• The
Dutch Transport Safety Board merges with Dutch military accident investigation authorities to for the
Dutch Safety Board, which takes over the responsibility for aviation accident investigations in the
Netherlands. • The flight operations of
Lauda Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Austrian Airlines, merge with those of Austrian Airlines. The brand "Lauda Air" survives for charter flights operated by the Austrian Airlines Group.
January • 18 January – The world's largest passenger plane, the
Airbus A380, is unveiled in an elaborate ceremony in
France. • 29 January – Nonstop flights between
mainland China and
Taiwan take off for the first time since 1949. • 30 January – A
Royal Air Force Lockheed C-130K Hercules C3 is
shot down in
Iraq a few minutes after takeoff from
Baghdad, killing all 10 people on board. It is the
British military's largest loss of life in a single incident during
Operation Telic. • 31 January – The
Belgium-based airline
BelgiumExel ceases operations.
February • 3 February –
Kam Air Flight 904, a
Boeing 737-242, crashes on Chaperi Mountain in
Afghanistan's
Pamir Mountains at an altitude of during a heavy
snowstorm, killing all 104 people on board. • 9–13 February – The
Aero-India show takes place in
Bangalore, India. • 17 February • Opening of a new international airport in
Nagoya, Japan. It is the third Japanese international airport. • Several airlines will have to pay heavy compensation to passengers for flight delays and cancellations under a European regulation. • 20 February –
British Airways Flight 268, a
Boeing 747-436 with 370 people on board, suffers an engine fire during climbout from
Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. The crew shuts down the engine and opts to continue the flight to its destination,
Manchester in the United Kingdom, on three engines. Although the aircraft arrives safely, controversy ensues when the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration threatens to fine
British Airways for flying an "
unairworthy" plane across the Atlantic Ocean.
March •
Lufthansa acquired their first 11% of
Swiss International Air Lines • 5 March –
Steve Fossett completes the first non-stop, solo circumnavigation of the world in the
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, completing the trip in 67 hours and 2 minutes. • 6 March – The
rudder of
Air Transat Flight 961, an
Airbus A310-308 carrying 271 people bound from
Varadero, Cuba, to
Quebec City, Canada, detaches in flight. The aircraft returns to Varadero and makes an emergency landing at
Juan Gualberto Gomez Airport without injury to anyone on board. • 11 March •
Jetsgo ceases all operations and declares bankruptcy protection. •
China's first private airline,
Okay Airlines, makes its maiden revenue flight. • 14 March –
TAP Portugal joins the
Star Alliance. • 16 March –
Regional Airlines Flight 9288, an
Antonov An-24RV (
NATO reporting name "Coke") carrying oil workers on a non-scheduled passenger flight, crashes five kilometers (3.1 miles) from the runway while on approach to
Varandey Airport in
Nenetskiy Avtonomnyy Okrug,
Russia, after the crew allows the aircraft's speed to drop and nose to rise until it
stalls. The plane strikes a hill, crashes, and burns, killing 28 of the 52 people aboard (26 of the 45 passengers and two of the seven crew members). Malfunctioning airspeed and angle-of-attack indicators may have contributed to the crash. • 17 March – A judge finds millionaire Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of conspiracy and murder in the 1985
Air India bombing that killed 329 people. • 23 March –
Baku Cargo Terminal was opened and started to operate. • 28 March –
Chicago Express Airlines, also known as ATA Connection, ceased operations.
April • 2 April – A
Royal Australian Navy Westland WS-61 Sea King helicopter engaged in humanitarian assistance after an
earthquake on
Sumatra crashes on a sports field on the island of
Nias in
Indonesia. The crash kills nine – six RAN members and three members of the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) – of the 11 personnel aboard; one RAN member and one RAAF member aboard the helicopter are injured but survive. • 14 April – Flying a
Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil at
Istres,
France, French pilot
Didier Delsalle, a
Eurocopter test pilot, sets three time-to-climb records for helicopters in the take-off-weight class of , climbing to in 2 minutes 21 seconds, to in 5 minutes 6 seconds, and to in 9 minutes 26 seconds, • 19 April – The middle section of the
Obelisk of Axum is repatriated from Italy to
Ethiopia by air from
Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport to
Axum Airport in an
Antonov An-124 Ruslan, the largest and heaviest piece of air freight ever carried up to this date. • 21 April –
Oneworld becomes the first
airline alliance to enable its customers to fly throughout its members' network on
electronic tickets only, with the completion of
interline electronic ticketing (IET) links between all its member airlines. • 27 April – The
Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its
maiden flight.
