This is a list of aviation-related events from 1974. 1974 had been deemed as “the single worst year in airline history” although this has since been surpassed.[1]
Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar sign the Foundation Treaty, which gives each state a 25 percent ownership stake in Gulf Aviation. Gulf Aviation becomes a holding company, and its airline flight operations are transferred to a new airline branded as Gulf Air, which becomes the flag carrier of the four states.
Itavia Flight 897, a Fokker F28 Fellowship 1000 (registration I-TIDE) on final approach to Turin AirportinTurin, Italy, in fog and poor weather, strikes a tree and a building under construction, loses its tail and wings, and crashes inverted into a farm building, killing 38 of the 42 people on board.[3]
January 10 – A TAMDouglas DC-4 (registration TAM-52) disappears during a domestic flight in Bolivia from Santa RosatoLa Paz with the loss of all 24 people on board.[8]
January 17 – A CessnycaDouglas DC-3A-191 (registration HK-1216) goes out of control at its cruising altitude of 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) and crashes inverted near Chigorodó, Colombia, killing all 12 people on board.[8]
February 17 – Upset at failing in helicopter training and wanting to show his piloting skills, United States ArmyPrivate First Class Robert K. Preston steals a U.S. Army UH-1 Iroquois helicopter at Fort Meade, Maryland, and hovers it over the White House in Washington, D.C. before landing on the White House's South Lawn. He later takes off, is pursued by two Maryland State Police helicopters, uses maneuvering to force one of them down, then returns to the White House, where police gunfire induces him to land and surrender.[12]
February 20 – A hijacker threatens to detonate a bomb aboard an Air VietnamDouglas C-54A-5-DO Skymaster (registration XV-NUM) carrying 51 other people during a flight in South Vietnam from Qui NhơntoDa Nang, ordering it to divert to Đồng Hới, North Vietnam. The pilot tells him that the airliner must stop at Đông Hà, North Vietnam, before continuing to Đồng Hới, but instead lands the plane at Huế AirportinHuế, South Vietnam. Realizing after the plane lands that he has been tricked, the hijacker detonates his bomb, blowing a 2-by-3-meter (6.5-by-10-foot) hole in the left side of the fuselage, breaking three windows on the right side, and killing three people on the plane.[13]
The Turkish AirlinesMcDonnell Douglas DC-10-10Ankara, operating as Flight 981, crashes into the Ermenonville Forest and the communeofFontaine-Chaalis, France, after a cargo door blows off, causing damage which cuts control cables. All 346 people on board die. At the time, it is the worst aviation disaster in history, and it remains the deadliest aviation accident in France, the deadliest DC-10 accident, and the deadliest single-plane crash with no survivors.
March 12 – A hijacker demands ransom money aboard a Japan Air LinesBoeing 747 with 425 people on board as it makes a domestic flight in Japan from TokyotoNaha, Okinawa. After the airliner arrives at Okinawa's Naha Airport, security forces storm the plane and arrest the hijacker.[17]
April 2 – The United States Navy retires its last Douglas C-54 Skymaster. Entering service on March 24, 1945, the C-54Q, Bureau number 56501, had flown 2,500,000 nautical miles (4,600,000 kilometres) in almost 15,000 hours of flight time.[23]
April 4 – Using aviation gasoline contaminated by jet fuel, the engines of a Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 (registration A2-ZER) begin overheating as soon as it takes off from Francistown AirportinFrancistown, Botswana. The airliner attempts to return to the airport but crash-lands 3.6 kilometers (2.2 miles) short of the runway, strikes some trees, and bursts into flame. The crash and fire kill 78 of the 84 people on board.[24]
April 18 – During its takeoff roll at London Luton Airport in London, England, Court Line Flight 95, a BAC One-Eleven 518 carrying 91 people, collides with a McAlpine AviationPiper PA-23 Aztec which has entered the runway without permission. The collision destroys the Aztec, kills its pilot, and injures his passenger, but Flight 95's flight crew manages to abort their takeoff successfully and all aboard the airliner evacuate without injury via evacuation slides.
