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NickJ
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"remembering" disasters/tragedies

NickJ, 15 April, 2009 at 11:26

Posted on Off Topic Posts 43

Just pondering this really. Hillsborough is often in the news (and not just because of a notable anniversary) but one rarely hears anything more about Piper Alpha (167 dead), the Marchionesse (51 dead) and similar. Why is this? is it because there seem to be unanswered questions about Hillsborough?...

Just pondering this really. Hillsborough is often in the news (and not just because of a notable anniversary) but one rarely hears anything more about Piper Alpha (167 dead), the Marchionesse (51 dead) and similar. Why is this? is it because there seem to be unanswered questions about Hillsborough? or because it's football related? or both? or the ages of some of the people who died? or another reason?

43 replies

  • Flowery the Grouch
    Beginner December 2007
    Flowery the Grouch ·
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    I think it has a lot to do with empathy, and being able to imagine yourself in the situation.

    I'm fortunate enough to not know anyone who has been involved in any of the incidents mentioned here, but I do recall most of them. But that ones I recall happening most clearly are the ones i could see me being part of.

    Zebrugge - I've been on a lot of ferries, and it crosses my mind every time I travel by ferry.

    Lockerbie - again, have travelled by plane a lot, so could imagine it happening to me

    Hillsborough - though I've never been to a football match I have been in large, scary crowds

    Kings Cross - another one I think of whenever I pass through the station.

    But Piper Alpha? I remember the name, but had to go and look it up. But then I've never been on an oil platform, and can't see me ever being on one. There is an element of remoteness for me there, that just makes it less memorable.

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  • B
    Beginner February 2008
    Boop ·
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    The daughter of friends of my parents was on the flight. The first they knew of what had happened was her ringing them up to tell them she was OK. She was one of the last out of the plane.

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  • E
    Beginner April 2007
    Easter ·
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    I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of information made available to the public. With Hillsborough, we can watch all of the footage from the day - it's hard not to be affected by the footage from that day.

    The footage from Valley Parade is only available to be used as part of fire safety training - so we don't see the what happened on that day.

    I was 8 when Hillsborough happened and was living in Hong Kong, so I don't remember hearing about it at all. I suppose I never really appreciated the horror of what happened that day until I watched Football Focus on Saturday.

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  • Peter
    Peter ·
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    In my corporate side, I was working on the images for the Ladbroke Grove train crash.....a very hectic day. What I missed was that the first person that died and who's name was released was a friend of mine.

    When I discovered this it was quite a shock

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  • Old Nick Esq.
    Old Nick Esq. ·
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    Strangely I don't remember much about Hillsborough at all, not really sure why. Although (and I know this purely from working out where I was twenty years ago), I'd just moved in with a woman for the first time... So my mind might have been elsewhere. Remember it featuring on the news of course but no sense of tremendous impact.

    I can remember Piper Alpha (in a caravan in Scotland)

    Zeebrugge (Watching telly in Bedroom, listened to recue comms. Had been on Herald Of Free Enterprise)

    Lockerbie (19th birthday, front bar of Laverys)

    Challenger (playing 'puter games in the back room)

    Colombia (at a rugby match)

    9/11 (told to watch telly by mate, giving market research guy bum's rush out of house)

    7/7 (email groups started asking WTF was going on)

    Kings Cross also pretty much escapes me.

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  • alleroo
    Beginner January 2007
    alleroo ·
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    We had 2 minutes silence at work today inmemory of Hillsborough (sheffield city council).

    I can remember it quite vividly too - we lived really close to the Northern General Hospital when I was a kid, and could hear the croud noise from the ground when the wind was blowing in the right direction. The first we knew about it was hearing all the ambulances going screaming past, and I can remember being really happy I'd not gone into work that day (I was volunteering at the league of friends coffee kiosk at the hospital at the time)

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  • bettyb
    Beginner July 2006
    bettyb ·
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    My brother and SIL were both on the Herald of free enterprise, and apart from a the 20 year anniversary in 2007 it does not seem to be mentioned very often at all.

    I think with the Hillsborough disaster there are people who have thoughts and opinions on it that are in the public eye more ie Steve Gerrad was talking about it the other day as he had family involved.

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  • GMT
    Beginner December 2008
    GMT ·
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    I think that having a 'connection' in some way to a dreadful event / disaster inevitably changes how you view it, and remember it later. I worked in PR for one of the oil companies that had a percentage share in Piper Alpha, and the events there are ingrained on my mind as if it were yesterday. I still go cold and quiet whenver it's talked about or footage is shown. I didn't have quite such a direct involvement in the other tragedies mentioned but remember most of them - the King's Cross fire, the Kegworth plane crash, the Pan Am crash, various train disasters, the King's Cross fire, the Moorgate tube crash etc etc. There seem so many now I think back ... but then I am older than a lot of Hitchers here so maybe it's inevitable that I will have lived thru more ....

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