Aberfan disaster

The Aberfan mining disaster occurred on October 21, 1966 in the village of Aberfan, 8 km south of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.

At 9:15 clock slipped the coal slag heap number 7 of the local coal mine down the Merthyr Mountain. When SCFE destroyed the stockpile of 20 houses and a farm before they destroyed almost the entire Pantglas Primary School and parts of the adjacent middle school. Most of the students were at that time in the auditorium, where they sang All Things Bright and Beautiful.

A total of 144 people were killed, mostly between seven and ten years of age. Also, five teachers were among the dead.

Lord Robens, head of the State National Coal Board (NCB ), the time was with a tour of the incident; Instead, he took once to the office as rector of the University of Surrey. Then he twisted the cause of the heap slip to the community and falsely claimed that this disaster could not have been prevented.

In a judicial investigation of the accident, the National Coal Board " ignorance, incompetence and lack of communication " for the accident was convicted on the basis of. The SCFE was caused by an accumulation of water; as a mass movement occurred, the liquefied the drenched, fine material of Abkippstelle and flowed down the mountain. The Abkippstelle had been known as unlisted stream which was shown on earlier Ordnance Survey maps of 1958 and had previously held several smaller slide. The instability of the heap was both the coal mine management and the workers knew, however, as no objection was so well done. The Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council ( the council ) and the National Union of Mineworkers ( miners' union ) were acquitted.

The NCB was sentenced to pay compensation in the amount of £ 500 per child to families. In a controversial move, this payment was a part that a public fundraiser gave to the families reduced. After much pleading, a part of the donation was used to secure the rest of the slag heap. The mine management avoided going to cover the entire cost through its own resources. Later, however, she had to pay back the money.

The coal mine in Merthyr Valley was closed in 1989.