Seconds from Disaster

On September 11, 2001, two aircraft are deliberately flown into two buildings of the World Trade Center and one is flown into the Pentagon. Another crashes in a field in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attack United States military installations in and around Pearl Harbor, without declaring war, thus bringing the U.S. into World War II; the attack is presented as a Japanese disaster, "A Day of Infamy", missing key targets and provoking a war they could never win. 2,403 US soldiers die, 1,178 are wounded, while Japan loses 129 soldiers, and 1 sub captain is captured. The US has 328 planes and 19 ships damaged or destroyed, the most famous of which is the Arizona.

On October 5, 1999, in morning rush hour two trains collide at Ladbroke Grove junction near London's Paddington station after the driver of one fails to stop his train at a red signal. The trains collided at a combined speed of 130 m.p.h. producing a spectacular fireball. 31 people die (2 drivers and 29 passengers) and 523 are injured.

On July 1, 2002, a Bashkirian airliner and a DHL freight aircraft collide while they are over Überlingen, Germany and crash, killing all 71 people on board. Having lost his entire family, Vitaly Kaloyev later kills the air traffic controller, even though he did not cause the collision.

On February 3, 1998, a low-flying Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler of the United States Marine Corps hits the support cable of an aerial tramway near the Italian town of Cavalese, severing it. The cabin on the cable falls to the ground, killing the 20 occupants. The aircraft lands safely.

On December 2, 1984, in Bhopal, India, a toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide chemical plant results in the deaths of 3,000 people.