Go to ground.news/plainlydifficult to give it a try. If you sign up through my link you’ll get 40% off the Vantage plan, which is what I use to get unlimited access to all features. I think Ground News is doing important work and I hope you’ll check them out. ►Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! ►My new EP: madebyjohn.bandcamp.com/album/retail-simulator ►Outro Song: ruclips.net/video/RbpmJJXqSPg/видео.htmlsi=2_i6bKZUj3bjixzw ►Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ ►Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult ►Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com ►Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D ►Sources: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016823010049 bibliotheca.limkitsiang.com/1994/07/18/the-finding-of-the-ampang-jaya-municipal-council-inquiry-committee-on-principal-parties-and-contributory-parties-for-the-highland-towers-collapse-disaster-is-at-variance-with-the-detailed-findings-of/ www.scdf.gov.sg/ops-lionheart/missions/highland-towers-collapse-in-kuala-lumpur-malaysia-(1993) www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/highland-towers-tragedy-27-years-here-s-what-you-need-know-272672
Your content is really good. Informative and interesting but for why do you spoil it by being a lazy talker? How can you be clever enough to go into technical detail but can’t pronounce basic words?
I was extremely concerned when living in the 11th floor of a 19 story (plus 5 levels of underground parking) building and getting notice they were going to start working on their "deferred maintenance backlog" for the 70 year old building.
@@skachor I've made my share of complaints about the ancient, poorly maintained plumbing and wiring systems, and how much more a fire or broken pipe would cost the owners than actually fixing things properly, but I'm just a lowly tenant. At least I'm in a low rise, on a low floor, with big windows for easy escape on the day this heap eventually burns.
"This hill is prone to landslides? Let's start building here anyway. What could go wrong?" Same energy as "Get rid of these support columns. We need more floor space for our stores in this apartment building." in Korea.
These things never cease to amaze me. Not because I have high hopes for humanity (I don't), but because... really? What did they think would happen? All this circus would hold up on principles?
Bro chill, this happens in 90s on developing nation. This mistakes like this could happen. Heck, it even happen sometimes in developed nation. (You know what I mean...)
I’m a caregiver for my Mum, who has Parkinson’s, major GI problems, dietary restrictions, no sense of smell or taste, and mobility issues. I also work a full time night job. Saturdays, for me, are the day I do laundry, clean bathrooms, vacuum, wash floors, and change sheets. When I finally get all that done, I lay down and relax by watching this most awesome of channels. Your videos are my reward for busting my butt! You deserve more subs than you’ve got! All the best to you from Canada!
Never expected my own country to be featured on this channel. I remember vaguely my parents mentioning this incident while we were driving near Ampang. Thanks for explaining what happened that day.
Not a big enough death toll but a story on the Banjaran resort near Ipoh would be interesting for the story alone. The woman that died that was thought to be a wife actually turning into a side piece.
Pass by these towers daily, have friends who live in the nearby properties. These days there have been many spooky stories about the spirits of the dead in the towers, attracting would-be ghost hunters, but those who have been there are more afraid of the squatters. Every rainy season we all wait with baited breath for news that the other towers have collapsed, half in fear and half in relief that it would all be over with. Personally know some of the former residents, and from what i know, the main reason why it hasnt been knocked down yet it because some of the residents are still disputing the insurance payout. It wasnt enough to buy a new house back in the 90's, it would probably only be enough to put a deposit on a house nowadays
Disappointing but not surprising that the people who lost their homes weren’t properly compensated. If that’s what happens with rich and well connected foreigners the common folk have zero chances of receiving justice.
In many western countries they would probably have to payout at the equivalent value today (think inflation calc) if a court found in the resident's favor.
Hi there... I lived near the area. In the 1990s, Highland towers were the highest buildings in that area. Beside that, I remember I am 15 when the tragedy happened. I remember watching the news daily in the television. There were knocking at the wall after the collapse and everyone frantically looking for the survivor but after many days, he died. Then, I remember the interview done with one of the relative of the deceased, an uncle whose niece died. She was studying for a major exam so she stayed with her aunty and uncle for the time being. At the end, she died in the building. She was just 15 like me. The most tragic of all, some children died because they came to celebrate their friend's birthday. It was a birthday party. None of the children survived. They did not escaped in time. I occasionaly passed the area in AMpang and each time I passed the area, I will point out the buildings to my children. It is a tragedy never forgotten.
I'd add "No training" and "Easily preventable" to the bingo card. The first because the architect wasn't qualified to design the building, and the second because he raised concerns to the developer who ignored them.
The architect was still trained just _inadequately_ given the lack of required certifications. It is an important distinction because your statement implies they grabbed some random nobody with no training at all to design the building.
@@pigpuke Still falls under the "No training" banner for me since in the majority of accidents the workers are also not random people of the street, they are just not given training for the specific task that they're doing.
@@najaB76 It's different though, because if a totally unqualified person agreed to do the work they could be held personally liable. But a trained construction worker could be expected to do something outside of their prior experience under the supervision of someone who knows what to do.
