List Of 21st Century's Deadliest Plane Disasters
A London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed on Thursday in India, with 242 people on board, and police said there "appears to be no survivor".
Here is a list of the deadliest plane disasters in the 21st century, excluding the September 11, 2001 attacks:
298 killed, Ukraine
On July 17, 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.
All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 were killed, including 193 Dutch nationals.
In May this year the UN aviation agency (ICAO) blamed Russia for the downing of the jetliner, a ruling Moscow dismissed as "biased".
275 killed, Iran
On February 19, 2003 a Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) crashed near Kerman in the southeast of the country.
All 275 people on board were killed.
The aircraft disappeared from radars an hour after takeoff, after sending a request to airport control in Kerman to land due to bad weather.
265 killed, New York
On November 12, 2001 an American Airlines Airbus A300 crashed in the New York borough of Queens shortly after taking off, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground.
The plane was bound for Saint-Domingue, in the Dominican Republic, departing from New York's John F. Kennedy airport.
257 killed, Algiers
On April 11, 2018 an Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from a military base south of the capital Algiers, killing all 257 people on board.
The passengers were mostly military personnel and members of their families.
At sea
The three next deadliest air crashes were at sea.
- On March 8, 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
Despite an intense search in the southern Indian Ocean, the Boeing 777-200 was never found.
- On June 1, 2009 an Air France Airbus A330 disappeared over the Atlantic in a zone of turbulence after taking off from Rio de Janeiro on flight AF447 to Paris with 228 passengers and crew on board.
It took two years to find the wreckage of the plane.
- On May 25, 2002, a China Airlines Boeing 747-200 smashed into the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 people on board.
The aircraft, headed for Hong Kong, disintegrated mid-flight some 20 minutes after taking off from Taipei.
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NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Ahmedabad Plane Crash Deaths Rise To 274, Include Those On Board And On Ground
New Delhi: At least 274 people were killed in one of India's deadliest plane crashes involving a London-bound Air India flight in Ahmedabad earlier this week, sources said on Saturday. The casualties, the sources added, include the passengers and crew on board AI 171, and local residents on ground. There were 242 people - 230 passengers, two pilots and 10 crew members - onboard the aircraft that crashed into a medical college seconds after taking off for London Gatwick Airport from Ahmedabad on Thursday. Of these, only one - an Indian-origin British national - survived the crash. Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was among the victims. Click Here For Ahmedabad Plane Crash Live Updates According to sources, the victims include 10 doctors and their relatives who were staying at the residential quarters of BJ Medical College doctors in Meghaninagar area. Twenty-four MBBS students, who were injured in the incident, are still under treatment. The aircraft's black box has been found and more than 100 workers and 40 engineers are engaged in the efforts to remove the wreckage from the premises, the sources said. On Thursday, AI 171 - belonging to Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 fleet - crashed seconds after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Officials said the aircraft lost altitude soon after taking off at around 1.30pm. It crashed into the residential quarters of the medical college before going up in flames, sending plumes of thick black smoke spiralling up in the air. The pilot had issued a 'Mayday' distress call, denoting a full emergency, soon after takeoff, the Air Traffic Control at Ahmedabad said. Aviation experts said that going by the available visuals, lack of thrust in both engines and a bird hit could be among the probable causes. Visuals from the wreckage area showed bodies being pulled out and the injured, many with burns, wheeled into the city civil hospital close by. Many questions surround the circumstances that led to the fatal crash of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, the first of its kind the aircraft debuted in 2011. Some pertain to what happened in the last 30 seconds of the flight, why the plane was not able to pick up thrust, and if any faults arose with the flaps or engine controls. The black box of the plane was recovered from the rooftop of the medical college hostel building on Friday. Details from the black box will also help segregate technical from human fault, apart from giving a clear sequence of events. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site to review the situation. He also visited the lone survivor and the injured in the hospital.
