The Sunshine SkyWay Bridge Disaster 1980 | Plainly Difficult Documentary



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On May 9, 1980, poor visibility would lead to a deadly disaster sending the Sunshine Skyway Bridge Plummeting into the Tampa Bay……

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:15 Background
06:01 Disaster
13:35 Investigation
18:05 Outro Beat

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Sources:

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MAR8103.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Collapse-of-the-Sunshine-Skyway-Bridge-in-Tampa-FL-1980-due-to-ship-collision_fig1_267936569
https://www.flmd.uscourts.gov/maritime-matters

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28 thoughts on “The Sunshine SkyWay Bridge Disaster 1980 | Plainly Difficult Documentary”

  1. I worked as a rigger helping to clear the bus, cars and Iron from the shipping channel. Spent 2 weeks on the barge blowing it apart, I also was the man that went up in a man basket to attach rigging to thee hanging pieces.

    Reply
  2. It is obvious that the main cause of the disaster was the lack of pier protection.
    The collision may have been caused by pilot or control error.
    BUT — the disaster and loss of life was solely the cause of the designer, builder, and overseeing government agencies.
    How could protective piers, built to the same life expectancy as the bridge, not be required???

    Reply
  3. The Buick skylark that almost drove off the end belonged to Richard Hornbuckle, who my grandmother briefly dated. That day Dick and three passengers were crossing the bridge at a leisurely pace, which was his preferred law-abiding speed, Grandma said he drove like a fuddy duddy. According to him he had just moved over to let faster cars pass when he noticed the span was down and slammed on the brakes. The brakes alone were not sufficient and unseen in the iconic photo is what saved them 18 inches from the edge: when the bridge collapsed the last remaining section before the break had buckled. The peak at the new hinge point damaged the undercarriage of the car when they drove over it and the muffler pipe was dragging hard against the bridge. All passengers carefully extricated themselves and Dick actually went back to pull his golf clubs out of the trunk. Dick was an auto wholesaler and my father had driven that same car across the same bridge a few times to pick up cars for him to be resold from an auto yard in Lakeland. My grandma called him up in a panic while he was up in Chicago in the navy to tell him what had happened that morning.

    Last piece of info which you'll never hear elsewhere: Billy Graham was a personal friend of Dick's since childhood, they met around here, I think around Florida college in temple terrace and Graham called him up after the event to talk.

    He lived a long life and passed to cancer at 80, RIP

    Reply
  4. Can't remember the exact details, but my parents missed being on the bridge before it all happened. I'm a native Floridian and live in Lakeland to the east,but try to not travel to the bay area unless I need to, I'm wary of those bridges. Good vid man. It would be cool if you and Fascinating horror did a collab.

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  5. I don’t understand why there’s such a high number of collisions.
    I grew up near a major river and the suspension bridge across it is one of the largest in the world but there weren’t any collisions in all the years I lived there.

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  6. The deep cut channels of a relatively shallow Tampa Bay create fast current flow within the channels. Add in the heavy oil tanker traffic due to the countless oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, and you have a recipee for disaster on any day of the year, without the need for a storm surge or weak bridge pilons. I know since I fished Tampa Bay countless times, next to the old collapsed bridge artificial reef, and pilons. That current is nasty.

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  7. You'd think @ 11.12, since you can't see, STOP the ship, it's like driving blind and you know what happens next? I was waiting for the pilot to countermand the order of FULL AHEAD made by the trainee, up to this point I assume the ship is still going full throttle and blind as a bat, an accident looking for a place to happen

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  8. I remember that morning. My friend who I worked for came to pick me up where I lived downtown near the pier and told me what happened. It hit the news early in the morning and dominated the radio waves in St Pete. I remember hearing about the bus and falling vehicles landing on the ship. Although it was less than 10 miles away it seemed mentally/emotionally "obscure". Prior to the internet, we weren't immediately flooded with data and pictures and multiple editorials of every event. It took more time to receive bits and pieces of reliable data.
    The feeling was only a fraction of what I experienced on 9/11 (the anniversary of which is just an hour away)

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