1977 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years:	1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1977:

Events

January

• January 5 – Colin Richard Foreman, a disgruntled former employee of Connellan Airways (Connair), steals a Beechcraft Baron 58 and crashes it into a building in the Connair complex at Alice Springs Airport at Alice Springs, Australia, killing himself and four people on the ground and injuring four others.
• January 6 – Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra, the mother of singer Frank Sinatra, and all three other people on board die when their Gates Learjet 24 never changes course after takeoff from Palm Springs Municipal Airport in Palm Springs, California, and crashes into a 10,000-foot (3,048-meter) ridge in the eastern portion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness.
• January 13 – After a fire breaks out in the No. 1 engine of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104A (registration CCCP-42369) on approach to Alma-Ata Airport in Alma-Ata in the Soviet Union's Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, the Tu-104A begins orbiting the airport to burn off fuel. The fire spreads to a fuel tank, causing the fuel tank to explode at an altitude of 300 meters (984 feet). The airliner crashes 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) from the airport, killing all 96 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Kazakhstan at the time.
• January 14 – On approach to Terrace Airport outside Terrace, British Columbia, Canada, during a snowstorm, a Northern Thunderbird Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (registration C-GNTB) strikes a hill and crashes 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) south of the airport, killing all 12 people on board.
• January 15 – Linjeflyg Flight 618, a Vickers Viscount 838. crashes in Kälvesta, Sweden, just outside Stockholm, killing all 22 on board.
• January 18 – Prime Minister of Yugoslavia Džemal Bijedić and all six others on board are killed when their Gates Learjet 25 crashes into a mountain near Kreševo, Yugoslavia, during a snowstorm.
• January 19 – On approach to Valencia Airport outside Valencia, Spain, an Ejército del Aire CASA C-207C Azor (registration T.7-15) crashes into the side of a mountain near Chiva, killing all 11 people on board.
• January 20 – A new passenger terminal, Passenger Terminal 1, opens at Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and all civilian passenger traffic transfers to it. At the time, all major international flights to and from Brazil use the terminal.

February

• Beechcraft produces its 10,000th Bonanza, a Bonanza Model 35. The Bonanza is entering its 31st year of production.
• February 15 – Attempting to land at Mineralnye Vody Airport in Mineralnye Vody Airport in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, Aeroflot Flight 5003, an Ilyushin Il-18V (registration CCCP-75520), executes a missed approach due to low clouds and fog. While climbing away from the airport, the airliner stalls, crashes into a railway embankment, and bursts into flames, killing 77 of the 98 people on board.
• February 18 – A Space Shuttle is airborne for the first time when the Space Shuttle Enterprise is taken up for a flight atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Enterprise does not detach from the carrier aircraft during the flight.

March

• March 1 – During its initial climb after takeoff from Aden International Airport in Aden South Yemen, an Alyemda Douglas C-47A-25-DK Skytrain (registration 7O-ABF) crashes into the Gulf of Aden, killing all 19 people on board.
• March 3 – Flying in fog, an Italian Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules (registration MM61996) crashes into Monte Serra 16 kilometers (10 miles) east of Arturo dell'Oro Air Base in Pisa, Italy, killing all 44 people on board.
• March 19 – Brazilian champion race car driver Carlos Pace dies along with the other two people on board when their Piper aircraft crashes near Mairiporã, Brazil.
• March 27 – Attempting to take off in fog from Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the KLM Boeing 747-206B Rijn, operating as Flight 4805, collides with the Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121 Clipper Victor, operating as Flight 1736, which is taxiing across the runway. All 248 people aboard the KLM aircraft die, as do 335 of the 396 people aboard the Pan Am plane; all 61 Pan Am survivors are injured. American pin-up model, motion picture actress, and film producer Eve Meyer is among the dead on the Pan Am flight. With a combined total of 583 people killed, the crash remains the worst air disaster in history.
• March 30 – Attempting a go-around after encountering fog while attempting to land at Zhdanov Airport in Zhdanov in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, an Aeroflot Yakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87738), strikes a 9-meter (29.5-foot) pole with its wing, crashes 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) from the airport, and catches fire, killing eight of the 27 people on board.

