The worst years in absolute numbers, and the decades that discover wind shear, cabin fire and the price of a bad repair.
72April 25, 1980 Human factorsSpain 146 killed
Dan-Air Flight 1008 in Tenerife
Dan-Air · Boeing 727-46 · Flight 1008
La Esperanza, Tenerife
The charter from Manchester was given an unpublished holding instruction at Los Rodeos and the crew read it the wrong way round, turning towards the mountains instead of away from them. The ground-proximity warning sounded seven seconds before impact. All 146 people on board died. Three years after the 1977 collision, Tenerife was again showing the price of a misunderstanding on the radio.
102June 27, 1980 UnresolvedItaly 81 killed
Lewis Grant · CC BY-SA 3.0 Itavia Flight 870 off Ustica
Itavia · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 · Flight 870
Tyrrhenian Sea, near Ustica
The DC-9 flying from Bologna to Palermo vanished from radar in cruise and fell into the sea with 81 people. Forty years of expert reports, trials and a parliamentary commission have sustained two theories, a bomb on board or a missile fired in an air battle nobody has admitted, without either being proven. It is the Italian accident that still has no official explanation.
50July 8, 1980 WeatherSoviet Union 166 killed
Aeroflot Flight 4225 at Almaty
Aeroflot · Tupolev Tu-154B-2 · Flight 4225
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Shortly after taking off from Almaty on a hot afternoon, the Tu-154 flew into a downdraught, lost speed and stalled less than 500 feet above the ground. All 166 people on board died. It is the worst accident in Kazakhstan's aviation history and one of the first to document the effect of wind shear on a heavily loaded jet at a high-altitude airport.
7August 19, 1980 Human factorsSaudi Arabia 301 killed
Steve Fitzgerald · GFDL 1.2 Saudia Flight 163 at Riyadh
Saudia · Lockheed L-1011-200 TriStar · Flight 163
Riyadh Airport
A fire in the aft cargo hold forced the TriStar back to Riyadh seven minutes after take-off. The aircraft landed intact, rolled to the end of the runway and stopped, but the crew neither ordered an evacuation nor opened the doors; when firefighters got inside, 23 minutes later, all 301 people had died of smoke. It is the deadliest accident in which the aircraft never crashed.
103January 13, 1982 Human factorsUnited States 78 killed · 4 on the ground
Air Florida Flight 90 in the Potomac
Air Florida · Boeing 737-222 · Flight 90
14th Street Bridge, Washington, D.C.
In a snowstorm, the 737 took off from National Airport with ice on its wings and the engine probes frozen, so that the gauges showed more thrust than the engines were giving. It could not climb, struck a bridge full of cars and fell into the frozen Potomac. 74 people on board and four on the bridge died; five were pulled from the water. De-icing before take-off stopped being a judgement call and became a rule.
64July 9, 1982 WeatherUnited States 153 killed · 8 on the ground
Pedro Aragão · CC BY-SA 3.0 Pan Am Flight 759 at Kenner
Pan Am · Boeing 727-235 · Flight 759
Kenner, Louisiana
The 727 took off from New Orleans under a thunderstorm and within seconds flew into a microburst: the headwind turned into a tailwind and the aircraft, unable to climb any longer, fell onto a residential neighbourhood. All 145 people on board died, and eight on the ground. Together with Delta Flight 191 three years later, it was the accident that led to wind-shear radars at airports across the United States.
119June 2, 1983 Technical failureUnited States 23 killed
Air Canada Flight 797 at Cincinnati
Air Canada · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 · Flight 797
Cincinnati Airport
An electrical fire in the rear lavatory filled the DC-9 with smoke in cruise. The crew managed an emergency landing at Cincinnati, but when the doors opened the air rushed in and the cabin was engulfed: 23 of the 46 people on board died, among them the musician Stan Rogers. Floor-level emergency lighting, fire-blocking seat materials and the rule to land at the nearest airport at any sign of smoke all come from this flight.
12September 1, 1983 Deliberate actSoviet Union 269 killed
Michel Gilliand · GFDL 1.2 Korean Air Lines Flight 007, shot down
Korean Air Lines · Boeing 747-230B · Flight 007
Sea of Japan, off Moneron Island
The 747 flying from Anchorage to Seoul drifted hundreds of kilometres north, its autopilot holding a fixed heading instead of following the route, and crossed Soviet airspace over Kamchatka and Sakhalin. An Su-15 fighter shot it down with two missiles. All 269 people on board died. In response, the United States opened the GPS system to civil aviation.
