World Accidents EC

  1. What kinds of accidents can happen in the man made world? Animal attacks, plane crashes, coal mine disasters, explosions, floods, industrial accidents, ships sinking, nuclear, smog, spacecraft accidents, sports, stampedes, structural collapse, fires, train accidents, etc…
  2. How do these accidents happen?
  3. What are the repercussions of these accidents?
  4. What can be done to prevent them?
  5. How can these accidents affect us?
  6. What kind of workers have the responsibilities to prevent such accidents?
  7. How do you think you would react in one of these disasters?
  8. What are some examples of people who have lived through such disasters?
  9. What happens to the people blamed for causing the disasters?
  10. What are some examples of manmade disasters that repeat in the same place?

Animal attacks

  1. 436 – Champawat Tiger (India)The Champawat Tiger was a female Bengal Tiger shot in 1907 by Jim Corbett. It was allegedly responsible for 436 documented deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India mostly during the 19th century.[1]After having killed over 200 people in Nepal it was driven by the Nepalese Army across the border (river Sarda) into India, where it continued its activities in the Kumaon District. It was so bold that it roamed the roads outside villages, roaring and terrorizing the villagers. All the killings were done during the daytime.The tigress had made a kill (a 16 year old girl) the day it was shot by Jim Corbett.
  2. 400 – Leopard of Panar (Northern India)
  3. 200+ – Gustave (crocodile) (Burundi)
  4. 150 – Leopard of the Central Provinces (Central Provinces)
  5. 135 – Tsavo maneaters (Kenya)
  6. 125+ – Leopard of Rudraprayag (India)
  7. 113 – Beast of Gévaudan (France)
  8. 50+ – Tigers of Chowgarh (India)
  9. 42 – Leopard of Gummalapur (India)
  10. 22 – Kirov wolf attacks (Russia)
  11. 22 – Wolves of Turku (Finland)
  12. 18 – Wolves of Périgord (France)
  13. 17 – Wolves of Ashta (India)
  14. 15 – Tigress of Jowlagiri (Jowlagiri)
  15. 13 – Wolves of Hazaribagh (India)
  16. 12 – Wolf of Gysinge (Sweden)
  17. 12 – Sloth bear of Mysore (India)
  18. 7 – Tiger of Mundachipallam (South India)
  19. 7 – Sankebetsu brown bear incident (Japan)
  20. 4 – Wolf of Soissons (France)

