List of aircraft accidents and incidents resulting in at least 50 fatalities

In 1992, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashed into a hill while approaching a Kathmandu airport, killing all 167 passengers and crew.

This article lists aircraft accidents and incidents which resulted in at least 50 fatalities in a single occurrence involving commercial passenger and cargo flights, military passenger and cargo flights, or general aviation flights that have been involved in a ground or mid-air collision with either a commercial or military passenger or cargo flight.

There have been 535 such incidents, including terrorist or other attacks. Of these, 196 have involved at least 100 fatalities, 33 have had at least 200 fatalities, 8 have had at least 300 fatalities, and 4 incidents have had over 500 fatalities. Between 1923 (the first year an aircraft accident or incident exceeded 50 fatalities) and the present day, these incidents have involved 568 aircraft across all seven continents and the three largest oceans, and have accounted for 56,295 fatalities.

History

Five years after the pioneering flight of the Wright brothers on 17 December 1903,^[1] Thomas Selfridge became the first fatality of powered flight while flying as a passenger with Orville Wright during a demonstration of the Wright Model A at Fort Myer, Virginia, on 17 September 1908.^[2] Eugène Lefebvre was the first pilot killed in a power airplane in 1909, while the first fatal mid-air collision occurred on 19 June 1912, near Douai, France, killing the pilot of each aircraft.^[3] Since the deaths of these early aviation pioneers, the scale of fatal aircraft accidents has grown parallel to the size and capacity of airplanes (the highest capacity passenger aircraft currently flying is the Airbus A380 which can carry up to 853 passengers).

The first aviation incident to result in over 50 fatalities did not involve an airplane. On 21 December 1923, the Dixmude, a rigid airship of the French Navy, was reportedly struck by lightning and crashed into the Mediterranean, off Sicily, Italy. All 52 crew and passengers were killed.^[4] Nearly 10 years later, the USS Akron, also a rigid airship, encountered severe weather and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, off Barnegat Light, New Jersey, killing 73 of those on board.^[5] It was another 5 years before a fixed-wing aircraft incident claimed over 50 fatalities. On 24 July 1938, A Curtiss Hawk II crashed into spectator stands in the Santa Ana air show disaster. 52 spectators were killed on the ground in addition to the pilot of the plane.^[6] Exactly one month later on 24 August 1938, the Japan mid-air collision in Tokyo claimed 53 lives on the ground in addition to the 5 crew members on board both planes.^[7]

The highest number of fatalities involving one aircraft occurred in 1985 when 520 people died in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123.^[8] The most fatalities in an aircraft collision occurred in 1977 in the Tenerife airport disaster when 583 people were killed. The highest number of fatalities from a midair collision occurred at the Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision, to the west of New Delhi, India on 12 November 1996 when a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B en route from Delhi to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, collided with Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Chimkent, Kazakhstan to Delhi, killing all 349 people on board both the planes.^[9] The 11 September 2001 (9/11) coordinated attack of the World Trade Center claimed not only 157 passengers and crew, but an estimated additional 2,500 victims.^[10][11] In 2012, Boeing released a study of worldwide commercial jet airplane accidents between 1959 and 2011 reporting 1,798 accidents, 603 categorized as fatal, which accounted for 29,025 on-board fatalities and an additional 1,173 ground or non-commercial aircraft collision deaths.^[12] The Boeing analysis suggests a decline in commercial aviation accident fatality rates toward the end of the study period.

Inclusion criteria

Criteria for inclusion require at least 50 fatalities in a single occurrence involving commercial passenger and cargo flights, military passenger and cargo flights, or general aviation flights that have been involved in a ground or mid-air collision with either a commercial or military passenger or cargo flight.

The US Code of Federal Regulations defines an accident as "an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage;" an incident as "an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations;" and a fatal injury as one which results in death within 30 days of the accident.^[13] The definitions of accident, incident, and fatality in the Code of Federal Regulations, and used by the FAA and NTSB are generally consistent with those found in the ICAO Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13.^[14][15]

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