1978 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1978.

Events

• The Dominican Republic airline Aerovías Quisqueyana shuts down. It had operated since 1962.

January

• The Government of India establishes the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security as a department of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
• January 1
  • Sahar International Airport
    , killing all 213 people on board.
  • British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley, and Scottish Aviation are absorbed into British Aerospace.
• January 18
  • Eastern Air Lines Flight 274, a
    Miami, Florida
    , after its nose wheel locks in the up position. There are no injuries to any of the 76 people on board and only minor damage is sustained by the airliner.
  • Two hijackers commandeer a SAETA Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle during a domestic flight in Ecuador from Quito to Guayaquil and force it to fly to Havana, Cuba.^[1]
• January 20 – A hijacker commandeers a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship during a domestic flight in Pakistan from Sukkur to Karachi, demanding money for cancer treatments. The hijacker is taken down at Karachi.^[2]
• January 28
  • A SADELCA Douglas DC-3D on a domestic flight in Colombia crashes into the cloud-covered mountain Cerro Granada at an altitude of 6,800 feet (2,100 meters), killing all 12 people on board.^[3]
  • A hijacker seizes control of
    Piedmont Airlines Flight 964 – a NAMC YS-11 with 14 people on board flying from Kinston to Wilmington, North Carolina – demanding to be flown to Cuba. The plane lands at Kinston and then flies to New Bern, North Carolina. The hijacker is taken down.^[4]

• February 6 – A hijacker commandeers a CSA Czech Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 with 39 people on board during a flight from East Berlin, East Germany, to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and forces it to fly to Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany.^[5]
• February 10
  • A TAMU Douglas C-47A-75-DL Skytrain (registration CX-BJH/T-511) crashes soon after takeoff from Artigas Airport in Artigas, Uruguay, killing all 44 people on board.^[6]
  • stalls and crashes immediately after takeoff from Richland Airport in Richland, Washington. The aircraft bursts into flames, and all 17 people on board die.^[7]
• February 11 – To avoid a
  snow plow on the runway at Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, aborts its landing and attempts a go-around, but its thrust reversers
  do not retract fully and it crashes, killing 42 of the 49 people on board.
• February 22 – An
  San Diego, California. Several one-of-a-kind aircraft are destroyed, including the Beecraft Wee Bee and Beecraft Honey Bee, as well as a reproduction of the Spirit of St. Louis
  .

• March 1 – A
  Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria, collides with a Nigerian Air Force MiG-21U (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") trainer performing touch-and-go landings. Both aircraft crash, killing all 16 people on the Fokker and both crew members of the MiG-21U.^[8]
• March 2 – A hijacker commandeers a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 747-282B bound from Islamabad to Karachi, Pakistan. The hijacker is taken down at Islamabad.^[9]
• March 3 – After a
  artificial horizon problems after takeoff from Maiquetía Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, its crew attempts to return to the airport. On approach, it crashes into the Caribbean Sea 5.2 kilometers (3.2 miles) off Punta Mulatos, killing all 47 people on board.^[10]
• March 9 – A hijacker takes control of a
  Boeing 737-281 (registration B-1870) bound from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, to Hong Kong. The hijacker is taken down at Hong Kong. There is one fatality during the incident.^[9]
• March 11 –
  Flight Lieutenant David Cyster arrives in Darwin, Australia, completing a 32-day, 9,000-mile (14,493-km) flight from England in the de Havilland DH.82a Tiger Moth G-ANRF to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bert Hinkler's first solo England-to-Australia flight in 1928.^[11][12][13]
• March 13 – Clay Thomas hijacks
  Denver, Colorado, to take on more fuel. At Denver, the pilot, copilot, and flight engineer all jump to safety from the cockpit windows to the tarmac. With no hostages and no one to fly the plane left aboard, Thomas quietly surrenders to the police five minutes later.^[14]
• March 16 – A
  crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria
  , killing all 73 people on board.
• March 25 – A
  Burma, strikes trees, crashes in a rice paddy about 16 kilometers (9.9 miles) north of the airport, and burns, killing all 48 people on board.^[15]

