The biggest disasters of the 20th century. The worst disasters in the world. Disasters on the water

No matter how far scientific and technological progress goes, disasters have happened, are happening and will probably continue to happen for a long time. Some of them could have been avoided, but most of the worst events in the world were inevitable because they happened at the behest of Mother Nature.

The worst plane crash

Collision of two Boeing 747s

Humanity does not know of a more terrible plane crash than the one that occurred on March 27, 1977 on the island of Tenerife, which belongs to the Canary group. On this day, at Los Rodeo airport, two Boeing 747s collided, one of which belonged to KLM, the other to Pan American. This terrible tragedy claimed 583 lives. The reasons that led to this disaster are a fatal and paradoxical combination of circumstances.

Los Rodeos airport was seriously overloaded on this ill-fated Sunday. The dispatcher spoke with a strong Spanish accent, and the radio communications suffered from serious interference. Because of this, the Boeing commander, KLM, misinterpreted the command to abort the flight, which became the fatal cause of the collision of two maneuvering aircraft.

Only a few passengers managed to escape through the holes created in the Pan American plane. The wings and tail of another Boeing fell off, which led to a fall one hundred and fifty meters from the accident site, after which it was dragged for another three hundred meters. Both flying cars caught fire.

There were 248 passengers on board the Boeing KLM, none of whom survived. The Pan American plane became the site of the death of 335 people, including the entire crew, as well as the famous model and actress Eve Meyer.

The worst man-made disaster

On July 6, 1988, the worst of all disasters occurred in the North Sea, famous history oil production. It happened on the Piper Alpha oil platform, which was built in 1976. The number of victims was 167 people, the company suffered a loss of about three and a half billion dollars.

The most offensive thing is that the number of victims could have been much lower if not for ordinary human stupidity. There was a large gas leak, followed by an explosion. But instead of stopping the oil supply immediately after the accident began, the maintenance personnel waited for management's command.

The countdown went on for minutes, and soon the entire platform of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation was engulfed in fire, even the living quarters caught fire. Those who could have survived the blast were burned alive. Only those who managed to jump into the water survived.

Worst water accident ever

When the topic of tragedies on the water is raised, one involuntarily recalls the film “Titanic”. Moreover, such a catastrophe really happened. But this shipwreck is not the worst in the history of mankind.

Wilhelm Gustloff

Most big disaster, which occurred on the water, is rightfully considered to be the sinking of the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff. The tragedy occurred on January 30, 1945. Its culprit was a submarine of the Soviet Union, which hit a ship that could accommodate almost 9,000 passengers.

This, at that time, a perfect product of shipbuilding, was made in 1938. It seemed unsinkable and housed 9 decks, restaurants, a winter garden, climate control, gyms, theaters, dance floors, swimming pools, a church and even Hitler’s rooms.

Its length was more than two hundred meters, it could sail half the planet without refueling. The ingenious creation could not sink without outside intervention. And it happened in the person of the crew of the submarine S-13, commanded by A. I. Marinesko. Three torpedoes were fired at the legendary ship. In a matter of minutes he found himself in the abyss of the Baltic Sea. All crew members were killed, including about 8,000 representatives of the German military elite who were evacuated from Danzig.

Wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff (video)

The greatest environmental tragedy

Shrunken Aral Sea

Among all environmental disasters, the leading place is occupied by the drying out of the Aral Sea. In their better times it was the fourth largest among all the lakes in the world.

The disaster occurred due to the unreasonable use of water used to water gardens and fields. The drying out was due to the ill-considered political ambitions and actions of the leaders of those times.

Gradually, the coastline moved far into the sea, which led to the extinction of most species of flora and fauna. In addition, droughts began to become more frequent, the climate changed significantly, shipping became impossible, and more than sixty people were left without work.

Where did the Aral Sea disappear: strange symbols on the dry bottom (VIDEO)

Nuclear disaster

What could be worse than a nuclear disaster? The lifeless kilometers of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl region are the embodiment of these fears. The accident occurred in 1986, when one of the power units exploded early on an April morning. Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Chernobyl 1986

This tragedy claimed the lives of several hundred tow truck workers, and thousands died over the next ten years. And only God knows how many people were forced to leave their homes...

The children of these people are still born with developmental anomalies. The atmosphere, land and water around the nuclear power plant are contaminated with radioactive substances.

Radiation levels in this region are still thousands of times higher than normal. No one knows how long it will take for people to settle in these places. The scale of this disaster is still not fully known.

Chernobyl accident 1986: Chernobyl, Pripyat - liquidation (VIDEO)

Disaster over the Black Sea: Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed

Crash of Tu-154 of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Not long ago there was a crash of a Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense en route to Syria. It claimed the lives of 64 talented artists of the Alexandrov ensemble, nine famous leading TV channels, the head of a charitable organization - the famous Doctor Lisa, eight military personnel, two civil servants, and all crew members. A total of 92 people died in this terrible plane crash.

On this tragic morning in December 2016, the plane refueled in Adler, but unexpectedly crashed just after takeoff. The investigation took a long time, because it was necessary to know what the cause of the Tu-154 crash was.

The commission that investigated the causes of the accident named overloading of the plane, fatigue of the crew and low professional level of training and organization of the flight among the circumstances leading to the disaster.

Results of the investigation into the Tu-154 crash of the Russian Ministry of Defense (VIDEO)

Submarine "Kursk"

The sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk, in which 118 people on board were killed, occurred in 2000 in the Barents Sea. This is the second largest accident in the history of the Russian submarine fleet after the disaster on the B-37.

On August 12, as planned, preparations for training attacks began. The last written confirmed actions on the boat were recorded at 11.15.

A few hours before the tragedy, the crew commander was informed about the cotton, which he did not pay attention to. Then the boat shook violently, which was attributed to the activation of the radar station antenna. After that, the boat captain no longer contacted us. At 23.00 the situation on the submarine was declared as an emergency, which was reported to the leadership of the fleet and the country. The next morning, as a result of search operations, the Kursk was found at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 108 m.

The official version of the cause of the tragedy is the explosion of a training torpedo, which occurred as a result of a fuel leak.

Submarine Kursk: what really happened? (VIDEO)

Wreck of the ship "Admiral Nakhimov"

The wreck of the passenger ship "Admiral Nakhimov" occurred in August 1981 near Novorossiysk. There were 1,234 people on board the ship, 423 of whom lost their lives on that fateful day. It is known that Vladimir Vinokur and Lev Leshchenko were late for this flight.

At 23:12, the ship collided with the dry cargo ship "Petr Vasev", as a result of which the electric generator was flooded and the light went out on the "Nakhimov". The ship became uncontrollable and continued to move forward by inertia. As a result of the collision, a hole of up to eighty square meters was formed in the starboard side. Panic began among the passengers; many climbed onto the left side and thus descended into the water.

Almost a thousand people ended up in the water, and they were also dirty with fuel oil and paint. Eight minutes after the collision, the ship sank.

Steamship Admiral Nakhimov: shipwreck - Russian Titanic (VIDEO)

Oil platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico

The worst environmental disasters in the world in 2010 were joined by another one that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, eighty kilometers from Louisiana. This is one of the most dangerous man-made accidents for the environment. It happened on April 20 on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

As a result of pipe rupture, about five million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

A spot measuring 75,000 square meters formed in the bay. km, which amounted to five percent of its total area. The disaster took the lives of 11 people and injured 17.

Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (VIDEO)

Concordia crash

On January 14, 2012, the list of the worst incidents in the world was supplemented with one more. Near Italian Tuscany, the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran into a rock outcropping, leaving a hole seventy meters in size. At this time, most of the passengers were in the restaurant.

The right side of the liner began to submerge in the water, then it was thrown onto a sandbank 1 km from the crash site. There were more than 4,000 people on the ship who were evacuated throughout the night, but not everyone was saved: 32 people were still killed and a hundred were injured.

Costa Concordia – the crash through the eyes of eyewitnesses (VIDEO)

Eruption of Krakatoa in 1883

Natural disasters show how insignificant and helpless we are in the face of natural phenomena. But all the worst disasters in the world are nothing compared to the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, which occurred in 1883.

On May 20, a large smoke column could be seen above the Krakatoa volcano. At that moment, even at a distance of 160 kilometers from him, the windows of houses began to tremble. All the nearby islands were covered with a thick layer of dust and pumice.

Eruptions continued until August 27. The final explosion culminated in sound waves that circled the entire planet several times. At that moment, the compasses on the ships sailing in the Sunda Strait stopped showing correctly.

These explosions led to the submersion of the entire northern part of the island. The seabed rose as a result of the eruptions. Much ash from the volcano remained in the atmosphere for another two to three years.

The tsunami, which was thirty meters high, washed away about three hundred settlements and killed 36,000 people.

The most powerful eruption of Krakatoa Volcano (VIDEO)

Earthquake in Spitak in 1988

On December 7, 1988, the list of “Best Disasters in the World” was replenished with another one that occurred in the Armenian Spitak. On this tragic day, tremors literally “wiped” this city from the face of the earth in just half a minute, destroying Leninakan, Stepanavan and Kirovakan beyond recognition. In total, twenty-one cities and three hundred and fifty villages were affected.

In Spitak itself, the earthquake had a force of ten, Leninakan was struck by a force of nine, and Kirovakan was struck by a force of eight, and almost the rest of Armenia was hit by a force of six. Seismologists have calculated that during this earthquake the energy released corresponded to the force of ten exploded atomic bombs. The wave that this tragedy caused was recorded by scientific laboratories almost all over the world.

This natural disaster deprived 25,000 people of their lives, 140,000 of their health, and 514,000 of their homes. Forty percent of the republic's industry was out of order, schools, hospitals, theaters, museums, cultural centers, roads and railways were destroyed.

Military personnel, doctors, and public figures throughout the country and abroad, both near and far, were called to help. Humanitarian aid was actively collected around the world. Tents, field kitchens and first aid stations were set up throughout the area affected by the tragedy.

The saddest and most instructive thing about this situation is that the scale and casualties of this terrible disaster could have been many times smaller if the seismic activity of the region had been taken into account and all buildings had been built taking these features into account. The lack of preparedness of the rescue services also contributed.

Tragic days: earthquake in Spitak (VIDEO)

2004 Tsunami Indian Ocean - Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka

In December 2004, a devastating tsunami of terrible force caused by an underwater earthquake hit the coasts of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other countries. Huge waves devastated the area and killed 200,000 people. The most annoying thing is that most of the dead are children, since in this region there is a high proportion of children to the population, moreover, children are physically weaker and less able to resist water than an adult.

Aceh province in Indonesia suffered the greatest losses. Almost all buildings there were destroyed, 168,000 people died.

Geographically, this earthquake was simply huge. Up to 1200 kilometers of rock have moved. The shift occurred in two phases with an interval of two to three minutes.

The number of victims turned out to be so high because there was no common system alerts.

There is nothing worse than disasters and tragedies that deprive people of life, shelter, health, destroy industry and everything that a person has worked on for many years. But it often turns out that the number of casualties and destruction in such situations could have been much less if everyone had been conscientious about their professional responsibilities; in some cases, it was necessary to provide an evacuation plan and a warning system in advance local residents. Let's hope that in the future humanity will find a way to avoid such terrible tragedies or reduce the damage from them.

Tsunami in Indonesia 2004 (VIDEO)

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The twentieth century. The age of machines and high technology. A century of incredible technological progress. A century of breakthrough in human development. A century of great discoveries and inventions that changed us. Over the past hundred years we have traveled more than our ancestors did in several centuries. We have achieved what the ancients never dreamed of. In the twentieth century, man rose into the air, stepped into space, and subjugated the energy of the atom. But the century of triumph of human genius also brought a new type of disaster - man-made disasters that claimed thousands of lives. This is the case when the fruits of technological progress turned against their creator - a man who was too self-confident and frivolous about his creations. It is impossible to list all these cases at once - there are hundreds of them. Therefore, here are only some of the most famous and large-scale examples of man-made disasters that have become history.

