11 of the world's deadliest air crashes

Turkish Airlines Flight 981, March 3, 1974; Fatalities: 346. This picture is of the actual aircraft involved in the crash. The plane was carrying 335 passengers and 11 crew. It crashed in the Ermenonville Forest north of Paris, after taking off from Orly Airport. The flight was bound for London Heathrow, en route from Istanbul. Ten minutes into the flight, the rear left cargo door blew off due to a problem with the hatches. Aviation safety investigators found out that the cargo door was not securely fastened, thereby causing an explosive decompression in the cabin and severing cables linking the flight deck with the aircraft’s elevators, rudder and two engines.

The Tenerife Airport Disaster, March 27, 1977. Fatalities: 583. This deadly crash involved a collision of two flights ù KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736 — which collided at the Tenerife North Airport (formerly Los Rodeos). Both were Boeing 747s. It was a foggy day, neither of the two aircraft were supposed to be at Los Rodeos. Both flights were diverted to the airport. The collision occurred when the KLM aircraft attempted to take-off without clearance, while the Pan Am aircraft was still taxiing along the same runway, having missed its turn to leave. There were no survivors.

American Airlines Flight 191, May 25 1979. Fatalities: 272. The DC-10 left Chicago O’Hare on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. But its left engine detached from its wing and the plane fell off, rolling in the air and then crashing a mile from the runway. The plane burst into flames and smoke immediately. All 271 people on board died, two others died on the ground.

Saudia Flight 163, When : August 19, 1980; Fatalities: 301. What happened? : Was this one of the saddest plane incidents ? This was not a case of a crash or a mid-air collision. But sadly, all 301 passengers on board the Lockheed L-1011 died on the runway at Riyadh due smoke inhalation. So what happened? Saudi flight 163 took off from Riyadh, en route to Jeddah, only to return to Riyadh minutes later for an emergency landing after a fire started in the cargo department. However, when the plane landed, instead of initiating an emergency evacuation, the pilot taxied the aircraft back towards the airport, stopping on the runway for nearly three minutes. It then took some 23 minutes to access the aircraft once the engines were stopped. By the time the doors were opened all on board had died from smoke inhalation. The source of the fire is believed to have been two butane stoves in the cargo. An evacuation was never initiated.

Air India Flight 182, June 23, 1985. Fatalities: 329. Deemed the deadliest terror attack involving a plane at the time, the Air India Boeing 747 crashed off the coast of Ireland en route from Toronto to Sahar International in India, after a bomb placed in the cargo hold by Sikh extremists Babbar Khalsa exploded over the Atlantic. The passenger responsible is believed to be 'M Singh' who checked himself onto the flight - along with a suitcase - but did not board. A second bomb intended to go off in tandem on another flight exploded early in the terminal building at Narita Airport, Japan. An investigation into the bombing of Flight 182 found numerous failings in the security processes in Canada that allowed the terrorist attack to be successful.

Japan Airlines Flight 123, August 12, 1985. Fatalities: 520. A picture of the plane taken at around 6:47 pm shows that the vertical stabilizer is missing (circled in red). The crash involved a Boeing 747 into Mount Takamagahara in central Japan. Just four survived when the aircraft spiralled out of control, its wing clipping a mountain ridge, before flipping and landing on its back, following an explosive decompression towards the rear of the plane, the result of a faulty repair job seven years earlier. Pilots were able to keep the plane in the air for 32 minutes after the mechanical failure before crashing into a mountain. Four passengers, all female, survived. They sat in the middle of rows towards the rear of the aircraft.

Iran Air Flight 655. July 3, 1988. Fatalities: 290. This is a picture of an Airbus A300 similar to the aircraft involved in the incident. The Airbus A300, a civilian airline, was shot down by surface-to-air missiles fired from US military cruiser USS Vincennes, killing all on board. The flight was in Iranian airspace, over Iranian territorial waters and on its usual flight path, yet, according to the US government, Vincennes mistook it for an F-14A Tomcat fighter plane. Crew on the American ship made 10 attempts to contact the Iran Air aircraft on military and civilian radio frequencies, with no response, before firing. In 1996 the US government and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice, the former expressing “deep regret over the loss of lives”, but not admitting legal liability or formally apologising. The US agreed to pay $213,103.45 compensation per passenger.

Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision, November 12, 1996. Fatalities: 349. This is the world’s deadliest mid-air crash that involved Saudia Flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 over the city of Charkhi Dadri in northern India. The Saudia-operated Boeing 747 was bound for Dhahran from Delhi while the Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin II-76 was bound for Indira airport from Shymkent when they collided, killing 312 people on board the former and 37 on the latter. The crash occurred after the Ilyushin aircraft was cleared to descend to 15,000 feet, but then descended past that level to 14,500 feet while the 747 was ascending in the opposite direction. By the time the air traffic controller could warn of the proximity between the two aircraft it was too late. The tail of the Kazakhstan plane cut through the Saudia wing, causing the aircraft to go into a rapidly descending spiral, while the Ilyushin entered a gentler but still fast and uncontrolled descent. The captain of a passing US Air Force aircraft saw the crash and described a “a large cloud lit up with an orange glow”. A number of factors were found to have caused the crash, including the failure of the Kazakhstan Airlines pilot to follow the ATC instructions.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, March 8, 2014. Missing: 275. MAS Flight 370 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to its destination, Beijing Capital International Airport. The mystery surrounding flight MH370 has been a focus of continued investigation and a source of much public speculation. An extensive search has been made for the aircraft and passengers, but yielded no positive results. Key pieces of debris were found washed up on the beach on Réunion island in the south-western Indian Ocean in 2017, three years after the aircraft vanished. Aviation investigators confirmed at at least three pieces found floating were from the plane, while five others remain highly likely — but inconclusive.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, July 17, 2014. Fatalities: 298. A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down near the Russian border, likely by pro-Russian forces in control of the region during the War in Donbass between separatist insurgents and the Ukrainian government. All 298 on board died when the plane crashed into a field near Torez. Some airlines had already begun to avoid Ukrainian airspace owing to the Crimean crisis that began early in 2014, with the International Civil Aviation Organisation warning of a risk to passenger jets in the area, but not all carriers had changed their routes. In September 2016, Dutch prosecutors concluded that the missile used to shoot down the plane had been transported into eastern Ukraine from Russia.

Iranian Air Force Ilyushun II-76, February 19, 2003. Fatalities: 275. The official report into the military aircraft that crashed in the Sirach Mountains near Kerman in Iran found that bad weather, including high winds and fog, brought the plane down, killing all on board, all members of the Revolutionary Guards. The Aviation Safety Network classifies the crash as a Controlled Flight into Terrain.