All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s03e13 Unimaginable Disasters.eng

[Dan narrating]

[dramatic music]

Imagine a drilling
accident so catastrophic

it unleashes a
literal hell on earth.

- The crew is in an
all-out panic now.

They've opened up a
230-foot wide crater.

They're nauseous from the fumes.

What do you do in
this situation?

There's no valve you can turn
to shut off the gas flow.

[dramatic music continues]

- Or transporting a
nuclear bomb and losing it.

- They are for hours
unaccounted for

and that's a very
dangerous situation.

- United States forces
spring into action,

which prompts a massive search.

- How about a cockpit
crisis that really sucks?

- 13 minutes into the flight,

there's a massive explosion.

- The captain has been
sucked out of the window

and is hanging on for dear life.

- [Person Off-Camera]
The blood spattered

across the fuselage showing
the desperate position

he was in.

- These are the disasters
so mind boggling

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music continues]

What began as a routine dig

turned into one of
the most jaw-dropping

drilling accidents in history,

a mistake that ignited
a fiery phenomenon

still burning to this day.

- The story begins in
1971 in Turkmenistan,

which is at that point
still part of the USSR.

A team of Soviet engineers
is on hand to look for oil.

- Trying to find oil
costs a ton of money,

and the Soviets are
really banking on this.

They need a big win.

They need to find
a big cache of oil

to make this all pay off.

- They find this rural spot
in the Turkmenistani desert

and they begin drilling
and they get nothing.

There's no oil.

So they're bringing drills
that can go even deeper

into the Earth and
again, there is nothing.

- [Dan] Suddenly, the
ground begins to shake

and crumble all around them.

[ground rumbles]

- The men abandon their oil rigs

and run for dear life

and as they look behind them,

they see the ground giving way

and their equipment
being swallowed up

and this giant, massive
crater opens in the ground

right in front of their eyes.

- What the team didn't realize

while they were looking for
and drilling for oil was

that they had
accidentally tapped into

a huge natural gas reservoir.

- [Dan] Sounds like they
hit the jackpot, right?

Not exactly.

Instead of oil, they get
a geyser of toxic methane

and there's no way to stop it.

- The crew is in an
all-out panic now.

They've opened up a
230-foot wide crater.

They're nauseous from the fumes.

What do you do in
this situation?

There's no valve you can turn
and shut off the gas flow.

- To make matters worse,

villagers downwind
of this episode are

experiencing all kinds
of health problems

due to the methane gas.

And engineers now
start to scramble

to find a way to
turn this thing off.

- The geologists are
looking for a solution

and what they come up with is,

hey, let's just burn it off.

We'll burn the methane

and convert it to
much less toxic CO2.

And then after a few days,

everything just
goes back to normal.

[explosion bangs]

- Burning off the
methane turns out to be

an absolutely terrible idea.

- They massively underestimate

the size of this gas reservoir

and the thing burns
and burns and burns.

It burns for hours,
it burns for weeks,

for months and then years.

- [Dan] This raging
inferno even earns

a nickname among locals,

the Gates of Hell.

- When Turkmenistan
gains its independence

after the collapse
of the Soviet Union,

the officials there
don't really have

the wherewithal to
deal with this problem,

and so they basically
just try to ignore it

and let the thing burn.

- [Dan] You'd think it would
eventually burn itself out.

Not even close.

Over a half century later,

the fire is still going strong.

- It's wild if you
think about this,

a 230-foot wide hole
spewing out flames,

shooting flames up to
50 feet in the air.

It's 1,500 degrees
inside of this hole.

- It literally looks like
the gates of Hell have

opened up and are ready to
just come up and consume you.

- Even though it's not methane
and it's carbon dioxide,

there's a constant stream of
greenhouse gases emanating

from this one spot
in Turkmenistan.

- [Dan] While government
officials in Turkmenistan

continue to look for a way
to close the Gates of Hell,

they might want to leave
it open just a crack.

- Turkmenistan realizes

we lost a lot of money by
burning off all this gas

that we otherwise
could have captured,

but this is pretty
awesome looking,

so today, the Gates of
Hell have actually become

Turkmenistan's number
one tourist attraction.

- In London, a
different kind of hell

once descended on
the city for days,

leaving devastation in its wake.

