On May 18, 1980, Robert Landsberg, a freelance photographer, was just four miles away from Mount St. Helen. He had spent some time in the vicinity, exploring the beautiful vistas prior to the fatal event. This photo, showing the wall of ash that formed after the eruption, was the last one he took. Landsberg managed to hide the film with the photos before disaster struck on it under his body, leaving this as a piece of documentation of the events.

This is one of the last pictures before the disaster of the Challenger shuttle. The image shows all of the seven Challenger Shuttle crew members as they are boarding the vessel on January 28, 1986. The Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, ultimately killing all of the seven crew members.

Mayinga N’Seka, a nurse, is depicted here during an Ebola outbreak In 1976. The outbreak happened in Zaire, where 318 cases and 280 deaths were documented (88% fatality rate). Her dedication meant that she eventually contracted the disease herself and passed away not long after.

The Omagh Bombing was a car bombing that occurred on August 15, 1998, in the town of Omagh in Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army. The blast took away the lives of 29 people, including that of a woman pregnant with twins, and injured over 200 others. The man and the child in the image that precedes unfortunate events survived, but the photographer didn’t. 

On February 20, 1970, a 14-year-old Australian teen named Keith Sapsford snuck into the Sydney Airport and hid in the wheel well of a plane en route to Japan. Keith was described as a curious kid, and this was his attempt at an adventure. However, soon after the plane took off, a tragedy struck, and Keith’s 200ft plunge to death was accidentally documented by John Gilpin, an amateur photographer, who happened to be testing his new camera lens at that time and took this haunting photo before a disaster. 

On April 20, 1999, a shooting and an attempted bombing took place at the Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. The photos taken before disaster show William “Dave” Sanders guiding over 100 students out of the cafeteria to safety. While he did save those students, he was later shot twice in the chest and did not survive. 

This is the last image of the infamous Uruguayan Flight 571, right before it crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972. 27 out of 45 people survived the initial crash. However, they were eventually forced to cannibalize the dead to stay alive. Out of the 27 who survived the crash, 16 were rescued 72 days later. 

Dave Hally took one last photo of his wife and their 4-year-old daughter aboard the MH17 flight that was supposed to take them on their dream vacation from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The plane was shot down shortly after its take-off while flying over a Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine. The tragedy took the lives of all 283 passengers and 15 crew members, and this is one of the last pictures before the disaster.

A dash cam captured the moments right before TransAsia’s flight 235 crashed in the Keelung River in Taiwan. The plane carried 58 people, and only 15 of them survived. The crash was deemed to be the mistake of the pilots. 

Gilles Leclerc and Marianne Labanane took a selfie at the Bataclan Theatre while waiting to see the performance of The Eagles of Death Metal. Moments later, four terrorists stormed into the theater and started shooting, ultimately killing 90 people. Gilles was killed in the attack, but Marianne, shielded by Gilles, survived. 

Robert Overcracker was a professional stuntman who wanted to raise awareness for the homeless. So, in 1995, he decided to drive a jet ski over Niagara Falls to get the needed attention. One of these photos taken before disaster caught the moment as his parachute failed to deploy, ultimately sending Robert to his demise. 

Harambe, a 17-year-old silverback gorilla, was shot after an incident involving a kid falling into his enclosure. The tragic events sparked a lot of talk on the internet, with many condemning the conduct of the zookeepers, saying the gorilla was shot without justification. In the image, you can see the last moments before Harambe’s death in Cincinnati Zoo in 2016.