Consistently credited as being one of the US’s favourite airlines, Virgin America took its final flight on Thursday and has been taken over by Alaska Air as part of a $3.4 billion deal.

All check-in counters, kiosks, signs and gate areas branded as Virgin America have now vanished from 29 airports around the US and Mexico. The livery and planes will go at a later date.

Passengers flooded social media upon hearing of the closure, showing just how much the airline will be missed. However, it’s far from the only airline that has disappeared from the skies.

We take a look at seven of the most famous cases of carriers that suffered demises, with financial woes and horrifying plane crashes among the factors that had a hand in some of the airlines’ undoings.

1. Ansett

Founded in 1935, Ansett was Australia’s second-largest airline and operated for more than 65 years. It carried more than 14 million passengers a year and had an annual turnover of more than $3 billion by the time it was placed into administration in 2001.

Unfortunately, Ansett became the nation’s most high-profile aviation failure, and one of the largest corporate collapses ever.

In fact, it was haemorrhaging a massive $1.3 million a day, according to its parent company Air New Zealand. The airline’s collapse left about 15,000 people out of work and out of pocket to the tune of $758 million in lost entitlements. Most were eventually paid back, but there were many dark days.

“The Ansett collapse produced enormous pain and hardship to thousands of Australian families,” Mark Korda from administrators KordaMentha told the Herald Sun.

KordaMentha stated: “After a decade of commitment, we effectively completed the administration on 2 September, 2011 ... The final dividend paid to former Ansett employees achieved an overall average return of 96 cents in the dollar — a result that surpassed initial stakeholder expectations during the time of the collapse.”

It was such a desperate time that, in an effort to reimburse the workers, the Federal Government imposed a $10 “Ansett levy” on all plane tickets to raise money.

Tragically, at least 40 Ansett employees committed suicide following its demise, The Australian reported.

2. Air Berlin

It was the fourth-largest airline in Europe and had a sterling safety record, but in January this year, Air Berlin went bankrupt and creditors moved in, selling its entire inventory. Bids for food trolleys started at $570, and even Lindt chocolates were being flogged at $46 for a 100 pack.

The airline had been bleeding money for years, accumulating losses of $1.83 billion over the previous two years.

It had been kept afloat by Etihad, which became its biggest shareholder in 2011 but pulled out last August. Sadly, Air Berlin struggled to compete with the ultra-budget offerings in Europe, including Ryanair and Easyjet.

It also suffered from strategic issues.

“One basic problem: The airline never settled on a strategy,” Skift reported in August. “For a long time, it wanted to be a discount airline focused on attracting leisure customers. But it never could get its costs to match other low-cost carriers in Europe.”

The last Air Berlin flight took off in October.

3. Air Australia

Unfortunately, Ansett isn’t the only Australian airline to fold in a dramatic fashion. About 4000 passengers were left stranded in 2012 when Air Australia went bust seemingly out of the blue, suddenly grounding flights around its network.

It had pushed itself to the financial brink, literally running out of money to buy fuel.

The Brisbane-based carrier failed with debts of up to $90 million and was liquidated. Up until a few hours before administrators KordaMentha were appointed, tickets were still being sold online. The airline ended up making $36 million from about 100,000 tickets for future travel, which became worthless.

Formerly known as Strategic Airlines, the carrier started domestic flights in 2009 before expanding to overseas destinations such as Bali.

4. Pan American World Airways (Pan Am)

One of the world’s most famous airlines, Pan Am was the largest international air carrier in the US for nearly 70 years (1927-91). It was also one of the most innovative, and was a founding member of the global aviation authority, the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

It was a hugely popular airline, bringing glamour to the skies during the good old days of aviation. However, by the 1970s it struggled with major increases in worldwide fuel prices, declining travel, deregulation and an increasing number of competitors.

Then, there was a devastating plane crash that shook the world.

According to the The Pan Am Historical Foundation: “The magic era ended with the passing on of Juan Trippe in 1981, and a succession of managements were unable to regain profitability. The rapid rise of world terrorism, culminating in the tragedy of Lockerbie, was the final deathblow.”

Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York was destroyed by a bomb in its hold on December 21, 1988, while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed, as well as 11 people on the ground, making it the deadliest act of terrorism in the UK.

Three years after the tragedy, it was all over for the airline.

The Pan Am Historical Foundation states: “All the treasures had been sold, many at bargain-basement prices, yet the deficits remained. The end came on 4 December, 1991. The airline of many firsts, a world leader in technology and innovations, was gone, mourned by many across a world that will not see its like again.”

5. US Airways

The airline will be best remembered for the day when Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed flight 1549 on New York’s Hudson River, in January 2009.

“We’re going to be in the Hudson.”

That’s what the hero pilot told air traffic control, moments before the Airbus A320 crash-landed in the freezing river with 150 passengers on board.

Six years later, the airline brand disappeared, with its tens of thousands of employees and 655 aircraft being gobbled up by American Airlines as part of a merger. However, on paper the deal was officially inked two years prior.

The airline officially faded away with Flight 1939 in October, 2015. Now, those searching for US Airways are redirected to American Airlines.

6. Swissair

For years, the national airline of Switzerland seemed unbreakable. Founded in 1931, it flew from profit to profit, becoming known as the “Flying Bank” because it was so financially stable and had a reputation for great service.

Throughout the 1980s the airline continued to thrive, and was one of the major carriers in western Europe. But it didn’t last.

A disastrous overexpansion program and an unstable economic environment hit the airline hard. By 2001, it was in dire straits. With its entire fleet grounded, it was only kept alive by the government. After months of chaos and injections of millions of dollars, it was closed down the following year in a move that shocked the country.

Most of its planes and routes were taken over by a new airline, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS).

7. Trans World Airways (TWA)

One of Pan Am’s main rivals, the US airline TWA also has a long — and mostly glamorous — history spanning 71 years.

In its early days, it flourished under billionaire Howard Hughes and was always on the cutting edge of aviation technology, USA Today reports. However, poor management in the 1980s hurt the airline, which eventually suffered huge losses.

The situation was worsened by the fact that nobody would lend the airline money with Hughes at the helm.

“We were subject to very stiff interest penalties as a result of Hughes’ involvement,” Jerry Cosley, who held several executive and staff positions with TWA from 1960 to 1985, told the St. Louis Magazine. “He was a genius in many aspects of aviation, but he maintained a very spotty record of financial achievement.”

It faced bankruptcy in 1960, and Hughes gave up control. Things seemed to be fine for a while, until deregulation hit the industry and in the years following, some of its most prized routes were sold off. By 1992 it declared bankruptcy — and again in 1995.

The final nail in the coffin for the carrier came in July 1996 when TWA flight 800 from New York to Rome exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 12 minutes after takeoff. All 230 people on board died. No evidence of foul play was found — instead the probable cause was determined to be a short circuit causing a fuel tank to explode.

The airline survived a few more years, but filed for bankruptcy a third and final time in 2001 before being acquired by American Airlines.