An archive of 510 recorded disasters — natural catastrophes, industrial accidents, transport disasters, fires, crowd crushes and epidemics. Every event has its own page. Our own hand-written records come first; the rest are imported from Wikidata and Wikipedia.
The 1994 Tolunda rail disaster happened near Tolunda, in the Namibe Province, Angola on 22 September 1994. A freight train of the Benguela railway derailed due to malfunctioning brakes and crashed into a 10 metres (33 ft) deep ravine. Aroun
Read the full record →SS Arctic, an American paddle steamer owned by the Collins Line, sank on September 27, 1854, 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Newfoundland after a collision with SS Vesta, a much smaller French vessel. Passenger and crew lists indicate tha
Read the full record →The Nambija mine disaster was a landslide which occurred in a remote mining settlement in the southeastern part of Ecuador on 9 May 1993. A part of the mountain above the countless mines gave way and buried about 300 people. A definite numb
Read the full record →On 18 January 2019, a pipeline transporting gasoline exploded in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The blast killed at least 137 people and injured dozens more. Mexican authorities blamed fuel thieves, who had illeg
Read the full record →The 1825 Miramichi Fire, or Great Miramichi Fire, or Great Fire of Miramichi, as it came to be known, was a massive forest fire complex that devastated forests and communities throughout much of northern New Brunswick in October 1825. It ra
Read the full record →The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in Chicago, Illinois, United States, during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed 17,000 structures across roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2), and left m
Read the full record →On 8 January 1996, a Moscow Airways Antonov An-32B operating on behalf of Air Africa overran the runway at N'Dolo Airport after attempting to take off overloaded. The aircraft was flying from Kinshasa to Kahemba, Zaire. The aircraft ploughe
Read the full record →Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces with a Buk 9M38 surface-to-air missile on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passe
Read the full record →The Neishapur train disaster was a large explosion in the village of Khayyam near Nishapur in Iran, on 18 February 2004. Nearly 300 people were killed and the entire village was destroyed when runaway train wagons crashed into the community
Read the full record →On 2 June 2023, three trains collided in Balasore district in the East Indian state of Odisha. The accident occurred around 19:00 IST when Coromandel Express, a passenger train, collided with a stationary goods train near Bahanaga Bazar rai
Read the full record →Iran Air Flight 655 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by two surface-to-air missiles fired by USS Vincennes, a United States Navy warship. The missiles hi
Read the full record →On 28 October 1995, a fire broke out in the subway system of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, between the Ulduz and Nariman Narimanov stations. According to official figures, the fire killed 289 people: 286 passengers (including 28 children
Read the full record →The Gaisal train collision occurred on 2 August 1999, when two trains carrying about 2,500 people collided at the remote station of Gaisal in West Bengal, India. Owing to a signalling error, both trains were using the same track on a day wh
Read the full record →The sinking of the ship F174 took place on the night of December 24-25, 1996, off the coast of Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea. The Yiohan, severely overloaded steel ⁸ship transporting illegal immigrants from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan
Read the full record →The Igandu train disaster occurred during the early morning of June 24, 2002, in Tanzania. It is one of the worst rail accidents in African history. A passenger train with over 1,200 people on board rolled backwards down a hill into a slow-
Read the full record →On October 1, 2015, heavy rains triggered a major landslide in the village of El Cambray Dos within Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala—15 km (9.3 mi) east of Guatemala City, killing at least 280 people and leaving dozens unaccounted for acros
Read the full record →The 2008 Shanxi mudslide was caused by the collapse of an unlicensed mine landfill in Xiangfen county, Linfen, Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China which caused 277 dead, 4 missing and 33 injured. Around 8:00 a.m. on September 8, 200
Read the full record →On 19 February 2003, an Ilyushin Il-76 crashed in mountainous terrain near Kerman in Iran. The Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aircraft, registration 15-2280, was flying from Zahedan to Kerman when it crashed 35 kil
Read the full record →American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Los Angeles International Airport. On the afternoon of May 25, 1979, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating this
Read the full record →Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage. On September 1, 1983, the flight was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor aircraft. The Boeing 747-230B airliner was en
Read the full record →The Brumadinho dam disaster occurred on 25 January 2019 when a tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine suffered a catastrophic failure. The dam, located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) east of Brumadinho in Minas Gerais, Brazil, is owned
Read the full record →On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated IS-related terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, two smaller explosions
Read the full record →The Val di Stava Dam collapse occurred on 19 July 1985, when two tailings dams above the village of Stava, near Tesero, Italy, collapsed. It resulted in one of Italy's worst disasters, killing 268 people, destroying 63 buildings and demolis
Read the full record →The Abercarn colliery disaster was a catastrophic explosion within the Prince of Wales Colliery in the Welsh village of Abercarn (then in the county of Monmouthshire), on 11 September 1878, killing 268 men and boys (though an exact number o
Read the full record →The Patria disaster was the sinking on 25 November 1940 by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah of a French-built ocean liner, the 11,885-ton SS Patria, in the port of Haifa. Patria was about to depart with about 1,800 Jewish refug
Read the full record →The Gresford disaster (Welsh: Trychineb Gresffordd) occurred on 22 September 1934 at Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, when an explosion and underground fire killed 261 men. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters: a controv