@@najaB76 Look mate, I'm not excusing the architect from taking the job lacking the required certification. I'm just saying he's got a 4 year degree and is missing a post graduate 6 week certification. The guy was 95% trained for the task so it was far from "no training".
its sad that there have been so many building related tragedies that one's first thought is "only 48 people? thats surprisingly lower than you'd expect". no excuse whatsoever but so frustrating that these types of things continue to happen (looking at you surfside).
From the reports, it appears that the building had been creaking and moving for at least 8 hours with mud building up against the exposed side before it keeled over. More than half the residents had evacuated, but without any advice from the authorities, the 48 who died had decided to stay.
3:20 plant science major here. Not only are the roots physically holding the soil together, the roots also secrete compounds that "glue" individual soil particles together.
I've been here for over 5 years, and most channels don't hold my interest for long, but I never miss an upload from PD. I can't think of another channel that has both quantity and quality like this one. Congrats on damn near 1 million subs Jon. I'm sure by the time you read this, it'll be well past that mark.
Thank you for all your videos. I found you when I was trying to find out the causes of the first tube crash I attended as a trauma technician, when I was still a teenager.
I remember this vividly in the news as a child. Highland Towers are still quoted today here in Malaysia as a reason to avoid excess developments of hilltop properties even 3 decades later. I'm surprised the death count is actually lower than the usual impression most have of the incident (you'll hear guesses in the 100s, or dozens of families, which is clearly not the case) Your pronunciation is decent John, admittedly there's some inconsistencies expected of machine pronunciations you might have checked against. Some additional translated context of local names Ulu Klang - Klang river source (referring to the water catchment area that supplies the river) Taman Hillview - Hillview Park Bukit Antarabangsa - International Hill (no doubt due to the many expatriate residents)
It's a little mind-boggling that so much time elapsed between the landslide and the collapse of the building, and yet there were still people inside. If there's a giant landslide that comes right up to your apartment building and cracks start to appear in the concrete, _it is time to flee before you die._
Cracks dont necessarily mean the structure is unsafe. Cracks appear anytime concrete under stress or installed improperly. Usually the reinforcement is enough to keep the structure standing. However cracks need to be repaired after the structure has been evaluated. Ita definitely scary when a structure is damaged and youre waiting on engineers to determine if it can be saved.
One visitor from the States stayed at his friend's unit in Highland Towers for a holiday in Kuala Lumpur managed to snap still pictures of the collapse as they happened, from the moment water-saturated hillsides near Block 1 of Highland Towers beginning to slide until the tower fell to its sides like a slow motion.
You know, your uploads are a fantastic treat when I catch them, you have a wonderful way of breaking down events and topics to an easily digestible format.
Holy what? HOW is this channel not at 1M yet? The quality and production value are fantastic! Presenter is fun and has a soothing voice. We learn a good lesson each video. What more could you want?
Thank you so much for covering this sad history of my country. I was 14 at the time of it's happening and used to live in Taman Melawati, just 10 minutes away from the area.
Look, the reason this scrap metal container was so hard to open is probably because these little pellets are expensive. Gather them up and put them in your pockets.
I live in Seattle, and our area is infamous for its landslides. The combination of clay subsoil with our quantity of rain and our hilly topography means we have to be very careful where and how we erect buildings and homes. A prime example is the Oso landslide disaster.
Keep up the good research and reporting. Having been at one building collapse in Bailey's Crossroads VA and I have seen many near misses in the Chicago area ranging broken water mains, gas pipe ruptures, shattered steel on elevated tracks and crumbling brick and concrete on various buildings.
When I saw the thumbnail, my first thought was Lotus Riverside Block 7, for some reason. Have a great weekend, John, and I too hope you get to 1 million subscribers soon!
man, it's crazy to see you're already at almost a million subscribers, i've been watching you since you've been a tiny youtuber! good luck on your journey to one mil and forward, your content is amazing!
Lack of regular maintenance ; not unknown to the world of collapse's . TY, yet I found the ad's somehow hurt me, a slap, when you're ready to sit down an relax with your fine work.
I lived in Penang for a while there's been a few minor incidents there too with slides but it has mainly been construction workers getting killed and that doesn't usually raise great concerns amongst the powers that be.
Another excellent job explaining an incredibly sad event that didn't need to happen. Thank you for bringing these stories to light and doing so in a non sensational way, keep up the great work!
I was a student when this disaster happened. During that period, everyone said this is the result of mismanagement of PM Mahathir. His cronies will ignore any safety regulations if the developers pay enough bribe.
I've been going through another Plainly Difficult binge watch lately and I always stick around for the current weather update from London. I'm thinking of plotting out the weather vs upload date on a graph over the years to see how the descriptors change over time 😂
John, congratulations on achieving the threshold of *one million* subscribers! This is no mean feat; your content has always been top shelf, and your hard work is paying off.
You know it makes you wonder with how many disaster videos that you have posted and have covered how many faulty plans still linger out there just waiting for something to go wrong if only there was a way for someone to look over building plans and look for inconsistencies like not being certified for 2 story+ work or trying to catch corner cutting
I would guess there are at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of faulty buildings, bridges, dams, and railways in the world, just waiting for the right (wrong?) confluence of events to bring them down. Not to mention the estimated 3 million ships on the bottom of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers, and the ones that are just barely afloat while I'm typing this. If there's anything we humans are good at, it's f*ing things up.
