Worst Plane Crashes In History And Their Aftermath No. 1 Tenerife Airport Disaster (1977) It was a bomb explosion at the nearby Gran Canaria Airport that forced KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736 to divert to Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) on March 27, 1977, for what would turn out to be a fateful day. A dense fog, lack of ground radar at the small airport and several miscommunications resulted in the two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft colliding on the runway in what remains to this day the deadliest accident in commercial aviation history. All 248 passengers and crew aboard the KLM flight perished, along with 335 of the 396 people aboard the Pan Am flight, resulting in a staggering death toll of 583. Lasting Impact: Air traffic control phraseology was standardized to reduce the chance of misunderstandings, which were believed to have played a crucial role in the events leading up to the accident. The disaster also led to the concept of Crew Resource Management, and gave less experienced flight crew more leeway to challenge their captains if they believed something was not correct. No. 2 Japan Airlines Flight 123 (1985) Related Why Americans Are Still Unsatisfied With Airlines What Happens In A Midair Medical Emergency? Japan Airlines Flight 123 left Tokyo en route to Osaka on Aug. 12, 1985, when a catastrophic mechanical failure involving the plane’s rear pressure bulkhead sent the Boeing 747SR soaring into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara. All 15 crew and 505 of the 509 passengers died, resulting in the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history with a total of 520 deaths. Lasting Impact: Japan’s Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission found that the aircraft involved had been damaged seven years earlier and repaired insufficiently. The crash led to the opening of the Safety Promotion Center on the grounds of Tokyo International Airport, which was created for training purposes to instill the importance of personable responsibility to ensure airline safety. No. 3 Charkhi Dadri Mid-Air Collision (1996) The world’s deadliest mid-air collision occurred on Nov. 12, 1996, over the village of Charkhi Dadri, west of New Delhi. Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 had just departed New Delhi and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 was arriving when they crashed, killing all 349 people on both flights. Lasting Impact: The Kazakhstani pilots were found to lack English language skills and were relying entirely on their radio operator for communications with air traffic control. Indira Gandhi International Airport, meanwhile, used the same corridor for arrivals and departures, but did not have secondary surveillance radar to produce exact readings of aircraft altitudes. Both of these things changed in the aftermath, and the Civil Aviation Authorities in India made it mandatory that all aircraft flying into or out of the country be equipped with an Airborne Collision Avoidance System. No. 4 Turkish Airlines Flight 981 (1974) Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed just outside of Paris in March 1974 killing all 346 people onboard. Investigators found that the rear cargo hatch of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 blew off, causing decompression, severing cables and leaving the pilots with no control of the vessel. Lasting Impact: Following the accident, the latches for the cargo hatch on McDonnell Douglas DC-10 planes were re-designed and the locking system significantly upgraded after it was found that a failure of the hatch could easily lead to the collapse of the floor and disruption of the controls. The fuselage’s sub-contractor, Convair, was aware of the design flaw and informed McDonnell Douglas of the potential problem, but it was ignored due to the cost and delay of delivering the aircraft. The case is now widely studied in the field of engineering ethics. No. 5 Saudia Arabian Flight 163 (1980) All 287 passengers and 14 crew on board Saudia Arabian Flight 163 died after the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar caught fire after takeoff from Riyadh International Airport (now Riyadh Air Base) in August 1980. The plane made an emergency landing back at the airpo
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:24:48 +0000
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