Destroyed in Seconds is an American television series that premiered on Discovery Channel on August 21, 2008.
Hosted by Ron Pitts, it features video segments of various things being destroyed fairly quickly (hence, "in seconds") such as planes crashing, explosions, sinkholes, boats crashing, fires, race car incidents, floods, factories, etc. The nature of the show closely resembles Real TV. The show uses real video of real events, and commentary explaining the destruction portrayed. Most videos have stock sound effects added. Some of the events seen resulted in fatalities, and all of the events have property damage.
Format At the beginning of each episode, a compilation of all the incidents featured in that episode will play (though not in order), with Pitts narrating, "Without so much as a warning, life hangs in the balance. Human endeavor turns to chaos. And within seconds, nothing will ever be the same. Ever." On rare occasions, one incident will be left out of the opening compilation due to restricted space. That was the case for the Wichita City Hall drive-thru, which was not featured in the intro of episode 49. After the compilation, Pitts will describe two of the incidents that happen in the episode in one-liners. Each intro ends off with the phrase, "destroyed in seconds" before the show's main intro plays and the first incident in the episode. For example, episode 45's intro goes like this: "I'm Ron Pitts. Our team leaves no stone upturned in our search for destruction. In Italy, a Le Mans racer comes within inches of another car, as it cartwheels across the track. A military helicopter loses power and slices through the deck of a navy destroyer. A split second is all it takes for things to get destroyed in seconds. "
Each episode usually features eight or nine incidents, with a bonus incident at the end that is not part of the episode, but was lumped in by the crew for fun. The bonus clip usually involves car crashes or military disasters. At the beginning of each video shown, Pitts says the place, sometimes the time and date of the incident. Pitts will then explain the background of the incident (e.g. Racing competitions, industrial disasters), then the moment of the incident and what caused it. In the later episodes of the show, the location is sometimes not stated. This is likely because to give viewers an impression that the incident could have happened anywhere – across the globe or right down the street. Unlike Shockwave and World's Most Amazing Videos, there are no interviewees to talk about what happened in that incident. However, in episode 12, there is an interview with Hank Hogan. The incidents featured in the whole series happened before or during 2009, as the show was cancelled in 2010. At the end of each episode, Pitts ends off with a few words before the credits roll. The end credits usually review all the incidents that happened in the episode in order.
Usually, if a destruction is horrible, very dangerous, heart-stopping, or results in many injuries, the show usually goes into commercial either right at the moment of impact, right before it, or a little afterwards (for example, Jack Bland's brutal crash at Hagerstown in episode 8). When the show starts again, it reviews what happened and then explains what started the incident.
Episodes Season 1 completed on March 23, 2009, and Season 2 in 2010. This is a list of Destroyed in Seconds episodes for Season 1 and 2: Episode No. First broadcast date Description 01 August 21, 2008 Chesapeake Bay 9/30/81 – A US Navy Douglas A-4 Skyhawk crashes during a bomb test. Portland, OR – A father and his son run downhill to escape a mudslide. Nicaragua 11/4/02 – Éric Barone tries to set a land speed record on the Cerro Negro volcano. His bike breaks in half when it hits a bump, causing him to tumble down the slope. Denmark 22/2/08 A wind turbine subjected to a powerful gale spins uncontrollably until it breaks apart and collapses. Iran 1980 – Operation Credible Sport ends in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules crash. Parkersburg, Iowa 5/22/08 – A tornado hits a bank. Leighton, Alabama – Cars are sent into the air by a tornado that hits a parking lot. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 4/11/89 – A Sikorsky S-58ET N4247U (November 4247 Uniform) operated by Midwest Helicopters crashes due to a failed coupling on the tail rotor, after carrying an old and faulty air conditioner from a roof. Bristol, VA 4/15/08 – A tanker truck fire is caught on tape by a police dashboard camera. 02 Bakersfield, CA – Speedboat racer Gary Ewing hits the shore, flies over a hill, and onto a road. He escapes just before the boat hits land. Puget Sound, WA 7/11/40 – Footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsing, killing a dog. Thorold, Ontario 8/11/01 – MS Windoc crashes into a canal bridge, and catches fire, leading to an explosion. Thankfully, no one is killed. Okinawa, Japan 20/8/07 – China Airlines Flight 120 catches fire on the tarmac and has to be evacuated. Everyone makes it off the plane before it is destroyed by the fire. Zambramnya, Iraq – An Al-Qaeda torture compound is blown up by a US missile strike. Guam – A B-2 Bomber crashes on takeoff and is destroyed. Texas – A tornado rips the entire foundation off a house, like The Wizard of Oz; and has damaging hail. The next season, Stormchaser Alex Tyler builds screens for his car to protect his team from hail, but an F5 tornado drops softball-sized hail on them. A downed power line traps him with the tornado closing in, but he is able to escape. Despite all the protections, it still almost breaks the windows. Kırıkkale, Turkey 29/8/97 – A munitions factory is blown up by terrorists and is completely leveled. 