April

• Comair, owned by Delta Air Lines, starts operations.
• April 4 – Southern Airways Flight 242, a Douglas DC-9-31, enters a severe thunderstorm which breaks the plane's windshield; the aircraft's engines ingest so much water and hail that they both flameout. The plane glides to a crash landing on a rural highway, killing 62 out of 85 people aboard – including rhythm and blues singer Annette Snell – and eight people on the ground; all 22 survivors are injured.
• April 10 – A Taxi Aéreo El Venado Douglas DC-3A-438 (registration HK-556), disappears with the loss of all 35 people on board during a domestic flight in Colombia from La Uribe to Bogotá. Its wreckage is discovered on May 15 at an elevation of 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) on Saliente del Rio Guape Mountain in the Cordillera Oriental.
• April 19 – A Soviet Air Forces Antonov An-24 (NATO reporting name "Coke") carrying Soviet Air Defense Forces pilots to their base at Tapa Airfield in Tapa in the Soviet Union's Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic flies too low while passing through a snow flurry on approach to the airfield, strikes the chimney of a spirit factory, crashes at Moe, and burns out, killing all 21 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Estonia.
• April 27 – An Aviateca Convair 240 crashes near Guatemala City, Guatemala, due to a maintenance error, killing all 28 people on board
• April 29 – The British government nationalizes the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, and Scottish Aviation and merges them to form British Aerospace. They retain their individual identities at first, but eventually become divisions of British Aerospace.

May

• British Airways pilots fly three Cyprus Airways airliners – two Hawker Siddeley Tridents and a BAC One-Eleven – out of Nicosia International Airport on Cyprus to the United Kingdom; the planes had been stranded at Nicosia International since the permanent closure of airport during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974. No test flights precede these flights because Turkey does not permit any. A third Cyprus Airways Trident is left derelict at the abandoned airport, too badly damaged by small arms fire during the fighting in July 1974 to be worth repairing.
• May 2 – American automotive executive Ed Cole dies in the crash near Mendon, Michigan, of the Beagle B.206S2 he is piloting after he flies into a storm.
• May 10 – An Israeli Air Force Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crashes in the Jordan Valley during a military exercise, killing all 54 people on board.
• May 15 – At the Biggin Hill Air Show in Biggin Hill, London, England, a sightseeing helicopter strikes the underside of a de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane at an altitude of 200 feet (61 meters), shearing off the Tiger Moth's landing gear. The Tiger Moth lands safely with no injuries to the two people aboard. Aboard the helicopter, five people die and one is injured.
• May 16 – Motion picture director Michael Findlay and two other passengers are instantly slashed to death by the rotors of a New York Airways Sikorsky S-61L helicopter after its landing gear collapses while they are boarding it on the roof of the Pan Am Building in New York City; another passenger boarding the helicopter is seriously injured and soon dies as well. The rotors detach and disintegrate, and a woman walking on the street below is killed by falling debris. The accident prompts the closure of the rooftop heliport.
• May 27 – An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62M airliner strikes power lines in bad weather and crashes 1 km (0.62 mile) from José Martí International Airport at Havana, Cuba, while on final approach, killing 68 of the 70 people on board and one person on the ground.
• May 29 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier to be built in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is laid at Ferrol.
• May 31 – The Vietnam People's Air Force is separated from the Vietnamese Air Defense Force.

