1986 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1986:
Events
January
February
March
- March 24 – Combat breaks out in the Gulf of Sidra between Libyan military forces and an American naval force which includes the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga (CV-60), USS America (CV-66), and USS Coral Sea (CV-43). Two Libyan MiG-23 fighters engage in a dogfight with two U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats, although none of the aircraft involved fire at each other; Libyan forces ashore fire surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) at American aircraft, scoring no hits; and U.S. Navy aircraft attack Libyan radars, SAM sites, and warships, sinking two vessels.
- March 31 – The center landing gear tire of the Mexicana Boeing 727-264 Veracruz, operating as Flight 940, explodes in flight after being inappropriately filled with compressed air instead of nitrogen. Before the plane can reach an airport to make an emergency landing, it breaks in half, catches fire, and crashes on El Carbón mountain near Maravatío, Michoacán, Mexico, killing all 167 people on board, It remains the deadliest aviation accident in Mexican history and the deadliest involving a Boeing 727.
April
- April 2 – A bomb planted by the Arab Revolutionary Cells terrorist group explodes over Argos, Greece, aboard Trans World Airlines Flight 840, a Boeing 727-231 with 122 people on board on a flight from Rome, Italy, to Athens, Greece. The explosion blows four passengers, all Americans and one of them a nine-month-old baby, out of the plane and they fall to their deaths; the rapid decompression of the cabin that follows injures seven other passengers, and the aircraft makes an emergency landing.
- April 14-15 (overnight) – 18 United States Air Force F-111Fs of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing and a United States Navy force of 15 A-6E Intruders, six A-7E Corsair IIs, and six F/A-18 Hornets from the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga (CV-60), USS America (CV-66), and USS Coral Sea (CV-43) attack Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon, with the loss of one F-111 and its two-man crew. The U.S. Air Force component of the raid is the first U.S. bomber mission launched from British soil since 1945; refused permission to fly over France and Spain, the F-111s make a 2,800-mile (4,500-km) flight down the Atlantic Ocean and across the Mediterranean Sea to reach Libya from England; they must be refueled several times in the air and their round-trip flight takes 14 hours.[3][4]
- April 17 – Israeli security guards at London Heathrow Airport discover explosives in the luggage of an Irish woman attempting to board an El Al airliner. Her Jordanian fiancé, Nezar Hindawi, is arrested for planting the bomb without her knowledge in an effort to destroy the airliner.
- April 18 – French aircraft industrialist Marcel Dassault (born Marcel Bloch) dies at 94.
- April 28 – Pan American World Airways resumes service to the Soviet Union, using a Boeing 747 from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York.
May
- May 3 – A bomb believed to have been planted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam detonates aboard Air Lanka Flight 512, the Lockheed L-1011-385 TriStar City of Colombo, while it is on the ground at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, Sri Lanka, with 148 people on board. The explosion rips the plane in two, killing 21 people and injuring 41.
- May 7 – Self-taught American aircraft designer Al Mooney dies, aged 80.
- May 16 – The movie Top Gun, which glamorizes United States Navy aviation, opens in theaters in the United States.
- May 26 – Michel Vaujour escapes from a jail in Paris, France, in a helicopter flown by his wife, a newly graduated helicopter pilot.
- May 29-June 1 – The 5th FAI World Rally Flying Championship takes place in in Castellón de la Plana, Spain. Individual winners are 1. Krzysztof Lenartowicz and Janusz Darocha (Poland), 2. Carlos Eugui Aguado and Jose Anizonda (Spain), 3. (tie) Wacław Nycz and Marian Wieczorek (Poland) and Witold Świadek and Andrzej Korzeniowski (Poland). Team winners are 1. Poland, 2. West Germany, 3. Spain.
June
August
- August 11 – A Westland Lynx fitted with special composite rotor blades sets a new helicopter world speed record of 249.09 mph (400.87 km/h) over a 15 km (9.3 mi) course.[6]
- August 16 – Using a Strela 2 (SAM-7 GRAIL) surface-to-air missile, the Sudan People's Liberation Army shoots down a Sudan Airways[7] Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M taking off from Malakai, Sudan, killing all 60 people on board.
- August 20 – The first test-flight of a propfan engine, the General Electric GE-36, occurs.
- August 26 – The CFM56 turbofan is flight tested for the first time.
- August 31 – Aeroméxico Flight 498, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with 64 people on board, and a privately owned Piper PA-28-181 Archer collide in mid-air over Cerritos, California. The collision decapitates all three people on the Archer and both aircraft crash, also killing everyone on board the DC-9 and 15 people on the ground, a total death toll of 82. Eight people on the ground suffer injuries.
September
October
- October 19 – President Samora Machel of Mozambique is among 34 people killed in the crash of the Mozambican presidential plane, a Tupolev Tu-134, in the Lebombo Mountains near Mbuzini, South Africa, during a flight from Lusaka, Zambia, to Maputo, Mozambique. There are 10 survivors.[8]
- October 21 – British Airways is offered for public sale by the British government.
- October 25 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 467, a Boeing 737-200 with 119 people on board, overruns the end of the runway while landing at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. There are no fatalities, but 34 people are injured, three of them seriously.
November
December
- December 2 – An Air France Concorde returns to Paris after an 18-day around-the-world trip with 94 passengers.
- December 14-23 – The Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, makes the first non-stop flight around the planet without refueling. The flight covers a distance of 42,432 km (26,366 statute miles), although the international governing body for aeronautic world records, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), accredits the distance as 40,212 km (24,972 statute miles).
- December 25 – Four men hijack Iraqi Airways Flight 163, a Boeing 737-270C with 106 people on board, during a flight from Baghdad, Iraq, to Amman, Jordan. Airline security personnel try to stop the hijacking, and during the struggle two of the hijackers' hand grenades explode; one of the them detonates in the cockpit, causing the plane to crash near Arar, Saudi Arabia, killing 63 of those on board and making it one of the deadliest hijackings in history at the time. A group calling itself "Islamic Jihad," a widely used name for Hezbollah, claims responsibility.
First flights
February
April
July
August
September
November
December
Entered service
May
October
References
- ^ Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, ISBN 0-679-72033-2, p. 23.
- ^ Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, ISBN 0-679-72033-2, p. 219.
- ^ Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2006, ISBN 13579108642, p. 292-293.
- ^ Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, ISBN 0-679-72033-2, pp. 42-43.
- ^ Lloyd, Alwyn T., "Boeing's B-47 Stratojet", Specialty Press, North Branch, Minnesota, 2005, ISBN 978-1-58007-071-3, pages 167-168.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 5.
- ^ Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, ISBN 0-679-72033-2, p. 106.
- ^ Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, ISBN 0-679-72033-2, p. 61.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 58.
|
|
|
| General |
|
|
| Military |
|
|
| Accidents/incidents |
|
|
| Records |
|
|