Experts say one of the deadliest air disasters in history was averted last week, after air traffic control prevented an Air Canada from landing on a busy taxiway, on which four aircraft were waiting.
But what really is the deadliest? Here, we count down the 10 worst plane crashes of all time.
It’s worth noting at this point that 2017 is on its way to being one of the safest years in aviation history, with just 51 crashes and 282 fatalities so far, according to the Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives.
The DC-10 left Chicago O’Hare on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend only for its left engine to detach from its wing and fall off, rolling the plane in the air and sending it crashing to earth just a mile from the runway.
The plane “burst into a pillar of flame and smoke that could be seen up to eight miles away,” the Chicago Tribune reported at the time. All 271 people on board and two on the ground were killed in what remains America’s worst aviation disaster.
