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.
4Turkish Airlines Flight 981
On 3 March 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed in the Ermenonville Forest shortly after departing Paris for London. A cargo-door failure caused a rapid loss of cabin pressure and damaged essential flight-control systems on the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.
All 346 people aboard died. The disaster exposed serious weaknesses in the aircraft’s cargo-door design and locking system, prompting design changes and closer scrutiny of wide-body aircraft safety.
