As this site is predominantly US- oriented, I thought I’d toss my (bowler) hat into the ring. What I have included in this list are those British disasters which go by one name; you only have to say that one word or name and people instantly know what you mean and remember what happened. I have not included military or underground colliery disasters as there were too many to choose from though all deserve remembrance. These are, in my opinion, the most memorable from recent years.
They are in chronological order, not in order of any sort of significance or loss of life. There are bound to be some which I have not included which people feel deserve more attention- these are the ones which come most readily to my own memory.
February 1958- The popular Manchester United team, nicknamed the “Busby Babes” for their youth and their manager Matt Busby, boarded a plane in Munich to return to England. Also aboard the plane were a number of supporters and journalists. The weather was snowy and, due to a build up of slush on the runway, the plane crashed on its third attempt at takeoff. 23 people died in total; eight of the football team were killed and two were so severely injured they never played again.
In the small Welsh village of Aberfan in October 1966, a huge coal slag heap loosened by days of rain collapsed and slid down the hillside. It buried a row of houses and the village school in millions of tons of choking liquefied coal waste, killing 144 people, 116 of whom were schoolchildren aged 7-10.
The village has never fully recovered, having had such a huge chunk of a single generation wiped out in one fell swoop.
In March 1987 the roll- on roll- off ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise set sail from Dover to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. Due to a combination of catastrophic oversights, she had sailed with the bow doors to the car deck wide open. Seconds after leaving port she began to take on water and listed hard. Within a minute she had capsized onto a sandbar; it was only this shallower water which prevented further loss of life. 193 people died, most of them trapped on board in freezing water.
In July 1988 the North Sea oil production platform Piper Alpha was destroyed in a massive explosion and subsequent fire. 167 men were killed, including two crewmen of a rescue vessel. To date it is the world’s worst offshore oil disaster. Thirty bodies were never recovered.
In December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 left Heathrow airport heading for JFK in New York. It contained a Libyan terrorist bomb which detonated at 31,000 feet over the Scottish village of Lockerbie, raining debris and fire over the village. All 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed. Most of the passengers were American. The resulting fuel explosion on the ground registered 1.6 on the Richter scale.
In April 1989, a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough football ground had to be abandoned due to a huge crowd surge which crushed supporters against steel anti- hooligan fencing. 96 people died, mostly from asphyxia where they stood. The surge was caused by fans being directed into already overfilled pens.
Due to a recent public campaign for answers for the families of the dead 20 years on, police files have been released by the Government. These appear to show a widespread cover- up on behalf of the police, who failed to assist the dying believing them to be attempting a pitch invasion, and prevented ambulances from going into the stadium. This is still an extremely contentious and emotive ongoing issue.
In August 1989, the pleasure boat Marchioness was sailing down the Thames in London, holding a private birthday party. In the early hours of the morning, it was rammed by the dredger Bowbelle. The dredger first cut through the side of the Marchioness, then pushed it underwater, in less than 30 seconds. 51 of the passengers drowned. Poor visibility was blamed, and the fact that both boats were using the centre of the river.
In March 1996 former Scout leader Thomas Hamilton walked into the Primary school of the Scottish town of Dunblane. He carried two Browning pistols and two Smith and Wesson revolvers. Making his way to the gymnasium, he opened fire on a class of five and six year olds, killing or injuring all but one of them. Fifteen children and one teacher were killed. Hamilton then shot into other areas of the school, causing minor injuries, before fatally shooting himself in the head. No real motive has ever been discovered though Hamilton was rumoured to have been a paedophile.
In October 1999, two high- speed passenger trains collided at Ladbroke Grove rail junction, two miles west of London’s Paddington station. The trains met almost head- on at a combined speed of 130mph. The impact, combined with subsequent diesel fires in the wreckage, resulted in a death toll of 31 people. Both drivers died. The crash was blamed on a series of system failures, including inadequate driver training, poor signal visibility and insufficient emergency procedures.
Also known as the July bombings or the London bombings, this was a series of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on London public transport in July 2005. Three bombs exploded within a minute of one another on three crowded Underground trains. Nearly an hour later a fourth bomb exploded on a bus. In total 56 people were killed including the four bombers. Over 700 people were injured. The bombings were carried out by British Muslims in apparent retaliation for the Iraq conflict.
Interesting list, most of them I have never heard about
Now, off to my exam..
When you mentioned “Munich”, I thought you meant the “Munich Agreement” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement ), which was way disastrous than all other disasters you mentioned.
