List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Commercial Aircraft - 2003

2003

• January 8 – Air Midwest Flight 5481, a Beechcraft 1900, crashes on takeoff from Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States; all 19 passengers and 2 pilots are killed.
• January 8 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634, an Avro RJ100, crashes during its final approach to land at Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey in extensive fog. All of the 5 crew and 70 of the 75 passengers are killed, 5 passengers survive with heavy injuries.
• January 9 – TANS Perú Flight 222, a Fokker F28, crashes while on approach to Chachapoyas Airport; all 46 on board die.
• March 6 – Air Algérie Flight 6289, a Boeing 737-200, veers off the runway on takeoff in Tamanrasset, Algeria; 96 of the 97 passengers and all 6 crew members perish.
• May 29 – A man attempts to hijack Qantas Flight 1737, a Boeing 717, in Melbourne, Australia, intending to crash the plane in Tasmania. He is overpowered by the flight crew and passengers, but injures three people.
• July 8 – Sudan Airways Flight 139, a Boeing 737-200, crashes shortly after taking off from Port Sudan, Sudan. The plane crashes into a hill while attempting an emergency landing. All 117 on board the plane perish; a two-year-old boy initially survives the crash, but dies the following day.
• November 22 – A DHL Airbus A300 is struck by a missile near Baghdad, Iraq and loses hydraulic system function, but manages to land safely with only engine controls without any fatalities. This is the first non-fatal landing of an airliner without control surfaces.
• December 18 – FedEx Express Flight 647, a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10, veers off the runway upon landing after a landing gear collapse and catches fire at Memphis International Airport; two crew members and five passengers escape with only minor injuries.
• December 25 – UTAGE Flight 141, a Boeing 727, runs off the end of the runway upon takeoff at Cotonou, Benin and crashes onto the beach on the Bight of Benin, killing 151 of the 163 occupants.