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Air accidents^[ru]

On June 18, 1953, an American military aircraft C-124 crashed in the city of Tachikawa, Japan. It was carrying military personnel to Seoul, but a minute after takeoff, the commander reported engine failure. While attempting to return, the plane lost control, crashed into the ground and exploded, killing 129 people.

On February 26, 1958, in Munich, at Munich-Rome Airport (West Germany), a runway disaster occurred: during the third takeoff attempt, an Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador airliner operated by British^[ru] European Airways crashed. The aircraft, performing flight BE609 on the Belgrade—Munich—Manchester route, hit shrubbery and broke apart. There were 23 fatalities out of 44 passengers, including 8 football players from Manchester United. The team was returning from Belgrade, where they had played a European Cup match against Crvena zvezda.

On February 3, 1959, a plane crash in Iowa killed rising rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, along with pilot Roger Peterson. Shortly after takeoff, a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error caused spatial disorientation, causing the pilot to lose control of the plane. The charter company owner was unable to establish radio contact with the aircraft and declared it missing. He launched a search the following morning and located the crash site less than 6 miles northwest of the airport in a cornfield. Singer Don McLean later called the tragedy "The Day the Music^[ru] Died" writing the song "American Pie" about it.

On February 28, 1966, two experienced American pilots assigned to the Gemini 9 crew, Elliot C. and Charles Bassett, died at the controls of a training aircraft.

On March 14, 1972, the largest plane crash in the history of the UAE occurred. The Sterling Airways airliner, flying on the Colombo—Bombay—Dubai—Ankara—Copenhagen route, crashed into a mountain near Kalba while landing in Dubai. All 112 people on board were killed — 106 passengers and 6 crew members. The cause of the crash was pilot error and the premature descent of the aircraft below a safe altitude.

On December 23, 1972, rescuers found passengers of Flight FH-227 in the Andes, which had crashed in the mountains two and a half months earlier. The plane crashed on October 13, 1972. There were five crew members and 40 passengers on board (members of the Old Christians rugby team, their relatives, and sponsors). While approaching Santiago, the plane was caught in a cyclone, struck a cliff, and crashed at the foot of the mountain—the extinct volcano Tinguiririca. Twelve people died in the fall and impact with the cliff, five later died from wounds and exposure, then eight more died in an avalanche, and three more later died from wounds. The survivors had minimal food and no heat source. To survive, they were forced to eat the bodies of the dead passengers. Only after 72 days of ordeal were 17 survivors rescued, and these events later became known as the "Miracle in the Andes."

On April 4, 1977, one of the most serious plane crashes in the United States occurred near the American town of New Hope (Georgia). A Southern Airways flight en route Masl-Shoals—Huntsville—Atlanta was hit by a severe thunderstorm 13 minutes after departure from Huntsville. Heavy rain and large hail damaged both engines and caused them to fail. The pilots tried to make an emergency landing on a highway near the town of New Hope, but on landing the airliner crashed into trees and buildings. As a result of the disaster, 72 people died — 63 people on board the aircraft (22 survived) and 9 people on the ground.

On February 18, 1978, an Aeroflot Tu-154 A caught fire at Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport. Fortunately, no one was killed, and the new aircraft was decommissioned. The tail section of the burnt-out aircraft was later used in the filming of the Soviet disaster film "The Crew" directed by Alexander Naumovich Mitta in 1980.

On May 23, 1991, during landing at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg^[ru] (Leningrad), an Aeroflot Tu-154 airliner crashed, completing a flight en route Sukhumi-Leningrad. Due to the rough landing, the plane literally fell apart in two. As a result of the crash, 15 people were killed — 13 passengers (there were 174 passengers and 7 crew members on board) and 2 people on the ground. This disaster was the first Soviet plane crash to be publicly publicized and covered in the press and on television.

On June 20, 2011, the Tu-134A-3 airliner of RusAir was flying from Moscow to Petrozavodsk. While approaching for landing in adverse weather conditions, the plane hit trees, then collided with the ground and was completely destroyed. Of the 52 people on board, 47 died.

