What disaster natural/man-made occurred in your city?

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Just a month or so before we moved back to Houston in 1973, another Air Canada DC-8 exploded and burned at the gate while being refueled at (what I think we called at the time) Malton Airport. Now called Pearson. Anyway, they dumped the remains of the destroyed DC-8 next to a taxiway and I remember taxiing past it just before taking off on our flight back to the states. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/V...WO/query/While

Thanks for the video link and story, bilbao. That was 18 months before I was born, but, coincidentally, my mother has told me a few times over the years that she and my dad and sister were at the terminal that day seeing my grandma off back to Germany. What a parting gift, to witness an airplane in flames just before you hit the skies yourself!

As a side note, according to cockpit voice recordings, on approach to Toronto, the crew of the ill-fated Air Canada jet discussed, among other things, how expensive housing in Toronto had gotten. 50 years ago!

Yes, I remember reading the transcript and taking ironic note of that casual conversation just minutes before the disaster. The crew would be horrified at the house prices now.

Slightly off-topic, but as the subject of plane disasters is one of my morbid fascinations, one of the most disturbing is the crash of PSA182 in San Diego, Sept. 25, 1978. The vivid pre-crash photos (below) are horrifying. Also interesting to note is that a young Whoopi Goldberg witnessed the crash from a nearby balcony, and refused to fly for decades thereafter.

[Dariusb]

Gresto, I remember hearing about a plane catching on fire before taking off but everyone got out alive. Do you remember that?

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by muppet

London's worst Top 10.

1665 Plague 100,000

AD61 destruction of Roman Londinium by Queen Boudicca of the Iceni tribe >50,000

1941 Blitz 50,000

1348 Black Death 30,000

1592 Plague 21,000

1849 cholera 14,000

1952 Great Smog 12,000

1832 cholera 6,500

1212 Great Fire of London 3,000


Honourable mentions: Great Storm of 1707 and again in 1780 were hurricanes that killed thousands and blocked the Thames with shipwrecks. Great Fire of London 1666 destroyed 4/5 of the city. The anti-Catholic Gordon riots killed 500-700. The Peasants Revolt similarly killed 1,500. The 2003 Heatwave killed 800, the sinking of the Princess Alice killed 640, the Bethnal Green stampede killed 167 during an air raid. The Great Beer flood killed 8.

Other great disasters (but in damages mostly) the Great Hurricanes of 1987 and 1991 that felled the majority of trees in the region, the IRA bombings in 1988, 1993 and 1996 that destroyed the financial centres of The City and Canary Wharf 3x (areas evacuated in time, largest bombs in British history).

Londoners are a tough lot to go through all of that and still be where it is today.

[Shawn]

Tragic and hilarious at the same time, this one might be tough to beat:

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919



Boston's Great Molasses Flood had it's 100th year anniversary last January.

"A tank containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses buckled, sending a tidal wave of the sticky stuff rampaging through a bustling North End neighborhood exactly 100 years ago Tuesday. Entire buildings were flattened, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others."

The pic above was all tightly-packed warehouses before the sticky tsunami swept them away.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Gresto

Slightly off-topic, but as the subject of plane disasters is one of my morbid fascinations, one of the most disturbing is the crash of PSA182 in San Diego, Sept. 25, 1978. The vivid pre-crash photos (below) are horrifying. Also interesting to note is that a young Whoopi Goldberg witnessed the crash from a nearby balcony, and refused to fly for decades thereafter.

Oh no no no! My eyes! My eyes! Those San Diego photos haunted me for years after that crash. I think one may have even been on the cover of Time Magazine.

