1971 in aviation

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A U.S. Navy Vought F-8H Crusader (BuNo 148677) of U.S. Naval Reserve Fighter Squadron 202 (VF-202) "Superheats" landing on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67) in 1971. VF-202 was based at Naval Air Station Dallas, Texas (United States), and was having carrier qualifications.
A U.S. Navy Vought F-8H Crusader (BuNo 148677) of U.S. Naval Reserve Fighter Squadron 202 (VF-202) "Superheats" landing on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67) in 1971. VF-202 was based at Naval Air Station Dallas, Texas (United States), and was having carrier qualifications.

Template:Yearbox Template:Portal This is a list of aviation-related events from 1971.

Events

January

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    • Claiming to have a bomb, Black Panther Party member Garland Grant hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 433, a Boeing 727 on a U.S. domestic flight from Milwaukee to Detroit with 60 people on board. He demands to be flown to Algeria, where he hopes to escape the "racist" Milwaukee Police and help people grow crops. Informed that the jet lacks the range to fly that far, he decides to fly to Cuba instead, where he is imprisoned. He will return to the U.S. in 1978, saying "Cuba is a nightmare."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • January 23 – Armed with homemade hand grenades, Kim Sang-tae attempts to hijack a Korean Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship 500 during a domestic flight in South Korea from Kangnung to Seoul with 60 people on board, demanding to be flown to Sinpo, North Korea, where he believes his brother settled after defecting during the Korean War. Several Republic of Korea Air Force jets intercept the airliner and fire warning shots, forcing it to crash-land on a beach near Sokcho, South Korea. After the plane comes to a halt, the copilot attempts to subdue Kim, who detonates a hand grenade, killing himself and the copilot. The airliner is damaged beyond repair, but the other 58 people aboard the plane survive.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • January 26 – A male passenger hijacks an Aerovías Quisqueyana Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation making a non-scheduled flight from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with 74 people on board, demanding to fly to Havana, Cuba. The pilot attempts to divert to Haiti to refuel, but is denied permission to land. He then diverts to Cabo Rojo Airport in the Dominican Republic, where the hijacker is overpowered after the plane lands.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February

  • February 1 – McDonnell Douglas completes the 4,000th F-4 Phantom II.<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 314.</ref>
  • February 4 – A hijacker commandeers Delta Air Lines Flight 379, a Douglas DC-9 flying from Chicago to Nashville with 27 people on board, and forces it to fly to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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March

  • The United States Marine Corps forms its first attack helicopter squadron.<ref name="helicopter158">Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, Template:ISBN, p. 158.</ref>
  • March 2 – The U.S. Marine Corps begins combat testing of the AH-1J Sea Cobra in South Vietnam. It is the first attack helicopter specifically designed for use aboard ships.<ref name="helicopter158"/>
  • March 6 – Aer Lingus takes delivery of its first Boeing 747. The airliner is to be used on transatlantic routes.
  • March 8 – Seeking to escape parental pressure over school grades and hoping to seek refuge among American draft evaders in Canada, Thomas Kelly Marston uses a .38-caliber revolver to hijack National Airlines Flight 745 – a Boeing 727 flying from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with 46 people on board – and demands to be flown to Montreal. The captain talks Marston into surrendering his weapon and offers to fly him back to Mobile, but at Marston's request diverts to Miami, Florida, instead, where Marston is arrested.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Saying he is angry about the conviction of William Calley for murder in the My Lai Massacre, Diego Ramirez, calling himself Diego Landeatta, hijacks Eastern Airlines Flight 939 – a Douglas DC-8 with 22 people on board flying from New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico – armed only with a pair of clackers. He orders the crew to fly to Havana, Cuba, explaining that this will be his one day of importance. When Cuban soldiers arrest him in Havana, he seems confused, saying that he wants to fly back to the US. He will be imprisoned in Cuba until 1974.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Brandishing a pistol and taking a female flight attendant hostage, John Morgan Mathews hijacks Delta Air Lines Flight 400 at Birmingham, Alabama, before it can take off for a flight to Chicago, demanding to be flown to Cuba. The flight attendant convinces him to release all 17 passengers, and after negotiations with Delta Air Lines, he surrenders.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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April

