Mounting deaths and destruction paint a horrific landscape
Everyone makes mistakes, and engineers are no exception. The big problem is that some mistakes can have disastrous consequences, and many engineering mistakes, in fact, do.
We're all familiar with a number of disasters that were caused by major design faults. Many people have lost their lives because engineers wanted to take shortcuts, use cheaper materials, were negligent, and in many cases, just plain wrong at the design stage.
These errors occur across different areas of engineering, from civil to aerospace, among others. In this gallery, you'll find some of the biggest mistakes in the history of engineering, the majority of which had disastrous consequences.
Click through and get to know the biggest engineering mistakes of all time.
On July 17, 1981, in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, a walkway collapsed at a Hyatt Regency hotel. A flawed design was to blame.
The engineers responsible were charged with gross negligence, incompetence, misconduct, and unprofessional conduct. They were acquitted, but their employer Jack D. Gillum and Associates lost their engineering licenses in several states and membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
On May 6, 1937, the German airship caught fire and crashed in New Jersey, United States, killing 36 people.
The disaster was caused by an electrostatic discharge. There was also a hydrogen leak, so the spark was enough to start the fire.
The sinking of the supposedly "unsinkable" ship on April 14, 1912, will forever remind us of our human hubris. A series of factors contributed to the ship's sinking that fateful night, including several design flaws.
When the shuttle flew apart on January 28, 1986, it took seven lives with it. The well-known disaster involved a failure of the O-ring that sealed the shuttle's rocket booster.
According to the official report, "the failure was due to a faulty design unacceptably sensitive to a number of factors."
The most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history occurred April 25–26, 1986, near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, north of Kiev, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The cause of the accident is said to have been a flawed reactor design and poorly trained employees, according to the World Nuclear Association.
In 2010 there was an explosion on a BP drilling rig. This was the largest spill in history and one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the United States. A defective cement job was the main culprit.
This was due to an engineering mistake, as essentially the roof was not strong enough to hold the heavy metal pillars.
In 1975, a combination of poor design, poor maintenance, bad construction, and a typhoon (illustrated) contributed to this Chinese dam breaking. 230,000 people died and around 11 million people had to relocate.
In November of 1940, strong winds caused the bridge to oscillate excessively and as a consequence, collapse. This was clearly an engineering mistake.
This bridge collpased twice: first in 1907, and then again in 1916. This was due to preliminary calculations not being properly checked during the early planning stages. Essentially, the bridge was way over its carrying capacity, which led to the devastating disasters.
May 22, 1915 saw one of the worst rail disasters in Britain. Two signalmen took the blame, but there are suspicions that they were covering up for the railway.
On October 20, 1944, liquefied gas leaked into the sewer and mixed with the sewer gas and air. The result was a catastrophic explosion, and over 130 people died.
Apollo 1 caught fire during a preflight test in 1967. Three austronauts died.
The first Transatlantic telegraph cable was a failure. Poor design and handling compromised the insulation of the cable, resulting in failure.
See also: Fatal technology disasters that went down in history
Major engineering mistakes and their consequences
The consequences were catastrophic and fatal
LIFESTYLE Disasters
Everyone makes mistakes, and engineers are no exception. The big problem is that some mistakes can have disastrous consequences, and many engineering mistakes, in fact, do.
We're all familiar with a number of disasters that were caused by major design faults. Many people have lost their lives because engineers wanted to take shortcuts, use cheaper materials, were negligent, and in many cases, just plain wrong at the design stage.
These errors occur across different areas of engineering, from civil to aerospace, among others. In this gallery, you'll find some of the biggest mistakes in the history of engineering, the majority of which had disastrous consequences.
Click through and get to know the biggest engineering mistakes of all time.