Deadliest occurrences
Not a complete record. A partial collection of documented occurrences: counts, not rates, and no measure of aviation risk. Coverage
7,593 of 183,329 records match these filters, leaving out 1,380 unreviewed and minor records. Include them
The same occurrences rank differently depending on who is counted. These tables count, in turn, the people on board, everyone the occurrence killed, occurrences with more than one aircraft, and the injured.
Deadliest for the people on board
Fatalities are deaths among passengers and crew; the total adds anyone killed on the ground. Fatalities use each record's event total where one exists, otherwise the fatal injuries in the NTSB record.
| Occurrence | Date | Fatalities | Total fatalities | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenerife airport disaster | 27 Mar 1977 | 583 | 583 | Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain |
| Japan Air Lines Flight 123 | 12 Aug 1985 | 520 | 520 | Mount Takamagahara, Ueno, Tano District, Gunma, Japan |
| 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision | 12 Nov 1996 | 349 | 349 | Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India |
| Turkish Airlines Flight 981 | 3 Mar 1974 | 346 | 346 | Ermenonville Forest, Fontaine-Chaalis, Oise, France |
| Air India Flight 182 | 23 Jun 1985 | 329 | 329 | Atlantic Ocean, 190 km WSW of Waterville, Ireland |
| Saudia Flight 163 | 19 Aug 1980 | 301 | 301 | Riyadh International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 | 17 Jul 2014 | 298 | 298 | Near Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine |
| Iran Air Flight 655 | 3 Jul 1988 | 290 | 290 | Strait of Hormuz, near Qeshm Island, Iran |
| Korean Air Lines Flight 007 | 1 Sept 1983 | 269 | 269 | Sea of Japan, near Moneron Island, west of Sakhalin Island, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| China Airlines Flight 140 | 26 Apr 1994 | 264 | 264 | Nagoya Airport, Nagoya, Japan |
Deadliest in all, counting deaths on the ground
Everyone the occurrence killed, in the air and on the ground. Where the two tables differ, people on the ground made the difference.
| Occurrence | Date | Total fatalities | Location | Aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines Flight 11 | 11 Sept 2001 | 1,554 | North Tower (WTC 1) of the World Trade Center, New York City, U.S. | 1 |
| United Airlines Flight 175 | 11 Sept 2001 | 695 | South Tower (WTC 2) of the World Trade Center, New York City, U.S. | 1 |
| Tenerife airport disaster | 27 Mar 1977 | 583 | Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain | 2 |
| Japan Air Lines Flight 123 | 12 Aug 1985 | 520 | Mount Takamagahara, Ueno, Tano District, Gunma, Japan | 1 |
| 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision | 12 Nov 1996 | 349 | Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India | 2 |
| Turkish Airlines Flight 981 | 3 Mar 1974 | 346 | Ermenonville Forest, Fontaine-Chaalis, Oise, France | 1 |
| Air India Flight 182 | 23 Jun 1985 | 329 | Atlantic Ocean, 190 km WSW of Waterville, Ireland | 1 |
| Saudia Flight 163 | 19 Aug 1980 | 301 | Riyadh International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 | 17 Jul 2014 | 298 | Near Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine | 1 |
| Iran Air Flight 655 | 3 Jul 1988 | 290 | Strait of Hormuz, near Qeshm Island, Iran | 1 |
Deadliest with more than one aircraft
394 occurrences involved more than one aircraft, such as midair and ground collisions; 110 were fatal. These count everyone, as the table above does.
| Occurrence | Date | Total fatalities | Location | Aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenerife airport disaster | 27 Mar 1977 | 583 | Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain | 2 |
| 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision | 12 Nov 1996 | 349 | Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India | 2 |
| 1979 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision | 11 Aug 1979 | 178 | Near Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | 2 |
| 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision | 10 Sept 1976 | 176 | Samoborec, Croatia, Yugoslavia (now present-day Croatia) | 2 |
| All Nippon Airways Flight 58 | 30 Jul 1971 | 162 | Near Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan | 2 |
| Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 | 29 Sept 2006 | 154 | Amazon rainforest, Peixoto de Azevedo, Mato Grosso, Brazil | 2 |
| Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 | 25 Sept 1978 | 144 | North Park, near San Diego International Airport, San Diego, California, United States | 2 |
| 1993 Sukhumi airliner attacks | 20 Sept 1993 | 136 | Georgia, Black Sea | 3 |
| 1960 New York mid-air collision | 16 Dec 1960 | 134 | Miller Field, Near New York City, U.S. | 2 |
| 1990 Guangzhou Baiyun airport collisions | 2 Oct 1990 | 128 | Guangzhou Baiyun, International Airport, Guangzhou, China | 3 |
Most injured, whether or not anyone died
Injuries are the total the record shows: a Wikipedia record's infobox total, otherwise the serious and minor injuries in the NTSB record. People hurt on the ground are counted too, so a row can show hundreds injured although no one on board survived: all 106 injured at the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 were in the building.
| Occurrence | Date | Injured | Fatalities | Total fatalities | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 Air Africa Antonov An-32 crash | 8 Jan 1996 | about 504500 on the ground | 2 | Unknown | N'Dolo Airport, Kinshasa, Zaire |
| China Airlines Flight 642 | 22 Aug 1999 | 208 | 3 | 3 | Hong Kong International Airport |
| Transbrasil Flight 801 | 21 Mar 1989 | about 200all on the ground | 3 | 25 | Vila Barros, near São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Asiana Airlines Flight 214 | 6 Jul 2013 | 187 | 3 | 3 | San Francisco International Airport, Millbrae, California, United States |
| Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 | 5 Feb 2020 | 179 | 3 | 3 | Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Pendik, Istanbul, Turkey |
| United Airlines Flight 232 | 19 Jul 1989 | 171 | 112 | 112 | Sioux Gateway Airport, Sioux City, Iowa, U.S. |
| Garuda Indonesia Flight 865 | 13 Jun 1996 | 170 | 3 | 3 | Fukuoka Airport, Fukuoka, Japan |
| China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 | 6 Apr 1993 | 156 | 2 | 2 | Pacific Ocean, Near the Aleutian Islands |
| Pan Am Flight 73 | 5 Sept 1986 | 150 | Unknown | Unknown | Karachi Airport, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan |
| Japan Air Lines food poisoning incident | 3 Feb 1975 | 144 | 0 | 0 | Copenhagen Airport, Denmark |