Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Based on the last contact with the pilots, the Boeing 777-200ER is presumed to have crashed off the coast of Vietnam. The 239 passengers and crew members on board the flight, a codeshare with China Southern Airlines, came from 14 countries. According to MAS, 153 of them are Chinese citizens and 38 Malaysians.
Here is a chronology of major air crashes in China and the world:
IN CHINA
2002
April 15: An Air China plane from Beijing crashes near Busan in South
Korea, leaving 129 dead but 37 are pulled out of the Boeing 767-200.
May 7: All 112 people on board a China Northern Airlines MD-80 die when it
plunges into the sea en route from Beijing to Dalian in the northeast.
1994
June 6: A China Northwest Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes after take-off
near the northern city of Xian, killing all 160 people on board.
1992
July 31: A China General Aviation Yakovlev 42D crashes after takeoff from
the eastern city of Nanjing, killing 107 of 126 people on board.
November 24: A China Southern Airlines Boeing 737-300 crashes while
descending to the southern city of Guilin. All 141 people on board die.
1990
October 2: A total of 128 people die after a hijacked Xiamen Airlines
flight lands in the southern city of Guangzhou and hits two other aircraft on
the ground, including one waiting to take off.
1988
January 18: A China Southwest Airlines Ilyushin 18D catches fire on
approach in the southwestern city of Chongqing, killing all 108 people on board.
1982
April 26: All 112 people aboard a CAAC from flight Guangzhou to Guilin die
when a Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 2E crashes into a mountain southeast of
Guilin.
REST OF THE WORLD
2009
June 1: An Air France Airbus A330 crashes in the sea between Brazil and
France, killing all 228 on board.
2003
February 19: An Iranian military Ilyushin 76MD crashes in the Sirach
Mountains, killing all 275 members of the Revolutionary Guard on board.
2002
May 25: A China Airlines Boeing 747 crashes 50 kilometres off Taiwan,
killing 225.
2001
November 12: An American Airlines Airbus A300 crashes in the New York
borough of Queens shortly after taking off, killing all 260 on board and five
people on the ground.
1996
November 12: A Saudi Airlines Boeing 747 passenger plane and a Kazakh
Ilyushin 76 transport jet collide in mid-air over Charkhi Dadri in northern
India, killing 349 people, the world's third worst air disaster.
1985
August 12: A Boeing 747 belonging to Japan Airlines and flying from Tokyo
to Osaka crashes into a mountainside, killing 520 people, the world's
second-worst air disaster.
1977
March 27: Two Boeing 747s collide on the runway at Tenerife in the Canary
Islands, killing 583 people, the world's worst air disaster.
Sources: AFP reports, Aviation Safety Network website
