The disasters below include accidents, a bombing and military shootdowns; they are not all crashes in the same sense. They are arranged from fewer to more deaths so the final entry is the deadliest, counting victims on the ground where applicable.
Fatality figures can vary slightly between historical accounts, particularly when ground victims are included. The descriptions distinguish what happened from what investigators or authorities concluded, and treat those affected with respect.
10Korean Air Lines Flight 007
On 1 September 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet interceptor after straying into Soviet airspace during a flight from New York to Seoul. The Boeing 747 crashed into the sea near Sakhalin Island.
All 269 people aboard died. The incident became a major international crisis during the Cold War and prompted changes to civil aviation procedures, including wider use of satellite navigation.
