In the same way people from the Baby Boomer generation all remember where they were the day John F. Kennedy was killed, later generations know exactly what they were doing when it was announced that a passenger airliner had crashed into the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 259 passengers and crew along with 11 people on the ground. Years later, the Libyan government acknowledged its responsibility for the tragedy. What a lot of people do not know, the Pan Am Flight 103 air crash investigation revealed that the airline was guilty of wilful misconduct for not matching up each piece of luggage with the correct passenger.
The pre-flight inspection had turned up no problems with the airliner before it departed from the airport in Frankfurt. Evidence later revealed that the plain had been struck by a bomb from the charred remains of that part of the airliner's hold. Bombs continue to be a menace to the aviation industry. They are most often found to have been hidden in someone's luggage.
Bombs are not the only lethal menace with which the industry has to deal. There is a far more deadly enemy that cannot be risk-managed out of the picture. Since 1940, there has not been a decade gone by when at least one passenger craft has not been shot down by heavy artillery.
In 2007, a plane that was coming for a landing at a U. S. Military base in Balad, Iraq, crashed. Thirty-four people were killed and one was seriously injured when the Antonov An-26 came down. Officials tried to pass it off as a result of bad weather, but there was evidence to suggest to some people that the aircraft had been attacked by a missile.
In 1993, three Transair Georgia airliners were shot down within three days of each other during the month of September. On September 21, a flight from Sochi in Russia was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed into the Black Sea. All five crew and 22 passengers were killed. On September 22, another airliner, reportedly carrying soldiers from the Georgian army, was shot down and crashed on the runway. Of 132 souls on board, 108 perished. The last crash, on September 23, was the result of an artillery or mortar attack as passengers were boarding. A crew member was killed.
In 1994, American military forces were accused of shooting down an Iranian Air Force plane carrying embassy staff. All 13 crew and 19 passengers were killed. Also in 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a crash near the capital of Rwanda. Rocket fire was blamed for bringing the plane down.
The deadliest crash involving a DC-9-10/15 series aircraft occurred in 1980, when a plane carrying 81 people crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the Italian island of Ustica off the coast of Naples. The President of Italy at the time blamed the French. In 2013, an Italian criminal court ruled that it was abundantly clear the flight had been terminated by a missile.
The first known occasion when civilian passengers were killed in a military-motivated crime was on June 14, 1940. Here, Passengers flying from Tallinn, a city in Estonia, were shot down by Soviet torpedo bombers while en route to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The Winter War, a military conflict between Finland and the Soviets, had ended just three months previously.
The pre-flight inspection had turned up no problems with the airliner before it departed from the airport in Frankfurt. Evidence later revealed that the plain had been struck by a bomb from the charred remains of that part of the airliner's hold. Bombs continue to be a menace to the aviation industry. They are most often found to have been hidden in someone's luggage.
Bombs are not the only lethal menace with which the industry has to deal. There is a far more deadly enemy that cannot be risk-managed out of the picture. Since 1940, there has not been a decade gone by when at least one passenger craft has not been shot down by heavy artillery.
In 2007, a plane that was coming for a landing at a U. S. Military base in Balad, Iraq, crashed. Thirty-four people were killed and one was seriously injured when the Antonov An-26 came down. Officials tried to pass it off as a result of bad weather, but there was evidence to suggest to some people that the aircraft had been attacked by a missile.
In 1993, three Transair Georgia airliners were shot down within three days of each other during the month of September. On September 21, a flight from Sochi in Russia was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed into the Black Sea. All five crew and 22 passengers were killed. On September 22, another airliner, reportedly carrying soldiers from the Georgian army, was shot down and crashed on the runway. Of 132 souls on board, 108 perished. The last crash, on September 23, was the result of an artillery or mortar attack as passengers were boarding. A crew member was killed.
In 1994, American military forces were accused of shooting down an Iranian Air Force plane carrying embassy staff. All 13 crew and 19 passengers were killed. Also in 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a crash near the capital of Rwanda. Rocket fire was blamed for bringing the plane down.
The deadliest crash involving a DC-9-10/15 series aircraft occurred in 1980, when a plane carrying 81 people crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the Italian island of Ustica off the coast of Naples. The President of Italy at the time blamed the French. In 2013, an Italian criminal court ruled that it was abundantly clear the flight had been terminated by a missile.
The first known occasion when civilian passengers were killed in a military-motivated crime was on June 14, 1940. Here, Passengers flying from Tallinn, a city in Estonia, were shot down by Soviet torpedo bombers while en route to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The Winter War, a military conflict between Finland and the Soviets, had ended just three months previously.
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