10 airplane catastrophes with most number of deaths

MANILA, Philippines - Air travel safety is once again put into doubt by the public eye after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the missile-shooting of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, killing all 298 people onboard.

Airplane accidents have been quite proven to attract the public’s attention, somehow because destruction it brings is far more greater than land vehicular accidents. Records show that there have been more than 9,000 deaths on commercial flights. But according to International Civil Aviation Organization, with the number of passengers every year, tragedy can really do happen.

Here is a list of some of the world's deadliest air disasters, according to the number of fatalities:

583 fatalities - Tenerife Airport Disaster (1977)

520 fatalities - Japan Airlines Flight 747 (1985)

All 15 crew and 505 of the 509 passengers died, resulting in the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history with a total of 520 deaths.
Cause: mechanical failure involving the plane’s rear pressure bulkhead

349 fatalities - Charkhi Dadri Mid-Air Collision (1996)
On November 1996, 349 people on Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 died.
Cause: mid-Air Collision over the village of Charkhi Dadri

346 fatalities - Ermenonville Air Disaster (1974)
Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed just outside of Paris in March 1974 killing all 346 people onboard.
Cause: rear cargo hatch of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 blew off

329 fatalities - Air India Flight 182 (1985)
Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747-237B was the first 747 jumbo jet blown up by a bomb, on June 23 1985. All 329 people on board died.
Cause: bombing

301 - Saudia Arabian Flight 163 (1980)
Total of 301 people on board Saudia Arabian Flight 163 died after the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar caught fire after takeoff from Riyadh International Airport (now Riyadh Air Base) in August 1980.
Cause: burst into flames during emergency landing; smoke inhalation

275 fatalities – Air New Zealand plane DC-10 (1979)
275 people died when the plane hit Mt. Erebus on Antarctica.
Cause: navigational error

265 fatalities - American Airlines' Flight 587 (2001)
A few weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attack, American Airlines' Flight 587 stirred panic when it plummeted into Belle Harbor, Queens, killing a total of 265 people
Cause: pilot error; despite the initial concerns, the National Transportation Safety Board found no evidence of sabotage

264 fatalities – China Airlines Flight 140 (1994)
264 people perished after an Airbus A300 operated by China Airlines crashed during landing at Nagoya airport in Japan.
Cause: pilot error

228 fatalities - Air France Flight 447 (2009)
June 1, 2009: Air France Flight 447 is en route from Rio de Janiero to Paris when it went missing somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean along with the 228 passengers somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. The bodies were found five days after the crash.
Cause: pilot error, faulty air speed indicators due to bad weather conditions and ice