This is a list of aviation-related events from 1971.
Events The Peruvian Army reestablishes Peruvian Army Aviation. Assessing the prospects for the development of hypersonic airliners, John Becker and Frank Kirkham of the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASAs) Langley Research Center project that a 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.Hallion, Roy P., "Does the Hypersonic Transport Have a Future?", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 42. Erickson Air-Crane Incorporated, the future Erickson Inc., is established. Trans European Airways begins flight operations, offering four flights with a Boeing 720.
January January 2 – United Arab Airlines Flight 844, a de Havilland Comet 4C, strikes sand dunes at an altitude of while on approach to land in poor visibility at Tripoli, Libya, and crashes, killing all 16 people on board. January 3 – Seven hijackers commandeer National Airlines Flight 36, a Douglas DC-8 flying from Los Angeles to Tampa, Florida, with 96 people on board, and force it to fly to Cuba. January 6 – The United States Marine Corps takes delivery of its first AV-8A Harriers World Aircraft Information Files, File 978 Sheet 01 January 15 – Braniff Airways begins Boeing 747 service between Dallas Love Field and Hawaii, using its first Boeing 747, which it acquired in 1970. January 18 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Ilyushin Il-18D crashes short of the runway on approach to Zurich-Kloten Airport in Switzerland in poor weather and catches fire. Forty-five of the 47 people on board die. January 21 A French Air Force Nord 262A-34 flying in a blizzard crashes into a high mountain south of Mézilhac, France, and comes to rest below its summit, killing all 21 people on board. Seven of France's top nuclear experts are among the dead. 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. January 22 In the 1971 January 22 Surgut Aeroflot Antonov An-12 crash, an Aeroflot Antonov An-12B—its ice protection system rendered ineffective by a closed valve—crashes on approach to Surgut International Airport in the Soviet Union due to icing, killing all 13 people on board. It is the first of the two very similar crashes that happen at the airport nine days apart. A United States Navy P-3 Orion sets a distance record for an aircraft in its class of . Four Eritrean hijackers seize control of an Ethiopian Airlines Douglas DC-3 during a domestic flight in Ethiopia from Bahir Dar to Gondar, demanding that it fly to Benghazi, Libya. The airliner stops to refuel at Khartoum before proceeding to Benghazi. 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." 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. January 25 – Línea Aeropostal Venezolana Flight 359, a Vickers 749 Viscount 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. 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. January 27 - A Jet Commander carrying five men went missing shortly after takeoff from Burlington International Airport. In May 2024, the jet's remains were discovered at the bottom of Lake Champlain. January 30 – In the 1971 Indian Airlines hijacking, 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 – In the 1971 January 31 Surgut Aeroflot Antonov An-12 crash, an Antonov An-12 crashes on approach to Surgut International Airport due to 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.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 314. 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. 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.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 152–157. The Soviet Union awards Leningrad′s Shosseynaya Airport (the future Pulkovo Airport) the Order of the October Revolution. February 25 – Western Airlines Flight 328 – a Boeing 737-200 flying from San Francisco to Seattle, U.S., with 97 people on board – is hijacked by United States Army recruit Chapin S. Paterson, who tells a flight attendant that he has a bomb, enters the cockpit, and orders the flight crew to fly him to Cuba. Informed that the plane lacks the range to fly there, he agrees to fly to Canada instead. Ten minutes after arrival at Vancouver International Airport, the other passengers—unaware that the plane had been hijacked and thinking they were arriving at Seattle—disembark, and Chapin announces that he has no bomb, exits the airliner, and surrenders to Canadian authorities. He asks to remain in Canada as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, but Canadian courts deny him this status, and he is returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges.
March The United States Marine Corps forms its first attack helicopter squadron.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 158. 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. 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. 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 United States Air Force via the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. March 19 – A hijacker commandeers a KLM Douglas DC-8 flying from Paramaribo, Suriname, to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and demands to be flown to Sweden, but surrenders to authorities at Paramaribo. March 24 – Federal funding for the Boeing SST project is cut by the United States Congress. March 26 – The United States Army′s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) is withdrawn from Vietnam, leaving behind only its 3rd Brigade (Reinforced) at Biên Hòa, South Vietnam.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 157. March 30 – Six hijackers commandeer a Philippine Air Lines BAC One-Eleven with 50 people on board during a domestic flight in the Philippines from Manila to Davao City and force it to fly to Guangzhou in the People's Republic of China. 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 . It crashes 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. 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. 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.
April Using CH-53A Sea Stallion helicopters, the U.S. Navys Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 12 (HM-12) and Mobile Mine Countermeaures Command begin the development of specifications for the U.S. Navys first air mine countermeasures aircraft.Melia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777–1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991, , pp. 99–100. 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. April 21 – A hijacker commandeers Eastern Airlines Flight 403, a Douglas DC-8 with 59 people on board flying from Newark, New Jersey, to Miami, Florida, and demands to be flown to Italy.