"Titanic"

Shipwrecks are the oldest type of man-made disaster. Ships have been sinking for centuries and now the number of lost ships is in the millions! However, shipwrecks have never taken such terrifying proportions as in the 20th century. Of course, this is the time of two world wars and such floating monsters as the Titanic. But this ship will not be mentioned here. They already talk too much about it, forgetting that there were other ships, the death of which was no less tragic.

On May 1, 1915, the luxury British superliner Lusitania set sail from New York to Liverpool with 1,959 passengers and crew on board. Lusitania, the pride of the Cunard Line shipbuilding company, earned the title of the fastest steamship in the world in 1907. (Creators "Titanic", realizing that their ship could not compete with the "Lusitania" in speed, decided to amaze the whole world with the size and luxury of their brainchild). Developing a speed of up to 50 kilometers per hour, the liner crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 4 days and 19 hours. And in 1909, the ship broke its own record, crossing the Atlantic in 4 and a half days.

English passenger liner "Lusitania"

When did the first one start? World War, "Lusitania", despite the threat from Germany, continued to make its transatlantic flights. It transported citizens of neutral states and was unarmed, which classified it as a peaceful ship. But the main calculation was that in case of danger, the liner, having developed, maximum speed, it will simply escape from any German warship. However, the captain did not take into account the possibility of the appearance of submarines. On May 7, the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine.

Despite the fact that all watertight bulkheads on the ship were battened down, the ship capsized and sank 20 minutes after the explosion. Along with it, 1,198 passengers and crew members died. There could have been fewer casualties if not for the panic of the passengers and the confusion of the crew. Everything happened too quickly. Due to confusion, out of 48 lifeboats, only 6 were able to be launched into the water. And more than half of the life jackets went to the bottom with the ship.

December 6, 1917 is a black date in the history of the Canadian port city of Halifax. On that clear morning, the French military transport Mont Blanc, heading from New York to Bordeaux, was entering the harbor. And it so happened that while entering the port, Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian cargo ship Imo, which was just leaving Halifax and headed out to sea. The captains of the two ships simply made a mistake with their maneuvers. It is possible that this would have been the end of it if not for the cargo of the Mont Blanc.

The fact is that in the holds of the French transport there were secretly... 3000 tons of explosives intended for the French for the war with Germany! As a result of the collision, a strong fire broke out on the Mont Blanc. After unsuccessful attempts to put out the fire, the crew began to hastily evacuate the ship before it exploded. The abandoned ship began to be carried straight to the pier by the tidal current. And crowds of people who came to watch were already gathering on the embankments of the city to the fire. The onlookers did not even suspect what was in the belly of the ship. Only the crew of the ship and several port commanders knew about the hellish cargo, who did not have time to warn the people on shore. Therefore, no one attached any importance to the fact that the sailors of the Mont Blanc were escaping from it as if devils were chasing them.

The port decided to use a tug to pull the burning ship out to sea so that it would not set fire to other ships. But it only took a few minutes. At 9 o'clock in the morning there was an explosion, which the world had not known before the advent of the atomic bomb. The explosion even exposed the bottom of the bay - the water under the ship seemed to part! The ship was completely destroyed. Its parts were later found several kilometers from the explosion site. Thus, one fragment weighing half a ton ended up three and a half kilometers from the harbor. And a 100-kilogram piece of the hull flew as far as 22 kilometers away!

This may be the only photograph of the Halifax Harbor explosion on December 6, 1917. The photo was taken from a distance of 20 km.

Almost all port and coastal structures within a radius of five hundred meters were literally blown away by the shock wave. Dozens of ships docked in the port sank or were washed ashore and severely damaged. The dilapidated city was covered with tons of rubble. Fires were raging everywhere. More than 3,000 people died that day, 2,000 were missing, and about 9,000 were injured. To top off the misfortunes, the next day there was frost, a snowstorm began, and a day later a storm hit the dead city. It was as if God's punishment had fallen on Halifax! Unfortunately, a similar man-made disaster repeated itself several times in the 20th century. The reason is still the same - man’s careless attitude towards his deadly invention - dynamite and its components.

In 1944, in the port of Bombay, due to a fire on board (again!), the British military transport “Fort Stikin”, filled to capacity with ammunition, blew up. And three years later, the same tragedy occurred in the industrial city of Texas City in the southern United States. There, the French steamer Grandcan, which was docked in the port, caught fire and exploded, carrying a cargo of fertilizers - 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate. The result of these explosions was destroyed ports and city buildings, thousands of dead and wounded... Moreover, the bulk of the victims were those who were on the shore at the time of the disaster. As in Halifax, people flocked to the port to watch the fire. The fate of Mont Blanc never taught anyone to be careful. Fatal ignorance also played a role here. In Halifax, no one knew about the TNT on Mont Blanc. And in Texas City, no one had any idea that ammonium nitrate, this seemingly harmless fertilizer, could explode like that! They say it right: ignorance is a terrible force!

On May 18, 1935, the largest aircraft of that time, the Maxim Gorky, took off from the Moscow airfield on Khodynskoe Field. This celestial giant was built as the flagship of a special propaganda air squadron, the idea of creating which appeared in 1932, when the 40th anniversary of the literary activity of Alesei Gorky was celebrated. The plane truly amazed the imagination. With a length of more than 30 meters and a wingspan of 63 meters, the 8-engine Maxim Gorky could carry 72 passengers and crew members, which was a record figure for aviation in those years.

That day the plane was making another pleasure and demonstration flight. On board there were 11 crew members and 36 passengers - employees of a Moscow aviation institute with their families. This flight was their last. A few minutes after takeoff, the Maxim Gorky was hit by an escort fighter that made a mistake in performing a complex maneuver - the pilot, especially for the press and Stalin, was ordered to perform a “dead loop” around the giant aircraft. The desire for show cost the lives of 47 people.