37November 27, 1983 Human factorsSpain 181 killed
Michel Gilliand · GFDL 1.2 Avianca Flight 011 at Mejorada del Campo
Avianca · Boeing 747-283B · Flight 011
Mejorada del Campo, near Madrid
The 747 'Olafo', arriving from Paris bound for Bogotá, descended below the approach altitude for Barajas in the early hours and clipped three hills before breaking up in a field. 181 of the 192 people on board died, among them the writer Manuel Scorza and the pianist Rosa Sabater. The ground-proximity warning sounded, but the crew did not correct in time. It is the worst accident in Avianca's history.
98December 7, 1983 CollisionSpain 93 killed
Barajas: Iberia 350 and Aviaco 134
Iberia and Aviaco · Boeing 727-256 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 · Iberia 350 · Aviaco 134
Madrid-Barajas Airport
Ten days after the Avianca crash, an Aviaco DC-9 taxiing in fog at Barajas took the wrong taxiway and entered the runway from which an Iberia 727 was taking off for Rome. All 42 people on the DC-9 died, and 51 on the 727. There was no ground radar and no signage adequate for fog like that. Madrid installed surface radar and redesigned its taxiways.
40October 11, 1984 CollisionSoviet Union 178 killed · 4 on the ground
Aeroflot Flight 3352 at Omsk
Aeroflot · Tupolev Tu-154B-1 · Flight 3352
Omsk Airport
The Tu-154 landed at Omsk before dawn on a runway where three maintenance vehicles were working, cleared there by a controller who had fallen asleep and unseen because the runway lights did not show them. 174 people on board died, and four in the vehicles. For years it was the worst accident in Soviet aviation, and little was known of it outside the country.
70February 19, 1985 Human factorsSpain 148 killed
Felix Goetting · GFDL 1.2 Iberia Flight 610 on Mount Oiz
Iberia · Boeing 727-256 · Flight 610
Mount Oiz, Biscay
The 727 'Alhambra de Granada', arriving from Madrid, struck a television mast on the summit of Oiz while descending towards Bilbao below safe altitude. All 148 people on board died. The inquiry pointed to a misread altimeter and a ground-proximity warning the crew took for a false alarm. It is the worst accident in Iberia's history and in the Basque Country.
6June 23, 1985 Deliberate actIreland 329 killed
Air India Flight 182, destroyed by a bomb
Air India · Boeing 747-237B · Flight 182
Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Ireland
A bomb hidden in a suitcase checked in at Vancouver, travelling without its owner, destroyed the 747 'Emperor Kanishka' over the Atlantic on its way from Montreal to London. All 329 people on board died, most of them Canadians of Indian origin. It is the deadliest attack on an aircraft before 11 September, and the reason no bag flies without its passenger.
31July 10, 1985 Human factorsSoviet Union 200 killed
Alexander Jakovlev · CC BY-SA 3.0 Aeroflot Flight 7425 near Uchkuduk
Aeroflot · Tupolev Tu-154B-2 · Flight 7425
near Uchkuduk, Uzbekistan
In cruise at 38,000 feet, with an exhausted crew, the Tu-154 gradually lost speed until the engines flamed out and the aircraft went into a spin over the Uzbek desert. All 200 people on board died. It is the worst accident in Aeroflot's history and one of the first in which a Soviet commission pointed to crew fatigue.
77August 2, 1985 WeatherUnited States 137 killed · 1 on the ground
Delta Air Lines Flight 191 at Dallas-Fort Worth
Delta Air Lines · Lockheed L-1011 TriStar · Flight 191
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport
On final approach to Dallas the TriStar flew through an isolated thunderstorm and a microburst threw it to the ground short of the runway; it bounced across a highway, killing a motorist, and struck water tanks. 137 people died. It was the accident that made wind-shear radar and escape training mandatory in the United States.
3August 12, 1985 Technical failureJapan 520 killed
Japan Airlines Flight 123 on Mount Osutaka
Japan Airlines · Boeing 747SR-46 · Flight 123
Mount Osutaka, Gunma Prefecture
The aft pressure bulkhead, badly repaired seven years earlier after a tailstrike, burst twelve minutes after take-off from Tokyo and tore away the vertical fin and all four hydraulic lines. The crew kept the 747 in the air for 32 minutes on engine thrust alone. 520 of the 524 people on board died; four women survived. It is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history.
