The toll of 229 deaths in the Swissair crash ranks it among the worst air crashes on record. The following are in order of the number of deaths:
583 - March 27th, 1977 - Two Boeing 747 airliners - a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines aircraft and a Pan American jet - collide on the runway at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people out of a total of 644 on board both aircraft.
520 - August 12th, 1985 - A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashes into Mount Osutaka, killing all but four of 524 people on board.
350 - January 8th, 1996 - A Russian-built Antonov-32 cargo plane crashes into a market in the Congolese (then Zairean) capital, Kinshasa.
349 - November 12th, 1996 - A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet and a Kazakh Airlines Ilyushin cargo aircraft collide in mid-air near New Delhi.
346 - March 3rd, 1974 - A Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashes north-east of Paris shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport.
329 - June 23rd, 1985 - An Air India Boeing 747 plunges into the sea off the Irish coast, apparently following an explosion.
301 - August 19th, 1980 - A Saudi Arabian Airlines L-1011 Lockheed TriStar jet catches fire at Riyadh airport.
290 - July 3rd, 1988 - An Iran Air A-300 Airbus is shot down over the Gulf by the US warship Vincennes.
273 - May 25th, 1979 - An American Airlines DC-10 crashes after takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
270 - December 21st, 1988 - A Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 crashes on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people on board when the plane is blown up by a bomb. Eleven people in the town are also killed.
269 - September 1st, 1983 - A Korean Air Lines 747 is shot down by a Soviet fighter near Sakhalin Island. 264 - April 26th, 1994 - A China Airlines Airbus with 271 people on board crashes and explodes at Nagoya, Japan.
261 - July 11th, 1991 - A chartered Canadian DC-8 crashes during an emergency landing at Jeddah.
257 - November 28th, 1979 - An Air New Zealand DC-10 hits Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
256 - December 12th, 1985 - An Arrow Air DC-8 chartered by the US military crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland.
230 - July 17th, 1996 - Trans World Airlines flight 800 explodes over the Atlantic Ocean after taking off from Kennedy Airport, New York.
229 - September 2nd, 1998 - Swissair flight 111 crashes into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia, Canada.
228 - August 6th, 1997 - Korean Air Lines flight 801 from Seoul crashes in Guam. Most of the 254 people on board the Boeing 747 are killed.