The worst plane crashes in history

Air travel is, statistically, the safest way to travel. But when things go wrong at altitude, the consequences can be catastrophic. These are the deadliest, biggest airplane crashes in aviation history - ranked by death toll, with the facts behind each disaster and what they changed.

1. The Tenerife Airport Disaster (1977) — 583 dead

The deadliest aviation accident in history never technically left the ground.

On 27 March 1977, two fully loaded Boeing 747s , KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Both aircraft had been diverted there after a bomb threat closed their original destination.

Heavy fog, miscommunication between pilots and air traffic control, and a language barrier combined to create a fatal sequence of errors. The KLM aircraft began its takeoff roll without clearance, striking the Pan Am jet still taxiing on the runway. The collision and resulting fire killed 583 people. 61 passengers on the Pan Am flight survived.

The Tenerife disaster overhauled aviation communication protocols worldwide. Standard phraseology, crew resource management training, and the elimination of the word "takeoff" from all non-takeoff ATC communications are among the direct safety changes that followed.

2. Japan Airlines Flight 123 (1985) — 520 dead

The deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history occurred on 12 August 1985, when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into Mount Takamagahara in rural Japan.

Twelve minutes after departing Tokyo's Haneda Airport for Osaka, the rear pressure bulkhead ruptured - a section the airline had improperly repaired seven years earlier. The rupture destroyed the vertical fin, severed all four hydraulic systems, and left the crew with no means of controlling the aircraft. The plane flew erratically for 32 minutes before crashing. Of the 524 people on board, 520 died. Four survived.

It remains a case study in maintenance failure and the consequences of an improper repair being signed off and never caught.

3. Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision (1996) — 349 dead

On 12 November 1996, a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 collided in mid-air over northern India, near the town of Charkhi Dadri.

The Kazakh aircraft had descended below its assigned altitude. With no collision avoidance system and inadequate radar coverage, neither crew had warning. The two aircraft hit at around 14,000 feet. Both planes fell to the ground, killing all 349 people on board across both flights.

It remains the deadliest mid-air collision in history.

4. Turkish Airlines Flight 981 (1974) — 346 dead

A faulty cargo door design brought down a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 near Paris on 3 March 1974, killing all 346 people on board.

The cargo door had been incorrectly latched. Shortly after departure from Orly Airport, the door blew open at altitude, causing explosive decompression. The cabin floor collapsed, severing the control cables running beneath it and making the aircraft uncontrollable. It crashed into the Ermenonville forest nine minutes after takeoff.

The DC-10's cargo door had already caused a near-disaster two years earlier. Warning signs were not acted on. The Ermenonville crash forced a reckoning with aircraft certification processes and manufacturer accountability.

5. Air India Flight 182 (1985) — 329 dead

On 23 June 1985, a bomb hidden in the cargo hold of a Boeing 747 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of Ireland. The aircraft, operating Air India Flight 182 from Vancouver to London and Delhi, was destroyed instantly. All 329 people on board, predominantly Canadian citizens, were killed.

It was the deadliest terrorist attack involving an aircraft until 9/11, and the worst bombing of a commercial airliner until Lockerbie three years later. The investigation took over 20 years and exposed major failures in airport security coordination between Canadian and Indian authorities.

6. Malaysia Airlines MH17 (2014) — 298 dead

On 17 July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine while cruising at 33,000 feet en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board were killed.

A joint investigation by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team concluded the aircraft was struck by a Buk surface-to-air missile, fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed forces. The disaster raised urgent questions about airline routing over active conflict zones and led to the ICAO establishing the Conflict Zone Information Repository (CZIR).

7. Pan Am Flight 103 / Lockerbie (1988) — 270 dead

On 21 December 1988, a bomb concealed inside a radio cassette player destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The Boeing 747, en route from London Heathrow to New York, broke apart at 31,000 feet. All 259 people on board and 11 residents on the ground were killed — 270 in total.

Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001. The attack directly led to the widespread adoption of explosive trace detection at airports and stricter interline baggage reconciliation rules, meaning no bag can fly without its passenger.

8. Air France Flight 447 (2009) — 228 dead

Air France Flight 447 disappeared over the South Atlantic on 1 June 2009 while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people on board died.

The aircraft's pitot tubes, which measure airspeed, iced over and gave inconsistent readings. The autopilot disconnected, handing control to the crew at night, over the ocean, with conflicting instrument data. The investigation, which took two years to complete after the flight recorders were finally recovered from the ocean floor, found that the crew's response to the situation made things worse.

The crash triggered a global review of pilot training, particularly around manual flying skills and upset recovery at high altitude.

What about the 9/11 attacks?

The hijackings of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 on 11 September 2001 are often included in raw death toll rankings. Including ground casualties, the two flights were indirectly responsible for around 2,750 deaths in New York City alone.

However, these were deliberate terrorist acts, not aviation accidents. They are in a different category from mechanical failures, human error, or weather-related crashes, though they reshaped aviation security more profoundly than any accident in history.

How aviation became safer

Each of the disasters above left a mark on how flying works today. Stricter maintenance sign-off procedures, standardised crew communication, collision avoidance systems, explosive detection at security, flight data monitoring, and conflict zone routing protocols all trace directly back to specific crashes.

Air travel has never been statistically safer than it is today. The death toll from these events is part of why.

Know your rights when flights go wrong

Most flight disruptions are far less dramatic, but they still affect millions of passengers every year. If your flight arrived more than 3 hours late, was cancelled with less than 14 days' notice, or you were denied boarding, you may be entitled to financial compensation under UK261.

Check your eligibility with Flight Delayed UK and find out if your disrupted flight qualifies.