This is a list of aviation-related events from 1979.
Events Eight Bell 212s delivered to the Civil Aviation Administration of China are the first helicopters supplied to the People's Republic of China by an American manufacturer.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 112.
January Continental Airlines inaugurates service between Houston, Texas, and Washington, D.C. January 1 – Trans World Airlines becomes a subsidiary of Trans World Corporation.TWA History Timeline January 12 Pilatus Aircraft acquires Britten-Norman. Three hijackers commandeer a Tunis Air Boeing 727-2H3 making a domestic flight in Tunisia from Tunis to Djerba, demanding the release of prisoners. The airliner diverts to Tripoli, Libya, where the hijackers surrender.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description Braniff International Airways becomes the only American airline to operate the Concorde as two Braniff pilots land an Air France and a British Airways Concorde simultaneously on parallel runways at Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport after flying from Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia outside Washington, D.C., ceremonially inaugurating a new interchange service allowing the Concorde to operate over the United States. The service functions by having Air France and British Airways crews fly the aircraft from Europe to Washington Dulles, where the aircraft are temporarily leased and re-registered to Braniff and flown by Braniff crews as Braniff aircraft to Dallas-Fort Worth. The process is reversed on the return trip, with Braniff crews flying the planes as Braniff aircraft to Washington Dulles, where they are "sold" back and re-registered to Air France and British Airways before being flown back to Europe by French and British crews. Braniff begins revenue service with the Concorde between Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington Dulles on January 13, charging 10 percent more than it charges for first class on its Boeing 727s flying the route. January 15 – After its pilot turns off its de-icing system too soon on approach to Minsk-1 Airport in Minsk in the Soviet Union's Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, an Aeroflot Antonov An-24B (registration CCCP-46807) loses longitudinal stability due to icing and crashes from the airport, killing 13 of the 14 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description January 16 – Six hijackers aboard a Middle East Airlines Boeing 707 bound from Beirut, Lebanon, to Amman, Jordan, demand the release of prisoners. The hijackers surrender at Beirut International Airport.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description January 24 – An Air Algerie Nord 262A-44 (registration 7T-VSU) on approach to Boudghene Ben Ali Lotfi Airport in Béchar, Algeria, flies too low and crashes from the airport, killing 14 of the 23 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description January 27 – A 49-year-old California woman hijacks United Airlines Flight 8 – a Boeing 747 with 131 people on board, including actor Sam Jaffe – as it flies from Los Angeles, California, to New York City. She threatens to blow up the plane if an actor – she demands that it be either Charlton Heston, Jack Lemmon, or Lindsay Wagner – does not read her message on U.S. national television from Los Angeles International Airport, where Heston stands by in case he is needed. About two hours after the airliner lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, she releases about 25 passengers. Police finally overpower and arrest her about 11 hours after the incident began.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking DescriptionCurry, William, and Andrew Knot, "Hijacking is 4th Air Piracy in 1979," archives.chicagotribune.com, June 21, 1979, p. 2.Feaver, Douglas B., "Jumbo Jet Is Hijacked By Woman," The Washington Post, January 28, 1979. January 30 – Varig Boeing 707-320C PP-VLU, a cargo plane, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after departing Tokyos Narita International Airport. Its wreck was never found. Lost along with the six people on board are 53 paintings by Manabu Mabe. The captain had been the pilot of Varig Flight 820, which had crashed in France in 1973.
February McDonnell Douglas completes the last A-4 Skyhawk. In the 25 years since the first prototype flew in 1954, the Douglas Aircraft Company and McDonnell Douglas have built 2,960 Skyhawks.Golan, John, "Heinemann's Hot Rod," Aviation History, January 2015, p. 30. February 8 – A TAM Airlines Embraer EMB-110C Bandeirante (registration PT-SBB) strikes trees during its initial climb after takeoff from Bauru Airport in Bauru, Brazil, and crashes into flames, killing all 18 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description February 12 – Members of the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) shoot down Air Rhodesia Flight 827, the Vickers Viscount Umniati, with a Strela 2 (NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail") surface-to-air missile in the Vuti African Purchase Area of Rhodesia east of Lake Kariba, killing all 59 people on board. February 18 – Flying from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod in Sandwich, Massachusetts, in bad weather to rescue a crewman in distress aboard the Japanese fishing vessel Kasei Maru #18, the United States Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican helicopter CG-1432 loses power and ditches in heavy seas in the North Atlantic Ocean 180 nautical miles ( southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. One Canadian Armed Forces and three U.S. Coast Guard personnel aboard die; Kasei Maru No. 18 rescues one U.S. Coast Guard crewman and recovers the bodies of the other four men. February 19 – American former child actor Norman Ollestad Sr. dies instantly when the chartered Cessna 172 he is riding in crashes in California's San Bernardino Mountains in adverse weather at an altitude of . The pilot dies soon afterwards. The two survivors, Ollestad's girlfriend and his 11-year-old son, future author Norman Ollestad Jr., attempt to descend the mountain. She dies in a fall, but the younger Ollestad survives.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1970s February 26 – Production of the A-4 Skyhawk ends after 26 years, with the delivery of the 2,690th and final aircraft to the United States Marine Corps. February 27 – Four hijackers commandeer Aeroflot Flight 212 – a Tupolev Tu-154 with 34 people on board – shortly after it takes off from Oslo, Norway, for a flight to Stockholm, Sweden. They threaten to blow up the airliner with glass bottles filled with kerosene. The plane lands at Stockholm, where the crew overpowers the hijackers.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description February 28 – Since January 1, Tanzania has shot down 19 Ugandan aircraft during the Uganda-Tanzania War. The losses drive the Ugandan Air Force out of the war.Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990, , p. 111.
March March 10 – The United States Air Force sends Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft to monitor the civil war in Yemen. March 14 A CAAC Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 2E (registration B-274) on a training flight crashes into a factory in Beijing, China, during its initial climb after takeoff from Beijing Xijiao Airport, killing all 12 people on the plane and at least 32 people on the ground, although some sources estimate that up to 200 people are killed.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description After two missed approaches at Doha International Airport in Doha, Qatar, Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600, the Boeing 727-2D3 City of Petra (registration JY-ADU), attempts to divert to Dhahran International Airport in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. While climbing away from Doha International, the airliner stalls at an altitude of and crashes, striking the ground at a speed of 170 knots (. It breaks into three pieces, killing 45 of the 64 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description March 16 – A man hijacks Continental Airlines Flight 62 – a Boeing 727 with 95 people on board flying from Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona – demanding a ransom of US$200,000 and transportation to Cuba. The airliner lands at Tucson, where he is arrested about two hours later.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description March 17 – After receiving a false warning of a fire in its No. 1 engine shortly after takeoff from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, an overloaded Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B (registration CCCP-42444) flown by an inexperienced pilot attempts to return to the airport. On approach, the airliner strikes a power line transmission tower, bounces off a hill, passes over a highway, and crashes in a frozen ploughed field, its wings and cockpit separating from its fuselage. The crash kills 58 of the 119 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description March 25 – Qantas retires its last Boeing 707 and becomes the world's first airline with a fleet made up exclusively of Boeing 747s. March 26 – An Interflug Ilyushin Il-18D cargo plane (registration DM-STL) attempts to abort its takeoff from Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda, Angola, after its No. 2 engine fails. The plane strikes the instrument landing system localizer antenna, breaks up, and burns, killing all 10 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description March 29 – Quebecair Flight 255, a Fairchild F-27, suffers an engine explosion minutes after takeoff from Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. While attempting to return to the airport, the airliner crashes into a hillside, killing 17 of the 24 people on board. March 31 – 550 senior officers of the Iranian armed forces, many of them Iranian Air Force and Iranian Army generals, have been killed or driven out of military service since the Iranian Revolution deposed the Shah of Iran on 11 February.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.
April Retired Formula One world motor racing champion Niki Lauda founds Lauda Air. The airline will begin flight operations in 1985. April 4 A man takes a woman hostage at knifepoint at a security screening point at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, and takes her with him as he forces his away aboard Pan American World Airways Flight 816, a Boeing 747SP-21 (registration N530PA) preparing for a flight to Auckland, New Zealand. He demands to be flown via Singapore to Rome – where he wishes to speak to the Pope and to an Italian Communist leader – and then on to Moscow. Police forcefully rescue the hostage, after which the hijacker produces two beer cans with wicks in them, one of which he holds in one hand; holding one of them in one hand and a match in the other hand, he threatens to blow up the plane. The police use a high-pressure fire hose to knock him off balance and when he ducks behind a seat with one of the beer cans, they shoot him. He later dies of his wounds. The beer cans are found to contain gunpowder.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description Trans World Airlines Flight 841, a Boeing 727-31 with 89 people on board on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suddenly rolls sharply to the right over Saginaw, Michigan, and goes into a spiral dive from including two 360-degree rolls despite corrective measures taken by both the autopilot and the human pilot, losing of altitude in 63 seconds before the flight crew manages to pull out of the dive at . Eight passengers suffer minor injuries caused by exposure to high G forces. The plane makes an emergency landing at Detroit, Michigan, without further incident.