• Eight
Bell 212s delivered to the
Civil Aviation Administration of China are the first helicopters supplied to the
People's Republic of China by an American manufacturer.
January •
Continental Airlines inaugurates service between
Houston,
Texas, and
Washington, D.C. • January 1 –
Trans World Airlines becomes a subsidiary of
Trans World Corporation. • January 12 •
Pilatus Aircraft acquires
Britten-Norman. • Three
hijackers commandeer a
Tunis Air Boeing 727-2H3 making a domestic flight in
Tunisia from
Tunis to
Djerba, demanding the release of prisoners. The airliner diverts to
Tripoli,
Libya, where the hijackers surrender. •
Braniff International Airways becomes the only American airline to operate the
Concorde as two Braniff pilots land an
Air France and a
British Airways Concorde simultaneously on parallel runways at
Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport after flying from
Washington Dulles International Airport in
Virginia outside
Washington, D.C., ceremonially inaugurating a new interchange service allowing the Concorde to operate over the
United States. The service functions by having Air France and British Airways crews fly the aircraft from
Europe to Washington Dulles, where the aircraft are temporarily leased and re-registered to Braniff and flown by Braniff crews as Braniff aircraft to Dallas-Fort Worth. The process is reversed on the return trip, with Braniff crews flying the planes as Braniff aircraft to Washington Dulles, where they are "sold" back and re-registered to Air France and British Airways before being flown back to Europe by French and British crews. Braniff begins revenue service with the Concorde between Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington Dulles on January 13, charging 10 percent more than it charges for first class on its
Boeing 727s flying the route. • January 15 – After its pilot turns off its
de-icing system too soon on approach to
Minsk-1 Airport in
Minsk in the
Soviet Union's
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, an
Aeroflot Antonov An-24B (registration CCCP-46807) loses longitudinal stability due to
icing and crashes from the airport, killing 13 of the 14 people on board. • January 16 – Six hijackers aboard a
Middle East Airlines Boeing 707 bound from
Beirut,
Lebanon, to
Amman,
Jordan, demand the release of prisoners. The hijackers surrender at
Beirut International Airport. • January 24 – An
Air Algerie Nord 262A-44 (registration 7T-VSU) on approach to
Boudghene Ben Ali Lotfi Airport in
Béchar,
Algeria, flies too low and crashes from the airport, killing 14 of the 23 people on board. • January 27 – A 49-year-old
California woman hijacks
United Airlines Flight 8 – a
Boeing 747 with 131 people on board, including actor
Sam Jaffe – as it flies from
Los Angeles, California, to
New York City. She threatens to blow up the plane if an actor – she demands that it be either
Charlton Heston,
Jack Lemmon, or
Lindsay Wagner – does not read her message on U.S. national television from
Los Angeles International Airport, where Heston stands by in case he is needed. About two hours after the airliner lands at
John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, she releases about 25 passengers. Police finally overpower and arrest her about 11 hours after the incident began. • January 30 –
Varig Boeing 707-320C PP-VLU, a cargo plane, disappears over the
Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after departing
Tokyos
Narita International Airport. Its wreck was never found.
Lost along with the six people on board are 53 paintings by
Manabu Mabe. The
captain had been the pilot of
Varig Flight 820, which had crashed in
France in 1973.
