Ahh! Humans! We are flawed creatures who even with all our good intentions, tend to make blunders and while everybody is allowed to make mistakes and have bad days, some lazy days lead to damages worth millions, if not billions!
Here are all the incidents in history, when human error caused entire ecosystems to vanish and much more. Scroll down below with caution, as it might cause you to pull out your hair in disbelief and shock!
01. French train company orders trains that are too fat for platforms
French company SNCF flubbed the purchase of 2,000 trains in 2014. The problem? Many of their platforms were too narrow to fit the new trains. The mistake cost around 50 million euros, a steep cost to incur on top of the 15 billion euros they had just paid to purchase the trains.
The error occurred when the operator neglected to factor in measurements of train platforms that had been built more than 50 years ago. The process of expanding the 1,300 platforms to accommodate their corresponding trains took two years, in a process that was equally expensive and time-consuming as it was embarrassing.
02. ‘Walkie Talkie’ building is so reflective it melts car parts
You might have heard of a building so ugly that it hurts your eyes, but you’ve probably never considered a building that can melt a car. The funny looking building on 20 Frenchchurch Street had to shell out some extra funds for sun protection after complaints that it had melted parts of a man’s Jaguar that was parked across the street.
Martin Lindsay was returning to his vehicle one day when he noticed a photographer snapping pictures of his car. His rear-view mirror and part of the body had rippled under the intense heat generated by the reflection off of the side of the building. Developers paid the 946-pound fee to Mr. Lindsay and had to erect a temporary sunscreen to mitigate sun damage to the surrounding area until a permanent solution was found.
03. NASA, Lockheed Martin, and the metric vs. standard system
In 1999, NASA lost a $125 million satellite in a classic case of miscommunication. Engineers at Lockheed Martin used the imperial system (inches, feet, miles, etc.) when calculating coordinates of a communication station, while NASA used the metric system (centimeters, meters, kilometers, etc.). This caused the Mars orbiter to miss its mark, burn up its engine in the atmosphere and disappear forever.
The struggle between competing measuring systems is one most are familiar with. In this case, a small error ended up costing this team of engineers big. They flung an expensive satellite out of orbit: lost in space, likely orbiting the sun. If there’s a silver lining, its that the team will likely never repeat the mistake.
04. B-2 Bomber crashes due to faulty electronics
Despite its primary purpose (stealth), the B-2 military jet is probably one of the most recognizable military vehicles. Unsurprisingly, it’s also the most expensive, and unfortunately, in this case, the high cost didn’t guarantee the quality of materials.
In 2008, the $1.4 billion piece of sleek military machinery stalled and crashed upon takeoff during a practice flight in Guam when faulty sensors caused airspeed, altitude, and trajectory errors. Fortunately, both pilots ejected before the crash and survived the incident. An investigation discovered that the problem was likely caused by heavy rain, as moisture seeped in and damaged the sensors. It was the most expensive crash in history.
05. A lost hunter starts wildfire in California
The thought process is easy to understand: when you get lost in the wilderness, you light a flare to signal for help. In this case, the problem could go from bad to worse in an instant. A 34-year-old California man was convicted of starting the 2003 wildfire in Cedar, California, then lying to the authorities when questioned.
The judge took pity on the man, who was genuinely remorseful about causing the incident that caused the loss of $1.2 billion in insurance losses, 2,400 homes, and 14 lives. Thirsty and scared, he lit the fire to signal to rescuers as he had been trained to do in hunter safety courses, but hadn’t considered the dry brush and winds prevalent in the area. Due to mitigating circumstances, the man avoided prison time and was sentenced to 960 hours of community service and a fine of $150 a month for five years ($9,000).
06. Spain nearly built a submarine that couldn’t resurface
In 2013, the Spanish government pumped $2.2 billion into a fancy new submarine dubbed The Isaac Peral. Before they finished building the vessel, engineers noticed a serious problem in the design. The unfinished submarine was already so heavy, it risked not being able to reemerge after submerging itself underwater.