Aviation

  1. 583 – Tenerife airport disaster (Tenerife, 1977)The Tenerife airport disaster occurred on March 27, 1977, when two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft collided on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. With a total of 583 fatalities, the crash is the deadliest accident in aviation history.The aircraft involved, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, were, along with many other aircraft, diverted to Tenerife from Gran Canaria Airport after a bomb exploded there. The threat of a second bomb forced the authorities to close the airport while a search was conducted. So many airplanes were diverted to the smaller Tenerife airport that controllers were forced to park many of them on the taxiway, thereby blocking it. Further complicating the situation, while waiting for authorities to reopen Gran Canaria, a dense fog developed at Tenerife, greatly reducing visibility. When Gran Canaria reopened, the parked aircraft blocking the taxiway at Tenerife required both 747s to taxi on the only runway in order to get in position for takeoff. Due to the fog, neither aircraft could see the other, nor could the controller in the tower see the runway or the two 747s on it. As the airport did not have ground radar, the only means for the controller to identify the location of each airplane was via voice reports over the radio. As a result of several misunderstandings in the ensuing communication, the KLM flight attempted to take off while the Pan Am flight was still on the runway. The resulting collision destroyed both aircraft, killing all 248 aboard the KLM flight and 335 out of 396 aboard the Pan Am flight. 61 people aboard the Pan Am flight, including the pilots and flight engineer, survived the disaster.[1]As the accident occurred on Spanish territory, that nation was responsible for investigating the accident. Investigators from the Netherlands and the United States also participated. The investigation would reveal the primary cause of the accident was the captain of the KLM flight took off without clearance from Air Traffic Control.[1] The investigation would however specify that the captain did not intentionally take off without clearance, rather he fully believed he had clearance to take off due to misunderstandings between his flight crew and ATC.[1] Dutch investigators would place a greater emphasis on this than their American and Spanish counterparts,[2] but ultimately KLM would admit their crew was responsible for the accident, and the airline financially compensated the victims.[3]The accident had a large influence on the industry, particularly in the area of communication. An increased emphasis was placed on using standardized phraseology in ATC communication by both controllers and pilots alike, thereby reducing the chance for misunderstandings. As part of these changes, the word "takeoff" was removed from general usage, and is only spoken by ATC when actually clearing an aircraft to take off.[4] Less experienced flight crew members were encouraged to challenge their captains when they believed something was not correct, and captains were instructed to listen to their crew and evaluate all decisions in light of crew concerns. This concept would later be expanded into what is known today as Crew Resource Management. CRM training is now mandatory for all airline pilots.
  2. 520 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 (Japan, 1985)
  3. 349 – 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision (India, 1996)
  4. 346 – Turkish Airlines Flight 981 (Paris, 1974)
  5. 329 – Air India Flight 182 (Atlantic Ocean, 1985)
  6. 302 – 2003 Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash (Iran, 2003)
  7. 301 – Saudia Flight 163 (Riyadh, 1980)
  8. ~300 – Air Africa Antonov An-32 (Kinshasa, 1996)
  9. 290 – Iran Air Flight 655 (Persian Gulf, 1988)
  10. 273 – American Airlines Flight 191 (Chicago, 1979)
  11. 228 – Air France Flight 447 (Atlantic Ocean, 2009)
  12. 168 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 (Tehran, Iran, 2009)
  13. 154 – Spanair Flight 5022 (Madrid, Spain, 2008)
  14. 152 – Airblue Flight 202 (Pakistan, 2010)
  15. 152 – Yemenia Flight 626 (Indian Ocean, 30 June 2009)
  16. 103 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771, (Libya, 12 May 2010)
  17. 96 – 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash (Smolensk, Russia, April 10, 2010)
  18. 90 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, (Mediterranean Sea, 25 January 2010)
  19. 88 – Aeroflot Flight 821 (Perm, Russia, 2008)
  20. 80 – 2011 Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crash, (Guelmim, Morocco, 2011)
  21. 79 – Korean Air Flight 803, (Tripoli, Libya, July 1989)
  22. 77 – Iran Air Flight 277, (Urmia Airport, Urmia, Iran, January 2011)
  23. 74 – Hewa Bora Airways Flight 952, (Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 8 July 2011)
  24. 68 – Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895, 24 August 2008
  25. 68 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883, 5 November 2010
  26. 50 – Continental Airlines Flight 3407 (Buffalo, 2009)
  27. 44 – Pamir Airways Flight 112 (Afghanistan, 2010)
  28. 44 – Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash (Yaroslavl, Russia, 7 September 2011)
  29. 42 – Henan Airlines Flight 8387, Lindu Airport, China, 24 August 2010
  30. 32 – United Nations Bombardier CRJ-100 crash (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2011)
  31. 25 – Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 8968 (Off the coast of West Papua, Indonesia, 7 May 2011) [edit]Coal mine disasters

