Conquest of airspace by man - greatest event, which, unfortunately, is associated with the death of many testers of the first aircraft. More than 200 years have passed since the first successful human flight in airspace Earth. Nowadays air travel is one of the most quick ways to overcome huge distances. But modern aircraft, so reliable on the ground, in the air, and during takeoff and landing, can encounter unexpected problems. The largest plane crashes in the world - we have collected information for readers about terrible tragedies that claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
On July 3, 1988, a tragedy occurred with the Iranian Airbus A-300, which was shot down over the Persian Gulf by an American cruiser. This major plane crash killed 290 people, including 65 children. According to the American authorities, the cruiser's crew mistook the airliner for an Iranian fighter. There was no apology from the US government.
One of the world's largest air disasters is the tragic incident that occurred on January 8, 1996 in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo. The Russian Airlines An-32B aircraft was carrying cargo. The crew was preparing for a normal flight. On board, in addition to the crew members, there was a citizen of Zaire accompanying the cargo. The 1,700-meter-long runway was unfenced and was separated from the local market, located perpendicular to the runway, only by a drainage ditch. During the takeoff run along the runway, the crew was unable to lift bow plane and tried to stop the takeoff, but the aircraft rolled straight into the market and caught fire, colliding with buildings. Dead: one of the crew members and 297 people who were at the market. Most of the dead are women and children. It was possible to identify only 66 bodies, since the rest were terribly mutilated.
As it turned out later, the plane was loaded by a local airline, which did not take into account the special nature of the aircraft. No crew members were present during loading. As a result, the permissible weight of the aircraft was exceeded, and it was unable to take off.
To date, this is the largest plane crash in the world that has occurred on earth.
298 people died
On July 17, 2014, another tragedy occurred, one of the largest air disasters in the world. A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. The flight proceeded as usual, but 50 kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian border the aircraft stopped communicating. There were no alarms from him. The plane was found crashed near the village of Gradovo in the Donetsk region. The complexity of the work to establish the causes of the tragedy is due to the fact that this is an area of armed confrontation between opposition regions and the Ukrainian authorities. None of the parties to the conflict in the east of the country admitted guilt in the plane crash. All that is known is that the plane, according to the main version of the investigation, was shot down by unidentified persons using a Buk anti-aircraft missile system. Everyone on board the airliner died - 298 people in total.
301 people died
On August 19, 1980, a major plane crash occurred at the airport in Riyadh, in which all 301 people on board died. The worst thing is that the passengers and crew could have been saved, but the sluggishness of the airport emergency services led to the fact that the doors to the burning cabin were opened only 23 minutes after the emergency landing of the aircraft. When rescuers finally opened the main door to the plane, the cabin instantly ignited and all the passengers and crew in it died in the flames. The salon literally burned to the ground. For what reasons they themselves were unable to open the emergency exits from the plane remains unknown.
Problems on board the Lockheed L-1011 began while still in flight. A sensor was activated, indicating a fire in the cargo compartment. The plane immediately turned around and headed for Riyadh airport. The crew had poor English and were unable to understand firefighting instructions in the cargo hold.
On August 19, 1980, the world's worst air disaster over water occurred, killing 329 people (all on board). The tragedy occurred 70 kilometers from the Irish city of Cork in international waters Atlantic Ocean. An Indian Airlines Boeing 747 was flying from Montreal to Bombay when an explosion occurred on board. The plane's crew did not have time to transmit a distress signal - the airliner collapsed in the air. The found flight recorders confirmed the main version of the death of the airliner - it was a terrorist attack. Sikh extremists were accused of planning and carrying out the explosion.
346 people died
On March 3, 1974, a Turkish airline DC-10 plane crashed in the Ermenonville forest area 6 minutes after taking off from Paris. The airliner was completely destroyed. 346 people died. The cause of the tragedy was a malfunction of the cargo compartment door lock. As the plane began to gain altitude, the door suddenly opened. An explosive decompression occurred, destroying the control system and the plane went into a dive. He fell for a minute and a half until he hit the ground. This is one of the worst air disasters in the world.
349 people died
Airplanes suffer disasters due to technical malfunctions, unforeseen situations, and terrorist attacks. One of the reasons for the tragedies that occur, unfortunately, is human factor. It was he who led to one of the world's largest air disasters, which occurred on November 12, 1996, when a Boeing 747 and an Il-76TD collided in the skies above the unsuspecting residents of the Indian city of Charkhi Dadri. 349 people died, and rescuers found 4 survivors at the crash site, but they died because help was provided too late. The cause of the collision was an insufficient level of knowledge in English pilots of the Il-76 aircraft, who allowed the ship to descend, which led to a collision with the Boeing.