112August 22, 1985 Technical failureUnited Kingdom 55 killed
British Airtours Flight 28M at Manchester
British Airtours · Boeing 737-236 · Flight 28M
Manchester Airport
A combustor can in the left engine broke up during the take-off roll, punctured the wing tank and fire engulfed the fuselage in the minute it took the aircraft to stop. 55 of the 137 people on board died, almost all from smoke. No other accident has changed the cabin as much: floor lighting, fire-blocking seats, more room beside the emergency exits and a new approach to evacuation training.
18December 12, 1985 UnresolvedCanada 256 killed
Arrow Air Flight 1285 at Gander
Arrow Air · McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 · Flight 1285
Gander, Newfoundland
The DC-8 chartered to bring 248 American soldiers home from the Sinai failed to gain height after taking off from Gander and came down in woods beside a lake. Nobody survived. The majority of the Canadian board attributed the crash to wing ice and an aircraft heavier than calculated; a minority held that there had been an explosion on board. It is the worst air accident on Canadian soil.
48March 31, 1986 Technical failureMexico 167 killed
Mexicana Flight 940 at Maravatío
Mexicana de Aviación · Boeing 727-264 · Flight 940
Maravatío mountains, Michoacán
An overheated brake burst a main-gear tyre fifteen minutes after take-off from Mexico City; the tyre had been filled with air instead of nitrogen. The explosion ruptured fuel and hydraulic lines and the 727 caught fire in the air before falling into the mountains. All 167 people on board died. It remains the worst accident in Mexican aviation.
101August 31, 1986 CollisionUnited States 82 killed · 15 on the ground
Cerritos: Aeroméxico Flight 498
Aeroméxico · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 and Piper PA-28 · Flight 498
Cerritos, California
A private light aircraft entered Los Angeles airspace without clearance and struck the DC-9 descending towards the airport. The wreckage fell on a Cerritos neighbourhood: 64 people died on the airliner, three in the Piper and fifteen in their homes. The United States made altitude-reporting transponders compulsory around major airports from then on and hurried the TCAS collision-avoidance system into service.
36May 9, 1987 Technical failurePoland 183 killed
LOT Flight 5055 at Warsaw
LOT Polish Airlines · Ilyushin Il-62M · Flight 5055
Kabaty Forest, Warsaw
A faulty bearing in one engine disintegrated during the climb towards New York; fragments destroyed the neighbouring engine and the elevator controls and started a fire in the hold. The crew fought for half an hour to get back to Warsaw and came down in a forest five kilometres from the runway. All 183 people on board died. It is the worst accident in Polish aviation.
59August 16, 1987 Human factorsUnited States 156 killed · 2 on the ground
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) · public domain Northwest Airlines Flight 255 at Detroit
Northwest Airlines · McDonnell Douglas MD-82 · Flight 255
Romulus, by Detroit Airport
The MD-82 took off from Detroit with no flaps or slats because the crew skipped the checklist and the system meant to warn them had no power. It clipped a light pole, fell onto a road and broke up under an overpass. 154 people on board and two in cars died; a four-year-old girl survived. A year later, in Dallas, another aircraft would crash for the same reason.
54November 28, 1987 Technical failureMauritius 159 killed
South African Airways Flight 295, the Helderberg
South African Airways · Boeing 747-244B Combi · Flight 295
Indian Ocean, off Mauritius
A fire in the main-deck cargo hold, which on a 747 Combi sits behind the passengers, filled the aircraft flying from Taipei to Johannesburg with smoke. The 'Helderberg' fell into the ocean 250 kilometres from Mauritius with 159 people; the flight recorder was recovered from a depth of 4,900 metres. What was burning was never established with certainty, and carrying cargo alongside passengers has been far more tightly regulated since.
90November 29, 1987 Deliberate actMyanmar 115 killed
Korean Air Flight 858, destroyed by a bomb
Korean Air · Boeing 707-3B5C · Flight 858
Andaman Sea, off Burma
Two North Korean agents left a bomb in the overhead locker of the 707 flying from Baghdad to Seoul and got off at Abu Dhabi. The aircraft blew up over the Andaman Sea with 115 people, nine months before the Seoul Olympic Games. One of the agents, arrested in Bahrain, confessed; North Korea still denies it.
