Historys Most Shocking S01 E02
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00:00Tonight, on History's Most Shocking.
00:04How did a paraglider survive one of the most terrifying mishaps we've ever seen?
00:08One of the most dreaded malfunctions is what you see in this video.
00:12What happened when a leopard invaded a school?
00:16This is one of the most powerful predators on Earth.
00:20In the last place you want it to be.
00:24What led to this heart-stopping runway disaster?
00:28It's operating so far outside the bounds of normal safety protocols.
00:32And what made this elephant go off?
00:36Elephants are very social, but when they become aggressive, they're incredibly dangerous.
00:44Disasters.
00:48Shocking video.
00:52Life or death decisions.
00:56Some dead whale.
01:00Are the mysteries of how and why they happen.
01:04Some sort of metal fatigue was most likely at fault.
01:08It's like a bulldozer.
01:12Very few buildings can actually withstand that force of moving water.
01:16I'm Tony Harris.
01:20Prepare to be shocked.
01:24Good evening and welcome to history's most shocking.
01:28Acrobatic paragliding is one of those beautiful,
01:32exhilarating, athletic activities that I wouldn't do in a million years.
01:36But the man in our next video loves the intense rush
01:40of living close to the edge and sometimes going over it.
01:48July 27, 2022.
01:52This man, Swiss-born acro-paraglider Kevin Phillip,
01:56has come to this small mountain town to strap on a wing and sail among the clouds.
02:00Paragliding differs from skydiving in that it allows you
02:04to generate lift from your glider wing and fly out over the terrain
02:08as opposed to opening a chute in the midst of a freefall.
02:12The term was first coined by NASA in the 1960s.
02:16Paragliding is a really free sport. You're alone in the air.
02:20You don't have to make all your decisions by yourself.
02:24As Kevin soars 2,000 feet in the air,
02:28he attempts an advanced acro-paragliding move which he calls a twisty misty,
02:32a controlled 360-degree spin at a high pitch
02:36when suddenly it gets a little too twisty.
02:40Kevin's helmet camera and another on the ground are rolling
02:44as the cords twist and wrap around him as if he's trapped in a spider web.
02:48It was hanging from me straight up and then there was not a lot of surface
02:52to catch my falling.
02:56They call it gift wrap because it involves the paraglider getting wrapped up in their glider's sail.
03:00Kevin falls out of control, approaching terminal velocity.
03:04The maximum speed an object can drop, depending on what it is.
03:08In the belly parallel to earth position,
03:12terminal velocity can be approximately
03:16120 miles per hour. There is a point of no return
03:20where you must open up the parachute.
03:24Kevin reaches for one of his reserve parachutes to no avail.
03:28The first one is a base canopy for base jumpers,
03:32but the system wasn't working due to me being in the lines.
03:36As Kevin continues to plunge,
03:40he immediately looks to his second reserve chute.
03:44I already realized that a lot of lines are going over this pocket where this rescue is in.
03:48Unable to release the first two reserve parachutes,
03:52Kevin is only seconds away from certain death.
03:56When we do stories like this,
04:00we always want to underscore that paragliding has a lower fatality rate than driving.
04:04And clearly Kevin lived to tell us his tale.
04:08But still, how did things go so wrong here?
04:12How did Kevin save himself?
04:16All the problems started when Kevin got hit
04:20by an errant gust of strong wind.
04:24Kevin was trying to begin an acro maneuver in his paraglider,
04:28and the attitude of the wing became too low of an angle of attack for the air mass.
04:32The wing collapsed.
04:36Shapiro notes that when Kevin's twisty misty turned into a gift wrap, he did the right thing.
04:40He checked his terrain clearance.
04:44Terrain clearance is what we refer to as just the process of looking down
04:48to see how much time we have between us and the ground.
04:52His first reaction wasn't to try and fix the problem.
04:56It was to deploy his reserve parachute, which is exactly what he should have done.
05:00But why did Kevin's reserve chute also fail?
05:04His malfunction was still causing him to spin during his descent,
05:08so he wrapped his primary reserve up into the wreckage
05:12and didn't allow the reserve to come out of the deployment bag.