May • 3 May –
Airwork Flight 23, a
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner crashes in
Taranaki, New Zealand, killing both crew members. • 7 May –
Australia experiences its worst air disaster since
December 1968 when the
Fairchild Swearingen SA227-DC Metro 23 VH-TFU, operated by
Aerotropics, crashes into the ridge known as South Pap while on approach to land at
Lockhart River Airport in
Queensland, killing all 15 people on board. • 13 May -
Israel's Civil Aviation Administration becomes the
Civil Aviation Authority of Israel. • 14 May – The first helicopter landing on the summit of
Mount Everest takes place, as French pilot
Didier Delsalle, a
Eurocopter test pilot, lands an unmodified
Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopter there at an altitude of in 75-mph (121-km/h) winds. The landing and takeoff set the world records for the highest helicopter landing and takeoff in history. He repeats the feat following day. • 29 May –
Air Italy begins flight operations. Its inaugural flight is from
Turin, Italy, to
Budapest, Hungary.
June • 4 June –
Iraqi Airways makes its first scheduled domestic flight since the fall of
Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, carrying 100 passengers from
Baghdad to
Basra in a
Boeing 737-200. • 11 June – The
Pacific Islands Civil Aviation Safety and Security Treaty, ratified by several member states of the
Pacific Islands Forum, enters into force. It formally confirms the
Pacific Aviation Safety Office, which had been formed informally in 2002. • 17 June – The
CarterCopter becomes the first rotorcraft to achieve mu-1 (μ=1), an equal ratio of airspeed to rotor tip speed, but it is badly damaged in a crash during a subsequent flight on the same day.
July • 2–3 July –
Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreate the first direct crossing of the Atlantic by the British team of
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown on 14 June 1919 in a
Vickers Vimy biplane. • 16 July – Minutes after takeoff from
Malabo International Airport outside
Malabo on
Bioko in
Equatorial Guinea, an
Equatorial Express Airlines Antonov An-24 (
NATO reporting name "Coke")
crashes into the side of a mountain near
Baney, killing all 60 people on board. • 26 July – The Irish airline
EUjet ceases operations. It is placed into
administration on 28 July. • 27 July – United Eagle Airlines – the future
Chengdu Airlines – begins flight operations. • 29 July – The
United States Army awards a contract for the purchase of 368 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters (
ARH) to
Bell Helicopter Textron. • 30 July –
John Garang de Mabior, serving as both the first
President of Southern Sudan and the
First Vice President of Sudan, dies in the crash of the
Ugandan presidential
Mil Mi-172 helicopter in a mountain range in southern
Sudan.
August • 2 August –
Air France Flight 358, an
Airbus A340-300 with 309 people on board, bursts into flames after skidding off the end of a runway after landing at
Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The plane comes to a stop next to Highway 401. Everyone on board survives, although 43 are injured. • 6 August –
Tuninter Flight 1153, an
ATR 72 heading from
Italy to
Tunisia, crashes into the
Mediterranean Sea, killing 16 of the 39 people on board. • 10 August –
Copterline Flight 103, a
Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopter flying from
Helsinki,
Finland, to
Tallinn,
Estonia, crashes into
Tallinn Bay and sinks, killing all 14 people on board. • 14 August –
Helios Airways Flight 522: The
Boeing 737-300 Olympia; crashes into a mountain north of
Marathon and
Varnavas,
Greece. Killing all 121 passengers and crew. • 16 August –
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating on a
charter flight,
stalls at an altitude of and crashes near
Machiques in the mountains of northwestern
Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. It is the deadliest air disaster in the history of Venezuela, the deadliest involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, and the third-deadliest involving an aircraft of the
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series. It will turn out to be the deadliest aviation accident of 2005. • 23 August – Attempting a landing in high winds and torrential rain at
Pucallpa Airport in
Pucallpa, Peru,
TANS Peru Flight 204, a
Boeing 737-244 Advanced, strikes tree tops and crashes in a swamp, killing 40 of the 98 people on board. Looters steal parts of the wreckage to sell for scrap.
September •
Northwest Airlines Cargo joins the
Skyteam Cargo airline alliance. •
Intercontinental de Aviación ceases operations. • 1 September –
Norway's Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation and Railways –takes on the responsibility for the investigation of road accidents in Norway and is renamed the
Accident Investigation Board Norway. • 5 September –
Mandala Airlines Flight 091,
Boeing 737-2Q3Adv with 117 people on board, crashes into a heavily populated residential area seconds after taking off from
Polonia International Airport in
Medan, Indonesia, destroying dozens of houses and cars. The crash is the third deadliest in Indonesian history, killing 100 people aboard the airliner and 49 people on the ground. It injures the 17 survivors aboard the plane and 26 people on the ground. The governor of
North Sumatra,
Rizal Nurdin, and the former governor,
Raja Inal Siregar, are among the dead. • 21 September –
JetBlue Airways Flight 292, an
Airbus A320 makes an
emergency landing at
Los Angeles International Airport after its
nose wheels gets stuck at a 90-degree angle. All 145 people on board survive.
October • 1 October –
Baltimore–Washington International Airport in
Baltimore,
Maryland, is renamed Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. • 14 October –
Air Jamaica Express ceases operations. • 16 October –
United States Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff officially approves the transfer of the U.S.
Federal Air Marshal Service from
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement to the U.S.
Transportation Security Administration. • 22 October –
Bellview Airlines Flight 210, a
Boeing 737-200, crashes just after takeoff from
Murtala Mohammed Airport in
Lagos,
Nigeria, killing all 117 people on board. • 25 October –
Visa Parviainen jumps from a
hot air balloon over
Lahti,
Finland, in a
wingsuit with two small
turbojet engines attached to his feet, providing approximately 160
newtons (16
kgf, 35
lbf) of thrust each and running on
JET A-1 kerosene fuel. Parviainen achieves approximately 30 seconds of horizontal flight with no noticeable loss of altitude. • 29 October •
Ghana International Airlines begins service with an inaugural flight from
Accra,
Ghana, to
London. •
Aer Lingus withdraws its last two
Boeing 737 airliners from service. Henceforth, Aer Lingus operates an all-
Airbus fleet.
November • 6 November –
Iraqi Airways makes a flight to
Iran for the first time since the outbreak of the
Iran–Iraq War in
September 1980, with service between
Baghdad and
Tehran using an aircraft operated on its behalf by
Teebah Airlines of
Jordan. • 14 November –
Boeing launches the
Boeing 747-8. • 26 November – Launching from
Mumbai, India, 67-year-old Indian aviator
Vijaypat Singhania sets a new world altitude record for
hot-air balloons, reaching during a flight of about five hours in a
Cameron Z-1600 balloon. • 28 November –
Boeing makes its last delivery of a
Boeing 757 airliner, and
Shanghai Airlines becomes the last customer to take delivery of one. Boeing had ceased production of the 757 in
October 2004 after manufacturing 1,050 of the aircraft for 54 customers.
December • 1 December - The
Indonesian airline
Awair changes its name to
Indonesia AirAsia. • 6 December – An
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force C-130E Hercules crashes into a ten-story apartment building in
Tehran,
Iran, killing all 94 people on the plane and between 22 and 34 people on the ground. The crash injures 90 other people on the ground. • 7 December – Indian Airlines rebrands itself as
Indian. • 8 December – While landing in a
snowstorm at
Chicago Midway International Airport in
Chicago,
Illinois, United States,
Southwest Airlines Flight 1248, a
Boeing 737-7H4 with 103 people on board, goes into a skid on the runway. Its nose gear collapses, and it crashes through a barrier and comes to rest on a road crowded with automobile traffic, striking three cars. The accident kills a six-year-old boy in one of the cars and injures nine other people on the ground and three people aboard the aircraft. • 10 December –
Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, crash-lands at
Port Harcourt International Airport in
Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and bursts into flames, killing 108 of the 110 people on board and injuring both survivors. • 19 December –
Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101, a
Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard flying boat, loses a wing due to
metal fatigue and crashes into the
Atlantic Ocean near
Miami,
Florida, killing all 20 people on board. It is the first fatal crash for
Chalk's Ocean Airways, which had operated since 1917, but its fleet of Mallards is deemed not airworthy and grounded, and the airline goes out of business. • 23 December –
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217, an
Antonov An-140-100, suffers an in-flight systems failure and crashes on the shore of the
Caspian Sea near
Nardaran, Azerbaijan, killing all 23 people on board. • 31 December – According to the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration, there were 283 incidents of
lasers striking aircraft flying over the
United States during 2005. == First flights ==