This is a list of
aviation-related events from 1972.
Events
Early in the year, the United States introduces the
Walleye II optically guided
glide bomb into service, employing it in the
Vietnam War. It becomes known as the "Fat Albert."[1]
Having lost its last aircraft in
a crash 11 days earlier, the
Peruvian airline
LANSA runs out of operating funds and goes out of business. It had been founded in 1963.
January 7 – As
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 902, a
Boeing 727-200 with 151 people on board, prepares to land at
Los Angeles,
California, after a flight from
San Francisco, two individuals and their infant son
hijack the airliner. They demand to be flown to
Africa, but agree to be flown to
Cuba instead when they are informed the plane lacks the range to cross the
Atlantic Ocean. The
captain negotiates the release of the passengers in Los Angeles, after which the plane carries its crew, the hijackers, and three off-duty flight attendants to Cuba via a refueling stop at
Tampa,
Florida. In Cuba, the hijackers return control of the aircraft to the captain.[4][5][6]
January 12 – Billy Gene Hurst, Jr.,
hijacksBraniff Flight 38, a
Boeing 727 with 102 other people on board, during a flight from
Houston to
Dallas. After arrival at
Love Field in Dallas, he releases the other 94 passengers but holds all seven crew members hostage, demanding to be flown to
South America during a standoff with police. Eventually, the entire crew escapes, and police storm the airliner and arrest him.
January 20 – Two months after the celebrated
hijacking of
Northwest Orient Flight 305 by an unidentified man who becomes popularly known as "
D. B. Cooper",
Hughes Airwest Flight 800 becomes the target of a copycat hijacker.[7] After boarding at
McCarran International Airport in
Las Vegas,
Nevada, 23-year-old Richard Charles La Point claims he has a bomb while the plane is on the taxiway and demands
US$50,000 in cash, two
parachutes, and a helmet.[8] When his demands are met, La Point releases 51
Reno, Nevada-bound passengers and two
flight attendants, after which the DC-9 takes off and flies eastward toward
Denver,
Colorado, followed by two
United States Air ForceF-111 fighters.[9] Without a coat and in cowboy boots, La Point bales out via the plane's lower aft door over the
Eastern Plains in northeastern
Colorado in mid-afternoon. The parachutes he had been given were high-visibility ones secretly equipped with emergency locater devices, and he sprains his ankle on landing, making it impossible for him to move; he is apprehended a few hours later,[10] with minor injuries and very cold.[8][11][12] The plane, with two pilots and a flight attendant on board, lands safely at Denver's
Stapleton International Airport at 2:55 pm
MST.[7] Facing potential death penalty charges for air piracy,[13] La Point will be sentenced to 40 years in prison, but will serve less than eight and be released from a
halfway house in 1979.[8][14]
January 29 –
Garrett Brock Trapnellhijacks a
Trans World Airlinesairliner during a flight from
Los Angeles, to New York City and demands US$306,000, the release from prison of militant
Angela Davis, and a conversation with President
Richard Nixon. A
Federal Bureau of Investigation agent shoots and disarms him, and he is imprisoned. In separate incidents in 1978, his wife Barbara Ann Oswald will die in an attempt to free him using a hijacked helicopter and his daughter Robin Oswald will hijack another airliner in a failed attempt to get him released.
February
Aeronaves de México changes its name to
Aeroméxico.
At
Tampa International Airport in Florida, Edmund McKee pulls a
revolver on a
National Airlines ticket agent helping passengers board National Airlines Flight 67 – a
Boeing 727 with 24 people aboard – and takes the agent hostage, saying he wants to hijack the jetliner. He is escorted aboard and demands to fly to Sweden. The captain informs McKee that the airliner lacks the range to cross the
Atlantic Ocean, then convinces him to release all of the passengers and to step outside to continue negotiations. Once McKee exits the aircraft, security personnel overpower and arrest him.[18][19]
As a
Chalk's International AirlinesGrumman G-73 Mallard refuels at
Watson Island, Florida, during a flight from Miami to Bimini with five passengers and a crew of two, Joseph Terron Bennett and James William Brewton of the
Black Liberation Army hijack it and demand to be flown to Cuba. A Chalk's mechanic gets a pistol out of his car, intending to shoot out the plane's tires, but the hijackers shoot and wound him. After the pilot refuses to start the engines, the hijackers shoot him also, and he jumps from the aircraft followed by one passenger. With four passengers still aboard, Bennett and Brewton force the copilot to fly them to Havana, which – after bumping into a
Grumman Goose parked beside it at Watson Island – the Mallard barely reaches with its fuel tank almost empty. Cuban authorities arrest the two hijackers and allow the Mallard and its passengers and copilot to fly back to the United States the next day. Brewton will be killed during an armed robbery in Jamaica in 1975, while Bennett will return to the United States secretly in 1982 and will not be arrested there until 1983.[20][21]
March 14 –
Sterling Airways Flight 296, a
Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes into a mountain ridge near
Kalba in the United Arab Emirates, killing all 112 people on board. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in the history of that nation.
