1978 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years:	1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1978:

Events

January

• January 1
  • The Boeing 747-237B Emperor Ashoka, operating as Air India Flight 855, crashes into the Arabian Sea just off Bombay, India, immediately after takeoff from Sahar International Airport, killing all 213 people on board.
  • British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley, and Scottish Aviation are absorbed into British Aerospace
• January 18 – After its nose wheel locks in the up position, Eastern Air Lines Flight 274, a Boeing 727-25, makes a two-point landing at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, without injury to any of the 76 people on board and with only minor damage to the airliner.
• January 28 – A SADELCA Douglas DC-3D on a domestic flight in Colombia crashes into the cloud-covered mountain Cerro Granada at an altitude of 6,800 feet (2,073 meters), killing all 12 people on board.^[1]

February

• February 10
  • A TAMU Douglas C-47A-75-DL Skytrain (registration CX-BJH/T-511) crashes soon after takeoff from Artigas Airport in Artigas, Uruguay, killing all 44 people on board.^[2]
  • Columbia Pacific Airlines Flight 23, a Beechcraft Model 99 (registration N199EA), stalls and crashes immediately after takeoff from Richland Airport in Richland, Washington. The aircraft bursts into flames, and all 17 people on board die.^[3]
• February 11 – To avoid a snow plow on the runway at Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, aborts its landing and attempts a go-around, but its thrust reversers do not retract fully and it crashes, killing 42 of the 49 people on board.
• February 22 – An arson fire destroys the San Diego Aerospace Museum in San Diego, California. Several one-of-a-kind aircraft are destroyed, including the Beecraft Wee Bee and Beecraft Honey Bee, as well as a reproduction of the Spirit of St. Louis.

March

• March 1 – A Nigeria Airways Fokker F28 Fellowship 1000 (registration 5N-ANA) on approach to Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria, collides with a Nigerian Air Force MiG-21U (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") trainer performing touch-and-go landings. Both aircraft crash, killing all 16 people on the Fokker and both crew members of the MiG-21U.^[4]
• March 3 – After a Linea Aeropostal Venezolana Hawker Siddeley HS 748 (registration YV-45C) experiences artificial horizon problems after takeoff from Maiquetía Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, its crew attempts to return to the airport. On approach, it crashes into the Caribbean Sea 5.2 kilometers (3.3 miles) off Punta Mulatos, killing all 47 people on board.^[5]
• March 11 – Flight Lieutenant David Cyster arrives in Darwin, Australia, completing a 32-day, 9,000-mile (14,493-km) flight from England in the de Havilland DH.82a Tiger Moth G-ANRF to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bert Hinkler's first solo England-to-Australia flight in 1928.^[6][7][8]
• March 16 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing all 73 people on board.
• March 25 – A Burma Airways Fokker F27 Friendship 200 (registration XY-ADK) loses height during its initial climb after takeoff from Mingaladon Airport in Rangoon, Burma, strikes trees, crashes in a rice paddy about 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the airport, and burns, killing all 48 people on board.^[9]

April

• April 1 – The Canadian Snowbirds aerobatic team officially becomes 431 Air Demonstration Squadron.
• April 15 – Flying in deteriorating weather, American stunt pilot Frank Tallman dies when the Piper PA-23 Aztec he is piloting crashes into the side of Santiago Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains near Trabuco Canyon, California.^[10]
• April 18 – The Vickers Viscount becomes the first turboprop airliner to see 25 years in service.
• April 20 – Korean Airlines Flight 902, a Boeing 707-321B flying from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seoul, South Korea, with 109 people on board, veers drastically off course and violates Soviet airspace over the Kola Peninsula. A Soviet Air Defense Forces Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO reporting name "Flagon") fighter hits the airliner with an air-to-air missile, badly damaging the left wing and puncturing the fuselage, killing two passengers. The plane eventually makes a crash landing on a frozen lake near Loukhi, where Soviet helicopters rescue the 107 survivors.
• April 26 – Possibly due to engine trouble, a United States Navy P-3 Orion patrol aircraft (BuNo 152724) of Patrol Squadron 23 (VP-23) crashes in the Atlantic Ocean near Naval Air Facility Lajes in Lajes in the Azores, killing the crew of seven.

