The largest shipwreck ever. The largest peacetime shipwreck in history

On April 16, 1945, exactly 117 years after the death of Francisco Goya, the ship Goya was sunk by a torpedo attack by a Soviet submarine. This disaster, which claimed 7,000 lives, became the largest shipwreck in world history.

"Goya"

"Goya" was Norwegian cargo ship, requisitioned by the Germans. On April 16, 1945, things didn’t go well in the morning. A gloomy omen of the coming disaster was the bombardment to which the ship was subjected. Despite the defense, during the fourth raid a shell still hit the bow of the Goya. Several people were injured, but the ship remained afloat and they decided not to cancel the flight.

For Goya, this was the fifth evacuation flight from the advancing units of the Red Army. During four previous campaigns, almost 20,000 refugees, wounded and soldiers were evacuated.
Goya set off on its last voyage loaded to capacity. Passengers were in the passages, on the stairs, in the holds. Not everyone had documents, so the exact number of passengers has not yet been established, from 6000 to 7000. They all believed that the war was over for them, they made plans and were full of hope...

The ships (Goya was accompanied by a convoy) were already at sea when at 22:30 surveillance noticed an unidentified silhouette on the right side. Everyone was ordered to put on life-saving clothing. There were only 1,500 of them on board the Goya. In addition, one of the ships of the group, the Kronenfels, suffered a breakdown in the engine room. While waiting for the completion of repair work, the ships began to drift. An hour later the ships continued their journey.
At 23:45 "Goya" shuddered from a powerful torpedo attack. The Soviet submarine L-3, which was following the ships, began to operate.
Panic began at Goya. Jochen Hannema, a German tankman who became one of the few survivors, recalled: “Water rushed noisily from the huge holes created by the torpedoes. The ship broke into two parts and began to rapidly sink. All that was heard was the terrible roar of a huge mass of water.”
The huge ship, devoid of partitions, sank in just 20 minutes. Only 178 people survived.

"Wilhelm Gustlow"

On January 30, 1945, at 21:15, the S-13 submarine discovered in the Baltic waters the German transport "Wilhelm Gustlow", accompanied by an escort, on board which, according to modern estimates, was over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia : old people, children, women. But there were also German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel on the Gustlov.
Submarine captain Alexander Marinesko began the hunt. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transport ship (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison, the steamship Titanic and the battleship Bismarck had a displacement of about 50 thousand tons).
Having chosen the moment, Marinesko attacked the Gustlov with three torpedoes, each of which hit the target. The fourth torpedo with the inscription “For Stalin” got stuck. The submariners miraculously managed to avoid an explosion on the boat.

While escaping pursuit from a German military escort, the C-13 was bombed by over 200 depth charges.

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov is considered one of the largest disasters in maritime history. According to official data, 5,348 people died in it; according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.

Junyo Maru

They were called "Ships of Hell." These were Japanese merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war and workers (actually slaves, who were called "romushi") to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. The “ships of hell” were not officially part of the Japanese navy and had no identification marks, but the Allied forces sank them no less violently. Only war time 9 “Ships of Hell” were sunk, on which almost 25 thousand people died.

It is worth saying that the British and Americans could not help but know about the “cargo” that was transported on the ships, since the Japanese codes were deciphered.

The largest disaster occurred on September 18, 1944. The British submarine Tradewind torpedoed the Japanese ship Junyo Maru. Among the rescue equipment on the ship, filled to capacity with prisoners of war, there were two lifeboats and several rafts. On board were 4.2 thousand workers, 2.3 thousand prisoners of war, Americans, Australians, British, Dutch and Indonesians.

The conditions in which slaves had to survive on ships were simply terrifying. Many went crazy and died from exhaustion and stuffiness. When the torpedoed ship began to sink, the captives of the ship had no chance of salvation. The boats accompanying the “ship of hell” took on board only the Japanese and not most prisoners. In total, 680 prisoners of war and 200 romushi remained alive.

This was a case where the living envied the dead. The prisoners who miraculously escaped were sent to their destination - to construction railway to Sumatra. The chances of surviving there were not much greater than on the ill-fated ship.

"Armenia"

The cargo-passenger ship "Armenia" was built in Leningrad and was used on the Odessa-Batumi line. During the Great Patriotic War in August 1941, "Armenia" was converted into a medical transport ship. The side and deck began to be “decorated” with large red crosses, which, in theory, were supposed to protect the ship from attacks, but...

