- [Narrator] You've made
some pretty huge mistakes in your time, right? Maybe you dropped your brand-new iPhone out of a plane mid-flight, or accidentally hit the
gas instead of the breaks. But whatever your goof up was, it could have been a lot
worse and way more expensive. You could have accidentally blown up two multimillion-dollar aircraft, sent a billion-dollar rocket to its doom, or sunk a ship in one of
the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Suddenly, your mistakes
don't seem so bad, huh? Well, get ready to feel even
better about your own blunders, as we take a look at even more of the most expensive mistakes in history. (electronic music) One costly typo. Okay, confession time, I
make typos all the time. But none of my embarrassingly
misspelled texts or tweets could come close to the mistake that eBay seller Collectordan
made back in 2007. He'd listed a bottle
of Allsopp's Arctic Ale on the auction site, fully corked, and complete with a wax seal, which came with a laminated note. The note, from 1919, explained the bottle was one
of a very limited collection that had been brewed
specifically for a polar voyage way back in 1852. This certified it as a real
and incredibly rare item, one worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to any avid brewers or beer specialists. But Collectordan had
made one massive mistake. He'd missed a P off his
spelling of Allsopp's. This was back in the day before most websites returned results for misspelled searches, so the
beer only received two bids. In the end, it sold to a
buyer called v00d00sc0re in Oklahoma for a pitiful $304. V00d00sc0re, however, wasn't going to make
Collectordan's mistake. He relisted the beer less
than two months later, and with all the right spelling, the bottle received 157
bids in just 10 days. The beer finally sold for
a mind boggling $503,000. Oh, man. I bet Collectordan uses spellcheck on everything he types now. Fighter fire. Did you know that a single
20mm round for an M61 Vulcan, a rotary cannon found on
some fighter jets, costs $27? That's pretty expensive. But not as expensive as
the chaos a single bullet can accidentally cause, as a mechanic at Belgium's
Florennes Air Base found out. Back in 2018, this mechanic was working on an F16 fighter jet in
one of the base's hangars, while another F16 was
being refueled nearby. But then, somehow, they accidentally fired one of the fighter jet's Vulcan cannons. The shots hit the refueling
F16, setting it ablaze, and damaging the other one in the process. Despite the speedy response
of the firefighters, the $18 million aircraft was destroyed. Alongside the damage
to the second aircraft, it's estimated the destruction
was somewhere in the region of $27 million and all from
a few bullets. Or was it? In official press statements, there was no mention of
an accidental misfire, just that a fire broke out on the base taking the two planes with it. But headlines would suggest
that the mechanic's misfire was definitely to blame
for this expensive mistake. What do you think? Was this one
expensive mechanical mishap, or is the source of the
fire so embarrassing the Belgian air force
don't want us to know what really happened? Let me know your thoughts
down in the comments. The Ever Given. Unless you were living
under a rock in 2021, you probably heard the name Ever Given mentioned in the news. This 1,312 foot behemoth is one of the longest
container ships in the world and is able to transport more than 20,000 containers at a time. For perspective, this thing is longer than the empire state is
tall, minus its antenna. Now, on March 23rd, 2021, the Ever Given was traveling through the Suez Canal, an essential Egyptian waterway, which acts as a shortcut
for vessels traveling from Europe to South Asia. Without it, they'd need
to go all the way around the coast of Africa, adding roughly 4,350 miles
onto a ship's voyage. The only issue is that the canal is tight, at just under 80 feet deep
and less than 700 feet wide. The last thing you'd wanna do
is try steering a bulky ship through this tiny canal
during poor weather conditions and high winds. Which is exactly what
the Ever Given's captain, Krishnan Kanthavel, decided to do. Underestimating the weather, the captain quickly lost
control of the ship, which became hopelessly
wedged across the canal. More than a dozen tugboats were called out to try to haul the ship free of the shore. Komatsu excavators and other equipment dredged up more than a
million cubic feet of sand surrounding the ship. But even with all this help, it still took six days and seven hours to finally get the sizeable ship free. And that's when the cost of
