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How the Iran plane crash ranks among disasters claiming Canadian lives

A Ukrainian airliner crashed in Iran on Wednesday, killing 63 Canadians. It was one of the biggest, single death tolls involving Canadian citizens in recent times.

268 Canadians died when a bomb exploded on board an Air India flight in 1985

A forensic investigator works at the scene of a Ukrainian plane crash as bodies of the victims are collected, in Shahedshahr, southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran, Wednesday. (The Associated Press/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A Ukrainian airliner crashed in Iran on Wednesday, killing dozens of Canadians and many more who had ties to Canada. It was one of the biggest, single death tolls involving Canadian citizens in recent times.

Following is a list of the most serious disasters than have killed at least 30 Canadians since 1979:

June 23, 1985 - 268 Canadians died when a bomb exploded on board an Air India flight over the Atlantic Ocean. The plane had been en route from Montreal to London.

Feb 15, 1982 - 67 Canadians died when the Ocean Ranger, a floating oil rig, sank off the coast of Newfoundland.

Jan 12, 2010 - 58 Canadians died when a massive earthquake hit Haiti.

Jan 8, 2020 - 57 Canadians, and a total of 138 people bound for Canada, died in the crash of a Ukrainian airliner outside Tehran. (Initial reports cited 63 Canadians among the victims; the government revised that figure on Jan. 10.)

A stone slab with carved names in Vancouver's Stanley Park commemorating the victims of the Air India bombing in 1985.
The memorial in Stanley Park names all of the people who lost their lives in the Air India bombing. (CBC)

Dec 31, 1979 - 48 Canadians died when fire ripped through a community hall in the northern Quebec town of Chapais.

July 6, 2013 - 47 Canadians died in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic after a train with oil tankers derailed and exploded.

Oct 13, 1997 - 44 Canadians, all of them senior citizens, died when their bus crashed into a ravine near Baie-St-Paul in Quebec after the brakes failed.

Jan 23, 2014 - 32 Canadians died when fire destroyed a nursing home in L'Isle Verte, Quebec.

The Lac-Mgantic rail disaster took the lives of 47 Canadians. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)