ABOUT FACTS NET Air/Space Craft

The record of air plane safety is very good. You are far safer in a plane than in a car. Statistics show that between 1990 and 1999, 915 planes of all types crashed in this country. 708 people died in these crashes but 74% of all people in plane crashes lived. The odds of being killed in a plane crash are only 1 in 25,000,000. Now here is a very strange fact, 39% of all the crashes in the U.S. took place in Alaska. In Alaska there were 149 deaths from plane crashes. I don't think I want to fly there, just kidding. If you compare general aviation to commercial aviation in this country, general aviation has 2.5 times as many crashes. Some people say that you have to expect that there would be more crashes in Alaska because it is twice the size of Texas and because it has more land mass and the conditions are very harsh in many parts of that state. The shoreline of Alaska is longer than the rest of all the states combines and measures 47,000 miles. Seventeen of the twenty highest peaks in this country are in Alaska. Only 60% of Alaska has radar coverage above 10,000 feet.

Many famous people have died in plane crashes. In January of 1980 a huge tragedy struck the U.S. A plane traveling to Warsaw, Poland had 22 members of the U.S. Olympic boxing team onboard. An engine fell apart and pieces hit the rudder and the plane crashed killing everyone on the plane.

In June, 1980, Sanjay Gandhi was flying a stunt plane in Delhi, India. The plane crashed, she died along with another person.

In 1981, Jaime Roldos Aquilera, President of Ecuador, was killed when a Beach Super King crashed. There were eight others on board that were also killed. This may not have been an accident but an execution, no one knows for sure.

1982 saw the death of Randy Rhoads. He was the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne. The plane had hit the band's tour bus, bounced off and hit a house. There were three people on the plane and they all died.

Here is irony for you. On May 29, 1988 Salem bin Laden, brother of Osama bin Laden was killed in a plane crash. He was flying a ultra light plane and hit some power lines, then fell over 100 feet.

On August 25, 2001, the famous hip hop singer Aaliyah died in a plane crash. She was only 22 years old with her whole career ahead of her.

Who could ever forget the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. on July 16, 1999. He decided to fly his own plane to New England and it crashed killing not only himself, but his wife and sister-in-law.

John Denver, the famous singer, died in a plane crash on October 14, 1997.

Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier of World War II and a famous actor. He and four others were killed on May 28, 1971 when their plane hit the side of a mountain.

Ricky Nelson, the famous singer and member of the Nelson Family of tv fame, was killed in a plane crash on December 31, 1985.

On October 25, 2002, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone and members of his family and five others died in a plane crash while flying to a funereal.

In October 2000 the governor of Missouri and others were killed when their Cessna crashed.

Tony Bettenhausen Jr,. from the famous auto racing family, died along with his wife and two others when his private plane crashed into a farm in Kentucky.

Yuri Gagarin was the first man into space. He was killed on March 27, 1968 when he was on a training mission.

Ron Brown was the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and very famous at the time. The Air Force plane he was flying in went down with 34 others on it and they were all killed when it crashed into the mountains. This happened on April 3, 1996 and at the time conspiracy rumors were everywhere.

Thurman Munson was only 32 years old when he missed the runway while practicing landings. He crashed the plane and died. He was the catcher for the New York Yankees baseball team. The crash occurred on August 2, 1979.

Hale Boggs was the House Majority Leader and he and Nick Begich, Congressman and two others were flying over the Chugach Mountains in Alaska on October 16, 1972 when their plane disappeared. Papers released under the Freedom Of Information Act suggest that authorities were contacted about two survivors and the crash site was located. This all remains a mystery.

Davey Allison was also only 32 years old. He was a very famous NASCAR driver. He was flying his helicopter and crashed it on July 12, 1993. He died the next day from his injuries.

Otis Redding, the famous singer, died in a plane crash along with four members of his band on December 10, 1967

Another ironic crash was that of Francis Gary Powers. He was the pilot of the U-2 spy plane that had been shot down over the Soviet Union and the subject of mock trials that were in all the papers and on tv. After surviving that downing he returned to the U.S. and became a helicopter pilot for KNBC television. On August 1, 1977 he crashed his helicopter into a park while covering a story about a fire. Both he and the cameraman were killed.

Before going any further I must say that it seems a little odd that so may famous people would die using one of the safest transportation modes we have. I guess that we must have a lot more famous people than it would seem and if you figure the odds it is really not high at all.

One of the most famous crashes occurred on February 3, 1959 when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash outside of Clear Lake in Iowa.

Here is a crash that shook the baseball world at the time. On December 31, 1972, baseball great Roberto Clemente was killed. He was in a DC-7 loaded with supplies for victims of a earthquake in Nicaragua. If you have to go, this is the way to do it.

Rocky Marciano was one of the greatest boxers of all times On August 31, 1969 in died in the crash of a light plane.

Dag Hammarskjold was famous as the Secretary General of the United Nations. His plane crashed into the jungle on September 17, 1961, killing him and 15 others. At the time it was thought that foul play or pilot error might have caused the crash

Mike Todd, the famous actor and husband of Elizabeth Taylor was in a plane that crashed on March 22, 1958, killing him and his co-pilot.

I think that we have gone back far enough in time. There are may more people that I could talk about but that is getting into ancient history.