So unf0rtunate
Rest in peace my British comrades :’(
What about England not qualifying for the 2008 Euro Cup?
60 million left “dead” for the whole summer! Now thats what I call a disaster!
I have heard of all of them…except number three. I think I am going to go read a little bit more on that. All of those people killed either by mistake, natural disaster, or by the hands of cowards is just awful.
A terrible history of loss that as you say, Kir, barely scratches the surface of incidences that you could have mentioned in this list.
2 Aberfan–strikes me as one of the worst on the list as it’s effects are still being felt today. It’s very hard for a small town or village to strive, without such a blow.
Thank you Kir, American news coverage sometimes doesn’t stretch too far off-shore.
Dunblane is the one that really sticks out in my mind. I remember the huge and devestating reaction to this event. I went to Stirling uni and knew quite a few people who went to the school at the time of the tragedy. I think it is something which very much still hangs over Dunblane.
I thought the Spice Girls would be in this.
They’re all sad happenings, but somehow Hillsborough sounds particularly sad, due to the fact that the victims weren’t taken seriously at the time. More lives could have been saved…
“Their Teeth” should have been number one…
Item 8 Dunblane–Further information about this foul gunman and the subsequent coverup can be found by looking up in LV Archives:
Top 10 Declassified Secrets–Item #4
Personal sidenote: I found the above mentioned list and the reference to Dunblane by pressing the “Random List” button, just after reading this one. Eerie.
Gosh, how sad… These are all so tragic, especially when children are involved. I can’t imagine what it must have been like in Aberfan. 116 children in a small village. Unimaginably devastating.
11. joe mama–?????
Have googled “their teeth” and fail to find the reference.
i remember dunblane and the 7/7 attacks like it was yesterday. the 7/7 attack is more vivid, as me and my family were in a caravan on holiday celebrating my younger sisters birthday. turned on the news and we saw the image of the bus blown up. couldn’t believe it!
11. joe mama –Bad Joke?
Am wishing for DELETE button for comments–
My parents had friends who perished on Piper Alpha. That was the one I thought of first when I saw this list.
I always found it sickening that Americans expected the whole world to care about the Columbine shootings, yet I’ve not met a single American who even knows about Dunblane.
Thisname, trust me on this: most Americans don't care whether you know about Columbine, and we certainly don't expect you to know about it. This isn't a game of one upmanship, to see who can outdo the other in tragedies.
All tragic events, my mum was on the herald of free enterprise a couple of days before it sank.
P.s. i think the picture for hilsborough is wrong, the picture looks like the heysel disaster. i might be wrong though.
Very interesting and sobering list, thank you.
It was the 10 year anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster a few weeks ago so and there was quite a lot of press coverage for anyone who wanted to find out more about it.
Funny how, even in the face of massive loss of life and some of the worst atrocities ever committed, people still see fit to make puns about the British having bad teeth. How sad.
20 – It was the 20th Anniversary a few weeks ago actually.
As for them joking about our teeth. Firstly, it is a misguided stereotype – most people I know have lovely teeth. Secondly, I agree with TipToe; have some respect.
Sad list today.
I would agree with Lulu, I think that picture is Heysel (another terrible tragedy) and not Hillsborough.
Yes the picture is wrong for Hillsborough
July 7th bombings were eerie in that I was overseas at the time on holiday when I got news of what had happened back home. So there were some tense moments trying to get a call through to home to find out if everyone was alright (thankfully they were).
And then not longer after, the second attemtped bombing occured while I was still away.
The day after I came back was the day after the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by undercover police after they falsely suspected he was a bomber.
Was wild coming into Heathrow airport and seeing armoured police bearing rifles and hand guns. You don’t expect to see that in England.
sorry – picture is now corrected.
Also – can I recommend that anyone who has a registered username on the site go to wordpress.com and register it there. If it is already taken, take the closest thing you can. We are migrating to wordpress VIP in the next two weeks and unfortunately it will render our userlist empty.
Thisnamestaken (18): I agree. I’m American, and never had heard of Dunblane. I know that America likes to pretend that we are the center of the Universe… maybe that’s why I prefer BBC news to Fox News. These are terrible tragedies.. my prayers to all involved.
Sad list. I lived very close to Dunblane at the time, and I still have vivid memories of the days following that event at my primary school. It was the anniversary of that incident a few weeks ago too; a journalist for the Sunday Express marked the occasion by publishing an article calling the survivors of the incident louts and drunkards, accusing them of besmirching the memory of their dead schoolfriends. Sick, sick woman.
