20 Historical Figures Who Survived One Disaster Only To Die In Another
A Second Hack of the Scythe
Living through a disaster is usually more than enough for some people, and it’s definitely more than enough for one lifetime. History, however, has plenty of people who went straight back to dangerous work…or were just plain unlucky. The 20 figures all survived one catastrophe right before losing their lives in a separate one later on.
Unknown (The Age newspaper) on Wikimedia
1. Gus Grissom
Gus Grissom nearly drowned after his capsule hit the Atlantic in 1961—its hatch unexpectedly blew, and seawater poured inside. He escaped into the ocean and was eventually rescued, but less than six years later, Grissom was killed alongside Ed White and Roger Chaffee when a fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a 1967 ground test.
2. Anatoli Boukreev
Anatoli Boukreev made it through the disastrous 1996 Mount Everest climb; a storm wiped out eight climbers and left others stranded. The experienced mountaineer became one of the disaster's most discussed names, especially once he returned to those conditions to help rescue others from his expedition. On Christmas Day 1997, not even a year and a half later, he was killed in an avalanche.
3. George Mallory
Long before his famous disappearance, Mallory was part of the 1922 British Everest expedition, whose final summit attempt ended when an avalanche took out seven porters. Mallory made it out alive and returned to Everest in 1924, determined to reach a summit no one else had. He and Andrew Irvine disappeared that June, and Mallory's body wasn't discovered until 1999.
Nationaal Archief on Wikimedia
4. Bessie Coleman
A flying exhibition nearly ended Bessie Coleman's career in 1923 when her plane crashed. Coleman made it out with a broken leg and ribs, but after months of recovery she went right back to performing as one of America's most celebrated early aviators. During a practice flight in 1926, Coleman’s aircraft went out of control, throwing her from the cockpit and ending her life at just 34 years old.
5. Calbraith Perry Rodgers
Calbraith Perry Rodgers became the first person to fly across the continental United States in 1911. It’s a massive feat, but his trip involved plenty of crashes and forced stops along the way. He, however, made it out alive. But in 1912, he flew into a flock of birds during an exhibition, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, and died from his injuries.
6. Lincoln Beachey
By 1913, daredevil pilot Lincoln Beachey had already survived an exhibition accident—his aircraft crashed near a hangar and took the life of a young woman while Beachey escaped with minor injuries. That didn't persuade him to quit, though, and in 1915, his airplane broke apart while he was performing. He drowned after the wreck plunged into the water.
7. Patsy Cline
Country singer Patsy Cline was critically injured in a head-on collision in 1961, an accident that left her hospitalized and required months of recovery. She managed to return to recording and performing afterward, but in 1963, Cline was traveling home when the small plane carrying her crashed near Tennessee, killing everyone aboard.
Four Star Records on Wikimedia
8. Graham Hill
No one said Formula One was easy, and two-time champion Graham Hill proved that. He endured a brutal accident in 1969 after his Lotus spun and crashed, leaving him with serious leg injuries. Recovery was difficult, but he did manage to return to the track. But in 1975, the Piper Aztec he was piloting crashed, killing Hill and the five members of his racing team who were with him.
9. Mike Hawthorn
Mike Hawthorn was competing in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans when the unthinkable happened. A chain-reaction collision sent Pierre Levegh's car into the spectator area, killing Levegh and more than 80 people in one of racing's worst disasters. Hawthorn somehow remained in the race and eventually won it, but he died just four years later when his Jaguar crashed in England.
10. Davey Allison
A crash in 1992 left NASCAR’s Davey Allison badly injured, but before anyone could assume the worst, he survived and returned to competition. That July, however, a helicopter he was piloting crashed while landing inside Talladega Superspeedway, and the 32-year-old driver died the following day.
11. Donald Campbell
Speed-record seeker Donald Campbell was lucky enough to survive his 1960 crash, one where his Bluebird CN7 lost control at 360 mph during an attempt on the land-speed record. Rather than call it quits, the wreck only fueled his desire to break records on both land and water. But during another 1967 record attempt, his Bluebird K7 went airborne and somersaulted at enormous speed, killing him instantly.
12. Steve Fossett
Steve Fossett was attempting a round-the-world balloon flight in 1998 when severe weather sent him plunging 29,000 feet into the Coral Sea. Fossett survived, was rescued, then continued chasing records. He disappeared while piloting in 2007, and investigators later concluded that the plane had crashed in the Sierra Nevada.
13. Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen had one 1925 goal: to attempt to reach the North Pole by airplane. That ambition nearly became fatal when one aircraft was damaged on the ice, and the six explorers were stranded for nearly three weeks. After somehow clearing a makeshift runway, the group squeezed into the remaining plane and managed to make it home. In 1928, Amundsen disappeared while flying on a rescue mission for the Italia airship disaster. Neither his body nor the aircraft was ever recovered intact.
14. Jochen Rindt
During the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc, rear-wing failures sent both Graham Hill and Rindt into major crashes. Rindt walked away with nothing more than a broken nose, but just one year later was killed during practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Evers, Joost / Anefo / neg. stroken, 1945-1989, 2.24.01.05, item number 923-6109 on Wikimedia
15. Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson and her husband, another aviator named Jim Mollison, were trying to fly nonstop from Wales to New York in 1933. Dwindling fuel and poor visibility forced them down near Connecticut, and they crashed into a ditch. Both were thrown from the wreck, but they escaped. In 1941, Johnson bailed out over the Thames Estuary in awful weather and disappeared in the water.
Andy Dingley (scanner) on Wikimedia
16. Doris Miller
Doris Miller was aboard the battleship USS West Virginia when Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor. He not only survived, but also helped wounded sailors—and fired an anti-aircraft weapon despite having no actual training in using it. Nearly two years later, he was aboard the USS Liscome Bay when a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship, wiping out him and hundreds of his shipmates.
Unknown photographer, US Navy; restored by User:Coffeeandcrumbs on Wikimedia
17. George Welch
George Welch was among the small number of American fighter pilots who actually managed to reach the skies during Pearl Harbor. He survived the war and even became a test pilot afterward. But in 1954, Welch was killed after his F-100A broke apart during a test flight and he couldn’t eject in time.
United States Air Force on Wikimedia
18. John Moisant
John Moisant tried to fly from Paris to London in 1910, only to crash-land near England. Moisant survived and kept flying, and on December 31 of that same year, a gust of wind caught his aircraft as he approached a landing near New Orleans. It threw him from the machine and claimed his life.
19. Frank Hawks
Record-setting pilot Frank Hawks was no stranger to danger, especially after a 1932 crash left him recovering for months in the hospital. The injuries didn't end his career, though, and in 1938, Hawks was fatally injured after the Gwinn Aircar he was piloting struck utility wires and crashed near New York.
San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives on Wikimedia
20. Leif Dietrichson
Remember Roald Amundsen’s dangerous 1925 expedition? Well, Leif Dietrichson piloted one of the two aircraft and was also part of the team that got stranded in the Arctic. Three years later, Dietrichson also joined Amundsen aboard the Latham 47 sent to search for survivors of the Italia disaster, and he too perished in the crash.
