of the old Moscow metro cannot withstand the new load, which continues to increase as the city is built up. A subway worker notices water in the tunnel, but management does not attach any importance to this. In parallel with this, the plot of Irina Garina’s personal life is developing. The heroine cannot make a choice between her husband Andrei and their joint daughter Ksyusha, and her lover Vlad Konstantinov. By chance, Andrei, Ksyusha and Vlad find themselves in the same carriage of a train, which crashes due to water arriving in the tunnel. Passengers will have to get out of the Moscow dungeon on their own.

6. Tornado

The rating of disaster films continues with the thriller “Tornado”, released in 1996. A tornado is one of the most dangerous natural phenomena. In the United States, tornadoes occur regularly and are a real problem for both coastal residents and scientists. The plot centers on Joe, a scientist who studies tornadoes. As a child, Jo survived a major hurricane that took the life of her father. Now she is looking for ways to study natural phenomena and predict tornadoes. In order to examine a tornado using special equipment, you need to get inside the funnel. Jo lives on the edge, but even she has competition. Will her love for science and desire to save innocent lives be able to overcome the greed of her ill-wishers?

5. Inferno

The middle of the list of the top 10 best films in the disaster genre is occupied by the science fiction film “Inferno.” The premiere took place in 2007. In the near future, the Sun begins to gradually lose its activity. Due to the fading of the heavenly body, the Earth is plunging into permafrost, which threatens the imminent extinction of humanity. To revive solar activity, it was decided to send the Icarus II expedition to the star, protected by a special shield, and drop a bomb on the surface of the Sun. The team from the previous expedition went missing seven years ago. While flying over Mercury, Icarus II receives a distress call from Icarus I. In order to save their colleagues and increase the supply of explosives for a more likely success of the operation, the crew heads to the Icarus I. How will this deviation from course end?

4. Crew

A popular Russian disaster film called “Crew” was released in 2016. The main character is Alexey Gushchin, a young and very ambitious pilot. Alexey is one of those people who always do as they see fit, regardless of orders and commands. For this reason, his career as a military pilot fails, and Alexey finds work in civil aviation. Leonid Zinchenko, who is as capricious as Alexey, takes him to his team. They often conflict. But everything changes when the plane's crew lands on an island where an ongoing earthquake and volcanic eruption are killing many of the inhabitants. Now the pilots have to save those who survived.

3. Survive

The top three best disaster films opens with the deeply psychological thriller “Survive.” The story is based on real events; Nando Parrado, a participant in the incident and the main character of the film, was invited as a consultant. On October 13, 1973, a school rugby team from Uruguay was flying to a competition; schoolchildren, their families, a coach and crew were on board the plane. The airliner lost control while flying over the Andes and crashed onto a high mountain plateau. Those few who were lucky enough to survive found themselves cut off from the world by impassable mountain slopes. For several months the guys tried to survive in difficult conditions. They had to sleep on the plane and eat the corpses of their comrades and relatives.

2. The day after tomorrow

Global warming, which scientists have been scaring people with for many years, has finally arrived. However, this did not happen quite as expected. Due to the fact that glaciers broke away and floated freely into the world's oceans, the temperature over the planet decreased. Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist, believes that air temperatures will soon reach levels at which humanity will die out by freezing. However, UN members and the US government are in no hurry to believe him. When the temperature drops below -100°C, fuel freezes, planes and helicopters crash, and people on the street die. Jack calculates that the peak of the cold snap will occur in New York, where his son is at that moment.

1. Armageddon

Topping the list of best disaster films is Armageddon, which premiered in 1998. Several meteorites fall to Earth one after another. The meteor shower barely ends when the astronauts notice a new threat. A giant asteroid is approaching the planet, a collision with which humanity will not survive. NASA employees are considering possible rescue options. One of them, driller Harry Stamper, proposes to drill into an asteroid and plant a bomb inside. After the explosion, the cosmic body will disintegrate into many small pieces that will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. NASA sends a rescue team led by Stamper to carry out his plan.

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - during them not a single person may die, but at the same time very significant damage to the environment will be caused. Nowadays, the culprit of environmental disasters is mainly man. The growth of industrial and agricultural production not only brings material benefits, but is also slowly killing our habitat. Therefore, the biggest environmental disasters in the world are imprinted in human memory for a long time.