05:16Now, at the last second, Kevin's training kicks in.
05:20There was almost no time to really get scared.
05:24I learned how to manage my fear. It's quite important to keep a cool head.
05:28So what it looks like ended up happening is he physically grabbed the parachute
05:32out of the deployment bag by tearing the deployment bag off and throwing it,
05:36so I got a clear thought, and I re-grabbed it,
05:40and then I opened it in the very last second,
05:44and, yeah, it was the move which saved my life.
05:48I've rarely seen somebody that tangled up in their gear
05:52and still able to get a reserve out cleanly.
05:56If Kevin had deployed his final emergency backup chute
06:00even one second later,
06:04that extra time may have made all the difference
06:08causing more injuries or potentially even death
06:12when he hit the ground.
06:16Oh, my God!
06:18One thing's for sure, it won't be the last time Kevin takes flight.
06:22It's pure freedom for me and pure joy,
06:26and there is not much else to compare with that feeling.
06:30The takeaway? We're with Shapiro on this one.
06:34Kevin's calm and quick decision to take the rescue parachute
06:38out of its deployment bag saved his life.
06:42We're just glad his terminal velocity wasn't as terminal
06:46as it could have been.
06:48Now, let's move to the classroom.
06:52For teenagers around the world, high school can be a stressful experience,
06:56but for students at a school in India,
07:00pop quizzes and bullies are the least of their worries.
07:04They're a little more concerned with something else,
07:08fanged, fast, and furious roaming down the halls.
07:12February 7, 2016.
07:16It's early Sunday morning, and all is quiet at the Vibgur High School campus
07:20located in Vindaluru, India.
07:24The classrooms are empty until suddenly a security camera captures this.
07:28Somehow, there's a leopard loose in the school.
07:32If you're working security at a high school,
07:36the things you're looking out for are trespassers,
07:40kids doing graffiti on the walls.
07:44The idea of running across a leopard is probably the furthest thing from your mind.
07:48Knowing their limits, the security guards reach out for help.
07:52And what do you see?
07:56Armed with enough tranquilizers to sedate an entire leap of leopards?
08:00Yes, that's what a group of leopards is called.
08:04What ensues next is a cat-and-mouse game to subdue the large predator
08:08who maniacally runs through the outdoor campus,
08:12dodging round after round of tranquilizer shots.
08:16With so many people surrounding it, the leopard desperately lashes out,
08:20but it took about 10 hours to resolve, and in the process, 6 people were injured.
08:24Watch as one man almost escapes,
08:28but is pulled back into the danger zone by the frenzied leopard,
08:32who viciously chops into his arm.
08:44This is far from the first time that there have been leopard and human encounters in India.
08:48Back in the early 20th century, a leopard nicknamed the devilish cunning panther
08:52is said to have killed over 150 women and children.
08:56The devilish cunning panther was a leopard
09:00that seemed to have developed a taste for humans,
09:04and would often leave behind the hands and feet of its victims.
09:08The British hunter tasked with killing it missed his shot at the beast,
09:12but it was later taken out by an armed goat herder.
09:16Millions of people living in an area that's close to a region that's home to leopards,
09:20inevitably the leopards are going to encroach on the human territory and vice versa.
09:28Many wildlife ecologists are doing what they can to preserve natural landscapes
09:32as a way to curtail leopards wandering into these densely populated urban areas.
09:36But in this case, we have to ask,
09:40how did a leopard get into a school?
09:44It's such a dangerous animal. Did these people handle it the right way?
09:48Let's see what our experts think.
09:52Experts suggest that these wild urban run-ins
09:56are increasing in India and around the world.
10:00Leopards are actually living in cities now.
10:04One of the reasons why is because there's an abundant prey source.
10:08A big part of urban leopard diet is actually domestic dogs.
10:12Experts also believe it is the leopard's keen ability to hide in plain sight
10:16that is allowing it to thrive in urban environments
10:20as cities expand into the cat's natural habitats.
10:24But why would a dog-hunting leopard make the terrifying decision to invade a children's school?
