A Brief History On December 1, 1984, a joint operation between NASA and the FAA conducted a “Controlled Impact Demonstration,” a fancy way of saying purposely crashing an unoccupied jetliner. Digging Deeper The remotely controlled jet was a Boeing 720, a narrowed down version of the ubiquitous 707. A 4-engine jetliner that could carry 131 passengers, the 720 was a good representation of the airliners of the time. The doomed jet was loaded with cameras, sensors, and recording equipment, and the data derived from the intentional crash was used to develop new safety standards for airliners. Conclusions included that airliners…
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A Brief History On November 18, 1996, the Channel Tunnel, or more familiarly, the Chunnel, was the scene of a terrifying event as a train carrying semi-tractor trailers, or “Heavy Goods Vehicles” as they are known in Europe, along with their drivers, caught on fire, probably due to arson. Digging Deeper The driver, or engineer, knew of the fire but planned on going through anyway, but the train stalled 12 miles into the 31 mile long tunnel. The problem quickly became apparent as thick smoke enveloped the locomotive and the passenger car. Luckily, the event did not turn into a…
A Brief History On November 15, 1968, the Cleveland Transit System of Cleveland, Ohio linked downtown with the metro airport, becoming the first city in the western hemisphere to link its downtown and its main airport by rapid transit. Digging Deeper CTS ran the buses and the Rapid Transit electric trains in Cleveland, linking the East and West sides of the city and its inner suburbs with the downtown area. Later, CTS would become the Regional Transit Authority. Despite jokes about its burning river and the “Mistake on the Lake,” and of course the recent history of alleged pro football, Cleveland…
A Brief History On November 11, 2014, a horrible bus crash occurred in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Known as the “2014 Khairpur bus crash,” the accident happened when the bus collided with a truck, killing 56 people. For perspective, the deadliest bus crash in US history was the 1963 Salinas Valley Drunk Driver Train Crash in California when a jury rigged truck/bus was hit by a train, killing 32 people. Some other deadly bus wrecks include: Digging Deeper The Hida River Bus Crash of 1968, when two buses were swept off the road by a landslide during a typhoon,…
A Brief History On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, taking the 29 men aboard to a watery grave. The most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes, largely because of the smash hit song by Gordon Lightfoot, the Edmund Fitzgerald is not the only notable casualty of the Great Lakes, so today we list a couple of those other freshwater disasters. Digging Deeper SS Leecliffe Hall sank in 1964 with three deaths after colliding with a Greek freighter in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The 730 foot long, 18,071 ton ship was hauling 24,500 tons of…