A not exhaustive calendar of the biggest disasters occurred since 1970 up to today

 
Date Place Victims The facts
October, 24 2001  Gottard tunnel 11 dead A German truck, full of mechanical materials, was going at North and, for unknown reasons (damage, driver's indisposition, drunkenness?), crossed into the opposite laneand hit an oncoming truck  loaded with wheels.
October, 8 2001 Linate, Milano 118 dead A small tourist aeroplane, crashes with an SAS plane on the take-off runway. Fault caused by fog. 
September, 21 2001 Tolosa, France 29 dead, 2400 wounded, 782 of them in hospital, and 34 seriously ill A factory of fertilizer (AZF) exploded.
January, 17 2001 San Cristobal Island -  At 22:00, oil tanker Jessica, property of Acotramar, which transported 160,000 gallons of gas-oil, grounded itself at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Risk of ecological  catastrophe  in  National Park of Galapagos.
November, 1 2000 Taiwan 80 dead A Boeing 747-400 of Singapore Airlines crashes on take-off, Taipei airport, Taiwan, during very rainy and windy turbulence. The aeroplane was flying to Los Angeles.
July, 25 2000 Paris 113 dead Around 16.45 (local time), a Concorde of Air France flying to New York, crashed shortly after take-off, Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris.
January, 31 2000 Pacific ocean 88 dead A MD-83 of Alaska Airlines, flying by Puerto Vallarta, in Mexico, to Seattle and Washington crashed in the Pacific ocean, to the north of California, killing 88 passengers.
Decembr, 12 1999 Finistère, France - The Maltese oil-tanker Erika, filled with 28,000 tons of crude oil, broke in two off the Finistère coast. Environmental catastrophe on Atlantic coast: some 300,000 to 500,000 birds died, very big impact but no estimate of impact on food chain.
October, 31 1999 Nantucket Island, Massachusetts 217 dead 40 minutes after take-off from JFK airport in New York, the Boeing 767 EGYPTAIR suddenly plummeted into the Atlantic ocean, from a height of 10,000 meters.

Oct-99

 Paddington, London 31 dead Railway accident, due to driver tiredness thanks to very long shifts (9 hours a day, also 7 hours with no pause). Trial indicated that an automatic signal system (ATP) could avoid these accidents. 
September, 30 1999 Japan 1 dead A nuclear impact put radiation into the environment. Radiations up to 15,000 times normal levels. A worker of the plant died from radiation exposure.
June, 1 1999 Little Rock, Arkansas 11 dead During a storm an MD-80 of the American Airlines, departed from the airport of Fort Worth International in Dallas, broke up on landing.

Mar-99

 Mountain White tunnel 39 dead A truck load of margarine caught fire in transit.
September, 2 1998 Atlantic ocean 215 dead An MD-11 of Swissair, in trip from New York to Geneva, crashed into the Atlantic to the north of Nova Scotia.
March, 23 1998 FLORENCE 1 dead and 30 wounded Rome-Bergamo Pendolino crashed into a local train. Due to an signal-error near a junction box, the Pendolino was transferred to the local line.
February, 24 1998 ROME 4 wounded Rome, a strong explosion stops the train in a tunnel. The cause of the accident seems to have been the loss of friction of the third locomotive of the train, formed by three locomotive cars.
February, 11 1998 ROME 25 wounded Railway crash at the Termini Station.

Sep-97

 Southall, UK 7 dead An high speed train crashes into an empty train. An automated on board system (Automatic Warning System) didn't work.
January, 9 1997 Monroe, Michigan 29 dead A Comair flight, from Cincinnati to Detroit, crashes.
July, 17 1996 Long Island, New York 230 dead The TWA Boeing 747, departed from the airport JFK in New York, exploded and fell into the Atlantic ocean, en route to Paris. An explosion in the central fuel tank very probably caused the accident. No survivors.
July, 17 1996 Atlantic ocean 230 dead A TWA Boeing 747, departed from New York in direction of Paris, explodes in flight.
May, 11 1996 Florida 110 dead A ValuJet DC-9, in trip from Miami to Atlanta, crashes.