During the defense of Odessa, "Armenia" made 15 flights to the besieged city, from where more than 16 thousand people were taken on board. The last voyage of the “Armenia” was a trip from Sevastopol to Tuapse in November 1941. On November 6, having taken on board the wounded, almost all medical personnel Black Sea Fleet And civilians, "Armenia" left Sevastopol.

At night the ship arrived in Yalta. The captain of the "Armenia" was forbidden to make the transition to Tuapse during daylight hours, but the military situation dictated otherwise. The port of Yalta did not have cover to protect against German air raids, and there were already German troops on the near approaches to the city. And there was practically no choice left...

At 8 o'clock in the morning on November 7, "Armenia" left Yalta and headed for Tuapse. At 11:25 the ship was attacked by a German torpedo bomber He-111 and sank less than 5 minutes after the torpedo hit the bow. Together with “Armenia”, from 4,000 to 7,500 people died, and only eight managed to escape. The causes of this terrible tragedy are still controversial.

"Dona Paz"

The death of the ferry "Donya Paz" is the largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. This tragedy became a cruel lesson exposing greed, unprofessionalism and sloppiness. The sea, as we know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of the "Danya Paz" mistakes followed one after another .
The ferry was built in Japan in 1963. At that time it was called "Himeuri Maru". In 1975, it was profitably sold to the Philippines. Since then he has been exploited even more than mercilessly. Designed to carry a maximum of 608 passengers, it was usually packed to capacity, accommodating between 1,500 and 4,500 people.

Twice a week the ferry carried out passenger transportation on the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, the Doña Paz set sail on its last voyage from Tacloban to Manila. This flight was packed with maximum passengers - Filipinos were rushing to the capital for the New Year.

At ten in the evening of the same day, the ferry collided with the huge tanker Vector. The collision literally broke both ships in half, and thousands of tons of oil spilled across the ocean. The explosion caused a fire. The chances of salvation were reduced to almost zero. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the ocean at the site of the tragedy was swarming with sharks.

One of the survivors, Paquito Osabel, later recalled: " Neither the sailors nor the ship's officers reacted in any way to what was happening. Everyone demanded life jackets and a lifeboat, but there were none. The cabinets in which the vests were stored were locked, and the keys could not be found. The boats were thrown into the water just like that, without any preparation. Panic, chaos, chaos reigned«.

The rescue operation began only eight hours after the tragedy. 26 people were caught from the sea. 24 are passengers of the Donya Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vector. Official statistics, which cannot be trusted, indicate the death of 1,583 people. More objective, independent experts claim that 4,341 people died in the disaster.

"Cap Arcona"

"Cap Arcona" was one of the largest passenger ships Germany, displacement - 27,561 tons. Having survived almost the entire war, the Cap Arcona perished after the capture of Berlin by the Allied forces, when on May 3, 1945, the liner was sunk by British bombers.

Benjamin Jacobs, one of the prisoners who were at Cap Arcona, wrote in the book “The Dentist of Auschwitz”: “ Suddenly planes appeared. We could clearly see their identification marks. “These are the British!” Look, we are KaTsetniks! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp caps and pointed to our striped clothes, but there was no compassion for us. The British began to throw napalm at the shaking and burning Cap Arcona. On the next approach, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we clearly saw the pilot’s face and thought that we had nothing to fear. But then bombs fell from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... They shot at us and those who jumped into the water from machine guns. The water around the drowning bodies turned red".

Aboard the blazing Cap Arcona, more than 4,000 prisoners were burned alive or suffocated by smoke. Some prisoners managed to escape and jump into the sea. Those who managed to escape the sharks were picked up by trawlers. 350 prisoners, many of whom suffered from burns, managed to escape before the liner capsized. They swam ashore, but became victims of the SS men. A total of 5,594 people died on Cap Arcona.

"Lancasteria"

Western historiography prefers to remain silent about the tragedy that occurred on June 17, 1940. Moreover, a veil of oblivion covered this terrible catastrophe on the day it happened. This is due to the fact that on the same day France surrendered to Nazi troops, and Winston Churchill decided not to report anything about the death of the ship, as this could break the morale of the British. This is not surprising: the Lancastrian disaster was the largest mass death of the British during the entire Second World War, the number of victims exceeded the sum of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic and Luisitania. Headline

The Lancastria liner was built in 1920 and was used as a military vessel after the outbreak of World War II. On June 17, he evacuated troops from Norway. A German Junkers 88 bomber spotted the ship and began bombing. The liner was hit by 10 bombs. According to official figures, there were 4,500 soldiers and 200 crew on board. About 700 people were saved. According to unofficial data published in Brian Crabb's book about the disaster, it is said that the number of victims is deliberately downplayed.

