This is a list of aviation-related events from 1983.
Events
January France agrees to supply Iraq with five Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard strike fighters capable of firing the Exocet anti-ship missile.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran–Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 171. January 1 – Eastern Air Lines makes its first Boeing 757 revenue flight. January 2 – In the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi Air Force aircraft in the Persian Gulf attack a convoy of merchant ships from the Iranian port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, setting fire to the Singaporean cargo ship Eastern and the Liberian cargo ship Orient Horizon, forcing them both to run aground.Cordesman and Wagner, p. 534. January 5 – United Airlines begins the first scheduled nonstop service between the continental United States and Maui. January 16 – The Turkish Airlines Boeing 727-2F2 Afyon, operating as Flight 158, lands short of the runway in driving snow at Esenboğa International Airport in Ankara, Turkey. The plane breaks up and catches fire, killing 47 of the 67 people on board. January 18 – The Iraqi Air Force conducts a major raid against civilian and economic targets in Iran, claiming to have dispatched 66 sorties but actually sending more. The raid is made with inadequate fighter escort for attack aircraft and poor crew training in evading Iranian ground antiaircraft defenses, and some aircraft are lost due to insufficient maintenance or because they have been sent to targets that are too far away, causing them to run out of fuel on the way home.Cordesman and Wagner, p. 158. January 20 – Out on probation for hijacking Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 608 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport outside Seattle, Washington, in July 1980, 20-year-old Glenn Kurt Tripp again hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 608, a Boeing 727 with 41 people on board bound for Portland, Oregon. After it takes off from Seattle, he tells a flight attendant that he has bomb in a box he is holding and demands to be flown to Afghanistan, but agrees to allow the airliner to land at Portland to refuel. After three hours of negotiations at Portland, Tripp agrees to allow half the passengers to disembark and while they do, two U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents climb aboard the plane through its cockpit windows and confront Tripp. When Tripp moves as if to throw his box at them, one agent fires a single shot that kills him. The box turns out to contain no explosives. January 25–30 – The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force attacks civilian and economic targets in Iraq. January 30 – Sun Country Airlines begins operations. January 31 Iran has lost 55 aircraft in combat since January 1, while Iraq has lost 80. The Ayres Turbo Thrush Narcotics Eradication Delivery System (NEDS) cropduster plane officially joins the United States' "war on drugs".
February February 1 – Boeing announces it will stop producing Boeing 727 airliners. February 7 – The airfield at Sydenham, Belfast, reopens to commercial flights as the Belfast Harbour Airport. February 9 – British Airways begins Boeing 757 service.Taylor 1983, p. 28.
March March 4–5 – A Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin Il-62M (NATO reporting name "Classic") airliner strays off course and overflies important American buildings two days in a row. March 16 – A Boeing 767 lands at Boeing Field in the U.S. State of Washington, after a record breaking non-stop flight from Lisbon, Portugal. The flown non-stop constitute a record for twin-engined airliners. March 25 – As a consequence of the incidents on March 4 and March 5, the United States Government bans use of American airspace by Cubana de Aviación for 14 days. March 28 – The first Boeing 747-300 enters service with Swissair as the launch customer.
April Golden West Airlines goes out of business. April 29 – Experiencing a complete loss of power while piloting an AV-8A Harrier vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fighter during a training flight near Richmond, Virginia, United States Marine Corps pilot Art Nalls opt to glide the plane to a civilian airport, where he makes a deadstick landing, stopping just short of the end of the runway. It is history's first deadstick landing of any version of the Harrier, and Nalls is awarded the Air Medal for the achievement.
May May 1 – Two Israeli Air Force aircraft — a 106 Squadron F-15D Eagle on a training flight and a 110 Squadron A-4 Skyhawk — collide over the Negev Desert. The A-4 crashes, but its pilot ejects and survives. The F-15D's right wing is sheared off about 60 cm (2 feet) from its root, but its pilot takes advantage of its abundant engine thrust and the lift generated by its fuselage — allowing the fuselage to act as a lifting body — to make an emergency landing at Ramon Airbase, touching down at twice the normal landing speed and bringing the F-15D to a stop only from the end of the runway. The F-15D's crew survives, and the F-15D is repaired and returned to service. May 5 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 855, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar with 172 people on board, experiences the involuntary shutdown of all three engines in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean during a flight from Miami International Airport to Nassau International Airport in the Bahamas. The pilot, Richard Boddy, barely avoids disaster when he is able to restart one engine and land safely at Miami International Airport. May 15 – Iraqi aircraft make a missile attack on the Panamanian oil tanker Pan Oceanic Sane, setting her on fire. Her crew abandons her in the channel at Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, Iran. May 22 – During an air show at Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany, a Canadian Forces CF-104 Starfighter (serial number 104813) of 439 Squadron explodes in mid-air. Although its pilot ejects safely, its wreckage falls on a nearby road and hits a car carrying five people, killing three adults and two children. The sixth passenger in the car dies months later of burns suffered in the accident.Washington, D.C., "5 Die When Jet Crashes at Air Show", Washington Post, Monday 23 May 1983, Page A-22, Column 1. May 25 – Iraqi aircraft attack the Panamanian platform supply vessel Seatrans-21 in the Persian Gulf, inflicting slight damage on her. May 26 A Learjet 55 sets a world speed record in its class of over the between Los Angeles, California, and Paris - Le Bourget Airport, France. People Express Airlines inaugurates its first international service, flying a Boeing 747-227B between Newark International Airport in New Jersey and Gatwick Airport in London. May 31 – A missile attack by Iraqi aircraft in the Persian Gulf near the Iranian port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni seriously damages the Indian bulk carrier Ati Priti.
