January • 2 January – Several
British Airways flights from
London Heathrow Airport to Washington, D.C., and
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are cancelled due to security fears. • 3 January –
Flash Airlines Flight 604, a chartered
Boeing 737-3Q8, crashes into the
Red Sea off the coast of
Egypt, killing all 148 aboard. • 13 January –
Uzbekistan Airways Flight 1154, an
Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes in
Uzbekistan's capital of
Tashkent, killing all 37 aboard.
February •
Thai AirAsia begins flight operations, offering domestic airline service in
Thailand. • The Spanish airline
Vueling is founded. It will begin flight operations in
July. • The
Belgium-based airline
BelgiumExel is founded and begins flight operations. • 10 February –
Kish Air Flight 7170, a
Fokker 50 registered
EP-LCA, crashes into the ground while on final approach to a landing at
Sharjah International Airport in
Sharjah in the
United Arab Emirates, killing 43 of the 46 people on board and injuring all three survivors. • 12 February –
United Airlines creates a new airline,
Ted, to serve as a divisional brand of United serving the low-cost vacation market. • 19 February – The
Evergreen 747 Supertanker makes its first flight. Based on the
Boeing 747-200 cargo aircraft and capable of carrying 19,600
U.S. gallons (16,320
Imperial gallons; 74,194
liters) of water, it is the world's largest
aerial firefighting aircraft. • 23 February – The US Army cancels the
Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopter program. It had been planned to purchase as many as 650 Comanches, but it was argued that cancellation would free up funds for more urgent army aviation priorities. A total of $6.9 billion had already been spent on the RAH-66.
March • 27 March –
NASA's
X-43 pilotless plane breaks world speed record for an atmospheric engine by briefly flying at per hour (seven times the speed of sound) • 31 March –
Mexicana leaves the
Star Alliance.
April • 4 April –
Alaska Airlines discontinues service between San Francisco and
Tucson. • 14 April –
Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815, an
Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia, crashes on approach to a landing at
Manaus,
Brazil, killing all 33 people on board. • 26 April –
Alaska Airlines begins service between Seattle and
Chicago-O'Hare.
May •
US Airways joins
Star Alliance. • Bucharest Otopeni International Airport in
Bucharest,
Romania, is renamed
Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport. • 1 May – The British airline
Duo Airways (formerly
Maersk Air UK) ceases operations, with at least four of its seven aircraft impounded at
Birmingham Airport. • 5 May –
Air France and
Netherlands-based
KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) merge to form the new airline
Air France–KLM. • 9 May •
Southwest Airlines begins service to
Philadelphia International Airport in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. •
American Eagle Flight 5401, an
ATR 72, crashes on landing at
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in
San Juan,
Puerto Rico, injuring 17 of the 26 people on board. • 12 May • The last
F-4 Phantom II fighters are withdrawn from
Israeli Air Force service. • Irish airline
JetGreen Airways, which had only begun operations with a single
Boeing 757 wet leased from
Icelandair on 4 May, ceases operations. • 23 May –
Frontier Airlines begins service to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
Billings, Montana; and
Spokane, Washington. • 25 May – Australian
low cost airline Jetstar Airways begins operations. • 27 May –
Delta Air Lines begins service between
Cincinnati, Ohio, and
New Haven, Connecticut.
