Whenever a mistake is made, a certain cost is entailed. Have you ever wondered about the costliest mistakes that have ever been made in the history of mankind? Don’t worry; we have put together a list of such mistakes.
14. Apartment Building Falling Down
Lotus Riverside was a residential complex that featured a total of 11 high-rises. The number decreased when one of the 13-story buildings collapsed. It was a miracle that the fallen apartment building didn’t create a knock-on effect. The reason behind the collapse was identified as non-compliance with standards of construction.
13. 150-Year-Old Guitar Broken By Accident
The guitar that Jennifer Jason played in The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarantino was an actual 150-year-old guitar that had been rented from the Martin Guitar Museum. It was decided that the 19th-century guitar would be replaced using a fake one for a particular scene. It wasn’t, and Kurt Russell ended up breaking the museum exhibit into pieces.
12. Wide Wagons But Narrow Platforms
Back in 2014, the SNCF railway company came up with the idea of modernizing the transport network and placed an order for 2,000 new trains for the cost of €15 billion. The measurements that were used were for the stations that had been designed during the last 30 years, and many platforms were actually older and smaller. These narrow platforms had to be widened, costing an additional €50 million.
11. A Misprint Caused A Loss Of $225 million
Mizuho Securities is a Japanese company that wanted to sell only one share for ¥610,000 (about $5,000) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stockbroker who was entering the data ended up putting 610,000 shares of the company at the cost of ¥1 each. The company protested, but the Stock Exchange processed the order. The company ended up taking a loss of $225M.
10. A Heavy Submarine That Won’t Resurface
The Spanish government made an investment of £1.75 billion in a new submarine known as The Isaac Peral. The process of construction, once completed, showed that the submarine was so heavy that it would not resurface once diving. It was later discovered that someone made a mistake while doing calculations. To fix this, the team had to increase the length of the hull.
9. The Sale Of Alaska
During the end of the 19th century, Alexander II of Russia considered Alaska as an ice-covered. That is why in March 1867, Russia sold it to the US for only $7.2 million and later it was found out that Alaska had natural resources that were worth billions of dollars.
8. Millennium – The Bridge That Dances
The Millennium Bridge connected two banks of the River Thames in London. It was opened in 2000 and then quickly closed because the bridge swayed when a large crowd of people was on it. The original cost, £18.2 million, had to be increased by another £5 million for adding stabilizers and reconstruction of the bridge.
7. Losing A Spaceship
The Mars Climate Orbiter was developed by NASA for studying climate on Mars. However, owing to a huge blunder, the contact with the ship was lost when it was in the atmosphere. What happened? While transferring coordinates, one NASA crew member made use of imperial units and the other one used metric. The orbiter ended up the atmosphere of Mars too low and collapsed.
6. Apple Shares
Ronald Wayne was among Apple’s founders and not only drew the first logo but also wrote a manual for Apple I. In 1976, he sold 10% of his shareholding for $800. If he hadn’t, he would be a billionaire by now.
5. Skyscraper That Can Melt Cars
The London skyscraper, Walkie-Talkie, has transformed into a huge mirror, and the glares that come off are so bright that they have melted cars that were parked nearby. Sun protection has now been added to the structure to prevent further damages.
4. The Lake That Leaked
Back in 1980, for the sake of searching for oil, a complete lake ended up leaking with over 13 billion liters of water lost. This happened because of an error while calculating the drilling for a well. The drill ended up damaging the dome of a salt mine that was underneath Peigneur (USA).
3. Bitcoins that Were Thrown
Bitcoins appeared in 2009 and were easy to earn. Englishman James Howell was able to collect 7,5000 in the digital currency. However, he had thrown the hard drive where he had stored them and well; bad luck!
2. The Sunken Ship Known As Vasa
Vasa was built on the king’s order and was slated to be the flagship of the 17th-century Swedish navy. However, it was unable to leave Stockholm’s bay and ended up sinking as soon as it left the shipyard. The ship was super-unstable because of incorrect design.
1. The Collapsed Section Of A Bridge
The bridge over the Han River in Seoul became quite famous when it ended up collapsing during the rush hour in 1994. The central section of the bridge was unable to take the load and ended up falling into the river.