On February 11, 2015, a Su-24 bomber aircraft of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation^[ru] crashed in the Kalachevsky district of the Volgograd Region, under the control of two experienced pilots, performing a training^[ru] flight as part of planned military exercises held in the Southern Federal District on February 10. The Su-24 crashed during landing. The plane literally crashed into the ground^[ru] on the shore of a reservoir 7 km from the airfield. This created a funnel with a diameter of 25 m and a depth of at least 7 m. Experts believe that the Su-24 is considered quite difficult to pilot and has a high accident rate. During flight tests alone, 14 Su-24 and Su-24M aircraft were lost. In 2011, a Su-24 crashed in the Amur Region, killing both pilots. By 2020, the Su-24 bombers were planned to be decommissioned from the Russian Air Force. The Air Force is a branch of the forces within the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation (until August 1, 2015, it was a separate branch of the armed forces).

On October 25, 2000, an IL-18D of the 223rd flight detachment crashed while landing at Batumi airport in Georgia, carrying Russian military personnel of the 12th military base in Transcaucasia in joint operation with Aeroflot. 73 passengers and 11 crew members were killed. The cause of the disaster was a navigational error by the pilots and a lack of control by the dispatching services.

On April 10, 2010, a Tu-154M presidential plane crashed near Smolensk. 96 people died in the crash — eight crew members and 88 passengers. Among the dead are President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and the leaders of the Polish state^[ru].

On October 20, 2014, a plane crashed at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. According to preliminary information, four people were killed after a collision with a snowplow, including Christophe de Margerie, a French businessman and chief executive officer of the Total energy concern. Born^[ru] on August 6, 1951 in Mareuil-sur-Le-Disse, France.

On March 6, 2018, a Russian An-26 transport plane crashed while landing in Syria. There were 39 contract servicemen on board. They all died. The plane missed the runway of the Khmeimim base by 500 meters to land.

On March 10, 2019, 159 people from 35 countries died in the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane crash in Ethiopia. The pilot of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane reported problems with control before the crash and told dispatchers on the ground that he intended to return to the departure airport. In two days, more than 30 airlines have abandoned the use of these airliners. About 50 countries have closed their airspace to them. Russia joined them on March 14th. The Boeing 737 MAX is the best—selling aircraft in Boeing's history.

On September 12, 2023, a Ural Airlines plane flying from Sochi to Omsk made an emergency landing in a field in the Ubinsky District, 180 kilometers from Novosibirsk. The Airbus A320's "green" hydraulic system, one of three on the plane, failed while approaching Omsk. The plane went around for a second approach, after which the captain decided to fly to Novosibirsk, whose airport had a longer runway. But due to the fact that the landing gear was down and a strong wind was blowing, the fuel ran out faster, which is why the plane landed in a field. No one was seriously injured, five of the 161 passengers sought medical help due to bruises and high blood pressure. A criminal case was opened for violating air transport safety rules.

On December 25, 2024, an Embraer passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines, flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, crashed at Aktau airport in Kazakhstan. Before the crash, the aircraft crew requested an emergency landing. There were 69 people on board the plane, including five crew members. The causes of the crash remain unknown, according to one version, the liner could have fallen due to a collision with birds.

On January 29, 2025, near Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport, a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ 700 regional passenger jet operated by American Airlines collided with a U.S. Army Sikorsky VH-60M Black Hawk helicopter while approaching for landing at an altitude of 90 meters. The airliner was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while the helicopter had three passengers. The passenger jet was en route from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington. The Black Hawk helicopter was on a training flight and belonged to a battalion responsible for transporting VIPs, typically senior Pentagon officials. There were no survivors in the crash. The aircraft was disintegrated into pieces, which are now located in the Potomac River at a depth of 1.5-2.5 meters.

On board the crashed plane were figure skaters Spencer Lane, Jeanna Khan, Franco Aparicio, Everly and Alydia Livingston, Sean Kay, Angela Young, and Edward Zhou, who were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. Also on board were skaters and former Russian coaches and 1994 World^[ru] Figure Skating Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, and USSR^[ru] Championship bronze medalist in pairs skating Inna Volyanskaya, who were coaching.