1993 World Disaster

World aerospace, fire and explosion, marine, mine, natural, rail, traffic and miscellaneous disaster.

1993: Disasters

AEROSPACE

1.    .   Afghanistan. More than 70 passengers were killed when a military plane crashed near the town of Tashkurgan on April 27.
   2.      Colombia. A Boeing 727 on its way from Panama City to Medellín, Colombia, crashed near a Colombian mountaintop on May 19. All 132 people on board the SAM Airlines flight lost their lives.
   3.      Gabon. A military transport plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Libreville, Gabon, on April 28, killing 29 people, including 18 Zambian soccer players en route to Senegal to play a second-round qualifying match for the World Cup.
   4.      Georgia. A passenger plane was hit by a heat-seeking missile as it approached the Sukhumi airport on September 22. More than 80 people were killed. The missile was fired by Abkhazian separatists; a day earlier the rebels had downed another plane at the same airport, killing 28.
   5.      India. An Indian Airlines jet crashed in western India, about 200 miles northeast of Bombay, soon after takeoff April 26; at least 75 people were killed.
   6.      Iowa. Eight people, including South Dakota Governor George Mickelson, were killed when their twin-engine airplane crashed into a silo near Dubuque on April 19.
   7.      Iran. An Iran Air passenger jet collided with a Russian military aircraft on February 8, shortly after takeoff, over the army base of Karaj. All 132 aboard the passenger jet died, but the two pilots in the Sukhoi fighter jet ejected safely before the collision. The crash was blamed on faulty radar.
   8.      Macedonia. A Pal Air jet crashed into a field seconds after taking off from the Skopje airport during a March 5 snowstorm. Seventy-seven people aboard died.
   9.      Macedonia. An Avioimpex jet collided with a Soviet Yak 42 in the mountains near Ohrid on November 20. Heavy snowstorms disabled the rescue crews; 115 people lost their lives.
   10.  South Korea. A South Korean airliner crashed into a mountain after heavy winds and rains kept it from landing in the city of Mokpo on July 27. Sixty-six passengers were killed.
   11.  Tajikistan. A Tajik passenger jet crashed during takeoff in Khorog on August 28, killing some 35 people.

   FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

   12.  Argentina. A fire in a Buenos Aires disco on December 20 killed 17 teenagers.
   13.  California. Nearly 20 wildfires, fanned by Santa Ana winds of 40 to 60 miles per hour, roared out of control across six counties in Southern California, from Ventura to the Mexican border. The blazes began October 26 and continued for days; some 200,000 acres were burnt and 700 houses destroyed. On November 2 another fast-moving fire, believed to be caused by arson, swept through Malibu, burning about 35,000 acres and 200 homes. Three people died in the fires.
   14.  China. An inferno engulfed a three-story Tangshan department store on February 14, killing 79 people. Officials blamed improper safety precautions by welders who were working in the store.
   15.  China. A toy factory in Kuiyong caught fire on November 19, killing more than 80 people and injuring more than 30. Locked doors and windows prevented employees from escaping the flames.
   16.  Illinois. A fire in a transient hotel in Chicago on March 16 killed 16 people.
   17.  Senegal. A tanker truck filled with liquid ammonia exploded at a peanut-processing plant in Dakar on March 24, killing at least 60 people.
   18.  Thailand. More than 200 workers died trying to flee a burning Bangkok toy factory on May 10. Security guards said the plant's doors had been locked to prevent pilfering.
   19.  Thailand. Ten workers were killed when they were trapped in a Bangkok textile factory fire on July 6.
   20.  Turkey. An avalanche of refuse and debris buried and killed about 40 people on April 28, when methane gas at an Istanbul garbage dump exploded.
   21.  Venezuela. A natural gas pipeline exploded in Las Tejerias on September 28 when it was ruptured by state telephone workers. The blast, right next to a major highway, burned a passenger bus and several cars and killed about 50 people.

   MARINE

   22.  Congo. About 150 Zairians were killed in Brazzaville on March 2 when the ferry they were boarding pulled away from shore prematurely, breaking the gangway.
   23.  Germany. A Polish ferry capsized in the Baltic Sea near the German island of Rügen on January 14 when it was struck by heavy winds. More than 50 ferry passengers were killed.
   24.  Haiti. An overcrowded ferry sank off Haiti's southern peninsula on February 17 when passengers dashed from the open deck to a tarpaulin to escape a rainstorm. The Red Cross accounted for 285 survivors out of 800 to 1,200 passengers.
   25.  Malaysia. Two fishing boats collided in the Strait of Malacca on December 19; 49 people were feared dead.
   26.  Philippines. More than 225 people drowned on July 2, when three boats capsized during a religious procession on a river near Manila. The three boats had previously been lashed together to carry a 30-foot-high pagoda.
   27.  South Korea. On October 10, approximately 285 people drowned in the Yellow Sea when a ferry capsized and sank during a heavy storm.