June June 1 – Singapore Airlines announces it has bought six Boeing 747-300s and four Boeing 757s, making it the first Asian airline to buy the 757. June 2 – Air Canada Flight 797, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, experiences an in-flight fire and makes an emergency landing at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky. When the plane's doors are opened on the ground, a fire flashover occurs, killing 23 and injuring 16 of the 46 people on board; Canadian folk musician and songwriter Stan Rogers is among the dead. The accident prompts the installation of smoke detectors and emergency lighting leading to exits aboard airliners, as well as increased firefighting training and equipment for airline crews. June 6 – Flying a Sea Harrier with a defective radio, dangerously low on fuel, and unable to find his way back to his aircraft carrier, , Royal Navy Sub-Lieutenant Ian Watson makes an emergency landing on the Spanish cargo ship Alraigo in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal, with his Sea Harrier coming to rest partly on a shipping container but with its tail on Alraigos deck. After Alraigo arrives at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands on 10 June, her crew and owners file a salvage claim, and they later are awarded £570,000 ($1,140,000). June 8 – The propeller detaches from the No. 4 engine of Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 – a Lockheed L-188C Electra with 10 passengers and a crew of five on board – shortly after takeoff from Cold Bay Airport in Cold Bay, Alaska, for a flight to Seattle, Washington, causing damage that depressurizes the plane and jams its flight controls and engine throttles. Through use of the autopilot and gradual loosening of the flight controls and by shutting down the engines upon touchdown and rolling to an unpowered stop, the crew manages to land the aircraft safely at Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage Alaska, without injury to anyone or any further damage to the airliner. June 11 – The first aircraft carrier designed as such to be built in Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is launched by Italcantieri at Monfalcone. June 24 – The Space Shuttle Challenger glides to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, bringing the first American woman in space, astronaut Sally K. Ride, back to Earth.Anonymous, "Today in History," The Washington Post Express, June 24, 2013, p. 26. June 27 – Ballooning record-setter Maxie Anderson and his co-pilot Don Ida die in a balloon accident near Bad Brückenau, West Germany, during the 1983 Gordon Bennett Cup balloon race.
July July 1 A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M en route Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board. Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz warns that Iraq will begin to attack economic targets in Iran if Iran does not halt such attacks on Iraq. The Soviet Union cancels the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport program after the Tu-144 has made 102 commercial flights since entering service with Aeroflot in December 1975. The Soviet government also provides for the future use of the remaining Tu-144s as airborne laboratories. July 7 – A standard production Learjet 55 sets six time-to-climb records. July 8 – General Dynamics rolls out the 1,000th F-16 Fighting Falcon.Taylor 1984, p. 43. July 11 – The TAME Boeing 737-2V2 Advanced Ciudad de Loja, flying over a mountainous region in heavy fog with an unqualified flight crew, crashes into a mountain while on final approach to a landing at Mariscal Lamar Airport in Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 people on board. It is TAMEs first crash and remains its deadliest; the crash also remains the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Ecuador. July 15 – A bomb planted in a suitcase by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) explodes at the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Paris-Orly Airport in Paris, France, killing eight people and injuring 55. July 16 – A British Airways Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashes in thick fog in the southern Celtic Sea near St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, killing 20 of the 26 people on board in the deadliest civilian helicopter accident in the United Kingdom prior to 1986. July 22 – Dick Smith achieves the first solo circumnavigation of the globe in a helicopter. Smith makes the journey in stages using a bell Jetranger III named Australian Explorer.Taylor 1984, pp. 43–44. July 23 – Air Canada Flight 143, a Boeing 767-200 with 69 people on board, runs out of fuel over Canada at an altitude of during a flight from Ottawa, Ontario, to Edmonton, Alberta. Its flight crew glides the aircraft to a landing at Gimli, Manitoba. All on board survive, and only 10 suffer minor injuries. The aircraft involved returns to service and is nicknamed the "Gimli Glider."
August August 1 – America West Airlines begins flying, operating from Phoenix, Arizona. August 12 – Iraq declares a formal "exclusion zone" in the Persian Gulf in which ships are subject to attack by the Iraqi Air Force and Iraqi Navy. August 15 – Iraq warns foreign merchant ships to keep clear of Iranian waters or risk attack.