February •
McDonnell Douglas completes the last
A-4 Skyhawk. In the 25 years since the first prototype flew in
1954, the
Douglas Aircraft Company and McDonnell Douglas have built 2,960 Skyhawks. • February 8 – A
TAM Airlines Embraer EMB-110C Bandeirante (registration PT-SBB) strikes trees during its initial climb after takeoff from
Bauru Airport in
Bauru,
Brazil, and crashes into flames, killing all 18 people on board. • February 12 – Members of the
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) shoot down
Air Rhodesia Flight 827, the
Vickers Viscount Umniati, with a
Strela 2 (
NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail")
surface-to-air missile in the
Vuti African Purchase Area of
Rhodesia east of
Lake Kariba, killing all 59 people on board. • February 18 – Flying from
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod in
Sandwich,
Massachusetts, in bad weather to rescue a crewman in distress aboard the
Japanese
fishing vessel Kasei Maru #18, the
United States Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican helicopter
CG-1432 loses power and
ditches in heavy seas in the
North Atlantic Ocean 180
nautical miles ( southeast of
Nantucket, Massachusetts. One
Canadian Armed Forces and three U.S. Coast Guard personnel aboard die;
Kasei Maru No. 18 rescues one U.S. Coast Guard crewman and recovers the bodies of the other four men. • February 19 – American former child actor Norman Ollestad Sr. dies instantly when the
chartered Cessna 172 he is riding in crashes in
California's
San Bernardino Mountains in adverse weather at an altitude of . The pilot dies soon afterwards. The two survivors, Ollestad's girlfriend and his 11-year-old son, future author
Norman Ollestad Jr., attempt to descend the mountain. She dies in a fall, but the younger Ollestad survives. • February 26 – Production of the
A-4 Skyhawk ends after 26 years, with the delivery of the 2,690th and final aircraft to the
United States Marine Corps. • February 27 – Four
hijackers commandeer
Aeroflot Flight 212 – a
Tupolev Tu-154 with 34 people on board – shortly after it takes off from
Oslo,
Norway, for a flight to
Stockholm,
Sweden. They threaten to blow up the airliner with glass bottles filled with
kerosene. The plane lands at Stockholm, where the crew overpowers the hijackers. • February 28 – Since January 1,
Tanzania has shot down 19
Ugandan aircraft during the
Uganda-Tanzania War. The losses drive the
Ugandan Air Force out of the war.
March • March 10 – The
United States Air Force sends
Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft to monitor the civil war in
Yemen. • March 14 • A
CAAC Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 2E (registration B-274) on a training flight crashes into a factory in
Beijing,
China, during its initial climb after takeoff from
Beijing Xijiao Airport, killing all 12 people on the plane and at least 32 people on the ground, although some sources estimate that up to 200 people are killed. • After two
missed approaches at
Doha International Airport in
Doha,
Qatar,
Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600, the
Boeing 727-2D3 City of Petra (registration JY-ADU), attempts to divert to
Dhahran International Airport in
Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia. While climbing away from Doha International, the airliner
stalls at an altitude of and crashes, striking the ground at a speed of 170
knots (. It breaks into three pieces, killing 45 of the 64 people on board. • March 16 – A man
hijacks Continental Airlines Flight 62 – a
Boeing 727 with 95 people on board flying from
Phoenix to
Tucson,
Arizona – demanding a ransom of
US$200,000 and transportation to
Cuba. The airliner lands at Tucson, where he is arrested about two hours later. • March 25 –
Qantas retires its last
Boeing 707 and becomes the world's first airline with a fleet made up exclusively of
Boeing 747s. • March 26 – An
Interflug Ilyushin Il-18D cargo plane (registration DM-STL) attempts to abort its takeoff from
Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in
Luanda,
Angola, after its No. 2 engine fails. The plane strikes the
instrument landing system localizer antenna, breaks up, and burns, killing all 10 people on board. • March 29 –
Quebecair Flight 255, a
Fairchild F-27, suffers an engine explosion minutes after takeoff from
Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport in
Quebec City,
Quebec,
Canada. While attempting to return to the airport, the airliner crashes into a hillside, killing 17 of the 24 people on board. • March 31 – 550 senior officers of the Iranian armed forces, many of them
Iranian Air Force and
Iranian Army generals, have been killed or driven out of military service since the
Iranian Revolution deposed the
Shah of Iran on 11 February.
