In the same way people from the Baby Boomer generation all remember where they were the day John F. Kennedy was killed, later generations know exactly what they were doing when it was announced that a passenger airliner had crashed into the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 259 passengers and crew along with 11 people on the ground. Years later, the Libyan government acknowledged its responsibility for the tragedy. What a lot of people do not know, the Pan Am Flight 103 air crash investigation revealed that the airline was guilty of wilful misconduct for not matching up each piece of luggage with the correct passenger.
There had been no suggestion that there was a fault with the plane before it took off from Frankfurt. There was other evidence that the plane had been brought down by an explosive device from within. Bombs, which are typically placed in the baggage hold, are not the only external threat to which airline passengers are exposed.
It is not always a bomb that brings a commercial passenger airliner crashing to the ground. Since the 1940s, passenger aircraft have been shot down using major artillery. Not a decade has gone by since then without at least one report of an airliner being brought down in this way.
The cause of a 2007 Balad crash which involved an Antonov An-26 airliner, leaving 34 people dead and one seriously injured, remains in dispute. The incident occurred when the plane was attempting to land at an American military base in Balad, Iraq. While the official explanation is that the plane went down in bad weather, there are those who claim it was shot down by a missile.
In 1993, three Transair Georgia airliners were shot down within three days of each other during the month of September. On September 21, a flight from Sochi in Russia was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed into the Black Sea. All five crew and 22 passengers were killed. On September 22, another airliner, reportedly carrying soldiers from the Georgian army, was shot down and crashed on the runway. Of 132 souls on board, 108 perished. The last crash, on September 23, was the result of an artillery or mortar attack as passengers were boarding. A crew member was killed.
An Iranian Air Force C-130, carrying Iranian embassy staff, was shot down in 1994 by American military forces. All 19 passengers and 13 crew, perished. That same year, the presidents of the African states of Burundi and Rwanda were reportedly shot down in the same plane near the Rwandan capital. The plane is believed to have been shot down by rocket fire.
The deadliest crash involving a DC-9-10/15 series aircraft occurred in 1980, when a plane carrying 81 people crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the Italian island of Ustica off the coast of Naples. The President of Italy at the time blamed the French. In 2013, an Italian criminal court ruled that it was abundantly clear the flight had been terminated by a missile.
The earliest incident on record was a Finnish civilian transport that was shot down between Tallinn in Estonia on its way to Helsinki, Finland. This attack took place on June 14, 1940, three months after what was called the Winter War. The plane was shot down by two Soviet torpedo bombers.
There had been no suggestion that there was a fault with the plane before it took off from Frankfurt. There was other evidence that the plane had been brought down by an explosive device from within. Bombs, which are typically placed in the baggage hold, are not the only external threat to which airline passengers are exposed.
It is not always a bomb that brings a commercial passenger airliner crashing to the ground. Since the 1940s, passenger aircraft have been shot down using major artillery. Not a decade has gone by since then without at least one report of an airliner being brought down in this way.
The cause of a 2007 Balad crash which involved an Antonov An-26 airliner, leaving 34 people dead and one seriously injured, remains in dispute. The incident occurred when the plane was attempting to land at an American military base in Balad, Iraq. While the official explanation is that the plane went down in bad weather, there are those who claim it was shot down by a missile.
In 1993, three Transair Georgia airliners were shot down within three days of each other during the month of September. On September 21, a flight from Sochi in Russia was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed into the Black Sea. All five crew and 22 passengers were killed. On September 22, another airliner, reportedly carrying soldiers from the Georgian army, was shot down and crashed on the runway. Of 132 souls on board, 108 perished. The last crash, on September 23, was the result of an artillery or mortar attack as passengers were boarding. A crew member was killed.
An Iranian Air Force C-130, carrying Iranian embassy staff, was shot down in 1994 by American military forces. All 19 passengers and 13 crew, perished. That same year, the presidents of the African states of Burundi and Rwanda were reportedly shot down in the same plane near the Rwandan capital. The plane is believed to have been shot down by rocket fire.
The deadliest crash involving a DC-9-10/15 series aircraft occurred in 1980, when a plane carrying 81 people crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the Italian island of Ustica off the coast of Naples. The President of Italy at the time blamed the French. In 2013, an Italian criminal court ruled that it was abundantly clear the flight had been terminated by a missile.
The earliest incident on record was a Finnish civilian transport that was shot down between Tallinn in Estonia on its way to Helsinki, Finland. This attack took place on June 14, 1940, three months after what was called the Winter War. The plane was shot down by two Soviet torpedo bombers.
About the Author:
This worthwhile website has the latest information on Pan AM flight 103 air crash investigation that people eagerly want to know about. Simply use the following link to reach the homepage on http://www.threesistersponds.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment