Fortune India
The Air India Ahmedabad to London plane crash today has brought back memories of some of the worst aviation-related disasters in history. Take a look.
The Tenerife Airport disaster is known as the deadliest aviation-related accident in history. It occurred when two Boeing 747 passenger planes crashed into each other due to dense fog in the Canary Islands. Fatalities was a massive 583.
The ill-fated Boeing 747 suffered structural failure and explosive decompression, just 12 minutes post-takeoff. The plane crashed near Tokyo, killing all 15 crew members, and 505 passengers. Only 4 survived.
In 1996, a Saudia Flight 763, a Boeing 747, which was en route from Delhi, crashed into a Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907, near Charkhi Dadri. The mid-air collision killed 349 people on board of both planes. This is the worst mid-air collision in history of aviation.
Another airplane crash involving Saudia was the Flight 163, which was departing from Karachi in Pakistan and was flying towards Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The plane caught fire after takeoff, leading to the death of 287 passengers and 14 crew members on board.
This Kuala Lumpur-bound flight, coming from Amsterdam, was shot down by Russia-backed rebel forces as it was flying over Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew perished.
This was an international scheduled flight from Tehran in Iran to Dubai. The plane was shot down by two surface-to-air missiles by an US warship. All 290 people on board were tragically killed.
This was a regular scheduled domestic flight bound for Los Angeles from Chicago. The plane crashed from a height of over 4,600 feet (1,400 m) from the end of runway in Chicago. All 271 occupants died.
Perhaps the most mysterious of all aviation-related disasters, this Beijing bound plane disappeared without a trace, while flying over the South China Sea. 227 passengers and 12 crew have been presumed dead, and no trace of the plane has been recovered till date, including the black box.