Late March – The commander-in-chief of the
Soviet Air Force visits North Vietnam, apparently leading to improved North Vietnamese
air defense tactics that will be observed between April and September.[1]
March 31 – In response to the North Vietnamese "
Easter Offensive" against South Vietnam that began on March 30, the United States begins a series of deployments code-named "Constant Guard", in which a large number of U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps squadrons return to bases in South Vietnam and
Thailand and the U.S. Navy
aircraft carrier presence at
Yankee Station in the
Gulf of Tonkin increases from two on March 30 to six by late spring.[23]
American aircraft resume regular bombing of
North Vietnam in response to the North Vietnamese "
Easter Offensive" invasion of South Vietnam.[1]
Wearing a fake moustache and a black wig, 29-year-old Richard McCoy
hijacksUnited Airlines Flight 885 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Denver,
Colorado, to
Los Angeles,
California, with 91 people on board – claiming to be armed with two
pistols, a
hand grenade, and
plastic explosives and demanding a ransom of
US$500,000 in exchange for the lives of the passengers and crew. The airliner diverts to
San Francisco, California, where McCoy receives the ransom money. He then orders it to take off and fly eastward in a zigzag pattern and
parachutes from the plane somewhere near
Provo,
Utah. The following day, the
Utah National Guard unit for which he pilots helicopters, participates in the search for him, and police soon identify and apprehend him. Jailed for the crime, McCoy will escape from prison in August 1974 and die in a shootout with U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in November 1974.[26][27]
April 9 – Thirty-one-year-old Stanley Harlan Speck hijacks
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 942 – a Boeing 727 flying from
Oakland to
San Diego, California, with 92 people on board – demanding
US$500,000, two
parachutes, and a flight to
Miami,
Florida. After the airliner lands in San Diego, the
captain tricks Speck into exiting the plane to collect navigation charts necessary for the flight. When Speck does, U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents disguised as mechanics overpower him.[29][30]
April 11 – Waving a bottle he says contains
nitroglycerine and claiming to have a grievance against the
United States Government, 56-year-old Major Burton Davenport hijacks
Continental Airlines Flight 781 – a
Boeing 707 – as it prepares to take off from
Portland,
Oregon, for a flight to
Seattle,
Washington. He orders the cabin temperature to be maintained at 70 degrees F (21.1 degrees C) and demands a small plastic bucket half-full of dry, clean
sawdust, a dozen
hand grenades, and a ransom of US$500,000, to be paid by the
United States Treasury and not by Continental Airlines. A stewardess talks him into releasing all the passengers, and Davenport abruptly surrenders to an FBI negotiator about an hour after that.[31]
April 13 – Using an unloaded .22-caliber
pistol, 36-year-old Ricardo Chavez Ortiz hijacks
Frontier AirlinesFlight 91, a
Boeing 737-200 flying from
Albuquerque,
New Mexico, to
Phoenix,
Arizona, with 31 people on board, and orders it to fly past Phoenix and land at
Los Angeles,
California, where he plans to make a statement about injustices he had experienced in the United States since immigrating from Mexico. At
Los Angeles International Airport, he released the passengers and, after journalists come aboard the airliner, makes a 34-minute speech while wearing a pilot's hat, complaining about
police brutality, racism, and
education policy. Then he hands his gun to the plane's pilot, apologizes for the day's inconvenience, and surrenders quietly.[32]
April 16
President
Richard Nixon's administration lifts most restrictions on bombing North Vietnam, and U.S. Air Force
B-52 Stratofortresses bomb targets near
Haiphong for the first time since 1968.[1]
Believing that he is personally responsible for expelling
Satan from the
Earth and that he must hijack an airliner and receive a ransom as part of that mission, 29-year-old William Herbert Green gives a note saying he has a gun and demanding $500,000 in cash and to fly to the
Bahamas and hands it to a
flight attendant aboard
Delta Air Lines Flight 952 – a
Convair CV-880-22-2 flying from
Chicago,
Illinois, to Miami, Florida, with 92 people on board – telling her to pass it to the
captain. After 40 minutes of negotiations between the captain and Green, Green agrees to allow the plane to return to Chicago, where he releases all the passengers. The captain then tells Green that he can either fly to the Bahamas and be imprisoned there, where he knows no one, or surrender right there in Chicago. Green decides to surrender in Chicago.[36][37]
East African Airways Flight 720 aborts takeoff at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, headed for Rome; it then overruns the runway, breaks up, and catches fire. 43 of the 107 passengers and crew aboard are killed.[39][40]
May 3 – Four hijackers take control of a
Turkish AirlinesDouglas DC-9-32 with 66 people on board during a domestic flight in
Turkey from
Ankara to
Istanbul, demanding the release of prisoners. The airliner diverts to
Sofia,
Bulgaria, where the hijackers surrender to authorities.[46]
May 5
Alitalia Flight 112, a
Douglas DC-8-43, crashes into
Mount Longa, about 5 km (3.1 mi) southwest of
Palermo,
Sicily, while on approach to Palermo, killing all 115 people on board. It remains the single deadliest aircraft accident in Italy's history.
