Plane Crashes in 1988
Wikidata lists 59 aviation accidents in 1988, with 1,549 deaths recorded against them. These are the counts in Wikidata, not an official world total. The deadliest listed: Iran Air Flight 655 shootdown (3 Jul 1988, 290 dead).
59
Aviation accidents in Wikidata, 1988
37
Of them with deaths
1,549
Deaths recorded in Wikidata
Deadliest firstAviation accidents of 1988
| Date | Accident | Aircraft · operator · where | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jul 1988 | Iran Air Flight 655 shootdown Aircraft shootdown | USS Vincennes · Flight IR655 · Kish Island | 290 |
| 21 Dec 1988 | Pan Am Flight 103 Airliner bombing | Boeing 747 · Pan Am · Flight PA103 · Lockerbie · United Kingdom | 243 |
| 17 Mar 1988 | Avianca Flight 410 | Boeing 727 · Avianca · Flight AV410 · Colombia | 143 |
| 19 Oct 1988 | Indian Airlines Flight 113 | Boeing 737 Classic · Indian Airlines · Ahmedabad · India | 133 |
| 18 Jan 1988 | China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 | Ilyushin Il-18 · China Southwest Airlines · Flight 4146 · Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport · People's Republic of China | 108 |
| 11 Dec 1988 | 1988 Soviet Air Force Il-76 crash | Gyumri | 77 |
| 9 Sep 1988 | Vietnam Airlines Flight 831 | Tupolev Tu-134 · Vietnam Airlines · Thailand | 76 |
| 28 Aug 1988 | Ramstein air show disaster Mid-air collision | MB-339 · Frecce Tricolori · Ramstein Air Base · Germany | 70 |
| 6 May 1988 | Widerøe Flight 710 | de Havilland Canada DHC-7 · Widerøe · Flight WF710 · Torghatten · Norway | 36 |
| 15 Sep 1988 | Ethiopian Airlines Flight 604 | Ethiopian Airlines · Bahir Dar Airport · Ethiopia | 35 |
| 17 Oct 1988 | Uganda Airlines Flight 775 | Boeing 707 · Italy | 33 |
| 2 Aug 1988 | 1988 Hemus Air Yakovlev Yak-40 crash | Yakovlev Yak-40 · Hemus Air · Sofia · Bulgaria | 29 |
| 27 Apr 1988 | Aviation accident in Angola, 27 April 1988 | Angola | 29 |
| 4 Mar 1988 | TAT Flight 230 | Fairchild F-27 · TAT European Airlines · France | 23 |
| 12 Jun 1988 | Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046 | McDonnell Douglas MD-80/MD-90 family · Libertador General José de San Martín Airport · Argentina | 22 |
| 8 Feb 1988 | Nürnberger Flugdienst Flight 108 | Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner · Nürnberger Flugdienst · Flight NS108 · Germany | 21 |
| 27 Feb 1988 | Aeroflot Flight 7867 | Aeroflot · Flight SU-7867 · Surgut International Airport · Russia | 20 |
| 1 Mar 1988 | Comair Flight 206 | 17 | |
| 2 Jan 1988 | Condor Flugdienst Flight 3782 | Boeing 737 Classic · Condor Flugdienst · Flight DF3782 · Seferihisar district · Turkey | 16 |
| 27 Feb 1988 | Talia Airways Flight 2H79 | Kornokipos | 15 |
| 31 Aug 1988 | Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 | Boeing 727-200 Advanced · Delta Air Lines · Flight DL1141 · Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport · United States | 14 |
| 25 Oct 1988 | Aeroperú Flight 772 | Aeroperu | 12 |
| 19 Feb 1988 | AVAir Flight 3378 | Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner · Cary · United States | 12 |
| 18 Jan 1988 | Aeroflot Flight 699 | Aeroflot · Turkmenbashi Airport | 11 |
| 8 Mar 1988 | Aeroflot Flight 3739 | Tupolev Tu-154 · Aeroflot · Flight 3739 · Veshchevo | 9 |
| 19 Jan 1988 | Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 | Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner · Trans-Colorado Airlines · Bayfield · United States | 9 |
| 12 Dec 1988 | The disaster of the An-12 near Yerevan (1988) | Soviet Union | 7 |
| 31 Aug 1988 | CAAC Flight 301 | Hawker Siddeley Trident · CAAC Airlines | 7 |
| 8 Dec 1988 | 1988 Remscheid A-10 crash | Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II · United States Air Force · Remscheid · Germany | 6 |
| 14 Nov 1988 | Ilmajoki Air Disaster | Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante · Wasawings · Finland | 6 |
| 4 Oct 1988 | Aviation accident, 4 October 1988 | Batagay Airport | 6 |
| 18 Nov 1988 | Aviation accident in France, 18 November 1988 | Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner · Air Littoral · Montluçon – Guéret Airport · France | 4 |
| 9 Sep 1988 | Aviation accident in Spain, 9 September 1988 | Canadair CL-215 · Spanish Air and Space Force · Spain | 4 |
| 26 Jun 1988 | Air France Flight 296 | Airbus A320 · Air France · Flight AF296Q · Mulhouse-Habsheim airfield · France | 3 |
