Airbus A300 - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

As of 2010, the A300 has been involved in 54 accidents and incidents, including 26 hull-losses and 1,434 fatalities.

• 27 June 1976: Air France Flight 139, originating in Tel Aviv, Israel and carrying 248 passengers and a crew of 12 took off from Athens, Greece, headed for Paris, France. The flight was hijacked by terrorists, and was eventually flown to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. At the airport, Israeli commandos rescued 102 of the 105 hostages.
• 18 December 1983: Malaysia Airlines Flight 684, an Airbus A300B4 leased from Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), registration OY-KAA, crashed short of the runway at Kuala Lumpur in bad weather while attempting to land on a flight from Singapore. All 247 persons aboard escaped unharmed but the aircraft was destroyed in the resulting fire.
• 3 July 1988: Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the USS Vincennes in the Persian Gulf after being mistaken for an attacking Iranian F-14 Tomcat, killing all 290 passengers and crew.
• 28 September 1992: PIA Flight 268 a Pakistan International Airlines A300B4 crashed on approach near Kathmandu, Nepal. All 12 crew and 155 passengers were killed.
• 26 April 1994: China Airlines Flight 140 crashed at the end of runway at Nagoya, Japan, killing all 15 crew and 249 of 256 passengers on board.
• 24 December 1994: Air France Flight 8969 was hijacked at Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers, by four terrorists who belonged to the Armed Islamic Group. The terrorists apparently intended to crash the plane over the Eiffel Tower on Boxing Day. After a failed attempt to leave Marseille following a confrontational firefight between the terrorists and the GIGN French Special Forces, the result was the death of all four terrorists. (Snipers on the terminal front's roof shot dead two of the terrorists. The other two terrorists died as a result of gunshots in the cabin after approximately 20 minutes.) Three hostages including a Vietnamese diplomat were executed in Algiers, 229 hostages survived, many of them wounded by shrapnel. The almost 15-year-old aircraft was written off.
• 26 September 1997: Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 crashed while landing at Medan, Indonesia killing 234 aboard.
• 16 February 1998: China Airlines Flight 676 (Taiwan) crashed into residential area close to CKS international airport near Taipei, Taiwan. All 196 people on board were killed, including Taiwan's central bank president. Six people on the ground were also killed.
• 24 December 1999: Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 from Kathmandu, Nepal to New Delhi was hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan. 1 fatality.
• 12 November 2001: American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, NY shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 260 people on board were killed, along with 5 people on the ground.
• 22 November 2003: European Air Transport OO-DLL, operating on behalf of DHL Aviation, was hit by an SA-14 'Gremlin' missile after takeoff from Baghdad International Airport. The airplane lost hydraulic pressure and thus the controls. After extending the landing gear to create more drag, the crew piloted the plane using differences in engine thrust and landed the plane with minimal further damage. The plane was repaired and offered for sale.
• 1 March 2004, PIA Flight 2002, an Airbus A300B4-200 burst 2 tires whilst taking off from King Abdulaziz International Airport. Fragments of the tire were ingested by the engines, this caused the engines to catch fire and an aborted takeoff was performed. Due to the fire substantial damage to the engine and the left wing caused the aircraft to be written off. All 261 passengers and 12 crew survived.
• 14 April 2010: Aerounion Flight 302, an A300B4-203F, crashed on a road 2 km short of the runway while attempting to land at Monterrey airport, Mexico. Seven people killed (5 crew, 2 on the ground)
• 25 August 2011. A300B4-620 5A-IAY of Afriqiyah Airways and A300B4-622 5A-DLZ of Libyan Arab Airlines were both destroyed in fighting between pro- and anti-Gadaffi forces at Tripoli International Airport.
• 16 November 2012: An Airbus A300 DHL cargo plane crash landed on it's nose at 5:25 am at Bratislava airport M. R. S. (BTS) (Slovakia) after it's front undercarriage failed. It was a regular morning flight from Germany to Bratislava. Until the incident happened there apparently weren't any problems reported during the flight. The crew consisting of three people weren't injured and no larger visible damage was caused.