JACDEC´s AIRLINER SAFETY STATISTICS: WORST AIRLINER ACCIDENTS
Last update: 08/2009		THE WORST 25 AIRLINER ACCIDENTS
Rank	Fatalities
	fatal / on board	Date	Airline	Type	Reg.	Location	Country	Region
1.	248 / 248	27.03.1977	KLM	Boeing 747-200	PH-BUF	Tenerife-Norte AP / Canary Islands	Spain	Europe
	335 / 396		Pan Am	Boeing 747-100	N736PA	Tenerife-Norte AP / Canary Islands	Spain	Europe
		Both aircraft collided on the runway in fog when KLM aircraft took off without ATC clearance. Tense traffic situation at the time.
2.	520 / 524	12.08.1985	Japan Air Lines	Boeing 747-200	JA8119	Mount Otsutaka	Japan	Asia-Pacific
		Crashed into mountainside after all hydraulic controls were lost in flight. Faulty repair technique to aft pressure bulkhead.
3.	310 / 310	12.11.1996	Saudi Arabian AL	Boeing 747-100	HZ-AIH	Charki Dhardi area	India	Mid-East Asia
	37 / 37		Kazakhstan AL	Ilyushin Il-76	UN-76435	Charki Dhardi area	India	Mid-East Asia
		Both aircraft collided west of Delhi when the IL-76 flew 1000 lower than istructed. Combined arrival and departure route for all civil flights.
4.	346 / 346	03.03.1974	THY	McDD DC-10-10	TC-JAV	Ermenonville / near Paris	France	Europe
		Crashed into forest after hydraulic power was lost. Unlocked cargo door caused sudden decompression on climb-out.
5.	329 / 329	23.06.1985	Air India	Boeing 747-200	VT-EFO	Atlantic Ocean / off Fastnet	Ireland	Europe
		Disintegrated at cruise level and crashed into sea after inflight bombing. Radical Sikhs suspected as originators.
6.	301 / 301	14.08.1980	Saudia	Lockheed TriStar 200	HZ-AHK	Riyadh Intl Airport	Saudi Arabia	Mid-East Asia
		Fire in cargo hold spread into cabin and cockpit. Pilots acted improperly to the emergency situation until it was too late to escape.
7.	1 + 297 / 5	08.01.1996	African Air	Antonov An-32B	RA-26222	Kinshasa-N´dolo AP	Zaire	Africa
		Overloaded aircraft was unbale to get airborne on takeoff and ran beyond airport fence. It came to rest in a crowded market. Huge death toll to people on the ground.
8.	290 / 290	03.07.1988	Iran Air	Airbus A300B4	EP-IBU	Strait of Hormuz	-	Mid-East Asia
		Whilst on climbout of Bandar Abbas, the aircraft was erroneously shot down by US navy vessel "Vincennes".
9.	271 + 2 / 271	25.05.1979	American AL	McDD DC-10-10	N110AA	Chicago-O´Hare Intl AP / IL	USA	North America
		Separation of engine #1 during rotation caused loss of control and the aircraft crashed in a trailer park. Faulty maintenance technique during engine removal caused weakness in mounting bolts.
10.	270 + 12 / 270	21.12.1988	Pan Am	Boeing 747-200	N739PA	Lockerbie / Scotland	UK	Europe
		Bomb explosion caused inflight break-up. Major parts fell into populated area causing ground casualties. Bomb plot was libyan origin.
11.	269 / 269	01.09.1983	Korean Air Lines	Boeing 747-200	HL7442	Moneron Islands area	USSR	Eurasia
		Shot down by soviet fighter aircraft after the aircraft strayed off course into restricted airspace.
12.	260 + 5 / 260	12.11.20021	American AL	Airbus A300-600R	N14053	New York City-Queens / NY	USA	North America
		Crashed into residental area after tail broke off during climb-out of JFK airport. Copilots violent rudder movements caused aerodynamics loads that exceeded the structural tail design limits.