April 27 – An AeroflotIlyushin Il-18V (registration CCCP-75559) experiences a catastrophic failure of its No. 4 engine two-and-a-half minutes after takeoff from Pulkovo AirportinLeningrad in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. It attempts to return to the airport but rolls inverted and crashes 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) east of the airport, killing all 109 people on board.[25]
April 30 – Departing Scholes FieldinGalveston, Texas in haste because they are 10 minutes late, the crew of a Metro AirlinesBeechcraft Model 99 (registration N853SA) fails to give its passengers a safety briefing and mistakenly leaves the trim stabilizer on standby. They lose control of the aircraft as soon as they take off, and the plane crashes and catches fire; the responding fire truck has no foam extinguisher, hampering firefighting efforts. The crash and fire kill six of the 12 people on board.[26]
May 2 – Flying at 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) – 1,000 feet (300 meters) below the minimum safe altitude in the area – an Aerotaxis EcuatorianosDouglas C-47 Skytrain (registration HC-AUC) crashes 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) south of Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador, after its left wing strikes the stratovolcanoTungurahua and separates from the aircraft. The crash kills 20 of the 25 people on board, and the aircraft's wreckage, at an altitude of 11,200 feet (3,400 meters), is not found until the following day.[27]
May 10 – Three passengers hijackanAviancaBoeing 727-59 (registration HK-1337) shortly after it takes off from Pereira, Colombia, for a domestic flight to Bogotá. They force the plane to fly to Cali, Colombia, where it spends the night on the tarmac with the hijackers demanding a ransom of 20 million Colombian pesos. As a result of negotiations, they agree to have the plane fly to Bogotá, where they are to receive the money and transportation to Leticia, Colombia, on the border with Brazil. The plane arrives at Bogotá on the morning of May 11, where police officers disguised as mechanics surround the airliner. The hijackers agree to a change of cockpit crews, and when the relief crew boards, the flight engineer attempts to overpower a hijacker holding a stewardess at gunpoint at the rear of the cabin. During the struggle, the stewardess is shot in the leg. A police officer dressed as a mechanic shoots the hijacker to death, and the crew and police then overpower the two surviving hijackers.[28]
June 11 – Northrop YF-17A72-01569 becomes the first American fighter aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight when not in afterburner.[30]
June 27 – The No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 engines of a Cambodia Air CommercialBoeing 307 Stratoliner (registration XW-TFR) fail in succession three minutes after takeoff from Battambang AirportinBattambang, Cambodia. The airliner crash-lands in a rice field, losing its right wing when the wing strikes a tree just before touchdown, then slides to a stop, catching fire. The crash kills 19 of the 39 people on board.[31]
Cuts in American military aid to South Vietnam force austerity measures there, including the storage of 200 Republic of Vietnam Air Force aircraft and the reduction of helicopter lift capacity by 70 percent; shortages, of fuel, ammunition, and spare parts also begin to plague South Vietnamese aviation of all types.[32]
July 17 – Greek troops arrive from Greece by air at Nicosia International Airport to support the coup d'état on Cyprus.
July 18 – Nicosia International Airport reopens to commercial traffic. A chaotic scene ensures there over the next two days as foreign nationals attempt to leave Cyprus.
The Turkish Air Force bombs Cyprus's only civilian airport, Nicosia International Airport, forcing it to close to commercial traffic permanently.[35] The closure catches all five of Cyprus Airways' airliners – four Hawker Siddeley Tridents and a BAC One-Eleven – on the ground at the airport, where two will be destroyed and the rest stranded until 1977; Cyprus Airways does not resume flight operations until February 1975.
July 21
28 Turkish Air Force strike aircraft mistakenly attack the Turkish NavydestroyersKocatepe, Adatepe, and Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak off Paphos, Cyprus, with 750-pound (340 kg) bombs, sinking Kocatepe with the loss of 54 lives and damaging the other two ships.
12 Turkish paratroopersparachute into Cyprus to ambush a convoy carrying the Greek Cypriot commander of the Cypriot Navy, Commander Papayiannis. They wound him in an ambush, but are wiped out by his security detail.
InOperation Niki, Greece'sHellenic Air Force attempts a covert airlift of a battalion of Greek commandos from Souda, Crete, to Cyprus using 15 Noratlas aircraft. Greek Cypriot antiaircraft artillery mistakenly fires on the planes at Nicosia International Airport, shooting down one with the loss of four crew members and 29 commandos, and damages two others, but some of the commandos arrive successfully to defend the airport.
Two Cyprus AirwaysHawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 1E airliners (registration 5B-DAB and 5B-DAE) are destroyed on the ground at Nicosia International Airport during fighting between Greek and Turkish forces.[36][37] Turkish Air Force rocket fire destroys one of them; the other is damaged beyond economical repair by small arms fire and abandoned.
July 24 – A 29-year-old male passenger enters the cockpit of an AviancaBoeing 727-24C with 123 people on board shortly after it takes off from Pereira, Colombia, for a domestic flight to Medellín, draws a gun, and demands a US$2 million ransom and the release of a political prisoner. The airliner diverts to Cali, Colombia, and parks at the end of a runway, where police storm it and kill the hijacker. It is the second time the man had hijacked an airliner; in 1969, he had hijacked a plane to Cuba.[38]
July 28 – A U.S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird sets two records for non-rocket-powered aircraft, an absolute altitude record of 85,069 feet (25,929 m) and an absolute speed record of 2,193.2 mph (3,529.6 km/h).[39]
August 11 – Flying from Bamako, Mali, to Niamey, Niger, an Air MaliIlyushin Il-18V (registration TZ-ABE) attempts to divert to Ouagadougou, Upper Volta, due to bad weather at Niamey. The crew makes a navigational error and flies to the wrong town, and the airliner runs out of fuel after circling the town. The crew makes a forced landing at Linonghin, Upper Volta, killing 47 of the 60 people on board.[44][45]
August 12 – Avianca Flight 610, a Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain (registration HK-508), becomes lost in rainy weather and crashes into Trujillo Mountain, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of Cali, Colombia, at an altitude of 9,670 feet (2,950 meters), killing all 27 people on board. The airliner's wreckage is not found until October 31.[46]
August 14–16 – Turkish Air Force aircraft support the final major Turkish offensive on Cyprus.
