History Main / LifesavingMisfortune

* On April 28, 1903, a group of 128 Canadian Pacific Railroad workers were supposed to arrive at a work site in the town of Frank, Alberta, but ended up getting delayed overnight in Morrisey, British Colombia when the train that was meant to take them from Morrisey to Frank failed to show up to pick them up. Shortly after midnight on April 29, the camp where they were supposed to have been staying was obliterated by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide deadliest landslide in Canadian history]], instantly killing the 12 men who had already arrived at the site. If not for the no-show train, all 140 would have likely perished at the camp (the camp was crushed under tons of rock, so there's very little chance anyone could have survived), rather than just 12.

* On April 28, 1903, a group of 128 Canadian Pacific Railroad workers were supposed to arrive at a work site in the town of Frank, Alberta, but ended up getting delayed overnight in Morrisey, British Colombia when the train that was meant to take them from Morrisey to Frank failed to show up to pick them up. Shortly after midnight on April 29, the camp where they were supposed to have been staying was obliterated by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide deadliest landslide in Canadian history]], instantly killing the 12 men who had already arrived at the site. If not for the no-show train, all 140 would have likely perished at the camp, rather than just 12.

* On April 28, 1903, a group of 128 Canadian Pacific Railroad workers were supposed to arrive at a work site in the town of Frank, Alberta, but ended up getting delayed overnight in Morrisey, British Colombia when the train that was meant to take them from Morrisey to Frank failed to show up to pick them up. Shortly after midnight on April 29, the camp where they were supposed to have been staying was obliterated by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide deadliest landslide in Canadian history]]. The 12 men who had already arrived at the site were killed instantly, but if not for the no-show train, that number (and consequently the total number of people killed in the disaster) would have been far higher.

* On April 28, 1903, a group of 128 Canadian Pacific Railroad workers were supposed to arrive at a work site in the town of Frank, Alberta, but the train that was supposed to take them from Morrisey, British Colombia to Frank no-showed, forcing them to spend the night in Morrisey while new transportation was arranged. Shortly after midnight on April 29, the camp where they were meant to be staying was obliterated by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide deadliest landslide in Canadian history]].

* On April 28, 1903, a group of 128 Canadian Pacific Railroad workers were supposed to arrive at a work site in the town of Frank, Alberta, but the train that was supposed to take them from Morrisey, British Colombia to Frank no-showed, forcing them to spend the night in Morrisey while waiting for new transportation. Less than 24 hours after they had been scheduled to arrive, the camp where they were meant to be staying was obliterated by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide deadliest landslide in Canadian history]].

* On April 28, 1903, a group of 128 Canadian Pacific Railroad workers were supposed to arrive at a work site in the town of Frank, Alberta, but ended up getting delayed in Morrisey, British Colombia, when the trian that was supposed to take them on the final leg of their journey failed to show up. Less than 24 hours after they had been scheduled to arrive, the camp where they were meant to be staying was obliterated by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide deadliest landslide in Canadian history]].

** On September 11, 2001, Creator/SethMacFarlane was scheduled to take a flight to Los Angeles from Boston. Due to a hangover and his agent giving him the wrong time for the flight, he missed the plane. He tried to find another flight, only to find that the terrorist attacks that day grounded all flights. He also learned that one of the hijacked planes, American Airlines Flight 11, was the one he was supposed to be on.

** Hall of Fame basketball coach John Thompson was scheduled to do a studio interview in Los Angeles for Jim Rome's TV show. He wanted to fly out on the 11th so that he could make a friend's birthday party in Las Vegas on the 13th, and booked a ticket on American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington to L.A. A few days before the show, Rome's producer called, telling him that Thompson's original plans wouldn't work for the show, and asked him to rebook for the 12th. Thompson resisted, but the producer insisted, adding that Thompson would still be able to make it to Vegas in time for the party. Thompson finally agreed... and back at home in Arlington, Virginia, ''felt the impact of Flight 77's crash into UsefulNotes/ThePentagon''.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8637502/3/Don-t-Look Don't Look]]'', Shinji tells Misato about how he met the Slender Man: When he was ten and leaving school for the day, Slender Man approached him and the other kids with an offer of friendship, and asked the kids to come back to school later that night. Shinji, excited at the thought of making a friend, tried to do so, but got in trouble for seemingly stealing a bike on the way there. This unfortunate delay saved his life since all of the other kids who arrived on time were murdered.

