Turkish Airlines Flight 981
Debris field of the aircraft | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 March 1974 |
| Summary | Cargo door failure due to design flaw leading to explosive decompression and loss of control |
| Site | |
| Aircraft | |
| TC-JAV, the aircraft involved in the accident, photographed in 1973 | |
| Aircraft type | McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 |
| Aircraft name | Ankara |
| Operator | Turkish Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | TK981 |
| ICAO flight No. | THY981 |
| Call sign | TURKISH 981 |
| Registration | TC-JAV |
| Flight origin | Yeşilköy Airport Istanbul, Turkey |
| Stopover | Orly Airport Paris, France |
| Destination | London Heathrow Airport London, United Kingdom |
| Occupants | 346 |
| Passengers | 335 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Fatalities | 346 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Turkish Airlines Flight 981 was a scheduled flight from Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport to London Heathrow Airport, with an intermediate stop at Orly Airport in Paris. On 3 March 1974, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating the flight crashed into the Ermenonville Forest, about 40 kilometres (25 mi; 22 nmi) outside Paris, killing all 335 passengers and 11 crew. The crash was also known as the Ermenonville air disaster.
Flight 981 was the deadliest accident in aviation history until 27 March 1977, when 583 people died in the Tenerife airport disaster of two 747 jets. It remains the deadliest single-aircraft accident without survivors, the deadliest accident involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, the deadliest accident in the history of Turkish Airlines, and the deadliest aviation accident to occur in France.