History DisasterDominoes / RealLife

** First off, it should be noted that Captain Francesco Schettino's background consisted of being a security guard that rose to the position of Chief Security Officer, then was [[ThePeterPrinciple somehow horizontally promoted to Captain in a few years despite his position having nothing to do with]] ''[[ThePeterPrinciple sailing ships]]''. Schettino had been involved in two separate crashes of other Costa ships he captained before he assumed command of ''Costa Concordia''.

* The 1972 Munich massacre, where during the '72 Summer Olympics Palestinian Terrorists killed 11 Israeli Athletes (9 of whom were hostages). There were a myriad of poor decisions made before and during the incident that contributed to its violent outcome:
** For starters, the Olympic games in Munich had a lax approach. The previous 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City was already controversial for the excessive, often-harsh security during the event. With [=WWII=] and the image of Nazi Germany still fresh in worldwide cultural memory, West Germany sought to avoid the image of militarism as much as possible. But this mentality meant that there was less security present, despite knowledge that an incident was planned regarding the Israeli team.
** The lack of security allowed athletes to climb over the Olympic-Village fence in the middle of the night (itself a major security problem), should they want to, and several did with no incident beforehand. In the early-morning hours of September 5th, the terrorists climbed the fence with help from some unsuspecting athletes, secretly carrying assault rifles, pistols, and grenades in duffel bags. They soon found the housing for the Israeli team.

*** The Israelis did offer to the German Authorities to send in their own Special Forces to rescue the hostages, since they were trained for such situations. But this offer was rejected.
*** The German Authorities then had to negotiate with the Palestinian Terrorists. They offered to give them unlimited funds in lieu of prisoner-release, but this was rejected.
** By the afternoon, the Germans came up with a rescue-plan: a group of over thirty police officers, disguised as athletes, would infiltrate the compound through its ventilation shafts to kill the terrorists and rescue the hostages. But this quickly fell-through for two reasons:
*** The German Police brought in had no experience in combat or hostage situations.
*** Most damningly, the entire event of the Munich Hostage Crisis was captured on live TV. With the Olympic Games, the area was full of journalists from around the world who were covering the event. When the German Police were preparing and attempting to enact their operation, camera crews were capturing every step. The terrorists, meanwhile, had access to a TV in the compound where they were able to watch the police prepare for the attack. They then threatened to kill their hostages then-&-there, so the police had to withdraw.
** With no other options against the now-careful kidnappers, a final negotiation was made to ensure every hostage survives unharmed and (ostensibly) to submit to the terrorists' demands. In the evening, the German authorities promised the terrorists that they would have them flown to an Arab Country with their captives. Having no room to budge, the mayor of the Olympic village had to assure them two helicopters to fly them safely to the nearby airport.
** The way to the helicopters led through a parking house, where another opportunity for an ambush was planned. Unfortunately, two of the perpetrators walked ahead once there, and heard noises from police snipers stationed within. This led to the terrorists using a bus to securely transport everyone the short distance to get to the helicopters, where they boarded them with their hostages and departed.
** At 10:30 PM, the helicopters containing the terrorists & hostages arrived at the airport in Fürstenfeldbruck. A final plan was made beforehand to rescue the hostages: Police would place 5 snipers around the main airport building and an airplane with 5 regular police officers dressed as crew aboard was present to strike. Should some of the terrorists enter the plane, they'd be overpowered, with the rest of them being taken out by the snipers. The German authorities assumed that there were only 5 total hostage-takers, so they planned to outnumber them 2-to-1.[[note]] This belief that there were only 5 terrorists came from a news estimation from earlier that day. However, in a case of negligence, the German authorities never sought to confirm whether there were ''only'' 5 terrorists in total, and instead took the assumed-number as definitive. This unsurprisingly would have negative consequences for the operation.[[/note]]
** However, the "crew", seeing the danger of this plan, left the plane at the last minute without consulting or informing command. Making matters worse, the terrorists took the German Helicopter pilots hostage once they arrived, [[MovingTheGoalposts violating their own agreement with the German authorities]], and making the operation even more complicated for the police. When two of the terrorists entered the plane and saw it empty (keep in mind: they were supposed to be ambushed by the disguised police once inside), they quickly realized the trap and ran back to warn the others.
** At this point, the snipers opened fire. Against previous information, the kidnappers where not 5, but 8 members. Adding to this was the 11pm nighttime limited visibility even when lit up by the airport's floodlights, and the fact that technically none of the police-snipers had actual sniper training; they were all just standard policeman chosen by skill and were not properly equipped (eg. using standard assault rifles rather than marksman rifles, with none of them having nighttime scopes).
** The German Police sharpshooters did manage to take out the two terrorists holding the pilots at gunpoint while they were on the tarmac (who then fled and ran for safety), but the Israeli hostages were still tied up in the two helicopters. With the German police losing the element-of-surprise, the Palestinians took cover beneath the two aircraft and returned fire, killing one police officer. Soon, what was supposed to be an ambush became shootout/stalemate between the terrorists and the police, lasting for more than an hour.
** Armed personnel carriers were called in. But they were delayed and arrived shortly after midnight due to the roads being blocked by traffic. Panicking at the sight of reinforcements, the terrorists finally realized the hopelessness of their escape plan, and opted to kill all 9 hostages tied up in the two helicopters. At the first helicopter, one of the terrorists fired-&-unloaded his Assault Rifle on the 4 hostages aboard before throwing a grenade into the aircraft, causing the copter to explode into flames, incinerating & killing the hostages; at the second, another terrorist also unloaded his assault rifle on the 5 remaining hostages, killing them all. Afterwards, the surviving terrorists desperately tried to flee the tarmac and were shot down by the police. Only three of the eight terrorists survived the night, with relatively minor injuries each.

## The decision to use hydrogen as the lift gas instead of helium was motivated by economics: it was much easier to get hydrogen in 1930s Germany than helium, and it can lift a greater mass, meaning a smaller dirigible envelope for the same capacity. Also, pure hydrogen cannot burn unless it is mixed with oxygen. Except...
## Difficulties in construction led to the envelope's fabric skin not being stretched as tightly over the skeleton as designed, meaning it vibrated in the wind more readily. Knowing this would cause excessive drag, the builders attempted to remedy this with extra coats of metallic paint, but didn't realize until before the 1937 flying season that the vibration was causing a gas cell to rub against the structure, which they attempted to repair lest it spring a leak.
## The extra paint led to a problem discovered in ''Series/{{Nova}}''[='s=] [[https://www.pbs.org/video/hindenburg-the-new-evidence-3hjhu3/ "Hindenburg: The New Evidence"]]: aircraft as a general rule tend to collect a static charge in flight, and there was no direct electrical connection between the superstructure and the metal-painted envelope skin, which caused the entire envelope to effectively become a gigantic air-gapped capacitor.
## During the trip across the Atlantic, the ''Hindenburg'' caught a headwind that delayed its arrival, causing it to arrive during a light rain shower, and the damaged gas cell began leaking. The rain dampened the landing ropes, which caused them to become conductive and ground the collected electrical charge, generating sparks between the skin and the structure that ignited the leaking hydrogen gas once it mixed with air. And did we mention that the metallic paint was ''also'' highly flammable?

*** Israeli authorities immediately and firmly refused to negotiate with the Palestinian Perpetrators, not only because they banned any negotiations with terrorist groups, but also because they knew that negotiations with such groups would give an incentive to future attacks.
*** The Israelis did offer to the German Authorities to send in Special Forces to rescue the hostages, since they were trained for such situations. But this offer was rejected.

** Soon, the Germans came up with a rescue-plan: a group of over thirty police officers, disguised as athletes, would infiltrate the compound through its ventilation shafts to kill the terrorists and rescue the hostages. But this quickly fell-through for two reasons:

** With no other options against the now-careful kidnappers, a final negotiation was made to ensure every hostage survives unharmed and (ostensibly) to submit to the terrorists' demands. The German authorities promised the terrorists that they would have them flown to an Arab Country with their captives. Having no room to budge, the mayor of the Olympic village had to assure them two helicopters to fly them safely to the nearby airport.
** The way to the helicopters led through a parking house, where another opportunity for an ambush was planned. Unfortunately, two of the perpetrators walked ahead once there, and heard noises from police snipers. This led to the terrorists using a bus to securely transport everyone the short distance to get to the helicopters, where they boarded them with their hostages and departed.
** At 10:30 PM, the helicopters containing the terrorists & hostages arrived at the airport in Fürstenfeldbruck. A final plan was made beforehand to rescue the hostages: Police would place 5 snipers (usually 10 are required as per doctrine, two for each known target) around the main airport building [[note]]the number of terrorists was said to be five by the mayor who saw as much. While he possibly couldn't have known better, it's questionable why this number was taken for granted[[/note]], and an airplane with regular police officers dressed as crew aboard was present to strike. Should some of the terrorists enter the plane, they'd be overpowered, with the rest of them being taken out by the snipers.

** At this point, the snipers opened fire. Against previous information, the kidnappers where not five, but eight members. Adding to this was the 11pm nighttime limited visibility even when lit up by the airport's floodlights, and the fact that technically none of the police-snipers had actual sniper training; they were all just standard policeman chosen by skill and were not properly equipped (eg. using standard assault rifles rather than marksman rifles, with none of them having nighttime scopes).
** The German Police sharpshooters did manage to take out the two terrorists holding the pilots at gunpoint while they were on the tarmac (who then fled and ran for safety), but the Israeli hostages were still tied up in the two helicopters. With the German police losing the element-of-surprise, the Palestinians took cover beneath the two aircraft while returning fire, managing to kill a police officer. Soon, what was supposed to be an ambush became shootout/stalemate between the terrorists and the police, lasting for more than an hour.
** Armed personnel carriers were called in. But they were delayed and arrived shortly after midnight due to the roads being blocked by traffic. At the sight of reinforcements, the terrorists finally realized the hopelessness of their escape plan, and opted to kill all 9 hostages tied up in the two helicopters. At the first helicopter, one of the terrorists fired-&-unloaded his Assault Rifle on the 4 hostages aboard before throwing a grenade into the aircraft, causing the copter to explode into flames, incinerating & killing the hostages; at the second, another terrorist also unloaded his assault rifle on the 5 remaining hostages, killing them all. Afterwards, the surviving terrorists tried to flee the tarmac and were shot down by the police. Only three of the eight terrorists survived the night, with relatively minor injuries each.