Recently
drafted into the
United States Army, desperate to avoid serving in the
Vietnam War, and claiming to be a member of a
paramilitary group fighting against U.S.
imperialism, 21-year-old Michael Lynn Hansen pulls out a .38-caliber
Smith & Wessonrevolver aboard
Western Airlines Flight 407 – a
Boeing 737-200 with 81 people on board flying from
Salt Lake City,
Utah, to
Los Angeles,
California – and demands that it fly him to
North Vietnam. After the plane lands in Los Angeles, where he releases 11 passengers, he changes his mind and orders it to fly him to
Cuba. The plane stops for 50 minutes at
Tampa,
Florida, to refuel, then proceeds to
Havana, Cuba, where Hansen asks Cuban soldiers who come aboard the airliner to get his luggage for him. Instead, they arrest him. He will be imprisoned in Cuba until 1975, when he will return to the
United States.[47][48]
Four members of
Black SeptemberhijackSabena Flight 571, a
Boeing 707 with 86 other people on board flying from
Vienna, Austria, to
Tel Aviv, Israel. After the plane arrives as scheduled at
Lod Airport in
Lod, Israel, the hijackers threaten to blow up the plane if Israel does not release 315
Palestinians from prison. The next day, 16 Israeli
Sayeret Matkal commandos led by
Ehud Barak and including
Benjamin Netanyahu, storm the plane in Operation Isotope, killing two hijackers and capturing the other two; Netanyahu and three passengers are wounded and one of the wounded passengers later dies of her wounds.
As
Aeroflot Flight 1491, an
Antonov An-10A (registration CCCP-11215), descends from its cruising altitude to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) prior to landing at
Kharkov in the
Soviet Union's
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, both of its
wings separate due to
metal fatigue in the wing center section. The airliner crashes in a wooded area 24 kilometers (15 miles) from
Kharkov Airport, but does not catch fire. All 122 people on board die. The accident is the worst ever involving an An-10 and at the time is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of
Ukraine, and
Aeroflot withdraws the An-10 from service because of it.[58]
May 19 – U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy aircraft begin
Operation Linebacker, a campaign of airstrikes on North Vietnam targeting the transportation of supplies in support of the North Vietnamese "Easter Offensive" invasion of South Vietnam.
May 23 – About 10 minutes after an
Ecuatoriana de AviacionLockheed L-188 Electra takes off from
Quito,
Ecuador, for a domestic flight to
Guayaquil, a passenger identified from the passenger manifest only by his surname, Lomas, hijacks the airliner, claiming he has a bomb. The plane lands at Quito, where Lomas demands
US$40,000 and a
parachute in exchange for the lives of the other passengers and crew. During the sixth hour of negotiations, a squad of commandos sneaks into the plane through its baggage compartment, ambushes Lomas, and kills him with
machine gun fire.[60][61]
The United States and Soviet Union sign the
SALT-1 strategic arms limitation treaty.
Cessna builds its 100,000th aircraft, the first company in the world to achieve this figure.
Two American UH-1B attack helicopters use TOW antitank missiles to destroy 12 North Vietnamese
tanks outside
Kon Tum, South Vietnam, allowing South Vietnamese forces to counterattack and secure the city.[41]
May 28 – A hijacker commandeers an
Olympic Airways Boeing 707 with 135 people aboard making a domestic flight in
Greece from
Heraklion to
Athens, demanding medical treatment and an airline ticket to
London. After the airliner arrives at Athens, security forces storm it and arrest the hijacker.[63]
U.S. Air Force
F-4E Phantom II pilot Phil "Hands" Handley scores the first and thus far only supersonic gun kill in history while engaging a pair of
MiG-19 (
NATO reporting name "Farmer") fighters over North Vietnam in support of a rescue operation to save F-4 Phantom II crewman
Roger Locher, downed northeast of Hanoi 23 days earlier.
To protest American involvement in the Vietnam War and hoping to free
Angela Davis from prison and transport her to
political asylum in North Vietnam,
Willie Roger Holder and his girlfriend,
Catherine Marie Kerkow, hijack
Western Airlines Flight 701, a
Boeing 720B, as it approaches
Seattle near the end of a flight from Los Angeles, claiming to have a bomb in an
attaché case. They demand a ransom of US$500,000. After allowing all 97 passengers to get off in
San Francisco, they fly to
Algiers in
Algeria, where they are granted political asylum. Later, $488,000 of the ransom money is returned to American officials.