June

• The Bell 212 becomes the first helicopter certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for single-pilot instrument flight rules operation with fixed floats.
• June 3 – A Brazilian Air Force Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante crashes just after takeoff from Natal Airport outside Natal, Brazil, killing all 18 people on board.
• June 21 – A United States Navy Lockheed EC-130Q TACAMO aircraft crashes into the Pacific Ocean 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) off Wake Island just after a night takeoff from Wake Island Airfield, killing all 16 people on board.
• June 22 – National Airlines inaugurates service between Miami, Florida, and Paris, France, thus becoming the only airline to offer service from the Southern United States to Paris.
• June 30 – President of the United States Jimmy Carter cancels the United States Air Force's Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber program.

July

• July 14 – UNITA rebels shoot down a People's Air Force of Angola Antonov An-26 near Cuangar, Angola, killing all 30 people on board.
• July 20 – Attempting to take off from Vitim Airport in Vitim in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic on a wet runway with a tailwind, Aeroflot Flight B-2, an Avia 14M (registration CCCP-52096), strikes a fence and trees before crashing into a forest 500 meters (1,640 feet) north-northwest of the airport, killing 39 of the 40 people on board.
• July 21 – The Libyan-Egyptian War begins. Egyptian Air Force planes shoot down two Libyan Arab Republic Air Force aircraft.
• July 22 – The Egyptian Air Force makes a full-scale attack on a major Libyan Arab Republic Air Force base at El Adem, reportedly killing three Soviet military advisers.
• July 23 - After threats of shutting down transatlantic air traffic, the U.S. and British governments reach the Bermuda II accord, giving British airlines additional ports of entry in the United States and removing American airlines' rights to carry passengers beyond London and Hong Kong.
• July 23–24 – Further Egyptian Air Force attacks destroy large numbers of Libyan aircraft before a ceasefire ends the war. Egypt admits the loss of two planes during the last two days of the war.
• July 24 – Attempting a night landing in heavy rain at El Tepual Airport in Puerto Montt, Chile, a Chilean Air Force Douglas DC-6B crashes into a swamp and bursts into flames, killing 38 of the 82 people on board.
• July 25 – A Honduran Air Force Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain suffers the failure of its No. 1 engine and crashes in mountainous terrain near Yoro, Honduras, killing 25 of the 40 people on board.

August

• August 1 – Francis Gary Powers – the American U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 and held captive there until 1962 – dies when the KNBC television news Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter he is piloting runs out of fuel and crashes in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area in Los Angeles, California.
• August 12 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first flight, a test glide in the atmosphere after detaching from a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
• August 23 – Piloted by racing cyclist Bryan Allen, the Gossamer Condor becomes the first human-powered aeroplane, flying a figure-eight course around two pylons 0.8 km (0.5 mile) apart at Shafter, California, to demonstrate sustained, controlled flight. The flight wins its designer, Dr. Paul McCready, the £50,000 Kremer Prize.
• August 31 – Soviet test pilot Alexander Vasilyevich Fedotov "zooms" a modified Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (NATO reporting name "Foxbat") to attain an altitude of 123,524 feet (37,650 meters) briefly, setting a new world altitude record for air-breathing aircraft.