Coal Disasters

  1. 1,549 – Benxihu Colliery explosion, (China, 1942)Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery (simplified Chinese: 本溪湖煤矿; traditional Chinese: 本溪湖煤礦), located in Benxi, Liaoning, China, was first mined in 1905. It started as a iron and coal mining project under joint Japanese and Chinese control. As time passed, the project came more and more under Japanese control. In the early 1930s, Japan invaded the north east of China and Liaoning province became part of the Japanese controlled puppet state of Manchukuo. The Japanese forced the Chinese to work the colliery under very poor conditions. Food was scarce and workers didn't have sufficient clothing.[1] Working conditions were harsh and diseases such as typhoid and cholera flourished.[2] Typically miners worked 12 hour shifts or longer. The Japanese controllers were known to beat workers with pick handles and the perimeter of the mine was fenced and guarded. Many describe the work as slave labour.On April 26, 1942, a gas and coal-dust explosion in the mine killed 1,549, 34% of the miners working that day, making it the worst disaster in the history of coal mining to date.The explosion sent flames bursting out of the mine shaft entrance. Miners' relatives rushed to the site but were denied entry by a cordon of Japanese guards who erected electric fences to keep them out. In an attempt to curtail the fire underground, the Japanese shut off the ventilation and sealed the pit head. Witnesses say that the Japanese did not evacuate the pit fully before sealing it; trapping many Chinese workers underground to suffocate in the smoke.[2] Thus the actions of the Japanese are blamed for needlessly increasing the death toll. It took workers ten days to remove all the corpses and rubble from the shaft. The dead were buried in a mass grave nearby. Many victims could not be properly identified due to the extent of the burns. The Japanese at first reported the death toll to be just 34.[1] Initial newspaper reports were short, as little as 40 words, and downplayed the size of the disaster as a minor event. Later the Japanese erected a monument to the dead. This stone gave the number of dead to be 1327.[3] The true number is believed to be 1,549.[4] Of this number, 31 were Japanese, the rest Chinese.[2] The mine continued to be operated by the Japanese until the end of World War II in 1945. Following the Japanese withdrawal, the workers took control of the site. With the liberation after the war, the Soviet Union investigated the accident. They found that only some of the workers died from the gas and coal-dust explosion. The Soviet report states that most deaths were of Carbon Monoxide poisoning due to the closing of ventilation after the initial explosion.[2]
  2. 1,099 – Courrières mine disaster (Courrières, France, 10 March 1906)
  3. 687 – coal mine (Mitsubishi Hojo, Kyūshū, Japan, 15 December 1914)
  4. 682 – coal mine Laobaidong colliery coal dust explosion, (Datong China, 9 May 1960)
  5. 472 – coal mine (Wankie, Rhodesia, 1972)
  6. 458 – Mitsui Miike Coal Mine disaster- (Mitsui Miike, Ōmuta, Fukuoka, Japan, 9 November 1963)
  7. 439 – Senghenydd Colliery Disaster (Senghenydd, Wales, 1913)
  8. 437 – coal mine (Coalbrook, South Africa, 1960)
  9. 422 – coal mine (New Yubari, Yubari, Hokkaidō, Japan, 28 November 1914)
  10. 405 – coal mine (Bergkamen, West Germany, 1946)
  11. 214 – coal mine (Sunjiawan, Fuxin, Liaoning, China, 15 February 2005)
  12. 181 – coal mine with flooding (Huayuan[disambiguation needed], Xintai, Shandong, China, August 17, 2007)
  13. 166 – coal mine (Chenjiashan, Tongchuan, Shaanxi, China, 28 November 2004)
  14. 159 – coal mine (Muchonggou, Shuicheng, Guizhou, China, 26 September 2000)
  15. 148 – coal mine (Daping, Tongchuan[disambiguation needed], Henan, China, 20 October 2004)
  16. 124 – coal mine (Chengzihe, Jixi, Heilongjiang, China, 20 June 2002)
  17. 123 – coal mine (Daxing, Xingning, Guangdong, China, 6 August 2005)
  18. 108 – coal mine (Ulyanovskaya, Novokuznetsk, KuzbassSiberia, Russia, March 19, 2007)
  19. 105 – coal mine (Ruizhiyuan, Linfen, Shanxi, China, 5 December 2007)
  20. 101 – coal mine (methane explosion) (Zasyadko, Donetsk, Ukraine, 18 November 2007)
  21. 92 – coal mine (Gangzi, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China, July 22, 2001)
  22. 86 – coal mine (Luling coal mine, Hefei, Anhui, China, 13 May 2003)
  23. 83 – coal mine (Shenlong, Fukang, Xinjiang Uygur, China, 13 July 2005)
  24. 82 – coal mine (Barakova, Krasnodon, Ukraine, 11 March 2000)
  25. 73 – coal mine (San Fernando, Amaga, Antioquia, Colombia, 17 June 2010)[citation needed]
  26. 59 – coal mine (Xishui mine, Shanxi province, China, 20 March 2005)
  27. 59 – coal mine (Bettina, Orlová, Czech Republic, March 26, 1885)
  28. 54 – coal mine (Hlubina, Ostrava, Czech Republic, May 22, 1960)
  29. 54 – coal mine (Františka, Záluží[disambiguation needed], Czech Republic, , 1860)
  30. 52 – coal mine (Zasyadka, Donetsk, Ukraine, 19 August 2001)
  31. 45 – coal mine (Surran range, Quetta, Pakistan, 21 March 2011)
  32. 29 – coal mine Pike River Mine disaster (Greymouth, New Zealand, November 19, 2010)
  33. 29 – Upper Big Branch mine explosion (Montcoal, West Virginia, 5 April 2010)
  34. 24 – Nanshan Colliery disaster (Shanxi Province, China, 13 November 2006)
  35. 23 – methane explosion in Halemba coal mine (Ruda ŚląskaPoland 21 November 2006)
  36. 20 – 2009 Handlová mine blast (Handlová, Slovakia, August 10, 2009)
  37. 16 – coal mine (Ningxia Hui, China, 16 October 2008)