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  • April 25 – An Ecuadorian male passenger attempts to hijack an Avianca Boeing 727-59 (registration HK-1337) during a domestic flight in Colombia from Barranquilla to Medellín with 52 people on board. Passengers and crew members overpower him, and the airliner lands safely in Medellín.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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May

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  • May 17 – Holding a knife to the throat of his girlfriend, an American man hijacks an SAS Douglas DC-9 preparing to depart Malmö, Sweden, for a domestic flight to Stockholm. He demands to be flown to the United States to see his mother, but surrenders after 45 minutes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • May 24 – Flight testing of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat resumes after the December 30, 1970, crash of the first prototype.<ref>Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: A Premier Fighter", Naval History, April 2012, p. 13.</ref>
  • May 26 – In the 1971 Qantas bomb hoax, a man extorts Template:Currency in ransom from Qantas by claiming to have hidden a bomb aboard Flight 755, a Boeing 707 en route from Sydney to Hong Kong with 116 passengers, that will explode if the aircraft descends. After the flight circles for hours, the ransom is paid, and the man reveals that no bomb exists. The extortionist and an accomplice are later imprisoned, but much of the ransom is never accounted for, and speculation about additional accomplices continues.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • James Bennett hijacks Eastern Airlines Flight 30, a Boeing 727 carrying 138 people en route from Miami, Florida, to New York City, claiming to have a bomb and a vial of acid. After landing at La Guardia Airport in New York City, he releases the passengers and five flight attendants, and insists that airline officials bring his ex-wife and a police supervisor to meet him. When his ex-wife refuses to come, he demands to be flown to Ireland. Informed that the plane cannot fly that far, he agrees to fly to Nassau in the Bahamas, and demands $500,000 and a meeting with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). When he disembarks at Nassau, an Eastern Airlines pilot posing as an IRA commander overpowers him. He turns out to have no explosives.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • May 29 – A hijacker commandeers Pan American World Airways Flight 442, a Boeing 707 with 69 people on board, during a flight from Caracas, Venezuela, to Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly to Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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June

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  • June 17 – After Piedmont Airlines Flight 25, a Boeing 737-200, arrives at Smith Reynolds Airport after a flight from New York City, Bobby Richard White enters the cockpit and orders the pilot to fly him to Cuba, claiming to have nitroglycerine and sulfuric acid in a bag that will explode if he dropped it. Receiving word that the bag did not explode when White casually tossed it onto a car seat before boarding the flight, officials concoct a plan to overpower him. A Piedmont Airlines official dressed as a pilot boards the plane, while a federal air marshal dressed as a pilot walks nearby and distracts White, allowing the Piedmont official to pin White against a wall. White's bag contains no explosives.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • June 29 – A hijacker commandeers a Finnair Douglas DC-9-32 during a flight from Helsinki, Finland, to Copenhagen, Denmark. The hijacker is overpowered and the airliner completes its flight safely.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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July

