Two Airline Disasters on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Fifty-eight people were killed in two separate airline crashes on this day in 1970. A Faucett Airlines DC-4 disappeared in Peru while en route from Trujillo to Juanjui. Earlier, a DC-3, described as the only aircraft owned by Polynesian Airlines, crashed on takeoff from Apia Faleolo airport, killing all 27 passengers and three crew in its attempt to fly to Pago Pago.

The first fatal aviation accident was the crash of a Rozière balloon near Wimereux, France, on June 15, 1785, killing the balloon's inventor, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, and the other occupant, Pierre Romain. The first involving a powered aircraft was the crash of a Wright Model A aircraft at Fort Myer, Virginia, in the United States on September 17, 1908, injuring its co-inventor and pilot, Orville Wright, and killing the passenger, Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge.

The first aircraft accident in which 200 or more people died occurred on March 3, 1974, when 346 died in the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981. As of April 2020, there have been 33 aviation incidents in which 200 or more people died.

The top 10 countries with the highest number of fatal civil airliner accidents from 1945 to 2021 are the United States, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, UK, France, Indonesia, Mexico, and India. The UK is noted to have the highest number of air crashes in Europe, with a total of 110 air crashes within the time period, and Indonesia is the highest in Asia at 104, followed by India at 95.

The largest loss of life on board a single-aircraft is the 520 fatalities in the 1985 Japan Airlines Flight 123 accident, the largest loss of life in multiple aircraft in a single accident is the 583 fatalities in the two Boeing 747's that collided in the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster, while the largest loss of life overall in a collective incident is the 2,996 fatalities in the coordinated terrorist destruction of airplanes and occupied buildings in the 2001 September 11 attacks.

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Seven Airplane Crashes on This Day in History

 

Most Terrifying Airplane Crashes

This day in history: On Dec. 8, 1945, "a C-47 military transport plane destined for Seattle tried an emergency landing at Logan International Airport. The pilot was unable to make the runway on second pass and crashed into a field near the area that is now Veterans Park. Nineteen of the 23 people on board perished, including 17 servicemen who were on their last leg of deployment, heading home after serving in Europe during World War II." Source

Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, was struck by lightning on this day in 1963 and crashed near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board. 

On December 8, 1969, Olympic Airways Flight 954 struck a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history.

On December 8, 1972, United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashed after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 45. This is the first-ever loss of a Boeing 737.

On December 8. 1988, a United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashed into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others.

On December 8 2005, Southwest Airlines Flight 1248, a Boeing 737-700, slid off the runway during landing at Chicago Midway International Airport in Chicago in heavy snow. None of the people on board are injured, but the plane hit two automobiles on the ground, killing a passenger.

On December 8 2014, an Embraer EMB-500 airplane crashed while on approach to runway 14 at Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, Maryland. "The airplane impacted three houses and the ground about 3/4 mile from the approach end of the runway. A postcrash fire involving the airplane and one of the three houses, which contained three occupants, ensued. The pilot, the two passengers, and the three people in the house died as a result of the accident." Source

However, despite the above, air travel is quite safe, much safer than dricing your car. "Dr. Barnett of MIT compared the chance of dying from an airline accident versus a driving accident, after accounting for the greater number of people who drive each day. Can you guess what he found? You are nineteen times safer in a plane than in a car. Every single time you step on a plane, no matter how many times you fly, you are nineteen times less likely to die than in your car." Source

In fact, every year, roughly 1.3 million people die in car accidents worldwide – an average of 3,287 deaths per day.

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