We are, of course, still waiting for much from the Hillsborough disaster. The first is the truth; the second, and apology; and the third is justice. It is in the government’s hands to grant all of these, but they are too proud to go back on Thatcher’s hatred of the North and do so.
in defense of the ‘average’ American…the reason they are unaware of just about ANYTHING happening outside of their borders is because the American media focuses solely on events here.
Even then, it’s mostly local news. (& entertainment-no lie-the local Channel 7 news is 1 hour long…first 1/4 hour is breaking news & local tragedy,special assignments (like shoddy drywall or a local lawsuit), 10 minutes of around the nation (usually ‘wild weather” or another tragedy. 5-8 minutes (at most) of political news, including local politics or something about Iraq, and the remaining news show is sports & American Idol. no lie. American Idol.(& commercials) I can only watch the first 1/2 hour before I go to CNN.(which is tooo biased for my tastes with lots of opinion pieces)
The more intrigued American will watch the BBC for more world-view news, but even then, the BBC I get on my DirecTV satalite is American BBC! I do get an Australian Channel which news I like best…LOGO.
ringtailroxy
p.s. I knew about MS Herald of Free Enterprise because I saw a show called “Seconds from Disaster” on National Geographic Channel about it….very very tragic the failure of the chain of command.
I think you should have included the fire at Bradford City football club:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_City_disaster
This was made all the sadder because the entire incident was broadcast live on TV.
=:~)
Me again. Not meaning to denigrate this discussion into politics, but one might also add to this list Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Bah, too much American stuff as usual….
@ThisNamesTaken – I don’t think the Americans expect the whole world to to be concerned about Columbine. Everyone is concerned about what is relevent to them no matter what their country of origin.
How did a list on British Disasters turn into another American bashing? Can’t we stick to the topic listed? It seems disrespectful to the victims of these disasters to stray from the topic.
#18 ThisNamesTaken – Even worse than Columbine was the shootings in a one room Amish schoolhouse in eastern Pennsylvania. A delivery driver for dairy products burst into the school and had the variously aged children line up against the wall where he shot them one by one. Out of ten children, only half survived. This seems to be closer to the Dunblane disaster than Columbine was, yet it received far less press from the American media. I would have to say that America’s press tells the populace which disasters are more horrible and which in turn would make American expect that Columbine was something reported the world over. I suspect that you are English, and let me tell you that all our media over here is all about ratings and nothing else. To find the truth in journalism you are better off buying a local newspaper and keeping the TV in the off position.
Ughh I remember when Hillsborough and Dunblane happened.
Bad times…
Sad list. Had to skip some pictures due to shock or phobia. I knew of a few of these but not all. And the Dunblane shooting was the worst….I hate to see children hurt.
Very sad list. I’ve only heard about the more recent ones (within the last 20 years). I’m sorry for all the innocence lost
18. ThisNamesTaken – When did I say I wanted you to care about Columbine? I hate how ALL British people… ah, you can already see how stupid I sound, huh? Stop generalizing, haven’t you learned that from the America list a few days ago?
Anyway, this is a very tragic list. Loss of innocent life anywhere is terrible, and no special offense against Muslims (perhaps toward radicals), but !@#$ those stupid idiots killing and killing over whether which book of fairy tales is true.
another notable oil rig disaster was the Ocean Ranger off the coast of Newfoundland, 84 lives lost http://archives.cbc.ca/environment/extreme_weather/topics/349/ this list was very well put together it would be interesting to see other nation specific disaster lists.
To #34- the amish shooting was run for 2 weeks on British TV. Probabaly more so than Dunblane was. Incidently, ‘I suspect you are English’- there are 4 nationalities that fall under British not every British person is the stereotypical English Toff.
Free Alba.
As I read some of these events that occurred I made note that many of them were caused by terrorism. The wars of today are fought by these type of cowards who are senseless to the sacredness of life and taking out their hostilities on innocent people. Its a real damm shame that anybody could commit crimes of these atrocities without guilt or conscience. I think that we’ll see unfotunately many more terrorists acts in the future and we won’t know where or ehrn they’ll strike next or even who is attacking innocent people. The future looks dim.
Very informative list. Thank you. I was only familiar with about half. When I saw the name of the list, I immediately thought of the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, but realized it wasn’t on here because of the “known by one name” qualifier. Of the several of these that happened in the ’80s, I probably didn’t know as much because I was in college and spent more time on MTV than CNN. Pity. I try to make up for it these days.
I’d like to know how you think this *****ing anglocentric site is America oriented?
My sister could have died in 7/7!
