Playback is currently unavailable for S2 E1 · Columbia's Last Flight (Space Shuttle Columbia). Episode details remain available below.
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 explain a single incidental by analyzing the causes and circumstances that ultimately effected the disaster. The program uses re-enactments, interviews, testimonies, and CGI to analyze the sequence of events second-by-second for the audience. Narrators for the show are Ashton Smith, Richard Vaughan and Peter Guinness.
- Cast:
- Ashton Smith
- Language:
- English
- Country:
- United Kingdom, United States of America
- Network:
- National Geographic
Episode guide
Seasons
Season 2
Episodes
E01
Episode 1
★ 8.3Columbia's Last Flight (Space Shuttle Columbia)
2005-06-28 · 47mJune 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.
Current episodeEpisode 2
★ 9.0Alpine Tsunami
2005-07-05 · 47mThe Alpine village of Galtur, an avalanche buries 57 people in the snow. 31 of them die. But why did the avalanche occur in the first place? Were careless villagers to blame?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 3
★ 9.7Motorway Plane Crash (Freeway Plane Crash)
2005-07-12 · 47mJanuary 1989. British Midland Airways Flight 092, a Boeing 737, is landing at Kegworth, United Kingdom, when it crashes on the M1 motorway, killing 47 people. What went wrong? The B-737 is the most widely-used airliner in the world. Could mechanical failure be to blame? Perhaps human error? Or even sabotage?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 4
★ 9.0Mount St Helens Eruption (Mount St. Helens Eruption)
2005-07-26 · 47mMount St. Helens, in the countryside of Washington State, has been dormant for 123 years. But on May 1980, it suddenly erupts, killing 57. Why couldn't they predict it?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 5
★ 9.3Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster (Capsized in the North Sea)
2005-08-16 · 47mOn March 1987, the British Car Ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes off Zeebrugge killing 193. Why did this happen? Was it just a terrible blunder? Or something worse?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 6
★ 8.3Kobe Earthquake (Killer Quake)
2005-08-30 · 47mOn 17 January 1995, the Japanese city of Kobe was rocked by the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which destroyed buildings and killed over 1000 people and left thousands homeless. Why couldn't the top of the art equipment predict a disaster of this magnitude?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 7
★ 10.0Crash Landing at Sioux City
2005-09-13 · 47mOn 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?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 8
★ 8.3The Bali Bombing (Disco Bombing)
2005-09-20 · 47mBali, located in Indonesia, is one of the most popular resorts in the world. But 202 die on the night of October 12, 2002, Muslim terrorists detonate several bombs in local nightclubs. Its the horror of 9/11 all over again.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 9
★ 8.7Hotel Collapse Singapore (Hotel Collapse)
2005-09-27 · 47mHotel New World, budget hotel located in Singapore's Little India, collapses on 15 March, 1986. After a 7 day rescue operation, 17 people are rescued but 33 perish. Why did the hotel collapse? Was it sabotage? Or was it faulty maintenance?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 10
★ 8.5TWA Flight 800
2005-10-08 · 47m17 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.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 11
★ 10.0Paris Train Crash (Runaway Train)
2005-11-01 · 47mIn 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?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 12
★ 9.0The Hindenburg (Hindenburg Airship)
2005-11-15 · 47mWhen the zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire at Lakehurst, 35 of the 97 on board and one member of the ground crew are killed. Was the most infamous airship disaster caused by a ticking time bomb smuggled on board? Or was the Hindenburg itself a ticking time bomb?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 13
★ 8.0Explosion in Peurto Rico (Puerto Rico Gas Explosion)
2005-12-13 · 47mThe Humberto Vidal Shoe Store was just like any other. But one day in Puerto Rico, a gas explosion kills 33 and injures 69 people.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 14
Skywalk Collapse
2006-01-10 · 47mOn 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.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 15
Amsterdam Air Crash (Plane Crash in the Suburbs)
2006-03-28 · 47mOn 4 October 1992, an El Al Israel Airlines Cargo B747-200F takes off from Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Holland), when the engines on the right wing of Flight 1862 shear off. 8 minutes later, Flight 8162 glides into a high rise apartment building killing 43 people.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 16
Russia's Nuclear Sub Nightmare (Sinking of the Kursk)
2006-04-18 · 47mWhen a training mission goes horribly wrong, the Russian submarine 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?
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 17
King's Cross Fire (London's Subway Inferno)
2006-05-19 · 47mOn 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.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 18
US Embassy Bombing (American Embassy Bombing)
2006-06-27 · 47mAl 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.
Watch progress · Not trackedEpisode 19
Florida Swamp Air Crash (Everglades Plane Crash)
2006-07-11 · 47mOn May 1996, what started out as a normal flight from Miami, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia, when ValuJet Flight 592, a DC-9 with 110 people on board goes down in the Everglades when a fire starts in the cabin and cockpit. The aircraft is swallowed by the swamp and harsh conditions make the rescue operation impossible. Soon there are no survivors. What happened to ValuJet 592 is a one of a kind accident.
Watch progress · Not trackedCast
Ashton Smith
Narrator