Concerned engineers were able to trace the mistake back to a simple calculation error when drafting the design. Someone put a decimal point in the wrong space. Fortunately, the mistake was caught before they completed the submarine, and they were able to salvage the submarine by extending the length of the hull.
07. A stockbroker’s typo cost a Japanese company $225 million
In December of 2005, a small mistake cost Mizuho Securities Co., a Japanese company, an enormous amount of money. One stockbroker mistyped the data… He meant to offer a single share in J-Com’s stock for 610,000 yen (about $5,000) on the New York Stock Exchange, but instead, he ended up offering 610,000 shares for 1 yen.
Investors pounced on the opportunity, buying up a great deal of the mispriced stock. The loss was somewhat mitigated by stock exchange rules, which only allowed the stocks to be sold for as low as 572,000 yen. Still, the company lost around $225 million due to the mistake.
08. Inspectors neglect to replace a valve at the PiperAlpha Oil Rig
In a routine safety inspection of the Piper Alpha Oil Rig in 1988, all safety valves were removed and replaced. All except one. Thinking the system was operational again, a worker hit the start button that caused an explosion that killed 167 people and cost $3.4 billion in repairs ($7.3 billion adjusted for inflation).
Because the permits for the pump and the safety valve were stored in different locations, operators of the pump were not aware of the missing valve and thought it was safe to start the machine. Fed by the oil and gas lines surrounding the facility, the fire raged for hours, complicating rescue efforts. Only 61 of the 226 oil workers survived the disaster (two responders were also killed).
09. Yahoo! sells to Alibaba
This story is now legendary in the tech and finance industries. In 2005, Yahoo! owned 30 percent of Alibaba, a profitable Chinese multinational e-commerce, technology, and retail behemoth. Seven years later, they decided to sell half their stake to Alibaba at $13 a share. At the time it seemed like a good deal… Yahoo! made $7.6 billion.
Fast-forward to 2014. Alibaba goes public and breaks records when their stocks rose to $68 a share. Ouch. Today shares in Alibaba are worth $150 (the company is valued at around $84 billion) and Yahoo! sold its internet business to Verizon in 2017 for $4.8 billion.
10. Space Shuttle Columbia blows a hole in its wing
During liftoff, foam insulation on the Space Shuttle Columbia broke off and damaged the left wing. The small hole likely allowed flammable gases in the earth’s atmosphere to enter the shuttle and explode during reentry. All seven crew members died attempting to land the shuttle.
Despite the damage incurred on takeoff, the flight and ground crews were optimistic about the chances for landing the shuttle successfully. As the Columbia reentered the atmosphere it quickly began shedding debris. Eventually, depressurization caused the flight crew to lose consciousness before the shuttle fully broke apart. NASA had spent $13 billion building the shuttle in 2003.
11. Poor welding caused a bridge collapse in Seoul
Rush hour is stressful and at times even dangerous, but usually the danger comes from other drivers and not the road beneath you. Drivers crossing the Han River in Seoul on March 22, 1994, found out that the bridges we use every day are not as safe and reliable as they should be.
In a scene stolen straight from a disaster movie, the central section of the bridge connecting both sides of the river collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic. The bridge had been operational for 15 years before a connecting pin snapped, plunging 32 people to their deaths. $5,000 was given to the families of each victim and the city began a rigorous inspection process to repair its streets and bridges.
12. Kurt Russell destroys a priceless guitar
The production crew for Quentin Tarantino’s film, The Hateful Eight, borrowed a one-of-a-kind old guitar from the Martin Guitar Museum. The guitar was to be used for a scene where actor Kurt Russell grabs the guitar from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, then smashes it. The film crew was meant to cut right before Russell snatched the instrument to swap it with a cheap replica.
Unfortunately, Russell didn’t realize this and went ahead with the whole scene, smashing the priceless artifact as the crew looked on in horror. In fact, Leigh’s reaction to the guitar’s destruction in the film is genuine, it seems everyone knew about the valuable guitar except Kurt Russell. The Martin Guitar Museum was not amused and decided to never lend an instrument to filmmakers again.