For thousands of years, ships have sunk during war, natural disasters, and in some cases even due to human error. The ten largest and most famous shipwrecks that have ever occurred have been revealed.

The Titanic sailed from Southampton to New York, where it hit an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. Its body, divided into two parts, lies on seabed, at a depth of more than 3700 meters.

Sultana

Almost forgotten, but one of the deadliest disasters. More than 1,800 people died during the sinking of this ship. It was the greatest maritime disaster in all of American history. The explosion of four boilers turned the ship into a huge fireball, consuming everyone and everything. The explosion killed 80% of everyone on board. The disaster took a back seat in the press due to the fact that President Lincoln was assassinated just the day before. . The ship was designed for only 85 passengers, but there were approximately 2,400 people on board. Its wreckage lies near Memphis, Tennessee.

L.R. Doty

This ship was launched in 1894 in Michigan, in western Bay City. It was caught in a terrible storm, which caused its sinking, killing all 17 crew members on board. The wreck site was found 111 years after the sinking of the ship. It is located at a depth of 92 meters in Lake Michigan; the cargo of corn is still intact. This place is because muddy water considered one of the most dangerous dive sites.

Oriskany

This ship, nicknamed the Mighty O, was one of 24 huge ships Essex class, ordered by the US Navy. The ship has seen many battles in many places, ranging from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to the Vietnam War. . The ship was converted into an artificial reef in 2004 and has become a very successful home for millions of fish. Today it is considered one of best places for diving in the world.

Jula

The sinking of this ship is considered the second worst maritime disaster not related to the war. The disaster claimed at least 1,863 lives. The ship was designed to carry 500 passengers, but at the time of the accident it was carrying more than 2,000 passengers. The ship capsized after being caught in a storm. It sank in just five minutes. Rescue teams arrived only the morning after the incident; a huge number of victims died in the water awaiting rescue. The ship is still considered missing.

Vida Galli

This ship has a very interesting story. It was primarily used for the slave trade, but then in late February 1717, a pirate named "Black Sam" Bellamy seized the ship and claimed it as his own. During the year he owned the ship, he used the Vida Galli to capture and plunder more than 50 ships. The ship was caught in a strong storm, as a result of which its main mast collapsed and it capsized, dragging all the pirates under the water. The ship was discovered more than 250 years after it disappeared along with its loot. It was at a depth of only 5 meters. It was the first real pirate ship ever discovered.

Rona

This is quite possibly the most beautiful shipwreck in the world. British packet boat wrecked off the coast of Salt Island, British Virgin Islands, October 26, 1867. The ship went straight into a hurricane, which damaged it and caused the death of 123 people. Now this is a place for diving, and, I must say, absolutely stunning in beauty. Wildlife has taken the ship into its possession, and now it is covered with corals, eels, different types of fish and even sharks live in it.

Costa Concordia

The most last crash cruise ship. Although the ship only partially sank, the disaster cost the lives of 34 passengers. The crash was widely reported in the press. Captain Schettino tried to make a spectacular maneuver into the port. To do this, he turned off the ship's navigation system, which reported how close the ship was to the rock shoal. The ship hit a large rock and water began to fill the ship, causing it to capsize. The "Costa Concordia" is still located in the area of ​​Giglia Island, Tuscany, and has become a popular tourist attraction; Plans are now being developed to lift and tow it.

Mont Blanc

The Mont Blanc became known as the ship that caused the Halifax explosion. The ship was heading to France from New York and was carrying a huge amount of ammunition and explosives. The ship was not too old, but was very slow due to the weight of the cargo it was carrying. It called at Halifax, Nova Scotia, to rendezvous with a convoy bound for France. While entering the port, the ship crashed into another ship, the Imo. The collision caused a fire and the explosives on board ignited. The force of the explosion was 2.9 kilotons, the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. More than 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 wounded.

Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes is very popular among divers because wildlife and landscapes that emerged from the shipwreck. The ship lies in a large harbor and can be seen at water level. The ship was damaged near Cove Island in August 1885. Luckily, he was brought back to port by the small tug Jessie. The schooner was seriously damaged and could not be repaired, so it sank in the port itself. Fortunately, a huge load of coal was lifted from the side of the sunken ship.

