The world’s worst air crashes in recent years

LONDON – At least 30 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India’s western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, with the toll expected to climb, authorities said.

Below are some of the fatal crashes that have occurred in recent years.

2025

UNITED STATES

More than 60 people were killed when an American Airlines 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 in the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil.

KAZAKHSTAN

Azerbaijan Airlines international flight J2-8243, an Embraer 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 had been damaged by accidental shooting from the ground in Russia. Moscow has not confirmed this.

JAPAN 

A Japan Airlines (JAL) 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 A350-941 flight, escaped the burning airliner. Five of six crew on the smaller aircraft were killed.

2022

CHINA

A China Eastern Airlines 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 (UIA) 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 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. REUTERS

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