4 deliberate plane crashes from the past

WASHINGTON • Flight data from one of the black boxes of the China Eastern Airlines jet that crashed in China's Guangxi region on March 21 indicates that someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday that cited sources familiar with United States officials' preliminary assessment.

If that turns out to be the case, it would not be the first time a pilot has intentionally brought down a passenger plane.

Here are past examples of such incidents:

GERMANWINGS FLIGHT 9525

March 24, 2015

Investigators believe the plane's co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin after the latter had left for some unknown reason.

The voice recorder indicated that the co-pilot had been breathing up until the moment of the crash, suggesting that he meant to destroy the plane, which was travelling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

The co-pilot had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies and declared "unfit to work" by his doctor.

The incident claimed the lives of all 150 people on board.

MOZAMBIQUE AIRLINES FLIGHT TM470

Nov 29, 2013

TM470 was bound for Angola from the Mozambican capital Maputo with 27 passengers and six crew members.

Aviation experts ruled that the pilot made a "deliberate series of manoeuvres" causing the crash, killing everyone on board.

The motives for his actions remain unclear.

EGYPTAIR FLIGHT 990

Oct 31, 1999

Similar to the Germanwings case, the captain left the cockpit during this flight from New York to Cairo. In the case of this EgyptAir flight, the pilot left to go to the restroom.

A probe by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that after the captain left the cockpit, the co-pilot was heard repeating "I rely on God", and that he moved the throttling levers to begin a steep descent.

All 217 people on board were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

The NTSB's conclusion was that the co-pilot was responsible for the crash, but it could not say definitively why he made the plane crash.

JAPAN AIR LINES FLIGHT 350

Feb 9, 1982

This flight from Fukuoka prefecture fell short of landing on the main runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport and crashed into Tokyo Bay about 270m from land.

Of the 174 people on board, 24 were killed.

Investigators blamed the captain's mental state for the crash, with the airlines' president at the time saying that the pilot had a "psychosomatic illness" just two years prior to the crash.