=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/02/20/i= nternational0350EST0468.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, February 20, 2003 (AP) Major plane crashes in the last 20 years The Associated Press (02-20) 00:50 PST (AP) -- A list of the some of the worst plane crashes in the past 20 years: * Feb. 19, 2003: A plane carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashes in mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people on board. * May 25, 2002: A China Airlines plane flying from Taipei to Hong Kong crashes in the Taiwan Strait shortly after takeoff, killing 225 people. * Nov. 12, 2001: An American Airlines plane headed from New York to the Dominican Republic crashes shortly after takeoff into a residential neighborhood, killing all 260 people aboard and five people on the ground. * Oct. 31, 1999: Egypt Air Boeing 767 crashes into the Atlantic after taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on flight to Cairo, Egypt; 217 killed. * Sept. 2, 1998: Swissair Flight 111 from New York to Geneva crashes off Nova Scotia; 229 killed. * Feb. 16, 1998: Airbus A300 owned by Taiwan's China Airlines crashes ne= ar Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport while trying to land after flight from Bali, Indonesia; 196 killed. * Aug. 5, 1997: A Korean Air Boeing 747 crashes near Guam Island; 228 killed. * Nov. 12, 1996: Saudi 747 collided shortly after takeoff with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 making its landing approach near New Delhi, India, killing 349. * July 17, 1996: TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound 747, explodes and crashes off New York's Long Island shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International; 230 killed. * Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Boeing 747 crashes in terrorist bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland; 270 killed. * July 3, 1988: Iran Air A300 Airbus shot down by USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf; 290 killed. * Aug. 12, 1985: Japan Air Lines 747 crashes into a mountain on a domest= ic flight, the worst single-aircraft crash toll in aviation industry; 520 killed. * June 23, 1985: Air India Boeing 747 crashes off the coast of Ireland because of terrorist-planted bomb; 329 killed. * Sept. 1, 1983: Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 shot down by a Soviet fight= er after flying through Soviet airspace near Sakhalin Island; 269 killed. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP