| SKC Films Library >> In The Year... >> 1974 | ||||
Disasters in 1974 AVIATION January 26 A Turkish airliner crashed and burst into flames while taking off from Izmir, Turkey, killing 63 persons. January 31 A U. S. jetliner crashed and burned while attempting to land in bad weather at Pago Pago, American Samoa, killing 95 of the 101 persons aboard. March 14 The crash of a chartered plane near Bishop, California, killed 31 members of a Wolper Productions crew on its way to shoot scenes for The Primal Man, an ABC documentary program. April 4 A plane carrying gold miners home to Malawi crashed soon after taking off from Francistown, Botswana, killing 77 of the 83 persons aboard. April 22 An American jetliner crashed in a remote, mountainous region of Bali, Indonesia, killing all 107 persons aboard. August 12 A Malian turboprop crashed near Ouagadougou, Upper Volta, killing 47 persons. August 14 A Venezuelan turboprop crashed into a hill on the island of Margarita during a heavy rain storm, killing 47 of the 48 persons aboard. September 8 An American jetliner crashed into the Ionian Sea off Greece, killing all 88 persons aboard. September 11 An Eastern Airlines jetliner crashed and burned while attempting to land at fog-shrouded Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 of the 82 persons aboard. [contemporary accounts] September 15 A South Vietnamese jetliner that had been hijacked by a man demanding to be flown to Hanoi exploded and crashed after the hijacker detonated grenades; all 70 persons aboard were killed. November 20 A West German 747 crashed and burned soon after taking off from Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 of the 157 persons aboard.
December 4 A Dutch charter airliner carrying Indonesian Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, crashed in Sri Lanka, killing all 191 persons aboard. December 22 A Venezuelan airliner crashed soon after taking off from Maturin, Venezuela, killing all 77 persons aboard. EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES January 23 A fire in the dormitory of a Belgian Catholic school killed 23 teenage boys.
June 1 An explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough, England, killed 29 persons and injured 94 others. About 3,000 villagers were temporarily forced from their homes by thick smoke and toxic fumes. June 17 A fire in a downtown Lahore, Pakistan, building killed at least 40 people. June 30 Smoke from a flash fire in a singles bar in Port Chester, New York, killed 24 persons. [contemporary accounts] July 19 Five railroad tank cars containing propane gas exploded at a rail yard in Decatur, Illinois, killing 7 persons and injuring about 160 others. The explosion happened when the tank cars rammed a standing boxcar. September 21 An explosion at a Southern Pacific Transportation Company rail yard in Houston, Texas, killed 1 person and injured about 80 others and caused an estimated $14 million in property damage. The explosion happened when butadiene gas leaking from a tank car ignited during a coupling operation. The railroad company paid damage claims on property within a 20-block radius of the rail yard. November 3 Fire swept through a crowded discotheque in a hotel in Seoul, South Korea, killing 88 persons. MARINE September 28 A Panamanian freighter sank in heavy seas near Hong Kong during a typhoon, killing 31 crewmen. MINE December 27 An explosion and fire in a deep shaft of a coal mine in Liévin, France, killed 42 miners. |
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>> 1974 This page was last updated on November 15, 2018. |