This is a list of aviation-related events from 2001.
Events
January
January 10 –
Trans World Airlines (TWA) and
American Airlines announce that they have agreed to merge, with American acquiring almost all the assets of TWA, consisting at the time of 190 aircraft, about 800 daily flights, 20,000 employees, numerous routes and gates, and substantial maintenance facilities. Under the agreement, American is to employ almost all of TWA's employees and maintain
St. Louis,
Missouri as a major air hub.[1] The merger will be completed in
December.[1]
January 31 – Two
Japan Air Lines airliners – a
Boeing 747-446 operating as Flight 907 and a
Douglas DC-10-40D operating as Flight 958 –
nearly collide over
Suruga Bay,
Japan, passing within 100 meters (330 feet) of one another. Aboard the 747, a hundred people are injured when the aircraft takes violent evasive action. Had the two planes collided, with a combined 677 people on board, it would have been the worst aviation disaster in history.
February
February 1 – Aer Lingus Commuter, a subsidiary of
Aer Lingus founded in 1984, merges into Aer Lingus.
February 16 – American and British aircraft launch attacks against six targets in southern
Iraq, including command centers, radars, and communications centers, hitting only about 40% of the targets.[2] Incidents of planes enforcing the
no-fly zone over southern Iraq in
Operation Southern Watch thereafter exchange fire with Iraqi air defense sites on a weekly basis.
March 11 – A Russian flight is hijacked and flown to Medina airport. There, after negotiations fail, Saudi special forces storm the aircraft, inadvertently killed a flight attendant and another passenger. One hijacker is dead and the other two are arrested.[3]
The
Republic of China places the
Aviation Safety Council, formerly an independent government agency responsible for aviation accident investigation with the purpose of analyzing causal factors and proposing flight safety recommendations in
Taiwan, under the control of the
Executive Yuan.
On the 1st of August, a Saudi Airlines 747 is going from the maintenance area to the passenger terminal at
KLIA, when the crew lose control of the aircraft. It goes into a ditch and it sustains a lot of damage. The aircraft is written off. [6]
August 13 – On a single flight, the
NASA Helios Prototype sets the absolute world record for altitude by an
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the world record for altitude for sustained flight by a winged aircraft, reaching 29,524 meters (96,864 feet). It spends 40 minutes flying above 96,000 feet (29,000 meters).
August 29 – Piloting a
Bell 47G helicopter on a solo training flight for a helicopter
pilot's license,
Australian singer and television presenter
Graeme "Shirley" Strachan strays from the course laid out by his flight instructor and encounters severe turbulence that causes the helicopter's rotor to sever its tailboom. The helicopter crashes on a rugged mountainside near Australia's
Mount Archer in
Queensland, killing him.[4]
British Airways drops its controversial
ethnic tailfins, which it had first adopted in 1997. It had initially slowed the process of adopting the tailfins in 1999; finally Chief Executive
Rod Eddington decides that all aircraft will be painted with the new
Union Flag livery, which had been one of the "ethnic" designs.
November 19 – The
Transportation Security Administration, a component of the
United States Department of Transportation, begins operation. It has broad responsibilities for and powers related to ensuring the safety of the traveling public in the United States, but the bulk of its efforts are devoted to
civil aviation, most notably the screening of passengers and baggage at over 450 airports in the United States.
November 24 – On approach to
Zurich-Kloten Airport in
Kloten near
Zürich,
Switzerland, in rain, snow, and poor visibility due to low clouds,
Crossair Flight 3597, an
Avro RJ100 (registration HB-IXM), crashes into a wooded range of hills near the small town of
Bassersdorf about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) short of the runway, where it breaks apart and bursts into flames, killing 24 of the 33 people on board.
Melanie Thornton, the lead singer of the Eurodance group
La Bouche, and singers Nathaly(i.e.) van het Ende and Maria Serrano Serrano of the German pop music group
Passion Fruit are among the dead.[4] Singer Debby St. Maarten of Passion Fruit survives with severe injuries.
December 23 – During the 75-day period since
7 October, American aircraft have conducted 6,500 airstrikes in
Afghanistan, dropping 17,500 munitions.[12]
2001 remains the deadliest year for aviation in history. The
September 11 attacks marked the deadliest ever act of terrorism; an estimated 2,977 people were killed along with the 19 hijackers who commandeered four aircraft in the
United States and crashed them into targets including the
World Trade Center in
New York City,
The Pentagon in
Washington, D.C., and in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Alongside the attacks, which changed aviation significantly in following years, there were many notable accidents both before and after September 11 that have left a lasting impact on the industry. The deadliest such crash took place when
American Airlines Flight 11, the first aircraft hijacked in the September 11 attacks, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing all 92 people on board and at least 1,600 in the North Tower. The deadliest non-terrorist crash took place
American Airlines Flight 587, an
Airbus A300, crashed in
Belle Harbor, Queens, shortly after taking off from
John F. Kennedy International Airport on 12 November, two months and a mere few miles from the main site of the 9/11 attacks, killing all 260 people on board, as well as five on the ground. As 9/11 was a terrorist attack, Flight 587 is also the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the
2000s decade.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 2001.
