Small Mistakes With HUGE Consequences 

Yes, I can confirm fireworks only need a small mistake to be dangerous. Back in July 2021, we were celebrating Fourth of July in our neighborhood. My family had only brought smaller fireworks, but one of our neighbors and his friends had lit a big rocket in their backyard. Just after lighting the rocket, they noticed the plastic wrapper on the rocket hadn’t been removed. So, one of them went to go take it off, and knocked it sideways. The rocket launched, and exploded right in the middle of the neighborhood. My family scattered. Everyone had a fireball less than half a foot from them, one of the fireballs landed on the neighbors’ Shelby GT350, but fortunately, no one was hurt. After watching this I can see how much worse that could’ve gone

Wow! That last story was refreshingly admirable. I was waiting to hear "and William ignored her warning", but the fact that William listened to Diane was great to hear. Thanks for this one!!

Omg that last one! Not only was William cool about having someone tell him his design had a flaw, he accepted it and worked on how to fix it, without causing panic amongst people unnecessarily. Good for him, he really stepped up. And good for the lady too, who notified him of the issue instead of just thinking “not my problem”

Really well done to Diane for spotting it and well done to William for listening and fixing . Too many times pride gets in the way but cudos to these two

Props to the designer of the building for making sure that the building was safe and not assuming he was right. If more people looked into structural issues, many disasters could be avoided.

I'm really glad William LeMessurier actually listened to Diane and actually spent the time, money, and effort to correct his mistake. So many architects get too prideful of their work, and just ignore the warnings of others, and just let their work be.

It should be noted that Citicorp Center was designed with "legs" not just for the sake of being unique, but because a church owned the corner of the site and refused to relocate. So the skyscraper's developers worked out an agreement where they'd put their building *above* the church, with columns to hold it up.

A Priest : "My small mistake was saving a kid from drowning in a lake named Adolf Hitler."

i am amazed

As a resident of Japan I don't find fault with your information about the Hanshin earthquake but I do want to point out that at 23:33 you state that 1995 is remembered for a single catastrophic event. Actually it is ALSO remembered as the year the crazy cult, Aum Shirikyo released Sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system resulting in many deaths and thousands with serious physical effects.

1:48 that’s the first time I’ve heard this guy laugh like that

There were no cosmonauts on the N1 rocket when it failed and exploded because it was an unmanned test launch. This applies to all 4 of the launch attempts. There were, however, a lot of people killed from the ground support staff.

15:54 it's actually surprising how much a single lit bud can cause a lot of trouble. In my previous job, we had a "big tool room" where a lot of people used to go for smoke breaks since it had large doors leading outside. One day i was left in our building to prepare tools and materials for a job , when I noticed smoke in the corridor. I looked through all the rooms only open the tool room and see it filled to the brim and fire somewhere. After telling others of the fire and putting it down, we realised that it was a trashcan someone dropped a still lit cigarette into it and things could have been much worse. Trashcan stood next to jerry cans filled with benzene and diesel as well as propane tanks and if it wasn't for the can melting away from jerry cans and us noticing fire fairly early, things could have gone much worse

I was absolutely livid when the El Dorado fire happened. I went home on leave while still serving the military after being away from family for almost 2 years. Literally the day after I arrived home, I woke up to tinted orange skies and was forced to cancel all plans I had the following few days due to all the smoke and restricted outings because of covid, forcing me to stay home until my flight back 10 days later. Stuff like this are the reasons why we can't have nice things.

There's more to the Citicorp building story. If the building had been constructed as LeMessurier (pronounced "le-measure") had specified, it would likely have been adequate to resist "quartering winds", but an on-site change to the construction of the diagonal braces that directed load to the legs of the building - from through-welding to bolts - significantly weakened the structure. LeMessurier discovered that on his own, once he was prompted to start thinking about quartering winds. The timing as reported here is also very sloppy. It was only toward the very end of the refit of the building - which could be done at night, with minimal disruption - that the hurricane showed up, and it veered away from the city, in any case. LeMessurier took his time to mobilize the people, resources, and plans needed to carry out the refit responsibly. It's really a model of how professional engineers should behave. Also, fun fact: the building was one of the first to feature a tuned mass damper, a huge block of concrete on bearings at the top of the building, which served to reduce sway . . . but which would have increased damage to the surrounding area had the structure failed. Also also, at the time of the building's construction, New York City building code did not have any specifications regarding quartering winds, which just goes to show that building codes are often inadequate on their own.