Unfortunately, “Maxim Gorky” was not the only one who fell victim to the “gigantomania” that characterized the 20th century. On May 6, 1937, the German super-airship Hindenburg crashed. In fairness, it is worth noting that in the first decades of the 20th century, airships died often, but the Hindenburg is always the first to be remembered. But even before the tragedy with the Titanic, many ships sank. So why was so much attention focused on the death of the British liner, and other cases faded into the background? It’s just that the Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship ever built by human hands. The Hindenburg was also a kind of flying Titanic; it was also considered the most luxurious and, most importantly, reliable aircraft. (Alas, it seems that man has never gotten rid of his blind faith in the reliability of machines).

The airship had truly unimaginable dimensions: length - 245 meters, diameter - about 40 meters, volume - 200 thousand cubic meters of hydrogen! It was truly the largest aircraft in the history of aeronautics. It carried about a hundred passengers and crew members, reached speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour and could stay in the air for several days. The Hindenburg was making its 18th transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to New York.

The moment the Hindenburg exploded

The landing site was Leyhurst, a suburb of New York. However, during landing, a fire broke out on the airship. Since the “Hindenburg” flew on explosive hydrogen (safer helium at that time was made only by the Americans, who did not want to sell it to the Germans, their potential enemies), the flames completely destroyed “the pride and greatness of Germany” in less than a minute. The tragedy claimed the lives of 35 people. This disaster began the rapid decline of the era of passenger airships. And colossuses like the Hindenburg were no longer created

The aforementioned Lusitania was not the only passenger ship that died from the actions of submarines. Thus, on September 12, 1942, in the South Atlantic, a German submarine sent to the bottom the British transport ship Laconia, which carried 2,789 passengers: officers serving with children and wives, as well as several hundred prisoners. 1111 people survived. However, in the centuries-old history of world shipwrecks, the absolute “record” for the number of deaths belongs to the German motor ship “Wilhelm Gustlow”.

On January 30, 1945, this luxurious 208-meter liner was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine under the command of the famous Alexander Marinesko. At that moment, the ship was carrying elite units of fascist submariners, high military command, thousands of refugees and wounded - more than eight and a half thousand people in total. After being hit by torpedoes, the ship, which was considered unsinkable, sank in about an hour. According to various sources, less than a thousand passengers were saved...

In the 20th century, after the creation nuclear weapons The world found itself embroiled in a hysterical arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Secret centers for the development and construction of atomic bombs were hastily built in giant countries. However, scientists and military personnel were not always aware of how dangerous such “atomic games” could be. In September 1957, in the closed town of Chelyabinsk (now Ozersk), a powerful explosion occurred at the Mayak enterprise. This incident, which foreshadowed Chernobyl, was hidden for more than 30 years. And only recently it became clear that this plant was engaged in the production of weapons-grade plutonium.

The explosion of a waste container released about 20 million curies of radioactive substances into the air. A huge radiation cloud was picked up by the wind and spread over an area of 1000 square kilometers, covering the Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions. Tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land were contaminated, and the population of many surrounding villages had to be evacuated due to the accident. The victims of this accident were about 160 thousand people who received a large dose of radiation. However, at that time little was known about the harmful effects radiation has on the body. And for a long time, death from radiation sickness was a mystery to doctors.

On March 27, 1977, the worst air disaster of the century occurred in the Canary Islands. That day, the airport in the small town of Santa Cruz, on the island of Tenerife, was crowded with planes from various airlines. Due to the terrorist attack in neighboring Las Palmas, the local airport was closed for security reasons. And the entire burden of receiving and dispatching international flights fell on Santa Cruz air traffic controllers, who were unprepared for such an influx. Adding to the general confusion in the work was bad weather - rain with thick fog. So the planes landed and took off almost blindly.

This coincidence of circumstances led to the tragedy. At some point, two Boeing 747s appeared on the same runway at the same time. One of them belonged to Dutch airlines, the second to the American company Pan American. The crews of the two cars did not see each other due to fog. As a result, the Dutch Boeing began to accelerate for takeoff, while an American Airbus was slowly moving straight towards it along the runway. The “American” simply got lost in the fog and the pilots tried in vain to figure out where they were on the runway and how to get off it. .

The airliner pilots saw each other just a few seconds before the collision. The Dutch Boeing, traveling at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, did not have time to gain altitude and crashed into the American with its entire mass. None of the passengers and crew of the Dutch plane survived; several people miraculously escaped from the American one. The remaining 582 passengers and crew members were burned alive in the infernal flames of the explosion.

In the last century, humanity began to actively explore space. However, the daring steps of the pioneers into the Universe were often paid for human lives. On January 28, 1986, the largest disaster in the short history of astronautics occurred. On that day, the spaceship Challenger with seven astronauts on board. This generally ordinary event was attended by Special attention.

Firstly, NASA allowed television crews to broadcast this launch directly from the cosmodrome. Secondly, in addition to thousands of spectators, President Ronald Reagan and his wife were also present at Cape Canaveral. Third, there were two women on the Challenger crew. One of them, teacher Christa McAuliffe, was supposed to teach a geography lesson for the first time in human history while in low-Earth orbit. But this was not destined to happen.

At the 73rd second of flight, at an altitude of 17,000 meters, the Challenger exploded due to problems with its engines. Several hundred tons rocket fuel in the blink of an eye they incinerated the ship, leaving the astronauts not the slightest chance of salvation. Later, the investigation would establish that technical problems had occurred on the Challenger before. And on the day of launch, the shuttle again had technical problems. However, NASA, instead of canceling the launch and fully checking all systems, only postponed the launch for several hours. The Americans, remembering that previous incidents ended successfully, hoped that it would “sweep through” this time too. But history inexorably shows how often a person has to pay for hoping for “maybe.”

A person rarely learns from his mistakes. And therefore, with enviable consistency, he steps on the same rake. Another proof of this was the fact that the Chelyabinsk explosion was not the only case when, due to negligence, man’s most terrible enemy, created by his own hands, was released - radiation. As is known, Soviet Union one of the first to try to “tame” atomic energy, to direct it not only to destruction, but also to the benefit of man. Following the USSR, nuclear power plants began to grow like mushrooms in many countries around the world. But soon humanity became convinced that the “peaceful atom” is relatively safe as long as it is hidden in reactors. In the wild, he is still the same invisible and all-pervasive killer from whom there is no salvation.

