Date of Crash: December 24, 1971
Aircraft type: Lockheed Electra L-188A
Crash Site: Puerto Inca, Peru
Passengers & Crew: 92
Fatalities: 91
Cause of Crash: Human Error and Structural failure possibly struck by lightning
On Christmas Eve 1971 the Peruvian airliner, had taken off from the
Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima on a flight to Pucallpa,
Peru. About a half hour after takeoff and at about 21,000 feet, the
aircraft entered a thunderstorm and heavy turbulence and was possibly
struck by lightning. The pilots had difficulty controlling the aircraft
and it soon went into a dive.
The crew attempted to level out the plane, but the fire and turbulent
forces on the wings caused the right wing and most of the left wing to
separate from the aircraft. The aircraft came crashing down in a
mountainous region of the Amazon. Miraculously, a German teenager (17)
Juliane Koepcke who was traveling with her mother survived the crash and
was still strapped in her seat.
After searching for her mother in vain Koepcke wandered through the
jungle for nine days looking for help. On the ninth day, she found a
canoe and shelter. Hours later, local lumbermen returned and found her.
The men took her on the final seven hour journey via canoe down the
river to a lumber station where she was airlifted to a hospital.
Cecelia Cichan
Date of Crash: August 16, 1987
Aircraft type: McDonnell Douglas MD-82
Operator : Northwest Airlines
Crash Site: Romulus, Michigan (western Detroit)
Passengers & Crew Onboard: 155
Fatalities Onboard: 154 – 2 on the ground were also killed
Cause of Crash: Pilot error
After taking off from Metro Airport, during the initial climb, the plane
rolled about 35 degrees in each direction. The left wing struck a light
pole about ½ mile (800 m) from the end of the runway, struck other
light poles, the roof of a car rental building, and then the ground.
Cecelia Cichan was located by rescue workers in her seat several feet
away from her mother’s body along with Cecelia’s father, and her
6-year-old brother. Her survival of the crash was considered
unexplainable and miraculous by many, including airline crash
investigators.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable
cause of the accident was the flight crew’s failure to use the taxi
checklist to ensure the flaps and slats were extended for takeoff.
Cecelia is now married and earned a Psychology degree from the
University of Alabama. Although she has made no public statements or
attended annual memorial services regarding the tragic crash, she
corresponds with some of the crash victims’ loved ones.
Vesna Vulović
Date of Crash: January 26, 1972
Aircraft type: McDonnell-Douglas DC-9
Operator: Jugoslovenski Aero transport
Cause of Crash: Bombing
Crash Site: Hinterhermsdorf , East Germany
Passengers & Crew :28
Fatalities: 27
This is close to the top of the list because of the overall
circumstances and the unbelievable survival story of Vesna Vulović .
Vesna was a flight attendant onboard when a bomb went off at the
altitude of 33,000 ft. (10,050 meters). The terrorist act was attributed
to Croatian Ustashe terrorists. The explosion tore the jet into several
pieces in mid-air. The wreckage fell through the sky for three minutes
before striking a frozen mountainside. A German man upon arriving at the
crash found Vesna lying half outside of the plane, with another crew
member’s body on top of her, and a serving cart pinned against her body.
The man was a medic in the second world war, and did what he could for
her until further help arrived. Vesna’s injuries included a fractured
skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, which left her
temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her
legs after surgery and continued working for JAT at a desk job. It was
discovered later her schedule had been mixed up with that of another
flight attendant named Vesna, and she was subsequently placed on the
wrong flight.
Vesna still holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall
survived without a parachute, at 33,330 feet. She is considered a
national heroine throughout the former Yugoslavia.
Mohammed el-Fateh Osman
Date of Crash: July 8, 2003
Aircraft type: Boeing 737
Operator : Sudan Airways
Crash Site: Port Sudan
Passengers & Crew: 116
Fatalities: 115
Cause of Crash: *Unknown
About 10 minutes after takeoff heading from Port Sudan on the
northeastern coast to the capital, the pilot radioed the control tower
about a problem in one engine. The pilot killed that engine and told the
tower he was returning to the airport. Ten minutes later Sudanese
airliner plunged into a hillside while attempting an emergency landing
killing 116 people and leaving only 3-year old Mohammed el-Fateh Osman
amid a scene of charred corpses as the only survivor.
The boy was found injured and lying on a fallen tree by a nomad. The
boy’s mother was among the victims. Mohammed lost part of a lower leg
and was treated for severe burns. The bodies were buried in a mass grave
after performing the Muslim prayer because the conditions of the bodies
would not allow transporting and delivering them to the relatives.
*The country blamed the United States on the crash saying that sanctions
had restricted vital aircraft parts. The United States denied that
claim stating that there was no ban on equipment required for aviation
safety.
George Lamson, Jr.
Date of Crash: January 21, 1985
Aircraft type: Lockheed Electra 188
Crash Site: Reno, Nevada, USA
Passengers & Crew: 71
Fatalities: 70
Cause of Crash: Pilot/Ground Crew error
After a weekend of skiing 17 year old George Lamson had taken a seat
next to his father in the front row of the airplane’s cabin, directly
behind the bulkhead. As the plane began to shudder the plane’s right
wing dipped as it began its ill-advised right turn. Lamson pulled his
knees to his chest just as the plane hit the ground. The force of the
crash ripped Lamson’s seat from of the fuselage and was catapulted out
of the plane landing upright in the middle of the highway and was still
strapped in his seatbelt.
He unbuckled and dashed toward a field at the far edge of the pavement
as the plane exploded. Three people survived the crash initially
including George Lamson’s father but both died a few days later of
severe burns and head injuries. It was later determined that the
probable cause of this accident was the captain’s failure to control and
the copilot’s failure to monitor the flight path and airspeed of the
aircraft. This is what caused the unexpected vibration shortly after
takeoff.