- London has had
problems with pollution

since the 1200s.

Even the word smog was
created to describe

the coal burning, fireplace
burning air of London.

- And when it gets really bad,

they have a special term for it

and it's called a pea souper.

- [Dan] But in December of 1952,

smoggy London is
about to experience

a pea souper on an
apocalyptic level.

- The morning of December 5th,

Londoners awakened to a crisp,
clear, yet very cold sky

and as a result,
they heat their homes

as they did at that time.

- And then on top of that,
a fog starts moving in

to the city and as it does,

people are still burning wood
and coal in their fireplaces

and the smoke is
combining with that fog.

- [Dan] The next morning,
conditions continue to worsen.

- The entire city is
enveloped in smog.

It's so thick that you
can't see your feet.

- Double-decker bus
drivers can't see a thing.

So as these buses are
crawling through the streets,

people are walking alongside
the bus with lanterns.

- Members of
parliament return home

black in the face as if
they had been working

in the coal mines of Wales.

- [Dan] Londoners
collapse in the streets,

automobiles collide.

A passenger train steamrolls

over a group of railway workers,

killing two men.

- By the third and by the
fourth day, it's getting worse.

People are wondering, how
long is this going to go on?

When is this going to end?

Is it going to end?

- [Dan] But Mother
Nature isn't letting up,

thanks to a rare and
stubborn weather phenomenon.

- What they're experiencing
is actually an anticyclone

and this is a very
calm, stable air mass

that has almost no winds in it.

- [Dan] Picture it
like a lid on a pot.

With no wind to
clear things out,

smoke and pollution build up

and as it gets colder outside,

people continue
to burn more coal.

- So anything that's being
poured out of the chimneys

to heat a freezing population is

staying in the streets of
that freezing population.

- After five days of these
unrelenting conditions,

low pressure with higher
winds finally moves

into the area,

pushing this high pressure and
this anticyclone outta here,

giving Londoners the
relief that they need.

But unfortunately, the
damage is already done.

- The initial death toll of
the Great Smog of London is

around 4,000 people.

But as historians continue
to study this event,

estimates have shown
that it might be

nearer to 12,000 people dying.

- [Dan] In the aftermath,
officials do their part

to ensure this
won't happen again.

- In 1956, a Clean
Air act is passed

by the British government

and it prohibits burning of
coal in domestic residences.

They now have to transfer
their energy resources

to cleaner-burning things like
oil and like natural gases.

So, the old days of deadly
London smog are gone forever.

- The Great Smog of London is

far from the only unbelievable
air disaster in history.

- One of the first things
they tell you to do

on an airplane is to
fasten your seatbelt,

but for one crew member,

ignoring that instruction
nearly ends in catastrophe.

- At 7:30 AM a flight takes
off from Birmingham, England

to Malaga, Spain.

There are about
81 people on board

and they're all tourists
that are gonna be

making their way
down to sunny Spain

to sun themselves
on the beaches.

- [Dan] Once the plane
hits cruising altitude,

the autopilot is engaged.

So Captain Tim
Lancaster sits back,

loosens his seatbelt and
unbuckles his shoulder harness.

- The flight's cruising along.

Everything's going just fine,

and about 13 minutes
into the flight.

[explosion bangs]

There's a massive explosion.

- [Dan] Suddenly.

[glass shatters]

The cockpit door is
ripped from its hinges.

- There's no flames,
there's no smoke,

but there's a rushing wind.

- [Dan] Through the
open cockpit doorway,

passengers witness
a terrifying scene.

- The windshield in front
of the captain's chair is

completely gone,

so the crew is being
blasted with winds

of 400 miles per hour

and craziest of all,

the captain's chair is empty.

[dramatic music]

- The captain has been
sucked out of the window

and is hanging on for dear life

while 400 mile an hour winds
are just blasting his body,

so much so that his
clothes are torn apart.

- The only reason the captain is

not sucked out of the
window completely is

because his feet are caught
on the control panel.

And this fast-thinking
steward named Nigel Ogden

grabs a hold of Captain
Lancaster's legs.

- He's now stuck

and plastered to the aircraft.

The temperature is nearly
negative 30 degrees Celsius

and he is literally
hanging on for dear life.

