1989 IN AVIATION

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1989:

Contents

Events

January

February

March

April

June

July

August

September

November

First flights

January

March

April

May

July

October

December

Entered service

References

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 Flight 811 over Hawaii. 9 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 - 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.^[1]

★ 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

★ January 11 - AASI Jetcruzer 450

March

★ March 19 - V-22 Osprey

April

★ April 30 - SOCATA Omega

May

★ May 28 - AIDC Ching-Kuo

July

★ July 17 - B-2 Spirit

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

References

1. Incident summary at Eastern Wings