20+ Haunting Photos Taken Just Before A Tragedy

1. Diana’s Crash

This shows a famously, fatal night. A moment that everybody will always remember – the death of the Princess of Wales, Diana. She has her head turned away but we all recognise her iconic head of hair and the photo before the night of the crash that lead to her untimely death.

In the picture aswell as Diana is her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones and the driver named Henri Paul. The night of the photo and the fatal crash was August 31, 1997.

(Image Source/ TheMirror)

2. Uruguayan Flight 571

This is Uruguayan Flight 571. It captures the moments before it it crashed in the Andes. It was 13-10-1972 and these people are excited, or chatting or relaxing in their seats.

It is horrifying to see this happy image knowing that soon after, the flight crashes and half of the people on board died. There were 27 out of 45 survivors, but they were only rescued 72 days later and so they were forced to survive from cannibalism. Only 16 people made it to the date of rescue.

3. Deathly Fall

This famous photo shows a boy named Keith Sapsford. he had run away and hid in the wheel well of a Tokyo Airline plane. He had heard a story of another young boy hiding in a plane who died, he thought he could do the same and survive.

He had not realised that the wheel well would reopen, and he tragically fell to his death. The guy that pictured his final moments, and literally the fall that led to his death was just testing out a new camera at that moment.

4. The Challenger

This was the crew boarding for the space shuttle named Challenger. Tragically, the spaceshuttle broke only a mere 73 seconds into the flight. This picture captures the crew minutes before their tragic demise, when they were boarding the shuttle.

And, as we can see the crew is full of hope and excitement in regards to their mission ahead which makes the photograph even more haunting. The crew had no idea of what was about to happen and this is the picture that was captured moments before. Every sone of them looks alight with excitement or anticipation.

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5. St. Helens Eruption

This captured the eruption of St. Helens. You can see in the photo the huge ash cloud as it creeps closer. Unfortunately, the man who took this photo died shortly after capturing this image. He was killed by the ash cloud, which he pictures moments before he died.

The dark looming shadow is even more eery once we realise that this shot captured the moment right before his death. And, the fact that we are staring right at the cause of his death in this photo. The film managed to survive as he protected it with his body.

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6. Bomb Explosion

This photo was taken seconds before the Omagh bombing. The photograph even shows the red car, where the bomb was placed. It is a very poignant photo because nobody is aware that seconds later their world would change forever.

The man and his chid are happily smiling for their photo. Somehow the two of them thankfully survived. The man taking the photograph tragically did not. 29 poeple died in the bomb explosions which happened seconds after the moment we see here and many more were injured.

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7. Sacrifice

This photo captures the heroic last moments of a school teacher. This was Columbine High School Massacre when the shool was stormed by a shooter. He can be seen here guiding 100 students out of the caffeteria to try and save them and get them to safety.

He managed to save many lives, but he was tragically later shot twice in his chest and murdered by the shooter. These are his last moments of bravery before he sadly died.

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8. Family Vacation

This photo was taken before Dave Hally and his wife and daughter set off for their dream holiday abroad. He’s taken this photo of his wife and daughter to capture their excitement and mark the beginning of their family vacation. This makes it even more heartbreaking because the family were full of happiness and anticipation and were about to have the holiday of their dreams.

Tragically, the plane was shot down by Russian led forces over Ukraine territory and nobody on board the aircraft survived. His daughter in the photo was just four years old.

9. Flight 235

These two photos show the very moments before the aircraft Transasia flight 235 crashed, into the Keelung river in Taiwan. The photo has been captured on the dash cam of a driver’s car. The plane had 58 people on board of which only 15 survived.

This is a particurlarly horrifying image as the plane is captured literally seconds before crashing, and seconds before lots of people lost their life. As we can see the aircraft has twisted sideways and if plummeting towards the ground. Here it is falling over the bridge, where it then crashed straight into the river.

