Man has always dreamed of flying into the sky. Ancient Greek myths tell that Daedalus and his son Icarus flew into the sky using wings that were made of feathers, wax and thread.
And the greatest scientist, inventor and artist Leonardo do Vinci once created sketches of an unusual aircraft. He was supposed to use the strength of human muscles to fly into the endless sky.
People have been trying to create such flying machines for a long time. And created…
History of world air crashes
The very first flights in the sky began at the end of the 19th century. It was then that the statistics of world air crashes began. In the process of development of flights on airplanes (cargo, passenger), air crashes of the world began to occur more and more often. The statistics of their crashes grew incredibly until 1970. And it is precisely the 70s that are the peak of terrible tragedies in the sky.
In the future, due to the growth of modern technologies, the improvement of aviation technology and the tightening of requirements and rules for flight safety, by the 80s began to occurreducing the number of aircraft accidents. There is a dynamic decrease in the number of air crashes from 616, with 15,689 deaths, in the 70s to more than 300 accidents with 8,000 deaths in the 2000s.
Air crashes of the world, their geography
Geographically, in this terribly sad disaster statistics, the United States ranks. According to well-known information from the Aviation Safety Network, from 1945 to the present day, a huge number of passenger aircraft have crashed in this country - more than 630. More than 9,000 people have died in these accidents.
Russia, unfortunately, ranks second in this statistic. Since 1945, more than 200 catastrophes in the sky have occurred on the territory of the USSR of those times and modern Russia. With more than 5,000 dead.
3rd place goes to Colombia.
Ecuador has the fewest air crashes.
Statistics of the distribution of air crashes in recent years by country
March 27, 1977 marked the world record for the number of victims in a plane crash. In the Tenerife area, two Boeing 747 airliners of the well-known Pan-America and KLM airlines unexpectedly collided. Then 583 people became victims.
The total number of air crashes in the world is steadily increasing.
The most dangerous airline in the world, according to Actual Security (Swedish magazine), is the Soviet Aeroflot. According to them, the statistics of air crashes in the world shows that there are more than 18 crashes per 1 million Aeroflot flights. Second place in this sadThe list is occupied by Taiwanese airlines - more than 11 accidents per million departures. Third place belongs to Egypt (more than 11), then - India (more than 10), Turkey, China, Philippines, South Korea and Poland - more than 6 accidents on 41 million flights. The safest is the South-West company (America). For 1 million 800 thousand flights of airliners of this company, not a single disaster happened.
Worst air crashes in the world by number of victims
| Aircraft name | Year of disaster | Crash site | Number of victims |
Country, owner of the airliner |
Causes of the disaster |
| Boeing-747 | 1977 | Canary Islands | 578 | Netherlands, USA | Incorrect reception by the crew of the controller's command |
| Boeing-747 | 1985 | Japan | 520 | Japan | Insufficient quality repair of the airliner (technical problems) |
| IL-76, Boeing | 1996 | India | 349 | Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia | Collision of two planes in the air |
| DC-10 | 1974 | France | 346 | Turkey | Openinghatch in the cargo compartment |
| Boeing-737 | 1985 | Atlantic | 329 | India | Terrorist act |
| IL-76 | 2003 | Iran | 275 | Iran | Due to poor visibility ground impact |
| A-300 | 1994 | Japan | 264 | China | Undefined |
| DC-8 250 | 1985 | Newfoundland | 250 | Canada | There was a loss of speed during takeoff |
| DC-10 | 1979 | Antarctica | 257 | New Zealand | Falling to the ground |
| A-300 | 2001 | USA | 246 | USA | Unexpected fire in the air |
This table presents the worst air crashes in the world.
Description of some air crashes
In March 1974, after opening the cargo hold, a French DC-10 operated by THY Turkish Airlines crashed in a forest. Total- 346 dead.
In March 1977, a Boeing 747-206B (KLM) collided with a Boeing 747-121 (Pan Am) on the Canary Islands in Tenerife. 583 dead (worst air crash in the world).
In May 1979, a DC-10 (American Airlines) crashed in the Chicago area due to hydraulic failure. 273 people died.
In August 1980, after making an emergency landing, an L-1011-200 Tristar (Saudi) aircraft in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) burned down. 301 people died.
In June 1985, an Air India Boeing 747-237B was destroyed in the Irish Sea after a terrorist explosion. 329 people died.
In July 1988, due to a ridiculous mistake, an Airbus A300B2-202 (Iran Air) was shot down by a military missile from the ship Vincennes (America). It happened in the Persian Gulf. 290 people died.
In August 1985, a Boeing 747SR (Japan Airlines) crashed into a mountain in Tokyo. Surprisingly, only four survived. 520 people died.
In November 1996, another Boeing 747-168B (Saudi Arabian Airlines) collided with a Kazakh Il-76TD aircraft in Charkhi-Dadri (India). A total of 349 people died then.
In January 1996, an overloaded Ant-32 crashed into the city market of Kinshasa in Zaire. More than 297 dead. 4 people from the crew survived (total crew members 5).
