When a Mine Elevator Falls Over a Kilometer 

As soon as I hear “a complex set of underground shafts and tunnels” you’ll never have to worry about me going there ever.

You'd think a mine shaft would be a place you'd be safe from being hit by a train.

"something unthinkable happened above the elevator" Me: "idk the cable snapped?" *" A f***in train derailed and fell down on top of it crushing everyone and recirculating their remains"* Yeah never would've guessed that tbh

The mine air system recirculating the gore of the crushed miners sounds like something a horror writer would be proud of writing and/or debate if they should really include it. That is just another level or disturbing. That's definitely one of the most horrible things to ever result from an accident.

Those guys in charge of the recovery efforts must've had tungsten lined stomachs because i can't even imagine the gore down there.

ah yes, the classic molasses flood. whats funniest to me is that they try to teach us it when we're kids, but its so heavily sanitized that they dont even tell us that people died, so a lot of people treat it as a joke

I appreciate you including the differences on how the two mining accident investigations were handled, during and after apartheid. It’s important for people to hear.

I can't imagine being stuck in molasses, and you can't move. How horrible. I've heard the story before but to hear the stories of those swept away or trapped is heartbreaking.

That elevator incident was about the most horrific mine story I've never heard before. WOW! That's what I love about history. You'll never hear it all. There is always something new to learn. Good video.

The mental trauma for the body recovery team is unimaginable.

Yes! Make me fear elevators and molasses, in addition to caves, mountains, and deep water!

From so many of your videos, you always mention the miners rushing in to rescue their fellow workers. It really shows how gruesome it was when the miners didnt even think about rescuing anyone.

I'm trying to picture 100 miners on one elevator ..like nah guys go on without me I'll catch the next one..

No one will ever be able to accuse Sean of "sensationalising" his story-telling! When he says, "These stories are among the worst ever," he means it! Sheesh!

I was in an elevator that failed 2 stories above the ground. It hit the ground so fast, I should have laid on the floor to dispurse the energy. Instead, I white-knuckled the railing and ended up hitting the ground with enough force to impact my bones but produce no pain. I'm an inch shorter than I used to be and have a significant fear of elevators now.

What a heartbreaking story. My uncle was killed in a collapsed mine in another african country. Absolutely terrible 😢 glad they were found guilty and this changed the safety regulations.

Few things could possibly be worse than being trapped underground with little chance of escape its really the stuff of nightmares

If my calculations are correct, which they might not be, it would have taken the elevator around 11 or 12 seconds to fall a third of a mile. That has to be a horrifying last 12 seconds of life.

After work, sitting on my work table, sipping on hot chocolate, watching this channel's videos is one of the feelings you'll not get anywhere.

Love it when there’s a scary interesting story on another day other than Sunday !!!! Congrats on a million too !!

I can't imagine the long term PTSD those mine workers must have had Thanks for pointing out the effects of apartheid on working conditions

There was a recent similar accident at an Impala Implats mine, it happened 27 november 2023. A double decker elevator carrying 86 went into a free fall, falling about 160 meters. 11 died immediately and a further 2 died in hospital. The bottom cage was crushed to about 1 meter in height. I was part of the animation team that did the accident reconstruction and I can tell you that it was absolutely horrible.

Amazing how automatically being considered guilty unless you can prove you took every safety precaution, makes sure you have top-notch safety precautions and protocols.

Babe wake up there's new Scary Interesting video about traumatic event happening in the past

When I visited Boston, I went out of my way to see the Molasses Flood plaque. It's a very small rectangular stone, sitting on the edge of a baseball field... If you didn't know it was there, you'd probably never notice it. I stood and thought about the contrast of this tiny memorial to a tragedy, surrounded by places for kids to play. It was rainy and cold so no one was there, giving me a bit of peace to contemplate it. I couldn't smell any molasses, though.

The molasses story sounds like something that you could only hear about in the 20’s. I can’t imagine something like that happening nowadays.

At first I just assumed the elevator would have a malfunction and fall BUT what happened is so much worse! There shouldn't even be a POSSIBILITY that something could fall into that elevator shaft. Especially something THAT heavy.. What a nightmare.. The molasses flood is such a crazy event. I can't imagine what that would have been like to witness or interact with once the initial flood was over and things were hardening up, and sticky..

As a medic I’ve seen some gruesome things but this is unreal. I rarely got nauseated due to seeing mangled bodies but I don’t know how the recovery team managed this.

You should cover fed-ex flight 705. It’s absolutely ridiculous that everyone survived, but also horrifying what the survivors lived through (and that they can never fly again).

My mom told me a story about my grandpa, who was a coal miner for a while. She said he used to be very talkative and different in his day to day life. One day a coal elevator crushed his friend in front of him. From that day on, she said he was much quieter and it is very observable. Then he got moved to the packing facility where he inhaled asbestos for a few years straight.

Both cases about companies who cared a lot more about their profits than safety. Greed does this... Aparthied was nothing but camouflage for slavery... In 1995 South Africa was too much of a young free nation to make the needed changes. The mine management took advantage of it and could not care less about the workers, at least their were charged for murder, in the Aparthied days they could have just sweep it all under the rug and that was that...