Explosions

  1. 1,950 – Halifax Explosion, (Nova Scotia, Canada 1917)The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a Frenchcargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the NorwegianSS Imo in "The Narrows" section of the Halifax Harbour. About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured.[2] The Halifax Explosion remains the world's largest man-made accidental explosion.At 8:40 in the morning, the SS Mont-Blanc, chartered by the French government to carry munitions to Europe, collided with the unloaded Norwegian ship Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to carry relief supplies. Mont-Blanc caught fire ten minutes after the collision and exploded about twenty-five minutes later (at 9:04:35 AM).[4] All buildings and structures covering nearly 2 square kilometres (500acres) along the adjacent shore were obliterated, including those in the neighbouring communities of Richmond and Dartmouth.[2] The explosion caused a tsunami in the harbour and a pressure wave of air that snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels, and carried fragments of the Mont-Blanc for kilometres.
  2. 1,500 – Ammunition plant with facilities explode at Smederevo, outskirt of Belgrade, Serbia, June 8, 1941
  3. 1,200 – Explosion of ammunition on the Chinese troopship "Kuang Yuang", near Kiukiang, China, October 16, 1926
  4. 1,200 – Ammunition trucks explode near a train station (Cali, Colombia, 1956)
  5. 1,121 – Japanese battleship Mutsu, at Hashirajima harbour, 1943 due to magazine explosion.
  6. 1,100 – Lagos Armoury Explosion, (Lagos, Nigeria, 2002), many deaths were from drowning during the resulting panic
  7. 1,007 – Ammunition transporter exploded in Hamont, Belgium, November 18, 1918
  8. 843 – British dreadnought battleship HMS Vanguard (1909), propellant explosion, 1917
  9. 800 – Bombay Docks Explosion (Bombay, India, 1944)
  10. 738 – British pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Bulwark (1899), magazine explosion, 1914
  11. 234 – PetroChinaChuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, December 2003
  12. 154 – Ryongchon disaster, (North Korea, 2004)
  13. 150 – Jaʿār munitions factory explosion (Abyan Governorate, Yemen, March 28, 2011)
  14. 140 – Sachangwan Molo tanker explosion Kenya 31 January 2009
  15. 117 – 2007 Maputo arms depot explosion at Mozambican Armed Forces ammunition in Laulane, Mozambique on March 22, 2007.[citation needed]
  16. 117 – Electrical transformer explosion, Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 3, 2010.
  17. 100 – NNPC oil pipeline explosion, which blasted a primary school at Ijegun, Nigeria, May 15, 2008.
  18. 98 – 8,800 gallons carrying fuel truck exploded and caught fire at Kagarko, Kaduna, Nigeria, March 28, 2007
  19. 90 – A truck carrying 3,800 gallons of gasoline with six vehicles crashed and exploded at Nosratabad, Sistan and Baluchistan, Iran, June 20, 2004.
  20. 60 – Truck explosion in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur, China, (September 9, 2000)
  21. 32 – 2009 Viareggio derailment, a gas train explosion, Italy, 2009
  22. 29 – Blast in ammunition depot in Albania, 2008
  23. 27 – LNG liquefaction plant explosion, Skikda, Algeria. 19 January 2004.
  24. 24 – Gas explosion in Ghislenghien, Belgium, July 30, 2004
  25. 22 – Fireworks factory (Enschede, Netherlands, 2000)
  26. 21 – Brazilian rocket explosion (Brazil, 2003)
  27. 18 – Mihăileşti explosion (Romania, 2004)
  28. 15 – BP Refinery, Isomerization Unit Explosion (killed 15 injured 180), Texas City, Texas USA March 23, 2005
  29. 14 – 2008 Georgia sugar refinery explosion (Port Wentworth, Georgia, United States, 2008)
  30. 13 - Munitions Dump explosion Evangelos Florakis Naval Base & Vassilikos power plant (, , July 11 2011)
  31. 11 – Deepwater Horizon oil spill, (Gulf of Mexico, near the Missipippi River Delta, United States Of America, May 2010)

