This is a list of aviation-related events from 1980.
Events British West Indian Airlines merges with Trinidad and Tobago′s flag carrier Trinidad and Tobago Air Services and becomes the country's new flag carrier, BWIA International Airways. Ballistic Recovery Systems is founded. Summer 1980 – The British Aerospace Sea Harrier enters operational service with the Fleet Air Arm, providing the British Royal Navy with its first high-performance fixed-wing aircraft capability since the retirement of the aircraft carrier in December 1978.Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 27.
January January 7 – Pan American World Airways completes its acquisition of National Airlines, taking control of National's assets and routes. National Airlines formally will cease to exist on October 26.aireform.com FAA History: 1980 January 8 – A Mooney 231 lands in San Francisco, after flying coast-to-coast non-stop across the continental United States, setting a record by completing the flight in 8 hours and 4 minutes. January 10 – A Cessna 441 Conquest II en route from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, Louisiana ceases communications, flies far off-course on autopilot, and eventually crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina due to fuel exhaustion. The two occupants, new Louisiana State University football coach Bo Rein and the pilot, are killed, and are assumed to have lost consciousness in flight due to hypoxia resulting from cabin depressurization. January 14 – A Tunisian man hijacks Alitalia Flight 864 – a Douglas DC-9-32 (registration I-DIZI) with 93 people on board flying from Rome, Italy, to Tunis, Tunisia – and forces it to land at Palermo, Sicily. He demands the release of 25 Tunisian prisoners without success, and surrenders after 12 hours of negotiations.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking DescriptionAssociated Press, "Hijacker Of Plane Is Seized In Sicily," nytimes.com, September 26, 1982. January 16 – British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK. January 18 – A hijacker commandeers a Middle East Airlines Boeing 720 bound from Beirut, Lebanon, to Larnaca, Cyprus, demanding to be flown to Iran. The hijacker surrenders at Beirut.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description January 21 – While on approach to Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran, in fog and snow, an Iran Air Boeing 727-86 crashes in the Alborz Mountains, killing all 128 people on board. January 23 – A Pelita Air Service CASA/Nurtanio NC-212 Aviocar 100 (registration PK-PCX) on descent to Jakarta, Indonesia, in bad weather crashes into Mount Cemonyet at an altitude of , killing all 13 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description January 24 – A Burmese Air Force Fairchild FH-227B suffers an engine failure shortly after takeoff from Mandalay-Annisaton Airport in Mandalay, Burma, strikes the roof of a tobacco factory, and crashes, killing 43 of the 44 people on board and injuring a watchman at the factory.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description January 25 – Armed with a pistol and pretending to have a bomb, a man claiming to be a Black Muslim hijacks Delta Air Lines Flight 1116 – a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar with 63 people on board bound from Atlanta, Georgia to New York City – and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba. He then demands to be flown to Iran, but eventually surrenders to Cuban authorities. It is the first time since the United States implemented the mandatory security screening of airline passengers nationwide on January 5, 1973, that anyone has smuggled real weapons through the U.S. airport security screening system.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description January 28 – A hijacker commandeers a Middle East Airlines Boeing 720 flying from Baghdad, Iraq, to Beirut, Lebanon, and demands to be allowed to make a political statement. The hijacker surrenders at Beirut.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description January 30 – Two hijackers take control of an Interflug Ilyushin Il-18 during a domestic flight in East Germany from Erfurt to East Berlin but are taken down.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description
February An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18 flies from Moscow in the Soviet Union to the Molodyozhnaya Station observatory in East Antarctica. One year after the Iranian Revolution, repeated purges of the Iranian armed forces have led to the loss of 25 to 50 percent of majors and field-grade officers of the Iranian Air Force and Iranian Army.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 34. February 21 – Australia experiences its first fatal airline accident since 1968 when an Advance Aviation Beechcraft King Air 200 suffers the failure of an engine shortly after takeoff from Sydney Airport in Mascot, Australia, due to water in the fuel tank and crashes into a seawall while trying to return to the airport. All 13 people on board die. February 23 – Trying to avoid a bicyclist or pedestrian on the runway during its takeoff run at Kheria Air Force Station in Agra, India, an Indian Air Force Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar stalls, crashes, and bursts into flames, killing 46 of the 47 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description February 27 – A China Airlines Boeing 707 originating from Taipei crash-lands in Manila, the Philippines, and is destroyed by fire. All 124 passengers and 11 crew members survive. February 28 – A Guatemalan Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain carrying Guatemalan Army officers and their families on an excursion to Poptún, Guatemala, crashes in a mountainous region from Poptún, killing all 31 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description