- [Dan] But there's an
even bigger problem.

When the captain's body hits
the controls on the way out,

he disengages the autopilot.

[alarm beeps]

- With the autopilot off, the
aircraft now goes into a dive.

[wind whooshes]

- [Dan] Fighting the
blasting, freezing winds,

copilot Alistair Atchison
is able to pull up

and regain control of the plane.

[passengers scream]

- However, with all the
screaming and the pandemonium

in the cockpit,

nobody can hear any response
from any of the towers.

Atchison has no clue

where he's going to
put this aircraft down.

- Things are going
from bad to worse.

Ogden, who's holding
onto the captain,

his hand becomes frostbitten.

He calls for help

and another steward
enters the cockpit

and grabs a hold of the captain.

- During the transfer,

the captain slips even
further out of the window.

[crew shouts indistinctly]

And now is being held
onto only by his ankles.

[indistinct radio chatter]

- Then there's a miracle.

Atchison hears directions

and he finds out that he can
go back towards Southampton,

which is about 70
miles south of London,

and land the aircraft there.

- [Dan] With no windshield
and Captain Lancaster dangling

from the front of the plane,

Atchison is able to safely land,

ending Lancaster's
unbelievable 20-minute ride.

- [Newsreader] The blood
spattered across the fuselage

showing the desperate
position he was in.

Captain Lancaster
is being treated

for two broken ankles,

broken ribs and frostbite.

- He's alive

and after five months,

Captain Lancaster goes
back to piloting airplanes.

You gotta give it to Captain
Lancaster, he's a brave man.

- Flailing thousands
of feet in the sky is

a frightening thought,

but at least this captain
had his crew to help him.

The same can't be
said for one woman

who goes on the most unexpected

and terrifying ride of her life.

- It's 2007 and a woman
named Ewa Wisnierska,

she's a Polish-born paraglider

who competes with the
German national team.

It's right before the
world championships

in Eastern Australia

and she and the team have
gone there early to train

in the very location
that the competition is

taking place later that year.

- [Dan] It's a clear day
and the winds are favorable,

so she decides to suit up
and go for a test flight.

- She's flying along,

she's somewhere between
14 and 18,000 feet high.

Then she sees some clouds,

which is weird because
the forecast didn't have

any storms in it.

- She sort of
avoids the first one

and sort of tries to thread
the needle between two of them.

- And then she sees another
cloud heading straight for her.

- [Dan] Ewa doesn't realize it,

but this is what's known
as a cumulonimbus cloud

and it's bad news.

- Inside cumulonimbus clouds,

we have incredibly high winds.

There's lightning, there's hail.

This is a bad
thing to be inside,

especially if
you're a paraglider.

- Ewa is sucked in and sucked up

at a rate of approximately
130 feet a second.

She's now in this
darkening, ice cold vortex

that keeps pushing her upward.

She's surrounded by peals of
lightning and roars of thunder.

She's being pelted with hail

and Ewa cannot stop rising.

[storm rumbles]

- [Dan] Within minutes, Ewa is

at an incredible 32,000 feet.

[thunder rumbles]

Higher than the peak
of Mount Everest.

- At an altitude of 32,000 feet,

there is not much oxygen.

The atmosphere is very thin.

The temperature drops, it's
around minus 60 degrees.

Ewa can't breathe.

- She has no warmth layer.

She's getting beaten up and
then suddenly, she passes out.

- So here she is being pelted
by hail the size of oranges,

she's likely freezing to death.

She's unconscious and
totally out of control.

Her chances for survival
look really slim to none.

- [Dan] But something
remarkable pushes the odds

in Ewa's favor.

- As she's being
battered around,

a change in the wind drops
her to about 22,000 feet,

providing more oxygen so
Ewa actually wakes up.

- [Dan] Unfortunately,
Ewa has a new problem.

- As quickly as she shot
up into the atmosphere,

she's now headed down
to Earth like a comet.

She falls about 10,000 feet

and then miraculously,
out of nowhere,

the chute opens again.

- [Dan] Freezing, weak
and barely conscious,

Ewa maneuvers her glider
safely to the ground

40 miles from her launch site.

