Five Iraqi Air Force jets violate the no-fly zone over southern Iraq and two others violate the no-fly zone over northern Iraq. The United States claims that Iraqi aircraft have violated the two no-fly zones a total of 70 times since
Operation Desert Fox took place in mid-December 1998.[1]
February 25 – The
Government of Italy creates the Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo (ANSV) – "National Agency for the Safety of Flight" –
Italy's first agency responsible for aviation accident investigations, concentrating responsibility for such investigations in one agency for the first time. Previously, two investigations of each aviation accident in Italy took place, a perfunctory investigation by the director of the airport where the accident occurred and a formal and technical investigation by an ad hoc committee appointed by the
Minister of Infrastructure and Transport.
March
March 1 – The hot-air
balloonBreitling Orbiter 3, with pilots
Bertrand Piccard and
Brian Jones, begins the first non-stop, round-the-world balloon flight. They will complete the flight on March 19, setting a new distance record for any type of aircraft of 40,804 kilometers (25,360 miles).
March 10 –
Peru's
flag carrier,
Aeroperú, ceases operations due to financial difficulties. The airline will be liquidated in
August.
Two U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagles intercept two Yugoslav MiG-29s; one of the F-15s shoots down both MiG-29s.[5]
March 27 – After Yugoslav air defense operators find that they can detect U.S. Air Force
F-117 Nighthawkstealthattack aircraft using supposedly obsolete
Soviet-made radars operating on long wavelengths, the 3rd Battalion of the Yugoslav 250th Missile Brigade
shoots down an F-117 with an
S-125 Neva/Pechora (NATO reporting name "SA-3 Goa") surface-to-air missile; its pilot ejects and is rescued by
search-and-rescue forces near Belgrade. It is the first, and so far the only, time a stealth aircraft has been shot down.[6][7]
The 3rd Battalion of the Yugoslav 250th Missile Brigade shoots down a U.S. Air Force
F-16 Fighting Falcon near
Šabac,
Yugoslavia, with an
S-125 Neva/Pechora (NATO reporting name "SA-3 Goa") surface-to-air missile. Its pilot is rescued.[9]
May 3 –
Ansett Australia and
Air New Zealand join the
Star Alliance. They increase the Star Alliance's service to a total of 720 destinations in 110 countries with a combined fleet of 1,650 aircraft.
May 4 – Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down a Yugoslav
MiG-29 (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum") at low altitude over
Valjevo, Yugoslavia.[5]
June 6 – During an
air show at
Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport in
Bratislava,
Slovakia, a
BAE Hawk 200 fails to pull out of a low turn, strikes the ground, and explodes, killing its pilot. A woman spectator knocked off a nearby rooftop by the force of the explosion later dies of her injuries.[12]
Australia′s Bureau of Air Safety Investigation merges with the Marine Incident Investigation Unit and parts of the Federal Office of Road Safety to form the
Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Norway reorganizes its Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation – the future
Accident Investigation Board Norway – splitting it from the Ministry of Transport and Communications and making it an independent agency of the
Government of Norway.
Sammy Popov and Chuck "Da Kine" Raggs showcase their
wingsuit designs side by side at the World Freefall Convention at
Quincy,
Illinois; both designs perform well. At the same event, multiple-formation wingsuit skydives including wingsuits designed by Patrick de Gayardon, Popov, and Raggs take place.
August 24 – Onboard
Uni Air Flight 873, after landing at
Hualien Airport, a fire starts in an overhead luggage compartment after fumes from a bottle of
household cleaner accidentally ignite. One person dies.
Vintage aircraft restorer and pilot
Mark Hanna is fatally injured when his
Hispano Bouchon crashes and bursts into flames as he attempts to land at
Sabadell,
Spain, after flying as part of a large aerial display. He dies of his injuries the following day.[8]
October 11 – Chris Phatswe, a disgruntled and suicidal
Air Botswana pilot, commandeers an empty
ATR-42 airliner belonging to the airline and circles
Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in
Gaborone,
Botswana, for two hours before crashing his plane into the airline's other two ATR-42s, which are parked on the ground, killing himself and destroying all three airliners. The incident destroys three of Air Botswana's four planes and leaves it with no operational aircraft.
October 23 – While practicing
autorotation with powered recovery in a
Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter over the
Lake Piru riverbed near
Santa Clarita,
California, American film actor
Harrison Ford is unable to recover before the helicopter strikes the ground. Neither he nor his flight instructor suffer injuries, but the helicopter is seriously damaged.[15][16]
November 18 –
Trans World Airlines (TWA) announces a major service expansion in which it adds 46 roundtrip flights per week. The expansion includes new or expanded service to
Mexico, the Caribbean,
Hawaii, and the
Middle East.[14]
Trans World Airlines (TWA) takes delivery from
Boeing of its last aircraft bearing the corporate name "Douglas," a
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 named Spirit of Long Beach. The delivery brings a symbolic end to TWA's 67-year relationship with
Douglas Aircraft, which began with the airline's order of the
Douglas DC-1 airliner in 1932 and had continued through the
McDonnell Douglas era and after McDonnell Douglas's 1997 merger with Boeing.[14]
December 24 – Five gunmen
hijackIndian Airlines Flight 814, an
Airbus A300 with 188 other people on board, over
India during a flight from
Kathmandu,
Nepal, to
Delhi, India. The plane lands at
Amritsar, India, to refuel, but takes off again without refueling before security forces can immobilize it. It then refuels at
Lahore,
Pakistan, and flies on to
Dubai, where the hijackers release a mortally wounded man they had stabbed and 27 other passengers. The hijackers then force the plane to fly to
Kandahar International Airport in
Kandahar,
Afghanistan, where, after several days of negotiations, they release all the remaining hostages on December 31 in exchange for the release of three senior Islamic fighters held by India.
December 31 – Fear of the
Y2K computer bug and possible in-flight consequences for those planes flying during the night of December 31, 1999, and the early morning of January 1, 2000, spreads around the airline industry.