1968 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1968.

Events

• In the 1968 White Paper on Defence, the British Labour government announces that the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier force will be phased out as soon as the United Kingdom has completed its withdrawal from Malaysia, Singapore, and the Persian Gulf, scheduled for the end of 1971.^[1]
• The original
  Van Nuys, California
  .

• North Vietnamese Antonov An-2 utility biplanes conduct bombing raids into Laos and fly night missions against ships and craft of the South Vietnamese Navy.^[2]
• After the Soviet Union complains about damage to a Soviet merchant ship in Haiphong Harbor by American air attack, President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration promises to make every effort to avoid a recurrence of such damage.^[2]
• January 1 – East Germany – the German Democratic Republic (GDR) – abolishes its national civil aviation authority, the Hauptverwaltung der Zivilen Luftfahrt (Central Administration for Civil Aviation), and replaces it with the Staatliche Luftfahrt-Inspektion der DDR (Public Department of Aviation of the GDR), which assumes its functions.
• January 6 –
  Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, killing all 45 people on board. An errant antiaircraft missile is suspected of having accidentally shot it down.^[3]
• January 8 – A
  Hải Lăng Forest, South Vietnam, killing all 46 personnel on board.^[4]
• January 10 – A United States Navy C-54P Skymaster encounters severe turbulence, goes into an uncontrolled descent, crashes into Mount Tobin in Pershing County, Nevada, 300 feet (91 meters) below its summit, and slides 1,000 feet (300 meters) down the mountain's side, killing all 19 people on board.^[5]
• January 16 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3A-50-LO Orion crashes into a mountain near Iwakuni, Japan, killing all 12 people on board.^[6]
• January 17 – A
  Major General Charles M. Eisenhart is among the dead.^[7]
• January 18–19 (overnight) – A U.S. Navy UH-2 Seasprite piloted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Clyde E. Lassen makes a daring rescue of downed fliers in North Vietnam. For his actions, Lassen will become the only U.S. Navy helicopter pilot to be awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.^[8]
• January 19 – A
  C-130 Hercules of U.S. Navy Air Transport Squadron 24 (VR-24) and U.S. Navy helicopters from Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy, deliver relief supplies to 40,000 people rendered homeless around Montevago by the Belice earthquake in western Sicily.^[9]
• January 21 – A
  B-52 Stratofortress carrying four nuclear weapons crashes in the sea near Thule Air Base in Greenland
  .
• January 27 – The left wing of an Air Comores de Havilland DH.114 Heron (registration F-OCED) strikes a light alongside the runway while landing at Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport in Moroni, Comoros. The plane climbs with its flaps down, crashes into rocks, and plunges into the Indian Ocean, killing 15 of the 16 people on board.^[10]

