The records of major disasters happened in the world history

Aviation

January 23, Poland. A Spanish-built CASA transport plane carrying members of the Polish air force home from a conference on flight safety in Warsaw crashes near the town of Miroslawiec; all 20 aboard are killed.

February 21, Venezuela. A Santa Barbara Airlines ATR 42-300 turboprop crashes into a mountainside in Sierra La Culata National Park shortly after takeoff from Mérida; all 46 aboard are killed.

April 3, Suriname. A Blue Wings Airlines Antonov An-28 airliner crashes on its approach to the airport in Benzdorp; all 19 aboard lose their lives.

April 15, Democratic Republic of the Congo. An airliner taking off from the airport in Goma crashes into a busy market neighbourhood and bursts into flames; more than 40 people, most of them on the ground, are killed.

April 28, Black Sea. A Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter plummets into the Black Sea after its tail hits an offshore drilling platform; 19 of the 20 aboard die in the crash.

May 2, The Sudan. A Beechcraft 1900 airplane crashes near Rumbek, killing at least 23 people, including the southern Sudan's minister of defense, Dominic Dim.

May 29, Panama. A helicopter carrying Chilean police officials from Colón to Panama City, where they had been attending a meeting of Latin American antiterrorism leaders, crashes on top of a building; at least 15 people, including the head of Chile's national police force and at least 4 people on the ground, are killed.

June 10, Khartoum, The Sudan. A Sudanese airliner bursts into flames after landing; at least 30 of the 214 people aboard are incinerated.

August 20, Spain. An MD-82 airliner operated by the low-cost carrier Spanair and bound for the Canary Islands goes off the end of the runway at Madrid Barajas International Airport on takeoff and bursts into flames; at least 154 of those aboard perish.

August 24, Kyrgyzstan. A passenger jet bound for Iran crashes shortly after takeoff from Manas International Airport in Bishkek, killing at least 64 passengers; 22 survive.

September 1, Democratic Republic of the Congo. A small plane crashes into a mountainside during a thunderstorm; all 17 aboard, most of them aid workers, are feared dead.

September 14, Russia. While traveling from Moscow to Perm, a Boeing 737 passenger jet operated by an Aeroflot subsidiary crashes when preparing to land; all 88 aboard die.

October 8, Nepal. A Yeti Airlines Twin Otter airplane attempting to land at tiny Lukla Airport in the Himalayan Mountains catches its wheels on a security fence and crashes; 18 of the 19 people aboard, including 12 Germans and 2 Australians, are killed.



Fires and Explosions

January 7, Inch'on, S.Kor. Fire breaks out at a newly built cold storage facility; some 40 people are believed to have lost their lives.

January 31, Istanbul. An explosion, likely caused by fireworks ignited by an earlier fire, destroys a building; at least 22 people die in the blast.

March 15, Near Tirana, Alb. A series of strong explosions at a munitions depot kills 26 people and injures more than 300.

March 26, Xinjiang province, China. As authorities attempt to destroy illegal fireworks outside the city of Turpan, an unplanned explosion occurs; 22 people are reported killed.

April 7, Uganda. A fire in a dormitory for a girls' elementary school outside Kampala kills 19 schoolgirls and 2 adults; the cause is unclear, and reports indicate that the doors may have been locked from the outside.

April 26, Casablanca, Mor. A four-story mattress factory goes up in flames; at least 55 people succumb.

May 15, Nigeria. A fuel pipeline in a village near Lagos is ruptured by road construction equipment, causing much of the area to be engulfed in flames; some 100 people are killed.

August 1, Balcilar, Tur. A gas explosion causes the collapse of a three-story girls' dormitory; at least 17 students are crushed to death.

August 26, Guangxi autonomous region, China. A series of explosions in the Guangxi Guangwei Chemical Co. factory that last for seven hours leave at least 20 workers dead in Yizhou.

August 28, Limani, Cameroon. After an oil tanker overturns, residents rush to salvage the leaking gasoline, but a spark from a passing bus causes an explosion and fire; dozens of people, including passengers on the bus, are incinerated.

September 20, Guangdong province, China. In Shenzhen ignited fireworks cause a fire in a nightclub that leaves at least 43 people dead.

