TWO WINGS AND A PRAYER : Airplane accidents through the years

Some of the major airplane crashes involving New York City

airports:

Feb. 1, 1957 - Twenty people died when a Miami-bound airliner crashed onto

Rikers Island moments after taking off from LaGuardia in a blinding snowstorm.

Seventy-four others on board survived.

Feb. 3, 1959 - An American Airlines plane crashed into the East River,

killing 65 people.

Dec. 16, 1960 - TWA Flight 266 from Dayton, Ohio, bound for LaGuardia

Airport collided in a heavy snowstorm over Staten Island with United Flight 825

from Chicago, bound for Idlewild (now Kennedy) Airport. All 128 people on

board the two aircraft died, as did six people on the ground.

Feb. 8, 1965 - An Eastern Airlines DC-7B crashed into the Atlantic Ocean

off Jones Beach, shortly after taking off from Kennedy. All 84 on board were

killed.

June 24, 1975 - An Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 carrying 124 persons crashed

while attempting to land at Kennedy Airport during a thunderstorm. The crash

left 113 people dead and 11 seriously injured.

Sept. 20, 1989 - Two people are killed when a USAir Boeing 737 plane bound

to Charlotte, N.C., with 62 people on board slid off the end of the runway into

the East River during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in Queens.

Jan. 25, 1990 - An Avianca Airline Boeing 707 crashed into Cove Neck after

the plane ran out of fuel on its attempt to land at Kennedy Airport, killing

150 people on board. [CORRECTION: Seventy-three people died in the Avianca

Airline crash in Cove Neck on Jan. 25, 1990. The number of victims was

incorrect in a story Friday.

Also, a portion of one account Friday of the crash of US Airways Flight

1549 was incorrectly attributed to Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The

Associated Press. The description of the plane passing an office window and of

the scene just after the plane hit water came from other sources. (A19 ALL

1/17/09)]

July 17, 1996 - TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean

off Moriches Inlet only minutes after departing Kennedy Airport. The crash,

bound for Paris, killed all 230 people on board.

Sept. 11, 2001 - In the worst air disaster in American history, terrorists

fly two planes into the World Trade Center, killing 147 passengers in the two

planes and about 2,600 people in the towers. Two other planes were hijacked and

were crashed into a field in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, killing hundreds

more.

Nov. 12, 2001 - All 260 on board and five people on the ground were killed

with a plane crashed into a neighborhood in Rockaway, Queens. American Flight

587 was bound for the Dominican Republic from Kennedy Airport, and crashed

three minutes after takeoff.

Oct. 11, 2006 - A single-engine airplane owned by Yankees pitcher Cory

Lidle slammed into the side of a Manhattan apartment tower, killing Lidle and

his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger.