January 4 – Fascinated with the kind of
communism practiced in
Albania under its leader
Enver Hoxha, 18-year-old Mariano Ventura Rodriguez pulls out a toy
pistol aboard an
IberiaConvair CV-240 ten minutes before it lands at
Zaragoza,
Spain, after a domestic flight from
Madrid. He demands to be flown to Albania. When the airliner lands at Zaragoza, Spanish soldiers armed with
submachine guns surround it. During negotiations between Rodriguez and the police, the local police chief tells him that he will be "shot at dawn" if anything happens to any of the plane's passengers or crew, prompting Rodriguez to surrender peacefully soon afterward.[3]
January 8 – To protest an
Israeli military operation that resulted in the capture of several
Lebanese nationals, Christian Bellon, armed with two handguns and a rifle, hijacks
Trans World Airlines Flight 802, a
Boeing 707 with 20 people on board flying from
Paris to
Rome, and demands to be flown to
Damascus,
Syria, spraying the airliner's instrument panel with gunfire to emphasize how serious he is. After the airliner lands in Rome to refuel, Bellon changes his mind and demands that the plane fly him to
Beirut,
Lebanon, instead. When the airliner lands at
Beirut International Airport, Bellon surrenders to Lebanese police, who slap him across the face several times.[7][8]
January 9 – A hijacker takes control of a
Rutas Aéreas Panameñas SA (RAPSA)
Douglas C-47 Skytrain making a domestic flight in
Panama from
David to
Bocas del Toro, demanding to be flown to Cuba. Security forces storm the plane at David and arrest the hijacker. There is one fatality during the hijacking.[9]
January 12 – A
Hellenic Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashes in
Greece's
Cithaeron mountain range. Press reports variously state that 25 people were on board and all died, 27 were on board and four survived, or 30 were on board and four survived. It is the third-deadliest aviation accident in Greek history at the time.[10]
January 13 –
Polynesian Airlines Flight 208B, a Douglas C-47B-45DK Skytrain (registration 5W-FAC), encounters
wind shear one minute after takeoff from
Faleolo Airport in
Apia,
Western Samoa. Its nose pitches up, and it
stalls, crashes into the
Pacific Ocean, and explodes, killing all 32 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Western Samoa (now
Samoa).[10]
January 28 – After its crew prematurely initiates their descent to a landing at
Batagay Airport in
Batagay in the
Soviet Union's
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, an
AeroflotAntonov An-24B (registration CCCP-47701) crashes into the rocky slope of a 1,081-meter (3,547-foot) mountain 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Batagay at an altitude of 1,020 meters (3,350 feet). All 34 people on board die in the crash.[15]
January 29 – Aeroflot Flight 145, a
Tupolev Tu-124V (registration CCCP-45083) on approach to
Kilpyavr air base in
Murmansk in the Soviet Union strikes the side of a hill 29 kilometers (18 miles) from the air base and slides down its slope before coming to rest. Of the 38 people on board, five die on impact and six more freeze to death while awaiting rescue.[16]
The last flight of an active U.S. Navy antisubmarine
Lockheed P-2 Neptune takes place, with
Rear Admiral Tom Davies at the controls. The P-2 had been in active U.S. Navy service since March 1947, and Davies had set a world distance record in the Neptune Truculent Turtle in
September 1946.[17]
Descending in poor visibility,
TAROM Flight RO35, an
Antonov An-24B (registration YR-AMT) with 21 people on board, strikes trees in
Romania's
Vlădeasa Mountains, crashes on a mountain slope, and breaks up. All six crew members and seven of the passengers die instantly, and six more passengers die before rescuers arrive, leaving only one survivor.[18]
Two men, each armed with a
handgun,
hijack a
LAN ChileSud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle during a domestic flight in
Chile from
Puerto Montt to
Santiago with 47 people on board. After the airliner lands at
Pudahuel International Airport in Santiago, the hijackers release seven adults and five children and order the plane to be refueled. Two policemen disguised as mechanics then board the airliner and overpower the hijackers, killing one of them.[20]
February 16 – Flying with his wife, 10-year-old daughter, and eight-year-old son aboard
Eastern Airlines Flight 1 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Newark,
New Jersey to
Miami,
Florida, with 104 people on board – Daniel Lopez jumps up with a flaming "
Molotov cocktail" and a
pistol equipped with a crude
bayonet when the airliner is 80 miles south of
Wilmington,
North Carolina, shouts "VivaCuba!" and demands to be flown to
Havana, Cuba. The flight crew agrees to fly him there as long as he extinguishes his Molotov cocktail. Lopez and his family disembark at Havana, and the airliner returns to the
United States after about five hours on the ground in Havana. An investigation reveals that Eastern Airlines did not screen any of the passengers boarding the flight.[25][26]
February 21 – A bomb explodes in the cargo compartment of
Swissair Flight 330, a
Convair CV-990, nine minutes after takeoff from
Zurich International Airport in
Zürich,
Switzerland. The flight crew attempts to return to Zürich, but have difficulty seeing their instruments because of smoke in the
cockpit; the aircraft finally suffers an electrical failure and crashes near
Lucerne, Switzerland, killing all 47 people on board. Responsibility for the bombing is never determined.
February 24 – The Royal Navy recommissions the
aircraft carrierHMS Ark Royal after a £UK 30 million refit of the ship.
Four passengers hijack an
AviancaBoeing 727-59 (registration HK-1337) with 78 people on board 20 minutes after takeoff from
Bogotá,
Colombia, for a domestic flight to
Baranquilla, demanding to be flown to
Cuba. The airliner refuels at Baranquilla before proceeding to
Havana, Cuba.[33]
Flying under the name "R. Evans" and accompanied by his wife and their four young daughters, 36-year-old Clemmie Stubbs hijacks
United Airlines Flight 361 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Cleveland,
Ohio, to
West Palm Beach,
Florida – as it passes over
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and forces it fly to Cuba, where he believes his family will prosper and flourish under the
communist regime of
Fidel Castro. Imprisoned in Cuba, he will be killed in a prison escape attempt in 1973, and his family will return to the
United States in 1974.[34][35]
March 12 – A hijacker commandeers
Varig Flight 921, a
Boeing 707-345C (registration PP-VJX) during a flight from
Santiago,
Chile, to
London and forces it to fly to Cuba.[36]
March 17 – Unable to pay his fare aboard
Eastern Air Lines Flight 1340 – a
Douglas DC-9-31 (registration N8925E) with 73 people on board operating a shuttle service from
Newark,
New Jersey, to
Boston,
Massachusetts – John DiVivo pulls out .38-caliber
revolver and orders the pilot to "just fly east until we run out of gas." After about 15 minutes, the
captain convinces DiVivo that the airliner will crash into the
Atlantic Ocean soon if it does not refuel. Although DiVivo approves a refueling stop, he shoots both pilots when they start to turn the plane. A struggle ensues in the
cockpit, during which the mortally wounded copilot knocks the revolver from DiVivo's hand and the captain, despite serious wounds in both arms, picks it up and shoots DiVivo in the chest. The captain then lands the DC-9 at
Logan International Airport in Boston, where DiVivo is arrested. The copilot is the first pilot killed in a U.S. hijacking. DiVivo
hangs himself in his jail cell on October 31.[39][40]
April 4 – After the crew of Aeroflot Flight 2903, an
Ilyushin Il-14P (registration CCCP-52002), notices that they are low on approach in poor visibility to
Zaporozhye Airport at
Zaporozhye in the Soviet Union's
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and initiates a
go-around at an altitude of 40 meters (130 feet), the airliner's right
wing strikes the ground during a turn and the plane crashes, killing seven of the 35 people on board.[47]
April 22 – Twenty-six-year-old Ira David "Orrie" Meeks and his 17-year-old girlfriend hire pilot Boyce Stradley to take them on a sightseeing flight in a
Cessna 172 over
Gastonia,
North Carolina, during which Meeks pulls a gun on Stradley and orders him to fly them to Cuba so that Meeks can "get away from
racism in the
United States." During the 11-hour trip to Havana, Cuba, the plane makes refueling stops at
Rock Hill,
South Carolina,
Jacksonville,
Florida (where Meeks requests but is denied a bottle of
Scotch whisky), and
Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Upon arrival in Cuba, Meeks and his girlfriend are arrested, and Stradley flies back to a hero's welcome in Gastonia.[53]
B-52 Stratofortress strikes and helicopter assaults against North Vietnamese forces are part of the first day of the American and South Vietnamese
invasion of
Cambodia.[58] The last U.S. Army helicopter will not leave Cambodia until June 29.[59]
A hijacker seizes control of a
VASPBoeing 737-200 during a domestic flight in
Brazil from
Brasilia to
Manaus and demands to be flown to Cuba. Instead the airliner diverts first to
Guyana and then to Curaçao.[64]
U.S.
PresidentRichard Nixon signs the
Airport and Airway Development Act of 1970 and the Airport and Airway Revenue Act. The acts are meant to fill funding gaps in the U.S. airport and airway system, which had become inadequate due to the rapid growth of aviation, with new aviation-related
excise taxes, including a tax on
aviation fuels, a tax placed on tickets sold to passengers on domestic and international flights, a tax on
waybills, and a new tax on
aircraft registration. The new taxes are expected to provide
US$11,000,000,000 to the
Airport and Airway Trust Fund in order to pay for airport development, as well as "acquiring, establishing, and improving air navigational facilities."
May 24 – A hijacker commandeers a
Mexicana Boeing 727 during a domestic flight in
Mexico from
Mérida to
Mexico City with 79 people on board, and forces it to fly to
Havana, Cuba.[66]
May 30 – Seven hijackers commandeer an Avianca
Hawker Siddeley HS 748-245 Series 2A (registration HK-1408) during a domestic flight in Colombia from
Bogotá to
Bucaramanga with 42 people on board and demand that it fly them to Cuba. The airliner stops at Barranquilla, Colombia, to refuel before proceeding to Havana, Cuba.[69]
June 4 – Angry over the refusal of the
United States Supreme Court to hear his case in a dispute with the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service which had begun in 1963, Arthur Gates Barkley walks into the
cockpit of
Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 486 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Phoenix,
Arizona, to
Washington National Airport in
Arlingtnn,
Virginia – armed with a .22-caliber
pistol, a
straight razor, and a can of
gasoline (petrol), and threatens to set the plane and its passengers on fire if $100 million is not taken from the Supreme Court's budget and given to him, the first time that an American airline hijacker has demanded a ransom. He forces the airliner to land at
Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, where TWA gives him $100,750 in the hope that he will accept the smaller amount. Enraged at the small amount, Barkley orders the plane to take off and sends a message of complaint addressed directly to
PresidentRichard Nixon. During the next two hours, while the plane circles the airport, Barkley makes numerous suicidal threats, and TWA turns the matter over to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which talks Barkley into returning to the airport to collect the rest of his ransom. When the plane lands, Barkley finds the runway lined with 100 sacks supposedly containing $1 million each but actually containing scraps of paper, and an FBI
sniper shoots out the plane's
landing gear. A panicked passenger opens an emergency exit, and the rest of the passengers follow him out of the plane while FBI agents storm it, engage in a gun battle with Barkley in which Barkley and the copilot are wounded, ad arrest Barkley.[71]
June 9 – Two armed passengers attempt to hijack a LOT Polish Airlines airliner making a domestic flight in Poland from
Katowice to
Warsaw and divert it to
Vienna,
Austria, but they are overpowered and the flight continues to Warsaw.[74]
Two passengers hijack an
AviancaBoeing 737-159 (registration HK-1403) on a domestic flight in
Colombia from
Cúcuta to
Bogotá with 92 people on board and demand to be flown to
Cuba. The airliner makes refueling stops at Bogotá and
Barranquilla, Colombia, before proceeding to
Havana, Cuba.[78]
At
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, four hijackers take control of a
Cruzeiro do SulSud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VIN (registration PP-PDX) with 31 people on board preparing to depart for a domestic flight to
São Paulo and demand the release of prisoners and to be flown to Cuba. Security forces storm the airliner and arrest the hijackers.[80]
July 5 – While landing,
Air Canada Flight 621, a
Douglas DC-8-63, hits the runway at
Toronto International Airport in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada, with such force that its number four engine and pylon break off the right
wing. The pilot manages to lift off again for a
go around, but a series of explosions in the right wing break off the number three engine and pylon and then destroy most of the wing before the pilot can make a second landing attempt. The plane crashes in
Brampton, Ontario, killing all 109 people on board.
George Hardin, a 20-year-old
United States Armyprivate who no longer wishes to fight in the
Vietnam War, puts a knife to the throat of the pilot of an
Air VietnamDouglas DC-4 during a domestic flight in
South Vietnam from
Pleiku to
Saigon and demands to be flown to
Hong Kong. The pilot insists on a refueling stop at Saigon, where South Vietnamese police surround the airliner. Hardin releases all the passengers, keeping the pilot and
flight engineer as hostages, but the flight engineer jumps out of a hatch onto the
tarmac and escapes. After two hours of negotiations, Hardin surrenders. In
August, he will escape from custody and attempt to hijack a
United States Air ForceC-141 Starlifter.[84][85]
Six Palestinian commandos
hijack Olympic Airways Flight 255, a
Boeing 727, during a flight from Beirut, Lebanon, to
Athens,
Greece, demanding the immediate release of seven
Arabterrorists from Greek prisons and threatening to blow up the plane if their demands are not met. The airliner lands at Athens, where its passengers are released, then flies to
Cairo,
Egypt.[86]
July 28 – A hijacker commandeers an
Aerolineas ArgentinasBoeing 737-287 (registration LV-JMX) with 49 people on board making a domestic flight in
Argentina from
Salta to
Buenos Aires, demanding to be flown to Cuba. The plane lands at
Córdoba, Argentina, where the hijacker surrenders.[88]
August 3 – A 28-year-old male passenger aboard Pan American World Airways Flight 742, a
Boeing 727 flying from
Munich,
West Germany, to
West Berlin with 125 people on board, pulls out a gun and demands to be flown to
Hungary. The airliner continues to West Berlin and lands at
Berlin Tempelhof Airport, where police arrest the hijacker.[92]
August 11 – George Hardin, a 20-year-old
United States Armyprivate who no longer wishes to fight in the
Vietnam War and a fugitive since August 9, when he had escaped from custody in
South Vietnam after being arrested in
July at
Saigon for hijacking an
Air Vietnam airliner, boards a
United States Air ForceC-141 Starlifter at
Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam armed with an
M16 rifle and orders the plane's six crewmen to fly him to
Da Nang, South Vietnam. Several of the plane's crewmen overpower Hardin, his M16 firing 16 rounds into the C-141's bulkhead before they subdue him.[85]
Brandishing a toy
pistol, 24-year-old Sachio Inagaki, suicidal over breaking up with his girlfriend, takes control of an
All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 during a domestic flight in
Japan from
Nagoya to
Sapporo, planning to exchange the passengers for a
rifle and then to use it commit a spectacular public suicide. The airliner diverts to the
Japan Air Self-Defense Force′s
Hamamatsu Air Base, where 72 Japanese military security personnel surround it. After two hours of negotiations, a pregnant passenger feigns labor pains, and when Inagaki opens a door to let her off the plane, a police officer rushes aboard and overpowers and arrests him.[96][97]
Five hijackers force a LOT Polish Airlines Ilyushin Il-14 making a domestic flight in Poland from
Gdańsk to
Warsaw to fly them to
Bornholm,
Denmark.[98]
August 20 – On an
unauthorized absence from the
United States Marine Corps and saying he faced
racist insults while undergoing Marine Corps training, 20-year-old Gregory Graves claims to have several sticks of
dynamite in what is actually his empty
briefcase aboard
Delta Air Lines Flight 435 – a
Douglas DC-9 with 82 people on board flying from
Atlanta to
Savannah,
Georgia – and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba, where he believes he will find racial harmony. He will be imprisoned under harsh conditions in Cuba, not finally leaving the island until 1975.[100][101]
Wearing his
United States Army uniform aboard
Trans World Airlines Flight 134 – a Boeing 727 with 86 people on board flying from
Chicago,
Illinois, to
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania – 27-year-old
Vietnam War veteran Robert Labadie enters the
cockpit while the plane is passing over
Fort Wayne,
Indiana, and orders the pilot to fly him to Cuba, saying that he will signal an accomplice to detonate a bomb if the flight crew does not comply. He never says another word for the rest of the flight, and is arrested by Cuban authorities upon arrival in Havana. On September 24, Cuba will permit U.S. officials to escort Labadie from Havana back to the
United States, the first time that a U.S. aircraft hijacker in Cuba is extradited in such a manner.[103][104]
August 26 – Three hijackers demand that a LOT Polish Airlines Antonov An-24 departing Katowice for Warsaw, Poland, take them to Austria.[105]
August 29 – An
Indian Airlines Fokker F-27 Friendship 400 (registration VT-DWT) strikes a hill and crashes just after takeoff from
Silchar Airport in
Silchar,
India, killing all 39 people on board.[106]
Descending to land at
Leninabad in the Soviet Union's
Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, an Aeroflot
Yakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87690) crashes at an altitude of 2,100 meters (6,900 feet) into the side of 2,300-meter (7,500-foot) Mount Airy-Tash, 90 km (56 mi) northeast of Leninabad, killing all 21 people on board. At the time, it is the deadliest accident in history involving a Yak-40 and the deadliest aviation accident in the history of
Tajikistan.[110]
Flying the Catbird, a radio-controlled model airplane of his own design,
Maynard L. Hill sets a new world record recognized by the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for gain in altitude by a radio-controlled airplane. Launched by hand from the
Naval Weapons Laboratory airfield at
Dahlgren,
Virginia, Catbird climbs for 43 minutes and reaches an altitude of 8,205 meters (26,919 feet) before returning to earth in a 20-minute dive and landing 10 meters (33 feet) from its launch point.[111]
September 9 – To pressure British authorities into releasing
Leila Khaled, a PFLP sympathizer hijacks
BOAC Flight 775, a
Vickers VC10 flying from
Bahrain to Beirut with 114 people on board, and forces it to land at Dawson's Field in Jordan.
September 10 – Three hijackers seize control of n Egyptian airliner scheduled to fly from Beirut, Lebanon, to Cairo, Egypt, but are subdued.[112]
September 11 –
U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon orders the immediate deployment of armed federal agents aboard U.S. commercial aircraft to combat hijackings.
September 12
After removing all hostages from them, PFLP members use explosives to destroy the four empty airliners at Dawson's Creek and Cairo hijacked on September 6 and 9. By September 30, all hostages from the four planes will be recovered unharmed.
A hijacker commandeers an Egyptian airliner scheduled to fly from
Tripoli,
Libya, to Cairo, Egypt, but is subdued.[113]
Over
Salinas,
California, Donald Irwin, armed with a
starting pistol, hijacks Trans World Airlines Flight 15, a Boeing 707 flying from
Los Angeles to
San Francisco, California, with 63 people on board, demanding to be flown to
North Korea. The pilot convinces him that the airliner needs to stop at San Francisco to refuel. After the plane lands at
San Francisco International Airport, Irwin releases 35 passengers.
