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List of airliner shootdown incidents

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In the history of commercial aviation, there have been many airliner shootdown incidents which have been caused intentionally or by accident. This is a chronologically ordered list meant to document instances where airliners have been brought down by gunfire or missile attacks, including wartime incidents, rather than terrorist bombings or sabotage.

1940s

Kaleva OH-ALL

Main article: Kaleva (airplane)

Junkers Ju 52-3/mge "Kaleva" OH-ALL was a civilian transport and passenger plane operated by the Finnish carrier Aero O/Y, shot down by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers on June 14, 1940, while en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Helsinki, Finland.[1] This occurred during the Interim Peace between Finland and the Soviet Union, three months after the end of the Winter War, and a year before the Continuation War began. A few minutes after taking off in Tallinn, Kaleva was intercepted by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3T torpedo bombers. The bombers opened fire with their machine guns and badly damaged Kaleva, causing it to ditch in water a few kilometers northeast of Keri lighthouse. All 7 passengers and 2 crew members on board died.[2]

KNILM PK-AFV

Main article: 1942 KNILM Douglas DC-3 shootdown

PK-AFV, also known as Pelikaan, was a Douglas DC-3 (Dakota) airliner operated by KNILM from 1937 to 1942. On March 3, 1942, while on a flight from Bandung, Netherlands East Indies, to Broome, Australia, the plane was attacked by three Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter planes; PK-AFV crash-landed on a beach near Broome. Four passengers died. Among its cargo were diamonds worth at the time an estimated £150,000–300,000 (in 2023 an approximate £9–19 million), and the vast majority of these were lost or stolen following the crash.[3][4]

BOAC Flight 777

Main article: BOAC Flight 777

BOAC Flight 777, a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation civilian airline flight on 1 June 1943 from Portela Airport in Lisbon, Portugal, to Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport near Bristol, England, was attacked by eight German Junkers Ju 88s and crashed into the Bay of Biscay, resulting in the deaths of several notable passengers, including English actor Leslie Howard.[5]

1950s

Cathay Pacific VR-HEU

Main article: 1954 Cathay Pacific Douglas DC-4 shootdown

VR-HEU, a four-engined propeller-driven Douglas DC-4 airliner operated by Cathay Pacific Airways,[6] en route from Bangkok to Hong Kong on July 23, 1954, was shot down by People's Liberation Army Air Force Lavochkin La-7 fighters off the coast of Hainan Island; ten on board died.[7][8][9]

El Al Flight 402

Main article: El Al Flight 402

El Al Flight 402, a Lockheed L-149 Constellation pressurized four-engine propliner, registered 4X-AKC, was an international passenger flight from Vienna, Austria, to Tel Aviv, Israel, via Istanbul, Turkey, on July 27, 1955. The aircraft strayed into Bulgarian airspace, refused to land, and was shot down by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters several kilometers away from the Greece border near Petrich, Bulgaria. All seven crew and fifty-one passengers on board the airliner died.[10][11]

1960s

Air France Flight 1611

Main article: Air France Flight 1611

Air France Flight 1611 (AF1611), a Sud Aviation Caravelle III jetliner, was on a flight from the island of Corsica to Nice, France when it crashed in the Mediterranean Sea off Nice on September 11, 1968, killing all 95 passengers and crew on board. The cause of the crash was originally a fire in the rear of the cabin, but in 2011 it was alleged that a missile, misfired by the French army during a weapon test, shot down the aircraft.[12]

1970s

Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114

Main article: Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114

Libyan Airlines Flight 114 was a regularly scheduled flight from Tripoli, Libya, via Benghazi to Cairo. At 10:30 on February 21, 1973, the Boeing 727 left Tripoli, but became lost with a combination of bad weather and equipment failure over northern Egypt around 13:44 (local). It entered Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai Peninsula, was intercepted by two Israeli F-4 Phantom II fighters, refused to land, and was shot down. Of the 113 people on board, 5 survived, including the co-pilot.[13][14]

