Some accidents are of such notoriety, or the circumstances surrounding them are so complex, that simple photos and brief captions will not do them justice. In this section, AirDisaster.Com presents in depth, detailed reports surrounding some of the world's most memorable airline accidents.

Below, you will find the Airline and Flight Number involved in each accident, as well as a short excerpt from the report. To read the report, simply click on the Airline or Flight Number.

"On November 23, 1996, an Ethiopian Airlines B-767 aircraft en route from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya, was hijacked by three Ethiopian males. The aircraft carried 163 passengers and 12 crew members from over 35 nations...."

"September 11, 2001 brought the costliest man-made tragedy in the history of civilization to the United States of America. On this Tuesday morning, nineteen anti-American terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners - two of United Airlines, and two of American Airlines - with the intention of crashing them into prominent United States buildings. They were devestatingly successful...."

"January 13, 1982 brought one of the worst blizzards in history to Washington, D.C. Businesses closed early, schools closed their doors, and even Congress recessed early. Washington's National Airport had been closed all morning, but re-opened by 12:00 pm. Sitting at gate B12 was Boeing 737-222B N62AF, Air Florida flight 90. In command of the aircraft were Capt. Larry Wheaton and First Officer Roger Pettit, both young pilots enjoying their new jobs at Air Florida. The flight was scheduled to depart at 2:15, but both men knew that time would come and go..."

Momentarily a clicking sound of a transit button came over their headsets and, as they watched the screen, the Air-India radar return suddenly vanished. The time was 07.14;01hrs GMT. Unknown to the controllers, Flight 182 had disintegrated in mid-air. The tail section aft of the wings broke off, and as the aircraft plummeted towards the ocean the wings and engines detached and fell in a shower of twisted metal into the sea. In a moment Kanishka was gone..."

"May 25, 1979 remains the darkest day in American aviation. On that Friday before the Memorial Day Weekend, 270 passengers and crew aboard American Airlines flight 191 lost their lives when their airplane literally fell out of the sky. It continues to be the most deadly crash in U.S. history. Here is the story of what happened on that blusterry Spring day in 1979..."

"Captain Stanley Key of British European Airways was a very sick man, but neither he nor his company doctors suspected it. The 51-year-old was described as the picture of health, and his latest six monthly medical, which included an electrocardiogram (EKG) heart scan, bore this out. Only an autopsy was to reveal that Key's coronary arteries were half choked with fatty and fibrous tissue and that Key was in no condition for his hobby of gardening, let alone sitting in the left hand seat of a jetliner with a compliment of 109 passengers. Any sudden excitement could lead to rupture and bleeding of the arterial wall leading, inevitably, to heart failure..."

"For the passengers who had a view out of the port windows aboard BOAC Flight 712 to Zurich, enroute to Sydney, Australia, it must have seemed that their worst nightmares had come true. One and a half minutes after takeoff on the clear and sunny afternoon of 8 April 1968, the no.2 engine of the Boeing 707 broke away from its mounting pylon and fell, tumbling in flames, over Hounslow, on the fringe of Heathrow Airport..."

The year 1985 was particularly costly in human terms for commercial air carriers,as six major accidents during those 12 months cost over 1300 people their lives. One of the most horiffic was the loss of a British Airtours Boeing 737-200 at Manchester International Airport.In the early morning hours of August 22, 1985, a full compliment of 130 passengers boarded the aircraft at Manchester, bound for the Greek island of Corfu..."

"Tasic's first verbal contact with JP550 came at 10:14:04. Captain Krumpak said "dobar dan, Zagreb," or "good morning." Then: "three two five crossing Zagreb." The DC-9 was directly over the beacon, 500ft below the Trident, still climbing, and the two aircraft were still closing at a combined airspeed of 920 knots - 1,100mph - faster than a high velocity rifle bullet..."

