The Flixborough Disaster (1974) Where Did it go so Wrong?

The Flixborough Disaster (1974) Where Did it go so Wrong? | Plainly Difficult Short Documentary

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Күн бұрын

The Flixborough Chemical Plant would experience a Disastrous Explosion on 1 June 1974....
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:07 Background
05:08 A Leak
08:49 Lead up to Disaster
09:50 Disaster
13:05 Aftermath
EQUIPTMENT USED::
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MUSIC:
►Intro: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)
►Outro: My New Song (Plainly John)
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Sources:
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#disaster #Documentary #History #TrueStories

Пікірлер: 1 000

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching! Any video suggestions let me know below!

@Diamond.H.514 2 жыл бұрын

More terrible science experiments (I can't remember what the series is actually called) but I absolutely love those videos and youve cover all the ones I know so I would just like to learn about other terrible science experiments

@CathodeULT 2 жыл бұрын

Louisville KY sewer explosion Feb 13, 1981. Ralston-Purina was dumping Hexane chemicals in the sewer. Blew up 13 miles of sewer and roadway. Or the Louisville KY Dupont plant explosion Aug 25th 1965

@ADRIAAN1007 2 жыл бұрын

Naval collisions or the BP oil spill

@hazykins7904 2 жыл бұрын

Interested in your take on the Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion in August 2020.

@cjvs1991 2 жыл бұрын

Chernobyl update video about the Russian troops sent into the area in Feb 2022.

@ariaangela3455 2 жыл бұрын

Your way of pointing where the incident takes place gets more creative after each episode

@MultiMightyQuinn 2 жыл бұрын

I was wanting to post the same thing. I am personally waiting for the 3d printer or a wacky inflatable waving hands guy from a used car lot with an arrow hand...

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@johnhull6363 2 жыл бұрын

@@PlainlyDifficult you should do a video on the Kepone disaster of the 1970's in Hopewell VA

@Underestimated37 2 жыл бұрын

I’m waiting on a cat chasing a laser pointer being used as an indicator

@DrFod 2 жыл бұрын

I was wondering why he didn't point out that Flixborough is near Sc*nthorpe but then realised he would have been demonetised!

@bengaunt3505 2 жыл бұрын

My Grandad worked at Nypro, he hated the place and the management, but had several friends there including some who were tragically killed in the explosion. Fortunately he left a couple of years before the disaster. He had various unpleasant stories of his time there and dealt with health issues from breathing in various chemical leaks for the rest of his life. When I was a kid and asked him why the place blew up, he didn't give a technical explanation, he just said the company wanted to get as much as possible out of the place with absolutely zero regard for safety. Apparently, tying down emergency pressure release valves in order to help maximise production was common practice. On the upside, after leaving he had a great career working for various water authorities, then retired and spent 20 years visiting every distillery in Scotland. I'd show him this video if he was still around.

@sophierobinson2738 Жыл бұрын

Your Grandad sounds like someone I would have liked to hang around with.

@breathevideochannel4934 Жыл бұрын

Now we left the EU we will heading back to our old standards. How sad.

@jimmiller5600 Жыл бұрын

As freshly minted engineers around 1980 my buddies and I all "passed" on taking higher paying jobs in the petro-chemical facilities because it was so horrid related to acute safety (death or dismemberment) or chronic safety (can you still breath at 50 y/o or will your babies have a full set of limbs?).

@bayadere8308 Жыл бұрын

@@breathevideochannel4934 We were in the EU when it happened. Nice try though...

@ImperialJustinian Жыл бұрын

@@bayadere8308 EU didn't exist until 1993. Furthermore, the UK had only joined the EEC in 1973 (because Charles de Gaulle was being a dick), not long before this disaster, so we might have been in a grace period. I'm not sure if the EEC mandated any safety laws either.

@johnhull6363 2 жыл бұрын

Worked at a plant in the US that had same process, after this they poured a six or eight foot thick concrete blast wall between the process and the control room, the site is still in operations

@marvindebot3264 2 жыл бұрын

ANY chemical plant control room should be a bunker.

@johnhull6363 2 жыл бұрын

@@marvindebot3264 not how it is unfortunately

@mbryson2899 2 жыл бұрын

Did the company do that on their own or were they directed to? Just curious.

@johnhull6363 2 жыл бұрын

@@mbryson2899 on their own, pretty safe place overall...

@gd2234_ 2 жыл бұрын

@@johnhull6363 bless that company. I’ve watched enough USCSB videos where those sorts of safety measures being implemented after comparable accidents wasn’t undertaken. No safety plans are perfect, but updating them when learning from accidents should be automatically implemented

@Twitch0331 2 жыл бұрын

That bit with the printer to show the location on the map was brilliant. Well played. 👍👍

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@ebnertra0004 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, the printer bit was _glorious_

@carlycaye90 2 жыл бұрын

the way it just drops its finished product is so funny

@Alan_Watkin 2 жыл бұрын

i was thinkin that as well

@philliplovin1415 2 жыл бұрын

Indeed the epitomy of British humor sir, Well done I say.

@MightyMezzo 2 жыл бұрын

I’ve decided these industrial disasters can be summed up thus: 1) Small problem discovered. 2) To save money/ time/ trouble, management has workers put together a jerry-rigged solution. 3) Work carries on as before, but more small problems crop up. 4) Which all coalesce into one BIG problem. 5) Kablaam. Great video!