Read the full record →American Airlines Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, to Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. On November 12, 2001,
Read the full record →China Airlines Flight 140 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, to Nagoya Airport in Nagoya, Japan. On 26 April 1994, the Airbus A300 serving the route was com
Read the full record →The Marcinelle mining disaster (French: Catastrophe de Marcinelle, lit. 'the Marcinelle catastrophe') occurred at the Bois du Cazier coal mine at Marcinelle, Hainaut Province, in Belgium on 8 August 1956. One of the largest and most notorio
Read the full record →Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 was a chartered passenger flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Sokoto, Nigeria, on 11 July 1991, which caught fire shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International Airport and crashed while attempting to r
Read the full record →Air India Flight 171 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Ahmedabad Airport, Gujarat, India, to London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, England. On 12 June 2025, at 13:39 IST (08:09 UTC), the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner o
Read the full record →The 2001 Angola train attack was an attack during the Angolan Civil War when on 10 August 2001 UNITA forces derailed a train travelling between towns of Zenza and Dondo with an anti-tank mine and then attacked the passengers with small arms
Read the full record →The Mount Erebus disaster occurred on 28 November 1979 when Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE901) flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. Air New Zealand had been operating scheduled
Read the full record →The 1993 Bombay bombings was a series of 12 terrorist bombings in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries.The bombings took place in the aftermath of the Bomba
Read the full record →Arrow Air Flight 1285R was an international charter flight carrying U.S. Army personnel from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, US, via Cologne, West Germany, and Gander, Newfoundland. On the morning of Thursday, 1
Read the full record →The L'Innovation fire was a fire that took place at the À L'Innovation department store on the Rue Neuve/Nieuwstraat in central Brussels, Belgium, on 22 May 1967. More than 150 firefighters were mobilised to fight it, 251 people were killed
Read the full record →Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 Clipper Maid of the Seas was de
Read the full record →On 27 January 2013, 242 people were killed and at least 630 others injured in a fire in the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The fire started between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m. (BRST) after a pyrotechnic ignited acoustic fo
Read the full record →The 2008 Mumbai attacks, colloquially known as 26/11, were a coordinated series of twelve Islamic terrorist attacks carried out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, from 26 to 29 November 2008, by ten members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A total of 17
Read the full record →The Darr Mine disaster at Van Meter, Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, near Smithton, killed 239 men and boys on December 19, 1907. It ranks as the worst coal mining disaster in Pennsylvanian history. Many victims were
Read the full record →On 8 April 2025, the roof of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic collapsed during a live performance by merengue musician Rubby Pérez. The structural failure occurred at approximately 12:44 a.m. AST, resulting in 236
Read the full record →The Benavídez rail disaster, which occurred on February 1, 1970, is the worst-ever rail disaster in Argentina and South America, leaving 236 dead and more than 500 injured.
Read the full record →Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Garuda Indonesia from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, Indonesia, to Polonia International Airport, Medan, Indonesia. On 26 September 1997, the Airbus A
Read the full record →TWA Flight 800 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States, to Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, with a stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris,
Read the full record →Swissair Flight 111 was a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States, to Cointrin Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. The flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air
Read the full record →Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled international transatlantic passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, that crashed into the mid-Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009 killing all 228 passengers a
Read the full record →The Bocaue pagoda tragedy was a fatal accident that occurred on July 2, 1993, during the Bocaue Pagoda Festival in Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines. The accident was the result of the festivities' centerpiece – a floating pagoda – sinking, whic
Read the full record →The Quintinshill rail disaster was a multi-train rail crash which occurred on 22 May 1915 outside the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It resulted in the deaths of over 200 people and remains the worst r
Read the full record →In late June through mid-July 2018, successive heavy downpours in southwestern Japan resulted in widespread, devastating floods and mudflows. The event is officially referred to as Heisei san-jū-nen shichi-gatsu gōu (平成30年7月豪雨; "Heavy rain
Read the full record →On 25 September 2023, at about 19:00 (UTC+4), an explosion occurred at a military fuel depot in Berkadzor near Stepanakert, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in the deaths of at least 218 people and 120 injuries. The explosion oc
Read the full record →On 4 August 2020, a major explosion occurred in Beirut, Lebanon, caused by the ignition of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. The chemical, confiscated in 2014 from the cargo ship MV Rhosus and stored at the Port of Beirut without adequate s
Read the full record →In January 2011, a series of insurgent shooting and bombing attacks were launched throughout Iraq.
Read the full record →The 2018 Suwayda attacks were a string of suicide bombings and mass shooting incidents in Suwayda, Syria on 25 July 2018. At least 258 people were killed and 180 wounded. The attacks were carried out by the Islamic State and largely target
Read the full record →A series of ten explosions took place on April 22, 1992, in the downtown district of Analco Colonia Atlas in Guadalajara city, Jalisco state, Mexico. Numerous gasoline explosions in the sewer system and fires over four hours destroyed 8 ki
Read the full record →This is a list of notable tank truck fires and explosions.
Read the full record →Watch incidents unfold worldwide right now — every event gets its own live report page.