June • 1 June •
Air Baltic launches service from
Vilnius,
Lithuania, initially to five destinations. •
America West Airlines starts service between
Phoenix and
Anchorage. • 6 June –
Alaska Airlines starts service between
Denver and
Anchorage and discontinues service between
San Jose and
Tucson. • 16 June –
Atlantic Coast Airlines begins service as a
low-cost carrier under the new name
Independence Air. • 18 June – The first missile strike by an American
unmanned aerial vehicle inside
Pakistan takes place when an
AGM-114 Hellfire fired by an
MQ-1 Predator strikes the house of local
Taliban commander
Nek Muhammad Wazir in
Kari Kot,
South Waziristan, killing him, his two brothers, and two bodyguards. • 20 June –
Frontier Airlines begins service to
Nashville, Tennessee. • 21 June –
SpaceShipOne is the first non-government-built
spacecraft to transport a person into space and return safely to earth. • 26 June –
Belavia inaugurates service between
Belarus and
Hanover,
Germany. • 29 June – Aboard
Northwest Airlines Flight 327, a
Boeing 757-200 bound from
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in
Romulus,
Michigan, to
Los Angeles International Airport in
Los Angeles, California, journalist
Annie Jacobsen, a writer for
WomensWallStreet, and her family report to
air marshals that 14
Syrian men – musicians traveling to a performance – aboard the airliner are acting suspiciously and may be performing a "
dry run" for a future terrorist attack. The air marshals disagree, and the Jacobsen family becomes so agitated and vocal that the air marshals begin to suspect them of trying to draw out the air marshals so that terrorists can target the marshals. Jacobsen later writes about the incident, bringing it to national attention in the
United States.
July • 1 July • The Spanish airline
Vueling begins flight operations. •
Cape Air begins flights in the
Mariana Islands. It operates under the
Continental Connection brand. • 13 July –
Air Moldova becomes a member of the
International Air Transport Association. • 14–20 July – The
14th FAI World Rally Flying Championship takes place in
Herning,
Denmark. Individual winners: 1. Jiří Filip & Michal Filip (Czech), 2. František Cihlář & Milos Fiala (Czech), 3. Krzysztof Wieczorek & Krzysztof Skrętowicz (Poland); team winners: 1.
Czech Republic, 2.
Poland, 3.
France. • 19–24 July – The
16th FAI World Precision Flying Championship takes place in Herning, Denmark. Individual winners: Krzysztof Wieczorek (Poland) –
3Xtrim, 2. Petr Opat (Czech) –
Cessna 152, 3. Wacław Wieczorek (Poland) –
PZL Wilga 2000; team winners: 1. Poland, 2. Czech Republic, 3. France. • 23 July –
Air Ukraine's
air operator's certificate is revoked. The airline had not operated since declaring
bankruptcy in
December 2002.
August • 4 August –
Independence Air's status as a
United Express carrier comes to an end. • 9 August – Several member states of the
Pacific Islands Forum sign the
Pacific Islands Civil Aviation Safety and Security Treaty in
Apia,
Samoa. The treaty will enter into force on
11 June 2005. It formally confirms the
Pacific Aviation Safety Office, which had been formed informally in 2002. • 13 August –
Air Tahoma Flight 185, a
Convair 580 on a cargo flight, runs out of fuel due to pilot error and crashes short of the runway on final approach to
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in
Hebron,
Kentucky, killing one of its two crew members. • 24 August – After departing
Domodedovo International Airport in
Moscow,
Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, a
Tupolev Tu-134 (
NATO reporting name "Crusty"), explodes over
Russia's
Tula Oblast and crashes, killing all 43 people on board. Minutes later,
Siberia Airlines Flight 1047, a
Tupolev Tu-154 (NATO reporting name "Careless") which also had departed Domodedovo International, explodes over Russia's
Rostov Oblast and crashes, killing all 46 people on board. The
Russian government declares the explosions to have been caused by female
Chechen suicide bombers.
September •
KLM Cargo joins the
Skyteam Cargo airline alliance. • 7 September –
Indonesian human-rights and anti-corruption activist
Munir Said Thalib dies of
arsenic poisoning on a
Garuda Indonesia flight from
Jakarta, Indonesia, to
Amsterdam in the
Netherlands. The victim of an assassination, he apparently had been poisoned during a stopover in
Singapore. • 13 September –
Continental Airlines,
Northwest Airlines, and
KLM join the
Skyteam airline alliance. It is the largest expansion of an airline alliance in history and makes Skyteam the second-largest alliance, moving it ahead of
Oneworld. With the expansion, Skyteam serves more than 341 million customers, with 14,320 daily flights to 658 destinations in 130 countries.
