A look at major air disasters in recent years (2024)

FAQs

What is the biggest air disaster in history? ›

583: The Tenerife airport disaster, which occurred on March 27, 1977, remains the accident with the highest number of airliner passenger fatalities. 583 people died when a KLM Boeing 747 attempted to take off and collided with a taxiing Pan Am 747 at Los Rodeos Airport on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain.

Her story has been dramatized in the 1974 Italian movie “I miracoli accadono ancora (Miracles Still Happen)” which she co-wrote, and later in the acclaimed 1998 documentary “Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel (literally Juliane's Freefall into the Jungle but dubbed Wings of Hope)”, written and directed by Werner Herzog.

* March 21, 2022: A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in the mountains of Guangxi near Guangzhou, China, leading to the tragic loss of all 133 people on board.

The greatest number of fatalities from a mid-air collision occurred to the west of New Delhi, India, on 12 November 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-168B en route from Delhi to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, collided with a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76TD en route from Shymkent, Kazakhstan, to Delhi, killing ...

In 1984, the world's worst-ever industrial disaster occurred in India called the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. This gas leak at a pesticide plant caused approximately 15,000 to 20,000 deaths as well as 558,125 injuries.

KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, March 27, 1977

This crash remains the deadliest ever, claiming the lives of 583 people when two 747s collided on a foggy runway on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

In the 2024 Nairobi mid-air collision, Safarilink Aviation Flight 53, a De Havilland Canada Dash 8, collided with a Cessna 172. The collision resulted in the Cessna 172 crashing and killing both of its occupants, while the Dash 8 managed to land safely.

Pilot error is often noted as the leading cause of aviation accidents. In 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board found that “69.1% of all general aviation accidents in 2020 were caused by pilot error.” The pilot may have misjudged a situation, made a wrong decision, or lacked knowledge or training.

1908 -- First Fatality in a Powered Aircraft

On Sept. 17, 1908, a modified Wright Brothers aircraft crashed during a demonstration at Fort Myer, Va., seriously injuring pilot Orville Wright and killing the observer, U.S. Army Lt.

On April 21st, 1958, an incident occurred between United Airlines Flight 736 and a US Air Force military aircraft, claiming the lives of 49 people. This fatal collision, just two years after the infamous UA Flight 718/TWA Flight 2 disaster, had a profound impact on aviation travel safety.

Have two planes ever crashed in the sky? ›

Yes, there have been many. The first major mid-air collision was over the Grand Canyon between a TWA Lockheed Constellation and a United Airlines Douglas DC-6. Today, airliners use a Transponder-based Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) to alert the pilots to any nearby planes and, obviously, avoid collisions.

The deadliest aviation accident in history actually occurred while on the ground, not in the air. In 1977, two fully loaded Boeing 747 passenger jets collided in the middle of a runway on Tenerife Island, killing 583 people.

EAA AirVenture is the world's greatest aviation celebration, and for the nearly 700,000 aviation enthusiasts who attend the event, AirVenture is Oshkosh.

On 12 November 1996, Saudia Flight 763, a Boeing 747 en route from Delhi, India, to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907, an Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Chimkent, Kazakhstan, to Delhi, collided over the city of Charkhi Dadri, around 100 km (62 mi; 54 nmi) west of Delhi.

All 258 passengers and 13 crew on board were killed, along with two people on the ground. With 273 fatalities, it is the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States. Des Plaines, near O'Hare International Airport, Illinois, U.S.