1989 in aviation
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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1989:
Contents |
Events
January
- January 4 - US Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23s
- January 8 - a British Midland Boeing 737-400 crashes on the M1 motorway near Kegworth, killing 32 people.
February
- February 8 - a misunderstanding between the crew of a Boeing 707 and Air traffic control leads to a crash on Pico Alto mountain on the Azores
- February 24 - a piece of fuselage detaches from a United Airlines Boeing 747 over Hawaii. Eleven people are sucked to their deaths.
March
- March 22 - an Antonov An-225 sets a total of 106 world and class records during a 3 hour 30 minute flight carrying a Buran orbiter. Its total weight at take-off was 508,200 kg (1,129,370 lb)
April
- April 12 - a British Airways Concorde loses a large piece of its rudder on a flight between Christchurch and Sydney
June
- June 7 - a Suriname DC-8 Super 62 crashes near Paramaribo Airport, Suriname, killing 168.
- June 8 - a Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 suffers a birdstrike during a display at the Paris Air Show. Pilot Anatoli Kvochur manages to prevent the plane from injuring anyone, and saves himself by ejecting at only 400 feet.
July
- July 4 - From the Soviet airbase near Kolobzreg at the seashore of the Baltic Sea in Poland a MiG-23 took off for a training flight. After the take off the pilot, Colonel Skurigin realised that the afterburner of his plane stopped and the power of the engine begun to fall. The altitude at this time was about 130-150 m and the pilot believed that the descending aircraft is unable to fly any longer. Without turning the engine off the pilot ejected and landed safely with his parachute. To the great astonishment of the ground crew the position of the plane fixed and it flew away to the West. The autopilot kept the last direction of the plane. The aircraft was not armed but the ammunition for the 23 mm machine gun was onboard. The phantom plane left the airspace of the former East Germany and violated the West German airspace where it was intercepted and escorted a pair of American F-15s. As the F-15s didn't get permission to fire they let the aircraft fly away. France also alerted its Mirage fighters being in readiness with permission to fire if the phantom plane was dangerous to French built-up areas. Eventually it was unnecessary because after some 900 km the MiG-23 ran out of fuel and crashed in the area of Kortrijk city in Belgium ( NW of Belgium ). The pilotless aircraft flies across Europe before crashing into a Belgian farmhouse. A house was ruined due to the crash and an 18 years old young man was buried under the ruins and died.
- July 16 - European air traffic is halted due to industrial action by French air traffic controllers.
- July 19 - A United Airlines DC-10 crashes on landing following a decompression in the number 2 engine. 111 people were killed.
August
- August 5 - Piedmont is merged into USAir.
- August 18 - a Qantas Boeing 747, the Spirit of Australia, flies non-stop from London to Sydney, setting a world record for a four engine jet, after having flown 11,000 miles in 20 hours.
- August 22 - Alexander Yakovlev dies, aged 84
September
- September 3 - a Varig Boeing 737 crashes in Brazil killing 53 passengers. The pilots had not noticed an autopilot malfunction because they were listening to a football match.
- September 8 - a chartered Partnair flight crashes into the sea off the coast of Denmark killing 55 people.
- September 20 - a USAir Boeing 737 aborts a takeoff in New York and slides into the East River. Two people are killed.
- September 20 - a UTA DC-10 is destroyed by a terrorist bomb over Niger. 117 passengers are killed.
November
- November 12 - California Polytechnic State University flies the first human powered helicopter
- November 21 - a British Airways Boeing 747 narrowly misses crashing into the Penta hotel near Heathrow Airport
First flights
January
March
April
- April 30 - SOCATA Omega
May
July
October
- October 7 - Enstrom 480
December
- December 26 - NAMC N-5
Entered service
- February 9 - Boeing 747-400 with Northwest Airlines
- October 27 - ATR-72 with Kar Air
Categories
Aviation timelines | 1989