BossaNova Media

Tragedy struck when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated just 73 seconds into flight. Hours earlier, engineers argued to cancel the launch, amid fears of such a tragedy – so why did it go ahead?

Concorde was an icon of the skies, but on 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 left Paris for New York and caught fire during take-off before crashing to the ground just over a minute later, killing everyone on board. The tragedy brought an end to the dream of supersonic passenger flight. But what caused the disaster? Investigators, survivors’ loved ones and those who examined the wreckage recall the tragedy and describe how the evidence led to a shockingly simple conclusion about what went wrong.