Armed with a
.357 Magnumrevolver and carrying a
parachute, 22-year-old Robb Heady barges onto
United Airlines Flight 239 – a
Boeing 727 with six people aboard at
Reno,
Nevada, preparing for a flight to San Francisco – and demands a $200,000 ransom. United Airlines borrows the money from two
casinos, and Heady takes delivery of it on the
tarmac while holding two
flight attendants at gunpoint with their heads under a blanket, frustrating a U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
sniper who cannot distinguish their heads from Heady's. He then orders the plane to take off, but engine trouble prevents it from doing so. He boards another United Boeing 727, which does take off. As it flies over Nevada's
Washoe Lake, Heady
parachutes from the rear door, taking $155,000 of the ransom money with him. He drops the money during his descent and suffers injuries on landing. FBI agents arrest him early the next morning when he returns to his car, parked near the lake, which the FBI had staked out because it had a
United States Parachute Associationbumper sticker on it.[67][68]
June 8 – Two passengers, one armed with a gun, enter the
cockpit of a
Slov-AirLet L-410A Turbolet with 16 people on board during a domestic flight in
Czechoslovakia from
Mariánské Lázně to
Prague, demanding to be taken to
West Germany. They shoot and kill the pilot and threaten to shoot the copilot if he does not change course toward
Munich, and the copilot tells them that the airliner lacks the range to reach Munich, but that he would fly into West Germany and land at the nearest large city in West Germany the plane can reach. Meanwhile, eight other passengers involved in the hijacking attack the four uninvolved passengers with bottles, to avoid any resistance from them in case one of them is a plainclothes security officer. After the hijackers see factory signs in
German and
Western cars on the roads below and are satisfied that the plane has reached West Germany, the copilot lands on a 600-meter (2,000-foot) airstrip at
Weiding, West Germany. The hijackers – seven men and three women, one of them with an infant, escape, but they are later apprehended.[71]
June 12 – The "Windsor Incident" occurs when
American Airlines Flight 96, a
Douglas DC-10-10, suffers an in-flight door failure at 11,750 feet (3,580 m) over
Windsor, Ontario, Canada, resulting in cabin depressurization and several minor injuries to passengers. Despite corrective measures to improve the door-locking mechanism, a similar failure aboard another DC-10 will cause the disastrous crash of
Turkish Airlines Flight 981.
June 20 – Airline pilots hold a worldwide strike, calling for tighter security
June 21 – French pilot
Jean Boulet pilots an
Aérospatiale SA-315 Lama to a world-record altitude for helicopters of 40,820 feet (12,440 meters); the record still stands.[74] As he begins to descend, his engine flames out; unable to restart it, he safely
autorotates all the way to the ground, thus also setting the record for the longest autorotation in history.[74]
June 23 – Traveling under the name "Robert Wilson" and armed with a
submachine gun he smuggled aboard in a
trombone case, 28-year-old Martin J. McNally commandeers
American Airlines Flight 119 – a Boeing 727 with 101 people on board flying from
St. Louis,
Missouri, to
Tulsa,
Oklahoma – as it approaches Tulsa. He orders the airliner to return to St. Louis, demanding
US$502,500 and five
parachutes. He receives the money after the plane lands at
Lambert–St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis. While the plane is on the ground, 30-year-old David J. Hanley becomes enraged by the hijacking while watching events unfold on television in the lounge of a
Marriott hotel near the airport, drives his 1971
Cadillac through the airport's fence, and smashes it into the
landing gear strut under the airliner's left
wing at 80 mph (130 km/h) at 12:30 a.m. on June 24. McNally demands another Boeing 727, and after it arrives, he walks to it hiding behind hostages to avoid being shot by police
snipers. He orders the new plane to take off and fly northeast. At 2:50 a.m. on June 24, he
parachutes from the plane at an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) near
Peru,
Indiana, with what ransom money he has left after giving the
flight attendants generous tips, but loses the money and his gun during his descent. He later is apprehended by police.[75][76][77]
The American 1972 bombing campaign against North Vietnam has destroyed 106 bridges, all of the country's oil depots, and the pipeline running south to the
Demilitarized Zone.[54]
Due to his strange behavior while checking in for
Hughes Airwest Flight 775, a
Douglas DC-9, at
Seattle–Tacoma International Airport outside
Seattle,
Washington, 25-year-old Daniel Bernard Carre is flagged as a possible aircraft hijacker and subjected to a thorough search, but found to be unarmed. He boards the plane, which takes off for a flight to
Salt Lake City,
Utah, with an intermediate stop at
Portland,
Oregon, with 42 people aboard. About halfway through the flight, he tells a stewardess that he wants
$50,000 and a
parachute, claiming he plans to jump out of the plane near
Pocatello,
Idaho. He does not mention having a weapon, so the
captain continues the flight to Portland, where the captain orders the passengers to evacuate the airliner. Carre then surrenders quietly and is committed to a mental institution.[79][80]
Yemen Arab Airlines (the future
Yemenia) is
nationalized and rebrands itself as Yemen Airways.
