Bombing of UTA Flight 772

Date: September 19, 1989 • Location: Bilma, Niger

UTA Flight 772 was bombed up over Niger by the Libyan government while flying from Chad to France, killing all 170 people on board.

UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled international passenger flight of the French airline Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) operating from Brazzaville in the People's Republic of the Congo, via N'Djamena in Chad, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. On 19 September 1989, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating the flight crashed into the Ténéré desert near Bilma, Niger, killing all 170 people on board after an in-flight explosion caused by a suitcase bomb. It is the deadliest aviation incident to occur in Niger.