The flight operations of
Lauda Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Austrian Airlines, merge with those of Austrian Airlines. The brand "Lauda Air" survives for charter flights operated by the Austrian Airlines Group.
January
18 January – The world's largest passenger plane, the
Airbus A380, is unveiled in an elaborate ceremony in
France.
29 January – Nonstop flights between
mainland China and
Taiwan take off for the first time since 1949.
5 March –
Steve Fossett completes the first non-stop, solo circumnavigation of the world in the
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, completing the trip in 67 hours and 2 minutes.
16 March –
Regional Airlines Flight 9288, an
Antonov An-24RV (
NATO reporting name "Coke") carrying oil workers on a non-scheduled passenger flight, crashes five kilometers (3.1 miles) from the runway while on approach to
Varandey Airport in
Nenetskiy Avtonomnyy Okrug,
Russia, after the crew allows the aircraft's speed to drop and nose to rise until it
stalls. The plane strikes a hill, crashes, and burns, killing 28 of the 52 people aboard (26 of the 45 passengers and two of the seven crew members). Malfunctioning airspeed and angle-of-attack indicators may have contributed to the crash.
17 March – A judge finds millionaire Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of conspiracy and murder in the 1985
Air India bombing that killed 329 people.
14 April – Flying a
Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil at
Istres,
France, French pilot
Didier Delsalle, a
Eurocoptertest pilot, sets three time-to-climb records for helicopters in the take-off-weight class of 1,000 to 1,750 kg (2,200 to 3,860 lb), climbing to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) in 2 minutes 21 seconds,[1] to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) in 5 minutes 6 seconds,[2] and to 9,000 meters (30,000 feet) in 9 minutes 26 seconds,[3]
21 April –
Oneworld becomes the first
airline alliance to enable its customers to fly throughout its members' network on
electronic tickets only, with the completion of
interline electronic ticketing (IET) links between all its member airlines.[5]
27 April – The
Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its maiden flight.[6]
14 May – The first helicopter landing on the summit of
Mount Everest takes place, as French pilot
Didier Delsalle, a
Eurocopter test pilot, lands an unmodified
Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopter there at an altitude of 29,030 feet (8,850 meters) in 75-mph (121-km/h) winds.[8] The landing and takeoff set the world records for the highest helicopter landing and takeoff[9] in history. He repeats the feat following day.
9 June – After
air traffic controllers at
Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, give them clearance to take off simultaneously on intersecting runways,
US Airways Flight 1170, a
Boeing 737-3B7 with 109 people on board, and
Aer Lingus Flight 132, an
Airbus A330-301 with 272 people on board,
nearly collide on takeoff. Disaster is averted when the US Airways
first officer sees the approaching A330, realizes the aircraft could collide if they both become airborne, and pushes the control column forward to keep the 737 on the ground until the A330 passes 170 feet (52 m) overhead. The 381 people on the two planes suffer no injuries.
17 June – The
CarterCopter becomes the first rotorcraft to achieve mu-1 (μ=1), an equal ratio of airspeed to rotor tip speed, but it is badly damaged in a crash during a subsequent flight on the same day.
2–3 July –
Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreate the first direct crossing of the Atlantic by the British team of
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown on 14 June 1919 in a
Vickers Vimy biplane.
2 August –
Air France Flight 358, an
Airbus A340-300 with 309 people on board, bursts into flames after skidding off the end of a runway after landing at
Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The plane comes to a stop next to Highway 401. Everyone on board survives, although 43 are injured.
16 August –
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating on a
charter flight,
stalls at an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) and crashes near
Machiques in the mountains of northwestern
Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. It is the deadliest air disaster in the history of Venezuela, the deadliest involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, and the third-deadliest involving an aircraft of the
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series. It will turn out to be the deadliest aviation accident of 2005.
23 August – Attempting a landing in high winds and torrential rain at
Pucallpa Airport in
Pucallpa,
Peru,
TANS Peru Flight 204, a
Boeing 737-244 Advanced, strikes tree tops and crashes in a swamp, killing 40 of the 98 people on board. Looters steal parts of the wreckage to sell for scrap.
1 September –
Norway's Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation and Railways –takes on the responsibility for the investigation of road accidents in Norway and is renamed the
Accident Investigation Board Norway.