Korean Air Lines Flight 902

Main article: Korean Air Lines Flight 902

Korean Air Lines Flight 902 (KAL902, KE902) was a civilian airliner shot down by Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 fighters on April 20, 1978, near Murmansk, Russia, after it violated Soviet airspace and failed to respond to Soviet interceptors. Two passengers died in the incident. 107 passengers and crew survived after the plane made an emergency landing on a frozen lake.[15]

Air Rhodesia Flight 825

Main article: Air Rhodesia Flight 825

Air Rhodesia Flight 825, was a scheduled flight between Kariba and Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), that was shot down on September 3, 1978, by Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas using a Strela 2 missile. Eighteen of the fifty-six passengers survived the crash, but ten of the survivors were killed by the guerrillas at the crash site.

Air Rhodesia Flight 827

Main article: Air Rhodesia Flight 827

Air Rhodesia Flight 827 was a scheduled flight between Kariba and Salisbury that was shot down on February 12, 1979, by ZIPRA guerrillas using a Strela 2 missile in similar circumstances to Flight RH825 five months earlier. None of the fifty-nine passengers or crew survived.[16]

1980s

Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870

Main article: Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870

Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 crashed in the Tyrrhenian Sea on June 27, 1980. Around forty minutes after take off from Bologna, Italy, an unknown object was seen approaching the aircraft and soon after, the plane disappeared from radar screens. All eighty-one people on board died and parts of the wreckage were floating on the water. The cause of the crash is unknown, but one of the leading theories is that it was shot down by NATO forces or jet fighters. This is supported by the then Italian Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga, who attributed the downing to French interceptors, later covered as a part of the Gladio clandestine operation by NATO.[17] On 23 January 2013 Italy’s top criminal court ruled that there was "abundantly" clear evidence that the flight was brought down by a missile.[18]

Korean Air Lines Flight 007

Main article: Korean Air Lines Flight 007

Korean Air Lines Flight 007, also known as KAL 007 or KE007, was a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 civilian airliner shot down by a Soviet Su-15TM fighter on September 1, 1983, near Moneron Island just west of Sakhalin island. 269 passengers and crew, including US congressman Larry McDonald, were aboard KAL 007; there were no survivors. An official investigation concluded that the course deviation was likely caused by pilot error in configuring their air navigation system.[19]

Polar 3

Main article: Polar 3

On February 24, 1985, the Polar 3, a research airplane of the Alfred Wegener Institute, was shot down by guerrillas of the Polisario Front over West Sahara. All three crew members died. Polar 3 was on its way back from Antarctica and had taken off in Dakar, Senegal, to reach Arrecife, Canary Islands.[20]

Air Malawi 7Q-YMB

On November 6, 1987, an Air Malawi Shorts Skyvan 7Q-YMB was shot down while on a domestic flight from Blantyre, Malawi to Lilongwe. The flight plan took it over Mozambique where the Mozambican Civil War was in progress. The aircraft was shot down near the Mozambican town of Ulongwe. The eight passengers and two crew on board died.[21]

Iran Air Flight 655

Main article: Iran Air Flight 655
A missile departs the forward launcher of Vincennes during a 1987 exercise. The forward launcher was also used in the downing of Iran Air 655.

Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE. On July 3, 1988, towards the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes when it fired a RIM-66 Standard surface-to-air missile. The airplane was destroyed between Bandar Abbas and Dubai; all 290 passengers and crew died. USS Vincennes was in Iranian waters at the time of the attack, and IR655, an Airbus A300, was allegedly misidentified as an Iranian F-14.[22]

T&G Aviation DC-7

On December 8, 1988 a Douglas DC-7 chartered by the US Agency for International Development was shot down over Western Sahara by the Polisario Front, resulting in 5 deaths. Leaders of the movement said the plane was mistaken for a Moroccan Lockheed C-130. The aircraft was to be used to spray insecticide to control a locust outbreak.[23]

