This is a list of aviation-related events from 1977.
Events Uganda Airlines begins flight operations.
January East African Airways ceases all operations. It will go into liquidation in February. January 5 – In the Connellan air disaster, Colin Richard Foreman, a disgruntled former employee of Connellan Airways (Connair), steals a Beechcraft Baron 58 and crashes it into a building in the Connair complex at Alice Springs Airport at Alice Springs, Australia, killing himself and four people on the ground and injuring four others. January 6 – Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra, the mother of singer Frank Sinatra, and all three other people on board die when their Gates Learjet 24 never changes course after takeoff from Palm Springs Municipal Airport in Palm Springs, California, and crashes into a ridge in the eastern portion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. January 11 – A hijacker claiming to have a hand grenade commandeers Trans World Airlines Flight 700 – a Boeing 747 with 349 people on board flying from New York City′s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London′s Heathrow Airport – demanding to be flown to Uganda. The airliner lands at Heathrow where, after several hours of negotiations, security forces take down the hijacker when he becomes violent. January 13 – After a fire breaks out in the No. 1 engine of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104A (registration CCCP-42369) on approach to Alma-Ata Airport in Alma-Ata in the Soviet Union's Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, the Tu-104A begins orbiting the airport to burn off fuel. The fire spreads to a fuel tank, causing the fuel tank to explode at an altitude of . The airliner crashes from the airport, killing all 96 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Kazakhstan at the time.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description January 14 – On approach to Terrace Airport outside Terrace, British Columbia, Canada, during a snowstorm, a Northern Thunderbird Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (registration C-GNTB) strikes a hill and crashes south of the airport, killing all 12 people on board. January 15 – Linjeflyg Flight 618, a Vickers Viscount 838 operated by Linjeflyg, crashes in Kälvesta, Sweden, just outside Stockholm, killing all 22 on board. January 18 – Prime Minister of Yugoslavia Džemal Bijedić and all six others on board are killed when their Gates Learjet 25 crashes into a mountain near Kreševo, Yugoslavia, during a snowstorm. January 19 – On approach to Valencia Airport outside Valencia, Spain, an Ejército del Aire CASA C-207C Azor (registration T.7-15) crashes into the side of a mountain near Chiva, killing all 11 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description January 20 – A new passenger terminal, Passenger Terminal 1, opens at Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and all civilian passenger traffic transfers to it. At the time, all major international flights to and from Brazil use the terminal. January 22 – Kenya Airways is founded. It will begin flight operations on February 4.
February Beechcraft produces its 10,000th Bonanza, a Bonanza Model 35. The Bonanza is entering its 31st year of production.Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the Worlds Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, , p. 94. February 4 – Kenya Airways begins flight operations. February 9 – Queen Alia of Jordan is killed in a military helicopter crash at Amman, Jordan. February 13 – A hijacker commandeers a Turkish Airlines Douglas DC-9-32 with 57 people on board during a domestic flight in Turkey from Istanbul to İzmir, demanding to be flown to Yugoslavia. The airliner lands at İzmir, where the hijacker surrenders.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description February 15 – Attempting to land at Mineralnye Vody Airport in Mineralnye Vody Airport in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, Aeroflot Flight 5003, an Ilyushin Il-18V (registration CCCP-75520), executes a missed approach due to low clouds and fog. While climbing away from the airport, the airliner stalls, crashes into a railway embankment, and bursts into flames, killing 77 of the 98 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description February 18 – A Space Shuttle is airborne for the first time when the Space Shuttle Enterprise is taken up for a flight atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Enterprise does not detach from the carrier aircraft during the flight.