Brink's security guard Robert DeNisco, aboard the airliner as a passenger to protect a shipment of cash the plane is carrying, then draws a .38-caliber handgun and shoots Irwin in the stomach. The wounded Irwin is arrested.[115][116]
September 16 – Armed with a gun and a
dagger, a passenger hijacks a
United Arab AirlinesAntonov An-24 during a domestic flight in Egypt from
Luxor to Cairo and demands to be flown to
Saudi Arabia. A security guard aboard the plane overpowers him.[117]
September 19 – Shortly after
Allegheny Airlines Flight 730 – a
Boeing 727 with 98 people on board – takes off from
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, for a flight to
Boston,
Massachusetts, 19-year-old Richard Witt, puts a gun to the throat of a stewardess and demands to be flown to
Cairo,
Egypt, claiming he has a homemade bomb and a bottle of
nitroglycerine and saying he is a
Marxist who hates
Jews and wants to help
Palestinian guerrillas fight them. The airliner lands at
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, where Witt releases its 90 passengers – among them
professional wrestler Charlie "
Professor Toru Tanaka" Kalani Jr. – and the flight crew talks him out of going to Cairo because the plane lacks the range and flight charts needed to get there. Witt decides he wants to go to
Havana, Cuba, instead. During the one-hour stop in Philadelphia, police smuggle a gun to the flight crew, but they decline to use it for fear that Witt will shoot the stewardess or detonate his bomb. The plane takes off and flies to Havana, where Witt disembarks and is imprisoned by Cuban authorities. The airliner then flies to
Miami,
Florida. Witt will return to the United States in 1978.[118][119][120]
October 28 – The U.S. Air Force completes
Operation Fig Hill, an airlift begun on September 27 to bring medical personnel, equipment, and supplies to
Jordan in the aftermath of combat between the country's armed forces and the
Palestine Liberation Organization. During the airlift, transport aircraft have delivered 200 medical personnel, two
field hospitals, and 186
short tons (169
metric tons) of supplies, equipment, vehicles, tents, and food.[127]
Trans World Airlines introduces "Business Class Ambassador Service" featuring "twin-seat" accommodations on transcontinental flights in the
United States, marketing the new service as "a whole new way to fly."[27]
A husband and wife carrying 3 liters (3.2 U.S. quarts; 2.6 Imperial quarts) of
gasoline (petrol) and 5 liters (5.3 U.S. quarts; 4.4 Imperial quarts) of
kerosene hijack an
AeroflotIlyushin Il-14M 20 minutes after takeoff from
Kaunas for a domestic flight in the
Soviet Union to
Palanga with 42 people on board. They pour the gasoline and kerosene on the floor of the cabin and
cockpit and threaten to ignite it if the airliner does not fly them to
Gotland,
Sweden. The flight crew overpowers them and the airliner lands safely at Palanga.[130]
In
Operation Ivory Coast, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army assault the North Vietnamese prison camp at
Son Tay, North Vietnam, to free
prisoners-of-war thought to be there, supported by 59 U.S. Navy and 57 U.S. Air Force aircraft, 28 of them directly assigned to the immediate assault area. No prisoners are found at the camp, but the attackers kill 42 North Vietnamese guards in exchange for two Americans injured and one
HH-3E Jolly Green helicopter deliberately crash-landed in the prison courtyard and left behind. Large air raids are conducted over the night of November 20–21 to divert North Vietnamese attention from the assault, including the largest U.S. Navy night aircraft carrier operation of the Vietnam War; one U.S. Air Force
F-105 Thunderchief is shot down during these raids, but its crew ejects safely.[29]
American aircraft begin the first major bombing campaign over
North Vietnam since
1968, as 300 aircraft attack the
Mu Gia and
Ban Gari passes.
November 29 – Carrying troops, a U.S. Air Force C-123K Provider descending in thick cloud on approach to
Cam Ranh Airport in South Vietnam strikes high ground at an altitude of 2,700 feet (820 meters) and crashes into the jungle, killing 42 of the 44 people on board.[134]
U.S. Air Force
C-130 Hercules and
C-141 Starlifter transports complete an airlift begun November 18 to bring relief supplies and equipment to
East Pakistan after the devastating
1970 Bhola cyclone. The aircraft have delivered a total of 140
short tons (127
metric tons) of supplies and equipment, some of them making flights of almost 10,000 miles (16,000 km).[127]
The
Hague Hijacking Convention, formally the "Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft," is adopted by the International Conference on Air Law at
The Hague in the
Netherlands. It requires signatory countries to prohibit and punish the
hijacking of civilian aircraft in situations in which an aircraft takes off or lands in a place different from its country of registration. It also establishes the principle of aut dedere aut judicare, which holds that a party to the convention must prosecute an aircraft hijacker if no other state requests his or her extradition for prosecution of the same crime. It will go into effect on
October 14, 1971.
December 19
Forty minutes after a
Soviet Air ForceAntonov An-22 (
NATO reporting name "Cock") (registration CCCP-09305) takes off from
Dacca, East Pakistan, one of its propellers disintegrates at an altitude of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet). Its crew initiates an emergency descent and attempts an emergency landing at
Panagarh Airport in
Panagarh,
India, but cannot get the
landing gear or
flaps down. After flying down the runway for 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) at an altitude of 1 meter (3.3 feet), the An-22 banks right, its right wing strikes the ground, and it crashes, breaks up, and catches fire. All 17 people on board die.[138]
As
Continental Airlines Flight 144 – a
Douglas DC-9 with 30 people on board making a flight from
Denver,
Colorado, to
Wichita,
Kansas – is flying somewhere between
Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and Wichita, passenger Calos Denis passes a note to a stewardess indicating that he has a gun and wants to be flown to Cuba. When the
captain asks if the passengers can disembark during a refueling stop at Tulsa, Denis agrees. After the other 26 passengers disembark at
Tulsa International Airport, the crew sneaks off the plane while Denis uses the
lavatory.
Tulsa police then board the airliner, find Denis hiding in the lavatory, and arrest him. He turns out to be unarmed.[139][140]
December 30 – The Grumman YF-14A, prototype of the
F-14 Tomcat, is destroyed in a crash during its second flight due to
hydraulic failure. Its two-man crew
ejects and
parachutes safely.[142]
^
abcdNichols, John B.; Tillman, Barrett (1987). On Yankee station the naval air war over Vietnam. Naval Institute Press. p. 158.
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9.
^Miskimon, Christopher, "Weapons: The AC-47 Gunship Proved the Concept of the Aerial Gunship As a Close-Support Weapon in the Skies Over Vietnam," Military Heritage, November 2015, pp. 17-18.
January 4 – Fascinated with the kind of
communism practiced in
Albania under its leader
Enver Hoxha, 18-year-old Mariano Ventura Rodriguez pulls out a toy
pistol aboard an
IberiaConvair CV-240 ten minutes before it lands at
Zaragoza,
Spain, after a domestic flight from
Madrid. He demands to be flown to Albania. When the airliner lands at Zaragoza, Spanish soldiers armed with
submachine guns surround it. During negotiations between Rodriguez and the police, the local police chief tells him that he will be "shot at dawn" if anything happens to any of the plane's passengers or crew, prompting Rodriguez to surrender peacefully soon afterward.[3]
January 8 – To protest an
Israeli military operation that resulted in the capture of several
Lebanese nationals, Christian Bellon, armed with two handguns and a rifle, hijacks
Trans World Airlines Flight 802, a
Boeing 707 with 20 people on board flying from
Paris to
Rome, and demands to be flown to
Damascus,
Syria, spraying the airliner's instrument panel with gunfire to emphasize how serious he is. After the airliner lands in Rome to refuel, Bellon changes his mind and demands that the plane fly him to
Beirut,
Lebanon, instead. When the airliner lands at
Beirut International Airport, Bellon surrenders to Lebanese police, who slap him across the face several times.[7][8]
January 9 – A hijacker takes control of a
Rutas Aéreas Panameñas SA (RAPSA)
Douglas C-47 Skytrain making a domestic flight in
Panama from
David to
Bocas del Toro, demanding to be flown to Cuba. Security forces storm the plane at David and arrest the hijacker. There is one fatality during the hijacking.[9]
January 12 – A
Hellenic Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashes in
Greece's
Cithaeron mountain range. Press reports variously state that 25 people were on board and all died, 27 were on board and four survived, or 30 were on board and four survived. It is the third-deadliest aviation accident in Greek history at the time.[10]
January 13 –
Polynesian Airlines Flight 208B, a Douglas C-47B-45DK Skytrain (registration 5W-FAC), encounters
wind shear one minute after takeoff from
Faleolo Airport in
Apia,
Western Samoa. Its nose pitches up, and it
stalls, crashes into the
Pacific Ocean, and explodes, killing all 32 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Western Samoa (now
Samoa).[10]
January 28 – After its crew prematurely initiates their descent to a landing at
Batagay Airport in
Batagay in the
Soviet Union's
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, an
AeroflotAntonov An-24B (registration CCCP-47701) crashes into the rocky slope of a 1,081-meter (3,547-foot) mountain 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Batagay at an altitude of 1,020 meters (3,350 feet). All 34 people on board die in the crash.[15]
January 29 – Aeroflot Flight 145, a
Tupolev Tu-124V (registration CCCP-45083) on approach to
Kilpyavr air base in
Murmansk in the Soviet Union strikes the side of a hill 29 kilometers (18 miles) from the air base and slides down its slope before coming to rest. Of the 38 people on board, five die on impact and six more freeze to death while awaiting rescue.[16]
The last flight of an active U.S. Navy antisubmarine
Lockheed P-2 Neptune takes place, with
Rear Admiral Tom Davies at the controls. The P-2 had been in active U.S. Navy service since March 1947, and Davies had set a world distance record in the Neptune Truculent Turtle in
September 1946.[17]
Descending in poor visibility,
TAROM Flight RO35, an
Antonov An-24B (registration YR-AMT) with 21 people on board, strikes trees in
Romania's
Vlădeasa Mountains, crashes on a mountain slope, and breaks up. All six crew members and seven of the passengers die instantly, and six more passengers die before rescuers arrive, leaving only one survivor.[18]
Two men, each armed with a
handgun,
hijack a
LAN ChileSud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle during a domestic flight in
Chile from
Puerto Montt to
Santiago with 47 people on board. After the airliner lands at
Pudahuel International Airport in Santiago, the hijackers release seven adults and five children and order the plane to be refueled. Two policemen disguised as mechanics then board the airliner and overpower the hijackers, killing one of them.[20]
February 16 – Flying with his wife, 10-year-old daughter, and eight-year-old son aboard
Eastern Airlines Flight 1 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Newark,
New Jersey to
Miami,
Florida, with 104 people on board – Daniel Lopez jumps up with a flaming "
Molotov cocktail" and a
pistol equipped with a crude
bayonet when the airliner is 80 miles south of
Wilmington,
North Carolina, shouts "VivaCuba!" and demands to be flown to
Havana, Cuba. The flight crew agrees to fly him there as long as he extinguishes his Molotov cocktail. Lopez and his family disembark at Havana, and the airliner returns to the
United States after about five hours on the ground in Havana. An investigation reveals that Eastern Airlines did not screen any of the passengers boarding the flight.[25][26]
February 21 – A bomb explodes in the cargo compartment of
Swissair Flight 330, a
Convair CV-990, nine minutes after takeoff from
Zurich International Airport in
Zürich,
Switzerland. The flight crew attempts to return to Zürich, but have difficulty seeing their instruments because of smoke in the
cockpit; the aircraft finally suffers an electrical failure and crashes near
Lucerne, Switzerland, killing all 47 people on board. Responsibility for the bombing is never determined.
February 24 – The Royal Navy recommissions the
aircraft carrierHMS Ark Royal after a £UK 30 million refit of the ship.
Four passengers hijack an
AviancaBoeing 727-59 (registration HK-1337) with 78 people on board 20 minutes after takeoff from
Bogotá,
Colombia, for a domestic flight to
Baranquilla, demanding to be flown to
Cuba. The airliner refuels at Baranquilla before proceeding to
Havana, Cuba.[33]
Flying under the name "R. Evans" and accompanied by his wife and their four young daughters, 36-year-old Clemmie Stubbs hijacks
United Airlines Flight 361 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Cleveland,
Ohio, to
West Palm Beach,
Florida – as it passes over
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and forces it fly to Cuba, where he believes his family will prosper and flourish under the
communist regime of
Fidel Castro. Imprisoned in Cuba, he will be killed in a prison escape attempt in 1973, and his family will return to the
United States in 1974.[34][35]
March 12 – A hijacker commandeers
Varig Flight 921, a
Boeing 707-345C (registration PP-VJX) during a flight from
Santiago,
Chile, to
London and forces it to fly to Cuba.[36]
March 17 – Unable to pay his fare aboard
Eastern Air Lines Flight 1340 – a
Douglas DC-9-31 (registration N8925E) with 73 people on board operating a shuttle service from
Newark,
New Jersey, to
Boston,
Massachusetts – John DiVivo pulls out .38-caliber
revolver and orders the pilot to "just fly east until we run out of gas." After about 15 minutes, the
captain convinces DiVivo that the airliner will crash into the
Atlantic Ocean soon if it does not refuel. Although DiVivo approves a refueling stop, he shoots both pilots when they start to turn the plane. A struggle ensues in the
cockpit, during which the mortally wounded copilot knocks the revolver from DiVivo's hand and the captain, despite serious wounds in both arms, picks it up and shoots DiVivo in the chest. The captain then lands the DC-9 at
Logan International Airport in Boston, where DiVivo is arrested. The copilot is the first pilot killed in a U.S. hijacking. DiVivo
hangs himself in his jail cell on October 31.[39][40]
April 4 – After the crew of Aeroflot Flight 2903, an
Ilyushin Il-14P (registration CCCP-52002), notices that they are low on approach in poor visibility to
Zaporozhye Airport at
Zaporozhye in the Soviet Union's
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and initiates a
go-around at an altitude of 40 meters (130 feet), the airliner's right
wing strikes the ground during a turn and the plane crashes, killing seven of the 35 people on board.[47]
April 22 – Twenty-six-year-old Ira David "Orrie" Meeks and his 17-year-old girlfriend hire pilot Boyce Stradley to take them on a sightseeing flight in a
Cessna 172 over
Gastonia,
North Carolina, during which Meeks pulls a gun on Stradley and orders him to fly them to Cuba so that Meeks can "get away from
racism in the
United States." During the 11-hour trip to Havana, Cuba, the plane makes refueling stops at
Rock Hill,
South Carolina,
Jacksonville,
Florida (where Meeks requests but is denied a bottle of
Scotch whisky), and
Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Upon arrival in Cuba, Meeks and his girlfriend are arrested, and Stradley flies back to a hero's welcome in Gastonia.[53]
B-52 Stratofortress strikes and helicopter assaults against North Vietnamese forces are part of the first day of the American and South Vietnamese
invasion of
Cambodia.[58] The last U.S. Army helicopter will not leave Cambodia until June 29.[59]
A hijacker seizes control of a
VASPBoeing 737-200 during a domestic flight in
Brazil from
Brasilia to
Manaus and demands to be flown to Cuba. Instead the airliner diverts first to
Guyana and then to Curaçao.[64]
U.S.
PresidentRichard Nixon signs the
Airport and Airway Development Act of 1970 and the Airport and Airway Revenue Act. The acts are meant to fill funding gaps in the U.S. airport and airway system, which had become inadequate due to the rapid growth of aviation, with new aviation-related
excise taxes, including a tax on
aviation fuels, a tax placed on tickets sold to passengers on domestic and international flights, a tax on
waybills, and a new tax on
aircraft registration. The new taxes are expected to provide
US$11,000,000,000 to the
Airport and Airway Trust Fund in order to pay for airport development, as well as "acquiring, establishing, and improving air navigational facilities."
May 24 – A hijacker commandeers a
Mexicana Boeing 727 during a domestic flight in
Mexico from
Mérida to
Mexico City with 79 people on board, and forces it to fly to
Havana, Cuba.[66]
May 30 – Seven hijackers commandeer an Avianca
Hawker Siddeley HS 748-245 Series 2A (registration HK-1408) during a domestic flight in Colombia from
Bogotá to
Bucaramanga with 42 people on board and demand that it fly them to Cuba. The airliner stops at Barranquilla, Colombia, to refuel before proceeding to Havana, Cuba.[69]
June 4 – Angry over the refusal of the
United States Supreme Court to hear his case in a dispute with the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service which had begun in 1963, Arthur Gates Barkley walks into the
cockpit of
Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 486 – a
Boeing 727 flying from
Phoenix,
Arizona, to
Washington National Airport in
Arlingtnn,
Virginia – armed with a .22-caliber
pistol, a
straight razor, and a can of
gasoline (petrol), and threatens to set the plane and its passengers on fire if $100 million is not taken from the Supreme Court's budget and given to him, the first time that an American airline hijacker has demanded a ransom. He forces the airliner to land at
Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, where TWA gives him $100,750 in the hope that he will accept the smaller amount. Enraged at the small amount, Barkley orders the plane to take off and sends a message of complaint addressed directly to
PresidentRichard Nixon. During the next two hours, while the plane circles the airport, Barkley makes numerous suicidal threats, and TWA turns the matter over to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which talks Barkley into returning to the airport to collect the rest of his ransom. When the plane lands, Barkley finds the runway lined with 100 sacks supposedly containing $1 million each but actually containing scraps of paper, and an FBI
sniper shoots out the plane's
landing gear. A panicked passenger opens an emergency exit, and the rest of the passengers follow him out of the plane while FBI agents storm it, engage in a gun battle with Barkley in which Barkley and the copilot are wounded, ad arrest Barkley.[71]
June 9 – Two armed passengers attempt to hijack a LOT Polish Airlines airliner making a domestic flight in Poland from
Katowice to
Warsaw and divert it to
Vienna,
Austria, but they are overpowered and the flight continues to Warsaw.[74]
Two passengers hijack an
AviancaBoeing 737-159 (registration HK-1403) on a domestic flight in
Colombia from
Cúcuta to
Bogotá with 92 people on board and demand to be flown to
Cuba. The airliner makes refueling stops at Bogotá and
Barranquilla, Colombia, before proceeding to
Havana, Cuba.[78]
At
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, four hijackers take control of a
Cruzeiro do SulSud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VIN (registration PP-PDX) with 31 people on board preparing to depart for a domestic flight to
São Paulo and demand the release of prisoners and to be flown to Cuba. Security forces storm the airliner and arrest the hijackers.[80]
July 5 – While landing,
Air Canada Flight 621, a
Douglas DC-8-63, hits the runway at
Toronto International Airport in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada, with such force that its number four engine and pylon break off the right
wing. The pilot manages to lift off again for a
go around, but a series of explosions in the right wing break off the number three engine and pylon and then destroy most of the wing before the pilot can make a second landing attempt. The plane crashes in
Brampton, Ontario, killing all 109 people on board.
