The scandal of the Erika

The Erika sinks amidst high seas in the Bay of Biscay

This programme will be broadcast on Saturday August 12th at 18:50 (BST) on BBC2

In December 1999, a rusty 25 year-old tanker called Erika left Dunkirk with a full cargo of fuel en route for Italy. She never made it to her final destination, but broke up and sank off the coast of Brittany, causing one of the worst oil spills Europe has ever seen.

Amazingly, the Erika had cleared her safety inspections and was deemed seaworthy by the authorities which are meant to stop rust-buckets putting to sea.

It was the catastrophe the industry said could never happen.

Tom Mangold investigates the murky world of shipping

Correspondent investigates what went wrong, who is responsible for this environmental disaster and seeks to discover why the tanker industry cannot steer itself away from the rocks.

Tom Mangold's investigation takes him from Bombay to Paris and reveals how all the safety measures failed to prevent The Scandal of the Erika.

Producer: Guy Smith

Reporter: Tom Mangold

Editor: Fiona Murch