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 nature. Some of them have become tourist attractions.
The last time a shipwreck 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've rounded up 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. The stern section collapsed and sank in 1996, while bow remained untouched. 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 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 southern waters Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. 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 South Australian Government in 1884 to defend the coast against 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.

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 luxury 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 New York, America, with 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 the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, a prize for the fastest ocean crossing, on the first voyage.

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 enough lifeboats, and those that were, for the most part, turned out to be irrationally used (12-20 people sailed on the first boats, 65-80 on the last ones 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 liquidation emergency situation acted 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 over 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. Elimination of the consequences of the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 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 in American history. A series of four coordinated terrorist attacks claimed nearly three thousand lives and caused massive 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, captured four passenger airliner, directing them to targets - the towers of the World shopping center in New York, the Pentagon and the White House (or 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 of 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 magnitude and the subsequent tsunami caused a failure of the power supply system nuclear installation Daiichi, as a result of which the cooling process of nuclear fuel reactors 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 world's worst disaster resulting from an aircraft collision was the collision of two aircraft 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 peacetime disaster on the water.

At the time of the collision, the ferry was following its standard Manila-Catbalogan route, which it travels twice a week. On December 20, 1987, at about 06:30, the Dona 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 passengers from Donya Paz 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 should also be noted 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 to World Organizations Health began to more carefully control the circulation of grain, and began to take the labeling of potentially dangerous 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, China, under the leadership of the Communist Party and Mao Zedong, carried out a large-scale fight against agricultural pests, among which the Chinese authorities identified the four most terrible ones - 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 frighten 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 in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake, after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior in 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 retreated greatly from the shore, which led to the exposure of the bottom of the covered sea ​​salt, pesticides and chemicals.

Due to natural evaporation of the Aral Sea during the period from 1960 to 2007, the sea lost about a thousand cubic kilometers of water. 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 of volcanic eruptions, and changed the attitude of many scientists to volcanology.

The volcano awakened 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. Feature 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.

No matter how far scientific and technological progress goes, disasters have happened, are happening and will probably continue to happen for a long time. Some of them could have been avoided, but most of the worst events in the world were inevitable because they happened at the behest of Mother Nature.

The worst plane crash

Collision of two Boeing 747s

Humanity does not know of a more terrible plane crash than the one that occurred on March 27, 1977 on the island of Tenerife, which belongs to the Canary group. On this day, at Los Rodeo airport, two Boeing 747s collided, one of which belonged to KLM, the other to Pan American. This terrible tragedy claimed 583 lives. The reasons that led to this disaster are a fatal and paradoxical combination of circumstances.

Los Rodeos airport was seriously overloaded on this ill-fated Sunday. The dispatcher spoke with a strong Spanish accent, and the radio communications suffered from serious interference. Because of this, the Boeing commander, KLM, misinterpreted the command to abort the flight, which became the fatal cause of the collision of two maneuvering aircraft.

Only a few passengers managed to escape through the holes created in the Pan American plane. The wings and tail of another Boeing fell off, which led to a fall one hundred and fifty meters from the accident site, after which it was dragged for another three hundred meters. Both flying cars caught fire.

There were 248 passengers on board the Boeing KLM, none of whom survived. The Pan American plane became the site of the death of 335 people, including the entire crew, as well as the famous model and actress Eve Meyer.

The worst man-made disaster

On July 6, 1988, the worst of all disasters occurred in the North Sea, famous history oil production. It happened on the Piper Alpha oil platform, which was built in 1976. The number of victims was 167 people, the company suffered a loss of about three and a half billion dollars.

The most offensive thing is that the number of victims could have been much lower if not for ordinary human stupidity. There was a large gas leak, followed by an explosion. But instead of stopping the oil supply immediately after the accident began, the maintenance personnel waited for management's command.

The countdown went on for minutes, and soon the entire platform of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation was engulfed in fire, even the living quarters caught fire. Those who could have survived the blast were burned alive. Only those who managed to jump into the water survived.

Worst water accident ever

When the topic of tragedies on the water is raised, one involuntarily recalls the film “Titanic”. Moreover, such a catastrophe really happened. But this shipwreck is not the worst in the history of mankind.

Wilhelm Gustloff

The sinking of the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff is rightfully considered the biggest disaster that occurred on the water. The tragedy occurred on January 30, 1945. Its culprit was a submarine of the Soviet Union, which hit a ship that could accommodate almost 9,000 passengers.

This, at that time, a perfect product of shipbuilding, was made in 1938. It seemed unsinkable and contained 9 decks, restaurants, winter Garden, climate control, gyms, theaters, dance floors, swimming pools, churches and even Hitler’s rooms.