Events
January
January 10 –
Trans World Airlines (TWA) and
American Airlines announce that they have agreed to merge, with American acquiring almost all the assets of TWA, consisting at the time of 190 aircraft, about 800 daily flights, 20,000 employees, numerous routes and gates, and substantial maintenance facilities. Under the agreement, American is to employ almost all of TWA's employees and maintain
St. Louis,
Missouri as a major air hub.[1] The merger will be completed in
December.[1]
January 31 – Two
Japan Air Lines airliners – a
Boeing 747-446 operating as Flight 907 and a
Douglas DC-10-40D operating as Flight 958 –
nearly collide over
Suruga Bay,
Japan, passing within 100 meters (330 feet) of one another. Aboard the 747, a hundred people are injured when the aircraft takes violent evasive action. Had the two planes collided, with a combined 677 people on board, it would have been the worst aviation disaster in history.
February
February 1 – Aer Lingus Commuter, a subsidiary of
Aer Lingus founded in 1984, merges into Aer Lingus.
February 16 – American and British aircraft launch attacks against six targets in southern
Iraq, including command centers, radars, and communications centers, hitting only about 40% of the targets.[2] Incidents of planes enforcing the
no-fly zone over southern Iraq in
Operation Southern Watch thereafter exchange fire with Iraqi air defense sites on a weekly basis.
March 11 – A Russian flight is hijacked and flown to Medina airport. There, after negotiations fail, Saudi special forces storm the aircraft, inadvertently killed a flight attendant and another passenger. One hijacker is dead and the other two are arrested.[3]
The
Republic of China places the
Aviation Safety Council, formerly an independent government agency responsible for aviation accident investigation with the purpose of analyzing causal factors and proposing flight safety recommendations in
Taiwan, under the control of the
Executive Yuan.
On the 1st of August, a Saudi Airlines 747 is going from the maintenance area to the passenger terminal at
KLIA, when the crew lose control of the aircraft. It goes into a ditch and it sustains a lot of damage. The aircraft is written off. [6]
August 13 – On a single flight, the
NASA Helios Prototype sets the absolute world record for altitude by an
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the world record for altitude for sustained flight by a winged aircraft, reaching 29,524 meters (96,864 feet). It spends 40 minutes flying above 96,000 feet (29,000 meters).
August 29 – Piloting a
Bell 47G helicopter on a solo training flight for a helicopter
pilot's license,
Australian singer and television presenter
Graeme "Shirley" Strachan strays from the course laid out by his flight instructor and encounters severe turbulence that causes the helicopter's rotor to sever its tailboom. The helicopter crashes on a rugged mountainside near Australia's
Mount Archer in
Queensland, killing him.[4]
British Airways drops its controversial
ethnic tailfins, which it had first adopted in 1997. It had initially slowed the process of adopting the tailfins in 1999; finally Chief Executive
Rod Eddington decides that all aircraft will be painted with the new
Union Flag livery, which had been one of the "ethnic" designs.
November 19 – The
Transportation Security Administration, a component of the
United States Department of Transportation, begins operation. It has broad responsibilities for and powers related to ensuring the safety of the traveling public in the United States, but the bulk of its efforts are devoted to
civil aviation, most notably the screening of passengers and baggage at over 450 airports in the United States.
November 24 – On approach to
Zurich-Kloten Airport in
Kloten near
Zürich,
Switzerland, in rain, snow, and poor visibility due to low clouds,
Crossair Flight 3597, an
Avro RJ100 (registration HB-IXM), crashes into a wooded range of hills near the small town of
Bassersdorf about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) short of the runway, where it breaks apart and bursts into flames, killing 24 of the 33 people on board.
Melanie Thornton, the lead singer of the Eurodance group
La Bouche, and singers Nathaly(i.e.) van het Ende and Maria Serrano Serrano of the German pop music group
Passion Fruit are among the dead.[4] Singer Debby St. Maarten of Passion Fruit survives with severe injuries.
December 23 – During the 75-day period since
7 October, American aircraft have conducted 6,500 airstrikes in
Afghanistan, dropping 17,500 munitions.[12]
2001 remains the deadliest year for aviation in history. The
September 11 attacks marked the deadliest ever act of terrorism; an estimated 2,977 people were killed along with the 19 hijackers who commandeered four aircraft in the
United States and crashed them into targets including the
World Trade Center in
New York City,
The Pentagon in
Washington, D.C., and in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Alongside the attacks, which changed aviation significantly in following years, there were many notable accidents both before and after September 11 that have left a lasting impact on the industry. The deadliest such crash took place when
American Airlines Flight 11, the first aircraft hijacked in the September 11 attacks, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing all 92 people on board and at least 1,600 in the North Tower. The deadliest non-terrorist crash took place
American Airlines Flight 587, an
Airbus A300, crashed in
Belle Harbor, Queens, shortly after taking off from
John F. Kennedy International Airport on 12 November, two months and a mere few miles from the main site of the 9/11 attacks, killing all 260 people on board, as well as five on the ground. As 9/11 was a terrorist attack, Flight 587 is also the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the
2000s decade.