On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg arrived over Lakehurst, New Jersey, after a three-day journey across the Atlantic. The passengers could see the ground. The landing lines were down. Their journey was almost over.

Then fire appeared near the stern.

Within roughly half a minute, the largest passenger aircraft in the world was destroyed. Yet of the 97 people aboard, 62 survived.

In this episode of Chain of Events, we follow the Hindenburg's final flight from its departure in Germany through the weather delays over New Jersey, the final approach, the desperate escapes from the burning airship, and the investigation into what started the fire. We also examine the famous Herbert Morrison recording, the myths that grew around the disaster, and the probable sequence of events that brought the era of transatlantic passenger Zeppelins to an end.

The Hindenburg had crossed an ocean. It had reached its destination. It was only minutes from completing the journey.

Then the final links in the chain came together.

On January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee climbed aboard Apollo’s Command Module 012 for what should have been a routine ground test. The rocket wasn’t fueled. There would be no launch. The spacecraft wasn’t going anywhere.

Hours later, a voice came over the communications circuit: there was a fire in the cockpit.

Within seconds, all three astronauts were dead.

In this episode of Chain of Events, we reconstruct the Apollo 1 fire, the desperate attempt to escape, and the investigation that revealed something more complicated than a single spark or failed component. Apollo 1 was a disaster built from multiple hazards—each one survivable on its own, but catastrophic when they came together.

It was the mission that never left the ground, and it forced NASA to reconsider how Apollo would reach the Moon.

On January 15, 1919, an enormous steel tank in Boston’s North End suddenly came apart.

In seconds, approximately 2.3 million gallons of molasses surged through Commercial Street, destroying buildings, sweeping away people and horses, and leaving rescuers struggling through a disaster unlike anything they had encountered before.

Twenty-one people would die. Around 150 would be injured.

But the Great Molasses Flood didn’t begin when the tank ruptured.

For more than three years, it had leaked. Workers had raised concerns. Repairs had been made. The tank had never received a proper full-load test.

And yet it kept standing.

In Episode 4 of Chain of Events, we follow the Great Molasses Flood from the construction of the Commercial Street tank through the terrifying minutes of January 15, the rescue effort, the years-long fight to determine responsibility, and the engineering evidence that eventually revealed what went wrong.

Because sometimes the most dangerous warning is the one that keeps happening without a disaster.

Until it does.

On the morning of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in one of the most devastating volcanic disasters in U.S. history.

But the disaster didn't begin that morning.

For two months, earthquakes shook the mountain. Steam explosions tore through its summit. Scientists watched as its north flank swelled outward by several feet every day. Everyone knew Mount St. Helens was dangerous. What no one could say was exactly when it would erupt—or what would happen when it did.

Then, at 8:32 a.m., a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck beneath the volcano.

What followed unfolded with extraordinary speed: the largest debris avalanche in recorded history, a devastating lateral blast, an eruption column rising more than fifteen miles into the atmosphere, and lahars carrying the destruction far downstream.

Fifty-seven people would die.

In this episode of Chain of Events, we reconstruct the warning signs, the decisions, the people watching the mountain, and the astonishing sequence that transformed Mount St. Helens in less than a minute—and changed the way America monitors volcanoes forever.

On July 17, 1981, hundreds of people gathered inside the Hyatt Regency Kansas City for an evening of music and dancing. Above them, spectators watched from suspended walkways crossing the hotel's soaring atrium.

At approximately 7:05 p.m., two of those walkways collapsed onto the crowded lobby below. The disaster would ultimately claim 114 lives and injure more than 200 people.

But the story didn't begin that night.

More than two years earlier, a seemingly small change had been made to the way the walkways were supported. What followed was a chain of design decisions, assumptions, missed opportunities, and failures of communication that allowed a critically deficient connection to become part of a finished hotel.

In this episode of Chain of Events, we reconstruct the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse—from the original drawings and the change that altered the structure, to the horrifying seconds inside the atrium, the extraordinary overnight rescue operation, and the investigation that transformed engineering practice.

Because sometimes a catastrophe doesn't begin when something falls.

It begins years earlier, when something changes—and no one realizes what that change means.

On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 was cruising at 37,000 feet when an engine failure triggered something the DC-10 was never supposed to experience: the loss of all three hydraulic systems.

With conventional flight controls effectively gone, Captain Al Haynes and his crew had to learn how to fly the aircraft all over again—using little more than the thrust from its two remaining engines. For more than forty minutes, they fought to reach Sioux City while flight attendants prepared 285 passengers for what was coming and emergency crews mobilized below.

What followed became one of the most studied aviation disasters in history.

In the first episode of Chain of Events, we follow Flight 232 from an ordinary afternoon over Iowa through the catastrophic failure, the extraordinary attempt to control the aircraft, the crash at Sioux City, the rescue operation, and the investigation that traced the disaster back nearly eighteen years.

296 people were aboard. 185 survived.

This is the story of the failures, decisions, preparation, improvisation, and chance that shaped what happened next.

One event leads to another. This is Chain of Events.