9July 3, 1988 Deliberate actIran 290 killed
Iran Air Flight 655, shot down by USS Vincennes
Iran Air · Airbus A300B2-203 · Flight 655
Strait of Hormuz
The A300 on the Bandar Abbas to Dubai route, climbing and inside its airway, was shot down by two missiles from the American cruiser USS Vincennes, whose crew took it for a diving fighter. All 290 people on board died, 66 of them children. The United States compensated the families without admitting liability.
11December 21, 1988 Deliberate actUnited Kingdom 270 killed · 11 on the ground
Air Accident Investigation Branch · OGL 2 Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie
Pan Am · Boeing 747-121 · Flight 103
Lockerbie, Scotland
A bomb hidden in a radio-cassette player inside a checked suitcase destroyed the 747 'Clipper Maid of the Seas' at 31,000 feet, thirty-eight minutes after leaving London for New York. All 259 people on board died, and eleven residents of Lockerbie, onto whose houses a fuel-laden wing fell. A Libyan agent was convicted in 2001. Checked-baggage screening in Europe and the United States was overhauled from top to bottom.
114January 8, 1989 Human factorsUnited Kingdom 47 killed
Air Accidents Investigation Branch · OGL v1.0 British Midland Flight 92 at Kegworth
British Midland · Boeing 737-4Y0 · Flight 92
Kegworth, Leicestershire
A fan blade broke in the 737's left engine and the crew, confused by the vibration and smoke, shut down the right one, which was healthy. When the damaged engine failed completely on approach, the aircraft fell onto the embankment of the M1 motorway a few hundred metres short of the East Midlands runway. 47 of the 126 people on board died. The study of the survivors' injuries changed seat design and the brace position.
93July 19, 1989 Technical failureUnited States 112 killed
United Airlines Flight 232 at Sioux City
United Airlines · McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 · Flight 232
Sioux City, Iowa
The fan disk of the tail engine split along a manufacturing flaw that seventeen years of inspections had missed, and severed all three of the DC-10's hydraulic systems. With no controls, the crew, helped by an instructor travelling as a passenger, steered the aircraft for 45 minutes on the thrust of the two remaining engines and brought it to the Sioux City runway. 112 of the 296 people on board died and 184 survived, which is regarded as a feat.
67September 3, 1989 WeatherCuba 150 killed · 24 on the ground
Cubana Flight 9646 at Havana
Cubana de Aviación · Ilyushin Il-62M · Flight 9646
Havana
The chartered Il-62M leaving for Milan took off under a tropical thunderstorm and, meeting a tailwind, could not climb and fell onto a neighbourhood beside José Martí Airport. All 126 people on board died, almost all of them Italian tourists, and 24 residents. It is the worst accident in Cuban history and in Latin American aviation.
44September 19, 1989 Deliberate actNiger 170 killed
UTA Flight 772 over the Ténéré
UTA · McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 · Flight 772
Ténéré Desert
A bomb placed in the hold during the stop at N'Djamena destroyed the DC-10 flying from Brazzaville to Paris over the Niger desert. All 170 people on board died. A French court convicted six Libyans in their absence. In 2007 the families built a memorial on the site out of desert stones: a 70-metre aircraft visible from the air.
95November 27, 1989 Deliberate actColombia 107 killed · 3 on the ground
Richard Vandervord · CC BY-SA 4.0 Avianca Flight 203, destroyed by a bomb
Avianca · Boeing 727-21 · Flight 203
Soacha, near Bogotá
Five minutes after taking off from Bogotá for Cali, a bomb planted by the Medellín cartel exploded in the 727's cabin and the aircraft broke up in the air over Soacha. All 107 people on board died, and three on the ground. It was the deadliest attack of Pablo Escobar's war on the Colombian state, and the one that led the United States to make him a priority target.
106January 25, 1990 Human factorsUnited States 73 killed
Avianca Flight 052 at Cove Neck
Avianca · Boeing 707-321B · Flight 052
Cove Neck, Long Island, New York
After more than an hour of weather holds over New York and a missed approach, the 707 from Bogotá ran out of fuel and came down on a hillside on Long Island. 73 of the 158 people on board died. The crew had asked for 'priority' but never declared an emergency in the words the controllers understood. The radio vocabulary for low fuel was fixed because of it.