February

• February 1 – The Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy are disestablished as they merge with the Canadian Army to form the unified Canadian Armed Forces.
• February 6 – A
  antisubmarine patrol crashes into the Gulf of Thailand 50 nautical miles (93 kilometres) off Phú Quốc island, South Vietnam, killing all 12 people on board.^[11]
• February 7 – An Indian Air Force Antonov An-12BP (NATO reporting name "Cub") flying over India in deteriorating weather crashes at an altitude of 17,324 feet (5,280 meters) on Dhaka Glacier near Chandrabhaga Peak 13, killing all 102 people on board. It is the deadliest accident involving an An-12 and at the time it is the deadliest aviation accident in Indian history. The aircraft's wreckage is not found until August 2003.^[12]
• February 9 – Claiming to be a civilian employee of a U.S. airline, 19-year-old
  Da Nang Airport in Da Nang, South Vietnam, for a charter flight carrying U.S. military personnel to Hong Kong for rest and recreation. He enters the cockpit brandishing a pistol and orders the flight crew to fly him to Hong Kong as well. They shut down the engines but restart them when he threatens to shoot them. During 2 hours and 45 minutes of negotiations, he releases all the passengers, after which the commander of U.S. military forces in Vietnam, United States Army General William Westmoreland, orders tear gas to be shot into the plane. With Clark distracted by the tear gas attack, the copilot disarms and overpowers him.^[13][14]
• February 10 – .50-caliber (12.7-mm) machine gun fire hits a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130F Hercules carrying a cargo of flamethrowers and rubber bladders filled with jet fuel while it is on final approach to Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, setting one of the fuel bladders and one of its engines on fire. The pilot lands the plane at Khe Sanh, but the rubber bladders explodes into flames after the plane touches down, killing eight of the 11 people on board.^[15]
• February 16 – A
  Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, rolls for 200 meters (660 feet), becomes airborne again, then crashes into trees and a farmhouse, killing 21 of the 63 people on board and one person on the ground.^[16]
• February 17 – Deciding that he is a
  political asylum upon arrival in Havana, but Cuban authorities arrest him and he will spend 20 months in Cuba, mostly in jail. He will be allowed to travel to Canada in October 1969 and will return to the United States in November 1969.^[17]
• February 21 – Seven minutes after Delta Air Lines Flight 843 – a Douglas DC-8 with 109 people on board, including professional golfer Barbara Romack, bound for Palm Beach, Florida – takes off from Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida – Lawrence Rhodes pulls a pistol on a female flight attendant and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba. After the airliner spends three hours on the ground at Havana, Cuban authorities allow it to return to the United States.^[18][19]
• February 24 – A
  Mekong River near Ban Napa, Laos, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Vientiane, killing everyone on board. The number of people on board is somewhere between 22 and 37, according to different sources.^[20]
• February 29 –
  Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, killing 83 of the 84 people on board. Miraculously, one passenger survives, falling to earth with a large piece of airframe skin.^[21]

• The U.S. Air Force conducts
  SR-71 Blackbirds.^[22]
• The United States plans air strikes against North Korea in retaliation for the January 30 North Korean seizure of the United States Navy technical research ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2), but then cancels them.^[22]
• March 5
  • Three
    Baranquilla and force it to fly to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba.^[23]
  • After the flight crew of
    La Soufriere on Guadeloupe, killing all 63 people on board.^[24]
• March 6 – After a
  Republic of Vietnam Air Force C-123K Provider carrying troops and spare parts aborts its approach to Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, because of a light plane on the runway and circles for another approach, ground fire shoots it down. The C-123K spirals into the ground, killing all 49 people on board.^[25]
• March 7 –
  Volgograd Airport in Volgograd in the Soviet Union after its crew inadvertently activates its spoilers. The airliner is destroyed and one crew member dies, but the other 48 people on board survive.^[26]
• March 8
  • After
    Ibajay in the Western Visayas in the Philippines, killing all 14 people on board.^[27]
  • The
    Bell Helicopter's Model 206A has won the Light Observation Helicopter competition. It will go into production for the Army as the Bell OH-58 Kiowa.^[28]
• March 9 – When the flight crew of a
  General Charles Ailleret, is among the dead.^[29]
• March 12 – Two armed men
  Miami, Florida, with 58 people on board, and force it to fly them to Havana, Cuba. They exit the plane in Havana with a Mexican man they appear to have taken as a hostage.^[30]
• March 21 – Three
  Convair CV-440 during a domestic flight in Venezuela from Caracas to Maracaibo and force it to fly them to Cuba.^[31]
• March 24 –
  St. George's Channel off Tuskar Rock, County Wexford, Ireland
  , killing all 61 people on board. No cause for the crash is ever determined.
• March 27
  • The first person in space and first to orbit the Earth,
    cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, is one of two people killed in the crash of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI (NATO reporting name "Fagot") two-seat trainer 48 kilometers (30 miles) east of Moscow.^[32]
  • A modern new terminal opens at Cyprus's only airport, Nicosia International Airport, with a capacity to handle 800 passengers and 11 airliners at one time. It will remain in use only until July 1974, when the Turkish invasion of Cyprus forces the permanent closure and abandonment of the airport.

