About a year ago I wrote a post on my Facebook on this topic (www.facebook.com), I will copy it here:

When discussing the topic of plane crashes or air accidents, I periodically hear the opinion that in Soviet times passenger air transportation were extremely safe, and then the USSR collapsed, chaos began in aviation, and flight safety plummeted. Since I am very interested in aviation, I have long wanted to test this hypothesis and compare the safety of air transportation in the USSR / Russia in different years, and take the USA as a starting point. Now hands have finally gotten to this lesson.

For this exercise we need: datasets (two pieces); time (120 min.); Stat (1 pc.); Excel (1 pc.); and most importantly, sleight of hand (dexterity - 1 piece, hands - preferably 2 pieces) and no fraud. So, we do the following:

We take here (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.AIR.PSGR/countries/US?display=default) data on the number of passengers in the United States in 1971 - 2014 and Russia in 1991 - 2014. https://skorobutov.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/history-airoflot-part-2-3-1973-1983/) data for the USSR for 1976 and from here (https://skorobutov.wordpress.com/ 2013/10/21 / history-aeroflot-part-5-1983-1993 /) - for 1990; using two points, we construct a linear interpolation for the USSR since 1971 (not an ideal assumption, of course, but I could not find better data for the USSR).

We take here (http://aviation-safety.net/database/country/) data on all aircraft accidents for Russia / USSR and the USA since 1971.

Note: Unfortunately, there are sorting by country based on where the plane crash occurred, not based on which country the plane belongs to. So, for example, there is no Tu-154 crash over Donetsk in 2006. But, again, I have no other data, and manually sorting crashes is too long and boring.

Note 2 (I'll take it from the comments): data on plane crashes in Russia / USSR from this site include only crashes on the territory of modern Russia. At first I did not take this into account, and then I did not have time to redo all the data, but the largest (from about 20 dead) air crashes in the territory of the Union republics I took into account manually. Remaining plane crashes with relatively few fatalities are unlikely to change the big picture; in addition, the underestimation of catastrophes leads to an overestimation, not an underestimation, of the level of security in the USSR.

We clean the data. Will take into account only those killed on board the aircraft, but not on the ground (you can take into account all of them; I do not think that this will greatly change anything); remove all missing and zero victim values; delete the "criminal" categories (H1 and H2, C1 and C2 - terrorist attacks, hijackings, seizures, etc., since they have nothing to do directly with flight safety); if possible, we remove private and military (for the USSR / Russia: Soviet AF, Polish AF, Russian AF, Soviet Navy; for the USA: USMC, US Army, US Coast Guard, USAF, US Navy, Mexican AF, Mali AF ) operators. For the USSR, I also deleted the plane crash of the Japanese JALs for the sake of clarity; for the United States, I did not begin to clean further, since there are a lot of airlines.

Since there are still many light aircraft crashes (not private, but some kind of "Horns and Hooves"), we delete all plane crashes with the number of victims less than 5 (again, not ideal, but at least this way).

We group the data by five-year intervals: 1971 - 1975, 1976 - 1980, ..., 2006 - 2010, 2011 - 2014 (there is no data on the number of passengers for 2015).

Divide the number of fatalities in plane crashes by the number of passengers (in millions). We draw the whole thing on a graph (at the same time we add separate graphs with the number of passengers and the number of deaths).

Now some observations:

a) While the air transportation industry was growing in the United States and in the world, in Russia after the collapse of the USSR it collapsed and never recovered to the Soviet level (and this decline cannot be explained simply by a decrease in territory or population decline caused by the collapse of the USSR).

b) Some kind of exceptional security Soviet aviation did not differ: on average, it was almost four times less safe than the American one.

c) There has been tremendous progress in the safety of air travel in the United States. Modern aviation in developed countries is phenomenally safe.

d) Looking at the absolute death toll, the overall trend for Russia / USSR looks even better than for the United States, but the situation changes dramatically as soon as we take into account changes in the number of passengers.

