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Japan, 2024 -

On January 2, 2024, Japan Airlines flight 516 reportedly collided with a smaller plane while landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The Airbus A350-900 aircraft was carrying 379 people during the accident and burst into flames. Videos showed the burning plane roll to a stop on the runway. Passengers began to escape via inflatable slides while firefighters struggled to subdue the fire. Incredibly, every single passenger and crew member managed to make it off the plane safely, including eight infants. The plane quickly became engulfed by the inferno and continued to burn for several hours. 

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Columbia, 2023 -

On May 1, 2023, a small Cessna 206 carrying seven passengers over the Colombian jungle sent out a Mayday alert due to engine failure. The plane crashed into the wilderness in the early hours of the morning, and authorities found that all three adult passengers, including the pilot, had been killed. The four children were, however, missing. Search and rescue efforts ensued as military, firefighters, and civil aviation authority officials began to scour the rainforest. On May 17, more than two weeks after the crash, the four children were found alive. The small group of survivors was made up of a 13-year-old, a nine-year-old, a four-year-old, and an 11-month-old baby. It's believed that they set off into the jungle after the crash to find help and subsisted on fallen fruit. The search teams came across makeshift shelters they had made using jungle vegetation.

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Korean Air Flight 631, 2022 -

A Korean Air plane overshot the runway while landing in bad weather at Mactan-Cebu International Airport in the Philippines late on October 23 2022, but authorities said all 173 people on board were safe. Photos show the front underbelly of the plane partly ripped away, though there are no further details on the damage.  The Airbus A330, reportedly flying from Seoul to Cebu, attempted to land twice in the poor weather before overshooting the runway on the third attempt, Korean Air Lines Co. said in a statement, as per AP news. All passengers and crew were evacuated on the plane's escape slides. 

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Michigan, USA, 2021 -

An 11-year-old girl was the sole survivor of a commuter plane crash on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan on November 13, which took the lives of her father and three others. On November 14, the girl's mother, Christina Perdue, said in a statement that her daughter recalls her father protecting her as the Britten-Norman BN-2 aircraft crash-landed at the Welke Airport, reports ABC News. "It's her last memory before the crash,"  Perdue said, adding that her daughter was in stable condition at a children's hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"We are heartbroken with the loss of my husband, a father, brother, son and friend. He gave the best bear hugs, and I believe he grabbed our daughter and protected her," Perdue continued. "Our prayers are also with our island community and the other souls lost in the accident."

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Delta Airlines Flight 191 - This 1985 crash occurred when the crew decided to fly through a severe thunderstorm in order to stay on schedule. An intense downward gust of wind occurred right in front of the plane, causing the pilots to lose control.

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Delta Airlines Flight 191 - The plane crashed into a water tank on landing. Of the 163 people on board, just 27 survived.

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Lansa Flight 508 -

On Christmas Eve 1971, a plane flying over the Peruvian Amazon fell after being struck by lightning. German teen Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor of the crash, in which 91 other people died.

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Lansa Flight 508 -

She fell two miles (3.2 km) strapped into her seat, lost consciousness, and the next morning began her trek through the rainforest with a concussion, broken collarbone, and arm and leg injuries for 10 days before she was found by forest workers. Her story was turned into the 1974 movie 'Miracles Still Happen,' starring Susan Penhaligon (pictured) as Koepcke.

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Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 - An Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 crashed just before landing on Libya's Tripoli airport on May 12, 2010.

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US Airways Flight 1549 - On January 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger managed to land on the Hudson River with 150 people aboard.

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US Airways Flight 1549 -

The incredible landing happened only a few minutes after the plane took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport and was hit by a flock of geese. Everybody aboard the aircraft survived, and the event was portrayed in the film 'Sully,' featuring Tom Hanks.

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Yemenia Airways Flight 626 - On June 30, 2009, a Yemenia Airways plane heading to the Comoros islands crashed into the Indian Ocean.

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Yemenia Airways Flight 626 - Twelve-year-old Bahia Bakari was the only survivor of a disaster that killed 152 people. She hung tight to a piece of wreckage for hours before she was rescued.

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Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 -

The Cuban flight plummeted shortly after taking off from Havana's airport on May 18, 2018. Maylen Díaz Almaguer, 19 at the time, was the sole survivor of an accident that killed 112 people.

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Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 - On October 13, 1972, a plane flying from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashed in the Andes after being hit by bad weather. More than a quarter of the passengers died, and the survivors had to resort to cannibalism.

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Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 - Survivors Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa (pictured) braved the mountains to find help. On December 22, they came back with a rescue party and all 16 survivors made it to the hospital.

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Aeroméxico flight AM2431 - A passenger plane crashed shortly after taking off from Guadalupe Victoria International Airport in Durango, Mexico on August 1, 2018.

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Aeroméxico flight AM2431 -

The plane heading to Mexico City was carrying 103 passengers, including cabin crew members, when it crashed after being hit by a gust of wind.

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Aeroméxico flight AM2431 -

Fortunately, all passengers survived, but nearly everyone on the flight suffered minor injuries, according to Mexican officials. Two people, the pilot and a minor, were more seriously injured.

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JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 357 -

Flight attendant Vesna Vulovic (center) famously survived a fall of 10,000 m (33,000 ft) in January 1972.

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JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 357 -

The plane she was in exploded after a bomb placed by Croatian terrorists detonated mid-flight, killing 27 of the 28 people on board.

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Yak-Service's Flight 9633 - In September 2011, a charter flight carrying the players and coaches of the Russian Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team caught fire when it crashed into a tower mast after running off the runway.

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Yak-Service's Flight 9633 - Of all 45 people on board, only two survived, but one of them died in the hospital five days later. Crew member Alexander Sizov ended up being the only survivor.

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Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 -

On October 30, 1959, the Piedmont Airlines plane crashed on Bucks Elbow Mountain in Virginia, killing all 24 passengers but one (Ernest P. "Phil" Bradley), who was found still strapped to his seat near the wreckage.

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Northwest Airlines Flight 255 - Four-year-old Cecelia Cichan was the only survivor of the 1987 crash that killed 154 passengers and crew, including her parents and brother. The aircraft crashed onto Middlebelt Road in Detroit, Michigan shortly after takeoff.

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Comair Flight 5191 - Copilot Jim Polehinke was handling the jetliner that crashed during takeoff in Kentucky on August 27, 2006.

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Comair Flight 5191 - Polehinke was the only survivor among a death toll of 49, but he lost his left leg after the accident.

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Air Algérie Flight 6289 -

In March 2003, the engine on the domestic flight departing from Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, caught fire just seconds after takeoff, according to witnesses. The sole survivor was 28-year-old Youcef Djillali. 102 other passengers perished.

See also: Tragic plane crashes involving soccer players

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