On 15 January, an ATR-72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines crashed while landing at Pokhara International Airport. The Kathmandu-Pokhara flight had 172 people on board, including 168 passengers, including 153 Nepalese, 5 Indians, 4 Russians, 1 Irish, 2 Koreans, 1 Argentine and a French national. Of these, 168 bodies have been recovered, while officials have confirmed that there are no survivors. This is the first major aviation disaster in 2023, and will hopefully be the last. There have been many fatal accidents in the history of aviation. In the last decade alone, there have been many accidents around the world, in which thousands of passengers have died. Here is a list of major accidents in the last 10 years:
2023
January 15, 2023: A Nepalese passenger plane carrying 72 people, including 10 foreigners, crashed while landing at Pokhara airport.
2022
May 30, 2022: A Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes in the Mustang region of Nepal, killing all 22 people on board.
March 21, 2022: A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashes into the Guangxi mountains near Guangzhou, China, tragically killing all 133 people on board.
2021
January 9, 2021: A Boeing 737 operated by Srivijaya Air crashes into the Java Sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta. All 62 people on board were killed, including seven children and three infants.
2020
August 7, 2020: An Air India plane crashed at Kozhikode (Calicut) International Airport in Kerala. The plane coming from Dubai overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport and later broke into pieces. There were 186 people on board the crashed plane. A total of 21 people including the pilot and co-pilot were killed in the accident.
May 22, 2020: An Airbus A320 belonging to Pakistan International Airlines, with 97 passengers and eight crew members on board, crashed in Karachi, Pakistan. It is considered one of the most devastating aviation disasters in the country’s aviation history.
January 8, 2020: Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed shortly after taking off from the Iranian capital Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew members on board. The incident occurred amid rising tensions between the US and Iran, and the Iranian government eventually admitted that it had “unintentionally” shot down the plane.
2019
March 10, 2019: The Ethiopian Airlines plane with 157 people on board crashes six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all of them. The victims were from 30 different countries.
2018
October 29, 2018: A Boeing aircraft operated by Lion Air crashed in the Java Sea shortly after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. All 189 passengers and crew were killed in the air tragedy.
May 18, 2018: A Boeing 737 passenger plane crashes shortly after take off from José Martí International Airport in Havana, killing 112 people. One passenger survived.
April, 2018: A tragedy was reported from Algeria’s capital Algiers in which a military plane crashed shortly after take off, killing all 257 people on board. Most of the dead are soldiers and their family members.
March 12, 2018: A plane carrying 71 passengers and crew crashed at Kathmandu airport in Nepal, killing more than 50 people.
February 18, 2018: A passenger plane crashes in the Zagros Mountains in Iran, killing all 66 people on board. The Aseman Airlines ATR turboprop crashed on its way to the southwestern city of Yasuz about an hour after taking off in the capital Tehran.
February 11, 2018: A Russian passenger plane carrying 71 people on board crashes at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, killing all on board.
2017
This year was considered the safest as no plane crash was reported in 2017.
2016
December 25, 2016: A Russian military Tu-154 jet crashes into the Black Sea, killing all 92 passengers and crew. The plane came down shortly after taking off from an airport near the city of Sochi. It was accompanied by journalists and the military carrying artists due to give a concert for Russian troops in Syria.
December 7, 2016: A domestic Pakistan International Airlines plane with 48 people on board crashed in the country’s northern region, killing all on board.
November 28, 2016: A plane carrying the football team of Brazilian club Chapecoense ran out of fuel and crashed near Medellin, Colombia, killing 71 people, including most of the players and management.
May 19, 2016: An EgyptAir plane crashes between Paris and Cairo, killing all 66 people on board.
March, 2016: FlyDubai Boeing 737-800 crashes in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, killing all 62 people on board.
2015
October 31, 2015: A plane belonging to the Russian airline Kogalimavia crashed over central Sinai 22 minutes after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
June 30, 2015: An Indonesian military transport aircraft Hercules C-130 crashed in a residential area of Medan. The military said all 122 people on board died, along with at least 19 people on the ground.
March 4, 2015: A Germanwings Airbus A320 airliner crashed in the French Alps near Digne on a flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. All 148 people on board were feared dead.
2014
The year is widely considered to be the most disastrous year in aviation history, with the 2nd Malaysian Airlines crash alone killing nearly 550 passengers.
July 17, 2014: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by Russian-controlled forces while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed, and the shoot-down took place in the Donbas region controlled by Russian separatist forces.
March 8, 2014: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and has not been found to this day. The Boeing 777-200ER with 239 onboard was tracked by military radar as it deviated west from its planned flight path crossing the Malay Peninsula and the Andaman Sea.
February 11, 2014: A C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft of the Algerian Air Force, carrying 74 passengers and 4 crew members, crashed into the Djebel Fertas Mountains near Ain Kercha, Algeria. Only one person survived.
July 24, 2014: Air Algerie Flight 5017 from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to Algiers, Algeria, crashed near Mali. The flight was operating a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 twinjet aircraft with 110 passengers and 6 crew.
December 28, 2014: Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 from Surabaya, Java, Indonesia to Singapore, with 162 on board, crashes into the Java Sea. Only 116 bodies were recovered and it was the third deadliest aviation accident on Indonesian soil after Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 and Lion Air Flight 610.
2013
November 17, 2013: A Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 from Moscow to Kazan, Russia, operating a Boeing 737-500, crashed during landing at Kazan International Airport, killing all 50 on board, causing it to collapse. Became the worst plane crash of 2013.