This is a list of
aviation-related events from 1974. 1974 had been deemed as “the single worst year in airline history” although this has since been surpassed.[1]
Abu Dhabi,
Bahrain,
Oman, and
Qatar sign the Foundation Treaty, which gives each state a 25 percent ownership stake in
Gulf Aviation. Gulf Aviation becomes a
holding company, and its airline flight operations are transferred to a new airline branded as
Gulf Air, which becomes the
flag carrier of the four states.
Itavia Flight 897, a
Fokker F28 Fellowship 1000 (registration I-TIDE) on final approach to
Turin Airport in
Turin, Italy, in fog and poor weather, strikes a tree and a building under construction, loses its tail and wings, and crashes inverted into a farm building, killing 38 of the 42 people on board.[3]
January 10 – A
TAMDouglas DC-4 (registration TAM-52) disappears during a domestic flight in
Bolivia from
Santa Rosa to
La Paz with the loss of all 24 people on board.[8]
January 17 – A
CessnycaDouglas DC-3A-191 (registration HK-1216) goes out of control at its cruising altitude of 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) and crashes inverted near
Chigorodó, Colombia, killing all 12 people on board.[8]
February 17 – Upset at failing in helicopter training and wanting to show his piloting skills,
United States ArmyPrivate First Class Robert K. Preston steals a U.S. Army
UH-1 Iroquois helicopter at
Fort Meade,
Maryland, and
hovers it over the
White House in Washington, D.C. before landing on the White House's South Lawn. He later takes off, is pursued by two
Maryland State Police helicopters, uses maneuvering to force one of them down, then returns to the White House, where police gunfire induces him to land and surrender.[12]
February 20 – A
hijacker threatens to detonate a bomb aboard an
Air VietnamDouglas C-54A-5-DO Skymaster (registration XV-NUM) carrying 51 other people during a flight in
South Vietnam from
Qui Nhơn to
Da Nang, ordering it to divert to
Đồng Hới,
North Vietnam. The pilot tells him that the airliner must stop at
Đông Hà, North Vietnam, before continuing to Đồng Hới, but instead lands the plane at
Huế Airport in
Huế, South Vietnam. Realizing after the plane lands that he has been tricked, the hijacker detonates his bomb, blowing a 2-by-3-meter (6.5-by-10-foot) hole in the left side of the
fuselage, breaking three windows on the right side, and killing three people on the plane.[13]
The
Turkish AirlinesMcDonnell Douglas DC-10-10Ankara, operating as
Flight 981, crashes into the
Ermenonville Forest and the
commune of
Fontaine-Chaalis, France, after a cargo door blows off, causing damage which cuts control cables. All 346 people on board die. At the time, it is the worst aviation disaster in history, and it remains the deadliest aviation accident in France, the deadliest DC-10 accident, and the deadliest single-plane crash with no survivors.
March 12 – A hijacker demands ransom money aboard a
Japan Air LinesBoeing 747 with 425 people on board as it makes a domestic flight in
Japan from
Tokyo to
Naha,
Okinawa. After the airliner arrives at Okinawa's
Naha Airport, security forces storm the plane and arrest the hijacker.[17]
March 15 – The right landing gear of a
Sterling AirwaysSud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle 10B3 collapses while it is taxiing at
Mehrabad Airport in
Tehran,
Iran. The airliner slides 90 meters (300 feet) before becoming to rest and its right wing fuel tank ruptures, starting a fire that kills 15 of the 96 people on board.[20]
March 31 –
British Airways commences operations after
BOAC and
BEA merge to create the new airline.