this error started piling up. It had blocked more than
$400 million worth of goods passing through it per hour, which added up to a
staggering $31.5 billion in lost trading. On top of that, the court
ordered the vessel's owners to pay $900 million in compensation. So that's roughly $32.4
billion all added up. The canal authority later announced that Captain Kanthavel
was fully responsible for the grounding, but that pricey near billion
dollar compensation tab fell on the shoulders of his employers. While it was a heavy price to pay, the Ever Given did make
up for it on social media with some utterly priceless memes. Scratch card scandal. Roswell, New Mexico is famous
for its many UFO sightings, but back in 2007 it became
the home of a costly mistake that was really out of this world. The general manager of
Roswell's Honda dealership hired a direct-mail marketing company to send out 50,000 scratch-off
tickets to local residents, with one lucky ticket holder
receiving a $1,000 grand prize. But a typographical error
written into the advert meant that all 50,000 tickets
were grand prize winners. So, instead of offering just $1,000, Jeff's dealership was
now offering $50 million. You get a car, and you get a car, and everybody gets a car. Man, Oprah's gonna need
to step her game up. Fortunately, Jeff spotted the typo before the final 20,000
tickets could be released, but the damage was done. The marketing company apologized profusely and to prevent public relations damage, they offered $5 Walmart gift cards and the chance to enter a contest with an even higher grand prize. Looks like Oprah's car-giveaway crown is safe for another day. Now, I can't give you a car, but if you hit those like and
subscribe buttons down below, I can give you free videos
and endless entertainment. Yeah, not exactly the
Oprah moment I wanted, but still a pretty sweet deal. All done? Great, what have we got next? Container catastrophe. Do you ever get ready to go outside, realize the weather is bad and decide to stay inside instead? If the captain of the ONE Apus had had this kind of foresight, then this ship wouldn't be in this video. Back in November 2020, the 1,194 foot Japanese container ship set sail from Yantian to Long beach. But 1600 miles into the journey, the ship hit a huge storm in
the middle of the pacific. While ships like this
are designed to detect and to a degree withstand rough weather, the conditions were so brutal that the stacked containers
on the ship's deck began to shift. All up, the storm toppled 1,816 units of the 14,000 the ONE Apus
was carrying into the sea. The captain had no choice
but to turn the ship around and try to dock in Kobe. When it did dock, the extent of the damage had to be seen to be believed. Containers were crushed, others were barely balanced
on the ship, it was carnage. It's estimated that this one incident resulted in more than $200
million worth of cargo loss, the second biggest cargo
loss in shipping history. While an official
investigation is still ongoing, theories have been floating around as to the cause of this
incredible catastrophe. Some believe that the captain had analyzed the weather patterns and knew a storm was imminent. But he decided to risk it because
he was on a tight schedule and just assumed it wouldn't be that bad. Others speculated that freak waves no one could have predicted
rose to more than 50 feet high, which even large ships like
this just can't withstand. Well, the investigation is still ongoing. So, for now, all the authorities can do is wave goodbye to this
$200 million mistake. Fatal Fukushima. Back in 2011, a magnitude nine earthquake, the strongest ever recorded, struck Japan, triggering a 130 foot high tsunami. The waves obliterated Japan's coastline, on part of which lay the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Systems at the plant detected the quake and automatically shut
down the three reactors that were running at that time. Emergency diesel
generators were switched on to keep the reactor cores cool, as they remained incredibly hot, more than 1000 degrees fahrenheit, even after the reactions stopped. It was then that a 46 feet
high wave hit Fukushima, flooding the plant, obliterating 31 of the
33 emergency generators, and the cooling cycle stopped. Temperatures in the reactors skyrocketed, reaching well over 5000 degrees fahrenheit and triggering a nuclear meltdown along with a series of deadly hydrogen and petroleum explosions. Over the six days that followed, about 980 petabecquerels