On April 26, 1986, the infamous disaster occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Due to violations by the station staff of operating modes (here it is, the “human factor”), the reactor exploded with the release of more than one hundred tons of burning uranium. Aviation and the military were mobilized to extinguish and eliminate the consequences of the explosion. The destroyed reactor and flaming uranium, literally glowing from radiation, were extinguished by hundreds of people who were not wearing special protective clothing. They didn’t know then that they were already doomed. Many died within a few days.

Those who survived that hell suffered for many years from the effects of radiation and doctors were powerless to help. The level of radiation was such that the robots putting out the fire had microcircuit failures! And yet the fire was suppressed, the reactor began to be walled up to cut it off from the outside world. At the same time, decontamination of the area and the hasty removal of the population from an area of approximately 200,000 square kilometers was underway. However, the monstrous scale of the disaster began to appear later. The radioactive cloud passed not only across the territory of the USSR, but also over the whole of Europe, infecting the earth, animals and plants. Over the years, the number of cancer diseases began to increase. In the first years, thousands of accident liquidators and local residents died. Until now, many areas of Ukraine and Russia have been declared an infection zone. The retribution for mistakes lasted for decades...

The 20th century was also marked by numerous disasters involving cargo-passenger ferries. Perhaps the largest of them, which can be called the “disaster of the century,” occurred with the Philippine ferry Dona Paz. Compared to this, what happened with the Titanic is a minor incident. 20 The ship was on a routine voyage between Manila and numerous Philippine islands in December 1987. Christmas was approaching and the ferry was crowded with people wanting to get to the capital, an influx of passengers also explained by the cheapness of local shipping.

But that day, the Dona Paz did not reach the port. Due to errors in management (the ferry at that moment was controlled not by the captain, but by his student), the Dona Paz, not reaching about 180 kilometers from Manila, collided with the tanker Victor ", carrying more than a million liters of oil. The collision and subsequent oil explosion sank both ships within minutes. This tragedy claimed the lives of about 4,000 people, although there are claims that there were more casualties.

One of the latest and most famous disasters is the death of the ferry "Estonia". While flying from Tallinn to Stockholm, the ship was caught in a storm and sank on the night of September 28, 1994. Of the 1051 passengers, only 137 were saved. But during the investigation into the causes of the disaster, it turned out that The ferry died not from a storm, but because of a loosely closed cargo gate through which cars enter the ship. Under the blows of the waves, the doors could not stand it, and water poured onto the car deck. This led to the fact that a reliable, modern ferry sank like this quickly and unexpectedly. By the way, loose cargo gates were not the first time that caused the death of a ferry. In 1953 and 1987, the English ferries “Princess Victoria” and “Herald of Free Enterprise” sank for the same reason. Such negligence cost a total of lives 330 passengers.

Major disasters of the 20th century. "Titanic" and "Wilhelm Gustlow"
Perhaps the most famous maritime disaster of the last century was the shipwreck of the cruise ship Titanic in 1912. As a result, 1,523 people died.

However, this disaster is far from the worst if you look at the number of deaths. The greatest maritime disaster ever to occur was the sinking of the liner Wilhelm Gustlow by a Soviet submarine during World War II (in January 1945).
According to the most conservative estimates, losses amounted to about 9,500 people.

"Atomic Bomb" of Golifax
December 6, 1917. That morning, the French military transport Mont Blanc entered the harbor of the Canadian port city of Halifax, heading from New York to Bordeaux. While entering the port, the Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian cargo ship Imo, which was just leaving Halifax.
In the holds of the French transport there were... 3000 tons of explosives intended for the war with Germany! As a result of the collision, a large fire broke out on the Mont Blanc.
After unsuccessful attempts to put out the fire, the crew began to hastily evacuate the ship.
And crowds of people who came to look at the fire were already gathering on the city embankment.
At 9 o'clock in the morning there was an explosion, which the world had not known before the advent of the atomic bomb. The explosion exposed the bay to the bottom - the water under the ship seemed to part.
Dozens of ships docked in the port sank. Almost all port and coastal structures within a radius of five hundred meters were literally blown away by the shock wave. More than 3,000 people died that day, 2,000 were missing, and about 9,000 were injured.
All that was left of the bomb ship was a 100-kilogram piece of the hull, which flew as far as 22 kilometers away!

The only photograph of the Halifax Harbor explosion on December 6, 1917. The photo was taken from a distance of 20 km.

Major disasters of the 20th century. G The bitter hour of “Maxim Gorky”

On May 18, 1935, the largest aircraft of that time, Maxim Gorky, took off from the Moscow airfield on Khodynskoe Field. This celestial giant was built as the flagship of a special propaganda air squadron.
The plane was amazing. Length – more than 30 meters, wingspan – 63 meters, 8 motors. The plane could carry 72 passengers and crew members, which was a record figure for aviation in those years.

On that day, there were 11 crew members and 36 passengers on board the plane - employees of a Moscow aviation institute with their families. A few minutes after takeoff, an escort fighter crashed into the Maxim Gorky.
The fighter pilot made a mistake in performing a complex maneuver. He was specially ordered for the press to perform a “dead loop” around a giant plane... The show cost the lives of 47 people.

Major disasters of the 20th century. Super fire on a super airship
On May 6, 1937, the German super-airship Hindenburg crashed in New Jersey (USA). The airship had unimaginable dimensions: length - 245 meters, diameter - about 40 meters, volume - 200 thousand cubic meters of hydrogen!
It was the largest aircraft in the history of aeronautics.

It carried about a hundred passengers and crew members, reached speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour and could stay in the air for several days. The Hindenburg was on its 18th transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to New York. The landing site was Leyhurst, a suburb of New York. However, during landing, a fire broke out on the airship. The flames completely destroyed “the pride and greatness of Germany” in 34 seconds. The tragedy claimed the lives of 35 people. This disaster began the rapid decline of the era of passenger airships.

The airship caught fire while docking with a mooring mast.