10:28There are leopards living alongside urban areas,
10:32reproducing. Young leopards need to disperse and find a new area.
10:36So maybe it was just exploring, looking for a new territory.
10:40Perhaps there was something in the school that attracted the leopard,
10:44maybe leftover food.
10:48That's the why. What about the how?
10:52These are incredibly agile, intelligent animals.
10:56They're not going to respect the boundary of a city. They're going to exploit it.
11:00These gates, these buildings, they serve almost like their own natural cliff sides.
11:04Leopards can shoot straight up in one single bound and reach 10 feet.
11:08So whether this animal chose to go through an open window
11:12or simply stride in the front door,
11:16it probably wasn't very hard to get into the school.
11:20As for the response, Dr. Mayer did not give this team a passing grade.
11:24These guys did all the wrong things, in my opinion.
11:28You have a predator in an enclosed space. You don't want to make it feel like it's threatened.
11:32It's just going to put a predator on the defense.
11:36And guess who's going to win? It's not going to be the humans.
11:40The takeaway?
11:44Dr. Mayer suggests that the best thing one can do in a situation like this
11:48is to give the animals some room. Don't attack it.
11:52And most importantly, try to remain calm.
11:56Basically, just do the exact opposite of what these guys did.
12:00You know what's scary?
12:04When your car breaks down on the highway.
12:08You know what's scarier? When your plane breaks down on the runway.
12:12September 18, 2016.
12:16Formula One air racer Tom Richard prepares for his final race
12:20at the 53rd annual National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada.
12:24But as the roar of engine turbines fills the air,
12:28Tom notices his engine isn't running quite right.
12:32I'm unfortunately experiencing an ignition crossover problem just a few seconds before the flag drop.
12:36So I decided to abort.
12:40Tom pops his canopy to signal that he's out.
12:44But what he doesn't know is that a plane behind him
12:48is still attempting takeoff.
12:52The plane rips through Tom's canopy, just barely sparing his outstretched arm and head
12:56only inches below.
13:00Obviously, the thing you're most concerned about is your head.
13:04So I sat there for a second, holding my head, and started realizing
13:08the only body part that was struck was my hand.
13:12Lucky indeed for this risky sport.
13:16Formula One air racing puts eight planes racing directly against each other
13:20at speeds upwards of 200 miles per hour in a tight,
13:24closed circuit just 30 feet above the ground.
13:28The dangers have taken to the sky since the early 20th century,
13:32from barnstormers wowing audiences in the 1920s
13:36to fortune-seeking enthusiasts fashioning their own racing planes during the Great Depression.
13:40Since World War II, the sport has only gotten faster
13:44and more competitive.
13:48And unfortunately, in air races, the dangers are far from hypothetical.
13:52On September 16, 2011, a plane called the Galloping Ghost was rounding a pylon
13:56when it lost control. The nose pitched down, it dived
14:00and rolled over and crashed into the tarmac
14:04going over 400 miles per hour.
14:08The plane disintegrated on impact.
14:12That hideous accident killed 11 people, including the pilot, and injured more than 60.
14:16According to studies, almost 80% of aviation accidents
14:20can be attributed to human error.
14:24In this case, which pilot is to blame?
14:28Oh my God.
14:32You see that moment of things are normal and then boom.
14:36This accident was quite the close call, but could it have been avoided?
14:40There's an expression in aviation, plan the flight and fly the plan.
14:44You have multiple layers of redundancy, multiple layers of safety.
14:48And when we talk about accident investigation, the goal is to find out
14:52the failure points so that we can try to prevent it from happening in the future.
14:56So what happened here? It's nine seconds before impact and Tom's plane
15:00is stopped in the middle of the runway. Was that a bad call?
15:04Never just sit on the runway if you've got an engine that can still operate.
15:08You should continue to taxi quickly off the edge of the runway.
15:12In this case, Tom's airplane just sat there.
15:16Even so, at five seconds before impact, Tom signals the race official,
15:20what was wrong? There definitely was something wrong with the signaling.
15:24We have three flagmen, one on each row. The gentleman on my row standing there with his arms
15:28over his head, but the flagman in the front didn't see him.
