1971 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years:	1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1971:

Events

• The Peruvian Army reestablishes Peruvian Army Aviation.^[1]
• Assessing the prospects for the development of hypersonic airliners, John Becker and Frank Kirkham of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Langley Research Center project that a 750,000-pound (340,198 kg) hypersonic transport (HST) capable of Mach 6 speeds and carrying 300 passengers from Los Angeles to Paris, France, in 2 hours 42 minutes could be operating by 1995.^[2]
• Erickson Air-Crane Incorporated, the future Erickson Inc., is established.

January

• January 2 – United Arab Airlines Flight 844, a de Havilland Comet 4C (registration SU-ALC), strikes sand dunes at an altitude of 395 feet (120 meters) while on approach to land in poor visibility at Tripoli, Libya, and crashes, killing all 16 people on board.^[3]
• January 6 – The United States Marine Corps takes delivery of its first AV-8 Harriers ^[4]
• January 15 – Braniff Airways begins Boeing 747 service between Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas, and Hawaii, using its first Boeing 747, which it acquired in 1970.
• January 18 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Ilyushin Il-18D (registration LZ-BED) crashes 0.7 km (0.4 miles) short of the runway while on approach to Zürich Airport in Zürich, Switzerland, in poor weather and catches fire. Forty-five of the 47 people on board die.^[5]
• January 21
  • A French Air Force Nord 262A-34 flying in a blizzard crashes into a 1,342-meter (4,403-foot) high mountain 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) south of Mézilhac, France, and comes to rest 200 meters (656 feet) below its summit, killing all 21 people on board. Seven of France's top nuclear experts are among the dead.^[6]
  • A Peruvian Air Force Curtiss C-46 Commando carrying members of a civil guard anti-guerrilla force crashes in the Cuti Padre mountain range in the central Andes near Palca, Peru, killing all 35 people on board.^[7]
• January 22
  • Its ice protection system rendered ineffective by a closed valve, an Aeroflot Antonov An-12B (NATO reporting name "Cub") crashes on approach to Surgut International Airport in Surgut in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic due to icing, killing all 13 people on board. It is the first of the two very similar crashes that happened at the airport nine days apart.
  • A United States Navy P-3 Orion sets a distance record for an aircraft in its class of 7,010 miles (11,282 km).^[4]
• January 25 – Línea Aeropostal Venezolana Flight 359, a Vickers 749 Viscount (registration YV-C-AMV) on a domestic flight in Venezuela from Mérida to Caracas, strikes trees and crash-lands on a wooded mountain slope in the Andes near La Azulita, killing 13 of the 47 people on board.^[8]
• January 30 – Two Kashmiri men hijack the Indian Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship Ganga and force it to fly to Lahore, Pakistan. They release their hostages there and burn the plane on February 1. India retaliates by prohibiting overflights of its territory by Pakistani aircraft.
• January 31 – An Antonov An-12 crashes on approach to Surgut International Airport due to a loss of control caused by icing, killing all seven people on board. It is the second of two very similar crashes that occurred at the airport nine days apart.

February

• February 1 – McDonnell Douglas completes the 4,000th F-4 Phantom II.^[9]
• February 8 – The last major airmobile assault of the Vietnam War, Operation Lam Son 719, begins. It involves a ground and helicopter assault by South Vietnamese Army forces against North Vietnamese Army forces in Laos, supported by American helicopters.^[10]

March

• The U.S. Marine Corps forms its first attack helicopter squadron.^[11]
• 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.^[11]
• March 6 – Aer Lingus takes delivery of its first Boeing 747. The airliner is to be used on transatlantic routes.
• March 11 – Alyemda, internationally known as "Democratic Yemen Airlines" and "Yemen Airlines," is founded as the flag carrier of South Yemen.
• March 17 – Jane Leslie Holley becomes the first woman commissioned into the U.S. Air Force via the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.^[12]
• March 24 – Federal funding for the Boeing SST project is cut by the United States Congress.^[13]
• March 26 – The U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) is withdrawn from Vietnam, leaving behind only its 3rd Brigade (Reinforced) at Biên Hòa, South Vietnam.^[14]
• March 31 – On approach to Voroshilovgrad Airport in Voroshilovgrad in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Aeroflot Flight 1969, an Antonov An-10 (registration CCCP-11145), suffers the structural failure of its right wing while descending from 1,200 to 600 meters (3,937 to 1,968 feet). It crashes 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) southwest of the airport, killing all 65 people on board. At the time, it is the second-deadliest accident involving an An-10 and the worst aviation accident in the history of Ukraine.^[15]

