Top 10 Worst Engineering Mistakes

Top 10 Worst Engineering Mistakes

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10 Worst Engineering Mistakes

Aren’t you glad we live in such a modern world? I mean, sometimes I wonder what it was like for our ancestors to get through life. I can’t imagine myself in a world without the internet, telephones, and all the other commodities we have today. All of these improvements have been possible thanks to visionary people like the engineers. Without them, we’d still be living in the Stone Age. But unfortunately, some things haven’t gone as planned and there’ve been many incidents that led to terrible losses of money and people’s lives. Today we’ll be looking at “10 Worst Engineering Mistakes.” We’ll be looking at some ideas that meant well, but ended up harming others pretty badly. The one at the top of the list cost billions of dollars to be made, but unfortunately, it was a terrible disaster just like everything else I’m about to show you. Are you ready for this?

The Walkway in the Hyatt Regency Hotel


When you go to a hotel, you’re supposed to feel relaxed and calmed - confident that you’re in a safe space where you’re well taken care of. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City. On July 17 of 1981, two walkways collapsed. Well, in fact, one walkway collapsed on top of another one, which caused the two walkways to fall right on top of a Tea Dance that was being held in the hotel’s lobby. 114 people lost their lives and more than 200 got injured. It took 14 hours for the rescue team to complete their job. The incident revealed that there had been some engineering flaws from the moment these walkways were designed. In fact, the engineers who worked on the designs were convicted of misconduct and negligence. They even lost their engineering licenses! So bad that it took an incident for them to see what they did wrong.

Vasa


The sinking of the Titanic was one of the most memorable accidents of the early 20th century, but three hundred years before, Vasa was the largest sailing ship in the world and it sank due to engineering mistakes. The sinking was due to the fact that Vasa's gunports were way too low and the mass of the objects was not properly distributed - these factors made the ship capsize and sink. What's impressive about this ship is that more than 300 years have passed since the incident and Vasa is still in pretty decent conditions. Apparently, the water was so polluted at the time so the microorganisms that usually devour wood were not present in the area. This allowed the ship to stay in good conditions and today you can find it inside a museum in Stockolm. It's a pity that the ship sank, but I'm glad they were able to preserve it!




The Gretna Rail Disaster


I guess we don’t use trains as much as people did in the past, but back they were very popular back then. So popular that in 1915 five trains got involved in what was considered to be the most chaotic railway accident since the communication by rail was invented. It all happened in Gretna, Scotland and the incident took the lives of more than 200 people, including railway staff and soldiers. When authorities began to investigate, they realized that the accident could have been avoided if the people working at the railway had been a bit more responsible. The job wasn’t necessarily a complex engineering task, but it required people to be alert at all times, making sure that all signals and communication systems were in order.

The Bhopal Disaster


Engineers are not only in charge of designing cool stuff - a lot of their projects also require maintenance and failing to do so can have terrible consequences, like what happened in Bhopal, India in 1984. In case you don’t know, this part of India got a lot of attention back in the mid 80s after a pesticide plant released a ton of toxic gas. This immediately ended the life of 2,259 people and then there were about 11,000 more deaths after the incident. But what exactly went wrong? Well, their materials got contaminated with water and this caused a reaction that turned into a deadly tragedy. According to some people, this problem could have been avoided if proper maintenance had been done in time. It’s the little details that can make a big difference in moments like this. In 2006, it was revealed that more than half million people had been injured due to this incident and thousands of them had to live with permanent damage. As of today, the region is still toxic - all because someone didn’t do proper maintenance. Sad, isn’t it?