The most dangerous airplane crashes

Airplane accidents somehow attract the public’s attention with their drama and destruction. No car crash could ever seem so fascinating, terrifying or deadly, as many of them as happens every day. This is a list of the ten deadliest airplane accidents, or at least disasters most likely caused by accident. Excluded are Pan Am Flight 103 (270 fatalities, 0 survivors) and Air India Flight 182 (329 fatalities, 0 survivors), both caused by bombs, and the World Trade Center disaster (2753 fatalities shared between two planes), due to hijacking.For those of you with a fear of flying, it is worth noting that seven of these ten items (bonus excluded) occurred in the ’70s and ’80s, and two of the three more recent accidents occurred in countries that people would think twice about visiting.

Korean Airlines Flight 007
1983:
           Fatalities: 269
Survivors: 0The first item on this list is one of the most complicated to explain and had the potential to be one of the deadliest accidents in history: this classifies as one of the tensest moments of the Cold War.Due to incorrect use of navigation systems, a flight from Anchorage to Seoul deviated slightly to the north, not long after takeoff, and continued on anincorrect route towards the Soviet Union for five and a half hours. Various things should have indicated the deviation, including the fact that it was out of range of normal communication with Anchorage and had to relay reports through another flight that should have been very near to them; however, cockpit recordings make it clear that the crew had no idea that they were in any danger at all.The plane happened to be flying towards the Soviet Union in a time when relations between the two superpowers was certainly not at their best and, furthermore, on a day when a Soviet missile test was scheduled. The Korean flight crossed over a peninsula in the Soviet Union, re-entered international airspace, and then entered Soviet airspace for a secondincorrect route towards the Soviet Union for five and a half hours. Various things should have indicated the deviation, including the fact that it was out of range of normal communication with Anchorage and had to relay reports through another flight that should have been very near to them; however, cockpit recordings make it clear that the crew had no idea that they were in any danger at all.The plane happened to be flying towards the Soviet Union in a time when relations between the two superpowers was certainly not at their best and, furthermore, on a day when a Soviet missile test was scheduled. The Korean flight crossed over a peninsula in the Soviet Union, re-entered international airspace, and then entered Soviet airspace for a secondtime. Because of the test, there was also an American military plane in the area, and the two planes passed so close to each other that the Soviets were not sure which was which. One of the Soviet Air Defense commanders decided that, having flown into Soviet airspace, the plane must not be a civilian plane. Unaware of the danger, the pilots decided to climb to a higher altitude, which slowed their airspeed in what appeared to be an evasive maneuver to the fighter pilot following them. The Soviet pilot shot the plane down just as was crossing back to international airspace once more.The Soviet Union initially denied any knowledge of the plane, then fabricated observations about the plane so military commanders could claim that it had not appeared to be a civilianaircraft. They accused the United States of having sent the plane to spy on them and even of attempting to incite war. During search-and-rescue, American and Soviet teams did their best to obstruct each other, and even after the plane’s black boxes were released after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there is still some controversy and plenty of conspiracy theories concerning this plane.

American Airlines Flight 191
1979:Fatalities: 273, including 2 ground fatalities
Survivors: 0The deadliest airline accident on US soil occurred in a DC-10, a model that has earned itself a very bad safety reputation, despite being generally a safe plane. The last maintenance on this particular aircraft, eight weeks before the disaster, had damaged the pylons attaching one of the engines to the plane. As the airplane began its takeoff from O’Hare, that engine broke off from the aircraft and fell back onto the runway, taking a large section of the left wing with it, cutting electrical systems, and spilling hydraulic fluid, which controlled some mobile parts of the wing.The pilots, unable to see the wings and unaware that they were losing fluid and therefore control, attempted to keep themselves in the air and perform the proper procedure for engine failure during takeoff. However, the damaged left wing stalled, and the airplane rolled
            into a dive and crashed into an open field. Debris was thrown into a nearby trailer park, destroying several trailers and cars and an old aircraft hanger, as well as severely injuring several people on the ground and killing two. Everyone onboard was killed by the impact or resulting fuel fire.The entire DC-10 fleet was temporarily grounded while investigators determined which other planes had also been damaged by these incorrect maintenance procedures.