George Hardin, a 20-year-old
United States Armyprivate who no longer wishes to fight in the
Vietnam War, puts a knife to the throat of the pilot of an
Air VietnamDouglas DC-4 during a domestic flight in
South Vietnam from
Pleiku to
Saigon and demands to be flown to
Hong Kong. The pilot insists on a refueling stop at Saigon, where South Vietnamese police surround the airliner. Hardin releases all the passengers, keeping the pilot and
flight engineer as hostages, but the flight engineer jumps out of a hatch onto the
tarmac and escapes. After two hours of negotiations, Hardin surrenders. In
August, he will escape from custody and attempt to hijack a
United States Air ForceC-141 Starlifter.[84][85]
Six Palestinian commandos
hijack Olympic Airways Flight 255, a
Boeing 727, during a flight from Beirut, Lebanon, to
Athens,
Greece, demanding the immediate release of seven
Arabterrorists from Greek prisons and threatening to blow up the plane if their demands are not met. The airliner lands at Athens, where its passengers are released, then flies to
Cairo,
Egypt.[86]
July 28 – A hijacker commandeers an
Aerolineas ArgentinasBoeing 737-287 (registration LV-JMX) with 49 people on board making a domestic flight in
Argentina from
Salta to
Buenos Aires, demanding to be flown to Cuba. The plane lands at
Córdoba, Argentina, where the hijacker surrenders.[88]
August 3 – A 28-year-old male passenger aboard Pan American World Airways Flight 742, a
Boeing 727 flying from
Munich,
West Germany, to
West Berlin with 125 people on board, pulls out a gun and demands to be flown to
Hungary. The airliner continues to West Berlin and lands at
Berlin Tempelhof Airport, where police arrest the hijacker.[92]
August 11 – George Hardin, a 20-year-old
United States Armyprivate who no longer wishes to fight in the
Vietnam War and a fugitive since August 9, when he had escaped from custody in
South Vietnam after being arrested in
July at
Saigon for hijacking an
Air Vietnam airliner, boards a
United States Air ForceC-141 Starlifter at
Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam armed with an
M16 rifle and orders the plane's six crewmen to fly him to
Da Nang, South Vietnam. Several of the plane's crewmen overpower Hardin, his M16 firing 16 rounds into the C-141's bulkhead before they subdue him.[85]
Brandishing a toy
pistol, 24-year-old Sachio Inagaki, suicidal over breaking up with his girlfriend, takes control of an
All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 during a domestic flight in
Japan from
Nagoya to
Sapporo, planning to exchange the passengers for a
rifle and then to use it commit a spectacular public suicide. The airliner diverts to the
Japan Air Self-Defense Force′s
Hamamatsu Air Base, where 72 Japanese military security personnel surround it. After two hours of negotiations, a pregnant passenger feigns labor pains, and when Inagaki opens a door to let her off the plane, a police officer rushes aboard and overpowers and arrests him.[96][97]
Five hijackers force a LOT Polish Airlines Ilyushin Il-14 making a domestic flight in Poland from
Gdańsk to
Warsaw to fly them to
Bornholm,
Denmark.[98]
August 20 – On an
unauthorized absence from the
United States Marine Corps and saying he faced
racist insults while undergoing Marine Corps training, 20-year-old Gregory Graves claims to have several sticks of
dynamite in what is actually his empty
briefcase aboard
Delta Air Lines Flight 435 – a
Douglas DC-9 with 82 people on board flying from
Atlanta to
Savannah,
Georgia – and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba, where he believes he will find racial harmony. He will be imprisoned under harsh conditions in Cuba, not finally leaving the island until 1975.[100][101]
Wearing his
United States Army uniform aboard
Trans World Airlines Flight 134 – a Boeing 727 with 86 people on board flying from
Chicago,
Illinois, to
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania – 27-year-old
Vietnam War veteran Robert Labadie enters the
cockpit while the plane is passing over
Fort Wayne,
Indiana, and orders the pilot to fly him to Cuba, saying that he will signal an accomplice to detonate a bomb if the flight crew does not comply. He never says another word for the rest of the flight, and is arrested by Cuban authorities upon arrival in Havana. On September 24, Cuba will permit U.S. officials to escort Labadie from Havana back to the
United States, the first time that a U.S. aircraft hijacker in Cuba is extradited in such a manner.[103][104]
August 26 – Three hijackers demand that a LOT Polish Airlines Antonov An-24 departing Katowice for Warsaw, Poland, take them to Austria.[105]
August 29 – An
Indian Airlines Fokker F-27 Friendship 400 (registration VT-DWT) strikes a hill and crashes just after takeoff from
Silchar Airport in
Silchar,
India, killing all 39 people on board.[106]
Descending to land at
Leninabad in the Soviet Union's
Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, an Aeroflot
Yakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87690) crashes at an altitude of 2,100 meters (6,900 feet) into the side of 2,300-meter (7,500-foot) Mount Airy-Tash, 90 km (56 mi) northeast of Leninabad, killing all 21 people on board. At the time, it is the deadliest accident in history involving a Yak-40 and the deadliest aviation accident in the history of
Tajikistan.[110]
Flying the Catbird, a radio-controlled model airplane of his own design,
Maynard L. Hill sets a new world record recognized by the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for gain in altitude by a radio-controlled airplane. Launched by hand from the
Naval Weapons Laboratory airfield at
Dahlgren,
Virginia, Catbird climbs for 43 minutes and reaches an altitude of 8,205 meters (26,919 feet) before returning to earth in a 20-minute dive and landing 10 meters (33 feet) from its launch point.[111]
September 9 – To pressure British authorities into releasing
Leila Khaled, a PFLP sympathizer hijacks
BOAC Flight 775, a
Vickers VC10 flying from
Bahrain to Beirut with 114 people on board, and forces it to land at Dawson's Field in Jordan.
September 10 – Three hijackers seize control of n Egyptian airliner scheduled to fly from Beirut, Lebanon, to Cairo, Egypt, but are subdued.[112]
September 11 –
U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon orders the immediate deployment of armed federal agents aboard U.S. commercial aircraft to combat hijackings.
September 12
After removing all hostages from them, PFLP members use explosives to destroy the four empty airliners at Dawson's Creek and Cairo hijacked on September 6 and 9. By September 30, all hostages from the four planes will be recovered unharmed.
A hijacker commandeers an Egyptian airliner scheduled to fly from
Tripoli,
Libya, to Cairo, Egypt, but is subdued.[113]
Over
Salinas,
California, Donald Irwin, armed with a
starting pistol, hijacks Trans World Airlines Flight 15, a Boeing 707 flying from
Los Angeles to
San Francisco, California, with 63 people on board, demanding to be flown to
North Korea. The pilot convinces him that the airliner needs to stop at San Francisco to refuel. After the plane lands at
San Francisco International Airport, Irwin releases 35 passengers.
