2007 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 2007:

Events

January

• 1 January – Adam Air Flight 574, a Boeing 737, disappears in Indonesian airspace with 102 people on board.
• 6 January – BA Connect, easyJet, XL Airways UK, Thomsonfly, Thomas Cook Airlines, Balkan Bulgarian Airlines, First Choice Airways, Air Malta, KLM Cityhopper and SN Brussels Airlines cancel all their flights to and from Bristol International Airport in a row over runway safety.
• 9 January – An AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crashes in Balad, Iraq. The Islamic Army in Iraq claims to have shot it down.
• 16 January – Pakistan Air Force aircraft and Pakistan Army helicopter gunships strike Zamzola in South Waziristan, Pakistan, killing 25 to 30 Islamic militants.^[1]

February

• 21 February – The Lebanese Army fires at an Israeli Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying over southern Lebanon south of Tyre, claiming it is violating both Lebanese sovereignty and the terms of the ceasefire that ended the 2006 Lebanon War. The UAV is not damaged. It is the first time that the Lebanese armed forces have fired at an Israeli aircraft since the end of the war in August 2006.^[2]

March

• 7 March – Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, a Boeing 737–497, crashes and bursts into flames on landing at Adisucipto International Airport at Yogyakarta on Java in Indonesia, killing 22 of the 140 people on board
• 12 March – The first two Joint Fighter-17 aircraft were delivered to the Pakistan Air Force.
• 19 March – Airbus A380 makes first flights to the United States, with one touching down in New York at John F. Kennedy International Airport and another in California at Los Angeles International Airport.
• 23 March – TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 crashes in Mogadishu, Somalia; the plane is thought to have been shot down and all 11 people on board are believed to have been killed.
• 27 March – The last Airbus A300 leaves the Airbus assembly line.

April

• 17 April – go! (airline) begins operations.
• 27 April - An air-to-ground missile strike against the village of Saidgi in North Waziristan, Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan kills four people. The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) both deny involvement.^[3]

May

• 3 May – A Chicago businessman who owned a ranch near Twin Bridges and his passenger were killed Thursday morning when the small jet they were flying crashed while trying to land at the Beaverhead County Airport at Dillon. On 3 May 2007, about 1040 mountain daylight time (MDT), a Cessna Citation S550, N22HP, collided with terrain during a circling instrument approach at Dillon, Montana. ,
• 5 May – A Kenya Airways passenger plane bound for Nairobi with 114 people on board crashed in southern Cameroon on Saturday shortly after takeoff, the central African country's state radio said. Three jetliners sat ready for takeoff at Douala International Airport, their crews waiting for a massive thunderstorm to move away. ,
• 6 May – A French plane pertaining to the force of multinational peace monitoring the border of Sinai between Egypt and Israel was crushed Sunday in the desert, resulting in the deaths of nine persons, including eight French soldiers, according to this force of peace.
• 17 May – Three people, the two pilots and a passenger, were killed Thursday in the accident of a small plane of freight, which was crushed little after its takeoff of Walikale, in the East of the democratic Republic of Congo, one learned near the company. A plane bound for Goma was crushed this Thursday morning in Kilambo, in territory of Walikale, with approximately 300 kilometers in the west of the chief town of North-Kivu. ,
• 30 May – One of the last 2 remaining ATL-98 Carvair [N898AT] crashed at Nixon Fork Mine near McGrath, Alaska.
• Final assembly of the first Boeing 787 starts.

June

• 1 June – A Tanzania People's Defence Forces passenger plane (reg JW9036) developed dual engine failure as the pilot manoeuvred to land at Dodoma airport, the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel S.M. Mayenga, said, and crash landed in the Kizota area of Dodoma. All thirteen people aboard survived. ,
• 4 June – Authorities are searching for two pilots and four doctors from an organ transplant team whose plane went down Monday afternoon in Lake Michigan shortly after the pilot signaled an emergency.
• 19 June - An explosion near Mami Rogha in North Waziristan, Pakistan, just across the border from Afghanistan kills at least 20 people. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen an American unmanned aerial vehicle flying nearby over Afghanistan fire air-to-ground missiles at the site of the explosion, but the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization deny involvement and Pakistan's government claims that Islamic militants accidentally caused the explosion while building bombs.^[4]
• 21 June – Near Kamina en route to Lubumbashi DRC an overloaded Let 410UVP operated by the supposedly defunct Karibu Airways crashes inverted into a swamp shortly after takeoff, killing Mbuyu Mibanga, a member of the DRC parliament. 24 others survive.
• 25 June – Search-and-rescue teams combed the jungles of southern Cambodia after a passenger plane with 22 people on board crashed Monday while flying between two popular tourist destinations, officials said.
• 27 June – The pilot of a twin engine, nine-seat Golden Wings Charter aircraft walked away from a low impact crash at the Airport Industrial Park Wednesday, according to authorities whose emergency systems sprang into high gear once the alert was received.
• 28 June – A Boeing 737 aircraft with the number plate D2-TBP, of the Angolan Airlines that was flying the Luanda/M`banza, Congo/Negage/Luanda route, crashed Thursday in M’banza Congo city (northern Zaire province), killing six and injuring a number still to be established, ANGOP learned.
• 29 June – The plane of the Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast Guillaume Soro was attacked by unknown Friday morning with the airport of Bouaké (center), an act insulated which made at least four died, but saved Mr. Soro, and thrown a cold on the process of reconciliation in progress in the country. Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro survived a rocket attack on his plane after it landed at an airport in the central town of Bouake, said spokesman Issa Doumbia. Guillaume Soro and her collaborators who precipitate in the vehicles chartered to convoy them dare-dare with the secretariat of the new Forces. , ,
• 30 June
  • A pilot attempting to return to the air after his small plane ran out of room on a wet runway slammed into a house in Arkansas Saturday, killing himself and a woman inside the home.
  • A small plane SABRE Lithium matriculation XASMR of ten seats, originating of Monterrey Nuevo Leo'n, piloted by its proprietor Daniel Reedbeds Insipid, confused to a flank of the airport Plan of Guadalupe.

