Moments before tragedy strikes, life can appear completely ordinary — and a photo is taken, never knowing it will be the last.
These final images offer a haunting glimpse into the seconds before everything changed. Some of these photographs are well-known, others barely seen, but each carries the weight of what came next.
These photos (as well as some videos) capture ordinary scenes that would soon become anything but.
Warning: Some of the following photos and videos contain content that some may find upsetting.
A Family’s Last Selfie Before the Air India plane crash
Before the Air India flight crash on June 23, 2025, a family of five took a happy selfie together on the doomed plane. In the heartbreaking photograph, British radiologist Prateek Joshi and his wife Doctor Komi Vyas can be seen smiling with their three children on board Air India Flight AI171 before the crash, according to various news outlets. The Joshi family would be five of more than 240 people who died when Boeing 787 bound for Gatwick crashed shortly after take off in Ahmedabad, India.
Last Photo of a Couple at a Crime Scene
These eerie photos found at a crime scene where a couple were shot to death show their last moments alive. On October 17, 2003, 19-year-old Lisa Gurrieri and 20-year-old Brandon Rumbaugh were celebrating their one-year anniversary by camping off Bumble Bee Road — a remote part of the desert in Arizona — when they were found shot to death inside sleeping bags in the bed of their truck.
Nearly two decades have passed since Lisa’s and Brandon’s murder and police have still not been able to identify who killed the couple or why. However, at the crime scene, detectives found a disposable camera which the couple purchased on their way to the desert. Police recovered some of the photos from the camera and two of the images were portraits of the smiling couple posing in the bed of their truck. Detectives don’t believe anything was amiss at the time that Lisa and Brandon took the photographs. But these individual photos of the couple are the very last happy images taken before their murders.
The Last Photo of Uruguayan Flight 571
This is the final photograph taken aboard Uruguayan flight 571 before it crashed in the mountains in Argentina on October 13, 1972, while carrying 45 passengers, including a rugby team. Stranded in freezing conditions with little food, the survivors endured extreme hunger, injuries, and avalanches. After exhausting all supplies, the starving passengers made the harrowing decision to survive by eating the bodies of those who had died in the crash.
Their ordeal lasted 72 days before two survivors hiked for ten days across the mountains to find help. A rescue operation was launched, and on December 20, 1972, the remaining 14 survivors were finally saved. The events inspired the 2023 movie Society of The Snow.
A Newlywed Couple’s Final Photo Together
A happy couple is waved off on their wedding day in South Carolina in April 2023, surrounded by family and friends holding sparklers — ready to begin their life together. But moments later, tragedy struck and this joyful wedding photo would become the couple’s final image together.
Just seconds after the picture was taken, newlyweds Samantha Miller, 34, and Aric Hutchinson, 36, left their wedding reception in a golf cart and were rear-ended by a speeding drunk driver. The impact sent the golf cart rolling for nearly 100 yards, killing Samantha instantly. Aric survived, suffering a traumatic brain injury and multiple broken bones.
‘The Kiss of Death’
This infamous photo, later dubbed The Kiss of Death, captures the moment Formula 1 driver Alfonso de Portago kissed actress Linda Christian just moments before departing for the race that would claim his life—and the lives of several others.
Taken on May 12, 1957, by an anonymous photographer, the image shows the actress leaning in for a kiss during a brief stop in the 1957 Mille Miglia race through northern Italy. Shortly after, Alfonso’s Ferrari crashed when a tire burst at 150 miles per hour, killing him, his navigator Ed Nelson, and nine spectators, including five children. The youngest victim, Valentino Rigon, was just six years old.
‘Our Cursed Last Photo Together’
A couple posed for a photo together before the man fell 650 feet to his death trying to recover a phone that had been dropped. Andrea Mazzetto was enjoying a walk with his girlfriend, Sara Bragante, on the hillside of Vicenza, Italy, in August 2024. At some point, one of them dropped their phone, and while attempting to retrieve it, Andrea lost his footing and fell to his death from a precipice.
After Andrea’s death, his girlfriend Sara posted their final selfie together on Instagram alongside the caption: “Our cursed last photo together. “You will always be with me, my little bear.”
A Tourist’s Zipline Video Before a Deadly Terror Attack
BIG- This zipline operator has been picked up by NIA now for interrogation pic.twitter.com/ibUmpolxxY pic.twitter.com/6lDbr8eA3q
— Frontalforce 🇮🇳 (@FrontalForce) April 28, 2025
On April 22, A tourist filmed himself on a zipline ride with a selfie stick seconds before a deadly terror attack unfolded below him. Smiling Rishi Bhatt filmed himself ziplining over Pahalgam, a popular holiday destination in Kashmir, India moments before five gunmen opened fire. Bhatt was completely unaware that he was recording the terror attack — which left at least 26 people dead and dozens injured.
The Friends Who Missed One Important Detail
In October 2011, Essa Ricker and Kelsea Webster, both 15, and Kelsea’s younger sister Savannah posed for a selfie as they waved at a westbound train crew in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah.
The girls were aware that one train was approaching, but were completely unaware of a second train coming from the opposite direction. The train’s headlights can be seen in the top right corner of the photo.
Tragically, all three were struck after they took the photograph together. Essa and Kelsea are believed to have died instantly. Savannah was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery, but after doctors confirmed she would not recover from severe brain injuries, her parents made the heartbreaking decision to withdraw life support.
Just moments before the fatal accident, Savannah posted on Facebook: “Standing right by a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!”
Inventor’s Fatal Jump From The Eiffel Tower in a Parachute Suit
Hoy recordamos a Franz Reichelt quien, en 1912, realizó el primer ensayo de lo que hoy conocemos como neoliberalismo. Dado que la gravedad ya fue inventada por Isaac Newton en 1687, Franz cesó de existir en el acto, pero aún hoy hay quienes insisten en seguir sus pasos. pic.twitter.com/Q9Sce6rkJ8
— Nicolás Ríos (@tutifrutiauruti) September 28, 2024
On February 3, 1912, inventor Franz Reichelt was filmed jumping to his death from the Eiffel Tower in Paris while testing what he believed to be the world’s first wearable parachute suit. The 33-year-old leaped from the 187-foot-high first platform, but the canopy failed to open in time. He plunged onto the frozen ground below and died instantly.
Reichelt had such confidence in his homemade invention that he tested it in front of a crowd gathered at the Eiffel Tower, then the tallest structure in the world (until New York’s Chrysler Building was completed in 1930). Black-and-white footage captures the tragic moment he leaps, while another camera positioned on the ground films his fatal fall.