April

• The African Airlines Association is founded.
• April 1 – A United States Navy P-3B-90-LO Orion flying a surveillance patrol over the Gulf of Thailand comes under fire by a Royal Cambodian Navy vessel near Hon Doc in the Hà Tiên Islands. The plane is damaged, and one of its engines catches fire. The fire gets out of control, and the P-3B crashes off the island of Hon Vang, off Phú Quốc, South Vietnam, killing all 12 people on board.^[33]
• April 3 – President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration restricts American bombing of North Vietnam to targets south of the 19th Parallel.^[22]
• April 5 – To protest against the lack of an aerial display to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the
  Houses of Parliament, dips his wings to the Royal Air Force Memorial, and flies under the top span of Tower Bridge
  , becoming the first person to fly under the bridge's upper span in a jet aircraft. He is arrested upon his return to base.
• April 8
  • An engine falls off the
    Member of the Order of the British Empire
    .
  • Douglas C-49K (registration CC-CBM), crashes in the Emperador Guillermo Mountains 24 km (15 mi) north-northwest of Coyhaique, Chile, while on approach to Balmaceda Airport in Balmaceda, Chile, killing all 36 people on board.^[34]
• April 10 – A
  Aguascalientes to Mexico City crashes near Villa del Carbón, killing all 18 people on board.^[35]
• April 14–19 – Over 100 U.S. Air Force
  A Shau Valley.^[36]
• April 19
  • The
    antiaircraft fire, it loses 10 helicopters shot down and 13 more damaged on the first day of the operation.^[37]
  • A
    antisubmarine exercise crashes on Glenmanuilt Hill, Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, killing all 11 people on board.^[38]
• April 20 –
  South-West Africa (now Namibia
  ), killing 123 of the 128 people on board. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Namibia.
• April 21 –
  propjets and becomes an all-jet airline, operating a fleet of Douglas DC-8 and Boeing 727 airliners.^[39]
• April 22 – An
  Moskva Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, killing all five people on board.^[40]
• April 28 – A
  Lamar Tech track team and the pilot.^[32]
• April 29 – The
  decommissions its last aircraft carrier, HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81). She will be sold to Argentina
  on October 15.
• April 30 – A
  Chaklala, Pakistan, killing all 22 people on board.^[41]

• The
  antiaircraft artillery sites.^[22]
• The United States deploys
  electronic intelligence aircraft to Southeast Asia.^[22]
• Pan Am serves 122 airports, more than any other U.S. airline. Frontier Airlines is second, serving 100 airports.
• May 3 –
  Braniff Flight 352, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, breaks up in midair after flying into a severe thunderstorm and crashes near Dawson, Texas, killing all 85 people on board. Among the dead is Joseph E. Lockridge of the Texas House of Representatives
  .
• May 5 – A Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
• May 7 – The
  RAF El Adem in Libya. The Argosy crashes onto the runway, cartwheels, and bursts into flames, killing all 11 people on board.^[42]
• May 12 – Participating in the evacuation of South Vietnamese civilians from the camp at
  North Vietnamese Army fire. It is shot down immediately after takeoff and crashes about a mile (1.6 km) from the end of the runway, killing all 155 people on board. It is the deadliest aircraft crash in history at the time.^[43]
• May 16 –
  Air Micronesia
  begins flight operations.
• May 17 – Operation Delaware in South Vietnam's A Shau Valley comes to an end. The U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) has captured a large amount of North Vietnamese equipment and supplies but has faced the heaviest enemy antiaircraft fire it has encountered thus far in the Vietnam War, losing 21 helicopters shot down during the operation.^[37]
• May 22 –
  Sikorsky S-61L, crashes in a dairy farm in Paramount, California
  , killing all 23 people on board. It was the worst helicopter accident in the history of the United States at the time.
• May 23 – A ship-launched
  statute miles; 120 km).^[44][45]
  It is the first of three North Vietnamese aircraft shot down by Talos missiles during the Vietnam War.
• May 28 –
  Nala Sopara minutes after takeoff from Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India, killing all 29 people on board and one person on the ground.^[46]