The issue is not if people are looking for corner cutting and things like that. The issue is how many people try to do it. Becomes a numbers game. If you have a location were people follow honor code and are super professional, corner cutters stick out like a sore thumb. Others will try stamp them out. But if the curner cutters are very determined they will eventually cut corners. If you have a location that relies on inspectors catching the cut corners on things then you need a ton of inspectors that are competent and also incorruptible. Have few inspectors and the corner cutting will occur and maybe even at a higher degree or quantity. Then there is the corner cutter watching its own job. You get Boeing. Without an ingrained safety culture with the integrity and protection of life and public safety in mind you will definitely get a lot of corners cut with no way of knowing until something goes wrong.
@darkcoeficient simply saying that we need a culture of safety and non corner cutting but I'll be realistic, when that culture is absent which I would argue is most cases with how many videos this channel has on the very subject we rarely find one where a company was actively trying to prevent disaster or where what they had prepared was sufficient, so for this argument purpose let's assume it's baked in to the culture that you save money where you can. Back to the original point I could very easily see a check against permits on what a builder is allowed to do(in specific to this video where the architect was not qualified to be building the tower and did not set proper walls to hold under the weight of the soil not to mention improper water drainage). Now to the point of the inspectors you will find a inspector that doesn't care but I speculate that if you rotate out inspectors on a job like 3 times I feel there will be pressure to not cut corners if your having to get past more inspectors. So I think it would be fine if we recorded this data to see how bad the problem is. If we are to create a safety culture we must first deter the behavior from happening in the first place
What would really help is if people were protected from their employer's retaliation over reporting the project's deficiencies to the proper authorities. It's well understood that people often place more priority on the immediate, personal consequences than vague, future dangers. Providing some protection from those immediate risks would make them more comfortable with whistleblowing. I do think the architect probably should have just resigned the moment they asked him to work on such a tall building. And their refusal to actually look into better drainage should have been a sign to quit immediately.
Sounds eerily similar to a collapse of hillside towers in Taiwan. In 1997, a typhoon triggered mudslide overran inadequate retaining walls, and then pushed into the side of buildings, leading to their collapse. Well, technically they didn't fall over or crumble, but were pushed by the mudslide and leaned over on the second row of buildings. Still, 28 were killed being buried alive by the mud rushing in. On further investigation, there were corruption and forgery of environmental and safety documents. The first few rows of buildings facing the slope remains abandoned today as well, but further from the damaged area, buildings from the same project remains in use.
Almost a million? You deserve every single one and much more. We can see the effort you put in, we love the comedy you slip into otherwise horrid topics and love the Voice By John (TM) Wish you luck for the future! Always a smile when me and my girlfriend see a new video
@@Randomly_Browsing im from the northern part of west malaysia so we didnt get as severe of a flood and by that time i didnt really focus about news cos of a certain examination at the age of 17-18
I'd add a _"No training"_ to my bingo card since the architect didn't have proper qualifications. Otherwise, I completely agree with your choices on the bingo card. And, btw, this was a fascinating episode. I hadn't heard about this horrible incident. What an absolute waste of lives... I hope you're having a fine weekend in London!
Love this video Jon, and congratulations on rapidly approaching 1million love this channel as it covers engineering and what happens when stuff doesn't get done right. Looking forward to when you do the Baltimore bridge collapse in a couple years or so
Well, now that goes both ways most of the people that I follow have something that comes out once a week or a couple times a week and I really enjoy your channel and I enjoy listening to you talk
We were living in Paradise Hills inland from National City, California in the early 1980s. I saw for the first time the effects of a strong El Niño with days of rain and wind. The hill across the highway had just been stripped of all its vegetation, and terraces and roadways were being cut into the bare ground. I expected to see the whole thing come down at any time, since it began to look like giant Jello mold. Fortunately, it held together, much to my surprise and relief. Further east in Lemon Grove someone's swimming pool dislodged from the hillside and came tumbling down.
Actually there are literally thousands of similar appartment blocks all over the world that are a ticking time bomb having been built substandard due to corruption and corners cutting by the developers.😢
Plainly Difficult, for the next video can you do a UK rail disaster caused by either animals on the line such as The Polmont Disaster, cars on the track such as 2004 Ufton Nervet Crash or caused by driver error such as the 1994 Cowden Crash
An excellent, and tragic, example of the safety "Swiss cheese" effect. Normally, multiple redundant layers of professional checks and regulations prevent mistakes of this magnitude. Any holes in one or more layers is usually blocked at some point, averting disaster. Sometimes, holes in all layers align and mistakes slip though entirely undetected. On rare occasions such as this, the series of mistakes can be catastrophic. People bemoan the headaches of bureaucracy and regulation, but they're often written in the blood of past tragedies.
