The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. Heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and a row of houses. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.

There were seven spoil tips on the hills above Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the village—was started in 1958 and, at the time of the disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention of the NCB's procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which springs emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m) of spoil slipped down the side of the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was the local junior school, where lessons had just begun; 5 teachers and 109 children were killed. (Full article...)

Sir Basil Smallpeice, KCVO (18 September 1906 – 12 July 1992) was an English accountant and businessman, who served as a director of several companies, including the state-owned airline British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), the shipping company Cunard and the mining-based conglomerate Lonrho.

Smallpeice, as financial comptroller and later, managing director, was one of the board of BOAC who was instrumental in purchasing and introducing jet powered aircraft into passenger service. He was responsible for the purchase of the de Havilland Comet, the Boeing 707 and the Vickers VC10. His time at BOAC included the introduction of the Comet 1, the subsequent Comet disasters where metal fatigue caused the in-flight destruction of three aircraft, with a loss of 99 passengers and crew, the re-introduction of the Comet 4 and the inauguration of the first jet-powered transatlantic services in October 1958. He would later be instrumental in the purchase of the Boeing 707, which introduced the first by-pass turbofan engine, the Rolls-Royce Conway into passenger service. He left BOAC along with his chairman Matthew Slattery, over disagreements with the Government concerning financial support in return for purchasing the Vickers VC10. (Full article...)