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16 Of The Worst Airline Disasters in History

16 Of The Worst Airline Disasters in History

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They are among the most terrifying scenarios known to humankind: investigations continue on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and the shooting-down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 over the Ukraine. In a world where a plane can disappear without a trace, or be mistaken for an enemy craft and get shot down from the sky, everyone pays attention when lives are lost in airline disasters. Here are 16 of the worst airline disasters in history. Sources: planecrashinfo.com, en.wikipedia.org, islandpacket.com, bbc.co.uk, sozokagu.com

commons.wikimedia.org
commons.wikimedia.org

Pan Am Flight 103

On Dec. 21, 1988, this Boeing 747 flight carrying 259 people exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, en route from London to New York. Chunks of the plane rained down over the small town, killing 11 citizens on the ground. After three years of investigation, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was charged with the bombing and was handed over by Muammar Gaddafi. In 2009, Scotland released al-Megrahi, citing compassion over his terminal prostate cancer. Until his death in 2012, he denied involvement in the bombing. Conspiracy theories abound to this day, including Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeni’s order to blow up the plane as retaliation for the U.S. blowing up Air Iran Flight earlier that July.

en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org

Korean Airlines Flight 007

This story might sound hauntingly familiar: on Sept. 1, 1983, this Boeing 747 craft was shot down by two Soviet Union fighter planes as it crossed into Russian airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula. All 269 passengers on board died. Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan condemned the Soviet government for the massacre of innocent people, and suspended all flights from the U.S.S.R. to the U.S. The Soviets eventually claimed that they thought it was a spy plane, as it had veered 200 miles off course. It was one of the most tense moments of the Cold War.

commons.wikimedia.org
commons.wikimedia.org

American Airlines Flight 587

Two months after the carnage of 911, this Airbus A300-600 on a regular route from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, slammed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens and killed all 260 in the plane and five civilians on the ground. Fears of another terrorist attack arose, but an investigation found that the first officer’s overuse of the rudder caused the vertical stabilizer to snap off, causing the craft lose control. More than 90 percent of those died were of Dominican descent, flying on a popular Dominican-American route.

en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org

China Airlines Flight 140

Flying from Taipei to Nagoya, Japan on April 26, 1994, this Airbus A300-600 burst into flame after a tail-first crash onto the runway. The investigation concluded that the co-pilot had accidentally switched the “go-around” button, putting it in a take-off mode. Despite the captain’s efforts to undo this, it became a fatal mistake. Of the passengers and crew, 264 died. The seven passengers seated between rows seven and 15 miraculously survived. It is the second-deadliest airline accident on Japanese soil, after Japanese Airlines Flight 123.

airnigeria

Nigeria Airways Flight 2120

Traveling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Nokoto, Nigeria on July 11, 1991, this Douglas DC-8-61 experienced problems directly after take-off. Attempting to recircle back to King Abdulaziz International Airport, it erupted into flames in the air and proceeded to break into pieces, killing all 261 passengers and crew. Bodies were seen falling from the plane only 11 miles from the airport. After Saudi Arabian Flight 163 , it’s the second worst airplane disaster on that country’s soil.

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

American Airlines Flight 191

The deadliest aviation accident in American history occurred on May 25, 1979. A regularly scheduled DC-10 crashed minutes after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, en route to Los Angeles. Faulty maintenance caused the engine on the left wing to separate and flip over the wing, turning the plane 112 degrees and forcing it into a trailer park field roughly 4,000 feet from the runway. All 271 people onboard and two on the ground were killed. The DC-10, already involved in earlier accidents, became stigmatized even more.

jetphotos.net
jetphotos.net

Ilyushin IL-76

On Feb. 19, 2003, an aircraft belonging to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution crashed into the mountains near Kerman, Iran, killing at least 275 people on board (some reports say there were 284 casualties). The plane (a model is pictured above) was holding members of the special forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. High winds and fog were blamed.

wwwebart.com
wwwebart.com

Iran Air Flight 655

Another horrible disaster for Iranian air travel, on July 3, 1988, an Iran Air Airbus 300 en route from Tehran to Dubai carrying 290 passengers was shot down by surface-to-air missile from a U.S. Navy missile cruiser, the U.S.S. Vincennes. The plane was flying over Iranian airspace at the time, and sank into the Persian Gulf in Iranian waters. The passenger plane was, according to the U.S., making “mode squawks” that were mistaken for military planes, and it was mistaken for an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter. The U.S. paid more than $61 million in a settlement.

