Wikipedia's first sentence called it “international passenger flight from vienna”. Today it says “international passenger flight from london to tel aviv via vienna and istanbul”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
El Al Flight 402 was an international passenger flight from London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul . On 27 July 1955, the flight, operated by a Lockheed Constellation registered as 4X-AKC, strayed into then- Communist Bulgarian airspace and was attacked by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters, crashing near Petrich . All 7 crew and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed. The crash took place amid highly strained relations between the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc and was the deadliest involving the Constellation up to that time.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1175967987.
The opening as it stood in 2010
El Al Flight 402 , a Lockheed L-049 Constellation pressurized four-engine propliner , registered 4X-AKC, was an international passenger flight from Vienna , Austria to Tel Aviv , Israel via Istanbul , Turkey , on July 27, 1955, which strayed into Bulgarian airspace and was shot down by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters and crashed near Petrich , Bulgaria. All 7 crew and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 361935425.
The opening as it stood in 2015
El Al Flight 402 was an international passenger flight from London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul .On July 27, 1955, the flight, operated by a Lockheed Constellation registered as 4X-AKC, strayed into Bulgarian airspace and was shot down by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters and crashed near Petrich , Bulgaria. All 7 crew and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed. The crash took place amid highly strained relations between the Eastern Bloc and the West and was the deadliest involving the Constellation at the time.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 658668223.
The opening as it stood in 2020
El Al Flight 402 was an international passenger flight from London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul . On July 27, 1955, the flight, operated by a Lockheed Constellation registered as 4X-AKC, strayed into Bulgarian airspace and was shot down by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters and crashed near Petrich . All 7 crew and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed. The crash took place amid highly strained relations between the Eastern Bloc and the West and was the deadliest involving the Constellation at the time.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 935420591.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “international passenger flight from vienna”. Today it says “international passenger flight from london to tel aviv via vienna and istanbul”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
international passenger flight from vienna
Now
international passenger flight from london to tel aviv via vienna and istanbul
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
