While four is considered an unlucky number in Chinese culture and thirteen conveys similar meaning in the western world, seven has emerged as the scariest number of 2014 for the Vietnamese online community, given the number of recent catastrophes associated with it.

Although seven is not a phononym to any commonly word related to death in either Vietnamese or English, nor is there any day considered unlucky like Friday the 7th, the number is increasingly believed to be associated with bad luck, especially when it comes to the airline industry.

Vietnamese netizens have been flooding online forums and social networks with posts insisting that the number is related to the recent plane crashes, three of which occurred within seven days since July 17 in Ukraine, Taiwan, and Mali.

In the latest aviation disaster, Air Algerie flight AH5017 crashed on July 24. All 118 people, including the aircrew, lost their lives on board a Boeing 717 jetliner.

On Friday, an Indian air force helicopter crashed in the country’s northern region, killing seven people onboard.

If that is not scary enough, note that the chopper went down at around 5:00 pm, or 17:00.

Calamities linked with No.7

On March 8, a day that will always be remembered in global aviation history, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished from the radar in what is still a hugely mysterious disappearance that shocked not only the Malaysian carrier and the airline industry but the whole world.

On 07/07, a Vietnamese military helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Hanoi at 7:53 local time, killing 16 soldiers. The death toll rose to 19 when the last victim of the Mi-171 chopper died in the hospital on July 19.

Exactly seven days later, on 07/14, a military helicopter sank on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, killing five trainee soldiers on board and severely injuring one.

Ten days after the chopper crash, the world was shocked to learn of another calamity involving a Malaysia Airlines flight.

Flight MH17 was shot down in eastern Ukraine with 298 people onboard. The number seven appears numerous times in this particular disaster.

The doomed plane was a Boeing 777 airline, which had been in use for exactly 17 years from 07/17/1997 to 07/17/2014 before it was shot en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at 17:17 local time.

On 07/17, a helicopter carrying emergency workers crashed in an urban area in the South Korean city of Gwangju, killing five firefighters and rescue personnel on board.

Last but not least, TransAsia Airways Flight GE222 crashed during a second landing attempt on the typhoon-battered island of Penghu in Taiwan on 07/23. There were 58 people onboard the ATR72 aircraft at the time of the tragedy.

While the relation of number seven and these catastrophes could be mere coincidence, some members of the Vietnamese online community are obsessed by it and believe it carries a deeper meaning.

When Toan Shinoda, a famous Vietnamese vlogger (video blogger) died on Thursday, some netizens pointed out that he was born in 1987 and died at the age of 27.

Is 7 the haunted number of 2014?

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