Brink's security guard Robert DeNisco, aboard the airliner as a passenger to protect a shipment of cash the plane is carrying, then draws a .38-caliber handgun and shoots Irwin in the stomach. The wounded Irwin is arrested.[115][116]
September 16 – Armed with a gun and a
dagger, a passenger hijacks a
United Arab AirlinesAntonov An-24 during a domestic flight in Egypt from
Luxor to Cairo and demands to be flown to
Saudi Arabia. A security guard aboard the plane overpowers him.[117]
September 19 – Shortly after
Allegheny Airlines Flight 730 – a
Boeing 727 with 98 people on board – takes off from
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, for a flight to
Boston,
Massachusetts, 19-year-old Richard Witt, puts a gun to the throat of a stewardess and demands to be flown to
Cairo,
Egypt, claiming he has a homemade bomb and a bottle of
nitroglycerine and saying he is a
Marxist who hates
Jews and wants to help
Palestinian guerrillas fight them. The airliner lands at
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, where Witt releases its 90 passengers – among them
professional wrestler Charlie "
Professor Toru Tanaka" Kalani Jr. – and the flight crew talks him out of going to Cairo because the plane lacks the range and flight charts needed to get there. Witt decides he wants to go to
Havana, Cuba, instead. During the one-hour stop in Philadelphia, police smuggle a gun to the flight crew, but they decline to use it for fear that Witt will shoot the stewardess or detonate his bomb. The plane takes off and flies to Havana, where Witt disembarks and is imprisoned by Cuban authorities. The airliner then flies to
Miami,
Florida. Witt will return to the United States in 1978.[118][119][120]
October 28 – The U.S. Air Force completes
Operation Fig Hill, an airlift begun on September 27 to bring medical personnel, equipment, and supplies to
Jordan in the aftermath of combat between the country's armed forces and the
Palestine Liberation Organization. During the airlift, transport aircraft have delivered 200 medical personnel, two
field hospitals, and 186
short tons (169
metric tons) of supplies, equipment, vehicles, tents, and food.[127]
Trans World Airlines introduces "Business Class Ambassador Service" featuring "twin-seat" accommodations on transcontinental flights in the
United States, marketing the new service as "a whole new way to fly."[27]
A husband and wife carrying 3 liters (3.2 U.S. quarts; 2.6 Imperial quarts) of
gasoline (petrol) and 5 liters (5.3 U.S. quarts; 4.4 Imperial quarts) of
kerosene hijack an
AeroflotIlyushin Il-14M 20 minutes after takeoff from
Kaunas for a domestic flight in the
Soviet Union to
Palanga with 42 people on board. They pour the gasoline and kerosene on the floor of the cabin and
cockpit and threaten to ignite it if the airliner does not fly them to
Gotland,
Sweden. The flight crew overpowers them and the airliner lands safely at Palanga.[130]
In
Operation Ivory Coast, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army assault the North Vietnamese prison camp at
Son Tay, North Vietnam, to free
prisoners-of-war thought to be there, supported by 59 U.S. Navy and 57 U.S. Air Force aircraft, 28 of them directly assigned to the immediate assault area. No prisoners are found at the camp, but the attackers kill 42 North Vietnamese guards in exchange for two Americans injured and one
HH-3E Jolly Green helicopter deliberately crash-landed in the prison courtyard and left behind. Large air raids are conducted over the night of November 20–21 to divert North Vietnamese attention from the assault, including the largest U.S. Navy night aircraft carrier operation of the Vietnam War; one U.S. Air Force
F-105 Thunderchief is shot down during these raids, but its crew ejects safely.[29]
American aircraft begin the first major bombing campaign over
North Vietnam since
1968, as 300 aircraft attack the
Mu Gia and
Ban Gari passes.
November 29 – Carrying troops, a U.S. Air Force C-123K Provider descending in thick cloud on approach to
Cam Ranh Airport in South Vietnam strikes high ground at an altitude of 2,700 feet (820 meters) and crashes into the jungle, killing 42 of the 44 people on board.[134]
U.S. Air Force
C-130 Hercules and
C-141 Starlifter transports complete an airlift begun November 18 to bring relief supplies and equipment to
East Pakistan after the devastating
1970 Bhola cyclone. The aircraft have delivered a total of 140
short tons (127
metric tons) of supplies and equipment, some of them making flights of almost 10,000 miles (16,000 km).[127]
The
Hague Hijacking Convention, formally the "Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft," is adopted by the International Conference on Air Law at
The Hague in the
Netherlands. It requires signatory countries to prohibit and punish the
hijacking of civilian aircraft in situations in which an aircraft takes off or lands in a place different from its country of registration. It also establishes the principle of aut dedere aut judicare, which holds that a party to the convention must prosecute an aircraft hijacker if no other state requests his or her extradition for prosecution of the same crime. It will go into effect on
October 14, 1971.
December 19
Forty minutes after a
Soviet Air ForceAntonov An-22 (
NATO reporting name "Cock") (registration CCCP-09305) takes off from
Dacca, East Pakistan, one of its propellers disintegrates at an altitude of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet). Its crew initiates an emergency descent and attempts an emergency landing at
Panagarh Airport in
Panagarh,
India, but cannot get the
landing gear or
flaps down. After flying down the runway for 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) at an altitude of 1 meter (3.3 feet), the An-22 banks right, its right wing strikes the ground, and it crashes, breaks up, and catches fire. All 17 people on board die.[138]
As
Continental Airlines Flight 144 – a
Douglas DC-9 with 30 people on board making a flight from
Denver,
Colorado, to
Wichita,
Kansas – is flying somewhere between
Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and Wichita, passenger Calos Denis passes a note to a stewardess indicating that he has a gun and wants to be flown to Cuba. When the
captain asks if the passengers can disembark during a refueling stop at Tulsa, Denis agrees. After the other 26 passengers disembark at
Tulsa International Airport, the crew sneaks off the plane while Denis uses the
lavatory.
Tulsa police then board the airliner, find Denis hiding in the lavatory, and arrest him. He turns out to be unarmed.[139][140]
December 30 – The Grumman YF-14A, prototype of the
F-14 Tomcat, is destroyed in a crash during its second flight due to
hydraulic failure. Its two-man crew
ejects and
parachutes safely.[142]
^
abcdNichols, John B.; Tillman, Barrett (1987). On Yankee station the naval air war over Vietnam. Naval Institute Press. p. 158.
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9.
^Miskimon, Christopher, "Weapons: The AC-47 Gunship Proved the Concept of the Aerial Gunship As a Close-Support Weapon in the Skies Over Vietnam," Military Heritage, November 2015, pp. 17-18.