Backgrounder: Major air crashes since 2003     

    BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- An Armenian passenger plane with at least 113 people on board crashed early Wednesday into the Black Sea off the coast of the southern Russian resort of Sochi, and there were no signs of survivors hours after the crash.

    Wreckage from the Armenian passenger aircraft has been found inthe Black Sea some six km from shore, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted the Russian emergency situations ministry officials as saying.

    The Airbus 320 was traveling from the Aremenian capital of Yerevan to the Black Sea resort of Sochi and vanished from radar screens near Sochi at about 2:15 a.m. (2215 GMT Tuesday), Itar-Tass quoted Viktor Beltsov, deputy head of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry's information department, as saying.

    Following is a chronology of major air crashes since 2003:

    March 6, 2003: An Algerian Boeing 737-200 crashes shortly after takeoff from Tamanrasset airport, killing all but one of the 97 passengers and six crew members on board.

    July 8: A Sudanese airliner bound for Khartoum goes down with the loss of all but one of the 105 passengers and 11 crew members aboard.

    Dec. 25: A plane owned by the Guinean-based airline UTA crashesinto the sea off the West African country of Benin, killing 139 of the 151 passengers and 10 crew members on board.

    Jan. 3, 2004: An Egyptian charter plane belonging to Flash Airlines crashes into the Red Sea, killing at least 148 people.

    Feb. 10: An Iranian passenger plane crashes and bursts into flames near Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, killing 43 of the 40 passengers and six crew members on board.

    Aug. 24,: Two Russian planes departing from a Moscow airport crash within minutes of each other, killing at least 89 people in a terror attack. Explosives were found on both aircraft.

    Nov. 30: A Lion Air passenger plane skids off the runway and crashes during heavy rains in central Indonesia, killing at least 31 people and injuring 75, with 47 others missing.

    Feb. 3, 2005: An Afghan airliner crashes into a mountain near Kabul, killing all the 104 people on board. The Boeing 737 was operated by Afghanistan's only private airline, Kam Air.

    March 16: An An-24 two-engine turboprop aircraft crashes and catches fire while trying to reach an airport near the oil port of Varandei in the Nenets autonomous region on Russia's Pechora Sea, killing 28 of the 53 people on board.

    May 26: An An-28 passenger plane crashes in the eastern mountain area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), killing all the 32 passengers and crew members on board.

    Aug. 6: A Tunisian ATR-42 plane crashes into the sea off Palermo in Sicily, Italy, killing 13 of the 39 passengers and crewmembers on board, with three others missing.

    Aug. 14: A Cypriot Boeing 737 operated by the private Helios Airways crashes in north Athens, killing all the 121 passengers and crew members on board.

    Aug. 17: A jet carrying French tourists crashes in the mountains of western Venezuela, killing all the 160 people on board.

    Aug. 24: A Peruvian Boeing 737-200 crashes in the Amazon jungle,killing at least 48 of the 100 people aboard.

    Sept. 5: An Indonesian Boeing 737-200 with 117 on board crashesinto a residential area in the city of Medan, Indonesia's third-largest city, killing more than 130 people aboard and on theground.

    Oct. 22: A Boeing 737-200 operated by Nigeria's Bellview Airlines crashes on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, killing 117 people on board.

    Dec. 10: A plane with 103 passengers and seven crew members on board crashes in the southern Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt, killing 103 people.

    Dec. 24: An Azerbaijani plane with 23 people onboard crashes soon after taking off from Baku, killing all the people aboard the plane.

    Jan. 19, 2006

    A Slovak An-24 military aircraft, bound from Kosovo to Slovakiawith Slovak peacekeeping troops, crashes in east Hungary, killing 42 people aboard. Only one survived. Enditem

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