03August 28, 2008 Oxnard, CA 2/14/05 – An Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train hits an 18-wheeler because of a faulty traffic signal. Bucheon (misreported as Iksan, which suffered a similar accident less than a month later), South Korea – A fire starts at a propane filling station, leading to one of the largest BLEVE's in history. Mountain Home, ID 9/14/03 – Thunderbirds pilot Chris Strickland crashes at an airshow, evading death by ejecting 1/8 of a second before his plane hits the ground and explodes. Middle River, MD 9/14/97 – A F-117 Nighthawk crashes into an empty house after part of the wing breaks off. Henderson, NV 5/4/88 – The PEPCON disaster. Manila, Philippines – An 8-story department-store comes off its foundations, and crashes into a nearby high-rise flat, but no one is killed. Chouteau, Oklahoma; San Diego, California - David Ferguson crashes his speedboat twice. St George, Utah 1/05 – The Santa Clara River overflows, and destroys several houses. 04September 4, 2008 Taiwan 7/8/95 – A tanker truck carrying styrene explodes. Cape Canaveral, FL 1/17/97– A Delta II 7925 explodes because of a 19-foot-long crack. Thailand – A 40" mock cigarette made from hydrogen-filled balloons at a mock funeral on World No Tobacco Day goes up in flames. Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia 8/8/05 – A climbing expedition's helicopter crashes into the ice from engine problems. Moreton Island, Queensland 11/8/97 – The Enterprise freighter is sunk to make a reef by blowing out the hull, but causes injuries after they use too much explosives. Fullerton, CA – The Air Day plane crash. Assisi, Italy 9/26/97 – An earthquake destroys St. Francis Church. Oklahoma – A tornado devastates most of a pig farm's buildings. Two years earlier in Oklahoma, a smaller tornado hits the El Reno airport. Hawaii 9/11/92 – Hurricane Iniki. 05September 18, 2008 Dallas, TX – An acetylene factory fire launches tanks onto the road. Prince George, British Columbia – At the Sandblast Games downhill race, a couch crashes with 3 people. The crash ends the Sandblast Games. New Providence, IA – A new water tower collapses. Murdock, IL 9/3/83 – A railway car with gas derails and burns for 3 days, causing two massive explosions. Phoenix, Arizona – Stolen dump truck chase, ending in a crash. Wailua, HI – A helicopter crashes on a ditch. Tiny Everal manages to lift the helicopter off pilot Steve Kux, saving him. Mexico City, Mexico – A tanker truck explodes after hitting a train. Mojave Desert 7/12/98 – Ron Cook tries to set a speed record on his motorcycle and wipes out, but survives the 200 mph crash. Nagasaki, Japan – A typhoon blows a building past a hotel where a travelling English folk-dance team is staying. 06September 25, 2008 Amsterdam, New York 4/27/02 – The local fire department set a derelict wooden house on fire for a training exercise, only for the structure to explode violently due to the fuel having soaked into the wood. Weatherford, TX 10/8/05 – A Police chase ends in a 120 mph head-on crash. Plymouth, England – The King of Shaves speedboat crashes. Three Rivers, TX 8/25/90 – Gas dire tank explosion. Tainan, Taiwan – A rescue-training helicopter crashes into water during a rescue training exercise. Old Dalby, England 07/17/84 - To test the structural integrity of a nuclear flask, a train is crashed into it and explodes; the flask is undamaged, making the experiment a success. La Paz, Bolivia – Domestic disturbance call with a rigged propane trap that blows the house up around police. England 1998 – A fireworks factory catches on fire and fireworks shoot out. No one was injured. Sevastopol, Ukraine 7/10/06 – Tupolev Tu-134 05 runs off the runway and crashes on takeoff due to a flock of birds that caused a bird ingestion to an engine. 07October 2, 2008 UK 7/24/93 – At an airshow a pair of MiG-29s collide at the Royal International Air Tattoo. Both pilots eject and land safely. Chandler, AZ 2/24/85 – Speedboat racer Sonny Moon jumps out just before his boat crashes into the shore and flies onto powerlines. Manchester, England 6/15/96 – 1996 Manchester bombing a van loaded with 3,300 pounds of explosives is detonated at the Arndale centre in the center of town by the Irish Republican Army. Florence, OR 11/12/70 – Paul Linman reports on the blowing up of a whale carcass, but the explosives end up flinging huge pieces of whale inland, even crushing a parked vehicle that no one was in at the time. They are ultimately forced to go with Plan B: move the whale into a trench. St. Paul, MN – I-94 van fire BLEVE explosion fireballs across traffic. Caruso Gorge, CA – Miles Todd mountain bikes and falls 150 feet down a cliff, resulting in serious injuries. NASA 1984 – Boeing airplane crash test. Las Vegas, NV January 1, 1968 – Evel Knievel's fountain crash. Wembley, England – Evel Knievel's 13-bus jump crash. Albuquerque, NM – A hot air balloon in the shape of Smokey Bear hits a radio tower trapping the pilot and two boys. 08October 9, 2008 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 4/6/91 – terrorists blow up an ammo depot killing over 100 with several explosions. Hagerstown, MD – during a race Jack Bland is bumped into a corner guard rail and badly wrecked. Paris, France – 6/8/89 airshow Russian MIG crash Paris Air Show. San Francisco, CA 12/12/95 – a mansion is swallowed up by a sinkhole caused by a sewer break. Wilkesboro, NC – an SUV crashes through a diner knocking a man into the counter. Granby, CO 6/4/04 – Marvin Heemeyer in the Killdozer. TX 5/5/00 – a cop pulls over a woman and warns her to stand back so she doesn't get hit, then her car gets hit with a van which seemingly defies the laws of physics by not flipping over. Texas City, TX 4/16/47 – The Texas City Disaster. 09October 16, 2008 Fairfield, UT – a British helicopter does a loop at an airshow and crashes. Swedish Air Force 2/2/89 Test pilot Lars Radestrom crashes a Saab JAS 39 Gripen test flight on landing and rolls. Four years later in Stockholm 8/8/93, Lars is at an airshow in another Saab 39 Gripen and it stalls, crashes and explodes. Lars decides to retire. Dakota Co. MN 7/11/08 – a cop stops a mini van, suspecting the driver of drinking and driving simultaneously, and an SUV, carrying the real drunk driver, smashes into it and flips over.