Original subtitles

- Tonight on "History's Most Shocking."

What caused this multimillion-dollar malfunction

on the runway?

- A pilot could easily experience something like 20 Gs

of force because you're essentially riding a rocket

out of this aircraft.

- [Tony] A plague of mice?

Why might this be coming to a property near you?

- Unfortunately, we are gonna see

this kind of situation repeatedly.

- [Tony] How did this cruise turn into a crisis at sea?

- No electricity, no propulsion of the ship,

no control of the ship.

- [Tony] When trees attack.

- Wind speeds of about 90 miles an hour can uproot a tree.

- [Tony] And is there a new explanation

for one of the most famous disasters of all time?

- [Broadcaster] It's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen.

[dramatic music]

[metal rattling] [people screaming]

- [Tony] Disasters, shocking video,

life or death decisions.

Behind history's caught-on-camera moments...

- What to do with one dead whale.

- [Tony] Are the mysteries of how and why they happen.

- Some sort of metal fatigue was most likely at fault.

- It's like a bulldozer.

Very few buildings can actually withstand

that force of moving water.

- I'm Tony Harris.

[mountain lion roars]

[bike revving]

Prepare to be shocked.

[dramatic music]

Good evening and welcome to "History's Most Shocking."

We start with an aviation mishap

that would almost be funny if it weren't so expensive.

It is estimated that

the Department of Defense's F-35 aircraft program

will eat up nearly 1.7 trillion taxpayer dollars.

So for all that money, the plane should be able to land,

right?

[tense music]

December 15th, 2022,

at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base

in Fort Worth, Texas.

An $80 million fighter jet

is in the final stage of a test flight.

- It's an F-35B, which is a Lockheed Martin plane

that has the unique ability to land vertically.

- [Tony] An observer captures the F-35B

slowly descending onto the runway

for one of those vertical landings,

but just as the plane touches down,

a small hop causes the nose to tip toward the ground

and send it scraping across the runway.

- [Witness] Oh, he just crashed, (bleep).

- [Tony] And that isn't all.

With a flash, the pilot ejects from the plane.

His parachute catches what air it can.

Moments later, he's on the ground.

Let's see that again.

The pilot blasts out of his plane

courtesy of his ejector seat.

Now, ejection seats have been in military

aircraft for decades.

Early propeller planes didn't need them

because the planes moved slowly enough

that pilots could just climb out and parachute to safety.

But then came jets.

- Modern ejection seats were developed by Heinkel and SAAB

during the Second World War,

and the first one was installed

in a Heinkel HE-280 prototype jet engine fighter in 1940.

- [Tony] Because jets were so much faster,

there needed to be powered ejection seats

strong enough to fight the G-forces

and get the pilot away from the plane.

And over the decades, it's estimated those seats have saved

the lives of some 10,000 pilots,

including these two airmen in 1968.

- In one notable incident,

an F-4 Phantom aircraft was taking off

from the Lambert St. Louis International Airport

when it burst into flames.

The two crewmen were able to escape

with only minor injuries, thanks to their ejection seats.

- [Tony] But whether a pilot is facing trouble taking off

in 1968, or landing an F-35B in 2022,

a quick and safe getaway is the key.

- They're putting these aircraft

through some of the most rigorous and dangerous

maneuvers in the air.

Ejection seats are vital to their survival.

- Now, the F-35B is uniquely equipped with both a manual

and an automatic ejection system,

but officials haven't disclosed whether or not

that automatic system activated in this case.

Either way, what went so wrong that this pilot

was forced to eject right before landing?

One clue might be seen

right before the jet is about to land.

- The first indication that something has gone wrong

is when you see the aircraft as it touches down,

it bounces right back up.

That's not what you want to happen in a vertical takeoff

and landing situation.

When we're seeing the aircraft bouncing like that,

that is the telltale indication

that the aircraft itself has descended too fast.

- [Tony] That sounds like it could be pilot error,

but instead, something else led investigators

to a problem all too familiar with the F-35.

- As early as March 2020, there were issues

that were reported with engine vibrations

that were affecting the stability of the aircraft

as it undertook a test flight.

- [Tony] The issue is a phenomenon

known as harmonic resonance.

Sound waves can cause an object to vibrate.

Those vibrations can exceed the elastic limit of a material

and damage it.

- Think of a wine glass that shatters when it's subjected

to a specific note.

And what was found in this particular instance

was that harmonic resonance was causing a fuel tube

to vibrate so violently that it broke,

and that affected the stability of the aircraft.

- [Tony] And while you don't think of pilots ejecting

on the ground, the seats are designed to do that.

- They call 'em zero-zero seats.

Zero altitude, zero airspeed,

even when the airplane is on the ground.

The rockets are powerful enough to lift the ejection seat

and the pilot to an altitude high enough,

maybe about 200 feet, which allows that parachute

to fill with air and bring the pilot to a safe landing.

- The takeaway?

The crash was caused by engine vibrations,

or harmonic resonance.

Now, the pilot in this case escaped with minor injuries,

but after this incident,

the Pentagon ordered all its F-35 fighters to be retrofitted

to solve the vibration problem.

Now, from the runway to the highway.

Most people look out for the usual dangers

when they're behind the wheel,

a swerving car, maybe a deer running across the road

on a foggy night, but it is rare to be endangered

by something that usually doesn't move.

[ominous music]

January 10th, 2012.

It's a gray winter day

as a dash cam records a winding road in the mountains

near the town of Poprad, Slovakia.

The car passes a couple of fallen trees

on the side of the road, casualties of a recent storm

that had just ripped through this area.

But the drivers weren't prepared for this.

Without warning, the trees lining the side of the road

start to collapse.

The car slams into reverse, trying to escape

as the trees fall toward it like dominoes.

- There's an old saying, if a tree falls in the forest

and no one's around to hear it, did it make a sound?

In this case, it definitely did.

- [Tony] Surprised? Don't be.

It turns out, these tree attacks happen

more often than you think.

- In January of 2021, there's a famous road

called the Trail of 100 Giants

and this young couple were driving

when all of a sudden, they saw a giant, 200-foot tree

basically collapsing on top of his vehicle.

He guns it and the tree hits the back end of his car,

missing the passenger area only by a few inches

and ultimately saving their lives.

So it really makes you wonder.

This couple in California

that just managed by a hair to survive one falling tree.

What happens when an entire forest

comes crashing down around you?

[passengers screaming]

- Believe it or not, many people are afraid of trees

and there's even a name for it.

Dendrophobia.

Sound silly?

Well, one study found that between the years 1995 and 2007,

over 400 people in the United States were killed

by wind-related tree failures.

But what could have caused all these trees

to fall together in unison like this?

Our experts get to the root of the matter.

- The damage we see here was a result

of an extratropical cyclone named Andrea

that developed along the British Isles

and impacted the western and central portions of Europe.

We can see that the winds around this vicinity

were on the magnitude of 90 to 100 miles per hour.

Research shows that wind speeds

of about 90 miles an hour can uproot a tree.

- [Tony] Only problem is the storm was over

by the time this happened.

Notice, the trees aren't swaying.

There must have been another key factor

causing these trees to fall in unison.

- You look at this video, you'll notice that

most of the trees are pine trees,

and pine trees do not have the big root systems

that you see in oaks.

Their roots won't get into the rock very well.

Second, the hill slope has been removed to make the roads,

and so now gravity is pulling the soil down the hill.

There's nothing stopping that hill slope from coming down.

The third thing is that it's raining.

And so you've added water into the soil area

that's already becoming loose.

You have an ideal situation for that landslide.

- [Tony] He's right.

In heavy rain events in areas with loose soil,

you can often see trees

with shallow root systems just falling over.

And when those roots are cut together in large batches

to make way for something like a road,

then that entire line of trees is vulnerable

and they can collapse in groups, even at the same time.

- There are a lot of places in the world

that have less restrictive highway design regulations

than we find in the US.

The more you cut back on the hillside,

the more potential you have for a mudslide.

I think this driver

was definitely put into an impossible situation.

The thing they did that probably kept him out of trouble

was pay attention to what was going on.

Slowing down was the best choice.

- The takeaway?

This highway was beset by high winds.

That plus soil erosion

and flimsy root structures combined to create

a perfect avalanche of trees.

Our advice?

Take a look at the weather conditions

before hitting the road,

observe your surroundings,

and take it slow.

- In 2022, more than 20 million people embarked on cruises

and the vast majority of them came home safe and satisfied.

But this next video shows what happens

when it's not so smooth sailing.

Batten down the hatches and try to hold down your lunch.

March 23rd, 2019, after a voyage to the Arctic Circle

for a spectacular view of the Northern Lights,

the cruise ship, Viking Sky, sails down the coast of Norway

toward its final destination in England.

But that afternoon, passenger Alexus Sheppard

notices the cruise taking a turn for the worst.

- The first sign of things going wrong for me

was when my wine glass was sliding

and fell off the table and broke,

and then things escalated pretty quickly.

- Alexus pulls out a camera just as furniture and fixtures

fly violently across the room.

The ship heaves from side to side,

no match for the rough seas and 50 to 60 foot waves.

[furniture clattering]

Tiles crash down onto passengers,

furniture careens across the ship.

- When the general alarm sounded,

[alarm beeping]

that's when it became really real.

It went from being entertaining, to holy crap.

The ship was at the mercy of the seas

and we were drifting towards the rocks

in this heavy, heavy storm.

- [Tony] As the waves continue to rock the ship,

helicopters fly in to remove the injured.

Though cruise lines do their best

to carefully monitor and avoid rough seas,

mistakes do happen.

- I think the worst example

would've been the Fantome in 1998.

This was a cruise ship in the Caribbean

and it was trying to avoid a category five hurricane,

Hurricane Mitch.

- [Tony] Before the hurricane hit,

the captain dropped off passengers in Belize

and then left port to try and circumvent the storm.

- [Josh] Unfortunately, they miscalculated

and they went right into the heart of the storm.

Later, they found wreckage off a nearby island.

All 31 crew members were presumed dead.

- [Tony] So, if you had any doubts

that this rocking ship could have deadly consequences,

think again.

Wow.

Alexus's vacation nearly turned into a James Cameron movie.

Reports indicate that by the time the ship's anchors

were finally deployed, the Viking Sky

was only about 100 yards from colliding with sharp rocks.

So how did this cruise ship become a bone to be chewed on

by the storm?

Let's ask the experts.

Sometimes, it's all about location.

Turns out this is a notorious stretch of water

along the Norwegian coast.

- This is called Hustadvika and it is especially dangerous.

Not only is it a 12 mile stretch prone to rough weather,

but there's big waves and you can see this cruise ship

is taking it hard.

- [Tony] Locals will tell you, Hustadvika's coastline

is well known as a cemetery of ships.

When you combine storms, shallow waters, rocky reefs,

and a lack of islands to break up big waves,

you get some of the most dangerous waters known to man.

But could the weather alone have caused this level of chaos?

- Typically, a state-of-the-art cruise ship

would have a very complex system of stabilizers

who look at the amount of pitching and yawing

that the ship is doing.

- [Tony] Pitch is the up and down motion of a ship,

like a teeter-totter,

while yaw is left and right rotation,

like swiveling on a chair.

- My guess is you're probably taking on

almost 40 degree yaws and pitches.

What that would say to me

is that the stabilization system is not working,

which then tells you that the engines aren't working,

'cause they're connected.

- [Tony] If that's the case, how did the engines lose power?

- According to the incident report,

the lubricating oil was not filled up to the required level

and because of the stormy seas rocking and rolling the ship,

the oil in the tank was sloshing from side to side.

And as the pump was on one side of the tank,

as the oil sloshed to the opposite side,

that pump could only suck up air.

- When the ship's system detected no oil was flowing,

the engines onboard the Viking Sky shut down.

- That resulted in a loss of power.

So no propulsion of the ship, no control of the ship

in these stormy seas.

- [Tony] The good news, rescue choppers

were able to evacuate nearly 500 of the 915 passengers

while the rest were able to stay on-board

as the ship was ultimately towed to safety.

- There was no loss of life,

and so I guess you could say that it was

as successful an outcome as you could have wished for

in this situation.

- We can't speak highly enough about the crew

of the Viking Sky.

I just can't say enough about what a wonderful job they did.

This didn't scare us away from cruising at all.

- Our takeaway?

Too little oil.

The rough seas may have been the catalyst for all this,

but if enough oil had been in the engines,

they never would've stalled.

Lessons were learned here.

Not long after the incident,

the Norwegian government put together a committee

to improve maritime safety.

Moving on.

Let's face it, many homes are money pits.

You decide to renovate what you've got the cash for

and put off everything else for as long as possible.

Well, our next video proves that unfortunately,

your home sometimes makes those decisions for you.

It's June 2021 in Fishkill, New York.

A ring camera captures a couple, Sean and Sarah Wellington,

inspecting the concrete floor of their porch.

- [Tony] One of the homeowners

goes to check out a precarious spot.

And then, some famous last words.

[tiles clattering]

- [Tony] Let's see that again.

In an instant, the man falls through the floor

and down into the foundation.

[tiles clattering]

- [Tony] Did he survive?

And could this happen to you?

- [Tony] Sean and Sarah Wellington of Fishkill, New York

just had a nasty homecoming.

[tiles clattering]

- [Tony] Was this just a freak accident

or is there a more widespread danger

lurking beneath our welcome mats?

When the modern porch came into vogue in the 19th century,

it served as an escape from the summer heat.

In the 21st century, this function has been replaced

by air conditioning, and porches are now largely aesthetic.

Still, we don't want them collapsing.

So why did the porch in Fishkill fail?

And are you in danger of being swallowed up

by your own entryway?

First, we consider if extreme weather could be to blame.

- If you combine precipitation

with the fact we've got hot summers, cold winters,

this porch is going to thermally expand and contract.

That might weaken it

and cause some of the structural integrity failure

evidence we see in this video.

- [Tony] Yet, you'd likely need more than that

for the porch to collapse.

- Freeze-thaw cycles, wet-dry cycles are things

that concrete can really experience anywhere.

And so in fairness,

this being the case alone isn't the culprit

for this particular scenario.

- But Mabry suggests weather

does have some big role to play here.

- Seeing how much space was underneath this porch,

it sort of reminds you of sinkholes,

which are created when there's a fair amount of soil

that over time can run off

so that there is a larger and larger void

underneath the surface.

This happens when there's a lot of rain

or even an underwater aquifer.

- [Tony] Sink holes form when surface rock dissolves

or wears away, often as the result of water moving

through cracks in the stone.

As we all know, sink holes can be a serious issue.

In April 2013, a huge sinkhole opened

in the South Deering neighborhood of Chicago,

swallowing up three cars and injuring one person.

But surprisingly, in this case,

it turns out this type of collapse

wasn't actually the issue.

[tiles clattering]

Sean Wellington says that after his fall,

he discovered that for whatever reason,

there had never been any soil under the porch

and it was always just a hollow space.

And unfortunately, the porch wasn't properly reinforced

when it was built.

- When we were fixing it, the concrete had no rebar

or anything in it other than two pieces of steel

running horizontal along either side of the slab.

But what it had looked like is that steel

had rusted over the years and caused the concrete to crack

where that steel bar was.

- [Tony] Sean says he's just relieved it wasn't much worse.

- I was very lucky I did not get hurt.

I only had one or two scrapes on my hands

and that was mostly from bracing myself from the fall.

It was more of a shock, more than anything else.

[tiles clattering]

- [Sarah] Sean, are you okay?

Oh my gosh!

- Our takeaway?

Weakened concrete that wasn't reinforced

caused this porch to collapse.

Luckily, the homeowner, Sean

escaped the situation relatively unscathed.

But if you spot something similar, don't wait.

Be sure to call a contractor straight away.

Moving on.

When you hear someone say, "catching a wave,"

the first thing that typically comes to mind is a surfer

heading out into the ocean.

But this next video could change the meaning of that phrase

and not in a good way.

July 16th, 2022, a group of residents

from the town of Keauhou on Hawaii's big island

have gathered outside their apartment complex,

but this isn't some summer barbecue.

They've been forced out of their homes,

because of this.

[wave crashing] - [Witness] Ooh.

- [Tony] Gigantic waves

are cresting over the two story apartment building,

crashing into the parking lot below.

Take another look.

What must be a 25 to 30-foot wall of water

drenches the two story homes and the street below.

- [Witness] It's flooding everywhere.

- [Tony] Meanwhile, just a short ways down the beach,

a wedding party is about to feel the force

of Neptune's wrath.

[wave crashing] [people shouting]

- [Tony] A massive wave pours over a retaining wall

with ease, smashing tables and chairs

while guests flee for cover.

This video had many people calling out tsunami.

- Tsunamis are so devastating.

That initial wave comes in,

destroys everything in its path.

You're likely to be killed by either drowning

or blunt force trauma.

and then those waves violently recede back into the ocean.

So even if you survived that initial wave,

you could be sucked out to sea.

If this was a tsunami,

these people are literally standing

in the worst place you possibly could.

- Of course, Hawaii is no stranger to big waves,

especially the north shore of the island of Oahu,

famous for its surfing.

But this is clearly quite different.

So what caused these giant waves

to seemingly appear out of nowhere?

Are we looking at a tsunami or something else?

Our experts take the plunge.

Hawaii is located near the middle

of the Pacific tectonic plate,

which would make it a focal point for a tsunami

caused by an underwater earthquake.

- A tsunami is generated

at the very deepest parts of the ocean

where you're getting mass movement of rock and material.

Sometimes these rocks will fall, they'll break off,

and what they do is they cause an earthquake,

and these waves were sent out

as if you'd take a stone and you throw it in the water.

- [Tony] But Anderson says in this case,

there are no signs of a shifting Earth.

- United States Geological Survey

will monitor earthquakes all around the world

to see if there's any that could cause a tsunami

or a large wave,

and in this particular event, nothing showed up at all.

I think what you're looking at is a storm surge.

A storm surge is basically just

like you're pushing water across with a broom.

Those are generated by the winds that are caused by the storm.

- [Tony] Wait a minute, what storm?

We've got an outdoor wedding

and there are patches of blue sky in the video.

- At this time, there was a tropical storm

that was moving south of Hawaii, Hurricane Darby,

and we have quite a bit of energy

that is being pushed onto the ocean.

- Hurricane Darby raged across the Pacific Ocean

with winds peaking at 140 miles per hour,

but it dissipated 530 miles southeast

of Hawaii's big island,

which is why you don't see any storm clouds.

But if it had weakened, how did we get these massive waves?

Turns out Darby had some help

from something a lot more predictable.

The tides.

- In this case, we did see those tides

increase to about an extra three feet during high tide.

So when you combine the high tide

with the swells attributed to the tropical storm Darby,

this is when we get those giant waves that we experience

in Hawaii.

[people shouting]

- The takeaway?

Bad timing.

That weakened hurricane was producing some storm surge,

but it wouldn't have produced such big waves

if it wasn't for the high tide.

- This video freaks me out like few ever have.

It follows two men as they go caving.

Now, caving has its fans,

but is the excitement worth the risk of being buried alive?

You be the judge.

[intense music]

It's November 2022, deep in the Georgia woods.

Twin brothers, Edward and James Robinson

are self-taught cave explorers, or cavers,

and now they're preparing to descend into the unknown.

- We're pretty experienced at this point.

We've been doing it for about five years now.

Finally, we felt like we had hit the bottom of the cave.

- I was like, dude, you're crazy for going in there,

but he went in there anyway.

- [Tony] As James hangs back, Edward continues off

to find a shallow stream beneath a flat cave ceiling,

a space no more than a foot high.

I squeezed through and just start

falling through the river bed.

- [Tony] Edward documents his journey with a GoPro,

but as he pushes forth through the tight enclosure,

suddenly his body becomes sandwiched

between two slabs of rock.

- [Tony] Meanwhile, James is still back

in that more spacious part of the cave,

and he's left with a gut-wrenching choice.

- I was wondering, should I wait right here

or should I go back out of the cave and try and get help?

I started getting really scared.

- [Tony] It turns out, James should be.

- A lot of these caves are really dangerous.

On June 24th, 1967,

a group of cavers were exploring the Mossdale Caverns in the UK

and as they were underground, flooding rains began,

completely inundating the area.

Six cavers drowned in the flood waters.

This is considered

one of the worst caving accidents of all time.

I didn't have a plan for if I did get stuck.

Which is probably why I was freaking out so much.

The absolute worst thoughts were going through my head,

because all you can think about is, water's gonna rush in

and just totally flood you out.

- It is true you can never quite be sure

what treasures caving may turn up.

For example, in 2015,

cavers in Northern Israel uncovered a stash of coins

and jewelry dating back more than 2,300 years.

Now, Edward didn't find a treasure,

but he got something better,

he survived.

Our question?

How did he do it?

[intense music]

First, when it comes to exploring caves,

recognizing the clues of potential danger is paramount.

- I would look for signs like water lines or debris.

So if there was leaves stuck to the ceiling,

the only way those leaves got there

was if that passage was flooded.

And the roof of this part of the cave, it's very smooth,

tells me that this area fills up with water to the top.

This is all water polished.

- [Tony] Keep in mind, the way caves form over time

is from rainwater seeping down into the Earth.

- You get these huge cave formations

because of the percolation of water

down through the limestone, eating away the limestone.

- [Tony] And now, it's rainwater

that can make these narrow passages deadly.

- If you get down into those very tight confinements

and you get a flood, he has three to four minutes

of holding his breath and he's gone.

