Air India Flight Crash: A Timeline Of Aviation Tragedies Over 4 Decades

Hyderabad: London-bound Air India flight AI-171, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, crashed at Ahmedabad airport shortly after takeoff. Thick smoke could be seen at the accident spot. Police, fire tenders and emergency teams have reached the premises. The cause of the crash is still unknown.

Here are some major plane crashes that occurred in India since 1980:

• August 2020 (Kerala): Air India Express Dubai-Kozhikode flight overshot the runway on landing at Calicut International Airport, 18 killed and 172 survived.
• May 2010 (Karnataka): Air India Express Dubai-Mangalore flight overshot runway on landing at Mangalore International Airport, killing 158 passengers.
• July 2000 (Bihar): Alliance Air Flight 7412 crashes in a residential estate of Patna. A total of 55 passengers aboard and 5 on the ground were killed.
• March 1999 (Delhi): On a day when Indian Air Force was flexing its muscles at "Vayushakti-99" display in Pokhran deserts, 21 people including 18 men from the force were killed in Delhi in a crash involving Antonov-32 transport jet they were travelling in. It crash-landed near Indira Gandhi International Airport. This was the first time so many defence personnel were killed in a single crash.
• November 1996 (Haryana): Mid-air collision between Saudi Arabian Airlines and Kazakhstan Airlines flights at Charkhi Dadri left all 349 passengers on board both planes dead.
• April 1993 (Maharashtra): Indian Airlines flight crashed into a truck on runway while taking off from Aurangabad. Fifty five people were killed and 66 others injured.
• August 1991 (Manipur): Indian Airlines flight crashed on descent into Imphal, killing 69 people.
• February 1990 (Karnataka): Indian Airlines flight crashed on its final approach to Bangalore airport leaving 92 dead.
• October 1988 (Gujarat): Indian Airlines flight crashed on its final approach to Ahmedabad airport, killing 130 people.
• June 1985 (Over Atlantic Ocean): An Air India Express Flight 182, 'Kanishka', exploded in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean. The flight left Toronto for New Delhi when a bomb exploded. The bomb had been secretly placed in Air India flight 182 by Khalistani terrorists. The bomb exploded while the flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all the 329 passengers on board.
• June 1982( Maharashtra): Air India flight crashed in Bombay due to heavy weather leaving 17 passengers dead.

Devastating flight crashes across the world over last four decades:

• January 2025 (USA): A passenger plane carrying 64 people collided mid-air with a military helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC on January 29. The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 jet collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
• August 2024 (Brazil): A passenger plane crashed into a gated residential community in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state on August 9 last year, killing all 61 passengers aboard. The airline VOEPASS said that its plane, an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop, was headed for Sao Paulo’s international airport Guarulhos with 57 passengers and 4 crew members, when it crashed in Vinhedo.
• July 2024 (Nepal): At least 18 people died after an aircraft belonging to a private airline company with 19 people on board crashed during takeoff at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu July 24 th morning. The plane belonging to Saurya Airlines was carrying 19 people, including the technical staff, and was bound for Nepal's Pokhara when the incident happened.
• January 2024 (Japan): A Japan Airlines plane burst into flames after a collision with a smaller coastguard aircraft on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport. All 379 passengers and crew on board were evacuated, but five of the six crew on the coastguard plane died, police said. The captain was injured.
• January 2023 (Nepal): A plane making a 27-minute flight to a Nepal tourist town crashed into a gorge on January 15 while attempting to land at a newly opened airport, killing at least 68 of the 72 people aboard.
• March 2022 (China): Chinese aircraft with 133 people on board crashed, igniting forest fire. According to reports, a Boeing 737 flown by China Eastern Airlines crashed in Guangxi.
• May 2020 (Pakistan): Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashed in Karachi after an attempted go-around, killing 97.
• January 2020 (Iran): US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US believes it is "likely" Iran shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed that week in Iran, killing all 176 on board.
• March 2019 (Ethiopia): An Ethiopian Airlines new Boeing 737-8 MAX crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa killing all 157 people on board.
• October 2018 (Indonesia): In Indonesia, a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea likely killing all 189 people on board. The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea , just 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta for an island off Sumatra. The privately owned carrier was founded in 1999 to provide access to air travel to everyone.
• May 2018 (Cuba): In Cuba, a state airways plane crashed shortly after taking off from Jose Marti airport killing all but three of its 110 passengers and crew.
• April 2018 (Algeria): A military plane crashed in a field near Boufarik airport southwest of Algeria, killing 257 people. Survivors were treated at an Army hospital following the crash of the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane.
• June 2017 (Myanmar): A Myanmar military transport plane with 122 people on board went down on a flight from southern Myanmar to Yangon.
• March 2014 (Malaysia): A Malaysia Airlines Flight, carrying 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, dropped off the radar screens on March 8, 2014.
• June 2009 (Over Atlantic Ocean): Around three hours into its journey from Rio to Paris on June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200, headed into an area of severe thunderstorm activity—it was never heard from again. From an envelope-pushing altitude of 38,000 feet, the aircraft entered an aerodynamic stall before plunging into the depths of the southern Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people aboard.
• September 1998 (Canada): The pilots of Swissair's Flight 111 from New York to Geneva—a McDonnell Douglas MD-11—smelled smoke in the cockpit. Four minutes later, they began an immediate descent toward Halifax, Nova Scotia, about 65 miles away. But with the fire spreading and cockpit lights and instruments failing, the plane crashed into the Atlantic about 5 miles off the Nova Scotia coast. All 229 people aboard were killed.
• November 1996 (India): This is the world’s deadliest mid-air crash that involved Saudia Flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 over the city of Charkhi Dadri in northern India. The Saudia-operated Boeing 747 was bound for Dhahran from Delhi while the Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin II-76 was bound for Indira airport from Shymkent when they collided, killing 312 people on board the former and 37 on the latter. The crash occurred after the Ilyushin aircraft was cleared to descend to 15,000 feet, but then descended past that level to 14,500 feet while the Saudi-operated plane was ascending in the opposite direction. The fatalities were 349.
• May 1996 (USA): The fire in the DC-9 was caused by chemical oxygen generators that had been illegally packaged by SabreTech, the airline's maintenance contractor. A bump apparently set one off, and the resulting heat started a fire, which was fed by the oxygen being given off. The pilots were unable to land the burning plane in time, and 110 people died. The FAA responded by mandating smoke detectors and automatic fire extinguishers in the cargo holds of all commercial airliners. It also bolstered rules against carrying hazardous cargo on aircraft.
• July 1988 (Iran): Airbus A300, a civilian airline, was shot down by surface-to-air missiles fired from US military cruiser USS Vincennes, killing all on board. The flight was in Iranian airspace, over Iranian territorial waters and on its usual flight path, yet, according to the US government, Vincennes mistook it for an F-14A Tomcat fighter plane. Crew on the American ship made 10 attempts to contact the Iran Air aircraft on military and civilian radio frequencies, with no response, before firing. The fatalities were 290.
• August 1985 (Japan): JAL flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka crashed, killing 520 out of the 524 onboard, after a faulty repair of the tail by Boeing technicians – not the airline’s – following an earlier incident. To this day, it is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history.
• August 1985 (USA): As Delta Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011, approached for landing at Dallas/Fort Worth airport on August 2, 1985, a thunderstorm lurked near the runway. Lightning flashed around the plane at 800 feet, and the jetliner encountered a microburst wind shear—a strong downdraft and abrupt shift in the wind that caused the plane to lose 54 knots of airspeed in a few seconds. The plane then veered left and crashed into two huge airport water tanks. On board, 134 of 163 people were killed.
• June 1985 (Ireland Coast): Deemed the deadliest terror attack involving a plane at the time, the Air India Boeing 747 crashed off the coast of Ireland en route from Toronto to Sahar International in India, after a bomb placed in the cargo hold by Sikh extremists Babbar Khalsa exploded over the Atlantic. The fatalities were 329.
• August 1980 (Riyadh): This was not a case of a crash or a mid-air collision. But sadly, all 301 passengers on board the Lockheed L-1011 died on the runway at Riyadh due smoke inhalation.