The biggest shipwreck with people. The most famous shipwrecks you can see. Collision between Doña Paz and tanker Vector

The RIA Novosti agency published a reference article dedicated to the anniversary of the sinking of the motor ship Bulgaria on the Kuibyshev Reservoir. The tragedy occurred on July 10, 2011. This is not the only major accident with passenger ships and ferries since 2000. Now we have the opportunity to compare how the number of major disasters is growing in water transport recently.

June 27, approximately 200 kilometers from the Australian Christmas Island in Indian Ocean A ship en route to Australia was shipwrecked with about 150 illegal migrants on board. 123 people were saved.

The Rabaul Queen ferry was performing passenger flight from Lae city on mainland Papua New Guinea in Kimbi is the administrative center of the province of the same name, located on separate island. According to the owner company Rabaul Shipping, there were 350 passengers and 12 crew members on board. 246 people were rescued, the rest were declared missing. The shipwreck was caused by bad weather conditions.

On April 21, a passenger ship capsized and sank in eastern Bangladesh, killing at least four people and leaving more than 90 missing. The tragedy occurred early in the morning on the Meghna River near the city of Brahmanbaria. According to various sources, there were from 70 to 100 people on board the ship.

On January 28, the ferry Laut Teduh II, en route from the Javanese port of Merak to Bakoheni in the far south of neighboring Sumatra, caught fire in the Sunda Strait off the western tip of the Indonesian island of Java. The ship was three miles from Merak near Tempurung Island when a fire broke out on it for unknown reasons. According to various sources, there were up to 550 people on board. The fire killed 27 people and injured almost 200.

On November 27, the ferry Coco 4, carrying more than 1.5 thousand people, sank near Bhola Island in southern Bangladesh. As a result of the disaster, 75 passengers and crew members died. The accident occurred due to the overload of the ship, designed to carry no more than a thousand passengers.

On January 11, the ferry Teratai Prima, carrying 250 passengers and 17 crew members, capsized and sank in the Makassar Strait in Indonesia. As a result of the shipwreck, 41 people survived, including the ship's captain. The cause of the accident was a strong storm that capsized the ferry.

On June 22, the ferry Princess of Stars, carrying 862 passengers and crew, sank off Sibuyan Island in the Philippine archipelago. As a result of the disaster, only 52 people survived, the rest died or went missing. Also, the Philippine authorities revealed the fact that the ship was illegally transporting 10 tons of endosulfan, the release of which into the sea could provoke an environmental disaster. Containers with a toxic substance were removed from the vessel by the efforts of divers.

On April 8, a ship sank on the Volta River in Ghana with 150 people on board, but only 30 were saved.

On April 6, the passenger ferry al Baraqua 2 capsized in the Red Sea near the port of Djibouti, carrying, according to various estimates, from 250 to 400 people. Despite the fact that rescue boats were immediately dispatched from the shore, only 113 people were saved; the remaining passengers died or were declared missing. The most likely cause of the crash was said to be a shift in the center of mass resulting from improper load placement.

On February 3, 88 kilometers from the city of Safaga (Egypt), the Egyptian ferry al Salam Boccaccio 98 sank, carrying 1,414 passengers and crew members. Of this number, only 387 people were saved. The cause of the crash was a fire in the hold of the ferry, which was extinguished using sea water, which led to the ship listing. The ferry tilted 25 degrees and then went under water.

On July 7, the ferry Digul sank off the coast of the Indonesian province of Papua, with over 200 people on board. Only two crew members and 13 passengers managed to escape; the rest were found dead or declared missing.

On May 18, the ferry Rajpur sank near Aricha (Bangladesh), with about 250 passengers and crew on board. Only 50 people were saved; the rest of the passengers died or went missing. The cause of the shipwreck was the overload of the ship, which was not suitable for carrying such a number of passengers.

On February 19, the ferry Maharaj sank on the Buriganga River (Bangladesh), carrying about 200 passengers. Only 23 people were saved; the rest of the passengers and crew died. The shipwreck was the result of a tropical storm.

On July 8, near the city of Chandpur (Bangladesh) on the Meghna River, the Bangladeshi ferry Nasreen 2 sank with 750 people on board. As a result of the rescue operation, 220 people were pulled out of the water alive. The rest were found dead or declared missing.

The cause of the accident was the overload of the ship, designed to transport only 350 people.

On November 29, the ferry Dieu Merci, carrying about 450 people, crashed in the waters of Lake Mai Ndombe in the Congo. Rescuers managed to pull about 200 survivors from the water, 163 people were found dead, and 222 were declared missing. The shipwreck was caused by a storm.

On March 24, the ferry Qashovge, carrying about 200 people on board, sank in the waters of Lake Taganika in the Congo. About 150 passengers and crew members died in the shipwreck, 43 managed to escape. The ship was designed to carry no more than 67 passengers and could not withstand the load in the conditions of the storm that began.

On September 26, the Senegalese ferry Joola sank off the coast of Gambia, carrying about 1,200 people. Only 64 of them managed to escape, the rest died or went missing. The causes of the disaster were cited as overloading of the ship, designed to carry no more than 550 passengers, malfunction of radio equipment and a lack of lifeboats on the ferry. The small number of survivors was due to the inaction of the Senegalese army, which delayed the start of the rescue operation.

On May 4, the Bangladeshi ferry Salahuddin, carrying about 500 passengers, sank on the Meghna River (Bangladesh). As a result of the sinking of the ship, over 300 people died. The cause of the shipwreck was a storm that began on the river and capsized the ferry.

On October 19, an Indonesian fishing vessel carrying illegal migrants from Muslim countries to Australia sank off the coast of Java (Indonesia). Of the 421 passengers on board, 44 survived and were taken ashore with various fractures. The cause of the accident was the overcrowding of the ship, which was designed to carry no more than 150 passengers.

On July 26, a passenger ferry carrying about 150 passengers sank in the waters of Lake Tanganyika. Rescuers managed to extract 24 survivors from the water. The remaining passengers and crew members died or were declared missing.

On September 26, in the Aegean Sea, near the island of Paros, the Greek ferry Express Samina, with 511 people on board, hit a reef. As a result of the shipwreck, 82 passengers and crew members died. The accident occurred due to the negligence of the ship's crew, who left the ferry without control, as a result of which the ship hit a rock marked on all shipping charts.

On June 29, in the waters of the Moluccas archipelago (Indonesia), the ferry Cahaya Bahari sank, carrying about 500 Christian refugees fleeing Muslims who staged pogroms on religious grounds in the Moluccas. With the exception of 10 people who managed to escape, all passengers on the ship died.

The shipwreck occurred as a result of a storm when the overcrowded ship, designed to carry no more than 200 passengers, developed a leak.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Experts estimate that there are about four million sunken ships in the world scattered across the oceans, some of which date back thousands of years. Even the numbers of famous shipwrecks are impressive.
A large number of shipwrecks are historically significant and are protected by UNESCO as underwater cultural heritage. Some ships have run aground near the beaches, and are gradually rotting under the influence of the forces of nature. Some of them have become tourist attractions.
The last time a shipwreck that received significant media attention occurred in January 2012, when a cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized in the waters near the island of Isola del Giglio on the west coast of Italy. The capsized ship attracted thousands of curious tourists. Here we have collected some impressive shipwrecks that are worth seeing before time destroys them.

"SS America"

"SS America" was ocean liner, built in 1940. After a long career, the ship was sold in 1993 with the goal of being renovated and becoming a five-star hotel in Phuket (Thailand). It was at this time that the ship was renamed American Star, although she never sailed under this new name. The ship was towed from Greece to the Atlantic by a Ukrainian tug. However, the ships were caught in a thunderstorm, the tow rope broke, the crew on board the SS America was rescued by helicopter, and the ship was abandoned to its fate. On January 18, the ship ran aground near west coast Fuerteventura Islands (Canary Islands).
During the first 48 hours after the ship ran aground, the surf Atlantic Ocean crashed the ship. Aft collapsed and sank in 1996, while the bow remained intact. In November 2005, the bow collapsed and the hull began to disintegrate. In 2007, the entire ship collapsed and fell into the sea. As of March 2013, this ship is only visible at low tide.

The wreckage of the American Star (SS America) in July 2004.

"Discoverer of the World"

The World Discoverer was a large cruise ship built in 1974 that made periodic voyages to Antarctica and the polar regions to allow its passengers to admire ice hummocks and icebergs. The vessel had a double hull, which provided protection from minor impacts. But nevertheless, on April 30, 2000, the ship hit a reef and pierced the hull near Solomon Islands. The captain steered the ship into Roderick Bay and grounded it to avoid sinking. The crew and passengers were evacuated and the ship was later looted by local residents.

"Mediterranean sky"

The cruise ship Mediterranean Sky was originally named New York and was built in 1952 in Newcastle, England. The ship made its last voyage in August 1996.
Due to financial problems of the owning company, Mediterranean Sky was arrested in 1997 in Patras. Two years later it was towed to the Gulf of Eleusus in Greece, where it was abandoned. At the end of 2002, the ship began to fill with water and began to tilt. In order to stop it from sinking, it was towed to shallow water. In January 2003, the Mediterranean Sky capsized on its side, where it remains awaiting its fate.

"MV Captayannis"

Captayannis was a Greek barge for transporting raw sugar. She sank on the River Clyde (Scotland) in 1974 after a collision with an oil tanker. The tanker did not suffer any damage, but its anchor chains made holes in the Captayannis, causing the vessel to fill with water. Captain Captayannis tried to steer the ship into shallow waters and it ran aground. The ship capsized the next morning and remains there to this day.
Although this ship is in relatively shallow waters, no attempt has ever been made to salvage the remains of the vessel. After some time, Captayannis became a habitat for marine fauna and birds.

BOS-400

BOS-400 is a French floating platform that ran aground in Maori Bay in South Africa during a storm, towed by a Russian tug on June 26, 1994. The BOS-400 was the largest floating crane in Africa. The tug was chartered to tow the BOS-400 from the Republic of the Congo to Cape Town ( South Africa). However, during a storm, the towing rope broke and the platform was thrown aground, where it remains to this day.

"La Famille Express"

The ship "La Famille Express" was shipwrecked in the southern waters of Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean Sea. The ship was built in 1952 in Poland and spent most of its life serving in the Soviet Navy as Fort Shevchenko. In 1999, the ship was sold and renamed La Famille Express. The circumstances of the wreck are not clearly known, except that it ran aground during Hurricane Frances in 2004. Now the ship is a big local attraction and attracts a large number of tourists.

"HMAS Defender"

HMAS Defender was a large gunboat purchased by the government South Australia in 1884, in order to protect the coast from the possible “Russian threat” of the 1870s. HMAS Defender served during the Boxer Rebellion, World War I and World War II. In July 1943, HMAS Defender was requisitioned for military service by the US Navy. On the way to New Guinea, the ship was damaged in a collision with a tug. The hull subsequently ran aground off the coast of Queensland. Its rusting remains are still visible to this day.

"Gospel"

The Evangelia is a merchant ship built by the same shipyard as the Titanic and launched on May 28, 1942 under the name Empire of Power. Later it had several names and was eventually called "Evangelia".
In 1968, during a night of thick fog, the ship sailed incredibly close to coastline and ran aground near Costinesti. Some claim that the Gospel was deliberately destroyed by the owner to collect insurance compensation. The hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that during this disaster, although the fog was very thick, the sea was incredibly calm and almost all of the ship’s equipment worked perfectly.

"SS Maheno"

The SS Maheno shipwreck is the most famous shipwreck off Fraser Island in Australia... Built in 1905, the SS Maheno was one of the first turbine steamships. She committed regular flights on the route between Sydney and Auckland until she was converted into a hospital ship during the First World War.
In 1935 it was sold to Japan for scrap. While being towed to Japan, the ship was caught in a severe storm and lost with eight people on board. The ship was found 3 days later, washed ashore off the coast of Fraser Island; its crew had to set up camp on the shore of the island. Attempts to refloat it were unsuccessful and it was eventually put up for sale, but no buyers were found.

"Santa Maria"

The Santa Maria was a Spanish merchant ship. During its last voyage, it carried sports cars, food, medicine, cars, clothing, etc. On September 1, 1968, the ship was passing near the Cape Verde Islands on its way to Brazil and Argentina when it ran aground. After a local tug unsuccessfully attempted to salvage the ship, it was abandoned. All valuable cargo was reloaded and taken away. The wreck of the Santa Maria has since become a symbol of Boa Vista and Cape Verde.

"Dimitrios"

Dimitrios (formerly Klintholm) is a small cargo ship, 67 meters long, built in 1950. It washed up on Valtaki Beach in Laconia Prefecture in Greece on December 23, 1981.
There are rumors that the ship was used to smuggle cigarettes between Turkey and Italy. It was deliberately stranded by its crew on Valtaki Beach, about 5 kilometers from the port of Gythio, and then set on fire to hide evidence of cigarette smuggling.

"Olympia"

It was a merchant ship that was washed ashore near the city of Katapola, on the island of Amorgos in Greece. In 1979, on his way from Cyprus to Greece, he was captured by pirates. After an unsuccessful attempt to pull the ship out of the bay, it was abandoned there and became one of the most popular tourist destinations.

Shipwrecks... Such an incident is always shrouded in an aura of secrets, myths and legends. Famous shipwrecks are black pages of history that can only be read by looking into the depths of the sea. Sadly, majestic giant liners very often become victims of the raging waters of the seas and oceans.

The most famous shipwrecks became public knowledge. Today, there are many unofficial lists that name the most impressive ship disasters in the history of mankind. Below are just a few of those that have gone down in world history.

Wrecked ships

For many, the first thing that comes to mind is a story that shocked the whole world with its tragedy. It dwarfed any other shipwreck. This is the story of the Titanic... Although this story has become overgrown with many guesses and conjectures over time, everyone is still interested in knowing what really happened. The crew was so dazzled by the greatness of their ship and its superiority over other ships that for a time everyone became overconfident.

Possible causes of the tragedy

At that time, many said that a ship had finally been built that could not be sunk. But reality turned out to be unpredictable. One night, the ship was traveling at full speed along its route, and the sailors were only able to notice the top of a huge block of ice rising above the surface of the water only at the very last moment. Urgent attempts were made to divert the ship, but it was too late: the ship was wrecked. Almost at full speed, the Titanic hit an iceberg on its starboard side.