Major disasters of the 20th century. Death of an Admiral
And yet, the largest disaster in the history of aeronautics occurred on April 4, 1933. During a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, the Akron airship, which belonged to the US Navy, crashed. Of the 76 people on board, 73 died.
Akron was one of the world's largest airships.

So he could transport five aircraft. As Akron passed the Barnegat Lighthouse in New Jersey, a strong wind arose. The airship descended and collapsed when it hit the water. 73 people died. Only three managed to escape. This disaster marked the end of airship service in the navy. After all, the main proponent of this, Admiral Moffett, died on Akron.

Major disasters of the 20th century. Mercedes victims
The worst accident in the history of auto racing occurred in 1955 at Le Mans (France). A Mercedes-Benz driven by famous racer Pierre Levegh crashed into the stands at high speed and exploded. 83 people died, including Pierre Levegh.

Major disasters of the 20th century. Boeing to Boeing
On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife airport (Canary Islands), killing 583 people. This plane crash was the largest in terms of casualties in the history of civil aviation.

And the largest plane crash in the history of Soviet aviation occurred on July 10, 1985. As a result of a crew error, an Aeroflot Tu-154 went into a tailspin and crashed near the city of Uchkuduk (Uzbekistan). All 200 people on board died...

Major disasters of the 20th century. 73 seconds of Challenger

On January 28, 1986, the largest disaster in the history of astronautics occurred. On that day, the Challenger spacecraft launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Center (Florida, USA) with seven astronauts on board. Special attention was drawn to this event. TV crews broadcast this launch directly from the cosmodrome.

The crew included two women. One of them, teacher Christa McAuliffe, was supposed to teach a geography lesson for the first time in human history while in low-Earth orbit. In addition to thousands of spectators, President Ronald Reagan and his wife were also present at Cape Canaveral.
At the 73rd second of flight, at an altitude of 17,000 meters, the Challenger exploded due to problems with its engines. Several hundred tons of rocket fuel incinerated the ship in the blink of an eye, leaving the astronauts not the slightest chance of salvation.

15 years later, on February 1, 2003, another American space shuttle, Shuttle-Columbia, disintegrated during its return from orbit. All seven crew members on board were killed.

Major disasters of the 20th century. Disappeared area
On June 4, 1988, a powerful deafening explosion rang out on the northwestern outskirts of the city of Arzamas.
Three cars of freight train No. 3115, traveling to Arzamas-16 from Dzerzhinsk, exploded. The cars contained about 118 tons of explosives intended for mining enterprises. As a result of an explosion of monstrous force, 1,530 residential buildings were swept away from the face of the earth, creating a huge crater with a diameter of 52 meters and a depth of 26 meters (the height of a nine-story building).

The blast wave lifted into the air everything in the area of half a kilometer from the epicenter. In a matter of seconds, the entire Zheleznodorozhnikov microdistrict was wiped off the face of the earth.
According to the most rough estimates, 1,500–2,000 people were injured that day.

Major disasters of the 20th century. Death Cloud
On June 4, 1989, the largest train accident in the history of Russia and the USSR occurred near Ufa. As two passenger trains passed, a gas explosion occurred, oozing from a nearby pipeline.

According to official data, 573 people died (according to other sources - 645), 623 became disabled, receiving severe burns and injuries. There were 181 children among the dead. The power of the explosion was estimated at 300 tons of trinitrotoluene. The fire caused by the explosion engulfed an area of about 250 hectares.

PS.
It is impossible not to mention another disaster that occurred on September 11, 2001. On the morning of this day, a group of 19 terrorists captured 4 planes at once. Two of them were aimed at the World War II towers. Shopping Center, which led to the complete destruction of skyscrapers. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, and another crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Then 246 people died on the planes. In total, 2,977 people became victims as a result of the global terrorist attack. Footage of those events spread all over the world.

"Titanic"

On May 1, 1915, the luxury British superliner Lusitania set sail from New York to Liverpool with 1,959 passengers and crew on board. The Lusitania, the pride of the Cunard Line shipbuilding company, earned the title of the fastest steamship in the world in 1907. (The creators of the Titanic, realizing that their ship could not compete with the Lusitania in speed, decided to amaze the whole world with the size and luxury of their creation). Developing speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour, the liner crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 4 days and 19 hours. And in 1909, the ship broke its own record, crossing the Atlantic in 4 and a half days.

English passenger liner "Lusitania"

When the First World War began, the Lusitania, despite the threat from Germany, continued to make its transatlantic voyages. She transported citizens of neutral states and was unarmed, which classified her as a peaceful vessel. But the main calculation was that in case of danger, the liner, having developed maximum speed, would simply move away from any German warship. However, the captain did not take into account the possibility of submarines appearing. On May 7, the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine.

December 6, 1917 is a black date in the history of the Canadian port city of Halifax. On that clear morning, the French military transport Mont Blanc, heading from New York to Bordeaux, was entering the harbor. And it so happened that while entering the port, the Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian cargo steamer Imo, which was just leaving Halifax and headed out to sea. The captains of the two ships simply made a mistake with their maneuvers. It’s possible that this would have been the end of it if it weren’t for the Mont Blanc’s cargo.

The fact is that in the holds of the French transport there were secretly... 3000 tons of explosives intended for the French for the war with Germany! As a result of the collision, a strong fire broke out on Mont Blanc. After unsuccessful attempts to put out the fire, the crew began to hastily evacuate the ship before it exploded. The abandoned ship began to be carried straight to the pier by the tidal current. And crowds of people who came to look at the fire were already gathering on the city embankments. The onlookers had no idea what was in the belly of the ship. Only the crew of the ship and several port commanders knew about the hellish cargo, who did not have time to warn the people on shore. Therefore, no one attached any importance to the fact that the Mont Blanc sailors fled from it as if devils were chasing them.

This may be the only photograph of the Halifax Harbor explosion on December 6, 1917. The photo was taken from a distance of 20 km.

In 1944, in the port of Bombay, due to a fire on board (again!), the English military transport “Fort Stykin”, filled to capacity with ammunition, blew up. And three years later, the same tragedy occurred in the industrial city of Texas City in the southern United States. There, the French steamer Grandcan, which was docked in the port, caught fire and exploded, carrying a cargo of fertilizers - 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate. The result of these explosions was destroyed ports and city buildings, thousands of dead and wounded... Moreover, the bulk of the victims were those who were on the shore at the time of the disaster. As in Halifax, people flocked to the port to watch the fire. The fate of Mont Blanc never taught anyone to be careful. Fatal ignorance also played a role here. No one in Halifax knew about the TNT on Mont Blanc. And in Texas City, no one had any idea that ammonium nitrate, this seemingly harmless fertilizer, could explode like that! They say it right: ignorance is a terrible force!

On May 18, 1935, the largest aircraft of that time, Maxim Gorky, took off from the Moscow airfield on Khodynskoe Field. This celestial giant was built as the flagship of a special propaganda air squadron, the idea of creating which appeared in 1932, when the 40th anniversary of the literary activity of Alesei Gorky was celebrated. The plane was truly amazing. With a length of more than 30 meters and a wingspan of 63 meters, the 8-engine Maxim Gorky could carry 72 passengers and crew members, which was a record for aviation in those years.

Unfortunately, “Maxim Gorky” was not the only one who fell victim to the “gigantomania” that characterized the 20th century. On May 6, 1937, the German super airship Hindenburg crashed. In fairness, it is worth noting that in the first decades of the 20th century, airships died often, but the first one is always remembered is the Hindenburg. But even before the Titanic tragedy, many ships sank. So why was so much attention focused on the death of the British airliner, while other cases faded into the background? Simply, the Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship ever built by human hands. The Hindenburg was also a kind of flying Titanic; it was also considered the most luxurious and, most importantly, reliable aircraft. (Alas, it seems that man has never gotten rid of his blind faith in the reliability of machines).

The moment the Hindenburg exploded

The landing site was Leyhurst, a suburb of New York. However, during landing, a fire broke out on the airship. Since the Hindenburg flew on explosive hydrogen (safer helium at that time was made only by the Americans, who did not want to sell it to the Germans - their potential enemies), the flames completely destroyed “the pride and greatness of Germany” in less than a minute. The tragedy claimed the lives of 35 -and man. With this disaster, the rapid decline of the era of passenger airships began. And colossi like the “Hindenburg” were no longer created

The aforementioned Lusitania was not the only passenger ship that died from the actions of submarines. So, on September 12, 1942, in the South Atlantic, a German submarine sent to the bottom the British transport ship Laconia, which carried 2,789 passengers: officers serving with children and wives, as well as several hundred prisoners. 1111 people survived. However, in the centuries-old history of world shipwrecks, the absolute “record” for the number of deaths belongs to the German motor ship “Wilhelm Gustlow”.

In the 20th century, after the creation of nuclear weapons, the world was drawn into a hysterical arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Secret centers for the development and construction of atomic bombs were hastily built in giant countries. However, scientists and military personnel were not always aware of how dangerous such “atomic games” could be. In September 1957, in the closed town of Chelyabinsk (now Ozersk), a powerful explosion occurred at the Mayak enterprise. This incident, which foreshadowed Chernobyl, was hidden for more than 30 years. And only recently it became clear that this plant was engaged in the production of weapons-grade plutonium.

This coincidence of circumstances led to the tragedy. At some point, two Boeing 747s appeared on the same runway at the same time. One of them belonged to Dutch airlines, the second to the American company Pan American. The crews of the two cars did not see each other due to fog. As a result, the Dutch Boeing began to accelerate for takeoff, while an American airbus was slowly moving straight towards it along the runway. The “American” simply got lost in the fog and the pilots tried in vain to figure out where they were on the runway and how to get off it.

The airliner pilots saw each other just a few seconds before the collision. The Dutch Boeing, traveling at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, did not have time to gain altitude and crashed into the “American” with its entire mass. None of the passengers and crew of the Dutch plane survived; several people miraculously escaped from the American one. The remaining 582 passengers and crew members were burned alive in the infernal flames of the explosion.

In the last century, humanity began to actively explore space. However, the daring steps of pioneers into the Universe were often paid for with human lives. On January 28, 1986, the largest disaster in the short history of astronautics occurred. On that day, the Challenger spacecraft with seven astronauts on board launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Center (Florida, USA). Special attention was attracted to this generally ordinary event.

At the 73rd second of flight, at an altitude of 17,000 meters, the Challenger exploded due to problems with its engines. Several hundred tons of rocket fuel incinerated the ship in the blink of an eye, leaving the astronauts not the slightest chance of salvation. Later, the investigation would establish that technical problems had occurred on the Challenger before. And on the day of launch, the shuttle again had technical problems. However, NASA, instead of canceling the launch and fully checking all systems, only postponed the launch for several hours. The Americans, remembering that previous incidents ended successfully, hoped that it would “sweep through” this time too. But history inexorably shows how often a person has to pay for hoping for “maybe.”

A person rarely learns from his mistakes. And therefore, with enviable consistency, he steps on the same rake. Another proof of this was the fact that the Chelyabinsk explosion was not the only case when, due to negligence, man’s most terrible enemy, created by his own hands, was released - radiation. As you know, the Soviet Union was one of the first to try to “tame” atomic energy, to direct it not only to destruction, but also to the benefit of people. Following the USSR, nuclear power plants began to grow like mushrooms in many countries around the world. But soon humanity became convinced that the “peaceful atom” is relatively safe as long as it is hidden in reactors. In the wild, he is still the same invisible and all-pervasive killer from whom there is no salvation.

The 20th century was also marked by numerous disasters involving cargo-passenger ferries. Perhaps the largest of them, which can be called the “disaster of the century,” occurred with the Philippine ferry Dona Paz. Compared to this, what happened to the Titanic is a minor incident. On December 20, 1987, the ship was on a routine voyage between Manila and numerous Philippine islands. Christmas was approaching, and the ferry was crowded with people wanting to get to the capital. This influx of passengers is also explained by the low cost of local shipping.