15:32So he's dropped the flag and started the race.
15:36I signaled you guys. I know.
15:40So a lot went wrong, but this still could have been avoided if the other pilot
15:44hadn't blundered too. The NTSB determined the lane that
15:48the rear plane should have flown through was not flown through.
15:52It veered to the left into the airplane lane
15:56that Tom was in.
16:00If he had been farther to the left by, say, four or five feet, that would probably have been minced meat.
16:04It was a bit of a shocker at the time, but no, it didn't scare me off from flying.
16:08In fact, I encourage people to do it. I think it's a fantastic thing.
16:12Our takeaway, pilot error is to blame here.
16:16The accident report concludes this incident happened largely
16:20because the oncoming pilot veered into Tom's lane,
16:24combined with the ground crew's signaling error and Tom's own decision
16:28to stop on the runway. Clearly, it's important to maintain
16:32proper distance no matter what you're driving.
16:36Now for something much more wild.
16:40Elephants have the largest brain of any land mammal, with three times
16:44as many neurons as humans. But as one tourist in Thailand learned,
16:48these majestic creatures can use their heads for more than thinking.
16:56January 29th, 2017. Whitney Laveau
17:00is spending a relaxing day at an elephant conservation park in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
17:04An onlooker films Whitney getting to know a new friend
17:08in a shallow river, and then this.
17:14She's washing the trunk of this elephant. It lifts up its head
17:18suddenly and sends her flipping and flying.
17:22Take another look. It's only a fraction of a second before the elephant has smacked Whitney
17:26across the river.
17:30Whitney Laveau has just learned the hard way that when it comes to
17:34elephant encounters, it's best to look, but not touch.
17:38Fortunately, Whitney escaped this attack relatively
17:42unscathed and later posted about her experience online
17:46where it went viral. She seems to have taken this whole experience
17:50in stride and has even nicknamed what happened as
17:54eleflying, which I think is kind of funny. Jokes aside, Whitney's day
17:58could have been much worse. In 1942, a circus elephant
18:02named Modoc was about to perform in a high school gym when she was
18:06suddenly accosted by a barking dog. The frightened elephant broke
18:10loose and rampaged through the town of Wabash, Indiana until
18:14she was finally caught five days later. And more recently, we
18:18have seen even more instances of angry elephants.
18:22In September of 2021, on a tea plantation in
18:26Saunipur, India, another elephant started chasing after a group of people who had to
18:30scramble for their lives and go diving into a river to escape.
18:34Fortunately, only one person sustained injuries
18:38from that incident. However, there's still an elephant in the room
18:42when it comes to Whitney's attack. Since Whitney wasn't acting aggressively
18:46toward the elephant, why did the elephant respond so aggressively
18:50to her?
18:54So how did this all begin? Well, it turns out, Whitney touched
18:58one of the most delicate parts of an elephant. The trunk of the elephant
19:02are incredibly sensitive. They can detect .25
19:06millimeter of pressure, which is the equivalent
19:10of just a light brushing of the skin. The trunk's high
19:14concentration of sensory motor cells, called Pacinian corpuscles,
19:18enable this strong sense of touch. Imagine an animal this size
19:22that has one of the most sensitive organs attached
19:26to its face, the trunk, and someone goes up and touches it, it's
19:30going to react. And not only that, it's possible this
19:34elephant reacted because it was remembering some past injury.
19:38Elephants are famously known for having an incredible memory.
19:42It is very likely that you could trigger a bad memory inadvertently
19:46and cause an aggressive reaction. Aggressive reactions
19:50that can be deadly. There are about 500 deaths worldwide a year
19:54from elephant attacks. The most common injuries tend to be
19:58trampling, tossing, crushing, squeezing.
20:02Much more than penetrating trauma. If she was head on
20:06instead of to the side of that elephant, that tusk
20:10would have just penetrated straight into the chest and killed her on the spot.
20:14You have to remember that even though you see an elephant
20:18like this being cared for by humans, that doesn't necessarily make them
20:22safe to get up close to, let alone touch it.