The ship breaks in half

Gradually, the lower tiers in the bow compartment of the ship begin to flood. Almost half the ship is full cold water Atlantic Ocean. A counterweight is created on the ship, causing it to be half submerged in the water. The body cannot withstand the monstrous load and breaks in half. Both parts of the broken ship lose electricity and sink. Eyewitnesses of the tragedy remember that terrible day with trembling, but still some facts remain in the shadows. For example, class discrimination against passengers.

Could more have been saved?

Some witnesses claim that individual lifeboats were only half full of passengers. Only a few people sat in them, and they set sail as quickly as possible, in fear that the boat would overfill and sink. As a result, far fewer passengers were saved than could have been the case. However, we should not forget that heroic deeds also took place that night. Many risked their lives to help others escape. Be that as it may, this disaster has become a symbol of arrogance.

complicated story

Another, no less tragic collision occurred with the ship "Admiral Nakhimov". It became a huge sensation of the twentieth century. A warm August day began with arrival at the port cruise ship. The city of Novorossiysk said goodbye to passengers who were soon to go on an exciting trip. Around the same time, a ship called "Peter Vasev" planned to enter the port. The crews of both ships were warned about each other and had to act carefully; no one had any idea that the ships would soon crash.

Who is guilty and is there any point in finding out now?

As a result of short negotiations, it was decided to disperse at the exit from the port on starboard sides. However, something went wrong, namely the automatic heading system failed. The technology is imperfect, we must never forget this. Shipwrecks are clear evidence of this. When it was noticed that the ship was moving at full speed straight towards the Admiral Nakhimov, the situation almost completely got out of control.

The cargo ship "Peter Vasev" crashed into a passenger liner and made a hole measuring eight by ten meters in its side. in eight minutes. Some of the circumstances under which the ship crashed raised questions among many. Why did the passenger ship sink like a stone if, according to the rules, it must have sufficient buoyancy to stay on the surface of the water for at least an hour after the crash? In addition, information was received that the captain followed the order of the port dispatcher and changed the route of the vessel. There will be many gaps and white spots in this story.

However, the most inconsolable fact is the death of almost half a thousand people. Perhaps the scale of the disaster would not have been so terrible if it had been possible to launch lifeboats. But what could be done in just eight minutes? It takes at least half an hour to arrange for people to board one boat. And this is under favorable conditions.

In the case when the Nakhimov ship crashed, there was neither time nor factors allowing people to escape in lifeboats. Over time after the disaster, it becomes increasingly difficult to find out the true circumstances of the crash. Surely the true facts lie in the depths of the water, so there is no point in speculating, because time, like human lives, cannot be returned back.

These are just two stories, but they are not the only ones. The following list of the most famous shipwrecks will show that the wrecks largest airliners- is far from uncommon.

SS America.
"Discoverer of the World"
"Mediterranean sky"
M. B. Captayannis.
BOS 400.
"Fort Shevchenko".
"Gospel".
"SS Maheno".
"Santa Maria".
"Dimitrios."
"Olympia".

The ships took years to build, solemnly left their native ports into the wind and eventually sank, ran aground, leaving only fragments and piles of iron in their memory.

Sometimes it is quite difficult to assess the scale of a particular global catastrophe, because the consequences of some of them can appear many years after the incident itself.

In this article we will present the 13 worst disasters in the world. Among them are incidents that occurred on water, in the air, and on land, due to human fault and for reasons beyond his control, widely known and those that not a very large circle of people know about.

The wreck of the superliner Titanic

Date Time: 14.04.1912 - 15.04.1912

Primary victims: at least 1.5 thousand people

Secondary victims: unknown

The British superliner Titanic, which was called the “most luxurious ship” of its time and “unsinkable,” gained worldwide fame. Unfortunately - sad. On the night of April 14-15, during its maiden voyage, the superliner collided with an iceberg and sank after more than two hours. The disaster was accompanied by numerous casualties among passengers and crew.

On April 10, 1912, the liner set out on its last voyage from the port of Southampton to American New York, having almost 2.5 thousand people on board - passengers and crew members. One of the reasons for the disaster was that there was a tense ice situation on the liner’s route, but for some reason the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, did not attach any importance to this even after receiving numerous warnings about floating icebergs from other ships. The airliner was moving almost at its maximum speed (21-22 knots); there is a version that Smith fulfilled the unofficial requirement of the White Star Line company, which owned the Titanic, to receive “ Blue ribbon Atlantic", a prize for the fastest ocean crossing.

Late at night on April 14, the superliner collided with an iceberg. An ice block, which the lookout did not notice in time, pierced the five bow compartments of the ship on the starboard side, which began to fill with water. The problem turned out to be that the designers did not count on the occurrence of a 90-meter hole in the ship, and here the entire survivability system was powerless. In addition, the “ultra-safe” and “unsinkable” ship did not have a sufficient number of lifeboats, and those that were, for the most part, turned out to be irrationally used (12-20 people floated away on the first boats, 65 on the last ones). -80 with a capacity of 60 people). The result of the disaster was the death, according to various sources, from 1496 to 1522 passengers and crew members.