13. New Mexico lost control of a controlled fire
Prescribed fires are necessary for the safety and preservation of the wilderness. Old trees accumulate an excess of fossils, making them especially flammable and dangerous. By preemptively burning certain targeted zones, experts can remove the danger of a fire spreading throughout the entire area. That’s the idea, anyway.
In May 2000, in the Cerro Grande in New Mexico, workers lost control of a controlled fire and gusts of winds quickly spread the flames across the wilderness. The fire raged for a month before it was extinguished, costing around $1 billion in property damage. Fortunately, no humans died in the blaze.
14. Man throws away 7,500 bitcoins in 2009
In 2009, few saw the way cryptocurrency would take off in the coming years. Unfortunately for James Howell, he was not one of the few blessed with the foresight. Shortly after acquiring 7,500 bitcoins when they were worth very little, Mr. Howell spilled coffee on his computer. He salvaged and sold most of the parts and got all the information he thought he’d need off of the hard drive.
The hard drive sat in his drawer for years, before he threw it away during a move. When he realized his mistake, (and after seeing the way bitcoin had taken off), he began searching for the lost hard drive in the city dump. To make matters worse, the Newport City council barred him from continuing the search due to concerns about the environmental impact of disturbing potentially hazardous waste.
Bitcoin peaked when it hit $19,783 in December 2017. This means that Howell essentially threw away $148 million.
15. Exxon-Valdez oil spill
Bound for California, the Exxon-Valdez oil tanker hit Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef off the coast of Tatitlek, Alaska on March 24, 1989. The incident caused $4.4 billion in damages and repairs (more than $9 billion adjusted for inflation). Multiple witnesses allege they saw the captain of the ship drinking heavily the night of the accident, which made him an easy scapegoat. However, later it was revealed that he was not behind the controls when the tanker collided with the reef.
Several factors were identified as contributing to the problem, including an overworked and exhausted staff and an improperly maintained Raytheon Collision Avoidance System. The disaster almost immediately killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds, as well as many ocean mammals and bald eagles. Countless more animals died in the months and years following the incident, and the livelihoods of fisherman and economy of Alaska were severely affected.
16. The Challenger explodes immediately after liftoff
NASA’s Challenger space shuttle was only in the air for 73 seconds before it exploded, killing the crew of seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher who would have been the first civilian in space. The 1986 accident was blamed on unusually cold temperatures that affected the rubber O-rings that sealed the rocket boosters, an issue that was later explained by scientist Richard Feynman using a glass of water.
To make matters worse, the launch was televised and school children all over the country witnessed the horrific tragedy in real time. In addition to the loss of life, the explosion cost $5.5 billion ($12.8 billion adjusted for inflation).
17. Explosion on the Deepwater Horizon
The semi-submersible offshore oil rig owned by Transocean was the site of the worst oil spill in U.S. waters in April 2010. Assigning blame was difficult, though, because both Transocean and British Petroleum company (who were leasing the rig) were deemed financially responsible for the incident that killed 11 people and cost an estimated $40 billion.
The fire couldn’t be extinguished for days following the explosion, and eventually, the entire rig sank. Millions of gallons of oil siphoned from the tanks into the ocean, prompting a massive cleanup effort to mitigate the severe environmental damage. There were a number of factors that contributed to the disaster, including flawed design, unsafe operating procedures, and warning signs that were not analyzed or corrected.
18. Bridge alignment went wrong
When you come across a fail like this, it really makes you wonder if somebody was out there playing an elaborate joke or something. There’s no way that anyone could possibly mess up a project that important, right? It’s less than likely that the guy responsible for this one kept his job…
On the plus side, it looks like one lane on each side lines up with the other. At least all they need now is a couple of ramps to send traffic flying over the gap to and from work on their daily commute!
19. Lotus Riverside apartment complex falls on its side
A residential complex in Shanghai collapsed due to bad construction practices. Ten meters of displaced soil was piled against one side of the building as a 4.6-meter car-park was being dug beneath the opposite side. Sadly, one worker died in the collapse as he returned to the site to collect his forgotten tools.