* In ''Film/{{Five}}'', three of the five survivors of the DepopulationBomb survived because of what would otherwise have been misfortune. Charles and Barnstable were accidentally locked in a bank vault when the bomb went off, while Eric was trapped on the upper slopes of Mount Everest after being seperated from his party by a blizzard and was too high up to be effected by the fallout.

* ''VideoGame/QuakeII'': In the intro for the main game, [[PlayerCharacter Bitterman's]] ship gets hit by another marine pod, prompting him to fall earlier to Stroggos. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the rest of the marine force was were wiped out by the Big Gun. Now everything's up to him.

* Inverted in a case from the third ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' game: [[spoiler:Glen Elg was supposed to pay off a huge loan to Furio Tigre by way of giving him a powerful computer virus he created; the kind of stuff that could sell for millions on the black market. However, just as Glen was about to give Tigre the virus, he happened to win five hundred grand; just enough to pay off the loan. Unluckily for him, Tigre had a much bigger debt of his own to mob boss Bruto Cadaverini, which he couldn't pay off with "just" 500k. So Tigre resorted to killing Glen and stealing the virus from him. Glen's luck at winning at the lottery led to his death, something that The Judge lampshaded as being tragically ironic.]]

* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', the Denmark portion of the JustBeforeTheEnd prologue focuses on an executive who gets stuck in the island of Bornholm after the country suddenly closes down all national and international boat traffic to keep ThePlague from spreading. His MeanBoss, who was mad at him for taking the trip because it was happening too close to an important meeting, fires him on the spot by phone. The first EncyclopediaExposita from AfterTheEnd describes the nations that still exist. The document reveals that Denmark is among them, but that it now consists ''only'' of Bornholm island. That executive from before? TheMedic of the main cast is his great-grandson. To top things off, said great-grandson is implied to have had the same happen to him, by being fired from his front-line position in the Danish army shortly before said frontline was annihilated in an attempt to reclaim Kastrup.

* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'': In "The Day the Bird Stood Still" the palace gets a ransom note from Abis Mal stating he has cursed the Sultan to slowly turn to stone. Wondering how in the world he did that, the note also reads that he spiked the Sultan's bath oils. The Sultan sighs in relief, saying he hasn't bathed yet. Cue Iago screaming since ''he'' was the one who used the bath oils earlier.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In [[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E12ExtraLargeMedium "Extra Large Medium"]], Bruce's fight with Jeffrey ([[SeriousBusiness over a turkey burger]]) leads him to find Chris and Stewie, saving both of their lives.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'', the penguins bring up a sunken crate of brine-soaked herring. Unfortunately, despite Skipper saying there's plenty for all of them, he, Kowalski, and Private end up greedily gobbling up all of them and not let Rico get even one. Unfortunately, it turns out that the herring had been ''too'' aged, causing the three to contract a rare brain disease that made them go fish crazy, with Rico being the only one to prevent them from eating any more fish for twenty-four ours in order to cure them.

** In the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E8BoyScoutzNTheHood "Boy Scoutz N The Hood"]], Homer loses the map and gets himself, Bart, and the Flanderses lost at sea. As bad as this is, it turns out to have saved their lives since the campers who went on the "correct" path were attacked by mountain men, a bear, and finally a slasher villain lurking in a campground.
** In the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E4ItchyAndScratchyLand "Itchy and Scratchy Land"]], the Simpsons go the titular Disneyland copycat and cause mischief to the point that Bart and Homer get arrested by park security, which Marge considers the most embarrassing experience of her life (so far), to the point she even orders the family LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain at the end of the episode. But when the park animatronics go murderously berserk and the family is left behind to die, they are able to fight them off and be the heroes of the day. If they had gone to the park sanctuary [[IncrediblyLameFun as Marge wanted]], the Simpsons would have been just another handful of casualties of [[Film/TheBirds the birds breaking free and attacking everybody]].

