Over 30 years on, the Space Shuttle Challenger shuttle disaster is still seen as a national tragedy. The event killed a schoolteacher and a group of talented astronauts on live television. Millions of children in schools all around the country were watching. But outside of that terrible day, the Challenger explosion shifted the ways in which the American people and their policymakers thought about space flight. Never again would the United States have the same level of confidence and trust in its space programs as it did the day before Challenger.

Background

The years before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster were a renaissance for the American space program. NASA suffered its first and only fatal space mission accident when the crew of Apollo I died from a capsule fire in an on-ground test in 1967. Since then, it had gained one of the greatest achievements of the space race in 1969, when it landed two men on the moon.

NASA had nearly fallen out of the public imagination during the late 1970s. The Apollo missions ended and NASA embraced less-enticing space stations and unmanned vehicles. The space shuttle was meant to bring Americans back to space in a way that reignited the public conscious once again.

A fleet of vehicles could be reused multiple times. This saved millions of dollars in cost to the taxpayer who otherwise had to pay for entire Saturn rockets for every space launch. The vehicles themselves seemed futuristic, coated in re-entry-defying tiles and landing on a runway like an airplane. At first, the program was a massive success. Launches for Columbia, Challenger, Atlantis, and Discovery went off without a hitch.

The Fateful Day

The Challenger flight of January 28th, 1986, was supposed to be something new and bold for the shuttle program. A school teacher, Christa McAullife, would be the first civilian in space. McAullife’s addition was the continuation of a trend of expanding the crews of shuttle missions; only two weeks before, Representative Bill Nelson became the first sitting congressman in space on another shuttle mission. The presence of a teacher meant that schools around the country played the launch on televisions in their classroom. Another member of the crew was Ronald McNair, a famed astronaut and only the second African American in space.

This expansion of the space program did not last past January 28th, however. The launch quickly showed problems, with sensors relaying to mission control that the exhaust plume was stronger than normal. A few seconds later, the aircraft blew up on live television, killing all of the crew members on board.

The vast majority of the country’s population learned about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster within an hour. President Ronald Reagan gave a televised address that night where he lamented the loss of the spacecraft and praised those on board for their bravery.

Relevant Lessons

The obvious question after the explosion was why it happened. The Rogers Commission was ordered by President Reagan to investigate the many reasons for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. William Rogers, chair of the commission, enlisted the help of famed theoretical physicist Richard Feynman to write the report and guide the investigation.

The Rogers Commission soon discovered that the entire story of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster revolved around the controversial inclusion of a set of rubber O-rings. They comprised a seal between the external fuel tank and the solid rocket booster on the right side of the aircraft. These O-rings were a critical part of the launch. However, they had never been tested in temperatures as low as the temperatures on the morning of the Challenger launch.

A number of scientists with NASA had spoken up about these O-rings prior to the launch and even on the day of the launch. There had been concerns raised about the O-rings back in 1977. Employees at one of NASA’s contractors, Morton Thiokol, had relayed their concerns and had spelled out the possibility for imminent disaster. According to these figures, a failing O-ring could destroy the space shuttle on the launchpad, let alone in midair or on re-entry. However, those concerns were not been passed along to other officials with the same sense of urgency.

A Rotten Culture

NASA had a stifled culture that prioritized success and launches at all costs. They had a “go mentality,” meaning that their inclination was always to lean on the side of launching a mission. At the time of the launch, the organization also had a limited budget and was on a tight schedule. It had already delayed the Challenger launch several times.

The night before the launch, a meeting was held between several leaders of the mission to discuss safety concerns for the next day. The problems with O-rings were brought up. However, no members of the safety team were present and the mission was still greenlighted. Mission control bypassed six launch constraints to make the flight happen on the morning that it did. NASA had also grown complacent with the regular success of shuttle flights; the flights had occurred every few weeks since the first flight in 1983 without incident.

Aftermath

The space shuttle program would move on for another 25 years after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. This event prompted a reworking of shuttle design, with new guidelines in place to solve O-ring problems and protect spacecrafts especially during takeoff and re-entry. Space shuttle flights would resume 32 months later with a successful Discovery flight, and continue regularly thereafter.

Final Thoughts

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster still resonates as a seminal moment of the past 50 years. It was the event that shook the American conscience, the first deadly space-related accident in decades. Challenger also helped change the way NASA worked. It provided insight on whistle-blowing behaviors and groupthink culture, as well as being a key part of the development of 24-hour cable news. It is for these reasons, but also for the bravery and sacrifice of the Challenger crew, that Americans should never forget the legacy of this event.