Floods

  1. 26,000 – Banqiao Dam collapse, Henan Province, China, August 1975The Banqiao Reservoir Dam (simplified Chinese: 板桥水库大坝; traditional Chinese: 板橋水庫大壩; pinyin: BǎnqiáoShuǐkùDàbà) is a dam on the River Ru in Zhumadian Prefecture, Henan province, China. It infamously failed in 1975, causing more casualties than any other dam failure in history, and was subsequently rebuilt.The Banqiao dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam (simplified Chinese: 石漫滩水库大坝; traditional Chinese: 石漫灘水庫大壩; pinyin: ShímàntānShuǐkùDàbà) are among 62 dams in Zhumadian Prefecture of China's Henan Province that failed catastrophically or were intentionally destroyed in 1975 during Typhoon Nina.The dam failure killed an estimated 171,000 people[citation needed]; 11 million people lost their homes. It also caused the sudden loss of 18 GW of power[citation needed] , the equivalent of roughly 9 very large modern coal fired power stations or about 20 nuclear reactors, equalling about 1/3 the peak demand on the UK National Grid.
  2. 23,000 - Armero Flood, Town of Armero, Colombia, November 13, 1985 ( Armero tragedy)
  3. 2,551 – North Sea flood of 1953, heavy storms caused devastation in the UK, Belgium and especially The Netherlands (where 1,835 people were killed)
  4. 2,209 – Johnstown flood (dam break in Johnstown, Pennsylvania), 1889
  5. 2,000 ca. – Vajont Dam collapse, Italy, 1963
  6. 1,464 – New Orleans Flooding (New Orleans, Louisiana, Levee failure due to Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 2005.)
  7. 941 – Iruka pond collapsed in Inuyama, Aichi, Japan, on May 14, 1868.
  8. 488 – Mir Placalnizza dam failure and collapsed in Sgorigrad, Bulgaria on May 1, 1966.
  9. 421 – Malpasset dam collapse, France, 1959
  10. 375 – Levee of pond failure at MitsubishiOsarizawa mine, Kazuno, northeastern Akita, Japan, 1936
  11. 135 – Santa Catarina floods (Santa Catarina state, Brazil, 2008)
  12. 99 – Situ Gintung dam failure, Indonesia, 2009
  13. 75 – 2009 Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro accident
  14. 35 – 2010–2011 Queensland floods following torrential rain, plus 9 missing, Australia, December 2010 – January 2011

Industrial accidents

  1. 16,000 – Bhopal Disaster (India, 1984)The Bhopal disaster also known as Bhopal Gas Tragedy was one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.[1] Others estimate 3,000 died within weeks and another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.[2][3] A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.[4]UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC).