DUBAI // There have been nine fatal accidents involving civilian and cargo aircraft in the UAE since 1953.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, the first was on August 3, 1953, when one passenger died in a crash involving an Orient Airways Douglas DC-3 near Sharjah Airport.
On July 10, 1960, the same aircraft type was involved in an accident near Sharjah, killing 16.
A Sterling Airways Caravelle 10B3 crashed on March 14, 1972, near Kalba, Sharjah, killing the 112 people onboard.
The same number of passengers died on September 23, 1983, when a Gulf Air Boeing 737-2P6 went down at Jebel Ali port after a suspected bombing.
On December 15, 1997, a Tajikistan Airlines Tupolev 154B-1 crashed near Sharjah Airport, killing 85 people.
And on July 13, 1998, an Ilyushin 76MD cargo plane crashed near Ras Al Khaimah, killing all eight onboard.
On February 10, 2004, Iranian Kish Air flight 7170 crashed near Sharjah Airport, killing 43 of the 46 people onboard.
Six passengers were killed in a Sudan Airways-operated Boeing 707-330C cargo plane, which went down near Sharjah Airport on October 21, 2009.
The most recent fatal air crash on UAE soil took place on September 3, 2010, when two people died on a UPS Boeing 747-44AF that crashed near Dubai International Airport.
For more details visit aviation-safety.net.
nhanif@thenational.ae