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Eerie Parallels Between Ahmedabad Crash And 1978 'Emperor Ashoka' Tragedy
New Delhi: The catastrophic crash of Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, into a residential area near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday bears a startling resemblance to the plunge of Air India flight AI 855, the Emperor Ashoka, into the Arabian Sea off Mumbai nearly five decades ago. The Emperor Ashoka crash, 3 km off Mumbai, killed all 213 aboard. In both incidents, the aircraft crashed moments after departure. The 1978 Disaster On New Year's Day, 1978, Air India flight AI 855, named Emperor Ashoka, Air India's first Boeing 747, departed Santa Cruz International Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport), Mumbai, bound for Dubai at 20:12 IST. The flight, carrying 190 passengers and 23 crew members, was delayed from its morning schedule due to a bird strike damaging a wing flap the previous day. Approximately one minute after takeoff from Runway 27, having been cleared to climb to 8,000 feet, the aircraft entered a gentle right turn over the Arabian Sea. The Captain's Attitude Director Indicator (ADI), the primary instrument displaying the aircraft's pitch and bank attitude relative to the horizon, malfunctioned. It remained fixed, indicating a right bank, even as the wings levelled. The Captain, 51-year-old Madan Lal Kukar, with nearly 18,000 flight hours, voiced immediate concern. The First Officer was Indu Virmani, 43, a former Indian Air Force commander with over 4,500 flight hours. Flight Engineer Alfredo Faria, 53, one of Air India's most senior engineers with 11,000 hours, observed the discrepancy between the Captain's ADI and the third, standby ADI. With the aircraft now over the Arabian Sea at night, no visual horizon reference existed. Relying on his malfunctioning ADI which still showed a right bank, Captain Kukar applied left control inputs to correct the perceived right bank. "My instruments,'' the pilot said suddenly, according to the recorder recovered from the wreckage. "Mine is also toppled," said the co-pilot. "No, but go by this, captain," Flight Engineer Faria warned. The warning went unheeded or was acted upon too late. The aircraft continued rolling left to an extreme bank angle of 108 degrees and entered a steep, approximately 35-40 degree nose-down descent from around 2,000 feet. It impacted shallow water, only 10 metres deep, approximately 3 kilometres offshore. All 213 on board died. According to a 1982 New York Times report, the official investigation concluded the probable cause was: "Irrational control wheel inputs given by the captain following complete unawareness of the attitude of the aircraft on his part after his ADI. had malfunctioned." The Ahmedabad Incident Forty-seven years later, in the afternoon of June 12, Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed within seconds of takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Like AI 855, it plunged near the airport, this time into a residential area. Veteran pilot Captain Rakesh Rai who flew the same type of Dreamliner for Air India until last year, speaking exclusively to NDTV, noted the aircraft's undercarriage remained extended throughout its short, doomed flight. "His [pilot's] rate of rotation and the way he has climbed up is very normal. But something has gone wrong towards maybe an altitude of 400 to 500 feet. And the momentum has taken the aircraft to about 600 feet. At this point, the most surprising aspect of this take-off is that the undercarriage has not been retracted," he said. Captain Rai outlined several plausible scenarios. "What happens in a normal take-off is that the moment you start rotating the aircraft for take-off and the aircraft has left the ground, the instruments indicate a positive rate of climb. So, the co-pilot or the pilot monitoring gives a call, 'positive rate'. The pilot flying cross-checks that there has been a positive rate and he gives a call, 'gear up' for the landing gear to be retracted," he said. "But here, what you see is the undercarriage has not been retracted at all. So that raises a lot of questions as to what could be the reason behind the undercarriage not being retracted. We can only speculate. The actual reason behind that will come out only in the DFDR 9black box)," the veteran pilot told NDTV. At least 274 people have died as a result of the Ahmedabad crash, including 241 out of 242 on board.
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Ahmedabad plane crash: Two black boxes recovered. What will the probe focus on?
Two black boxes from the wreckage of the ill-fated Air India flight 171 were recovered on Friday as investigators intensified efforts to determine what transpired in those 33 seconds mid-air that caused India's deadliest aviation disaster in three decades. Experts have raised concerns of possible technical faults, crew miscalculations, and configuration errors in the Boeing 787-8 plane. One of the black boxes was retrieved from the rooftop of a hostel mess building near the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, where the Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday, killing 241 people on board. The second recorder was also located on Friday, and both are now being examined for clues, officials said. Follow Ahmedabad plane crash live updates. As experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) sifted through twisted metal and scorched debris, a team from Boeing joined the probe on-site. Parts of the aircraft's two General Electric GEnx engines are being sent to the United States for detailed analysis. The wreckage will be moved to a secure facility for reconstruction in collaboration with the AAIB, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and other agencies, an official familiar with the probe confirmed. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India's aviation regulator, has meanwhile ordered targeted safety inspections of all Air India Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 jets. The inspections will focus on six critical systems — fuel parameters, fuel flow systems, electronic engine controls, hydraulic systems, and takeoff performance settings. 'The order by the DGCA seems to have indicated their suspicion of all that could have led to the B787-8 crash on Thursday,' said aviation expert Amit Singh. 'While the checks mentioned by the DGCA are all performed by the pilots before take-off, they are only a few of the total checks performed. This could imply the regulator may have learnt about snags or probable issues with the aircraft,' he added. Officials involved in the investigation told the Associated Press that early indications suggest the aircraft may not have been correctly configured for takeoff. The landing gear was still extended during ascent, and flap components were found strewn across nearby roads in what appeared to be an incorrect take-off setting — factors that may have deprived the aircraft of critical lift. 'We can see what we see on video and all of these potential issues we're talking about: fuel, engine thrust, settings for the flaps and slats. That's all going to be recorded on the flight data recorder,' AP quoted aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, a former US crash investigator, as saying. He added, 'The cockpit voice recorder will hopefully have the discussion between the crew on what kind of performance numbers are being put into the computer.' Guzzetti and others believe investigators are likely probing whether the engines lost power during takeoff, whether the aircraft's weight and environmental conditions were correctly input, and whether the crew made configuration errors in setting the flaps and slats. 'The image shows the airplane with the nose rising and it continuing to sink,'' noted John M. Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a former pilot. 'That says that the airplane is not making enough lift.'' Cox added: 'It's hard to tell but from looking at the aircraft from behind … it doesn't look like that the trailing edge flaps are in the position I would have expected them to be. But I'm very cautious that the image quality is not good enough to make that a conclusion. It's just an area where I know that they're going to look.'' According to a Reuters report citing unnamed sources, the probe is examining potential faults related to engine thrust, flap settings, and the unusual fact that the landing gear remained extended — though a bird-hit has been ruled out as a primary cause. Maintenance issues and crew inputs are also under review. While officials caution that it is too early to arrive at conclusions, the focus of the investigation is sharpening around a combination of mechanical failure and human error.