I stayed one night in a half complete development in KL a couple of years ago. It consisted of several towers, some only half clad, but clearly abandoned for several years, scaffolding board crumbling out of the frames, piling a the bottom. The whole complex was joined below by a giant underground parking lot, a shopping arcade that never opened and some of the concrete ceilings of that part where already collapsed. It was interesting and I was glad to only be staying for one night. One of the tower bases had a vertical crack two fingers wide, but it was occupied nevertheless. I noticed that crack in the underground car park.
You wander through a large city like London, and you see all those modern tower blocks... and a part of me thinks: are they ok?! Really? Were corners cut? Hopefully they're all perfectly fine, but I sure am glad my house is Victorian. If it ain't fallen over by now, it isn't going to!
Wow! Again with the groundwater disasters. Champlain Towers seems similar to this, albeit that was a pure groundwater event. But if one takes your interpretation, that removing the groundwater stabilization environment of trees and bushes that were removed, here we go again. One can only wonder whether all the "sunny day flooding" will eventually start pulling smaller buildings over in "flat" locations.
Oh it's so important to keep in mind how roots help to hold soil in place. This is very sad, and someone should've come to investigate as soon as the mudslide happened.
Go to ground.news/plainlydifficult to give it a try. If you sign up through my link you’ll get 40% off the Vantage plan, which is what I use to get unlimited access to all features. I think Ground News is doing important work and I hope you’ll check them out.
►Thanks for watching, check out me other bits!
►My new EP: madebyjohn.bandcamp.com/album/retail-simulator
►Outro Song: ruclips.net/video/RbpmJJXqSPg/видео.htmlsi=2_i6bKZUj3bjixzw
►Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/
►Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult
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►Sources:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016823010049
bibliotheca.limkitsiang.com/1994/07/18/the-finding-of-the-ampang-jaya-municipal-council-inquiry-committee-on-principal-parties-and-contributory-parties-for-the-highland-towers-collapse-disaster-is-at-variance-with-the-detailed-findings-of/
www.scdf.gov.sg/ops-lionheart/missions/highland-towers-collapse-in-kuala-lumpur-malaysia-(1993)
www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/highland-towers-tragedy-27-years-here-s-what-you-need-know-272672
You should do the 2011 Virginia Earthquake!!!
Congrats on the sponsor too.
@@UncleJoeLITE didn't think I'd seen a sponsor spot on here before
Your content is really good. Informative and interesting but for why do you spoil it by being a lazy talker? How can you be clever enough to go into technical detail but can’t pronounce basic words?
Please pronounce TH
"Required regular maintenance, which wasn't regularly done". Almost every structure that has that statement about it is living on borrowed time.
Thank you for reaffirming my belief that my aging, badly maintained building is doomed.
I was extremely concerned when living in the 11th floor of a 19 story (plus 5 levels of underground parking) building and getting notice they were going to start working on their "deferred maintenance backlog" for the 70 year old building.
@@thing_under_the_stairs Maintain your building!
@@randomvideosn0where Time to take a few months vacation with your most valued belongings.
@@skachor I've made my share of complaints about the ancient, poorly maintained plumbing and wiring systems, and how much more a fire or broken pipe would cost the owners than actually fixing things properly, but I'm just a lowly tenant. At least I'm in a low rise, on a low floor, with big windows for easy escape on the day this heap eventually burns.
"This hill is prone to landslides? Let's start building here anyway. What could go wrong?"
Same energy as "Get rid of these support columns. We need more floor space for our stores in this apartment building." in Korea.
Sampoong disaster just can't be beat.
These things never cease to amaze me. Not because I have high hopes for humanity (I don't), but because... really? What did they think would happen? All this circus would hold up on principles?
Bro chill, this happens in 90s on developing nation. This mistakes like this could happen. Heck, it even happen sometimes in developed nation. (You know what I mean...)
I’m a caregiver for my Mum, who has Parkinson’s, major GI problems, dietary restrictions, no sense of smell or taste, and mobility issues. I also work a full time night job. Saturdays, for me, are the day I do laundry, clean bathrooms, vacuum, wash floors, and change sheets. When I finally get all that done, I lay down and relax by watching this most awesome of channels. Your videos are my reward for busting my butt!
You deserve more subs than you’ve got! All the best to you from Canada!
Thank you!!
I also usually do laundry on Saturdays! I often listen to the new Plainly Difficult video while I fold the laundry.
You're a caregiver to your mom. You must be a very good person. ❤
Sending lots of love to you and your mother ❤
Never expected my own country to be featured on this channel. I remember vaguely my parents mentioning this incident while we were driving near Ampang. Thanks for explaining what happened that day.
Ehe another Malaysian 👀🤣
Not a big enough death toll but a story on the Banjaran resort near Ipoh would be interesting for the story alone. The woman that died that was thought to be a wife actually turning into a side piece.
He actually did another video on the Bukit Merah radiation incident
Masks are for slaves
I was living in Shah Alam at the time having moved from Taman Keramat a year or so earlier. My ears pricked as the video started.
Pass by these towers daily, have friends who live in the nearby properties. These days there have been many spooky stories about the spirits of the dead in the towers, attracting would-be ghost hunters, but those who have been there are more afraid of the squatters.
Every rainy season we all wait with baited breath for news that the other towers have collapsed, half in fear and half in relief that it would all be over with.
