A disaster can be natural or man-made, and its scale is so devastating that those affected are unable to cope. The damage—human, material, environmental, or economic—is often insurmountable. Disasters resulting from human action or inaction include stampedes, fires, oil spills, transportation and industrial accidents, severe environmental pollution, and nuclear accidents or explosions. While other losses are equally horrific, this list of the ten deadliest man-made disasters focuses on those that resulted in mass loss of life.
1. In December 1952, cold, windless weather combined with smoke from coal-fired furnaces caused severe air pollution known as the Great London Smog, which lasted five days and killed 12,000 people.
London had suffered from poor air quality since the 13th century and was quite accustomed to dense fog. But on December 4, 1952, an anticyclone formed over windless London, causing a temperature inversion: cold, stagnant air became trapped under a layer of warm air. The resulting fog mixed with smoke from homes, industry, vehicles, and other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, creating smog. According to the Met Office, 1,000 metric tons of smoke, 140 metric tons of hydrochloric acid, 14 metric tons of fluorinated compounds, and 800 metric tons of sulfuric acid were emitted into the atmosphere daily that month.
The smog was so thick that visibility during the day was only a meter, making travel extremely difficult. Public transport, with the exception of the London Underground, ceased operation, and ambulance services ceased providing assistance. Getting outside required shuffling, feeling for obstacles, but there was no panic, as people had become accustomed to London's fog.
However, in the following weeks, medical services determined that at least 4,000 people had died due to the fog. The following year, the House of Commons estimated that 6,000 people had died, with another 25,000 reporting illness due to the fog. In the following months, more deaths followed from respiratory infections, hypoxia, and smog-related pulmonary obstruction. Recent research has shown that the death toll significantly exceeds the current estimate of 12,000. The Great London Smog is considered the worst event in British history, leading to the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1956, as well as a number of changes in practices and regulations. (source)
2. December 20, 1987, an overcrowded Philippine ferry MV Doña Paz The ship sank after colliding with an oil tanker. It was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history, killing 4,386 people because the ship had no radio communication and the life jackets were hidden.
The MV Doña Paz was heading to Manila from Tacloban, Leyte province, when it collided with a tanker MT Vector , carrying 1,050,000 liters (1,041 metric tons) of gasoline and other petroleum products. Cargo Vector caught fire and the fire spread to Doña Paz, causing panic. According to survivors, the life jackets, which were later discovered to have been hidden, were nowhere to be found. The crew also rushed around the ship in a panic, instead of giving orders and organizing the evacuation of passengers.
Several people jumped from the ship and swam among the charred bodies, fuel still burning on the surface of the water. Some used suitcases to stay afloat in the shark-infested Tablas Strait. «Donya Paz» sank after two hours, and «"Vector"» — in another two hours. The ship's crew, doctors, and officers M.S. Don Claudio , passing between the islands and witnessing the explosion, tried to help the survivors, but were only able to save 24 passengers from« Donya Pas» and two crew members «Vectors» . Philippine maritime authorities reportedly learned of the incident only eight hours later, and it took them another eight hours to mount a rescue operation. (source)
3. On September 29, 1957, an explosion occurred at the Russian Mayak plutonium production plant, spreading hot radioactive particles that contaminated an area of more than 52,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles), home to at least 270,000 people. The death toll is estimated at 8,000.
The Mayak plant was hastily constructed between 1945 and 1948, as the Soviet Union lagged behind the United States in nuclear weapons development after World War II. Although nearby rivers were initially used as nuclear waste disposal sites, around 1953 a storage facility with coolers on either side of each bank, containing 20 tanks, was built. In 1957, one of the tanks, containing 70 to 80 tons of liquid radioactive waste, failed and was not repaired. This led to a rise in temperature, vaporization, and an explosion of the dried waste, estimated to have the force of 70 to 100 tons of TNT, hurling its 160-ton concrete lid into the air.
Although there were no immediate casualties, the explosion released approximately 20 MCi (800 PBq) of radioactive material, contaminating the Techa River. Over the next 10-11 hours, a cloud containing 2 MCi (80 PBq) of radionuclides spread up to 350 kilometers (220 miles) from the explosion site, resulting in long-term contamination of thousands of square kilometers with cesium-137 and strontium-90.
