1981 in aviation

Years in aviation: 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years: 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1981.

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

  • September 2 – An overloaded Taxi Aéreo El Venado Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante (registration HK-2651) fails to gain altitude after takeoff from Juan Jose Rondon Airport in Paipa, Colombia. Maneuvering to avoid trees and buildings, it stalls, crashes 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the airport, and catches fire. The crash and fire kill 17 of the 22 people on board immediately, and four of those pulled alive from the wreckage die of their injuries within a day of the accident.
  • September 3 – McDonnell Douglas delivers the 1,000th DC-9 produced, a DC-9 Super 80; it was ordered by Swissair.
  • September 10 – British Airways CEO Roy Watts announces a financial crisis for the airline. He states that the company is losing £UK 200 per minute.
  • September 18 – An Aeroflot Yakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87455) on approach to Irkutsk Airport in Irkutsk collides over the Soviet Union with an Aeroflot Mil Mi-8 helicopter (registration CCCP-22268) on a training flight at an altitude of 400 meters (1,300 feet) 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from Zheleznogorsk-Ilimskiy. Both aircraft crash, killing all 33 people on the Yak-40 and seven people on the helicopter.
  • September 22 – An Ilyushin Il-86, flown by G. Volokhov, sets a series of world speed records for flight over a 2,000 km (1,200 mi; 1,100 nmi) closed circuit for aircraft with payloads of 30,000–65,000 kg (66,000–143,000 lb), with a speed of 975.3 km/h (606.0 mph; 526.6 kn).
  • September 24 – G. Volokhov sets another set of closed circuit speed records in an Ilyushin Il-86, over a 1,000 km (620 mi; 540 nmi) circuit with payloads of 30,000–80,000 kg (66,000–176,000 lb), at a speed of 962 km/h (598 mph; 519 kn).
  • September 29 – An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules crashes at Kahrizak, Iran, during a flight from the Iran–Iraq War's front line to Tehran, killing 80 people. Iran's minister of defense, his chief of staff, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army chief of staff, and the regional commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are among the dead.

October

November

  • November 13 – Ben Abruzzo and his crew make the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in the Double Eagle V.
  • November 14 – The Space Shuttle Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing STS-2, the second Space Shuttle flight. To test the shuttle's stability and controls, astronaut Joe H. Engle flies the entire approach and landing manually, the only shuttle pilot ever to do so. It is also the only time that any aerospace vehicle has been flown manually from Mach 25 through touchdown.
  • November 21 – The United States bans the Soviet airline Aeroflot from flying in its airspace after an Aeroflot flight strays from its supposed flight path and overflies American military installations.
  • November 26 – The French balloonists Hélène Dorigny and Michel Arnoud land their Cameron A-530 balloon Semiramis at St Christophe-en-Boucherie in France, having taken off from Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland, the previous day. They set a new hot air balloon distance record of 1,154.74 km (717.52 mi; 623.51 nmi).

December

  • December 1 – A chartered Yugoslavian McDonnell Douglas MD-81 operating as Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 crashes into Mount San Pietro on Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
  • December 5 – December 8 – Jerry Mullins sets a closed-circuit distance record for piston engined aircraft, piloting the Javelin Phoenix, a modified Bede BD-2, a distance of 8,695.9 nautical miles (10,007.1 mi; 16,104.8 km) in a circuit between Oklahoma City and Jacksonville.
  • December 12 – Maxie Anderson and Don Ida launch from Luxor, Egypt, in the balloon Jules Verne to begin the first serious attempt at a circumnavigation of the world by balloon. They are forced to end their attempt on December 14 at Hansa, India, after a flight of 2,676 miles (4,307 km).
  • December 25 – U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Thomas Tiller is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by a boat. He had floated at sea for seven days after his plane, an F-4 Phantom II, had crashed on December 18.

First flights

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

November

December

Entered service

January

April

December

Retirements

Deadliest crash

The deadliest crash of this year was Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 which crashed into mountainous terrain on the island of Corsica, France on 1 December, killing all 180 people on board.


This page was last updated at 2024-01-02 16:30 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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