On August 12, 1985, a Boeing 747 was flying from Tokyo to Osaka. 12 minutes after takeoff, a loud bang was heard and the hydraulic system stopped working. For 32 minutes, the crew of the plane selflessly tried to turn the ship around and set off on a return course to Tokyo, using engine thrust instead of failed rudders. Passengers no longer hoped for a miracle and wrote farewell notes to family and friends. At an altitude of one and a half thousand meters, the Boeing crashed into the slope of Mount Otsutaka. The rescue team managed to reach the crash site only after 14 hours. They were shocked when they found four survivors - two women and two children. 520 people died.
This is one of the largest air disasters in the history of world aviation.
On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s collided during takeoff at Los Rodeos airport. 583 people died. The cause of the incident was the incorrect interpretation of dispatcher commands by the commander of one of the airliners. This disaster radically changed the attitude towards safety measures in world aviation.
The most terrible consequences were the plane crashes that occurred on September 11, 2001, when four civilian aircraft were hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of them were aimed at the World War II towers. shopping center and rammed them. One airliner crashed into the Pentagon building. The last aircraft to crash was in Pennsylvania. These disasters caused the death of 2,977 people (passengers, crew members, rescuers and other victims).
In this post I would like to tell you about biggest and worst plane crashes in the history of world aviation. Most of the stories below are truly creepy. In general, it’s hard to believe that all this is possible... For some reason, real life not everything always ends with a happy ending, this is not a movie for you, friends...
In this context, I judged the most terrible disasters by the total number of victims in an air accident. The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, in which thousands were injured civilians and passengers of Boeing 767 and 757 planes hijacked by terrorists were not taken into account in the rating. Another interesting piece of information is that from the 1970s to 2017, the number of disasters occurring decreased by more than 3 times:
The article will be full of terrible disasters that claimed thousands of lives. I want to start this tragic article with a rare incident in world aviation. Thanks to the professionalism of the pilots, on January 15, 2009, the lives of 155 people were saved. The US Airways Airbus A320 took off from New York airport, but a few minutes later problems developed in the engine. Both engines were damaged and stopped due to the plane colliding with a flock of birds. The pilots managed to land the almost uncontrollable car directly into the Hudson River. More than 1,000 people took part in saving the lives of passengers. You will learn more about this terrible plane crash, but with a happy ending, from the video:
1. The largest and most tragic plane crash in aviation history occurred on March 27, 1977. On this tragic day on the Spanish island of Tenerife, 2 Boeing 747 airlines Pan Am and KLM collided on the runway. You can read more about the worst plane crash in which 583 people died.
Film about the plane crash in Tenerife:
2. On August 12, 1985, a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near the famous Mount Fuji in Japan. The plane crash in Japan is the second after the tragedy in Tenerife in terms of the total number of victims, and the largest air accident in the history of aviation involving a single aircraft. As a result of the Boeing 747 crash, 520 people died; only 4 passengers of the ill-fated Japan Airlines flight managed to survive. As a result of the investigation into the plane crash in Japan, it was found that the main cause of the tragedy was errors and negligence made during the repair of the aircraft, as a result of which, during the fatal flight, the Boeing 747 with tail number JA 8119 lost control and crashed.
Film with details of a terrible plane accident in Japan (in English):
3. On November 12, 1996, two aircraft collided in the air over Delhi: an Il-76 of Kazakhstan Airlines and a Boeing 747 of Saudi Arabian Airlines. As a result of a misunderstanding by the crew of the Kazakh IL-76 of the air traffic controller's commands, the plane landing at a speed of 500 km/h crashed into the fuselage of a Boeing 747 flying towards the meeting. In a plane crash on November 12, 1996 over Delhi, all those on board the 2 planes died - 349 people. In addition to the error of the IL-76 crew, one of the reasons for the accident was that both airliners were not equipped with a collision avoidance system.
The first excerpt from the National Geographic film about the Delhi plane crash (you can also find the rest on YouTube):
4. The largest Turkish Airlines plane crash occurred on March 3, 1974 in France near Paris Orly airport. A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliner crashed. The cause of the largest air disaster in the history of the DC-10 aircraft was an error in the design of the cargo compartment door, as a result of which the door was simply torn off during the flight, which led to subsequent depressurization of the cabin. The airliner became completely uncontrollable and crashed in the forests near Paris. The Turkish Airlines McDonnell Douglas crash killed all 346 people on board the plane.