@HobbyOrganist Жыл бұрын

Pretty similar to my workplace, the foreman ordered the cheapest dust collector he could find for the new CNC woodworking router the shop bought, the dust collector was all PLASTIC except the legs and motor, and the collection barrel was made of all things- CARDBOARD! It was UL listed and I was astounded at how it got that certification, after all, highly flammable fine wood dust being collected in a flammable PLASTIC and cardboard dust collector, what could go wrong??? Well, last June 15th I was running some plywood on the CNC, long story short the dust collector caught on fire, by the time I realised there WAS a fire (collector was behind a partition wall) the motor and plastic top section of the turbine was on fire, I tried to put the fire out with a nearby extinguisher which was too small and went empty in seconds. I alerted the other employees and went to grab another extinguisher but as I looked over my shoulder the flames were already involved on the chipboard partition wall and a storage bin full of plastic bags filled with shreaded newspaper for packing material was also on fire so I ran out. I didn't know it right away But I had 2nd degree burns my arms and scalp just from the radiant heat! on my way out I backed a company van out of the building and seconds later the heavy black smoke that I had to walk thru to escape- led the flames to the garage door 100 feet from the fire and the flames were coming out the garage door, basically it flashed over moments after I got out. I went to the hospital and ultimately had to get skin grafts on my arms and was recovering at home for 6 weeks, the fire spread from that warehouse building to the other 3 connected buildings and totally destroyed all 4 buildings and all contents, archives, tools, machines, computers, everything. The ONLY nearby hydrant was a 4" and it was malfunctioning so they had to bring in things to fill with water via tanker trucks, and even then the 1-2 hoses the Fire Dept had playing on the fire were useless.

@Konani_the_unicorn_queen Жыл бұрын

@@HobbyOrganist good to hear you survived that horrible hazard.

@ci6516 11 ай бұрын

Gosh at least in America we don’t face these types of conditions.

@a64738 10 ай бұрын

Or just... Profit yes, safety no ...

@saiyanscaris6530 9 ай бұрын

oh how little you know@@ci6516

@chandler224 2 жыл бұрын

This is such a coincidence. I drove near there yesterday and my friend told me about the disaster. I said "oh I wonder if Plainly Difficult will make a video on it?".

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

You can see the future

@macaylacayton2915 2 жыл бұрын

he also teased it on twitter

@DyoKasparov 2 жыл бұрын

he was actually there with u and heard u, you just dont remember that part

@displeaseddog7504 2 жыл бұрын

He has agents everywhere.

@robsmithracing 2 жыл бұрын

KZfaq listens to your conversations

@RipleyEllen 2 жыл бұрын

I live nearby to this. My dad was seeing a girl at the time and said he remembers walking through her front gate twice as he got blown backwards. Windows in Frodingham nearby were blown out, and as it was a gala day people thought at first that an aeroplane had crashed (they used to fly over the gala). My dad also told me about one man who swapped a shift with his friend that day and therefore survived while his friend died. He said about a worker who stayed behind for a moment or two to try to control it, who stopped the whole thing from going up in a bigger explosion.

@dandandan389 2 жыл бұрын

I just came to comment it was Gala day but you beat me to it!

@RipleyEllen 2 жыл бұрын

@@dandandan389 can you remember if it was the Lysaghts one or the steel works one? My dad can't remember haha

@dandandan389 2 жыл бұрын

@@RipleyEllen App-Frod I believe

@elproffo 2 жыл бұрын

I think the guy who swaped his shift, and survived that you Dad talked about was my Uncle.

@RipleyEllen 2 жыл бұрын

@@elproffo oh really wow, lucky and tragic at the same time

@chrisj2848 2 жыл бұрын

I think we need a Plainly Difficult clip show episode of only the "Balls..." moment from every episode. Nice work John! Love your content👍

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@chri-k 2 жыл бұрын

We definitely need that ( also, the style of these is indeed as close to perfect as can be )

@RCAvhstape 2 жыл бұрын

I think my favorite "Balls!" moment was the one where a dog got dosed with radiation and yells "Balls!".

@WouldntULikeToKnow. Жыл бұрын

Definitely an idea for the 1 million subscriber mark! *hint hint* @Plainly Difficult

@typhoon5445 Жыл бұрын

Nicely done john well explained i remember it but wasnt sure what went wrong ..do now 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

@jerry2357 2 жыл бұрын

As a chemical engineering undergraduate in Britain in the early 1980s, I would say that this accident is considerably higher than 6 on the legacy scale. This was the most important accident that we all needed to know about (Bhopal hadn’t happened yet). A more recent hypothesis about the cause of the high pressure was that turning off the agitators allowed water to accumulate in the reactors. A mixture of immiscible liquids (cyclohexane is like petrol and doesn’t mix with water) has a total vapour pressure that is the sum of the vapour pressures of the two pure liquids, so at a given temperature the pressure of a water and cyclohexane mixture would be considerably higher than that of cyclohexane alone. This might have been part of the problem during the restart. But the bad “design” of the bypass pipe was of course the main reason for the vapour escape and subsequent explosion.

@Philippadrinkstea 2 жыл бұрын

As a UK chem eng graduate of the 2010s, we were still learning about this (alongside Bhopal) as one of the most important disasters we would study, particularly because the timing ensured that the health and safety at work act wasn't watered down at all because it would have looked politically dire. I would've given an 8 for the legacy rating on this basis

@saxongreen78 Жыл бұрын

It's bizarre how few people know about this diabolical incident - I worked with a Yorkshireman (here in Aussie) who came here in 1980 and who would have been 20yo at the time...he had no idea what I was talking about.

@AvronMP Жыл бұрын

My Engineering professor uses this as how he messed up

@saxongreen78 Жыл бұрын

@@Tolpuddle581 Excellent point...one could more effectively 'cocoon' oneself in those days.

@jimbuchan8055 2 ай бұрын

I worked with the Welder in the N9rth Sea who welded the spool, he was exonerated after carrying out numerous test welds to prove his competency. I worked on the reconstruction of the plant and can remember all that was left of the control room was the tiled floor.