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10. At the Theatre

This couple, Gilles Leclerc And Marianne Labanane were taking a selfie here whilst cheersing their drinks. They were out together for a concert to see The Eagles of Death Metal. Here they were waiting for the performance to start and decided to capture the moment of their night.

Just moments after this photo, four men with guns stormed the concert and started shooting. Gilles Leclerc did not manage to survive, whilst Marianne Labanane did. This photo was the last moment she had before she lost her partner.

11. Stunt Gone Wrong

This is a photo of Robert Overcracker, a proffesional stuntman. He wanted to do something huge to raise awareness about the crisis of homelessness. He decided to drive a jet ski over the Niagra falls, and had a prachute ready for the fall. But, the parachute never opened and he fell to his death.

This moment in the photo captures seconds before his tragic demise. The picture shows Overcracker literally falling to his deatg. You can see him in the air with his jet ski below him. In ths moment he was supposed to have been saved by his parachute, which failed him.

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12. Bear Attack

A guy named West Milford took the photo of this bear whilst he was enjoying a hike in New Jersey. Unfortunately, not long after taking this photo he was killed by the bear.

It’s a disturbing perspective to be looking through the lens of someone deceased whilst staring right at the cause of that very death. In this case, the bear which Milford was had stopped to take a photograph of at the time. The bear, after seeing Milford, attacked him and killed him.

13. Free Diving

Nicholas Mevoli wanted to push his free diving to the extremes and wanted to attempt a dive that was 263 metres deep. This was him when he came back out of the water. he managed to complete the dive and resurface back to the top of the water.

However, he came out and immediately gave the OK signal, then he found he was unable to speak. He then passed out and was never able to wake up again. He suffered from what is called a Pulmonary Edema.

14. Paul Walker’s Crash

This is the famous Paul Walker before his tragic crash that stole his and the driver’s lives. He was entering the car at this moment, just before the race. Of course this is the last time he ever entered a car and so it captures one of the last moments of his life.

This was back in 2013, a day that everybody remembers when the well loved Paul Walker lost his life as well as the driver who was called Roger Rodas.

15. Jumped Off the Waterfall

This family were on family vacation when they asked someone to take a photo of them. What they didn’t realise is that in the background, the girl dressed in the red top was about to jump over the bridge of the Niagra Falls.

This photograph was unknowlingly the last time she was seen alived before she jumped to her death. It makes the photo feel even more sinister that what should have been a happy photo has captured this horrendous moment.

16. Airplane Crash

This photo literally captures the moment mid tragedy. This photo was taken in 1978 and it pictures the Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 which ended up crashing into a small private plane.

The Cessna 172 plane that it crashed into and the aircraft both fell from the sky. This photograph shows the plane falling to the sky before it crashes and tragically kills those on board.

17. After the Crash

This was a photo that had been recovered after the crash of Flight 123, Japan Airlines. There were a total of 520 people on board and only 4 people managed to survive the crash. This photo shows the aftermath of the crash.

You can see the oxygen masks from the panels above. Looking at the picture and knowing how many lives were lost makes the photo a horrific snapshot of this tragedy.

18. Into the Wild

This is a picture of Christopher McCandless, he was living in the wild setting a new precident for a new lifestyle. He has become known for the programme ‘Into the Wild’. But, in reality this lifestyle became his ending.

He had been living in a bus that had been abandoned, he wanted a life removed from society where he could live wildly. His body was found decomposed by some Moose Hunters. The cause of his death was officially ruled as starvation.

19. Parkour

This is a photo of Pavel Kashin, he was a young guy who loved Parkour and loved trying new tricks. He was performing infront of people doing a backflip onto the wall while people were taking photos at this very moment.

The picture captures him in the middle of his move, but when he landed the flip he lost his balance and fell to the ground where he died. Here we can see him seconds before that happened, when the crowd had no idea what was going to happen.

20. Mount Everest Expedition

Here in this photo is George Mallory And Sandy Irvine. They were on an expedition to conquer Everest. This was taken in the morning when the couple were ready with anticipation.