And, finally, to the answer to the main question: what is happening with the safety of transportation in Russia? In my opinion, the answer to this question depends on how you look at the situation from what angle. I will rely on a relative, not an absolute, death toll, as it, in my opinion, better reflects flight safety.

Note: The change in the number of passengers does not take into account the change in the seating capacity of the aircraft. Today's planes are much larger than their 40-year-old counterparts, so fewer flights are required to carry the same number of passengers on the same route today. And the fewer flights, the fewer accidents, all other things being equal. At the same time, one plane crash is causing more fatalities today than in the past. In theory, these two effects more or less compensate for each other. But in any case, since route network is constantly changing, I cannot estimate the number of flights performed from my data, but I don’t have exact data on the number of flights, so I work with what I have.

On the one hand, there really was a failure in the safety of transportation in Russia in 1991 - 2010 (1996 - 2000 were a pleasant exception); the country fell back to the level of security characteristic of the USSR in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the same time, it is not entirely clear what exactly caused this failure: a sharp deterioration in the situation after the collapse of the USSR or an unexpected positive jump in security in 1986-1990 (most likely, both).

Moreover, the situation with the safety of air transportation in Russia today, although it is inferior to the USSR in the period 1986 - 1990, looks much better than in any other Soviet period.

Still, we must admit that everything looks very bad with respect to the United States: in Soviet times, the gap between the USSR and the United States was much smaller than it is now; while air travel has become much safer in the United States, nothing like this has happened in our country.

In other words, in post-Soviet Russia there was no progress in the field of aviation security, which is characteristic of developed countries, and there was even a significant deterioration in the situation compared to the late USSR, but at the same time, even the worst Russian times are comparable to individual Soviet periods. That is, it cannot be said that aviation in the USSR was very safe, and after the collapse of the USSR, something unprecedented began to happen.

Bottom line: in my opinion, the question should be raised not about how to return to the times of the USSR (because then we flew a lot and also crashed a lot), but about how to get closer to the modern USA (because there are very, very many and almost completely safe).

P.S. It would be very interesting to look at these data in the context of individual airlines, but, unfortunately, there is no such detailed data on the number of passengers. For example, Aeroflot has not had fatal accidents on passenger flights since 1994; Transaero has never had such accidents in its 24 years of existence; Siberia / S7 had only one such case (except for the terrorist attack and the plane, which seemed to be shot down Ukrainian missile). There is a feeling that the leading Russian companies are now not inferior to Western ones in terms of security, but in small companies it is not clear what is happening. Only now you shouldn't take this as a call to nationalize and unite everything: it's more likely not about the size in itself, and even less about who is the owner, but about the level of training (and salary) of the pilots, what is the safety culture in the company. etc.

In this post, I would like to tell you about the biggest and worst plane crashes in the history of world aviation. Most of the stories below are really creepy. In general, it is difficult to believe that all this is possible ... For some reason, in real life not always everything ends with a happy ending, this is not a movie for you, Friends ...

In this context, I judged the most terrible disasters by the total number of victims in an air accident. The September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, in which thousands of civilians and passengers of Boeing 767 and 757 planes hijacked by terrorists were injured, were not included in the rating. Other information is also curious that from the 1970s to 2017, the number of disasters taking place decreased by more than 3 times:

Plane crash in New York in 2009 with a happy outcome

The article will be full of terrible disasters that have claimed thousands of lives. I want to start this tragic article with the rarest incident in world aviation. Thanks to the professionalism of the pilots, on January 15, 2009, 155 people were saved. A US Airways Airbus A320 took off from New York Airport, but after a few minutes there were engine problems. Both engines were damaged and stopped due to a collision of the plane with a flock of birds. The pilots managed to land an almost uncontrollable car right in the Hudson. More than 1,000 people took part in saving the lives of passengers. More details about this terrible plane crash, but with a happy ending, you will learn from the video:

Plane crash in Tenerife - 1977

1. The largest and most tragic plane crash in the history of aviation occurred on March 27, 1977. On this tragic day on the Spanish island of Tenerife, 2 Pan Am and KLM Boeing 747s collided on the runway. You can read more about the worst plane crash in which 583 people died.