@gazmj1400 2 жыл бұрын

My dad lost a friend in this accident, all they found was his lower part of his leg and boot 😢

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

That's so sad

@gazmj1400 2 жыл бұрын

@@PlainlyDifficult 😢

@vexile1239 2 жыл бұрын

May he find peace

@Millhouse-lq7pz Жыл бұрын

How did they know it was his leg?

@c17xe97 Жыл бұрын

@@Millhouse-lq7pz shoe style/ size and skin markings

@N1njaSnake 2 жыл бұрын

Your videos always remind me how much the safety of thousands of people depends on a small number of people under pressure from corporate overlords who are themselves not in any danger.

@cmjones01 2 жыл бұрын

This tragedy has a legacy for the whole engineering profession. During my engineering degree we were taught about it as an example of how not to do things. I've never forgotten that lecture.

@bertmeinders6758 2 жыл бұрын

Safety is considered much more important today. In the 70s, concern for safety was thought unmanly, and industrial workers were expected to be physical wrecks by about 50. I've seen circuit breakers bypassed, and press interlocks disabled to speed production or avoid downtime, and the disaster at the Pike River coal mine shows that this attitude still exists in some industries.

@markh.6687 2 жыл бұрын

Worked for a coatings manufacturer years ago; their process engineers once told maintenance to build a run of pipe from a carbon dioxide cylinder to a piece of lab test equipment. No sooner was it completed and pressurized then it froze; engineers apparently forgot that CO2 is very cold. Maintenance guys were trying not to laugh out loud; not the first time the p-engineers screwed up I found out later. Days later the p-engineers driving maintenance nuts, and a decision to move the CO2 cylinder into the lab, the CO2 made it to the equipment, which was then proven not to work with that configuration (it was not designed to be chilled down with direct CO2 injection, so various parts froze, would not operate, and/or broke in short order). I was asked more than once why I wasn't running the tests...had to show it to chemists, a few of which sheepishly apologized when the realized how bad the machine ran when it did, and the results were useless as well. I was glad to learn how to run some other tests; at least they gave valid results. Tag Closed Cup flashpoint, anyone??

@FreightmareFTW Жыл бұрын

Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20. Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho. Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!

@becks5867 2 жыл бұрын

You covered this really well. I’m from near to this area, and everyone knows about Nypro. I remember hearing the staff who survived/weren’t working that day were all involved in the site clean up that their friends died in.

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@mom23js 2 жыл бұрын

This has to be the most messed up thing. Unless it was by choice..

@cathyd74 2 жыл бұрын

Wow

@maxmccullough8548 2 жыл бұрын

@@mom23js generally the general public doesn't have the training to clean up a chemical plant disaster.

@aimee-lynndonovan6077 Жыл бұрын

🤮🙁wow that’s cheap

@amsivertson 2 жыл бұрын

I’m no engineer, but “You can see the potential problem…”. Well put.

@Tindometari 2 жыл бұрын

I'm no engineer, but I was thinking, 'which one do you mean?' Maybe it's my engineer DNA (I'm not one, but I come from long lines of them on both sides), but every now and then I'll see something at an industrial plant that just grabs my eye and without even knowing the engineering details my mind recognizes something that says, 'I'm bad news looking for a chance to land'. (Generally, I think it's recognizing *ad hoc* modifications to systems, or the sort of mod that was installed as a 'temporary fix' ... about seven years ago.) This dogleg assembly was screaming it at the sky.

@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 2 жыл бұрын

@@Tindometari Enough viewings of Plainly Difficult, Brick Immortar, and the USCSB will give just about anyone the power to put their hands together in front of their face, inhale deeply, and say 'biiiiiiiiitch...', but I'm sure your lineage strengthens that innate response.

@rosanneduk 2 жыл бұрын

@@Tindometari You have to realise that at this time in Britain, we were still trading on our Imperial heyday and oblivious of the consequences of mis management. Us Brits are also very prone to cobbling together repairs without significant forethought. It's known as bodging and it a a great British tradition. Flixborough was a classic combination of hubris, incompetence and bodging!

@gnarthdarkanen7464 2 жыл бұрын

@@rosanneduk Interesting tidbit from history, the original "Bodgers" were chair makers, who would normally carry a "bodger's bench" with them into the woods to search for and collect appropriate materials and make their components on the spot out there. At the end of those work days, they would then carry everything (or at least the fabricated components) back to their wood-shop at home, OR to sell to other craftsmen at a suitable price to be turned into chairs for a profit... SO the original "bodger" was someone who'd only half-completed the craft at a time... and thus the term slowly got twisted into "shoddy improvisation" or "half-assing" (a term rather fondly and frequently used here in the states)... ;o)

@somethingelse4424 2 жыл бұрын

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 Very interesting tidbit, thanks for sharing!

@paul6925 2 жыл бұрын

This facility looked insanely complex. Imagine building this for years and then screwing it up so badly with incompetence, greed and carelessness 🤦‍♂️

@allangibson2408 Жыл бұрын

This plant isn’t even close to insanely complex. I worked on a site that was a duplicate of one in Germany that had an accident that killed the entire operating crew (and the initial event was an aluminium step ladder falling on an instrument).

@ZombieGrandpa 2 жыл бұрын

You should look into the Kingman Arizona propane railcar disaster. It happened in the 1970's and led to huge changes in the way propane and other flammable liquids are handled the world over. Also wiped out the entire local fire department and much of the police force, truly a disaster for the sleepy little town of Kingman. Kingman is placed strategically as only one of two ways for trains leaving or heading to the Pacific coast. The rail line was shut down for quite some time- adding insult to the injury of the 70's depression era in USA.

