History’s deadliest commercial jet crashes The plight of 239 souls aboard Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH37 remained unresolved Saturday, after the aircraft went missing somewhere between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Beijing, China. Whatever happened, the ordeal raises sad memories of horrific airplane crashes that have cost thousands of lives in recent decades. Some of the worst such incidents — like four crashes in frightening succession into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001; the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland; and a 1977 crash involving the apparent hijacking of a Malaysian Airlines jet that left 100 dead — involved terrorist activity. But there are many others that did not, with mechanical problems, pilot error or other reasons blamed for loss of life. Below are some examples of the latter: crashes that left at least 200 people dead in each incident. March 3, 1974: 346 people are killed when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 experiences a sudden decompression shortly after takeoff from Paris and slams into a park in Ermeonville, France. March 27, 1977: A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747 beginning its takeoff crashed into Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 then still on the runway at the Los Rodeos Airport at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. A total of 574 people, aboard both planes, died. May 25, 1979: An engine on the left wing of an American Airlines DC-10 falls off as it’s trying to take off from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, setting off chaos that results in 271 deaths on board and two others on the ground. The Federal Aviation Administration later faults American Airlines maintenance techniques for the crash for Flight 191. November 28, 1979: Some 275 people died when their Air New Zealand plane, a DC-10, hits Mt. Erebus on Antarctica — a crash that it believed to stem from navigational error. August 12, 1985: The deadliest-ever commercial air crash involving a single plane occurred nearly 30 years ago in the mountains of central Japan. A total of 520 people were killed when Japan Airlines Flight 123 — a Boeing 747 — crashed not long after takeoff from Tokyo. Four people miraculously survived. Read more news.ngr.ng/historys-deadliest-commercial-jet-crashes/
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 23:43:09 +0000
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