• April 1
  • The
    aerobatic
    team officially becomes 431 Air Demonstration Squadron.
  • A
    Boeing 737-200 bound for Norfolk, Virginia, with 66 people on board – and forces the plane to fly to New York City, where he is arrested.^[16]
• April 15 – Flying in deteriorating weather, American stunt pilot
  Trabuco Canyon, California.^[17]
• April 18 – The Vickers Viscount becomes the first turboprop airliner to see 25 years in service.
• April 20 –
  Soviet Air Defense Forces Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO reporting name "Flagon") fighter hits the airliner with an air-to-air missile, badly damaging the left wing and puncturing the fuselage, killing two passengers. The plane eventually makes a crash landing on a frozen lake near Loukhi
  , where Soviet helicopters rescue the 107 survivors.
• April 26 – Possibly due to engine trouble, a
  Naval Air Facility Lajes in Lajes in the Azores
  , killing the crew of seven.

• Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.^[18]
• May 6 – A hijacker commandeers an Aeroflot airliner during a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Ashgabat to Mineralnye Vody, demanding to be flown abroad. There is one fatality during the incident.^[19]
• May 8 – The National Airlines Boeing 727-235 Donna, operating as Flight 193, crashes into Escambia Bay while on descent to Pensacola, Florida, killing three of the 58 people on board and injuring 11 of the 55 survivors.
• May 10 – Three hijackers force a
  Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany.^[20]
• May 11 – Two 29-year-old male passengers hijack Avianca Flight 163 – a Boeing 727-59 (registration HK-727) with 119 people on board making a domestic flight in Colombia from Santa Marta to Bogotá – and force the airliner to divert to Cali, Colombia. After it refuels, they order it to fly to Aruba, where they release several passengers and the plane again refuels. The plane then flies to Curaçao, where the hijackers release more passengers before policemen dressed as mechanics overpower and arrest them.^[21]
• May 16 – Two hijackers commandeer
  Douglas DC-9-32 with 99 people on board making a domestic flight in Mexico from Torreón to Mexico City – demanding the release of prisoners. They surrender after the airliner lands at Mexico City.^[22]
• May 16–27 – Eighteen U.S. Air Force
  metric tons) of cargo and 125 passengers to Zaire in support of French Foreign Legion troops and Belgian paratroopers deploying there to oppose the Shaba II invasion of the Zairian province of Shaba by a separatist movement.^[23]
• May 17
  • A
    Shin Meiwa PS-1 flying boat crashes at Takaoka, Japan, killing 13 people.^[24]
  • A hijacker seizes control of a
    CSA Czech Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 making a domestic flight in Czechoslovakia from Brno to Prague. The airliner lands safely at Prague. The hijacker is taken down.^[25]
• May 19
  • A Belgian force of 1,171 paratroopers arrives at Kamina, Zaire, in Belgian aircraft to intervene in the Shaba II crisis.^[26]
  • Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion jump into
    C-130 Hercules aircraft to intervene against separatists during the Shaba II crisis, meeting little organized resistance.^[26]
• May 20
  • Belgian troops land unopposed the airfield at Kolwezi after Zairian ground forces have seized it. Additional French Foreign Legion paratroopers jump over Kolwezi later in the day.[26]
  • McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom II aircraft, 20 years after the first flight of the prototype.
• May 21 – American lyricist, screenwriter, director, and television producer Bruce Geller is one of the two people killed when the Cessna 337 Skymaster he is piloting crashes in foggy conditions in Buena Vista Canyon near Santa Barbara, California.^[17]
• May 23 – In the
  Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and crash-lands in a field at Yegoryevsk six minutes later after all its engines fail. The plane's nose cone collapses under the fuselage during the landing and penetrates a compartment in which two flight engineers are seated, killing them. The other six people on board survive.^[27]
• May 24 – Barbara Ann Oswald
  St. Louis, Missouri-based charter helicopter and orders its pilot, Allen Barklage, to fly it to United States Penitentiary, Marion, in Marion, Illinois
  , so that her husband, Garrett B. Trapnell – imprisoned there for a 1972 airliner hijacking – can escape. Barklage wrestles Oswald's gun from her as he lands the helicopter in the prison yard and shoots her to death. In December, her daughter Robin Oswald will hijack an airliner in an unsuccessful attempt to get Trapnell released.
• May 29 – A hijacker seizes control of a CSA Czech Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 making a domestic flight in Czechoslovakia from Brno to Karlovy Vary, demanding to be flown to West Germany. The airliner diverts to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the hijacker is taken down.^[28]
• May 31 – U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter aircraft begin to transport French and Belgian troops as they withdraw from their intervention in the Shaba II affair in Zaire. Simultaneously, the C-141s begin airlift support for troops from Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, and Togo as they deploy into Shaba on peacekeeping duties.^[26]