April

• Using CH-53A Sea Stallion helicopters, the U.S. Navy's Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 12 (HM-12) and Mobile Mine Countermeaures Command begin the development of specifications for the U.S. Navy's first air mine countermeasures aircraft.^[16]
• April 9 – The last major airmobile operation of the Vietnam War, Operation Lam Son 719, ends after North Vietnamese Army forces drive all South Vietnamese forces out of Laos with heavy casualties. Facing the heaviest antiaircraft artillery fire of the war, American helicopter crews have suffered casualties of 176 killed, 1,942 wounded, and 42 missing, with 107 helicopters destroyed and 600 damaged. The operation has demonstrated a need for the U.S. Army to develop a specialized antitank attack helicopter.^[14]
• April 26 – Lieutenant Colonel Thomas B. Estes (pilot) and Major Dewain C. Vick (reconnaissance systems officer) make a record-breaking nonstop flight of 15,000 miles (24,155 km) in an SR-71 Blackbird of the U.S. Air Force's 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, at times exceeding Mach 3. They will receive the MacKay Trophy for the flight.^[17]

May

• May 20 – Boeing announces that it has canceled its Supersonic Transport (SST) project.^[13]
• May 23 – Aviogenex Flight 130, a chartered Tupolev Tu-134A (registration YU-AHZ) carrying British vacationers from London's Gatwick Airport, crashes while landing in heavy rain at Rijeka Airport in Rijeka, Yugoslavia, losing its right wing and coming to rest upside down; a fire breaks out and burns the plane out. The crash kills 78 people of the 83 people on board.^[18]
• May 24 – Flight testing of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat resumes after the December 30, 1970, crash of the first prototype.^[19]
• May 28 – World War II hero and movie star Audie Murphy is among five people killed in the crash of an Aero Commander 680 (registration N601JJ) flying in heavy thunderstorms over mountainous terrain near Catawba, Virginia.^[20]

June

• The last U.S. Marine Corps helicopters depart Vietnam.^[11]
• June 6 – Hughes Airwest Flight 706, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31, and a United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4B-18-MC Phantom II of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) collide over the San Gabriel Mountains near Duarte, California. Both aircraft crash, killing all 49 people on board the DC-9 and one of the two men in the F-4B.
• June 18 – Southwest Airlines is founded.

July

• July 3 – A NAMC YS-11A-217 operating as Toa Domestic Airlines Flight 63 crashes into the south face of Yokotsu Mountain in Japan, killing all 68 people on board.
• July 16 – Jeanne M. Holm is promoted to brigadier general, the first woman in the U.S. Air Force to become a general.^[21]
• July 29 – The U.S. Air Force and U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) complete their joint flight testing of the Martin Marietta X-24A lifting body. The data gathered during the flight-test program will assist in the design of NASA's Space Shuttle.^[22]
• July 30
  • A Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-86 Sabre collides with a Boeing 727 operating as All Nippon Airways Flight 58 over Morioka, Japan, killing all 162 people aboard the airliner and injuring the F-86 pilot. It is the worst air disaster in history at the time.^[23]
  • Pan American World Airways Flight 845, a Boeing 747-121 with 218 people on board, strikes several approach lighting system structures while taking off from San Francisco International Airport, seriously injuring two passengers and sustaining significant damage. The plane dumps fuel over the Pacific Ocean, returns to the airport 1 hour 42 minutes after takeoff, and makes an emergency landing; the crew then orders an emergency evacuation, during which 27 passengers are injured, eight of them sustaining serious back injuries. There are no fatalities.

September

• The Concorde crosses the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
• September 4 – Alaska Airlines Flight 1866, a Boeing 727-100, crashes into the eastern slope of a canyon in the Chilkat Range of the Tongass National Forest while on approach to land at Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board. It is the deadliest single-plane crash in American history at the time, and will remain so until June 1975.
• September 6 – After the tank for its water-injection engine thrust-augmentation system is mistakenly filled with jet fuel instead of water, both engines of Paninternational Flight 112, a BAC 1-11-500, fail after takeoff from Hamburg Airport in Hamburg, West Germany. The flight crew makes an emergency landing on the Bundesautobahn 7 highway; the plane strikes a bridge, shearing off both wings and setting the plane on fire. Twenty-two of the 121 people aboard die and 99 are injured.
• September 11 – The Britten-Norman Trislander makes its first flight
• September 13 – Lin Biao, second-in-charge of the People's Republic of China, is killed in the crash of a Hawker Siddeley Trident near Öndörkhaan, Mongolia.

October

• In the Mediterranean, a U.S. Navy air mine countermeasures unit participates in an overseas exercise for the first time.^[24]
• October 1 – Aurigny Air Services commences operations with the Britten-Norman Trislander.^[4]
• October 10 – United Arab Airlines changes its name to EgyptAir.
• October 27 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo changes its name to Zaire, prompting its national airline to change its name from Air Congo to Air Zaïre.

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 24 – A man identifying himself as "Dan Cooper" uses a bomb threat to hijack Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 with 36 other passengers and a crew of six on board. during a flight 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 is never seen or heard from again or 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 as "D. B. Cooper".