May

• National Airlines inaugurates nonstop service from Florida to both Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.^[11]
• May 8 – The National Airlines Boeing 727-235 Donna, operating as Flight 193, crashes into Escambia Bay while on descent to Pensacola, Florida, killing three of the 58 people on board and injuring 11 of the 55 survivors.
• May 16–27 – Eighteen U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifters fly 32 missions to transport 850 short tons (771 metric tons) of cargo and 125 passengers to Zaire in support of French Foreign Legion troops and Belgian paratroopers deploying there to oppose the Shaba II invasion of the Zairian province of Shaba by a separatist movement.^[12]
• May 17 – A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Shin Meiwa PS-1 flying boat crashes at Takaoka, Japan, killing 13 people.^[13]
• May 19
  • A Belgian force of 1,171 paratroopers arrives at Kamina, Zaire, in Belgian aircraft to intervene in the Shaba II crisis.^[14]
  • Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion jump into Kolwezi, Zaire, from three French Transall C-160 and four Zairian C-130 Hercules aircraft to intervene against separatists during the Shaba II crisis, meeting little organized resistance.^[14]
• May 20
  • Belgian troops land unopposed the airfield at Kolwezi after Zairian ground forces have seized it. Additional French Foreign Legion paratroopers jump over Kolwezi later in the day.^[14]
  • McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom II aircraft, 20 years after the first flight of the prototype.
• May 21 – American lyricist, screenwriter, director, and television producer Bruce Geller is one of the two people killed when the Cessna 337 Skymaster he is piloting crashes in foggy conditions in Buena Vista Canyon near Santa Barbara, California.^[10]
• May 23 – The first Tupolev Tu-144D experiences an in-flight fire during a pre-delivery test flight from Khabarovsk Novy Airport in Khabarovsk in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and crash-lands in a field at Yegoryevsk six minutes later after all its engines fail. The plane's nose cone collapses under the fuselage during the landing and penetrates a compartment in which two flight engineers are seated, killing them. The other six people on board survive.^[15]
• May 24 – Barbara Ann Oswald hijacks a St. Louis, Missouri-based charter helicopter and orders its pilot, Allen Barklage, to fly it to United States Penitentiary, Marion, in Marion, Illinois, so that her husband, Garrett B. Trapnell – imprisoned there for a 1972 airliner hijacking – can escape. Barklage wrestles Oswald's gun from her as he lands the helicopter in the prison yard and shoots her to death. In December, her daughter Robin Oswald will hijack an airliner in an unsuccessful attempt to get Trapnell released.
• May 31 – U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter aircraft begin to transport French and Belgian troops as they withdraw from their intervention in the Shaba II affair in Zaire. Simultaneously, the C-141s begin airlift support for troops from Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, and Togo as they deploy into Shaba on peacekeeping duties.^[14]

June

• June 1 – The Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport makes its 55th and final passenger flight, an Aeroflot flight on the Soviet Union's domestic Moscow-Alma-Ata route. Tu-144s have carried a total of 3,194 passengers, an average of 58 passengers per flight. Although it never carries passengers again, the Tu-144 will resume cargo service in June 1979.
• June 9 – Inaugural flight of the Airlink helicopter shuttle service between London Gatwick and London Heathrow Airports.^[16]
• June 26 – Air Canada Flight 189, a Douglas DC-9-32, crashes on takeoff at Toronto International Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, killing two passengers and injuring most of the other 105 people on board.

