Episode
Seconds from Disaster: Wreck of the Sunset Limited
Overview
September 1993. The captain of a towboat unwittingly causes the collapse of a bridge over the Big Bayou Canot. When an Amtrak train comes along, it derails with 47 lives lost. Why was such a hideous mistake made? How could it have been prevented? Could it have been prevented at all? Wreck of the Sunset Limited explains why over 40 people died that Autumn day.
Details
- Series
- Seconds from Disaster
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 6
- Air date
- 2005-11-04
- Runtime
- 47 min
Episode context
Wreck of the Sunset Limited is Episode 6 in Season 1 of Seconds from Disaster. It aired on 2005-11-04. The runtime is 47 min.
Previous / Next
Episode 5: Derailment at Eschede (High Speed Train Wreck)
June 1998. The new German InterCity Express is a trip from Munich to Hamburg, one of many. Today should be no different. The new train offers the ultimate luxury in high-speed travel. But a terrible accident sets off a chain of events causing the loss of 101 lives when the train derails catastrophically at the town of Eschede. But what caused such a horrible accident?
Episode 7: Meltdown in Chernobyl
We make mistakes every few seconds of our lives. They are unavoidable. But sometimes the results can be disastrous. On April 26, 1986, a series of catastrophic blunders leave dozens dead when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melts down.
More episodes from this season
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Episode 8: Inferno at Guadalajara
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Episode 3: The Bomb in Oklahoma City
One April morning in 1995, at Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Timothy McVeigh parks a truck packed with explosives at the front of the government landmark. At 9:02AM, it explodes and the front of the building collapses with a loss of 168 lives. Survivors recount the terrifying experience as investigators attempt to discover what caused the building to collapse.
Episode 9: Fire on the Ski Slope
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Episode 2: Tunnel Inferno
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Episode 10: Explosion in the North Sea
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Episode 1: Crash of the Concorde (Concorde)
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Episode 11: Flood at Stava Dam
On July 1985, Italy's Stava Dam collapses and demolishes 70 structures killing 268 people in the process. Was there a fault in the design of the dam? Is this something that could happen to any dam around the world? Find out how a structural failure leads to a massive catastrophe with Flood at Stava Dam
Episode 12: Collision on the Runway
Two Jumbo Jets, Pan Am 1736 and KLM 4805 collide on the lone runway at Tenerife, Spain. The two aircraft are then burnt out and 583 people lose their lives. But how come two experienced pilots made a mistake of this magnitude? How come two passenger jets collided on the runway?
Episode 13: Pentagon 9/11
September 11, 2001 is one of the worst days in history. In Washington, D.C, the workers at the Pentagon have only just heard of the chaos going on at the New York World Trade Centre, but are unaware that they themselves have become a target. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 aircraft, collides with the Pentagon killing 189. Pentagon 9/11 recreates the events leading up to the explosion at the Pentagon.