1969 in aviation

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Template:Short description Template:Yearbox Template:Portal This is a list of aviation-related events from 1969.

Events

January

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  • January 14
    • The United States Navy announces that the Grumman F-14 Tomcat has won the competition for a new long-range fleet air defense fighter.<ref>Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: A Premier Fighter", Naval History, April 2012, p. 13.</ref>
    • Off Hawaii, a MK-32 Zuni rocket loaded on a parked F-4 Phantom II aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Template:USS explodes after being overheated by an aircraft start unit mounted to a tow tractor.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>"Today in History", The Washington Post Express, January 14, 2013, p. 26.</ref> The explosion sets off fires and additional explosions across the flight deck, killing 27 and injuring 314 men and knocking the ship out of action until 1 March.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
  • January 18 – United Airlines Flight 266, a Boeing 727-22C, crashes into Santa Monica Bay off the coast of California four minutes after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport. All 38 people on board die.
  • January 19
    • A hijacker commandeers Eastern Airlines Flight 9, a Douglas DC-8 with 171 people on board flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly to Cuba.<ref name="aviation-safety.net">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • January 28
    • Armed with a .38-caliber revolver and what they claim is dynamite, prison escapees Bryon Vaughn Booth and Clinton Robert Smith hijack National Airlines Flight 64 – a Douglas Super DC-8 flying from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Miami, Florida, with 32 people on board – and force it to fly to Havana, Cuba, where Cuban authorities arrest and imprison them.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Armed with a single revolver, Everett White, Noble Mason, and Larry Brooks hijack Eastern Airlines Flight 121 – a Douglas DC-8 flying from Atlanta, Georgia, to Miami, Florida, with 113 people on board – and force it to fly to Cuba. To prevent panic, the captain does not inform the passengers that the airliner is diverting to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • January 31 – A hijacker commandeers National Airlines Flight 44, a Douglas DC-8 flying from San Francisco, California, to Tampa, Florida, with 63 people on board, and forces it to fly to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February

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    • Four hijackers commandeer Eastern Airlines Flight 7, a Boeing 727 flying from Newark, New Jersey, to Miami, Florida, and demand to be flown to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • February 8 – Demanding to be flown to Cuba, a hijacker attempts to take control of a Douglas DC-6 airliner during a flight in Mexico from Mexico City to Villahermosa, but is subdued.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • February 10 – Armed with a pistol, Peter Alvarez takes a stewardess hostage aboard Eastern Airlines Flight 950 – a Douglas DC-8 with 119 people on board flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida – and demands that it fly him to Cuba so that he can be with his ailing father. The Template:Convert professional wrestler Larry "Abdullah the Butcher" Shreve, a passenger on the plane, moves to subdue the Template:Convert Alvarez, but Template:Convert steward Vincent Doccolo interposes himself between the two men and manages to talk Shreve out of it. After the plane lands at Havana, Cuba, its passengers are detained for five hours, but then are allowed to depart aboard the same plane – a break from the Cuban policy in the nine previous U.S. airliner hijackings in 1969 and most of the 14 such occurrences in 1968, in which Cuban authorities had required passengers to disembark and await transportation back to the United States aboard a different aircraft.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • February 11 – Three hijackers take control of a Linea Aeropostal Venezolana (LAV) Douglas DC-9 flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida, and force it to fly to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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March

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    • A male passenger hijacks SAM Colombia Flight 600, a Douglas C-54A-15-DC Skymaster (registration HK-757) with 38 people on board, during a domestic flight in Colombia from Medellín to Barranquilla and demands that it to fly him to Cuba. While the plane is on the ground at Cartagena, Colombia, to refuel, a passenger attempts to overpower the hijacker and in the ensuing struggle a mechanic is killed and the hijacker suffers injuries and is subdued.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Armed with a shoebox full of dynamite and saying he is a communist who wants to go to Cuba to be with his political brethren, Robert Lee Sandlin enters the cockpit of Delta Air Lines Flight 518 – a Douglas DC-9 with 64 people on board flying from Atlanta Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina, with a stop at Augusta, Georgia – during the Atlanta-to-Augusta segment of the flight and orders the pilot to fly him to Havana, Cuba. He also asks the pilot not to tell the passengers that a hijacking is in progress, so the pilot tells the passengers that the airliner is returning to Atlanta due to bad weather at Charleston. Upon arrival at Havana, the DC-9 parks next to the Faucett Perú Boeing 727 hijacked earlier in the day. Sandlin disembarks and is imprisoned by Cuban authorities.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • March 18 – In Operation Breakfast, 48 U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses bomb the Fishhook in Cambodia in an attack on what the Americans believe to be the general Communist headquarters within Cambodia.<ref name="Brogan, Patrick 1990, p. 148">Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 148.</ref> It is the first event in Operation Menu,<ref name="Brogan, Patrick 1990, p. 148"/> the secret 14-month-long American bombing of Cambodia targeting North Vietnamese Army sanctuaries there.
  • March 18–19 – The Royal Air Force airlifts 300 troops to Anguilla in response to the civil unrest that had broken out on the island.
  • March 19 – To celebrate his 26th birthday, Douglas Alton Dickey draws a .22-caliber pistol aboard Delta Air Lines Flight 918 – a Convair CV-880 flying from Dallas, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with 97 people on board – and demands that it fly him to Cuba. He agrees to allow the passengers to disembark at New Orleans first. As they do, one of them, a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, overpowers Dickey and arrests him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • March 20 – A United Arab Airlines Ilyushin Il-18 crashes and bursts into flames while attempting to land in blowing sand at Aswan Airport outside Aswan, Egypt, killing 100 of the 105 people on board and injuring all five survivors.
  • March 25 – A hijacker commandeers Delta Air Lines Flight 821, a Douglas DC-8 flying from Dallas, Texas, to San Diego, California, with 114 people on board, and forces it to fly to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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April