   NATURAL

   28.  Algeria. A mudslide in Oran killed at least 12 people on December 25; more than 45 were injured.
   29.  Bangladesh. Gale-force winds swept across the country on March 26-27. More than 300 people were believed to have drowned, over 250 of them in an overturned ferry, and at least 25,000 people were left homeless.
   30.  Colombia. A mudslide swept through the town of Dabeiba on December 17, demolishing 200 houses and killing about 50 people.
   31.  Ecuador. A landslide, set off by heavy rains, buried a gold-mining village in the south on May 10, killing about 200 people.
   32.  Europe. Heavy rains caused severe flooding of the Rhine River and several of its tributaries in December, killing at least seven people and causing massive evacuations in Cologne and Bonn, Germany, and in parts of eastern France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
   33.  Honduras. Flooding in the provinces of Atlàntida, Colon, Cortès, and Yoro swept away entire towns in early November, and as many as 400 people were feared dead.
   34.  India. A devastating earthquake hit south-central Maharashtra State on September 30, killing as many as 30,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless. The quake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale.
   35.  Japan. Tidal waves as high as 30 feet smashed Okushiri Island and the southwestern coast of Hokkaido on July 12, killing more than 200 people; the tidal waves were caused by an earthquake in the Sea of Japan.
   36.  Malaysia. A 12-story condominium collapsed in Kuala Lumpur on December 11 when heavy rain caused a landslide; 25 people died.
   37.  Malaysia. More than 20,000 people were evacuated from the Northeast because of heavy flooding in late December; parts of Perak and Johor states were also submerged. At least 14 people died.
   38.  Mexico and California. Heavy rains lashed Tijuana, Mexico, and southern California on January 14, causing mudslides and killing more than 35 people.
   39.  Papua New Guinea. On October 13 an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale hit the north coast of the island near the town of Madang, provoking massive mudslides. Another quake, measuring 6.3, shook the same area on October 16. About 100 people were believed dead after the two quakes.
   40.  Philippines. Mayon Volcano exploded without warning on February 2, spewing ash 3 miles into the air and sending boulders crashing down on nearby villages. About 70 people were killed.
   41.  South Asia. Summer monsoons caused floods and landslides in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, flooding fields and driving thousands of people from their homes. More than 2,000 were killed.
   42.  United States. A fierce storm hit the entire eastern United States on March 12 and 13, killing an estimated 250 people.
   43.  United States. During the summer months persistent, heavy rainfall caused the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries to overflow, inundating millions of acres of land in nine Midwest states and claiming 50 lives; damage was estimated up to $20 billion.
   44.  Venezuela. Tropical Storm Bret touched off mudslides and flooding in Caracas on August 8, killing at least 100 shantytown dwellers and injuring another 500.
   45.  Vietnam. In October and November flooding in the central plains of Vietnam caused extensive damage to land and property; more than 120 people died.

   RAIL

   46.  Alabama. Forty-seven people in all died when Amtrak's Sunset Limited derailed while crossing a bridge over Big Bayou Canot near Mobile on September 22. It was the worst rail accident in the United States in more than 20 years.
   47.  Armenia. Thirty people were killed and dozens were injured when a commuter train struck a parked freight train in northern Armenia on May 27.
   48.  China. A bus that tried to speed across an unprotected crossing was struck by a train in Liaoning province on January 31, killing 66 of the bus passengers and injuring some 30 more.
   49.  Indiana. Two trains collided near Gary on January 18, when the engineer of one of the trains failed to stop for a red warning light. Seven people lost their lives.
   50.  Indonesia. On November 2, two passenger trains collided on the outskirts of Jakarta during rush hour, killing as many as 20 people and injuring 150.
   51.  South Korea. A passenger train fell off collapsed tracks into a gaping hole near Pusan on March 28, killing more than 70 people and injuring about 120.

   TRAFFIC

   52.  Brazil. A bus carrying Argentinian tourists struck a wild animal and plunged into a brook in southern Brazil on March 3, killing ten passengers.
   53.  Brazil. A bus on its way to a religious celebration collided with a truck on a southern highway on June 10, killing 33 people. Two ambulances that answered the emergency call also collided; one ambulance driver was killed.
   54.  Great Britain. A touring bus collided with a van and plummeted down a 20-foot embankment near Canterbury on November 10. The driver and nine American passengers lost their lives.
   55.  Great Britain. Thirteen people, including several schoolchildren, died when the minibus in which they were riding collided with a parked truck in the Warwickshire area on November 18.
   56.  Mexico. A tourist bus slipped out of control on a wet roadway, hit a power pole, then burst into flames near Cancún on January 4; 25 people were killed.

   MISCELLANEOUS

   57.  Bosnia. At least 12 Bosnian Muslims were killed aboard United Nations transport vehicles evacuating people from Srebrenica in late March. The victims were crushed or suffocated in the push of people seeking to escape a Serbian blockade.
   58.  Egypt. At least 34 people were killed when a huge piece of rock broke off a cliff and fell on houses outside Cairo on December 14.
   59.  India. A wild elephant rampaged through villages in northeastern India on August 25 and 26, killing more than 40 people.
   60.  North Korea. About 200 soldiers, acting as construction workers, were killed on March 25 when a high-rise building in Pyongyang collapsed on them.
   61.  Tajikistan. Twenty-four people died after eating bread made from tainted wheat in southern Tajikistan during late 1992 and early 1993.
   62.  Thailand. The six-story Royal Plaza Hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima collapsed on August 13, killing more that 100 people and injuring hundreds more.