IN DEPTH: AVIATION
Disasters and tragedies
Alison Hancock and Owen Wood, CBC News Online | December 10, 2003
Apr. 4, 1933
The U.S. Navy airship Akron crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 73 people on board.
May 6, 1937
The Hindenberg, a German-built Zeppelin dirigible, was destroyed in a huge explosion while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-five of the 97 passengers and crew aboard were killed, as well as a crewmember on the ground. The Hindenburg, which was 245 metres long and held almost 190,000 cubic metres of gas, had crossed the Atlantic Ocean 10 times in 1936.
Amelia Earhart |
July 2, 1937
Amelia Earhart, famous for becoming the first women to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone, vanished over the Pacific Ocean along with co-pilot Fred Noonan during an around-the-world flight. A $4-million search was launched, but no answer was found.
February 1941
Sir Frederick Banting was killed when his Lockheed Hudson crashed at Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland. In 1923, Banting shared the Nobel Prize in medicine along with John James Richard Macleod for the discovery of insulin
Sept. 18, 1946
The worst airline accident in the world at the time occurred when a Sabena passenger plane crashed in a remote wooded area about 30 kilometres from the Newfoundland airport (now Gander). There were 27 casualties.
June 30, 1956
The first commercial air traffic accident occurred when Trans World Airlines Flight 2 and United Airlines Flight 718 collided over Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard the two planes.
Jan. 27, 1967
American astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White died in a capsule fire during the Apollo 1 launch tests.
Apr. 25, 1967
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died when his space capsule crashed into the Earth upon re-entry.
Sept. 5, 1967
A Czechoslovakian airliner crashed on take-off from Gander, Newfoundland, killing 37 people.
Mar. 27, 1968
Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man in space in 1961, was killed when the jet he was test piloting crashed.
June 29, 1971
Soviet cosmonauts Viktor Patsayev, Vladislav Volkov, and Georgy Dobrovolsky were found dead in their space capsule after re-entry.
Mar. 27, 1977
The worst airline collision in history occurred when two Boeing 747 jumbo jets crashed. Pan American World Airlines Flight 1736 collided with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 4805 at the Tenerife airfield, Canary Islands, Spain. A total of 583 people aboard the two aircraft were killed, but not everyone. Sixty-one people aboard the Pan American plane survived.
Wreckage from Air India Flight 182 |
June 23, 1985
The worst act of terrorism prior to Sept. 11, 2001 was the bombing of Air India Flight 182. The plane, which was on its way to London, UK from Montreal, Que., crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after a bomb onboard exploded. All 329 passengers and crew were killed.
Aug. 12, 1985
The deadliest single airplane accident in history occurred when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into a mountain on its way to Tokyo. Only four of the 524 people on board survived.
Dec. 12, 1985
A total of 256 U.S. servicemen were killed when the chartered plane bringing them home for Christmas from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai desert crashed shortly after takeoff from Gander. It was the worst air disaster on Canadian soil. The Silent Witness Memorial at the 1985 crash site commemorates the 101st Airbourne losses. It was erected by the residents of Gander.
Jan. 28, 1986
The space shuttle Challenger was destroyed in an explosion after lift-off, killing all seven crewmembers aboard. Killed were Gregory B. Jarvis, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Francis "Dick" Scobee and Michael J. Smith. The disaster was matched on Feb. 1, 2003 when seven more astronauts were killed in a shuttle explosion.
Dec. 12, 1988
Pan American World Airways Flight 103 crashed into the town of Lockerbie, Scotland after a bomb aboard the plane exploded, killing 270 people.
The site of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 16, 2001 |
Nov. 12, 1996
The worst mid-air collision occurred when Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 collided with Kazak Airlines Flight 1907 over India. The collision killed 349 people.
Sept. 11, 2001
Terrorists used commercial airliners to crash into the two main towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon building in Washington D.C. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, apparently failing to reach its target. For the first time in history, the United States closed its airspace. A total of about 2,800 were killed in the four planes and on the ground.
The crew of the shuttle Columbia |
Feb. 1, 2003
The space shuttle Columbia exploded, killing all seven crewmembers aboard. Killed were Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon.
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