On 24 April 2013 an eight-storey commercial building named Rana Plaza collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is now considered the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern history. Approximately 2,500 people were rescued from the building alive, while the search for the dead lasted three weeks with a total death toll of 1,129. The building housed multiple garment factories, several shops and a bank. On 23 April reporters found cracks in the foundation of the building, the footage of which appeared in the news on a television channel.

Immediately after that the building was evacuated, and the shops and the bank on the lower oors were closed.

However, later that day the owner of the building made an announcement to the media saying that the building was safe and the workers should return to their workplace tomorrow. Workers were also threatened with loss of monthly salary if they failed to return to the factories. On the morning of the following day there was a power outage in the buildings, and back-up generators were started to keep the factories running. The building collapsed at 8.57am.

Thirty-eight people were charged with murder, and the building owner was caught trying to ee across the border to India.

Apart from the decision to force workers to return to their workplace, charges were led on the basis of numerous violations in the construction of the building itself: it was built on a lled-in pond, it was converted from commercial to industrial use, and three oors were added above the original permit.

Apart from numerous legal and moral issues, all this raises a lot of questions regarding how people make their decisions and why these decisions can turn out to be so irrational.

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