This is a list of aviation-related events from 2010.
Events
January
2 January
A package containing the explosive
RDX is
randomly placed in the luggage of an unknowing passenger at
Poprad-Tatry Airport in Slovakia as part of a bomb-detection training exercise, but police fail to remove the package afterwards, and the luggage continues onto a
Danube Wings flight to
Dublin Airport where the unsuspecting passenger retrieves his explosive-laden luggage and takes it to his
Dublin home, resulting in a bomb alert and his arrest three days later. The man is released after the Slovak government admits he is blameless.
British
Prime MinisterGordon Brown announces that commercial flights between the
United Kingdom and the
Yemen would be suspended, owing to British concerns over terrorist activity in Yemen, and will not resume until the security situation in Yemen improves.[2]
After setting fire to his house and leaving behind a
suicide note expressing displeasure with government and taxation, Andrew Joseph Stack III
crashes his
Piper Dakota into an office building housing an
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) field office in
Austin, Texas, killing himself and an IRS manager and injuring 13 others, two of them seriously.
Aloha Airlines ceases operations and declares bankruptcy. It halts all passenger operations and transfers all of its cargo operations to
Aloha Air Cargo.
Cathay Pacific Flight 780 from Indonesia to Hong Kong has some trouble with its engines. They shut down and the pilots are able to turn one engine back on, however, they are unable to adjust the speed. The plane lands at nearly twice the normal landing speed and the brakes are put through its limits, turning orange-red.[5]
The first
Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first
solar-powered aircraft capable of flying both day and night thanks to batteries charged by solar power that provide it with power during darkness, makes its first flight powered entirely by solar energy, charging its batteries in flight. The flight takes place at
Payerne Airport outside
Payerne,
Switzerland.[10]
The first
Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first
solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, makes its first overnight flight, taking off from
Payerne Airport outside
Payerne,
Switzerland, and returning after 26 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds in the air, the first overnight flight by a solar-powered aircraft and the longest flight in history up to this time by a crewed solar-powered aircraft. The flight also sets a record for the highest altitude ever attained by a crewed solar-powered aircraft, reaching 8,744 meters (28,688 feet) above ground and 9,235 meters (30,299 feet) in absolute altitude.[12][13]
The
Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, transfer, and stockpiling of
cluster bombs by signatory countries, goes into effect, six months after its ratification by its 30th signatory country.
2 August
Todd Reichert of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies pilots a human-powered
ornithopter, Snowbird, in
Ontario, sustaining 19.3 seconds of flight, covering a distance of 145 metres (476 feet). The 42.6 kg (94 lb) craft has 32-metre (105-foot) span flapping wings.[15]
Five days of flight testing at
Edwards Air Force Base,
California, of alternative fuels by a
United States Air ForceC-17 Globemaster III end with the C-17 flying using a blend of 50 percent conventional
JP-8jet fuel, 25 percent HRJ
biofuel made from beef
tallow, and 25 percent
coal-based fuel made through the
Fischer–Tropsch process, becoming the first
United States Department of Defense aircraft to fly on such a blend and the first aircraft to operate from Edwards using a fuel derived from beef tallow. The flight is a culmination of a series of test flights, with the C-17 flying using JP-8 in three of its engines and a 50/50 blend of JP-8 and biofuel in one engine on 23 August, followed by a flight with the same 50/50 blend in all four engines on 24 August.[16]
A
De Havilland Tiger Moth crashes into spectators at an
air show at the
Lauf-Lillinghof airfield near
Nuremberg,
Germany, killing one person and injuring 38, five of them seriously.[17] Four years later, a trial in Hersbrucker District Court determined that the cause of the crash was pilot error, finding the pilot guilty of "… fahrlässiger Tötung und fahrlässiger Körperverletzung …" ("involuntary manslaughter and negligent injury").[18]
After Pakistani troops at a border post along the border with
Afghanistan fire warning shots at
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
attack helicopters flying a combat mission over Afghan territory against Afghan insurgents near the border, the helicopters mistake them for insurgents and return fire, killing three Pakistanis.[20][21]