Boeing 747 hull losses
A total of 49 Boeing 747 aircraft, first flown commercially in 1970, have been involved in accidents and incidents resulting in the complete destruction of the aircraft or it being declared to be damaged beyond economical repair.[1] Many of these losses have been due entirely to hostile actions, including terrorism. Of the 49 aircraft losses, 23 resulted in no loss of life, in one a hostage was murdered, and in another a terrorist died.[1] Some of the aircraft declared damaged beyond economical repair were older 747s that sustained relatively minor damage. Had they been newer it would have been viable to repair them.[2][3]
1970s
- Pan Am Flight 93, was the first hull loss of a Boeing 747, but it was due to the result of terrorism. On September 6, 1970 an almost-new Pan American World Airways aircraft flying from Amsterdam to New York was hijacked and flown first to Beirut, then to Cairo. Shortly after the occupants were evacuated from the aircraft after arriving at Cairo it was blown up.[4]
- Lufthansa Flight 540, was the first fatal crash of a 747 that took place on November 20, 1974, when it crashed moments after taking off from Nairobi, killing 59 people. The cause was operator error leading to a stall.
- Imperial Iranian Air Force, flight ULF48, a 747 freighter crashed near Madrid on May 9, 1976, due to the structural failure of its left wing in flight, killing the 17 people on board. The accident investigation determined that a lightning strike had caused an explosion in a fuel tank in the wing, leading to flutter and the separation of the wing.[6][7]
- Air India Flight 855 crashed into the sea off the coast of Mumbai (Bombay) on New Year's Day, 1978. All passengers and crew were killed. Many residents of seafront houses in Mumbai witnessed the disaster. The cause was lack of situation awareness on the captain's part after executing a banked turn.
1980s
- Air India Flight 182, a 747-200B, en route from Montreal to New Delhi, was blown up in midair off the Southwest coast of Ireland by a bomb on June 23, 1985. All 329 on board were killed. Until the September 11 attacks of 2001 the Air India bombing was the single deadliest terrorist attack involving aircraft. It remains "worst mass murder in Canadian history."
- Japan Airlines Flight 123, an inadequate repair resulted in the loss of the 747SR (SR for Short Range) flying from Tokyo to Osaka on August 12, 1985. Most of the aircraft's vertical stabilizer was blown apart while the aircraft was at cruising altitude, after the rear pressure bulkhead failed. The pilots kept it in the air for 32 minutes but it eventually crashed, causing 520 fatalities. It is the worst single-aircraft accident in aviation history.[9]
- South African Airways Flight 295, a 747-200BSCD "Combi" en route from Taipei to Johannesburg on November 28, 1987, crashed into the ocean off Mauritius after a fire in the rear cargo hold during the flight resulted in loss of control. All 159 people on board were killed. The board of enquiry alerted the aviation community to the lack of fire detection and fire-fighting facilities used on the "Combi" 747 B-Class cargo bay which were according to the official report "...woefully inadequate..." (Source: Official Report of the Board of Enquiry in to the Loss of ZS-SAS ISBN 0-620-13030-3). Boeing and the FAA had relied on regulations that had changed little since propeller driven airliners made use of B-class cargo bays to accommodate the larger volume and varied contents of a "Combi" cargo bay. Boeing contested the findings, but the board held by its view.
- Pan Am Flight 103, a 747-100, disintegrated in mid-air on December 21, 1988 due to a terrorist bomb in the luggage hold; the wings, with their tanks full of fuel, landed on Lockerbie, Scotland. The 259 people on board and 11 people in Lockerbie were killed. A Libyan national was eventually convicted of destroying the aircraft.
1990s
- El Al Flight 1862 was a cargo 747-200F that crashed shortly after departure from Amsterdam Schiphol on October 4, 1992. Engines 3 and 4 detached after takeoff as a result of metal fatigue prior to overload failure arising out of inadequate design; as a result the flight crew lost control and the crippled 747 crashed into the Klein-Kruitberg apartments in Bijlmermeer at high speed. The sole passenger and all three crew were killed as well as 39 on the ground.
- China Airlines Flight 605 was a brand new 747-400 that touched down too far down the runway while landing at the old Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong on November 4, 1993. The aircraft overshot the runway and came to a stop in the harbor. All occupants were evacuated safely. The vertical fin of the aircraft was later removed with explosives to avoid interference with airport operations.
- TWA Flight 800, a 747-100 bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, exploded during its climb from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people. A spark from a wire in the center fuel tank was the culprit, although several alternative theories have persisted. Changes in fuel tank management were adopted after the crash.
- Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763, a 747-100B, collided in midair over India with Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907, an Ilyushin Il-76 on November 12, 1996, killing all 349 occupants of both aircraft, more fatalities than any other mid-air collision in history.
- Air France Cargo, a 747-200F was fully gutted after it caught fire on crash-landing at Chennai airport on March 5, 1999. However, there was no loss of life due to the mishap.
2000s
- Singapore Airlines Flight 006, a 747-400 flying from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, crashed into construction equipment on October 31, 2000 while attempting to take off from a closed runway at Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport). It caught fire and was destroyed, killing 79 passengers and three crew members.[11]
- MK Airlines, a 747-200F, crashed about 700m short of the runway near Port Harcourt Airport, Nigeria on November 27, 2001. Of the 13 on board, 1 died.[12]
- MK Airlines Flight 1602, a 747-200F, crashed while attempting to take off from Halifax Stanfield International Airport on October 14, 2004. The aircraft's take-off weight had been incorrectly calculated, and the plane was only briefly airborne before impacting an earthen berm at the end of the runway. The seven-member crew was killed.[13]
- Kalitta Air, a 747-200F crashed into a farm field near the small village of Madrid, Colombia shortly after takeoff from El Dorado International Airport on July 7, 2008. The crew had reported an engine fire and were attempting to return to the airport. One of the aircraft's engines hit a farmhouse, killing three people inside.[15]
2010s
References