27May 26, 1991 Technical failureThailand 223 killed
Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland · CC BY-SA 2.0 Lauda Air Flight 004 in Thailand
Lauda Air · Boeing 767-3Z9ER · Flight 004
Phu Toei, Suphan Buri Province
The left engine's thrust reverser deployed during the climb out of Bangkok towards Vienna and the 767 broke up in the air. All 223 people on board died. Niki Lauda, the airline's owner, pressed until Boeing admitted that a reverser opening in flight was not controllable, something the manuals denied. Reversers have carried an additional lock ever since.
15July 11, 1991 Technical failureSaudi Arabia 261 killed
Pedro Aragão · CC BY-SA 3.0 Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 at Jeddah
Nationair, for Nigeria Airways · McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 · Flight 2120
Jeddah
The Canadian DC-8 chartered to fly pilgrims home to Nigeria took off from Jeddah with two under-inflated tyres that heated until they caught fire during the roll. The fire climbed through the wheel well into the cabin as the crew tried to return; the aircraft broke up short of the runway. All 261 people on board died. It is the worst accident involving a DC-8 and the worst suffered by a Canadian airline.
100January 20, 1992 Human factorsFrance 87 killed
Michel Gilliand · GFDL 1.2 Air Inter Flight 148 on Mont Sainte-Odile
Air Inter · Airbus A320-111 · Flight 148
Mont Sainte-Odile, Alsace
On approach to Strasbourg, the crew meant to set a 3.3-degree descent angle and unknowingly selected a rate of 3,300 feet per minute: the A320's panel showed both modes with almost identical figures. The aircraft struck the mountain in snow. 87 of the 96 people on board died. The panel was redesigned and France made the ground-proximity warning compulsory, which Air Inter had not fitted.
49September 28, 1992 Human factorsNepal 167 killed
PIA Flight 268 at Kathmandu
Pakistan International Airlines · Airbus A300B4-203 · Flight 268
near Kathmandu
The approach to Kathmandu steps down between mountains. The A300 descended one step too early, in cloud, and struck a hillside at 8,200 feet, two months after a Thai Airways Airbus was lost in the same valley. All 167 people on board died. The Kathmandu approach charts were redrawn so that the error could not be repeated.
115October 4, 1992 Technical failureNetherlands 43 killed · 39 on the ground
El Al Flight 1862 in the Bijlmermeer
El Al · Boeing 747-258F · Flight 1862
Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam
The fuse pins holding engine number 3 to the wing failed through fatigue shortly after take-off from Schiphol; the engine tore away, took engine 4 with it and damaged the wing. The freighter tried to return and fell onto two apartment blocks in the Bijlmermeer. The four people on board died, and 39 residents. Boeing redesigned the fuse pins on every 747.
76November 24, 1992 Human factorsChina 141 killed
Aero Icarus · CC BY-SA 2.0 China Southern Flight 3943 near Guilin
China Southern Airlines · Boeing 737-3Y0 · Flight 3943
near Guilin, Guangxi
Descending towards Guilin with the autopilot engaged, one engine stayed at idle while the other pushed, and the crew did not correct the asymmetry until the 737 banked beyond recovery and struck a mountain. All 141 people on board died. It was one of the accidents that precipitated the sweeping reform of Chinese air safety in the 1990s.
105March 23, 1994 Human factorsRussia 75 killed
Aeroflot Flight 593 in Siberia
Aeroflot · Airbus A310-304 · Flight 593
Mezhdurechensk, Siberia
The captain sat his two children at the controls during the cruise from Moscow to Hong Kong. The fifteen-year-old boy pushed the yoke hard enough to partly disconnect the autopilot without anyone noticing, and the A310 went into a spin. All 75 people on board died. The cockpit recording made the accident a case study in flight-deck discipline.
14April 26, 1994 Human factorsJapan 264 killed
China Airlines Flight 140 at Nagoya
China Airlines · Airbus A300B4-622R · Flight 140
Nagoya Airport
On final approach to Nagoya the first officer inadvertently engaged go-around mode. For almost a minute the crew pushed the nose down while the autopilot raised it, until the A300 pitched up, stalled and fell tail-first beside the runway. 264 of the 271 people on board died. Airbus modified the system so that a firm input by the pilot disengages the automation.
