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The Grand Canyon midair collision (1956) -

On June 30, 1956, a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 struck a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation over Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The collision caused the deaths of 128 people and changed the American aviation industry forever. Pictured is the severed tail assembly of the TWA Constellation. Image: National Park Service

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Munich air disaster (1958) -

The Munich air disaster is the name given to the crash on February 6, 1958 of British European Airways Flight 609. The Airspeed Ambassador was attempting its third takeoff run when it ran into a heavy snow slush and veered off the runway. Among the 23 fatalities were members of the Manchester United soccer team.

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The New York midair collision (1960) -

The view of the scene of the plane crash in Brooklyn on December 18, 1960 after a midair collision between United Airlines Flight 826 and Trans World Airlines Flight 266 over New York City. This collision killed all 128 people on the two airplanes, and six on the ground.

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JAT Flight 367 (1972) -

On January 26, 1972, JAT Flight 367 en route from Stockholm to Belgrade broke into pieces midair, instantly killing 27 passengers and crew. Astonishingly, there was one survivor, flight attendant Vesna Vulović (pictured). She endured the highest fall without a parachute at 10,160 m (33,330 ft), but did receive serious injuries. The remarkable statistic is listed as a Guinness World Record. Vesna Vulović died on December 23, 2016, aged 66.

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British European Airways Flight 548 (1972) -

On June 18, 1972, British European Airways Flight 548 crashed soon after taking off from Heathrow Airport in London. All 118 persons on board were killed. The accident became known as the Staines Disaster, due to the fact that it occurred near the town of Staines in Middlesex.

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Turkish Airlines Flight 981 (1974) -

Pictured: the wreckage of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 in the Ermenonville Forest outside Paris in France, after crashing on March 3, 1974. The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 came down after a scheduled stop at Orly Airport, killing all 346 people on board.

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The Tenerife Airport collision (1977) -

The deadliest accident in aviation history took place on March 27, 1977, when a KLM 747 jumbo jet collided with a Pan-Am 747 jumbo on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The disaster claimed more than 580 lives.

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American Airlines Flight 191 (1979) -

All 258 passengers and 13 crew members aboard American Airlines Flight 191 died when their DC-10 plane crashed on May 25, 1979, after its left engine detached shortly after takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Image: Federal Aviation Administration

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Air New Zealand Flight 901 (1979) -

Known as the Mount Erebus disaster, the crash on November 28, 1979 of Air New Zealand Flight 901 killed all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board the DC-10 after it flew into Mount Erebus (pictured) on Ross Island, Antarctica. The wreckage of the DC-10 is still on the mountain, the location too remote for a full recovery operation.

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Air Florida Flight 90 (1982) -

Pictured: a section of Air Florida Flight 90 is lifted out of the freezing Potomac River in Washington, D.C. after the Boeing 737 plane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge on January 13, 1982. Seventy-four people on board the plane died, while five survived. Four motorists on the bridge were killed.

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Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983) -

On September 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor after the airliner accidentally strayed into restricted Soviet airspace. The attack killed all 269 people on board. Soviet authorities located the wreckage in the Sea of Japan, and recovered the black boxes (flight recorders). However, this information was kept secret until 1992 when Russian President Boris Yeltsin handed over the flight data recorders from Korean Air flight 007 to Korean President Roh Tae-Woo in November of that year.

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Air India Flight 182 (1985) -

On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 fell into the Atlantic Ocean off the southwestern tip of Ireland, killing all 320 people on board. An investigation later concluded that a bomb brought down the Boeing 747. Pictured are crewmembers of an Irish Naval Service vessel collecting debris from the ocean.

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Japan Airlines Flight 123 (1985) -

The worst single-plane crash to date occurred on August 12, 1985 when a sudden loss of decompression brought down Japan Airlines Flight 123 near Fujikoa, Japan, killing 520 people. Remarkably, four passengers survived the crash.

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Pan Am Flight 103 (1988) -

One of the most infamous terrorist atrocities carried out in commercial aviation history was the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, brought down by a bomb on December 21, 1988. The plane exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board as well as 11 people on the ground.

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British Midland Airways Flight 092 (1989) -

Pictured: the wreckage from British Midland Airways Flight 092 lies crumpled on the grass embankment of the M1 motorway near East Midlands Airport in England after crash-landing on January 8, 1989. Both engines on the Boeing 737 failed before the plane could land safely, resulting in 47 fatalities.

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United Flight 232 (1989) -

An engine and debris sit in a cornfield after United Airlines Flight 232 crashed and broke into pieces July 19, 1989, while attempting to make an emergency landing at the Sioux City Gateway Airport. Of the 296 people on board, 111 were killed in the crash, leaving 184 survivors. The flight was en route from Denver to Chicago.

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TWA Flight 800 (1996) -

A section of the wing of TWA Flight 800 floats in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean after the Boeing 747 plane crashed near East Moriches in New York on July 17, 1996 due to a catastrophic explosion. All 230 people on the Paris-bound aircraft died.

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Charkhi Dadri midair collision (1996) -

This is the twisted wreckage of Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763, a Boeing 747, and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907, an Ilyushin Il-76. The planes collided midair over the village of Charkhi Dadri in India on November 12, 1996, resulting in 349 fatalities. This is the world's deadliest midair collision to date.

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Air France Flight 4590 (2000) -

Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde aircraft that caught fire on takeoff after runway debris pierced the plane's fuel tanks. It crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse two minutes later. All 109 people on board died, as did four hotel employees, in the July 25, 2000 tragedy. Pictured among the wreckage is the familiar Concorde nose cone.

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9/11 (2001) -

American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after being hijacked. United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower shortly afterward. Another plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was deliberately flown into the Pentagon while a fourth hijacked aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania.