The real estate company responsible repeatedly ignored warnings about the mud-pile. Simply moving the soil before the incident would have saved the company around $800,000 and one man’s life. The 2009 incident shone a light on problems with construction supervision in China, highlighting the desperate need for reform and accountability.
20. Chernobyl nuclear disaster
In a tragic twist of irony, this catastrophic disaster occurred during a safety test. There were a number of mistakes and oversights that contributed to the catastrophe, including a lack of casing around the reactor and inadequate safety procedures. The experiment on April 26, 1986, was supposed to test a new emergency core cooling system and required a simulated power outage.
An unexpected power surge caused an explosion and subsequent fire that carried radioactive particles for miles through the smoke. It’s hard to calculate the cost and casualties of the disaster. Two people died in the facility the night of the accident and between 31 and 54 people later died of blast trauma or acute radiation syndrome. Deaths from long-term exposure to radiation from the disaster were estimated to be around 4,000 in 1986. It’s estimated to have cost $358 billion in cleanup and loss of usable farmland ($834.73 billion adjusted for inflation).
21. Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler
In 1998, Daimler-Benz (maker of the Mercedes-Benz line of luxury vehicles) acquired Chrysler for $37 billion. Nine years later, they sold the company for only $7 billion. Though it was sold to investors as an equal merger, it became clear that Daimler-Benz was calling the shots. For a while, everything seemed to be going right, stocks rose to $108.62 a share in 2001. But rocky times were ahead.
In 2006, Chrysler reported a loss of $1.5 billion despite launching 10 new vehicles that year. The instability and loss of profits proved to be too much for Daimler-Benz who sold off 80 per cent of its shares in the company the following year. In 2008, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy and was famously bailed out by the Treasury Department in 2009.
22. Millennium, the wobbly bridge in the Thames
On June 10, 2000, construction was completed on an 18.2 million-pound bridge connecting both sides of the River Thames. The bridge closed three days later, after a disturbing incident while the bridge was crowded with foot-traffic: The bridge was swaying.
During the weekend it opened, approximately 160,000 people crossed the pedestrian bridge and were understandably alarmed by the rapid movement of the fixture. The cause of the problem was the bridge’s popularity; too many people stepping in unison along the path. The bridge closed immediately following the concerns, but more money had to be raised to correct the problem. It would be two years before the bridge would open again.
23. Russia sold Alaska to the United States
“The Last Frontier,” wasn’t always part of the U.S.A, in fact, it used to belong to Russia. Alexander II didn’t think much of Alaska; the harsh weather made it hard to farm, and high transportation costs kept it from being especially profitable as a trading port. He sold the colony to the U.S. for $7.2 million in 1867.
Few Russians had explored the land’s interior up until that point, otherwise, they would have noticed what a huge mistake the sale was. The United States clearly got away with a robbery during negotiations: Alaska is rich in natural resources like oil and gold. A century and 20 years later, economists estimate Alaska’s oil and gas reserves alone are worth $200 billion.
24. Robert Wayne sells his Apple stock for $800
Everyone knows that hindsight is 20/20, but still, this had to sting. Steve Jobs is a household name, and most moderately tech-inclined people are familiar with Steve Wosniack, but many are unfamiliar with Apple’s third founder Ronald Wayne. Wayne drew Apple’s iconic logo, and served as an intermediary between the two innovative Steves.
Jobs’ strong personality clashed with Wayne, eventually prompting him to sell his 10 percent stake in the company for $800 in 1976, a decision that prevented him from becoming a multi-billionaire. (Apple became worth over $1 trillion last month). Despite missing out on enormous earnings, Wayne said he has no regrets in leaving the company.
25. The Titanic hits an iceberg
You’re undoubtedly familiar with this infamous story of ignored warnings. Dubbed “the unsinkable,” the RMS Titanic was the largest passenger ship in history in 1912 before striking an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and disproving its nickname.