1990s

1993 Transair Georgian Airline shootdowns

Main article: Transair Georgia airliner shootdowns

In September 1993, three airliners belonging to Transair Georgia were shot down by missiles and gunfire in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia.[24][25][26]

Iranian Air Force C-130 shootdown

Main article: 1994 Iranian Air Force C-130 shootdown

On March 17, 1994, an Iranian Air Force C-130E military transport aircraft, carrying Iranian embassy personnel from Moscow to Tehran, was shot down by Armenian military forces near the city of Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area which had been under armed conflict since 1988.[27][28] The 32 people (19 passengers and 13 crew) on board were killed in the crash.

Rwandan presidential airliner

Main article: Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira

The airplane carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, Rwanda, on 6 April 1994, killing both presidents. This double assassination was the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide and the First Congo War. Responsibility for the attack is disputed, with most theories proposing as suspects either the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) or government-aligned Hutu Power extremists opposed to negotiation with the RPF.

Lionair Flight 602

Main article: Lionair Flight 602

Lionair Flight 602, operated by an Antonov An-24RV, crashed into the sea off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka on September 29, 1998. The aircraft departed Jaffna-Palaly Air Force Base on a flight to Colombo and disappeared from radar screens just after the pilot had reported depressurization. Initial reports indicated that the plane had been shot down by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. All seven crew and forty-eight passengers died.[29]

2000s

2001 Siberia Airlines Flight 1812

Main article: Siberia Airlines Flight 1812

On 4 October 2001, Tu-154 crashed over the Black Sea. The plane may have been hit by S-200 surface to air missile, fired from the Crimea peninsula during a Ukrainian military exercise. All on board (66 passengers and 12 crew) died. Then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and several high commanders of the military later expressed their condolences to the relatives of the victims.[30]

2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident

Main article: 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident

On November 22, 2003, shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq, an Airbus A300 cargo plane owned by European Air Transport (a subsidiary of the German express-mail service DHL) was struck on the left wing tip by a surface-to-air missile. Severe wing damage resulted in a fire and complete loss of hydraulic flight control systems.[31] The pilots used differential engine thrust to fly the plane back to Baghdad, and were able to land without any injuries or major aircraft damage.[32]

2007 Balad aircraft crash

Main article: 2007 Balad aircraft crash

On January 9, 2007, an Antonov An-26 crashed while attempting a landing at Balad Air Base in Iraq.[33] Although poor weather is blamed by officials, witnesses claim they saw the plane being shot down,[34] and the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility. Thirty-four of the thirty-five civilian passengers on board died.[34]

2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash

Main article: 2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash

On March 23, 2007, a TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 airplane crashed in outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, during the 2007 Battle of Mogadishu. Witnesses, including a Shabelle reporter, claim they saw the plane shot down, and Belarus has initiated an anti-terrorist investigation, but Somalia insists the crash was accidental.[35] All eleven Belarussian civilians on board died.[36]

2010s

2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

Main article: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, flying to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, crashed near Donetsk in the eastern part of Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew are reported dead when the plane crashed from roughly 33,000ft (10,000 m). The crash of Flight 17 coincided with claims by Russian separatists from Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine of having shot down a military An-26.[37] At the time, this was the deadliest airliner shootdown in history.[38]

Near misses

2002 Mombasa attacks

Main article: 2002 Mombasa attacks

On November 28, 2002, two shoulder-launched Strela 2 (SA-7) surface-to-air missiles were fired at a Boeing 757 airliner owned by Israel-based Arkia Airlines as it took off from Moi International Airport in Mombasa. The missiles missed the plane, which landed safely in Tel Aviv.[39][40][41]