@paulstaf Жыл бұрын

Eleven firefighters and one civilian died either immediately or within days of the incident. The Kingman Fire Department was a combination force of six career firefighters and 36 volunteers operating out of two stations. One state trooper was killed in the explosion. wiki/Kingman_explosion

@danielduncan6806 2 жыл бұрын

Oh, I know what happened here. Management thought "Hey, I will look like a hero if I can solve this problem, maybe I can make a bonus, or even get promoted!" So they opted to go with ANY option that looked at a glance like it might work.

@ImperialJustinian Жыл бұрын

Made worse by the fact that management were actually mostly qualified engineers. Just the wrong sort of engineer (chemical vs mechanical).

@Dragonblaster1 2 жыл бұрын

They went straight to corrective action without knowing the root cause. If I had been there, I would have insisted on at least 5 Whys analysis.

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

It was a bad way to do it

@FreightmareFTW 2 жыл бұрын

Make sure you are spending as much time as you can helping other people and strengthening the kingdom of God while you are here on earth. This world is rapidly passing away. Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life. If you have any questions about scripture feel free to ask me

@HobbyOrganist Жыл бұрын

Exactly! I mean if one tank had a crack and the other 5 were identical, MY first thought is what caused this crack, and how MANY of the others have cracks or have cracks that started and might be very small, find the CAUSE and correct it, they used a bandaid on a festering wound and it failed

@philliberatore4265 2 жыл бұрын

It's very telling that no one in the room formally asked "What about the other tanks?", a question literally everyone watching this video was wondering. That alone puts doubt on all their subsequent decisions.

@SoulDelSol Жыл бұрын

They thought about it I'm sure but I'm guessing they passed due to financial cost of shutting down and inspecting them all

@ImperialJustinian Жыл бұрын

Actually, the plant engineer (likely a chemical engineer rather than a mechanical) DID bring it up at the meeting. The difference in height between the outlet and inlet pipes was not noticed however, nor was a mechanical engineer present or consulted.

@trainskitsetc 2 жыл бұрын

Beauty, making our Saturday nights in Australia all the better.

@MoteofVolition 2 жыл бұрын

I'll second that!

@nathanarievlis3985 2 жыл бұрын

And our Saturday mornings in the States all the better as well 😉 Have a good night guys .

@brucebaxter6923 2 жыл бұрын

Hear hear.

@johannahoneyman697 2 жыл бұрын

Yep!! 👍

@handlesarefeckinstupid 2 жыл бұрын

UK late lunchtime. 😂

@robertjenkins6132 2 жыл бұрын

1:16 - This is the production quality I expect from this channel 👍👍 You don't need no fancy CGI animation to show a map swiping across the screen. You just use a slow inkjet printer to mechanically drop the map into the view of the camera lens - PRACTICAL EFFECTS. James Cameron could learn from this.

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Just imagine if I had a multimillion pound budget!

@Shrek_Has_Covid19 2 жыл бұрын

with a million pound budget you could just about afford to print the map on A3 paper

@cathyd74 2 жыл бұрын

When less is more!

@snarkfinder2621 Жыл бұрын

@@PlainlyDifficult You would no longer feel the need to be creative and try to do things differently. Financial constraints force you to think.

@strakhovandrri Жыл бұрын

@@PlainlyDifficult ...you'd launch a gigantic arrow, spanning ten kilometers at its narrowest point, at the poor town of Flixborough, showing a satellite imagery of that?

@lesleygilbert1945 8 ай бұрын

I remember this day very well. I was passing by the site on a ship (travelling to Holland) when the explosion occurred. I was sat on the front of the ship admiring the view. First I saw a flame, then the explosion and then 4 people escaping by a perimeter wall. Our pilot radioed to report what had happened. I had partial hearing for a week which slowly return. I bought a newspaper in Holland the next day to read what had happened and I still have it in my archives box!

@elproffo 2 жыл бұрын

My Uncle was scheduled to work that day. He swaped shifts with a good mate of his, who died in the disaster. My Uncle was never quite the same again after that. Thanks for telling the story!

@FreightmareFTW 2 жыл бұрын

@HobbyOrganist Жыл бұрын

@@FreightmareFTW if your invisible sky hypocrite actually gave a damn, this disaster woulnt have happened in the FIRST place to kill all those people, the 1,200+ dead on the titanic were killed by ice he/she/it created and knew would kill those people, same with the 900 children on their way to of all things- a freaking CHURCH sponsored picnic outing when their ship burned and sank and they DROWNED like rats in NY's East river, and the WTC towers too, you can bet all of these people were desperately PRAYING to your invisible sky santa who knew those events would happen, stood by and did absofreaking NOTHING! Time to invent or find a new BETTER god than that one! he/she/it has been nothing short of a disaster for humanity, wars and more started over this religious krap

@HobbyOrganist Жыл бұрын

@@Tolpuddle581 THANK YOU!!!

@colinyandon6137 Жыл бұрын

Neither was his mate!

@randomtransportguyx4397 Жыл бұрын

@@FreightmareFTW no

@qaphqa 2 жыл бұрын

I find your ability to be very funny while presenting serious disasters amazing. Thanks for another great video! I add that the issues of the 70s were more about the (greedy) owner class rather than the strikes they provoked. As with almost all commercial disasters, blame lies with owners and their management enforcers rather than the workers. ♡

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@t.s9021 2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely this, it's irritating even with the current RMT strike that the media in this country frames the strikes as some meaningless impulsive whim by the workers and not a rational and inevitable reaction to their ever worsening exploitation and maltreatment.

@asha4736 Жыл бұрын

@@t.s9021 Nailed it. My mum moved from Wales in the 80s because of the abject misery brought upon the place, and now here in New Zealand, she's facing the exact same situation: The govt's looking down their nose at the nurses and if said nurses try to strike, then the govt will lie through their teeth to paint them as selfish. Yay, humanity

@tesmith47 Жыл бұрын

@@asha4736 not humanity, CAPITALISM

@asha4736 Жыл бұрын

@@tesmith47 Are the humans in power not on their backs for capitalism?