Film about the plane crash in Tenerife:

Aircraft accident in Japan - 1985

2. August 12, 1985 in Japan near famous mountain Fuji crashed Japan Airlines Boeing 747. The plane crash in Japan is the second in terms of the total number of casualties after the tragedy in Tenerife, and the largest aircraft accident in the history of aviation with a single plane. As a result of the crash of Boeing 747, 520 people were killed, only 4 passengers of the ill-fated Japan Airlines flight managed to survive. As a result of the investigation of the plane crash in Japan, it was found that the main cause of the tragedy was mistakes and negligence made during the repair of the aircraft, as a result of which, during the fatal flight of the Boeing 747 with tail number The JA 8119 lost control and crashed.

A film detailing the horrific aircraft accident in Japan (on English language):

Plane crash in Delhi - 1966

3. On November 12, 1996, two planes collided in the air over Delhi: an Il-76 of Kazakhstan Airlines and a Boeing 747 of Saudi Arabian Airlines. As a result of a misunderstanding by the crew of the Kazakh IL-76 air traffic controller teams, the landing plane crashed into the fuselage of a Boeing 747 flying to the meeting at a speed of 500 km / h. In addition to the error of the IL-76 crew, one of the reasons for the accident was that both liners were not equipped with a collision avoidance system.

The first excerpt from the National Geographic film about the plane crash in Delhi (the rest can also be found on YouTube):

Turkish Airlines Plane Crash - 1974

4. The largest Turkish Airlines plane crash occurred on March 3, 1974 in France near Paris Orly airport. The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliner crashed. The largest plane crash in the history of the DC-10 was caused by an error in the technology of the cargo compartment door, as a result of which the door simply tore off during the flight, which led to the subsequent depressurization of the cabin. The airliner became completely uncontrollable and crashed in the forests near Paris. All 346 people on board were killed in the Turkish Airlines plane crash with McDonnell Douglas.

Air India bombing - 1985

5. June 23, 1985 over the Atlantic Ocean south of the coast Irish extremists exploded a Boeing 747 Air India, flying on the route Montreal (Canada) - London (UK) - Delhi (India). As a result of the terrorist act (bomb explosion) aboard the plane, all 329 people were killed in the plane crash of Flight 182. The Sikh extremists also planned to blow up another Air India plane, but the bomb exploded prematurely in the luggage compartment of Tokyo airport.

Fire on a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane - 1980

6. On August 19, 1980, the Lockheed L-1011-200 TriStar aircraft of Saudi Arabian Airlines, following flight No. 163 from Riyadh to Jeddah, caught fire after taking off from International airport Riyadh International Airport. 7 minutes after departure, a fire broke out in the aircraft's cargo hold, and the crew decided to return and make an emergency landing at Riyadh airport. As a result of numerous mistakes of the crew after a successful landing, all passengers of flight No. 163 died from poisoning by poisonous gases caused by the fire. In total, 301 people died in this tragic and terrible plane crash, no one managed to get out of the cabin of the burning Lockheed plane ...

Iranian airliner shot down by a US missile - 1988

7. On July 3, 1988, an Iranian Airbus A300 airliner with 290 people on board was shot down by the American cruiser Vincennes over the Persian Gulf. Subsequently, in 1996, the United States paid Iran $ 61.8 million in compensation for 248 deaths, at the rate of $ 300,000 for each able-bodied victim and $ 150,000 for each dependent.

American Airlines plane crash - 1979

8. On May 25, 1979, the worst plane crash in US history occurred: American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashed 31 seconds after takeoff from Chicago International Airport. The reasons for the terrible tragedy were errors in pilot training and DC-10 repair technology. A terrible plane crash in Chicago killed 271 people on board, as well as 2 residents were killed when the plane crashed to the ground in the trailer park next to the airport. But there could have been many more victims ...

We are watching a video investigation of the worst plane crash in US history. Only in English, but very detailed.

Pan Am plane bombing by Libyan terrorists - 1988

9. On December 21, 1988, a Pan Am Boeing 747, flying from London to New York, was blown up by Libyan terrorists over the Scottish city of Lockerbie. The plane crash over Lockerbie killed 270 people.