5. June 23, 1985 over the Atlantic Ocean south of the coast In Ireland, extremists blew up an Air India Boeing 747 flying on the route Montreal (Canada) - London (UK) - Delhi (India). As a result of the terrorist attack (bomb explosion) on board the plane in the plane crash of flight No. 182, all 329 people were killed. Sikh extremists also planned to blow up another Air India plane, but the bomb exploded prematurely in the luggage compartment of Tokyo airport.
6. On August 19, 1980, a Saudi Arabian Airlines Lockheed L-1011-200 TriStar on flight 163 from Riyadh to Jeddah caught fire after takeoff from International airport Riyadh International Airport). 7 minutes after takeoff, a fire occurred in the cargo compartment of the plane, and the crew decided to return and make an emergency landing at Riyadh airport. As a result of numerous crew errors, after a successful landing, all passengers on flight No. 163 died from poisonous gases caused by the fire. In total, 301 people died in this tragic and terrible plane crash; no one managed to get out of the cabin of the burning Lockheed plane...
7. On July 3, 1988, the American cruiser Vincennes mistakenly shot down an Iranian Airbus A300 airliner with 290 people on board over the Persian Gulf. Subsequently, in 1996, the United States paid Iran compensation in the amount of 61.8 million US dollars for 248 victims, at the rate of 300 thousand dollars for each able-bodied victim and 150 thousand for each dependent.
8. On May 25, 1979, the worst air disaster in US history occurred when an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashed 31 seconds after takeoff from Chicago International Airport. The terrible tragedy was caused by errors in pilot training and DC-10 repair technology. The horrific plane crash in Chicago killed 271 people on board and killed two residents when the plane crashed into a nearby trailer park. But there could have been many more victims...
Watch a video investigation of the worst plane crash in US history. Only in English, but very detailed.
9. On December 21, 1988, Libyan terrorists blew up a Pan Am Boeing 747 flying from London to New York over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The plane crash over Lockerbie killed 270 people.
10. September 1, 1983 in the airspace of the USSR over the waters Pacific Ocean A Korean Airlines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet interceptor fighter. The incident occurred due to the severe diversion of the New York-Seoul flight and its intrusion into closed Soviet airspace. As a result, the Boeing with 246 passengers on board and 23 crew members was shot down by 2 Soviet R-98 missiles.
11. In 2016, a TU-154 plane of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed, killing 100 people (92 passengers and 8 crew members).
12. 2017 turned out to be a relatively calm year. In Kyrgyzstan, due to fog, a passenger Boeing 747 crashed during landing, falling on residential buildings. 37 people died.
No. 10. A300 crash over the Persian Gulf - 290 dead
The A300 crash over the Persian Gulf occurred on July 3, 1988. The Iran Air Airbus A300B2-203 was flying commercial passenger flight IR655 on the route Tehran-Bandar Abbas-Dubai, but a few minutes after taking off from Bandar Abbas, flying over the Persian Gulf, it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from US Navy guided missile cruiser Vincennes. All 290 people on board the plane were killed: 16 crew members and 274 passengers, including 65 children. At the time of the missile launch, the cruiser Vincennes was in Iranian territorial waters.
The US government said the Iranian airliner was mistakenly identified as an Iranian Air Force F-14. The Iranian government, however, maintains that the Vincennes deliberately attacked a civilian aircraft.
No. 9. Boeing 777 crash in the Donetsk region - 298 dead
The crash occurred on July 17, 2014 in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was performing a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. 
There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board the plane, all of them died. 
No. 8. L-1011 crash in Riyadh - 301 dead
The Riyadh L-1011 crash occurred on Tuesday, August 19, 1980, at Riyadh Airport.
A few minutes after taking off from Karachi, a fire started on board the Lockheed L-1011-385-1-15 TriStar 200 of Saudi Arabian Airlines, operating passenger flight SVA163 on the route Karachi - Riyadh - Jeddah. The crew managed to make an emergency landing in Riyadh, however emergency services The airport opened the door to the passenger cabin only 23 minutes after the plane landed. As a result of the delayed evacuation, the liner burned out completely, killing all 287 passengers and 14 crew members on board (301 people in total).
Lockheed L-1011-385-1-15 TriStar 200 of Saudi Arabian Airlines, identical to the one that burned: 
No. 7. Boeing 747 crash near Cork - 329 dead
The Boeing 747 crash near Cork occurred on Sunday 23 June 1985 as a result of a terrorist attack. The Air India Boeing 747-237B was flying flight AI182 on the Montreal-London-Delhi-Bombay route, but when approaching London, an explosion occurred on board, destroying the plane. All 329 people on board were killed - 307 passengers and 22 crew members. 
