Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

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

#10. Titanic $150 Million

The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famousaccident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 mostexpensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage andwas considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg andsunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 millionin today’s dollars).

#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge $358 Million

On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truckcontaining 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. Thetanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed theload-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 millionand the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.






#8. MetroLink Crash $500 Million

On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst traincrashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolinkcommuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train inLos Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have runthrough a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging.Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in lossesfor Metrolink.

#7. B-2 Bomber Crash $1.4 Billion

Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we’reonly #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly aftertaking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigatorsblamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused bymoisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a suddennose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history.Both pilots were able to eject to safety.

The crash was captured on video. It shows one B-2 Bombersuccessfully taking off followed by the B-2 Bomber which crashes. Thecrash starts at 2:00

#6. Exxon Valdez $2.5 Billion

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relationto the world’s biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to theremote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopterand boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilledwhen the ship’s master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and theship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.








#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig $3.4 Billion

The world’s worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, itwas the world’s single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000barrels of oil per day.. On July 6, 1988, as part of routinemaintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which wereessential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, thetechnicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PMthat same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gaspumps and the world’s most expensive oil rig accident was set inmotion.
Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed inflames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in$3.4 Billion in damages.







#4. Challenger Explosion $5.5 Billion

The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 secondsafter takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failedto seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach theoutside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload ofliquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing theSpace Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today’s dollars).The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lostequipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today’sdollars).

#3. Prestige Oil Spill $12 Billion

On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst duringa storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, thecaptain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them totake the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authoritiesforced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captaintried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but theytoo ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually tookits toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half andreleasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.
According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board,the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

#2. Space Shuttle Columbia $13 Billion

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthyshuttle in NASA’s orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry overTexas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of thewings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttlewas $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today’sdollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it thecostliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search andrecovery of debris cost $300 million.
In the end, the total cost of the accident (not includingreplacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to theAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.













#1. Chernobyl $200 Billion

On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliestaccident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggestsocio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area ofUkraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to beevacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affectedby the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, includingpeople who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. Thetotal costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation tovictims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of anew steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billionalone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operatorswho violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safetyrequirements needed.