What's the worst thing you have ever witnessed first-hand happen on live tv?

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

For me it would have to be Christian Eriksson collapsing at the euros in 2021

Bradford stadium fire. I still have nightmares terrors about it now.

The soldiers killed at the IRA funeral. I lived in Northern Ireland a few years after that and could vividly picture them every time I drove past the area.

no, I didn’t go to work late. I’d only been in the job a month and didn’t turn up late for a shift.

You can check if you want.

From wiki:

The North Tower (WTC 1) was the first building to be hit when American Airlines Flight 11crashed into it at 8:46 a.m.,[a] causing it to collapse at 10:28[e] after burning for one hour and 42 minutes.[f] At 9:03 a.m.,[g] the South Tower (WTC 2) was struck by United Airlines Flight 175; it collapsed at 9:59 a.m.[h] after burning for 56 minutes.

time conversion:

Won’t let me paste the time conversion:

screenshot

Yes, and then Jos Verstappen's pit lane fire just a few races later...

Definitely 9/11 for me. I was at work and one of the guys who worked at the ad agency upstairs, who usually had a TV on in their office, came running down to say there'd been a terrible crash at the World Trade Centre and we went upstairs just in time to see the second plane hit and realise it hadn't been an accident. A friend of mine was working as an intern at a small local USA newspaper at the time and their entire staff basically ended up locked in the office all day screening the on-the-scene reports coming over the wire because a lot of it was just too horrifying to run/print.

But these are completely different times to what you originally said

Tommy Cooper collapsing on stage. The audience were laughing as everyone thought it was part of his act. They closed the curtain over him of if I remember correctly. It was then announced on the news that he'd died.

Herald Of Free Enterprise. I was terrified of ever having to go on a ferry for a long time after that.

The embassy siege in the 80s

9/11 Just unreal

Boxing day tsunami

Grenfell Just couldn't imagine what everyone went though.

Most was things I watched on the news, but Tommy Cooper we were actually watching the show

I’ve been on training courses where Bradford City fire has been shown as a case study.

The lesson being that when things go wrong, they go wrong very, very fast.

Dunblane.

It was the day of my driving test and it had been snowing that morning so I was waiting to see if it was going to be cancelled. I was watching the news for the weather reports.
Those parents outside the school who knew as much as me hundreds of miles away 😢

London bombings, King’s Cross, Euston.
The bombers were in same train as me from Luton to London beforehand too.

That's so strange I could of swore blind i see the 2nd tower collapse at home. Saying that my school finished at 3.10 and I only lived 10 minutes away.

9/11. I was primary school aged and my grandma was looking after me. She kept the live footage on all afternoon (as well as speaking graphically about how terrified the people inside would be and the different ways they might die) and I had nightmares for weeks.

I was in Glasgow, and remember the snow too.

9/11 - I had a day off from work and watched it unfold on TV and couldn’t believe my eyes.

7/7, I was in London that morning and saw the aftermath of the Aldgate victims, I thought I was witnessing a film being shot. People walking along with blood and dust all over them - I will never forget.

Not always live, but the atrocities being committed every day but the Israeli military in Gaza.

Hillsborough.

There wasnt actually much live broadcasting at the time (only 4 channels really, sky did exist but it wasnt the same as it is now) but when the reports started coming in it was awful.

Lee Rigby and one of his killers was filmed with Lee’s blood on his hands.
9/11
7/7
Oscar Pistorius trial

No they aren’t?

first post:

First tower collapsed at 09:59 NY (EDT) time. That’s 2:59 British summer time.
second collapsed at 10:28, so that’s 3:28 BST

second post quote from wiki:

causing it to collapse at 10:28[e] after burning for one hour and 42 minutes.[f] the South Tower it collapsed at 9:59 a.m

How are they “completely different” times?

9/11..I didn’t think it as true at first

Two British soliders driving into a funeral cortège in Northern Ireland and being dragged from the car, beaten, stripped and shot. It was a different age when news was less frequent and instant and violence rarely depicted directly. I still think about it to this day and remember thinking these were brothers, sons etc and their relatives had to see that. It was really traumatising. Think it happened in the late 80s.

9/11
Lockerbie
Hungerford
Dunblane
2015 Paris attacks

All of these were also deeply traumatic and shocking but nothing has ever affected me so deeply as the first one I mentioned.

Agreed. I came on to say the same thing.

I was at work for 9/11. I remember that you couldn’t get onto many of the online news feeds because everything was overloaded, but somebody in the office had found one and everyone was watching it.

The two police officers in Northern Ireland who took a wrong turn in their vehicle and drove into a dead end where a funeral was taking place. The crowd turned on them and murdered them. I was 15 years old when that happened and it’s haunted me ever since.

Glad others have included the Bradford stadium fire

For anyone who's not seen it, the elapsed time's included on this - watch it carefully and note just how quickly it all happened:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x31qcmt

Defiantly 9/11.
In person, being evacuated to a hotel roof on higher ground after an earthquake was thought to trigger another tsunami in Thailand. Scariest moment of my life was running out of the hotel we were staying in, which was on the beach, towards the sea not knowing if a tsunami would hit. It changed my life. I wanted more, and went to uni shortly after to pursue my nursing carer.