Lion Air Flight 610 is the worst airliner crash of 2018

A
trio of Lion Air Boeing 737-900ERs. The 737-900ER is an older and
larger version of the plane that crashed on
Monday.
Boeing

• Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into
  the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia
  Monday morning. 
• All 189 passengers and crew on board the flight are
  feared dead.
• Flight 610 is the deadliest crash involving a
  civilian airliner so far in 2018.
• It is also the first fatal crash of a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into
the Java Sea shortly after taking off from the Jakarta,
Indonesia Monday morning.  with rescue and recovery efforts
underway.

The plane involved in the crash was a brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8
that was just delivered to the airline in August. The MAX entered
service in 2017 and is the latest version of Boeing’s hot-selling
737 passenger jet. 

As a result, Flight 610 is also the first fatal incident
involving the Boeing 737 MAX and the deadliest crash in civil
aviation so far this year. 

An Ilyushin IL-76 transport plane with army personnel and their
families on board crashed in April, killing all 257 passengers
and crew on board. It is the most serious crash so far this year.
However, the aircraft was operated by the Algerian Air Force and is,
thus, not considered a civilian incident. 

Prior to Flight 610, the most serious incident of the year
was Cubana Flight 972 which
crashed on takeoff at Jose Marti International Airport in
Havana, Cuba. Of the 113 passengers and crew on board the aging
Boeing 737-200, 112 died in the May crash. 

February, Saratov Airlines Flight 703
crashed minutes after takeoff from Moscow’s Domodedovo
International Airport. All 71 passengers and crew on board the
Ukrainian-built Antonov AN-148 perished in the crash. 

A week later, Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704, an ATR-72
turboprop regional airliner,  crashed into Mount Dena in
Iran. All 66 passengers and crew died. 

In March, US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211,
a Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 turboprop, crashed while landing in
Kathmandu, Nepal. 52 of the 71 passengers and crew died.

In the US, the deadliest incident involving a US airline
occurred in April when Southwest Airlines Flight 1380
was forced to make an emergency landing after shrapnel from an
uncontained engine failure punched the fuselage. Damage from the
shrapnel caused a window to break open, nearly sucking a
passenger out of the plane. Passengers Jennifer Riordan died from
her injuries. 

In spite of these incidents, 2018 has been a relatively good year
for civil aviation. Especially if you consider the fact that more
than 4.1 billion passengers around the world are expected to fly
this year. 

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