Transport disasters in five headlines

1915

The RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people on board, including 128 American citizens. The attack provoked outrage in the United States and was a significant factor in shaping American public opinion against Germany. It remained a major point of contention in US-German relations until America entered the war in 1917.

1970

An oxygen tank explosion on 13 April 1970 crippled NASA's Apollo 13 spacecraft en route to the Moon, forcing mission commander James Lovell and his crew to abandon the lunar module as a lifeboat. NASA ground controllers and the astronauts improvised ingenious solutions to return the crew safely to Earth on 17 April. The episode was later called NASA's finest hour.

1987

On 18 November 1987, a fire broke out on a wooden escalator at King's Cross St. Pancras tube station in London, killing 31 people. The blaze started from a discarded match and spread rapidly due to accumulated grease and debris beneath the escalator. The disaster led to a complete ban on smoking throughout the London Underground and sweeping reforms to fire safety procedures.

2000

On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 — a Concorde supersonic jet — caught fire shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport and crashed into a hotel in Gonesse, France, killing all 100 passengers and 9 crew on board, as well as 4 people on the ground. It was the only fatal crash in Concorde's commercial history. The disaster effectively ended the era of supersonic passenger travel, and Concorde was retired from service in 2003.

2021

The container ship Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 23, 2021, blocking one of the world's most vital shipping lanes for six days. The vessel, one of the largest container ships ever built, became lodged diagonally across the canal in high winds. The blockage disrupted global supply chains and was estimated to have held up around $9.6 billion worth of trade per day.