Some photos freeze a moment in time, others capture the calm just before everything changes. These haunting images, taken seconds before disaster struck, offer a chilling glimpse into fate’s split-second cruelty and the fragile line between ordinary life and disaster.
Gladys Ricart as she glimpses her ex partner, Agustin Garcia, just seconds before he took life with a gun on her wedding day to James Preston Jr. in 1999.
In 2017, Anne Faber snapped this selfie for her boyfriend while biking alone in the rain, just moments before she was abducted and lost her life at the hands of a criminal.
Melissa Lourdes Lopez posing for a picture just seconds before losing her life after being shot at a memorial for a victim of gun violence.
In June 2020, 21-year-old Annika Ferry took this photo of her posing on a WWII bunker. Unfortunately, seconds later, it collapsed and claimed her life.
Photo of an unknown man just moments before the 2004 tsunami hit.
Last photo of Casey Rivara on May 18, 2023, in Rocklin, California. Moments after helping a family of ducks across the road, Casey was fatally struck by a vehicle.
Photograph from August 22, 2015, of a Hawker Hunter jet just l seconds before crashing into traffic on the A27 in Shoreham, West Sussex, UK. 11 people passed away, the pilot survived.
Last photo of sisters Norma and Liz Ortiz Diaz, they were on top of a tractor taking selfies, when suddenly one of them fell and the other, trying to help her, fell after her, resulting in both being ran over. Neither survived.
Cabin photo taken by a passenger on board Japan Airlines Flight 123 not long before the Boeing 747 crashed into Osutaka Ridge. 4 people miraculously survived the crash, but 520 lives were lost, including Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto.
The final selfie of a family an hour before boarding MH17. All 298 passengers and crew lost their lives that day.
This is one of the last high-quality photos of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, taken at Lemmon Avenue just minutes before his motorcade reached downtown Dallas.