Even that list is narrowing it too far. It should include things listed as "found."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft#1987
Lots of people incorrectly think nothing was ever found, but that's just not true.
It crashed. Time passed. Debris was found.
This is not significantly different from many other ocean crashes. Often, floating debris and washed-up debris is all you ever find for a mid-ocean crash, and that's exactly what was found. Maybe sometimes an oil slick is found that has migrated somewhere else from the actual site of the crash. The main difference here was the amount of time before debris was found, and that's understandable (considering the pilot was possibly suicidal and took steps to make it difficult). A suicidal pilot is also nothing new. The 24-hour cable news networks made a big deal about it (HUGE understatement) before any significant amount of time had passed. They knew they had the public in a frenzy and tried to keep them tuned-in all day, every day, for weeks. Yes, a passenger plane crash is immediately newsworthy -- even before days had passed with little-or-nothing found. All passengers and crew would be presumed dead with a mid-ocean crash. However, the 24-hour news networks fixated on it. "ALERT!!!" interruptions occurred repeatedly during actual news with no new update, or the same "update" they had been repeating all day long. Sometimes it was just that another country/organization was searching another area. Many times they just had absolutely nothing except another person to talk speculatively with. That was infuriating!
With a mid-ocean crash, there's ALWAYS some time before fragments are found. It takes time to get out there. Currents move things and it's not easy to find the debris immediately. The pilot was probably suicidal (nothing new) so it's no stretch to think he'd take steps to make it difficult to find anything (no transmissions, turn off equipment, fly low, etc).
The 24-hour news networks were making a HUUUUUGE deal out of this immediately after it happened. That was my criticism. They were doing this immediately. The networks knew most of their increased viewership were
only watching for updates on the hyped scenario. Rather than stealing ratings from each other, the networks pretty much all saw huge ratings increases. Their existing viewers watched much more than they normally did. Lots of people that didn't normally watch 24-hour cable news started watching.
I made my comment based on vague recollections of past incidents. I know that one of them took place in the Atlantic. I've been working and spending all of my free time remotely assisting my sister for the past few days. My time recently has been extremely limited. The only computer I have access to is at work. I looked up the earliest passenger jet oceanic crash I found in the 30 year period (
link), but the wiki page had no information I could find about how much time it took to find debris. It did say this: "
The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were not located." -- and that incident was close enough to civilization that witnesses on land actually heard the mid-air explosion.
My point was that it takes time to find debris. Various factors affect how long it takes. The 24-hour cable news networks immediately fixated and sensationalized to a degree I had never seen before (nor since) -- without any hesitation. As expected, debris was found.
If you want to believe this is the most unprecedented airliner crash, be my guest. Yes, there's an important news story here (as with any passenger airline crash) -- but it doesn't warrant the kind of nonsense sensationalism we got. Most of you people think it's more special than it really is, specifically because
you got caught-up in the hysteria bandwagon.