1. Oil leakage from the Prestige tanker

The Bahamian-flagged single-hull tanker Prestige was built by the Japanese shipyard Hitachi to transport crude oil and launched in 1976. In November 2002, while passing through the Bay of Biscay, the tanker encountered a strong storm off the coast of Galicia, as a result of which it received a 35 m long crack, from which about a thousand tons of fuel oil began to leak per day.
Spanish coast services refused to allow the dirty ship to enter the nearest port, so they tried to tow it to Portugal, but a similar refusal was received there. In the end, the restless tanker was towed to the Atlantic. On November 19, it sank completely, splitting into two parts, which sank to the bottom to a depth of about 3,700 m. Since it was impossible to repair the damage and pump out the oil products, over 70,000 cubic meters of oil ended up in the ocean. A spot more than a thousand kilometers long formed on the surface along the coastline, causing enormous damage to the local fauna and flora.
For Europe, this was the most catastrophic oil spill in history. The damage from it was estimated at 4 billion euros, and 300,000 volunteers worked to eliminate its consequences.

2. Exxon Valdez tanker wreck

On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker, fully loaded with oil, sailed from a terminal in the Alaskan port of Valdez, bound for the Californian port of Long Beach. Having taken the ship out of Valdez, the pilot handed over control of the tanker to Captain Joseph Jeffrey, who by that time was already “tipsy.” There were icebergs in the sea, so the captain was forced to deviate from the course, notifying the coast guard. Having received permission from the latter, he changed course, and at 23 o'clock he left the wheelhouse, leaving control of the ship to the third mate and the sailor, who had already served their watch and needed a 6-hour rest. In fact, the tanker was controlled by an autopilot, guided by a navigation system.
Before leaving, the captain instructed the mate that two minutes after passing abeam the island it was necessary to change course. The assistant conveyed this order to the sailor, but either he himself was late, or his execution was late, but at half past twelve on the night of March 24, the tanker crashed into Blythe Reef. As a result of the disaster, 40,000 cubic meters of oil spilled into the ocean, and environmentalists believe that much more. 2,400 km of coastline were polluted, making the accident one of the world's most significant environmental disasters.

Hazardous natural phenomena mean extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena that occur naturally in that area...

3. Chernobyl disaster

All people born in the USSR are notorious for the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Its consequences are still in effect today and will continue to haunt us for many years to come. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, completely destroying the reactor, and tons of radioactive materials were released into the environment. At the time of the tragedy itself, 31 people died, but this is only the tip of the iceberg - it is simply impossible to calculate the number of victims and injured from this accident.
Officially, about 200 people who were directly involved in its liquidation are considered to have died from the accident; all of them were killed by radiation sickness. The nature of all of Eastern Europe suffered enormous damage. Tens of tons of radioactive uranium, plutonium, strontium and cesium were dispersed into the atmosphere and began to slowly settle to the ground, carried by the wind. The authorities’ desire not to widely publicize what happened so that panic would not start among the population contributed to the tragedy of the unfolding events around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, many thousands of residents of cities and villages who were not included in the alienated 30-kilometer zone carelessly remained in their places.
In subsequent years, there was a surge in cancer among them, mothers gave birth to thousands of deformities, and this is still observed. In total, due to the spread of radioactive contamination in the area, the authorities had to evacuate over 115,000 people living within a 30-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant. More than 600,000 people took part in the elimination of this accident and its lingering consequences, and enormous amounts of money were spent. The territory directly adjacent to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still a restricted area because it is unsuitable for habitation.

Throughout the history of mankind, powerful earthquakes have repeatedly caused colossal damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population...

4. Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

But the largest environmental disaster in human memory happened on March 11, 2011. It all started with a strong earthquake and a powerful tsunami, which disabled the backup diesel generators and power supply system of the nuclear power plant. This led to dysfunction of the reactor cooling system and melting of the core in three power units of the station. During the accident, hydrogen was released, which exploded, destroying the outer shell of the reactor, but the reactor itself survived.
Due to the leak of radioactive substances, the level of radiation quickly began to increase, because the depressurization of the shells of the fuel elements caused the leak of radioactive cesium. On March 23, 30 kilometers from the station in the ocean, water samples were taken, which showed an excess of the norms for iodine-131 and cesium-137, but the radioactivity of the water was increasing and by March 31 it exceeded the normal level by almost 4400 times, because even after the accident the water was contaminated with radiation continued to leak into the ocean. It is clear that after some time, animals with strange genetic and physiological changes began to be found in local waters.
The spread of radiation was facilitated by the fish themselves and other marine animals. Many thousands of local residents had to be resettled from the radiation-contaminated area. A year later, on the coast near the nuclear power plant, radiation exceeded the norm by 100 times, so decontamination work will continue here for a long time.

