Mayday (1999)

Reports on how one company's (SeaEscape) ships caught fire one after another. The three liners were Scandinavian Sea, Scandinavian Sun and Scandinavian Star. Also reports on how yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, lost at sea during the 1977 Vendée single handed round-the-world race, was saved by the skills of an Intelligence Officer in Australia

Marine investigators look at the mystery of the sinking of the ferryboat Estonia (in 1994 with the loss of 850 lives) in relatively shallow waters. What is the secret of Europe's worst shipping disaster?.

Why did Queen Elizabeth II run aground at Martha's Vineyard in August 1992? And why did the supertanker Exxon Valdez strike the rocks in 1989 and spew millions of gallons of oil devastating the Alaskan coastlin?. And how did a tugboat cause a Miami bound express train to plunge off a bridge into an Alabama river killing forty seven people?

Programme looks at the tragedies on ferries and tankers resulting from design faults and asks if changes recommended have been implemented