October • Air Baltic is rebranded as
airBaltic. • 1 October – American multi-sport athlete and former
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player
Gertrude Dunn is killed when the
Piper PA-28-180 Archer she is piloting crashes due to engine failure on takeoff from
New Garden Airport in
Avondale,
Pennsylvania. • 3 October –
Iraqi Airways makes an international flight for the first time since the
Gulf War broke out in
January 1991, flying from
Baghdad,
Iraq, to
Amman,
Jordan. • 4 October –
SpaceShipOne successfully makes its third flight into space. It wins the
Ansari X-Prize for proving to be a plausible option for space tourism. • 14 October •
MK Airlines Flight 1602, a
Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft, strikes the ground and crashes immediately after takeoff from
Halifax Stanfield International Airport in
Enfield,
Nova Scotia,
Canada, killing its entire crew of seven. • During a ferry flight with no one else aboard, the pilot and copilot of
Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701, a
Bombardier CRJ-200, decide to test the performance limits of the aircraft by pushing it to its maximum approved altitude of . They conduct various non-standard maneuvers and reach the altitude, but overstress the engines, flame out, and
stall. They recover from the stall at and enter a glide. Never able to restart the engines and unable to glide far enough to reach any of six airfields they are advised to divert to, they eventually crash near
Jefferson City,
Missouri. Both pilots die in the crash. • 19 October –
Corporate Airlines Flight 5966, a
British Aerospace Jetstream 32, crashes on approach to
Kirksville Regional Airport in
Adair County, Missouri, near
Kirksville, killing 13 of the 15 people on board and injuring both survivors. • 24 October – Flying in heavy fog, a
Beechcraft Super King Air 200 owned by
Hendrick Motorsports crashes into Bull Mountain, from
Blue Ridge Airport in
Martinsville,
Virginia, killing all 10 people on board. Former
NASCAR Busch Series driver and owner
Ricky Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports Director of Engine Operations and lead engine builder
Randy Dorton are among the dead. • 28 October –
Boeing ceases production of the
Boeing 757 airliner after manufacturing 1,050 of the aircraft for 54 customers. • 29 October – the
Government of Benin establishes the ''
Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile du Bénin'' ("Benin National Civil Aviation Agency") as
Benin's national
civil aviation authority. It replaces the
Direction de l’Aviation Civil ("Directorate of Civil Aviation").
November • 1 November – The second revival of
Pan American Airways – nicknamed "Pan Am III" by some people – which had begun service in
October 1999, ceases operations and turns its operations over to
Boston-Maine Airways. • 2 November –
Independence Air's status as a
Delta Connection carrier comes to an end. • 3 November –
Blue1 joins the
Star Alliance as its first regional member. • 16 November – The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
X-43 reaches a record speed of
Mach 9.8 (. • 18 November –
Adria Airways and
Croatia Airlines join the Star Alliance. • 21 November –
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210, a
Bombardier CRJ-200LR, crashes into a park just after takeoff from
Baotou Erliban Airport in
Baotou,
China, killing all 53 people on the aircraft and two people on the ground. An investigation finds that
icing caused the crash. • 30 November –
Lion Air Flight 583, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 with 156 people on board, overruns the runway on landing in a hard rain at
Adi Sumarmo Airport in
Surakarta,
Indonesia, and crashes, killing 25 people and injuring all 138 survivors.
December • The
Indonesian airline
Awair, which had suspended its operations in
March 2002, resumes flights, now as an associate of
AirAsia. • 9 December •
United Airlines becomes the first American airline to land in
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, since
Operation Frequent Wind during the
fall of Saigon in April 1975. • The
United States Army issues a request for proposals for the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH). Ultimately, this will lead to the development of the
Bell ARH-70 Arapaho. • 10 December • The United States
Federal Aviation Administration issues an Emergency
Airworthiness Directive effectively grounding the entire U.S. fleet of
Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft. The directive is in response to fatal in-flight
structural failure accidents during simulated aerial combat flights. ==First flights==