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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

Best Episodes Summary

"Collision on the Runway" is the best rated episode of "Seconds From Disaster". It scored 8.4/10 based on 67 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".

  • Collision on the Runway
    8.4/1067 votes
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    #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

  • Crash Landing in Sioux City
    8.3/1048 votes
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    #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

  • Collision at 35,000 Feet
    8.2/1045 votes
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    #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

  • Bhopal Nightmare
    8.1/1039 votes
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    #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

  • Columbia's Last Flight (Space Shuttle Columbia)
    8.0/1053 votes
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    #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

  • Runaway Train
    8.0/10104 votes
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    #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

  • TWA Flight 800
    7.9/1049 votes
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    #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

  • Skywalk Collapse
    7.9/1064 votes
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    #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

  • Norway Massacre: I Was There
    7.9/1040 votes
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    #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

  • Crash of the Concorde
    7.8/1073 votes
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    #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

  • High Speed Train Wreck (Derailment at Eschede)
    7.8/1043 votes
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    #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

  • Kursk: Russia's Nuclear Nightmare
    7.8/1044 votes
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    #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

  • Nairobi Bombing
    7.8/1046 votes
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    #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

  • Aircraft Carrier Explosion
    7.8/1051 votes
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    #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

  • 9/11
    7.8/1044 votes
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    #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

  • Japan's Nuclear Nightmare
    7.8/1042 votes
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    #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

  • Fire in the Cockpit
    7.8/1041 votes
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    #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

  • Terrified Over Tokyo
    7.8/1037 votes
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    #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

  • Bismarck
    7.7/1038 votes
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    #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

  • Runaway Train (Paris Train Crash)
    7.6/1042 votes
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    #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

  • King's Cross Fire (London's Subway Inferno)
    7.6/1051 votes
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    #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

  • Paddington Train Collision
    7.6/1040 votes
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    #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

  • Deepwater Horizon
    7.6/1036 votes
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    #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

  • Massacre in Mumbai
    7.6/1033 votes
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    #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

  • Jonestown Cult Suicide
    7.6/1039 votes
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    #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