A Sikorsky S-76 helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, killing all nine people on board, including former basketball player Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
JAT Flight 367 exploded in mid-air over Czechoslovakia; the only survivor of the 28 on board, flight attendant Vesna Vulović, fell 10,160 m (33,330 ft), setting the record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.
The three Beaumont children disappeared from a beach in Glenelg, South Australia, resulting in one of the country's largest-ever police investigations.