• The
  airmobile division and renamed the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). Its conversion into an airmobile division will not be complete for a year.^[47]
• June 5 – North Vietnam demands an unconditional end to American bombing of its territory.[22]
• June 12 – After the flight crew of
  Calcutta, India, and sets their instruments to the wrong pressure, giving them false altitude readings, the airliner descends too quickly, strikes a tree, and crashes 1,128 meters (3,701 feet) short of the runway. The crash results in a hull loss of the aircraft and kills six of the 63 people on board.^[48]
• June 18 – After a missed approach to San Sebastián Airport in San Sebastián, Spain, in poor weather during a demonstration flight for Italian industrialist Lino Zanussi, a Piaggio PD.808 (registration I-PIAI) fails to follow established procedures by turning right instead of left. It crashes into the Jaizkibel mountains, killing all six people on board, including Zanussi.^[49]
• June 19 – Fifteen minutes after taking off from
  Douglas DC-9 is hijacked and forced to fly to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba.^[50]
• June 26 – Flying Tiger Line takes delivery of its first Douglas DC-8.
• June 29 – A hijacker commandeers
  Key West, Florida, with 17 people on board and forces it to fly him to Cuba.^[51]

• July 1
  • Kurile Islands, where it spends two days before being allowed to proceed to Japan.^[52]
  • A
    International Red Cross crashes short of the airstrip at Uli, Nigeria, in poor weather conditions, killing one of the four people on board and destroying 10+1⁄2 tons of medical supplies destined for Biafra.^[53]
  • Homesick for his native
    Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 714 – a Boeing 727-051 (registration N475US) with 92 people on board – as it descends toward Miami, Florida, at the end of a flight from Chicago, Illinois, demanding to be flown to Cuba. Escorted by United States Air Force fighters – unknown to its flight crew, because the fighters never make visual or radio contact with the airliner – the plane lands at José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba, becoming the first Boeing 727 ever to land in Cuba. Cuban soldiers board the airliner and arrest Velazquez. Cuban authorities allow the Boeing 727 and its crew to return to the United States on the morning of July 2, but require the passengers to transfer by bus to Varadero Airport in Varadero, Cuba, where they board an Airlift International Douglas DC-7C without enough seats for all them for the flight back to the United States, and they arrive at Miami early on the afternoon of July 2.^[54][55]
• July 3 – A
  crashes while landing at London Heathrow Airport in England. The aircraft cartwheels into the incomplete Heathrow Terminal 1, striking and damaging two parked and empty British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident 1
  airliners along the way. Six of the eight people aboard the plane and all eight horses are killed.
• July 4 – A lone hijacker takes control of Trans World Airlines Flight 329, a Boeing 727 with 71 people on board flying from Kansas City, Missouri, to Las Vegas, Nevada.^[56]
• July 8 – A
  Convair CV-340 crashes after aborting its third approach at Dhahran International Airport due to visibility problems created by blowing dust. The crash kills all 11 people on board.^[57]
• July 12
  • Over
    Convair CV-880 with 55 people on board flying from Baltimore, Maryland, to Houston, Texas – and points it at the first person he sees walking toward the aisle, who happens to be United States Senator James Eastland of Mississippi. Richards claims to be dying of cancer and demands to be flown to Cuba. The flight engineer talks him out of it, and Richards surrenders his gun, curls up on the floor of the cockpit and weeps.^[58][59]
  • As an
    Key West to Miami, Florida, 33-year-old Leonard Bendicks pulls out a gun and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba, where he is arrested. He gives no reason for the hijacking. Cuba will deport him to Canada in September 1969, and shortly afterward he will be arrested in the United States.^[60]
• July 13 – A Sabena Boeing 707 cargo aircraft (registration OO-SJK) strikes trees and crashes on approach to Lagos Airport in Nigeria, killing all seven people on board.^[61]
• July 17 – A lone hijacker commandeers National Airlines Flight 1064, a Douglas DC-8 with 63 people on board flying from Los Angeles, California, to Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly him to Cuba.^[62]
• July 21 – Flying in poor weather, an
  Sufi-Kurgan in the Soviet Union′s Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 14 people on board.^[63]
• July 23 – History's first
  Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, and divert it to Algiers Airport in Dar El Beïda, Algeria, just outside Algiers. announcing that they have named the airliner Liberation of Palestine. They release the 26 non-Israeli passengers the following day and 10 more women and children five days later. They release the 12 remaining hostages unharmed on 1 September in exchange for between 16 and 24 Arab prisoners held in Israel, after which an Air France crew flies the airliner back to Israel.^[64]
• July 28 – During its descent to Recife/Guararapes International Airport in Recife, Brazil, a United States Air Force C-124C Globemaster II crashes into a 1,890-foot-tall (576-meter-tall) hill, killing all 10 people on board.^[65]
• July 30 – While its crew is practicing an emergency descent from 39,000 to 23,000 feet (11,900 to 7,000 meters) during am
  Mount Lassen, 56 km (35 mi) east of Red Bluff, California, killing all nine people on board.^[66]

