On 28 April 1988, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was en route from Hilo to Honolulu in Hawaii when the roof of the front fuselage was torn off sucking out a flight attendant. The aircraft landed safely at Kahului, Maui. The fuselage was torn off because of corrosion damage and metal fatigue.
On 20 December 1995, American Airlines Flight 965 headed for Cali, Colombia. The crew was asked if they would like to do a straight-in approach to Cali. The pilots agreed and inadvertently removed the waypoints from the flight plan in their Flight management system (FMS), causing them to become unsure of their exact position. Their mistakes caused them to crash into a 9,000 foot mountain near Buga. Only four passengers survived.
On 1 July 2002, the Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 collided with the DHL Flight 611 in German airspace near Überlingen. Flight 2937 was destroyed instantly and Flight 611 crashed shortly afterwards, killing all 71 people in the two aircraft. The crew of Flight 611 followed the TCAS instructions to initiate a descent while the crew of Flight 2937 listened to the air traffic controller over their TCAS and initiated a descent as well. The air traffic controller was killed later by the father of one of the families onboard the passenger plane.
On 31 January 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261's trimmable horizontal stabilizer jammed and broke free from its control system and the aircraft dove inverted into the Pacific Ocean, causing the death of all on board. The stabilizer failed due to an improperly maintained jackscrew assembly.
On 2 October 1996, shortly after take off the crew of Aeroperú Flight 603 were confused by false speed and altitude readings and contradictory warnings from the aircraft's air data system. In preparation for an emergency landing the crew descended the aircraft, but relying on false readings the crew went too far causing the aircraft to crash into the water, killing everyone on board. The false readings and contradictory warnings were caused by duct tape over the static ports, the duct tape was used to protect the ports during maintenance but was not removed afterwards.
On 2 September 1998, a fire broke out on Swissair Flight 111 while in-flight, the fire kills the aircraft's vital systems and the aircraft crashed into the sea off Peggy's Cove with no survivors. The fire was caused by faulty wiring.
On 24 August 2001, Air Transat Flight 236 ran out of fuel while flying over the ocean. The pilots safely glided and landed the aircraft at a naval base in the Azores. The fuel starvation was caused by improper maintenance work which allowed a hydraulic oil pipe and a fuel pipe to rub together resulting in the fracture of the fuel pipe causing a leak.
On 1 June 1999, American Airlines Flight 1420 tried to land at the Little Rock National Airport during a storm but overran the runway killing eleven people. The crash was caused by the crew not extending the spoilers during their pre-landing checks.
