On 10 April 2010, a Polish Air Force VIP aircraft carrying the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria Kaczyńska and other top officials, crashes short of the runway…

On 25 May 1979, the left engine of American Airlines Flight 191 falls off moments after takeoff at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. The aircraft crashes into an open field shortly…

On 7 September 2011, an aircraft carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team crashes shortly after takeoff at Yaroslavl, Russia, killing all but one of the 45 occupants. The…

On 28 December 1978, the crew of United Airlines Flight 173 is preoccupied with a landing gear problem as the aircraft circles in a holding pattern in the vicinity of…

On 25 January 2010, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, en route to Addis Ababa, plunges into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport during a thunderstorm, killing…

On 21 February 2008, Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518, en route from Mérida, Venezuela, to Caracas, veers off course and flies into the side of a mountain shortly after takeoff….

On 1 June 2009, Air France Flight 447, a scheduled flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, stalls and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean while flying through a thunderstorm, killing…

On 11 July 1991, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 is taking off from Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport with 247 Nigerian Hajj pilgrims and 14 crew members on board. A tire…

On 7 December 1987, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, on a flight to San Francisco, crashes at the speed of sound on a mountainside in rural San Luis Obispo County,…

On 24 May 1988, TACA Airlines Flight 110, a near-new Boeing 737, flies through a thunderstorm and suffers a dual engine flameout. The captain, Carlos Dardano, manages to make a…

On 8 October 2001, Scandinavian Airlines Flight 686, carrying 110 people bound for Copenhagen, Denmark, is taking off at Milan’s Linate Airport in thick fog. On the runway, it collides…

On 19 July 1989, the tail-mounted number two engine of United Airlines Flight 232 explodes, causing serious damage to the aircraft’s hydraulic systems and leaving the flight controls unusable. By…

On 22 December 1999, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509, en route from London Stansted Airport to Milan, Italy, crashes into a field about 55 seconds after taking off, killing all…

On 25 September 1978, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182 collides with a light aircraft while approaching Lindbergh Field and crashes in a residential area in San Diego. All 137…

On 17 July 2007, TAM Airlines Flight 3054 careens off runway 35L at Brazil’s Congonhas Airport, crashes at high speed into a warehouse adjacent to a filling station and explodes….

On 16 August 2005, West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 stalls while cruising and crashes in rural Venezuela during a severe thunderstorm. Investigations revealed there were no faults with the engines….

On 12 December 1985, Arrow Air Flight 1285, carrying troops of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division, stalls and crashes just seconds after taking off from Gander International Airport in…

On 11 September 1991, Continental Express Flight 2574 is nearing the end of its intra-state flight from Laredo, Texas, to Houston. As the pilots are preparing to land, the aircraft…

On 6 February 1958, British European Airways Flight 609, carrying members of the famed Manchester United association football team, club officials and journalists, crashes into a house about 300 meters…

On 9 October 2002, Northwest Airlines Flight 85 is cruising above the Bering Sea, when the lower rudder segment suddenly deflects to the left. The pilots divert the aircraft to…

On 24 November 2001, Crossair Flight 3597 crashes into a hill during final approach to Zurich, killing 24 of the 33 passengers and crew members on board. The cause of…

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 suffers a bird strike with a flock of Canada geese approximately 1.5 minutes after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York…

On 12 February 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 stalls at low altitude and dives into a residential area near Buffalo, New York. All on board and one person on the…

On 27 December 1991, Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 crash-lands without loss of life in Gottröra moments after taking off due to both engines failing. Clear ice from the tops of…

On 25 February 2009, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 is on approach to land at Schiphol in Amsterdam, when it stalls and crashes 1.5 kilometres from the runway. Nine people, including…

On 17 January 2008, British Airways Flight 38 is on its final approach to land, when the autothrottles command increased thrust from the engines. The engines do not respond to…

On 22 August 1985, an engine of British Airtours Flight 28M fails during takeoff, puncturing a hole in the wing fuel tank and starting a fire. The crew successfully abandons…

On 26 June 1988, Air France Flight 296 fails to climb and crashes into trees after performing a flyby during an airshow at Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport, killing three people. The cause…

On 16 August 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 stalls as it lifts off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport and crashes just beyond the runway, killing 154 of the 155 people on…

On 1 February 1991, USAir Flight 1493 collides with a waiting SkyWest Airlines aircraft on the runway, killing 34 people. An air traffic controller mistakenly assigned the inbound Flight 1493…

On 1 September 1983, during the Cold War, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace. The crew did not switch the autopilot from heading to…

On 10 March 1989, Air Ontario Flight 1363 crashes just after takeoff, killing 24 people. Three years later, on 22 March 1992, USAir Flight 405 also crashes just after takeoff…

On 20 January 1992, Air Inter Flight 148 flies into a peak in the Vosges Mountains while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport, killing 87 people. An error made in…

On 19 December 2005, just seconds after takeoff from Miami, Florida, the right wing of Chalk’s Ocean Airways Flight 101 breaks off, causing the aircraft to crash into the sea,…

1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, 1986 Cerritos mid-air collision, Avianca Flight 52, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, Überlingen mid-air collision. This special looked at the role of air traffic controllers…

Southern Airways Flight 242, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, American Airlines Flight 1420, British Airways Flight 9. This special looked at the role of bad weather in disasters and examines…

Shortly after leaving London Heathrow airport in December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded above Lockerbie , Scotland killing 270 people. Investigators soon discovered that a bomb in the forward…

Find out what went wrong when a Kazakhstan Airlines jet and a Saudi Airways plane collided in the worst mid-air crash in aviation history, killing 349 people on November 12,…

Rescuers have to look to the past to solve the riddle of Flight 611, a China Airlines 747 that disappeared 20 minutes after taking off.

On September 8, 1989, Partnair Flight 394, a charter from Oslo to Hamburg, suddenly begins to dive from 22 thousand feet. The aging propeller plane eventually crashes into the sea,…