• The British government purchases Beagle Aircraft to ensure the continued development and production of light aircraft in the United Kingdom.^[67]
• August 2 – Drifting off course in bad weather on approach to
  Alitalia Flight 660, a Douglas DC-8-43 (registration I-DIWF) crashes into a wooded hillside, resulting in the aircraft's hull loss and killing 13 of the 95 people on board.^[68]
• August 3 – Flying in rain and poor visibility,
  Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, killing all 14 people on board.^[69]
• August 4 –
  Absent without leave from the United States Army, 27-year-old Willis Jessie kidnaps his two-year-old daughter from his ex-wife and hires a Cessna 172 to take the two of them on a sightseeing flight over Naples, Florida. Once the plane is airborne, he pulls out a pistol and orders the pilot to fly to Havana, Cuba. Jessie is imprisoned after arriving in Havana, and his daughter is placed in a foster home. They both will return to the United States in January 1969.^[70]
• August 9 – A
  British Eagle International Airlines Vickers 739A Viscount (registration G-ATFN) suffers a generator failure while over West Germany which makes it impossible for its crew to maintain awareness of its flight attitude. The crew loses control of the airliner, its wings and elevator fracture, and it crashes on the Nuremberg-Munich highway, breaking up on impact and killing all 48 people on board.^[71]
• August 10 – On approach to
  Fairchild FH-227B (registration N712U), strikes trees 360 feet (110 meters) from the runway threshold, then strikes up-sloping terrain 250 feet (76 meters) short of the runway and continues up the hill until it comes to rest 6 feet (1.8 meters) beyond the threshold and 50 feet (15 meters) from the right edge of the runway. The crash kills 35 of the 37 people on board – the deadliest accident involving an FH-227 – and results in the first hull loss of an FH-227.^[72]
• August 13 – Swedish Count
  Carl Gustav von Rosen defies Nigerian air defences to fly in supplies to the Biafran
  rebels
• August 14 –
  Sikorsky S-61L
  .
• August 18 – A
  United Arab Airlines Antonov An-24B (registration SU-AOL) flying from Cairo to Damascus crashes into the Mediterranean Sea at 32°58′N 032°48′E / 32.967°N 32.800°E / 32.967; 32.800 – about 180 km (97 nautical miles) south of Cyprus – killing all 40 people on board.^[72]
• August 20–21 (overnight) – Soviet paratroopers seize Prague Ruzyně International Airport in Prague, Czechoslovakia, facilitating the arrival there by air of additional Soviet troops and equipment as the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact begin their invasion of Czechoslovakia.
• August 28 – McDonnell Douglas completes the 3,000th F-4 Phantom II.^[73]
• August 31 – The
  Rolls-Royce RB.211
  is successfully ground-tested.