Sadly, the pair never made it back again. Noone knows whether the two of them made it to the top or not, all that is known as that they never returned and this is the last photo of them. Full of excitement and unaware of the fate that lay very closely ahead of them.

21. Pyrotechnics

This photograph shows the band called Great White whilst they were performing at Rhode Island’s Station Nightclub. They had pyrotechnics planned that night, as you can see in the background of the photo.

However, the pyrotechnics went wrong and ended up killing over 100 people. This photo was taken at the time to capture a happy moment, it ended up people the last shot of the night which destroyed many lives.

22. Titanic

This photo will strike a chord with many. Many people may have even seen this infamous photo before. The well known tragedy the Titanic. This shows one of the last photos and moments where the Titanic was still afloat.

More than 1500 didn’t survive that day, this photo is particularly poignant as we know of the tragedy that would occur soon after.

23. Niagara River

This shows Joseph Avery as he was sailing on the Niagara River and crashed. Two men died straight away as a result of the boat crashing. Somehow, Joseph Avery managed to survive this part and cling on until help arrived.

However, a boat came to rescue him and it ended up capsizing which then killed him. This photo tells a tale of heart break and captures a man in the last moments of his life, completely unbeknown to him.

24. R. Budd Dwyer

R. Budd Dwyer at this point in time was the treasurer of Pennsylvania in the years of 1981 to 1987. However he was then accused of bribery and tax fraud. His trial was televised and millions of people were watching at the time.

Dwyer who had had his reputation smeared by the accusations could not handle it. He shot himself during the live trial and it was televised for everyone to witness. He ended up being found not guilty.

25. The Concorde Crash

The crash of the Concorde is infamous, the take off of the plane was very much anticipated and it very quickly went horribly wrong. This photo captures the exact moment of the Concorde being on fire.

The Concorde launched and one of its engines caught fire and it caused the plane to crash into a nearby hotel. The incident caused a loss of 113 lives. This is the image that captured a moment just seconds before the further tragedy.

26. Bull Fight

This is a picture of Víctor Barrio Hernanz, he was a professional bullfighter from Segovia in Spain.This was taken on July 9, 2016, the day of the Feria del Ángel festival in Teruel which he was taking part in. At the start it seemed to be going his way.

But, towards the end he lost control and the bull threw him to the ground and started to attack him. He lost his life and the whole thing was live streamed for the nation to witness.

27. A Tragedy

This photo was taken by a freelance photographer. The man in the photo, on the train tracks was called Ki-Suck Han. Apparently he had been having a fight with another man and it became physical. The other man said he pushed Han in self defence and he ended up falling onto the tracks.

Tragically, the train was coming and Han could not get out of the trains way in time and was killed. The photograph, of course, caused public outrage because nobody understood why nobody had helped pull Han from the tracks.

(Image Source/ Historyofyesterday)

28. James Dean

This photo was taken on September 30, 1955. It shows James Dean stood with was his Porsche 550 Spyder. He was driving to an auto rally in Salinas, California. But, he sadly crashed and ended up dying from the seriousness of the injuries.

He had collided with a student who was driving. The student survuved the crash but sadly James Dean did not. He was a Hollywood legend and this photo captures him in his last hours.

(Image Source/ Historyofyesterday)

29. Missing Flight

This selfie is a tragic reminder of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which went missing in 2014 and was never found again. The people on board are presumed to be dead.

This selfie is of a son and mother, Gary and Petra Slok. The two of them look so excited to be going on holiday and it makes the photograph so much harder to see, knowing that this was the last picture just a couple of hours before they went missing forever.

30. Hot Air Baloon Fire

This photo shows an incident in 2021, in Carterton New Zealand. The hot air balloon crashed into power lines and set alight with all of the people on board. People had taken the ride on a day out and they enver knew that tragedy would strike. Once it had caught fire it then crashed and all the 11 people who were on the hot air balloon at the time died.

Two of the victims tried to jump to the ground but the fall was too great and they died. This photo shows the tragedy as it was happening, as you can see here the hot air baloon is already on fire.