Today, the remains of the Titanic rest at a depth of about 3.5 km in the Atlantic. The ship's hull is gradually deteriorating and will finally disappear at the turn of the 21st and 22nd centuries.

Explosion of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Date Time: 26.04.1986

Primary victims: 31 people from the duty shift of Chernobyl NPP-4 and fire crews who arrived to extinguish the fire

Secondary victims: 124 people suffered acute radiation sickness but survived; up to 4 thousand liquidators died within 10 years after liquidation; from 600,000 to a million suffered from eliminating the consequences of radioactive contamination and staying in contaminated areas or as the radioactive cloud moved

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is a man-made disaster on the territory of Ukraine, between the cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl. As a result of the explosion of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a large amount of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere, which led to the contamination of surrounding areas and the formation of a radioactive cloud that swept across the territory of the USSR, Europe and reached the United States.

The accident occurred due to several factors - haste on the part of the Chernobyl NPP management, insufficient competence of the ChNPP-4 duty shift, errors in the design and construction of the RBMK-1000 reactor and the nuclear power plant unit itself. On the morning of April 26, reactor tests were planned at Chernobyl NPP-4, which were supposed to demonstrate the ability to operate the reactor cooling system in the interval between shutting down the reactor and starting the emergency diesel generators. However, due to some factors, the test was postponed to the night from April 26 to 27, which is why it was carried out by an unprepared and not warned in advance shift, and xenon gas accumulated in the reactor during 10 hours of idling operation.

All this together led to the fact that when the reactor was artificially shut down, its power first fell below a critical level, and then began to grow like an avalanche. Attempts to activate AZ-5 (emergency protection) instead of eliminating the emergency situation worked as an additional catalyst for increasing the temperature of the reactor, and as a result a powerful explosion occurred. Only one person died directly from the explosion; another died a few hours later from his injuries. The remaining victims received shock doses of radiation in the process of extinguishing the fire and the initial liquidation of the consequences, due to which 29 more people died during the subsequent months of 1986.

The population of the first 10-kilometer and then 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was resettled. The evicted people were told that they would return back in three days. However, no one actually returned back. Eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl explosion took more than a year, cost billions of rubles, and 240 thousand people passed through the ChEZ in 1986-1987. The city of Pripyat was completely abandoned, hundreds of villages were razed, Chernobyl-4 is now partially populated city- the military, police and employees of the remaining three blocks of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant live there.

Terrorist attack 9/11

Date Time: 11.09.2001

Primary victims: 19 terrorists, 2977 police, military, firefighters, doctors and civilians

Secondary victims: 24 people missing, the exact number of injured is unknown

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (better known as 9/11) are the largest terrorist attack V American history. A series of four coordinated terrorist attacks claimed approximately three thousand lives and caused enormous destruction to the buildings attacked.

According to official version events, on the morning of September 11, four groups of a total of 19 terrorists, armed only with plastic knives, hijacked four passenger airliners, sending them to their targets - the World War II towers. shopping center in New York, Pentagon and The White house(or the Capitol) in Washington. The first three planes hit targets; what happened on board the fourth is not known for certain - according to the official version, the passengers clashed with terrorists, which is why the plane crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching its target.

Of the more than 16 thousand people who were in both towers of the World Trade Center, at least 1,966 people died - mainly those who were at the sites of the aircraft attacks and on the floors above, and also at the time of the collapse of the towers, assisting the victims and evacuating them. 125 people died in the Pentagon building. All 246 passengers and crew members of the hijacked planes were also killed, along with 19 terrorists. In the process of eliminating the consequences of the terrorist attack, 341 firefighters, 2 paramedics, 60 police officers and 8 ambulance workers died. The final death toll in New York alone was 2,606.

The terrorist attack of 9/11 became a real tragedy in the United States; citizens of 91 other countries also died. The terrorist attack provoked the US invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, and later Syria under the banner of the fight against terrorism. Disputes about the true causes of the terrorist attack and the course of events on this tragic day have not subsided to this day.

Fukushima-1 accident

Date Time: 11.03.2011

Primary victims: 1 person died from the consequences of radiation poisoning, about 50 people died during the evacuation

Secondary victims: up to 150,000 people were evacuated from the radioactive contamination zone, more than 1,000 of them died within a year after the disaster

The disaster, which occurred on March 11, 2011, simultaneously combines the features of man-made and natural disasters. A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of nine and the subsequent tsunami caused a failure of the power supply system of the Daiichi nuclear plant, as a result of which the cooling process of reactors with nuclear fuel was stopped.

