Are plane crashesgoing to end the world? Probably not, but you never know how the world is going to end. It actually really surprises me that there aren't more airplane crashes. Thousands upon thousands of pounds of metal soaring through the air just doesn't seem right to me. Early this morning a plane crashed in Indonesia killing 98. It lead me to look into the most deadly crashes of all time, and here they are:

5. Turkish Airlines, Bois d' Ermenonville, France, 1974. Fatalities: 346




What happened?
A cargo door on the left hand side of the plane suddenly opened which lead to depressurizing of the cabin instantly ejecting 6 of the passengers. The 2nd engine became inoperative and the pilots could not recover. It was later discovered that the latch pins of the cargo door were not in place.


4. Saudi / Kazastan Airlines, New Delhi, India, 1996. Fatalities: 349




What happened?
Mid-air collision. Apparently, the Kazastan plane had an unauthorized descent which caused the two to collide. The 312 aboard the Saudi Arabian Airlines and the 37 aboard Kazastan Airlines were all killed.


3. Japan Air Lines, Mt. Osutaka, Japan, 1985. Fatalities: 520




What happened?
The plane was involved in a tailstrike incident in 1978. The repairs done were substandard and later lead to the plane's explosive decompression. Boeing conducted research after the crash and calculated the incorrect installation of repairs would handle approximately 10,000 pressurizations. The accident occurred on the 12,319th flight after the repair. The crash at Mt. Osutaka is the deadliest single aircraft crash in history. Remarkably, there were 4 survivors (all female).


2. Pan Am / KLM Airlines, Tenerife, Canary Islands, 1977. Fatalities: 583.




What happened?
Collision on the runway. What set the stage for the day is, around noon, a bomb had exploded Las Palmas passenger terminal closing the airport. This caused a congestion at the Tenerife airport. KLM eventually attempted to takeoff without clearance and collided with Pan Am. 61 of the 396 passengers on Pan Am survived, and all 248 passengers aboard KLM were killed.


1. American / United Airlines, New York City, New York, 2001. Fatalities: 2760





What happened?
A series of coordinated attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others in the building and on the ground. The 157 passengers on American and United Airlines were all killed and 2,603 were killed in or around the Twin Towers.