History YMMV / SecondsFromDisaster

** ''9/11'': The recording of flight attendant Betty Ong's final moments. The operator she's speaking to tries to comfort her when Flight 11 gets more erratic, only to be answered with silence. This is played to mournful music over images of the burning North Tower.

* Narm: The show occasionally uses StockSoundEffects as part of the dramatisations. Unfortunately, the choices of sound effects can sometimes undermine the seriousness of the retelling - ''Crash Landing at Sioux City'' has the fireball that streaks through the doomed United Airlines Fight 232 ''roar like a dragon''.

*** From the same episode, Maritza Ramos, a mother of two young daughters (both under 5) was in the store with her daughters when the explosion happened. Knowing she was close to death, she held each of her daughters' hands and told them that they would be okay. She stayed awake and held onto them both until her daughters were found and rescued by a policeman. As soon as she was sure that they're okay and in safe hands, Maritza slipped into unconsciousness and passed away.

*** From the same episode, Maritza Ramos, a mother of two young daughters (both under 5) was in the store with her daughters when the explosion happened. Knowing she was close to death, she held each of her daughters' hands and told them that they would be okay. She held onto them both until her daughters are found and rescued by a policeman. As soon as she was sure that they're okay and in safe hands, Maritza slipped into unconsciousness and passed away.

*** From the same episode, Maritza Ramos, a mother of two young daughters (both under 5) was in the store with her daughters when the explosion happened. Knowing she was close to death, she held each of her daughters' hands and told them that they would be okay. She held onto them both until her daughters are found and rescued by a policeman. As soon as she was sure that they're okay and in safe hands, Maritza slips into unconsciousness and passes away.

*** From the same episode, Maritza Ramos, a mother of two young daughters (both under 5) was in the store with her daughters when the explosion happened. Knowing she was close to death, she held each of her daughters' hands and told them that they would be okay. She held onto them both until her daughters are found by a policeman. As soon as she was sure that they're okay and in safe hands, Maritza slips into unconsciousness and passes away.

* HeReallyCanAct: A few of the re-enactments are actually not bad. Not nearly as good as say, ''Series/IShouldntBeAlive''.

* HeCanAct: A few of the re-enactments are actually not bad. Not nearly as good as say, ''Series/IShouldntBeAlive''.

* HeReallyCanAct: A few of the re-enactments are actually not bad. Not nearly as good as say, ''Series/IShouldntBeAlive''.

* NightmareFuel: Some descriptions of the disasters and the fate of the victims are rather horrifying.
** ''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 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 due 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 [[EyeScream their eyeballs hanging down to their noses]]. She, her sister, and her nephew then found her mother's charred corpse, which crumbled away when she touched it. [[HarmfulToMinors 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.

** ''9/11'': The recording of flight attendant Betty Ong's final moments. The operator she's speaking to tries to comfort her when Flight 11 gets more erratic, only to be answered with silence. This is played to mournful music over images of the burning North Tower.

** ''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.

** ''9/11'': The recording of flight attendant Betty Ong's final moments. The person she's corresponding tries to comfort her when Flight 11 gets more erratic, only to be answered with silence. This is played to mournful music over images of the burning North Tower.

** ''The Forgotten Bomb'': One woman describes coming to after the blast, only to be confronted by the sight of people with [[EyeScream their eyeballs hanging down to their noses]]. She, her sister, and her nephew then found her mother's charred corpse, which crumbled away when she touched it. [[HarmfulToMinors She was ten at the time]].

** ''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.

** ''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 suffocating on an invisible toxic gas.

** ''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 due about it except pray you survive the inevitable crash landing.

* NightmareFuel: Some descriptions of the disasters and the fate of the victims is rather horrifying.

** ''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 train is all but uncontrollable due to total loss of hydraulics, it's flying wildly, and there's nothing you, Joe Passenger, can due about it except pray you survive the inevitable crash landing.

** ''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.