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FACTBOX: The world's worst air crashes in recent years

The Air Canada crash at LaGuardia highlights the deadliest air disasters worldwide in recent years, from India to Malaysia.

Reuters

23 March 2026 at 08:41:10

FACTBOX: The world's worst air crashes in recent years

Debris hangs from a damaged Air Canada Express jet that had collided with a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, U.S., March 23, 2026.

Adam Gray/Reuters

The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada AC.TO Express regional jet were killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia airport late on Sunday.


Below are the details of other fatal crashes in recent years.


2025


INDIA


Hundreds of people were killed in June when an Air India plane to London crashed minutes after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, while 19 others on the ground also perished.


UNITED STATES A UPS UPS.N cargo plane crashed in November shortly after taking off from Louisville, Kentucky, killing seven and injuring 11 on the ground.


More than 60 people were killed when an American Airlines AAL.O regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on January 29 and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.


2024


SOUTH KOREA


Jeju Air international flight 7C2216 crashed at Muan International Airport on Dec. 29, 2024, killing all 175 passengers and four of the six crew members in the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil.


KAZAKHSTAN


Azerbaijan Airlines international flight J2-8243, an Embraer EMBR3.SA E190, crashed on December 25 after being diverted from Russia to Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said in December the plane was damaged by accidental shooting from the ground in Russia. Moscow has not confirmed this.


JAPAN


A Japan Airlines (JAL) 9201.T plane collided with a smaller Coast Guard aircraft on the runway of Tokyo's Haneda airport on January 2. All 379 people aboard the JAL plane, an Airbus AIR.PA A350-941 flight, escaped the burning airliner. Five of six crew on the smaller aircraft were killed.


2022


CHINA


A China Eastern Airlines600115.SS Boeing 737-800 crashed into a mountainous region in the southwestern Guangxi region on March 21, 2022, killing all 132 people on board, in China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years.


2020


IRAN


Iran's Revolutionary Guards shot down a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 on Jan. 8, 2020 shortly after it took off from Tehran Airport, killing all 176 people on board. Iran's civil aviation body blamed a misaligned radar and an error by an air defence operator.


2019


ETHIOPIA


A Boeing 737-MAX 8 Ethiopian Airlines [RIC:RIC:ETHA.UL] jet crashed on March 19, 2019 minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board. Soon after, the Boeing 737 MAX global fleet was grounded over safety concerns.


2018


INDONESIA


A Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air plane crashed into the Java Sea soon after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, 2018, killing all 189 people on board.


2014


MALAYSIA


Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, and was shot down over eastern Ukraine as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. All 298 passengers on board were killed.


Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. The remains of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people have not been found.


-Compiled by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Arun Koyyur/Reuters

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