Personally know some of the former residents, and from what i know, the main reason why it hasnt been knocked down yet it because some of the residents are still disputing the insurance payout. It wasnt enough to buy a new house back in the 90's, it would probably only be enough to put a deposit on a house nowadays
Disappointing but not surprising that the people who lost their homes weren’t properly compensated. If that’s what happens with rich and well connected foreigners the common folk have zero chances of receiving justice.
In many western countries they would probably have to payout at the equivalent value today (think inflation calc) if a court found in the resident's favor.
@@jnharton funny to assume they would even get a payout here in the west...
Hi there... I lived near the area. In the 1990s, Highland towers were the highest buildings in that area. Beside that, I remember I am 15 when the tragedy happened. I remember watching the news daily in the television. There were knocking at the wall after the collapse and everyone frantically looking for the survivor but after many days, he died. Then, I remember the interview done with one of the relative of the deceased, an uncle whose niece died. She was studying for a major exam so she stayed with her aunty and uncle for the time being. At the end, she died in the building. She was just 15 like me. The most tragic of all, some children died because they came to celebrate their friend's birthday. It was a birthday party. None of the children survived. They did not escaped in time.
I occasionaly passed the area in AMpang and each time I passed the area, I will point out the buildings to my children. It is a tragedy never forgotten.
I'd add "No training" and "Easily preventable" to the bingo card. The first because the architect wasn't qualified to design the building, and the second because he raised concerns to the developer who ignored them.
The architect was still trained just _inadequately_ given the lack of required certifications. It is an important distinction because your statement implies they grabbed some random nobody with no training at all to design the building.
@@pigpuke I understood his point clearly. Idk.
@@pigpuke Still falls under the "No training" banner for me since in the majority of accidents the workers are also not random people of the street, they are just not given training for the specific task that they're doing.
@@najaB76 It's different though, because if a totally unqualified person agreed to do the work they could be held personally liable.
But a trained construction worker could be expected to do something outside of their prior experience under the supervision of someone who knows what to do.
@@najaB76 Look mate, I'm not excusing the architect from taking the job lacking the required certification. I'm just saying he's got a 4 year degree and is missing a post graduate 6 week certification. The guy was 95% trained for the task so it was far from "no training".
its sad that there have been so many building related tragedies that one's first thought is "only 48 people? thats surprisingly lower than you'd expect". no excuse whatsoever but so frustrating that these types of things continue to happen (looking at you surfside).
ooh, I can explain why! most of the residents were at work at the time, so the ones who were home were kids, domestic workers, and older folk.
@some_random_loser Exactly, didn’t Surfside happen at night? Everyone was at home and many were asleep. That’s why that one was so much worse.
ikr. I know it's fairly rare but I'll never live in a tower/highrise
From the reports, it appears that the building had been creaking and moving for at least 8 hours with mud building up against the exposed side before it keeled over.
More than half the residents had evacuated, but without any advice from the authorities, the 48 who died had decided to stay.
@@john-ic5pzFor me it is live in a building taller then a fire truck's ladder!
3:20 plant science major here. Not only are the roots physically holding the soil together, the roots also secrete compounds that "glue" individual soil particles together.
Out of all disasters you would cover,the Highland Tower is the least of my prediction
I've been here for over 5 years, and most channels don't hold my interest for long, but I never miss an upload from PD. I can't think of another channel that has both quantity and quality like this one. Congrats on damn near 1 million subs Jon. I'm sure by the time you read this, it'll be well past that mark.
Thank you for all your videos. I found you when I was trying to find out the causes of the first tube crash I attended as a trauma technician, when I was still a teenager.
I remember this vividly in the news as a child. Highland Towers are still quoted today here in Malaysia as a reason to avoid excess developments of hilltop properties even 3 decades later. I'm surprised the death count is actually lower than the usual impression most have of the incident (you'll hear guesses in the 100s, or dozens of families, which is clearly not the case)
Your pronunciation is decent John, admittedly there's some inconsistencies expected of machine pronunciations you might have checked against.
Some additional translated context of local names
Ulu Klang - Klang river source (referring to the water catchment area that supplies the river)
Taman Hillview - Hillview Park
Bukit Antarabangsa - International Hill (no doubt due to the many expatriate residents)
It's a similar story of what happened on Palace II condo in Rio de Janeiro in 1998, which truly deserves to be in the channel
i was going to say tha same. i remember seeing the footage on tv, it was terrible.
It's a little mind-boggling that so much time elapsed between the landslide and the collapse of the building, and yet there were still people inside. If there's a giant landslide that comes right up to your apartment building and cracks start to appear in the concrete, _it is time to flee before you die._
I think in Malaysia it's pretty common for cracks to appear in buildings.
@@3rdalbumIt’s common for cracks to appear anywhere in Malaysia 😂
Cracks dont necessarily mean the structure is unsafe. Cracks appear anytime concrete under stress or installed improperly. Usually the reinforcement is enough to keep the structure standing. However cracks need to be repaired after the structure has been evaluated. Ita definitely scary when a structure is damaged and youre waiting on engineers to determine if it can be saved.