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American Airlines Flight 587 (2001) -

Two months and one day after the September 11 atrocities, on November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens, New York. The Airbus A-300 passenger jet, bound for the Dominican Republic, came down shortly after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground. Many people initially thought the cause was another terrorist attack.

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China Airlines Flight 611 (2002) -

One of the engines recovered from the wreckage of China Airlines Flight 611 is pictured in a hangar after the Boeing 747 plane crashed into the Taiwan Strait on May 25, 2002. None of the 225 passengers and crew survived.

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Wisconsin air show, 2023 -

The annual Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin is a big deal for aviation enthusiasts, who travel from all over the country for the convention. Sadly, this year's event suffered multiple tragedies before it even began. Two attendees took their vintage military training craft, a North American T-6, for a spin on Saturday morning before the show. The plane crashed into Lake Winnebago, and the Coast Guard revealed that those onboard did not survive. Their bodies were recovered that night. 

A few hours after the first crash, two more recreational aviators were killed. Two aircraft—a RotorWay 162F helicopter and an ELA 10 Eclipse gyrocopter—collided in midair. Two were killed while two more people were taken to hospital with injuries. The crash occurred over Wittman Regional Airport, an area that was designated for the event. Those involved were attendees of the event but were not involved in the air show. The show reportedly began a few hours later with a slight delay. 

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Spanair Flight 5022 (2008) -

Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after takeoff from Madrid–Barajas Airport on August 20, 2008. Of the 172 passengers and crew on board the McDonnell Douglas MD-82, 154 died and 18 survived.

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Air France Flight 447 (2009) -

All 228 passengers and crew lost their lives after Air France Flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Rio da Janeiro in Brazil to Paris, France. The aircraft's flight recorders were not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years later.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2014) -

A crewman on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion scans for debris or wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean after the Boeing 777 plane disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014. To date, not a trace of the missing plane has been detected, and all 239 passengers and crew are presumed dead.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 17-MH17 (2014) -

Flowers lie on part of the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17-MH17, shot down on July 17, 2014 over Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, near the Ukraine-Russian border. All 283 passengers—including 80 under the age of 18—and 15 crew were killed. According to various media outlets, three Russians and a Ukrainian, all separatist rebels fighting Ukrainian government forces in 2014, were "fully responsible" for the atrocity, all of whom are still at large.

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Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 (2014) -

All 155 passengers and seven crew members on board Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 perished on December 28, 2014 when their aircraft, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, crashed into the Java Sea during a thunderstorm. Pictured is a TV news screenshot pinpointing the crash site.

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Germanwings Flight 9525 (2015) -

In an deliberate act that shocked the world, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately flew his plane, an Airbus A320, into the French Alps on March 24, 2015. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed.

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Metrojet Flight 9268 (2015) -

Russian chartered Metrojet Flight 9268 was destroyed by a bomb above Egypt's northern Sinai on October 31, 2015. All 224 passengers and crew on board were killed. Investigators believe the explosive device was likely planted on the aircraft at Sharm El Sheikh.

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LaMia Flight 2933 (2016) -

On November 28, 2016, LaMia Flight 2933 crashed near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board. Many of those were players, coaches, and invited guests from Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team. 

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EgyptAir crash (2016) -

In April 2022, some questions were finally answered about the 2016 EgyptAir crash that claimed the lives of the 66 passengers and crew on board. Flight 804 was traveling from Paris to Cairo when it took a sudden nosedive over the Mediterranean. At the time, Egyptian authorities speculated that the plane had been brought down in a terrorist attack and claimed that there was evidence of explosives in the wreckage, but this was later discredited. Grieving family members waited for years to understand why their loved ones had lost their lives. Finally, a new investigation revealed that the pilot tried to smoke in the cockpit which caused a fire to break out due to oxygen leaking from an emergency mask. The pilot then lost control of the plane and it crashed into the sea. It was common for pilots to smoke in the cockpit in Egypt until the practice was banned in 2016, shortly after the Flight 804 crash. 

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Nepal, 2022 -

The wreckage of a plane that got lost in Nepal’s mountains was found scattered on the side of a mountain gorge on May 30. All 22 passengers and crew were killed, and all 22 bodies were recovered. Tara Air turboprop Twin Otter took off for what was meant to be just a 20-minute flight. The army said the plane crashed in Sanosware in Mustang district close to the mountain town of Jomsom—a popular hiking and pilgrim destination—where it was heading after taking off from the resort town of Pokhara. According to flightradar24.com, the aircraft took off at 9:55 am and transmitted its last signal at 10:07 am while at an altitude of 12,825 feet.

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Nepal, 2023 -

On January 16, 2023, Nepal declared a national day of mourning for the victims of the nation's deadliest aviation disaster in three decades. An ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines was on a scheduled flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara on January 15 when it crashed minutes before it was meant to land. The 72 people onboard were all killed and rescuers recovered 71 bodies. According to NBC, the plane was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia, and France.

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Nepal, 2024 -

Nepal is commonly known as one of the most dangerous places in the world to fly, mainly due to its mountainous terrain amid the Himalayas and extreme weather conditions. On Wednesday, July 23, a small passenger plane skidded off the runway during takeoff at Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu. It's reported that there were 19 people on board but only one survived the crash. All passengers were employees of the plane's carrier, Saurya Airlines, and were taking the craft for routine maintenance. Images captured at the scene showed thick black smoke billowing from the burning aircraft. Only charred pieces of the fuselage remained when the fire was finally extinguished. 

Sources: (Time) (Britannica) (Los Angeles Times) (FBI) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian) (BBC) 

See also: Fallen stars: celebrities who perished in air crashes

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