July

• July 1 – Yemen Airways renames itself Yemenia.
• July 1–19 – Frank Haile Jr. and William Wisner fly two Beechcraft Bonanzas around the world in formation.
• July 11 – The Government of the United Kingdom agrees to fund development of the British Aerospace BAe 146 airliner.
• July 12 – An Ecuadorian Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules crashes into Ecuador's Pichincha Volcano, killing all 11 people on board.^[17]
• July 14 – After receiving orders from United Airlines, Boeing begins full-scale development of the Boeing 767.
• July 24 – McDonnell Douglas completes the 5,000th F-4 Phantom II.^[18]

August

• August 12–17 – Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman make the first transatlantic crossing by balloon, taking 5 days 17 hours to travel from Presque Isle, Maine, to Evreux, France in the Double Eagle II
• August 14 – Flying in worsening weather conditions, an Aeropesca Colombia Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando (registration HK-1350) drifts off course and crashes into Mount Paramo de Laura near Tota, Colombia, killing all 18 people in board. Certified to carry only six passengers, it has 15 passengers on board at the time of the crash.^[19]
• August 26 – A Burma Airways de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (registration XY-AEI) stalls at an altitude of 400 feet (122 meters) during its initial climb after takeoff from Papun Airport in Papun, Burma, and crashes, killing all 14 people on board.^[20]
• August 30 – Two East Germans hijack LOT Flight 165, a Tupolev Tu-134 with 63 passengers on board, during a flight from Gdańsk, Poland, to East Berlin, taking a flight attendant hostage. They force the plane to fly to Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin, where all aboard the plane are released unharmed and the two hijackers and six other East German passengers on the plane claim sanctuary.

September

• Royal Air Maroc acquires its first wide-body aircraft, a Boeing 747-200B.
• September 2 – An Airwest Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 floatplane (registration CF-AIV) crashes on approach to a landing in Coal Harbor in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, after the failure of a flap control rod at an altitude of 175 feet (53 meters), killing 11 of the 13 people on board.^[21]
• September 3
  • Members of the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) shoot down Air Rhodesia Flight 825, the Vickers Viscount Hunyani, with a Strela 2 (NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail") surface-to-air missile west of Karoi, Rhodesia. Of the 56 people on board, 38 die in the crash and ZIPRA guerrillas shoot 10 more to death on the ground, leaving only eight survivors.
  • An Air Guinee Ilyushin Il-18D (registration 3X-GAX) crashes in a marsh on approach Conakry Airport in Conakry, Guinea, killing 15 of the 17 people on board.^[22]
• September 9 – A Lineas Aéreas del Centro de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 100 (registration XA-BOP) crashes in mountainous terrain near a highway 65 kilometers (40.6 miles) west of Mexico City, Mexico, killing 18 of the 21 people on board.^[23]
• September 14
  • A Philippine Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship 200 on approach to Nichols Air Base in the Philippines encounters windshear in a thunderstorm and crashes into a fish poind in Parañaque, killing 15 of the 24 people on the plane and 17 people on the ground.^[23]
  • Overseas National Airways ceases operations.
• September 25 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182, a Boeing 727 airliner, collides with a Cessna 172 over San Diego, California. There were no survivors on either plane, and with the seven fatalities on the ground the total number of lives lost was 144, making it the worst air disaster in California history to date.
• September 30 – Aarno Lamminparras, an unemployed home building contractor, hijacks Finnair Flight 405, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle with 47 other people on board flying from Oulu to Helsinki, Finland. At Helsinki, he allows 34 passengers off the plane, which he then forces to fly back to Oulu, where he receives a ransom payment from Finnair, then back to Helsinki, where he receives more money from a Finnish newspaper and releases the remaining 11 passengers. The aircraft then flies to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, refuels, and returns to Helsinki for more ransom money from the newspaper before flying on to Oulu, where he releases his final three hostages in exchange for a chauffeured limousine ride home and 24 hours alone with his wife. Police storm his house and arrest him.

