The world’s most
lethal cinema was the “Airborne Cinematico Fantastiquement” of Porto. It was
open from June 1968 until August 1972, when it closed after causing 522 deaths.
The cinema consisted of a large, multi-directional projector on the top of a
tower block, which projected films onto the bottom of a cargo plane, which
would circle above the tower block, with
the film projected onto it’s belly, while the crowd watched from below,
listening with speakers placed around the roof. On it’s final show, a flock of
geese flew past the plane, and several were sucked in to the engines, causing
the plane to crash into one block of flats, knocking it down, while flaming
goose corpses hit the projector, causing it to explode, killing the
cinema-viewers on the roof, and setting fire to the building they were on. The
owner and inventor of the Cinematico,
Pedriquo Massinite, lamented, “I am ruined. I hold the patents for the ACF
system, but who will want to run a cinema that devours it’s customers?”
©2012 James Mathurin
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| This is a view of the neighbourhood which the "ACF" circled over during its shows. The cargo plane would fly in from outside of the city, to circle the large building in the centre of the picture, with the banner on it. Photograph by Luiz Fernando / Sonia Maria. |
