Here is a list of the worst commercial aviation disasters worldwide:
1. March 27, 1977: 582 killed in a collision of two Boeing 747s operated by Pan American and KLM at the airport on Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands.2. Aug. 12, 1985: 520 killed when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain on a domestic flight.
3. March 3, 1974: 346 killed when a Turkish DC-10 crashed 26 miles northeast of Paris.
4. June 23, 1985: 329 killed when an Air-India Boeing 747 crashed off the coast of Ireland. Inquiries concluded a bomb caused the crash.
5. Aug. 19, 1980: 301 killed in a fiery emergency landing of a Saudi Arabian L-1011 jet at the airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
6. July 3, 1988: 290 killed when Iran Air A300 Airbus was shot down by USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf.
7. May 25, 1979: 273 killed when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff in Chicago.
8. Dec. 21, 1988: 270 killed when a Pan Am Boeing 747 crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland. A terrorist bomb was blamed.
9. Sept. 1, 1983: 269 killed when a Korean Air Lines 747 was shot down by a Soviet fighter after flying through Soviet airspace near Sakhalin Island.
10. Nov. 28, 1979: 257 killed when an Air New Zealand DC-10 taking tourists to the South Pole struck a mountain in Antarctica.
11. Dec. 12, 1985: 256 killed when an chartered Arrow Air DC-8 carrying members of the 101st Airborne Division crashed on takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland.
12. Jan. 1, 1978: 213 killed when an Air-India 747 en route to the Middle East emirate of Dubai crashed less than two minutes after taking off from Bombay.