Number 5 – Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe was a well-renowned American mountaineer. He climbed several peaks in North America
and Asia and was well regarded by his peers. In 1995, Lowe received the American Alpine
Club's Underhill Award for outstanding mountaineering achievement, the highest honour in U.S. mountaineering.
However, in September 1999, Lowe, Anker and David Bridges travelled to Himalayan giant
Shishapangma, the fourth highest peak in the world, as part of the 1999 American Shishapangma
Ski Expedition. Three weeks into their trek, Lowe's group (Lowe, Anker and Bridges) were
crossing a flat glacier when an avalanche started to come straight at them! Lowe's team
at first thought the slide posed no threat, and took photographs of it, before realising
that it was headed straight at them. The avalanche swept all three men. Anker was thrown a reported
100 feet by the windblast, and suffered a lacerated head, two broken ribs, and dislocated
shoulder, but emerged from the snow, and led a rescue attempt that spanned a reported 20
hours in a large debris field measuring up to 20 feet deep. Neither Lowe nor Bridges
were wearing a distress radiobeacon, which might have helped rescuers pinpoint their
bodies. Neither body was found.
Number 4 – Rich Weiss
Richard Weiss was a West German-born, American slalom kayaker who competed from the mid-1980s
to the mid-1990s. He won a silver medal in the K-1 event at the 1993 ICF Canoe Slalom
World Championships in Mezzana. Weiss also competed in two Summer Olympics, finishing
a respectable sixth place in the K-1 event in Atlanta in 1996. In the 1992 Olympics in
Barcelona, his finish was mired in controversy after a television replay showed a judge’s
error which costed him a bronze medal. However, in 1992, Weiss attempted to run “Big Brother,”
a Class 5 rapid with a 30 foot waterfall. Unfortunately, Weiss’ attempt proved to
be unsuccessful as he drowned in the White Salmon River in Washington State. His death
rocked the paddling world, as his paddling skill and the section where the mishap occurred
reinforced the notion that "if it happened to him it could happen to anyone."
Number 3 – Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes was a keen Austrailian Test batsman. He played domestic cricket for South Australia
and Worcestershire. He was a left-handed opening batsman who played for two seasons with New
South Wales before making his Test debut in 2009 at the age of 20. However, during an
afternoon session of the Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and New South
Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground on the 25th November 2014, Hughes, batting at 63
not out, was struck in the neck by the ball after missing an attempted hook shot to a
bouncer from New South Wales bowler Sean Abbott. Although Hughes was wearing a helmet, the
ball struck an unprotected area just below his left ear, which immediately left him collapsing
to the ground. He was subsequently taken to hospital where he underwent surgery and was
placed into an induced coma. Unfortunately, Hughes died from his injuries two days later.
Number 2 – Tommy Cooper
Tommy Cooper was a British prop comedian and magician. Cooper was a member of the Magic
Circle, and was respected by traditional magicians. He was particularly famous for ubiquitous
red hat and his ''just like that'' catch phrase. He introduced, what is now widely followed
by magicians, comedy-magic mix. Unfortunately, during a live show on the 15th April 1984,
Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway
through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show Live from Her Majesty's, transmitted
live from Her Majesty's Theatre. The assistant smiled at him as he collapsed, believing that
it was a part of the act. Likewise, the audience gave "uproarious" laughter as he fell, gasping
for air. Little did they know that this time, it was not part of the act.
Number 1 – Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin, nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was a well-renowned Australian wildlife expert,
television personality, and conservationist. Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television
series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcasted wildlife documentary series which
he co-hosted with his wife Terri. Irwin grew up loving all wildlife, especially reptiles.
He caught his first venomous snake (a Common Brown) at the tender age of six and would
often arrive late to school after convincing his mother to pull over so he could rescue
a lizard off the road. However, on the 4th September 2006, Irwin was killed while snorkelling
at Batt Reef (part of the Great Barrier Reef) near Port Douglas, Queensland. Irwin approached
a stingray allegedly 8ft wide in chest-deep water from behind in order to film it swimming
away. According to the only witness to the attack, “All of a sudden it propped on its
front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds.”
Irwin initially believed he only had a punctured lung but the spine had pierced his heart and
he bled out. The ray's behaviour appeared to have been a defensive response to being
boxed in. Crew members aboard Irwin's boat administered CPR and rushed him to shore,
but medical staff pronounced him dead at the scene.