{"id":2812,"date":"2016-05-29T04:20:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T22:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:44:46","slug":"lion-air-plane-crash-aircraft-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2812","title":{"rendered":"The Lion Air Crash and Other Times When Planes Came Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

D<\/span><\/p>espite James Cameron\u2019s best attempts to convince us otherwise in <\/span>Titanic<\/span><\/i><\/a>, plane crashes will always be the gold standard in blood-curdling transportation disasters. The morbid visual of a huge metal object plummeting from the sky commands a grim fascination, that\u2019s triggered even further when the plane looks like it\u2019s heading to crash into a crowded city.<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s thrilling when we are watching this unfold on a screen with our <\/span>3D glasses<\/span><\/a> on, but frightening when reel becomes real and a <\/span>passenger aircraft crashes<\/span><\/a>\u00a0into the sea, like Lion Air flight in Indonesia did earlier today.\u00a0<\/span>The Lion Air flight was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, a brand new type of aircraft, but that did not help as pilots lost control shortly after taking off from Jakarta airport. Of the 188 souls on board, it is unclear if there are any survivors. Like these other equally shocking aircraft accidents, it\u2019<\/span>s a grim reminder of what can happen when humankind\u2019s restless innovation meets the cruel hands of fate.<\/span>\n\nThe Indonesian Incident<\/b>\n\n\"\"\n\n

KHARISMA TARIGAN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nImagine snoozing in a hotel room on a sleepy tropical island when suddenly, the roof gets taken off by a <\/span>crashing plane<\/span><\/a>. That\u2019s what residents of Medan, Indonesia experienced in 2015, when a military transport plane experienced technical difficulties soon after takeoff. The pilot\u2019s attempt to return to the airport went down in flames, literally, crashing into the town\u2019s buildings and causing a huge fireball. One hundred and forty-one people lost their lives that day.<\/span>\n\nA New York Nightmare<\/b>\n\n\"\"\n\n

STF\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nIn 1960, it wasn\u2019t just one plane crashing over a teeming city, <\/span>but two<\/span><\/a>. Over the city of New York, a pilot miscalculated his holding pattern, putting his plane on a collision course with another aircraft \u2013 both were passenger planes. The two planes had a combined total of 128 people on board, who all died in the mid-air collision. The final death toll, after one plane crashed in a military airfield and the other into a residential building and church, was 134.<\/span>\n\nTerror over Taiwan<\/b>\n\n\"\"\n\n

Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nContinuing the trend of human error leading to disastrous accidents, the <\/span>2015 crash<\/span><\/a> of a TransAsia flight in Taiwan was put down to the pilot\u2019s mistake of switching off the plane\u2019s only working engine after the other engine stopped working. In a dramatic crash captured on camera, the plane descends toward the city streets with giddying speed, clipping a bridge with its left wing before crashing into the river below. Fifty eight people were on board, but only 15 survived. The pilot was not one of them.<\/span>\n\nMayday, Mexico City<\/b>\n\n\"\"\n\n

David FLORES\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nMoving from a straightforward instance of human incompetence, to one where the cause of the crash has led to the sprouting up of <\/span>conspiracy theories<\/span><\/a>, we arrive at the 2008 Mexico City crash. A government plane carrying the Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, former Assistant Attorney General Jose Luis Santiago, and several government advisors came down at rush hour in the capital city\u2019s busy financial district. Given that Santiago, who vigorously pursued extraditions against drug smugglers, had already been the target of an earlier assassination attempt, it was speculated that the crash might have been sabotage. Investigations revealed that the pilots were unqualified to fly the specific aircraft, and had flouted established convention by trailing a larger plane too closely, encountering unmanageable wake turbulence. This lackadaisical approach led to the loss of 16 lives.<\/span>\n\nEscape from New York<\/b>\n\n\"\"\n\n

Mario Tama\/Getty Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nThe chances of a safe landing in a city are few and far between, as seen in <\/span>Sully<\/span><\/i> where Tom Hanks plays the role of the heroic Captain Sullenberger, the retired fighter pilot-turned-commercial pilot, who was responsible for what became known as \u201cthe Miracle on the Hudson\u201d. When his flight hit a flock of geese and caused the engines to flame out soon after takeoff, Sullenberger was able to turn the plane around and nail an improbable landing on the Hudson River. Of the 155 people on board, 155 survived. That\u2019s right. Sometimes, even plane crashes have happy endings.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The morbid visual of a huge metal object plummeting from the sky commands a grim fascination. From the hair-raising footage of a plane crashing into a bridge in Taiwan to a miraculous river landing in New York, here\u2019s what happens when planes and cities cross paths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4907],"tags":[5703,3803,5704,5705,5706,5707],"class_list":["post-2812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-aircrash","tag-aviation","tag-dgca","tag-ghatkopar","tag-ghatkopar-crash","tag-plane-crash"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Lion Air Crash and Other Times When Planes Came Down<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The morbid visual of a huge metal object plummeting from the sky commands a grim fascination. 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