1976 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1976:
Events
January
March
April
May
June
- June 1 – Aeroflot Flight 418, a Tupolev Tu-154M, crashes into a mountain near Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, killing all 46 people on board.
- June 6 – A Sabah Air GAF Nomad crashes at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, while on approach to Kota Kinabalu International Airport, killing all 11 people on board. Among the dead are eight Sabah officials, including Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens.
- June 27 – Two Palestinians of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two West Germans – Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann – from the Revolutionary Cells group hijack Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300B4-203 with 256 other people on board on a flight from Athens, Greece, to Paris, France, and force it to fly to Benghazi, Libya, where they release one passenger. On Juen 28, they force the plane to fly on to Entebbe International Airport near Entebbe in Uganda, where at least four more hijackers join them. Demanding the release of various prisoners in Israel, Kenya, France, Switzerland, and West Germany, they release 149 more hostages over the next week, but continue to hold 106 hostages in the transit hall at the airport.
July
- July 1 – Clive Canning arrives in the United Kingdom, having flown from Australia in a Thorp T-18 homebuilt aircraft.
- July 1 – The National Air and Space Museum opens in Washington, D.C.
- July 4 – In Operation Entebbe, three Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft carrying about 100 Israeli commandos land at Entebbe International Airport at Entebbe, Uganda, to rescue the 106 passengers of Air France Flight 139 still being held hostage in a transit hall there by Palestinian and West German hijackers. The Israelis kill seven hijackers and between 33 and 45 Ugandan soldiers, destroy 11 Ugandan Air Force MiG-17 fighters on the ground, and rescue 102 of the hostages; one Israeli commando is killed, three hostages during an Israeli exchange of gunfire with the hijackers, and in retaliation for the raid Ugandan government forces murder the final hostage, who is being held at a hospital.
- July 28 – ČSA Flight 001, an Ilyushin Il-18B, crashes into Zlaté Piesky lake after its crew inadvertently engages thrust reversal while attempting to land at M. R. Štefánik Airport in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing 76 of the 79 people on board and injuring all three survivors.
August
- August 1-October 1 – After his 1973 round-the-world attempt was aborted by bad weather between Hokkaidō and the Aleutian Islands, Don Taylor of California successfully circumnavigates the world eastbound in his Thorp T-18, beginning and ending at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the United States. He becomes the first aviator to fly around the world with a homebuilt aircraft.
- August 15 – SAETA Flight 232, a Vickers Viscount 785D, crashes into Ecuador's highest mountain, the stratovolcano Chimborazo, at an altitude of 5,400 meters (17,700 feet), killing all 59 people on board. Its wreckage and the bodies of its crew and passengers will not be discovered until October 17, 2002.
September
- September 6 – Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Union defects to the West, landing his MiG-25 (NATO reporting name "Foxbat") in Japan.
- September 10 – In the worst mid-air disaster up to this time, all 176 people aboard the two aircraft die when a British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex Adria Douglas DC-9 collide over Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
- September 10 – Five members of the Croatian National Resistance hijack Trans World Airways Flight 355, a Boeing 727 with 36 other passengers on board flying from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, and divert it to land at Mirabel International Airport in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They then force it to fly to Gander, Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador), where they release 35 of the passengers. From there, they order the plane flown to Reykjavik, Iceland, and finally to Paris, France, where they release their remaining hostages and surrender.
- September 14 – A U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat rolls off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and sinks in international waters. A major salvage operation is launched to retrieve the fighter lest it fall into Soviet hands.
- September 18 – The legendary test pilot Albert Boyd dies.
- September 19 – During a night approach to a landing at Antalya Airport in Antalya, Turkey, with the captain out of the cockpit, the first officer of Turkish Airlines Boeing 727-2F2 Antalya, operating as Flight 452, mistakes a long straight highway filled with truck traffic north of Isparta for the runway at Antalya, which is 97 km (60 mi) away to the south-southeast. The captain reenters the cockpit and attempts an emergency climb from an altitude of 150 m (490 ft), but the plane crashes into a hill, killing all 154 people on board. It remains the deadliest aviation accident on Turkish soil.
October
December
First flights
May
July
August
October
November
December
Entered service
January
August
November
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