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and a high-tech mountain railways accelerate skiers to the summit
but on the opening day of the season
the new train erupts into a fiery inferno
one hundred and fifty five people die in nine minutes
one man will emerge a hero of apparel is not in rescue
with cutting-edge computer technology
we revealed
exactly what went wrong
The Disasters
do not happen because if
there is a chain of critical events
disclose fateful decisions
in those final
seconds from disaster
Austria
the village of Kaprun
November 11, two thousand
thousands of skiers and snowboarders crowd into the resort for the opening
day of the winter sports season
what makes capital so popular
is its giant blasier
footage wrangling
it's a margin of ice has never melts whatever the weather
and skiing possible even in summer
a height sixty train is one thousand five hundred meters through
solid rock
tool and ski is near the summit
next to the other station
a restaurant and shopping mall
eight forty-five am
ski isn't snowboarders celebrate the season starts
people like firecrackers
towards the great left
part-time firefighter from germany
the big day arrives with forty-nine members of the ski club
city for a particular trip was the first out of the year two thousand
thomas crisis just joined the club
he's looking forward to his first glimpse of the blasier
to reach the slaves ski is have a choice a standard cable comp or a high-tech
train cold if anything else
most of the group headed for that particular
i thought to myself that's bound to be fantastic fearful
he joins twenty nine other club members lining up with a high speed summit train
the three point eight kilometer right to take just nine minutes
four minutes faster than the cable guy
page fifty seven pm
a hundred and sixty one passengers crowd on board among them some of the world's
top skiers
sundar schmidt holds an olympic gold for germany
has the best in geiger is just fourteen is junior champion
today there's an entire american family on board to
u_s_ army major michael goodrich
his wife jennifer
and their sons
five-year-old kayo
and seven-year-old michael
a long-time member of course dance club
mentored hill tell thinks nothing of taking the train
control so far been skiing for decades regularly travel in cattle cars chair
slipped salt particulars i didn't get a second thought
somebody's little
nine oh two a_m_
control room stuff keep tabs as the train pulls out of the voting stations
first it crosses the spectacular six hundred meter avin
before entering the city tunnel the plains through the mountains
for the passengers on board diablo valley with its ideals skiing conditions
should not be just
nine minutes away
but today
will be different
the train first and it's doors in nineteen seventy four
it was an engineering tried the first of its kind
an underground train inside imagine
planning at speeds of twenty five kilometers per hour office teeth
thirty degrees in black
in nineteen ninety-three it was not my giving it asleep futuristic look
and making it the plight of austria ski resorts
the system is ingenious bits simple
there are two trains
each one balancing the other
says one finds its twin across the tunnel descends
at the top station apart all electric motor and police system
calls the trains up and down the track
neither trained has an engine for fuel
there are no driver's justin attendant at the front of the train
who operates the doors
each train has two coaches with eight separate passenger compartments
there's a cap at the front in the rear of the train for the attendant switches
back and forth as the train travels up and down
it can carry up to one hundred eighty passengers
everyday more than a thousand people use the train
and it enjoys a perfect safety record
until now
nine oh two and three seconds
the one hundred and sixty one passengers a spread through the train thomas grass
is in the last compartment
just twenty meters out of the station
he spots something
yes the first unusual thing i noticed was the smoke it was like a cigarette he
put down for a moment
thomas is at the back of the train near the mt attendant have which is the only
used for the downhill trip
smoke from the cab starts the sequence of the rest of the car
passage is very concerned then agitated serrano smoke alarms to alert either the
train attendants or the control room