Despite being warned of the impending danger, the crew decided to embark on the ill-fated route. On April 15, 1912, the boat scraped its right side along an enormous glacier, causing the vessel to take on water and sink. The monetary loss is estimated to be around $7.5 million (about $175 million in today’s currency). While this is a steep cost, it that pales when compared to the loss of life: Over 1500 people died.
26. Excite could have bought Google during its infancy
If you remember the early days of the internet, you might remember Excite. In 1999, it was the second most popular search engine (Yahoo! was number one). Google, then called BackRub, was a promising new competitor in the search engine market (side note: imagine an alternate reality where people refer to an internet search as a ‘backrub’). Excite was interested in buying the company for $750,000, but passed when Google insisted that its technology replace Excite’s.
Maddingly, one of the main reasons cited for Excite passing on Google’s technology was because they thought it worked too well. Users would find the information they wanted and move on too quickly, and Excite would lose precious revenue. Excite sold to Yahoo! in 2004, and recent estimates value Google at $167 billion.
27. Nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island
The worst nuclear disaster in American history occurred on March 28, 1979, when a malfunction triggered a nuclear meltdown. A stuck valve resulted in a coolant leak and contamination of the containment unit of one of the reactors. This problem was compounded by operators ignoring many warning signs that should have alerted them to the problem.
Fortunately, no one was killed in the incident, and radioactive contamination didn’t reach outside the containment unit. However, cleanup cost $836.9 million (about $2.95 billion adjusted for inflation) and sparked public outrage that led to a much-needed investigation and reform around the nuclear power industry.
28. Prestige oil tanker sinks
An aging oil tanker sank off the coast of Galicia, Spain on Nov. 19, 2002. The structurally deficient tanker was caught in a storm that burst one of its oil tanks. The damage eventually led to the entire ship sinking and the pollution of thousands of miles of coastline in what is considered the worst environmental disaster to hit both Spain and Portugal.
Cleanup cost an estimated $5.7 billion and irreparable damage to the surrounding coastal environment. Various parties were deemed responsible for the disastrous spill, including the Spanish government that ordered the tanker to make the trip through the high seas.
29. Fukushima nuclear disaster
Another tragic case of “I told you so.” Tokyo Electric Power Company and nuclear regulators repeatedly ignored concerns about the aging power plant in Fukushima. Disaster stuck on the afternoon of March 11, 2011 in the form of a tsunami that plowed into the nuclear facility.
Flooding of the power plant resulted in multiple hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns. Radioactive material leaked out of the facility and resulted in the contamination of the ocean, local tap water, and the surrounding area. The already critical situation was made worse by the Japanese government’s unpreparedness to deal with a nuclear disaster. It cost $12 billion to shut down the reactors, but the full cost of the disaster is much higher.
30. Texaco and the Lake Peigneur accident
Most people can tell you about a time when pushing something a bit too far ended up costing them. Perhaps none more so than workers on an oil rig in Lake Peigneur. In 1980, an oil rig contracted by Texaco drilled a bit too deep below the lake and struck a salt mine, which created a giant hole that quickly swallowed the lake. A giant whirlpool ensued, sweeping up barges, boats, and trees. The mistake caused giant geysers as the displaced air and water filled the caverns of the mine.
The disaster was caused by a calculation error that resulted in the rig drilling in the wrong coordinates. Luckily no one died as a result, but Texaco had to pay $44.8 million in out-of-state settlements (almost $149 million adjusted for inflation), and the ecosystem of the lake was irreparably changed.
31. New Jersey and the ‘Race to the Top’
Who hasn’t written the wrong year down by accident? In an ironic twist of fate, failure to proofread an application resulted in New Jersey missing out on a large federal grant to be put toward education reform.
In a bid to the federal government for educational reform money, a clerical error cost the Garden State $400 million. Instead of comparing the state’s budget information between 2008 and 2009, the state provided information for 2010 and 2011 instead, costing them five points, 10th place, and $400 million. If one group came out ahead, it was educators in Ohio who edged out New Jersey for the final slot.