Its length was more than two hundred meters, it could sail half the planet without refueling. The ingenious creation could not sink without outside intervention. And it happened in the person of the crew of the submarine S-13, commanded by A. I. Marinesko. Three torpedoes were fired at the legendary ship. In a matter of minutes he found himself in the depths of the waters Baltic Sea. All crew members were killed, including about 8,000 representatives of the German military elite who were evacuated from Danzig.

Wreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff (video)

The greatest environmental tragedy

Shrunken Aral Sea

Among all environmental disasters, the leading place is occupied by the drying out of the Aral Sea. In their better times it was the fourth largest among all the lakes in the world.

The disaster occurred due to the unreasonable use of water used to water gardens and fields. The drying out was due to the ill-considered political ambitions and actions of the leaders of those times.

Gradually, the coastline moved far into the sea, which led to the extinction of most species of flora and fauna. In addition, droughts began to become more frequent, the climate changed significantly, shipping became impossible, and more than sixty people were left without work.

Where did the Aral Sea disappear: strange symbols on the dry bottom (VIDEO)

Nuclear disaster

What could be worse than a nuclear disaster? The lifeless kilometers of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl region are the embodiment of these fears. The accident occurred in 1986, when one of the power units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded early on an April morning.

Chernobyl 1986

This tragedy claimed the lives of several hundred tow truck workers, and thousands died over the next ten years. And only God knows how many people were forced to leave their homes...

The children of these people are still born with developmental anomalies. The atmosphere, land and water around the nuclear power plant are contaminated with radioactive substances.

Radiation levels in this region are still thousands of times higher than normal. No one knows how long it will take for people to settle in these places. The scale of this disaster is still not fully known.

Chernobyl accident 1986: Chernobyl, Pripyat - liquidation (VIDEO)

Disaster over the Black Sea: Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed

Crash of Tu-154 of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Not long ago there was a crash of a Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense en route to Syria. It claimed the lives of 64 talented artists of the Alexandrov ensemble, nine famous leading TV channels, the head of a charitable organization - the famous Doctor Lisa, eight military personnel, two civil servants, and all crew members. Total in this terrible plane crash 92 people died.

On this tragic morning in December 2016, the plane refueled in Adler, but unexpectedly crashed just after takeoff. The investigation took a long time, because it was necessary to know what the cause of the Tu-154 crash was.

The commission that investigated the causes of the accident named overloading of the plane, fatigue of the crew and low professional level of training and organization of the flight among the circumstances leading to the disaster.

Results of the investigation into the Tu-154 crash of the Russian Ministry of Defense (VIDEO)

Submarine "Kursk"

Submarine "Kursk"

The collapse of the Russian nuclear submarine The Kursk, in which 118 people on board were killed, occurred in 2000 in the Barents Sea. This is the second largest accident in the history of the Russian submarine fleet after the disaster on the B-37.

On August 12, as planned, preparations for training attacks began. The last written confirmed actions on the boat were recorded at 11.15.

A few hours before the tragedy, the crew commander was informed about the cotton, which he did not pay attention to. Then the boat shook violently, which was attributed to the activation of the radar station antenna. After that, the boat captain no longer contacted us. At 23.00 the situation on the submarine was declared as an emergency, which was reported to the leadership of the fleet and the country. The next morning, as a result of search operations, the Kursk was found at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 108 m.

The official version of the cause of the tragedy is the explosion of a training torpedo, which occurred as a result of a fuel leak.

Submarine Kursk: what really happened? (VIDEO)

Wreck of the ship "Admiral Nakhimov"

The wreck of the passenger ship "Admiral Nakhimov" occurred in August 1981 near Novorossiysk. There were 1,234 people on board the ship, 423 of whom lost their lives on that fateful day. It is known that Vladimir Vinokur and Lev Leshchenko were late for this flight.

At 23:12, the ship collided with the dry cargo ship "Petr Vasev", as a result of which the electric generator was flooded and the light went out on the "Nakhimov". The ship became uncontrollable and continued to move forward by inertia. As a result of the collision, a hole of up to eighty square meters was formed in the starboard side. Panic began among the passengers; many climbed onto the left side and thus descended into the water.

Almost a thousand people ended up in the water, and they were also dirty with fuel oil and paint. Eight minutes after the collision, the ship sank.