July 2 – Over the
South China Sea, as an act of revenge against the
United States for revoking his
travel visa and expelling him after he was arrested for occupying the South Vietnamese
consulate in
New York City in an anti-
Vietnam War protest, a 24-year old South Vietnamese man, Nguyen Thai Binh,
hijacksPan American World Airways Flight 841, a
Boeing 747 with 152 people on board flying from
Manila in the
Philippines to
Saigon,
South Vietnam, claiming he has a bomb. He demands to be flown to
Hanoi,
North Vietnam, after which he says he will destroy the airliner. The
captain, Eugene Vaughn, refuses to comply, judges the "bomb" to be a fake, and quietly arranges for a retired
San Francisco Police Department detective aboard as a passenger and armed with a
.357 Magnum to shoot Binh. After the airliner lands at
Tan Son Nhat International Airport under the pretext of refueling, Vaughn grabs Binh and throws him to the floor, and the detective shoots Binh five times, killing him. Vaughn then throws Binh's body out of the aircraft onto the
tarmac. Binh's "bomb" turns out to be a package of
lemons.[81][82]
Armed with
pistols, Michael Azmanoff and Dmitr Alexiev hijack
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 710 – a
Boeing 737-200 flying from
San Francisco to
Los Angeles,
California, with 86 people on board – just after takeoff and demand
US$800,000 in cash, two
parachutes, navigational charts that will allow them to reach
Siberia, and to be flown to the
Soviet Union. The airliner returns to
San Francisco International Airport, where the hijackers agree to allow a new pilot with international flight experience to board. As a U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent posing as the new pilot approaches the plane, the suspicious hijackers force him to strip down to his underwear while he still is on the
tarmac. Meanwhile, a team of FBI agents armed with
shotguns approaches by boat in a neighboring bay and sneak up on the plane, follow the agent posing as a pilot on board, and open fire, killing Alexiev instantly. A gun battle ensures in which Azmanoff and a passenger are killed. Two other passengers, one of them actor
Victor Sen Yung, are wounded.[84][85][86][87]
Absent without leave and armed with a pistol,
United States Army helicopter crewman Francis Goodell hijacks Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 389, a Boeing 727 flying from
Oakland to
Sacramento, California, with 58 people on board. He demands a parachute and US$450,000, which he claims he will give to "two organizations involved in the
MIdeast crisis." The plane flies to
San Diego, California, where Goodell picks up the ransom and releases all the passengers except for a
California Highway Patrol officer who volunteers to remain aboard as a hostage. As the plane returns to Oakland, where Goodell has demanded that a helicopter pick him up, his hostage warns him that when he disembarks from the airliner, FBI
snipers will shoot him to death. Frightened, Goodell surrenders.[84][89]
July 11 – With a fatigued and intoxicated pilot at its controls, a
Royal Norwegian Air Forcede Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter drifts off course in bad weather and crashes 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) north-northwest of
Harstad,
Norway, into 800-meter (2,600-foot) Lille Tussin Mountain on the island of
Grytøya about 20 meters (66 feet) below its summit, killing all 17 people on board. At the time, it is the deadliest accident in history involving a Twin Otter.[90]
Claiming to have a bomb and brandishing an empty .38-caliber
revolver, Marvin Fisher hijacks
American Airlines Flight 669 – a Boeing 727 carrying 57 people on a flight from
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, to Dallas, Texas – while it is flying over
North Texas and forces it to return to Oklahoma City. After it lands at
Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, he demands a ransom of $550,000 and parachutes. He receives $200,000, and releases the 50 passengers, then orders the plane to take off again with its seven crew members aboard as hostages. The airliner circles Oklahoma City for three hours before he gives his revolver to a stewardess and surrenders.[92][93]
Armed with a sawed-off
shotgun, a
pistol, and a
typewriter case they claim contains a bomb, Michael Stanley Green and Lulseged Tesfa hijack
National Airlines Flight 496 – a Boeing 727 – as it flies from
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, to
New York City with 113 people on board, demanding a ransom of
US$600,000 and forcing the plane to return to Philadelphia, where they express a desire to flee to
Mexico. During eight hours on the ground there, National Airlines gives them all the money it can raise – $500,000 plus $1,600 in
Mexican pesos – and the pilot escapes, after which Green and Tesfa release the passengers and transfer to another Boeing 727 with sufficient range to take them to the
United States Gulf Coast. The 727 takes off from Philadelphia and flies southwest with only the copilot,
flight engineer, four female
flight attendants, and the two hijackers aboard. It reaches
Texas, passing over
Dallas and then flying toward
Houston. The hijackers decide that they want to go to
Jamaica instead of Mexico, and by the time the plane is over the
Gulf of Mexico it is desperately short of fuel, and it makes an emergency landing at
Lake Jackson Dow Airport in
Lake Jackson, Texas, blowing out two tires as the airliner brakes hard to avoid going off the end of the short runway. The copilot and flight engineer jump out of the plane, and, after four hours of negotiations during which the hijackers release one flight attendant and demand another plane while threatening to kill the three women still on board, the hijackers release them and surrender to the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation on July 13, 22 hours after the hijacking began.[93][94][95]
July 22 – American aircraft operating over Vietnam first note the slow-moving, black "Fat Black"
surface-to-air missile.[1]
July 29 – Two
AviancaDouglas DC-3A airliners – HK-1341, bound for
Yopal,
Colombia, with 17 people on board, and HK-107, bound for
Paz de Ariporo, Colombia, with 21 people on board – depart
Villavicencio Airport in
Villavicencio, Colombia, two minutes apart. Flying in the same direction, they collide in mid-air over the Las Palomas mountains about 30 minutes after departure and crash, killing all 38 people on board the two aircraft.[97][98]
August 14 – An
InterflugIlyushin Il-62 on a charter flight
crashes near
Königs Wusterhausen in
Brandenburg,
East Germany, shortly after takeoff from
Berlin-Schönefeld Airport in
Schönefeld, East Germany, after a fire in the after portion of the plane causes the
tail section to break off in flight. All 156 people on board die in the deadliest aviation accident of 1972 as well as the deadliest in the history of East Germany. It also remains the deadliest air disaster in the history of Germany as a whole.