September

• September 4 – Flying under visual flight rules in instrument meteorological conditions, a SAN Ecuador Vickers 746D Viscount (registration HC-BCL) crashes into a mountain in the Cajas Mountains 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 33 people on board.
• September 6 – An Alaska Aeronautical Industries de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 200 (registration N563MA) operating as Flight 302 in instrument meteorological conditions crashes into the southwest side of Alaska's Mount Iliamna at an altitude of 7,000 feet (2,134 meters), killing all 13 people on board.
• September 8 – A Burma Airways de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (registration XY-AEH) disappears during a flight to Kengtung, Burma, with the loss of all 25 people on board. Its wreckage is discovered on Burma's Mount Loi Hsam Hsao on September 11.
• September 9 – Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo, and Ed Yost depart Marshfield, Massachusetts, in the balloon Double Eagle in an attempt to make the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. They fail when they are forced to abort the flight on September 13 off Iceland.
• September 14 – A United States Air Force Boeing EC-135K crashes in steep terrain at an altitude of 8,500 feet (2,591 meters) in the Manzano Mountains 8 kilometers (5 miles) east of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, killing all 20 people on board.
• September 21 – Malév Hungarian Airlines Flight 203, a Tupolev Tu-134 (registration HA-LBC), crashes 6.3 kilometers (3.9 miles) southwest of Urziceni, Romania, while on approach to Bucharest Otopeni International Airport in Bucharest, killing 29 of the 53 people on board.
• September 26 – Laker Airways inaugurates its no-booking "Skytrain" service between London and New York
• September 27 – On approach to land at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Malaysia, Japan Airlines Flight 715, a Douglas DC-8, crashes into a hill 6.5 km (4 mi) short of the airport near the Ladang Elmina estate. Thirty-four of the 79 people on board die, and all 45 survivors are injured.
• September 28 – Five Japanese Red Army (JRA) members hijack Japan Airlines Flight 472, a Douglas DC-8 with 151 other people on board, after takeoff from Bombay, India. The hijackers force the plane to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where they demand US$6 million and the release of nine imprisoned JRA members in Japan. On October 1, the Japanese government releases six of the prisoners and exchanges them for 118 of the hostages aboard the plane on October 2. On October 3, the plane flies to Kuwait City, Kuwait, and Damascus, Syria, where the hijackers release 11 more hostages. Ultimately, the plane flies to Algeria, where it is impounded and all the remaining hostages are released.

October

• October 13 – Four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calling themselves the "Commando Martyr Halime" hijack the Lufthansa Boeing 737-230 Adv Landshut, operating as Flight 181 with 91 other people on board, over the Mediterranean Sea south of France. The aircraft lands first at Rome, Italy, for refueling, then at Larnaca, Cyprus, and then early on October 14 at Bahrain. On October 17 it flies to Aden, South Yemen, where the terrorist leader murders the aircraft's captain, and then on to Mogadishu, Somalia. There, in Operation Feuerzauber ("Fire Magic"), the West German counterterrorism unit GSG 9 storms the plane on October 18 and frees the hostages, killing three of the hijackers and wounding and capturing the fourth.
• October 17 – The American ban of the Concorde is lifted when the Supreme Court of the United States declines to overturn a lower court's ruling rejecting the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's efforts to continue the ban.
• October 20 – A chartered Convair CV-240 carrying 26 people including members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd runs out of fuel and crashes in a forest at Gillsburg, Mississippi. Among the six dead are band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, and a manager for the band, and the rest of the band members are injured.
• October 26–31 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 747SP circumnavigates the world over the two poles.
• October 31 – The first British all-female airline flight crew makes the inaugural British Air Ferries service from Southend to Düsseldorf with Handley Page Dart Herald G-BDFE. The crew comprises Captain Caroline Frost, First Officer Lesley Hardym and stewardesses Liz Howard and Hildegard Donbavand.

November

• November 1 – The Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport enters passenger service, flying an Aeroflot domestic route in the Soviet Union between Moscow and Alma-Ata. It had been flying air mail and cargo flights since December 1975, also between Moscow and Alma-Ata.
• November 3 – A Britten-Norman BN-2A-8 Islander (registration XA-FUA) operated by Servicios Aéreos Martinez Leon and carrying officials of the National Indian Institute crashes and burns on approach to San Cristóbal de las Casas National Airport in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, killing all 13 people on board.
• November 19 – On its third attempt to land in heavy rain, strong winds, and poor visibility at Madeira Airport in Funchal in Portugal's Madeira Islands, TAP Portugal Flight 425, a Boeing 727-282Adv, overruns the runway and crashes, killing 131 of the 164 people on board.
• November 21 – Beginning its descent to San Carlos de Bariloche Airport in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, prematurely, Austral Lineas Aéreas Flight 9, a BAC One-Eleven 420EL (registration LV-JGY), crashes near Cerro Pichileufú, 21 kilometers (13.1 miles) east of San Carlos de Bariloche, killing 46 of the 79 people on board.
• November 25 – A French Air Force Nord 2501F Noratlas with a faulty autopilot crashes into a mountain near Béziers, France, killing all 32 people on board.