See also

References

  1. ^ Virtualpilots - Tapauskaleva. Retrieved January 1, 2007.
  2. ^ *Petrov, Pavel (2008). Punalipuline Balti Laevastik ja Eesti 1939-1941 (in Estonian and translated from Russian). Tänapäev. ISBN 978-9985-62-631-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  3. ^ Wills, Juliet; Van Velzen, Marianne (2006), The Diamond Dakota mystery, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-1-74114-745-2
  4. ^ Tyler, William H (1987), Flight of Diamonds : the story of Broome's war and the Carnot Bay diamonds, Hesperian Press, ISBN 978-0-85905-105-7
  5. ^ Rosevink, Ben and Lt Col Herbert Hintze. "Flight 777." FlyPast, Issue No. 120, July 1991.
  6. ^ ASN Aircraft accident Douglas C-54A-10-DC VR-HEU Hainan Island - Aviation Safety Network
  7. ^ Accident details - VR-HEU - Plane Crash Info
  8. ^ VR-HEU Account by passenger: Valerie Parish - Major Commercial Airline Disasters
  9. ^ VR-HEU - The Life & Times of James Harper
  10. ^ "ASN record".
  11. ^ Staff writer (August 8, 1955). "Through the Curtain". Time. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  12. ^ "TV documentary reveals that military missile did kill 95 people". The Riveria Times. 12 May 2011.
  13. ^ http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/b727.htm List of 727 incidents.
  14. ^ Aerial intrusions by Civil and Military Aircraft in a Time of Peace. Phelps, John Maj. Military Law Review. Vol 107 Winter 1985 Page 288
  15. ^ [1]
  16. ^ "Description of Air Rhodesia Flight RH827". Aviation-Safety.net. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  17. ^ "Strage di Ustica, nuove indagini Sentito Cossiga: un missile francese". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. 2009-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  18. ^ "Italian court: Missile caused 1980 Mediterranean plane crash; Italy must pay compensation". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 23 January 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) [dead link]
  19. ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 2014-07-18.
  20. ^ Aviation safety network - Report on Polar 3. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
  21. ^ "ASN Aircraft accident Shorts SC.7 Skyvan 3-100 7Q-YMB Ulongue". Aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  22. ^ Military Blunders – Iran Air Shot Down – 3 July 1988 History.com
  23. ^ Accident description for N284 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 29 November 2013.
  24. ^ Criminal Occurrence description for September 21 shootdown at the Aviation Safety Network
  25. ^ Criminal Occurrence description for September 22 shootdown at the Aviation Safety Network
  26. ^ Criminal Occurrence description for September 23 fire at the Aviation Safety Network
  27. ^ The Independent, 29 March 1994. Armenians 'shot down' plane.
  28. ^ Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, Christopher Panico, Jemera Rone. Azerbaijan: Seven years of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Human Rights Watch, 1994. ISBN 1-56432-142-8, ISBN 978-1-56432-142-8, p. 108
  29. ^ Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved November 23, 2006.
  30. ^ Wines, Michael (October 14, 2001). "After 9 Days, Ukraine Says Its Missile Hit A Russian Jet". The New York Times.
  31. ^ Great escape
  32. ^ "Air Crash Investigators"
  33. ^ 32 Killed in Cargo Plane Crash in Iraq – cbsnews.com – Obtained 28 January 2007.
  34. ^ a b "Moldovan plane that crashed in Iraq was downed – eyewitness". Russian News and Information Agency Novosti. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
  35. ^ 'Somali plane was shot down' - News24.com - Obtained March 25, 2007.[dead link]
  36. ^ "Missile attack on plane kills 11 Belarusian". The Malaysia Sun. IANS. 24 March 2007. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013.
  37. ^ "Donetsk People's Republic militia downs another Ukraine's An-26 plane — eyewitnesses". ITAR-TASS. July 17, 2014.
  38. ^ "Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: Top 5 deadliest airliner shootdowns". reuters. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  39. ^ Israel evacuates tourists from Kenya. BBC News. 29 November 2002.
  40. ^ UK condemns Kenya bomb attack. BBC News. 28 November 2002.
  41. ^ Al-Qaeda suspected in Kenya attacks. BBC News. 28 November 2002.
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