Deaths Broadcast On Live TV
Christa McAuliffe was selected from a pool of more than 11,000 applicants for NASA's Teacher in Space Project to become the first civilian sent into space. It would have been her task to communicate to students while in orbit.
Unfortunately, on January 28th, 1986, McAuliffe never even got the chance to exit Earth's atmosphere. 73 seconds after the shuttle Challenger blasted off, it broke apart and exploded, killing McAuliffe and her six other crew members.
Due to the teacher's presence on the ship and the general excitement over sending a non-professional astronaut into space, many school children watched the horrific accident on live television. McAuliffe was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2004.
Alison Parker and Adam Ward
In August of 2015, Roanoke, VA reporter Alison Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward were broadcasting from Smith Mountain Lake near Moneta, interviewing chamber of commerce director Vicki Gardner. Bryce Williams, a disgruntled, recently fired employee of Parker and Ward's station WDBJ approached the pair with his cell phone in one hand and a pistol in the other.
Williams filmed himself on his phone aiming his gun at both Gardner and Parker, then opened fire. Eight gunshots were heard, followed by Ward's camera falling to the ground. The station then cut back to the anchors at the studio. Gardner was also shot, but she survived her injuries.
More chilling than the on-air deaths of Parker and Ward is William's cell phone footage of the shooting.
Perhaps the most famous on-air death in history, JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby in front of national news cameras broadcasting Oswald's escort from the Dallas Police Headquarters to an armored car. Ruby shot Oswald in the gut, effectively killing him on the spot (he would not be officially pronounced dead until later that day).
As President John F. Kennedy had died only the day before, millions were watching their TV sets as Ruby pulled the trigger.
Jodon F. Romero
During a live airing of Studio B (now retitled Shepherd Smith Reporting) on Fox, news helicopters followed the high-speed chase between Arizona Highway Patrolmen and Jodon F. Romero, who had stolen a car. Romero swerved off onto a dirt road, exited his vehicle, ran a few paces into the brush, and then stopped. Romero then pulled a .45 caliber pistol from his waistband, pressed the barrel to his temple, and shot himself in the head.
Immediately after, Shepherd Smith screams, "Get off it, get off it, GET OFF IT!," referring to live feed. The video, however, was on a delay, which is why Smith's plea follow Romero's suicide. After a commercial break, Smith apologized for the graphic imagery.
Daniel Jones
Reportedly frustrated with his HMO coverage, cancer and HIV patient Daniel Jones parked his pickup truck in the middle of an L.A. freeway, set his vehicle on fire (with his dog still inside) and then committed suicide by placing the barrel of a shotgun under his chin and firing.
The incident was apparently witnessed by several school children, whose afternoon cartoons had been interrupted to show what had begun as a high-speed chase. This led to several stations rethinking their minute-by-minute coverage of such events, which had gained in popularity since O.J. Simpson's much-televised Bronco chase.
This British comedian's death occurred during a broadcast of Live from Her Majesty's, a variety show that aired Sunday nights on ITV. While performing one of his famous bits, Cooper suddenly collapsed into a sitting position. Seconds later, his entire body slumped over. Several more agonizing moments elapse before the station finally cuts to a commercial.
The reason for such a prolonged hold on Cooper's body? Everyone seemed to think the fall was part of his act, including the audience. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this video is the laughter rippling through the crowd as Cooper slowly dies.
They had no way of knowing what was happening, of course, but in hindsight, the dichotomy of laughing and death is quite chilling.
Writer, orator and academic M.N. Vijayan died of cardiac arrest during a live conference at the Thrissur press club. His on-air death spurred controversy, not so much because of the disturbing nature of the video, but because some believed the massive heart attack Vijayan suffered was spurred on intentionally by bringing Vijayan to the second floor.
Critics also note that Vijayan was taken to a distant hospital, rather than one close to the press club.
Inejiro Asanuma
Inejiro Asanuma was an outspoken politician and leader of the Japan Socialist Party at the time of his death. During a nationally televised debate, 17 year-old militant nationalist Otoya Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a traditional samuraii sword. The blade pierced Asanuma through his ribs, killing him instantly.
The assassination shocked and angered many Japanese citizens, who mounted "mass demonstrations for peace and order."
Countless People - World Trade Center South Tower Attack
It's one of the most shocking and unforgettable moments ever to appear on live television. Every major national news organizations had begun showing a live feed of the World Trade Towers in New York City, depicting a huge column of smoke billowing from the north tower. The speculation at the time was that the plane that had crashed into the tower had done so accidentally.
As numerous reporters spoke of the crash and/or interviewed eyewitnesses, a second plane came into view and crashed into the south tower, causing a massive explosion. Fear and panic rippled through the voices of the reporters, as it became horribly obvious the first plane crash was no accident, and that New York City was under attack.
Looking back, it is easy to watch this footage and merely see a plane hitting a building, but of course there were countless lives that perished in that single instant, be it the passengers and hijackers on the plane or the people inside the building directly in the path of the jet.
Franco Scoglio
On October 3, 2005, Italian football manager Franco Scoglio appeared on a Genoa TV station for a discussion with Genoa president Enrico Preziosi. When Preziosi was responding to a comment of Scoglio's, Scoglio lost consciousness and slumped over in his chair. The manager of the Tunisia and Libya teams suffered from a fatal heart attack on live television.
"Suddenly he was taken ill, his head leaning backward, his breathing more and more difficult," Primocanale, the TV channel airing the program, said on its website. The popular football commentator was 64 years old.
Most Formula One racers know the risks associated with the sport, but that doesn't make racing idol Ayrton Senna's death any less shocking. On May 1, 1994, the three-time Formula One champion fatally crashed his car during the San Marino Grand Prix.
Senna was in the lead when he crashed his car into a concrete barrier, killing him instantly. The previous day, another driver, Roland Ratzenberger, had died when his car crashed during the qualifying round. Ratzenberger and Senna's death became a turning point for the safety of Formula One racing.
Ultimately, the Italian Supreme Court ruled mechanical failure as the cause of Senna's accident.
Shannon Stone
On July 7, 2011, Shannon Stone took his son to a Rangers game at Arlington Stadium. Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton threw a foul ball towards the crowd where Stone was standing. Stone reached over the railing too far and fell roughly 20 feet, landing on concrete. The announcers in the video are chuckling, assuming Stone would be okay.
The 39-year-old fell head first out of the stands and initially seemed fine. Stone repeatedly asked about his son as medical personnel attempted to transport him. When he was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, he experienced a full cardiac arrest and died.
Troubled TV reporter Christine Chubbuck took her own life before a live TV audience during an airing of her morning community affairs show Suncoast Digest. She had been battling depression coupled with a growing anger at her station manager for pressing more violent and grisly news pieces (as opposed to positive or uplifting content).
Chubbuck prepared for her suicide by researching the topic for a supposed awareness-raising piece, going so far as to ask a local sheriff's department officer the best way to shoot oneself. He instructed her to "use a .38 caliber revolver with wadcutter target bullets, and to shoot oneself in the back of the head rather than in the temple." Chubbuck did just this.
On the morning of her death, she looked straight into the camera and said, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy in bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first—an attempted suicide." She used the word "attempted" because she wasn't sure if the gunshot would actually kill her on-air.
However, after raising the pistol from under the desk and pulling the trigger, Chubbuck slumped over, fell to the floor, and died almost instantly. The footage of Chubbuck's suicide was turned over to her family shortly after her death, and is said to no longer exist.
