On October 1st 1995, 39-year-old, Robert Overacker attempted to Jet Ski off Niagara Falls in
a stunt to raise awareness for the homeless. Overacker’s jet ski was decorated with stickers
that read “Save the homeless” and he equipped himself with a life preserver and a rocket-propelled
parachute which he planned to use to lift himself clear off his jet ski so he could
glide down safely. However, as Overacker approached the brink of the waterfall, his rocket-propelled
parachute failed to deploy and the moment this happened was captured on camera. Overacker
plummeted to his death, making him the fifth person to be taken by the falls.
Filipino politician, Reynaldo Dagsa was taking a New Year’s Day family photo of his wife,
daughter and mother-in-law when he snapped a photo that would be his last. He inadvertently
captured a gunman pointing a gun directly at him as well as another man acting as a
lookout. Just seconds after the photo was taken the gunman fired two shots at Dagsa,
hitting him in the forearm and chest. The shots were muffled by the sound of fireworks
and Dagsa’s family only realised something was wrong after Dagsa fell to the ground.
Dagsa was rushed to a nearby hospital, however, was pronounced dead. The gunman and his suspected
accomplices were later arrested after Dagsa’s family presented police with the chilling
family photo.
On the 25th July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 was scheduled to fly from Paris to New York,
however, upon take-off the Concorde aircraft ran over some debris on the runway causing
its fuel tank to rupture and burst into flames. This photo was captured as the Concorde aircraft
took-off with flames clearly visible on the bottom of the left wing. Sadly, all 109 people
on-board including all crew members died when the Concorde aircraft crashed into a nearby
hotel in Gonesse. Four people were also killed on the ground and one was left critically
injured. This was the only fatal Concorde accident in its entire 27-year operational
history.
This was the last photo of William “Dave” Sanders, a teacher at Columbine High School
who was a victim of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre which saw a total of 15 people
killed including the perpetrators themselves. In the security picture, Sanders can be seen
warning hundreds of students in the school’s cafeteria that a shooting was taking place.
Sanders then headed upstairs in order to warn other students, however, was met by Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold, the two perpetrators. Sanders turned and started to run in the opposite
direction, however, was shot in the back, neck and torso by Harris. Sadly, Sanders later
died of blood loss but thanks to his heroic efforts, he saved hundreds of lives as the
whole cafeteria was evacuated before the shooters arrived.
Known to be the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history, this is a recovered photo
from Japan Airlines Flight 123 taken 32 minutes before the plane crashed near Mount Osutaka.
A total of 520 people on-board including all crew members perished on that fateful day
on the 12th August 1985; there were just 4 survivors. Just 12 minutes into the flight,
the plane suffered an explosive decompression which caused the cabin pressure to lower and
so emergency oxygen for passengers were deployed, as shown in the photo. 32 minutes following
this, the plane became uncontrollable and crashed into the mountain. It is believed
that some survived the initial crash, however, due to massive delays in the rescue effort,
only four managed
to survive.