1989 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1989:
Events
January
February
- February 8 – On approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores, Independent Air Flight 1851, a chartered Boeing 707-331B, crashes into Pico Alto on Santa Maria Island after a misunderstanding between its crew and air traffic control. All 144 people on board die.
- February 19 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 66, a Boeing 747-247F cargo aircraft, crashes near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killing the entire crew of four.
- February 24 – A cargo door failure causes a piece of fuselage to detach from United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747-122, over the Pacific Ocean near Honolulu, Hawaii. Nine people are sucked from the plane by explosive decompression to their deaths; at least some of the nine are killed instantly when they are sucked into the number 3 engine. Another 38 people are injured. The plane lands safely at Honolulu International Airport.
March
April
- April 12 - a British Airways Concorde loses a large piece of its rudder on a flight between Christchurch and Sydney
- April 21 - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7974, Item 2025, outbound on operational sortie from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, suffers engine explosion, total hydraulic failure. Pilot Maj. Dan E. House and RSO Capt. Blair L. Bozek both eject safely. This was the final Blackbird loss before the type was withdrawn from service.[2]
May
June
July
- July 4 - Crash of an unmanned MiG-23 in Kortrijk, Belgium. The pilot had believed he was experiencing an engine failure shortly after take-off from the Soviet airbase near Kolobzreg, Poland and had ejected, while the aircraft continued on autopilot for 900 km, until running out of fuel. One 18-year-old man on the ground was killed in the crash.[4]
- July 16 - European air traffic is halted due to industrial action by French air traffic controllers.
- July 19 - United Airlines Flight 232, a Douglas DC-10, suffers decompression in and catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine, knocking out all its flight controls. In what is considered a prime example of successful crew resource management, the plane's crew manages to use engine throttles to fly the plane to Sioux City, Iowa, where it crashes on landing. Although 111 of the people on board die, the crew is credited with saving the other 185 by coaxing the aircraft to Sioux City..
August
September
- September 3 – Listening to a football (soccer) match, the pilots of Varig Flight 254, a Boeing 737-241 with 54 people on board, enter an incorrect heading into the flight computer before taking off from Marabá, Brazil, for Belém, Brazil. By the time they discover their error, they have too little fuel to reach an airport, they belly-land the airliner in a remote area of the Amazon jungle near São José do Xingu, Brazil, killing 13 passengers. Thirty-four of the 41 survivors are injured, many seriously; they are not rescued for two days.
- September 8 – Vibration from an auxiliary power unit aboard Partnair Flight 394, a Convair CV-580 on a charter flight, spreads to the tail section, causing the rudder to jam to the left. The plane dives from 22,000 feet (6,706 m) into the North Sea off Hirtshals, Denmark, disintegrating during the dive and killing all 55 people on board.
- September 19 – A bomb explodes in the cargo hold of UTA Flight 772, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, over the Sahara Desert. The DC-10 breaks up in mid-air and crashes near Bilma and Ténéré in Niger, killing all 170 people on board. Responsibility for the bombing is never determined.
- September 20 – USAir Flight 5050, a Boeing 737-401 with 63 people on board, aborts its takeoff in low visibility on a wet runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York City and slides off the end of the runway into Bowery Bay, killing two people and injuring 21.
October
November
December
- December 15 – All four engines of KLM Flight 867, a Boeing 747-406M with 245 people on board, shut down when the plane flies through a cloud of volcanic ash from Mount Redoubt during descent to a landing at Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska. After descending more than 14,000 feet (4,267 m) without power, the crew manages to restart the engines and land the plane safely.
- December 20 – The United States invasion of Panama, Operation Just Cause, begins with over 300 U.S. military aircraft participating. The U.S. Air Force's F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter and the U.S. Army's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter make their combat debuts. One of the first U.S. operations is an air assault by the 1st Battalion (Airborne) of the U.S. Army's 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment which secures Fort Amador.
- December 24 – Major combat operations in Operation Just Cause conclude.
- December 26 – United Express Flight 2415, a BAe Jetstream 31 operated by North Pacific Airlines, crashes on approach to Tri-Cities Airport at Pasco, Washington, in the United States, killing all six people on board.
First flights
January
March
April
May
July
October
December
- December 26 - NAMC N-5
- December 31 - Su-30
Entered service
References
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 58.
- ^ Crickmore, Paul F. "Lockheed's Blackbirds: A-12, YF-12 and SR-71", Wings of Fame, Volume 8, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, 1997, ISBN 1-880588-23-4, page 93.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 58.
- ^ Incident summary at Eastern Wings
- ^ Chant, Chris, The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, ISBN 0-7607-2012-6, p. 172.
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