'disaster' - tagged features

Raging forest fires are increasingly becoming a feature of the European summer and sparking debate in Brussels over whether Europe needs a common fire fighting service. Given that the water bombers or so-called Canadair planes cost more than 19 million Euros each - many argue that such expensive assets should be shared. Better still, they could be painted blue and gold so that EU citizens immediately see where their money goes. 

It remains the worst air crash in aviation history. A Dutch KLM Jumbo Jet, loaded with holiday makers, crashed into another 747, a Pan American flight, on the runway in heavy fog. 61 passengers escaped from the Pam Am flight. There were no survivors from the KLM plane. Bad communication between the Dutch pilot and air traffic control was ultimately blamed for the accident. At a moving ceremony, more than 500 next of kin and rescue workers gathered to commemorate the tragedy. Karen Tefuri spoke on behalf of the American victims, giving one of many personal stories. Radio Netherlands went along to listen to them. 

For the first time in France, people accused of bearing responsibility for an oil spill, are being brought before a penal court. Seven years after the ecological disaster which devastated four hundred kilometres of France's western coast, the Erika trial started in Paris this week. In 1999, the Erika, a twenty five year old, single hulled, rusty oil tanker, was transporting thirty tons of heavy fuel when it sank off the coast of Brittany. Jail terms and fines worth hundreds of millions of Euros are at stake in this trial, which is expected to last four months. Radio France International's Nick Champeaux went to the first hearings, and he filed this report from Paris.