- [Tony] And not reading the signs

wasn't their only mistake.

James made the decision to stay with his trapped brother,

which seems logical, but could have had bad consequences.

- When you go into a cave,

you always have at least three people.

If one person gets hurt, one person stays with that caver,

and one person could go out to the surface and seek help.

- [Tony] So considering all that went wrong,

how did Edward ultimately escape?

- [Tony] But it's impossible.

- [Edward] The way the ceiling is pressing up against my back

and the rocks against my chest,

I couldn't scoot backwards outta that cave.

- [Tony] Trapped, Edward suddenly realizes

his life is literally in his own hands.

The only way he can make any room to move

is by digging himself out.

- [Edward] I just fought for, I think like,

a minute and a half trying to scrape some

of this gravel away from my chest.

- [Tony] Finally, Edward displaces

just enough debris beneath him to squeeze his body around

and get out the way he came in.

I was so happy when I saw James again.

But you're always wondering what's around the next corner.

The lure of the cave brings you back.

- Yeah.

- Our takeaway?

A few poor decisions almost created a tragedy,

but Edward's call of actions saved his life.

And if you're trapped, experts say stay warm and hydrated

until that third person you hopefully brought

brings the posse to save you.

It's hard to imagine,

but there was a time last century when zeppelins

were the ultimate experience in luxury air travel.

In 1937, that all changed

when the Hindenburg flew almost all the way

from Frankfurt, Germany to America.

May 6th, 1937, after a three-day trip across the Atlantic,

the Hindenburg sails over New York City

on its way to landing at a naval air station

in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

It is a massive, 804-foot long airship

kept afloat by more than 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen,

and carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew.

Passing storms delay the landing for hours.

At 7:21 PM, cables are released

to lure the ship to the ground.

Then at 7:25 PM, it happens.

[explosion booming]

The back of the Hindenburg explodes.

Watch as the flames quickly move forward

and engulf the entire airship within seconds.

- [Broadcaster] It's a terrific crash, ladies and gentleman.

There's smoke and there's flames now,

and the flame is crashing to the ground.

Oh, the humanity!

All the passengers screaming around it.

- [Tony] 36 are killed,

including one worker on the ground,

yet miraculously, 62 passengers

and crew live to see another day.

- When the Hindenburg incident occurred,

massive investigations were launched by both the Americans

and the Germans to try and figure out what happened.

And both investigations concluded hydrogen

inside the balloon ignited somewhere in the tail section.

[intense music]

- The images of the Hindenburg's explosion are soon seen

on news reels and cinemas around the world.

In fact, it may be fair to say this event

became one of the first viral moments ever.

But what really caused one of the most famous disasters

of all time?

An accident or something more sinister?

[tense music]

In the immediate aftermath, rumors began to circulate

this explosion was no mere accident.

Keeping in mind the Hindenburg was a German Zeppelin

and the pride of Nazi Germany.

- One of the theories that really gained some traction

is sabotage.

One of the passengers aboard the Hindenburg

on that fateful day was a guy named Joseph Spah.

He was a kind of contortionist acrobat,

and being a German immigrant to the United States,

people speculated well, maybe he hated Hitler,

maybe he had this ability to clamber around

inside the structure of the Hindenberg

and maybe plant incendiary devices or something.

The sabotage theory had enough traction at the time

that the FBI took it seriously.

They looked into the background of Joseph Spah

to see if he might be a really credible suspect,

but he seemed to be just a nice, family guy,

and they looked at the wreckage trying

to find out if there was any bombs or incendiary devices,

but they didn't find anything.

- [Tony] If it wasn't sabotage, experts considered

if some design or mechanical failure on the ship

was responsible.

- The outer surface of the fabric was coated in a lacquer

that contained aluminum powder.

Additionally, the inside of the fabric balloon

was coated with an iron oxide, and when you mix them,

it becomes a very flammable substance.

- [Tony] The theory goes that some sort of spark

ignited the lacquer on the surface of the Hindenburg,

but what could be the most accepted hypothesis

is that it's ultimately the stormy weather

that became the catalyst for this disaster.

- We know that the Hindenburg

went through an electrically charged area, like a storm,

just before it was supposed to dock.

So the skin of the ship was probably a supercharged

with electricity, but it had nowhere to go.

- [Tony] It's similar to the idea

of walking on a carpet with socks on.

A negative static charge in your body builds up.