20:26I think that there is a line of respect that you have to have
20:30with wild animals, and that includes respecting their space.
20:34The takeaway? We have to agree
20:38with Dr. Mayer on this one. Obviously it's dangerous
20:42to pet an elephant, but the combination of the trunk's hypersensitivity
20:46and the elephant's potential trauma with people likely made it even more
20:50dangerous. As much as we'd like to have contact with these beautiful
20:54creatures, the practice of elephant tourism has come under scrutiny in
20:58Thailand. Many believe the activity should be banned.
21:02Moving on. Amusement park rides
21:06are supposed to give people a shot of adrenaline in a safe,
21:10controlled environment. But when things go wrong, the ride
21:14can go from thrilling to terrifying to deadly.
21:18Strap in for this one.
21:22September 4th, 2022, Mahali, India
21:26is hosting the London Bridge Festival. A group of people are enjoying
21:30the festival's 50-foot drop tower when disaster strikes.
21:40Watch again. The platform is supposed to bounce back toward the
21:44top, but instead it smashes against the ground, sending riders flying
21:48out of their seats. The festival's atmosphere
21:52is the opposite of festive, as injured passengers are laid on the
21:56ground one by one. It looks like a drop tower you'd find at a carnival
22:00anywhere in the world. All of a sudden it becomes very real.
22:04And this isn't the first time
22:08this has happened. In the town of Ujmir,
22:12the central tower of another ride collapsed,
22:16leaving people injured as the ride collided with the ground.
22:22Drop rides originated as free-falling rides that have been
22:26around since the early 20th century, as seen in attractions like
22:30Coney Island's famous Parachute Jump, which debuted at New York City's
22:34World's Fair in 1939. Riders were hoisted 250
22:38feet in the air on cables, then parachuted to the ground.
22:42Attractions like this evolved over the years into rides like drop
22:46coasters that gained popularity in the 80s, such as Six Flags
22:50over Georgia's free-fall. Throughout history, you could get
22:54rides that take advantage of the feeling of falling. There's a universal appeal.
22:58You're doing this to feel a little bit of life or death,
23:02but things have become a lot more extreme.
23:06So chasing the feeling has become more and more dangerous over time.
23:10The largest drop tower
23:14in the world is located at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
23:18Measuring over 400 feet tall, that's almost
23:22as tall as the Pyramids of Giza. But while major amusement parks
23:26in the U.S. are heavily regulated and inspected, there clearly
23:30seems to be danger in these traveling carnival rides.
23:34So what went wrong with this drop tower in India? Let's see what our experts think.
23:38Fortunately,
23:42no one died, but whatever went wrong, seated drop rides carry specific
23:46risks. When you're in a seated position
23:50and you come down and hit that hard, your pelvis is likely going
23:54to fracture in multiple places. You could easily bleed out internally.
23:58As to why it happened, one theory has to do with these being
24:02traveling rides. They have to take those machines down and put them back up frequently.
24:06And the fact that it's constantly disassembled and reassembled is probably creating
24:10a lot more wear on machines like this as opposed to an amusement park
24:14that is going to be static and the machines will constantly be there.
24:18Beyond that, there is an important difference in drop towers.
24:22The permanent towers you see at amusement parks use a certain
24:26kind of brakes to slow them down. There's a magnetic braking system
24:30where permanent magnetic poles, one on the car
24:34and one on the tower, slows the car down and brings it to rest.
24:38It's known as eddy current braking, where the magnets
24:42on the drop car create their own magnetic field and pass a series
24:46of metallic fins measured to create an opposing magnetic field
24:50powerful enough to de-accelerate the car every single time.
24:54You can't turn them off. They will always interact with each other
24:58no matter the situation. On the other hand, traveling drop towers
25:02at carnivals, like the one in Mahali, India, often use a pneumatic
25:06braking system, which Bell considers inferior.
25:10The pneumatic systems you find on traveling
25:14fairground rides like this use compressed air inside cylinders
25:18with a piston inside it. In this case, the drop cars
25:22are attached to enclosed steel cables with pistons that shoot
25:26upward using compressed air, causing the drop car to descend and then
25:30break when the piston's kinetic energy is absorbed by the top layer
25:34of compressed air. There are quite a few components
25:38involved that could fail due to improper maintenance,
25:42improper installation, or just down to wear and tear.