October

• Continental Airlines begins service from airports in the New York City area to Houston, Texas, and Denver, Colorado; from Denver to Phoenix, Arizona; and from Los Angeles, California, to Taipei, Taiwan, via Honolulu, Hawaii, and Guam.
• October 3 – After one of its engines fails, a Finnish Air Force Douglas C-47A-1-DK Skytrain attempts to return to Kuopio Airport in Siilinjärvi, Finland. On approach, the aircraft crashes into Lake Juurusvesi, killing all 15 people on board. The accident leads to the Finnish Air Force improving its pilot training for emergency situations and accelerating the retirement of its fleet of C-47 aircraft.^[24]
• October 4 – A Brazilian Air Force Consolidated C-10A Catalina flying boat crashes while landing on the Solimões River at Santo Antônio do Içá, Brazil, killing all 12 people on board.^[25]
• October 6 – A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 taking part in an UNITAS multinational naval exercise involving Chile, Peru, and the United States crashes into a hill 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) south of Santiago, Chile, killing all 18 people on board.^[26]
• October 7 – An Aeroflot Yakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87437) suffers the failure of an engine due to icing during its initial climb after takeoff from Koltsovo Airport in Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, loses altitude, and crashes into a hill, killing all 38 people on board.^[27]
• October 22 – A Solomon Islands Airlines Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander (registration H4-AAC) attempts to return to Bellona/Anua Airport on Bellona Island in the Solomon Islands after encountering bad weather, but its pilot becomes lost runs out of fuel before finding the airport. He ditches the plane in the Pacific Ocean, but neither the plane or any of the 11 people on board are ever found.^[28]
• October 23 – The crew of Aeroflot Flight 6515, an Antonov An-24B (registration CCCP-46327), turns on the airliner's de-icing system too late, and icing causes both its engines to flame out. The airliner crashes in the Sivash 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Emelyanovka in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 26 people on board.^[29]
• October 24 – President Jimmy Carter signs the Airline Deregulation Act into law. The act is intended to allow commercial aviation to be guided by market forces by removing United States Government control over air fares, air routes, and the entry of new airlines into markets. It requires the complete elimination of government restrictions on U.S. domestic routes and new services by December 31, 1981, the end of all U.S. domestic air fare regulation by January 1, 1983, the dissolution of the Civil Aeronautics Board by the end of 1984, the cessation of some air mail subsidies by January 1, 1986, and the termination of Essential Air Service subsidies ten years after enactment.
• October 30 – The Government of India approves the purchase of the SEPECAT Jaguar for the Indian Air Force

November

• November 5 – A Nile Delta Air Services Douglas DC-3 carrying American petroleum experts of the Western Desert Petroleum Company crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off Alexandria, Egypt, killing all 17 people on board.^[30]
• November 15 – Icelandic Airlines Flight 001, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, crashes at Katunayake, Sri Lanka, just short of the runway while on approach to land at Colombo International Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183 of the 262 people on board and injuring 32 of the 79 survivors. It remains the deadliest accident in the history of Icelandic aviation.
• November 18
  • The Swiss airline Business Flyers Basel AG changes its name to Crossair. It will begin offering scheduled flights in July 1979.
  • An Air Guadeloupe de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 flying from Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, to Marie-Galante crashes into the sea 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) off Marie-Galante Airport after entering a violent rain squall, killing 15 of the 20 people on board.^[31]
• November 19 – An Indian Air Force Antonov An-12 on approach to Leh Airport in Leh, India, crashes into a hut in the Himalayas 0.5 kilometers (0.3 miles) from the airport and bursts into flames, killing all 77 people on the plane and a woman in the hut.^[32]
• November 20 – The United States Air Force orders development of the McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender aerial tanker.
• November 21 – A Taxi Aéreo El Venado Douglas C-47A-65-DL Skytrain (registration HK-1393) crashes into Judio Mountain about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Rubio, Venezuela, at an altitude of 11,200 feet (3,414 meters), killing all 28 people on board.^[33]

