r/CatastrophicFailure • u/NoLove_NoGlory • 12h ago
Equipment Failure Construction crane collapses over houses due to intense wind in Coquimbo, Chile (16/07/2026)
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/007T • Sep 11 '17
If your post is a joke or meme, it does not belong here. This includes posts about politicians, celebrities, movies or products that flopped, bad business/PR decisions, countries in turmoil, etc.
Titles must only be informative and descriptive (who, what, where, when, why) not editorialized ("I bet he lost his job!") - do not include personal opinions or other commentary in your titles.
Examples of bad titles:
I don't know if this belongs here, but it's cool! (x-post r/funny)
What could go wrong?
Building Failure
A good title reads like a newspaper headline, or Wikipedia article. If you don't know the specifics about the failure, then describe the events that take place in the video/image instead. Examples of good titles:
The Montreal Biosphère in flames after being ignited by welding work on the acrylic covering
Explostion of the “Warburg” steam locomotive. June 1st, 1869, in Altenbeken, Germany
If it is a cross-post you should post that as a comment and not part of the title
Avoid posting mundane, everyday occurences like car crashes unless there is something spectacular about your submission. Nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes each year, and there are many other subreddits already dedicated to this topic such as r/dashcam, r/racecrashes, and /r/carcrash
While there are some examples of extraordinary crashes posted here, in general they would probably be better suited for those other subreddits:
Compilations and montages are not allowed on r/CatastrophicFailure. Any video that is a collection of clips from multiple incidents, including top 10 lists are considered compilations.
If your submission contains footage of one incident but compiled from multiple sources or angles, those are fine to post.
Always be respectful in the comments section of a thread, especially if people were injured or killed.
The focus of this subreddit is on machines, buildings, or objects breaking, not people breaking. If the only notable thing in your submission is injury/death, it probably would go better in another subreddit.
All posts should have an appropriate flair applied to them by the submitter, please follow these 4 steps to determine if your thread needs a fatality/injury flair. You can set this by clicking the "flair" button under the title of your submission.
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/NoLove_NoGlory • 12h ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/ac_ou_nt • 1d ago
There were 6 cleanes and a custodian inside. it has been reported that only one cleaner was lightly injured
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/freshmozart • 2d ago
This is an addition to my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/iAd3h91ZqP
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/freshmozart • 3d ago
A small fire broke out in a warehouse on the night of May 5, 1842. Strong winds, tightly packed timber buildings, and limited firefighting equipment turned it into one of the worst urban fires in European history.
Over the next three days, the fire destroyed around 1,700 buildings, including churches, homes and businesses. Roughly 20,000 people—about 10% of Hamburg's population at the time—were left homeless.
In a desperate attempt to stop the flames, authorities even blew up buildings to create firebreaks (f.e. the old 13th century city hall). It helped only after the wind finally eased.
The disaster reshaped Hamburg completely. The rebuilt city featured wider streets, improved fire safety, and modern infrastructure.
Casualties: 51 deaths
Buildings destroyed: ~1,700
Homeless: ~20,000
Cause: Warehouse fire + strong winds + densely packed wooden buildings = catastrophe.
The photograph was taken from the roof of the Hamburg Stock Exchange in the days following the fire to document the damage caused. The Stock Exchange was the only building to emerge from the fire unscathed, because some rich traders defended it against the fire. It's still operational.
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/figgles61 • 4d ago
“Huang Xinyan, a professor at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University, said footage of the fire site suggests the bar contained combustible foam materials, lacked a sprinkler system and had small exits that may have hampered evacuation. He added that plastic decorations on the ceiling may have been combined with combustible foam soundproofing materials, potentially fueling the fire’s rapid spread.”
A preventable repeat of so many similar bar/nightclub disasters.
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/print3ds • 4d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Aviator777er • 6d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/anikkundu1998 • 7d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/dom_bul • 7d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Svarec • 7d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/BeneficialSide2335 • 8d ago
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/bugminer • 9d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Porirvian2 • 8d ago
A fascinating watch, didn't realise how much destruction there was.
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/jrw01 • 9d ago
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The largest commercial-to-residential conversion project in New York City: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer_Building
Drone photos released by FDNY show the slab over the 21st story setback and the new addition built on top of it (directly above the buckled columns) appearing to sag, and damaged spandrel glass on the original structure:
https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2026/07/MN-building-beams.png
https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2026/07/MN-building-beams-2.png
Video source: https://x.com/bogs4ny/status/2074508310867292580?s=46&t=oFaN0XXZmbhJDDc1Kp_J_A
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/DariusPumpkinRex • 8d ago
The train fell into a ravine upon derailing and the tender and forward coaches were crushed, the rearmost coaches also derailed but remained upright.
Residents of nearby McKellar, alerted by the sound of the crash, were quick to the scene with a few even telephoning for help which lead to motorized ambulances arriving within the hour, with citizens also using their own personal vehicles to transport people in need of less urgent care. This led to the Ottawa Citizen crediting among other things the invention of the automobile for the low number of fatalities, as people who had been critically injured were able to receive medical treatment in time. At one point, half of all the doctors in Ottawa were on the scene administering aid. The injured were take one of two Ottawa hospitals; St. Luke’s at the corner of Elgin and Gladstone, and Ottawa General on Water Street.
The deceased were all passengers in the second and third class coaches, all of whom were Irish or Scottish immigrants ranging in age from 10 months to 55 years old.
The fault for the accident was found to lie with the urgent expansion of the railroad by Canadian Northern; in their haste to expand the railroad, they had not considered how the environment would effect the hastily-laid-down, leading to insufficient drainage and culverts that weren't being maintained as often as they should have been.
This disaster has unfortunately been largely lost to history, owing to happening in a sparsely-populated area, the railroad responsible having been long-since absorbed into Canadian National, and being overshadowed by deadlier disasters of the same era, including other rail accidents.
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/hl3official • 9d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Aromatic_Whereas_778 • 9d ago
On September 11, 1968, Air France Flight 1611, operated by a Sud Aviation Caravelle, F-BOHB registration and nicknamed Béarn departed from Ajaccio to Nice, France, carrying 95 people.
Near Nice, the Caravelle suddenly crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 95 people on board.
The French government conducted the investigations and determined that the aircraft crashed due to a fire of uncertain origin in the rear of the plane (presumably in the lavatory).
However, the victims families did not accept the government's official explanation and believed the aircraft had been mistakenly shot down by a surface-to-air missile; what supported this theory at the time was the presence of a French base near Nice.
The case was long ago closed, concluding that a sudden fire destroyed the aircraft, even though family members disagreed with the official cause.
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/SEXYFRIESwNOTTYDIP • 9d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/darkfalzx • 10d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/bugminer • 11d ago
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r/CatastrophicFailure • u/WhatImKnownAs • 12d ago
r/CatastrophicFailure • u/GetToTheChoppaahh • 14d ago
A government official at Zhob Hospital told BBC News that a total of 48 people, including a number of women and children, had been on board when the accident happened.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, but preliminary reports suggest a steering fault may have led the driver to lose control before skidding off the mountain range.