Aberfan 1966: Why Didn't Anyone Stop Tip 7 in Time?

Aberfan disaster, 1966: a coal tip buried a school in under 5 minutes. Why did no one stop it in time? This documentary traces how the National Coal Board's spoil tips came to loom over a Welsh mining village, and why warnings about Tip 7 and the springs beneath it went unheeded for decades. You will see the timeline of the 1966 slide, the rescue effort that followed, and how the inquiry assigned blame afterward. The story moves through Merthyr Tydfil's mining history, the years of flooding and cracked ground, and the final morning at Pantglas Junior School. If you had seen the signs residents saw for years before, what would you have done differently? Subscribe for more full stories from history. #aberfan #miningdisaster #history CHAPTERS: 0:00 Buried in Five Minutes 1:11 The Village Built on Spoil 3:21 Tip Seven Sinks 5:54 Twenty Minutes From the Colliery 8:31 Seventy-Six Days of Evidence 11:14 Fifty Thousand Letters 13:17 No One Was Charged 15:00 1.75 Million Pounds Raised 17:52 Coal Slurry on the Table 19:56 The 1969 Tips Act 21:02 The Repaid 150,000 Pounds Credits: Icons made by Delapouite from game-icons.net (CC BY 3.0) "Silvermines Mountain Peak" by IrishFireside (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/4376253... "File:North Staffordshire Railway, 0-6-2T No 2, designed b..." by Gillett's Crossing from Bristol, Unit... (CC BY 2.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... "Reservoir With Excavated Spoil Heaps" by TyB (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/1268045... "Aberfan. Coal washing. Snow on recontoured tip 6 February..." by Mary Gillham Archive Project (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/1397918... "Aberfan fatal tip after levelling but before vegetating...." by Mary Gillham Archive Project (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/1397918... "National Coal Board Steam Engine - Beatrice (6648844811).jpg" by David Merrett from Daventry, England (CC BY 2.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Downtown Luray Main Street Bridge Flooded in Hurricane Fr..." by Town of Luray, Virginia (CC BY 4.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Colliery wagons, Beamish Museum, 23 April 2010.jpg" by Paul Trafford (CC BY 2.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Leeds, Grave Stone Railway Embankment 27022017, Canon 1Ds..." by jcw1967 (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/3808586... "P-3_landing" by NASA ICE (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/5934595... "Merthyr Tydfil Bus and Coach Wales 2015" by Dai Lygad (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/1263379... "Spoil tip" by ComputerHotline (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/3651941... "Civil Defence Corps, Greetland (8th February 2015).jpg" by Flickr user:Tim Green aka atoach (CC BY 2.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Shelling on Kibbutz Merom Golan damaged houses (FL4594785..." by IPPA photographer (CC BY 4.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Orion & Oriola switchboard Elisa Telephone Museum.jpg" by Antti Leppänen (CC BY 4.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Welsh Government Building Cardiff (27664701740).jpg" by Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK (CC BY 2.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Western mail gnangarra 01.jpg" by Gnangarra (CC BY 2.5 au) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Recycling old calendars" by storebukkebruse (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/8536261... "National Coal Board steam train" by Aly1963 (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/4597967... "BBC Television Centre 2015.jpg" by Gibboboy777 (CC BY 3.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "File:National Coal Board No. E2, Regional Resource Centre..." by Draco2008 from UK (CC BY 2.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... "Merthyr Tydfil Bus and Coach Wales 2015: Pontstycill" by Dai Lygad (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/1263379... "Theodore Roosevelt Memorial monument @ Marias Pass" by Loco Steve (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/3698901... Public-domain images: Flickr Commons via Wikimedia Commons, Generated map (Natural Earth), J. Paul Getty Museum, National Archives, National Gallery of Art Some images: U.S. National Archives. NARA does not endorse this video. Icons: game-icons.net (CC BY 3.0) More image credits in the