August 16 – A ceasefire ends the war in Cyprus between Greece and Turkey. As part of the ceasefire, a United Nations Buffer Zone is created between Greek and Turkish-occupied portions of Cyprus. Cyprus's only commercial airport, Nicosia International Airport, lies within the Buffer Zone, forcing its abandonment. The largely derelict airport has since served only as a headquarters and helicopter base for the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
September 1 – The U.S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird61-17972, flown by Major James Sullivan (pilot) and Major Noel F, Widdifield (reconnaissance systems officer), crosses the Atlantic Ocean from New York City to London in a world record 1 hour 54 minutes 56 seconds at an average speed of 1,806.96 mph (2,908.02 km/h).[53]
September 13 – The U.S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird61-17972, flown by Captain Harold B. "Buck" Adams (pilot) and Major William C. Machorek (reconnaissance systems officer), flies 5,447 miles (8,766 km) from London to Los Angeles in a world record 3 hours 47 minutes 39 seconds at an average speed of 1,435.59 mph (2,310.36 km/h).[57]
October 24 – The U.S. Air Force conducts the world's first successful test launch of an air-launched ballistic missile. The C-5A Galaxy69-0014 flies from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to a launch point over the Pacific Ocean off California and rolls an LGM-30B Minuteman Iintercontinental ballistic missile with a fueled first stage and inert second and third stages off its cargo ramp at an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters); the missile falls under stabilizing parachutes to an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,400 meters), where its engines ignite, then rises during a ten-second engine burn to an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) before the first stage runs out of fuel as planned, after which the missile falls into the ocean. The test is fully successful.[61]
November 22 – Firing guns, four male Palestinian terrorists dressed as airport workers rush from the passenger lounge at Dubai International AirportinDubai, United Arab Emirates, cross the tarmac, shoot a stewardess in the back, wounding her, and board a British AirwaysVickers VC-10-1151 (registration G-ASGR) preparing to depart for Calcutta, India. Finding no pilot aboard, they threaten to shoot the passengers if one does not arrive immediately. British Airways captain Jim Futcher volunteers to board the airliner, and the hijackers force him to take off with 27 passengers, eight airport workers who had been cleaning the aircraft, and a crew of 10 on board and order him to fly to Beirut, Lebanon. Finding Beirut International Airport closed and ringed by security forces, they order the VC-10 to refuel at Tripoli, Libya, and then fly to Tunis, Tunisia, where security personnel surround the airliner after it lands. The hijackers demand the release of seven Palestinian prisoners – five held in Cairo, Egypt, and two in the Netherlands – saying that if the prisoners are not released in 24 hours they will begin shooting one hostage every two hours until their demands are met. When the deadline passes, they murder a German passenger and throw his body onto the tarmac. The five prisoners from Cairo are brought to the aircraft, prompting the hijackers to release seven passengers, and the following morning the two prisoners from the Netherlands arrive, leading the hijackers to release everyone else aboard the plane except for Futcher, the copilot, and the flight engineer. The hijackers then threaten to detonate explosives in the cockpit with the three flight crew members if they are not granted political asylum in Tunisia. This is refused, and the four hijackers and seven prisoners finally surrender 84 hours after the hijacking began. Futcher later will receive the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his courage and calm during the incident.[64][65]
December 25 – A 31-year-old male passenger hijacks Air India Flight 105 – a Boeing 747-237B with 105 people on board flying from Beirut, Lebanon, to Rome, Italy – and orders the flight crew to continue to Rome. During the airliner's descent, he threatens to crash the plane in Rome, but the crew overpowers him and hands him over to the police after arrival in Rome.[72]
December 28 – A privately owned Lockheed 18-56-23 Lodestar (registration TG-HTM) crashes immediately after takeoff from El PeténinGuatemala, killing all 21 passengers aboard and the entire crew of three. The dead passengers all are American tourists returning to Guatemala City after visiting Tikal.[73]
January 20 – General Dynamics YF-16 72-01567, prototype of the F-16 Fighting Falcon ("inadvertent" flight to avoid damage during faulty taxiing run)[77]
The deadliest crash of this year was Turkish Airlines Flight 981, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 which crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris, France on 3 March, killing all 346 people onboard. At the time, the accident was the deadliest in aviation history, more than doubling the previous record. Flight 981 would hold the title until March 1977, the Tenerife airport disaster; and remained the deadliest single-aircraft accident of all time until August 1985, when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed. It still remains one of the deadliest aviation accidents of all time.
^Melia, Tamara, Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991, ISBN0-945274-07-6, p. 111.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 376.
^Dorr, Robert F., Review: SR-71: The Complete Illustrated History of the Blackbird, the World's Highest, Fastest Plane, Aviation History, January 2014, p. 60.
^ abAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 209.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 68.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 87.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 104.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 27.
^ abDonald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 34.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 318.
Taylor, John W. R., ed. (1974). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1974–75. New York: Jane's Yearbooks. ISBN0-531-02747-3.