April • Retired
Formula One world motor racing champion
Niki Lauda founds
Lauda Air. The airline will begin flight operations in
1985. • April 4 • A man takes a woman hostage at knifepoint at a security screening point at
Sydney Airport in
Sydney,
Australia, and takes her with him as he forces his away aboard
Pan American World Airways Flight 816, a
Boeing 747SP-21 (registration N530PA) preparing for a flight to
Auckland,
New Zealand. He demands to be flown via
Singapore to
Rome – where he wishes to speak to the
Pope and to an Italian Communist leader – and then on to
Moscow. Police forcefully rescue the hostage, after which the hijacker produces two beer cans with wicks in them, one of which he holds in one hand; holding one of them in one hand and a match in the other hand, he threatens to blow up the plane. The police use a high-pressure fire hose to knock him off balance and when he ducks behind a seat with one of the beer cans, they shoot him. He later dies of his wounds. The beer cans are found to contain
gunpowder. •
Trans World Airlines Flight 841, a
Boeing 727-31 with 89 people on board on a flight from
John F. Kennedy International Airport in
New York City to
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota, suddenly rolls sharply to the right over
Saginaw,
Michigan, and goes into a spiral dive from including two 360-degree rolls despite corrective measures taken by both the
autopilot and the human pilot, losing of altitude in 63 seconds before the flight crew manages to pull out of the dive at . Eight passengers suffer minor injuries caused by exposure to high
G forces. The plane makes an emergency landing at
Detroit, Michigan, without further incident. • April 23 –
SAETA Flight 11, a
Vickers 785D Viscount (registration HC-AVP) disappears during a domestic flight in
Ecuador from
Quito to
Cuenca with the loss of all 57 people on board. The plane's wreckage will be discovered in 1984 at a location 25
nautical miles (29 miles; 46 kilometers) off course on high ground in Ecuador's
Pastaza Province.
May • May 1 –
Continental Airlines inaugurates service to the
South Pacific, flying from
Los Angeles, California, to
Australia via
Honolulu,
American Samoa,
Fiji, and
New Zealand. • May 7 –
Beechcraft announces its intention to re-enter the commuter airliner market. It had last produced a commuter airliner in late 1977. • May 25 –
American Airlines Flight 191, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes at
O'Hare International Airport,
Chicago shortly after take-off after its number one engine detaches during its takeoff, killing all 271 on board and two more on the ground, making it the deadliest air disaster in American history. • May 27 – A
Mauritanian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-5D Buffalo crashes in the
Atlantic Ocean off
Dakar,
Senegal, killing all 12 people on board. The
prime minister of
Mauritania,
Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Ould Bouceif, is among the dead. • May 30 –
Downeast Airlines Flight 46, a
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 200 (registration N68DE) strikes trees and crashes on approach to
Knox County Regional Airport in
Rockland,
Maine, killing all 17 of the 18 people on board.
June • Three
Iraqi Air Force aircraft bomb several Iranian villages near the northern
Iran-
Iraq border which Iraq suspects house
Kurdish rebels. •
Continental Airlines inaugurates service linking
Denver,
Colorado, with
Washington, D.C.,
Las Vegas,
Nevada, and
San Francisco and
San Jose,
California. It also begins service between
Houston,
Texas, and
Tampa,
Florida. • June 6 – In the wake of the May 25 crash of
American Airlines Flight 191, the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration revokes the
Douglas DC-10's
type certificate, grounding all DC-10s pending modifications to their slat actuation and position systems and stall warning and power supply changes. Until July 13, all U.S. DC-10s will remain grounded and foreign DC-10s will be prohibited from operating in the
United States. • June 7 – An
Indian Air Force Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. HAL-748-LFD Srs. 2M crashes in the
Karmwal Pass in the
Himalayas near
Leh,
India, at an altitude of , killing all 28 people on board. • June 8 – Apparently wanting to be flown to the
United States to see his estranged wife and children, 36-year-old
seaman Phillip Sillery enters the
cockpit of a
Trans Australia Airlines Douglas DC-9-31 armed with a sawn-off 12-gauge
shotgun and
hijacks the airliner during a domestic flight in
Australia from
Coolangatta to
Brisbane. After the plane lands at Brisbane's
Eagle Farm Airport, Sillery allows all the passengers to disembark. As he holds the shotgun to the
captain′s head, a stewardess knocks him off balance, allowing the co-pilot to grab him. The crew then overpowers Sillery, who is arrested. • June 11 • A
United States Forest Service Douglas C-47A-90-DL Skytrain carrying personnel, two dogs, and of equipment to the Moose Creek Ranger Station on
Idaho's