"August 2, 1985 is a day Dallas, Texas will never forget. Throughout the afternoon, the weather was typical Texas. Hot temperatures, low humidity, and sunny skies. At 4:03pm EDT, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1, lifted off from runway 9L at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. Aboard the aircraft today were 167 passengers and crew traveling to Los Angeles with a stop at Dallas/Ft. Worth. As the flight cruised over the vast farmlands of Louisiana, something strange began to happen at Dallas..."

"The morning of August 31, 1988 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex was a beautiful one. The temperature was hovering near 75°, with a light south-westerly wind and unlimited visibility. At gate 31 in terminal 3E at the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, Delta Air Lines Boeing 727-232 N473DA was being prepared for the morning flight to Salt Lake City..."

"December 29, 1972, holds a dark place in American aviation history. On this day, the first crash of a new "next generation" widebody aircraft took place on U.S. soil. The airline: Eastern. The location: Miami, Florida. The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, which had departed some two hours earlier from John F. Kennedy International in New York, contacted Miami approach control at approximately 11:15pm. In command of the aircraft was Captain Robert Loft, a 30,000 hour pilot who had flown the Tristar since its introduction. Also on the flight deck were First Officer Albert Stockstill and Flight Engineer Don Repo. At 11:29, the flight was instructed to join the ILS localizer to runway 9L. While turning onto final approach, Captain Loft called the tower and instructed Stockstill to lower the landing gear..."

"JAL123, which was the assigned flight number for this trip, taxiied away from the gate at 6.04pm with 509 passengers on board, ready for the flight to the industrial city of Osaka which was 400km away. In command of this flight was Captain Masami Takahama, 49 who was a training Captain, had been with the company 19 years, and had some 12,500 hours behind him. The flight took off at 6.12pm, and five minutes later while climbing on track to FL240 in visual conditions, asked Tokyo ATC for a more direct route to Osaka. Tokyo Approved this request. Six minutes later, while Tokyo ATC was tracking the flight, the emergency transponder code of 7700 appeared on their screen..." 

"Captain Kenneth L. McCullers was in 'good spirits' as he settled himself in to the left seat of Pan American's Boeing 727-235 (N4737), Flight PA759, and completed his pre-flight checks. Behind him in the cabin, his 137 passengers - 127 of whom were seasoned gamblers heading out of New Orleans on the regular weekend scheduled flight for Las Vegas - were perhaps not so sure. It was coming up to four o'clock in the afternoon of 9th July 1982, and the weather at New Orleans International Airport was later described as 'freaky'..."

"As the Boeing crew had already indicated that they had the Cessna in sight, the controllers took no further action, other than to notify the Cessna's crew once more of the jets presence behind them. There was no acknowledgement and just three quarters of a minute later, the two aircraft collided in mid-air. The results were horrific . The 727 was carrying more than six tons of fuel, much of it in the wing tanks. The explosion and subsequent fireball that followed the collision 'felt like 200 degrees' according to one of the witnessses on the ground. Another said she saw her 'apples and oranges bake on the trees...' "

"As the aircraft reached its cruising altitude of 29,000 feet, Burke calmly vacated his chair and made his way to the lavatory, dropping the air-sickness bag in his supervisor's lap as he passed. Moments later, he emerged with the handgun, and immediately shot Thompson. The sound of the gunshot is picked up on the cockpit voice recorder, and seconds later the sound of the cockpit door opening is heard. A female, presumed to be a Flight Attendant, advises the cockpit crew that "we have a problem." The Captain replies with "what kind of problem?" Burke then appears at the cockpit door and announces "I'm the problem," simultaneously firing two more shots that fatally injure both pilots..." 

"Saudia flight 163 departed Riyadh's international airport shortly before 10:00pm the night of August 19, 1980. 287 passengers and 14 crew members were aboard the L1011 bound for Jiddah. About seven minutes into the flight, while climbing through 15,000ft, the crew was alerted by aural and visual indicators that there was smoke in the aft cargo compartment. The crew then spent the next four minutes trying to confirm the warnings and finding the smoke alert procedure in the aircraft's manual. At this point, the Captain decided to return to the airport..."