I have visited coal mines in Wales and Canada , also a working salt mine in Nova Scotia , Canada . I went on a guided tour by current or former miners , there were horror stories and being at the actual location , deep underground , often in total darkness( lights turned off ) is an impressive experience . RIP . Also visited Aberfan in Wales where a mountain of spoil from a mine collapsed onto a school full of children . It is a small village in a valley , a beautiful place with soo much sadness . RIP .

This episode was brought to you by: gross negligence and corporate greed!

That mine elevator accident is so horrific. So horrible for everyone who died...and traumatizing for everyone involved in recovery...how on earth is this molasses story now more known? That is insane

A certain blue puppet taught me about the 2nd story. You had no idea how excited i was when i realise where the story was going

You would be amazed how things get upgraded and taken seriously when bosses and owners of companies actually realise that their head is on the line and not just protected like usual

Best timing, thanks for the amazing storytelling Scary Interesting!!

congrats on a million my friend! long time viewer and glad to see you getting the recognition you deserve

Congrats on 1 Million man! You deserve it man, your content is amazing, keep up the good work 😁👍

"the worst you've ever covered on this channel..." That's a very bold statement, my friend... I think you might be right though. Yikes!

Nothing beats your channel

I'm a PhD and part of my training is in physics. The amount of energy and G-shock that was transferred to the poor miners' bodies when that car hit the shaft floor, then got hit by the 12-ton locomotive instantly thereafter, can easily be described in the cold, hard terms of Newtons and multiples of gravity. But that doesn't begin to describe the horror that would have resulted on those fragile human bodies. The best approximation I can give without getting into extremely disturbing detail would be like having those poor souls stood in front of a firing squad of howitzers. "Red mist" gets tossed around a lot in military circles, but you almost never hear it used in the context of a civilian accident. This was one of those accidents. Dear God in heaven. I'm glad that for once, justice was served on those responsible for the disaster. Even the most rudimentary safety precautions would have prevented it.

Ah the "you can't make this stuff up" , episode. Imagine the horror of an elevator falling....but then a train falls on it too, on a mine and the gore gets sucked into the ventilation system... Sounds far fetched. Life really is stranger than fiction.

The way you format and edit these videos is awesome!

Thank you for doing that episode on the molasses flood of Boston. I think I suggested this a couple of times over the last year cuz it's really horrific event. to this day and I can attest it because I do live near Boston and have been in the area on really hot July and August nights what's really humid out and you go down to the north end and there's no wind you can still smell glamorous. there was so much molasses it actually when it flooded it imbued itself into the wood timbers of local structures and buildings it even was so powerful that it derailed or detoupled the elevated train lines that had just been installed in Boston 20 years 25 years previous not all of them just a section of it near the explosion or the flood. they actually still kept some of the girders I think there's a museum in the area for the flood and other events in Boston's north end. but it was a horrendous accident I mean they were they were still using horses back then and a lot of the carriages that were pulling you know the carts for various different products and shipments the horses got mired in the lasses and it's a lot of them drowned a lot of dogs drowned a lot of people drowned they got stuck in the molasses and couldn't get out and couldn't get to the surface it was a couple of feet thick for what I understand there was a rate a wave a tidal wave almost of molasses 20 feet tall and it was very little warning that stuff was going to happen on the fact that little kids in the area would go up at the tank with jars and collect molasses that was leaking between the rivets on the container where they held all the molasses Now wasn't a hot day but it was a warm day after a cool spell and the molasses started what's known as churning which is it's continued its fermentation and built up a lot of gas like lava that's pressurized or a soda bottle that's shaken it can only take so much pressure before it explodes And the rivets gave way. horrendous horrendous disaster thank you for covering it cuz it is important part of Boston's history the great molasses flood. I do know that after this event laws were changed about what kind of industrial products could be kept within city limits in the state of Massachusetts the next time anything like this happened was in Newton Mass or there was a big explosion and it blew out the wall of a building I don't know if they were doing some kind of explosive work but they should have been in the city Because they were using explosives within the city near houses and schools wasn't even a hospital luckily but it was the industrial mill area old mill area of Newton along the Charles River near Needham I believe Luckily no one was killed but a lot of people got hurt And then they clamp down on laws and restrictions again His politicians get lax after a while they forget what happened in the past and think oh it can't happen again and as soon as they think that bangs something happens again and it's the company owners to get fined not the politicians for being stupid. maybe we should rewrite the law so that not only to the owners and the shareholders take part in the problem and share the burden of retribute repayment politicians that were in duty at the time should also be held accountable monetarily maybe they would make so many stupid laws that make no sense and actually do more damage than good.

Been following you since 50k, I can’t believe you hit a million dude that’s awesome!!! Congrats 🎉 🙌

I remember learning about the molasses flood in middle/high school and then again when I moved to Boston for university, but the gravity and details of the tragedy were largely glazed over. Thank you for covering this!