| 2 Nov 1988 | LOT Flight 703 | Antonov An-24 · LOT Polish Airlines · Białobrzegi · Polish People's Republic | 1 |
| 29 Jun 1988 | Aviation accident in Germany, 29 June 1988 | Nackenheim · Germany | 1 |
| 28 Apr 1988 | Aloha Airlines Flight 243 | Boeing 737 · Aloha Airlines · Kahului · United States | 1 |
| 31 Dec 1988 | Aviation accident, 31 December 1988 | Odesa International Airport | 0 |
| 24 May 1988 | TACA Flight 110 | Avianca El Salvador · New Orleans · United States | 0 |
| 7 Oct 1988 | Shanxi Airlines Flight 4218 | — | |
| 15 Sep 1988 | Aviation accident, 15 September 1988 | — | |
| 12 Sep 1988 | Aviation accident, 12 September 1988 | — | |
| 7 Sep 1988 | 1988 Botswana Government BAe-125 attempted shootdown Aircraft shootdown | Angola | — |
| 26 Aug 1988 | Aviation accident, 26 August 1988 | Irkutsk | — |
| 17 Aug 1988 | death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq | — | |
| 8 Aug 1988 | Aviation accident, 8 August 1988 | Eysky Liman | — |
| 21 Jul 1988 | Aviation accident, 21 July 1988 | — | |
| 20 Jul 1988 | Aviation accident in United States, 20 July 1988 | Avianca El Salvador · United States | — |
| 13 Jul 1988 | 1988 British International Helicopters Sikorsky S-61N crash | — | |
| 11 Jul 1988 | China Xinjiang Airlines Flight 9501 | China Xinjiang Airlines | — |
| 25 Jun 1988 | 1988 Sadamisaki Peninsula CH-53 crash | Japan | — |
| 23 Jun 1988 | 1988 British Army Lynx shootdown Aircraft shootdown | Aughanduff · United Kingdom | — |
| 30 May 1988 | 1988 Shimojijima All Nippon Airways hard landing Runway excursion | All Nippon Airways · Shimojishima Airport · Japan | — |
| 15 Apr 1988 | Horizon Air Flight 2658 | United States | — |
| 31 Mar 1988 | Aviation accident, 31 March 1988 | — | |
| 2 Feb 1988 | Aviation accident, 2 February 1988 | Kalarsky District | — |
| 24 Jan 1988 | Aeroflot Flight 29674 | Aeroflot · Nizhnevartovsk Airport · Russia | — |
| 19 Jan 1988 | Aviation accident, 19 January 1988 | — | |
| 10 Jan 1988 | Toa Domestic Airlines Flight 670 Runway overrun | NAMC YS-11 · Toa Domestic Airlines · Miho-Yonago Airport · Japan | — |
"—" = no death toll recorded in Wikidata yet. Names link to the Wikidata item.
Month by month, 1988
| Month | Wikidata accidents | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| January | 7 | 144 |
| February | 5 | 68 |
| March | 5 | 192 |
| April | 3 | 30 |
| May | 3 | 36 |
| June | 5 | 26 |
| July | 5 | 290 |
| August | 7 | 120 |
| September | 6 | 115 |
| October | 5 | 184 |
| November | 3 | 11 |
| December | 5 | 333 |
Latest crash reports we recorded
Global Incident Tracker's own records begin in August 2026.
What this page shows, and what it misses
Two separate records, never added together. Wikidata: every item classed as an aviation accident (or a kind of one, such as a helicopter crash, mid-air collision or runway excursion) with a date in 1988, with the death toll, country, operator and aircraft as entered there. It favours larger, widely reported accidents, and new entries appear days or weeks after a crash.
Neither is an official world total, and the two counts differ because they count different things. For US civil aviation alone, the NTSB's CAROL accident database lists every accident it investigates, most of them small private aircraft.
Aviation accident data: Wikidata (CC0 public domain), from its structured fields only. Crash reports: Global Incident Tracker.
QuestionsPlane crashes in 1988
How many plane crashes have there been in 1988?
Wikidata lists 59 aviation accidents in 1988, with 1,549 deaths recorded against them. These are the counts in Wikidata, not an official world total. The deadliest listed: Iran Air Flight 655 shootdown (3 Jul 1988, 290 dead).
Which was the deadliest plane crash of 1988?
Among the aviation accidents listed in Wikidata for 1988, the deadliest is Iran Air Flight 655 shootdown on 3 Jul 1988, with 290 deaths recorded.
Why do different sites give different numbers of plane crashes?
Because they count different things. Some count only airliner accidents, some every accident of a small private plane, some only those with deaths. Wikidata lists accidents that someone has added as a structured item, which favours larger and widely reported crashes. Global Incident Tracker counts crash reports it picked up from news and official feeds. For the United States alone, the NTSB investigates over a thousand civil aviation accidents a year, most of them small private aircraft.