April
April 2 – The
United States Navy retires its last
Douglas C-54 Skymaster. Entering service on March 24, 1945, the C-54Q,
Bureau number 56501, had flown 2,500,000 nautical miles (4,600,000 kilometres) in almost 15,000 hours of flight time.[23]
April 4 – Using
aviation gasoline contaminated by
jet fuel, the engines of a
Wenela Air Services
Douglas DC-4 (registration A2-ZER) begin overheating as soon as it takes off from
Francistown Airport in
Francistown,
Botswana. The airliner attempts to return to the airport but crash-lands 3.6 kilometers (2.2 miles) short of the runway, strikes some trees, and bursts into flame. The crash and fire kill 78 of the 84 people on board.[24]
April 18 – During its takeoff roll at
London Luton Airport in London, England,
Court Line Flight 95, a
BAC One-Eleven 518 carrying 91 people, collides with a
McAlpine AviationPiper PA-23 Aztec which has entered the runway without permission. The collision destroys the Aztec, kills its pilot, and injures his passenger, but Flight 95's flight crew manages to abort their takeoff successfully and all aboard the airliner evacuate without injury via
evacuation slides.
April 27 – An
AeroflotIlyushin Il-18V (registration CCCP-75559) experiences a catastrophic failure of its No. 4 engine two-and-a-half minutes after takeoff from
Pulkovo Airport in
Leningrad in the Soviet Union's
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. It attempts to return to the airport but rolls inverted and crashes 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) east of the airport, killing all 109 people on board.[25]
April 30 – Departing
Scholes Field in
Galveston, Texas in haste because they are 10 minutes late, the crew of a
Metro AirlinesBeechcraft Model 99 (registration N853SA) fails to give its passengers a safety briefing and mistakenly leaves the trim stabilizer on standby. They lose control of the aircraft as soon as they take off, and the plane crashes and catches fire; the responding fire truck has no foam extinguisher, hampering firefighting efforts. The crash and fire kill six of the 12 people on board.[26]
May
May 2 – Flying at 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) – 1,000 feet (300 meters) below the minimum safe altitude in the area – an
Aerotaxis EcuatorianosDouglas C-47 Skytrain (registration HC-AUC) crashes 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) south of
Baños de Agua Santa,
Ecuador, after its left wing strikes the
stratovolcanoTungurahua and separates from the aircraft. The crash kills 20 of the 25 people on board, and the aircraft's wreckage, at an altitude of 11,200 feet (3,400 meters), is not found until the following day.[27]
May 10 – Three passengers
hijack an
AviancaBoeing 727-59 (registration HK-1337) shortly after it takes off from
Pereira,
Colombia, for a domestic flight to
Bogotá. They force the plane to fly to
Cali, Colombia, where it spends the night on the
tarmac with the hijackers demanding a ransom of 20 million
Colombian pesos. As a result of negotiations, they agree to have the plane fly to Bogotá, where they are to receive the money and transportation to
Leticia, Colombia, on the border with
Brazil. The plane arrives at Bogotá on the morning of May 11, where police officers disguised as mechanics surround the airliner. The hijackers agree to a change of
cockpit crews, and when the relief crew boards, the
flight engineer attempts to overpower a hijacker holding a stewardess at gunpoint at the rear of the cabin. During the struggle, the stewardess is shot in the leg. A police officer dressed as a mechanic shoots the hijacker to death, and the crew and police then overpower the two surviving hijackers.[28]
June 11 –
Northrop YF-17A72-01569 becomes the first American fighter aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight when not in
afterburner.[30]
June 27 – The No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 engines of a
Cambodia Air CommercialBoeing 307 Stratoliner (registration XW-TFR) fail in succession three minutes after takeoff from
Battambang Airport in
Battambang,
Cambodia. The airliner crash-lands in a rice field, losing its right wing when the wing strikes a tree just before touchdown, then slides to a stop, catching fire. The crash kills 19 of the 39 people on board.[31]
July
Cuts in American military aid to
South Vietnam force austerity measures there, including the storage of 200
Republic of Vietnam Air Force aircraft and the reduction of helicopter lift capacity by 70 percent; shortages, of fuel, ammunition, and spare parts also begin to plague South Vietnamese aviation of all types.[32]
July 17 – Greek troops arrive from Greece by air at Nicosia International Airport to support the coup d'état on Cyprus.
July 18 – Nicosia International Airport reopens to commercial traffic. A chaotic scene ensures there over the next two days as foreign nationals attempt to leave Cyprus.