5 September –
Mandala Airlines Flight 091,
Boeing 737-2Q3Adv with 117 people on board, crashes into a heavily populated residential area seconds after taking off from
Polonia International Airport in
Medan,
Indonesia, destroying dozens of houses and cars. The crash is the third deadliest in Indonesian history, killing 100 people aboard the airliner and 49 people on the ground. It injures the 17 survivors aboard the plane and 26 people on the ground. The governor of
North Sumatra,
Rizal Nurdin, and the former governor,
Raja Inal Siregar, are among the dead.
6 October – A small plane carrying cargo for
FedEx, including six vials of research
viruses, crashes in downtown
Winnipeg,
Manitoba,
Canada. The only person on board, the female pilot, is killed, but there are no injuries on the ground.
26 November – Launching from
Mumbai,
India, 67-year-old Indian aviator
Vijaypat Singhania sets a new world altitude record for
hot-air balloons, reaching 21,027 meters (68,986 feet) during a flight of about five hours in a
Cameron Z-1600 balloon.[16][17]
28 November –
Boeing makes its last delivery of a
Boeing 757 airliner, and
Shanghai Airlines becomes the last customer to take delivery of one. Boeing had ceased production of the 757 in
October 2004 after manufacturing 1,050 of the aircraft for 54 customers.
7 December – Indian Airlines rebrands itself as
Indian.
8 December – While landing in a
snowstorm at
Chicago Midway International Airport in
Chicago,
Illinois,
Southwest Airlines Flight 1248, a
Boeing 737-7H4 with 103 people on board, goes into a skid on the runway. Its nose gear collapses, and it crashes through a barrier and comes to rest on a road crowded with automobile traffic, striking three cars. The accident kills a six-year-old boy in one of the cars and injures nine other people on the ground and three people aboard the aircraft.
The deadliest crash of this year was
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 which crashed near
Machiques,
Venezuela on 16 August, killing all 160 people on board. This particular accident took place in August 2005, which is one of the deadliest months in aviation to date, in which 351 people were killed in six major accidents.
The flight operations of
Lauda Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Austrian Airlines, merge with those of Austrian Airlines. The brand "Lauda Air" survives for charter flights operated by the Austrian Airlines Group.
January
18 January – The world's largest passenger plane, the
Airbus A380, is unveiled in an elaborate ceremony in
France.
29 January – Nonstop flights between
mainland China and
Taiwan take off for the first time since 1949.
5 March –
Steve Fossett completes the first non-stop, solo circumnavigation of the world in the
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, completing the trip in 67 hours and 2 minutes.
16 March –
Regional Airlines Flight 9288, an
Antonov An-24RV (
NATO reporting name "Coke") carrying oil workers on a non-scheduled passenger flight, crashes five kilometers (3.1 miles) from the runway while on approach to
Varandey Airport in
Nenetskiy Avtonomnyy Okrug,
Russia, after the crew allows the aircraft's speed to drop and nose to rise until it
stalls. The plane strikes a hill, crashes, and burns, killing 28 of the 52 people aboard (26 of the 45 passengers and two of the seven crew members). Malfunctioning airspeed and angle-of-attack indicators may have contributed to the crash.
17 March – A judge finds millionaire Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of conspiracy and murder in the 1985
Air India bombing that killed 329 people.
14 April – Flying a
Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil at
Istres,
France, French pilot
Didier Delsalle, a
Eurocoptertest pilot, sets three time-to-climb records for helicopters in the take-off-weight class of 1,000 to 1,750 kg (2,200 to 3,860 lb), climbing to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) in 2 minutes 21 seconds,[1] to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) in 5 minutes 6 seconds,[2] and to 9,000 meters (30,000 feet) in 9 minutes 26 seconds,[3]
21 April –
Oneworld becomes the first
airline alliance to enable its customers to fly throughout its members' network on
electronic tickets only, with the completion of
interline electronic ticketing (IET) links between all its member airlines.[5]
27 April – The
Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its maiden flight.[6]
14 May – The first helicopter landing on the summit of
Mount Everest takes place, as French pilot
Didier Delsalle, a
Eurocopter test pilot, lands an unmodified
Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopter there at an altitude of 29,030 feet (8,850 meters) in 75-mph (121-km/h) winds.[8] The landing and takeoff set the world records for the highest helicopter landing and takeoff[9] in history. He repeats the feat following day.
