Causality
Chain of Events. Cause and Effect. We analyse what went right and what went wrong as we discover that many outcomes can be predicted, planned for and even prevented.
- Update frequency
- every 60 days
- Average duration
- 32 minutes
- Episodes
- 61
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
40: Ocean Ranger
The largest semi-submersible Offshore Drilling Rig of its day, sank in a storm in 1982 whilst two smaller nearby rigs survived with minimal damage. We dive into how not closing a portlight cover, tri…
00:46:36 |
Mon 24 May 2021
39: Therac-25
The successor to the Therac-6 and Therac-20 RadioTherapy machines would integrate the powerful DEC PDP-11 mini-computer to control all of the Therac-25s functions, including the safety interlocks, fo…
00:53:10 |
Tue 23 Mar 2021
38: Thunder River Rapids
A popular family-friendly ride at DreamWorld would claim the lives of four people in 2016. In nearly thirty years of operation the ride had several similar but non-fatal incidents with blame placed o…
00:36:35 |
Sun 24 Jan 2021
37: Variola Birmingham
In 1978 on the cusp of the eradication of SmallPox a Medical Photographer became infected and would ultimately die from the Variola virus. We look at how admiration, promotion and delegation led to a…
00:34:30 |
Thu 26 Nov 2020
36: Big Dig
A series of concrete ceiling tiles in a tunnel portal collapsed on a moving car killing the passenger in downtown Boston in 2006. The selection of the epoxy used in the ceiling tile anchors was unusu…
00:31:47 |
Tue 15 Sep 2020
35: San Bruno
A modification made in 1956 to a pipeline built in the 1940s would ultimately fail costing 8 people their lives in 2010. We look at what went wrong with PG&Es gas pipeline in San Bruno, California.
Wi…
Wi…
00:49:33 |
Sun 26 Jul 2020
34: Aberfan
One Friday morning in 1966 in a small town in Wales a mining spoils waste tip let go with a river of liquified rubble destroying buildings and a school. Killing 144 people, mostly children in their c…
00:34:44 |
Thu 07 May 2020
33: 737 MAX
With two crashes in five months of the new 737 4th Generation a design flaw seemed likely. We look at how Boeings focus on cost-avoidance, grandfathering and bending probabilities during design would…
01:05:52 |
Thu 30 Jan 2020
32: Walkerton
In 2000 the small township of Walkerton Ontario witnessed the largest outbreak of E.Coli infections in Canada's history. The water utility claimed the town water was safe, but it wasn't and many peop…
00:33:48 |
Fri 06 Dec 2019
31: Black Energy
The evening before Christmas Eve in 2015 saw a widespread blackout of the power grid across the Ukraine. We look at how a cyber-attack on electric utility companies in Europe, changed how cyber-secur…
00:26:13 |
Thu 03 Oct 2019
30: Tim Maia
As part of Rio's preparations for the Olympics in 2016 a cycling pathway was built adjacent to a narrow, congested roadway along a picturesque shoreline. When a section collapsed only months before t…
00:19:06 |
Thu 04 Jul 2019
29: Flight 1549
In 2009 an AirBus A320 departing LaGuardia Airport in New York suffered a dual engine failure due to a bird strike during takeoff. In a highly improbable event an equally highly improbable landing in…
00:23:29 |
Tue 04 Jun 2019
28: Hotel New World
In 1986 an unremarkable building in Singapore collapsed killing dozens of people. We look at how the supervision of the construction and the design itself resulted in a structure that was at best cri…
00:25:18 |
Thu 09 May 2019
27: Gare De Lyon
On the 27th of June, 1988 in central Paris a runaway train collided with a stationary train in Gare De Lyon station, claiming 56 lives and injuring 60 more. Whilst the court found the driver guilty a…
00:28:05 |
Thu 04 Apr 2019
26: Bhopal
In December, 1984 in the city of Bhopal in central India, a Union Carbide Pesticide plant would fail and release tonnes of toxic gas into the city, killing thousands of people. It was the worst indus…
00:35:53 |
Thu 07 Feb 2019
25: Deepwater Horizon
In 2010 an Oil Drilling Rig suffered a catastrophic well blowout, killing 11 people, destroying the rig and leading to the worst maritime oil spill in history. It all happened a few hours after the w…
00:47:22 |
Tue 08 Jan 2019
24: Columbia
In 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia launched successfully but after its mission was completed burned up on re-entry with the loss of all onboard. We look at how normalisation of deviation blinded many…
00:26:39 |
Thu 13 Dec 2018
23: Kipton
When two trains collided head on at Kipton, Ohio in 1891, it was a wake up call for the railroad industry in North America whose impacts would be far-reaching and would lead to a new timekeeping stan…
00:19:25 |
Fri 31 Aug 2018
22: Chernobyl
The largest nuclear incident in human history released an estimated 400 times the radioactive material compared to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It all happened because of a test that was delayed by one sh…
00:47:06 |
Sun 08 Jul 2018
21: Milford Haven
A turning point in control systems user interface design and alarm management happened in an unlikely place that few have ever heard of. We look at what went wrong at Milford Haven.
With John Chidgey.
With John Chidgey.
…
00:31:39 |
Sun 29 Apr 2018
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