Chronological Timeline

Metal fatigue broke the Comet apart

'See and avoid' failed over the canyon

Vanished over the Pacific — never found

Ditched in San Francisco Bay in fog

Missed approaches burned the reserves

Skyjacker parachuted out with $200,000 — never found

Cargo door blew out, collapsing the cabin floor

Overwhelmed controller cleared both jets into each other

Hail flamed out both engines

Takeoff without clearance in fog

Japanese Red Army hijacked the jet to Dhaka

Fixated on a gear light while fuel ran out

Crew lost sight of the Cessna below them

Engine pylon tore off after shortcut maintenance

Microburst seconds after liftoff

Ice-caked wings and iced engine probes

Captain engaged reverse thrust on approach — deliberately

Volcanic ash killed all four engines

Metric conversion error loaded half the fuel

Strayed into Soviet airspace and was shot down

Faulty bulkhead repair failed at 24,000 ft

Microburst on final approach

Checked-bag bomb exploded mid-Atlantic

Private plane strayed into LAX airspace

Fuselage fatigue tore the roof off

Libyan bomb in the forward hold

Fan disk exploded, severing all hydraulics

Ran out of fuel after hours of holding

Wrong bolts blew the windshield out

Thrust reverser deployed in flight

Rudder reversed without warning

Fuse pins failed, two engines ripped off

Captain let his children sit at the controls

Same hidden rudder defect as United 585

Microburst during a go-around

Navigation error led to controlled flight into terrain

Blocked pitot tube gave false airspeed

Descended below assigned altitude

Hijackers ran the fuel dry, then a forced ditching

Vertical dive — suicide or rudder defect?

Entertainment-system wiring ignited a fire

Hijacked to Kandahar by five gunmen

Deliberate dive or mechanical? Still disputed

CFIT during a disoriented night circling approach

Takeoff from a closed runway in a typhoon

Worn jackscrew stripped the stabilizer trim

Fuel line chafed open over the Atlantic

Hijacked and flown into the North Tower

Passengers fought back against hijackers

22-year-old tailstrike repair cracked open

TCAS said climb; the controller said descend

Spatial disorientation over dark water

Pressurization left in manual; crew hypoxia

Flew into a hail storm on approach

Wrong fuel gauge installed lied about the tanks

Floated down a storm-soaked runway

Legacy jet's transponder was silently off

Fixation on a faulty navigation system

One reverser off, wet short runway, no margin

Flaps never set — and the warning horn stayed silent

Stall mismanagement after pitot tubes iced over

Faulty radio altimeter idled the engines

Geese killed both engines at 2,800 ft

Fatigued captain landed long on a tabletop runway

Uncontained engine explosion shredded the wing

Mismanaged autothrottle on a visual approach

Undershot the runway into the sea

Shot down by a Buk missile over Ukraine

Vanished — cause still unknown

Below-glidepath descent in a snowstorm

ISIS bomb smuggled aboard at Sharm El Sheikh

First officer locked out the captain and crashed deliberately

Six failed approaches burned fuel below reserve

Loss of control during a night go-around

Deliberately flew beyond fuel range

Late go-around with the gear retracting

Smoke alerts, then vanished — fire or bomb?

Lined up on a taxiway with four loaded jets

MCAS activated on a faulty sensor

Microburst right after liftoff in a hailstorm

MCAS overpowered the crew after takeoff

Diversions and holding burned fuel to minutes

Gear-up landing attempt, then failed go-around

Fast, long landing on a wet tabletop runway

Tailwind landing went long on a wet runway

Both fuel cutoff switches moved after liftoff — why?

Co-pilot attacked the captain in the cockpit mid-flight

All three hydraulic systems failed briefly at cruise altitude

Under investigation — freighter came down on Miami arrival