one passenger tries to make a call for help on the sofa
others *** on the rear wall of the collection
grosvenor was an issue
nine food four a_m_
the train enters the tunnel
cutting off cell phone signals
and there's no way to contact the attendants at the front of the train
he's more than fifteen it is a way
totally unaware of the crisis unfolding in the rear compartments
over false alarm you can already see fire flickering hooking up words yes
word got around and people inside the compound and realize that there was a
real program from welfare reform
nine oh five
six hundred meters into the dark tunnel the train
suddenly stops
garb
the control room context the attendant to find out what's going on
but he has no idea
he didn't hold the train
nine oh five
and thirty seconds
uh... faria coaches now filling with toxic smoke
but there's no emergency door release
the one hundred and sixty one passengers contract
nine oh six pm
as the blaze in the entire tendons have worsens toxic smoke fills the passenger
compartments
tolson greatly is one of the ski is trapped in the blazing rear coach
them pot
menachem and next to me it was also a member of us kikwit tried to pull the
door open across thing the rubber seal
it wasn't truthfulness
but the doors wide open
and some people are starting to panic
to austin and another man tried to smash the windows with a speed boat
but they're made of shock proof plexiglas
it was very very difficult
he had to use extreme foster just to make the home of the clothes right side
of *** they break the window and think that for you
only to find another pane of glass behind
then suddenly
the dangerous situation turns desperate
flame from the campaign finance cab first into the department
the terrified passengers have nowhere to go
nine oh eight
up until now the attended at the front of the train
hasn't seen the blaze
he realizes what's going on
he lets the control room
they tell him open the doors and get the people out
at that exact moment intercom dies
an old contact with the burning train
is lost
operators and the control room had no idea what's going on deep within the
mountain tunnel
meanwhile cost engravers efforts to smash the windows playoffs
and he and the other passengers
drive out of the train
when's the last one to leave the compartment
by that time flying school
but in other compartments
passengers are still trapped
some people just like not moving into a little bit peer to peer overcome by
smoke
paralyzed by it
nine eleven a_d_m_
of the station an operator in the control room calls right now
both jews managed to escape the stricken training
the nightmare continues
they must find a way out in the smoke-filled darkness
they face a life-or-death decision
which way to go
away from the fire
albright down past the fire
tossed into a there has been a volunteer fireman in his hometown but twenty-five
years his instinct tells him the to head down
the emergency steers run right through the tunnel to the exit six hundred
meters away
but first he has the clamber across the rails wearing ski boots
fees thus keeping to my right foot got stuck in the race and i just couldn't
mention i write next week
phyllis key club member thomas cross is already on the spectators
vccs friend trapped on the track surrounded by the flames
would i gave him a hand and the two of the shrimp as the train
with uski mood now free
tallest intel's thomas manfred and others decline downwards
but the emergency steps and narrow and very steep
and uh... slowed down by that bulky ski gear making progress
agonizingly slow
it was dark i stumbled because i couldn't get into a mechanic my ski
boots would like plaster casts running downhill in the most extreme
other postings guidance the desperate group tries to stay together
lose the burning train
it's cables could snap at any moment
sending the forty tom train rolling down the tunnel towards them
lost twelve skiers emerge into the daylight
they're exhausted and terrified
but her life
nine twenty three
one hundred
forty nine passengers and the train attendant
uh... still stranded inside a blazing tunnel
rescue workers foreigner
five hundred firefighters twenty two helicopters one hundred rescue vehicles
rushed to the scene
but the lower end of the tunnel the trainees marriage to is way up the
mountain side
remotely wave of violence is to reject his on foot
off the railway
uh...