You found some amazingly horrific stories this time. I figured you were running out of caving stories but the way you give the same level of detail and perspective to every story you cover is addicting.

Something about those horses under molasses really gets to me.

The first vid I saw from you was the mine under the ocean incident. So all the mine videos are my favorite but i have to say the cave diving ones i think are a close second. Thank you for the work you have put into making many hours of content for me to enjoy.

I love the way you tell stories. The background sound and the voice is amazing. Please keep up your videos.

Nice, I love listening to these while I work, good stuff man.

I would be scarred for life if I had to recover the bodies of those poor miner from the elevator. It would probably look even worse that WW1 battlefield.

To scary Interesting thank you for recommending the White Vault, just finished the first cycle ( the first 5 seasons) and me and my mom love it. Also I love your channel and I follow it since I came across the video that you made of the Franklin Expedition 4-5 months ago

Congrats on 1 million subscribers man. Been here since way less, great to the channel take off

I cannot get enough of your stories! You do so well telling them and they are fascinating! Yes, most have terrible and tragic endings but so interesting! Please continue to make these!

its a good day when scary interesting uploads

Imagine just chillin for 15 seconds while that falls

The thumbnail of this video made me think it was a Short and I almost didn't watch it, I'm glad it came up later on my home page because I love these videos :)

The editing is always above and beyond, another great video!

Between this channel and Mr deified i have solidified the knowledge that i am, in fact, in my lane

7:30 I find it hard to belive an elevator roof would have survived a train car falling on it from 1.5 km. Also how would the pulley system withstand such forces. No chance.

Thanks to this channel, the chances of me going into caves, cave diving or diving anywhere tbh are zero. Great content, binged pretty much everything in a few days haha.

Love how fast yallve grown! Congrats!

I'm a regular viewer and usually seeing gore doesn't affect me, less so hearing about it, but there was just something really disturbing about hearing that all those miners were crushed into a "single mass", damn... For one the warning at the start of the video was there for a reason

Hate it when I trip and fall over a kilometer. My kids spread them all over the den floor. I say, "Get in here and clean up your kilometers when you're done playing with them."

Another great video. Damn your channel blew up since I subbed (too bad Kyon Tales and Knightraven haven't). Keep it up!

You broke the 1M mark. Great job! Been watching for a long time. Keep it up!

Thus begins the elevators are terrifying arc.

That would really really suck.

I was wondering if you'd ever cover the mine elevator dropping accident. I came across this years ago and was so horrified by this. I never heard of a worse accident. Those poor poor men! Excellent covering it.

Some dude riding his bed down the street on top of a wave of molasses is like something out of a Road Dahl novel.

Love when a video drops while at work 😅

New to the channel! Love it!!!!

I remember hearing about this around that time and that there was a labour dispute at the time. The name of the unit the men ride in is called a "cage", at least where I have worked.

When Scary Interesting and Mr. Deified upload in the same day it's a good day!

If I was in that elevator I'd probably die.

Mike Rowe values profits over safety.

Man the mine disaster videos really hit home. Hearing some of the stories my dad has to tell I’m so surprised there hasn’t been any major incidents for years with all the mines we have here in Manitoba. Although there has been a single death and a number of close calls.

I ALWAYS look forward to a new episode of “Scary Interesting”!!!…You give the best,most informative explanations of every topic you cover!…Keep up The GREAT Work❣️

What an absolutely nightmarish death.

God dang. A train car crushing an elevator.

Can you imagine being on the recovery team of that elevator accident? Man, id be in a straight jacket.

Please do a video on "Uttar Kashi tunnel disaster" it's a collapse of tunnel in India where 40 workers were trapped and very big rescue operation helped to save them ❤

I love this channel.. Thank you for the storytelling.. I'm from South Africa Cape Town.. Your channel is my addiction.. I can't stop watching 🙂

Love your channel!!

"One of the benefits of this system is that it kept labor cheap." ... Divide to rule, yup. Sounds like here.🇺🇸

SO it falls half a kilometer. Not over a kilometer

ive been watching since Spring 2022 and I think you had ~1k subscribers then, congrats on a million!

My story suggestion was used! You did a great job covering it! I actually learned a lot that I didn't even know about the disaster

"the best of everything was reserved for the ruling class" - unfortunately 30 years on and it is still the status quo

1:50 assume you meant to say Praetoria rather than Johannesburg (as the capital of South Africa).

Love the Disaster Stories ! Keep them coming

A late morning Scary Interesting, love it.

As horrible as the incident was Martin was a gigachad for surfing across the molasses on his bed

I always take the stairs as the minor excersize adds up over the years and decades. Now I have even more reasons to stick to the stairs.. thx =)

New to this it's interesting....and scary. Well made

Damn, poor Cous having to deal with that mess

detachable hook or not there is no way that elevator cable would have taken the weight of a train falling onto it from a thousand plus meters above.

I know it's not the main focus of the video but your description of apartheid is really distracting in how oversimplified it is. It really comes across as if you don't know what it actually is.