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  • April 28 – Concentrating excessively on their flight director instrument and using it incorrectly, the flight crew of LAN Chile Flight 160, a Boeing 727, neglects to check its instruments and fails to notice that the aircraft has descended below its intended glidepath. The aircraft strikes the ground near Colina, Chile, and is destroyed in the crash that follows, although all 60 people on board survive.
  • April 30 – A Seaboard World Airlines Douglas DC-8 with 219 passengers and 13 crewmembers lands by mistake at South Vietnam's Marble Mountain Air Facility when it had actually been cleared to land at the nearby Da Nang Air Base. After fuel and passengers are offloaded, the plane is towed to the north overrun and departs five hours after landing.

May

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  • May 26
    • Three hijackers commandeer Northeast Airlines Flight 6, a Boeing 727 with 20 people on board flying from Miami, Florida, to New York City, and forces it to fly to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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June

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  • June 28 – Armed only with a penknife, 55-year-old Raymond Anthony hijacks Eastern Airlines Flight 173 – a Boeing 727 with 104 people on board flying from Baltimore, Maryland, to Tampa, Florida – and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba, saying that he is dressed in Bermuda shorts and sandals so that he can go to the beach as soon as he gets there. Cuban authorities jail him until they return him to the United States in November.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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July

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  • July 10
    • A 16-year-old boy attempts to hijack Avianca Flight 654, a Douglas C-54B-5-DO Skymaster (registration HK-186), about 20 minutes after takeoff from Barranquilla, Colombia, for a domestic flight to Santa Marta and demands that it fly him to Cuba. A crew member and a passenger subdue him, and the airliner returns to Barranquilla.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • After SAM Colombia Flight 202, a Douglas C-54B-1-DC Skymaster (registration HK-558) with 26 people aboard, begins its descent to Bogotá, Colombia, at the end of a domestic flight from Cali, a hijacker demanding to flown to Cuba attempts to seize control of the plane. He is overpowered, and the airliner lands at Bogotá.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Armed with a knife, 28-year-old Joseph Crawford hijacks Continental Air Lines Flight 156, a Douglas DC-9 flying from El Paso to Midand, Texas, and demands that it fly to Havana, Cuba. The airliner stops at Mobile, Alabama, to refuel, then flies to Havana, where it arrives in the predawn hours of July 27. Crawford disembarks at Havana and is imprisoned by Cuban authorities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • July 29 – A 24-year-old man dressed in women's clothing draws a gun and attempts to hijack an airliner just after takeoff from Managua, Nicaragua. He is overpowered, and the plane returns to Managua.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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August

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  • August 5 – John Scott McReery, a 73-year-old passenger aboard Eastern Airlines Flight 379 – a Douglas DC-9 with 70 people on board flying from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Tampa, Florida – walks into the cockpit shortly after takeoff armed with 5-inch (12.7-cm) straight razor and a knife and says "Let's go to Cuba" to the flight crew. After the pilot tells him that the airliner lacks the fuel to reach Cuba, McReery returns to his seat and acts as if nothing had happened for the rest of the flight. He is arrested after the plane lands in Tampa, and tells the police that he did not actually want to go to Cuba and merely wanted to see if he had the courage to simulate a hijacking. McReery becomes the oldest person to attempt to hijack an aircraft.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • August 23 – Shortly after Avianca Flight 675, a Hawker Siddeley HS-748-245 Series 2A (registration HK-1408) with 27 people on board, takes off from Bucaramanga, Colombia, for a domestic flight to Bogotá, two hijackers commandeer it and demand to be flown to Cuba. The airliner stops to refuel at Barranquilla, Colombia, before proceeding to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • August 31 – World champion boxer Rocky Marciano dies along with two other people when the privately owned Cessna 172H Skyhawk in which he is a passenger strikes a lone oak tree and crashes while its inexperienced pilot is attempting to land at night in bad weather at a small airfield outside Newton, Iowa.<ref name="famous60s"/>

