8.4/1068 votesLoading...#1 - Collision on the Runway
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 10/3/2005
Two Jumbo Jets, Pan Am 1736 and KLM 4805 collide on the lone runway at Tenerife, Spain. The two aircraft are then burnt out and 583 people lose their lives. But how come two experienced pilots made a mistake of this magnitude? How come two passenger jets collided on the runway?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1048 votesLoading...
#2 - Crash Landing in Sioux City
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 9/13/2005
On 19 July 1989, the pilots of United Airlines Flight 232 are shocked to learn they have lost all control of the DC-10 after an engine failure and make an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa, but in a dramatic crash, the aircraft breaks apart and catches fire with 111 lives lost out of the 285 on board. Why did the engine fail?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1045 votesLoading...
#3 - Collision at 35,000 Feet
Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 9/26/2011
On July 1, 2002 a cargo airliner and a passenger airliner collide while they are over Überlingen in Germany. The two aircraft crash, killing all on board.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1039 votesLoading...
#4 - Bhopal Nightmare
Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 10/10/2011
On December 2, 1984 in Bhopal, India, a toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide chemical plant results in the deaths of 3,000 people.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1054 votesLoading...#5 - Columbia's Last Flight (Space Shuttle Columbia)
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 6/28/2005
June 28 Columbia's Last Flight (Space Shuttle Columbia) Space Shuttle Columbia disaster February 1, 2003 Texas, February 1, 2003. The Space Shuttle Columbia is re-entering orbit. But something goes horribly wrong and Columbia explodes. All 7 astronauts on board perish. When investigators learn of a small fault which occurred during take-off sixteen days earlier, they are convinced they have found a possible suspect.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/10104 votesLoading...
#6 - Runaway Train
Season 6 Episode 7 - Aired 12/10/2012
On April 25, 2005, a seven-car commuter train came off the tracks and crashed just before Amagasaki Station in Japan causing 107 deaths and 562 injuries.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1049 votesLoading...
#7 - TWA Flight 800
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 10/8/2005
17 July 1996. TWA Flight 800 leaves New York for Paris. Only 12 minutes into the flight, it explodes catastrophically, breaks in half, then plummets into the sea killing all 230 people on board. There was no mayday call from the crew. Rumours spread that the B-747 was downed by a misguided navy missile, sparking the biggest accident investigation in history.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1064 votesLoading...
#8 - Skywalk Collapse
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 1/10/2006
On 17 July 1981, 1,500 people had gathered for a dance in the Hyatt Regency Hotel when, in a catastrophic disaster, the skywalk collapses killing 114 people and injuring countless others in the worst US structural failure.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1040 votesLoading...
#9 - Norway Massacre: I Was There
Season 6 Episode 1 - Aired 7/22/2012
On July 22, 2011, a gunman goes on a terrorist rampage – starting with an explosion in Oslo and ending with the slaughter of dozens of teenagers.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1073 votesLoading...
#10 - Crash of the Concorde
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/2005
Behind every disaster lies a chain of events. The Concorde was the world's first supersonic airliner, but on a charter flight to New York, 109 people are on board an Air France Concorde as it takes off from Paris. But as it lifts off the runway, the control tower notices flames trailing behind the aircraft. They can do nothing. The Concorde becomes uncontrollable and plows into a hotel in nearby Gonesse. 113 people are killed in the accident. The dream that was Concorde is shattered and the aircraft is grounded. What happened to Air France Flight 4590 could shatter the aviation industry as we know it.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1043 votesLoading...
#11 - High Speed Train Wreck (Derailment at Eschede)
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 9/26/2005
June 1998. The new German InterCity Express is a trip from Munich to Hamburg, one of many. Today should be no different. The new train offers the ultimate luxury in high-speed travel. But a terrible accident sets off a chain of events causing the loss of 101 lives when the train derails catastrophically at the town of Eschede. But what caused such a horrible accident?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1044 votesLoading...
#12 - Kursk: Russia's Nuclear Nightmare
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 4/18/2006
When a training mission goes horribly wrong, the Russian sumbarine Kursk suffers an explosion. 135 seconds later, it sinks. 23 people survive the blast, out of 118 on board. Will they make it out in time? What caused the sinking of the Kursk?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1046 votesLoading...
#13 - Nairobi Bombing
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 6/27/2006
Al Queda struck again on August 7, 1998. In Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, a truck bomb destroys the U.S. Embassy buildings killing 257 and injuring thousands.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1051 votesLoading...
#14 - Aircraft Carrier Explosion
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 8/15/2006
The massive aircraft carrier USS Forrestal is sailing to Vietnam on July 29, 1967, when a fighter jet explodes, a massive blast rocks the ship, and in just 17 hours 134 men lose their lives. Was it hostile fire, human error, or a fault in the fighter jets.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1044 votesLoading...
#15 - 9/11
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/2011
On September 11, 2001 two aircraft are deliberately flown into two buildings of the World Trade Center and one is flown into the Pentagon. Another crashes in a field in rural Pennsylvania.
Director: Sean Smith
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1042 votesLoading...
#16 - Japan's Nuclear Nightmare
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 3/11/2012
On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami off Japan’s coast caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
Director: Steve Webb
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1041 votesLoading...
#17 - Fire in the Cockpit
Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 11/12/2012
On September 2, 1998, a fire broke out on Swissair Flight 111 while in-flight, damaging vital systems and causing the aircraft to crash into the sea off Peggy's Cove with no survivors. The fire was caused by faulty wiring in the onboard first class entertainment system.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/1038 votesLoading...
#18 - Terrified Over Tokyo
Season 6 Episode 6 - Aired 12/3/2012
On August 12, 1985, the rear pressure bulkhead burst on Japan Airlines Flight 123, destroying the vertical stabilizer and severing all four of the aircraft's vital hydraulic systems. The crew kept the aircraft flying for 32 minutes until it clipped Mt Osutaka and crashed, killing all but 4 people out of the 524 passengers and crew aboard.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/1038 votesLoading...
#19 - Bismarck
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 3/18/2012
Maritime Historian Andrew Lambert looks at the Royal Navy's battle with the German battleship Bismarck.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1042 votesLoading...
#20 - Runaway Train (Paris Train Crash)
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 11/1/2005
In what was no doubt the worst rail incident in French history, a runaway train derails at Gare De Lyon Station, France, killing 56 people. Why did the train crash so horribly? Who is to blame?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1051 votesLoading...
#21 - King's Cross Fire (London's Subway Inferno)
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 5/19/2006
On the night of 18 November 1987, a harmless match produced a small flame on the escalator at King's Cross tube station. Suddenly, the containable flame explodes rapidly into a fireball. It charges up the escalator and kills 31 people in the ticket hall 20m away. The inferno leaves investigators stumped. When the answer is revealed, it will shock everyone, adding a new chapter to the laws of fire dynamics.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1040 votesLoading...
#22 - Paddington Train Collision
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 9/19/2011
On October 5, 1999 two trains collide at Ladbroke Grove junction near London's Paddington station after the driver of one fails to stop his train at a red signal.
Director: Steve Webb
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1036 votesLoading...
#23 - Deepwater Horizon
Season 5 Episode 5 - Aired 4/15/2012
A look at the series of decisions and mistakes that led to the world's largest oil spill disaster, and that 11 workers on the rig died.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1033 votesLoading...
#24 - Massacre in Mumbai
Season 5 Episode 6 - Aired 4/22/2012
On 26 November 2008, terrorists attacked two luxury hotels (one of them the famous Taj Mahal Hotel), a Jewish educational center, a café and a train station in Mumbai, killing 166 people.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1039 votesLoading...
#25 - Jonestown Cult Suicide
Season 6 Episode 2 - Aired 11/5/2012
On November 18, 1978, when enigmatic cult leader Reverend Jim Jones calls all his followers together in South America, the resulting tragedy becomes the largest mass murder-suicide of US citizens in history - 909 are dead.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Seconds From Disaster
Every episode of Seconds From Disaster ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Seconds From Disaster!
Seconds from Disaster is a US/UK-produced documentary television programme that investigates historically relevant man-made and natural disasters of the 20th century. Each episode aims to...
Genre:Documentary
Network:National Geographic
Best Episodes Summary
"Collision on the Runway" is the best rated episode of "Seconds From Disaster". It scored 8.4/10 based on 68 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 10/3/2005. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Crash Landing in Sioux City".