Since the airplane become a popular way of traveling it has been many airplane crashes. Here is a list of eleven worst airplane accidents in history.
1. March 3, 1974. A Turkish Airlines (THY) DC-10 lost its rear cargo door and crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris. Losing the cargo door resulted in explosive decompression and damage to the cabin floor and control cables. The airplane lost control and crashed in a forest at a high rate of speed. The crash took 346 lives, 334 passengers and 12 crew members. McDonnell Douglas, maker of the DC-10, was forced to redesign its cargo door system. Mcdonnell Douglas is the manufacturer of the airplane that crashed yesterday (August 20) in Madrid.
2. March 27, 1977. There was a heavy fog that day on the runway in Tenerife. Two Boeing 747s (KLM plane and Pan Am plane) were instructed to back truck up the runway. The KLM plane began its takeoff without permission and with the Pan Am plane still on the runway. The two planes collided and burst into flames killing 583 people, 560 passengers and 23 crew members. (KLM - 234 passengers and 14 crew, Pan Am - 326 passengers and 9 crew)
3. May 25, 1979. During the takeoff of an American Airlines DC-10 from the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, the left engine and pylon separated from the aircraft damaging the wing which caused the airplane to roll 90 degrees and disintegrates in a huge fireball about a mile beyond the runway. 273 fatalities. (258 passengers, 13 crew members and 2 people on the ground)
4. May 25, 1979. 6 minutes after taking off from Rilyadh, Saudi Arabia, an in-flight fire broke out. Even though the plane landed safely, bad judgement from the captain not to order an emergency evacuation cost the lives of all 301 people (287 passengers and 14 crew members) aboard, who died by smoke and fire. The captain decided to make a “normal” landing which delayed the fire equipment from putting out the fire. It took a full 23 minutes after the landing before the doors were open.
5. September 1, 1983. On a flight from Alaska to South Korea, the Korean Air Lines flight KL007, a 747 carrying 269 passengers and crew, driftet off course and twice penetrated Soviet airspace. During the second penetration, the airplane was shot down by a Soviet fighter with air-to-air missiles. All 269 people aboard were killed. ( 246 passengers and 23 crew members)
6. June 23, 1985. Terrorist checked baggage with bombs onto two flights. The bag with the bomb transferred onto Toronto flight, blew a Boeing 747 (Air India) killing 329 people, 307 passengers and 22 crew members. The second bomb would have been transferred at Tokey onto another Air India flight, but exploded at the airport killing 2 baggage handlers.
7. August 12, 1985. A Japan Air Lines 747 suffered an aft pressure bulkhead failure at 23.900 ft (over 7 kilometers). The plane had severe control difficulties with loss of all controls and after 40 minutes the plane collided with a mountain. 520 of 524 people were killed in this accident. (505 passengers (of 509) and 15 crew members)
8. July 3, 1988. An Airbus A300 operated by Iran Air was shot down by the US Navy destroyer Vincennes with two surface-to-air missiles. The crew of the Vincennes, distracted by an ongoing gunbattle, misidentified the A300 for a hostile Iranian F-14 fighter. All 290 people aboard were killed. (278 passengers and 12 crew members)
9. December 21, 1988. A bomb planted aboard Pan American flight 103 by two Libyan agents killed 270 people. (243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground)
10. November 12, 1996. Two planes (Ilyushin IL-76 and Saudia 747) collided in midair near Delhi. All 349 aboard both planes are killed. Neither airplane was equipped with collision-avoidance technology.
11. September 11, 2001. Hijacking by terrorists and deliberate destruction of 4 separate airplanes resulted in the deaths of thousands. 2907 people lost their lives.