June

• June 1 – The
  Alma-Ata route. Tu-144s have carried a total of 3,194 passengers, an average of 58 passengers per flight. Although it never carries passengers again, the Tu-144 will resume cargo service in June 1979
  .
• June 9 – Inaugural flight of the
  London Heathrow Airports.^[29]
• June 26 –
  Toronto International Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  , killing two passengers and injuring most of the other 105 people on board.

• July 1
  • Yemen Airways renames itself Yemenia.
  • The Government of Sweden creates the Swedish Accident Investigation Board, responsible for investigating civil and military accidents, including aviation accidents. It later will be renamed the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority.
• July 1–19 – Frank Haile Jr. and William Wisner fly two Beechcraft Bonanzas around the world in formation.
• July 11 – The Government of the United Kingdom agrees to fund development of the British Aerospace BAe 146 airliner.
• July 12 – An
  Pichincha Volcano, killing all 11 people on board.^[30]
• July 14 – After receiving orders from
  Boeing begins full-scale development of the Boeing 767
  .
• July 24 – McDonnell Douglas completes the 5,000th F-4 Phantom II.^[31]

August

• August 6 – A
  Douglas DC-9-32 with 63 people on board during a flight from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Madrid, Spain, demanding to be flown to Algiers, Algeria. The airliner diverts to Barcelona, Spain, where the hijacker is taken down.^[32]
• August 12–17 –
  Evreux, France in the Double Eagle II
• August 14 – Flying in worsening weather conditions, an
  Aeropesca Colombia Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando (registration HK-1350) drifts off course and crashes into Mount Paramo de Laura near Tota, Colombia, killing all 18 people in board. Certified to carry only six passengers, it has 15 passengers on board at the time of the crash.^[33]
• August 25 – As
  Nazi leader Rudolf Hess. After the airliner lands at Geneva, Swiss authorities question all the passengers in an attempt to determine who dropped the note.^[34]
• August 26 – A
  Burma, and crashes, killing all 14 people on board.^[35]
• August 30 – Two
  Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin
  , where all aboard the plane are released unharmed and the two hijackers and six other East German passengers on the plane claim sanctuary.

• Boeing 747-200B
  .
• September 2 – An Airwest Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 floatplane (registration CF-AIV) crashes on approach to a landing in Coal Harbor in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, after the failure of a flap control rod at an altitude of 175 feet (53 meters), killing 11 of the 13 people on board.^[36]
• September 3
  • Members of the
    guerrillas
    shoot 10 more to death on the ground, leaving only eight survivors.
  • An
    Conakry Airport in Conakry, Guinea, killing 15 of the 17 people on board.^[37]
• September 9 – A Lineas Aéreas del Centro de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 100 (registration XA-BOP) crashes in mountainous terrain near a highway 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Mexico City, Mexico, killing 18 of the 21 people on board.^[38]
• September 14
  • A
    windshear in a thunderstorm and crashes into a fish poind in Parañaque, killing 15 of the 24 people on the plane and 17 people on the ground.^[38]
  • Overseas National Airways ceases operations.
• September 25 –
  San Diego, California. There were no survivors on either plane, and with the seven fatalities on the ground the total number of lives lost was 144, making it the worst air disaster in California
  history to date.
• September 30 – Aarno Lamminparras, an unemployed home building
  Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, refuels, and returns to Helsinki for more ransom money from the newspaper before flying on to Oulu, where he releases his final three hostages in exchange for a chauffeured limousine
  ride home and 24 hours alone with his wife. Police storm his house and arrest him.