"The tower replied in the negative and repeated that KLM should continue on to the end of the runway and then backtrack. Finally, at 1659, KLM 4805 replied, "O.K., sir." At 1702, the Pan Am aircraft called the tower to request confirmation that it should taxi down the runway. The tower controller confirmed this, also adding that they should leave the runway by the third taxiway to their left. At 1703:00, in reply to the tower controller's query to KLM 4805 as to how many runway exits they had passed, the latter confirmed that at that moment they were passing taxiway C-4. The tower controller told KLM 4805, "O.K., at the end of the runway make one eighty and report ready for ATC clearance..." 

"TC-JAV, a DC-10-10, owned by the Turkish carrier THY was scheduled to ferry passengers back from Orly , Paris to London, Heathrow on the day of 3 March, 1974. It was being used because of a strike by British Airways, so fans returning from an internantional rugby match in Paris decided to switch to the Turkish carrier. The aircraft was almost loaded to capacity upon departure, and more than half the passengers were British. The weather at the time was ideal with only scattered clouds at about 3000ft. Cleared for ascent to flight level 230, the wide-bodied jet airliner was observed on radar as it assumed a north-north-westerly direction. Shortly afterwards the primary echo was seen to split into two, with one part remaining stationary before disappearing from the radarscope. The second part turned left onto a heading of 280 degrees before it too vanished..." 

"The aircraft finally took off and began to climb to its cruising height as it flew east over Long Island. Weather conditions were near perfect. Passengers were just settling down for the long flight when, as the aircraft ascended through 13,700ft a huge explosion blew away a large part of the fuselage below the leading edge of the wings. The stricken 747 plunged 5000ft before a second explosion sealed its fate. The aircraft disintigrated, and less than 15 minutes after they had left New York all 230 people on board were dead..."

"United flight 232 was enroute from Denver to Chicago on the afternoon of July 19, 1989. On the flight deck that day was Captain Al Haynes, a 30,000 hour pilot, First Officer William Records, and Flight Engineer Dudley Dvorak. Along with eight flight attendents, there were 285 passengers on board the DC-10. Shortly after crossing into Iowa, the aircraft began a gentle right turn to take it direct to Chicago. With Records flying, there was a loud bang from the rear of the aircraft, causing the entire aircraft to shudder. Haynes saw that the number two (center) engine had failed and asked for the engine shutdown checklist to be started. As Dvorak began the checklist, he noticed that all three hydrualic systems were losing pressure and quantity..."

"Dozens of witnesses in the community directly under the extended centerline watched as the airplane levelled off momentarily on the runway heading, 3.5 miles from the threshold. Then, it rolled to the right, pitched down until reaching a nearly vertical attitude, and compacted itself into a 39-foot wide, 15-foot deep crater in an area known as Widefield Park. All on board were killed..."

"It was just after 6:00pm on the evening of February 2nd, 1991 and USAir flight 1493 was preparing to land at Los Angeles International. Six crew members and 83 passengers were aboard the 737 during its three hour flight from Columbus, Ohio. On the ground, Skywest's flight 5569 was preparing for takeoff. The Metroliner carrying 10 passengers and two crew was bound for Palmdale, one of the many rush hour commuter flights out of the LA area. USAir 1493 was cleared for the ILS 24L approach as Skywest 5569 was taxing away from the gate towards runway 24L. Due to traffic, Skywest 5569 was cleared to taxi to 24L and enter at the intersection of taxiway 45, some 2,200ft from the runway threshold. As the Skywest Metro awaited it takeoff clearance, USAir 1493 touched down near the threshold of runway 24L and shortly thereafter slammed into 5569..."

"Moments before touching down, the hijacker appears to have attempted to wrest control of the aircraft, causing it to thump down hard onto the aircraft, and swerve left into a "holding area". Still travelling at considerable speed, the starboard wing of the 737 sliced into the forward fuselage of a parked China Southwest Airlines 707. The pilot, who was on the flight deck performing routine preflight checks, was only slightly injured."