In addition to the monstrous destruction that was caused by the earthquake and tsunami, this incident led to serious radioactive contamination of the territory and water area. In addition, the Japanese authorities had to evacuate up to one hundred and fifty thousand people due to the high likelihood of severe illness due to exposure to severe radioactive radiation. The combination of all these consequences gives the right to the Fukushima accident to be called one of the worst disasters in the world in the twenty-first century.

The total damage from the accident is estimated at $100 billion. This amount includes the costs of eliminating the consequences and paying compensation. But we must not forget that work to eliminate the consequences of the disaster is still ongoing, which accordingly increases this amount.

In 2013, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was officially closed, and only work to eliminate the consequences of the accident is being carried out on its territory. Experts believe that it will take at least forty years to clean up the building and the contaminated area.

The consequences of the Fukushima accident are a reassessment of safety measures in the nuclear energy industry, a drop in the price of natural uranium, and, accordingly, a decrease in the prices of shares of uranium mining companies.

Collision at Los Rodeos Airport

Date Time: 27.03.1977

Primary victims: 583 people - passengers and crew of both airliners

Secondary victims: unknown

Perhaps the most big disaster in the world, which occurred as a result of an airplane collision, was a collision of two airplanes on Canary Islands(Tenerife island) in 1977. At Los Rodeos airport, runway Two Boeing 747 airliners, which belonged to KLM and Pan American, collided. As a result, 583 out of 644 people died, including both passengers and airline crews.

One of the main reasons for this situation was the terrorist attack at Las Palmas airport, which was carried out by terrorists from the MPAIAC organization (Movimiento por la Autodeterminación e Independencia del Archipiélago Canario). The terrorist attack itself did not cause any casualties, but the airport administration closed the airport and stopped accepting planes, fearing further incidents.

Because of this, Los Rodeos became congested as it was diverted by planes that were bound for Las Palmas, in particular two Boeing 747 flights PA1736 and KL4805. It should be noted that the plane, owned by Pan American, had sufficient fuel to land at another airport, but the pilots obeyed the dispatcher's order.

The cause of the collision itself was fog, which severely limited visibility, as well as difficulties in negotiations between controllers and pilots, which were caused by the thick accents of the controllers, and the fact that the pilots were constantly interrupting each other.

Collision « Dona Paz" with a tanker « Vector"

Date Time: 20.12.1987

Primary victims: up to 4386 people, of which 11 are crew members of the tanker “Vector”

Secondary victims: unknown

On December 20, 1987, the Philippine-registered passenger ferry Doña Paz collided with the oil tanker Vector, resulting in the world's worst disaster to occur in Peaceful time on the water.

During the collision, the ferry was following its own standard route Manila-Catbalogan, which he completed twice a week. On December 20, 1987, at about 06:30, the Doña Paz sailed from Tacloban bound for Manila. At approximately 10:30 p.m., the ferry was passing through the Tablas Strait near Marinduque, and survivors reported clear but rough seas.

The collision occurred after the passengers had fallen asleep; the ferry collided with the Vector tanker, which was transporting gasoline and oil products. Immediately after the collision, a strong fire broke out due to the fact that oil products spilled into the sea. The strong impact and fire almost instantly caused panic among passengers; in addition, according to survivors, there were not the required number of life jackets on the ferry.

Only 26 people survived, of which 24 were Donya Paz passengers and two people from the Vector tanker.

Mass poisoning in Iraq, 1971

Date Time: autumn 1971 - end of March 1972

Primary victims: officially - from 459 to 6,000 deaths, unofficially - up to 100,000 deaths

Secondary victims: according to various sources, up to 3 million people who could have suffered from poisoning in one way or another

At the end of 1971, a shipment of grain treated with methylmercury was imported into Iraq from Mexico. Of course, the grain was not intended to be processed into food, and was to be used only for planting. Unfortunately, the local population did not know Spanish, and accordingly all the warning signs that read “Do not eat” turned out to be incomprehensible.

It is also impossible not to note the fact that the grain was delivered to Iraq late, since the planting season had already passed. All this led to the fact that in some villages grain treated with methylmercury began to be eaten.

After eating this grain, symptoms such as numbness of the limbs, loss of vision, and loss of coordination were observed. As a result of criminal negligence, according to official data, about one hundred thousand people suffered from mercury poisoning, of whom from 459 to 6 thousand died (unofficial data show other pictures - up to 3 million victims, up to 100 thousand deaths).

This incident led the World Health Organization to monitor grain circulation more closely and take the labeling of potentially hazardous products more seriously.

Mass destruction of sparrows in China

Date Time: 1958-1961

Primary victims: at least 1.96 billion sparrows, no known human casualties

Secondary victims: 10 to 30 million Chinese died from famine in 1960-1961

As part of the Great Leap Forward economic policy, in China, under the leadership communist party and Mao Zedong, a large-scale fight against agricultural pests was carried out, among which the Chinese authorities identified the four most terrible - mosquitoes, rats, flies and sparrows.

