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27 Big-Time Screwups That Can’t Be Control+Alt+Deleted

We’ve got blunders, debacles, fiascos, and a couple massive oopsie daisies

27 Big-Time Screwups That Can’t Be Control+Alt+Deleted

June 03, 2024

Have you ever tripped over your own feet and were beyond relieved that no one was around to see it? Well, that’s a feeling that these mistake-makers would kill for. Because their life-changing, sometimes multi-billion-dollar blunders have become known ‘round the world. We’d feel bad for giving their screwups an even wider audience, but they’re just so juicy.

So let this be a lesson: Keep your slip-ups nice and boring.

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27

Between 1942 and 1964, the U.S. Military built an artificial island in the Pacific. Johnson Atoll, 860 mi southwest of Hawaii It was abandoned in 2004. We don't know how much it cost, but a comparable project in scope and scale would be the Japanese Kansai Airport. That was another artificial island built to support a landing strip, and it cost around $20 billion. CRACKED.COM www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010/04/isolated-and-abandoned-military-airbase-johnston-atoll — Source

26

In 1962, council members in Centralia, PA, hired firefighters to burn their trash. It's still burning. The landfill was adjacent to an underground coal mine, and the fire spread to the tunnels beneath the city. Smoke continues to billow from the fire, which is expected to burn for another 250 years. In 1984, Congress spent more than $42 million to relocate the town's residents. CRACKED.COM David DeKok, 1986 Unseen Danger; A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire — Source

25

FATAL ERROR LOSS OF THE VIKING 1 LANDER In 1983, the Viking 1 lander stopped working because of a software update that messed up its communication programming and cut off its connection with Earth. Go NASA. CRACKED — Source

24

FATAL x ERROR TWO BRIDGE SECTIONS FAILING TO CONNECT In 2013, two sections of the High Rhine Bridge, being built towards each other, turned out to be 54 centimeters apart in height. Why? A miscalculation doubled the 27-centimeter difference between the North Sea and Mediterranean Sea levels. CRACKED — Source

23

FATAL x ERROR A RADIATION THERAPY MACHINE KILLING PATIENTS In 1987, the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine caused serious burns and even some deaths because of software bugs, and a lack of hardware locks and other safety features CRACKED — Source

22

10 Insert Page Layout Cut FATAL x ERROR $24 MILLION Copy DOLLARS LOST In May 2020, a Canadian power Formal generator power transmission bought many hedging U.S. too contracts at higher prices than they needed to. The CEO said it was literally a cut-and-paste error in an Excel spreadsheet. В A CRACKED — Source

21

+0 FATAL x ERROR $10.5 MILLION LOST In 2021, Crypto.com accidentally sent a woman $10.5 million instead of the $100 refund she asked for. Why? An employee made a mistake and put an account number in the payment field. 63,52 cryptos 1504,72 CRACKED — Source

20

FATAL x ERROR 28 SOLDIERS' DEATHS During the Gulf War, a Patriot Missile battery's software system miscalculated how long it'd been since it was turned on, which ultimately caused it to miss its target, an Iraqi Scud missile. The Scud wound up killing 28 soldiers and injuring 100 others. CRACKED — Source

19

AIR FATAL x ERROR 803 PASSENGER JET RAN OUT OF GAS MID-AIR In 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of gas because of a mistake when converting measurements, and had to make an emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba. Luckily, they managed to pull it off. CRACKED — Source

18

FATAL x ERROR 150 WRONG MEDICAL TEST RESULTS In 2001, because of a Y2K bug that miscalculated their ages, 150 pregnant women at a British hospital got incorrect results from a Down's Syndrome test. This led to two women deciding to end their pregnancies. CRACKED — Source

17

FATAL x ERROR A CONVICTED MAN WALKS FREE FOR 13 YEARS Because of a clerical error, a man in Missouri was sent to prison in 2014-13 years after his conviction. A judge released him nine months later, taking into account the time that had passed between his conviction and his arrest. CRACKED — Source

16

275.30 30,463.58 15.648 1942 1,014.12 +7.62) (+1594) (33 60.44 60.30 3.65 -56.29 -127 B 152821 1-1.42.19) (-126.7 55.90) (-0.21) FATAL x ERROR 203.88 G-300 85.65 $225 MILLION -107.5 IN STOCK LOST -62.75 a (-115.96 the (7.84) big mistake in 2005 Co. when made they a Mizuho Securities -8.74 3133 mistyped a stock trade price, 108 49 18.08) costing them at least $225 50 million. The Tokyo Stock 75.41 Exchange wouldn't let them -427.15 19.36) cancel the order. 36,274 156,015.25 22.217.71 34 883 23 ,028.94 13) (+3.99) -4.44) 10.15 -2.87 741.27 26.98 THE 201 CRACKED 95902 at — Source

