Engineering disasters compared across different systems
Fatal Engineering investigates what can be learned from major failures of structures and machines. Each chapter groups cases within one engineering field, allowing the programme to compare events rather than tell only one disaster story. Aviation, bridges, dams, amusement rides, buildings and nuclear power form its six listed subjects.
Plane Crashes includes TWA Flight 800, Kegworth and Japan Airlines Flight 123. Bridge Collapses moves between Tacoma, Minneapolis and Genoa, while Dam Collapses considers Derna, Malpasset and Brumadinho. The series links transport and civil engineering through the challenge of identifying vulnerabilities before they become fatal.
Design, operation and decisions about safety
The amusement-ride chapter includes incidents at Battersea, Dreamworld and Gröna Lund. The building-focused chapter brings together the Sampoong and Rana Plaza collapses with the Grenfell fire. Its scope therefore includes fire safety and neglect as well as structural collapse, showing that the consequences of engineering decisions extend beyond the moment of construction.
The nuclear chapter examines Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, placing design and human error within the same enquiry. Across these examples, Fatal Engineering treats safety as something dependent on materials, maintenance, operation and institutional choices, with the lives of those affected giving the technical questions their urgency.