13.	262 / 271	26.04.1994	China AL	Airbus A300-600R	B-1816	Nagoya Intl Airport	Japan	Asia-Pacific
		Inadvertent activation of 'Go-around' FMS mode caused aircraft to stall on final approach and crashed near the runway.
14.	261 / 261	11.07.1991	Nationair Canada	Douglas DC-8-61	C-GMXQ	south of Jeddah Airport	Saudi Arabia	Mid-East Asia
		Crashed on emergency approach following extensive fire in gear bay ahortly after takeoff. Two blown tires on takeoff run caused continous heat that spread to electrical wires and hydraulic lines.
15.	257 / 257	28.11.1979	Air New Zealand	McDD DC-10-30	ZK-NZP	Mt. Erebus	Antarctica	Asia-Pacific
		Crashed into northern slopes of Mt. Erebus volcano on a sightseeing flight at low altitude. Crew mistakenly gave wrong data into NAV-computer and believed they were over water, but in fact they were over uprising terrain. 'White out effect' hampered foreward visibility.
16.	256 / 256	12.12.1985	Arrow Air	Douglas DC-63PF	N950JW	Gander-Intl Airport / Newfoundland	Canada	North America
		Lost height and crashed into wooded area near the airport on a troop flight. Wing and engien intake icing was the most likely cause.
17.		26.09.1977	Garuda	Airbus A300B4	PK-GAI	Medan area	Indonesia	Asia-Pacific
		Crashed into mountainside on approach in reduced visibility conditions due to extensive forest. Crew descended below prescribed minima.
18.	230 / 230	17.07.1996	TWA	Boeing 747-100	N93119	off East Moriches / LI	USA	North America
		Center wing tank explosion occured during climb-out and caused structural break-up. The aircraft fell into the Atlantic Ocean. Fumes from residual fuel ingnited on electric wires and/or electrical charching in the fuel tank causing explosive chain rection.
19.	229 / 229	02.09.1998	Swissair	MD-11	HB-IWF	off Halifax	Canada	North America
		Electrical fire in upper cockpit area caused numerous instrument failures in combination with dense smoke. Cres lost orientation and crshed into sea on emergency appraoch into Halifax.
20.	228 / 228	01.06.2009	Air France	Airbus A330-200	F-GZCP	Atlantic Ocean, off Brazil	Brazil	Latin America
		The aircraft crashed into sea on a routine flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris after it encountered turbulences from local thunderstorms. Investigation is hampered by the loss of the flight data recorder. Possible factor was also a problem of the airspeed sensors.
21.	228 / 254	05.08.1997	Korean Air	Boeing 747-300	HL7468	Nimitz Hill / Agana / US-Guam	USA	North America
		Crashed into hillside in darkness on a VOR/DME approach to Agana. The pilots erroneously sank 800 ft below normal approach altitude.
22.	225 / 225	25.05.2002	China AL	Boeing 747-200	B-18255	off Phenghu Island	Taiwan	Asia-Pacific
		Disintegrated during initial cruise flight phase and fell into sea. Faulty maintenance suspected.  Ongoing investigation.
23.	223 / 223	26.05.1991	Lauda Air	Boeing 767-300	OE-LAV	near Phu Khao Kao Chan	Thailand	Asia-Pacific
		Crashed into dense jungle on climb-out after inflight reverser deployment occured on engine 1# which caused massive yaw forces beyond the design limits of the aircraft. Cause of the unwanted deployment was not exactly established.
24.	217 / 217	31.10.1999	Egypt Air	Boeing 767-300	SU-GAP	off Nantucket / NY	USA	North America
		Crashed into Atlantic Ocean when an off duty crewmember suddenly intervened controls and forced the aircraft in a steep dive.
25.	210 / 210	01.01.197	Air India	Boeing 747-200	VT-EBD	off Bombay	India	Mid-East Asia
		Crashed into sea in darkness minutes after departure when pilot relied on a 'frozen' attitude indicator which indicated a right bank. Corrective action has put the 747 in a near vertical bank attitude before control was lost.
© Jacdec 2009