Terrorism and War-Related Airplane Crashes Fast Facts

Here's a selected list of commercial airplane crashes caused by military acts or by terrorism.

June 14, 1940 - Soviet bombers shoot down the Kaleva, a Finnish commercial plane traveling from Estonia to Finland, killing all nine on board. One passenger was Henry W. Antheil Jr., an American diplomat who was carrying diplomatic pouches from US legations in Estonia and Latvia.

March 3, 1942 - Japanese aircraft shoot down a KNILM flight on its way to Broome, Australia. The plane crash-lands on the beach at Carnot Bay. Four people die.

June 1, 1943 - British actor Leslie Howard is among 17 killed when German fighters shoot down a British Overseas Airways Corporation flight over the Bay of Biscay.

July 23, 1954 - A Cathay Pacific flight is shot down by a Chinese Army fighter plane off the coast of Hainan Island, killing 10 people.

April 11, 1955 - Sixteen people die when a bomb explodes on an Air India flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, Indonesia. The "Kashmir Princess" was flying to the Afro-Asian Bandung conference. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai may have been the target; however, he was not on the flight.

July 27, 1955 - El Al Flight 402, bound for Israel, is shot down by two Bulgarian fighter jets after the plane strays into Bulgarian territory. All 58 on board are killed.