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Originally Posted by CyberSEO
Sometimes the rockets crash and kill their crews... but not in Russia (we have lost only 4 cosmonauts: one because of a parachute failure and three because of determination of the landing capsule - so nobody was killed by the rocket). You guys, have a short memory.
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A short circuit in the replaced main sequencer caused the second stage engines to fire while being tested before launch. This detonated the first stage fuel tanks directly below, destroying the missile in an enormous explosion. Before seeking refuge, the camera operator had remotely activated automatic cameras set around the launching pad that filmed the explosion in detail. People near the rocket were instantly incinerated; those farther away were burned to death or poisoned by the toxic fuel component vapors. Andrei Sakharov described many details—as soon as the engines fired, most of the personnel there ran to the perimeter, but were trapped inside the security fence and then engulfed in the fireball of burning fuel. The resultant explosion incinerated Nedelin, a top aide, the USSR's top missile guidance designer, and seventy-one other officers and engineers.[2] Missile designer Mikhail Yangel and the test range commanding officer survived only because they had left to smoke a cigarette behind a bunker a few hundred yards away, but nonetheless suffered burn injuries.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe
72 deaths by a single rocket failure - I think that puts Russia in the lead.
Talk about a short memory.