How 16 global air accidents killed over 353 in 2024

Stories by Shola Adekola | Lagos

Year 2024 has become part of history, particularly for the global aviation sector, in view of the deadly crashes recorded across the world which led to the untimely deaths of over 353 passengers.

The peak of the disasters which occurred within three days on December 25 through December 28, 2024, has again raised questions about seamless air transport.

The 353 deaths which represented the total number recorded in 16 global crashes, included the one involving Nigerian-based Eastwind Aviation’s Sikorsky S76c+ helicopter with the registration number: 5N-BQG, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in Finnima near Bonny in Port Harcourt on October 24, 2024 killing eight souls onboard.

Prior to the crash of the Sikorsky helicopter among the crashes that had earlier occurred in the same year included the crash involving Japan Airlines Airbus A350-941, which crashed against a smaller Coast Guard aircraft on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

While all 379 people on board the Japanese flight survived, five of the six crew members in the Coast Guard aircraft were not lucky.

Equally, a Northwestern Airplane, with workers from the global miner Rio Tinto on board, on January 23, 2024, crashed near Fort Smith in the Canadian Northwest territories with six persons comprising two crew members and four passengers confirmed dead while only one person was reported alive from the accident.

On May 19, 2024, the United States-made Bell 212 helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and six other passengers crashed in the mountainous Varzeghan region near the Azerbaijan border with no survivor.

On June 10, 2024, a military plane carrying Malawi’s Vice President, Saulos Klaus Chilima with a former Malawi’s First Lady, Shanil Dzimbiri, among others enroute Lilongwe/Mzuzu crashed with all the people on board killed.

On July 24, 2024, a CRJ-200 plane belonging to Saurya Airlines crashed while taking off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport en route to Pokhara. Nineteen people died in the crash, with only one survivor on board.

On August 11, 2024, an ATR-72 turboprop owned by VoePass crashed in what was described as the deadliest in Brazil in the town of Vinhed. The ill-fated flight was headed from Cascavel to São Paulo, killed all the 62 passengers on board.

On August 23, 2024, a domestic charter flight, TFT209, operated by Thai Flying Service Co, crashed 100 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. The aircraft, a Cessna Caravan C208B, crashed while en route from Suvarnabhumi to Trat. All the nine people on board were killed.

On 17 December 2024, a Kamaka Air LLC-operated Cessna 208B Grand Caravan crashed on take-off from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu, Hawaii when it reportedly entered into an uncontrolled descent shortly after lifting off the ground, doing a sharp left bank before impacting into a building. Both pilots died in the crash.

Same day, on December 17, 2024, a Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 aircraft crashed near San Fernando Airport in Argentina with the pilots on board killed when the aircraft missed the runway, hit a perimeter fence, collided with a tree, and subsequently caught fire.

On December 20, 2024, a Cessna plane flying from Porto Velho to Manaus in Brazil disappeared. The wreckage and the bodies of two people inside-the pilot and the passenger-were discovered in the Amazon rainforest on Christmas Day.

Besides, on December 22, 2024, a Britten-Norman BN-2B-26 Islander aircraft of North Coast Aviation crashed in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The aircraft was on a flight from Wasu Airport to Lae-Nadzab Airport. Unfortunately, all five people on board were killed.

On December 22, 2024 – A private plane, piloted by Brazilian businessman Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, crashed in the town of Gramado, Brazil. The small plane carrying Galeazzi, his wife, three daughters, and five other members of the Galeazzi family, struck the chimney of a building, followed by a house and a shop. The crash killed all the passengers on board and injured at least 17 people on the ground.

A small aircraft with a pilot aged 50 crashed on December 23, 2024, near the Fife Airport in Scotland

On December 25, 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was travelling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, crashed with 39 lives lost, while 29 people survived.

On 28 December 2024, a tragic accident occurred when a Boeing 737-800, operated by Jeju Air, crashed while making an emergency landing at Muan Airport in South Korea. The flight was headed from Bangkok, Thailand, to Seoul. Tragically, all 175 passengers and four of the six crew members on board were killed. Only two crew members survived and were rescued from the wreckage.

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