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  • July 22 - At 3.30 am, BOAC Flight 045 from London to Khartoum is ordered by air control in Malta (and allegedly forced to obey the order by Libyan military jets) to land at Benghazi (Libya) where two leaders of the unsuccessful 1971 Sudanese coup d'état, travelling as passengers, are forced to leave the plane.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 23 – Armed with a stolen pistol, Richard Obergfell takes a flight attendant hostage and hijacks Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 335, a Boeing 727 carrying 61 people bound for Chicago, and demands to be flown to Italy to meet a woman. Informed that the 727 lacks the range to reach Italy, he agrees to change planes, and the 727 returns to La Guardia Airport. Obergfell releases all the passengers and crew except for the flight attendant, who he holds at gunpoint while he rides in a van to John F. Kennedy International Airport, where TWA is readying a Boeing 707 for the flight. As Obergfell marches the hostage across the tarmac at John F. Kennedy Airport, a Federal Bureau of Investigation sniper shoots him, and he dies 30 minutes later.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • July 24 – Armed with a small pistol and a stick of dynamite, Santiago Guerra-Valdez hijacks National Airlines Flight 183–a Douglas DC-8 flying from Miami to Jacksonville, Florida, with 83 people on board–and rushes toward the cockpit. When an unsuspecting passenger opens a lavatory door, a spooked Guerra-Valdez opens fire, wounding a flight attendant and a passenger. He then forces the pilot to fly the airliner to Cuba, where he disembarks, and the airliner returns to the U.S.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • July 25 – Four armed members of the Comando Unido Revolucionario Dominicana ("United Dominican Revolutionary Command") hijack an Aeronaves de México Douglas DC-9-15 with 31 people on board after it takes off from Acapulco, Mexico, for a domestic flight to Mexico City, demanding to be flown to Cuba. The airliner stops at Mexico City to refuel before flying to Havana.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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August

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September

  • The Concorde crosses the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
  • Air Florida is founded. It will begin flight operations in September 1972.
  • September 3 – Grabbing a stewardess aboard Eastern Airlines Flight 993 – a Douglas DC-9 flying from Chicago, Illinois, to Miami, Florida, with 86 people on board – about 20 minutes before landing in Miami, 20-year-old Juan Miguel Borges Guerra holds an ice pick to her throat and demands to be taken to Havana, Cuba. Two Eastern Airlines employees riding aboard the plane as passengers overpower him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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October

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  • October 9 – When a visibly nervous 31-year-old Richard Frederick Dixon is stopped for questioning while boarding Eastern Airlines Flight 953 – a Boeing 727 flying from Detroit, Michigan, to Miami, Florida, with 46 people on board – he pulls out a pistol, takes a stewardess hostage, and demands that the plane fly him to Cuba, saying that he admires radical activist Angela Davis and has a distaste for life in the United States. While Dixon holds his gun on the stewardess for three hours, the airliner's captain, who also had been hijacked to Cuba in 1961, flies the airliner to Cuba, where Cuban soldiers take Dixon into custody.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • October 10 – United Arab Airlines changes its name to EgyptAir.
  • October 12 – Two passengers hijack an Avensa Convair CV-580 (registration YV-C-AVA) during a domestic flight in Venezuela from Barcelona to Caracas and demand that it fly them to Cuba. The airliner stops to refuel at Curaçao, where the hijackers release three mothers and their young children, then proceeds to Havana, Cuba.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • October 14 – The Hague Hijacking Convention, formally the "Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft," enters into force. 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.
  • October 16 – A hijacker seizes control of an Olympic Airways NAMC YS-11 with 64 people on board during a domestic flight in Greece from Kalamata to Athens and demand that it fly to Lebanon. After the airliner lands at Athens, security forces storm it and arrest the hijacker.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • October 26 – A 20-year-old hijacker armed with a gun seizes control of an Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6B with 64 people on board during a domestic flight in Greece from Athens to Crete and demands that it fly to Rome, Italy. Passengers overpower the hijacker.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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November

  • November 10 – After its flight crew radios that it cannot reach its destination due to bad weather, a Merpati Nusantara Airlines Vickers Viscount bound for Padang on Sumatra in Indonesia crashes into the Indian Ocean off Padang, killing all 69 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Indonesian history at the time.
  • November 13 – Armed with a sawed-off shotgun, Paul Joseph Cini hijacks Air Canada Flight 812, a Douglas DC-8, during a domestic flight in Canada from Calgary, Alberta, to Toronto, Ontario, identifying himself as a member of the Irish Republican Army and threatening to blow up the plane with dynamite if he does not receive $1.5 million and a flight to Ireland. The airliner diverts to Great Falls, Montana, where Air Canada gives him $50,000, which was all the money it could scrape together on short notice. Cini accepts the reduced amount, and the DC-8 takes off to return to Calgary to refuel. During the flight to Calgary, Cini orders the flight crew to open an emergency exit so that he can parachute from the plane, but he unable to untie twine he has used to tie up a parachute he has brought aboard. When one of the pilots hands Cini a fire ax to use to cut the twine, Cini puts his shotgun down. The pilot kicks the shotgun away and grabs Cini, and another crew member fractures Cini's skull with the ax, bringing the hijacking to an end. Cini is arrested and jailed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • November 24 – A man identifying himself as "Dan Cooper" uses a bomb threat to hijack Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 – a Boeing 727-51 with 35 other passengers and a crew of six on board flying from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington – demanding US$200,000 and four parachutes. Receiving the money and parachutes at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he allows all passengers and two flight attendants to leave the plane, then orders it flown toward Mexico City; soon after takeoff, he parachutes from the plane with his money, and the airliner lands safely at Reno, Nevada, dragging its aft stairway down the runway. The hijacker is never seen or heard from again and also is never positively identified. The press mistakenly identifies "Dan Cooper" as "D. B. Cooper", the name of another individual questioned in the case, and he goes down in history incorrectly as "D. B. Cooper".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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December

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  • December 16 – A hijacker demanding to be flown to Cuba seizes control of a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Fairchild F27 during a domestic flight in Bolivia from Sucre to La Paz. The airliner diverts to Cochabamba, Bolivia, where security forces storm the plane and arrest the hijacker. One crew member and one passenger are killed during the incident.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • December 24
    • Flying in a thunderstorm and severe turbulence, LANSA Flight 508, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, is struck by lightning and disintegrates in mid-air high over Puerto Inca in eastern PeruTemplate:'s Amazon rainforest, killing 91 of the 92 people aboard. The only survivor is 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke, who survives a Template:Convert fall into the rainforest strapped in her seat, her fall cushioned by the foliage, and walks for 10 days before finding help; 14 other people also survive their falls from the plane but die in the jungle without being rescued. The lost aircraft was the last one in LANSA's fleet, leading to the airline going out of business 11 days later.
    • Firing a .38-caliber revolver twice and claiming to have seven sticks of dynamite in a suitcase, 25-year-old Everett Holt takes a stewardess hostage aboard Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 734, a Boeing 707 with 35 people on board flying from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chicago, Illinois. He demands that a ransom of US$300,000 in cash and two parachutes be delivered to him by armored truck when the airliner lands at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. After the money and parachutes arrive, Holt releases the three stewardesses and all but one of the passengers, planning to force the remaining hostage to use the extra parachute to jump from the plane with him. Before the plane can take off again, however, the flight crew escapes, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation blinds Holt with floodlights and orders him to surrender by megaphone. Smiling broadly, he immediately complies, having held the plane for five hours. His pistol turns out to be loaded only with blanks, and his suitcase has no dynamite in it.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Acting strangely and making jokes about hijacking the plane during the flight, 24-year-old Donald Coleman pulls out a toy pistol aboard American Airlines Flight 47 – a Boeing 707 with 85 people on board flying from Chicago, Illinois, to San Francisco, California – and demands US$250,000, claiming to be a former United Airlines pilot and to have a bomb that would detonate if the airliner descends below an altitude of Template:Convert. He forces the plane to land at Salt Lake City, Utah, where a United States Marine aboard as a passenger tackles and overpowers him as he tries to escape by jumping out of an emergency exit. Cokeman is arrested without further incident.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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First flights

January

February

March

April

May

July

August

September

October

December

Entered service

January

February

April

May

August

October

December

Deadliest crash

The deadliest crash of this year was All Nippon Airways Flight 58, a Boeing 727 which collided with a Japanese Air Force Mitsubishi F-86F Sabre near Shizukuishi, Japan on 30 July, killing all 162 people onboard Flight 58. The deadliest single-aircraft accident was Alaska Airlines Flight 1866, also a Boeing 727, which crashed into mountainous terrain near Juneau, Alaska, U.S. on 4 September, killing all 111 people on board.

Notes

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References

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