The Costa Concordia disaster is one that is sure to go down in history as eerily similar in some respects to the sinking of the Titanic. Both ships were cruise liners, and both sank because of striking obstructions in the water, though the Costa Concordia disaster was the result of an underwater rock, while the Titanic hit an iceberg. We will explore various aspects of the Costa Concordia disaster, one of the worst cruise ship disasters of all time.

The Ship: The Costa Concordia

You may not know it, but Concordia isn’t just part of the name of this ship, it’s also a designation for a specific class of cruise vessel. Although Concordia denotes a class all its own, the ship’s designers also chose it as part of the name in an effort to promote the idea continued unity between European nations.

The quick popularity of the Costa Concordia resulted in several similar ships being constructed. When this small fleet served passengers, they were at the time some of the largest ever built in Italy. Builders crafted the ship in 2004. The ship was in service from the following year until its fateful demise in 2012. Since that time, only Dream-class ships have eclipsed Concordia-class vessels in size and capacity.

The ship included several amenities such as staterooms with their own balconies and access to spas. It included a Turkish bath, restaurants, bars, a cinema, an entertainment complex with multiple levels, and one of the largest exercise rooms on any cruise liner, just to name a few.

Incidents Prior to the Costa Concordia Disaster

The cruise liner suffered at least one other known, less severe accident in the years leading up to its final voyage in 2012. In 2008, the Costa Concordia damaged the bow when intense gusts of wind from Palermo pushed the ship against the area at which it was docked. Fortunately, no onboard crew suffered any injuries because of this and they made repairs shortly after.

The Costa Concordia Disaster

The Costa Concordia made its final voyage in January 2012. It was departing from a port in Rome and would begin a seven-night cruise thereafter. At 9:30 p.m local time, the ship encountered a submerged rock and collided with it. The impact caused a wide gash of 174 feet to appear on the port side of the ship’s hull.

This laceration in the ship’s body affected at least three compartments of the engine room itself, severing both power to the ship and its services. The Costa Concordia took on water immediately. After nearly half an hour, more strong winds pushed the vessel back to the port island from where it had departed.

As it had no power, the Costa Concordia drifted slowly back to its starting position. It became grounded near the shoreline, after which it rolled to starboard. Although about half of the ship was still above the water line, it was in immediate danger of sinking entirely.

At the time of the Costa Concordia disaster, the ship was home to over three thousand passengers and employed over one thousand crew. Of the total 4,229 persons on board, the incident took thirty-two lives.

The Situation Onboard and Contributing Factors

The Bridge

Thanks to the captain’s own testimony, we now know he disabled the alarm system on the navigating computers, as he wanted to sail by sight. While many experienced captains do this, it’s clear that having an electronic early warning system in place could have done much to mitigate the impending crash. Once the captain saw rough waves on the reef, he manually turned the ship sharply to avoid them.

His intervention did not come quickly enough to save the ship from disaster. This a fact for which he takes complete responsibility. He later told investigators that the cruise line managers asked him to do a “sail past salute” that went too close to the island and this was a reason for the incident. However, it was dark, and the managers rarely ask captains to do this except in daylight. They later confirmed this.

Other contributing factors on the bridge include reports that the captain left his reading glasses in his cabin that night. This begs the question of why he was navigating by sight. Several superfluous persons were also on the bridge at the time. However, it is uncertain whether this caused any disruptions in normal procedures.

The Deck

Passengers on deck were mostly in the dining hall when they suddenly heard a loud banging noise. Initially, crew members reassured the guests that this noise was simply the cause of an electrical fault. Interestingly, several passengers later reported that the theme song from the film “Titanic” was playing over the speakers when the initial impact occurred.

Shortly after the collision, the ship lost all power, shook violently, and soon tilted to its port side. The crew eventually suggested that passengers don life jackets, although curiously, they also assured everyone that things were under control soon after. This misinterpretation came just a half hour before the official call to abandon the ship.

The Aftermath

Following the Costa Concordia disaster, several crews of various specializations began salvage work. Experts initially thought at best, removal of the ship and her accompanying fuel could take ten months at least. Those same experts told the cruise line that the ship was most likely too damaged to bother with the cost of repairs.

Fuel removal operations began first, and during that time, the ship moved several inches. Crews completely removed the fuel from the ship in March of 2012, which took longer than the first predictions.

On September 17th, a crew of repairmen used parbuckling to right the ship so they could make preparations to float it to a shipyard for deconstruction. These preparations took months, and the Costa Concordia was finally ready for towing in July of 2014. The vessel undertook its final journey – to the scrapyard – on July 14th of that year.

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The sinking of the Titanic is without a doubt one of the most well-known boating disasters in history. It is the subject of several books, documentaries, and a Hollywood film. Despite its almost mythic popularity, though, there are still many interesting facts about the Titanic that many people don’t know. We’ll take you through our list of ten facts about that fateful voyage you haven’t heard before.

