An in-flight breakup or mid-air breakup is a catastrophic failure of an aircraft structure that causes it to break apart in mid-air.

Causes Faults in the design or manufacturing of the aircraft can create weak points or stress concentrations in the structure. Constant use and repeated loading and unloading cycles on the aircraft can lead to fatigue cracking.

Additionally, pilot error or adverse weather conditions can cause the aircraft to experience more extreme conditions than those it was designed to tolerate.

Crashes involving in-flight breakups

1950s

BOAC Flight 781 (1954) South African Airways Flight 201 (1954)

1960s Eastern Provincial Airways Flight 102 (1965) BOAC Flight 911 (1966) Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 (1967)

1970s

Hughes Airwest Flight 706 (1971) JAT Flight 367 (1972) Cathay Pacific Flight 700Z (1972) Tan Son Nhut Lockheed C-5 crash (1975) British Airways Flight 476 (1976)

1980s

Itavia Flight 870 (1980) Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983) Air India Flight 182 (1985) South African Airways Flight 295 (1987) Iran Air Flight 655 (1988) Pan Am Flight 103 (1988) Partn Air Flight 394 (1989) UTA Flight 772 (1989)

1990s

Lauda Air Flight 004 (1991) Continental Express Flight 2574 (1991) Trans-Air Services Flight 671 (1992) Copa Airlines Flight 201 (1992) China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 (1994) TWA Flight 800 (1996) Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision: Saudia Flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 (1996) Silk Air Flight 185 (1997) EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)

2000s

China Airlines Flight 611 (2002) United States airtanker crashes (2002) Überlingen mid-air collision: Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and DHL Flight 611 Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 (2005) Gol Flight 1907 (2006) Adam Air Flight 574 (2007)

2010s

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014) VSS Enterprise (2014) Metrojet Flight 9268 (2015) United States Marine Corps KC-130 crash 2017

2020s

UPS Flight 2976 (2025) Turkish Air Force Flight 543 (2025) Ivanovo Antonov An-22 crash (2025)

See also American Airlines Flight 587 American Airlines Flight 191 Aloha Airlines Flight 243 Aviation accidents and incidents Boeing 747 Suicide attack Terrorism Aircraft hijacking Stall Aviation safety Controlled flight into terrain List of DC-10 accidents and incidents

References