15

FATAL x ERROR LOSING $45 MILLION (ACCIDENTALLY CREATING A SALTWATER LAKE) In 1980, an oil rig team in Louisiana drilled in the wrong place, creating a 200-foot- deep saltwater lake and costing the company $45 million. Why? An engineer mixed up two types of geographical coordinates, leading to a mapping error. CRACKED — Source

14

FATAL x ERROR HAVING TO EXP AND A WHOLE PORT In 2003, a misplaced decimal point in the design of Spain's new submarine meant that it was 100 tons heavier than expected. The port of Cartagena, where it was being built, had to be expanded and dredged to fit it. This caused a five year delay. CRACKED — Source

13

x EBROR FATAL A WHOLE MARS CLIMATE ORBITER DOWN THE DRAIN NASA didn't convert measurements from Imperial to metric before the Mars Climate Orbiter launch, which put it off course, and eventually led to the destruction of the $125 million contraption. CRACKED — Source

12

CRACKED FIVE U.S. ARMY PROJECTS The U.S. Army spent a whopping $30 billion on five weapons projects that didn't work out between 1989 and 2019. These included the Brilliant Anti-Tank Munition, the RAH-66 Comanche Stealth-Chopper, and the Crusader Self-Propelled Howitzer. $30 billion — Source

11

CRACKED BOSTON'S 2024 OLYMPIC BID Boston's 2024 Olympic bid ended up costing them a lot of money. They were left with a debt of around $3.5 million and still had to pay employees, consultants, and vendors over $4 million. $4+ million BOSTON 2024 BOSTON TD GARDEN 2024 GARDEN GARDEN BOSTON 2024 — Source

10

CRACKED USS MIAMI NUCLEAR SUBMARINE In 2012, a huge fire broke out on the USS Miami, causing $400 million worth of damage. Unfortunately, the Navy didn't have enough money to fix it, so they had to take the submarine out of service. $400 million — Source

9

CRACKED IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION A lot of the money the U.S. spent to fix up Iraq, which was around $60 billion, was misused, according to a report to Congress from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Up to $60 billion — Source

8

CRACKED TRUMP TAJ MAHAL CASINO Donald Trump's Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City was sold for a tiny fraction of what it cost to build - about 4 cents for every dollar. Trump had gone bankrupt with the property twice, first in 2009 and then again in 2015. AMERICAN ACADEMY Diamond Sir Sint io HOSPI Award RU Sold for 1/25 of its construction cost — Source

7

CRACKED TIME WARNER AND AOL MERGER Time Warner and AOL got married in 2000, but it was a disaster. AOL had to write off almost $99 billion of Time Warner's value in 2002, and its worth dropped from $226 billion to only $20 billion. It's seen as one of the worst business decisions ever. AOL Time Warner $206 billion — Source

6

CRACKED JOHN CARTER Disney spent a ton of money making and promoting the 2012 live-action sci-fi movie John Carter, which was based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the end, they lost at least $200 million. $200+ million — Source

5

CRACKED BRAZIL'S 2014 WORLD CUP INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS Brazil put a lot of money into getting ready for the 2014 World Cup, spending around $11.3 billion on infrastructure. A lot of the projects that were supposed to be funded by that were left unfinished. Up to $11.3 billion — Source

4

CRACKED PETS.COM Pets.com had a really successful initial public offering in February 2000, raising a whopping $82.5 million. Unfortunately, just nine months later, they had to file for bankruptcy. $82.5 billion — Source

3

CRACKED CALIFORNIA HIGH-SPEED RAIL SYSTEM California has spent $9.8 billion on its high-speed rail project, with zero miles of track built as of May 2023. It's estimated that it'll take between $88 billion and $128 billion to finish the whole thing, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. $9.8 billion — Source

2

CRACKED CONCORDE The Concorde, a super-fast plane made by France and Britain, stopped flying in 2003 because it was too expensive to run, people complained about the noise, and there was a really bad crash in 2000 that killed 113 people. BRITISH AIRWARS $2.8 billion — Source

1

CRACKED QUIBI Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman started Quibi, a mobile-focused streaming service, and got a lot of money from different investors. Despite all the money and the famous people involved, Quibi had to close down after 6 months (or approximately 26,000 Quibis, a unit of time they really thought would catch on). Quibi Qu $2 billion Q sundance Q sund institute Quil ibi sund O Qui — Source

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