Worst recent plane disasters globally

Seoul – Asiana Airlines, the South Korean carrier whose Boeing 777 crashed while landing at San Francisco airport on Saturday ( July 6 , 2013), had been trying to clean up a tarnished safety record that included two other fatal crashes in its 25-year history.

Asiana, South Korea’s junior carrier, is a member of the Star Alliance with 91 international passenger routes, 28 cargo and 14 domestic routes. It operates a fleet of 80 aircraft.

Two years ago, one of its 747 cargo jets bound for Shanghai crashed into the sea off Korea’s Jeju island after taking off from Incheon airport. Two pilots on board were killed in the crash, which was blamed on mechanical problems.

In 1993, an Asiana domestic flight from Seoul crashed in driving wind and extremely poor visibility in a botched landing attempt, killing 66 people and injuring 44.

An inquiry found pilot error was the cause of that crash when the plane began a descent while it was still passing over a mountain peak.
Asiana was founded in 1988 by the Kumho Asiana transport and construction conglomerate at a time when South Korea wanted to boost its international appeal as an emerging economic power.

It launched its first international route two years later with flights to Tokyo and Hong Kong, then added flights to Southeast Asia and Los Angeles the following year, gradually expanding destinations to Europe and the Americas.

Asiana has been serving only six U.S. cities and four in Europe, compared with the 21 routes it flies to Japan and more than 30 to China.

With almost 30 mid- to long-range Airbus A350s on order, it has been hoping to meet soaring long-range passenger demand. Six A380 planes are also on order.

Saturday’s crash of an Asiana Airlines plane, in which a Boeing 777 flying from Seoul crashed while landing at San Francisco, killed two people and sent as many as 130 to the hospital,  reports said.

WORST MAJOR PLANE ACCIDENTS IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS
Following were the most fatal accidents involving passenger jets around the world in the last five years, listed as the most recent first, according to the Flight Safety Foundation:
June 3, 2012: Dana Air crash of an MD-83 in Nigeria, killing 163 people.
July 28, 2010: Airblue crash of an Airbus A321 in Pakistan, killing 152 people.
May 22, 2010: Air India Express crash of a Boeing 737 in India, 158 people killed
July 15, 2009: Caspian Airlines crash of a Tupolev 154 in Iran, 168 people killed.
June 30, 2009: Yemenia Airways crash of an Airbus A310 in the Comoros, 152 people killed
June 1, 2009, Air France crash of an Airbus A330 in the Atlantic Ocean, 228 people killed
August 20, 2008, Spanair crash of an MD-82 in Spain, killing 154 people.
Source : Reuters