March March 1 – During its initial climb after takeoff from Aden International Airport in Aden South Yemen, an Alyemda Douglas C-47A-25-DK Skytrain (registration 7O-ABF) crashes into the Gulf of Aden, killing all 19 people on board. March 3 – Flying in fog, an Italian Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules (registration MM61996) crashes into Monte Serra east of Arturo dell'Oro Air Base in Pisa, Italy, killing all 44 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description March 4 – An Overseas National Airways DC-8-63CF registration N8635 operating a cargo flight for French airline UTA, crashed on approach to Niamey Airport in Niger, causing the deaths of two of the four crew and the write off of the aircraft. March 11 – Air Tanzania is founded as the flag carrier of Tanzania. It will commence flight operations on June 1. March 14 – An Italian man hijacks an Iberia Boeing 727-256 with 37 people on board during a domestic flight in Spain from Barcelona to Palma on Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, demanding to be flown to Ivory Coast to see his 3-year-old daughter and to Italy to see his 6-year-old daughter. Over the next two days, the airliner makes stops at Algiers in Algeria, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Seville in Spain, Turin in Italy, Zürich in Switzerland, and Warsaw in Poland before returning to Zürich, where policemen dressed as airline crew members arrest him on March 16.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description March 17 A hijacker commandeers an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727-281 during a domestic flight in Japan from Sapporo to Sendai. The airliner diverts to Hakodate, Japan, where the hijacker surrenders.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description A hijacker commandeers an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727-281 during a domestic flight in Japan from Tokyo′s Haneda Airport to Sendai. The airliner returns to Tokyo, where the hijacker commits suicide.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description March 19 Two hijackers take control of a Turkish Airlines Boeing 727-2F2 with 181 people on board during a domestic flight in Turkey from Diyarbakir to Ankara. They force it to fly to Beirut, Lebanon, where they surrender at Beirut International Airport.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description Brazilian champion race car driver Carlos Pace dies along with the other two people on board when their Piper aircraft crashes near Mairiporã, Brazil. March 27 – The Tenerife airport disaster takes place: Attempting to take off in fog from Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, KLM Flight 4805, a Boeing 747-206B registered as PH-BUF, collided with Pan Am Flight 1736, a Boeing 747-121 registered as N736PA, which was backtracking the runway. All 248 occupants on board the KLM aircraft die, as do 335 of the 396 people aboard the Pan Am plane; all 61 Pan Am survivors are injured. American pin-up model, motion picture actress, and film producer Eve Meyer is among the dead on the Pan Am flight. With a combined total of 583 people killed, the crash remained the worst air disaster in history until September 2001. March 30 – Attempting a go-around after encountering fog while attempting to land at Zhdanov Airport in Zhdanov in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, an Aeroflot Yakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87738), strikes a pole with its wing, crashes from the airport, and catches fire, killing eight of the 27 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description March 31 – The captain of a Douglas C-47 military transport plane operated by Swift Air Lines, a commercial airline in the southern Philippines, opens fire in the cabin of the plane with an M16 rifle. The plane carried 34 Philippines soldiers on a charter flight from Zamboanga City, Philippines to Sanga-Sanga Airport on the island of Tawi-Tawi. The pilot, Ernesto Agdulos, grabbed the rifle left in the cockpit, then opened fire, killing six of the soldiers and a flight stewardess, and wounding nine others. After the pilot was disarmed and detained, the co-pilot landed the plane safely. The pilot initially claimed to have no memory of the incident. He later admitted that robbery was his motive.
April Comair, owned by Delta Air Lines, starts operations. April 4 – Southern Airways Flight 242, a Douglas DC-9-31, enters a severe thunderstorm which breaks the planes windshield; the aircrafts engines ingest so much water and hail that they both flameout. The plane glides to a crash landing on a rural highway, killing 62 out of 85 people aboard – including rhythm and blues singer Annette Snell – and eight people on the ground; all 22 survivors are injured. April 10 – A Taxi Aéreo El Venado Douglas DC-3A-438 (registration HK-556), disappears with the loss of all 35 people on board during a domestic flight in Colombia from La Uribe to Bogotá. Its wreckage is discovered on May 15 at an elevation of on Saliente del Rio Guape Mountain in the Cordillera Oriental.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description April 19 – A Soviet Air Forces Antonov An-24 (NATO reporting name "Coke") carrying Soviet Air Defense Forces pilots to their base at Tapa Airfield in Tapa in the Soviet Union's Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic flies too low while passing through a snow flurry on approach to the airfield, strikes the chimney of a spirit factory, crashes at Moe, and burns out, killing all 21 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Estonia.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description April 24 – A hijacker commandeers a LOT Polish Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 bound from Kraków, Poland, to Nuremberg, East Germany. Security forces storm the airliner at Kraków and arrest the hijacker.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description April 25 – Two hijackers seize control of an Ethiopian Airlines Douglas DC-3 making a domestic flight in Ethiopia from Mek'ele to Gondar. The hijackers are taken down.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description April 27 – An Aviateca Convair 240 crashes near Guatemala City, Guatemala, due to a maintenance error, killing all 28 people on board. The incident is known as the 1977 Aviateca Convair 240 crash. April 29 – The British government nationalizes the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, and Scottish Aviation and merges them to form British Aerospace. They retain their individual identities at first, but eventually become divisions of British Aerospace.Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the Worlds Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, , p. 91.
May British Airways pilots fly three Cyprus Airways airliners – two Hawker Siddeley Tridents and a BAC One-Eleven – out of Nicosia International Airport on Cyprus to the United Kingdom; the planes had been stranded at Nicosia International since the permanent closure of airport during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974. No test flights precede these flights because Turkey does not permit any. A third Cyprus Airways Trident is left derelict at the abandoned airport, too badly damaged by small arms fire during the fighting in July 1974 to be worth repairing. May 2