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Astroworld is back in the news, and social media has some thoughts. In November 2021, a deadly crowd surge at Travis Scotts Astroworld music festival claimed the lives of 10 people. The then-annual event, held in the rappers hometown of Houston, became one of the worst concert tragedies in U.S. history. Now its the subject of the new Netflix documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. With renewed interest in the incident, survivors have taken to social media to share their own footage from the event. Only if I knew bro, one attendee posted on TikTok over footage of himself in the crowd. The audio accompanying the clip is taken from the documentary: It started getting pretty hectic, one survivor says. Im like, Oh my god, I cant take a deep breath, adds another. @nnsquad4 #viralvideo #fyp #astroworld astroworld – Mi$$ing (-.-)Zzz Since everyone else is sharing their Astroworld experience, another TikTok user wrote in the caption of a clip, which shows him tightly packed in the crowd as Scott performs. Not too long after this I got bumped into due to the crowd swaying and ended up falling on top of someone in the fetal position, he wrote. We ended up getting out but man it was a struggle. In other horrifying footage, the panicked audience can be heard calling for help. Ive never posted this video before, rest in peace to all innocent lives lost, the caption reads over the video. @adammendozaa In the moment I didnt know what else to do, so I just got out of that spot for the rest of the concert. After watching the documentary I am very grateful to still be here today. #travisscott #astroworld #fyp #concerts original sound – Adam Mendoza Even before Scott took the stage, the crowd seemed to sense something was wrong. We are gonna die, one attendee filming the unsafe conditions jokes in a clip that now has 10.3 million views. Saying this as a joke but on the inside this was a real feeling, she wrote in the closed captions. This about to be bad when it starts, another can be heard saying. Bro literally called it, the captions add. @goomba2105 @Joe Geesbreght This documentary is about to be wild. #astroworld #travisscott original sound – Zach I believe Astroworld 2021 was not an accident, crowd safety expert Scott Davidson says in the new documentary. It was an inevitability due to the lack of foresight and the abandonment of basic safety protocols. Nearly 5,000 people were injured as a result of the crush. The Netflix documentary, which premiered on June 10, features interviews with several survivors. In total, 10 people died: Axel Acosta, Danish Baig, Rudy Pea, Madison Dubiski, Franco Patio, Jacob Jurinek, John Hilgert, Bharti Shahani, Brianna Rodriguez, and Ezra Blount. Blount was just 9 years old. The cause of death for all 10 victims was compression asphyxiation.
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The summertime beaches of 1975 were empty, but the movie theaters were full thanks to Steven Spielbergs thriller Jaws. Considered by film historians to be the first-ever summer blockbuster, Jaws put the young director on the map and was the highest-grossing movie of all time until Star Wars was released two years later. June 20 marks the 50th anniversary of Jawss cinematic debut. To celebrate, NBC is airing the film, complete with an introduction by Spielberg. Before we get into specifics about how to tune in, lets take a look at some fun facts about the flick, and what summer 2025 offers in the way of potential blockbusters. It all started with a true story The movie Jaws is based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The reporter-turned-novelist was inspired by two powerful forces: his fond memories as a child fishing for sharks in Nantucket with his dad, and a newspaper article that told the real-life story of Frank Mundus, a Montauk, New York, fisherman who hooked a 2-ton-plus great white shark, as NBC notes. The childhood nostalgia and stranger-than-fiction story combined to make a bestseller. Benchley cowrote the films screenplay with Carl Gottlieb. Each has a cameo in the film (Benchley as a reporter and Gottlieb as Meadows, the newspaper editor). Spielberg was not the first director attached to the film Its hard to imagine today, but the name Spielberg wasnt always synonymous with storytelling excellencethat reputation had to be earned. Spielberg was just 27 when he devoured Benchleys novel and decided he wanted to be a part of the film version. However, his résumé at the time included only the television movie Duel and the theatrically released The Sugarland Express. Jaws producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown had already offered the project to another director, as Far Out magazine reports. When that individual kept calling the shark a whale in a production meeting, Benchley was not impressed, and Zanuck and Brown gave the job to Spielberg. Filming was not smooth sailing The set of Jaws saw problem after problem. The films budget was originally $4 million but grew to $9 million. Principal photography was scheduled for 55 days but ended up lasting 159. Being on Jaws became a living nightmare, and not because I didnt know what I was doing or because I was struggling to find the movie in my head,” Spielberg recalled to Vanity Fair in 2023. “I knew the film I wanted to make. I just couldnt get the movie I had in mind on film as quickly as I wanted. Much of this was due to Spielbergs insistence on filming at sea off the coast of Marthas Vineyard instead of in a studio tank. A mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce, was notoriously breaking down. The script was constantly reworked, and actors didnt always get along. Jaws was a fun movie to watch but not a fun movie to make,” Spielberg added in the Vanity Fair interview. 