5. Bhopal disaster

The disaster in Bhopal, India was truly terrible, not only because it caused enormous damage to the state’s nature, but also because it claimed the lives of 18,000 residents. A subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation was building a chemical plant in Bhopal, which, according to the original design, was supposed to produce pesticides used in agriculture.
But in order for the plant to become competitive, it was decided to change the production technology towards something more dangerous and complex, which would not require more expensive imported raw materials. But a series of crop failures led to a decrease in demand for the plant’s products, so the owners decided to sell it in the summer of 1984. Funding for the operating enterprise was curtailed, the equipment gradually wore out and no longer met safety standards. In the end, liquid methyl isocyanate overheated in one of the reactors, causing a sharp release of its vapors, which ruptured the emergency valve. In a matter of seconds, 42 tons of toxic vapors entered the atmosphere, which formed a deadly cloud with a diameter of 4 kilometers over the plant and the surrounding area.
The affected area included residential areas and a railway station. The authorities did not manage to inform the population about the danger in time, and there was a critical shortage of medical personnel, so on the very first day, 5,000 people died after inhaling poisonous gas. But for a number of years after this, poisoned people continued to die, and the total number of victims of that accident is estimated at 30,000 people.

A tornado (in America this phenomenon is called a tornado) is a fairly stable atmospheric vortex, most often occurring in thunderclouds. He's visual...

6. Disaster at the Sandoz chemical plant

One of the worst environmental disasters, which caused incredible damage to nature, occurred on November 1, 1986 in prosperous Switzerland. Chemical and pharmaceutical giant Sandoz's plant, built on the banks of the Rhine near Basel, produced a variety of chemicals used in agriculture. When a strong fire broke out at the plant, about 30 tons of pesticides and mercury compounds entered the Rhine. The water in the Rhine has turned an ominous red color.
The authorities prohibited residents living on its banks from leaving their homes. Downstream, in some German cities the centralized water supply had to be cut off, and residents were brought drinking water in tanks. Almost all the fish and other living creatures died in the river, some species were irretrievably lost. Later, a program was adopted until 2020, the goal of which was to make the waters of the Rhine suitable for swimming.

7. Disappearance of the Aral Sea

Back in the middle of the last century, the Aral was the fourth largest lake in the world. But the active withdrawal of water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for irrigating cotton and other crops led to the fact that the Aral Sea began to quickly become shallow, divided into 2 parts, one of which has already completely dried up, and the second will follow its example in the coming years.
Scientists estimate that from 1960 to 2007, the Aral Sea lost 1,000 cubic kilometers of water, which led to its reduction by more than 10 times. Previously, 178 species of vertebrates lived in the Aral Sea, but now there are only 38.
For decades, agricultural waste has been dumped into the Aral Sea and settled at the bottom. Now they have turned into poisonous sand, which the wind carries fifty kilometers around, polluting the surrounding area and destroying vegetation. Vozrozhdeniya Island has long been turned into part of the mainland, but once upon a time there was a testing ground for bacteriological weapons on it. There are burial places with such deadly diseases as typhus, plague, smallpox, and anthrax. Some pathogens are still alive, so they can spread into inhabited areas thanks to rodents.

Occasionally, tsunami waves occur in the ocean. They are very insidious - in the open ocean they are completely invisible, but as soon as they approach the coastal shelf, they...

8. Flixborough chemical plant accident

In the British city of Flixborough there was a Nipro plant that produced ammonium nitrate, and on its territory 4000 tons of caprolactam, 3000 tons of cyclohexanone, 2500 tons of phenol, 2000 tons of cyclohexane and many other chemicals were stored. But various technological containers and spherical tanks were insufficiently filled, which increased the risk of explosion. In addition, the plant's reactors contained various flammable materials under high pressure and high temperature.
The administration sought to increase the plant's productivity, but this reduced the effectiveness of fire extinguishing agents. The company's engineers were often forced to turn a blind eye to deviations from technological regulations and neglect safety standards - a familiar picture. Finally, on June 1, 1974, the plant was shaken by a powerful explosion. Instantly, the production premises were engulfed in flames, and the shock wave from the explosion swept through the surrounding populated areas, shattering windows, tearing roofs off houses and injuring people. 55 people died then. The power of the explosion was estimated at 45 tons of TNT. But worst of all, the explosion was accompanied by the emergence of a large cloud of toxic fumes, which is why the authorities had to urgently evacuate residents of some neighboring settlements.
The damage from this man-made disaster was estimated at 36 million pounds - it was the most expensive emergency incident for British industry.