1. A Lifeboat Drill Should Have Happened

Thanks to certain records, we now know that there was a lifeboat drill scheduled for the day the Titanic sank. However, the captain decided it was best to cancel the training session. While we can’t know for sure what he was thinking at the time, we do know that the captain and other high-profile persons connected with the ship thought it to be unsinkable. People rushed for the lifeboats when the ship started to sink. Perhaps if they’d had a practice run, more lives could have been saved.

2. The Lifeboats Weren’t Properly Utilized

We now know that people did not actually fill up the lifeboats when escaping the sinking ship. Many of the boats could have held several more people. Analysts suggest that if the crew filled every lifeboat, they’d have saved all passengers. Yet more evidence that the lifeboat drill was a good idea and definitely one of the most interesting facts about the Titanic.

3. Most People Initially Thought There Were No Casualties

Another in our list of interesting facts about the Titanic that might seem strange to us today, in the first few hours following the sinking, most people had the idea that everyone survived. That isn’t so strange when you consider that it’s what all the newspapers were reporting.

Several trusted, high-profile news agencies at the time at first thought there were no casualties on board. They were so certain of this fact they reported it in big, bold headlines. Newspapers do make small clerical or factual errors very often. But seldom did so many get something so wrong in such a big way as the misrepresentation of the Titanic disaster.

4. The Newspapers Made Up For Their Blunder

It is probably unsurprising that the news agencies learned the truth of how serious the disaster was and reported on casualty numbers as they received them. What makes this one of the interesting facts about the Titanic, though, is just how far they went to make up for previous errors in their statements.

Indeed, in the first week following the sinking, The New York Times alone devoted seventy-five pages of newsprint to the subject of the Titanic, including missing and deceased persons. Sunday editions are larger than weekday ones but whatever the case that was a lot of continuous coverage.

5. Many Passengers Could Have Been Rescued

Sometimes it is merely a small twist of ironic fate that separates timely intervention from disaster. Although there was another ship named Californian close by as the Titanic sank, it could not receive communications from the doomed vessel as the wireless operator had already retired for the night.

The Titanic did send out distress flares that many crew members saw though. They informed their captain of these sightings but he gave no orders in response. Another ship happened along later to pick survivors out of the water. However, it’s likely the first ship could have saved many more lives.

6. Alcohol Can Save Lives

We already know of some of the various medical uses for alcohol, as a sterilizing agent for tools and equipment. However, thanks to one survivor of the Titanic disaster, alcohol is also one of the interesting facts about the Titanic, too. The head chef of the ship had consumed a large quantity of alcohol that fateful night.

While it’s never a good thing to imbibe too much as disaster strikes, medical examiners concluded that the alcohol in the chef’s system kept his organs from shutting down in the as he spent hours in the freezing cold water.

7. Timing Is Everything

As experts analyzed the facts in the days following the crash, they could determine the approximate time that the captain received word of the impending iceberg. Thanks to this information, the analysts determined that if the captain received the call a mere thirty seconds earlier, he would have had time to change course and avoid the obstruction.

8. First-Class On the Titanic Was Expensive

It may seem rather obvious since we expect anything with the title “First Class” to carry a hefty price tag, but first class tickets for the Titanic were really hefty. In today’s money, one ticket for the first-class parlor would cost you almost $70,000. When you consider that you can take multiple round-trip first class flights for that kind of money, you see just how pricey this luxury liner really was.

9. It Took Years to Locate the Wreckage

Although the disastrous sinking of the Titanic immediately became a national tragedy and one that researchers and enthusiasts continued to look at for years to come, it still took a long time to locate the remains of the vessel. In fact, it took about seventy-three years from the time of the sinking until divers located what remained of the Titanic.

10. The Engineers Chose to Sacrifice Themselves

Our final entry in our interesting facts about the Titanic is one of self-sacrifice. The Titanic employed thirty engineers and although there was room enough for all of them on the various lifeboats, they chose not to abandon ship. Instead, they remained on-board until the very end so that they could provide power to the ship and give the passengers more time to escape.

Summing Up

These are just a few of the interesting facts about the Titanic that have come to light as investigators uncovered more data in the years following the incident. We invite you to discuss these and share your own little-known facts if you have any that aren’t listed here.

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Cruises can be fun and enjoyable vacations at sea. Millions of people embark on cruise vacations every year and return with fun memories of their time on the water. Cruising is one of the safest forms of travel and incidents onboard are rare. The five worst cruise ship disasters of all time, however, have turned dream vacations into nightmares.

6. Carnival Triumph

In 2013, a fire on the Carnival Triumph left more than 4,000 passengers without electricity, air conditioning or toilets. The ship, which was headed to Mexico, embarked on a four day journey from Galveston. The fire started when one of the ship’s fuel pumps broke in the engine room, crippling the liner and leaving it stranded at sea. For more than five days, the ship glided along, with systems damaged, septic tanks backing up and spilling raw sewage into the hallways, and passengers growing increasingly desperate.

Reports from passengers onboard the stricken ship detail guests having to use bags as toilets. By the third day of the ill-fated voyage, the ship’s hallways were lined with bags of human waste.

The Triumph quickly ran out of food, supplies and medicine, making a bad situation dire. After five days, the ship was towed back to Mobile and passengers were allowed to disembark. The Triumph was quickly repaired and is now back in operation.

5. Seabourn Spirit

The Seabourn Spirit was in the middle of a 16-day African voyage from Egypt to the Seychelles when it was attacked by pirates off the Somalian coast in 2005. The pirates pulled up alongside the ship and fired at it with rocket launchers, grenades and machine guns. The pirates attempted to board the ship but were unsuccessful. While no lives were lost, one crew member was hit by flying shrapnel. Reports say that the captain sped up the ship and created waves to try to overturn the pirates’ boats.

The Seabourn Spirit was eventually able to outrun the pirates and change course to avoid subsequent attacks. Although the ship sustained some damage, it was able to complete its journey and all passengers disembarked safely. It was one of the worst cruise ship disasters for the Seabourn line.

4. Carnival Splendor

A fire onboard Carnival Splendor left 4,500 crew and passengers stranded off the coast of San Diego in 2010. The ship, which was headed for Mexico, sustained fire damaged that disabled the phone service, hot water and air conditioning. Passengers were stuck floating in the ocean for days as tugboats worked feverishly to pull the ship back to California.

A U.S. Naval aircraft carrier had to be dispatched to deliver 700,000 pounds of food and supplies to last the ship’s occupants for more than three days at sea without power. Passengers reported that the ship’s food rations ran out quickly and there was nothing to eat except canned meat on the liner. Nobody was seriously hurt or killed during this incident.

3. Disney Wonder

There was no fairytale happy ending to a Disney cruise that left 131 passengers and 14 crew members sick with Norovirus in 2016. One of the worst cruise ship disasters for the Disney line saw passengers experiencing projectile vomiting, diahrrhea and headaches. Hundreds were quarantined to their cabins for the duration of the cruise.

Norovirus is usually spread through fecal matter, and is transmitted on door handles, tables and railings. However, the ship has received high scores from the Centers for Disease Control, and experts believe that the virus was spread by passengers failing to use basic hygeiene practices onboard.

2. The Costa Concordia

In what has been described as the worst cruise ship disasters since Titanic, 32 passengers and crew died in January, 2012 when the Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Tuscany. Captain Franchesco Schettino claimed that he attempted to sail close to the shore to give the passengers a better view of the port, while other reports state that he was attempting to impress a lover.

The ship rammed into the rocky shoreline, causing it to tilt and start sinking. Panicked crew and passengers raced for lifeboats and chaos ensued as the death toll rose. Schettino allegedly jumped into a lifeboat, leaving his passengers and crew behind to fight for their lives.

Because the ship had not yet conducted its mandatory muster drill, a safety drill that walks passengers through emergency evacation procedures, many people had no idea how to find or board lifeboats. The ship lost power in the accident, leading to overall panic onboard. The ship remained partially submerged for months before it was finally removed.

1. The Titanic

The worst cruise ship disasters pale in comparison to the sheer loss of life of the Titanic. Nearly 1,500 passengers and crew either drowned or froze to death in icy waters in April, 1912. The Titanic story is the stuff of legends, has been the subject of numerous books and a blockbuster motion picture. Only 718 of the 2,208 people onboard survived the sinking of the Titanic.

On the night of April 14, the Titanic struck an iceberg that damaged the hull on the port side of the ship. The ship was only days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. It had been touted as “unsinkable,” and set sail amongst great fanfare. It would turn out to be one of the worst cruise ship disasters in history.

The ship took on water after striking the iceberg, causing it to lose power and slowly list until ultimately breaking in half and sinking. Reports say that there were not enough lifeboats on the ship for all of the passengers. Furthermore, some lifeboats were loaded half full.

According to survivors, there was mass panic onboard, with crew trying to maintain order while conducting the evacuation.

Summing Up

Millions of people travel by cruise ship each year, and the vast majority return home with happy memories and smiling photos. The worst cruise ship disasters, however, have stemmed from avoidable maintenance issues, weather anomalies and human error.

From outbreaks of communicable disease to poor judgement on the part of crew, the worst cruise ship disasters create headlines and make people leery of setting sail. All is not lost for the industry, however. Today, ships all over the world are taking gleeful passengers on voyages of a lifetime.

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