[muppet]

Tokyo's Top 10

WWII bombing 1942-45 200,000 (half killed on the single Doolittle raid in 1945)

Cholera 1858-60 200,000

Great Kanto Earthquake 1923 140,000

Long Sleeves Fire 1657 (destroying 70% of the city after a cursed kimono, that three girls had died after inheriting, was burnt in exorcism) 107,000

Spanish Flu 1918 60,000

Cholera 1855 60,000

Ansei Earthquake Fire 1855 26,000

Great Miwa Fire 1772 15,000

Anti-Korean Massacre 1923 6,000

Kogo Fire 1834 4,000

[muppet]

Moscow

Battle of Moscow 1941, 1.5 million

1654-56 Plague 200,000

1571 Moscow Raid fire by the Crimean-Tatar Wars 200,000

1771-72 Russian Plague 100,000

Russian Civil War 1917-22 several thousand (up to 12 million died in Russia)

1382 Siege of Moscow 24,000

1920 typhus epidemic - several thousand (3 million died in Russia)

1812 Great Moscow Fire (during the Napoleonic invasion) 12,000

1889 Russian Flu - several thousand

1831 Cholera following invasion 4,600

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by Gresto

Thanks for the video link and story, bilbao. That was 18 months before I was born, but, coincidentally, my mother has told me a few times over the years that she and my dad and sister were at the terminal that day seeing my grandma off back to Germany. What a parting gift, to witness an airplane in flames just before you hit the skies yourself!

Yes, I remember reading the transcript and taking ironic note of that casual conversation just minutes before the disaster. The crew would be horrified at the house prices now.

Slightly off-topic, but as the subject of plane disasters is one of my morbid fascinations, one of the most disturbing is the crash of PSA182 in San Diego, Sept. 25, 1978. The vivid pre-crash photos (below) are horrifying. Also interesting to note is that a young Whoopi Goldberg witnessed the crash from a nearby balcony, and refused to fly for decades thereafter.

"Slightly off-topic, but as the subject of plane disasters is one of my morbid fascinations, one of the most disturbing is the crash of PSA182 in San Diego, Sept. 25, 1978. The vivid pre-crash photos (below) are horrifying. Also interesting to note is that a young Whoopi Goldberg witnessed the crash from a nearby balcony, and refused to fly for decades thereafter."
Gresto, since you have an interest in plane disasters, what about American Airlines flight 191 that crashed on takeoff from Chicago O'Hare in 1979? I think it's America's worst aviation disaster.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Dariusb

what about American Airlines flight 191 that crashed on takeoff from Chicago O'Hare in 1979? I think it's America's worst aviation disaster.

That happened on a Friday in May in 1979. I was supposed to have flown from New York to Chicago that day, but decided I liked New York so much (it was my first time in NYC) that I changed my flight to the following Monday. Flying into O'Hare on Monday our plane flew right over the big black spot where it happened.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by Dariusb

Gresto, I remember hearing about a plane catching on fire before taking off but everyone got out alive. Do you remember that?

Here in Toronto? The only incident close to that description is Air France Flight 358 in 2005, which landed in a thunderstorm, went off the end of the runway, and burst into flames. Thanks to a swift disembarking, all 309 survived.

Otherwise, you may be thinking of China Airlines Flight 120, which caught fire and exploded as it taxied to the gate on 8/20/2007. All 165 occupants made it out alive. As I recall, at least one of the pilots had to jump out the cockpit window.

Originally Posted by Dariusb

Gresto, since you have an interest in plane disasters, what about American Airlines flight 191 that crashed on takeoff from Chicago O'Hare in 1979? I think it's America's worst aviation disaster.

Yes, other than 9/11, I believe it is still the US's worst plane crash. 273 died. Some haunting photos (below) of that one were snapped, too.
The great power-pop band Shoes narrowly avoided death by changing flights shortly before the flight.

[Dariusb]

Gresto, yeah that was the flight in Toronto I was thinking of. 2 other notable crashes were caused by wind shear. Pan Am flight 759 on takeoff from New Orleans that killed all 159 onboard plus 11 on the ground when the plane went through a neighborhood in the suburb of Kenner in 1982. Only survivor was a baby whose nother and sister were killed when the plane tore through their home. The other was Delta Airlines flight 191 while landing at DFW Iairport in 1985. 137 of the 163 passengers and crew including a commuter on the freeway were killed. Both of these disasters helped expedite NEXRAD which better detected windshear.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Dariusb

what about American Airlines flight 191 that crashed on takeoff from Chicago O'Hare in 1979? I think it's America's worst aviation disaster.

