Disasters Engineered

Experts examine how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Challenger space shuttle disaster happened. What were the consequences and how could they have been avoided?

Experts examine how the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Bhopal gas tragedy happened. What were the consequences and how could they have been avoided?

Experts examine the sinking of the Titanic and the Hindenburg airship fire. How did they happen, what were the consequences and how could they have been avoided?

We take modest engineering masterpieces, like the homes we live in and the bridges we walk across, for granted. So, when disaster strikes, it sends shockwaves throughout society. When London's Grenfell Tower catches fire, its hundreds of residents must escape a deadly inferno; expert engineers investigate and reveal how the building's engineering caused the disaster to escalate tragically. Also investigated is the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in 2018 at Florida International University in Miami.

The aviation industry's quest to conquer the skies led to some great achievements. But engineering errors and human mistakes have caused tragic disasters along the way. The disaster of Air France Flight 447 and the crash of NASA's Skylab in 1979 are catastrophes of aviation with a mysterious legacy; experts investigate these historic tragedies to determine what caused these monumental failures of flight.

Operating in hostile environments presents unique challenges, extreme temperatures, intense pressure, and no room for error.