documentingreality.com
documentingreality.com

Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 163

While the fire that caused the deaths of 301 passengers and crew started mid-air, this is not technically categorized as a plane crash. This tragic non-crash occurred Aug. 19, 1980 at Riyadh International Airport. Smoke was reported minutes after the aircraft was airborne. The captain called for an emergency landing, and the airplane touched the ground. For unknown reasons, the plane taxied instead of evacuating its passengers and 23 minutes later, ground crew forced open the door. Everyone on board had died from smoke inhalation. At that time, it was considered the second-deadliest aircraft disaster in history.

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Air India Flight 182

Sikh extremists were blamed for the explosion on this Air India flight en route from Toronto to Delhi, with a stopover in London. The plane, a Boeing 747 carrying mostly citizens of India, exploded and plunged into the sea over Irish airspace on June 23, 1985. For more than 20 years, Canadian intelligence searched for whoever was responsible, racking up millions of dollars in investigation and trial funds. Interjit Singh Reyat, a Canadian citizen and a member of the militant Sikh Babbar Khalsa, admitted to manslaughter in 2003 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the Air India disaster. He also claimed responsibility for a second bomb that exploded an hour later in Tokyo’s Narita Airport, killing two people. On the flight, 329 died, making it the largest mass murder in Canadian history.

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Turkish Airlines Flight 981

The Ermenoville air disaster got it’s name from the field where a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashed just outside of Paris. It is still considered the deadliest single-plane crash with no survivors in history. The majority of the 346 fatalities were British including many from an amateur rugby team. On March 3, 1974, the plane made its Paris connection from Istanbul en route to London. Because of strikes, stranded passengers filled the entire craft on a flight leg which would typically be under booked. The DC-10’s cargo hatches had to be closed manually, and when a poorly-latched hatch blew open, it depressurized the airplane, severing wires and making piloting uncontrollable.

rediff.com
rediff.com

The Charkhi Dadri Midair Collision

On Nov. 12, 1996 over the village of Charkhi Dadri near New Delhi, India, a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 slammed into each other, killing all 349 people on both crafts. Poor English-language skills on the part of the Kazakhstani captain were blamed for his unauthorized descent and entry into the Saudi plane’s airspace. Many changes were made after the accident, including separation of inbound and outbound planes through air corridors.

rediff.com
rediff.com

Japan Airlines Flight 123

The highest number of fatalities from a single airplane crash happened on Aug. 12, 1985, when Japan Airlines Boeing 747 Flight 123 crashed into Mount Takamagahara just 62 miles from Tokyo — 520 passengers and crew were killed instantly. Because of a previous defect, the bulkhead came open 12 minutes into the flight, rapidly decompressing the entire cabin and causing the vertical stabilizer to come off the rear of the plane.

rediff.com
rediff.com

Tenerife Airport Disaster

The single deadliest accident in airtime history happened at the Canary Islands’ Tenerife Island Los Rodeos Airport on March 27, 1977. Dutch KLM Flight 485 and Pan Am Flight 1736, both Boeing 747s, were sharing the runway that day. There was heavy traffic as a result of a bomb threat, and high fog density eliminated visibility on the runway and ground radar from the control tower. When the KLM plane attempted take-off, it collided with the resting Pan Am craft, instantly killing all 248 aboard the KLM flight, and 335 on the Pan Am. Thankfully, 61 passengers, including the two pilots, survived aboard the Pan Am.

en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

We still only know what we know regarding this fated flight, which remains one of the greatest tragic mysteries of our time. One a routine route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, air traffic control lost contact with the pilots. The radar was said to have faded out over the South China Sea, and a massive search mission was started there. Remains spotted here, claims made there; some say it kept flying, some say it crashed immediately–it’s the stuff of nightmares realized, 239 people and the machine carrying them vanishing into the air.

huffingtonpost.com
huffingtonpost.com

September 11, 2001

The world watched as four hijacked airplanes crashed in different U.S. locations, tragically killing 2,907 passengers on the airplanes and on the ground. United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11 were flown into the two World Trade Center towers, killing 140 passengers and 10 hijackers. American Airlines Flight was flown into the Pentagon, killing 59 and five hijackers. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing 40 passengers and seven hijackers. Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility and was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, by U.S. Navy SEALs.