Lufthansa Flight 540: The Story Of The Boeing 747's First Fatal Accident. The crash is also the deadliest to have taken place on Kenyan soil. Today marks 48 years since the crash of Lufthansa flight 540 near the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.

Lufthansa has a highly regarded safety record, but like most legacy carriers with over 70 years of operation, it has experienced fatal accidents. The most significant crash in the airline's modern history occurred on November 20, 1974, when Lufthansa Flight 540, a Boeing 747, crashed shortly after takeoff from Nairobi, Kenya, resulting in 59 fatalities. This was the first ever fatal accident involving a Boeing 747. Another notable incident was the 1993 overrun of Flight 2904 in Warsaw, which resulted in two deaths. It is important to distinguish the mainline Lufthansa carrier from its subsidiary, Germanwings; the 2015 tragedy in the French Alps (Flight 9525) involved a Germanwings aircraft, not a Lufthansa-branded one. In 2026, Lufthansa consistently ranks as one of the world's safest airlines, maintaining rigorous maintenance standards and a modern fleet, with no fatal accidents on its mainline service in over three decades.