• Honolulu, Hawaii, and Guam
  .
• October 3 – After one of its engines fails, a Finnish Air Force Douglas C-47A-1-DK Skytrain attempts to return to Kuopio Airport in Siilinjärvi, Finland. On approach, the aircraft crashes into Lake Juurusvesi, killing all 15 people on board. The accident leads to the Finnish Air Force improving its pilot training for emergency situations and accelerating the retirement of its fleet of C-47 aircraft.^[39]
• October 4 – A Brazilian Air Force Consolidated C-10A Catalina flying boat crashes while landing on the Solimões River at Santo Antônio do Içá, Brazil, killing all 12 people on board.^[40]
• October 6 – A
  Douglas R6D-1 taking part in a UNITAS multinational naval exercise involving Chile, Peru, and the United States crashes into a hill 17 kilometers (11 miles) south of Santiago, Chile, killing all 18 people on board.^[41]
• October 7 – An
  Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, loses altitude, and crashes into a hill, killing all 38 people on board.^[42]
• October 22
  • A
    Bellona/Anua Airport on Bellona Island in the Solomon Islands after encountering bad weather, but its pilot becomes lost and runs out of fuel before finding the airport. He ditches the plane in the Pacific Ocean, but neither the plane or any of the 11 people on board are ever found.^[43]
  • A
    TAP Portugal Boeing 727-82C (registration CS-TBO) during a domestic flight in Portugal from Lisbon to Faro, demanding to be flown to Switzerland. The airliner diverts to Madrid, Spain, then returns to Lisbon, where the hijacker surrenders.^[44]
• October 23 – The crew of Aeroflot Flight 6515, an
  Sivash 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Emelyanovka in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 26 people on board.^[45]
• October 24 –
  air mail subsidies by January 1, 1986, and the termination of Essential Air Service
  subsidies ten years after enactment.
• October 30 – The Government of India approves the purchase of the SEPECAT Jaguar for the Indian Air Force

November

• November 5 – A Nile Delta Air Services Douglas DC-3 carrying American petroleum experts of the Western Desert Petroleum Company crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off Alexandria, Egypt, killing all 17 people on board.^[46]
• November 10 – A hijacker attempts to commandeer an Aeroflot Antonov An-24B (registration CCCP-46789) during a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Grozny to Baku, intending to force it to fly to Turkey. He injures the flight engineer, but is killed by a ricochet from his own gun when he opens fire on the airliner's armored cockpit door. The plane diverts to Makhachkala, where it lands safely.^[47]
• November 15 –
  Colombo International Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183 of the 262 people on board and injuring 32 of the 79 survivors. It remains the deadliest accident in the history of Icelandic
  aviation.
• November 18
  • The Swiss airline Business Flyers Basel AG changes its name to Crossair. It will begin offering scheduled flights in July 1979.
  • An Air Guadeloupe de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 flying from Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, to Marie-Galante crashes into the sea 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) off Marie-Galante Airport after entering a violent rain squall, killing 15 of the 20 people on board.^[48]
• November 19 – An
  Leh Airport in Leh, India, crashes into a hut in the Himalayas 0.5 kilometers (0.31 miles) from the airport and bursts into flames, killing all 77 people on the plane and a woman in the hut.^[49]
• November 20 – The
  aerial tanker
  .
• November 21 – A Taxi Aéreo El Venado Douglas C-47A-65-DL Skytrain (registration HK-1393) crashes into Judio Mountain about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Rubio, Venezuela, at an altitude of 11,200 feet (3,400 meters), killing all 28 people on board.^[50]
• November 23 – As
  Douglas DC-9 with 23 people on board – sits on a runway at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, preparing to take off for a flight to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a man armed with a knife and claiming to have a bomb hijacks it, saying he wants to be flown to an unintelligible destination. During negotiations with the authorities, he releases the passengers and crew and locks himself in the cockpit. Police force the cockpit door open and disarm and arrest him; he turns out to have no bomb. The airliner then proceeds with its flight to Milwaukee and then on to Chicago, Illinois.^[51][52]

