Gulf Air Flight 771 was a flight from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On 23 September 1983, while the Boeing 737-2P6 was on approach to Abu Dhabi International Airport, a bomb planted by Palestinian nationalist militant group, Abu Nidal Organization, exploded in the baggage compartment. The plane crashed in the desert near Jebel Ali between Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE. All five crew members and 107 passengers died. To date, it is the deadliest air disaster in the history of the United Arab Emirates along with Sterling Airways Flight 296 which also killed 112 in 1972.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1974. 1974 had been deemed as "the single worst year in airline history" although this has since been surpassed.
In December 1973, Fatah, a Palestinian military organization executed series of attacks originating at Rome-Fiumicino Airport in Italy which resulted in the deaths of 34 people. The attacks began with an airport-terminal invasion and hostage-taking, followed by the firebombing of a Pan Am aircraft and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight.
Trans World Airlines Flight 514, was a Boeing 727-231 en route from Indianapolis, Indiana and Columbus, Ohio to Washington Dulles International that crashed into Mount Weather, Virginia, on December 1, 1974. All 92 occupants aboard, 85 passengers and 7 crew members, were killed. In stormy conditions late in the morning, the aircraft was in controlled flight and impacted a low mountain 25 nautical miles northwest of its revised destination. The accident was one of two crashes involving Boeing 727 aircraft in the United States that day, the other being the crash of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231 later that evening near Haverstraw, New York.
United Airlines Flight 389 was a scheduled flight from LaGuardia Airport, New York City, New York, to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. On August 16, 1965, at approximately 21:21 EST, the Boeing 727 crashed into Lake Michigan 20 miles east of Fort Sheridan, near Lake Forest, while descending from 35,000 feet (11,000 m) mean sea level (MSL). There was no indication of any unusual problem prior to impact. All 30 persons aboard, including six crew members and 24 passengers, were killed.
Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940, operated by Mexicana de Aviación, was a scheduled international flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles with stopovers in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán on March 31, 1986, utilizing a Boeing 727-200 registered as XA-MEM, when the plane crashed into El Carbón, a mountain in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range northwest of Mexico City, killing everyone on board. With 167 deaths, the crash of Flight 940 is the deadliest aviation disaster ever on Mexican soil, and the deadliest involving a Boeing 727.
Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 159 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from New York City to Los Angeles, California, with a stopover in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Kentucky, that crashed after an aborted takeoff from Cincinnati on November 6, 1967. The Boeing 707 attempted to abort takeoff when the copilot became concerned that the aircraft had collided with a disabled DC-9 on the runway. The aircraft overran the runway, struck an embankment and caught fire. One passenger died as a result of the accident.
Trans World Airlines Flight 840 was a regularly scheduled international flight from Los Angeles to Cairo via New York City, Rome, and Athens on April 2, 1986. About 20 minutes before landing in Athens, a bomb was detonated on the aircraft while it was over Argos, Greece, blasting a hole in the plane's starboard side. Four passengers died after being blown out, while another seven were injured by flying shrapnel and debris. The dead were identified as Alberto Ospino, a Colombian-born American from Stratford, Conn.; Demetra Stylian, 52; her daughter, Maria Klug, 25, and her granddaughter, Demetra, 18 months old, all from Annapolis, Md. The aircraft then made a successful emergency landing with no further loss of life.
On 8 February 1989, Independent Air Flight 1851, a Boeing 707 on an American charter flight from Bergamo, Italy, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, struck Pico Alto while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores for a scheduled stopover. The aircraft was destroyed, with the loss of all 144 people on board, resulting in the deadliest plane crash in Portugal's history. All of the passengers on board were Italian and all of the crew were Americans. The crash is also known as "The disaster of the Azores".
Pan Am Flight 217 was a Boeing 707 that crashed near Caracas, Venezuela while on a flight from New York City, USA on December 12, 1968. Though pilot error was to blame, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the probable cause was undetermined. There were no survivors.
Pan Am Flight 799 was an international cargo flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Cam Ranh Airport in South Vietnam that crashed on December 26, 1968, near Anchorage, Alaska. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 707-321C aircraft operated by Pan American World Airways. All three crew members died in the crash.
TWA Flight 742 was a multi-leg Trans World Airlines flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. On August 28, 1973, near the end of its penultimate leg from Honolulu to Los Angeles, during the descent over the Pacific Ocean, the Boeing 707 entered severe porpoising oscillations, resulting in injuries to two crew members and three passengers; one critically injured passenger died two days later.
Marjorie Kitchel Korringa was an igneous petrologist, volcanologist, and structural geologist. She is chiefly known for her research on active fault systems as a critical part of decision-making for the location of oil pipelines and nuclear reactors.
Pan Am Flight 160 was a scheduled cargo flight which crashed on November 3, 1973. The Boeing 707 of Pan Am crashed after smoke in the cockpit prevented the crew from keeping control of the aircraft, killing all three occupants on board.