She was doing work experience in London that week and was luckily late on that day. She was late and missed her bus which transpired to be the one that got blown up!!
As awful as I feel for the families of the people that died I am so glad I did not loose my sister :-/
I have sympathy for all of these points. It is a great list though!
Id only heard of 6, 8, 9 and 10, I shouldve thought Id heard of more, with England being my home! The Dunblane incident is really sad.
ZedroZ – Thats good to hear about your sister!
To Blair #40 – WELL SAID!!
Northern Ireland seems to be rarely considered British outside the UK. In the UK it is not considered Irish to some.
Its just a prom night dumpster baby…
To Maynard #47:
…prom night dumpster baby…
Beautiful! One of my favorite songs!
I was on a u.s. navy destroyer in july of ’88 when the piper alpha exploded. We steamed hard all night and got there a little after sun up next morning. It was still flareing up and burning to beat 60. the pictures you see every where dont do it justice. Also those guys on those oil rigs earn every dime they make.
@ Maynard: Northern Ireland isn’t British. It’s part of the United Kingdom, not part of Britain. Britain is a geographic entity comprising of the island that is the England, Scotland and Wales.
@ Baxter In Action: If you’re going to mention Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown being bad PM’s, then why miss out John Major? He was certainly the worst of the most recent four.
Anyway, I’m surprised the M62 bombing or the Birmingham Pub Bombing weren’t mentioned, but I suppose despite high death tolls they might not be relevant or remembered unless you have studied UK politics in depth.
Sorry, but any American who doesn’t know about Dunblane did not watch or read the news around the time it happened. I can understand how it would slip from the forefront of your mind as we don’t see anniversary stories about it or live near people directly effected by it, but to say it wasn’t reported is a severe exaggeration. A cursory search of the archives of my local paper shows it was reported on the front page above the fold the next morning with followups most every day for the next week or so in the A or B sections of the paper. If my admittedly small local paper did so, it is a safe bet most other papers did similar.
(IN the tune of ‘Brightside of Life’)
Always look on the runway for ice
doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo
A favourite for the fans when playing Manchester United
Very sad list – I think that the most hideous death is by fire knowing you are trapped and its getting hotter,and you can see the fire getting closer, and you start smelling the burning of ……. sorry guys I was getting carried away.
Well compiled thanks Kir.
WARNING!: Beware of the Bloodhound virus. Make your anti-phishing feature is turned on.
i remember 7/7, i was in an RE lesson and we were watching a video and when the teacher stopped it it came up with the news about the bombings and the pictures of people injured and stuff. We watched it for a few minutes trying to figure out what it was about and when my teacher realised she turned it off and said not to worry but she looked quite shocked. Everyone else didn’t understand, I didn’t realise until I got home. Also, my friend lived in America at the time and she said that there was a 1 minute slot about it and nothing else, she said she barely heard about it until she came back.
One of the most sickening arguments put forth by rightwing Americans trying to defend Bush is that we haven’t been attacked since 9/11. These scumbags don’t believe the bombings in London count as an attack.
18. ThisNamesTaken: I always found it sickening that Americans expected the whole world to care about the Columbine shootings, yet I’ve not met a single American who even knows about Dunblane.
****
I’m dreadfully sorry, but you’re wrong. Dunblane was carried live on American TV as it happened. I was watching. I’m American. I was in tears the entire time, and having been somewhat involved with FBI people and high-ranking police, I knew, before the thing was close to over, that the perp would be a scoutmaster or similar, and he would take he own life.
I cried over those children for days straight, and at odd moments for weeks.
It doesn’t matter what your nationality is when young children, with their whole lives shinning before them, are brutally killed. It is personal. Every child is a possibility in waiting, every child is worthy of being loved by every person (whether known to them or not), every child is worthy of being protected.
Yeah, people here are complain about lives being lost but still but up boundaries between people of the human race… death is death.
smurff: You’re right–You could also be describing “Waco”–
PS:Why does every list lead to American bashing? You could have a list about floods in Dummbakistan and some idiot would attack America about it. You know,and I believe most Americans would agree,from reading this list daily I believe people in other countrys are much more obsessed with us then we are with them.When Columbine happened or 9-11 or any other US tragedy,it never crossed my mind whether people in England or Slovakia gave a ***** or not.
55. DC -
i’m not sure where in the states your friend was in the time during and after 7.7, but i remember it being the center of radio and TV news, and the front-page paper story around chicago where i was.
our media mostly called it “the london bombings,” but it absolutely was discussed for more than a single one-minute spot. it was a big deal over here too.