October 23, Rajasthan state, India. A powerful explosion demolishes an illegal fireworks factory in the village of Deeg; at least 26 people lose their lives.

December 24, Yevpatoria, Ukraine. An explosion destroys an apartment building, and at least 19 people are killed; it is thought that oxygen tanks stored in the basement may have been the cause.



Marine

February 21, Near Itacoatiara, Braz. The Almirante Monteiro, a ferry, collides with a barge in the Amazon River and sinks to the bottom; some 20 people are feared lost.

February 28, Near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A ferry collides with another vessel in the Buriganga River; at least 39 passengers are killed.

March 3, Bay of Bengal. A wooden trawler carrying would-be migrants to Malaysia from Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) is found drifting by the Sri Lankan navy; 20 of the more than 90 passengers have died of starvation and dehydration.

March 6, Albania. A boat that is used to carry customers to and from a restaurant on Lake Farka near Tirana sinks; 16 people, most of whom had attended a birthday party at the restaurant, are drowned.

March 22, Off Hong Kong's Lantao Island. A Ukrainian tugboat collides with a Chinese freighter and sinks; 18 crew members are feared lost.

April 1, Nigeria. In Kano state, a dugout canoe carrying a wedding party capsizes; at least 40 people, including the bride, drown.

April 20, Off the Bahamas. Rescue workers find the bodies of 20 drowned Haitians in the sea as well as three survivors; the vessel that had been carrying them is not found.

May 4, Brazil. The wooden ferry Comandante Sales, carrying a group of some 80 partygoers, capsizes and sinks in the Solimões River; at least 41 people drown.

May 12, Bangladesh. A ferry on the Ghorautra River goes down quickly in bad weather; at least 44 people die.

May 19, Democratic Republic of the Congo. An overloaded passenger boat sinks in a storm on Lake Tanganyika; dozens of people are lost.

June 7, Libya. A boat carrying would-be migrants to Italy capsizes shortly after departing from Zuwarah; at least 40 people are drowned, with a further 100 missing.

June 21, Philippines. The MV Princess of Stars, a large ferry, capsizes and sinks in a typhoon off the island of Sibuyan; some 800 people perish. July 22, Democratic Republic of the Congo. A motorboat carrying passengers from Mobayi Bongo to the Central African Republic sinks in the Ubangi River; at least 47 people drown, with a further 100 missing.

August 27, South of Malta. An overloaded boat that left Zuwarah, Libya, carrying would-be migrants from The Sudan and Eritrea takes on water and sinks; 71 people are feared lost.

August 29, Bihar state, India. An Indian army boat rescuing victims of the flooding disaster that caused the Kosi River to change course capsizes; some 20 flood victims and soldiers drown.

November 3, Yemen. The international group Doctors Without Borders reports that 60 bodies have washed up onto the shores over the past two days; the dead had put out from Boosaaso, Som., in boats, and some had been forced overboard by smugglers, while one boat capsized.

November 4, Philippines. An inter-island ferry bound for Sorsogon goes down in bad weather; at least 40 people perish.

November 8, Sea of Japan. A Russian nuclear submarine undergoing testing suffers an accident with its fire-extinguishing system that fills two compartments with Freon gas, asphyxiating at least 20 workers.

December 14, Philippines. An overloaded ferry just entering the mouth of the Cagayan River capsizes; at least 23 passengers drown, with 33 others missing.



Mining and Construction

January 11, Kazakhstan. An ArcelorMittal-owned coal mine suffers a gas explosion; at least 30 miners are killed.

January 16, Morocco. An apartment building under construction in Kenitra collapses, killing at least 16 workers.

January 21, Shanxi province, China. As miners attempt to reopen a shaft in a closed mine, an explosion takes place that kills at least 20 people.

August 9, Boussoukoula, Burkina Faso. At an illegal gold mine, rain causes a mine collapse and mud slide in which at least 34 workers are buried, with dozens more reported missing.

September 20, Hegang, Heilongjiang province, China. A coal mine fire leaves 19 miners dead and 12 missing.

September 21, Henan province, China. A gas explosion in a coal mine kills at least 37 miners; 9 are missing.

November 7, Pétionville, Haiti. A third floor is being added to a church-run school when the building collapses, crushing to death at least 91 schoolchildren and teachers.