Lamson was recently contacted by the press and is a now a father
himself. He asked the reporter not to reveal anything more of his work
or whereabouts and remains a very private person.
Erika Delgado
Date of Crash: Jan 13, 1995
Aircraft type: DC-9
Operator : Intercontinental airlines
Crash Site: Maria La Baja, 500 miles north- west of Bogota
Passengers & Crew: 52
Fatalities: 51
Cause of Crash: Unknown
This airliner exploded in mid-air as the pilot apparently was attempting
an emergency landing near a swamp but hit a grassy field and exploded
and then toppled into a lagoon. A farmer said he heard cries for help
and found a 9 year old girl Erika Delgado on a mound of seaweed, which
had broken her fall. She was the only survivor. She was travelling with
her parents and a younger brother from Bogota to the Caribbean resort
city of Cartagena.
The rescuers said she told them her mother had shoved her out of the
plane as it broke up and burst into flames. She was taken to hospital in
shock and with a broken arm. Erika later recalls someone approached and
ignored her cries for help but ripped a gold necklace from her neck and
ran away. Witnesses say scavengers also looted the bodies of other
passengers. Erika issued a plea for the return of the necklace, which
she says was the only memento of her father.
Nestor Mata
Date of Crash: March 17, 1957
Aircraft type: C-47 Skytrain
Operator : Philippine Air Force
Crash Site: 22 miles NW of Cebu City, Philippines
Passengers & Crew: 26
Fatalities: 25
Cause of Crash: Metal fatigue
This crash killed the 7th President of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay,
as well as many high ranking military officials. A reporter for the
Philippine Herald, Nestor Mata, was the sole survivor of the accident.
The aircraft took off from Lahug Airport for Nichols Field, eyewitnesses
on the ground observed that the airplane had not gained enough altitude
as it approached the mountain ranges in Balamban. Mata was sitting in
the second seat next to the President’s compartment when the crash
occurred and remembers there was a blinding flash for a moment, then he
fell unconscious.
When he regained consciousness he found himself on the side of a steep
cliff among trees and bushes. As he was in agonizing pain, he began
shouting, ‘Mr. President! Mr. President!’ When some farmers found him
they had to return to the village to get a hammock on which they loaded
and carried him for 18 hours through rugged terrain.
As soon as Mata reached the Southern Island Hospital in Cebu he was
treated for severe shock and pain from second and third degree burn.
Mata did not lose consciousness in the hospital and was able to dictate
to a nurse a press dispatch to his paper. It began ‘President Magsaysay
is dead.’
Foye Kenneth Roberts
Date of Crash: JUNE 14 1943
Aircraft type: B-17C Flying Fortress
Crash Site: BAKERS CREEK NEAR MACKAY, QLD Australia
Passengers & Crew: 41
Fatalities: 40
Cause of Crash: unknown
For reasons of military security and morale, this incident was hushed-up
by U.S. Army and Australian civil authorities for many years. The plane
carried forty-one American servicemen returning from ten days of leave.
The aircraft took off into ground fog and leveled off at an altitude of
about 300 feet. In a matter of minutes the plane had caught fire in the
air, and as it dived into the trees one of its wings came away leaving a
great opening in the fuselage through which most of the passengers were
emptied into the bush before the final impact.
The only survivor was Foye Kenneth Roberts. Robert’s suffered head
injuries that were not diagnosed at the time of the crash and lost his
speech for many years after lifesaving brain surgery. Robert’s cannot
recall anything of the actual crash. In February 2004 Foye Kenneth
Roberts, passed away. Another fact that is remarkable is that still to
this day this crash rates as the worst aviation disaster in Australian
history.
James Polehinke
Date of Crash: August 27, 2006
Aircraft type: Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) CRJ-100ER
Operator : Comair (d/b/a Delta Connection
Crash Site: Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Kentucky
Passengers & Crew Onboard: 50
Fatalities: 49
Cause of Crash: Pilot Error
This aircraft was assigned the airport’s Runway 22 for the takeoff, but
used Runway 26 instead. Runway 26 was too short for a safe takeoff,
causing the aircraft to overrun at the end of the runway before it could
become airborne killing all 47 passengers and two of the three crew.
The Flights First officer James Polehinke was the only survivor.
Polehinke suffered serious injuries, including multiple broken bones, a
collapsed lung, and severe bleeding. Doctors later determined that
Polehinke had suffered brain damage and has no memory of the crash or
the events leading up to it. Polehinke was flying the plane when it
crashed, but it was the flight’s captain, Jeffrey Clay, who taxied the
aircraft onto the wrong runway.
First Lieutenant Martin Farkaš
Date of Crash: January 19, 2006
Aircraft type: Antonov An-24
Operator: Slovak Air Force
Crash Site: Hejce, Hungary
Passengers & Crew: 43
Fatalities : 42
Cause of Crash: Pilot Error
This airplane was carrying Slovak peacekeepers. The aircraft crashed in
snowy and forested terrain on Borsó Hill at an elevation of 700 meters
(2,300 feet) near the Hungarian village of Hejce and the town of
Telkibánya. The plane hit the tops of trees before catching fire and
crashing.
The bodies and wreckage were scattered over a large area. Michaela
Farkasova, the wife of the only survivor, reported that she received a
cellular telephone call from her husband and told her that his plane had
crashed in a forest. He asked her to alert rescue services. Shortly
after the phone call Farkas was found. According to rescuers, his
survival was pure luck as he was found in the aircraft’s lavatory, which
received little damage.
Farkaš suffered minor brain swelling and lung injuries after the crash.
He was put into a medically induced coma, and was soon reported to be in
stable condition. Further investigations indicated that the pilot
descended too early in the dark towards the lights of Košice.