what they encounter
is terrifying
the
the trainers ablaze from end to end
in such extremes of heat
the cable it hangs prompted snap at any moment
sending the train hurtling down on top of them and crashing into the valley
station below
nine thirty five
thirty minutes after the fire began the fireman a forced to abandon the rescue
attempt
has been a total electricity failure
the power supply goes out
all over the mountain
start of the station fight to restore the electricity
but the station is filling with fake toxic smoke and they're forced to escape
to an emergency door
without power
but the war jams open
nafis escape into the summit station shopping mall
full of people
employees evacuate the station and shopping area
dozens of people escaped
but the restore for more
trapped inside
helicopters air lift the first scenes of rescuers up to the summit
fire fighters gear up to enter the smoke filled building
ten sixteen
friedrich steam enters the shopping area in search of survivors
you couldn't see anything it'll dot so it was
it was like walking into a void
that i could go to church the right-hand entrance and quickly from the first
issue this week
the firefighters stumble upon a workman lying unconscious just inside the main
engines
he's barely breathing
they russian outside just in time
they plunge into the smoke filled building again
despite zero visibility they find the last three people
tragically
they're already dead
thick smoke and high temperatures make it too dangerous for the firefighters to
continue into the station and tunnel
the search for the missing one hundred and forty nine passengers is suspended
provide she found on ground up
it's an agonizing thailand
one we were there with nearly five hundred million and sixty or seventy
five inches
but there was still lasting we couldn't do that
three terrible are as since the information
it's still dangerous but five g brand dot besides i'd like to small teams of
specially-equipped rescuers into the tunnel
in search of survivors
the men have no idea what to expect in the smoke-filled darkness
one team reaches the sister train which was heading down the valley at the time
of the blaze
inside
they find the bodies of the attendants
and his only passenger
further down the tunnel
rescuers arrive at the burned out training
around it
the track is completely destroyed rails torment twisted then they make
and awful discovery
of the one hundred and forty nine passengers trapped in the train
not one survives
what was to have been a great day skiing has turned into a day of unimaginable
tragedy
and total
one hundred and fifty five people are dead
only twelve incredibly lucky survivors escaped the fire
it's the worst peacetime tragedy austria has ever suffered
and devastating news for dozens of bereaved families
around the world
ish it's the that's the worst part of it to telling the relatives there are no
survivors for me that was the worst mc
most of the bodies of burnt beyond recognition
in some cases identification relies on d_n_a_ cross matched with samples from
the victims toothbrushes and raises found in their hotels
among those who died are u_s_ army major michael goodrich his wife jennifer and
their two young children
world freestyle skiing champion sandra schmidt parishes along with her parents
german juni iski champion sebastian geiger aged fourteen dies with three
other members of his group and that to ski coaches
but how could this terrible tragedy happened
it's a total mystery
pulled up by a cable and winch the train has no engine new fuel tanks
and in the loop voltage electrical devices
what could have caused the blaze
the regional public prosecutor's office for this investigation into the course
of the disaster
reappoint helmet product to head the enquiring
and recruit a team of twelve
to solve the mystery
using their findings
we can piece together the deadly chain of events
forensic investigators begin by searching for clues to the source of the
blaze
they must work on the burnt-out train
inside the tunnel
if the wreck his move
they may lose michael clues
label versus the train untouched by the flames out of the tunnel for analysis
built into identical specifications between train made revealed and
undetected designed for
within hours of the tragedy journalists have fear is on the cause of the file
times of london suggests that snowboarders may have been to blame
the paper reports that some snow boarders may have been lighting
firecrackers in celebration of the opening day of the new winter sport
season
could that teenage prank and started the terrifying in front of which would go on
to claim one hundred and fifty five lives
this early stage of the inquiry nothing is ruled out
investigators think survivor thomas cries
to the sister train to point out where he first saw the blaze
or prepare for a particular statement i said it was like a cigarette
that you go down for a moment to nixon's that's what it looked like the smuggling
coming from the control panel from wipro
the control panel
is in the rear attendance compartment