November 15, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. A section of a subway tunnel that is being constructed collapses; at least 21 people are killed.

December 27, Hunan province, China. A construction crane collapses in downtown Changsha, killing at least 17 workers.



Natural

January 9, Iran. Authorities in Iran say that a disastrous blizzard in the Tehran area has resulted in the deaths of at least 28 people; Tehran declares a two-day national holiday so that people will stay home.

January 17, Afghanistan. Officials report that an unusually hard winter has left at least 200 people dead; huge numbers of livestock have also perished.

January 28, China. The government issues a severe weather warning for eastern and central China, areas that have already received record-setting amounts of snow, causing a transportation crisis and leaving at least 24 people dead.

February 3, Africa. A series of earthquakes takes place in the Great Lakes region, killing some 40 people (34 in Rwanda and 6 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and injuring more than 400.

February 5, U.S. A fierce outbreak of tornadoes leaves a path of destruction in several southern states, particularly in Tennessee, where at least 30 people are killed, and Arkansas, which suffers a death toll of at least 13; a further 7 people are reported killed in Kentucky and 4 in Alabama.

February 8, Indian-administered Kashmir. Heavy snowfall in the region triggers avalanches that result in the deaths of at least 20 people.

February 10, China. Officials say that power and transportation are beginning to be restored in some areas where the worst winter storms in 50 years have led to at least 60 deaths.

February 12, Northern Bolivia. Pres. Evo Morales declares a national disaster because of flooding following heavy rains that has left at least 60 people dead.

February 16, Afghanistan. Authorities say the harshest winter in 30 years has left 926 people dead so far, 462 of them in Herat province, and hundreds of thousands of cattle have also succumbed.

February 17, Madagascar. A particularly ferocious storm, Cyclone Ivan, makes landfall on the east coast, all but destroying the village of Ambodihazinina, leaving more than 80 people dead, and devastating the ripening rice crops.

February 21, Eastern Philippines. After two weeks of torrential rains, at least 20 people have died in flooding and landslides, tens of thousands of people have been displaced, and great damage has been caused to infrastructure and to rice fields.

April 7, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Humanitarian officials report to the UN that torrential rains in the Kasaï-Occidental and Bandundu provinces have left at least 15 people dead and hundreds homeless.

May 2–3, Myanmar (Burma). Cyclone Nargis, an extraordinarily strong tropical cyclone that formed in the Bay of Bengal and quickly strengthened to a category 4 storm, makes landfall in Myanmar (Burma) and throughout the night churns up the densely populated rice-growing region of the Irrawaddy River delta, cutting a wide path of destruction augmented by a 4-m (12-ft) storm surge that obliterates coastal villages; some 138,000 people perish.

May 10, United States. A violent storm system spawns tornadoes that lay waste to portions of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Georgia, leaving more than 23 people dead, at least 15 of them in Missouri and most of those near Racine.

May 12, Sichuan province, China. A magnitude-7.9 earthquake devastates the area; at the epicentre, in Wenchuan, some 80% of the structures are flattened. At least 69,000 people lose their lives, 18,000 more are missing, and hundreds of thousands are made homeless.

May 14, Uttar Pradesh state, India. A violent storm leaves at least 128 people dead and all but destroys the important mango crop.

June 17, Southern China. The death toll from flooding caused by incessant heavy rains rises to 171; more than a million people have been evacuated.

June 20, India. Authorities say that the death toll from flooding resulting from heavy rain in eastern and northeastern areas of the country has risen past 50; thousands of villages are reportedly submerged.

June 21, Philippines. Typhoon Fengshen smashes into the Philippines; at least 498 residents perish.

July 27, Ukraine and Romania. Officials report that five days of heavy storms have left a total of 13 people dead in Ukraine and 5 others dead in Romania; some 8,000 people in the region have been evacuated.

August 10, Southern India. Officials report that monsoon rains caused the deaths of at least 59 people, not including the 40 people who are swept away when a truck in which they are riding fails to negotiate a flooded bridge in Andhra Pradesh state.

August 18, Southeast Asia. It is reported that over the past week, record flooding has caused devastation throughout much of the region, with thousands of residents forced from their homes and at least 160 people dead in Vietnam alone.

