The Final Destination
- Tammy Lee
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
I think there is always a lingering fear of death hiding within our subconscious somewhere, the ultimate uncharted adventure. The unknown can invoke something primal in us, a determination to fight and to live. But could it be true that, when it’s your time, it’s your time? Here are ten people who discovered, the hard way, that your Final Destination can’t be cheated.
Austin McGough was a young soldier stationed at Fort Campbell. He had been drinking at a party and was making his way back to base when he became disoriented by his surroundings. He tried to break into a nursery but unfortunately disturbed a wasp's nest in the process and, as anyone would, he ran from the swarm. Straight onto Highway 42-A and into the path of an incoming vehicle.
(There are some further theories on his death, which I shall go further into at some point.)
In April 2013, an unnamed Californian driver lost control of his SUV on the Malibu Canyon Road. He managed to jump from the moving car, just in time to watch it plummet over the side of the cliff. He had escaped the fall, but he hadn’t escaped death; just moments later, he was hit by a tour bus.
In July 2014, Asiana Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport. Ye Meng Yuan, although injured, survived and moved away from the immediate wreckage before lying down and curling into a ball. The first responders started to arrive, and a fire truck, caught up in the chaos, didn't see her and ran straight over her.
In 2012, Jessica Redfield (also known as Jessica Ghowi) survived an attack on the Eaton Centre in Colorado, escaping the crazed gunman before she was shot. The following month, she attended a midnight screening of The Dark Knight, the new Batman film. The same screening that the Aurora shooter, James Holmes, attended. This time, she couldn’t escape.
In 2011, Fagilyu Mukhametzyanou was declared dead by medical professionals in Russia. Her family and friends held a ceremony for her at which she ‘woke up’ and realised she was attending her own funeral. She sat up and started screaming, triggering a fatal heart attack.
In 1977, the men's basketball team of the University of Evansville, Indiana, died in a plane crash, just 90 seconds after takeoff. David Furr wasn’t travelling with his teammates as an ankle injury had prevented him from playing. Two weeks later, he was killed in a driving accident.
Jessica De Lima Rohl had spent weeks helping to organise a party at a club in Brazil. On the day of the event, her partner asked her to stay in with him, and she agreed. This request had saved her life; a fire had broken out at the club and killed 233 people. A week later, her car collided with an oncoming truck.
Johanna Ganthaler was holidaying in Brazil with her husband. They were due to fly back to France but had arrived at the airport late and missed the flight. The same flight crashed into the Atlantic, leaving no survivors. Two weeks later, she was driving in Austria when her car veered across the road into the path of a truck coming the other way.
Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican political leader and activist. The Chicago Defender was one of the newspapers that printed his obituary, with just one problem – he wasn’t dead yet. According to his secretary, on his second day of reading his own obituaries (not all of them favourable), he suffered a fatal stroke.
Not everyone is as unlucky as these poor people. Violet Jessop was on the RMS Olympic in 1911 when it collided with the HMS Hawke. The following year, she was on another ship – the infamous Titanic-, but yet again she walked away. Then in 1916, she tried her luck again, boarding the HMHS Britannic. As the vessel sank, she once again survived and lived the grand old age of 83.
As always, thank you for reading, take care of yourselves, and don’t drive behind logging trucks.
Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!
Comments