For you and me,

when that negative charge meets a positive charge,

like a door handle, we get a shock.

But for the Hindenburg?

- When you see this cable coming down,

you say aha, a pathway.

Electricity finds a pathway from negative to positive.

It could go from the skin to the middle frame,

down the cable to the ground, which was wet,

and the slightest spark

could then set the whole thing in flames.

We can debate exactly what set off the spark.

That's the key to the whole puzzle.

- The takeaway?

We like Professor Kaku's idea

that some sort of static charge is the likely culprit,

although admittedly, after more than 80 years,

the real answer of what caused that spark

may never be known.

But even if the Hindenburg disaster never happened,

only a few years later,

airplanes would supplant the giant airships as a safer,

faster, and more economical way to cross oceans.

- Finally tonight, mice can be annoying, even scary,

but they're never really dangerous.

Or are they?

March 22nd, 2021, Tottenham, New South Wales, Australia.

A farmer wanders into his barn

to check some of his grain stock.

He passes a large tractor when he suddenly sees this.

Hundreds, possibly thousands of tiny brown mice

fill the screen, devouring bags of grain.

[mice squeaking] [ominous music]

They're seemingly everywhere, even outside of the barn

where, whoa, hoards of these critters

are taking shelter under sheets of corrugated iron.

This horrifying scenario was part of an infestation

that ran rampant throughout southern Australia.

- This is nightmare fodder.

The 2021 infestation was the worst in recent memory.

The mice were infiltrating farms,

destroying grain, going into grocery stores,

taking out everything from food to toilet paper.

Some farmers were saying that they were catching

or killing 400 mice a night.

The Australian government

said they weren't just eating crops,

they were even taking a taste of human flesh.

- [Tony] Flesh eating rodents?

That's right.

Mice are known to eat almost anything,

including each other, when nearby food supplies run out.

One woman, the wife of a farmer, was hospitalized

after she woke up finding a mouse eating her eyeball.

And the livestock wasn't safe either,

as mice began to eat the toes

off chickens stuck in their pens.

Even one bite from these tiny terrors can be devastating.

- Rodents and mice carry a large number of diseases.

They can give you lymphocytic choriomeningitis,

which can cause meningitis, encephalitis,

or fluid on the brain.

- One reason mice cause so much destruction

is that their teeth never stop growing.

In order to keep their teeth trim and sharp,

mice have to be gnawing on hard objects constantly.

And mice teeth are no joke,

they are stronger than iron, copper,

and lead, able to chew through both metal and brick.

So how does a mouse plague like this

come about in the first place?

And should we prepare for one here in the United States?

Let's check in with our experts.

- This plague was caused by a combination of factors

coming together perfectly.

First, there were several dry years,

and mice were in low numbers.

Then there was a series of heavy rains,

which allowed farmers to grow an abundance of crops.

This provided a food source for the mice that were there

and then they quickly multiplied.

- [Tony] It wasn't just an excess of grain

that caused this critter catastrophe.

Recent changes in farming practices allow for farmers

to sow crops directly onto the prior harvest's dead stalks

instead of just burning away the stubble,

creating more food and shelter

for these procreating rodents,

making this one of the worst mice plagues in history.

- Two loved-up mice

can produce up to 5,000 mice babies a year.

I mean, that's kind of an astounding number.

House mice are not native to Australia,

so you have a situation where there is no predator

to try and keep that particular population in check.

- [Tony] In fact, many people believe

that mice didn't appear in the land down under until 1788.

Stowaways on the prisoner ships of Britain's first fleet

where over 1,000 convicts were transported

to the isolated continent.

But we need to know,

could we see a similar vermin explosion in America?

- I think plague is more difficult in the United States

because there are more natural predators like coyotes,

foxes, lots of hawks and birds,

but especially the mammals, raccoons.

- [Tony] And while the US

is lucky enough to remain plague-free,

it's possible the worst is still yet to come

for our Aussie allies.

- The fact is that we're looking at extreme weather conditions,

increased rainfall, increased drought.

This is definitely not gonna be the last time

that we see a plague like this in Australia.

[ominous music]

- The takeaway?

Heavy rainfall, drought cycles, and a lack of predators

combine to turn a small pest problem

into one of biblical proportions.

Australia finally got out of this critter-catastrophe

by spraying zinc phosphide,

which destroys the rodent's digestive systems.

Makes you wanna get a cat.

That's our show for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe out there.