9. Fire on the Piper Alpha oil rig

In July 1988, a major disaster occurred on the Piper Alpha platform, which was used for oil and gas production. Its consequences were aggravated by the indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, due to which, out of 226 people working on the platform, 167 died. For some time after the accident, oil products continued to flow through the pipes, so the fire did not die out, but flared up even more. This disaster resulted not only in human casualties, but also in great environmental damage.

Rosstat and various rating agencies closely monitor the cost of goods and services in various localities in Russia. They are all together...

10. Explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deep Water Horizon oil production platform, owned by British Petroleum and located in the Gulf of Mexico, causing huge amounts of oil to be released from an uncontrolled well into the sea for a long time. The platform itself sank into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts were only able to roughly estimate the volume of spilled oil, but one thing is clear - this disaster became one of the most terrible for the biosphere not only of the Gulf Coast, but also of the Atlantic Ocean. Oil was poured into the water for 152 days, 75,000 square meters. km of water in the bay were covered with a thick oil film. All states whose coasts overlook the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi) suffered from pollution, but Alabama suffered the most.
About 400 species of rare animals were threatened with extinction, and thousands of seabirds and amphibians died on oil-filled shores. The Office of Specially Protected Resources reported that there had been an outbreak of mortality among cetaceans in the gulf following the oil spill.

10. Fuel tanker falling from a 100-meter bridge in Germany ($358 million)

On August 26, 2004, a fuel tanker fell from a hundred-meter-high bridge on a bridge in Germany and exploded. According to police, the accident occurred near the city of Gummersbach near Cologne in the west of the country. According to the preliminary version, the culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road and ended up between a fuel tanker and its trailer. As a result, the road train also skidded, broke through the fence and fell off the bridge. By luck, none of the houses below were damaged. The driver and passenger of the sports car fled from the scene of the accident. Later, two young men aged 25 and 29 were detained. Costs for temporary repairs amounted to $40 million, and a complete replacement would cost $318 million.

9. MetroLink passenger train collides with freight train ($500 million)

On September 12, 2008, the worst train accident in the United States occurred in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth. The train, which was carrying 222 passengers, did not stop at the red signal. As a result, a passenger train and an oncoming freight train collided. The culprit of the train accident was identified as Metrolink driver Robert Sanchez, who was typing an SMS message while driving. As a result of a head-on collision between a freight and passenger train, 25 people were killed and 135 were injured. The derailment was the worst train accident in the United States since 1993.

8. B-2 Strategic Bomber Crash (Stealth) ($1.4 billion)

On February 23, 2008, at Andersen Air Force Base (Guam), the newest B-2 strategic bomber (serial number 89-0127, “Spirit of Kansas”) crashed for the first time in history. The bomber caught a concrete strip with its wing immediately after takeoff and caught fire. The pilots managed to eject safely. The military estimated losses from the plane crash at $1.4 billion. Let us recall that on the island of Guam, part of the Mariana Islands, American nuclear submarines and strategic aircraft aimed at Asia are based.
As the investigation into the incident showed, incorrect readings from air pressure sensors forced the computer to command a sharp climb during takeoff, which caused a loss of speed and led to the accident.

7. Exxon Valdez tanker accident ($2.5 billion)

On March 24, 1989, in Alaska's Prince William Sound, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez, leaving the terminal in Valdez, hit a reef, which led to the largest environmental disaster at sea in history. According to scientists, the spill resulted in a sharp decline in fish populations, including pink salmon, and it will take at least 30 years to restore some sensitive Arctic habitats.
In the first months, over 5,000 sea otters, hundreds of seals, dozens of whales and about a million birds died in the affected areas. Coastal animals such as brown bears, deer, minks, etc. also suffered. A few years later, an unprecedented reduction in the herring population and a significant decrease in the number of pink salmon appeared.

6. Explosion on the Piper Alpha oil rig ($3.4 billion)

On July 6, 1988, the largest disaster in the history of the industry occurred on the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea. As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, as well as as a result of ill-conceived and indecisive actions of personnel, 167 people out of 226 on the platform at that time were killed.
Immediately after the explosion, oil and gas production on the platform was stopped, however, due to the fact that the platform’s pipelines were connected to a common network through which hydrocarbons flowed from other platforms, and on those, the production and supply of oil and gas to the pipeline was not possible for a long time. decided to stop (waiting for permission from the company's top management), a huge amount of hydrocarbons continued to flow through the pipelines, which fueled the fire. Damage amounted to $3.4 billion.

5. Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion ($5.5 Billion)

On January 28, 1986, the world was shocked by the disaster that occurred with the Challenger shuttle. At the 73rd second of flight, due to a leak in the seal of one of the solid rocket boosters, the space shuttle exploded with seven astronauts on board. On that terrible day in the skies over Florida, Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Allison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnick and Christy McAuliffe, a schoolteacher who became the first civilian member of the shuttle crew in NASA history, died. At that moment, when a fiery orange and white ball suddenly appeared nine miles high in the blue sky above Florida, humanity's complacent attitude towards space flight evaporated forever.
It cost $2 billion to replace the ship in 1986; the investigation, correction of defects and restoration of lost equipment required $450 million ($4.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively, in current prices).

4. Prestige tanker accident ($12 billion)

The tanker Prestige, owned by the Liberian company Universe Maritime, under the flag of the Bahamas, was caught in a powerful cyclone off the coast of Galicia on November 12. A 50-meter crack appeared in the tanker’s hull, through which fuel oil began to leak from the tanks. Four Spanish tugs were called in to transport the vessel from the active fishing area, but on November 19, already abeam Portugal, the Prestige broke in half and sank at a depth of about 1 km. 20 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea. As a result of the accident, 300 thousand birds died. Complete cleanup of the water area cost $12 billion, but it is impossible to fully assess the damage caused to the ecosystem.

3. Space Shuttle Columbia Crash ($13 Billion)

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia crashed. It broke into pieces at an altitude of about 63 km. as a result of a hole in one of the wings received during takeoff. The wreckage of the shuttle fell in the area of ​​the town of Palestine, a suburb of Dallas, and none of the astronauts had a chance to escape. There were 7 crew members on board the ship, including the first Israeli cosmonaut Ilan Ramon. NASA estimates that the total cost of this accident reached $13 billion (not including the cost of replacing the device itself). $500 million of this amount was spent on the investigation of the incident - the most expensive investigation into a plane crash in history.

2. Reactor explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant ($200 billion)

On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which completely destroyed the reactor. The power unit building partially collapsed. A fire started in various rooms and on the roof. Subsequently, the remains of the core melted. A mixture of molten metal, sand, concrete and fuel particles spread throughout the sub-reactor rooms. As a result of the accident, radioactive substances were released. The situation was aggravated by the fact that in the destroyed reactor uncontrolled nuclear and chemical reactions continued with the release of heat, with the eruption of combustion products of highly radioactive elements from the fault for many days and their contamination of large areas. It was possible to stop the active eruption of radioactive substances from the destroyed reactor only by the end of May 1986 by mobilizing the resources of the entire USSR and at the cost of mass irradiation of thousands of liquidators.

The accident is regarded as the largest of its kind in the entire history of nuclear energy, both in terms of the estimated number of people killed and affected by its consequences, and in terms of economic damage. The radioactive cloud from the accident passed over the European part of the USSR, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain and the eastern part of the USA. Approximately 60% of the radioactive fallout fell on the territory of Belarus. About 200,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas.

The number of deaths associated with the Chernobyl disaster, including those who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125 thousand. The accident was attributed to the operators violating production procedures and ignorance of safety requirements. A 1993 IAEA report revised these conclusions. It was recognized that most of the actions of operators that were previously considered violations were in fact consistent with the rules adopted at the time or had no impact on the development of the accident.

1. Events in Japan ($450 billion)

On March 11, 2011, as a result of the strongest earthquake on record in Japan, a radiation accident occurred with local consequences, according to Japanese authorities - level 4 at the beginning of the accident on the INES scale. Subsequently, the severity of the accident was increased to level 5 (18 March, an accident with widespread consequences, and then up to level 7 (April 12, major accident) on the INES scale.
At the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, three operating power units were shut down by emergency protection; all emergency systems operated normally. However, an hour later, power supply (including from backup diesel generators) was interrupted, presumably due to the tsunami that followed the earthquake. Electrical power is needed to cool shutdown reactors, which actively generate heat for a significant time after shutdown. Immediately after the loss of backup diesel generators, the owner of the station, TEPCO, informed the Japanese government of an emergency.