Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes, can be very expensive but that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is identified as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the Top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.
This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involved casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.

No:10. Titanic - US$150 Million. The sinking of he Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 Million to built ($150 Million in today's dollars).















No:9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge - US$358 Million. On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off he A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 Million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $138 Million.
















No:8. Metrolink Crash - US$500 Million. On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink comuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful deadth lawsuits are expected to cause $500 Million in losses for Metrolink.

















No:7. B-2 Bomber Crash - US$1.4 Billion. Here we have our first Billion dollar accident (and we're only at No.7 on the list). This B-2 Stealth Bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on february 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.































No:6. Exxon Valdez - US$2.5 Billion. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 Billion.


















No:5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig - US$3.4 Billion. The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, he technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 pm that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion. Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.
















No:4. Challenger Explosion - US$5.5 Billion. The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one joint, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 Billion in 1986 ($4.5 Billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 Million from 1986 - 1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).



















No:3. Prestige Oil Spill - US$12 Bilion. On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captian called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbor. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered he ship away from their shores. The storm eventually too its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea. According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 Billion.



















No:2. Space Shuttle Columbia - US$13 Billion. The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of he wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 Million was spent on the investigation , making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 Million. In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.













No:1. Chernobyl - US$200 Billion. On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125000. The total cost including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly 200 billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost 2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

Amazing Aerial View

Icebreaker Louis Saint Laurent in Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territory, Canada.
















Workers resting on bales of cotton, Thonakaha, Korhogo, Ivory Coast. Cotton crops occupy approximately 335000 square kilometers worldwide, and use nearly one quarter of all pesticides sold.
















Sand dune in the heart of vegetation on Fraser island, Queensland, Australia. Fraser Island, named after Eliza Fraser, who was shipwrecked on the island in 1836, is the world's largest sand island. On top of this rather infertile substanum, a humid tropical forest has developed in the midst of which wide dunes intrude, moving with the wind. Fraser Island has important water resources, including nearly 200 freshwater dune lakes, and has varied fauna such as marsupials, birds, and reptiles. Welcoming 200000 visitors a year without damaging the local fauna nad flora is a real challenge to sustainable development on the island, which was declared a World Heritage site by Unesco in 1992.
















The Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix basilica in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast. In 1983, Yamoussoukro replaced Abidjan as the official capital of Ivory Coast. President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who died in 1993, made his native village into a modern city with a grid of wide avenues - which are almost deserted - and every modern facility: international airport, luxury hotels, golf course, prestigious universities, and so forth. Yamoussoukro also boasts the world's biggest basilica, Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix (Our Lady of Peace), consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1990. The former president, who donated this buiding to the Vatican, insisted that he had financed the basilica's cost out of his own personal fortune. This building was seen as a colossal waste by many Ivorians. It was highly controversial in a country that lacks schools and hospitals and has only nine doctors for every 100000 inhabitants (compared to 413 in Norway).
















Flock of sheep, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. After the missionary period, between gold fever and the first drillings for oil, sheep-raising became the chief activity in the north of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The local cabanas (sheep pastures) are huge sheep farms with 3.5 acres of land per head of livestock.















Tree of life, Tsavo national park, Kenya. This acacia is a symbol of life in the vast expanses of thorny savanna, where wild animals come to take advantage of its leaves or its shade. Tsavo National Park in southeastern Kenya, crossed by the Nairobi-Mombasa road and the railway axis, is the country's largest protected area (8200 square miles, or 21000 square kilometers) and was declared a national park in 1948.















Elephants in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland delta, flooding seasonally, and is populated by five ethnic groups of people, sharing it with hundreds of species of animals.
















Iraqi tank graveyard in the desert near Al Jahrah, Kuwait. This graveyard of tanks will bear witness for many years to the damages that war causes both to the environment and to human health. In 1991, during the first Gulf War, a milliom depleted uranium shells were fired at Iraqi forces, spreading toxic, radioactive dust for miles around. Such dust is known to have lasting effects on the environment and to cause various forms of cancer and other serious illnesses among humans.

















Village in the Rheris Valley, Er Rachidia region, High Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Fortified villages are frequently seen along the valley of the Rheris, as they are on most rivers of southern Morocco, inspired by the Berber architecture buikt to protect against invaders. Today, with the threat of raids now gone, the close clustering of dwellings, small windows, and roofs covering houses and narrow streets serve the purpose of protecting occupants from heat and dust. The flat, connecting roofs also provide a place for drying crops.















The Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada. These oil deposits make up the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world, and as recently as 2006, produced over 1 million barrels of crude oil per day.
















Road interrupted by a sand dune, Nile Valley, Egypt. Dunes cover nearly one-third of the Sahara, and the highest, in linear form, can attain a height of almost 1000 feet (300m). Barchans are mobile, crescent-shaped dunes that move in the direction of the prevailing wind at rates as high as 33 feet (10m) pe year, sometimes even covering infrastructures such as this road in the Nile Valley.
















Tea cultivation in Corrientes province, Argentina. The fertility of the red soil and the regular rains of the Corrientes region create the ideal conditions for the cultivation of tea. In an effort to protect the soil against erosion, tea is planred along curved terraces and protected from the wind by hedges. Unlike Asian and African countries, where the young sprouts are handpicked, in Argentina mechanical harvesting is the rule, done mainly with high-clearance tractors that are driven along the straight rows of tea bushes.
















Icebergs and an Adelie penguin, Adelie Land, Antartica. Antartica, the sixth continent, is a unique observation point for atmospheric and climatic phenomena; its ancient ice, which trapped air when it was formed, contains evidence of he Earth's climate as it has changed and developed over the past millions of years.
















American cemetery north of Verdun, Meuse, France. Covering some 40 hectares (100 acres) at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, 40 kilimeters (25 miles) from Verdun, the American cemetery was dedicated in 1935 by the American Battle Monuments Commission. The commission was created in 1923 at the request of General Pershing, who had taken part in the American offensive of 1918. Its aim was to undertake architectual and landscape studues in ordr to restructure American cemeteries and commemorative monuments in Europe. Whereas the French army chose to build permanent cemetaries where temporary cemeteries had been made during the hostilities, the American army opted to create a single cemetery. Some 25000 American tombs scattered around Verdun were then brought together at Romagne where, afte almost half the bodies were repatriated to American soil, 14246 soldiers have lain ever since.















Islet in the Sulu Archipelago, Philippines. More than 6,000 of the 7100 Philippine Islands are uninhabited, like this islet in the Sulu Archipelago, a set of 500 islands that separate the Celebes and the Sulu seas. Their extraordinary biodiversity is under threat, not from distant industrial sites but from the effects of global pollution. These islands, which barely rise above the surface of he water, are among the first potential victims of global warming and are certain to dissapear when the sea level rises.

More nice & humorous pictures

OK girls, just follow me...I won't let anything happen to you.


















That was the funniest joke I ever heard!!!
















Weeds and flowers thriving together..Gee whatta harmony..

Look me in the eye, and believe me when I say "I did not eat that mouse"



















Who? Us?..We've been in the back of the truck the whole time....

















OK, now on three...say "acorn".























To think they took a rocket to get there... It would have been so much easier by rail!























If you cross this line...Oh, will you be sorry!

Sights you may not see in a lifetime