Backgrounder: Major air accidents since 2008

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-30 13:55

BEIJING: A Yemeni airliner with about 150 people on board crashed off the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, and no immediate news was available on whether there are any survivors.

The following is a list of major air accidents worldwide since 2008:

February 21, 2008, a passenger plane belonging to a small Venezuelan airline company Santa Barbara crashed in the Andes just after taking off. All 46 people on board were killed;

April 15, 2008, a passenger plane crashed into a market in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing more than 50 people;

August 20, 2008, 154 people died and 18 others were injured when a 15-year-old plane crashed and burst into flames during takeoff in Madrid.

August 24, 2008, a Boeing 737-200 owned by Itek Air crashed shortly after takeoff from the airport at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, killing 65 people and injuring 22 others;

September 14, 2008, an Aeroflot Boeing 737 plane crashed in a ball of fire near the Ural mountains, killing all 82 passengers and six crew members;

February 12, 2009, US Continental Airlines Flight 3407 crashed in suburban Buffalo in northern New York state, killing all 49 aboard and one on the ground.

May 20, 2009, an Indonesian Air Force Hercules C-130 crashed and burnt in Magetan, East Java, killing at least 98 people and injuring 15 others.

June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, went down into the Atlantic Ocean after leaving Rio de Janeiro for Paris, killing all 228 people on board.