of radioactive material contaminated the surrounding areas. This is roughly 18% of
what the famous meltdown at Chernobyl released. Initially, this was seen as an accident no one could have predicted. And yet, in 2015, it
was revealed scientists had warned the plant
operators this might happen. They'd highlighted the fact that the critical backup generators were built in low-lying areas that were at risk of being
damaged by a large tsunami. But the plant operators,
Tokyo Electric Power Co, ignored these warnings. Instead, they favored their
own internal faulty data, which they claimed meant
tsunamis of that size simply weren't possible. Their ignorance didn't just
cost them a power plant, which was worth $2.2 billion, but the clean-up is
really going to take them to the cleaners. It's currently estimated that, even now, more than 10 years after the meltdown, it's going to take another 30 years and a further $76 billion clean-up effort. Yeah, that's billion with a B. Turns out that removing
intact nuclear fuel, dismantling nuclear reactors, and disposing of heavily
contaminated water comes with one hell of a cost. And one that might have been avoided, if only they'd listen to the people who knew what they were talking about. Gee, what a concept. Going for broke. I can't pretend I
understand the stock market. I'm a YouTuber, not a business wiz. But then again, even professional brokers get the market wrong sometimes. I don't mean selling a short
or whatever the terminology is, I mean sometimes they make a typo. A really, really big typo. Back in December 2005, Japanese brokerage firm Mizuho Securities wanted to sell one share in
company J-Com for 610,000 yen, roughly $5,000 at the time,
on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This was J-Com's public
debut on the exchange, so it was really important
that the trade went to plan. But it couldn't have
gone worse if it tried. Somehow, instead of listing
one share at 610,000 yen, it listed 610,000 shares at one yen. That's less than a penny a piece. Even though the number of shares listed was more than 41 times
what J-Com had available, the stock exchange
processed the order anyway. Mizuho, realising the error,
tried to cancel the order, but the stock exchange doesn't
cancel transactions like this even if they're erroneous. Fortunately, the exchange didn't allow for stocks to be sold for just one yen, but they were sold as low as
572,000 yen, roughly $4,767. Mizuho scrambled and tried to buy back as many shares as it could, but by the time trading ended that day, Mizuho had lost 40.7 billion yen. That was some $336 million then, about $372 million today. Mizuho had to cough up for the mistake, but then they tried to sue
the Tokyo Stock Exchange for allowing such an obvious error to be submitted unchallenged. They sought 41.5 billion yen, but the court only awarded
them 10.7 billion yen, less than a quarter of what they lost. So, if ever you needed a reason to double, if not triple check your work, Mizuho just provided 40.7 billion of them! Millennium Tower. You ever get that sinking feeling that something's not right? Residents of San
Francisco's Millennium Tower know what that feels like all too well, alongside a weird leaning feeling too. This sleek, blue-gray tower
was completed back in 2009, and is the tallest residential
tower complex in the city. Residents quickly bought
up over $100 million worth of luxury condos, but then
things started to go wrong. The 58 story luxury complex was tilting. By 2016, it was revealed
the main tower had sunk down and started to lean. It was eventually revealed that
the tower hadn't been built into a solid bedrock,
but into deep dense sand. While the building wasn't
at risk of keeling over, property values of the
apartments plummeted, and the lawsuits began. The developers blamed
nearby construction efforts, which broke ground two years
after the tower was completed. They de-watered the surrounding area, which made the construction site safe, but also compressed the dense sand and caused the Millennium
Tower next to it to settle. But then, documents were uncovered showing that the city's building
inspection department knew there was a chance of this happening and let residents move in anyway. It was a huge scandal, but
that wasn't the worst part. By 2018, the sinking had
increased to 18 inches with a lean of 14 inches. Then, on September 8th, residents began to hear
cracking and popping. The pressure of the lean had begun to break the building's windows. And cracks were appearing
in its stonework. To fix it, the initial
plan was to drive 52 piles into the bedrock in the north
