Given that this show deals with disasters that killed dozens, if not hundreds, of people in rather gruesome ways, it's no surprise that some frightening moments abound.
- Fire on the Ski Slope: Over 140 people trapped on a burning train in a dark tunnel filled with toxic smoke die from inhalation or just plain burning alive. Those who escape have to walk down through the path of fire left by the burning train to leave the tunnel for the fresh air outside.
- Meltdown at Chernobyl features actual disturbing footage of the fire-fighters in the hospital covered in radiation burns.
- Wreck of the Sunset Limited: You've just survived a train derailment into a bayou. Only problem? Now the whole river's on fire from burning train fuel, there's alligators everywhere looking for a quick bite, and you're miles from the nearest road on a dark night. The crew of the towboat that crashed into and moved the bridge the train later fell from didn't have a good time either; imagine getting into what you think is only a minor collision, perhaps with a tree or submerged object, only to hear the absolutely terrifying sounds of the derailment and subsequent explosions just a few minutes later...
- The reciting of one of the crew member's last words, taken from the Lord's Prayer, is also very chilling.
- Crash Landing in Sioux City: While the crash itself and the resulting inferno with children trapped inside is scary itself, the real horror comes from the minutes before: the plane is all but uncontrollable due to total loss of hydraulics, it's flying wildly, and there's nothing you, Joe Passenger, can do about it except pray you survive the inevitable crash landing.
- Bhopal Nightmare: You wake up in the middle of the night to find that your eyes are stinging and you're having trouble breathing. Stepping outside for some fresh air, you discover that the entire city is in a state of panic, and thousands of people all around you are choking to death on an invisible toxic gas. The worst part is the testimony of a doctor who describes working in a rapidly overflowing hospital and coming to the realization that they have no means to treat the affected people.
- The Forgotten Bomb: One woman describes coming to after the blast, only to be confronted by the sight of people with their eyeballs hanging down to their noses. She, her sister, and her nephew then found her mother's charred corpse, which crumbled to dust when she touched it. She was ten at the time.
- Norway Massacre: I Was There: In lieu of verbal accounts, the episode intermittently shows a live-action re-enactment of the rampage, complete with Breivik gunning down multiple terrified, screaming teenagers. One particularly nasty scene shows him impersonating a cop and lying that the threat is over; when one boy comes out of hiding, Breivik kills him, then walks to his hiding place and kills the people hiding there as they audibly beg for their lives. The girl who witnessed this survived only by chance, since he happened not to check in her direction.
- There's also a moment where some people hiding see a helicopter approaching, and they leave their hiding spots to signal to it for help, thinking they'll finally be saved. Unfortunately, the helicopter is from a news crew, and after it flies away, they turn around and realise that Breivik is standing right behind them.
- Both Superstore Collapse and Hotel Collapse Singapore feature interviews from survivors who spent days trapped in tiny spaces waiting for rescue.
- Explosion in the North Sea: One of the survivors tried to escape through an alternative escape route, but he originally goes the wrong way. Realising that he is lost, all he can do is sit in the corner of the corridor for a while, surrounded by thick smoke as the rig burns around him.
- The events before the actual crash from the Eschede train disaster, quoted by one of the survivors. Imagine just sitting in the train like any other day, and suddenly from underneath the train, a piece of metal impales the armrest between you and your wife.