September

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  • September 9 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 853, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30, collides in mid-air with a Piper PA-28 near Fairland, Indiana. Both aircraft crash, killing the lone occupant of the PA-28 and all 82 people aboard the DC-9.
  • September 10 – A young Puerto Rican man attempts to hijack Eastern Air Lines Flight 929, a Douglas DC-8 flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with 202 people on board. He demands to be flown to Cuba, but passengers and crew members subdue him, and the airliner lands safely at San Juan.<ref name="ReferenceC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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October

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November

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  • November 13 – Six passengers hijack Avianca Flight 637, a Douglas DC-4 (registration HK-728) making a domestic flight in Colombia from Cúcuta to Bogotá with 62 people on board and demand that it fly them to Cuba. After a refueling stop at Barranquilla, Colombia, the airliner flies to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • November 29 – A hijacker takes control of Varig Flight 827, a Boeing 707-345C (registration PP-VJX) flying from Paris, France, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba.<ref name=asnvarig827/> It is the second time during the month that Boeing 707 PP-VJX has been hijacked.<ref name=asnvarig863/><ref name=asnvarig827/>

December

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  • December:
  • December 4 – The Tokyo Convention – officially the "Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft" – goes into effect. It establishes that at least one state, specifically the one in which the aircraft is registered, will take jurisdiction over the suspect in the event of an in-flight criminal offense that jeopardizes the safety of an aircraft or people on an aircraft during international air navigation or an intention to commit such an offense, and it provides for situations in which other states may also have jurisdiction. It also recognizes certain powers and immunities of the pilot in command, who on international flights may restrain any person or persons he or she has reasonable cause to believe is committing or is about to commit an offense liable to interfere with the safety of persons or property on board the aircraft or who is jeopardizing good order and discipline aboard the aircraft, the first time this has been recognized in international aviation law.
  • December 9 – An Egyptian Air Force MiG-21 (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") shoots down an Israeli Air Force F-4 Phantom II for the first time.<ref>Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973–1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, p. 20.</ref>
  • December 11 – A North Korean agent hijacks a Korean Air Lines NAMC YS-11 with 50 other people on board and forces it to fly to Sǒndǒk Airfield near Wonsan, North Korea. North Korea returns 39 of the passengers to South Korea 66 days later, but never returns the crew of four or the other seven passengers, which is viewed in South Korea as an example of North Korean abductions of South Koreans.
  • December 12 – Thirty minutes after an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 707 takes off from Madrid, Spain, bound for Athens, Greece, Eritrean Liberation Front member Hamed Shenen gets up from his seat with a handgun and orders the flight crew to fly the plane to Aden in South Yemen. The pilot explains that the plane will have to refuel at Rome, but does not receive permission to land there, and a plainclothes security guard then enters the cockpit and shoots Shenen, after which a second security guard shoots Shenen six more times, killing him. Shenen's accomplice Mahmoud Suliman rushes toward the cockpit armed with a knife, and the security guards shoot him to death as well. It is the first time that aircraft hijackers have been killed aboard a plane in flight. The plane's 15 passengers celebrate the hijackers′ deaths by drinking champagne, and the airliner lands safely in Athens. The Eritrean Liberation Front claims responsibility for the hijacking, saying that the hijackers merely intended to hand out propaganda leaflets to the passengers.<ref name="skyjack"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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First flights

January

  • January 3 – SOCATA ST 60<ref name="jawa69fp1">Taylor 1969, facing p. 1.</ref>

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

  • Antonov An-14M, prototype of the Antonov An-28 ("Cash")<ref>Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 55.</ref>
  • September 15 – Cessna FanJet500, the prototype which led to the Cessna Citation.
  • September 19 – Mil Mi-24, the most widely exported helicopter gunship.

Entered service

March

May

August

  • Beechcraft King Air Model 100<ref>Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 104.</ref>

October

Retirements

February

Deadliest crash

The deadliest crash of this year was Viasa Flight 742, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 which crashed shortly after takeoff from Maracaibo, Venezuela on 16 March, killing all 84 people on board, as well as 71 on the ground. This was the deadliest civil accident in the 1960s decade, and was at the time the world's deadliest civil aviation disaster.

References

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