With cheap travel insurance so widely available these days, most people can travel abroad safe in the knowledge that no matter what happens, their insurance will be able to compensate them if something goes wrong. With everything from petty theft to terrorist attacks, natural disasters and medical emergencies all covered by most insurance policies, there are few things that can occur that could really ruin your holiday.



However, sometimes luck just isn’t on your side. Every few years, someone experiences a travel catastrophe that is so outlandish, foolish or absurdly unlucky it simply beggars belief. Here are a few of the people who travel insurance simply couldn’t save…



Tom and Irene Lornegan



This is a story to chill the blood of any scuba diver. Whilst Tom and Irene Lornegan were diving in Australia, the head of the dive team incorrectly recorded them as being back on the boat when they were still underwater, and the boat then left without them. It was not until two days later that it was realised the couple had gone missing. Despite a massive search operation, their bodies were never recovered, and it is believed that they died either from dehydration or from a shark attack. Their story was the basis for the 2004 film Open Water.



Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard



If you make a habit of getting up close and personal to grizzly bears, sooner or later something is going to go badly wrong. Yet Timothy Treadwell spent 13 years living amongst the bears before the disaster that claimed his life. He felt a deep connection with grizzly bears and spent much of his time documenting and photographing them up close. But in 2003, he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were attacked and killed whilst camping up in Alaska.



If you’re in the habit of getting close to grizzly bears, you can kiss any chance of getting cheap travel insurance goodbye!



Steve Irwin



Considering Steve Irwin made a career out of getting close to some of the world’s most dangerous animals, he was probably blacklisted by every insurer around. However, even if he did manage to get some it wouldn’t have helped him when he died in 2006. Whilst snorkelling around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, he was pierced through the heart by a stingray that he was swimming next to. Stingrays usually pose no threat to humans – this really was a one-in-a-million kind of accident.



Alexander Litvenenko



This was not an accident, but just goes to show that danger can come from the most unexpected sources. Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko ingested a fatal dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 whilst drinking tea at a restaurant in London. Despite sustained medical attention, he died of radiation poisoning three weeks later.



It has never been established exactly who was behind the killing, but if you’ve managed to attract the ire of the Russian secret services and/or the Russian mafia, I’m afraid cheap travel insurance isn’t going to help you out too much.

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