For He That Gets Hurt Will Be He Who Has Stalled Quiz

Answer: Riccardo Paletti

Over 50 Formula One drivers have died since the series was started in 1950. Ayrton Senna (Brazil) died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the Canadian Gilles Villeneuve died in a qualifying session for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, and Frenchman Jules Bianchi was severely injured in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, dying some nine months later.

The 1982 Canadian Grand Prix was the first time that Riccardo Paletti would successfully start in a full line-up. The green light to start the race took a long time coming during which Pironi's vehicle stalled in pole position. Most drivers managed to avoid the Ferrari without serious consequences however Paletti unfortunately ploughed into it at 180 km/h (100 mph).

Answer: Iced up instruments

Pitot tubes are widely used to measure airspeed. Pointing a tube into an airflow creates a pressure in the tube which can be converted into airspeed. On this flight these became blocked or partially blocked by ice leading to inconsistent airspeed measurements.

This in turn caused the autopilot to switch off along with various flight safety systems. The two pilots failed to understand what was happening, the instrumentation did not help and the aircraft stalled and ultimately crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Answer: Ever Given

Strong winds resulted in the container ship Ever Green being wedged across the canal. It took six days to clear it, blocking all traffic in the meantime. Nearly 400 ships were queuing to go through by the time the canal was unblocked. Over a dozen tugboats were involved in resolving the issue. The event highlighted the fragility of the shipping supply chain through choke points such as the canal.

The other ships listed as answers were some of the fifteen ships and crew known as the Yellow Fleet trapped for years in the Suez Canal between 1967 and 1975 when Egypt blocked both ends of the canal with (amongst other things) scuttled ships and mines as part of the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel.

Answer: Mount Everest

Popular mountains can became crowded with climbers making the most of weather windows or subject to time constraints. Mount Everest, as the world's highest peak, is a popular and expensive peak to climb, which creates more pressure to succeed. The 'Death Zone' is generally considered to occur at altitudes from 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) upwards where oxygen levels are insufficient for human life over extended periods of time.

On Mount Everest the 'Death Zone' coincides with a choke point for climbers on the normal route, frequently resulting in queuing for a number of hours. This has contributed to more than a few deaths. All 8,000-metre mountains occur in the Himalaya or Karakoram ranges in Asia.

Answer: Filibuster

Filibusters are not unique to the US Senate by any means, however they are very much part of the American political landscape. Essentially, one or more people prolong debate with a view to delaying or preventing a decision being taken on piece of proposed legislation. One famous example was a concerted filibuster that lasted 72 days (according to some sources) before the Civil Rights Act 1964 was passed.

Cloture is a procedure to bring debate to a quick end. Urgency is a process in some legislatures where public consultation or debate is curtailed in order to expedite the legislative process, and gerrymandering is where electoral boundaries are changed to gain a political advantage. Logrolling in this context is the trading of political favours for votes.

Answer: Misreporting of the track as empty

The Metro line relied on an Automatic Train Control (ATC) system to manage rail traffic. This depended on sensors to inform the computerised system where trains were. It turns out that a track circuit component was malfunctioning. As the train was stalled entirely within the tracks served by the defective circuit, the ATC did not know the train was there when the circuit was malfunctioning and so instructed the following train to proceed at normal speed.

The track circuit relied on coded audio signals to report whether the track was clear or not. Parasitic oscillations are typically caused by amplified feedback in circuits. In this situation it resulted in spurious signals which were interpreted by the ATC as meaning the track was unoccupied.

Answer: Marathon

The now-defrocked Neil Horan grappled with Vanderlei de Lima at around the 35 km mark in the race, pulling him towards the crowd. A spectator helped free de Lima so that he could continue the race. De Lima ultimately came in third, receiving the bronze medal and the rarely-awarded Pierre de Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship. Horan also interfered with the 2003 British Grand Prix, was apparently foiled at the 2004 Epsom Derby and arrested at the 2006 World Cup before he could implement his plan.

Answer: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base shot down a missile

The Soviets deployed 158 nuclear warheads to Cuba and at least one nuclear-armed FKR-1 cruise missile was aimed at Guantanamo. Fidel Castro of Cuba expressed a willingness to use nuclear weapons if the US invaded Cuba, however no invasion happened (although it was certainly considered) and no missile was launched.

There were a surprising number of 'near-misses' that day. Three are listed where actions were stalled by cooler heads:

The sabotage alarm at a US base was activated when an intruder was spotted climbing a fence, automatically causing similar alarms to be set off at bases in the region. The wrong type of alarm at one base triggered the launch of nuclear-armed F-106A interceptors however, after checking, an officer was able to prevent them taking off by driving onto the runway and flashing his lights to get the aircraft to stop. The intruder turned out to be a bear.

US destroyer Beale and its submarine cohort dropped signalling grenades on the Soviet submarine B-59. This caused the captain to believe war had started and prepare for the launch of a nuclear-armed torpedo, however the brigade chief of staff who happened to be on board recognised the grenades as signals and persuaded the captain to desist. The nearest suitable target was the US aircraft carrier Randolph with 3,400 sailors on board.

Historian Martin Sherwin noted that a Japanese-based US missile squadron received orders to launch its cruise missiles. An Air Force captain questioned this as the highest level of military readiness DEFCON 1 had not been reached. He also saw that three of the targets were in China, which (as far as he was aware) had nothing to do with the crisis.

Answer: Drones

Some 1,000 flights, affecting 140,000 passengers, were cancelled at Gatwick Airport near London between 19 and 21 December 2018. Numerous drones were spotted during this period with roughly hourly sightings during the first night. Each time Gatwick was about to open the runway, more drone sightings were made.

A total of 170 sightings were reported, of which 115 were considered credible by police. Two drone enthusiasts living close to the airport were arrested but released without charge, later being paid compensation in an out-of-court settlement.

Some have questioned whether any drones were involved at all.

Answer: Lightning

Apollo 11 had successfully landed on the Moon and Apollo 12 was to be the second Moon landing in the Ocean of Storms. Although not quite a storm when they launched, it was a rainy day and the spacecraft was struck by lightning twice shortly after launch. This had the effect of knocking off line all three fuel cells, and to cause failures in the guidance system and scrambling some data received by Mission Control. Battery systems alone were not sufficient to allow the mission to be completed.

The suggestion of switching to an auxiliary power supply proved to be the solution. This helped restore data and then the fuel cells were put back on line allowing them to carry on and complete the mission successfully. So, this was a close shave. Apollo 13 was not so lucky when it had an explosion in an oxygen tank, causing plans to land on the Moon to be abandoned.