The Man with 99 Souls: Survived Air, Sea, Gas, and Terror Accidents

July 24, 2014   

Who has heard of the strange hobby of playing with death? The Daily Mail newspaper and the wtf website bring the interesting story of British Ian Powdery, or as he is called by his friends, 'Mr. Catastrophe,' who death never stops following.

Purdy, who was given the name "The Man with 99 Souls" by the Daily Mail, has a fascinating history of correspondence with death. The first incident was when he was 11 years old, and traveled with his class to Scotland. Purdy and his friends arrived at the last minute to board the train, boarded it as its doors closed, and an hour later they heard that the train that arrived immediately after had crashed. A year later, Purdy and his friends boarded the train again, and again the following train crashed in one of the tunnels.

Coincidence? Unusual event? Not really. Powdery, who had meanwhile managed to get married, was dining with his wife at a restaurant in Covent Garden, London. The next day, at the same time and in the same place, a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded in the restaurant, killing one person and injuring five.

The restaurant where the Irish underground explosion occurred. Photo: Daily Mail website

[Almost] aerial disasters

Three years passed, and Poudrey decided to learn to fly, a rather puzzling decision for a man in his position. The day after one of the lessons, Poudrey opens a newspaper and discovers that his personal instructor had crashed to death the night before with another student in a plane he had gotten off an hour earlier. The reason: a technical malfunction in the training plane, which occurred an hour after the lesson ended.

Poudrey's aviation experiences did not end with the pilot's disaster. Not long after, he flew to Africa, and due to an error by the air traffic controller at the airport, his plane almost landed on another plane. On another trip to Denmark, the plane in which Poudrey was flying rubbed against the wing of another plane and an insulation layer detached from it and fell off.

In 2013, a helicopter crashed into a crane, killing the pilot and one bystander. Powdery mildew, you guessed it, had been there just 10 minutes earlier.

In 2010, Fodry traveled to the island of Crete. He looked at his plane ticket and discovered to his surprise that the seat listed on the ticket was already occupied by an elderly man next to his wife. The polite Fodry did not say a word and sat down somewhere else. Half an hour after the plane took off, Fodry heard shouting and shuffling. It turned out that the person sitting in Fodry's seat had lost consciousness and died during the flight.

Between water and sky

And from the air to the sea: In 1987, Poudrey sailed with his friends to Belgium on a ferry. During the voyage, Poudrey raised his hand and touched the ferry's ceiling. To his surprise, pieces began to fall off. He told his friends that this ferry was dismantled, and forgot about the story. A month later, he watched TV and saw that the ferry he was on had capsized and sunk. 193 passengers and crew members died in the accident.

The ferry that capsized. Photo: Daily Mail website.

A year later, and Powdery, who worked for a courier company, delivered a package to a certain building in London. At the end of the day, Powdery was watching television and saw a news broadcast in which it was reported that the Irish underground had planted a bomb under the building where the package was delivered. Two people were killed in the explosion, which Powdery missed by only a few minutes.

The building after the Irish underground detonated the bomb. Photo: Daily Mail website.

Rescue from the gas

In 2006, Powdery and his wife went out to eat at a restaurant. Powdery chose a particular restaurant and asked to go in, but his wife insisted on another restaurant. Powdery gave in to her, and they turned around and headed for the other restaurant. Suddenly the woman says: Ian, turn around: Powdery turned around and saw the restaurant going up in flames. It turns out that a gas cylinder that was there had exploded, injuring the people.

Four years later, the Poudrey couple visited San Francisco in the USA. On the way to the big city, they spent the years in a small town near the airport, and from there they arrived in San Francisco an hour later. Then they learned that a huge fire had just broken out in this city following an explosion of gas tanks, and 50 people had been killed. The Poudrey couple had visited the place, as we recall, an hour earlier.

The street after the gas cylinder explosion. Photo: Daily Mail website.

"I don't know if I'm a lucky person or an unlucky person," Pordry told the Daily Mail reporter. "Disasters have haunted me all my life. Every time a disaster happened I said to myself: 'Oh, not again!'. I got to the point where I walk into a pub and people who know me are mumbling prayers.".

How do you deal with this feeling that death follows you everywhere? "If I were paranoid, I would lock myself in a closed room and not leave it. Sometimes I feel responsible when events happen around me and I ask myself, 'Maybe if I had stayed home, this wouldn't have happened'? Despite the bloodshed that is happening around me, I am eternally optimistic.".

Powdery mildew next to a light aircraft. Photo: Daily Mail website.