Selway River suffers the failure of its left engine, after which its right engine catches fire, explodes, and detaches from the aircraft. The C-47 glides to a crash-landing in which it strikes a tree and lands in a river in a narrow canyon at an altitude of . Nine of the 12 people on board die immediately, and one of three survivors succumbs to his injuries before reaching a hospital. • Eduardo Guerra Jimenez, who had flown from
Cuba to the
United States in 1969 in a stolen
Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force MiG-21 (
NATO reporting name "Fishbed") fighter, hijacks
Delta Air Lines Flight 1061 – a
Lockheed L-1011 Tristar with 207 people on board flying from
New York City to
Fort Lauderdale,
Florida – and forces it to fly to
Havana,
Cuba, where he is arrested. The airliner then flies to
Miami, Florida. It is the first hijacking of a U.S. airliner to Cuba in 4½ years and the 170th hijacking of a U.S. airliner in history. • June 17 –
Air New England Flight 248, a
de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter 300, crashes at Camp Greenough in the
Yarmouth Port section of
Yarmouth,
Massachusetts, while on approach to a landing at
Barnstable Municipal Airport in
Barnstable County, Massachusetts. The pilot,
Air New England co-founder George Parmenter, dies, but the other nine people on board all survive, including author
Robert Sabbag. • June 20 •
Nikola Kavaja, a
Serbian
nationalist and anti-
communist,
hijacks American Airlines Flight 293, a
Boeing 727, shortly before it lands in
Chicago,
Illinois, intending to gain control of an aircraft that he can crash into
Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters in
Belgrade,
Yugoslavia. He allows the passengers and most of the crew to debark, then orders the crew to fly the 727 to
LaGuardia Airport in
New York City. There he demands and receives a
Boeing 707, which he orders to be flown to
Shannon,
Ireland, where he intends to take control of the 707 for the suicide flight to Belgrade, but the hijacking ends when he surrenders to authorities in Shannon. • U.S. Navy
Lieutenant Donna L. Spruill pilots a
Grumman C-1 Trader to an arrested landing aboard the aircraft carrier , becoming the first female U.S. Navy pilot to carrier-qualify in
fixed-wing aircraft. • June 23 – The
Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport, withdrawn from passenger service in
June 1978, re-enters service, with the longer-range Tu-144D model beginning
Aeroflot cargo-only domestic flights in the
Soviet Union between
Moscow and
Khabarovsk. • June 27 –
Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagles shoot down four
Syrian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s. These are the first kills for the F-15. • June 28 – French documentary filmmaker
Philippe Cousteau, son of
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and
Simone Cousteau, dies at
Lisbon,
Portugal, while at the controls of a
PBY-6A Catalina amphibian flying boat for a high-speed taxi run on the
Tagus to test the hull for leaks after a
water landing. One of the plane's propellers separates and cuts through the
cockpit, killing him.
July • July 1 –
North Central Airlines and
Southern Airways merge to form
Republic Airlines, with headquarters at
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota. • July 2 – The
Swiss airline
Crossair begins scheduled service, offering flights from
Zürich,
Switzerland to
Nuremberg,
West Germany,
Innsbruck,
Austria, and
Klagenfurt, Austria. • July 9 – A
hijacker commandeers an
Aerolineas Condor Fokker F27 Friendship during a domestic flight in
Ecuador from
Tulcán to
Quito, demanding to be flown to
Costa Rica. The hijacker is taken down at Quito. • July 11 – A
Garuda Indonesia Fokker F-28 Fellowship crashes into
Mount Sibayak on
Sumatra in
Indonesia, killing all 61 people on board. • July 13 – The U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration restores the
Douglas DC-10's
type certificate, allowing U.S. DC-10s to fly and foreign DC-10s to operate in the
United States for the first time since June 6. • July 20 – A hijacker takes control of
United Airlines Flight 320 – a
Boeing 727 with 126 people on board flying from
Denver,
Colorado, to
Omaha,
Nebraska – and demands to be flown to
Cuba. The hijacker is taken down at Omaha. • July 23 – The British government announces plans to
privatise British Airways and publicly sell
British Aerospace shares. • July 25 – A hijacker commandeers a
Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship during a domestic flight in
Bangladesh from
Jessore to
Dacca and demands ransom money. The airliner diverts to
Calcutta,
India, where the hijacker surrenders. • July 31 •
Dan-Air Flight 0034, a
Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes into the sea while attempting to take off from
Sumburgh Airport on the
Shetland Mainland in
Scotland, drowning 17 of the 47 people on board. •
Western Airlines Flight 44, a
Boeing 737-200, mistakenly lands at
Buffalo,
Wyoming, instead of its intended destination, which is
Sheridan, Wyoming. No one is injured, and the only damage is to the tarmac at the airport, which was not designed to support the weight of the jetliner. The incident prompts a legal battle and subsequent landmark aviation ruling in
Ferguson v. NTSB in
June 1982.