August 15
The U.S. Air Force completes
Operation Saklolo, an airlift to
Luzon for the relief of flood victims in the
Philippines. Since the operation began on July 21, the Air Force has delivered 2,000
short tons (1,814
metric tons) of supplies and transported 1,500 passengers.[56]
Four members of guerrilla groups supporting
Peronist and
leftist political groups in
Argentina commandeer an
Austral Líneas AéreasBAC One-Eleven (registration LV-JNS) with 103 people on board at
Trelew Airport in
Trelew, Argentina, before it can take off for a domestic flight to
Buenos Aires and force it to await the arrival of prisoners who have
staged a mass escape from the penitentiary at
Rawson, Argentina. Of the 110 who escape, six arrive and board the airliner, which then takes off for
Santiago,
Chile, leaving behind 19 more escapees who arrive at the airport just in time to see it take off. After a stop at
Puerto Montt, Chile, the airliner flies on to Santiago, where the four hijackers and six escaped prisoners surrender and request
political asylum in Chile.[101]
August 31 – A fire breaks out in the baggage compartment of an
AeroflotIlyushin Il-18V (registration CCCP-74298) at an altitude of 7,200 meters (23,600 feet) during a domestic flight in the
Soviet Union from
Alma-Ata to
Moscow. Planning to make an
emergency landing at
Magnitogorsk, the crew begins an emergency descent, but is incapacitated at an altitude of 2,400 meters (7,900 feet). The airliner enters a
spin and crashes in a field near
Smelovskiy, killing all 101 people on board.[110]
September 9 – A U.S. Air Force F-4D Phantom II crewed by Captain John A. Madden, Jr., pilot, and Captain
Charles B. DeBellevue, weapon systems officer, shoots down two
MiG-19s (
NATO reporting name "Farmer") over North Vietnam. They are Madden's first two kills and DeBelleuve's fifth and sixth. DeBellevue's six kills will make him the highest-scoring American ace of the Vietnam War.
Flying a U.S. Marine Corps
F-4 Phantom II fighter, Major
Lee T Lasseter, USMC (pilot) and Captain John D. Cummings (
radar intercept officer) of Marine Fighter Squadron 333 (VMF-333) operating from the aircraft carrier
USS America shoot down a North Vietnamese
MiG-21 fighter near
Haiphong. It is the only U.S. Marine Corps air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War.[66][112]
September 15 – Just after a
Scandinavian Airlines SystemDouglas DC-9-32 (registration LN-RLO) with 90 people on board takes off from
Goteborg,
Sweden, for a domestic flight to
Stockholm, three men belonging to the
Croatian Ustasja Movementhijack it and force it to divert to
Bulltofta Airport outside
Malmö, Sweden. They demand 500,000
Swedish krona in cash and the release of seven
Croatians imprisoned in Sweden since 1971 for committing
terrorist acts. During the evening of September 15, the hijackers permit six passengers to leave the plane for medical reasons. During the predawn hours of September 16, authorities bring the seven Croatian prisoners to the airport; one of them refuses to join the hijackers, but the other six board the airliner and the hijackers release 30 passengers in exchange. A few hours later, a police car delivers the ransom money to the hijackers, and they release the rest of the passengers and force the plane to fly to
Madrid,
Spain, carrying its crew of four and the nine Croatians. The Croatians request
political asylum in Spain, but Spanish authorities arrest them.[114]
September 22 – The 1,000th
Boeing 727 is sold, a sales record for
airliners.
At the Golden West Sport Aviation Show in
SacramentoCalifornia, a privately owned
F-86 Sabre malfunctions while on taking off to leave the show, failing to become airborne. It goes through a
chain link fence at the end of the runway, crushes a parked car, and
crashes into a
Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. The crash kills 10 adults and 12 children, including two people in the parked car.[116]
October 1 –
Aeroflot Flight 1036, an
Ilyushin Il-18V (registration CCCP-75507) bound for
Moscow, crashes into the
Black Sea 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) off shore during its initial climb from
Sochi Airport in
Sochi in the
Soviet Union's
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and sinks to a depth of 600 meters (2,000 feet) in an underwater canyon. The crash kills all 109 people on board. At the time, it is the second-worst accident involving an Il-18 and the deadliest aviation accident in the history of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, although it will hold the latter record for only 12 days.[118]
Aeroflot Flight 217, an
Ilyushin Il-62 (registration CCCP-86671), crashes in a forest 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) north of
Moscow's
Sheremetyevo Airport while on approach for a landing there. The crash kills all 174 people on board. It is the second-worst accident involving an Il-62 and it replaces an Ilyushin Il-18V crash 12 days earlier as the deadliest aviation accident in the history of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic at the time.[121]
Carrying the
Old Christians Clubrugby union team from
Montevideo,
Uruguay, to play a match in
Santiago, Chile, a
Uruguayan Air ForceFairchild FH-227 operating as
Flight 571 with 45 people on board, crashes in the
Andes in
Argentina at an altitude of 3,600 m (11,800 ft). Twelve of those aboard die in the crash, five the next morning, and one more after eight days. An
avalanche sweeps over the wreckage on October 29, killing eight more people, and another three die in November and December; survivors resort to eating dead passengers to stay alive. On December 12, passengers
Nando Parrado and
Roberto Canessa make a 10-day hike to find help, reaching safety on December 22 and finally informing authorities of the survivors. The other 14 survivors finally are rescued on December 22 and 23.
October 22 – Four hijackers take control of
Turkish Airlines Flight 102 –
Boeing 707-321 with 76 people on board making a domestic flight in
Turkey from
Istanbul to
Ankara – and demand the release of prisoners. They force the airliner to fly to
Sofia,
Bulgaria, where they surrender.[123]
A
Soviet Air ForceAntonov An-12BP (
NATO reporting name "Cub") transporting military personnel with 20 people on board collides in poor visibility while on approach to
Tula in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic with another Soviet Air Force An-12BP on a training flight with seven people on board. Both aircraft crash, killing everyone on board both planes. The air surveillance
radar at Tula is out of service at the time of the collision.[124][125]
October 24 – As a peace gesture, the United States begins a seven-day halt on the bombing of North Vietnamese targets north of the
20th Parallel, but continues airstrikes at near-record levels against North Vietnamese supply lines south of the line.[66]
Four days after killing an
Arlington County, Virginia, police officer and a bank manager during a bank robbery,
Charles A. Tuller, his teenage sons Bryce and Jonathan, and teenager William White Graham kill an
Eastern Airlines ticket agent in
Houston, hijack
Eastern Airlines Flight 486 – a Boeing 727 with 13 passengers and a crew of seven aboard – there, and order it to be flown to
Havana,
Cuba. During the four-hour flight, which includes a refueling stop at
New Orleans, Charles Tuller repeatedly harangues the 13 passengers aboard during the flight, saying he is a "white middle-class revolutionary" and that Cuba is "the only place that a person could enjoy the benefits of freedom", and threatening some of them with guns. The three Tullers will return to the United States in June 1975, calling life in Cuba "a living hell", and be arrested. Graham will return in the late 1970s and be arrested in 1993.[128][129][130]
October 31 – Two pilots are killed in the crash of a
Dassault Falcon 10 prototype.
November
November 4 – During a domestic flight in
Bulgaria from
Bourgas to
Sofia, a
Balkan Bulgarian AirlinesIlyushin Il-14P's (registration LZ-ILA) pilot decides to divert to
Plovdiv due to poor visibility at Sofia. An
air traffic controller at Plovdiv gives the Il-14P descent instructions without knowing its exact position; following the instructions in poor visibility, the airliner crashes into the side of a hill near
Cruncha, killing all 35 people on board.[132]
November 6 – Armed with a .38-caliber
revolver and claiming to have two bombs, 47-year-old Tatsuji Nakaoka, wearing a mask and traveling under the pseudonym "Kozo Hotta,"
hijacks a
Japan Air LinesBoeing 727 with 126 people on board shortly after it takes off from
Tokyo's
Haneda Airport for a domestic flight to
Fukuoka,
Japan. He forces the airliner to return to Haneda Airport, and demands
$2 million in U.S. currency and that a
Douglas DC-8 be provided to fly him to
Cuba, stipulating that the DC-8 stop at
Vancouver and in
Mexico along the way. After receiving the ransom money, Nakaoka takes eight hostages and boards the DC-8, where several police officers hiding in the main cabin immediately overpower and arrest him.[133][134]
November 8 – Four hijackers commandeer a
Mexicana de AviaciónBoeing 727-200 with 111 people on board making a domestic flight in
Mexico from
Monterrey to
Mexico City and demand a ransom and the release of political prisoners. After six prisoners board the airliner and the ransom is delivered, the hijackers force the plane to fly to
Havana,
Cuba.[135]
November 10–12 – Seeking revenge against the City of
Detroit,
Michigan, for alleged police brutality and an arrest for sexual assault, Louis Moore and Henry Jackson join with Melvin Cale in
hijackingSouthern Airways Flight 49, a
Douglas DC-9 with 33 people aboard, during a flight from
Birmingham to
Montgomery,
Alabama. Armed with guns and
hand grenades, they demand 10
parachutes, 10
bulletproof vests, and a
US$10 million ransom, and order the airliner to fly to Detroit to pick it up. Fog prevents a landing there, and the plane diverts to
Cleveland,
Ohio, while the hijackers consume the plane's liquor supply. They then order the plane to fly on to
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada, where Southern Airways offers them US$500,000. Moore rejects this and orders the plane to take off again and fly to
Knoxville,
Tennessee, but before arrival there orders the plane to circle the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, threatening to crash the plane into the
nuclear reactor there unless his demands are not met. Southern Airways collects 150 pounds (68 kg) of cash totaling $2 million, and gives it to the hijackers when the airliner lands at
Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping the hijackers will be too impressed by the physical amount of cash to realize it is less than they demanded. The ruse works, and the jubilant hijackers hand out cash to the passengers and crew, but then order the plane to fly to Havana, Cuba, where authorities refuse to allow the hijackers to disembark. The airliner takes off again, stops at
Key West,
Florida, and then lands at a
United States Air Force base near
Orlando, Florida, where
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents damage its
