1943 Lambert Tragedy

In 1943, William Dee Becker, the mayor of St. Louis, set out on a military glider with nine other politicians when a single bolt failed and caused a wing to shear off. The ten politicians were sent 2,000 feet to their death after the glider was released from a C-47 cargo plane and was said to be the biggest tragedy to ever occur in St. Louis.

The Titanic

On April 14th, 1912, the “unsinkable” ship Titanic struck an iceberg just 375 miles south of land on its first voyage from Europe to the United States. Of the 2,224 passengers on board, only 705 survivors were brought on board the RMS Carpathia when it arrived hours after the sinking began.

This image is thought to be the last one ever taken of the Titanic afloat as it disembarked in Queenstown (now Cobh) on its way to its tragic ending.

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182

In 1978, PSA Flight 182 collided mid-air with a private Cessna aircraft above San Diego, California. All 135 passengers in the PSA Flight 182 died, along with the two passengers from the Cessna plane and seven bystanders on the ground. The photo above was taken of the descending PSA flight just after their collision, an incident that may have been avoided if the pilots had taken the warning of a nearby Cessna seriously.