Air Disasters Timeline

1937 May 6 Hindenburg Airship Explodes
The Hindenburg disaster took place on May 6, 1937 as the German rigid airship Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed within one minute while attempting to dock with its mooring mast at ...
1960 Dec 16 TWA and United Airlines Aircrafts Collide in Mid-Air
United Airlines Flight 826, Mainliner Will Rogers, registration N8013U, was a Douglas DC-8 en route from O'Hare Airport in Chicago to New York International (Idlewild) Airport in New York...
1964 Jun 19 Edward Kennedy Survives Plane Crash with Broken Back
On June 19, 1964, Kennedy was a passenger in a private Aero Commander 680 from Washington to Massachusetts that crashed on final approach into an apple orchard in bad weather, in the west...
1971 Sep 4 Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 Crashes Near Juneau
Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 was the first fatal jet airliner crash of Alaska Airlines (sometimes incorrectly cited as the first fatal crash involving the airline), an airline registered i...
1974 Mar 3 Turkish Airlines Flight 981 Crashes from Cargo Hatch Failure
Turkish Airlines Flight 981 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, registered TC-JAV and nicknamed the Ankara, that crashed just outside Senlis, France, on 3 March 1974 killing all on board. Know...
1974 Dec 4 Martinair Holland Flight 138 Hits Mountain Descending into Rising Terrain
The aircraft departed Surabaya at 12:03 UTC for a hadj flight to Jeddah with a planned intermediate stop at Colombo. Around 16:30 UTC Colombo Control cleared the flight down from FL350 to...
1975 Jun 24 Eastern Airlines Flight 66 Strikes Rockaway Boulevard
Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a Boeing 727-225 with registration number N8845E, departed from New Orleans Moisant Field, bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport on the afternoon of...
1977 Mar 27 Runway Collision at Tenerife Airport
1977: Hundreds dead in Tenerife plane crash At least 560 people have died after two jumbo jets collided on a runway in the holiday destination of Tenerife. It is thought to be the worl...
1978 Jan 1 Instrument Malfunction to Blame for Air India Flight 855 Crash
Air India Flight 855 was a scheduled passenger flight that crashed in the evening of 1 January 1978 about 4 kilometers (1.8 statute miles) off the coast of Bandra, Bombay (now Mumbai), In...
1978 Sep 25 PSA Flight 182 Collides with Cessna
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182, registration N533PS, was a Boeing 727-214 commercial airliner that collided over San Diego, California with a private Cessna 172 on September ...
1979 May 25 American Airlines Flight 191 Crashes during Take-off
At just after 3 p.m. on May 25, 1979, an American Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff killing all 271 on board and two on the ground. The left engine fell off Flight 191 on take...
1979 Nov 28 Antarctic Sightseeing Flight Crashes
Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE901) was a scheduled Antarctic sightseeing flight from Auckland Airport in New Zealand. The Antarctic sightseeing flights were operated with McDonnell Dougla...
1980 Aug 19 Fire Consumes Saudia Flight 163 on Taxiway
Saudia Flight 163 was a scheduled passenger flight of Saudia that caught fire at Riyadh's International Airport (now the Riyadh Air Base) after a flight from Karachi, Pakistan. The fire, ...
1982 Jul 9 153 Dead in Pan Am Flight 759 Crash
Pan Am Flight 759, operated by a Boeing 727-235, N4737 Clipper Defiance, was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Miami to Las Vegas, with an en route stop at New Orleans. On July ...
1983 Sep 1 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Shot Down by Soviet Jet Interceptors
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KAL 007, KE 007) was a Korean Air Lines civilian airliner that was shot down by Soviet jet interceptors on September 1, 1983 over the Sea of Japan, just west ...
1984 Oct 11 Runway Collision Causes Explosion of Aeroflot Flight 3352
Flight 3352 as approaching Omsk in poor weather; light rain, visibility 2 miles, 300 feet ceiling. Landing lights were switched off as they caused a reflection due to the drizzle. Immedia...
1985 Jun 23 Terrorists Bomb Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Toronto-Montréal-London-Delhi-Bombay route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route was blown up in midair by a ...
1985 Jul 10 Aeroflot Flight 7425 Crashes in USSR Territory
Aeroflot Flight 7425 on the 10 July 1985 was operated by a three-engined Tupolev Tu-154B-2 which departed Tashkent for a flight to Leningrad. The aircraft was at cruising altitude of 11,6...
1985 Aug 2 29 Survive Delta Air Lines Flight 191 Crash
Delta Air Lines Flight 191 was an airline service from Fort Lauderdale, Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, bound for Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angel...
1985 Aug 12 Japan Airlines Flight 123 Crashes into Mt. Osutaka
Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) to Osaka International Airport (Itami). The Boeing 747-SR46 that made this route, ...
1985 Dec 12 Arrow Air Flight 1285 Crash Sparks Controversy
Arrow Air Flight 1285 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63CF jetliner, registered N950JW, which operated as an international charter flight carrying U.S. troops from Cairo to their home base i...
1986 Jan 28 Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. ...
1987 Aug 16 Northwest Airlines Flight 255 Crashes After Take-off
Northwest Airlines Flight 255 was a flight that originated in Saginaw, Michigan, United States's MBS International Airport and was scheduled to terminate at John Wayne Airport in Santa An...
1987 Nov 29 Korean Air Flight 858 Explodes Mid-Air From North Korean Bomb
Korean Air Flight 858 was en route from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok on 29 November 1987 when it exploded over the Andaman Sea killing all 115 on board. Two North Korean agents had boarded the pl...
1988 Jul 3 Iran Air FLight 655 Shot Down by US Missiles
Iran Air Flight 655, also known as IR655, was a civilian airliner shot down by US missiles on Sunday 3 July 1988, over the Strait of Hormuz, toward the end of the Iran-Iraq War. The ai...
