Major plane crashes involving New York City airports

Feb. 1, 1957 – Twenty people died when a Miami-bound airliner crashed onto Rikers Island moments after taking off from LaGuardia in a blinding snowstorm. Seventy-four others onboard survived.

Feb. 1, 1957 – Twenty people died when a Miami-bound airliner crashed onto Rikers Island moments after taking off from LaGuardia in a blinding snowstorm. Seventy-four others onboard survived.

Feb. 3, 1959 – An American Airlines plane crashed into the East River, killing 65 people.

Dec. 16, 1960 – TWA Flight 266 from Dayton, Ohio, bound for LaGuardia Airport collided in a heavy snowstorm over Staten Island with United Flt. 825 from Chicago-bound for Idlewild (now Kennedy) Airport. All 128 people onboard the two aircraft died, as did six people on the ground.

Feb. 8, 1965 – An Eastern Airlines DC-7B crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Jones Beach, shortly after taking off from Kennedy. All 84 onboard were killed.

June 24, 1975 – An Eastern Airlines Boeing 727, carrying 124 persons, crashed while attempting to land at Kennedy International Airpirt during a thunderstorm. The crash left 113 people dead and 11 seriously injured.

Sept. 20, 1989 — Two people are killed when a USAir Boeing 737 plane bound to Charlotte, N.C., with 62 people onboard slid off the end of the runway into the East River during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in Queens.

Jan. 25, 1990 — An Avianca Airline Boeing 707 crashed into the exclusive Cove Neck area after the plane ran out of fuel on its attempt to land at Kennedy Airport, killing 150 people on board.

July 17, 1996 — TWA Flight 800 explodes and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Moriches Inlet only minutes after departing Kennedy Airport. The plane, bound for Paris, killed all 230 people onboard.

Sept. 11, 2001 — In the worst air disaster in American history, terrorists fly two planes into the World Trade Center, killing 147 passengers in the two planes and approximately 2,600 people died in the towers. Two other planes were hijacked and were crashed into a field in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Pentagon, killing hundreds more.

Nov. 12, 2001 — All 260 onboard and 5 people on the ground were killed with a plane crashed into a neighborhood in Rockaway, Queens. American Flight 587 was bound for the Dominican Republic from Kennedy Airport, and crashed three minutes after takeoff.

Oct. 11, 2006 — A single-engine airplane owned by Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle slammed into the side of a Manhattan apartment tower, killing Lidle his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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