When the explosion occurred, the tail of the plane was torn off, the crew of the ship did not even have time to transmit a distress signal, hundreds of passengers were “scattered” in the sky over the Atlantic, then within a few days 131 bodies and the wreckage of the plane were lifted from the water.
No. 6. DC-10 crash near Paris - 346 dead
The Paris DC-10 crash, also known as the Ermenonville crash, occurred on Sunday, March 3, 1974, near Paris.
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 airliner of Turkish Airlines operated passenger flight TK 981 on the route Istanbul-Paris-London. 6 minutes after takeoff from Paris, at an altitude of 3,500 meters, one of the cargo bay doors suddenly opened, creating an explosive decompression that destroyed the control systems. The airliner went into a dive and after 1.5 minutes crashed at high speed into the Ermenonville forest northeast of Paris. 
All 346 people were killed, including 12 crew members and 334 passengers. The DC-10 crash near Paris remains the largest aircraft disaster in which there were no survivors. 
No. 5. Collision over Charkhi Dadri - 349 dead
On November 12, 1996, 5 kilometers from the Indian city of Charkhi Dadri, at an altitude of 4109 meters, the Boeing 747-168B airliners of Saudi Arabian Airlines (flight SVA763 Delhi-Jeddah) and Il-76TD of Kazakhstan Airlines (flight KZA1907 Shymkent-Delhi) collided. All 349 people on both planes were killed: 312 people on flight 763 and 37 people on flight 1907.
This plane crash is the largest in terms of the number of casualties in mid-air aircraft collisions. 
No. 4. Boeing 747 crash near Tokyo - 520 dead
The Boeing 747 crash near Tokyo occurred on August 12, 1985. The Boeing 747SR-46 airliner of Japan Airlines was flying JAL 123 on the Tokyo-Osaka route, but 12 minutes after takeoff it lost its vertical tail stabilizer.
Computer reconstruction of the disaster: 
The crew kept the uncontrollable airliner in the air for 32 minutes, but the plane lost control and crashed into Mount Otsutaka, 112 kilometers from Tokyo. 520 people died, of which 15 crew members and 505 passengers, 4 people survived.
This is the largest single plane crash. 
No. 3. Collision at Los Rodeos Airport - 583 dead
The Los Rodeos airport collision (also known as the Tenerife collision) occurred on March 27, 1977 on the island of Tenerife ( Canary Islands). A Boeing 747-206B of KLM Airlines (flight KL4805 Amsterdam-Las Palmas) and a Boeing 747-121 of Pan American Airlines (flight PA1736 Los Angeles-New York-Las Palmas) collided on the runway. 
583 people died: 248 people on board the KLM Boeing, of which 234 were passengers and 14 crew members, and 335 people on board the Pan American Boeing, of which 326 were passengers and 9 crew members. 61 people on the Pan American Boeing survived the disaster: 54 passengers and 7 crew members.
#2 United Airlines Flight 175 - 65 people on board and 900+ dead in and around the building
United Airlines Flight 175 was hijacked during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It became the second plane involved in the terrorist attack.
A Boeing 767-222 airliner attacked the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York. The ramming of the South Tower by Flight 175 was the only aircraft accident seen in live Worldwide. The impact and subsequent fire that engulfed the South Tower led to the collapse of the skyscraper 56 minutes after the accident.
There were 65 people on board the plane: 51 passengers, 5 terrorists and 9 crew members, all died. The total death toll is more than 900 people who were in and near the tower, and the rescuers who participated in the evacuation. 
No. 1. 11 American Airlines Flight - 92 people on board and 1600+ dead in and around the building
On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223ER, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York after being hijacked by terrorists. It became the first aircraft involved in the terrorist attack.
The disaster was witnessed by thousands of people who were at that moment on the streets near the World Trade Center. Several video cameras recorded the Boeing's hit. After being rammed by an airplane, the tower caught fire and 102 minutes later it fell on neighboring areas. 
There were 92 people on board the plane: 76 passengers, 5 terrorists and 11 crew members, all killed. The total death toll is more than 1,600 people who were in and near the tower, and the rescuers who participated in the evacuation.
Getting into a plane crash is one of the biggest phobias of travelers. This fear is not unfounded, because every year there are hundreds of air crashes around the world, ranging from accidents on private helicopters to the tragic deaths of passengers on large airliners. The cause of the tragedy can be a technical malfunction or a terrorist attack, but they all lead to losses human lives. Let's remember the worst plane crashes that shocked the whole world.