August • Six months after the
Iranian Revolution, all 79 of the
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Forces
F-14 Tomcats have been sabotaged to prevent them from firing
AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles, and most of its combat aircraft are not operational; most Iranian helicopters are not airworthy, and Iran has made plans to cannibalize half of its helicopters for spare parts in order to fly the remainder. • August 2 –
New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson is practicing takeoffs and landings at the controls of a
Cessna Citation I/SP with a friend and a flight instructor on board at
Akron-Canton Regional Airport in
Green,
Ohio, when the Citation comes down short of the runway and crashes during a landing attempt, killing Munson and injuring the other two men. • August 3 – An
Aeroflot Let L-410M Turbolet experiences an engine failure on approach to
Rzhevka Airport in
Leningrad Oblast in the
Soviet Union's
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. Its crew attempts a
go-around, but the airliner crashes northeast of the airport, killing 10 of the 14 people on board. • August 4 – An
Indian Airlines Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. HAL-748-224 Srs. 2 crashes in the
Kiroli Hills while on approach to
Santacruz Airport in
Bombay,
India, killing all 45 people on board. • August 5 – Three armed men seeking to escape from the
Spanish Foreign Legion hijack an
Iberia Douglas DC-9-32 (registration EC-BIT) at
Puerto del Rosario in the
Canary Islands. After a stop at
Lisbon,
Portugal, the plane flies them to
Geneva,
Switzerland, where they surrender. • August 11 – Two Aeroflot
Tupolev Tu-134 jetliners
collide in mid-air over
Dniprodzerzhynsk in the
Soviet Unions
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 156 people aboard the two planes. Among the dead are 17 players and staff of the then-Soviet-top-division
Pakhtakor Football Club team. • August 14 –
Steve Hinton sets a new piston-engined airspeed record in a specially-modified
P-51 Mustang named the
RB51 Red Baron. He reaches over
Nevada. • August 16 – A hijacker commandeers
Eastern Airlines Flight 980 – a
Boeing 727 with 91 people on board – during a flight from
Guatemala City,
Guatemala, to
Miami,
Florida, demanding to be flown to
Cuba. The hijacker surrenders at Miami. • August 22 – A hijacker takes control of
United Air Lines Flight 739 – a Boeing 727 with 120 people on board – during a flight from
Portland,
Oregon, to
Los Angeles, California. The plane diverts to
San Francisco, California, then returns to Portland, where the hijacker surrenders. • August 24 • During a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from
Norilsk to
Krasnoyarsk, all four engines of an Aeroflot
Antonov An-12TB (registration CCCP-12963)
flame out. The crew attempts to reach
Yeniseysk Airport in
Yeniseysk, but has to make a forced landing on a wooded hillside from Yeniseysk. The airliner bursts into flames, and 11 of the 16 people on board die. • A hijacker commandeers a
Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727 during a domestic flight in
Libya from
Benghazi to
Tripoli, demanding to be flown to a non-
Arab country. The plane diverts to
Larnaca,
Cyprus, where the hijacker surrenders. • August 29 – When a crew member inadvertently extends a
flap while an Aeroflot
Tupolev Tu-124V (registration CCCP-45038) cruises at during a flight from
Kyiv in the Soviet Union's
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to
Kazan in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the airliner goes into a
spin. It disintegrates at an altitude of and crashes near
Kirsanov, killing all 63 people on board. • August 30 – A U.S. Navy
CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter of
Air Transport Squadron 24 (VR-24) lifts a statue of the
Madonna and Child too large to transport by land to the top of
Mount Tiberius on the
Italian island of
Capri, replacing one destroyed by
lightning. • Both engines of a
Sterling Airways Aérospatiale SN.601 Corvette (registration OY-SBS) catch fire while it is on approach to
Nice Côte d'Azur Airport in
Nice,
France. It crashes into the
Mediterranean Sea southwest of the airport, killing all 10 people on board. • September 7 – Three members of the "Imam Sadr Movement"