I found your channel 3 years ago now and it is definitely on my comfort video list. So close to 1 million!❤
Another good day when plainly difficult uploads
Glad you like them!
Ok... I was NOT expecting the whole building to just fall over. Damn.
Engineer slaps the muddy dirt.
"That'll probably hold an entire building"
"If it'll probably hold one building, it'll probably hold three."
I can't imagine how building high-rise apartment buildings on sloped terrain in a region that has a monsoon season would be a questionable idea.
One visitor from the States stayed at his friend's unit in Highland Towers for a holiday in Kuala Lumpur managed to snap still pictures of the collapse as they happened, from the moment water-saturated hillsides near Block 1 of Highland Towers beginning to slide until the tower fell to its sides like a slow motion.
I believe its the picture shown at 11:11
@@amazingstarzz Yup. That was one of the pictures he took on that fateful day.
Here for my early Saturday morning Plainly Difficult!
Morning!
Same! But it's my Sunday morning ritual because timezones
You know, your uploads are a fantastic treat when I catch them, you have a wonderful way of breaking down events and topics to an easily digestible format.
3:26 also what you are missing out is trees and greenery take a lot of water from the ground, and makes it more difficult to get deep saturation.
You will hit 1M soon. Keep up the good work.
Thank you!!
Great way to start my Saturday! You never fail to brighten my weekend with a new video of such dark content haha.
Glad you enjoy it!
@PlainlyDifficult keeps me sane, and I genuinely mean that haha.
Holy what? HOW is this channel not at 1M yet? The quality and production value are fantastic! Presenter is fun and has a soothing voice. We learn a good lesson each video. What more could you want?
Thank you so much for covering this sad history of my country. I was 14 at the time of it's happening and used to live in Taman Melawati, just 10 minutes away from the area.
Thanks for the awesome content you provide, easily one of my favorite RUclipsrs! Almost at the 1m subs, nice work 🎉
Thank you!!
I live in a high rise in Glasgow built in the 1960s and for some reason i keep finding these videos as i am about to go to sleep at night. Lol
Should be fine if it is built on flat land.
The moment you said 'you can almost taste' the 1 million subscribers, my first thought was 'oh no, it tastes like metal, doesn't it?'.
He's still at less than a million? Not great not terrible.
Look, the reason this scrap metal container was so hard to open is probably because these little pellets are expensive. Gather them up and put them in your pockets.
Wait, this isn't a Chubby Emu video...
"Diverted a river", "history of landslides", no, no , no, NO! When will we learn we can't just build anywhere we want?
"But the land is cheap, and we can sell it for lots of money!"
@@Here_is_Waldo The entire history of asia can be summed up as "profound disregard for human life"
I live in Seattle, and our area is infamous for its landslides. The combination of clay subsoil with our quantity of rain and our hilly topography means we have to be very careful where and how we erect buildings and homes. A prime example is the Oso landslide disaster.
Likewise here in the southern West Coast; it's mostly a seasonal thing here since we have distinct dry/wet seasons.
Keep up the good research and reporting. Having been at one building collapse in Bailey's Crossroads VA and I have seen many near misses in the Chicago area ranging broken water mains, gas pipe ruptures, shattered steel on elevated tracks and crumbling brick and concrete on various buildings.
When I saw the thumbnail, my first thought was Lotus Riverside Block 7, for some reason.
Have a great weekend, John, and I too hope you get to 1 million subscribers soon!
man, it's crazy to see you're already at almost a million subscribers, i've been watching you since you've been a tiny youtuber! good luck on your journey to one mil and forward, your content is amazing!
7:51 Really? International Rescue was called?!?! _Thunderbirds are _*_GO!_*
Lady Penelope reporting for duty.
Glad it wasn't just me that thought that.
F A B Penny! Virgil here.
We're going to need Pod 5 for this one !
Lack of regular maintenance ; not unknown to the world of collapse's . TY, yet I found the ad's somehow hurt me, a slap, when you're ready to sit down an relax with your fine work.
*MALAYSIA MENTIONED.*
That being said, the moment I saw the thumbnail, I instantly knew what this would be about.
Absolutely appalling that this was allowed to happen
It's literally a big event in Malaysia
I lived in Penang for a while there's been a few minor incidents there too with slides but it has mainly been construction workers getting killed and that doesn't usually raise great concerns amongst the powers that be.
Thanks!
Thank you!!
Hey it's Malaysia my country! Thank you for highlighting this!
Another excellent job explaining an incredibly sad event that didn't need to happen. Thank you for bringing these stories to light and doing so in a non sensational way, keep up the great work!
I was a student when this disaster happened. During that period, everyone said this is the result of mismanagement of PM Mahathir. His cronies will ignore any safety regulations if the developers pay enough bribe.
I don't remember anyone saying that. And building construction is under the purview of the local council. Not federal government!
John, I reluctantly agree on the bingo card, I'll get you yet! (old man shakes his fist!) Lolin'
Great start to the weekend, thank you!
Thank you too!
I've been going through another Plainly Difficult binge watch lately and I always stick around for the current weather update from London. I'm thinking of plotting out the weather vs upload date on a graph over the years to see how the descriptors change over time 😂
You should definitely make the graph it would be interesting to see
If you ever do, tell me where to find it!