@brysonmorris622 2 жыл бұрын

Loved the printer bit just such a different thing to do The whole video is great keep up the good work

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 2 жыл бұрын

The commentary delay as he waited for the printer to finish was comedy gold, lmao

@charlesachurch7265 2 жыл бұрын

I remember hearing the explosion. I lived near Pocklington, East Yorkshire. The sky at night was ablaze .

@majorvonhapenallthetime8602 Жыл бұрын

The abiding memory was the fire men & tenders silhouetted in a mass of flames, a hopeless task. It must've made older people think of the Blitz.

@benjaminmatheny6683 2 жыл бұрын

was there any criminal liability? It seems grossly negligent for the Plant management to behave that way. The fact that they got off with minimal consequences is why we continue to have these sorts of accidents.

@Ember2remember 2 жыл бұрын

John, your style and creativity make this my favorite history related channel on youtube. Your ability to plainly state difficult information is unmatched. I really enjoy what you've been adding of late. All the little live shots, demonstrations, and the comically perfect printer gag just make me so happy. I hope you enjoy what you do, and I encourage you to keep it up!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@johndoyle4723 Жыл бұрын

Thanks, at the time I was taking my Masters degree in Chemical engineering, one of the other students had just left Nypro and considered himself very lucky. The disaster led to a major change in the way these plants were designed and operated ultimately led to HAZOP studies(Hazard and operability), and risk assessments, near miss reporting, COMAH regs(control of major accident hazards) and many other improvements. These changes were implemented over many years, but their roots can be traced back to DSM, Sevesso and Bhopal were also pivotal moments in the changes to the chemical industry.

@DUSTYPOP1 Жыл бұрын

I was a retained fireman at that time having served for just 1 year, we were called to go on standby to gainsborugh fire st at 11.30 on the saturday night was about 1.30 in the morning we continued on to Flixborough i have never seen so much devistation in my life and hope never do again. my job was to pump water from the trent to scunthorpe steel works as the explosion had fractured a cooling pipe to the plant ,I finally got home around lunch time on monday after having no sleep for 2 days. Our station were called back to the site the following weekend to put out any hotspots i eventually served 30 years in the service and enjoyed every minute.

@ginger7344 2 жыл бұрын

Such a great, beautifully edited and narrated, informative upload. Every single time. Thanks.

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@stevenmacdonald9619 2 жыл бұрын

There's an eerie foreshadowing from history towards where this country is headed. Repetition of the 1970's is becoming more likely as greed consumes so many in the UK, and as other countries in the world take decisions that lack any sanity. Tanking your own economy is where stories like this inevitably come from.

@krashd Жыл бұрын

Especially with Jacob Rees-Muppet being hell bent on repealing all 1300 EU regulations in order to "stimulate business". The quality of all things will rapidly go downhill if he achieves it.

@melodyszadkowski5256 2 жыл бұрын

As well as enjoying your factual presentation, I get my weekly smile reading your supporter list til I get to "I wish I was Brian Blessed." My favorite line he ever uttered was from "I, Claudius," when he bellowed as Caesar "Is there no man in Rome who has not slept with my daughter?" (Or words to that effect.) Brilliant.

@ferretyluv 4 ай бұрын

I just heard him say that line in my head.

@sarieldupont7116 2 жыл бұрын

I live not too far away (25 miles) from Flixborough and I remember my family telling me about the day it happened. Apparently the houses here shook and there was a massive boom. Obviously they didn't really know at that exact moment what was going on but they certainly jumped out of their skins!

@FreightmareFTW 2 жыл бұрын

@sarieldupont7116 2 жыл бұрын

@@FreightmareFTW um... I'm not Christian. I follow Norse Paganism but I fail to see the relevance this holds in regards to my comment?

@merc7105 2 жыл бұрын

Dunno why I laughed at the printer clip. Letting the paper fall was brilliant. Thank you.

@doofino 2 жыл бұрын

An interesting video idea would be the Buffalo propane explosion of 1983. 7 dead and a fire truck flipped right on it's side.

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the suggestion!

@SirWuffleton 2 жыл бұрын

Got a good chuckle out of the map presentation, cheers! Top notch content as usual!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@boonedockjourneyman7979 Жыл бұрын

Thank you. You’re keeping important stories alive for a generation who can’t figure out how to read.

@sarconic Жыл бұрын

I don't know how to describe British humor, but you are the epitome of it.

@creepybasil 2 жыл бұрын

You make death and destruction so relaxing

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@brigittevandyk8914 2 жыл бұрын

Please do a video on the Grenfell fire. I am personally interested in building standards, the design of the building, regulation of building products and the outcome when it goes wrong.

@badgercdlyons Жыл бұрын

There wouldn't really be a 'how it all went wrong' angle for a video on that disaster. Apparently, whoever bought the cladding which spread the flames bought the option without the fire-resistant coating to save a few pounds. Otherwise, the project would've functioned as designed. Which public official had made that purchasing decision was never discovered, as far as I know.

@Geofizz101010 Жыл бұрын

@@badgercdlyons I encourage you to listen to the BBC Grenfell Podcast of the inquiry. I just finished listening to all 202 episodes (to date) and there were so many things that went wrong beyond the choice of flammable cladding to save money. Like the fire safety "expert" who used short courses as initials after his name to make it appear that he was more qualified than he was. His copy and pasted report to decision makers missing critical aspects of the building and mentioning things that didn't even exist. The cladding tests taken completely out of context. Gas lines through front doors. Numbers not painted so they couldn't tell which floor they were on. Elevator was not a firefighting elevator. Astonishingly poor and broken communications across the board that had dispatchers telling people to stay put when it was clear to people on the scene they needed to be told to leave. Firefighters having to leave doors open for fire hoses because of insufficient pressure. Gaps around the windows accelerating fire spread. Electrical problems. Misleading/confusing language and standards not well understood by anyone involved in the renovations it seems. The list in long. Honestly, as much as I love Plainly Difficult, it would be extremely challenging/impossible for anyone to summarize in a 20 minute video how many failures occurred before, during and after that horrific night.