1996

 Watford, London 1 dead, 70 wounded Railway accident at Watford, north of London.
December, 20 1995 Decreases, Colombia 160 dead A Boeing 757 of the American Airlines crashes next to Cali, in Colombia.
October, 24 1994 Roselawn, Indiana 68 dead An ATR-72 of the American Eagle, in trip from Indianapolis to Chicago, crashes at Roselawn Indiana.
September, 27 1994 15 mileses South-East Uto island (Finland) 95 confirmed dead, 757 lost The ferry "Estonia", 15,566 tons, sailing from Tallinn to Stockholm (Sweden), upsets and sinks. The trial came to the conclusion that the cause was a structural defect of the bow hatch.
September, 8 1994 Pittsburgh 132 dead A Boeing 737 of the USAir Flight, from Chicago to Palm Beach (Florida), crashes near Pittsburgh.
July, 2 1994 Charlotte, North Carolina 26 dead A USAir DC-9, from Columbia, South Carolina, to Charlotte, North Carolina, crashes.
April, 26 1994 Nagoya, Japan 262 dead An Airbus A300-600R of China Airlines explodes and burns during an aborted landing at Nagoya Japan.
March, 22 1992 Flushing, New York 27 dead A USAir flight crashes at Flushing near New York.
March, 3 1991 Colorado Springs, in Colorado 25 dead A Boeing 737 of the United Airlines crashes at Colorado Springs in Colorado.
February, 1 1991 Los Angeles 34 dead An airplane of the USAir crashes into a Sky West aircraft during the landing at Los Angeles.
December, 3 1990 Romulus, Michigan 8 dead A DC-9 of the Northwest Airlines crashes into a Northwest Boeing 727. On the runway at Romulus, in Michigan.
March, 24 1989 Prince William Sound. Alaska - The oil-tanker Exxon Valdez spills 11 million barrels of oil into the sea. The worst oil and ecological disaster in history (except Chernobyl).
April, 26 1986 Chernobyl 31 dead in explosion, 2000 killed by radiation in the following months. 10,000 to 125,000 dead or seriously ill in following years. The reactor number 4 explodes in the nuclear plant of Chernobyl: the worst nuclear accident in history.
August, 12 1985 Japan 520 dead A Boeing 747 of Japan Air Lines hits a mountain.
June, 23 1985 Ireland 329 dead An Air-India Boeing 747 crashes on the Irish coast; the investigators conclude that the disaster has been caused by a bomb.
December, 3 1984 Bhopal, India 3,800 dead, 11,000 disabled A poisonous gas – Methyl-isocyanide - escapes from the Union Carbide pesticides factory.
August, 19 1980 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 301 dead An L-1011 jet of the Saudi Arabian crashes during landing at Riyadh airport.
May, 25 1979 Chicago 273 dead A DC-10 of American Airlines crashes during take-off at Chicago.
March, 28 1979 Three Mile Island, USA - Nuclear accident.
March, 27 1977 Tenerife, Canary islands 582 dead Two Boeings 747, from American and KLM, crash in the airport of Tenerife.
July, 10 1976 Seveso, Italy 2,000 poisoned people, 600 evacuated from the zone Á. Near the ICMESA establishment of Givaudan, that produces pesticides and herbicides, the break-up of a reactor causes the spillage of a toxic dioxin cloud.
March, 22 1975 Brown's Ferry Nuclear Power Station in Alabama - Nuclear accident.
March, 3 1974 Paris 364 dead Turkish DC-10 breaks at northeast of Paris.

 

The document from which we took news concerning nuclear accidents, contains more 1000 of them since 1960 to 1991.
Sources:

The Prop1.org Web Domain 

ACCIDENTS, LEAKS, FAILURES AND OTHER INCIDENTS IN THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRIAL AND MILITARY

CNNItalia.it

http://cnn1.cnnitalia.it/2000/MONDO/europa/07/27/concorde/index.html#r

Chronological Account of the Tanker Jessica San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

http://law.emory.edu/sites/GALAPAGOS/OilSpill16Jan01.html

La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/

la Repubblica

http://www.repubblica.it/ 

CNN

http://www.cnnitalia.it/interactive/plane.crash.gallery/content/01.html 

[005.AA.TDF.1/2002 - 12.01.2002]
[English version was revised by Ben Croxford]