Yep, that was a terrible tragedy. 273 people killed, and one of the big reasons why the DC-10 had such an awful reputation in its early years. I was only 3 years old when it happened, so I have no first hand memory of it, but it was a big enough deal locally that I remember people still talking about it years later during my childhood. The 40th anniversary of the accident was this past summer and the local papers had retrospectives about the disaster and its legacy.



There are two other major plane crashes that also stand out in Chicago history:

In 1961 a TWA L-049 crashed in suburban Hinsdale shortly after taking off from MDW, killing 78 people aboard the aircraft.

In 1972 a United airlines 737 approached too low coming into MDW and actually struck some houses and crashed about a mile short of the runway, killing 43 on the plane and miraculously only 2 on the ground. Anyone who's ever flown into MDW knows how tightly packed, and how close to the runways, those southwest side bungalows are. It's kind of amazing that a full size jet like a 737 crashed into an urban city neighborhood like those surrounding MDW and only two people on the ground were killed.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Gresto

We've had only one major plane crash, Flight 621 in 1970, which occurred when the first officer, upon landing, absentmindedly activated the spoilers early, causing the DC-8 to smash into the runway. The pilot managed to get the plane aloft again, but it was fatally damaged and crashed into a farmer's front yard 15 km north of the airport, killing all 109 aboard.

My dad was supposed to be on board, but his alarm clock did not function on that morning of summer 1970 and he missed his flight. It's really something to think that I (as well as my sis) owe my (our) existence to such a tiny little detail.

IIRC, my grandpa heard the news of the crash on the radio before he knew my dad wasn't on board. (Pre-cellphone days; people didn't/couldn't keep track of each other's whereabouts anywhere near as much as we now do.)

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by lio45

My dad was supposed to be on board, but his alarm clock did not function on that morning of summer 1970 and he missed his flight. It's really something to think that I (as well as my sis) owe my (our) existence to such a tiny little detail.

IIRC, my grandpa heard the news of the crash on the radio before he knew my dad wasn't on board. (Pre-cellphone days; people didn't/couldn't keep track of each other's whereabouts anywhere near as much as we now do.)

Wow, that's really something to think about indeed.

[Gresto]

^It sure is! About 15 years ago, long before the area around the Flight 621 crash site had been developed with housing, I went up there a couple of times out of curiosity. I didn't go onto the land since it was private, but I later read that others, who also had an interest in the crash, had trespassed onto the land and dug around. They found remnants of the wreckage, warped Air Canada cutlery, and bone fragments, pictures of which were posted on a now-defunct website. To think that, more than 30 years (at the time) after the crash, it hadn't been properly cleaned up, is disgraceful.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Gresto

To think that, more than 30 years (at the time) after the crash, it hadn't been properly cleaned up, is disgraceful.

At least somebody *finally* made a memorial out of the site to prevent houses from being built on it.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

At least somebody *finally* made a memorial out of the site to prevent houses from being built on it.

That is true. I think that's at least in part - if not wholly - due to the pressure put on the powers-that-be by outspoken family members, citizens, and media. They shamed them into action. I haven't visited the memorial, but it looks quite nice from afar.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Dariusb

a young Whoopi Goldberg witnessed the crash from a nearby balcony, and refused to fly for decades thereafter."

A young(er) Pedestrian was aboard a US Navy C-130 that safely landed at the South Pole in 1976 with only one of its 4 engines still functioning and he refuses to fly even now (having white-knuckled it home from the southern hemisphere).

By the way, the more we learn about Boeing's priorities in aircraft development and building, the more determined he is to stay off their products.