You gotta love William’s story. He didn’t ignore the situation or just tell them off for pointing it out. He realized his mistake and did everything he could to rectify it.

Kudos to the engineer who fixed the building. When watching disaster videos it seems many times the problems are ignored causing the disaster.

I was on vacation in NYC from the UK and witnessed the blackout. My friend and I were very lucky - we’d just been on the subway and were minutes away from being in an elevator. We managed to grope our way up to our floor and escaped the mayhem on the streets.

A small change to the building plans for a pedestrian catwalk in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City led to its collapse during a party in the early 80's. There were something like 180 fatalities. It wasn't faulty materials, or improper methods. It was simply a small change made after the plans were completed. As a result of 1long bolt changing to 2 short bolts, the weight distribution went from being shared across multiple levels to being entirely put on one level. A high school student doing a small experiment could have determined the logic behind the change being catastrophic, but it was changed for 1 stupid reason. Its easier to carry 2 small ones than 1 big one.

18:00 Worse, Ukraine could REALLY use those explosives to defend itself right now. Worst news so far in this video

8:34 *The Comet disasters weren't specifically the passenger windows.* It was microcracks from the punch-type rivets. With each pressurization/depressurization the cracks lengthened. There are RU-vids videos about the Comet that can describe it in more detail.

A correction on the Comet airplane one- yes, those square corners may have been where it was always going to break, but planes broke so quickly because at the time they didn't have any experience with flying that high so the metal was just too thin. That thin metal flexed with every flight cycle- every cycle of depressurization and repressurization- and was bound to give out.

"However embarrassing your mistake was you can rest easy knowing it wasn't THAT bad..." You underestimate my power!

Imo this is one of the best lists on RU-vid to ever exist.

The first story about the power outage was repeated in 2011 in San Diego, but without the riots, although with an even more stupid cause. An engineer was doing maintenance tests at a major power hub in Arizona and did some steps out of order. The result was the trunk line from AZ being shut off. Which left all the load for San Diego falling on the trunk line from Los Angeles, and that rapid spike caused it to shut down as well. The result was all of San Diego and surrounding areas to be in the dark for 11 hours, with some areas taking up to 36 hours to get restored.

I’ve got another reason why Hannibal’s campaign failed: because siege engines/machines in the ancient world were so bulky and hard to transport, Hannibal simply couldn’t bring them with him over the Alps, even when they were disassembled, so he simply left them behind. This led to one important rule in ancient warfare: you can’t lay cities “to siege” without siege machines.

geez this comment section contains my entire vocabulary

The blackout in NYC in 77 also Happened in August 03... to the entire North East Coast. One of the power plants in Niagara falls around Ontario Canada went down and created a chain reaction. It lasted a few days.

Oh yes, fireworks can be very dangerous. One New Years Eve, I was outside with my dogs. It had been a very dry winter and I live in south Texas so there wasn't any snow. I watched my neighbors set their driveway on fire. Technically, all the dead, dry leaves but still the whole driveway was in flames that rapidly went above the 6 foot privacy fence. This was right next to their RV which had big fuel tanks. And the neighbor between us is a painting contractor who stores hundreds of gallons of paint and primer in his garage. Fortunately, they managed to put the fire out but I keep an eye on them now as I now know they're not the brightest bulbs.

The DeHavilland Comet window theory has been disproven. The issue was with the structural integrity of the airframe itself and the overestimation of the material resistance lifespan (i.e., how many pressurization cycles it could withstand before failing).