52June 6, 1994 Technical failureChina 160 killed
China Northwest Flight 2303 near Xi'an
China Northwest Airlines · Tupolev Tu-154M · Flight 2303
near Xi'an, Shaanxi
During maintenance two autopilot cables had been connected the wrong way round, so that the roll channel answered yaw commands and vice versa. As soon as it was engaged after take-off from Xi'an, the Tu-154 began to oscillate ever more violently until it broke up in the air. All 160 people on board died. It is the worst accident in mainland Chinese aviation.
80September 8, 1994 Technical failureUnited States 132 killed
USAir Flight 427 near Pittsburgh
USAir · Boeing 737-3B7 · Flight 427
Hopewell, near Pittsburgh
At 6,000 feet on approach to Pittsburgh, the 737's rudder swung hard over in the direction opposite to the pedals and the aircraft fell in 28 seconds. All 132 people on board died. The investigation took more than four years to prove that a valve in the rudder actuator could jam and reverse, and the entire world 737 fleet had the system replaced.
55December 20, 1995 Human factorsColombia 159 killed
Makaristos · public domain American Airlines Flight 965 near Buga
American Airlines · Boeing 757-223 · Flight 965
El Diluvio hill, near Buga, Valle del Cauca
During the night descent into Cali the crew typed the letter 'R' into the flight computer to head for the Rozo beacon, but the system picked Romeo, near Bogotá, and the 757 turned towards the mountains. The terrain warning came late and the speed brakes were still out. 159 of the 163 people on board died. It is the accident that put the navigation database at the centre of safety.
34February 6, 1996 Technical failureDominican Republic 189 killed
Lutz Schönfeld · CC BY-SA 2.0 de Birgenair Flight 301 off Puerto Plata
Birgenair, for Alas Nacionales · Boeing 757-225 · Flight 301
Atlantic Ocean, off Puerto Plata
The 757, parked for weeks, took off for Frankfurt with the captain's pitot tube blocked, probably by a wasp nest. The airspeed indicator read ever higher and the autopilot raised the nose until the aircraft stalled and fell into the sea at night. All 189 people on board died, almost all German tourists. The accident made it mandatory to cover the probes of any aircraft that spends days on the ground.
94May 11, 1996 Technical failureUnited States 110 killed
Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland · CC BY-SA 2.0 ValuJet Flight 592 in the Everglades
ValuJet · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 · Flight 592
Everglades, Florida
A contractor loaded more than a hundred expired chemical oxygen generators into the DC-9's hold, without their safety caps and labelled as empty. One went off, the fire reached a thousand degrees and the aircraft fell into the swamp ten minutes after leaving Miami. All 110 people on board died. The generators became regulated hazardous cargo and cargo holds were required to carry fire detection and suppression.
21July 17, 1996 Technical failureUnited States 230 killed
TWA Flight 800 off Long Island
TWA · Boeing 747-131 · Flight 800
Atlantic Ocean, off Long Island
Twelve minutes after taking off for Paris, the 747's centre fuel tank, nearly empty and heated by the air-conditioning packs during the wait on the ground, exploded and broke the aircraft in two. All 230 people on board died. After four years and the reconstruction of the fuselage, the spark was attributed to a short circuit in the fuel-gauge wiring. Since 2008 centre tanks have been filled with nitrogen.
109October 2, 1996 Technical failurePeru 70 killed
Aeroperú Flight 603 off Lima
Aeroperú · Boeing 757-23A · Flight 603
Pacific Ocean, off Lima
A ground worker had taped over the 757's static ports to wash the aircraft and nobody removed the tape. After a night take-off from Lima, the altimeter, airspeed and warnings began to contradict each other; the crew, with no references over the sea, flew into the water believing they were at 10,000 feet. All 70 people on board died. Brightly coloured tape on sensor ports is the answer to this accident.
97October 31, 1996 Technical failureBrazil 99 killed · 4 on the ground
TAM Flight 402 in São Paulo
TAM · Fokker 100 · Flight 402
São Paulo, beside Congonhas Airport
The right engine's thrust reverser opened seconds after take-off from Congonhas. The Fokker 100, less than 300 feet up, banked and fell onto the houses of a neighbouring district. All 95 people on board died, and four on the ground. It was Brazil's worst accident at the time and opened the debate about an airport hemmed in by the city.