25:46For Bell, it's clear that this traveling ride
25:50was using a pneumatic braking system and not a foolproof magnetic one.
25:54From what I can see, no e-braking was ever
25:58applied to that vehicle as it dropped down to the bottom of the tower.
26:02There is a catastrophic failure of some
26:06component within a pneumatic braking system.
26:36In another episode, we brought you
26:40the story of the deadly 2020 port explosion in Lebanon's
26:44capital city of Beirut. Well, Beirut wasn't the first port city to go
26:48through something similar. Check out this next earth-shattering clip
26:52from the other side of the Asian continent.
26:56It's August 12, 2015
27:00in Tianjin, China. A local man is enjoying a quiet summer night at home
27:04when he spots something foreboding in the distance and starts filming.
27:08Oh, my God! Oh, s***! Oh, my God!
27:12Look at that! A massive explosion rocks
27:16the area. But it's not over yet.
27:20About 35 seconds later, a huge shockwave hits the apartment,
27:24throwing the man filming to the ground. The secondary explosion
27:28was much bigger. Oh, s***! It looks like
27:32a Hollywood-scale disaster and an explosion so big
27:36that the camera person can't even handle it.
27:40All over town, people film the series of explosions.
27:48Ground zero for the blasts is the warehouse
27:52district down by the water. The cause of the major
27:56explosion was ammonium nitrate, and that is a very
28:00common chemical in fertilizer. It's the wonder chemical that makes
28:04the food production in modern civilization enough to sustain
28:08us all. The downside is that it can explode.
28:12The initial explosion registered as a magnitude 2.3
28:16earthquake, and the second, more powerful blast,
28:20was the equivalent of a 2.9 magnitude earthquake,
28:24with the shockwaves being felt for many miles. The resulting fireball
28:28reached hundreds of feet in height and caused an uncontrollable burn.
28:34On April 19, 1995, the United States
28:38experienced firsthand the devastating effects of ammonium nitrate
28:42when domestic terrorists detonated 2.5 tons
28:46of the chemical in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
28:50So did the same thing happen in Tianjin?
28:58Our experts say the explosion
29:02wasn't intentional and may have been caused by another chemical
29:06stored in the same warehouse. This is not terrorism.
29:10What we see here is a storage issue. We have
29:14200 tons of nitrocellulose. Nitrocellulose is used in making
29:18nail polish, lacquer, and also, very importantly,
29:22nitrocellulose dynamite.
29:26And we have 800 tons of ammonium
29:30nitrate just sitting there. Both of those are
29:34high explosives. The company that owned the warehouse
29:38stocked these two chemicals near each other, owing in part to a lack of
29:42oversight. Here in the United States, we have an entity
29:46that monitors storage. That's ATF.
29:50In other countries, specifically China, their requirements are more
29:54lax than ours. It appears the nitrocellulose ignited
29:58the ammonium nitrate. But how? Remember, this happened in August
30:02in the heat of summer, which caused the nitrocellulose to congeal.
30:06When you have explosives that congeal,
30:10those little congealed droplets of nitrocellulose
30:14that form on the outside, they're actually more dangerous
30:18than the explosive itself. Investigators believe the hot warehouse
30:22caused the nitrocellulose to dry up and self-ignite,
30:26which in turn triggered the ammonium nitrate. Still, how were
30:30these explosions able to cause such widespread damage?
30:34When an explosion occurs, you have
30:38your audible and your fire. Your blast wave begins. But
30:42because we live in an atmosphere filled with oxygen,
30:46that blast wave forms a hole inside. That
30:50needs to be filled back up with the oxygen. That's the negative wave.
30:54So all of that collateral damage from the initial positive wave
30:58is now coming back.
31:02The takeaway? Two chemicals
31:06that should never have been stored near each other led to this massive
31:10explosion. 173 people died as a result.