- She's incredibly bruised

from being struck by
massive balls of hail.

She's got frostbite,

but not only does she
make a complete recovery,

but just weeks later,

she's back up in the
paraglider again.

- Ewa's near-death
journey remains

the highest paraglider
flight ever documented

and one of the most miraculous
escapes from disaster

in any sport.

Guess that's one way to make
it into the record books.

- The reign of King Louis XVI

and his queen, Marie Antoinette,

famously ends in ruin,

a revolution and
death by guillotine.

But that may not be
surprising considering

the unbelievable way
their marriage starts.

[suspenseful music]

- In the year 1770,
France and Austria are

constantly at each other's
throats all the time,

but a plan is devised
to create an alliance

by marrying off Louis
XV's 15-year-old grandson

to the 14-year-old
Archduchess of Austria.

- Trying to explain to
the people of the country

that we're gonna bring
in someone from Austria

to be your future queen is

a little bit of a hard sell.

So the concept is,

let's make this a
big celebration.

We will show
everyone that this is

really something to
get excited about.

- [Dan] To seal the deal,
they pull out all the stops,

including something
most Parisians

have never seen before.

[explosions]

Fireworks.

- At this point in history,

fireworks are usually reserved
for royals and their guests,

so this will be the first time

that the masses will get to see

fireworks outside the palace.

- The royal court hires

the very best of the
best to put the show on.

They're known as the
Ruggieri brothers

and they are the personal
pyrotechnics experts

to the French king.

- So as the Ruggieri brothers
are preparing this display,

the people of Paris are
packed into the square.

This is like a
sardine situation.

Everybody is just
shoulder to shoulder.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] The Ruggieri
brothers light the fuse,

and as the show begins,

throngs of spectators
marvel at the display.

[fireworks bang]

- Then the wind changes.

[fireworks bang]

And suddenly these
rockets start being blown.

[fireworks bang]

Right into the crowd.

- And so a stampede ensues.

[fireworks bang]

[crowd screams]

- People begin to panic
and rush to get away

from the explosions.

The problem is that they
are so tightly packed

into the square and the
exits are so narrow,

they can't get out.

- During this melee,

some of the fireworks then hit

the actual wooden structure
that they're being fired off of

and this causes a huge fire,

which causes more
people to panic.

- Hundreds are crushed
by the panicked crowd

and others who managed to
get out of the square are

pushed into the Seine,
river where they drown.

- The official
death toll is 133,

which is enough to make it

the deadliest fireworks
incident in history.

But more recent estimates have

put that death toll
at about 3,000.

- As the reign of Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette plays out

and goes terribly,

they make a lot of
mistakes along the way,

but always in the back of
everyone's mind in France is

the way this marriage started.

- By the time we
reached the year 1793,

Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette will actually be

executed by guillotine

exactly where that
fireworks show took place

all those years ago.

- If you think fleeing
an out of control fire

while fighting an
angry mob sounds bad,

try adding one more wrinkle,

deadly predators.

- It's 1902 on the Caribbean
island of Martinique.

At the time, this territory is

heavily controlled and
influenced by the French

and the main city on
Martinique, Saint-Pierre,

is considered a
sort of mini Paris.

- Saint-Pierre is also
drop dead gorgeous,

right on a sandy beach

with the mass of Mount Pel�e
rising up in the background.

- At this point,
there's only been

a couple of small
eruptions since the 1700s,

so people in the area don't
really consider it a threat,

- [Dan] But that sense
of security begins

to unravel in 1902,

when Mount Pel�e
starts to act up

and the signs are
hard to ignore.

- On the night of May 2nd,

there is a small eruption

and people in
Saint-Pierre start seeing

some pretty strange sights,

dead birds covered in ash,

scores of dead fish
belly up in the harbor.

- [Dan] Then on May 3rd,

eruptions begin raining
ash on the town.

The vibrations are so intense,

they trigger a mudslide
that kills 150 people.

- Conditions are worsening,

the fumes are getting bad,

and everybody's
starting to realize

maybe it's time to
get off the island.

- These violent tremors are

not just panicking
the local population,

they're also panicking
another local,

the deadly poisonous
Martinique lancehead snake.

[snake hisses]

- These are pit vipers

that can grow up
to six feet long,

with venomous fangs and
a feisty disposition.