The Turkish Air Force bombs Cyprus's only civilian airport,
Nicosia International Airport, forcing it to close to commercial traffic permanently.[35] The closure catches all five of
Cyprus Airways' airliners – four
Hawker Siddeley Tridents and a
BAC One-Eleven – on the ground at the airport, where two will be destroyed and the rest stranded until 1977; Cyprus Airways does not resume flight operations until
February 1975.
July 21
28 Turkish Air Force strike aircraft mistakenly attack the
Turkish NavydestroyersKocatepe,
Adatepe, and
Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak off
Paphos, Cyprus, with 750-pound (340 kg) bombs, sinking Kocatepe with the loss of 54 lives and damaging the other two ships.
12 Turkish
paratroopersparachute into Cyprus to ambush a
convoy carrying the Greek Cypriot commander of the
Cypriot Navy,
Commander Papayiannis. They wound him in an ambush, but are wiped out by his security detail.
In
Operation Niki, Greece's
Hellenic Air Force attempts a covert airlift of a
battalion of Greek
commandos from
Souda,
Crete, to Cyprus using 15
Noratlas aircraft. Greek Cypriot
antiaircraft artillery mistakenly fires on the planes at Nicosia International Airport, shooting down one with the loss of four crew members and 29 commandos, and damages two others, but some of the commandos arrive successfully to defend the airport.
Two
Cyprus AirwaysHawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 1E airliners (registration 5B-DAB and 5B-DAE) are destroyed on the ground at Nicosia International Airport during fighting between Greek and Turkish forces.[36][37] Turkish Air Force rocket fire destroys one of them; the other is damaged beyond economical repair by small arms fire and abandoned.
July 24 – A 29-year-old male passenger enters the
cockpit of an
AviancaBoeing 727-24C with 123 people on board shortly after it takes off from
Pereira,
Colombia, for a domestic flight to
Medellín, draws a gun, and demands a
US$2 million ransom and the release of a political prisoner. The airliner diverts to
Cali, Colombia, and parks at the end of a runway, where police storm it and kill the hijacker. It is the second time the man had hijacked an airliner; in 1969, he had hijacked a plane to
Cuba.[38]
July 28 – A U.S. Air Force
SR-71 Blackbird sets two records for non-rocket-powered aircraft, an absolute altitude record of 85,069 feet (25,929 m) and an absolute speed record of 2,193.2 mph (3,529.6 km/h).[39]
August 11 – Flying from
Bamako,
Mali, to
Niamey,
Niger, an
Air MaliIlyushin Il-18V (registration TZ-ABE) attempts to divert to
Ouagadougou,
Upper Volta, due to bad weather at Niamey. The crew makes a navigational error and flies to the wrong town, and the airliner runs out of fuel after circling the town. The crew makes a forced landing at
Linonghin, Upper Volta, killing 47 of the 60 people on board.[44][45]
August 12 –
Avianca Flight 610, a
Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain (registration HK-508), becomes lost in rainy weather and crashes into
Trujillo Mountain, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of
Cali,
Colombia, at an altitude of 9,670 feet (2,950 meters), killing all 27 people on board. The airliner's wreckage is not found until October 31.[46]
August 14–16 – Turkish Air Force aircraft support the final major Turkish offensive on Cyprus.