March March 10 – A hijacker commandeers a Middle East Airlines Boeing 707 flying from Amman, Jordan, to Beirut, Lebanon, and demands to be allowed to make a political statement. The hijacker surrenders at Beirut.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description March 12–14 – Two United States Air Force B-52 Stratofrotresses make a non-stop round-the-world flight in 42.5 hours March 14 One of the fuel tanks of a United States Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules explodes while it is on approach to Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey, and it crashes west of the base, killing all 18 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description The Ilyushin Il-62 Mikołaj Kopernik, operating as LOT Flight 7, crashes into the moat of a military fortress near Okęcie Airport in Warsaw, Poland, as the crew attempts a go around after a mechanical failure forces them to abort a landing. All 87 people on board die, including Polish singer Anna Jantar, American ethnomusicologist Alan P. Merriam, and a contingent of the United States amateur boxing team. March 19 – Pudahuel International Airport in Pudahuel, outside Santiago, Chile, is renamed Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport. March 20 A CAAC Airlines Antonov An-24RV on a domestic flight in the People's Republic of China from Guiyang to Changsha crashes near Changsha Huanghua Airport, killing all 26 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description A hijacker takes control of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134 during a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Baku to Yerevan, demanding to be flown to Turkey. The hijacker is taken down.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description March 27 – A Lufkin Industries Beechcraft 200 Super King Air crashes in an open field north of Parker, Colorado, about east of Arapahoe County Airport, due to icing of its airframe, killing all 10 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description March 28 – The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered. March 31 – The U.S. Air Force inactivates the Aerospace Defense Command.
April Due to the increasing price of jet fuel, East Germany's national airline, Interflug, makes its last domestic flight, a flight from East Berlin to Erfurt. Henceforth, Interflug offers only international service. April 3 – The prototype of the Bombardier Challenger 600 series crashes in the Mojave Desert in California, killing its pilot. April 9 In response to an assassination attempt against Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz by the pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim group Al Dawaa, the Iraqi Air Force bombs the Iranian town of Qasr-e Shirin on the Iran–Iraq border.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran–Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 29. As American Airlines Flight 348 – a Boeing 727 with seven crew members on board – prepares to board 74 passengers at Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California, for a flight to Chicago, Illinois, a man armed with a.45-caliber pistol appears on the tarmac, forces his way up the stairs, and hijacks the plane, demanding to be flown to Havana, Cuba. With only the crew and hijacker aboard, the plane flies to Dallas, Texas, to refuel and then on to Havana, where the hijacker is arrested by Cuban authorities.Anonymous, "Hijacker Arrested in Cuba," The Stanford Daily, April 10, 1980. April 12 – On a night approach to Hercilio Luz International Airport in Florianópolis, Brazil, during a severe thunderstorm, Transbrasil Flight 303, a Boeing 727-27C, crashes into a hill, killing 55 of the 58 people on board. April 14 – At Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, a hijacker commandeers Continental Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 727 with 78 people on board bound for Ontario, California.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description April 18 – Air Zimbabwe is formed in Zimbabwe. April 24 – To rescue 52 Americans held hostage in Tehran, Iran, during the Iran hostage crisis, the United States Armed Forces mount Operation Eagle Claw, an attempt to carry United States Army Delta Force rescue team to Tehran in eight United States Navy RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters crewed by United States Marine Corps personnel flying from the aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. The plan requires the helicopters to meet six United States Air Force aircraft – three special operations MC-130E Combat Talon I penetration/transport aircraft and three EC-130E Hercules – on the ground at the secret "Desert One" airstrip inside Iran for refueling. After only six of the helicopters arrive at Desert One and one of them proves mechanically incapable of continuing, the operation is aborted and, as the aircraft prepare to leave, an RH-53 crashes into an EC-130, killing eight men and destroying both aircraft. The five surviving helicopters are abandoned and all the surviving personnel evacuate Desert One in the remaining MC-130s and EC-130s. April 25 – Dan-Air Flight 1008, a Boeing 727-46, turns the wrong way in a holding pattern and crashes into high terrain while on approach to Tenerife North Airport on the island of Tenerife in Spains Canary Islands, killing all 146 people on board. It is the largest loss of life aboard an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom. April 27 – Thai Airways Flight 231, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes after entering a thunderstorm while on approach to Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, killing 44 of the 53 people on board and injuring all nine survivors.
May May 1 A United States Marine Corps AV-8A Harrier crashes spectacularly at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. During a vertical takeoff the aircraft rolls, drops to the runway, bounces into a ditch, bursts into flames, flips, and slides through a hangar and into a parking lot, where it damages more than 20 vehicles. A hijacker commandeers Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 818, a Boeing 727 flying from Stockton to Los Angeles, California, with eight people on board. The hijacker demands to be taken to Iran, but is overpowered by the pilot.Aviation Safety Network: Hijacking Description