Accidently setting off a fire suppression system at a remote Fuelling facility. Big mess! It was because of me losing my good multimeter. I had to run to a local hardware and buying a cheap one! Big MISTEAK! The releasing panel had a trouble fault on it, so I was using pos meter to test continuity on the circuits and when testing I touched the wrong terminal with the meter leads and heard a pop sound. It was the fire suppression system releasing! I was so pissed off at what I did I smashed that pos meter. I was coursing and screaming so loud that the workers at the facility heard me and were making sure I was ok! Damn! I was so pissed! I had to report back to my company what had happen and the said fix it whatever it takes. Well with in 24 hours we also had it back to normal. $5000.00 later, we also had to pay them another $1000.00 to have a professional cleaning company come in to clean up after we had everything cleaned up. Needless to say, a cheap multimeter and me are to blame. And yes, we lost the account! Got to love it!

It's amazing how when people admit their mistakes and then work to fix them, people's lives can be saved without them even knowing it.

Shout out to our firefighters! They all face amazing dangers.

You're missing a huge part of the City Corp case... The building would've been strong enough if it was built how he designed it but the company building it decided to switch from bolted to welded joints on the metal beams the support the weight of the building. LeMessurier wasn't informed of the change when the building was being built. The student was the one who informed him, after which he re-calculated things and realized it wasn't strong enough

The fact that my mom drove right past the firework factory back then is crazy 💀

5:02 Girl, how about blaze

Story to tell. Apparently some workers were in the oil mine in the western part of kentucky. I was at home at the time when one of the workers threw down a cigarette and something caught fire. Once it caught fire it caused the whole mine to explode. When it exploded (over 10 miles from our home) we felt the shockwave and our house shook from the blast. I dont remember it exactly but they found their remains. So yea small mistakes, but deadly consequences.

There’s another mistake to the Titanic disaster that wasn’t in this video, but should have been: the tanks/hull divisions that should have prevented the Titanic’s sinking weren’t sealed at the tops, and they were designed so that any number less than or equal to four wouldn’t cause the ship to sink; however, any number greater than four would cause the ship to sink due to “water overflow”, as I call it.

Do to David Blair’s anger he managed to forget to hand over the key to the safe containing Fred fleet’s binoculars if Blair had handed the key the tragedy wouldn’t have happened in the first place 14:54

Mate,You drawing style is out standing!!

Fred Fleet's binoculars were not the only "small mistake with huge consequences". The reason the Titanic is so memorable is not because of the number of lives lost or any other reason than the incredibly large number of "small mistakes with huge consequences". For example, it took the ship about two hours to sink giving the people plenty of time to save more people but small mistake after small mistake cost about three fourths of the passengers.

Re the Comet disasters - much of what we know now about weak points, and especially what we know about the repeated pressurisation and depressurisation stresses and strains on the fuselage, comes from these tragedies. Not having computers to help them work out what was going on, they built a huge water tank and put a Comet in it. They put it through many pressure cycles and eventually they found the first "tear". From that they - using extremely powerful microscopes - saw and learned a lot about "creep", where a metal's atoms move in such a way as to weaken it (I know, this is a *very* basic comment, it's supposed to be). It wasn't just that the windows themselves were wrong, it was that _plus_ the constant pressure cycle. And given that Comet was the first ever jet-engined passenger aeroplane and travelled higher than any other plane, it's not surprising that they didn't think about that being a potential problem. When we look at the numerous later design problems of plane types that, in most cases, are still around (Boeing 737 Max, anyone?), we _should_ find it impossible to look back at every design fault, particularly with each development in technology (the Max's problem, from what I remember, was from a new tech item or system), and have a holier than thou attitude to it. I'm *not* accusing this narrator of it in this case, but I have heard, in so many videos, on so many channels, about so many preventable disasters or other problems (if you have 20:20 hindsight...) that I get a bit annoyed. It really does depend on the tone of voice. At least this guy speaks respectfully when there are innocent casualties from any accident or whatever. I appreciate that. As an aside, it is such a shame about Comet. Once they retrofitted the windows, she had a perfect record, but companies like Boeing were growing more rapidly than De Havilland could, especially given that they were still just recovering from war production and rationing (for the workers). She was a stunningly beautiful plane! For me it's a toss up between her and Concorde as to the most beautiful. I think Comet gets that, but Concorde gets the most awesome prize. Having watched her taking off in Heathrow (on the observation deck - the roof - that was there. No idea if any airports still have them) in the mid-70s, and watching the place come to a standstill - even staff who'd see her daily! - nothing in manned flight is a more awesome thing!