[snake hisses]

- These fiercely territorial
snakes have been driven

into the streets filled
with panicking and fleeing

residents and tourists.

It's a toxic combination.

- The snakes are joined

by swarms of biting yellow ants

and large black centipedes

all mingling with
the terrified people

and lashing out at anyone
who gets too close.

[gunfire bangs]

- Even the military is called in

and the soldiers, they
try to shoot the snakes,

but it's ineffective.

In all, 50 people
die from snake bites.

- [Dan] Perhaps those
victims are the lucky ones

because this Armageddon
is just getting started.

[melodramatic music]

- On May 8th at 8:00
AM, Mount Pel�e blows.

- This is like an avalanche

of sheer billowing hot
sulfur smoke that travels

at 200 miles an hour

and it's 1,300 degrees.

It basically obliterates
everything in its path.

[crowd screams]

- There is no time to escape.

People who don't die
from burns are suffocated

as the heat sucks the
air out from their lungs.

- [Dan] In a city of
nearly 30,000 people,

there is just one survivor.

- It's like a biblical
disaster come to life.

- Is there anything
worse than being

covered in snakes and
piping-hot volcanic gas?

How about centuries
of raw sewage?

- Many of our greatest
engineering marvels are

achieved by testing the limits

of what's been tried before.

But in the case of one
famous 20th century engineer,

his thirst for innovation
takes things a bridge too far.

[tense music]

- So in between the city
of Tacoma, Washington

and the Kitsap Peninsula is

the Tacoma Narrow Strait,

but without a bridge,

the only way to get to
the peninsula is by boat.

- By the 1930s, government
officials in Tacoma are

dreaming of a bridge,

but this is a big dream.

They need a way to
cover 7,000 feet,

so this is no small proposition.

- [Dan] To pull this off,

they turn to engineer
Leon Moisseiff,

who's just finished
the revolutionary

Golden Gate Bridge.

- When you look at the
Golden Gate Bridge,

you may not appreciate that it's

actually a very subtle
piece of engineering.

It looks like it's big
and metal and rigid,

but there's actually
a lot of give to it.

Literally, it can move as it
needs to so things don't break.

- [Dan] Moisseiff's secret
weapon is flexibility,

but his new design pushes
that concept to the edge.

- The bridge that
he proposes would be

the third longest
bridge in the country,

yet he's imagining
something much narrower,

almost half as wide as
the Golden Gate Bridge.

- [Dan] Despite
the daring design,

the bridge takes just
two years to build.

- [Person Off-Camera]
And on July 1st, 1940,

amidst massive fanfare,

the bridge opens to the public.

- [Dan] The celebration,
however, is short-lived

when a big flaw shows there's
such a thing as too flexible.

- This bridge is
long and narrow,

and when the winds pick up,

it begins to sway and roll.

And almost as soon as it opens,

it gets its nickname,
Galloping Gertie.

- [Dan] Then on one
November morning,

the winds give Galloping Gertie
its most violent ride yet.

[wind whistles]

- On the morning of
November 7th, 1940,

the winds are pretty strong
over Galloping Gertie.

And so as people are
driving across the bridge,

they're actually seeing it shift

noticeably from left to right.

- [Dan] As winds spike to
nearly 45 miles an hour,

Gertie is quickly becoming
a galloping disaster.

- The whole surface
of the bridge is

going 45 degrees to 45 degrees,

bending and turning
like gift ribbon.

Cars are being thrown
and slapped around.

- Drivers don't know
totally what to do.

Do they keep going?

Do they turn around?

- [Dan] Around 11:00 AM,

onlookers witness Gertie's
tragic final gallop.

[metal creaks]

[falling bridge crashes]

- This becomes one of the most

mind-blowing engineering
disasters of all time,

but the footage becomes
notorious in its own right.

- Perhaps not surprisingly,

investigators blame it
on excessive flexibility.

Engineers learn from this lesson

and they build bridges
that don't have

the same flexibility
going forward.

- A new bridge is built 10
years later to cross the Strait,

and it still stands today.

- Bad engineering can set
you up for a disastrous fall,

whether you're over a
raging body of water

or something far, far worse.

