On April 27, 1976, American Airlines, Flight 625, a Boeing 727-95, operated as a scheduled passenger flight from Providence, Rhode Island, to Harry S Truman Airport, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, with a stop at John F. Kennedy -International Airport, New York. The flight departed JFK at 1200 with 88 persons, including 7 crewmembers, aboard. At about 1510, during landing at the Harry S Truman Airport, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, flight 625 overran the departure end of runway 9, struck the ILS antenna, crashed through a fence, and came to rest against a building located 1,040 feet beyond the end of the runway. The aircraft was destroyed, 35 passengers and 2 flight attendants were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the captain's actions and his misjudgment in initiating a go-around maneuver with insufficient runway remaining after a long touchdown.

On 31 August 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747, departed John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, United States, on a scheduled flight for Seoul, Republic of Korea. The flight had 269 persons on board. Soon after departure from Anchorage, Alaska, KE 007 deviated to the right (north) of its direct track, this deviation resulted in penetration of Sovjet Russian air space. Military aircraft operated by the USSR attempted to intercept KE 007 over Kamchatka Peninsula. The interception attempts were unsuccessful. Upon approaching Sakhalin Island, USSR, the flight was intercepted by USSR military aircraft and shot down on the assumption that is was a United States RC-135 (spy) aircraft. There were no survivors.

On July 3, 1988, the American navy ship USS Vincennes, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser operating in the Persian Gulf, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300B2-203, on its way from Tehran to Dubai. All 290 people on board died. Iran Air 655 flew within its assigned corridor. The USS Vincennes thought it had to deal with an Iranian F-14 fighter jet. From this point of view it was simply a case of mistaken identity. It is amazing that a guided missile cruiser with extremely advanced electronic capabilities such as the USS Vincennes, equipped with an ultra modern system such as Aegis, could make such a case of mistaken identity. Although the U.S. had to pay damages, a clear admission of guilt, the officers and commander of the Vincennes received awards and decorations after all.

On January 15, 2009, about 1527 eastern standard time, US Airways flight 1549, an Airbus Industrie A320-214, N106US, experienced an almost complete loss of thrust in both engines after encountering a flock of birds and was subsequently ditched on the Hudson River about 8.5 miles from LaGuardia Airport (LGA), New York City, New York. The flight was en route to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, and had departed LGA about 2 minutes before the in-flight event occurred. The 150 passengers and 5 crewmembers evacuated the airplane via the forward and overwing exits. One flight attendant and four passengers were seriously injured, and the airplane was substantially damaged beyond repair. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the ingestion of large birds into each engine, which resulted in an almost total loss of thrust in both engines and the subsequent ditching on the Hudson River.

On April 6, 1993, a China Eastern Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-11, flight 583, on its way from Beijing, China, to Los Angeles, California, had an inadvertent deployment of the leading edge wing slats while in cruise flight, not far from Shemya, Alaska. The autopilot disconnected, and the captain was manually controlling the airplane when it progressed through several violent pitch oscillations and lost 5,000 feet of altitude. Two passengers were fatally injured, and 149 passengers and 7 crewmembers received various injuries. The airplane did not receive external structural damage, but the passenger cabin was substantially damaged. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was the inadequate design of the flap/slat actuation handle by the Douglas Aircraft Company that allowed the handle to be easily and inadvertently dislodged from the UP/RET position, thereby causing extension of the leading edge slats during cruise flight.

On July 8, 2006 at 22:44 UTC, as it was landing at Irkutsk airport, an А-310 airplane, registration F-OGYP, operated by Sibir Airlines AS Flight C7 778, ran down the runway, overran the runway threshold and, at a distance of 2140 m and on a magnetic azimuth of 296° from the aerodrome reference point, collided with barriers, broke apart and burst into flames. As a result of the accident 125 individuals died, including both pilots and 3 of the cabin crew; 60 passengers and 3 cabin crew suffered physical injuries of varying degrees of severity. The actions of the crew from the onset and in the development of an emergency situation revealed shortcomings in the professional training of both the airplane captain and the co-pilot. The real cause of the accident was pilot error due to lack of training and experience.

During takeoff from runway 02 at Tamanrasset Aguenar aerodrome in Southern Algeria, on Thursday 6 March 2003, the left engine of a Boeing 737-200 from Air Algerie suffered a contained burst. The airplane swung to the left. The Captain took over the controls. The airplane lost speed progressively, stalled and crashed, with the landing gear still extended, about one thousand six hundred and forty-five meters from the takeoff point, to the left of the runway extended centerline. The crew of six and 96 of the 97 passengers were killed in the accident. The accident was caused by the loss of an engine during a critical phase of flight, the non-retraction of the landing gear after the engine failure, and the Captain, the PNF, taking over control of the airplane before having clearly identified the problem.

On February 24, 1989, United Airlines flight 811, a Boeing 747-122, lost a cargo door as it was climbing between 22,000 and 23,000 feet after taking off from Honolulu, Hawaii, en route to Sydney, Australia with 355 persons aboard. As a result of the incident nine of the passengers were ejected from the airplane and lost at sea. The cargo door was recovered in two pieces from the ocean floor at a depth of 14,200 feet on September 26 and October 1, 1990. The probable cause of this accident was a faulty switch or wiring in the door control system. Contributing to the cause of the accident was a deficiency in the design of the cargo door locking mechanisms. Also contributing to the accident was a lack of timely corrective actions by Boeing and the FAA following a 1987 cargo door opening incident on a Pan Am B-747.

On December 29, 1972 an Eastern Air Lines' Lockheed L-1011, as Flight 401 on its way from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, to Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, crashed at 2342 eastern standard time in the Everglades, approximately 18 miles west northwest of Miami International Airport. The aircraft was destroyed. There were 163 passengers and a crew of 13 aboard the aircraft, 99 people died in the crash. The flight was diverted because of problems with the nose landing gear The aircraft climbed to 2,000 feet while the crew attempted to correct the problem. Surviving passengers and crewmembers stated that the flight was routine and operated normally before impact with the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident, was preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.

On July 26, 2002, about 0537 eastern daylight time, Federal Express flight 1478, a Boeing 727-232F, on its way from Memphis International Airport to Tallahassee Regional airport, struck trees on short final approach and crashed short of runway 9 at the Tallahassee Regional Airport, Florida. The flight was operating as a scheduled cargo flight from Memphis, to Tallahassee. The captain, first officer, and flight engineer were seriously injured, and the airplane was destroyed by impact and resulting fire. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the crew's failure to establish and maintain a proper glidepath during the night visual approach to landing. Contributing to the accident was a combination of the captain's and first officer's fatigue, the crew's failure to monitor the approach, and the first officer's color vision deficiency.