9 June – After
air traffic controllers at
Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, give them clearance to take off simultaneously on intersecting runways,
US Airways Flight 1170, a
Boeing 737-3B7 with 109 people on board, and
Aer Lingus Flight 132, an
Airbus A330-301 with 272 people on board,
nearly collide on takeoff. Disaster is averted when the US Airways
first officer sees the approaching A330, realizes the aircraft could collide if they both become airborne, and pushes the control column forward to keep the 737 on the ground until the A330 passes 170 feet (52 m) overhead. The 381 people on the two planes suffer no injuries.
17 June – The
CarterCopter becomes the first rotorcraft to achieve mu-1 (μ=1), an equal ratio of airspeed to rotor tip speed, but it is badly damaged in a crash during a subsequent flight on the same day.
2–3 July –
Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreate the first direct crossing of the Atlantic by the British team of
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown on 14 June 1919 in a
Vickers Vimy biplane.
2 August –
Air France Flight 358, an
Airbus A340-300 with 309 people on board, bursts into flames after skidding off the end of a runway after landing at
Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The plane comes to a stop next to Highway 401. Everyone on board survives, although 43 are injured.
16 August –
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating on a
charter flight,
stalls at an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) and crashes near
Machiques in the mountains of northwestern
Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. It is the deadliest air disaster in the history of Venezuela, the deadliest involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, and the third-deadliest involving an aircraft of the
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series. It will turn out to be the deadliest aviation accident of 2005.
23 August – Attempting a landing in high winds and torrential rain at
Pucallpa Airport in
Pucallpa,
Peru,
TANS Peru Flight 204, a
Boeing 737-244 Advanced, strikes tree tops and crashes in a swamp, killing 40 of the 98 people on board. Looters steal parts of the wreckage to sell for scrap.
1 September –
Norway's Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation and Railways –takes on the responsibility for the investigation of road accidents in Norway and is renamed the
Accident Investigation Board Norway.
5 September –
Mandala Airlines Flight 091,
Boeing 737-2Q3Adv with 117 people on board, crashes into a heavily populated residential area seconds after taking off from
Polonia International Airport in
Medan,
Indonesia, destroying dozens of houses and cars. The crash is the third deadliest in Indonesian history, killing 100 people aboard the airliner and 49 people on the ground. It injures the 17 survivors aboard the plane and 26 people on the ground. The governor of
North Sumatra,
Rizal Nurdin, and the former governor,
Raja Inal Siregar, are among the dead.
6 October – A small plane carrying cargo for
FedEx, including six vials of research
viruses, crashes in downtown
Winnipeg,
Manitoba,
Canada. The only person on board, the female pilot, is killed, but there are no injuries on the ground.
26 November – Launching from
Mumbai,
India, 67-year-old Indian aviator
Vijaypat Singhania sets a new world altitude record for
hot-air balloons, reaching 21,027 meters (68,986 feet) during a flight of about five hours in a
Cameron Z-1600 balloon.[16][17]
28 November –
Boeing makes its last delivery of a
Boeing 757 airliner, and
Shanghai Airlines becomes the last customer to take delivery of one. Boeing had ceased production of the 757 in
October 2004 after manufacturing 1,050 of the aircraft for 54 customers.
7 December – Indian Airlines rebrands itself as
Indian.
8 December – While landing in a
snowstorm at
Chicago Midway International Airport in
Chicago,
Illinois,
Southwest Airlines Flight 1248, a
Boeing 737-7H4 with 103 people on board, goes into a skid on the runway. Its nose gear collapses, and it crashes through a barrier and comes to rest on a road crowded with automobile traffic, striking three cars. The accident kills a six-year-old boy in one of the cars and injures nine other people on the ground and three people aboard the aircraft.
The deadliest crash of this year was
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 which crashed near
Machiques,
Venezuela on 16 August, killing all 160 people on board. This particular accident took place in August 2005, which is one of the deadliest months in aviation to date, in which 351 people were killed in six major accidents.