Pathe News was invited to witness Austrian inventor Franz Reichelt test his parachute design by jumping from the Eiffel Tower in 1912

Tragedy: Pathe News cameras captured the inventor falling to his death when his parachute design failed

Horror: The crowd that had gathered to witness Reichelt's test-jump are seen rushing to his aid in the footage

Macabre: The cameras captured witnesses measuring the depth of the hole created by the impact of the inventor's body

Blast: The subsequent explosion, which saw 863 lives lost, was captured on camera by Pathe cameraman John Turner, who was on board an adjacent ship

Carnage: 83 people were killed in the Le Mans disaster of 1955, the most catastrophic accident in motor racing history

Doom: The commentator describes the Nazi airship 'sailing serenely to her doom' in 1937

Down in flames: 35 people died when the German passenger airship caught fire at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey

Bird Man: Pathe cameras captured Gerard Masselin's disastrous parachute jump in 1963

Certain death: The tragic footage captures Mr Masselin's rapid descent as his parachute fails to open

Distress: The crowd gathered below tried in vain to revive the man after he hit the ground

Daytona disaster: The archive contains footage of the moment legendary driver Frank Lockhart was thrown from his car at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1928

Crash: The racing driver was killed instantly when he was thrown from his car, which had cut a tyre and spun out of control on the sand

Shocking scenes: Footage of the 1952 Farnborough Air Show reveals the moment a fault saw pilot John Derry's aircraft disintegrate before the eyes of horrified spectators in 1952

Fatalities: 29 spectators were killed when debris flew into the crowd at the airfield in Hampshire

Suffrage: Racegoers are seen craning to get a look after suffragette Emily Davison stepped into the path of King George V's horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby

'Gallant pilot': Commander JD Russell is seen landing his plane on aircraft carrier HMS Victorious in the Solent in Hampshire, 1958

Trapped: The pilot was left stuck in the cockpit of the rapidly sinking aircraft after it rolled off the edge of HMS Victorious

Ill-fated: Donald Campbell's test run on the day of his water speed world record attempt in Lancashire in 1967 went smoothly

Fault: But the day ended in disaster when Campbell's modified boat the Bluebird somersaulted out of control on the lake, killing him instantly