investigators try to find out
if anyone could have got in there and started a fire accidentally
or even do it for free
but the real cat is sealed off from the passenger compartment
the only way intuit is from the platform
i witness is confirmed it was empty on the fateful journey
the attendant was in the uphill cap of the front of the train
the only opportunity for someone to enter the reader cabins start a fire
is during the trains three minutes top of the valley station
just before it leaves
investigators calculate that this is too short a time frame for anyone to get in
start the fire and get out
without being noticed
they dismissed theory is that the snow boarder
or anyone else started the blaze
still they concentrate on the rear god's cab
something in that did cause the deadly blaze
but wat
passenger thomas crisis told them where the fire broke out
the control panel
in the rear attendance compartments which contains electrical wiring
painstakingly
thirteen carryout tests to see a faulty wiring could have sparked the blaze
but the cables which were replaced during the trains modernize asian in
nineteen ninety three
are all concede
with self extinguishing materials
cannot sustain a fire
it seems the trains modernized electrical system
conforms to four fire safety standards
still thirteen continues to explore the records of the trains nineteen ninety
three request
they make a fascinating discovery
during the trains modernization
the attendance cabs were made
more comfortable
electric friend heaters were installed to keep the cabs warm during the
freezing winter months when temperatures compliment
to minus twenty degrees celsius
and they're located
beneath the control panels with smoke was first spotted
when investigators check out the manufacturer's instructions for the
heaters they uncover a terrible oversight
incredibly they find the trains heater is designed for use in the home
for moving vehicles
could putting a domestic heated to amount in train
somehow of course the place
they turned to the identical heater in the system train
and make a stunning discovery
amounts for the heating element is broken
meaning it could be easily get jammed against its plastic casing and catch
fire
further tests show that fall out of five pieces of this type
have the same defect
it's a major breakthrough for the team
but it doesn't close the case
by itself for faulty fan heater could it possibly start a fire
but with no fuel on board
how could grow into an inferno so ferocious
at the trains aluminium body melted
and its steel rails buckle
investigators of baffles
but then one of the team stumbles upon a pool of oily liquid on the track
the trail leads upwards
to the tunnels entrants
they send it to a forensic lab for analysis
results show that it's hydraulic oil
just like the or used in the trains braking system
and it's highly flammable
professor joseph mages is an expert
on this type of railway
disk you can either at your own there is no other explanation that this hydraulic
oil originated from the damage train itself charged
just like the new teachers in the attendance cabs
the hydraulic system was a new feature installed during the nineteen
ninety-three refills
one hundred and twenty liters of the flammable hydraulic oil runnin flights
along the sixty one me to train
but how did the oil escape onto the track
it still does
to articulate
hydraulic pipes are often not completely proof
stars into a small amount of hydraulic oil mates in town
misstated
but how did the highly flammable oil come into contact with the faulty fan
heater
after all they should be into completely different places on the train
investigators comb the sister train for clues how to make another crucial
discovery
the control panel from the gods compartment houses and i truly pressure
gauge
and boiled hides leading to the gauge
haas within just a few centimeters of the faulty heater
if these plants were leaking some of the flammable oil could have dripped onto
the heater
could this be the vital breakthrough investigators are looking for
now they can piece together the chain of events
leading up to the tragedy
fourteen minutes before disaster
the train goes up with one hundred and sixty one steals
in the empty attendants cad
but dribble of oil is already dripping down the pipes into the heater
which comes on automatically during station stops
a design fault causes the unit to overheat
hydraulic oil seeds onto the read what he development
five rates not unnoticed before the train even leaves the station
haha
nine minutes ago
as the train pulls out of the station
the heater switches off automatically
but it's too late
inside five takes hold
thomas crabs is closed by the control panel official inquiry into the first
unusual thing i noticed was the slogan wished to smoke coming from some sort of
control panel
seven minutes
as the train approaches the tunnel planes from the heater melt the leaking
pipes
now oil gushes out of the fights soaking the plastic for
and dripping onto the track of uh...