Ive been amazed, and learnt quite a bit, this helps me learn when I study.

Hey, one can be even more amazed by conviction and triumph vs. stupid oversights that resulted in catastrophe. That last one was brilliant. We need more men and women with that type of gumption, IMHO.

Albert is the reason they handcuff the briefcases to their wrist now.

I know of two other small mistakes that caused big consequences. Well, the first one was a mistake while the other was a mishap despite watchful maintenance. 1. The Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986 was caused when a single o-ring came loose, causing the shuttle to break apart upon launching. This disaster was also caused by a lack of a good night’s sleep the day prior. 2. The Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003 was caused when a large piece of foam fell from the shuttle's external tank and breached the spacecraft wing upon launching sixteen days prior. When reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle disintegrated. RIP: Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christine McAuliffe and Rick Husband, William McCool, Laurel Clark, David M. Brown, Kaplana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, and Ilan Ramon.

Where’s the old guy?

8:24 The guy who disapproved some guy trying to go to art school: bro are you sure? 💀🗿

Check your facts on the dehavilland story… mentour now did a great video on it… the crashes were caused by metal fatigue because they were able to go really high, meaning that there is high cabin pressure which damaged an opening on top of the of fuselage, not the passenger or pilot windows. There were also other causes.

Regarding the collapse at 25:09: this is the Goffert Stadium in Nijmegen, not Vitesse. More even so, there is no city of Vitesse in The Netherlands. Vitesse is the name of the professional soccer team from Arnhem, just 10 miles to the north of Nijmegen. And even though the stadium was orignally built in 1939, it was completely rebuilt in 1999 (the old stadium was demolished) and reopened in 2000, so all wasn't caused by a lack of maintenance but faulty calculations in construction.

I made a mistake at work once. I was upset about it but my boss said, "If you do not make mistakes you are not doing anything worthwhile." I had a date that night and we went to PF Chang's. It was good food and delightful conversation. While we ate I told my GF about the mistake and what my boss had said. We laughed about it, with her commenting that with her job, mistakes tended to be a bit more catastrophic. She was a cardiac nurse. We got our fortune cookies and I cracked mine open, read it, said, "I don't believe this!" I showed her my fortune cookie and we both laughed. I even took the fortune to show my boss the following Monday. The fortune read, "If you do not make mistakes you are not doing anything worthwhile." He smiled and said, "Where do you think I got that?"

He worked for THREE MONTHS to find a solution, ALL while the hurricane PAUSED for 90 days off the coast of New Jersey!!! THANKS, Ella!!!

It’s debated whether or not the lookout on Titanic would have been able to see the iceberg with the binoculars. Because it was a moonless night and the sea was a flat calm, the iceberg was all but invisible. The only reason he saw it at all was because it appeared as a black mass on the starry horizon. So the binoculars probably would have been useless.

It's crazy to think that one loose screw changed history forever

Nice channel, also the way you tell the stories is very nice, thank you sir

5:14 just a normal new year in the netherlands

Your channel should be shown in all high schools, within History and Geography classes. I definitely would of gotten A+ instead of just passing as I found those classes really boring. But I may have become something important given all you have taught me! Thank you! I’m always AMAZED at your content! 💕💕💕

A good video, well done, though I did spot an error in the Titanic section, so here's a quick correction from a Titanic enthusiast: In 1911, the Titanic's sister ship, the RMS Olympic, collided with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke, which damaged the ship a bit. The Titanic's construction was put on hold and the Titanic's maiden voyage was bumped back so White Star could make repairs on Olympic. The Titanic's first and chief officers were, before the incident, William Murdoch (demoted to first officer and died when the ship went down) and Charles Lightoller (demoted to second officer and survived the disaster). So the White Star executives had no choice but to transfer Henry Wilde onto the Titanic while repairs on Olympic were carried out, which bumped Murdoch and Lightoller down a rank and kicking Blair, the previous second officer, off the ship, which then lead to Blair taking the keys and the disaster.