Steamer Admiral Nakhimov: shipwreck - Russian Titanic (VIDEO)

Oil platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico

The most terrible ecological disasters in the world in 2010, another one was added, which happened in the Gulf of Mexico, eighty km from Louisiana. This is one of the most dangerous man-made accidents for the environment. It happened on April 20 on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

As a result of pipe rupture, about five million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

A spot measuring 75,000 square meters formed in the bay. km, which amounted to five percent of its total area. The disaster took the lives of 11 people and injured 17.

Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (VIDEO)

Concordia crash

On January 14, 2012, the list of the worst incidents in the world was supplemented with one more. Near Italian Tuscany, the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran into a rock outcropping, leaving a hole seventy meters in size. At this time, most of the passengers were in the restaurant.

The right side of the liner began to submerge in the water, then it was thrown onto a sandbank 1 km from the crash site. There were more than 4,000 people on the ship who were evacuated throughout the night, but not everyone was saved: 32 people were still killed and a hundred were injured.

Costa Concordia – the crash through the eyes of eyewitnesses (VIDEO)

Eruption of Krakatoa in 1883

Natural disasters show how insignificant and helpless we are in the face of natural phenomena. But all the most terrible disasters in the world - nothing compared to the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, which occurred in 1883.

On May 20, a large smoke column could be seen above the Krakatoa volcano. At that moment, even at a distance of 160 kilometers from him, the windows of houses began to tremble. All the nearby islands were covered with a thick layer of dust and pumice.

Eruptions continued until August 27. The final explosion culminated in sound waves that circled the entire planet several times. At that moment, the compasses on the ships sailing in the Sunda Strait stopped showing correctly.

These explosions led to the submersion of the entire northern part of the island. The seabed rose as a result of the eruptions. Much ash from the volcano remained in the atmosphere for another two to three years.

The tsunami, which was thirty meters high, washed away about three hundred settlements and killed 36,000 people.

The most powerful eruption of Krakatoa Volcano (VIDEO)

Earthquake in Spitak in 1988

On December 7, 1988, the list of “Best Disasters in the World” was replenished with another one that occurred in the Armenian Spitak. On this tragic day, tremors literally “wiped” this city from the face of the earth in just half a minute, destroying Leninakan, Stepanavan and Kirovakan beyond recognition. In total, twenty-one cities and three hundred and fifty villages were affected.

In Spitak itself, the earthquake had a force of ten, Leninakan was struck by a force of nine, and Kirovakan was struck by a force of eight, and almost the rest of Armenia was hit by a force of six. Seismologists have calculated that during this earthquake the energy released corresponded to the force of ten exploded atomic bombs. The wave that this tragedy caused was recorded by scientific laboratories almost all over the world.

This natural disaster deprived 25,000 people of their lives, 140,000 of their health, and 514,000 of their homes. Forty percent of the republic's industry was out of order, schools, hospitals, theaters, museums, cultural centers, roads and railways were destroyed.

Military personnel, doctors, and public figures throughout the country and abroad, both near and far, were called to help. I was actively planning humanitarian aid Worldwide. Tents, field kitchens and first aid stations were set up throughout the area affected by the tragedy.

The saddest and most instructive thing in this situation is that the scale and victims of this terrible disaster could have been many times smaller if seismic activity of this region was taken into account and all buildings were erected taking these features into account. The lack of preparedness of the rescue services also contributed.

Tragic days: earthquake in Spitak (VIDEO)

2004 Tsunami Indian Ocean - Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka

In December 2004, a devastating tsunami of terrible force caused by an underwater earthquake hit the coasts of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other countries. Huge waves devastated the area and killed 200,000 people. The most annoying thing is that most of the dead are children, since in this region there is a high proportion of children to the population, moreover, children are physically weaker and less able to resist water than an adult.

Aceh province in Indonesia suffered the greatest losses. Almost all buildings there were destroyed, 168,000 people died.

IN geographically this earthquake was simply huge. Up to 1200 kilometers of rock have shifted. The shift occurred in two phases with an interval of two to three minutes.

The number of victims turned out to be so high because along the entire coast Indian Ocean there was no general warning system.

There is nothing worse than disasters and tragedies that deprive people of life, shelter, health, destroy industry and everything that a person has worked on for many years. But it often turns out that the number of casualties and destruction in such situations could have been much less if everyone had been conscientious about their professional responsibilities; in some cases, it was necessary to provide an evacuation plan and a warning system in advance local residents. Let's hope that in the future humanity will find a way to avoid such terrible tragedies or reduce the damage from them.

Tsunami in Indonesia 2004 (VIDEO)

Recommended for you