August 18, Bihar state, India. As a result of heavy rains that cause the breach of a dam in Nepal, the Kosi River breaks its embankments and changes course to flow in an old channel some 120 km (75 mi) east, inundating villages in Nepal and Bangladesh as well as in India; a minimum of two million people are left homeless and at least 90 dead.

August 26, Hispaniola. Hurricane Gustav makes landfall in Haiti and the Dominican Republic; at least 84 people are killed, and thousands of homes are ruined.

August 30, Sichuan province, China. A magnitude-5.7 earthquake with its epicentre some 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Panzhihua causes houses to collapse in several villages and leads to the deaths of at least 28 people.

September 6, Egypt. The Muqattam cliffs outside Cairo begin to collapse, loosing hundreds of pounds of rocks and boulders that crush a shantytown in the shadow of the cliffs; dozens of people are killed.

September 6, Haiti. After a week of flooding caused by Tropical Storm Hanna, at least 529 people have perished, most of them in Gonaïves.

September 8, Haiti. Hurricane Ike sweeps through Haiti, leaving at least 58 people dead.

September 13, Texas. Hurricane Ike spreads heavy flooding throughout Galveston and Orange and causes extensive damage in Houston; some 51 people in the region succumb, 20 of them in Texas.

September 22, India. The death toll from three days of heavy monsoon rains is reported to have reached 119.

September 28, Vietnam. Authorities report that Typhoon Hagupit has caused flooding that has left at least 41 people dead; the storm had earlier killed some 8 people in the Philippines and 17 people in China.

October 2, Algeria. Torrential rains cause a flash flood in a normally dry river in the Sahara; the town of Ghardaia is inundated, with some 600 homes destroyed and at least 33 people killed.

October 3, Haiti. The civil protection agency reports that the total death toll in the country from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and Tropical Storms Hanna and Fay in August and September is 793.

October 5, Kyrgyzstan. A magnitude-6.6 earthquake strikes, killing at least 72 people and flattening the village of Nura.

October 25, Yemen. After two days of heavy rain from a tropical storm, massive flooding along the Wadi Hadramawt leaves at least 180 people dead and some 20,000 people displaced.

October 29, Balochistan province, Pakistan. A shallow magnitude-6.4 earthquake strikes, killing at least 215 people and leaving some 15,000 homeless at the beginning of winter.

November 7, Vietnam. Authorities report that unseasonal flooding in recent weeks has left at least 82 people dead and led to an outbreak of dengue fever.

November 24, Southern Brazil. Officials report that flooding and landslides have left at least 59 people dead and displaced some 43,000 others; by December 1 the death toll has risen to a minimum of 116.



Railroad

April 28, Shandong province, China. Outside the city of Zibo, a high-speed passenger train traveling from Beijing to Qingdao derails and hits another passenger train en route from Yantai to Xuzhou; at least 70 people are killed.

July 16, Northern Egypt. A truck rear-ends a car waiting at a railroad crossing, pushing three vehicles onto the tracks, where they are crushed by a train; at least 40 people are killed.

August 1, Andhra Pradesh state, India. Five of the 13 cars of the Secunderabad-Kakinada Gautami Express train become engulfed in flames; at least 30 passengers expire.

September 12, Los Angeles. A commuter train crashes head-on into a freight train, killing at least 25 people, when the engineer fails to stop at a red signal; it is thought that he may have been distracted by text messaging on his cell phone.



Traffic

January 12, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. A fuel tanker truck blows a tire and overturns; the fuel spills and ignites, incinerating at least 30 people.

January 20, India. Near the town of Nashik, an overloaded bus carrying pilgrims from a visit to Hindu shrines fails to negotiate a hairpin turn and plunges over a mountainside; at least 37 of the passengers are killed.

January 26, Near Jerash, Jordan. A passenger bus traveling from Irbid to Al-ʿAqabah collides with a water truck, and both vehicles fall off the road into the valley below; at least 20 people are killed.

January 29, China. In Guizhou province, which is among those suffering prolonged severe winter storms, a bus goes off an ice-coated road; at least 25 passengers perish.

February 7, Egypt. Some 100 km (60 mi) south of Cairo, a bus collides with a minibus in heavy fog, and some six more vehicles crash into them; at least 29 people are killed in the pileup.