31:14104 were firefighters. The chairman of the company that ran
31:18the warehouse was found guilty of paying bribes in order to sidestep
31:22safety regulations. He was given a suspended death sentence.
31:26The Guinness Book of World Records
31:30receives about 50,000 applications for world records every year.
31:34But as you'll see in this next story, some records are best left
31:38unbroken.
31:42September 27, 1986, Cleveland, Ohio.
31:46It's about 1.50 p.m. and a crowd of more than 100,000
31:50have gathered in downtown Cleveland for something that's being called
31:54Balloon Fest 86. Organizers are trying to break the world record for the number
31:58of balloons launched at once. The record was 1 million
32:02and they plan to beat it by launching 1.5 million.
32:06Thousands of volunteers worked through the night creating a multicolored mountain
32:10of balloons downtown. We can hope that everyone involved in this had
32:14good intentions because this was going to be a fun event. Unfortunately,
32:18it quickly became a disaster. As a rainstorm quickly approaches
32:22organizers scramble. 1.5 million balloons are released
32:26earlier than scheduled in an impressive mushroom cloud of color.
32:30But this triumphant mood was about to burst like, well,
32:34you know. The organizers of this event believed that
32:38the balloons would have dispersed and gone far and wide
32:42over the country and broken up. Ultimately, the balloons
32:46didn't behave as they initially thought.
32:50Turns out Cleveland isn't the only city to suffer from a world record
32:54fail. In 2005, an attempt to erect the world's
32:58largest popsicle in New York ended with a flood of flavored
33:02fluid when it melted too quickly. So what
33:06ultimately went wrong with Balloon Fest 86?
33:12First, the balloons began to settle around the
33:16local airports. All of a sudden, airplanes were flying
33:20through this balloon infested airspace. Not only can
33:24helium balloons distract pilots during critical moments, they can also get
33:28sucked into aircraft engines. And that was just the beginning.
33:32The balloons also began to just settle on streets and in waterways
33:36clogging them up. Sewers and rivers became full of these
33:40rubber balloons. But the most tragic event would occur in Lake Erie,
33:44where nearly 60% of the inflated balloons landed,
33:48far greater than the originally anticipated 10%. Two men
33:52had gone fishing on the lake and they had disappeared.
33:56Unfortunately, these balloons came over the lake just as search and
34:00rescue operators were now trying to find these two men. A near impossible
34:04feat, thanks to the tens of thousands of balloons on the water's
34:08surface. All of a sudden, there's going to be a lot of things in the water now
34:12that could potentially resemble a life jacket or a person in distress.
34:16Ultimately, search and rescue operators were not able to locate
34:20these two men, and tragically, their bodies washed up
34:24on shore a few days later. A horrible tragedy, which could have been
34:28avoided if the balloons stayed away from the lake like originally
34:32planned. The organizers wanted the balloons eventually making their
34:36way far and wide across the Ohio countryside.
34:40That's not what happened. In this case, we had a couple of storms that had developed in the
34:44vicinity of the area. These nearby thunderstorms created
34:48a drastic wind shift that played havoc with the released balloons.
34:52The balloons went down to the ground, concentrated in a small area,
34:56impacting the lake and the airport.
35:00Importantly, not only did the wind push the balloons down, it pushed
35:04them down too soon. When you release helium-filled
35:08latex balloons, they normally deflate before they
35:12come back to Earth, but because of the shift in the weather patterns,
35:16these balloons came back to Earth still inflated.
35:20And on Lake Erie, the search vessels that were looking for these two
35:24fishermen were completely flummoxed by the balloons stretched
35:28across the lake for miles. Many believe that even with perfect
35:32planning, Cleveland may not have been the perfect place to host such
35:36an event. In downtown Cleveland, you've got a giant
35:40lake next to it, you've got weather concerns, you've got
35:44an airport close by, and that all combines
35:48to create less than ideal circumstances
35:52for a balloon release. The takeaway?
35:56This momentous mishap was caused by a poor location
36:00and bad calculations of the storm and wind patterns. The Guinness
36:04Book of World Records soon retired this category, citing safety concerns.
