1983 gulf air flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb killing all 112 09 23
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1983 43 years ago Historical Events September 23

Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 112 people on board.

On September 23, in the year 1983, Gulf Air Flight 771 is destroyed by a bomb, killing all 112 people on board. This event is recorded as a Historical Events event in the history of September 23, one of 408 recorded events on this date across all of history.

Gulf Air Flight 771 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi International Airport, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On 23 September 1983, while the Boeing 737-200 was on approach, a bomb, planted by the Iraqi-based Palestinian nationalist militant group, Abu Nidal Organization, exploded in the baggage compartment, resulting in a fire. The aircraft crashed in the desert near Jebel Ali between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. All 105 passengers and 7 crew members died. To date, it is the deadliest air disaster in the history of the United Arab Emirates, along with Sterling Airways Flight 296 which also had 112 fatalities in 1972.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on September 23, 1983 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Historical Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 1 Wikipedia article.
  • The event is associated with a specific geographical location (see map below).
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 9 July 2026.

On This Date in History 408

Type Year Date Event
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Notable Deaths 2021 Sep 23 John Elliott, Australian businessman (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2021 Sep 23 Nino Vaccarella, Italian race car driver (born 1933)
Historical Events 2020 Sep 23 A grand jury in Kentucky declines to indict three police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in a drug…
Notable Deaths 2020 Sep 23 Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress (born 1927)
Historical Events 2019 Sep 23 Twenty people die on the first of two days of rioting in Papua and West Papua over an alleged racist incident.
Selected Events 2019 Sep 23 The British travel company Thomas Cook Group ceased operations with immediate effect, leaving around 600,000 tourists…
Notable Deaths 2018 Sep 23 Charles Kuen Kao, Hong Kong-American-British electrical engineer and physicist (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2018 Sep 23 Gary Kurtz, American film producer (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2018 Sep 23 Jane Fortune, American author, journalist, and philanthropist (born 1942)
Selected Events 2016 Sep 23 Following a number of high-profile sexual assaults, major reforms were enacted to strengthen laws related to rape in…
Notable Deaths 2015 Sep 23 Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher (born 1930)
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 23 A. W. Davis, American basketball player and coach (born 1943)
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 23 Irven DeVore, American anthropologist and biologist (born 1934)
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 23 Don Manoukian, American football player and wrestler (born 1934)
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 23 Al Suomi, American ice hockey player and referee (born 1913)
Historical Events 2013 Sep 23 Twenty-five people are killed after Typhoon Usagi passes Hong Kong and China.
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 23 Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj, Syrian colonel and politician (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 23 Gil Dozier, American captain, lawyer, and politician (born 1934)
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 23 Ruth Patrick, American botanist and immunologist (born 1907)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 23 Henry Champ, Canadian journalist and academic (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 23 Pavel Grachev, Russian general and politician, 1st Minister of Defence for Russia (born 1948)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 23 Roberto Rodríguez, Venezuelan baseball player and coach (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 23 Corrie Sanders, South African boxer (born 1966)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 23 Sam Sniderman, Canadian businessman, founded Sam the Record Man (born 1920)
Historical Events 2010 Sep 23 Teresa Lewis becomes the first woman to be executed by the U.S. state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in…
Notable Deaths 2010 Sep 23 Malcolm Douglas, Australian hunter and television host (born 1941)
Selected Events 2010 Sep 23 Teresa Lewis became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in…
Notable Deaths 2009 Sep 23 Paul B. Fay, American sailor and politician, United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1918)
Historical Events 2008 Sep 23 Matti Saari kills ten people at a school in Finland before committing suicide.
Notable Deaths 2008 Sep 23 Peter Leonard, Australian journalist (born 1942)
Notable Deaths 2008 Sep 23 Loren Pope, American journalist and author (born 1910)
Selected Events 2008 Sep 23 A gunman shot and killed ten students at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Kauhajoki, Finland, before…
Notable Deaths 2006 Sep 23 Malcolm Arnold, English trumpet player and composer (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2006 Sep 23 Etta Baker, American singer and guitarist (born 1913)
Notable Deaths 2005 Sep 23 Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican activist (born 1933)
Historical Events 2004 Sep 23 Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding and mudslides.
Notable Deaths 2004 Sep 23 Billy Reay, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1918)
Notable Deaths 2003 Sep 23 Yuri Senkevich, Russian physician and journalist (born 1937)
Selected Events 2002 Sep 23 The first version of the web browser Firefox was released by the Mozilla Organization.
Notable Births 2001 Sep 23 Lai Kuan-lin, Taiwanese film director
Notable Deaths 2001 Sep 23 Ron Hewitt, Welsh footballer (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2000 Sep 23 Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican baseball player and manager (born 1947)
Notable Deaths 2000 Sep 23 Carl Rowan, American journalist and author (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2000 Sep 23 Raoul Berger, American attorney and law professor (born 1901)
Historical Events 1999 Sep 23 Qantas Flight 1 overruns a runway in Bangkok during a storm, causing minor injuries to some passengers.
Notable Births 1999 Sep 23 Song Yu-qi, Chinese singer
Notable Deaths 1999 Sep 23 Ivan Goff, Australian-American screenwriter and producer (born 1910)
Notable Deaths 1998 Sep 23 Ray Bowden, English footballer (born 1909)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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