Bhopal Gas Accident

This accident occurred in the early hours of December 3, 1984 at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The accident released at least 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called methylisocyanate (MIC) as well as a number of other poisonous gases that resulted in about 4000 deaths and 500,000 injuries [1]. 

In regard to maintenance, some of the active influencing maintenance factors that directly or indirectly played an important role in the occurrence of this accident were as follows [1,5]  

Unbalanced business objectives and cost with maintenance. 

Unavailable safety features (e.g., the scrubber that should have absorbed the vapor was inoperative and the refrigeration system which could have provided cooling for the storage tank was switched off). 

All in all, in regard to this accident, the influence of maintenance also included factors such as deficient plarming, deficient fault diagnosis, and deficient execution. 

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