Korean Airlines crash - 1983

10. September 1, 1983 at airspace USSR over the waters The Pacific a Soviet fighter-interceptor shot down a Boeing 747 of Korean Airlines. The incident occurred due to the severe deviation of the New York-Seoul flight and its incursion into the closed airspace of the USSR. As a result, a Boeing with 246 passengers on board and 23 crew members was shot down by 2 Soviet R-98 missiles.

11. In 2016, the Tu-154 plane of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed, in which 100 people (92 passengers and 8 crew members) died.

12. 2017 turned out to be relatively calm. In Kyrgyzstan, due to fog, a passenger Boeing-747 crashed while landing, falling on residential buildings. 37 people died.

Many people prefer to get to this or that region using an airliner, because it is much more convenient and faster to travel by air than by train. According to statistics every 2-3 seconds a plane lands and takes off in the world... Should you give in to fear when you board a plane? How often do planes crash? Such questions always torment passengers, especially those who rarely fly on an aircraft.

Everyone fears for their lives, so it's no wonder why such questions arise. If you look at the news, in which they constantly talk about some disasters, and often associated with air travel, then the desire to go somewhere disappears immediately. Of course, there is always danger. Even while at home there is a risk of death, for example, from a gas leak. Thus, to fly or not to fly in aircraft is a very controversial issue and here everyone decides for himself what to do. In order to understand how many airliners crash, consider the statistics.

How many planes fall per year is a question that interests many people, even those who are not going on a flight. You can give the following data:

1. As statistics show, about 10,000 airliners take off into the sky every day.
2. About 4.5 billion people fly in aircraft, which is more than half of the world's population.
3. Of these, about 1000 people die in plane crashes.
4. Over 100 years passenger aviation 150,000 people died.

This indicator is several times less than the number of victims in road accidents per month. Thus, what is safer to travel on? The answer is obvious. People die in road accidents much more often, so driving in cars is much more dangerous to life than flying on airplanes.

According to statistics, 107 air crashes have occurred since 2009, with 3245 passengers becoming victims.

How often do planes crash in Russia?

Unfortunately, our country occupies a leading position in the ranking of countries that have undergone the largest number aviation accidents. This is due to the fact that Russia is the largest power in the world. If we take statistics from 2009, then in the Russian Federation there was the largest number of accidents associated with aircraft - 38 pieces. They killed 378 people. This is followed by America, where there have been 11 incidents in the last 6 years. If we take into account the data for the entire period of its existence civil aviation, here the United States of America occupies the first place.

• Russia (38 accidents);
• USA (11 for the given period);
• Ukraine (7 for 6 years);
• Congo (6 over the same period);
• Germany (4 disasters in 2010).

What planes crash most often?

If we talk about which planes most often crash, here you need to give a rating of the most dangerous aircraft. So the list is as follows:

1. Boeing 737. This passenger plane was recognized as the most dangerous, as several plane crashes happened on it.
2. IL-76. Terrible disaster happened on this aircraft 13 years ago and claimed a lot of human lives.
3. Tu-154. There were also a lot of accidents on it.
4. Airbus A310. The last disaster was this year, which claimed more than 150 lives and only one girl managed to survive.
5. McDonnell-Douglas DC-9. It has not been produced for many years, but ready-made aircraft fly quite often. For the entire time of existence on board this aircraft only 44 people were killed.

Compared to the years of the last XX century, the number of plane crashes, alas, has increased. Planes crash for a variety of reasons. This can be a malfunction of the airliner itself, weather conditions, or a human factor. It is difficult to say unequivocally whether planes often crash. Compared to an accident, it is much safer to travel on an aircraft. But in general, you should not be afraid of aircraft, because on the ground the risk of death is much greater than in the air.

The main reasons that can lead to a plane crash:

• Pilot error - 50%
• Technical problems - 22%
• Weather conditions - 12%
• Sabotage - 9%
• Error of other crew members - 7%
• Other reasons - 1%

Interestingly, disasters due to terrorist attacks occur in less than 1% of cases. But due to fires, disasters happen in about 2.9% of cases.