1. The largest incident involving aircraft happened on a day that is still remembered not only by Americans, but also by concerned people all over the world - it was two Boeing 767s, with 137 people on board, that were captured by terrorists. Then something terrible happened: planes pierced the famous New York skyscrapers, and that day, in total, more than 3,000 people died.
People all over the world could not believe what had happened: how such a tragedy could happen in peacetime, which was not caused by pilot error or engine fire, but by a planned attack by other people. 16 years have passed since that day, but... It was this attack in 2001 that prompted the United States to officially declare war on terrorism, which continues to this day and is only gaining momentum.
2. The disaster that took away the most a large number of lives of air passengers in the history of all aviation, occurred on March 27, 1977 in Spain on the island of Tenerife. Because of the bad weather conditions all airports were closed, except for the only one in Los Rodeos. There was practically no visibility; communication between pilots and dispatchers was constantly interrupted. The Boeing 747 of the American company PanAm drove onto the runway.
The same Boeing of the Dutch airline KLM was moving towards him, preparing for takeoff, at high speed. When the pilots saw that the two Boeings were moving towards each other, the distance was already too short. The KLM airliner attempted to take off, but it was unsuccessful. This resulted in a severe head-on collision, which killed 583 people.
3. In 1985, on August 12, a Japanese Airlines Boeing 747 crashed. A quarter of an hour after takeoff, a breakdown was discovered in the onboard mechanisms, which led to other malfunctions. The experienced crew tried their best to keep the ship in the air, however, the plane crashed. 520 people died, only four survived. This was due to insufficient testing of all systems; faults were not detected and corrected in a timely manner.
4. On January 8, 1996, an accident occurred in the Congo involving a Russian plane. AN-32 was preparing to take off on the runway of the central airport. For unknown reasons, the plane did not take off, but rammed a local market at high speed. As a result, 350 people were killed and another 450 were injured. Six months later, an investigation placed blame on both pilots.
5. In the same year, on November 12, flying over India, 2 planes collided in the sky: a Boeing 747 from Saudi Arabia and an IL-76 from Kazakhstan. This happened as a result of failures in the control equipment: at one moment two points on the radar screen connected, and a bright flash was visible in the air, which became the last moment for 349 people.
6. On March 3, 1974, 546 people died in the skies over Paris. The weather was clear, and the dispatchers worked properly, but at an altitude of thousands of kilometers above the ground, the door of the cargo compartment of the DC-10 aircraft opened and depressurization occurred. No one survived.
7. In the summer of 1985, on June 23, a plane crashed into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland. There were 329 passengers and crew members on board. Earlier in the flight, the plane’s engine failed, but then the failure was repaired. Therefore, first of all, the experts who conducted the investigation decided that this was the cause of the crash. But it turned out that it was a pre-prepared, planned explosion on board.
8. August 19, 1980 at Riyadh airport ( Saudi Arabia) the plane took off. Immediately after takeoff, a fire started on board, the crew made an emergency decision to return and land the plane. They succeeded; the plane not only returned to the airport, but also managed to complete landing. People were one step away from salvation. But by this time the fire had already engulfed everything, 301 people died.
9. On July 3, 1988, in a fatal mistake, the crew of a US military cruiser mistook a passenger plane flying to Dubai for a military fighter from Iraq. A signal was sent, to which there was no response. Two water-to-air missiles were launched at an innocent target. 290 civilians were killed.
10. On July 1, 2002, the most tragic plane crash occurred. In terms of the number of deaths, it is inferior to those described above; 71 people died that day. But it is not possible to come to terms with it, because... The dead were children - 51 children. Due to a malfunction of control equipment in the air over Germany, a TU-154 from Russia and a German cargo Boeing 747 collided. A memorial memorial is now erected near the crash site, and the dispatcher, 2 years after the tragedy, was killed by the father of two children killed in the disaster.
The 10 worst plane crashes - 10 days that claimed thousands of lives. Each of them is etched into memory. Photos of fallen airliners are horrifying. However, over the past 40 years, the number of plane crashes worldwide has tripled. Technology has become more reliable and navigation systems more accurate, but, on the other hand, the terrorist threat is growing every year.
Every 2-3 years in Russia there are air accidents that take the lives of hundreds of people.
The tail of the Tu-154 that crashed in Irkutsk 
It is difficult to remember these difficult events, but you need to remember them.
No matter how implausible it may sound, air travel is considered the safest compared to other modes of transport. For a year in car accidents dies hundreds of times more people, but it is during a plane crash that death occurs in such large numbers. According to statistics from the international aviation organization, only one out of a million planes that take off is involved in a plane crash, and every second 56 aircraft take off and land throughout the entire world.