July

• 5 July
  • Unofficial reports indicate that at least nine people died as a result of a plane crash next to the airport of Culiacán in Mexico.
  • Two people have been killed and seven others injured following a plane crash in Indreabhán in Connemara, Galway.
• 8 July – Boeing 787 Rollout (7/8/2007) in Everett, Washington's Boeing Everett Factory.
• 17 July – TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 3054 crashes in São Paulo, Brazil.
• 18 July – An Antonov An-24 of Malift Air shortly after taking off from Bandundu, Democratic Republic of the Congo had an engine failure, lost altitude and crashed 8 km from Bandundu. Of the 2 crew and 8 passengers, all survived.

August

• 7 August – A missile lands, but does not explode, in the Georgian-government-controlled village of Tsitelubani, Georgia. Georgia claims that two Russian jets violated its airspace and fired the missile, targeting a nearby Georgian radar outpost,^[5] while Russian and South Ossetian authorities accuse Georgia of staging a false flag operation in order to provoke tension in the region. Two investigative groups from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries report that the jet which fired the missile entered Georgian airspace from Russia, but a Russian investigation rejects this conclusion.^[6]
• 8 August – Virgin America begins operations.
• 20 August – China Airlines Flight 120, a Boeing 737–809 with 165 people on board, catches fire after landing at Naha Airport on Okinawa, Japan. There are no fatalities; three people on the aircraft and one member of the ground crew are injured..
• 20 August – Loch Lomond Seaplanes launches scheduled services from Glasgow Seaplane Terminal to Oban in Scotland.^[7][8][9]
• 26 August – In Kongolo, Tanganyika District, DRC 13 of 15 aboard die when an overloaded Antonov An-32 (reg 9Q-CAC) owned by Agefreco Air and operated by Great Lakes Business Company crashes while flying tin ore (Cassiterite)

September

• 1 September – two aerobatics aircraft collided during Radom Air Show, two pilots died in a crash.
• 16 September – a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 [HS-OMG] from the low-cost company One-Two-Go Airlines (Thailand) carrying 123 passengers and 7 crew crash landed at Phuket and caught fire. 89 people died.
• 24 September – a Let L-410 (reg 9Q-CVL) owned by Free Airlines crashes on landing at Malemba-Nkulu, DRC from Lubumbashi

October

• 4 October – An Antonov An-26 [9Q-COS] from Africa One / El Sam Airlift and charted by Malift Air crashes shortly after taking off from the Kinshasa-N’Djili Airport, Congo. The airplane bound for Tshikapam crashed on the outskirt of Kinshasa killing 21 on board (1 crew survived) and at least 28 on the ground. This accident forced the Congolese minister of transportation to resign.
• 15 October – Airbus delivers its first A380 superjumbo jet, to Singapore Airlines.
• 26 October – Philippine Airlines Flight 475, an Airbus A320-214, overruns the runway on landing at Bancasi Airport in Butuan City, the Philippines, and is destroyed when it plows into the tropical rainforest beyond the end of the runway. All 154 people on board survive.

November

• 2 November – An unmanned aerial vehicle fires missiles at a compound outside Miran Shah, North Waziristan, Pakistan, killing five Islamic militants and injuring six other people. The United States denies involvement.^[10]

• 15 November
  • China Southern Airlines officially joins the SkyTeam alliance, making SkyTeam the first airline alliance with a People's Republic of China carrier. It is also a major push into the global airline network for the People's Republic of China.
  • Delegates to the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 declare the United States Government's use of airplanes to beam the signals of Radio Martí and TV Martí into Cuba to be illegal, stating "A radio broadcasting station that functions on board an aircraft and transmits only to the territory of another administration without its agreement cannot be considered in conformity with the radio communications regulations."^[11][12] The United States nonetheless continues the broadcasts.

December

• ACAC ARJ21 Advanced Regional Jet is launched.
• (planned) Air China and Shanghai Airlines are expected to join the Star Alliance on 12 December. This will give an extra push into the global network for mainland China.
• 30 December – The TAROM Boeing 737-300 Constanţa, operating on charter as TAROM Flight 3107 with 123 people on board, strikes a maintenance car on the runway while taking off in thick fog at Henri Coandă International Airport at Otopeni, Romania. The plane is written off, but there are no injuries or fatalities.

First flights

January

• 23 January – Lockheed CATBird

February

• 27 February – Bell 429 Global Ranger

April

• 14 April – Comp Air CA-12

June

• 28 June – Rans S-19 Venterra
• 29 June – Piasecki X-49

July

• 6 July – Epic Victory
• 20 July – Boeing X-48
• 26 July – Embraer Phenom 100 Executive Jet (in São José dos Campos, Brazil)

August

• 3 August = Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye
• 23 August – Hawker 750

September

• 13 September – Tecnam P2006T
• 28 September – Kawasaki P-1

October

• 26 October – Embraer Lineage 1000

December

• 21 December – OMA SUD Skycar

Entered service

October

• 25 October – The Airbus A380 with Singapore Airlines completed its first commercial flight, flying between Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

Retirements

• 25 October – The RQ-2 Pioneer by the United States Armed Forces; its last American operator is United States Navy Composite Squadron 6 (VC-6)^[13])^[14]

References