December

• December 2 – A Tupolev Tu-154, leased by Libyan Arab Airlines from Balkan Bulgarian Airlines to operate Hajj pilgrim charter flights, crashes near Benghazi, Libya, after running out of fuel. Fifty-nine of the 165 passengers and crew on board are killed.
• December 4 – After apparently being hijacked by an unknown party, Malaysian Airline System Flight 653, a Boeing 737-200, crashes at Tanjung Kupang, Johor, in Malaysia. All 100 people on board die, including the Malaysian Agricultural Minister, Dato' Ali Haji Ahmad; Malaysian Public Works Department Head Dato' Mahfuz Khalid; and Cuban Ambassador to Japan Mario García. It is first fatal accident in the history of Malaysia Airlines.
• December 9 – An Aeroflot Antonov An-24RV (registration CCCP-47695) stalls immediately after takeoff from Tarko-Sale Airport in Tark-Sale in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, crashes about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from Tarko-Sale, and burns, killing 17 of the 23 people on board.
• December 11 – A United States Navy Lockheed P-3B-80-LO Orion on a maritime night patrol crashes into a 5,200-foot (1,585-meter) mountain on El Hierro in Spain's Canary Islands at an altitude of 2,300 feet (701 meters), killing all 13 crew members.
• December 13 – A National Jet Services Douglas DC-3 operating a charter flight crashes on takeoff from Evansville, Indiana, en route to Nashville International Airport, killing all 29 on board, including all but one player and all of the coaches of the University of Evansville men's basketball team.
• December 17 – United Airlines Flight 2860, a Douglas DC-8-54AF Jet Trader cargo aircraft, crashes into a mountain in the Wasatch Range near Kaysville, Utah. The entire crew of three is killed.
• December 18 – SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10R, crashes in the Atlantic Ocean while on approach to Madeira Airport at Funchal in Portugal's Madeira Islands, killing 36 of the 57 people on board. Many of the occupants drown when they are trapped in the airliner's sinking wreckage. It is the second fatal air crash at Funchal in a month, the first having been TAP Portugal Flight 425, which had crashed on November 19.
• December 29 – A SAN Ecuador Vickers 764D Viscount (registration HC-BEM) flying in poor weather crashes into a hill near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 24 people on board.

First flights

January

• January 6 - HAL HPT-32 X2157
• January 31 - Cessna Citation II

February

• Bell 214ST

May

• May 3 - Bell Model 301 NASA702
• May 20 - Sukhoi T-10 (prototype of Sukhoi Su-27)
• May 26 - NDN Firecracker G-NDNI

June

• June 27 - CASA C.101 Aviojet

July

• July 25 - Aero Design DG-1 N10E

August

• August 12 - Space Shuttle Enterprise (glide test)
• August 15 - Embraer EMB-111
• August 24 - Learjet 28

September

• September 5 – Aérospatiale SA 331, prototype of the Aérospatiale SA 332 Super Puma

October

• October 6 - Mikoyan MiG-29
• October 20 - General Avia F15F I-PROL
• October 27 - RFB Fantrainer 98+30

November

• November 22 - Antonov An-72 SSSR-19774

December

• December 1 - Lockheed Have Blue
• December 14 - Mil Mi-26
• December 22 - Aérospatiale Epsilon
• December 22 - Antonov An-72 ("Coaler")

Entered service

September

• September 26 - Mitsubishi F-1 with Japan Air Self-Defense Force

November

• Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor with United States Navy Naval Air Training Command
• November 1 – Tupolev Tu-144

Retirements

June

• June 30 – Handley Page Hastings by the Royal Air Force