Employees of the Chinese Research Institute of Zoology calculated that because of sparrows, the amount of grain that could feed about thirty-five million people was lost during the year. Based on this, a plan was developed to exterminate these birds, which was approved by Mao Zedong on March 18, 1958.

All the peasants began to actively hunt birds. The most effective method was to keep them from falling to the ground. To do this, adults and children shouted, hit basins, waved poles, rags, etc. This made it possible to scare the sparrows and prevent them from landing on the ground for fifteen minutes. As a result, the birds simply dropped dead.

After a year of hunting sparrows, the harvest really increased. However, later caterpillars, locusts, and other pests that ate the shoots began to actively breed. This led to the fact that after another year, harvests fell sharply, and famine occurred, which led to the death of 10 to 30 million people.

Piper Alpha oil rig disaster

Date Time: 06.07.1988

Primary victims: 167 platform staff

Secondary victims: unknown

The Piper Alpha platform was built in 1975, and oil production started on it in 1976. Over time, it was converted for gas production. However, on July 6, 1988, a gas leak occurred, which led to an explosion.

Due to indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, 167 people out of 226 on the platform died.

Of course, after this event, oil and gas production on this platform was completely stopped. Insured losses totaled approximately US$3.4 billion. This is one of the most famous disasters in the world associated with the oil industry.

Death of the Aral Sea

Date Time: 1960 - present day

Primary victims: unknown

Secondary victims: unknown

This incident is the biggest environmental disaster on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake, after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior V North America, Lake Victoria in Africa. Now in its place is the Aralkum desert.

Cause of disappearance Aral Sea is the creation of new irrigation canals for agricultural enterprises in Turkmenistan, which took water from the Syrdarya and Amu Darya rivers. Because of this, the lake has retreated greatly from the shore, which has led to the exposure of the bottom covered with sea salt, pesticides and chemicals.

Due to natural evaporation, the Aral Sea lost about a thousand cubic kilometers of water between 1960 and 2007. In 1989, the reservoir split into two parts, and in 2003, the volume of water was about 10% of its original volume.

The result of this incident was serious changes in climate and landscape. In addition, of the 178 species of vertebrate animals that lived in the Aral Sea, only 38 remain.

Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion

Date Time: 20.04.2010

Primary victims: 11 platform personnel, 2 accident liquidators

Secondary victims: 17 platform staff

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that occurred on April 20, 2010 is considered one of the largest man-made disasters in terms of its negative impact on the environmental situation. 11 people died directly from the explosion and 17 were injured. Two more people died during the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.

Due to the fact that the explosion damaged pipes at a depth of 1,500 meters, approximately five million barrels of oil spilled into the sea over 152 days, creating a slick with an area of 75,000 kilometers; in addition, 1,770 kilometers of coastline were polluted.

The oil spill threatened 400 species of animals and also led to a fishing ban.

Eruption of Mont Pele volcano

Date Time: 8.05.1902

Primary victims: from 28 to 40 thousand people

Secondary victims: not established for certain

On May 8, 1902, one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in human history occurred. This incident led to the emergence of a new classification volcanic eruptions, and changed the attitude of many scientists to volcanology.

The volcano awakened back in April 1902, and within a month, hot vapors and gases, as well as lava, accumulated inside. A month later, a huge grayish cloud burst out at the foot of the volcano. The peculiarity of this eruption is that the lava did not come out from the top, but from side craters that were located on the slopes. As a result of a powerful explosion, one of the main ports of the island of Martinique, the city of Saint-Pierre, was completely destroyed. The disaster claimed the lives of at least 28 thousand people.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis

Date Time: 02.05.2008

Primary victims: up to 90 thousand people

Secondary victims: at least 1.5 million injured, 56 thousand missing

This disaster unfolded as follows:

Cyclone Nargis formed on April 27, 2008, in the Bay of Bengal, and initially moved towards the coast of India, in a northwest direction;
On April 28, it stops moving, but the wind speed in the spiral vortices began to increase significantly. Because of this, the cyclone began to be classified as a hurricane;
On April 29, the wind speed reached 160 kilometers per hour, and the cyclone resumed movement, but in a northeast direction;
On May 1, the wind direction changed to the east, and at the same time the wind was constantly increasing;
On May 2, the wind speed reached 215 kilometers per hour, and at noon it reached the coast of Myanmar's Ayeyarwaddy Province.

According to the UN, 1.5 million people were injured as a result of the violence, of whom 90 thousand died and 56 thousand were missing. In addition, he was seriously injured Big City Yangon, and many settlements were completely destroyed. Part of the country was left without telephone communications, internet and electricity. The streets were littered with debris, debris from buildings and trees.

To eliminate the consequences of this disaster, the united forces of many countries of the world and international organizations such as the UN, EU, and UNESCO were needed.

The world is familiar with many shipwrecks that shocked us with their scale and horror of what happened. Domestic history knows many terrible shipwrecks that resulted in significant human casualties.