as the train and has the tunnel
highly flammable hydraulic oil
is feeding a roaring blaze
six minutes left
six hundred meters into the tunnel
the train unexpectedly comes to a stop
the conductor who's at the front of the train doesn't know there's a problem
but why did the train stop
it's a mystery the investigators now want to solve
they checked the design for the trains hydraulic brake system
i discovered but it has a built-in failsafe mechanism
if pressure drops as in the case of a leak the brakes automatically slam on
the
bringing the train to an emergency stop
under normal conditions
it's unnecessary safety feature
but now it only serve to draft the train in the tunnel
stranded six hundred meters from health
investigators know that the leaks from the hydraulic system causing a twenty
percent loss in pressure
would trigger the automatic start
that leaves more than enough highly flammable fluid on board
to creates the deadly inferno
burning parts of the heated casing now drop onto the plastic four
igniting pools of oil
four minutes ago
toxic choking smoke
enters the crowded le passenger car
followed by flames
as the pressurized hydraulic oil gushes at
feeding the blaze
now some passengers make their escape it
cynicism and next to me how to use extreme course just to make a hole in
the window and often described as a whole
three minutes to go
but lost the god notices the flames coming from the back of the train
he lets the control room
and the operator tells him to open the doors and let the people that
then the intercom goes dead
in fact there's a massive power cuts
all over the mountain cable car stops
ski lifts crying to a halt
automatic doors of the top station
it's no coincidence
investigators find of the fire is to blame
the blaze burned to a vital sixteen caliber of people that runs alongside
the track and through the tunnel short set hitting the entire amount in area
with so many dead
everyone wants to know
did the train attendant ever have a chance to open the passenger door was
that question is on said
by a gruesome clean
discipline made investigation established altimetry the doors were
opened because the borders of all the passengers were found outside truants to
this town
wasn't working
investigators did use the be attended to use the trains manual override an
onboard battery power and did open the doors
moved out of the one hundred and sixty one passengers on board only a dozen
ever made it out of the tunnel to safety
it's a mystery
what did those twelve survivors do differently
from the one hundred and forty nine
who perished
in the flames
now the train attendant opens the doors by using the manual override switch
freeing all the remaining passengers from the blazing pitches
but investigators note but all these people
one hundred and forty nine of them
parish
the question everyone one sunset
why do some escape
when others died in the tunnel
once more
many outfits able-bodied men and women
some of them ski champions
but not one makes its more than one hundred and forty-two meters
investigators find the body of the german olympic ski assumption it
sixty two meters from the bundy train them
japanese athlete amisha size they made it the furthest of anyone they
discovered his body one hundred and forty two meters away
but most people
before one within the first fifteen meters of the train
what investigators need to know is how did twelve survivors cover more than six
hundred meters to get to safety when most perished
no fewer than a few steps from the train them
to find out the team studies although severe tomo blazes from around the world
they find the onset of the mystery
and the design of the camper and tom
it's built at a steep angle of almost thirty degrees
it means that when the blaze broke out it would not behave like a normal tunnel
file
doctor richard that is a study tunnel fires for seventeen years ben knows this
is a major problem
worrying about the final total this the people smoking got nowhere to go smoking
people rise up to the roof
and spread out
in both directions
digital sound
inclined
all the smoke will go towards
and the direction the smoke travels is critical to the passengers escaping from
the train through the novel bindles
they face a crucial decision
which way to go
downwards on a steep stairway to wards the din smoke of the fire
e or upwards away from the info no
just twelve decide to run ballots the remaining one hundred and fifty people
aldo up towards what they believe is safety
but that's the direction in which the heat in smoke travel in a tunnel that's
nine junction name
roast and names of fire scientist knows they didn't stand a chance
colonies always count on in shooting doesn't do what people expected to do
and what these people did intention the decision to move out which was to move
with slug with the toxic gases and he did not do what's in the second and
and investigators discovered that most people made it no further than fifteen
meters from the train
not because of the searing heat of the blaze
but because of deadly chemicals in the smoke
the most dangerous component
is carbon monoxide
and when you were not able carbon monoxide
eight enters your bloodstream and included in your blood attach is to it
