List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Commercial Aircraft - 1972

1972

• January 7 – Iberia Airlines Flight 602, a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle, crashes into a mountain while on approach to Ibiza Airport in Spain killing all 104 passengers and crew on board.
• January 12 – Braniff Flight 38, a Boeing 727, is hijacked after takeoff from William P. Hobby Airport in Houston; all 94 passengers are allowed to deplane after landing at Dallas Love Field; the crew escapes 6 hours later; the hijacker is arrested with no casualties to the 101 people on board.
• January 26 – JAT Flight 367, a Douglas DC-9, suffers a bomb explosion while en route from Copenhagen to Zagreb; twenty-seven of twenty-eight on board are killed; Vesna Vulović, the only survivor, is entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for surviving the longest fall without a parachute, over ten thousand meters (33,000 ft).
• March 3 – Mohawk Airlines Flight 405, a Fairchild Hiller FH227B twin-engine turboprop, crashes near Albany, New York while descending to land, killing 16 of the 48 people on board and 1 on the ground.
• March 14 – Sterling Airways Flight 296, a Sud Caravelle, crashes near Kalba, United Arab Emirates due to pilot error; all 112 on board die in the worst air disaster in the history of the United Arab Emirates.
• March 19 – EgyptAir Flight 763, a Douglas DC-9, crashes on approach to Aden International Airport, killing all 30 passengers and crew.
• May 5 – Alitalia Flight 112, a Douglas DC-8 flying from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport crashes into Mount Longa, about 5 km (3.1 mi) south-west of Palermo while on approach, killing all 115 passengers and crew; it remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
• May 18 – Aeroflot Flight 1491, an Antonov An-24, suffers a in-flight structural failure while descending to land at Kharkov Airport in the Ukraine. All 122 passengers and crew on board are killed.
• June 12 – American Airlines Flight 96, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, suffers explosive decompression when one of its cargo doors fails in flight; the crew manages an emergency landing at Detroit, Michigan and all 67 on board evacuate safely.
• June 14 – Japan Airlines Flight 471, a Japan Airlines flight from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand to Palam International Airport (now Indira Gandhi International Airport) in New Delhi, India. The Douglas DC-8-53 used crashed outside of the New Delhi airport, killing 82 of 87 occupants; 10 of 11 crew members and 72 of 76 passengers died, and 3 people on the ground died. 16 of the dead were Americans. Brazilian actress Leila Diniz was also among the killed.
• June 15 – A carry-on suitcase bomb explodes on Cathay Pacific Flight 700Z, a Convair 880, at 29,000 feet (8,800 m) over Vietnam; all 81 on board perish.
• June 18 – British European Airways Flight 548, a Hawker Siddeley Trident, undergoes a series of stalls as a result of pilot error, followed by a deep stall, crashing near Staines, United Kingdom; all 118 on board are killed.
• June 24 – Prinair Flight 191, a De Havilland Heron, over-rotates because of pilot error and crashes in Ponce, Puerto Rico, killing 5 of 20 people on board.
• June 29 – In the 1972 Lake Winnebago mid-air collision, North Central Airlines Flight 290, a Convair CV-580, and Air Wisconsin Flight 671, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, collide over Lake Winnebago near Appleton, Wisconsin, killing all 13 people on board the two aircraft.
• August 14 – The 1972 Königs Wusterhausen air disaster: an Interflug Ilyushin Il-62, registered DM-SEA crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, all 156 passengers and crew are killed in Germany's worst air disaster.
• August 16 – A Burma Airways Douglas C-47 crashes into the sea off Thandwe, Burma, killing 25 of 28 on board.
• September 24 – Japan Airlines Flight 472, a Douglas DC-8 with 122 on board, overruns the runway after landing at the wrong airport; no fatalities.
• October 13 – Aeroflot Flight 217, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes on approach to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, USSR. All 174 passengers and crew on board are killed.
• October 13 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a Fairchild FH-227, crashes in the Andes; passengers survive for 72 days by feeding on the dead.
• December 8 – United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 43 of 60 people on board and 2 people on the ground; among those killed was Dorothy Hunt, wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt. The crash is the first fatal crash involving the 737-200.
• December 8 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 631 entered a heavy rainstorm on approach to Rawalpindi and crashed into a hillside. The airliner broke into three pieces. All 26 people aboard perished on the hillside.
• December 20 – In the 1972 Chicago-O'Hare runway collision, Delta Airlines Flight 954, a Convair CV-880, and North Central Airlines Flight 575, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31, collide, killing 10 people and injuring 17.
• December 23 – Braathens SAFE Flight 239, a Fokker F-28, crashes in Asker upon landing at Fornebu airport, Oslo, Norway, killing 40 of 45 people on board.
• December 29 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, a Lockheed Tristar, crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 of 176 people on board; the crew is distracted by a faulty gear-down light, resulting in controlled flight into terrain; this is the first crash of a widebody aircraft and the first loss of a Lockheed Tristar.