WORLD

A History of Crashes Caused by Pilots’ Intentional Acts

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French officials said Thursday that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525deliberately flew the plane into a mountain in the French Alps while the pilot banged on the locked cockpit door and passengers screamed. Crashes caused intentionally by pilots are very rare but not unheard of. Here are some examples:
  1. Parts of a Mozambique Airlines plane that crashed in the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, in November 2013. Olavi Haikera/Associated Press
    NOVEMBER 2013
    Mozambique Airlines
    Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, the pilot of Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 bound for Luanda, Angola, intentionally crashed the plane in a national park in Namibia on Nov. 29, 2013, according to investigators. All 33 people on board were killed. When the flight’s co-pilot left to use the lavatory, the captain locked him out of the cockpit and manually steered the plane downward. Listening to recovered flight recordings, investigators were able to hear alarms and banging on the cockpit door.
  2. Wreckage from EgyptAir Flight 990 in boxes and on the floor at a hanger at Quonset Point in North Kingstown, R.I. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
    OCTOBER 1999
    EgyptAir
    EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, Mass., on Oct. 31, 1999, killing all 217 people on board. Investigators concluded that the most likely explanation was that the co-pilot, Gameel al-Batouti, deliberately brought down the plane, although they sidestepped the question of motive and Egyptian officials have disputed that conclusion.
    The flight data recorder showed that he waited for the captain to leave the cockpit and then disengaged the autopilot. As the plane descended, he could be heard saying in Arabic, “I rely on God,” over and over.
  3. Pieces of wreckage from SilkAir Flight 185 at a police station in Palembang, Indonesia in December 1997. Muchtar Zakaria/Associated Press
    DECEMBER 1997
    SilkAir
    A Boeing 737 belonging to the Singapore-based airline SilkJet was cruising at 35,000 feet in clear weather when it suddenly dove into a mangrove swamp near Palembang, Indonesia, on Dec. 19, 1997,  killing all 104 people on board. Indonesian investigators said, that in the last seconds of the flight,there were indications that the pilot, Tsu Way Ming, “was in the process of, or intending to, leave the cockpit.” He had recently been demoted anddisciplined by the airline, and had large gambling debts. The government of Indonesia has yet to officially accept the findings.
  4. AUGUST 1994
    Air Morocco
    Moroccan authorities said that Younes Khayati, 32, the pilot of a Royal Air Maroc ATR-42 aircraft, intentionally disconnected the plane’s automatic navigation systems on Aug. 21, 1994, and crashed the plane into the Atlas Mountains shortly after takeoff, killing all 44 people aboard. He had passed a competency test and medical checkup on July 30. 
  5. The nose of Japan Air Lines DC-8 jetliner which crashed in Tokyo Bay in 1982.Sugufumi Matsumoto/Associated Press
    FEBRUARY 1982
    Japan Air Lines
    Seiji Katagiri, 35, the pilot of a Japan Air Lines DC-8 sent the plane into Tokyo Bay moments before it was to land on Feb. 9, 1982, killing 24 of the 166 passengers on board. Mr. Katagiri, who survived the crash, was prosecuted, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He had a history of ''psychosomatic disorders'' in the late 1980s, but airline doctors said he was fit for duty.