preventing you from using matlab to carry oxygen
now investigators want to know wise a twelve survivors decided to descend
the reason
they were led by a firefighter
boston cleveland
cockpit shouted run towards the bottom
the rules of how to act in smoke-filled environments become second nature to
make women
as a volunteer fireman for more than twenty five years
tossed them though is that i have a chance of survival they have to get the
load the smoke
as he and his fellow passengers scramble at he shouts to them to go down
but one passenger herman kyle doesn't hit austin and runs the wrong way
top-level
suddenly i have one of my fellow passengers it was tall stand scouting
run down hill everybody
that was my salvation with it
but as the twelve made their way down the tunnel the disaster was far from
over
the inferno was about to play a more lives some of them people who weren't
even on the train
most people would think
further you are away from the fire is safe he would be
but in this case smoke a toxic gases generation from the phone
traveled the entire length of the tunnel
an endangered the lives of the people in the first orchestration two-and-a-half
como which is a way
misuse not being attacked by five on the other side of town
as the five sites in there from the bottom of the tunnel
it causes a massive updraft
which propelled smoke upwards at a hundred and forty four kilometers per
hour
the deadly cloud also engulfs the sister train
choking the attendant and his only passenger today
defend pours out of the top of the tunnel killing three more people in the
station building
it's a terrible tragedy that the investigation team wants to prevent
happening again
they want to know if it could have been avoided
good when they examine the train safety specifications what they have a
will shock the whole of austria
as investigators scanned the fatally flawed mountain' trains design
fischoff defined it lacks even basic safety features
the train has no smoke detectors
it's to fire extinguishers
are out of passengers reach in the sealed attendance cats
there's no way for passengers to contact the attendants and no emergency brake
switch
why are there so few safety features
kindof sized us in the hundred years since then the killers who put into
operation no fire has ever occur inside the conch this means that there was a
perception that a fire like this could never demands
so it was committed
least bussy
incredibly investigators find the train does comply with safety rules
but the rules themselves a hopelessly outdated
they don't take account of new systems fitted when the train was mum lives
hydraulic braking systems an onboard electric power put two new innovations
that severely increased the risk of fire
but the most serious blunder that the operators committed
was the fifth totally unsuitable fan heater
inside the control unit of the attendants cab
as a result sixteen individuals are charged with negligence and indirectly
causing the deaths of a hundred and fifty five people
on june the nineteenth two thousand and two the cases to trial
and that defense they claim that they had taken the necessary precautions and
if i could not have been forcing
controversial e in february two thousand four th
they're all acquitted after the court finds that there's insufficient evidence
against them
the victims' families
a devastated
in the wake of the disaster come from the safety regulations on similar
mountain' trains have been toughened up throughout the alps
this train system in the nearby did start region is the same type isn't the
promo but boasts many new features
like video links to the attendance
passengers can get cell phone reception in the tunnel
doesn't intercom system
emergency door handles
and hamas to break windows
now it all seems so obvious
poston greatly was recognized as a hero for helping to smash a train window and
leading eleven people to safety
but surviving the disaster when so many died including twenty members of the ski
club weighs heavily
liquid manure when i walk down the street i have to go past two or three
houses were removed by but lost a daughter give her husband was killed
when the daughter too
it's not easy to come up with a little bit
many of the survivors have found the courage to return to the ski slopes
i still does scheme
to begin with i found it difficult onto the travel in one of those finicky is
again on cities wanna work that was something to occupy my mind but unlike
remembers commanding will
the mount intranet come from
was a disaster waiting to happen
it
one day in november
it took a simple malfunction in a domestic fan heater
to set off a catastrophic chain of events
the faulty found overheated at ignited a hundred and twenty liters of hydraulic
oil
that sparked an inferno in the passenger coaches
that sent smoke billowing two and a half kilometers up the mountain' tunnel
and cause the deaths of a hundred and fifty five
now in new frost cable car has been built to take ski is up to the slaves
tourists have returned to take advantage of the exceptional year-round conditions
offered by the magnificent each time point last year
slowly but surely
the town is rebuilding its image
but the mounting trainer catherine
has never re-opened