* ''Literature/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': In the main story, Olivia is subject to a HijackedDestiny at the hands of Marie, who steals all of her wealthy and popular LoveInterests that she had from the DatingSim our protagonist Leon was [[MediaTransmigration transmigrated into]]. In the AlternateTimeline Marie Route Side Story series, however, Marie is prevented from interfering by Leon, and it turns out that said male LoveInterests unwanted advances, which Olivia can't turn down because she's a PennyAmongDiamonds, made her life a living hell that goes FromBadToWorse in a TraumaCongaLine.

** A Taiwanese woman who was supposed to fly to Japan with her boyfriend for a birthday trip, but a few days before the trip she fell down a flight of stairs and was forced to cancel the trip due to her injuries.[[note]]Actually, the fall is only the end of a ''chain'' of misfortunes; the whole thing began with her parents giving her a pair of shoes for her birthday that turned out to be the wrong size, so she had to wear an old pair of shoes which turned out to be in worse shape than she thought, and her heel happened to break when she was at the top of a flight of stairs rather than on level ground.[[/note]] The plane she was supposed to be on was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_140 China Airlines 140]], which suffered a catastrophic crash that killed 264 people.

** A woman who was forced to cancel a planned flight due to injuries sustained when she fell down a flight of stairs after her heel broke at an inopportune moment. The plane she was supposed to be on was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_140 China Airlines 140]], which suffered a catastrophic crash that killed 264 people.

* In UsefulNotes/SuperBowl LIV in February 2020, the San Fransisco 49ers entered the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead over the Kansas City Chiefs, only to end up crumbling in the fourth quarter, giving up 14 points while being unable to score any of their own, resulting in a 20-34 loss. As it turned out, by the time of the Super Bowl, the [[UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic COVID-19 virus]] was already present in San Fransisco; had the 49ers won, it's likely that the subsequent celebrations would have only accelerated the spread of the virus, almost certainly resulting in additional fatalities. Instead the celebrations took place in Kansas City, where the virus was not yet present.

** A season 13 episode, "The Ring", has the VictimOfTheWeek's boss, a stockbroker who worked in the 89th floor of the World Trade Center, be spared from the attacks due to having root canal surgery. She then remarks "How many people can say that their dentist saved their life?"

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', this is ultimately the case with Abu causing the Cave of Wonders to collapse by [[ForbiddenFruit touching the forbidden treasure]]. Upon receiving the lamp from Aladdin, Jafar was [[YouHavOutlivedYourUsefulness going to give him]] his "[[DeadlyEuphemism eternal]] [[FatalReward reward]]", only for Abu to bite him and make him drop the pair back into the collasping cave, which they were able to survive thanks to Carpet. At the same time, Abu managed to swipe the lamp back from Jafar just before it closed up, initially keeping Genie out of his hands for a while.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', this is ultimately the case with Abu causing the Cave of Wonders to collapse by [[ForbiddenFruit touching the forbidden treasure]]. Upon receiving the lamp from Aladdin, Jafar was going to give him his "[[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness eternal]] [[FatalReward reward]]", only for Abu to bite him and make him drop the pair back into the collasping cave, which they were able to survive thanks to Carpet. At the same time, Abu managed to swipe the lamp back from Jafar just before it closed up, initially keeping Genie out of his hands for a while.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In the episode ''The Great Egg Heist'', [[spoiler: Professor Calmitus]] successfully managed [[UnwittingPawn to fool Jimmy and his friends]] into retrieving the [[AncientArtifact Egg-Drop Jade]] which had boundless energy that could be abused. He all but surely [[NearVillainVictory woulda won at that point]]...had [[SpannerInTheWorks Carl]] not bungled the gem heist earlier in the episode by mixing up the true Jade egg with a fake that he was supposed to put in place of the authentic one. This "blunder" causes [[spoiler: Calmitus's]] DoomsdayDevice to explode in spectacular fashion. Carl even gets promptly praised by Jimmy and his friends for being an AccidentalHero.