[melodramatic music]

- It's July, 1184 in Germany,

a time when nobles and leaders
of the Catholic Church are

constantly battling
each other over control

over key pieces of territory.

- [Dan] A nobleman
and an archbishop are

having one of these
land disputes,

so they ask the
king to intervene.

- King Henrich convenes
a conference of himself,

the two men in dispute,

and a pool of nobles
and colleagues

to settle this issue
once and for all.

- [Dan] For this meeting, the
king chooses a neutral site,

St. Peter's Monastery
in the town of Herford.

- St. Peter's
Monastery and church is

originally built for a
couple dozen or so monks

to worship and to study.

But today, over 100 nobles
pour into this tiny room

for the conference.

- Right from the jump,

the two sides begin
bickering and arguing

and insulting each other.

And as they do, some of
the nobles begin to notice

that the wooden floorboards
beneath their feet

begin to creak.

[floorboards creak]

- [Dan] However, everyone
is too distracted

to pay much attention to it.

- The king is doing his
best to mediate this debate,

but things aren't going so well.

So, he grabs one of the noblemen

and they go off into a corner
to try to settle this thing.

- Meanwhile, the
creaks and the cracks

of the wooden floor
are getting louder,

and then it all opens up.

[floor creaks loudly]

- [Dan] Dozens of men
fall through the floor

into a rude and
disgusting surprise below,

because beneath this
monastery is no basement.

- It's a giant cesspool.

Before the days of
modern plumbing,

human excrement
had to go somewhere

and so they would create
these giant holes.

And so this church had

its own cesspool
under the floor.

- The noblemen are
sent into shock.

In this era, very few
people know how to swim,

so they are literally
drowning in human waste.

- [Dan] Even those who can
swim face another deadly peril.

- One thing about cesspools is

that they always have
toxic methane gas,

and this methane can make a
person pass out in seconds,

which is what many of
the men began to do.

- Perhaps the luckiest man
in the room is King Heinrich,

who happened to be standing in
a corner on a piece of stone.

So when the floor gave way,

he was able to reach up and
grab onto an iron fitting

of a window until
he could be rescued.

- [Dan] Unfortunately,
most of the men

gathered for this disastrous
meeting aren't as fortunate.

More than 60 noblemen perish
in the sea of holy excrement.

- This has to go down

as one of the most tragic
and disgusting events

in the medieval period.

- The event is chronicled
in German history

as the Herford Latrine Fall,

which doesn't quite
capture the calamity

of drowning in a massive
pit of monk waste.

- When you think of
great balloon disasters,

you might visualize something
fiery and terrifying

like the Hindenburg.

You certainly wouldn't
think of a battalion

of innocent birthday balloons

bringing a city to its knees.

- It's 1986 and
there's a feeling

that Cleveland really
needs to remake its image.

It's gone through really
difficult economic times,

and it's often the
butt of the joke

that calls them the
Mistake on the Lake.

- In attempt to try to
rebrand their image,

Cleveland's United
Way chapter decides

they're gonna try to break

a sort of odd world record

by being the city that releases

the most amount of balloons
at the exact same time

into the air.

- And they decide to
call it Balloonfest '86.

[crowd cheers]

- [Person Off-Camera] In
order to kick off the city's

United Way charity campaign,

volunteers blew up
one and a half million

helium-filled balloons.

- [Dan] After more than
six months of preparation,

excited Clevelanders are
ready to make history.

- Nearly 100,000 people come out

to this large
square in Cleveland,

and you have people
watching from rooftops

and from balconies,

it's a show.

[crowd cheers]

- [Dan] As the massive
net is released,

a plume of 1.5 million
balloons rises into the sky.

- It was beautiful.

It looked like
confetti going up.

- It's an amazing sight.

Everyone is just blown away
by what they're witnessing.

But suddenly, the
winds begin to pick up.

[ominous music]

- Things really quickly
take a turn for the worst

because the wind starts
taking these balloons

to all different places

that they don't really
want them going.

And then on top of
that, it starts raining,

which starts bringing all
the balloons back down again.

- This is a problem
because the organizers had

actually planned to
fill the balloons

with different amounts of helium

so that they would
come back to the ground

at different times.

That would make cleanup easier.