** After several minutes and a scuffle, the terrorists entered the quarters. Two Israeli athletes were killed in the initial break-in, and the Palestinian terrorists captured nine others, with the rest of the Israeli Olympic team narrowly escaping when they realized what was happening. With 9 hostages held, the terrorists made their demands. From here on, negotiations were attempted, while an operation for freeing the hostages was being planned:
*** It was quickly clear that the terrorists were politically motivated. Israel offered help since they were against negotiations, but the offer was not accepted by German authorities.
*** Soon, the negotiations failed, with even unlimited money offered to the terrorists being rejected. So German police (untrained in hostage rescue) attempted to climb down the walls and vents to get to the intruders. While this was sound plan, it failed because the present journalists were reporting the situation live on TV, and the terrorists had a television with them with the news on, thus informing them of the plan. At this point, 12 hours have passed with options becoming more limited.
** With no other options against the now-careful kidnappers, a final negotiation was made to ensure every hostage survives unharmed and (ostensibly) to submit to the terrorists' demands. Having no room to budge, the mayor of the Olympic village had to assure them two helicopters to fly them to the nearby airport.

** With no other options against the now-careful kidnappers, a final negotiation was made (ostensibly) to ensure everyone in the quarters survives unharmed and to submit to the terrorists' demands. Having no room to budge, the mayor of the Olympic village had to assure them two helicopters to fly them to the nearby airport.
** The way to the helicopters led through a parking house, where another opportunity for an ambush was planned. Unfortunately, two of the perpetrators walked ahead once there, and heard some noises from police snipers. This led to the terrorists using a bus to securely transport everyone the short distance to get to the helicopters, where they boarded them with their hostages and departed.
** At 10:30 PM, the helicopters containing the terrorists & hostages arrived at the airport in Fürstenfeldbruck. A final plan was made beforehand to rescue the hostages: Police would place 5 snipers (usually 10 are required, two for each known target) around the area [[note]]the number of terrorists was said to be five by the mayor who saw as much. While he possibly couldn't have known better, it's questionable why this number was taken for granted[[/note]], and an airplane with regular police officers dressed as crew aboard was present to strike. Should some of the terrorists enter the plane, they'd be overpowered, with the rest of them being taken out by the snipers.

** However, the "crew", seeing the danger of this plan, left the plane at the last minute without consulting or informing command. Making matters worse, the terrorists took the German Helicopter pilots hostage once they arrived, [[MovingTheGoalposts violating their own agreement with the German authorities]], and making the operation even more complicated for the police. When two of the terrorists entered the plane and saw it empty (remember, they were supposed to be ambushed by the disguised police), they quickly realized the trap and ran back to warn the others.

** However, the "crew", seeing the danger of this plan, left the plane at the last minute without consulting or informing command. Making matters worse, the terrorists took the German Helicopter pilots hostage once they arrived, violating their own agreement with the German authorities. When the terrorists entered the plane and saw it empty, they quickly realized the trap.
** At this point, the snipers opened fire. Against previous information, the kidnappers where not five, but eight members. Adding to this was the 11pm nighttime limited visibility even when lit up by the airport's floodlights, and the fact that technically none of the police-snipers had actual sniper training; they were all just standard policeman chosen by skill, but were not properly equipped (eg. using standard assault rifles rather than marksman rifles, with none of them having nighttime scopes).
** The German Police sharpshooters managed to take out the two terrorists holding the pilots at gunpoint (who then fled and ran for safety), but the Israeli hostages were still tied up in the two helicopters. With the German police losing the element-of-surprise, the Palestinians took cover beneath the two aircraft while returning fire, managing to kill a police officer. Soon, what was supposed to be an ambush became shootout/stalemate between the terrorists and the police, lasting for more than an hour.
** Armed personnel carriers were called in. But they were delayed and arrived shortly after midnight due to the roads being blocked by traffic. At the sight of reinforcements, the terrorists finally realized the hopelessness of their escape plan, and opted to kill all 9 hostages tied up in the two helicopters. At the first helicopter, one of the terrorists fired-&-unloaded his Assault Rifle on the 4 hostages aboard before throwing a grenade into the aircraft, causing the copter to explode into flames, incinerating & killing the hostages; At the second, another terrorist also unloaded his assault rifle on the 5 remaining hostages, killing them all. Afterwards, the surviving terrorists tried to flee the tarmac and were shot down by the police. Only three of the eight terrorists survived the night, with relatively minor injuries each.