Worst Single Plane Disaster
Aug. 12th 1985
A Boeing B-747-SR46 belonging to Japan Airlines suffered an aft pressure bulkhead failure at 24,000 ft. after takeoff.  The aircraft had severe control difficulties and eventually collided with a mountain.  The failure was found to be due to improper repair of a bulkhead after a tail strike in 1978.

Worst Mid-Air Collision
Nov. 12 1996
Shortly after takeoff, a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collided in midair with a Kazak Airlines Ilyushin 76 plane approaching the New Delhi airport. All 349 passengers and crew were killed, making this the world's worst midair collision.

Worst Terrorist Disaster
Aug. 12th 1985
An Air India Boeing B-747-237B aircraft broke up in flight and crashed into the Atlantic ocean near Ireland with 329 fatalities, 59 more than perished in the Lockerbie disaster in December 1988.  The accident was caused by the detonation of an explosive device in the forward cargo hold. A terrorist working in Vancouver, Canada, checked baggage with bombs onto two flights. One bag was transferred at Toronto onto flight 182. The other would have been transferred at Tokyo onto another Air India flight, but exploded at the airport killing two baggage handlers.

Worst Military Shooting Down
July 3rd 1988
Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300, was shot down over the Persian Gulf by the U.S. Navy vessel U.S.S. Vincennes with a surface-to-air missile. 290 people on the aircraft lost their lives.
The previous worst incident of this type was in September 1983 when the Russians shot down a Korean Airlines Boeing B-747 near Sakhalin Island after it penetrated Russian airspace. There were 269 fatalities in this earlier incident.

Worst Sightseeing Trip Air Crash
November 28 1979
The worst air disaster in Antarctica was the crash of Air New Zealand DC10 sightseeing Flight 901 into Mt Erebus on 28 November 1979 with the loss of all 257 lives. sightseeing flight to Antarctica.  An incorrect computer-stored flight plan resulted in a navigational error. The crew then descended below authorized altitude.

Most Fatalities On The Ground
January 8th 1996
An African Air Antonov AN32-B cargo aircraft failed to gain altitude after taking off from N'Dolo Airport, Kinshasa, and ran off the runway and crashed into a market square. The plane was possibly overloaded.  The aircraft certification was revoked and crew did not have authorization to fly. Two of the six crew on board were killed. The number killed on the ground varies widely in different sources, with up to 350 dead being quoted. A newspaper article covering the court trial of the pilots described them as being charged with the deaths of 225 people.

World's Worst Supersonic Airliner Crash
July 25 2000
An Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris. A total of 113 people - 100 passengers, nine crew and four on the ground - were killed in the crash which happened moments after the supersonic jet took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport. A sharp piece of metal assumed to have fallen off a departing aircraft punctured a tire, pieces of which then ruptured the fuel tank causing a catastrophic fire. This was not the first disaster involving a supersonic airliner at a Paris airport – see below.

Second Worst Supersonic Airliner Crash
June 3, 1973
The Russian TU-144, dubbed the Concordski, crashed at Le Bourget during a demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show. Pilot Mikhail Kozlov and his five crew died in the crash, and eight people died on the ground in the nearby village of Goussainville. The full report from a French-Soviet investigation was never disclosed. At the time, there were rumours of a botched espionage attempt by the French, mistakes by the crew, and mechanical failures.

Worst Air Show Disaster
Aug. 28th 1988
Three jets from the Italian Air Force acrobatic team collided in midair during an air show at Ramstein Air Force Base, West Germany and crashed, killing 70 persons, including the pilots and spectators on the ground

Worst Helicopter Crash
Feb 5th 1997
Two army helicopters crashed in northern Israel killing 73 people. The two CH-53 Sikorsky transport helicopters were shuttling elite troops to Lebanon when they collided in fog and rain and crashed in flames killing all 73 soldiers aboard.

Worst Civilian Helicopter Crash
Nov 7th 1986
Forty-five people died in the UK when a British International Helicopters Chinook crashed into the sea off Sumburgh in the Shetland Isles. The Chinook, which was ferrying personnel from an offshore oil production platform, disintegrated on impact. Two survivors were found, a passenger and one of the crew. The Chinook was withdrawn from service in the UK sector of the North Sea after the accident, although a few continued to fly in the Norwegian sector.

Worst Airship Disaster
4th April 1933
73 people killed when the US navy airship Akron crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of the USA in a in a storm. This was over twice the number killed in the better-remembered Hindenberg disaster of 1938.