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On this day, March 24, 1999, and March 24, 2015, bad things happened in the French Alps.
A local channel airs several episodes of "Engineering Disasters" in a row on Sunday afternoons. When I heard that one of them would go into a fire in a tunnel, I thought it was this one they were talking about. It wasn't. The tunnel fire in the TV show was the 2001 fire in the Gotthard Road Tunnel.
Mont Blanc tunnel fire
Date: 24 March 1999
Venue: Mont Blanc Tunnel
Location: Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France
Coordinates: 45.8995°N 6.8642°E
Deaths: 39
Non-fatal injuries: 14
The Mont Blanc tunnel fire occurred on 24 March 1999. It was caused by a transport truck which caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became trapped and fire crews were unable to reach the transport truck. Thirty-nine people were killed. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety.
{snip}
Fire
On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine entered the French-side portal and caught fire in the tunnel.
Truck came to the toll at 10:46 CET. Initial journey through tunnel was routine. Around 10:49 fire started and smoke first appeared. Shortly after, the driver realized something was wrong as cars coming in the opposite direction flashed their headlights at him; a glance in his mirrors showed white smoke coming out from under his cabin. This was not yet a fire emergency; there had been 16 other truck fires in the tunnel over the previous 35 years, always extinguished on the spot by the drivers.
At 10:53, the driver of the vehicle, Gilbert Degrave, stopped 6 km into the 11.6 km tunnel, in attempt to fight the fire but he was suddenly forced back by flames from his cabin. With Degrave unable to fight the fire, he was forced to flee and to abandon the truck.
At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. At this point there were at least 10 cars and vans and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. Some of the cars from the French side managed to turn around in the narrow two-lane tunnel to retreat back to France, but navigating the road in the dense smoke that had rapidly filled the tunnel quickly made this impossible, as between 10:53 and 10:57 smoke had already covered half a kilometer of the French side. The larger trucks did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option.
Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. These fumes quickly filled the tunnel and caused vehicle engines to stall because of lack of oxygen. This included fire engines which, once affected, had to be abandoned by the firefighters. Many drivers near the blaze who attempted to leave their cars and seek refuge points were quickly overcome due to toxic components of the smoke, mainly cyanide.
{snip}
Date: 24 March 1999
Venue: Mont Blanc Tunnel
Location: Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France
Coordinates: 45.8995°N 6.8642°E
Deaths: 39
Non-fatal injuries: 14
The Mont Blanc tunnel fire occurred on 24 March 1999. It was caused by a transport truck which caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became trapped and fire crews were unable to reach the transport truck. Thirty-nine people were killed. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety.
{snip}
Fire
On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine entered the French-side portal and caught fire in the tunnel.
Truck came to the toll at 10:46 CET. Initial journey through tunnel was routine. Around 10:49 fire started and smoke first appeared. Shortly after, the driver realized something was wrong as cars coming in the opposite direction flashed their headlights at him; a glance in his mirrors showed white smoke coming out from under his cabin. This was not yet a fire emergency; there had been 16 other truck fires in the tunnel over the previous 35 years, always extinguished on the spot by the drivers.
At 10:53, the driver of the vehicle, Gilbert Degrave, stopped 6 km into the 11.6 km tunnel, in attempt to fight the fire but he was suddenly forced back by flames from his cabin. With Degrave unable to fight the fire, he was forced to flee and to abandon the truck.
At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. At this point there were at least 10 cars and vans and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. Some of the cars from the French side managed to turn around in the narrow two-lane tunnel to retreat back to France, but navigating the road in the dense smoke that had rapidly filled the tunnel quickly made this impossible, as between 10:53 and 10:57 smoke had already covered half a kilometer of the French side. The larger trucks did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option.
Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. These fumes quickly filled the tunnel and caused vehicle engines to stall because of lack of oxygen. This included fire engines which, once affected, had to be abandoned by the firefighters. Many drivers near the blaze who attempted to leave their cars and seek refuge points were quickly overcome due to toxic components of the smoke, mainly cyanide.
{snip}
Germanwings Flight 9525
D-AIPX, the aircraft involved, in May 2014
Incident
Date: 24 March 2015
Summary: Suicide by pilot
Site: Prads-Haute-Bléone, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
Coordinates: 44°16?50?N 6°26?20?E
Occupants: 150
Passengers: 144
Crew: 6
Fatalities: 150
Survivors: 0
Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Lufthansa. On 24 March 2015, the aircraft, an Airbus A320-211, crashed 100 km (62 mi; 54 nmi) north-west of Nice in the French Alps. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. It was Germanwings' first fatal crash in the 18-year history of the company.
The crash was caused deliberately by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies and declared "unfit to work" by his doctor. Lubitz kept this information from his employer and instead reported for duty. Shortly after reaching cruise altitude and while the captain was out of the cockpit, he locked the cockpit door and initiated a controlled descent that continued until the aircraft impacted a mountainside.
Aviation authorities swiftly implemented new regulations that required two authorized personnel in the cockpit at all times, but by 2017, Germanwings and other German airlines dropped the rule. The Lubitz family held a press conference in March 2017 at which Lubitz's father said that they did not accept the official investigative findings that Andreas Lubitz deliberately caused the crash. As of February 2017, Lufthansa had paid €75,000 to the family of every victim, as well as €10,000 in pain and suffering compensation to every close relative of a victim.
{snip}
D-AIPX, the aircraft involved, in May 2014
Incident
Date: 24 March 2015
Summary: Suicide by pilot
Site: Prads-Haute-Bléone, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
Coordinates: 44°16?50?N 6°26?20?E
Occupants: 150
Passengers: 144
Crew: 6
Fatalities: 150
Survivors: 0
Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Lufthansa. On 24 March 2015, the aircraft, an Airbus A320-211, crashed 100 km (62 mi; 54 nmi) north-west of Nice in the French Alps. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. It was Germanwings' first fatal crash in the 18-year history of the company.
The crash was caused deliberately by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies and declared "unfit to work" by his doctor. Lubitz kept this information from his employer and instead reported for duty. Shortly after reaching cruise altitude and while the captain was out of the cockpit, he locked the cockpit door and initiated a controlled descent that continued until the aircraft impacted a mountainside.
Aviation authorities swiftly implemented new regulations that required two authorized personnel in the cockpit at all times, but by 2017, Germanwings and other German airlines dropped the rule. The Lubitz family held a press conference in March 2017 at which Lubitz's father said that they did not accept the official investigative findings that Andreas Lubitz deliberately caused the crash. As of February 2017, Lufthansa had paid €75,000 to the family of every victim, as well as €10,000 in pain and suffering compensation to every close relative of a victim.
{snip}