December

• The U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) begins to withdraw from Vietnam.^[14]
• December 3 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins with a Pakistani Air Force attempt at a preemptive strike against Indian Air Force bases, employing no more than 50 aircraft. The strike initially attacks the wrong bases, then mostly misses Indian aircraft when attacking the right bases, and Indian bases are out of action for only a few hours.^[25] The Pakistani Air Force then falls into a defensive role for the remainder of the war.
• December 9–10 (overnight) – Helicopters airlift the Indian Army's 311th Mountain Brigade Group over the Meghna River in East Pakistan, allowing Indian forces to maintain the momentum of their drive on Dacca.^[26]
• December 10 – President Richard M. Nixon warns North Vietnam that American bombing of North Vietnam would resume if North Vietnamese military action against South Vietnam increases as American forces are withdrawn from Vietnam.^[27]
• December 11 – The Indian Army's 2nd Parachute Brigade parachutes from Indian Air Force Antonov An-12s, DHC-4 Caribous, C-82 Packets, and C-47 Dakotas north of Tangail, East Pakistan, prompting a disorganized retreat by the Pakistani Army's 93rd Brigade.^[26]
• December 17 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 comes to an end. The Indian Air Force has lost 72 aircraft and the Pakistani Air Force 94 aircraft.^[4]
• 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 Peru's Amazon rainforest, killing 91 of the 92 people aboard. The only survivor is 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke, who survives a 2-mile (3 km) 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.
• December 26–30 – The United States conducts Operation Proud Deep Alpha, which consists of air strikes in three provinces of North Vietnam south of the 20th Parallel.^[28]

First flights

January

• January 20 – Grumman E-2C Hawkeye

February

• February 26 – Saab-MFI 15 ^[4]

March

• AEREON 26
• March 15 – VFW-Fokker H3 Sprinter D-9543
• March 21 – Westland Lynx XW835
• March 25 – Ilyushin Il-76 SSSR-86712
• March 26 – CASA C.212 Aviocar ^[4]
• March 31 – SH-2D Sea Sprite^[4]

April

• April 22 – Aero Boero AB-210
• April 29 – Piper PA-48 Enforcer ^[4]

May

• May 28 – Dassault Mercure F-WTCC ^[4]

July

• July 14 – VFW-614 D-BABA ^[4]
• July 20 – Mitsubishi T-2 ^[4]
• July 23 – GAF Nomad VH-SUP ^[4]
• July 30 – Robin HR200

August

• August 4 – Agusta A109 ^[4]

September

• September 3 – Embraer Xavante ^[4]
• September 10 – Bell 309 KingCobra N309J ^[4]
• September 11 – Britten-Norman Trislander
• September 12 – Bede BD-5 N500BD ^[4]
• September 20 – VFW VAK 191B ^[4]
• September 30 – Avro Shackelton AEW2 WL745 ^[4]

October

• October 21 – Italair F.20 Pegaso I-GEAV

December

• Aerosport Quail N88760

Entered service

• Agusta-Bell AB.212^[29]

January

• January 6 – First Hawker Siddeley AV-8A Harrier was accepted by the United States Marine Corps.
• January 20 – McDonell Douglas RF-4E Phantom II with West German Air Force ^[4]
• January 29 – EA-6 Prowler with VAQ-129 at NAS Whidbey Island ^[4]

February

• February 15 – Boeing 747-200B with KLM.

April

• April 1 – Hawker Siddeley Trident 3B with British European Airways
• April 15 – Hawker Siddeley AV-8A Harrier with VMA-513 of the United States Marine Corps ^[4]

May

• May 3 – Bell CH-135 with the Canadian Armed Forces^[29]

August

• August 5 – McDonnell Douglas DC-10 with American Airlines ^[4]

October

• Beechcraft King Air Model A100^[30]
• October 1 – Britten-Norman Trislander with Aurigny Air Services ^[4]

December

• Bell CH-136 (ex-COH-58A) with the Canadian Armed Forces^[31]

Notes

1. Wikipedia Peruvian Army article.
2. Hallion, Roy P., "Does the Hypersonic Transport Have a Future?", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 42.
3. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
4. World Aircraft Information Files, File 978 Sheet 01
5. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
6. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
7. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
8. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
9. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 314.
10. Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 978-1-55750-875-1, pp. 152–157.
11. Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 978-1-55750-875-1, p. 158.
12. Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN number, p. 109.
13. GlobalSecurity.org
14. Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 978-1-55750-875-1, p. 157.
15. Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
16. Melia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991, ISBN 978-0-945274-07-0, pp. 99–100.
17. Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN number, pp. 109–110.
18. "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
19. Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: A Premier Fighter", Naval History, April 2012, p. 13.
20. planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1970s
21. "Biography: Major General Jeanne M. Holm, Official Web sit of the U.S. Air Force.". Archived from the original on 2013-08-02.
22. Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN number, p. 110.
23. "The Worst Ever"
24. Melia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991, ISBN 978-0-945274-07-0, p. 100.
25. Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, ISBN 978-0-679-72033-1, p. 210.
26. Citino, Robert M., "India's Blitzkrieg", Military History, May 2012, p. 66.
27. Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 978-1-55750-875-1, p. 160.
28. Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 978-0-87021-559-9, p. 158.
29. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 112.
30. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 104.
31. David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 111.

References

• "Boeing 2707". GlobalSecurity.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
• World Aircraft Information Files. London: Bright Star Publishing.
• "The Worst Ever". TIME. 9 August 1971. Retrieved 14 October 2008.