Most recently, on July 17, 2014, on Ukrainian territory (60 kilometers from the border withRussia) another terrible tragedy occurred - the Boeing 777 airliner (Malaysian Airlines) crashed (was shot down by the military). 295 passengers (including 80 children) and the entire crew (15 people) died. Until now, the true cause of the tragedy has not been officially clarified.
Death of heads of state in air crashes
Air crashes around the world occur in the most unexpected places, for various reasons, and people of various statuses in society die in them.
Leaders of all countries, as a rule, use airliners as transportation due to time savings. The most modern and, it would seem, very reliable in terms of safety of the court are used for this. However, an unforeseen failure of equipment or simply a human factor in these cases can cause aircraft crashes. Here are some plane crashes in the world that killed the first government officials:
• In 2010 - Lech Kaczynski (President of Poland) with his wife, a large number of military people from the Polish high command and other politicians died in a Tu-154 crash near Smolensk.
• In 2004 - Boris Trajkovski (President of Macedonia) was killed in an accident in Bosnia.
• In 2001 - The Sudanese military leadership died in the south of the country.
• In 1988, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who was the president of Pakistan, died. The tragedy occurred over the city of Lahore, Pakistan (possibly as a result of a terrorist attack).
• In 1986 - Samora Machel (President of Mozambique) died in a plane crash in South Africa.
• In 1981 -Jaime Roldos Aguilera, President of Ecuador, died. A plane crashed in the Wairapunga mountains of Ecuador.
• In 1969 - René Barientos Ortuño (President of Bolivia) died in Arc (Bolivia).
• In 1966 - Abdul Salam Aref (President of Iraq) in southern Iraq.
• In 1961 - Dag Hammarskjöld (UN Secretary General) died in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
• In 1957 - Ramon Magsaysay (President of the Philippines) died in another disaster in the municipality of Balamban (Philippines).
Many more well-known names can be added to the lists of the dead from among the statesmen of small and large countries of the world. Among them are the mysterious plane crashes of the world, mainly those whose causes have not yet been clarified. These include the plane crash that occurred in Panama. In 1981, Omar Torrijos, the general, leader of Panama, died under mysterious circumstances.
Statistical data for Russian Airlines
Authoritative expert organizations have brought the statistics of aircraft crashes of many Russian airlines and compiled a safety rating of existing airliners.
Recently, almost all Russian airlines, when buying, prefer foreign (already used) aircraft, rather than new Russian ones. And as you know, the control of imported modern equipment equipped with electronics is very different from the control of domestic aircraft. Accordingly, the risk of occurrence, again, just a “human factor” increases.
So, Rossiya accounts for 184 human lives, Vladivostok-Avia - 145, KrasAir - 29, and Tyumen Airlines - 5. At the same time, the presence of airlines is very pleasing, who have worked today without casu alties: Transaero, Ural Airlines and Domodedovo Airlines.
Statistical data on the rating of liners
The table shows the rating of aircraft by their danger.
| Liner model | Number of flights, mln | Deaths in disasters on average, % | Number of crashes | Airliner Hazard Rating | ||
| Boeing 747 | 16, 26 | 49, 04% | 28 | 0, 84 | ||
| Boeing 737-300/400/500 0 | 50 | 74, 40% | 15 | 0, 22 | ||
| Airbus A300 | 9, 72 | 66, 56% | 9 | 0, 62 | ||
| Boeing 757 | 14, 71 | 77, 14% | 7 | 0, 37 | ||
| Airbus A320/319/321 | 21, 43 | 65, 86% | 7 | 0, 22 | ||
| Airbus A310 | 3, 75 | 87, 17% | 6 | 1, 39 | ||
| Boeing 767 | 11, 76 | 91, 67% | 6 | 0, 47 | ||
| Fokker F70/F100 | 6, 67 | 46, 75% | 4 | 0, 28 | ||
| Boeing 737-600/700/800/900 | 13, 9 | 100% | 2 | 0, 14 | ||
| Boeing 777 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
From the above information, we can conclude that the Boeing 777 is the most reliable type of airliner today.
Main causes of air crashes
Every year, the black terrifyingly tragic list of world air crashes is replenished. Quite often, the causes of these tragedies remain unexplained. Air crashes in the world are very frequent and unpredictable. The investigation sometimes hits a dead end. Even magical black boxes often fail to unravel the cause of some mid-air disasters.
The main causes of modern aviation accidents: technical problems (failure of technical devices, minor problems), errors of air traffic controllers, pilots and other personnel (human factor),international terrorism, hostilities, absurd fatal accidents (military air defense errors, thunderstorms, even bird strikes, etc.).
The most important cause of air crashes is the same ill-fated human factor. In the practice of the whole world, it accounts for almost 70% of all aircraft crashes.
And yet, despite the fact that plane crashes are horrendous and each time cause a very painful reaction from the entire world community, aviation remains one of the most reliable and safe modes of transport in existence.