Mindblowing that the entire building wasn't evacuated as soon as the landslide occurred.
we need to get this man a play button as he deserves one for making great content for almost a decade
As long as the play button isn't made out of Cobalt-60, I'm on board.
@@paulkornbluh6303we're saving the Cobalt 60 for Putin.
Hey another video about Malaysia after the Bukit Merah incident. Cheers mate!
I've already done it here's the link!! ruclips.net/video/1Xu0NvE0_HY/видео.html
Congratulations, you so deserve this milestone. Please don’t change anything, especially the weather report. Love ya work!❤
I really like your no bulshit videos where you don't use clickbait or waste 30 minutes explain something that can be done in 3 minutes
Thank you!!
Those japanese rescue workers going inside a collapsed building using elevator shafts. That is courage...
Hard-core
Your channel is great mate & your video's so interesting. Fantastic job, be safe & well
John, congratulations on achieving the threshold of *one million* subscribers!
This is no mean feat; your content has always been top shelf, and your hard work is paying off.
You know it makes you wonder with how many disaster videos that you have posted and have covered how many faulty plans still linger out there just waiting for something to go wrong if only there was a way for someone to look over building plans and look for inconsistencies like not being certified for 2 story+ work or trying to catch corner cutting
I would guess there are at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of faulty buildings, bridges, dams, and railways in the world, just waiting for the right (wrong?) confluence of events to bring them down. Not to mention the estimated 3 million ships on the bottom of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers, and the ones that are just barely afloat while I'm typing this. If there's anything we humans are good at, it's f*ing things up.
The issue is not if people are looking for corner cutting and things like that. The issue is how many people try to do it. Becomes a numbers game.
If you have a location were people follow honor code and are super professional, corner cutters stick out like a sore thumb. Others will try stamp them out. But if the curner cutters are very determined they will eventually cut corners.
If you have a location that relies on inspectors catching the cut corners on things then you need a ton of inspectors that are competent and also incorruptible. Have few inspectors and the corner cutting will occur and maybe even at a higher degree or quantity.
Then there is the corner cutter watching its own job. You get Boeing.
Without an ingrained safety culture with the integrity and protection of life and public safety in mind you will definitely get a lot of corners cut with no way of knowing until something goes wrong.
@darkcoeficient simply saying that we need a culture of safety and non corner cutting but I'll be realistic, when that culture is absent which I would argue is most cases with how many videos this channel has on the very subject we rarely find one where a company was actively trying to prevent disaster or where what they had prepared was sufficient, so for this argument purpose let's assume it's baked in to the culture that you save money where you can. Back to the original point I could very easily see a check against permits on what a builder is allowed to do(in specific to this video where the architect was not qualified to be building the tower and did not set proper walls to hold under the weight of the soil not to mention improper water drainage). Now to the point of the inspectors you will find a inspector that doesn't care but I speculate that if you rotate out inspectors on a job like 3 times I feel there will be pressure to not cut corners if your having to get past more inspectors. So I think it would be fine if we recorded this data to see how bad the problem is. If we are to create a safety culture we must first deter the behavior from happening in the first place
Given 10 years, this channel will have trouble keeping up with all the chinese tofu dreg disasters
What would really help is if people were protected from their employer's retaliation over reporting the project's deficiencies to the proper authorities.
It's well understood that people often place more priority on the immediate, personal consequences than vague, future dangers. Providing some protection from those immediate risks would make them more comfortable with whistleblowing.
I do think the architect probably should have just resigned the moment they asked him to work on such a tall building. And their refusal to actually look into better drainage should have been a sign to quit immediately.
John makes my Saturday's ❤❤❤
Thank you!!
Can't wait for you get 1,000,000 subscribers
Thank you!!
John, congratulations on 990k subscribers! I like the scale “paper cut to the end of the f**king world”. Bravo 👏🏻
Sounds eerily similar to a collapse of hillside towers in Taiwan. In 1997, a typhoon triggered mudslide overran inadequate retaining walls, and then pushed into the side of buildings, leading to their collapse. Well, technically they didn't fall over or crumble, but were pushed by the mudslide and leaned over on the second row of buildings. Still, 28 were killed being buried alive by the mud rushing in. On further investigation, there were corruption and forgery of environmental and safety documents.
The first few rows of buildings facing the slope remains abandoned today as well, but further from the damaged area, buildings from the same project remains in use.
Congratulations on your success John, you deserve every bit of it and so much more. 🙂
That was truly unexpected. I mean, a notorious Malaysian disaster. The area where this building is located at is still notorious for landslides.
Great video as always, but I love your simple illustrations that, even a bit rudimentary, explains perfectly the important pieces.
Almost a million?
You deserve every single one and much more.
We can see the effort you put in, we love the comedy you slip into otherwise horrid topics and love the Voice By John (TM)
Wish you luck for the future!
Always a smile when me and my girlfriend see a new video
When it comes who is to be blamed, the phrase "omnishambles" springs to mind.