* On August 26, 1990, musician brothers Jimmie and Music/StevieRayVaughan (along with some other musicians, most notably Music/EricClapton) played a concert at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. Following the concert, Jimmie, Stevie Ray, and Jimmie's wife Connie were initially offered seats aboard a helicopter leaving the venue[[note]]the venue had a parking lot notorious for being a logjam, so it wasn't uncommon for artists to arrange transportation by helicopter to avoid waiting potentially hours before they'd be able to exit the lot[[/note]], but they arrived at the helicopter takeoff point to find that there was only one seat available, rather than the three they had been told to expect. Stevie Ray was eager to get back to the hotel and Jimmie didn't want to leave Connie behind or vice-versa, so the brothers agreed that Stevie Ray would take the one remaining seat, while Jimmie and Connie stayed back to wait for a later flight (which wouldn't be for several hours). The helicopter in question [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan crashed]] due to pilot error less than a mile from the takeoff point, and everyone aboard, including Stevie Ray, was killed on impact.

* On August 26, 1990, musician brothers Jimmie and Music/StevieRayVaughan (along with some other musicians, most notably Music/EricClapton) played a concert at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. Following the concert, Jimmie, Stevie Ray, and Jimmie's wife Connie were initially offered seats aboard a helicopter leaving the venue[[note]]the venue had a parking lot notorious for being bottlenecked, so it wasn't uncommon for artists to arrange transportation by helicopter to avoid the congestion[[/note]], but they arrived at the helicopter takeoff point to find that there was only one seat available, rather than the three they had been told to expect. Stevie Ray was eager to get back to the hotel and Jimmie didn't want to leave Connie behind or vice-versa, so the brothers agreed that Stevie Ray would take the one remaining seat, while Jimmie and Connie stayed back to wait for a later flight (which wouldn't be for several hours). The helicopter in question [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan crashed]] due to pilot error less than a mile from the takeoff point, and everyone aboard, including Stevie Ray, was killed on impact.

* On August 26, 1990, musician brothers Jimmie and Music/StevieRayVaughan (along with some other musicians, most notably Music/EricClapton) played a concert at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. Following the concert, Jimmie, Stevie Ray, and Jimmie's wife Connie were initially offered seats aboard a helicopter leaving the venue, but they arrived at the helicopter takeoff point to find that there was only one seat available, rather than the three they had been told to expect. Stevie Ray was eager to get back to the hotel and Jimmie didn't want to leave Connie behind or vice-versa, so the brothers agreed that Stevie Ray would take the one remaining seat, while Jimmie and Connie stayed back to wait for a later flight (which wouldn't be for several hours). The helicopter in question [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan crashed]] due to pilot error less than a mile from the takeoff point, and everyone aboard, including Stevie Ray, was killed on impact.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/the-boss-didnt-record-your-request/56550/ This]] ''Website/NotAlwaysWorking'' story tells of a recording studio owner who ends up missing a flight to see his family because his studio got in hot water with the fire department after an inattentive and rather stupid manager accidentally locked the employees in the building.[[TheEndingChangesEverything The final line]] reveals the flight he missed was Pan Am 103, so the manager indirectly saved the boss's life by being such an idiot (and the story's narrator calling the fire department to get them out).

* [[Literature/LambToTheSlaughter Mrs. Maloney]]'s second husband in ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'''s absent-mindedness causes him to leave a freezer unplugged, spoiling a leg of lamb. When his wife attempts to dispose of him [[EdibleBludgeon the same way she did her first]], the meat is too soft to kill him, and she is caught red-handed.