It wouldn't all happen at once,

but now it's all
happening at once.

- The balloons begin
littering the ground.

- [Dan] Soon the Burke Lakefront
airport is forced to close

and the damage is not
even close to being done.

- The night before the
launching of these balloons,

two fishermen on
Lake Erie get lost,

so a rescue effort was underway,

but due to the hundreds
of thousands of balloons

that are literally just
covering Lake Erie,

it becomes to next to impossible
to find these fishermen.

- [Dan] The Coast Guard
suspends the search

and sadly, both men's bodies
are recovered weeks later.

- The families of the missing
fishermen are outraged.

Later, the families will sue

the United Way for $3.2 million.

- Weeks after this disaster,

balloons are found on beaches
as far away as Ontario.

Just imagine how this was bad
for the wildlife in the area.

You can't have birds and
fish chowing down on latex,

and it's just a
massive disaster.

- Amazingly, organizers
actually do get credit

for breaking this
Guinness World Record.

But given what we know
about the environmental hit,

this doesn't seem like a record

anybody's rushing to break.

- Thousands of rogue balloons
is certainly cause for alarm,

but at least none of them were

filled with
weapons-grade plutonium.

- It's the height
of the Cold War.

And on this morning, an
American B-52 bomber is

flying over the
Mediterranean near Spain

and it's running low on fuel.

The pilot lines up
behind a tanker plane

for mid-air refueling.

- But the B-52 is
coming in too hot.

He's approaching the
tanker with too much speed

and they're getting dangerously
close to one another.

- Ordinarily, you'd hear
the boom operator command

that B-52 aircraft to slow down

and that command would be

breakaway, breakaway, breakaway.

But for some reason on that day,

they didn't hear that command.

[metal screeches]

[explosion bangs]

- The tanker explodes,
it bursts into flames.

Both aircraft are destroyed
and they both crash.

- [Dan] Seven airmen are killed.

But there are unbelievable
ramifications of this crash

that are about to threaten
the lives of millions.

- That B-52 on that day was

carrying four
thermonuclear weapons.

- As the aircraft tears apart,

the four bombs are ejected.

They're now in free fall
above the coast of Spain,

each of which over 100
times more powerful

than the bomb detonated
over Hiroshima.

[bomb explodes]

- Luckily, nuclear weapons
are designed not to go off

unless you really,
really want them to.

If the safety is
still on, so to speak,

it's not going to
set off the nuke.

- [Dan] Even though no
mushroom clouds appear

over the Spanish coast,

that doesn't mean
disaster is averted.

- They are for hours
unaccounted for,

and that's a very
dangerous situation.

- United States forces
spring into action

and scramble to search for these

with utmost importance.

- Amazingly, within 24 hours,

they discover three
of the four bombs.

They're near a fishing
village called Palomares.

Now this doesn't set
off a nuclear explosion,

but it does spew radioactive
plutonium into the air,

which has irradiated large
chunks of the Spanish coastline.

- [Dan] There's also a
fourth bomb still missing.

- Thus enters a fisherman,
Francisco Sim� Orts.

He claims to the
United States Navy

that he saw the fourth
bomb splash down

somewhere in the Mediterranean,

which prompts yet
another massive search.

- Time is of the
essence in this search,

and that's because it's
the height of the Cold War.

So it could be that the
Soviets are out there

'cause they would
love nothing more

than to get their hands on a
B28 F1 thermonuclear weapon

and compare it to the technology
that they have developed.

- With Francisco's help,

about 30 Navy ships
begin combing the area

looking for this fourth bomb.

They find it about
80 days later.

[eerie music]

- Now, according to maritime
salvage tradition and law,

Francisco should be accorded

1% of the bomb's value
for helping to find it.

- The declared value

of a B28 F1 thermonuclear
free-fall bomb

was $2 billion in 1966.

Technically, Francisco was
entitled to $20 million.

That would've made him Spain's
newest multimillionaire.

- According to Francisco, the
military has never paid up,

but of course he does come
away with a fantastic nickname,

Paco de la Bomba.

- Maritime disasters
are usually caused

by something ominous like an
iceberg or a violent storm.

But there's one deep sea debacle

that happens simply because
a guy just really has to go.