50 years later: Special Jaws screenings and streaming To revisit this classic filmor perhaps to see it for the first timetune in to NBC Friday, June 20, at 8 p.m. ET. If that doesnt work with your schedule, the film and its three sequels are available to stream on Peacock. Its also heading back to select big screens across the U.S. beginning August 29, according to NBCUniversal. 2025 summer blockbuster offerings Another roundabout way to honor the legacy of Jaws is simply by seeing any movie in a theater this summer. The industry is still trying to find its footing after the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple Hollywood labor union strikes in 2023, and devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025. It could use the support. Plus, movie theaters have air-conditioning! Domestic ticket sales were roughly $8.6 billion last year, compared to $11.3 billion in 2019. While changing media consumption habits like streaming and endless smartphone scrolling have further challenged the notion of the summer blockbuster in recent years, 2025 still has many contenders that will vie for the crownand there really is something for everyone. This includes Jurassic World Rebirth, on which Spielberg serves as an executive producer, scheduled for release on July 2. Already on the big screen is Tom Cruises latest addition to the Mission: Impossible franchise, The Final Reckoning, complete with death-defying stunts. Families can enjoy the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon. Spielberg has his fingerprints on this one, too: While he was not directly involved with this iteration of the story, he cofounded DreamWorks, which led to the creation of DreamWorks Animation, the studio that produced the original films.
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The power always comes back on. It did at Londons Heathrow Airport earlier this year after a fire at a substation disrupted some 1,400 flights at the global hub, upending the plans and lives of 200,000 passengers. It did again on the Iberian Peninsula in April after a power outage, whose cause is still undetermined, knocking out transit in Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon and grounding flights even as back-up generators kicked on. And it did in May after the air traffic control tower at Houston Hobby lost power for an hour and backup generators kicked on. Some might say the missed business meetings, the vacations disrupted, and the cargo delayed are unfortunate costs of doing business, collateral damage in a system that supports $4.1 trillion in world economic activity. Others might think the airport power outages are so rare or brief that the fixa power source not reliant on the existing electric gridis a cost-prohibitive solution. Critical role in global connectivity The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed 24 commercial airports in 2023 and found a total of 321 electrical power outagesi.e., an unplanned loss of power lasting five minutes or longerfrom 2015 through 2022. Eleven of the airports reported six or more outages over this eight-year period. The GAO study came after Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International Airportthe worlds busiesthad a power outage in 2017 and LAXthe worlds seventh busiesthad one in 2019. Because of the interconnected nature of commercial aviation, the effects of those outages rippled across the nation and world. Airports play a critical role in global connectivity, in local and regional economic growth, and in the event of disastersthe most likely place where aid and rebuilding supplies will first arrive. They are also where transplant organs, high-value, time-sensitive goods, and critical machinery/parts needed for hospitals and utility companies arrive. Reliably functioning airport infrastructure matters. Our lives and livelihoods depend on them. New energy solutions At Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), we started to think about options after Atlantas outage and took decisive action after Los Angeles outage. Our goal was to ensure resiliency and redundancy so we could have power, no matter what. Four years ago, we commissioned a first-in-the-world airport microgrid that fully powers a major airport. Since then, we have achieved site-hardened infrastructure, lowered our cost of energy (in the millions, annually) and contributed to cleaner air by sourcing our energy very locally. PIT’s microgrid, powered by a 20 MW energy plant using on-site natural gas and a 3MW solar facility with nearly 10,000 panels built on top of a landfill, allows us to operate independently if outside disruptions occurand they have. A recent regional power loss that impacted commercial customers throughout the region had no effect on the airport. Our microgrid provided full power to our airport and airfield, without any disruption. Not every airport is blessed with huge supplies of natural gas on property, but by adopting innovative solutions to provide energy security, we can make our world a better place for everyonewhether they fly or not. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Airports must analyze the resources available that make the most sense for their circumstanceswhether its solar power, natural gas pipelines, or other creative options. The industry has faced threats and found solutions time and time again. As a result, air travel is safer and more secure. Now is the time for airports to lead with a vision that sees beyond runways and terminals and create plans for resilience and build a future that withstands the loss of power. Because wouldnt it be better and safer for us all if the power never went out? Christina Cassotis is CEO of Pittsburgh International Airport.
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