This is a list of aviation-related events from 1981.
Events
January January 7 – A Boeing 747 of CAAC lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, marking the first flight from the mainland of China to the United States since 1949. January 11–13 – Max Anderson and Don Ida make a failed attempt to circumnavigate the world by balloon, although their craft, the Jules Verne, makes a flight of from Luxor, Egypt, to New Delhi, India, in 48 hours before they give up. January 12 - 1981 Muñiz Air National Guard Base attack : the Boricua Popular Army (Ejército Popular Boricua), a Puerto Rican separatist organization, carried out multiple bombings at the Muñiz Air National Guard Base. The attack caused approximately $45,000,000 in damages to ten A-7D aircraft and a single F-104. January 25 – Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter, a Bell 222 to Omniflight Helicopters.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 114. January 26 – Pan American World Airways makes its final Boeing 707 service. January 28 – Pan Am commences a weekly New York-Beijing service.Taylor Jane's 1981–1982 Aviation Annual, p. 32.
February February 1 – American aircraft industrialist Donald Douglas, founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, dies at the age of 88.Taylor Jane's 1981–1982 Aviation Annual, p. 33. February 7 – Taking off with a center of gravity that is beyond certified limits thanks to improperly seated passengers and poorly secured cargo that shifts, a Soviet Navy Tupolev Tu-104A (NATO reporting name "Camel") rolls inverted and crashes immediately after takeoff from Pushkin Airport south of Leningrad in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, killing all 51 people on board. Some of the dead are high-ranking Soviet Navy officials returning to Vladivostok after visiting Leningrad for a naval exercise. February 12–14 – The American balloonists Maxie Anderson and Don Ida attempt a round-the-world balloon flight, setting off from Luxor, Egypt in the helium balloon Jules Verne on February 12, and landing east of New Delhi, India after a flight of . February 18 – American aircraft designer and industrialist Jack Northrop, founder of the Northrop Corporation, dies at the age of 85. February 20 – Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 342, operated by a Boeing 707-387B, nearly hit the transmitting antenna of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City during its approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport. February 24 – On approach in rain and high winds to Val de Cans International Airport in Belém, Brazil, a VOTEC Serviços Aéreos Regionais Embraer EMB-110P Bandeirante strikes a ship in dry dock, then hits two barges before breaking in half, with its forward portion crashing onto a tug and its after portion sinking. The crash kills 11 of the 14 people on board. February 26 – A United States Air Force Lockheed MC-130EY Hercules making a low-level run crashes into the sea off Tabones Island in the Philippines, killing 23 of the 24 people on board.
March During the month, the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) is renamed the North American Aerospace Defense Command. A court in Nicaragua declares LANICA bankrupt. The airline will cease flight operations in August. March 2 – Japan Air Lines becomes the first airline to use a computerised flight simulator to train its crews. March 10 – Shortly after taking off from Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport in Moroni, Comoros, on a maritime patrol mission, a French Navy Breguet 1150 Atlantic crashes into the Indian Ocean from the airport, killing all 18 people on board. March 18 - Aviation advocate and founder of NYCAviation, Phil Derner, Jr., is born. March 26 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier designed as such to be built in Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is laid by Italcantieri in Monfalcone.Gardiner, Robert, Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1947–1982, Part One: The Western Powers, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1983, , p. 66. March 28 Members of the group Komando Jihad hijack the Douglas DC-9 Woyla, operating as Garuda Indonesia Flight 206 with 57 passengers on board, during a flight from Palembang to Medan on Sumatra in Indonesia, ordering the plane to fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka. After refueling at Penang, Malaysia, the aircraft flies to Don Muang, Thailand, where commandos of the Royal Thai Air Force and Indonesian Army Kopassus unit storm it. Four hijackers and a Kopassus commando are killed and two people are injured; the two hijackers who surrender are killed on an aircraft taking them and the Kopassus troops to Djakarta. Air France pilot Michel Breton flies the airline's last Sud Aviation Caravelle service, from Amsterdam to Paris. March 29 – British Airways makes its last Vickers VC10 flight.