At least 22 villages are known to have been exposed to radiation, and approximately 10,000 people were evacuated in the first week. It took nearly two years for the remaining settlements to be completely evacuated. The total number of deaths from radiation-related cancer is unknown, as it is indistinguishable from other types of cancer. According to one claim, a study by the Institute of Biophysics of the former USSR Ministry of Health in Chelyabinsk counted 8,015 deaths in the 32 years following the disaster, although only 6,000 death certificates from all causes were found for residents of the Techa coastal zone. Another estimate claims 200 people died from cancer. (source)
4. In 1626, an explosion occurred at the Wanggongchang gunpowder factory in Beijing, destroying part of the city and killing 20,000 people.
«The "Wanggongchang explosion" on the morning of May 30 was so loud that, according to contemporary accounts, its roar was heard up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) away, and debris was scattered up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles). However, the explosion caused no fire damage, but its force tore the victims' clothing.
No one knows what caused the explosion, although various theories have been put forward, including a gunpowder explosion, a meteorite impact, and a natural gas explosion. The explosion killed the one-year-old Crown Prince Xianchong, and the then-reigning Emperor Tianqi believed it was a divine punishment. (source)
5. In 1809, approximately 6,000 Portuguese civilians died while crossing the Douro River on the fragile Ponte das Barcas bridge, fleeing the advancing French army. The bridge collapsed under their weight, and all were killed.
The Barkas Bridge disaster occurred on March 29, when Napoleon's troops under Marshal Soult invaded Porto. Following the French victory in the First Battle of Porto, thousands of Porto residents fled the French and attempted to reach the city of Gaia on the other side of the Douro River, where the Bishop of Porto had already taken refuge the day before.
According to some sources, the pontoon bridge consisted of 20 barges connected by steel cables and could not support the weight of so many people. Another version of events holds that someone opened a hatch on the bridge to prevent the French from crossing, but the Portuguese civilians crossed first and were "swallowed" by the hatch. (1, 2)
6. In December 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, leaked nearly 40 tons of methyl isocyanate, injuring more than 500,000 people and killing 3,787, making it the world's worst industrial disaster.
Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) had three underground storage tanks capable of holding 68,000 liters of liquid methyl isocyanate (MIC). In October 1984, one of the tanks, containing 42 tons of MIC, failed. Production was halted, and part of the plant was closed for maintenance. On December 1, attempts to repair the tank failed, meaning it could not be emptied. Soon, the plant's MIC safety systems began to malfunction, and by the evening of the following day, water is believed to have entered the tank, causing an exothermic reaction accelerated by contaminants such as iron from corroding pipes.
By midnight, the reaction in the tank had reached a critical point: the temperature had exceeded normal limits, and the pressure in the tank reached 40 pounds per square inch (275.8 kPa). Over the next 45-60 minutes, approximately 30 metric tons of MIC leaked from the tank, and within two hours, this amount had increased to 40 metric tons. The lack of timely information exchange between UCIL and Bhopal authorities led to delays in providing assistance to victims at nearby hospitals.
An estimated 500,000 people were exposed to MIC, and the official death toll immediately stood at 2,259. The Madhya Pradesh government later confirmed 3,787 fatalities, of which 558,125 were injured, 38,478 of which were temporary and 3,900 were severe, resulting in permanent disability. Other estimates indicate 8,000 deaths within the first two weeks and another 8,000 in the following years. Of those affected, 200,000 were children and 3,000 were pregnant women. Following the incident, the stillbirth rate increased by 3,001 TP3T, and the neonatal mortality rate by 2,001 TP3T. (source)
7. In 1975, a "one-in-2,000-year" flood caused the Banqiao Dam in China to collapse, killing 230,000 people and causing the collapse of nearly six million buildings. Although officially classified as a natural disaster, it is believed to have been caused by poor construction safety.
Despite leading Chinese hydrologist Chen Xing's recommendations for the construction of 12 sluice gates, the Chinese government, in consultation with Soviet engineers, decided to build only five. Safety standards were similarly lowered for other dam projects, and Chen was fired for criticizing the government's decision. In early August 1975, Typhoon Nina struck Taiwan, and although it had weakened by the time it reached China, it brought torrential rainfall of over 400 millimeters (16 inches), the heaviest of which fell on the Banqiao Dam—1,631 millimeters (64.2 inches), of which 830 millimeters (33 inches) fell in just six hours.
