An Air India plane carrying 242 people bound for London has crashed near Ahmedabad airport shortly after taking off. On board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were 53 British, 169 Indian, seven Portuguese and one Canadian nationals. Fire and thick black smoke was seen shortly after the aircraft went down near student accommodation at a nearby medical university at 1.39pm local time.
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Dumfries and Galloway while cruising at 31,000 feet on December 21, 1988, crashing onto the town of Lockerbie. All 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground were killed when the Boeing 747, flying from Heathrow to New York, was bombed. The explosion tore a 20-inch hole in the fuselage, causing the aircraft to disintegrate instantly. Among the victims were 35 American students flying home for Christmas and the crash remains the deadliest terrorist attack on UK soil.
A British European Airways Trident crashed shortly after takeoff from Heathrow en route to Brussels on June 18, 1972, killing all 118 people on board. Three minutes into the flight, the plane entered a deep stall. Investigators found that the crew had failed to maintain sufficient speed and did not properly deploy the aircraft’s high-lift devices. The cockpit voice recorder captured an argument between the captain and co-pilot moments before the crash.
On August 22, 1985, a British Airtours Boeing 737-236 bound for Corfu aborted takeoff at Manchester Airport after control staff warned one of its engines was on fire. Passengers started evacuating, but the fire spread rapidly. All deaths were caused by the inhalation of toxic smoke. Fifty-five of the 137 people on board were killed. The disaster led to sweeping aviation reforms, including fire-resistant seat materials and improved emergency procedures.
On January 8, 1989, British Midland Flight 92 from Belfast to Heathrow crashed short of the runway at East Midlands Airport during an attempted emergency landing, killing 47 of the 126 people on board. The Boeing 737 had been cruising at 35,000 feet when a fan blade on the left engine fractured due to metal fatigue. The crew mistakenly shut down the working engine, and moments before impact a final announcement instructed passengers to ‘prepare for crash landing.’