and west side of the scraper. It's a construction project
that'll cost about $100 million over the course of 10 years to fix, although that's the low
end of the estimate. Complications could see
that price rise as high as $500 million depending
on the works needed. And considering that the
building's total tilt at the top now is now 26 inches, an increase of 10 inches since the so-called fix of
the building began in 2020, I think this is going to be one incredibly costly fixer-upper. Tianjin blast. At 11:30 p.m. on August 12th, 2015, the Chinese port city of
Tianjin was suddenly rocked by a series of massive explosions. They were so huge that
they triggered earthquakes ranging from 2.3 to 2.9 magnitude, and the explosions themselves
could even be seen from space. Shock-waves ripped through
the city, damaging buildings, and claiming the lives
of nearly 200 people. But what caused such a
huge series of explosions? Well, at 10:50 p.m., around
40 minutes beforehand, there were reports of
a fire at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area. But this wasn't just any warehouse, it was a hazardous
chemical storage facility containing thousands of
tons of sodium cyanide, sodium nitrate, and potassium nitrate. Really volatile, and
highly explosive stuff. It turned out that safety regulations requiring public buildings and facilities to be built more than one kilometer away from the hazardous site
simply hadn't been followed. That meant none of the locals were aware of the danger they were in. Not only that, but really
poor record keeping meant those in charge of the facility weren't able to identify all
the substances being stored. And so, on that very hot August day, the inadequately stored
chemicals caught fire, resulting in explosions with the force of more than 280 tons of TNT. Alongside the loss of human life, hundreds of buildings
and brand-new Renault, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Kia cars, waiting to be shipped out from the port were all but destroyed. These were less than 300 feet
from the original blast site and bore the brunt of the explosion. Roughly 26,000 new cars
were completely ruined, amounting to an estimated
three billion yuan. Roughly $473 million in damage. And that was just the start of it. The supply chain disruption cost an unbelievable $9 billion, the third largest supply disruption in China's history. Jail sentences were given
to 49 government officials, warehouse executives, and staff for their roles in
circumventing the safety rules that led to the disaster. The families of those that perished received some compensation, with the government also promising to buy back explosion-damaged
properties at a rate of 130%. This means the oversight ended up costing a staggering $10 billion all totaled up. Well, I didn't think it needed saying, but if you're in charge
of literal explosives, make sure they're stored safely. Beirut blast. You'd think after the devastation and cost of the Tianjin Blast, no one on earth would be stupid enough to make the exact same
mistake again, right? Right? (sighs) Let's rewind to 2020 and head over to Beirut, Lebanon. On the 4th of August, a
fire engulfed a warehouse over in the port. Then less than 20 minutes
later, this happened. (man speaking foreign language) (bomb exploding) Unbelievably, this blast
was almost five times the size of the one witnessed in Tianjin and released a shockwave
that physically shook the entire country of Lebanon. But as it would shockingly turn out, the root cause was the exact same. These warehouses were being used to store more than 3000 tons
of explosive ammonium nitrate which had been confiscated
from a rogue ship in Beirut's waters more
than 6 years before. Its cargo was seized and transported to the port's warehouse 12, but even though officials
knew what the cargo was, they failed to store it properly. It was an accident just waiting to happen. So, in 2020, when an unknown source started a small fire in the warehouse, the nitrates exploded with the force of 1.1 kilotons of TNT. One of the most powerful
non-nuclear explosions in history. Nearby buildings were leveled,
cladding was stripped off, cars caught in the shockwave were wrecked, and 300,000 people were left homeless. The scale of the
devastation was unbelievable and the cost hit hard. The insurance losses alone are thought to have reached $3 billion, with the blast estimated to have cost more than $15 billion in economic damages. Can't believe I have to say it again, if you've got explosive
materials, store them correctly. It really shouldn't be
