Inside The Worst Plane Crashes In Aviation History

By Kaleena Fraga | Edited By Jaclyn Anglis

Published November 24, 2025

The Cargo Door Of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 That Caused One Of The Worst Plane Crashes

Turkish Airlines Flight 981 One Of The Worst Airplane Crashes

YouTubeThe aftermath of the Ermenonville air disaster, when Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed just outside of Paris.

Before the Tenerife Airport Disaster happened, the worst plane crash in history was the Turkish Airlines Flight 981 incident. On March 3, 1974, the plane crashed shortly after taking off from Paris Orly Airport, killing all 346 people onboard.

According to contemporaneous reporting from Time, terrorists had hijacked and burned a British Airways flight the same day, and some initially feared that a similar fate had befallen Turkish Airlines Flight 981. But the cause of the devastating plane crash all came down to a problematic cargo door.

Like with most plane crashes, nothing seemed amiss when the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft initially took off from Paris Orly Airport, en route for London’s Heathrow Airport, at 12:32 p.m. The flight was fuller than normal due to a British Airways strike, and had a mix of British, Turkish, Japanese, and American passengers onboard, as well as some other people of different nationalities, but it was only a quick trip to Heathrow.

Shortly after takeoff, however, witnesses noticed something was wrong. A radar operator at Orly noticed “streaks” surrounding the plane as it flew at 13,000 feet, and a man who worked at the control tower at Le Bourget Airport saw the airplane flying at an odd angle as he went on a walk.

“I noticed that its angle of flight was not normal,” he told The New York Times. “I thought the pilot was trying to land at Le Bourget, but he wasn’t in the proper approach path. Seconds later, the plane vanished.”

FAAThe plane crash killed all 346 people onboard.

Turkish Airlines Flight 981 then crashed into the woods of Ermenonville Forest, just outside of Paris. As investigators later found, the plane’s rear cargo door had blown off shortly after takeoff, causing such an explosive decompression that the pilot quickly lost all control of the plane.

All 346 people onboard perished.

author

A senior staff writer for All That's Interesting since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

editor

Based in Queens, New York, Jaclyn Anglis is the senior managing editor at All That's Interesting, where she has worked since 2019. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a dual Bachelor's degree in English writing and history from DePauw University. In a career that spans 11 years, she has also worked with the New York Daily News, Bustle, and Bauer Xcel Media. Her interests include American history, true crime, modern history, and science.

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Fraga, Kaleena. "Inside 7 Of The Worst Accidental Plane Crashes In History — And What Caused Them." AllThatsInteresting.com, November 24, 2025, https://allthatsinteresting.com/worst-plane-crashes. Accessed November 25, 2025.