September

• The United States introduces the
  cluster bomb into service, employing it in the Vietnam War.^[22]
• The U.S. Navy introduces the
  electronic countermeasures
  aircraft.
• The U.S. Navy
  statute miles; 113 km).^[45] It is the second of three North Vietnamese aircraft shot down by Talos missiles during the Vietnam War and the first since 23 May 1968
  .
• Air Moorea is formed in French Polynesia.
• September 3 – When its crew tries to descend below clouds to make a visual approach to
  Bulair Ilyushin Il-18E flies into the ground, killing 47 of the 82 people on board.^[74]
• September 11
  • Air New Zealand flies T. H. Williams, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's navigator, to Sydney to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their first trans-Tasman flight.
  • Général de division René Cogny
    .
  • Wanted for a
    Montreal, Quebec, where Beasley releases two passengers and two stewardesses and eventually surrenders peacefully to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.^[75][76]
• September 19 – A U.S. Navy
  MiG fighter. It is believed to be the last American air-to-air victory in the Vietnam War until March 1970.^[22]
• September 20
  • At the
    Breguet 1150 Atlantic crashes while performing a demonstration of the aircraft's ability to fly on a single engine.^[77]
  • A hijacker takes control of
    Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly him to Cuba.^[78]
• September 22
  • Shortly after an
    Baranquilla for a domestic flight in Colombia to Cartagena, a male passenger hijacks it and forces it to fly him to Camagüey, Cuba.^[79]
  • A male passenger hijacks Avianca Flight 654, a Douglas C-54A-5-DC Skymaster (registration HK-172) with 56 people on board flying in Colombia from Baranquilla to Santa Marta, and forces it to fly him to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba.^[80]
• September 24 – After a United States Air Force Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker carrying Strategic Air Command personnel from Guam to the United States develops engine trouble over the Pacific Ocean, its crew opts to divert to Wake Island Airfield on Wake Island. On final approach to Wake Island Airfield, the KC-135A contacts the ocean's surface, bounces onto the runway, strikes instrument landing system aerials, and bursts into flames, killing 11 of the 56 people on board.^[81]
• September 28 – A
  munitions explodes, causing a massive fire.^[82]
• September 29 – A
  Santa Catalina Island piloted by test pilot Bill Bridgeman crashes into the Pacific Ocean
  , killing Bridgeman. His body is never found.
• September 30 – The first Boeing 747 is rolled out.

October

• Air Jamaica is established. It will begin flight operations in April 1969.
• October 1 – A United States Air Force KC-135A-BN Stratotanker loses power in one engine on takeoff from U-Tapao airfield in Thailand and crashes, killing its entire crew of four.^[83]
• October 3 – A U.S. Air Force C-7B Caribou carrying troops collides during its initial climb after takeoff from Camp Evans in South Vietnam at an altitude of 1,100 feet (340 meters) with a United States Army CH-47A Chinook helicopter approaching the camp for a landing with troops and mail on board. Both aircraft crash, killing all 13 people on the Caribou and all 11 on the Chinook.^[84]
• October 6 – Three hijackers commandeer an Aeromaya Hawker Siddeley HS 748-230 Series 2 (registration XA-SE) during a domestic flight in Mexico from Cozumel to Mérida and force it to fly them to Cuba.^[85]
• October 7 – On approach to
  Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander crashes on a beach at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Terraba 7 km (4.3 mi) west of the airport, killing all 10 people on board.^[86]
• October 11 – The
  Avia 14-32A Svit Gottwaldov (registration OK-MCJ) crashes near Ptice, Czechoslovakia, just after takeoff from Prague Ruzyně International Airport in Prague, killing 11 of the 40 people on board.^[87]
• October 20
  • A U.S. Air Force C-47D Skytrain suffers an in-flight engine failure and crashes 32 km (20 mi) south of Buôn Ma Thuột, South Vietnam, killing all 23 people on board.^[88]
  • A Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul C-47A-25-DK Skytrain (registration PP-SAD) suffers an engine failure after takeoff from Feijó Airport in Feijó, Brazil, and crashes while attempting to return to the airport, killing all 19 people on board.^[89]
• October 22 – During a night approach to
  Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taichung, Taiwan, a U.S. Air Force KC-135A-BN Stratotanker flies into the side of a 7,300-foot (2,200-meter) mountain 75 km (47 mi) from the base, killing all six people on board.^[90]
• October 23 – Under extreme financial stress, Alben Truitt, a grandson of the late
  Dry Tortugas and take aerial photographs of Fort Jefferson. Halfway through the trip, he produces an improvised explosive device and orders the pilot to fly him to Havana, Cuba, where he is arrested upon arrival, despite claiming that he wishes to write a nonfiction book about Cuba.^[91]
• October 24 –
  William "Bill" Dana pilots the 199th flight of the North American X-15. Although not planned as such, it will be the last X-15 flight.^[92]
• October 25 –
  Fairchild Hiller FH-227, crashes on Moose Mountain near Etna, New Hampshire, while descending on approach to a refueling stop at Lebanon
  , New Hampshire. Thirty-two of the 42 people on board die, and all 10 survivors suffer injuries.
• October 30 – A hijacker takes over a SAESA Curtiss C-46 Commando during a domestic flight in Mexico from Tampico to Reynosa. The airliner flies him to Brownsville, Texas.^[93]