But that day the Dona Paz did not reach the port. Due to errors in management (at that moment the ferry was not being driven by the captain, but by his student), the Dona Paz, not reaching about 180 kilometers from Manila, collided with the Victor tanker, which was carrying more than a million liters of oil. The collision and subsequent oil explosion sank both ships within minutes. This tragedy claimed the lives of about 4,000 people. Although there are allegations that there were more victims.

One of the latest and most famous disasters is the death of the ferry Estonia. While flying from Tallinn to Stockholm, the ship encountered a storm and sank on the night of September 28, 1994. Of the 1,051 passengers, only 137 were saved. But during the investigation into the causes of the disaster, it turned out that the ferry died not from the storm, but because of the loosely closed cargo gates through which cars enter the ship. The doors could not stand the impact of the waves, and water poured onto the car deck. This led to the fact that a reliable, modern ferry sank so quickly and unexpectedly. By the way, this is not the first time that cargo gates that have not been closed tightly have caused the death of a ferry. In 1953 and 1987, the English ferries Princess Victoria and Herald of Free Enterprise sank for precisely the same reason. Such negligence cost the lives of a total of 330 passengers.

Alexander EVDOKIMOV

If you ask the average person about any significant and important maritime disasters, with a 99% probability they will only name you the Titanic. Yes, it was a terrible crash. But in history there have been much larger and more tragic disasters. In this article we will talk about only a few of them.

This creepy story began on November 25, 1917, when the Mont Blanc docked at the port of New York to load. They loaded it with liquid and dry picric acid - 2300 tons; TNT - 200 tons, pyroxylin - 10 tons, benzene in barrels - 35 tons. The ship was heading to Bordeaux, and the intermediate point on the route was the Canadian city of Halifax. At about 7 o'clock in the morning on December 6, 1917, the Mont Blanc began to enter the port. At the same time, the Norwegian steamer Imo began to leave the port. As the ships approached, both captains began to make risky maneuvers, and as a result, the Imo rammed the Mont Blanc to starboard. A fire started on the ship, leading to an explosion, as a result of which the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2,000 people died under the rubble of buildings and due to fires that broke out after the explosion. Approximately 9,000 people were injured and 400 lost their sight. The explosion of the Mont Blanc ship is considered the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.

In the fall of 1943, after Italy's withdrawal from the war and the Allies' unsuccessful Dodecanese Operation, the Germans transported tens of thousands of Italian prisoners of war by sea to mainland Greece. Oria was one of the ships used to transport Italian prisoners of war. On February 11, 1944, the ship left Rhodes, bound for Piraeus, carrying 4,046 Italian prisoners of war (161 officers and 3,885 soldiers) and 90 Germans. The next day, due to a storm, the steamer changed course and hit the rocks off the island of Patroklos at Cape Sounion, Attica and sank. The ships, which managed to approach the crash site only the next day, managed to save 21 Italians, 6 Germans and 1 Greek. All the rest, 4074 people, died.

The Doña Paz passenger ferry operated twice a week on the Manila-Catbalogan-Tacloban route and back. On December 20, 1987, at about 10:30 p.m., when most of the passengers were asleep, the Doña Paz collided with the tanker Vector, which was sailing from Bataan to Masbate. The Vector contained 8,800 barrels of gasoline and other petroleum products. During the collision, they all spilled out of the tanker and caught fire. Survivors reported hearing a bang and an explosion that caused panic on the ferry. Trying to escape, people were forced to jump overboard the ferry, where spilled fuel was burning on the surface of the water. The Dona Paz sank two hours after the collision, the Vector tanker four hours later. Both ships sank in the Tablas Strait, which was full of sharks. The crew of the tanker Vector consisted of 13 people; the ferry Dona Paz had 58 crew members and 4,341 passengers. After the disaster, only 26 people were pulled out of the water alive. The final number of victims of the tragedy was 4,386 people.

On the evening of November 26, 1949, the Chinese cargo and passenger steamship Taiping left Shanghai and headed for the Taiwanese port of Kowloon. The ship was overcrowded with refugees who were rushing to the island of Taiwan to escape the advance of the People's Liberation Army of China. At night the weather worsened and it began to rain heavily. Around midnight, near the Zhoushan Islands, in poor visibility conditions, the Taiping collided with the cargo ship Jin Yuan, which was carrying coal. Both ships sank quickly: the Jin Yuan almost instantly, the Taiping after 15-20 minutes. The Australian destroyer Warramunga, which was nearby, rushed to help, but was able to lift only 36 people from the water. How many people actually died is unknown, since no one actually counted the refugees taken on board. Various sources indicate figures from 1000 to 1600 people, despite the fact that the ship was designed for only 580 people.

The ten-deck passenger cruise liner Wilhelm Gustloff, like many other ships, was involved in Operation Hannibal in 1944-1945. As part of this operation, almost 2 million people were transported from East Prussia by sea. All of them were refugees who feared the approaching Red Army. On its last voyage, the Wilhelm Gustloff began taking refugees on board on January 22, 1945. The ship, designed for 1,500 passengers, was literally packed with people. According to modern estimates, there were at least 10,500 people on board. At about nine o'clock, the Soviet submarine S-13 entered from the shore, where it was least expected, and, from the surface position, from a distance of less than 1000 m at 21:04, fired the first torpedo with the inscription “For the Motherland”, and then two more - “For the Soviet people” and “For Leningrad.” The Wilhelm Gustloff sank completely about an hour after the attack. The rescue ships that arrived at the scene of the tragedy managed to save approximately a thousand people.

The Kiangya ship was carrying refugees fleeing civil war in China. There were supposed to be about 2,000 officially registered passengers on board. However, according to eyewitnesses, in reality there were much more of them. The ship was moving slowly and heavily overloaded. Not far from Shanghai, the Kiangya hit a sea mine and received a serious hole. The large number of victims of this tragedy is explained by the fact that for several hours the ships nearby simply did not know about the disaster. When they approached to rescue the survivors, between 700 and 1000 people were rescued from the water. According to various sources, the number of deaths in the Kiangya crash ranged from 2,700 to 3,900 people.