December

• The retirement of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal leaves the Royal Navy without a ship capable of operating high-performance fixed-wing aircraft for the first time since 1918.^[34]
• National Airlines introduces service between New York City and Amsterdam.^[11]
• December 11 – Masked men rob the Lufthansa cargo handling area at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York, of $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewels newly flown in from West Germany in the largest cash robbery ever committed in the United States at the time.^[35] The robbery will be dramatized in the 1990 movie Goodfellas.^[36] The cash is never recovered, but five men finally will be indicted for the crime on January 23, 2014.^[36]
• December 21 – Seventeen-year-old Robin Oswald hijacks Trans World Airlines Flight 541, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 with 87 people on board, threatening to blow up the airliner if her father is not released from prison. The aircraft makes an emergency landing at Williamson County Regional Airport in Marion, Illinois, where authorities talk her into surrendering without further incident. Her father, Garrett B. Trapnell, had been imprisoned for a 1972 airliner hijacking and her mother, Barbara Ann Oswald, Trapnell's wife, had been killed when she hijacked a helicopter in May 1978 in order to help him escape from prison.
• December 23 – On approach to a landing in Palermo, Sicily, Alitalia Flight 4128, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, crashes into the Tyrrhenian Sea about 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Palermo, killing 108 of the 129 on board and injuring all 21 survivors.
• December 26 – A Haiti Air Inter Britten-Norman BN-2A-21 Islander (registration HH-CNB) crashes into the sea off the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing all 10 people on board.^[37]
• December 28 – United Airlines Flight 173, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, crashes in Portland, Oregon, killing 10 and injuring 28 of the 189 aboard. The aircraft had run out of fuel while the crew was troubleshooting landing gear indicator problems.
• December 29 – Freddie To makes the first flight of a solar-powered aircraft, the Solar One

First flights

January

• January 11 - American Jet Industries Hustler Model 400 N400AJ, prototype of the Gulfstream American Hustler^[38]

February

• February 14 - Cessna 303

March

• March 10 - Dassault Mirage 2000 2000-01

April

• April 10 - Sikorsky S-72 NASA545 (2nd aircraft)

June

• June 30 - Rutan Defiant

July

• July 6 - NASA QSRA NASA715

August

• August 12 – Pilatus PC-7 HB-HAO
• August 20 – Aerospatiale Fouga 90 F-WZJB
• August 20 – British Aerospace Sea Harrier XZ450
• August 29 – Mistubishi MU-300 Diamond

September

• September 13 - Aérospatiale Super Puma F-WZJA

November

• November 8 - Canadair CL-600 Challenger C-GCGR-X
• November 9 - AV-8B Harrier II
• November 18 - McDonnell Douglas YF-18A Hornet 160775, prototype of the F/A-18 Hornet^[39]

December

• December 19 - Beriev A-50
• December 30 - General Avia Canguro I-KANG

Entered service

January

• January 26 – Westland Lynx with No. 702 Squadron FAA

April

• HU-25 Guardian with United States Coast Guard
• Mitsubishi F-1 with Japan Air Self-Defense Force

June

• June 28 - Dassault Super Étendard with the Aéronavale

August

• August 20 – BAe Sea Harrier

Retirements

• Convair F-102 Delta Dagger by the United States Air National Guard^[40]

June

• Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker by the Texas Air National Guard and Utah Air National Guard^[41]
• Douglas TF-10B Skyknight (known as Douglas F3D Skynight before September 1962) by the United States Marine Corps^[42]

References

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6. Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1983, ISBN 0-89009-771-2, p. 27.
7. Flickr: Tiger Moth
9. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
10. planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1970s
11. National Airlines history, at Nationalsundowners.com, the Organization of Former Stewardesses and Flight Attendants with the Original National Airlines.
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34. Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-076-2, p. 27.
35. McCabe, Scott, "Crime History: 'Goodfellas' Make Off With $5.8M in Lufthansa Heist", Washington Examiner, Sunday, December 11, 2011, Page 6.
36. Associated Press, "," washingtonpost.com, January 24, 2014, 6:47 a.m.
37. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
38. Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN 0-89009-771-2, p. 76.
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42. Knott, Robert C., Attack From the Sky: Naval Air Operations in the Korean War, Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center, 2004, ISBN 0-945274-52-1, p. 188.