When compiling the table, 1,300 air crashes were taken into account. human casualties among commercial airliners around the world from 1950 to 2008. Aircraft crashes with aircraft with less than 10 passengers on board, military aircraft, private jets and helicopters were excluded.

Aircraft crash statistics by flight phase

* - for a flight lasting 1.5 hours

As you noticed, the biggest chance of getting into a plane crash is during the landing of the plane. But during the loading of people on board, the chances are so small that there are no statistics on the deaths.

Airline crash statistics

Aeroflot's crash statistics show that this is one of the most safe airlines... And this is achieved primarily by skill, they do not save on pilots, and also on the fact that Aeroflot has one of the most modern fleets among all European airlines. First, I suggest you look at the video of the crazy emergency landing Boeing 767 of the Polish airline LOT at Warsaw airport. Fortunately, thanks to the skill of the pilots, there were no casualties in this accident.

These statistics cannot be used to assess the reliability of aircraft or airlines. The indicators are calculated based on past incidents and cannot be used to prevent or mitigate anticipated risks. In assessing safety / reliability, many other parameters are used that were not taken into account when compiling the table.

Based on materials from the site http://www.planecrashinfo.com/

Undoubtedly, the conquest of airspace by man can be attributed to one of the greatest events. But to our great regret, it was during this process that many courageous testers died, who needed to test the work of the first aircraft in airspace.

Currently, air transport is the most convenient, fast and comfortable. After all, it is on an airplane that you can quickly overcome a huge distance. But air transport, which seems so large and reliable both on the surface of the earth and in the sky, can still face numerous problems that lead to accidents. What were the most scary plane crashes world, we will consider in this article, and it will be useful to give a rating. After all, a variety of factors are the cause of accidents. We will consider the largest plane crashes in the form of the TOP-10.

The number of casualties is 290. In early July 1988, an airbus belonging to the Iranian State was shot down by a cruiser of the United States of America. The tragedy took place in the Persian Gulf region. According to statistics, there were 290 people killed, including 65 minors. As the authorities of the United States of America reported, the crew of the naval vessel mistook the airbus for a military fighter, so they opened fire to kill.

Location # 9: 1980, disaster near Riyadh

In the summer of 1980, a terrible tragedy occurred in the area of ​​the city of Riyadh. In the plane crash, neither the passengers of the plane, nor the crew members could survive. In total, she took the lives of 301 people. These people had a chance to be rescued, but the Riyadh airport service did not show dexterity and resourcefulness, which did not allow to open in a timely manner. emergency exit from air transport. The doors were opened, but, unfortunately, too late, since more than 20 minutes passed after landing, and this provoked an instant ignition of the cabin. The fire prevented anyone from leaving the air transport, so all people died a terrible death. Why the door did not open for so long, it was not possible to find out.

Being in the sky aboard this aircraft, a special device announced the beginning of a fire in the compartment carrying passengers' cargo. The captain of the plane made a decision to deploy air transport and land at the airport near the city of Riyadh, since the team, which did not speak a foreign language, could not independently figure out the available instructions on firefighting.

Place number 8: 1996, crash of An-32B air transport

The number of victims - 298. The Russian air transport was supposed to carry the cargo, there were crew members on board and the person responsible for transporting the goods, a citizen of Zaire. The takeoff was supposed to take place from the capital of the Congo, but during it the aircraft could not get off the ground. The runway had no fences, so the plane ended up in a market located near runway... The damage led to a fire, followed by an explosion that killed 297 people, including everyone on board. The reason for the crash was the overloading of goods for transportation.

Place number 7: July 2014, the crash of the Boeing 777

The number of victims - 298. In the summer of 2014, a Boeing 777, owned by a Malaysian airline, flew from Amsterdam, the landing site was supposed to be - Kuala Lumpur. A downed plane was found near Donetsk, in Ukraine, where there was a confrontation. Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian side took the blame for this crime.

