Aberfan disaster
The
Aberfan disaster occurred on Friday,
October 21,
1966, at 9:15am. 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a waste pile ("slag heap") containing unwanted rock from the local
coal mine collapsed onto the village of Aberfan in
Merthyr Tydfil, south
Wales. The children killed were mainly pupils at the Pantglas Junior School which was situated close to the pile.
At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster the National Coal Board was found to have been 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 - when a small rotational slip occurred the saturated fine material of the tip liquefied and it flowed down the mountain.
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