Yeah, we tend have landslides a lot here in Malaysia especially anywhere close to our mountainish range
Due to constant tropical rain
@@Randomly_Browsing This year we had 2 landslide if i remember right at the start of this year, both in two days.
@@killerkv175 the flooding in 2021 and 2022?
@@Randomly_Browsing im from the northern part of west malaysia so we didnt get as severe of a flood and by that time i didnt really focus about news cos of a certain examination at the age of 17-18
I'd add a _"No training"_ to my bingo card since the architect didn't have proper qualifications. Otherwise, I completely agree with your choices on the bingo card. And, btw, this was a fascinating episode. I hadn't heard about this horrible incident. What an absolute waste of lives...
I hope you're having a fine weekend in London!
I’ve been waiting for this video from you for ages!
Love this video Jon, and congratulations on rapidly approaching 1million love this channel as it covers engineering and what happens when stuff doesn't get done right. Looking forward to when you do the Baltimore bridge collapse in a couple years or so
Thank you!!
Well, now that goes both ways most of the people that I follow have something that comes out once a week or a couple times a week and I really enjoy your channel and I enjoy listening to you talk
Thank you!!
Almost a million 🤯. You definitely deserve it. Keep up the amazing content 👏 ❤
Does the opening graphic remind anybody else of WarGames? I love this show.
Hope you get a million. You deserve it , love your videos. Keep up the great work 👍.
New builds in Australia still have large cracks in concrete and basement water leaks.
We don’t have basements
@@nowirehangers2815 apartments!
@@nowirehangers2815ohh, just wait till the water carves a free basement.
Another brillent posting, thanks John....
Thank you. Love your voice
He's got a great voice and accent. Agree.
I declare: your narration is genius, you are a dangerous man!
You made it to 1M subs. Congratulations.
We were living in Paradise Hills inland from National City, California in the early 1980s. I saw for the first time the effects of a strong El Niño with days of rain and wind. The hill across the highway had just been stripped of all its vegetation, and terraces and roadways were being cut into the bare ground. I expected to see the whole thing come down at any time, since it began to look like giant Jello mold. Fortunately, it held together, much to my surprise and relief. Further east in Lemon Grove someone's swimming pool dislodged from the hillside and came tumbling down.
The description has a typo, "loosing their lives" should be "losing their lives"
Thanks for your well-researched and always interesting content. Here’s hoping you reach a million subscribers soon!
Great video John! Thank you
Corruption and lazy maintenance, I used to live in Malaysia and remember it well.
Actually there are literally thousands of similar appartment blocks all over the world that are a ticking time bomb having been built substandard due to corruption and corners cutting by the developers.😢
Thank you John! I love these!
Plainly Difficult, for the next video can you do a UK rail disaster caused by either animals on the line such as The Polmont Disaster, cars on the track such as 2004 Ufton Nervet Crash or caused by driver error such as the 1994 Cowden Crash
Thanks for the suggestions!! Ill have a dig into them
Keep bringing it, John.
An excellent, and tragic, example of the safety "Swiss cheese" effect.
Normally, multiple redundant layers of professional checks and regulations prevent mistakes of this magnitude. Any holes in one or more layers is usually blocked at some point, averting disaster. Sometimes, holes in all layers align and mistakes slip though entirely undetected. On rare occasions such as this, the series of mistakes can be catastrophic.
People bemoan the headaches of bureaucracy and regulation, but they're often written in the blood of past tragedies.
I stayed one night in a half complete development in KL a couple of years ago. It consisted of several towers, some only half clad, but clearly abandoned for several years, scaffolding board crumbling out of the frames, piling a the bottom. The whole complex was joined below by a giant underground parking lot, a shopping arcade that never opened and some of the concrete ceilings of that part where already collapsed. It was interesting and I was glad to only be staying for one night. One of the tower bases had a vertical crack two fingers wide, but it was occupied nevertheless. I noticed that crack in the underground car park.
You wander through a large city like London, and you see all those modern tower blocks... and a part of me thinks: are they ok?! Really? Were corners cut? Hopefully they're all perfectly fine, but I sure am glad my house is Victorian. If it ain't fallen over by now, it isn't going to!
Were the residents of the non-fallen towers at least allowed to get their furniture and belongings out? Another great video, John, thanks!
Good question! I couldn't really find out id hope so though thank you!!
Wow! Again with the groundwater disasters. Champlain Towers seems similar to this, albeit that was a pure groundwater event. But if one takes your interpretation, that removing the groundwater stabilization environment of trees and bushes that were removed, here we go again.
One can only wonder whether all the "sunny day flooding" will eventually start pulling smaller buildings over in "flat" locations.
great job on the animations in this one!!
I can't imagine saying, "Oh! It looks like that hill is going to knock down the building I live in!" AND STAYING PUT! Darwin Award winners.
Oh it's so important to keep in mind how roots help to hold soil in place. This is very sad, and someone should've come to investigate as soon as the mudslide happened.
This was at once, both entertaining, and plainly difficult to watch.
congrats on 1M soon!! almost there!
Longtime viewer 😊 love your content and excited to celebrate one million with you!
Congratulations on 1mil subscribers!