Worst year for airline accidents (death toll)

The worst year for air accidents worldwide was 1985. The precise number of fatalities varies depending on source but, according to Flight: A Hundred Years of Aviation, some 2,129 people were killed that year. However, 1,105 of the fatalities were due to just three accidents. The first was Air India Flight 182 in which 329 people died; the second was JapanAirlines Flight 123 in which 520 people were killed, and the third was the Arrow Air Flight 1285 in which 256 passengers lost their lives. According to planecrashinfo.com, which maintains an aviation accident database that includes all civil and commercial accidents of scheduled and non-scheduled planes, helicopters and airships, plus military and test crashes, the death toll in 1985 was higher at 2,670 (http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1985/1985.htm)