August 16 – A ceasefire ends the
war in Cyprus between Greece and Turkey. As part of the ceasefire, a
United Nations Buffer Zone is created between Greek and Turkish-occupied portions of Cyprus. Cyprus's only commercial airport,
Nicosia International Airport, lies within the Buffer Zone, forcing its abandonment. The largely derelict airport has since served only as a headquarters and helicopter base for the
United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
September 1 – The U.S. Air Force
SR-71 Blackbird61-17972, flown by Major James Sullivan (pilot) and Major Noel F, Widdifield (reconnaissance systems officer), crosses the Atlantic Ocean from New York City to London in a world record 1 hour 54 minutes 56 seconds at an average speed of 1,806.96 mph (2,908.02 km/h).[53]
September 13 – The U.S. Air Force
SR-71 Blackbird61-17972, flown by Captain Harold B. "Buck" Adams (pilot) and Major William C. Machorek (reconnaissance systems officer), flies 5,447 miles (8,766 km) from London to Los Angeles in a world record 3 hours 47 minutes 39 seconds at an average speed of 1,435.59 mph (2,310.36 km/h).[57]
October 24 – The U.S. Air Force conducts the world's first successful test launch of an
air-launched ballistic missile. The
C-5A Galaxy69-0014 flies from
Hill Air Force Base,
Utah, to a launch point over the Pacific Ocean off
California and rolls an
LGM-30B Minuteman Iintercontinental ballistic missile with a fueled first stage and inert second and third stages off its cargo ramp at an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters); the missile falls under stabilizing
parachutes to an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,400 meters), where its engines ignite, then rises during a ten-second engine burn to an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) before the first stage runs out of fuel as planned, after which the missile falls into the ocean. The test is fully successful.[61]
November 22 – Firing guns, four male
Palestinian terrorists dressed as airport workers rush from the passenger lounge at
Dubai International Airport in
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, cross the
tarmac, shoot a stewardess in the back, wounding her, and board a
British AirwaysVickers VC-10-1151 (registration G-ASGR) preparing to depart for
Calcutta,
India. Finding no pilot aboard, they threaten to shoot the passengers if one does not arrive immediately. British Airways
captain Jim Futcher volunteers to board the airliner, and the hijackers force him to take off with 27 passengers, eight airport workers who had been cleaning the aircraft, and a crew of 10 on board and order him to fly to
Beirut,
Lebanon. Finding
Beirut International Airport closed and ringed by security forces, they order the VC-10 to refuel at
Tripoli,
Libya, and then fly to
Tunis,
Tunisia, where security personnel surround the airliner after it lands. The hijackers demand the release of seven Palestinian prisoners – five held in
Cairo,
Egypt, and two in the
Netherlands – saying that if the prisoners are not released in 24 hours they will begin shooting one hostage every two hours until their demands are met. When the deadline passes, they murder a German passenger and throw his body onto the tarmac. The five prisoners from Cairo are brought to the aircraft, prompting the hijackers to release seven passengers, and the following morning the two prisoners from the Netherlands arrive, leading the hijackers to release everyone else aboard the plane except for Futcher, the copilot, and the
flight engineer. The hijackers then threaten to detonate explosives in the cockpit with the three flight crew members if they are not granted political asylum in Tunisia. This is refused, and the four hijackers and seven prisoners finally surrender 84 hours after the hijacking began. Futcher later will receive the
Queen's Gallantry Medal for his courage and calm during the incident.[64][65]
December 25 – A 31-year-old male passenger hijacks
Air India Flight 105 – a
Boeing 747-237B with 105 people on board flying from
Beirut,
Lebanon, to
Rome,
Italy – and orders the flight crew to continue to Rome. During the airliner's descent, he threatens to crash the plane in Rome, but the crew overpowers him and hands him over to the police after arrival in Rome.[72]
December 28 – A privately owned
Lockheed 18-56-23 Lodestar (registration TG-HTM) crashes immediately after takeoff from
El Petén in
Guatemala, killing all 21 passengers aboard and the entire crew of three. The dead passengers all are American tourists returning to
Guatemala City after visiting
Tikal.[73]
January 20 – General Dynamics YF-16 72-01567, prototype of the
F-16 Fighting Falcon ("inadvertent" flight to avoid damage during faulty taxiing run)[77]
February
February 2 – General Dynamics YF-16 72-01567, prototype of the
F-16 Fighting Falcon (official first flight)[77]
The deadliest crash of this year was
Turkish Airlines Flight 981, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 which crashed shortly after takeoff from
Paris,
France on 3 March, killing all 346 people onboard. At the time, the accident was the
deadliest in aviation history, more than doubling the previous record. Flight 981 would hold the title until March 1977, the
Tenerife airport disaster; and remained the deadliest single-aircraft accident of all time until August 1985, when
Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed. It still remains one of the deadliest aviation accidents of all time.
^Melia, Tamara, Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991,
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^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
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^Dorr, Robert F., Review: SR-71: The Complete Illustrated History of the Blackbird, the World's Highest, Fastest Plane, Aviation History, January 2014, p. 60.
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