It’s worth noting at this point that 2017 is on its way to being one of the safest years in aviation history, with just 37 crashes and 117 fatalities so far, according to the Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives.
10. American Airlines Flight 191
Date: May 25, 1979
Fatalities: 272
The DC-10 left Chicago O’Hare on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend only for its left engine to detach from its wing and fall off, rolling the plane in the air and sending it crashing to earth just a mile from the runway.
The plane “burst into a pillar of flame and smoke that could be seen up to eight miles away,” the Chicago Tribune reported at the time. All 271 people on board and two on the ground were killed in what remains America’s worst aviation disaster.
The crash was found to be the result of a shortcut taken by removing the plane’s engines for maintenance, cracking an aluminium component which held the engine to the wing.
9. Iranian Air Force Ilyushun II-76
Date: February 19, 2003
Fatalities: 275
The official report into the military aircraft that crashed in the Sirach Mountains near Kerman in Iran found that bad weather, including high winds and fog, brought the plane down, killing all on board, all members of the Revolutionary Guards. The Aviation Safety Network classifies the crash as a Controlled Flight into Terrain.
8. Iran Air Flight 655
Date: July 3, 1988
Fatalities: 290
A controversial incident during tense times in the Gulf, owing to the Iran-Iraq War, the Airbus A300, a civilian airline, was shot down by surface-to-air missiles fired from US military cruiser USS Vincennes, killing all on board.
The flight was in Iranian airspace, over Iranian territorial waters and on its usual flight path, yet, according to the US government, Vincennes mistook it for an F-14A Tomcat fighter plane. Crew on the American ship made 10 attempts to contact the Iran Air aircraft on military and civilian radio frequencies, with no response, before firing.
In 1996 the US government and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice, the former expressing “deep regret over the loss of lives”, but not admitting legal liability or formally apologising. The US agreed to pay $213,103.45 compensation per passenger, about £346,000 in today’s valuation.
7. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Date: July 17, 2014
Fatalities: 298
A similar incident took place over eastern Ukraine when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down near the Russian border, likely by pro-Russian forces in control of the region during the War in Donbass between separatist insurgents and the Ukrainian government.
All 298 on board died when the plane crashed into a field near Torez. Some airlines had already begun to avoid Ukrainian airspace owing to the Crimean crisis that began early in 2014, with the International Civil Aviation Organisation warning of a risk to passenger jets in the area, but not all carriers had changed their routes.
In September 2016, Dutch prosecutors concluded that the missile used to shoot down the plane had been transported into eastern Ukraine from Russia, adding that the launch vehicle returned across the border a day after the crash. The conflict in the region is ongoing.
6. Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 163
Date: August 19, 1980
Fatalities: 301
The death of all 301 passengers on board the Lockheed L-1011 on the runway at Riyadh is the world’s deadliest aviation accident not to involve a crash or mid-flight break up. The flight took off from the Saudi capital airport en route to Jeddah, only to return to Riyadh minutes later for an emergency landing after a fire started in the cargo department.
However, when the plane landed, instead of initiating an emergency evacuation, the pilot taxied the aircraft back towards the airport, stopping on the runway for nearly three minutes. It then took some 23 minutes to access the aircraft once the engines were stopped.
By the time the doors were opened all on board had died from smoke inhalation. The source of the fire is believed to have been two butane stoves in the cargo. An evacuation was never initiated.
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