April April 3 – Pan American World Airways founder Juan Trippe dies in Los Angeles, California.Taylor Jane's 1981–1982 Aviation Annual, p. 36. April 4 – In the Iran–Iraq War, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force strikes deep into Iraqi territory, destroying 46 Iraqi aircraft at Al-Walid Air Base. Iraq later claims that the Syrian Air Force provided cover for the attack.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran–Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 119. April 10 – Japan Air Lines carries its 10 millionth passenger April 12 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off. It marks the first time an American space shuttle flies operationally. It glides to a landing two days later. April 17 – Air US Flight 716, a Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream (registration N11360), collides over Larimer County, Colorado, east-southeast of Fort Collins–Loveland Municipal Airport with a Sky's West Parachute Center Cessna TU206 (registration N4862F) on a skydiving flight. The collision kills two skydivers on the Cessna; the other three skydivers on board and the pilot parachute to safety before the Cessna crashes. The Jetstream crashes almost nose-down in an open field about of the Cessna's wreckage, killing all 11 people on board. April 28 – Despite forecasted icing conditions, an Aeroflot Antonov An-2TP (registration CCCP-92864), takes off from Batagay Airport in Batagay in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic for a flight to Lazo. While flying over mountainous terrain at an altitude of , it encounters snow squalls, begins to descend, and crashes into a cloud-covered mountainside at an altitude of , killing all 12 people on board. April 30 The Israeli Air Force comes within hours of attacking the first Syrian 2K12 Kub (NATO reporting name "SA-6 Gainful") surface-to-air missile batteries deployed in Lebanon before the attack is cancelled.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, , p. 187. People Express Airlines commences flight operations. On its first day, it offers Boeing 737 service from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and Norfolk, Virginia.
May May 1 – American Airlines launches AAdvantage, the world's second airline frequent-flyer program and the first since Texas International Airlines introduced the world's first one in 1979. May 2 – A 55-year-old Australian man, Laurence James Downey, enters a lavatory aboard Aer Lingus Flight 164, a Boeing 737-200 with 107 other people on board, five minutes before landing at London Heathrow Airport in London, England, douses himself with petrol (gasoline), and walks into the cockpit with a cigarette lighter in his hand. He demands that the airliner fly to Iran, then specifies France when the flight crew tells him that the aircraft lacks the fuel to fly to Iran. The plane lands at Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport in Le Touquet, France, where Downey demands that Pope John Paul II make public the Third Secret of Fatima. After 10 hours, French police storm the plane and arrest Downey without injury to anyone. May 6 The world's first aircraft with a phased array radar – the Soviet Union′s Mikoyan MiG-31 (NATO reporting name "Foxhound") – enters service with the Soviet Air Defense Forces. A United States Air Force Boeing EC-135N flying at an altitude of pitches over into a dive, suffers an explosion at an altitude of , disintegrates, and crashes north-northeast of Walkersville, Maryland, killing all 21 people on board. May 7 – On approach to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 901, a BAC One-Eleven 529FR (registration LV-LOX), enters a violent thunderstorm and crashes into the Río de la Plata east-southeast of the airport, killing all 31 people on board. May 8 – United Airlines launches its Mileage Plus frequent-flyer program. May 9 – After modifications, the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes reenters service with the Royal Navy as the worlds first carrier with a ski-jump ramp. Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander D. R. Taylor had developed the ramp.Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, , p. 216. May 20 – An Aero León Convair CV-440-11 (registration XA-HEK) crashes into Mexico's Pinarete Mountain at an altitude of , killing all 24 people on board. May 21 – Iraqi Air Force aircraft make a missile attack on the Panamanian bulk carrier Louise I in the Persian Gulf outside the Iranian port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, slightly damaging her.Cordesman and Wagner, pp. 143, 533. May 22 American film director Boris Sagal is partially decapitated during the filming of the miniseries World War III when he turns the wrong way while disembarking from a Bell 206B helicopter in the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Oregon and walks into the helicopter's tail rotor. He dies five hours later. A TAME de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (registration HC-BAX) crashes into the side of a mountain near Zumba, Ecuador, killing all 18 people on board. May 24 – An Ecuadorian Air Force Beechcraft Super King Air carrying President of Ecuador Jaime Roldós Aguilera, Ecuadorian Minister of Defense Marco Subía Martinez, their wives, and five other people crashes into the mountain Huairapungo near Macará, Ecuador, killing everyone on board. The crash is attributed to various causes, including pilot error, overloading of the aircraft with cargo, and an assassination of Roldós by the United States Government. May 26 – A United States Marine Corps Grumman EA-6B Prowler of Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2 (VMAQ-2) assigned to Carrier Air Wing 8 (CAW-8) crashes on the flight deck of the United States Navy aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. The resulting explosion and fire kills 14 men, injures another 45, destroys two F-14 Tomcats, and damages three F-14s, nine LTV A-7 Corsair IIs, three S-3A Vikings, a Grumman A-6 Intruder, and a Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King. Although none of the dead who tested positive for illegal drug use contributed to the crash, a U.S. Navy inquiry blames the accident on drug use by the enlisted men of the flight deck crew and prompts President Ronald Reagan to promulgate a "zero-tolerance policy" for drug abuse in the United States armed forces that creates the program in place ever since of mandatory, routine, random, universal testing of U.S. military personnel for the use of illegal drugs. May 29 – An Egyptian Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules crashes near Cairo, Egypt, killing all 17 people on board.
June June 5 – Dick Rutan sets a world straight-line distance record for FAI Class C-1-b (landplanes with a takeoff weight of of , flying from Anchorage, Alaska to Grand Turk Island in a modified Rutan Long-EZ.Mondey 1982, p. 11