ABERFAN: The Disasteer They Were Warned About

A Welsh mining village. A school beneath a mountain of coal waste. Warnings that should have changed everything.

On the morning of 21 October 1966, children arrived at Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan for the final day before half-term.

Above them stood Tip No. 7 — an enormous mass of colliery waste placed on a mountainside crossed by natural springs.

Shortly after nine o’clock, the tip failed.

A black wave of waterlogged spoil surged downhill and struck the village, engulfing homes and Pantglas Junior School.

144 people died. 116 of them were children.

But Aberfan was more than a terrible accident.

The danger posed by water and unstable spoil was understood. Previous movements had occurred. Concerns had been raised. Yet tipping continued.

In this carefully researched documentary account, Bill Stewart reconstructs the years leading to the catastrophe, the desperate rescue at Pantglas, the official tribunal, the failures of the National Coal Board, the absence of criminal prosecutions, and the extraordinary controversy surrounding the Aberfan Disaster Fund.

At the heart of the investigation lies one disturbing question:

How can a catastrophe be called an accident when the danger was already known?

ABERFAN — The Disaster They Were Warned About is a restrained examination of institutional failure, responsibility and the terrible consequences of warnings that never became action.