Airplane with a burning engine

Place number 6: summer 1980, Boeing 747 plane crash

The number of victims - 329. The largest plane crash in the world over water occurred in the summer of 1980. Unfortunately, no one was able to escape. Both passengers and crew were victims of the crash. The tragedy befell a Boeing 747, which belonged to an Indian airline over the water Atlantic Ocean that are considered neutral. The airliner was flying "Montreal-Bombay", unexpectedly for everyone on board there was a terrible explosion. Everything happened so quickly that the team did not even have time to send a distress signal to Earth. As a result of the explosion, the air vehicle was destroyed in the sky. After the flight recorder was found, experts were able to establish that the accident was organized by terrorists. Sikh extremists claimed responsibility for the attack.

Location # 5: March 1974, DC-10 plane crash

The number of victims - 346. In the spring of 1974, a Turkish airliner took off from Paris airport, fell after 6 minutes of flight. Air transport was found in the Ermenonville forest, no survivors could be found. The cause of the plane crash was the breakage of the lock in the door leading to the cargo compartment. At the time of climb, the faulty lock could not withstand the overload, during which the door opened wide open. As a result, decompression was formed, which, under the action of the blast wave, damaged the system responsible for the control of air transport. The airliner that lost control entered the so-called "dive", the fall of the plane lasted 1.5 minutes until the transport reached the surface of the earth. Unfortunately, after this tragedy, the largest plane crashes were replenished with another tragedy.

Place number 4: November 1996, the crash of two airliners - Boeing-747 and Il-76

The number of victims - 349. Air transport crashes for many reasons:

• due to technical problems;
• due to terrorist attacks;
• in case of unforeseen situations;
• due to the fault of the crew.

It was the irresponsibility of people that led to another terrible tragedy that happened in 1996, in the fall. In the area of ​​the city of Charkhi Dadri, the Il-76 and Boeing-747 aircraft crashed, the pilots of which could not cope with the control of the airliners in the sky, due to a lack of understanding of a foreign language by the pilot who was in charge of the Il-76. A misunderstanding caused the plane to descend to an unacceptable level, leading to an inevitable collision. This largest plane crash in the world occurred due to the human factor, 349 people died during the crash. At the crash site, 4 survivors were found, but, unfortunately, they were not provided with timely assistance, so they died before reaching the nearest hospital.

Place number 3: August 1985, tragedy aboard a Boeing 747

In the summer of 1985, a tragic fate befell an airplane flying on the Tokyo-Osaka route. The air transport stayed in the sky for only 12 minutes, when the hydraulic system began to work intermittently, after the command heard a soft bang. For more than half an hour, the air crew tried to turn the airliner around and land at the nearest airport. To do this, the team tried to use all the thrust produced by the engine, as the steering system completely refused to work. But despite the tremendous efforts of the entire crew, the airliner could not be delivered to the airport, the ship crashed, crashing into a mountain called Otsutaka. The crash occurred at an altitude of 1.7 kilometers. It took the rescue teams more than 12 hours to arrive at the scene of the tragedy, but despite such a long time, they managed to find 4 surviving passengers, including two children. The death toll in this accident is 520 people.

Airliner crash site

Place number 2: March 1977, the crash of two Boeing-747

In the spring of 1977, another terrible tragedy took place, killing 583 people. It happened due to the human factor, which led to the collision of two Boeing 747s. The planes collided with each other, taking off near the airport located in the city of Los Rodeos, due to the incorrect command, which was announced by the controller of one of the airlines. This tragedy forced the world aviation to very carefully review the previously used security measures.

Place number 1: autumn 2001, a terrorist attack on board an aircraft

The largest plane crash in the world was caused by a terrorist organization that called itself "Al-Qaeda" on September 11, 2001. On a terrible September day, terrorists seized 4 air vehicles at once, with only civilians and crew on board. 2 airliners were redirected by terrorists to world famous american towers to ram them. The third plane was forced to ram the Pentagon building. The terrorist organization rerouted the fourth air transport to Pennsylvania. In this state, the crash of the last civil aircraft... These major plane crashes took the lives of 2,977 people in total, and became victims of disasters.