r/CatastrophicFailure

🔥 Hot ▲ 7.4k r/CatastrophicFailure

Photograph of the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18th, 1980, taken by Richard Lasher, who then fled the eruption on the dirt bike seen here.

u/DariusPumpkinRex — 3 days ago

Newly released footage shows the moment UPS Flight 2976’s left engine and pylon tore from the MD-11F seconds after takeoff from Louisville on Nov. 4, 2025. Investigators say fatigue cracks in the pylon mount caused the failure, leading to the crash that killed 15 people and injured 23.

u/dannybluey — 3 days ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 5.8k r/CatastrophicFailure+2 crossposts

Two EA-18G Growler jets went down during the Gunfighter Skies Airshow at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho on Sunday, May 17, 2026, after colliding midair. Initial reports indicate that all crew members ejected safely before impact.

u/Immediate-Surround91 — 3 days ago

70 years ago today, at 10:17 pm on May 15, 1956, an RCAF CF-100 fighter jet crashed into the Villa St-Louis convent in Ottawa, Canada, instantly killing both pilots, 11 nuns, a cook, and a chaplain who was blown 150 feet by the force of the massive explosion, which also obliterated the building.

The convent was located in Orleans, a suburb of Ottawa. Eyewitnesses to the horrific crash reported the fully-armed jet to have plummeted to the ground in near-vertical dive, spinning in circles while its wing flashed in the dark. Originally flying at close to 33,000 feet, the fighter jet had plummeted to the ground in less than a minute, impacting the Villa at close to 700 miles (or 1,126.54 kilometers) per hour. The combination of the extreme speed at the time of impact, the resulting explosion and fire fed by the fuel from the plane and coal stored in the building had all but destroyed the jet to the point that an exact cause could not be determined. However, the most commonly-accepted theory is that the oxygen system malfunctioned and the two airmen onboard were rendered unconscious by hypoxia and with no one at the controls, the plane simply fell out of the sky.

On May 13th 2009, 20-foot cross adorned with a metal model of a CF-100 was erected as a memorial behind the rebuilt Villa St. Louis, surrounded by 15 stones taken from the rubble of the original building, one for each fatality of the crash.

u/DariusPumpkinRex — 6 days ago

Croatia Airlines Airbus A220-300 aborted takeoff at Split Airport in Croatia and veered onto the grass on 16/05/2026. The aircraft was damaged after hitting runway lights and a marker board, but the passengers and crew remained unharmed.

u/dannybluey — 6 days ago
▲ 1.3k r/CatastrophicFailure+1 crossposts

Speedway rider Patyk Budniak suffers an accident during a league match, forcing him to be airlifted off the track to a hospital, Gniezno, Poland 10/05/2026

u/BONKERS303 — 11 days ago
▲ 769 r/CatastrophicFailure+1 crossposts

30 years ago today, on Saturday, May 11, 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into a swamp in the Florida Everglades just nine minutes after taking off from Miami International Airport. All 110 people on board were killed. More details in comments.

u/nogoodnamesleft426 — 10 days ago

On the 12th of May, 2010, Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771, an A330 carrying 104 occupants crashed on approach to Tripoli, Libya after doing a go around, with one sole survivor being that of a 9 year old boy

u/Myfooty94 — 10 days ago