@forgie8419 Жыл бұрын

As someone who grew up in Flixborough (born in 1993) surrounded by the stories of what happened that day its really neat to watch a video about it, great work!

@paddlefaster Жыл бұрын

I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the hard work that went into the demonstration of metal fatigue. Plainly difficult has clearly upped its budget!

@MultiMightyQuinn 2 жыл бұрын

Love the changes and great content as always. Thanks for sharing, I always look forward to my cup of coffee and some Plainly Difficult to start my weekend. Thank you for all the hard work!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Thank you!

@PurityVendetta 2 жыл бұрын

I can remember as a kid travelling back from holiday in Cornwall when news of the massive explosion at the Flixborough plant.

@NerothLoD 2 жыл бұрын

Typical. They had the money to throw tens of millions on lawsuits, somehow, but not the money to fix the plant.

@johnoneill5661 2 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately that is always the way 😢 pots of money for law suits and not a penny for safety or maintenance 🤬

@Scraggledust 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Always interesting, informative, and entertaining!! Really keeps the mind off this ridiculous heat! Daily temps over 100F/37C-42C, daily. Currently in week three of these temps! Have a safe and happy weekend all!

@justtime6736 2 жыл бұрын

What's the motivation to greatly exaggerate 21 days of 100F? That's not happened anywhere

@vexile1239 2 жыл бұрын

Keeps my mind off the cold its 9c to 20c and as an Australian it's cold

@grapeshot 2 жыл бұрын

I remember back in 1997 in Columbus Ohio there was an explosion at a chemical plant, Georgia Pacific. Despite the damage only one person I believe was killed.

@FreightmareFTW Жыл бұрын

@zetectic7968 2 жыл бұрын

I remember this, the persistent fire and the damage to local properties. It is rarely good to jury rig a repair and then not test the system properly. It turned out to be a false economy not to shut down the plant and employ proper corrective action. £24 million was a lot of money back in 1974.

@somethingelse4424 2 жыл бұрын

Good point. Ignoring the value of human life, safety, morality, etc for a minute... On a practical level, if you look at the value of the equipment you have right now and all the labor hours and engineering time that went into it, taking a risk with it just to make money in the short term is a horrible idea. I think about that more and more at work. I spend most of my time setting up a jobs as a machinist, and if I rush and overlook a small detail I can easily crash the machine and end up having to redo everything from scratch. Not to mention I could do tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the machine itself and get myself or someone else hurt or killed.

@cjmillsnun 2 жыл бұрын

Nicely done. I work in an industry affected by COMAH so Fiixborough is something we are told about during our training.

@Argosh 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for going back to these kinds of videos!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you like them!

@imxploring 2 жыл бұрын

It always comes down to money.... be it the engineering, materials, fabrication, operation, and maintenance.

@Eye_Of_Odin978 2 жыл бұрын

Good coverage, Plainly. I have to admit, as that printer was slowly pushing that map paper out, I was laughing like Beavis or Butthead in anticipation. We need to get you onto a Space Station for the last episode of Plainly Difficult Disasters so we can get footage of you just straight-up pointing at the area on Earth from orbit saying ". . .which is about HERE on a map" lmao Great video as usual.

@jonathanroberts1328 Жыл бұрын

I used to live about 6 miles from Flixburgh, ( Now Scotland ), but locals of the older generation told me how, even the village I lived in , has many homes damaged , to put in context , for anyone in the UK , the location is almost next to the area that now has a motorway link (M181) to the M180, neat the 181 is now the Scunthorpe FC football club and a large retail park , but closer to Flixburgh, are a lot of houses , sadly there were deaths in the village itself , near the plant , and villages that are on the same bank of the river , also of note its said a nearby road and rail bridge , the then A18 ( before the motorway was extended) so main route to the east coast ports of Immingham, took damage . A great video , and an astonishing chain of apparent ' devil may care attitudes ', many mock our health and safety culture, but no doubt over the years it's saved dozens of horrific events like this . I also sadly remember a local showing me the graves of the fallen , in a nearby church . I was only a tiny baby when it happened, but I recall learning about this in School , but it's still hard to.i.agine a 50km.damage radius . There are loading wharfs along there and other industry , also nearby a new experimental power station , soon to be joined by another , let's hope their safety is more robust !. And we must not forget the victims , a good video and a tragic story .

@bongtingstill 2 жыл бұрын

Hey I requested this on an older video! My home town! Glad to see you managed to make this!

@camptube7621 2 жыл бұрын

I’m remember hearing the explosion and I was over 7 miles away. A piece landed in my aunties garden, a similar distance.

@cremebrulee4759 Жыл бұрын

As a safety professional in the chemical industry, this disaster contains many familiar elements. Shutting down production to do a proper investigation can be a hard sell. It's very frustrating to have to have these fights with management. Too many times, companies say that safety comes first, but they don't really mean it.

@robotaholic Жыл бұрын

I love your channel and your narration and the unique themes and occurances you choose to cover. Thank you

@bobster1982 2 жыл бұрын

And this is why management of change is now used when you do something like this.

@TechOne7671 2 жыл бұрын

Another brilliant video mate. As an engineer I like to know what failed and why. The designers/engineers usually get the blame but the real cause in most of these disaster type videos is financial.