November

• November 1
  • President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration suspends all American bombing of North Vietnam; Operation Rolling Thunder is suspended.^[22]
  • Ansett-ANA is renamed Ansett Airlines of Australia.
• November 2 – A 17-year-old boy armed with a 16-
  Douglas DC-9 with 50 people on board, at Mobile, Alabama, enters the cockpit while the airliner is on the ground at Birmingham, Alabama, preparing for departure for Chicago, Illinois, and demands to be flown to South Vietnam. The flight crew overpowers him.^[94]
• November 4 – After changing from business attire into the clothing favored by the
  $405, which he says will be a donation for "the revolution," and he forces the flight attendants to count the money on the cabin floor. After the plane lands in Havana, Cuban authorities arrest Johnson and return the stolen money to National Airlines. In 1986, Johnson will return to the United States, saying that he was a fool to have hijacked the airliner.^[64][95]
• November 6 – As
  Manila International Airport, where the hijackers force the flight crew to taxi to a remote part of the airport, disembark with the captain and two passengers as hostages, release the hostages at the airport fence, and escape in a waiting getaway car.^[94]
• November 7 – A Philippine Air Force C-47 Skytrain crashes into a mountainside in the Zambales Mountains on Luzon in the Philippines, killing all 11 people on board.^[96]
• November 8 – Two Italian men claiming to be members of the "International Command for
  Greek military junta. Announcing that the passengers are being punished for traveling to Greece, they order the airliner to return to Paris, where they surrender to French police officers at Orly Airport.^[64][97]
• November 18 – Two hijackers commandeer a Mexicana de Aviación Douglas DC-6 with 18 passengers on board during a domestic flight in Mexico from Mérida to Villahermosa and force it to fly to Havana, Cuba.^[98]
• November 22 – Attempting to land at
  Japan Airlines Flight 2 unintentionally lands in San Francisco Bay
  2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) short of the runway. All 107 people on board survive the mishap, and the aircraft itself is recovered 55 hours later.
• November 23
  • Four passengers hijack
    Miami, Florida, and force it to fly to Havana, Cuba.^[99]
  • A Cable Commuter de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 200 on approach to Santa Ana-Orange County Airport in Orange County, California, strikes a light pole on the Newport Freeway and crashes 2.9 km (1.8 mi) north of the airport, killing all nine people on board.^[100]
• November 24 – Four men hijack Pan Am Flight 281, a Boeing 707, during a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and force it to fly them to Havana, Cuba. U.S. jet fighter aircraft follow the airliner until it reaches Cuban airspace.
• November 25 – An Air America C-46D-20-CU Commando suffers an engine failure just after takeoff from Savannakhet Airport near Savannakhet, Laos, and crashes 3 km (1.9 mi) from the airport, with one of its wings separating and catching fire and the fuselage coming to rest inverted. The crash kills 26 of the 28 people on board.^[101]
• November 30 – A hijacker commandeers Eastern Airlines Flight 532, a
  Dallas, Texas, and forces it to fly to Cuba.^[102]

