Seventy-two years ago today, on May 2, 1953 (March 19, 1953), the first jetliner crashed. On May 2, 1953, the first jetliner crashed during a business flight, killing 40 people. Minutes after taking off from Kolkata airport, the British-made Comet jet crashed to the ground in a sudden storm. The plane was carrying the operators of rubber and tin factories from Malaya to England. None of the people on board were spared. Before that, two "Comet" planes crashed. One in October 1952 and the other in 1953, but neither was carrying passengers.