10 deadliest air disasters that shook the world

The ATR 72, operated by privately owned Yeti Airlines, crashed just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara on January 15, 2023, in one of Nepal's worst airplane accidents in 30 years. The plane crash killed at least 72 people. There were 72 people on the twin-engine aircraft including two infants, four crew and 15 foreign nationals. There were no survivors. According to a report issued by a government-appointed investigation panel, the plane crash was caused by the pilots mistakenly cutting power leading to an aerodynamic stall. (PTI photo)

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on July 17, 2014, in Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers. Two years ago, in 2022, the Dutch court found three men guilty of the murder of all the passengers. The court handed down sentences of life imprisonment to the Russian nationals Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, after finding them guilty of bringing down the plane and the murder of everyone onboard. (AFP photo)

All 329 persons on board an Air India flight that was flying from Canada to India via London perished when it detonated off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. The reason was a bomb in a bag that was checked into the aircraft even though the passenger had not yet boarded. There were 24 Indians and 268 Canadian citizens, the majority of whom were of Indian descent. From the sea, only 131 bodies were recovered. (IANS photo)

Air France Flight 447, carrying 228 people, crashed on June 1, 2009. Air France Flight 447 disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris. After long years, two French giants of the aviation industry had been charged with involuntary manslaughter over the crash. They denied the charges throughout the trial, which ran from October to December 2022. (AFP photo)

On March 3, 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, crashed in France. The cargo door of the aircraft had a design defect that led to the door blowing off during flight, which is what caused the tragedy. At the time, the disaster was the deadliest aviation catastrophe in European history, with 346 persons lost their lives. (Representative Image, AP photo)

On August 12, 1985, JAL flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka crashed, killing 520 out of the 524 onboard, after a faulty repair of the tail by Boeing technicians – not the airline’s – following an earlier incident. To this day, it is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history. (Twitter photo)

The world's deadliest mid-air collision occurred over the Indian village of Charkhi Dadri, killing 349 people. Involved in the collision was Saudi Arabia Airlines Flight SV763, a scheduled international flight between Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) in India and King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED) with a stopover at Dhahran International Airport (DHA) in Saudi Arabia. (AP photo)

On May 25, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, crashed in Chicago. The left engine of the aircraft experienced a technical breakdown during takeoff, resulting in the engine falling off the aircraft and causing the crash. At the time, the disaster was the deadliest aviation catastrophe in US history, with 273 persons lost their lives. (Representative Image, AP photo)

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a 777 carrying 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, dropped off the radar screens on March 8, 2014. Eight years later, it’s still aviation’s most agonizing mystery. Many competing theories about what happened have surfaced in the absence of hard evidence, with the few clues coming from some barnacled flotsam found off the coast of Africa. These theories range from hypoxia caused by rapid decompression (which was also the cause of the Helios Flight 522 crash in Greece) to deliberate sabotage by a crew member or passenger. (AFP photo)

The recent accident of Alaska Airlines' Boeing Co.’s 737 Max 9 where a window and a portion of the plane’s fuselage blew out shortly after take-off has highlighted the negligence. The Portland-Ontario flight returned safely to its origin. Air travel has become a risky commute service because the previous accidents ushered in crucial safety improvements. From midair collisions, to onboard fires, here is the list of 9 other deadliest air disasters that shook the world. (Reuters photo)