Timeline: The world's worst air disasters

Timeline: The world's worst air disasters


A timeline of some of the world's worst air disasters:

March 1974: A Turkish Airlines flight crashes near Paris after a rear cargo door that had not been closed properly blows out. All those on board - 33 passengers and 12 crew - are killed.

March 1977: Two Boeing 747s collide on a foggy runway in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people.

Jan 1978: An Air India 747 crashes into the ocean after take off from Mumbai. The disaster is believed to have been caused when the pilot became disorientated by the failure of flight instruments.

May 1979: An American Airlines DC-10 crashes after take off from Chicago's O'Hare airport. The left engine falls off the plane, severing critical control lines and a wing, making a successful return to the airport nearly impossible. A total of 275 people are killed.

August 1980: A Saudi Tristar makes an emergency landing in Riyadh and bursts into flames, killing 301 passengers.

November 1983: A Boeing 747 jumbo jet travelling from Paris to Madrid crashes about five miles east of Madrid's Barajas airport, killing 181.

August 1985: A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashes into a mountain after losing part of its tail fin. With a death toll of 520, it is the world's worst single-plane disaster.

December 1988: A terrorist bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103, destroying the aircraft over the Scottish town of Lockerbie and killing 270 people.

April 1994: A China Airlines Airbus A300 crashes on landing at Nagoya Airport in Japan, leaving 264 people dead.

July 1996: A TWA Boeing 747 explodes and crashes into the Atlantic off Long Island, New York, leaving 230 people dead.

November 1996: A Saudi Boeing 747 collides with a Kazakh cargo plane near New Delhi. All 349 people on board are killed, making it the world's deadliest mid-air collision.

August 1997: A Korean Air Boeing 747-300 crashes on landing in Guam. Former leader of the National Congress for New Politics Shin Ki-ha and his wife are among the 228 people killed in the crash.

September 1997: A Garden Indonesia Airbus A300 crashes near the airport in Medan, Indonesia, leaving 234 dead.

February 1998: A China Airlines Airbus A300 crashes on landing at the airport in Taipei, Taiwan, leaving 203 dead.

October 1999: An Egypt Air Boeing 767 crashes off Nantucket, killing 217 people. The National Transportation Safety Board blames actions by the co-pilot.

July 2000: An Air France Concorde, headed for New York, crashes into a hotel outside Paris shortly after take off. The death toll is 113, including four people who were on the ground.

September 2001: Al-Qaida terrorists hijack four US passenger airlines, flying two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and another into the Pentagon. The fourth crashes into a field near Pittsburgh. Nearly 3,000 people are killed in the attack.

October 2001: A Scandinavian Airlines System jet collides with a small plane in heavy fog at Milan's Linate airport, killing 118 people.

May 2002: A China Airlines Boeing 747 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait, killing 225 people.

January 2003: A Turkish Airlines plane crashes as it is coming in to land at Diyarbakir, killing 75 people on board.

February 2003: An Iranian Revolutionary Guard military plane crashes into a mountain, leaving 275 dead.

August 2005: A Helios Airways flight from Cyprus to Prague, carrying 121 people, crashes north of Marathon and Varnavas, in Greece, after the cabin pressure falls. All on board are killed.

January 2008: A Polish Casa military transport plane crashes in the north-west of the country, killing 19 people, many of whom were officials who had attended an air safety conference.

June 2009: An Air France Airbus A330 runs into thunderstorms over the Atlantic and disappears, with 228 people on board.


Source :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2010/apr/10/worlds-worst-air-disasters-timeline