2014 was not a kind year for the aviation industry, with several air tragedies claiming the lives of more than 3000 people worldwide. Here’s a look at some of the worst aviation disasters the world saw in 2014.
Malaysia Airlines MH 370
It all started with the disappearance of the MH 370, which vanished from the radars en route Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on March 8 last year. That an aircraft as big as the Boeing 777 could simply vanish into thin air came as a shocker to everyone who could not fathom how the aircraft remained untraceable in the age of satellites and GPS. The MH 370 is still missing and nothing is known of the 239 passengers and crew on board it.
Malaysia Airlines MH 17
Close on the heels of the MH 370’s disappearance came the news of another air tragedy involving another Malaysia airlines, the MH 17. The Boeing 777 was on the way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam on July 17 when it was shot down while passing over Ukraine. All 298 passengers on the board are said to have died in the attack which frayed nerves across Russian and Ukrainian borders.
Air Algerie Flight 5017
The Air Algerie Flight 5017 was flying to Burkina Faso from Algeria when it reportedly crashed due to loss of control, killing all 116 passengers on board, including the crew members. The accident was deemed the worst in the nation’s history and took place just a day after the crash of Flight 222.
Air Asia Flight 8501
The last air disaster of 2014 happened to take place between the Indonesian city of Surabaya and Singapore. In what resembled the MH 370’s disappearance, Air Asia 8501 suddenly vanished from radars even as the pilot transmitted a message to air traffic control, asking for permission to climb to a higher altitude in order to escape a storm. Just as the world was coming to a conclusion that Air Asia 8501 had indeed disappeared for good like the MH 370, debris of the crashed plane started surfacing on the Java Sea. This confirmed the fact that Flight 8501 had indeed crashed, presumably killing all 162 passengers on board.
Passenger plane in Nepal
A passenger plane reportedly crashed into a mountain while it was flying from Pokhara to Jamia in Nepal. The plane crash killed all 18 passengers on board, including three crew members. The crash shed light on the dangerous flying conditions surrounding Nepal and the nearby mountainous regions filled with snow covered peaks hiding behind zero visibility clouds.
Summary
The aviation industry experienced a very bad 2014 with air tragedies claiming more than 3000 lives last year alone. The air crashes mentioned above were termed as the worst air tragedies witnessed across the world in 2014.