Boeing 737 - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

For incidents involving other 737 variants see Boeing 737 Classic incidents and Boeing 737 Next Generation incidents.

As of April 2012, a total of 315 incidents involving 737s have occurred, including 159 hull-loss accidents resulting in a total of 4,236 fatalities. The 737 has also been in 106 hijackings involving 324 fatalities.

Notable accidents involving 737-100/-200 aircraft

• December 8, 1972, United Airlines Flight 553, a 737-200, crashed while attempting to land at Chicago Midway International Airport. Forty-three of the 61 passengers and crew on board plus two people on the ground were killed. This was the first ever fatal incident involving a 737.

• May 31, 1973, Indian Airlines Flight 440, a 737-200, crashed while on approach to Palam International Airport in New Delhi, India. 48 of the 65 passengers and crew on board are killed.

• December 4, 1977, Malaysia Airlines Flight 653, a 737-200, crashed following a phugoid oscillation that saw the plane diving into a swamp after both its pilots were shot following a hijack. The crash happened in the Southern Malaysian state of Johor. 93 passengers and seven crew were killed, among them the Malaysian Agricultural Minister and the Cuban Ambassador to Japan.

• 11 February 1978, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a 737-200, crashed while attempting to land at Cranbrook Airport,British Columbia,Canada. The aircraft crashed after thrust reversers did not fully stow following a rejected landing that was executed in order to avoid a snowplow. The crash killed four of the crew members and 38 of the 44 passengers.

• January 13, 1982: Air Florida Flight 90, a 737-200 crashed in a severe snowstorm, immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport, hitting the 14th Street Bridge and fell into the ice-covered Potomac River in Washington, D.C.. All but five of the 74 passengers and five crew members died; four motorists on the bridge were also killed.
• May 25, 1982: a VASP Boeing 737-2A1 registration PP-SMY on landing procedures at Brasília during rain, made a hard landing with nose gear first. The gear collapsed and the aircraft skidded off the runway breaking in two. Two passengers out of 118 occupants died.
• July 11, 1983: a TAME Boeing 737-2V2 Advanced, registration HC-BIG, crashed while attempting to land at Mariscal Lamar Airport, killing all 111 passengers and 8 crew on board. The cause of the crash was a CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) as a cause of the pilot's inexperience with the aircraft. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in Ecuadorean history.
• August 22, 1985: British Airtours Flight 28M, a 737-200, caught on fire after a rejected take-off at Manchester Airport, UK, after a crack in one of the combustors of the left Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 engine. 56 of the 136 passengers and crew died, most due to toxic smoke inhalation. Research following the accident investigation led to many innovations in air safety, including a redesign of the 737's galley area.
• January 2, 1988: Condor Flugdienst Flight 3782, a 737-200, crashed near Izmir Airport, due to ILS problems.
• April 28, 1988: Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a 737-200, suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression at 24,000 feet (7,300 m), but was able to land safely at Kahului Airport on Maui with only one fatality. Flight attendant C.B. Lansing, who was not in restraints at the moment of decompression, was blown out of the aircraft over the ocean and was never found.
• September 15, 1988: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 604, a 737-200, suffered a multiple bird strike while taking off from Bahir Dar Airport. Both engines failed and the airliner crashed and caught fire while trying to return to the airport. Thirty-five of 98 passengers died while all six crew members survived.
• September 3, 1989: a Varig Boeing 737-241 registration PP-VMK operating flight 254 flying from São Paulo-Guarulhos to Belém-Val de Cães with intermediate stops, crashed near São José do Xingu while on the last leg of the flight between Marabá and Belém due to a pilot navigational error, which led to fuel exhaustion and a subsequent belly landing into the jungle, 450 miles (724 km) southwest of Marabá. Out of 54 occupants, there were 13 fatalities, all of them passengers. The survivors were discovered two days later.
• March 3, 1991: United Airlines Flight 585, a 737-200 carrying 20 passengers and five crew members, lost control after a rudder malfunction and crashed outside of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, killing everyone on board.
• June 22, 1992: a VASP cargo Boeing 737-2A1C registration PP-SND en route from Rio Branco to Cruzeiro do Sul crashed in the jungle while on arrival procedures to Cruzeiro do Sul. The crew of two and one passenger died.
• September 8, 1994: USAir Flight 427, a 737-3B7 carrying 132 passengers and five crew members, in a similar incident to United Airlines Flight 585, lost control of the rudder and nosedived into the ground, killing all.
• November 13, 1995: Nigeria Airways Flight 357, Boeing 737-2F9 (5N-AUA), suffered a runway overrun at Kaduna Airport, with 11 of 124 passengers killed and all 14 crew members surviving.
• February 14, 1997: a Varig Boeing 737-241 registration PP-CJO operating flight 265, flying from Marabá to Carajás while on touch-down procedures at Carajás during a thunderstorm, had its right main gear collapsed rearwards causing the aircraft to veer off the right of the runway. The aircraft crashed into the forest. One crew member died.
• August 31, 1999: LAPA Flight 3142, a 737-200, crashed while attempting to take off from the Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires en route to Córdoba, Argentina. The crash resulted in 65 fatalities.
• April 19, 2000: Air Philippines Flight 541, a 737-200 crashed near Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Davao City, killing 131 people.
• October 29, 2006: ADC Airlines Flight 53, a 737-200 crashed during a storm shortly after takeoff from Abuja, Nigeria. All but seven of the 104 passengers and crew are reported to have been killed.
• August 24, 2008: Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895, a 737-200 crashed while attempting emergency landing on return 10 minutes after departure. The airliner was flying from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to Tehran. Out of 83 passengers and seven crew, there were 22 survivors.
• March 1, 2010: Air Tanzania Flight 100, Boeing 737-200 5H-MVZ sustained substantial damage when it departed the runway on landing at Mwanza Airport and the nosewheel collapsed. Damage was also caused to an engine.
• August 20, 2010: Chanchangi Airlines Flight 334, operated by Boeing 737-200 5N-BIF struck the localizer antenna and landed short of the runway at Kaduna Airport. Several passengers were slightly injured and the aircraft was substantially damaged. Chanchangi Airlines again suspended operations following the accident.
• August 20, 2011: First Air Flight 6560, a Boeing 737-200, crashed near Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada. Of the 15 people on board, there were three survivors.
• April 20, 2012: Bhoja Air Flight 213, a 737-200, crashed in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. All 127 passengers and crew on board were killed.