Watch Engineering Disasters Full Episodes, Video & More

Exploding Manhole Covers

Aired on May 23, 201541m

A modern jetliner crashes with 228 people on board. An oil refinery erupts in Utah, sending shockwaves through town and damaging over 100 homes. Manhole covers explode around the country, killing people and destroying property. A coal filled freight train derails burying two women sitting near the tracks, and a routine elevator ride turns deadly.

S1 E7

Raging Rocket

Aired on May 23, 201541m

A mudslide swallows a neighborhood; a rocket explodes seconds after liftoff; a train line flies off the tracks twice; a mine mysteriously ignites, and 200,000 die in Haiti—was engineering to blame?

S1 E6

Trapped Under Seattle

Aired on May 16, 201541m

Why did Asiana flight 214, packed with passengers, suddenly crash land and cartwheel across San Francisco International Airport's runway? Three families of the dead want answers. Also, what triggered a massive explosion at a chemical plant outside Wichita, Kansas?

S1 E4

Colorado Dam Disaster

Aired on May 02, 201543m

A storm of the century takes out nine dams in Colorado flooding entire towns and leaving thousands stranded. Next, a train carrying hazardous materials derails, releasing toxic vapors throughout a small New Jersey community. Then, a natural gas line breaks and reduces a neighborhood to ashes and rubble, a cargo jet crashes seconds after take off in Afghanistan, and a luxury cruise goes from smooth sailing to wrecked on the rocks.

S1 E3

Kentucky Sinkhole

Aired on Apr 25, 201543m

Why did a 72 oil-car runaway train crash, killing 47 people and leveling half a town? Was it the brakes? Next, can engineers do anything to fix a gaping sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum so car enthusiasts can safely return? Then, what caused the Minneapolis Metrodome's iconic roof to collapse? Was it an engineering flaw or Mother Nature? Football fans want to know. Plus, as 33 Chilean miners await their ultimate fate, trapped almost a half mile underground, mine drilling engineers scramble to dig a hole big enough to rescue them. Can a special drill make it through earth harder than granite? And finally, JetBlue flight 194 started out like any other for 149 passengers, but just minutes into the journey, the airplane is almost crippled by a sudden hydraulic failure.

S1 E2

Freight Train Collision

Aired on Apr 18, 201541m

Investigate a stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair that left seven concert goers dead. Next, find out if a gas leak is to blame for an explosion in New York City that leveled two buildings and killed eight people in their homes. Then, disaster strikes on an airliner at 36,000 feet as a gaping hole suddenly rips open inflight, and engineers in Japan scramble to save millions of lives as an epic radioactive release looms. Finally, see how a train crossing was the site of not one, but two disastrous auto collisions in a single year?

S1 E1

Heartland Explosion

Aired on Apr 11, 201540m

A massive explosion rocks a small Texas town killing 15 residents. A bridge in Washington collapses sending cars plunging into the river. Two construction cranes in New York City fall from above city streets leaving a path of destruction. A ferry full of passengers encounters trouble and sinks, and a building demolition In Philadelphia goes horribly wrong killing innocent shoppers next door. What do all of these catastrophes have in common? They were caused by engineering failures that led to disasters of epic proportions.