The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has once again illustrated the far-reaching and dire consequences of industrial accidents and how important it is for a coordinated organisational response in such circumstances.
Spread over 18 episodes, the BBC Disaster series examines some of the world's most dramatic catastrophes - using news footage, reconstructions and interviews with key decision-makers. Their powerful and detailed approach provides viewers with an effective health and safety training resource, conveying essential lessons in a way no hand-written training manual could hope to achieve.
Each episode is 30-40 minutes long and comes with an unlimited licence for use in education and training. The clips featured below will give you a flavour of how these programmes can be used as dynamic health and safety training resources
Spiral to Disaster:
On the night of July 6th 1988, the Piper Alpha oil rig was destroyed by fire and explosion. There were 226 men on board; 167 perished. This film focuses on one crucial hour in the disaster when lives could have been saved.
The Unflyable Plane:
On July 19th 1989 a United Airlines DC – 10, with 296 people on board, took off from Denver on a route to Chicago. At 30,000ft, the rear engine blew. So began a 45-minute struggle to avoid a deadly crash. Shot in Arizona, this reconstruction Includes an archive interview with the captain, who miraculously survived.
A Major Malfunction:
The explosion that destroyed the Challenger space shuttle in January 1986, killing all seven crew members, remains one of the worst accidents in space. The drama of the days leading up to the launch reveals heated arguments between NASA managers and engineers who raised doubts about the performance of vital rocket seals.
A Crash in the Dark:
In December 1991, two passenger trains collided in the 6.5km-long tunnel under the River Severn in England. 185 people were injured. Rescuers did not reach the train until two hours after the accident.
The Christinaki:
In February 1994, the Greek-owned, multi-national crewed, 26,000-ton bulk carrier Christinaki left Liverpool for Mexico, laden with scrap-metal. Bad weather warnings were heeded and a change of course was made, but it still ran into trouble and, despite rescue attempts, went down with all hands.
The Marchioness:
In August 1989, 51 people lost their lives when the Bowbelle dredger collided with the Marchioness passenger boat on the River Thames.
The design of both vessels was criticised.
Numerous warnings about the inevitability of such an accident had gone unheeded for years.
The Windscale Fire:
In 1957, a fire was discovered inside Britain's first nuclear reactor at Windscale. At the time emergency procedures were minimal, but its effects are still being felt today.
October Fire:
In 1986,on board a huge Soviet nuclear submarine, fifty metres below the surface of the ocean, an enormous ballistic missile exploded. Using carefully obtained classified documents, this film tells the true story of the cause of the explosion and the heroic three-day fight to save the world from nuclear disaster.
The Channel Tunnel Fire:
On 18 November 1996, 34 people were trapped underground when fire broke out on the Eurotunnel shuttle from Calais. As 450 firefighters struggled to deal with the blaze, a catalogue of technical and communication failures held up rescue attempts.
King's Cross: Beneath the Flames:
Over 20 years ago, on 18 November 1987, every commuter's greatest fear happened.A fire broke out at King's Cross, one of London's busiest Underground stations. Smoke and flames ripped up the escalators and through the ticket hall, killing 31 people and injuring hundreds.
Kansas City: Death by Design:
On a hot July evening in 1981, 200 people were enjoying a 1940s-style 'tea dance' at the recently opened Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. A few minutes after 7pm, part of the hotel atrium collapsed, killing 114 dancers below and injuring hundreds….
The Goiania Incident:
The mysterious outburst of radioactive contamination in Goiania, Brazil brought panic to the streets. Shot on location in Brazil, this film recreates the disaster and the vast emergency clean-up that followed.
Atlantic:
Janet Culver placed a personal ad for a fishing companion,and slowly fell in love with the man who replied. But her dreams were shattered when tragedy struck and they were shipwrecked. The horrors of being stranded for days in a small dinghy are reconstructed in this film, which includes an interview with Janet Culver herself.
The Chemical Scythe:
Peter Tyrer, an Animal Health Inspector in Wales, suffers from breathlessness, fluctuating heart rate and memory loss. This film dramatises Peter's descent into sickness and his struggle to discover the true cause of this illness which affects hundreds – most of them farmers...
A Cut-price Tragedy:
In May 1996, a Valujet DC-9 caught fire in mid-air and plunged into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board. Mary Schiavo, Inspector General with the US Department of Transportation, and her team were there to pick up the pieces.
A Japanese Tragedy:
In August 1985, Japan Air Flight 123 crashed into the side of a mountain North West of Tokyo. It was the largest single aircraft fatality in history. 520 people died. A poor repair was the cause. But the real story behind the crash was the scandalous incompetence in reacting to the accident and the rescue attempt in the immediate aftermath.
A Cancer in the System:
In 1993, Chief Biomedical Scientist Neil Woodward noticed that there was a problem with the way the Kent & Canterbury Hospital's laboratory was screening cervical smear slides.It took three years and a leak to the national press before any action was taken.
Deadly Metal:
When Mexican warehouseman Vincente Sotelo dismantled an unused hospital x-ray machine and sold it for scrap, he had no idea he was causing a radioactive spill 100 times worse than Three Mile Island. 6,000 pellets of cobalt-60 were spread across the USA and Mexico. The disaster was only discovered by accident.