Most EXPENSIVE Mistakes Ever Made

We all make mistakes, and some of them have definitely been costlier than others. However, I’m pretty sure your errors haven’t caused the loss of billions of dollars, or the loss of human as well as animal life. Today we have a look at the most expensive mistakes ever made!
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11 - A little under the influence…
It was 1989 when a tanker heading to California had a hugely destructive oil spill. Not only did it do irreparable damage to the wildlife in Prince William Sound off the Alaska coast, but it cost a pretty penny to clean it up. It was suggested that the captain, Joseph Hazelwood, had gone on a bender the night before. He lost 760,000 barrels of oil leaving 900 bald eagles, 250,000 seabirds and 1,000 harlequin ducks a fragment of the past and tourism in the area dropped significantly too.
10 - A mere glitch…
Remember how terrified millions of people were the night that we went from 1999 into 2000? We eyed our PC’s out suspiciously, waiting for them to go crazy… but that didn’t happen! What did happen though was a little more unexpected. The Millennium Bridge was revealed in London as we went into the new millennium. It’s a big, beautiful bridge running over the Thames. Within 3-hours of the bridge opening, they had to shut it, as the bridge was swaying back and forth. Engineers didn’t expect the sheer volume of foot traffic, so it was back to the drawing board and an additional $6.6 million over and above the $24.1 million already spent.
9 - Don your sunglasses…
And take a peek at this bizarre skyscraper located in London, also referred to as Walkie Talkie. It’s basically a giant mirror, and the reflection off this glass literally melted cars parked nearby! Some eager beavers even fried eggs on the glass surface. They’ve since had to add sun protection to the building… let’s hope it’s an SPF 50!
8 - Ahhh, Snap…
You can’t fault Quaker for seeing a great opportunity, and they realized the potential of Snapple in its earliest years and bought the firm for $1.4 billion in 1994. They had big plans for the brand but their initial success was short-lived, because competition came in quickly and fiercely. They sold if off 3-years later for just $300 million.
7 – Never forgotten…
This is one of the worst events that we have seen, and it happened in the spring of 1986. Chernobyl was blamed solely on operators who had violated plant procedures and weren’t up to speed with the proper safety requirements. Faulty equipment hadn’t been repaired properly leading 4 reactors to go out of control and everything went in to meltdown. The total of lives lost, including those that succumbed to cancer in the following years, is thought to be as many as 1 million!
6 - A bit embarrassing…
Every single year, states in the US are able to apply for funding through “Race to the Top”, which is a grant created to help schools innovate and grow. Thanks to a clerical error, New Jersey missed out on $400 million in 2010!
5 - Save every drop…
An oil rig was doing a bit of work on Lake Peigneur, Louisiana, when the unthinkable happened, and they drilled a little too deep. This led to the collapsing of salt pillars and the formation of a huge sinkhole. The lake was originally only 6-feet deep, but after the accident, reached depths of 1,300-feet! Texaco had to fork out $44.8 million in compensation. I’m pretty sure the person at the controls lost his job too. Ouch!
4 - A little ahead of its time…
Ford has been around forever, and yes, they’re super successful but they’ve also made costly mistakes. In 1957, they invested $400 million into the development of the Edsel model. For a year they spent a fortune just advertising this up and coming vehicle, and people were convinced they were going to be faced with a real car of the future. When the Edsel was eventually launched, it was a huge disappointment to all. It was considered unattractive, way overpriced and the hype didn’t do it justice. Ford lost $250 million in this whole spectacle.
3 - Not once, not twice…
Ahhh, we haven’t touched on any divorces and there is a plethora of people who have had a little fun on the side and have had to pay the price. One of those individuals happens to be Tiger Woods, who shared his bed with a number of women, just a shame he was married to Elin Nordegren at the time and ended up having to fork out $110 million! Someone estimated his total loss was as high as $12 billion due to the stock loss for names like Nike and Gatorade!
2 - Not a good shot…
A hunter inadvertently stared the biggest fire in Californian history in 2003, with $1.2 billion in insured losses being claimed for. The hunter was lost so he lit a signal flare in the hope someone would find him and that in turn destroyed 300,000 acres of land, 2,322 homes and 14 didn’t survive the fires.
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