February 29, Southern Guatemala. A greatly overloaded bus crashes while taking a dangerous corner near Jutiapa; at least 45 passengers perish.

March 25, Western Honduras. A passenger bus goes off a highway in the mountains and rolls down a hillside; at least 26 of those aboard are killed.

April 16, Gujarat state, India. In Vadodara a state bus carrying schoolchildren goes off a bridge and falls some 18 m (60 ft) into a canal of the Narmada River; at least 44 children and 3 adults perish.

April 23, Rajasthan state, India. Northwest of Jodhpur, late at night, a truck and a crowded van collide; at least 24 of the van passengers lose their lives.

May 27, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. A bus goes over a cliff and falls some 80 m (260 ft), landing upside-down in the river below; at least 30 people die.

May 29, Southern India. A truck carrying at least 70 people to a wedding falls off a bridge after the driver swerves to avoid electrical wires on the road; at least 39 of the passengers perish.

July 8, Southern Bolivia. A truck carrying some 60 people as well as goods goes off a mountain road, plunging 200 m (650 ft) into a ravine; at least 47 people, among them 12 children, die.

August 2, Bihar state, India. A truck loaded with food grain sacks and people goes off a road into a nearly dry culvert below; at least 40 people die, most of them crushed to death.

August 8, Near Sherman, Texas. An illegally operated chartered bus carrying Vietnamese Roman Catholics to a religious gathering in Carthage, Mo., goes over a guardrail in a crash, killing 17 passengers.

August 15, Dominican Republic. On the highway between La Romana and Higüey, a passenger bus attempting to go around a parked vehicle hits another passenger bus head-on; at least 20 people are killed.

September 8, Eastern Turkey. A bus carrying Iranian tourists in Agri province goes off the road and crashes; at least 16 passengers die.

October 10, Eastern Thailand. On an overnight trip to the coast from a technology university in Khon Kaen province, a bus carrying students crashes into a hillside; at least 22 people are killed, and 50 are badly hurt.

November 4, Near Hannover, Ger. A tour bus carrying elderly passengers home after a day trip to a farm catches fire, possibly because a passenger smoked a cigarette in the bus's restroom; at least 20 people die.

November 15, Near Boromo, Burkina Faso. A collision occurs between a passenger bus carrying workers to Côte d'Ivoire and a commercial truck loaded with sugar, and both vehicles burst into flames, trapping the bus passengers; at least 66 of them perish.

December 16, Israel. A bus transporting Russian tour guides to the resort town of Elat from a nearby airport goes off the road and rolls down a mountain slope; at least 24 of the passengers are killed.

December 27, Tangail, Bangladesh. A truck leaves the road in thick fog and goes into a ditch; at least 24 of the passengers, most of whom were heading home from Dhaka to vote in legislative elections, die.



Miscellaneous

March 29, Luanda, Angola. Dozens of people are crushed to death when a seven-story building housing the headquarters of the police criminal investigation department collapses; the structure had been deteriorating and recently had a large electrical generator installed on its roof.

April 9, Southern Thailand. In a truck carrying illegal Myanmarese (Burmese) migrant workers, 54 of the 121 crammed inside suffocate.

May 20, India. It is reported that at least 110 people in the Bengaluru (Bangalore) area have died in the past few days after drinking illicit alcohol; by May 22 the death toll has risen to 180.

August 3, Himachal Pradesh state, India. Near the Naina Devi temple, fears of a landslide lead to a stampede in which more than 150 pilgrims, most of them women and children, lose their lives.

September 15, Pasuruan, Indon. A Ramadan tradition in which wealthy families give money to the poor results in tragedy when pushing in a crowd awaiting such handouts causes at least 23 people to be crushed to death.

September 30, Jodhpur, Rajasthan state, India. On the first day of a nine-day festival devoted to the Hindu goddess Durga, a stampede possibly caused by pilgrims slipping on coconut milk offerings causes at least 224 people to be trampled to death.

October 1, Tabora, Tanz. At an event in a disco hall to celebrate ʿId al-Fitr, overcrowding among the young people attending engenders panic, and 19 children are crushed in the ensuing stampede.

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