4November 12, 1996 CollisionIndia 349 killed
Felix Goetting · GFDL 1.2 Charkhi Dadri: Saudia 763 and Kazakhstan 1907
Saudia and Kazakhstan Airlines · Boeing 747-168B and Ilyushin Il-76TD · Saudia 763 · Kazakhstan 1907
over Charkhi Dadri, Haryana
A 747 that had just left Delhi and an Il-76 arriving from Shymkent met head-on at 14,000 feet in the airport's single corridor for arrivals and departures. The Il-76 had descended below its assigned level. All 349 people on the two aircraft died. India installed secondary radar at Delhi, separated the corridors and required the collision-avoidance system on every aircraft entering its airspace.
84November 23, 1996 Deliberate actComoros 125 killed
Ethiopian Flight 961, hijacked, ditching off the Comoros
Ethiopian Airlines · Boeing 767-260ER · Flight 961
off Grande Comore
Three hijackers demanded to be flown to Australia in an aircraft that only had fuel for Nairobi. When the engines stopped, the captain ditched off a beach in the Comoros while grappling with one of them; a wing caught the water and the 767 broke apart. 125 of the 175 people on board died. A tourist filmed the ditching from the shore, and it is one of the few images that exist of one.
22August 6, 1997 Human factorsUnited States 229 killed
Korean Air Flight 801 on Guam
Korean Air · Boeing 747-3B5 · Flight 801
Nimitz Hill, Guam
With the airport's glideslope out of service and rain at night, the exhausted captain descended too early and the 747 struck a hill five kilometres from the runway. 229 of the 254 people on board died. The investigation also faulted the first officer and flight engineer, who saw the error and did not assert themselves: Korean Air's cockpit culture was changed because of this accident.
20September 26, 1997 Human factorsIndonesia 234 killed
National Transportation Safety Committee · public domain Garuda Flight 152 near Medan
Garuda Indonesia · Airbus A300B4-220 · Flight 152
near Medan, Sumatra
The approach to Medan was being flown through the smoke of the forest fires blanketing Sumatra. A mix-up at air traffic control, which turned the A300 the wrong way, sent it into a mountain 30 kilometres from the airport. All 234 people on board died. It is the worst accident in Indonesian aviation.
30February 16, 1998 Human factorsTaiwan 203 killed · 7 on the ground
China Airlines Flight 676 at Taoyuan
China Airlines · Airbus A300B4-622R · Flight 676
Taoyuan, beside Chiang Kai-shek Airport
The A300 arriving from Bali, too high on approach, began a go-around but the autopilot was still disengaged; the aircraft pitched up, stalled and fell onto houses beside the airport. All 196 people on board died, and seven on the ground. It was the airline's second A300 lost in a similar way in four years, after Nagoya.
23September 2, 1998 Technical failureCanada 229 killed
Trevor MacInnis at English Wikipedia · public domain Swissair Flight 111 off Nova Scotia
Swissair · McDonnell Douglas MD-11 · Flight 111
Atlantic Ocean, off Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia
An electrical arc in the wiring of the in-flight entertainment system ignited the insulation above the cockpit on the flight from New York to Geneva. The fire spread unseen by the crew and, as they diverted to Halifax, the instruments failed one by one until the MD-11 fell into the sea. All 229 people on board died. Metallised insulation blankets were removed from thousands of aircraft.
111August 31, 1999 Human factorsArgentina 65 killed · 2 on the ground
LAPA Flight 3142 at Aeroparque
LAPA · Boeing 737-204C · Flight 3142
Aeroparque, Buenos Aires
The 737 began its take-off for Córdoba with the flaps retracted; the warning horn sounded throughout the roll and the crew, absorbed in conversation, ignored it. The aircraft never lifted off, crossed the Costanera avenue and caught fire. 63 people on board died, and two in the street. The trial that followed put the airline's executives in the dock.
28October 31, 1999 UnresolvedUnited States 217 killed
EgyptAir Flight 990 off Nantucket
EgyptAir · Boeing 767-366ER · Flight 990
Atlantic Ocean, off Nantucket
The 767 flying from New York to Cairo plunged from cruise into the sea on a clear night with 217 people. The American investigation attributed the dive to the inputs of the relief first officer, who was alone in the cockpit; the Egyptian one maintained there was a failure in the elevator. The two accounts remain at odds.