@willdejong7763 2 жыл бұрын

As an engineer, I believe that we have a duty to put our foot down and say no when we believe that things like management’s reactions to financial concerns are creating unconscionable safety risks. Thankfully most of the companies that I’ve worked with had safety cultures that were appropriate for the work, and the times I’ve spoken up I’ve been taken seriously. Still, I have walked away from work over a matter that was more about professional integrity and less about safety, so I know how stressful it can be to stand up against management. My refusal really upset an important customer. I knew that I was putting my job on the line. But it forced my boss to pay attention to what was going on. He started his own investigation, then brought in a respected outsider who concluded that my concerns were justified. Months later my boss came and thanked me for handling the situation the way I did.

@ImperialJustinian Жыл бұрын

@@willdejong7763 One thing not mentioned in the video was that the post of Works Engineer was vacant at the time the bypass was installed, and there were no professionally qualified engineers in the works department.They did have an outside contractor who was availble for consultation, but he wasn't called in. The plant management staff were mostly chemical engineers, and thus (at the time) not qualified to make decisions related to mechanical engineering or even recognise the problem.

@jaykace5160 2 жыл бұрын

Best way to start a Saturday! hope all is well with you sir. Keep up the amazing work!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@KellJell Жыл бұрын

Wow! The research you had to do to explain all this! Impressive! Thanks for another interesting and informative video!

@andrewrussack8647 2 жыл бұрын

Nice vid. I have to agree with many commenters. I’d give it a 9 on your legacy scale. Evan as an electrical engineer in Australia, this event comes up in risk discussions/teaching. It had a profound impact on competency, verification and assurance processes not only in chemical/process engineering, but across professional engineering.

@WindTurbineSyndrome 2 жыл бұрын

GOod point

@bigjay875 2 жыл бұрын

i hadn't heard of that incident, money it nearly always comes down to money and ceo and the rest of the bored cheaping out trying to cut corners save a few pennies are never held accountable or rarely ever get anything more that a slap on the wrist for the lives that are lost and the many lives that are destroyed due to disability

@lewisdoherty7621 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I had not heard of this one. Perhaps electricity over only three days a week resulted in so many turn on/shut down cycles, the plant aged even faster. There were so many heating/cooling and no pressurization/pressurization cycles that like the old incandescent light bulbs failure was largely based on the turned on and off cycles rather than overall usage time. I'm a member of a steam train association and steam locomotives have to be heated up from cold very slowly to assure the structure heats evenly so fissures don't appear. That extra pipe installed outside of the engineers' original design may not have expanded and contracted with the other parts.

@majorvonhapenallthetime8602 Жыл бұрын

Put's into perspective, watching "Dave Allen At Large" on a 22" black & white telly and suddenly the power goes and it's your turn to light the candles. It makes me think of my dysfunctional family compared to my best friend, because had she been around in those days, she'd have quickly set up a quiz among the family, and we would've ended up feeling like the lack of coal had done us a favour! Telly had certainly killed the art of conversation in our house.

@FreightmareFTW Жыл бұрын

@stelladoore9137 2 жыл бұрын

I really like you're channel John. You cover interesting and serious topics and events but some of the animations are just hilarious. I love that! Thanx for another great vid 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@PlainlyDifficult Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@pobinr Жыл бұрын

Thanks for not adding background music & no wam bam editing. Just a sensible no frills detailed description of events. Excellent

@SWISS-1337 2 жыл бұрын

"hmmm, how do I simultaneously make full use of my inkjet printer purchase and claim it as a business expense in order to get the tax back on it... I've got it!"

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Living the tax payers dream!

@robinwells8879 2 жыл бұрын

I believe that my father was involved in the public enquiry as the consultant metallurgist whilst at TWI. Proof pressure test is named as such for a reason and the test pressure should at least equal the system operating pressure but preferably be comfortably in excess to allow for fatigue degradation of the structure with time. Hydrostatic is preferred over gas as fluid leaks will be more apparent and lead to a rapid fall off in pressure with just a small volume lost due to the incompressibility of a liquid. I clearly remember the state of national shock at the scale and unbelievable violence of the incident.

@johngriffiths7148 11 ай бұрын

Love the animations on these vids. You make me chuckle bro. Keep doing you.

@sheepkind 2 жыл бұрын

ngl i enjoy the slower talking in this video, i’m able to better process what’s being said (captions help but sometimes they’re off from what’s actually being said). great job and i love your explanations for how the systems work

@gatsbye53 2 жыл бұрын

Your videos are one of the best things about the weekend!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@gatsbye53 2 жыл бұрын

@@PlainlyDifficult Thank YOU! 😊

@WaltonSauce 2 жыл бұрын

"Your Mum" Peak British humour there, mate!

@MkurugenziMwenyekiti Жыл бұрын

Oh John. The inkjet printer was dramatically slow and full of suspense. And then the paper just fell? *Balls!*

@Yezpahr 2 жыл бұрын

I would've increased the disaster score to at least a 7, but maybe even an 8. There are probably factors and reasons you took into account that I didn't think/knew about but there was so much destruction and death/injuries that a 6 just feels too low.

@SoulDelSol Жыл бұрын

What is a disaster score and how is it calculated

@markrabinowitz7070 2 жыл бұрын

WOW! I did not expect you'd cover this incident, which I had read about from Neil Schlager's book, When Technology Fails (a compilation of accounts of man-made disasters covering the gamut from aviation to dam bursts). I mentioned it in a comment I left on your April 2021 video on the Chernobyl disaster. Maybe you would have covered it sooner or later; still, I'm impressed that, at long last, you did, and in the usual great detail. Thank you!

@professionalocchiolist4104 Жыл бұрын

Is it worth reading?

