What was the aberfan disaster?

Answer 1

On Friday, 21 October 1966, at 09:15, colliery waste tip number 7 (containing unwanted rock from the local mine) slid down Merthyr Mountain. As it collapsed, it destroyed twenty houses and a farm before going on to demolish virtually all of Pantglas Junior School and part of the separate senior school. The pupils had just left the assembly hall, where they had been singing "All Things Bright and Beautiful", when a great noise was heard outside. Had they left for their classrooms a few minutes later, the loss of life would have been significantly reduced, as the classrooms were on the side of the building nearest the landslide. In total 144 people were killed, 116 of whom were children, most of them between the ages of seven and ten. Five teachers were also killed in the accident. Only a handful of children were rescued from the rubble. Lord Robens of Woldingham, chairman of the National Coal Board (NCB), did not rush to the scene; he instead went to accept an appointment as chancellor of the University of Surrey. Subsequently, he misrepresented the cause of the slide to the community and falsely claimed that nothing could have been done to prevent it. Robens never apologised. At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster the NCB was found responsible for the disaster, due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication". The collapse was found to have been caused by a build-up of water in the pile and, when a small rotational slip occurred, the disturbance caused the saturated, fine material of the tip to liquefy (thixotropy) and flow down the mountain. In 1958, the tip had been sited on a known stream (as shown on earlier Ordnance Survey maps) and had previously suffered several minor slips. Its instability was known, both to colliery management and to tip workers, but very little was done about it. Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council and the National Union of Mineworkers were cleared of any wrongdoing. No NCB employee was sacked, demoted or even disciplined. The NCB was ordered to pay compensation to the families at the rate of £500 per child. After lengthy appeals, part of the fund was used to make the remainder of the waste tip safe and the Coal Board avoided the costs of doing the whole job from its own resources. The Labour government paid back the £150,000 in 1997, although taking account of inflation this should have been £1.5M. Merthyr Vale Colliery was closed in 1989. The closure was not associated with the accident. The Government of the time has deemed it appropriate to close such product across the UK.