hijack an
Alitalia Douglas DC-8-62H (registration I-DIWW) with 183 people on board during a flight from
Beirut,
Lebanon, to
Rome,
Italy. They demand information on the 31 August 1978 disappearance of
Mousa Sadr in
Libya. They release the passengers at Rome, then force the airliner to fly to
Tehran,
Iran, where they surrender after a statement they wrote is broadcast on radio and television. • September 12 – A man armed with what appears to be a
pistol hijacks a
Lufthansa Boeing 727-230 during a domestic flight in
West Germany from
Frankfurt-am-Main to
Cologne. He demands a meeting with
Chancellor of Germany Helmut Schmidt in the presence of the news media. Seven hours of negotiations ensue after the plane lands at Cologne; the hijacker then reads a message to political leaders calling for a more humane world before releasing the passengers and four of the seven crew members. After several more hours of negotiations, he releases the rest of the crew and surrenders. His weapons turns out to be a toy pistol. • September 14 •
Aero Trasporti Italiani (ATI) Flight 12, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (registration I-ATJC), crashes into
Conca d'Oru at a height of on
Sardinia near
Sarroch,
Italy, while trying to fly around thunderstorms on approach to
Cagliari Elmas Airport in
Cagliari, killing all 31 people on board. • A
Butler Aircraft Company Douglas DC-7 (registration N4SW) operating on a company business flight strikes trees on the crest of
Surveyor Mountain and crashes northwest of
Klamath Falls,
Oregon, killing all 12 people on board. • September 21 • There is a big fire at Bombay Airport which kills a few people. Authorities battle the blaze for many hours.
October • October 1 – The
United States Air Force transfers all of the
Aerospace Defense Command's interceptor squadrons and bases and air warning radar stations to the
Tactical Air Command. • October 7 –
Swissair Flight 316, a
Douglas DC-8-62 (registration HB-IDE), overruns the runway while landing at
Ellinikon International Airport in
Athens,
Greece. The
tail and left
wing separate from the
fuselage and the airliner comes to rest on a public road. A fire breaks out, and 14 of the 154 people on board die of burns or smoke inhalation. • October 16 – Three
hijackers commandeer a
Libyan Arab Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship (registration 5A-DDU) during a domestic flight in
Libya from
Hun to
Tripoli and force it to fly to
Malta, where they surrender. • October 27 – A
Mexican government Beechcraft 200 Super King Air (registration XC-PGR) operated by the Office of the General Prosecutor strikes a power pole at a height of north of
San Ysidro,
California, while on approach to
Tijuana International Airport in
Tijuana,
Mexico, and crashes, killing all 10 people on board. • October 30 • Sir
Barnes Wallis, inventor of the
bouncing bomb,
geodetic airframe, and
earthquake bomb, dies at the age of 82. • A hijacker claiming to have a bomb commandeers
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 784 – a
Boeing 727 with 108 people on board flying from
Los Angeles to
San Diego,
California – demanding to be flown to Mexico. The airliner diverts to Tijuana, Mexico, where the hijacker surrenders. • November 4 – The
Iranian hostage crisis begins as Iranian students take over the
United States Embassy in
Tehran. The United States quickly halts all spare-parts shipments and technical assistance to the
Iranian Air Force and imposes an
embargo on
Iran, and the
United Kingdom also cuts off most military shipments to Iran. • November 15 – A bomb planted by the
Unabomber in the cargo hold of a
Boeing 727 operating as
American Airlines Flight 444 from
Chicago,
Illinois, to
Washington, D.C., malfunctions, failing to detonate but giving off large quantities of smoke. Twelve of the 78 people on board are treated for
smoke inhalation. The attack brings the
Federal Bureau of Investigation into the Unabomber investigation for the first time because attacking the
airliner is the Unabombers first
federal crime. • November 19 – An
Ecuadorian Army IAI Arava 201 crashes on takeoff from
Camilo Ponce Enriquez Airport in
Loja,
Ecuador, killing all 16 people on board.