Top most terrible shipwrecks of the 20th century

As you know, modern ships are equipped with means designed to save human life. However, this was not always the case. Especially many large shipwrecks occurred in the last century.

Some water disasters occurred far out to sea, and some occurred in coastal areas due to collisions with reefs. The consequences can be frightening. Next, let's look at some of the most terrible shipwrecks in human history.

Steamship "Sultana" (SS Sultana)

Wood paddle steamer The Sultana was built at an American shipyard in Cincinnati and launched in 1863. The ship suffered a disaster on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to the explosion of a steam boiler.

The ship transported soldiers released from captivity. 1,653 people became victims of the disaster, 741 people were saved. This shipwreck is the largest disaster of the 19th century in terms of the number of victims.

Ferry Donja Paz

One of the largest shipwrecks of the 20th century occurred in 1987 - we are talking about the passenger ferry Dona Paz. For more than two decades, it regularly transported people, cruising along the coasts of the Philippines and Japan.

Colliding with the tanker, the ferry literally broke in half. A fire broke out and passengers died in the fire. The number of victims of this terrible shipwreck is 4375 people.

Liner "Wilhelm Gustloff"

The cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff belonged to one of the largest tour operator companies of the Third Reich. It was launched in 1937. The ship sailed 50 cruises, and the cost of tickets was so low that even the working class could afford to go on a trip on board.

During the Second World War, the liner served as a hospital, and later became a barracks for submarine sailors. In early 1945, the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. According to official data, 5,348 people died in that shipwreck. Historians call a different number of victims - at least 9 thousand people.

The wreck of the Titanic

Who doesn't know about the Titanic? It seems that everyone has heard about this sensational shipwreck. The ship made only one voyage, which ended in disaster in 1912. According to the website, Titanic is included in the rating of the largest ships.

The shipwreck killed 1,513 people. Only 711 passengers were saved. The Titanic disappeared under water in 160 minutes. This terrible disaster was reflected in cinema: in 1997, director James Cameron shot a film of the same name. The main roles in the film were played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Cruise ship Costa Concordia

Costa Concordia is one of the largest European ships. A maritime disaster occurred on the night of January 13-14, 2012 in the Tyrrhenian Sea, near the Italian island of Giglio, during a cruise on Western Mediterranean. There were 4,229 people on board when the ship struck a reef and capsized. The crash killed 32 people.

6 people found guilty in the crash of the Costa Concordia

The main culprit was the captain of the liner, Francesco Schettino, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison. After this incident, the rules for maritime navigation and pre-trip instructions for passengers were tightened.

The most terrible shipwrecks in Russian history

Russian history knows several major shipwrecks, and all of them resulted in huge casualties. One cannot help but recall the crash of the “Armenia”, “Admiral Nakhimov” and “Novorossiysk”. The death of the Kursk submarine and the shipwreck of the Bulgaria and Komsomolets became a terrible tragedy for our country and the whole world.

"Armenia" sank in the fall of 1941 near Crimea in just four minutes. The ship carried evacuated residents and wounded Red Army soldiers. Five thousand people died, and only 8 passengers were able to survive.

One of the largest water disasters in the USSR was the crash of the Admiral Nakhimov. It went from Novorossiysk to Sochi, carrying 1243 people. Due to the fact that the ship rammed a grain carrier, a hole was formed in it, and it sank in 7 minutes. This shipwreck occurred at the end of August 1986, and 423 people died.

The name “Novorossiysk” in the USSR was given to a ship that previously belonged to the Italian Navy. At the end of October 1955, an explosion occurred in the bow of the ship, which created a hole of 150 square meters. meters. The Novorossiysk sank with 604 people on board.

In September 1994, the ferry Estonia, leaving the port of Tallinn, was caught in a storm, lost its bow, causing it to fall on its side and drown. The rescue operation was complicated by a natural disaster that left 852 people missing and killed.

Our contemporaries know about the tragedy that occurred with the nuclear submarine Kursk. The crash occurred in August 2000 due to explosions on board. The crew consisted of 118 people, there were no survivors.

In July 2011, another terrible shipwreck occurred in Russian history - the sinking of the motor ship "Bulgaria", which was cruising along the Volga. With a capacity of 140 people, there were 208 passengers on board. About 120 people were killed, many of them children.

The Komsomolets submarine crashed in the Norwegian Sea. This happened in April 1989 - the cause was a fire in the aft compartment. The crew consisted of 69 people, only 27 crew members managed to survive.

The worst water disaster in human history

Perhaps the worst water disaster in the history of mankind was the shipwreck of the German ship Goya in 1945. About 7 thousand people became its victims.

The collapse of the Goya is called the bloodiest disaster. It happened during the Second World War. The ship was used as an evacuation ship. At night, a Soviet submarine caught up with the Goya and attacked the ship. After 10 minutes, the Goya ship, along with all its passengers, sank under water. On land, major incidents involving human casualties occurred no less frequently. We invite you to learn more about the worst disasters in history.
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