Telegrams to open the gates on August 6 and 7 failed to reach dam operators due to broken wires. By the time they opened, the sluice gates were unable to handle the overflow. On August 8, the water level rose to 117.94 meters above sea level and 0.3 meters above the seawall. The storm caused the collapse of 62 more dams. The Banqiao Dam discharged 13,000 cubic meters per second at the inlet and 73,800 cubic meters per second at the outlet. A total of 701 million cubic meters of water were released in six hours, and 1.67 billion cubic meters were released from the Shimantan Dam in 5.5 hours. A total of 15.738 billion cubic meters of water were released.
The flood created a wave 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide and three to seven meters (9.8 to 23 feet) high, traveling at nearly 50 kilometers per hour (31 mph). It devastated an area 55 kilometers (34 miles) long and 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) wide, destroying an estimated 5,960,000 buildings and killing up to 230,000 people. (source)
8. On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, killing 583 people, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history.
The KLM flight departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (Netherlands) and carried 14 crew members and 235 passengers. The Pan Am flight departed from Los Angeles International Airport and had 16 crew members and 380 passengers. Both flights were destined for Gran Canaria International Airport (Canary Islands), but due to a bomb explosion, they were diverted to Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport), a small regional airport with only one runway connected to a parallel taxiway by four short taxiways.
Although Pan Am was ready to depart Tenerife after the threat at Gran Canaria was resolved, its departure was blocked by a KLM aircraft undergoing a refueling stop, delaying the flight by more than half an hour. The control tower then instructed the KLM aircraft to travel the full length of the runway and turn to take off, while Pan Am was instructed to enter the parallel taxiway, using the third short exit on the left.
However, due to cloud cover, visibility became unpredictable, making it difficult for Pan Am to find the third exit. KLM, however, had 900 meters of line of sight, and so they began accelerating down the runway after a vague response from the controller, who had poor visibility of the aircraft and whose subsequent response was lost due to radio interference when Pan Am contacted them on the same frequency.
By the time the captains of both planes saw each other, they were too close. Pan Am veered sharply left onto the grass to avoid a collision, while KLM attempted to take off to avoid the Pan Am. Only the nose of the KLM aircraft managed to avoid the collision, but its left engine, fuselage, and landing gear sheared off the top of the Pan Am aircraft. The KLM aircraft fell 150 meters and then skidded another 300 meters down the runway. Its full fuel tank caught fire and could not be extinguished, killing everyone on board. On the Pan Am, 61 passengers and crew members in the nose of the aircraft survived; the rest were killed. (source)
9. On November 3, 1982, in the Salang Tunnel in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, up to 2,700 people died from fire, smoke and carbon monoxide after cars idled to keep warm in the bitter cold.
The Salang Tunnel was built by Soviet engineers in 1964 to facilitate traffic through the Hindu Kush mountain range dividing northern and southern Afghanistan. There are various accounts of what actually happened in the tunnel, as the Soviet army did not want to publicize the scale of human casualties during the war. Initial reports point to a collision between fuel tankers, resulting in the deaths of 700 Soviet soldiers and between 400 and 2,000 Afghan civilians from subsequent fire or asphyxiation.
According to the Soviet Army, two military convoys collided in the tunnel, causing a traffic jam. No fires or explosions were reported, but 64 Soviet soldiers and 112 Afghans died from carbon monoxide poisoning from idling engines. American military analysts estimate the death toll at between 100 and 200.
Another report states that the Russians consider the fuel tank explosion an accident, while the mujahideen claim it was a successful attack. After the explosion, vehicles continued to enter the tunnel, likely unaware of it, and fearing a rebel attack, Soviet troops sealed off both ends of the tunnel with tanks, trapping everyone inside. The death toll is reported at 700 Soviet troops and 2,000 Afghan soldiers and civilians. (source)
10. On November 1, 1948, an unidentified merchant ship evacuating overcrowded Republic of China troops from Yingkou to Taiwan suffered a boiler and ammunition explosion, killing 6,000 people.
In 1948, China had been in the throes of a three-year civil war, reignited after World War II by the ideological split between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China (ROC). As the CPC gained control of mainland China, the ROC was forced to retreat to Taiwan. During one such hasty evacuation of the government's 52nd Army, a merchant ship exploded off the coast of southern Manchuria, killing all on board.
A similar incident occurred on December 4 of the same year with another overcrowded steamship known as SS Kiangya, with nearly 4,000 passengers on board. It was suspected that the ship struck a mine from World War II, causing an explosion. According to the China Merchant Shipping Company, 536 passengers and crew were rescued, and only 200 bodies were recovered. The following year, on January 27, another ship sank, Taiping, transporting refugees fleeing communist rule to Taiwan, killing more than 1,500 people. (1, 2)