General Rafael Rodríques Palacios and his wife and daughter are among the dead. • November 23 – Armed with a plastic knife and a bottle opener, a 25-year-old male passenger
hijacks a
Japan Air Lines Douglas DC-10-40 with 356 people on board during a domestic flight in
Japan from
Osaka to
Tokyo′s
Haneda Airport and demands to be flown to the
Soviet Union. To refuel, the airliner diverts to Tokyo's
Narita International Airport, where the hijacker is overpowered and arrested before refueling is completed. • November 24 – A hijacker commandeers
American Airlines Flight 395 – a
Boeing 727 with 74 people on board flying from
San Antonio to
El Paso,
Texas – and demands to be flown to
Iran. Police storm the airliner and arrest the hijacker at El Paso. • November 26 – A
flight attendant reports a fire aboard
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 740, a
Boeing 707-340C, 18 minutes after takeoff from
Jeddah International Airport in
Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia. The fire spreads rapidly, causing panic in the passenger cabin and incapacitating the flight crew and the aircraft crashes, killing all 156 people on board. • November 28 • A
Douglas DC-10 operating as
Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashes on
Mount Erebus in
Antarctica during a sightseeing flight, killing all 257 people aboard. • The U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration suspends the
Airline Transport Pilot certificate of
Western Airlines pilot Lowell G. Ferguson and charges him with violating four sections of the
Federal Aviation Regulations in the mistaken landing at the wrong airport of Western Airlines Flight 44 – of which he was the
pilot in command – on
July 31. Ferguson will appeal the suspension, eventually leading to the landmark
Ferguson v. NTSB decision of
June 1982.
December • December 12 – A
Commercializadora Aérea Mixta Boliviana (CAMBA)
Martin 4-0-4 cargo aircraft (registration CP-1440) crashes after takeoff near
Apolo Airport in
Apolo,
Bolivia, killing 10 of the 11 people on board. • December 18 – A
SATENA Douglas C-54D-10-DC Skymaster (registration FAC-1106) crashes into the mountain
Cerro Toledo between
Arauca and
Cúcuta,
Colombia, at an altitude of , killing all 21 people on board. • December 22 – A
Peruvian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-5D Buffalo crashes into the jungle near
Puerto Esperanza,
Peru, killing all 29 people on board. • December 23 • A
Douglas Airways GAF Nomad N.22B (registration P2-DNL) crashes during a runway overshoot at
Manari Airport in
Manari,
Papua New Guinea, killing all 16 people on board. • The
Turkish Airlines Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship Trabzon crashes into a hill near
Kuyumcuköy in the
Çubuk district of
Ankara Province while on approach to
Esenboğa Airport in
Ankara, killing 41 of the 45 people on board. • December 25 • The
Soviet–Afghan War begins as
Soviet Air Force Antonov An-12s (
NATO reporting name "Cub") and
An-22s (NATO reporting name "Cock") airlift the first Soviet troops into
Afghanistan, bringing in 5,000 troops in the first 24 hours. • A
Soviet Air Forces Ilyushin Il-76M (
NATO reporting name "Candid") transporting paratroopers of the
Soviet Airborne Troops to
Bagram Airfield in
Afghanistan, crashes into the top of a mountain from
Kabul at an altitude of while descending toward
Bagram at night, killing all 43 people on board. At the time, it is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of
Afghanistan. == First flights ==