An Air India plane crashed on Thursday, killing more than 200 people in one of the deadliest disasters involving a passenger aircraft in the last two decades.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members when it crashed shortly after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad en route to London Gatwick Airport. One survivor had been reported as Thursday drew to a close in the city.
From a statistical perspective, it is safer to travel by air than by road, according to experts. But airline crashes involving large passenger jets, when they do happen, frequently have high death tolls.
Here are some other major civilian aircraft disasters over the past two decades:
Washington, D.C., January 2025 — A regional passenger jet from Wichita, Kan., collided with a U.S. Army helicopter shortly before it had been about to land at Reagan National Airport. The plane plunged into the Potomac River. In all, 67 people were killed. Aviation investigators have yet to announce the cause of the crash, which happened at night.
South Korea, December 2024 — A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 that had taken off from Bangkok and was landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea crash-landed, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was the country’s worst air disaster in decades. Officials have not yet announced the results of their investigation.
China, March 2022 — A China Eastern Airlines domestic flight from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China, to Guangzhou, a major city in the southeastern province of Guangdong, crashed, killing all 132 people on board. The crash of the Boeing 737-800 was the country’s worst air disaster in decades.
Ethiopia, March 2019, and Indonesia, October 2018 — An Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed, killing all 157 people on board. The plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, was the same type that had been used in a Lion Air flight that crashed in 2018 in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. Days after the crash in Ethiopia, the United States grounded all of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft.
Egypt, October 2015 — A Russian charter flight en route to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, crashed, killing all 224 people on board. The Islamic State claimed responsibility and Russia said a bomb had been planted on the plane.
Ukraine, July 2014 — Separatists backed by Russia shot down a Malaysia Airlines jet, MH17, above eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people aboard. In 2022, a Dutch court convicted three men with ties to the Russian security services for their roles in shooting down the plane and sentenced them to life in prison.
March 2014 — A Malaysia Airlines flight to Beijing from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people from 15 countries on board, deviated from its path, turned west across the Malay Peninsula and lost radar contact. Some experts believe it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after running out of fuel, but despite years of recovery efforts the crash site has not been determined and it remains one of the world’s most notorious aviation mysteries.
India, May 2010 — An Air India flight from Dubai carrying 166 people crashed moments after landing into the southwestern Indian city of Mangalore, killing almost all of the 166 people on board. Aviation officials said that the pilot of the Boeing 737 had missed the runway’s landing threshold.
Atlantic Ocean, June 2009 — An Air France flight en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro crashed into the ocean, killing all 228 people on board. The plane had been caught in a thunderstorm and investigators determined that ice crystals had thrown off the plane’s airspeed sensors and that its autopilot had disconnected, leaving the pilots bewildered. The plane stalled and went into free fall. Its wreckage was only located on the ocean floor two years later.
Brazil, July 2007 — An Airbus 320 skidded off a runway while landing in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. It crashed into an office building and a gas station. All 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground were killed.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news.
The post How the Air India Crash Compares With Other Deadly Plane Disasters appeared first on New York Times.