1988 Dec 21 Lockerbie Bombing Kills 270
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wedn...
1989 Jul 19 Engine Fails on United Airlines Flight 232
United Airlines flight 232 was a scheduled flight from Stapleton International Airport, in Denver, Colorado, to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. On 19 July 1989, the Dou...
1991 May 26 Lauda Air Flight 004 Crashes over the Jungle of Ban Nong Rong in Thailand
Lauda Air Flight 004 was an international passenger flight that crashed due to a thrust reverser deployment of the number 1 engine in flight. History of the Flight On 26 May 1991, a...
1991 Jul 11 Plane Carrying Nigerians on Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca Crash-Lands in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
1994 Mar 23 Aeroflot Flight 593 Crashes with 15-year Old in Control
Aeroflot Flight 593, a "Russian Airlines" Airbus A310-304 passenger airliner, registration F-OGQS, operating on behalf of Aeroflot, crashed into a hillside in Siberia on 23 March 1994. Al...
1994 Apr 26 China Airlines Flight 140 Stalls at Landing
China Airlines Flight 140 was a route from Taipei, Taiwan to Nagoya, Japan. On April 26, 1994, the Airbus A300 on the route was due to land at Nagoya Airport. The Airbus A300 was completi...
1994 Sep 8 Rudders to Blame for Crash of USAir Flight 427
USAir Flight 427 was a scheduled flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a final destination of West Palm Beach, Florida. The flight crashed o...
1995 Dec 20 American Airlines Flight 965 Crashes into Mountain
American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757 registered N651AA, was a scheduled flight from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in ...
1996 Jan 6 Air Africa Plane Crashes into Street Market
On 6 January 1996 an overloaded Air Africa or African Air Antonov An-32B jet leased from Moscow Airways destined for Kahemba Airport failed to takeoff from N'Dolo Airport and overshot the...
1996 Feb 6 Birgenair Flight 301 Crashes into Carribean after Autopilot Failure
Birgenair Flight 301 was a Puerto Plata-Gander-Berlin-Frankfurt flight chartered by Turkish-managed Birgenair partner Alas Nacionales ("National Wings"). On 6 February 1996 the Boeing 757...
1996 May 11 In-Flight Fire to Blame for ValuJet Flight 592 Crash
The 27-year-old DC-9 aircraft used on this route was previously owned by Delta Air Lines. Flight 592 took off after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes at 2:04 pm and began a normal climb. Ho...
1996 Jul 17 TWA Flight 800 Explodes in Mid-air
On the day of the crash the airplane departed Athens, Greece, as TWA Flight 881, and arrived at the gate at JFK about 4:38 PM. Upon arrival at JFK, there was a crew change, and the aircra...
1996 Nov 12 Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 and Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907 Collide in Mid-Air
The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred on 12 November 1996 when Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 (SVA 763), a Boeing 747-168B en route from New Delhi, India, to Dhahran, Saudi...
1997 Aug 6 Korean Air Flight 801 Crashes into Nimitz Hill on Guam
Korean Air Flight 801 (KE801, KAL801) crashed on August 6, 1997 on approach to Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, Guam (a United States insular area). Flight 801 was normally flow...
1997 Sep 26 Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 Crashes in Low Visibility
Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 (GA152, GIA152) was a scheduled domestic Indonesian passenger flight from Jakarta to Medan Sumatra operated by state owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. On Se...
1998 Feb 16 China Airlines Flight 676 Crashes into Taiwanese Residential Neighborhood
China Airlines Flight 676 (CAL676, CI676) crashed into a road and residential area near Taoyuan County's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taiwan on the night of February 16, 1998. ...
1998 Sep 2 In-Flight Fire Causes Pilots to Lose Control on Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111 (SR-111, SWR-111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Co...
1999 Oct 31 Investigators Dispute Cause of EgyptAir Flight 990 Crash
EgyptAir Flight 990 (MSR990) was a regularly-scheduled Los Angeles-New York-Cairo flight. On October 31, 1999, at around 01:50 EST, Flight 990 plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 ...
2001 Sep 11 American Airlines Flight 77 Crashes into Pentagon
American Airlines Flight 77 was the third flight hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks, and it was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon. The scheduled U.S. domestic flight from W...
2001 Nov 12 260 Die in Belle Harbor Plane Crash
It's clear that the plane did come down very much in a straight level, which was horrible for that particular site, but minimized what could have happened had the plane glided across the ...
2002 May 25 China Airlines Flight 611 Breaks Apart in Mid-Air
China Airlines Flight 611 Callsign: Dynasty 611 (CAL611, CI611) was a Boeing 747 on a regular scheduled flight from Chiang Kai Shek International Airport in Taoyuan to Chek Lap Kok Intern...
2003 Feb 20 Passengers of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Die in Plane Crash
(AP) Search teams pressed through fog, rain and strong wind Thursday to recover some mutilated bodies from the mountainous site of a military plane crash that killed all 302 Iranian sold...
2007 Jul 17 TAM Airlines Flight 3054 Explodes Near Gas Station
TAM Airlines Flight 3054 (JJ 3054) was an Airbus A320 airliner, registration PR-MBK, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Porto Alegre and São Paulo, Brazil, which c...
2008 Sep 19 DJ AM and Travis Barker Survive Learjet 60 Crash
The 2008 South Carolina Learjet 60 crash occurred just before midnight on September 19, 2008, when a Learjet 60 crashed while taking off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Caroli...
2009 Jun 1 Air France Flight 447 is lost over Atlantic Ocean
Military aircraft and warships from France and Brazil were combing the equatorial Atlantic in a desperate quest to find the wreckage of an Air France jet that disappeared with 228 people ...