2 HN users recommended this documentary2 months2022–2025score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN recommends the CSB's accident reconstruction animations as clear, worthwhile case studies of industrial disasters.
The US Chemical Safety Board's updated animation of the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion, which killed 15 workers. It was released ahead of a process safety training application.
“(but worth watching the whole thing!)” (HN, 2025)
Yea, that's an interesting perspective. I do wondering if we can learn from a related, but successful form of failure content, which is the disaster/accident investigation videos. I watch a wide range from the classic TV airliner crashes [1], to highly detailed air crash disaster investigation reports / training [2], to industrial / other accidents [3], to gov't industrial accidents reports / simulations [4]. I wonder if there's anything to be gained from way that content succeeds while business failures don't? Is it just that startup failures aren't as dramatic? It's not a clear-cut kind of narrative that's satisfying? No idea... These are all great: [1] Tenerife Crash for TV: [link] [2] Tenerife Crash for Pilots: [link] [3] SL1 Nuclear Accident: [link] [4] BP Texas City: [this video]
Government animation reconstructing the BP Texas City explosion
> I read about it in one of the disaster reports about the Texas City BP refinery explosion. Relevant part of USCSB accident reconstruction animation: [this video] (but worth watching the whole thing!)
Accident reconstruction animation of the Texas City refinery explosion
> fire tube This has a similar style to oilfield names. I giggle when I hear them used in USCSB disaster videos. > An entry in the centralized control room logbook: “ISOM: Brought in some raff to unit, to pack raff with” You don't say. And this led to an explosion? [link] [link] [this video]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
3 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Read more
Citations, criticism and jokes