@markrabinowitz7070 Жыл бұрын

@@professionalocchiolist4104 It depends on your interest in learning about technological disasters and how and why they happen. If that interest is great, then the answer is yes. I should add that this book covers over 100 disasters--what happened, how, why, and the hard lessons learned in the aftermath--and is over 600 pages long. The accounts were written by a mix of experts including professors, engineers, journalists and technical writers (I should clarify that Neil Schlager is not the author of the book; he was the _editor_).

@robertkustos2931 Жыл бұрын

I recall this disaster . I was 12 yrs old playing cricket with some friends on the sports field nr Haxey , a well elevated position. I didn't feel or hear the explosion but what I can still recall is the massive smoke plume .

@Millimallow 2 жыл бұрын

Watch these videos every week, always excellent quality with great narration. Thank you!

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you!

@mattwilliams4222 2 жыл бұрын

This is the one I've been waiting for! I mentioned this one to you during.. the pandemic I believe? and you said because of said incident you were waiting to do a video on it. I wondered when you'd get around to it! Can't wait

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

I hope you enjoy!

@markrabinowitz7070 2 жыл бұрын

You beat me to the punch by a year, then! I mentioned Nypro in the comments of the video John did on the Chernobyl disaster (April 2021). To me, it seemed like one disaster that Darlow/Smithson Productions should have included in its Seconds From Disaster series.

@Tindometari 2 жыл бұрын

My favourite quote from the investigatory inquiry: "The best that can be said of [the dogleg assembly] is that it was dimensionally accurate and competently fabricated." I've never been able to read that line without chuckling. It's an engineering version of the wine-critic's 'it pours well'. So much polite, dry, understated English damn-it-with-faint-praise engineering diss packed into one sentence. Brilliant. If Monty Python had decided to satirise Flixborough, they'd have to quote this line directly because they could not have improved on it. It deserves a place in cultural history right next to 'the wrong kind of snow'.

@ErictheRedCantona Жыл бұрын

I was in the vicinity in Scunthorpe and even at 4 years old i remember the sound of the explosion. I also remember the sight of the houses partially destroyed cos my parents went to see the devastation a few weeks later. This brought it all back.

@GodDamnitTwitch 2 жыл бұрын

always makes me smile hearing your lil weather report at the end. much love from a very hot southern California desert.

@rockman7503 2 жыл бұрын

I work with cyclohexane. It is unconscionable they would continue to operate this way without expecting disastrous failure.

@danielsellers8707 Жыл бұрын

My dad says 6 pints of cyclohexane caused Flixborough; he says that Staveley Works had 300,000 gallons in the tanks...

@kriegsmanalpharius 2 жыл бұрын

That map got me 🤣

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

@Skirliegirl Жыл бұрын

Brilliant! About time someone did something on Flixborough! My Dad recalls feeling the explosion whilst fishing on the Trent that afternoon.

@chrisperry7963 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent job as always, John! I ruefully admit that I had not heard of this one.

@Zeydarchist 2 жыл бұрын

that printer map bit got me, i love that lol

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

@berad1832 2 жыл бұрын

Where can I hear more music John? Loving the outro tune.

@PlainlyDifficult 2 жыл бұрын

Hey! Its one of my Own songs, I'm hoping to release an album soon

@alilonghair7792 2 жыл бұрын

Yay! I liked it too! Groove-tastic Dude!

@shademe 2 жыл бұрын

First I like the personal touches that you added, like the printed map with the arrow. It seems like the plant was a poor design from the start with always having to fix leaks an such. It feels like it was a hazardous place from the start. Thank you again for another well made video.

@trentr9762 2 жыл бұрын

Very efficient map! Gave me a good chuckle. Have a good day Mr!

@skgroovin915 2 жыл бұрын

Hey I'd love to hear you explain the vermiculite/asbestos issues in Libby, Montana, USA. I have a vague idea of what happened but I always feel slightly confused by it.

@WindTurbineSyndrome 2 жыл бұрын

Sn entire town on australia ,was wiped off the map only one man and his dog luce there now the entire tiwn is contaminared with asbestos

@101Volts Жыл бұрын

@@WindTurbineSyndrome You're referring to Wittenoom, Australia. Yes, it's officially off the map.

@myth-termoth1621 2 жыл бұрын

Was there a new and previously unknown type of corrosion cracking in stainless steel structures discovered to have played a part in this explosion ?

@systemverilog99 Жыл бұрын

They had been hosing reactor #5 with water to condense any leaks - it's believed nitrates in the river water used were the primary cause of this cracking

@mhick3333 2 жыл бұрын

great presentation both graphic and narrative much appreciated

@fensoxx 2 жыл бұрын

God that theme song of yours with the zooming in Plainly Difficult text. Don’t ever change it please.

@fensoxx Жыл бұрын

Reminds me of seventies disaster flix

@NoNameAtAll2 2 жыл бұрын

reactor word is coupled to "nuclear" so much, I can't make myself comprehend the ones in video as chemical ones

@swaggerdagger8976 2 жыл бұрын

Why didnt you censor E*gland 🤢🤮

@handlesarefeckinstupid 2 жыл бұрын

England? Why would you censor it.

@stinkymart3173 2 жыл бұрын

E*****d 😐😒

@jacobfreeman5444 2 жыл бұрын

Obviously that is a bad word

@nathanialbassindale2535 Жыл бұрын

I live in Amcotts, the village directly opposite flixborough over the River! I wasn't alive when it happened, but a few of the older locals say the blast shattered their windows

@MervynPartin Жыл бұрын

Excellent production. It brought back memories as this event was used as a case study during training at the Nuclear Power Training Centre at Oldbury.

@OmegaPaladin144 Жыл бұрын

Excellent work John - I read up on this incident in Trevor Kletz's book What Went Wrong? It was one of the big drivers for the entire field of process safety alongside Seveso.