20 TV Tragedies That Happened LIVE

People still remember where they were when many of these happened. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re examining twenty of the most shocking things that ever occurred on live television. Our list includes moments involving Hurricane Katrina, the Munich Massacre, the 1992 Los Angeles riots and more. Did you see any of these live? Let us know in the comments below!

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#livetv #disasters #tragedy #tsunami #shooting #attack #challenger

[WatchMojo]

Did you see any of these live? Let us know in the comments below!

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[ChristyTina]

I will never forget watching people jump from 80 story windows of the World Trade Center to their deaths to escape the fires. My family visited Ground Zero in January of 2002. It was just so BIG.
Also, my Grandmother was supposed to be on a flight leaving Philadelphia that day. Not knowing if she got on or not until 6 that night was nerve wracking. The flights were cancelled right before she was about to board.

[davidhabert]

four years before The Hillsborough Disaster, there was another football stadium disaster which proved to be just as horrific and was televised on live UK TV. It's called *the Bradford City stadium fire.* (There is a YouTube video of this disaster taking place, but viewer discretion is advised)

At the time of the incident, the stand where the spectators were watching the match was made out of wood. Unfortunately the TV camera noticed a small fire in the stand which started to grow and became a more intense. In a short space of five minutes that whole stand went up like a tinder box and was completely engulfed and destroyed by flames and smoke. There is even footage of one of the spectators completely engulfed in flames and he was still walking. (I don't know if this guy survived)

In the end 56 spectators died and 265 were injured.

[TheJtyork]

I do remember 9/11 so clearly. I woke up after the 1st plane hit and thought it was just a accident amd just went on as normal for the day. Then my mom came and got me from school after the 2nd one and then I realized this is something else.

[jeremywilliams]

Honorable mention: the 1999 death of Owen Hart at the Over the Edge PPV in Kansas City.

[sercba]

The death of Christine Chubbuck sounds so tragic. Its horrible what loneliness can do to a person

[CandiceVidito]

R.I.P to all that lost their lives in these tragedies.

[nicolereardon]

My wedding took place during the LA riots in 1992. My father was a sergeant in the LA Sheriff's Department, and we weren't sure if he'd show up to my wedding in a tuxedo, in his tactical uniform, or AT ALL. He showed up in his tux, and was able to walk me down the aisle ❤

[michaelfritz]

9/11. I was in class when it happened. One of my teachers came in the class room, TV in tow. Turned on the news, and we all found out then.

[Jeremiah_Rivers]

The destruction of the _Challenger_ space shuttle is just unbelievably tragic. I would’ve wanted one of my high school teachers to take a space trip.

[AlexRising_]

I was in third grade for 9/11 and remember having to be sent home because my daddy worked near the pentagon and frequently went there for work. I tried to call and couldn’t get through, and I was inconsolable. After three days of no contact, I was banned from watching the news because I was obsessively waiting to see if daddy’s name popped up for some form of closure.

Turns out daddy was fucking fine. The cellphone towers were fucked in the area following the attacks so my dad’s command called his next of kin, his then wife, who *_neglected to tell his terrified child and her mother despite being explicitly instructed to do so and lying to daddy about doing it._*

[BigFella]

I’ve only seen archive footage of the Challenger explosion, but I cannot imagine the horror people felt when they saw it happen live

[Jane]

I remember tuning in just after the first plane hit on 9/11. I was home sick and watched live as the second plane hit. It happened so fast you don't realize they slow down the video when it's shown now. I had a cousin who worked in one of the nearby buildings. He got out well ahead of time. My parent's neighbor lost his older brother when the first plane hit.

[RyanRumbles]

Christine Chubbuck, news reporter, killing herself on live TV is something that comes to mind. RIP

[shelley]

I’m a native New Yorker who was living in DC on 9/11. Washington got hit hard, too, but NYC took the enormous brunt of it. It took me 24 hours to track down all of my loved ones in Manhattan. The phone lines were jammed. To say it was awful doesn’t do the whole experience justice.

[ARTSONICFAN]

I was at a school in Puerto Rico when the 9/11 tragedy happened. The teacher somehow find out about it & immediately turned on the classroom's TV. The ENTIRE classroom watched it occurred live. I was speechless & shocked... Especially since I was born in New York.

[Taekwonjoe]

I saw almost all of these happen. I was in 5th grade when the Challenger exploded. We were all sent home. I was on my way to my attorney's office when the towers came down, and by the time I got there, they had closed, but let me stay and watch things on a TV they had there. I watched all the footage of the '92 LA riots, Fukishima, Waco, Earnhardt, the Tsunami...have I aged myself yet?

[MSjackiesaunders]

I was watching live coverage right after the first plane hit. I was watching on BBC America who had set up in New Jersey. The poor newscaster had her back to action but turned just in time to see the second plane hit. Then they broke into that coverage to switch to Washington DC to the Pentagon. I actually knew someone who had just completed an IT contract there just before it happened. I was so frantic, I called her home, and sobbed with relief when she answered. She wasn't even aware of what was going on. That whole day was surreal. I had to go to pick up some groceries, and people were walking around in a daze or crying. If only we could go back to the unity we felt in the weeks that followed.

I live in Texas, so I've personally seen a number of hurricanes, but watching Katrina was awful, since my Aunt and Uncle lived in Chalmette, a suburb of New Orleans. It took me 4 months before I found that they were safe.

I was watching the liftoff of the Challenger. But I personally saw the debris from the Columbia as it streaked across the Texas sky. I also saw Apollo 1 explode on the launch pad, and the televised deaths of JFK and RFK. A lot of tragedy, a lot of history. Being 74 means you've seen a lot.

[nicolamarchbank]

I remember Hillsborough. My Dad was watching the match and Mum changed the channel as soon as she realised that it was bad. I was young, I didn't need to see the horror. She also did the same with the 1989 Christmas Day news broadcast when she realised that the Ceaucescus were dead. Sharp reactions my mother.

We also lived 20 minutes away from Lockerbie the night the plane-crashed. I remember the aftermath remarkably clearly. The whole region was scarred. My Dad's brother ran one of the Police teams who recovered forensics and parts from some of the poor souls on the plane. My uncle was never quite the same.

[kimberlymiller]

It should be noted that Budd Dwyer was exonerated a few years later after he took his life.