[dramatic music]

- A newly commissioned
state-of-the-art submarine,

U-1206, is the pride
of the Nazi Navy.

Commanding the submarine on
its maiden combat mission is

a very green captain,

27-year-old Karl-Adolf Schlitt.

- On this date, Schlitt
has U-1206 at 200 feet

patrolling just off of Scotland,

but he's also dealing with
the headache of one engine

that's inoperable

and he has engineers
who are working

to return that
engine to service.

- [Dan] Suddenly, Captain
Schlitt finds himself

in need of a bathroom break.

- Luckily, this sub has a new,
state-of-the-art technology,

an underwater flushing toilet.

It has this complicated
system of valves and chambers

that allow the waste
to be expelled,

kind of like a torpedo.

[toilet flushes]

It's shot out at pressure.

- [Dan] It's so complicated,

it even has its own engineer

dubbed the toilet officer.

- So when Captain Schlitt
finished doing his business,

that special toilet officer is

still trying to fix the engine.

Schlitt takes it
into his own hands

and decides to undergo

the complex flushing
procedure by himself.

He turns a couple knobs,
flips a couple levers,

but nothing happens.

He decides to summon
the toilet officer.

- The toilet officer
begins to flush the system,

not realizing that Schlitt
had already opened two valves.

This results in the opening
of valves out of sequence.

[water gushes]

- In an instant, sea water
and human waste comes

flooding into the
chamber at full force.

- The battery compartment
fills with this sea water,

which reacts with the battery
acid to produce chlorine gas,

which has the potential to kill
everybody on the submarine.

- Captain Schlitt
only has one option,

perform an emergency
surfacing procedure

and shoot to the to.

- When the sub surfaces,

they're immediately
spotted by Allied aircraft

and come under heavy fire.

[explosion bangs]

- Schlitt has no choice
but to scuttle the U-1206

before it falls
into enemy hands.

He orders his crew
onto lifeboats,

orders the valves open,

and the sub plunges
beneath the waves

to the bottom of
the North Atlantic.

- Four of his 50 crewmen
die in this procedure.

Captain Schlitt survives
the ordeal though,

and lives to 2009.

And his legacy, he'll
forever be known

as the captain who lost a ship

due to one fatal toilet flush.

[toilet flushes]

- That's one costly
bathroom break,

but what about $300 million
going down the drain?

[suspenseful music]

- It's February of 2022,

and you have the
Felicity Ace cargo ship

sailing from Germany
to the United States.

It's carrying around
4,000 luxury cars.

We're talking everything
from Lamborghinis

to Porsches to Bentleys,

and some of these
cars are costing

as much as $400,000 a pop.

- So the Felicity Ace is

in the vicinity of an island
chain called the Azores

when a massive fire breaks out.

But this is no ordinary fire.

This is a fire fueled
by lithium ion batteries

and the 22-man crew
cannot control this fire.

- Rescue teams do
arrive by helicopter

and they do make sure
that the crew is safe,

but it takes crews
ultimately around two weeks

to put the blaze out.

- The structural damage
to the ship is so severe,

it can't make the trip
to New York on its own.

However, there is still hope

for quite a few of the cars

and their manufacturer says,

"Listen, we don't need to
lose all of our inventory.

Let's try to salvage this so
this is not a complete loss."

- [Dan] A rescue tugboat
arrives from Portugal

and attempts to tow
the ship to safety.

- As soon as they
start to tow this boat,

it begins to list to the
right and to the left,

and each time it does,

it takes on more water.

And as it takes on more water,

it becomes harder
and harder to move

and eventually, it
rolls over on its side.

- So all of these people,

the ship's crew
and the rescuers,

the tug boat team are watching,

not being able to do anything
as the full cargo vessel

full of these expensive
cars slowly sinks

to the bottom of the ocean,

10,000 feet down into the sea.

- The estimated total loss
for these 4,000 cars is

$330 million.

[water gurgles]

[tense music]

- If you ever wanted
a free Bentley,

now you know where
you can find one.

Whether it's a blazing hell
hole in a remote desert,

a fireworks display
gone horribly wrong

or one catastrophic
flush of the commode,

these are the disasters
that are so inconceivable

they are truly unbelievable.

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0