that hard to understand. Challenger disaster. On January 18, 1986, the
U.S. space shuttle Challenger achieved lift off from its
launch site in Cape Canaveral. It had been delayed for several days because of bad weather
and technical problems, but now it was finally happening. All systems seemed nominal,
the weather looked good, and the seven crew on board were ready. But then, 73 seconds into
the flight, this happened. (rocket exploding) - [Man] One minute 15 seconds. Velocity, 2,900 feet per second. Altitude, nine nautical miles. (indistinct) distance, 10 nautical miles. - [Narrator] The shuttle suddenly broke up into a forking plume of smoke and debris. Millions watched the first
major shuttle accident in human history on live TV. There were tragically no survivors. And people wanted answers. A special commission was set up to establish what went wrong, and the answer shocked everyone. The rocket booster's rubber O-rings, which were meant to keep
gases from escaping, had been affected by the
record low temperatures experienced on the day of the launch. They broke shortly after lift-off, allowing pressurized gas to leak into the adjacent fuel tanks, causing the structural failure
and resulting explosion. But the worst part, by far, was that NASA knew about the O-rings. Allan McDonald, an engineer working as
a contractor for NASA, had refused to approve
the rocket for launch because he was concerned
about the O-rings' ability to work in such cold temperatures. But NASA decided not to
listen to McDonald's warning, as they were under pressure
to launch a minimum of 24 missions a year and so
they proceeded with the launch. And sadly, it wasn't just
the lives of the crew this unbelievable oversight cost. The Challenger rocket
cost roughly $1.5 billion to develop and build
back in the mid-1970's. The cost of replacing the Challenger, with all the fixes to the
many design flaws it had, plus all the onboard equipment, came in at more than $3.2 billion. That's $4.7 billion all together. Sheesh. Adjusted for inflation, that's roughly $24.5 billion today. I think he was too much of
a gentleman to say anything, but I bet Allan really
wanted to say, "Told you so!" The MV Tricolor. On the 14th of December
2002, at 2:00 a.m., the MV Tricolor was sailing
over the english channel. The 55,000-ton, 627 foot
car carrying behemoth was transporting 2,871 luxury cars from Zeebrugge to the port of Southampton. Chugging along through the
thick fog, another smaller ship, The Kariba, was traveling
alongside the Tricolor. Then, suddenly, disaster struck. The Kariba, without
warning, veered sharply, crashing into the Tricolor. 30 minutes later, the Kariba, still afloat but heavily damaged, miraculously made its way
into the nearest port. The Tricolor, however, had
capsized onto its port side in the shallow english channel. Luckily, the 24 crew
all evacuated in time. No lives were lost, but roughly $100 million
worth of luxury cars were. So, what happened exactly? Well, the two ships were traveling along a very busy shipping lane
when a third ship, The Clary, was passing in front of them. The Kariba sped up to try
and overtake the Tricolor, but the Tricolor didn't slow, with its helmsman clearly
having the same idea. What's more, The Clary was understaffed, and so wasn't able to take
any avoiding action in time. What's really incredible though
is that in the 15 minutes leading up to this event, none of the three ships used
their foghorns or radios to communicate with one another. And so, the Kariba, unsure
of the Clary's intent, accidentally rammed the Tricolor. All three vessels were
found to be at fault. But that was just the start
of the Tricolor's problems. It was a year before the
ship could be salvaged, with the SMIT salvage
team splitting the wreck into nine sections over
the course of three months. They did this by assembling
two work platforms on either side of the wreck
and used a large cutting wire to slice the sections up. The detached sections
were then hoisted up, placed on a barge, and
transported back to Zeebrugge to be scrapped. None of the luxury cars could be saved. The grueling extent of the
salvage alone cost $40 million, and combined with the
loss of the luxury cargo, it brought the total cost of this failure up to an eye-watering $140 million. That's enough to give
anyone a sinking feeling. Which of these expensive mistakes did you think was the worst? And have you ever made a
super expensive mistake that could contend with any of these? Let me know down in the comments below. And as always, thanks for watching. (electronic music)