• The retirement of the aircraft carrier
  fixed-wing aircraft for the first time since 1918.^[53]
• National Airlines introduces service between New York City and Amsterdam.^[18]
• December 11 – Masked men
  $875,000 in jewels newly flown in from West Germany in the largest cash robbery ever committed in the United States at the time.^[54] The robbery will be dramatized in the 1990 movie Goodfellas.^[55] The cash is never recovered, but five men finally will be indicted for the crime on January 23, 2014.^[55]
• December 14 – Claiming to have acid, a janitor hijacks National Airlines – a Boeing 727 with 54 people on board flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Miami, Florida – and demands that it fly to Cuba. The airliner diverts to Charleston, South Carolina, where police storm the plane and arrest the hijacker.^[56][57]
• December 20 – Claiming to have explosives, two men hijack
  Calcutta to Lucknow – and force it to fly to Varanasi, India. They demand the release of Indira Gandhi, but surrender after four hours of negotiations. They turn out to be armed only with toy guns and a cricket ball.^[58]
• December 21 – Seventeen-year-old Robin Oswald
  Williamson County Regional Airport in Marion, Illinois, where authorities talk her into surrendering without further incident. Her father, Garrett B. Trapnell, had been imprisoned for a 1972 airliner hijacking and her mother, Barbara Ann Oswald, Trapnell's wife, had been killed when she hijacked a helicopter
  in May 1978 in order to help him escape from prison.
• December 23 – On approach to a landing in Palermo, Sicily, Alitalia Flight 4128, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, crashes into the Tyrrhenian Sea about 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Palermo, killing 108 of the 129 on board and injuring all 21 survivors.
• December 26 – A
  Britten-Norman BN-2A-21 Islander (registration HH-CNB) crashes into the sea off the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing all 10 people on board.^[59]
• December 28 –
  McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61, crashes in Portland, Oregon, killing 10 and injuring 28 of the 189 aboard. The aircraft had run out of fuel while the crew was troubleshooting landing gear
  indicator problems.
• December 29 – Freddie To makes the first flight of a solar-powered aircraft, the Solar One

First flights

January

• January 11 - American Jet Industries Hustler Model 400 N400AJ, prototype of the Gulfstream American Hustler^[60]

February

• February 14 - Cessna 303 Clipper^[61]

March

• March 10 - Dassault Mirage 2000^[62]

April

• April 10 - Sikorsky S-72 NASA545 (2nd aircraft)^[63]

June

• June 30 - Rutan Defiant^[64]

July

• July 6 - NASA QSRA NASA715^[65]
• July 9 — EAA Acro Sport II^[66]

August

• August 12 – Pilatus PC-7 HB-HAO - first production^[66]
• August 20 –
  Aerospatiale Fouga 90 F-WZJB^[67]
• August 20 –
  British Aerospace Sea Harrier XZ450^[68]
• August 25 — Canadair CL-227 Sentinel UAV^[66]
• August 29 –
  Mitsubishi MU-300 Diamond^[69]

• September 12 – Cessna 425 Corsair^[70]
• September 13 -
  Aérospatiale Super Puma F-WZJA^[66]

• October 24 – Striplin FLAC^[66]
• October 28 — Scheibe SF 34^[66]

November

• November 8 -
  Canadair CL-600 Challenger C-GCGR-X^[66]
• November 9 -
  AV-8B Harrier II^[66]
• November 18 - McDonnell Douglas YF-18A Hornet 160775, prototype of the F/A-18 Hornet^[71]

December

• December 5 –
  Cessna 335^[72]
• December 19 - Beriev A-50 (NATO reporting name "Mainstay")
• December 30 -
  General Avia Canguro^[66]

• January 26 – Westland Lynx with No. 702 Squadron FAA

April

• HU-25 Guardian with United States Coast Guard
• Mitsubishi F-1 with Japan Air Self-Defense Force

June

• June 28 -
  Aéronavale

August

• August 20 –
  BAe Sea Harrier

Retirements

• United States Air National Guard^[73]

• Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter by the Texas Air National Guard and Utah Air National Guard^[74]
• Douglas TF-10B Skyknight (known as
  Douglas F3D Skynight before September 1962) by the United States Marine Corps^[75]

The deadliest crash of this year was Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 which crashed into the Arabian Sea just after taking off from Bombay, India on 1 January (New Year's Day), killing all 213 people on board.

References