TITANIC. The problem was not with the sailor unable to open the vault. The problem was not having a replacement binocular, even in case one got broken. This is utterly ridicolous!

man that Last Story, they must have been Ninjas

1:42 🤣🤣🤣If thats all it took, now i wonder what happen if the Wi-Fi goes down

Fun fact: In rocket science, this is known as a 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly' or RUD for short.

My first job in 79 was at a store as a cashier. There was no digital registers like today. It was a manual register with rows of buttons from 0 to 9 and for the cents, dollars, 10s, and 100s. The 100s were covered as we didn't use them. After cleaning it I removed the cover and the replaced. I rang up the next customer having forgotten to clear it after cleaning. The customer was charged several hundred dollars for that item. The manager fixed the error and I got a warning. Taught me to clear it every time after cleaning.

Let's be real. That last one was all done to avoid a seriously HECKIN' lawsuit.

That last one shows what happens when A: You're humble, even though you designed a big ass building B: You take responsibility for your work. C: you don't discount someone because they are a student or a woman

The reason for the Comet's demise had nothing to do with square windows ... that was an incorrect reporting by the British press. As the Wikipedia article states "Design and construction flaws, including improper riveting and dangerous concentrations of stress around square cut-outs for the ADF (automatic direction finder) antennas were ultimately identified." The real cause was metal fatigue caused by repeated pressurization and depressurization cycles, which was not well understood at the time.

12:15 Matt Lowne built and successfully flew an N1 to the Mün in _Kerbal Space Program,_ where things like loose bolts are inconsequential.

One missed switch and an entire culture takes advantage of it.

A similar situation to the cigarette scenario was at Bradford Stadium in 1985. During a football/soccer match, someone in the crowd tried exstinguishing a cigarette, but it slipped through the floorboards and ignited the litter below.

It's questionable as to whether binoculars would have been helpful for Frederick Fleet in spotting the iceberg that sank the Titanic. One thing that people in the crow's nest looked for at night was water breaking against icebergs. The splashing was easily identifiable against a dark background. But with a calm ocean that night, that was not as easy to spot. Also, with the cold temperature that night, it's possible that the binoculars would have justified fogged up.

5:35 😂🇩🇰 i didnt know we Dane’s could make a mistake😢😂😂😂 Edit : btw we don’t use euro we got kroners/kr

The Titanic disaster was a combination of blunders. 1st. The captain was on his last cruise before retirement. He wanted to set a speed record which the Titanic was designed to do. When entering the iceberg area he did not slow down to 15 knots, as maritime law required. 2nd. The Titanic was made of riveted brittle steel that opened like a zipper when she scraped the iceberg. Better steel and welding were developed years later. A welded ship would only have been dented. 3rd. Life boat drills were not conducted. This brought confusion to the passengers. Some lifeboats had 3 or 4 people.

The comet windows aren't square because the corner of it is smooth, it's not sharp. The crashes was caused of fatigue on the structure (please add anything that I have missed)

Thank God William was open minded enough and didn’t have an ego problem, so that he listened to Diane about the structural flaw of his NY building. In a different scenario, he could have ignored her and disaster may have followed. Good on both of them. 👍

@25:14 The stadium in question was from rivaling team NEC (Nijmegen) and the supporters on it are from Vitesse (Arnhem) "The images show how the supporters jump into the stands and celebrate the three points achieved together with the players, when suddenly the front part of the stands gives way. It appears no one was seriously injured. It was the first meeting between the two rivals since NEC’s relegation to the first division in 2017. The rivalry between the two teams from Arnhem and Nijmegen is enormous. The match was marred by misbehavior from the stands and regularly running high emotions on the pitch. Vitesse supporters escaped disaster on Sunday when they celebrated the victory over NEC (0-1). During a party with the players after the first Gelderland derby in 4.5 years, the front part of the branch collapsed." (quoted source unknown)

Really surprised that Chernobyl wasn't on here. That's the pinnacle definition of small things with giant consequence. The deadly AZ-5 button.