landing gear with gunfire. It again flies to Havana, arriving there on November 12, and Cuban authorities arrest and jail the hijackers and impound the ransom for return to Southern Airways. The hijacking prompts a change of heart among airlines and transportation authorities in the United States, who previously had viewed hijacking as a relatively benign interference in their business that rarely resulted in harm to anyone and not worth the inconvenience and expense of preventing it, and leads to the requirement to screen all passengers boarding airliners in the United States beginning in
January 1973.[136][137]
November 15 – The first attempted
aircraft hijacking in
Australia takes place when Miloslav Hrabinec attempts to hijack
Ansett Airlines Flight 232, a
Fokker F27 Friendship with 31 other people on board, as it is descending to land at
Alice Springs. He demands a parachute and to be flown 1,000 miles (1,600 km) into the desert. After landing at Alice Springs, he releases 22 passengers, then threatens to begin shooting the rest of the people on board if not given a light plane, a pilot, and a parachute. After he leaves the Fokker to approach the light plane with a
flight attendant as a hostage, he wounds a policeman, is brought under fire by police, and then shoots himself to death.
November 22 – While U.S. Air Force
B-52 Stratofortresses fly their heaviest raids of the Vietnam War at the time during the day,[138] a North Vietnamese
surface-to-air missile hits a B-52 over North Vietnam near
Vinh; its crew manages to fly it to
Thailand before ejecting. It is the first time in history that a B-52 has been lost to enemy action.[56][138]
December 14 – Twenty-one-year-old Larry Stanford pulls a .22-caliber
rifle out of his coat while boarding
Quebecair Flight 321 – a
BAC One-Eleven scheduled to make a domestic flight in
Canada from
Wabush,
Newfoundland, to
Montreal,
Quebec, with a scheduled stop at
Quebec City, Quebec – and brandishes it at passengers. After 20 minutes, he orders the pilot to take off and fly directly to Montreal without stopping at Quebec City. At Montreal, he releases all 52 passengers and a stewardess, then demands that the plane fly to
Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada. After 15 minutes on the ground at Ottawa, he orders it to fly back to Montreal, where he meets with his father and a
psychiatrist aboard the plane, then surrenders peacefully.[143][144]
December 18–25 – Frustrated with a lack of progress in peace talks with North Vietnamese negotiators, the United States conducts
Operation Linebacker II. Sometimes called "The December Raids" and "The Christmas Bombing", it involves intense American bombing of North Vietnam, including heavy operations by U.S. Air Force
B-52 Stratofortresses and the laying of
naval mines in North Vietnamese harbors including
Haiphong. On the first day, 86 B-52s based at
Guam strike
Hanoi.[145]
Braathens SAFE Flight 239, a
Fokker F28 Fellowship, crashes at
Asker, Norway, while on approach to land at
Oslo Airport in
Fornebu, killing 40 of the 45 people on board and injuring all five survivors. It is the deadliest air accident in Norwegian history at the time and the first involving a Fokker Fellowship.
December 25 – The United States begins a 36-hour pause in the bombing of North Vietnam.[66]
December 30 – President
Richard Nixon orders a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam as the North Vietnamese show a renewed interest in peace negotiations.[148]
August 27 –
Antonov An-10 by
Aeroflot (25 An-10A aircraft transferred to the
Soviet Air Force and Soviet Ministry of Aircraft Production elements remain in service until
1974)
1972 remains the deadliest year in aviation history since
World War II, with many accidents and incidents involving over 50 fatalities; 2,313 people were killed in aviation crashes in this year.[157] The deadliest crash of this year was
Aeroflot Flight 217, a
Ilyushin Il-62 which crashed while on approach to
Sheremetyevo Airport in
Moscow,
Russian SFSR on 13 October, killing all 174 people on board. In addition, many accidents and incidents involving under 50 fatalities were recorded.
References
^
abcdefghijklNichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN0-87021-559-0, p. 159.
^
abChinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN1-55750-875-5, p. 157.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 65.
^Melia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991,
ISBN0-945274-07-6, p. 100.
^Melia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991,
ISBN0-945274-07-6, pp. 99–101.
^Friedman, Norman, "The Navy's Ramjet Missile," Naval History, June 2014, p. 11.
^
abcChinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN1-55750-875-5, p. 163.
^Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN0-87021-559-0, pp. 159–160.
^Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: A Premier Fighter", Naval History, April 2012, p. 13.
^
abcdefNichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN0-87021-559-0, p. 160.
^Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990,
ISBN0-679-72033-2, p. 49.
^Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN0-87021-559-0, p. 161.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, pp. 317–318.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 104.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 102.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 59.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 251.