36:08Did you know that in the
36:12U.S. in 2024, only 17 states
36:16and the District of Columbia require all motorcyclists to wear a helmet?
36:20Shocking, right? But while helmets keep you safer,
36:24putting them on doesn't always guarantee they stay
36:28on. That's something the biker in our next story learned the hard way.
36:32October
36:3618th, 2020, Brookhaven, New York. It's a crisp fall afternoon
36:40just after 5 p.m., and Jaden France is riding his motorcycle
36:44with a group of fellow bike enthusiasts. What I personally like the most about
36:48riding is the unity and the community that comes together. He's filming
36:52the trip with a camera on top of his helmet when he suddenly faces every
36:56motorcyclist's worst nightmare. I've seen an oncoming car
37:00which left no time to react.
37:04Let's see that again in slow motion.
37:08The BMW begins
37:12a left turn directly into Jaden's lane.
37:20It's a shallow turn intersection, so the car that we see making a
37:24left turn is making a shallow left turn, not a 90 degree angle left turn.
37:28That's a pretty normal turn at this location. Remember, Jaden
37:32was filming from his helmet. That's not him tossing and turning.
37:36It's his helmet. You can conclude pretty easily that the motorcyclist's helmet
37:40came loose from his head and is spinning in the air and landing on the ground. Jaden himself
37:44is just a short distance away, alive, but not okay.
37:48My body actually went over the car and landed
37:52onto the grass. After waking up in the hospital, the doctors explained
37:56to me that I've been in a coma for four days.
38:04Statistics say per mile traveled,
38:08motorcyclists are 28 times more likely to lose their lives in an
38:12accident compared to other passenger vehicles. So this video
38:16has us asking not only what went wrong, but how did Jaden
38:20survive when the odds were so stacked against him?
38:24So what led to this horrific
38:28accident? One factor in this crash is the time of day.
38:32This was in fall. It was about dusk. You can see
38:36they've got their visor down. Coming out of that really sunny area there, so
38:40visibility may be limited somewhat. And if you look at the statistics, crashes go
38:44up about 16% higher when sun's in your eyes.
38:48But Haight notes it's not just brightness, but the darkness
38:52cast by the trees on the side of the highway that can cause visibility issues.
38:56I think the more important part of that is the motorcyclist is in a shadow,
39:00which really helps obscure that motorcyclist to the oncoming driver.
39:04And even though Jaden's helmet went flying off his head
39:08after the impact, it likely played a role in helping save his life.
39:12While gasoline-powered motorcycles have been around since 1885
39:16when they were invented in Germany, the first motorcycle helmet didn't appear
39:20until 1914, and that was only made from leather.
39:24Today, helmets are made typically from a much more durable fiberglass or carbon fiber.
39:28But Haight says the best safety measure of all is to be visible.
39:32People don't see motorcycles like they see other vehicles.
39:36Drivers don't seem to be looking for them like they are looking for larger vehicles.
39:40As to how Jaden survived, it likely came down to a matter of inches.
39:44If the car had continued through the turn a little bit further
39:48and the cyclist were to hit further to the right on the front of the car,
39:52there's a greater chance that he would have gone through the windshield.
39:56Instead, Jaden hit the edge of a hood and his body went airborne to the side,
40:00miraculously landing him away from the concrete road.
40:04I think that landing on the grass saved me from a more critical injury
40:08or something more serious.
40:12The county police department's accident report didn't assign blame to the BMW driver,
40:16and thankfully, Jaden recovered.
40:20Jaden's lucky to be alive. He's traveling fast, and taking some high-risk behavior sometimes has high-risk results.
40:24The best thing you can do is prevention.
40:28You slow down, you wear certified protective gear,
40:32and you should take low risk.
40:36The takeaway? The angle of the sun was primarily responsible for this accident.
40:40After suffering traumatic injuries to his head,
40:44two and a half years of physical therapy has helped get Jaden back on his feet.
40:48As he proceeds along the road to recovery,
40:52he's encouraging others to learn and practice bike safety.
40:56And that's our show for tonight. Thank you so much for watching, and stay safe out there.