The Comet did not crash because of it's windows. This is a common misunderstanding of the comet crashes so don't worry. The planes actually crashed because of tiny fatigue cracks which were created when the plane's bolts were made.

15:49 I’ve seen those keys. They’re now on display at the museum Titanic Belfast. A MUST see for all historians of Titanic like me!

A correction is needed on the Soviet N-1 booster, designed to send a crew to the Moon. First, there were actually four test flights, all of which failed, before the Soviets shelved the entire project. However, there were no cosmonauts aboard any of those test flights, so no cosmonauts died aboard the N-1.

8:20 Fooled them once, fooled them twice, then they took our paradise. Now our scheme went all to crap. That was no time to nap!

6:04 love the animation man. i would love to see that in ur next vids

It's honestly amazing - because I'm a subscriber of yours I get recommended a whole lot of other 'interesting facts'-type channels, and after experiencing them can confidently say that you are far and away the best such content creator on YT. Your quality, intelligence and commitment to the personal touch is very much appreciated, Be Amazed team.

Seeing these old imagaes from '77 lootings, nothing has changed from todays lootings.

Correction for the comet: it had windows on the top to receive & notify atc & other planes, one bolt for the communication windows was put in too hard which caused a microscopic crack to appear on the side of high stress. So on the fateful flight of 781, the crack exceeded 2 centimeters & the roof tears apart!

The speed of the De Havilland Comet had nothing to do with the crashes. The issue is the pressurization and depressurization cycles causing metal fatigue.

4:14 That’s not a mistake. That’s pure stupidity

I called my classmate Maya mom That was embarrassing

The tiniest mistake I made was using a master ball on something non legendary. You're welcome internet.

Small mistakes makes a huge mess , it definitely true in our world and I admit it , thanks for the content Be Amazed

0:09 what

That yoga video was the most amazing video I didn't see.

Actually, it was a series of errors that lead to the sinking of the Titanic, not any single one! A coal bunker fire leaving the bulkheads compromised and the ship listing (with visible signs on the hull if you look, you can clearly see where the metal had darkened from said fire STILL BURNING when the ship first set sail) and not to mention the order to pull full reverse and to turn hard, plus the First Class passengers leaving all their windows open - I am not making this up; these are genuine factors that contributed to why she sunk so damned fast!

I live in Colorado. Fire awareness and prevention is key. We had yhe Hayman fire when I was a teenager, it was just as bad as the one in this video. Many friends lost houses and family members. This is all because a forest service lady burnt a love note in a camp ring and forget to put it out properly. Any small spark can light shit up if its dry out. Be safe and fun camping!

My favorite part was when you said “ ITS AMAZING TIME!” And started amazing all over

*blackout happens* everybody: 😭 new york: 2:00 👹👹

I'm from Minneapolis and grew up going to the Metrodome. It wasn't an oversight as much as it was just an old building in need of renovations and an unusually large snowfall that year. The building was already being planned to be either demolished for a new stadium to be built or have a huge overhaul. Not a mistake - just neglect 😊

The stadium collapse was caused by a resonance of the structure, much like the infamous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. This concept wasn’t widely understood in all structural design. It’s understandable that a resonant excitation, people jumping in unison, in the design of a stadium structure, especially in the 1930’s. Not even an earthquake excitation would be expected to excite vertical vibration mode.

You're confused, boy! "Delenda est Carthago" was Cato the Elder's way of ending his speeches that triggered the THIRD Punic War. Hannibal Barca's excursion was the SECOND Punic War.

"The city was dark and powerless for 25 hours." *And 25 hours of pure hell, might I add*

5:53 Ok, that is a legitimately awesome picture