Long March rocket CZ-3B explodes over Sichuan, China, February 15, 1996. As many as 500 (estimated) innocent people died due to the failed rocket launch. The Chinese government blamed the rocket's failure on an unexpected gust of wind.
I actually wrote a short case study for a pre-engineering class about the failure of this rocket. Basically the piece of electronics that told the rocket the orientation it was in had failed and the rocket tried to correct itself, right into a village. Official casualties are said to be 6 people at the launch pad. Estimates of those lost in the village range from 100 to 5000.
This was not the first Long March III rocket to fail, it was the first to fail quite so terribly. It was also the last. This event was studied by various committees in China and America about the technology on the satellite the rocket was supposed to put into orbit. It was developed by an American company and sold specifically for launch. Reports say that the Chinese were attempting to recover it from the wreckage. Some accused the Clinton administration of letting secret high technology slip into Chinese hands.