• December 2 – Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55, a Fairchild F-27B, suffers structural failure after encountering severe turbulence and crashes into Spotsy Lake at Pedro Bay, Alaska, killing all 39 people on board.
• December 3 – Armed with a .45-caliber
  Key West, Florida, to refuel. Local police offer to shoot out the plane's tires while it is on the ground at Key West, but National Airlines officials refuse to let them, citing concerns that Canteras will detonate his grenade. The plane takes off again and flies on to Havana, where Cuban authorities arrest Canteras. The other passengers and crew are held for 24 hours before being allowed to return to the United States.^[103][104]
• December 11 – Armed with a pistol, 20-year-old James Joseph Patterson hijacks Trans World Airlines Flight 496 – a Boeing 727 flying from Nashville, Tennessee, to Miami, Florida, with 39 people on board, including actor and entertainer Tex Ritter and professional golfer Mason Rudolph – and forces it to fly to Cuba, where he and his 19-year-old wife Gwendolyn disembark.^[105][106]
• December 12 – Pan Am Boeing 707-321B Clipper Malay, operating as Flight 217, crashes into the Caribbean Sea near Caracas, Venezuela, killing all 51 people on board. Among the dead is former Miss Venezuela Olga Antonetti.
• December 16 – The Indonesian airline PT Sempati Air Transport is founded. It will begin flight operations in March 1969, and in 1994 it will change its name to Sempati Air.
• December 17
  • After suffering fuel transfer difficulties leading to engine problems, a United States Air Force C-123B-11-FA Provider crashes south-southwest of Chu Lai Air Base, Chu Lai, South Vietnam, killing 14 of the 44 people on board.^[107]
• December 17 – The last surviving XB-70 Valkyrie – the U.S. Air Force's XB-70A Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – makes its last supersonic flight.
• December 19 – Accompanied by his three-year-old daughter, who he had abducted from his ex-wife, and claiming to have a gun and
  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba. He says he wishes to leave the United States "because of all the hatred and prejudice." He apologizes to the other passengers before disembarking at Havana.^[108][109]
• December 20 – At Edwards Air Force Base, California, X-15 program personnel attempting a 200th flight of the North American X-15 find the base covered by snow. Deeming the highly unusual snowfall an omen, they decide against the flight and simply retire the aircraft instead. It is the end of the X-15 program.^[92]
• December 24
  • Apollo 8 orbits the Moon carrying Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders.
  • Convair CV-580 (registration N5802), strikes trees while on approach to Bradford Regional Airport outside Bradford, Pennsylvania. It crashes inverted 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of the airport and about 800 feet (240 meters) from its first contact with the trees, killing 20 of the 47 people on board.^[110]
• December 26
  • Two members of the
    hand grenades as it prepares to depart Athens, Greece, killing one passenger and seriously wounding a flight attendant
    before being arrested.
  • An Exportada de Sal S.A. (ESSA) Douglas DC-3 crashes into the side of a mountain 40 km (25 mi) east of Ensenada, Mexico, killing all 12 people on board.^[111]
• December 27 –
  go around
  in poor weather at night, killing 27 of the 45 people on board and killing one and injuring six people on the ground.
• December 28 – In retaliation for the 26 December PFLP attack on El Al Flight 253,
  US$
  43.8 million.
• December 31 – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750, a Vickers Viscount Type 720, loses more than half of its right wing near the end of a flight from Perth to Port Hedland, Australia, and crashes 28 nautical miles (32 miles; 51 km) south of Port Hedland, killing all 26 people on board.

First flights

• Bell 212

March

• March 20 – LFU 205^[112]

April

• April 22 – Cessna 187

May

• May 13 – Piper PA-35 Pocono^[113]
• May 25 –
  Grumman EA-6B Prowler

June

• June 30 – Lockheed C-5 Galaxy

July

• Nord N 500
  (tethered)

August

• August 2 –
  Aérospatiale SA 341 Gazelle^[114]

• September 8 – SEPECAT Jaguar
• September 11 – Dassault Hirondelle^[115]

October

• October 4 – Tupolev Tu-154^[115]
• October 23 – Indraéro Aéro 30^[115]
• October 26 – Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante^[115]

November

• November 1 – Cessna 414
• November 4 – Aero L-39 Albatros^[116]
• November 7 – Conroy Stolifter^[115]
• November 13 – Northrop HL-10

December

• December 3 – Anahuac Tauro XB-TAX
• December 31 – Tupolev Tu-144^[117]

Entered service

January

• January 22 – Schweizer QT-2 with the United States Army^[118]

February

• Boeing 737 with Lufthansa

March

• March 6 – Bell CH-118 (ex-CUH-1H) with Canadian Armed Forces Mobile Command^[119]

April

• April 12 – Beagle Pup with Shoreham Flying School^[120]

May

• May 2 – Beechcraft Model 99 with Commuter Airlines^[121]

Retirements

• Beriev Be-10 (NATO reporting name "Mallow") by the 2nd Squadron of Soviet Naval Aviation′s 977th Independent Naval Long-range Reconnaissance Air Regiment

December

• December 20 – North American X-15^[92]

Deadliest crash

The deadliest crash of this year was a military shootdown, namely the