Top 10 Shocking Plane Crashes Caught on Camera

On December 20, 2016, Aerosucre Flight 4544 was making a routine cargo delivery within Colombia. The doomed Boeing 727 had trouble lifting off, traversing the entirety of the runway and then hitting a fence, shed and tree before finally lifting off - by which point the damage had been done. Enough equipment had been compromised to make it so that the plane could barely fly or return for an emergency landing. It crashed soon afterwards, eventually killing 5 of the 6 crew members. Excess weight may have been behind the initial failure to take-off, but the weight and balance manifests were never found, so the exact cause remains a mystery.

Before 9/11, this 1996 crash was the most deadly single plane hijacking in history. As the Boeing 767 was flying from Ethiopia to Kenya, 3 Ethiopian men charged the cockpit, brandishing an axe, a fire extinguisher and a bottle of alcohol they claimed was a bomb. Seeking asylum in Australia, they ordered the pilots to fly there, despite the fact that the aircraft did not have enough fuel for the trip. The plane eventually ran out of fuel near the Comoro Islands, and crash landed in the ocean, with 125 of the 175 individuals onboard eventually meeting their demise. Interestingly enough, we only have this video because a tourist started recording thinking it was part of an air show.

After watching this video, we can understand why some people are terrified to fly in small planes. Similar to our #10 entry, albeit on a much smaller scale, this plane seems to have take-off issues and runs out of runway before finally becoming airborne. According to the video description, “there was an increase in density altitude” as a result of rising temperatures, which made it difficult for them to rise. After gaining a bit of altitude, they attempted to fly over a forest, only to have the plane dip back towards the earth, where they hit a tall tree and crashed hard, bouncing between trees. Amazingly, no one died, although the pilot suffered injuries.

In August 1999, this wide-bodied MD-11 was making a routine trip from Thailand to Taiwan, with a stopover in Hong Kong. On this day however, Typhoon Sam was nearby, causing extreme weather conditions. Other flights had trouble approaching and landing prior to Flight 642, and yet, despite having loaded enough fuel for a direct flight to Taiwan, they nonetheless decided to complete the Hong Kong stopover. Landing was uneven due to the rains and high winds, causing the right side to impact first, breaking off the plane’s right wing and rolling the aircraft onto its back. The fuel caught fire, and 3 of the 315 individuals onboard perished. This footage captures the extreme shock of the witnesses.

In 2013, Asiana Flight 214, a Boeing 777, arrived for its scheduled landing at San Francisco International airport from South Korea. Unfortunately, approaching the runway without enough speed or height caused its landing gear to hit a seawall just short of the tarmac. As we can see from this tower video, the plane spun around in the air. There were only 3 fatalities, but another 187 out of the 307 people aboard were injured. The ensuing investigation found pilot error and over-reliance of automated systems to be the most likely culprits. This was the first Boeing 777 accident to result in a fatality.

It’s a good thing most Russian motorists use dash cams, otherwise we’d have no video of this next crash. In late December 2012, Red Wings Flight 9268 was conducting a repositioning flight at the Moscow International airport. Due to the snowy conditions and heavy gusts of wind, the plane skidded off the runway with too much speed, crashing into a ravine at 118 mph, breaking up and spewing its pieces on the M3 Highway just ahead. This cam footage shows us the damage. As it was just a repositioning flight, there were no passengers, but 5 of the 8 crew members died as a result.

In December 2013, this Cessna Caravan, operated by Makani Kai Air, was returning from Hawaii’s Molokai island towards Honolulu, when it experienced engine failure. The plane was carrying 8 passengers and the pilot, with Ferdinand Puentes had his GoPro filming the entire event from inside. Video shows the plane going down for a rough water landing. With the water starting to enter, the passengers systematically grabbed their belongings, put on their life-jackets, and evacuated into the ocean, holding onto the plane as they waited for help. While most passengers survived, Director of the State Department of Health for Hawaii, Loretta Fuddy, died from heart failure – she was also found to be wearing a faulty infant’s life vest.

This ATR 72-600 was making a trip from Taipei, in Taiwan, to Kinmen, a nearby island. After takeoff, engine 2 was reported to have a flameout - meaning engine failure due to flame extinction in the combustion chamber. The crew mistakenly shut off engine 1 though, which led the aircraft to lose altitude. During its fall, it banked and its left wing made contact with a taxi on the Huandong Viaduct, as well as the viaduct itself, before finally hitting the water and breaking up. Dramatic footage of the collision on the Huandong was actually captured by a dash cam. Tragically, of the 53 passengers and 5 crew members, only 15 people survived this crash.

En route to Dubai from Bagram airfield in Afghanistan for a fuel stop, this 747 was up against steep odds. Due to the conflict in the region, it was standard for planes to take off at a more aggressive angle in order to avoid enemy fire. Investigations suggest that, unfortunately, this may have caused a shift in cargo, overloading the plane’s tail and causing it to stall. In dash cam video footage, the 747 can be seen plummeting to the ground, exploding in a horrifying ball of fire and gas that looks like something out of an action film. Sadly, this 2013 crash was reality, taking the lives of all 7 American crew members.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions:
- Indonesian Air Show Plane Crash
- Plane Crash on I-285 Highway

There’s simply no plane crash in history more shocking than this one. On September 11th, 2001, Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked not one, but four planes, and managed to fly 3 of them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. While footage of the first plane hitting the North Tower is limited, there’s plenty of footage of the South Tower being struck. There is even security footage of the Pentagon attack, but it is lower quality. It’s a collection of footage that the world has watched over and over - reliving the horror in shock and disbelief. Killing 2996 and injuring roughly another 6000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks took more lives than all our other entries combined.