This is a list of aviation-related events from 1994.
Events OceanAir – the future Azores Airlines – suspends operations. It will resume flight operations in April 1998 as SATA International.
January 20 January – Qatar Airways begins operations.
February 1 February – The Government of Colombia's Administrative Department of Civil Aeronautics is abolished. Simultaneously, the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics begins operations, taking over the former department's role as Colombia′s national civil aviation authority. 6 February – In the wake of the Markale massacre the previous day in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali formally requests that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) confirm that it would carry out air strikes against Army of Republika Srpska positions around Sarajevo immediately. 9 February – NATO authorizes the Commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe, United States Navy Admiral Jeremy Boorda, to launch air strikes against Army of Republika Srpska artillery and mortar positions in and around Sarajevo that the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) determined were responsible for attacks against civilian targets. 28 February – In an incident near Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first combat operation in the history of NATO takes place when two United States Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcons operating in NATOs Operation Deny Flight – enforcement of a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina – engage six Republika Srpska Air Force J-21 Jastreb light attack aircraft which had just bombed Novi Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, shooting down four of them.
March Alaska Airlines retires its last Boeing 727. 7 March – The Japanese Nihon Aero Student Groups Yuri I makes the second human-powered helicopter flight in history and the first since December 1989, setting an endurance record of 19.46 seconds at Nihon University.University of Michigan Human-Powered Helicopter 12 March – The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) makes its first request for NATO close air support in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a number of delays associated with the approval process prevent NATO aircraft from carrying out a strike.Report A/54/549 , Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to General Assembly resolution 53/35: The fall of Srebrenica 17 March – Armenian forces shoot down an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force C-130E Hercules carrying Iranian embassy personnel from Tehran to Moscow near Ballıca in the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, killing all 32 people on board. 23 March Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310-304, is flying with unauthorized people – the pilots 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter – in the cockpit when the 16-year-old unintentionally disengages the autopilot without the pilots knowledge, causing the plane to bank steeply, go into an unexpected nearly vertical dive, and crash into a hillside in the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range 20 km (12 miles) east of Mezhdurechensk, Russia. All 75 people on board die. Two United States Air Force aircraft – a C-130E Hercules and an F-16D Fighting Falcon – collide at low altitude over Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. The C-130E later lands safely, but the two men aboard the F-16D are forced to eject as the fighter begins to disintegrate. The unmanned F-16D continues in afterburner and punctures the fuel tanks of a parked U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter, creating a fireball which, along with the F-16Ds wreckage, strikes a large group of United States Army 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers. The crash kills 24 and injures over 80 paratroopers in the divisions greatest loss of life since the end of World War II in 1945. Despondent over allegations in the news media of an extramarital affair, American meteorologist Bob Richards, a weatherman at KDSK-TV in St. Louis, Missouri, takes off from Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri, in a Piper PA-23-180 and apparently commits suicide by deliberately diving it vertically into the ground. He had attempted suicide twice previously.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1990s 25 March – Aerosvit Airlines is founded. It will begin flight operations in April.
April Aerosvit Airlines begins flight operations, offering service from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece; Larnaca, Cyprus; Odesa, Ukraine; and Tel Aviv, Israel, in co-operation with Air Ukraine. 1 April – In the United Kingdom, the Women's Royal Air Force merges into the Royal Air Force (RAF), marking the full integration of women into the RAF.rafmuseum.org.uk Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) 1949–1994 3 April – Returning from a skiing trip in Nevada's Ruby Mountains, president of the Walt Disney Company Frank Wells and climber and documentary filmmaker Beverly Johnson die along with two other people when their Bell 206B-2 helicopter flames out during takeoff due to snow accumulation in its engine and crashes in Thorpe Creek Canyon, 5 miles (8 km) south of Lamoille, Nevada. One person survives the crash. 4 April – KLM Cityhopper Flight 433, a Saab 340, crashes on landing at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, killing three of the 21 people on board and seriously injuring nine of the 18 survivors. 6 April – A surface-to-air missile shoots down the presidential jet of Rwanda, a Dassault Falcon 50, as it prepares to land at Kigali International Airport at Kigali, Rwanda, killing all 12 aboard, including President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana and President of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira. Their assassination will spark the 1994 Rwandan genocide. 7 April – Flying as a passenger, FedEx employee Auburn Calloway attempts to hijack Federal Express Flight 705, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, by using claw hammers, sledgehammers, and a speargun to murder the crew, planning to crash the plane during a cargo flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to San Jose, California, killing himself so that his family could collect his $2,500,000 FedEx employee life insurance. Although badly injured, the three-man crew manages to restrain Calloway in a struggle during which the DC-10 reaches transonic speeds and flies inverted, then makes an emergency landing at Memphis International Airport. 10–11 April – The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) calls in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air strikes to protect the Goražde safe area in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two U.S. Air Force General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons respond, bombing a Bosnian Serb military command post near Goražde. It is the first time in NATOs history that its aircraft have carried out an air strike. 14 April – United States Air Force F-15 Eagles enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq in Operation Provide Comfort II shoot down two United States Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, misidentifying them as Iraqi Mil Mi-25s (NATO reporting name "Hind D"). All 26 people aboard the two helicopters die. 16 April – A Bosnian Serb Strela 2 (NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail") surface-to-air missile shoots down a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Sea Harrier over Goražde, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pilot later is rescued. 24 April – A Douglas DC-3 registered VH-EDC of South Pacific Airmotive suffers an engine malfunction shortly after take-off from Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, for a charter flight to Norfolk Island and ditches in Botany Bay. All 25 people on board – four crew members and 21 passengers – safely evacuate the aircraft. 26 April – An Airbus A300 operating as China Airlines Flight 140 crashes just before landing at Nagoya International Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
June 2 June – In the Royal Air Forces worst peacetime aviation disaster, an RAF Boeing Chinook helicopter crashes on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, killing all 29 people on board. Among the dead are almost all of the United Kingdoms senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts. 6 June – In what remains the People's Republic of Chinas deadliest air disaster, the autopilot aboard China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, a Tupolev Tu-154M, malfunctions, causing the airliner to shake violently, break apart in flight, and crash south of Xi'an, China, killing all 160 people on board. 9 June – An Antonov An-124 Ruslan carries a 109-tonne IE 201 Class locomotive from London, Ontario, Canada, to Dublin, Ireland. 24 June – A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress crashes at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Spokane, Washington, when its pilot banks it too steeply during a go-around, killing the entire crew of four. 30 June – An Airbus A330-300 on a test flight crashes at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in Toulouse, France, killing all seven people on board. It is the first fatal accident involving an A330 and will remain the only one until 2009; it also is the first hull-loss of an A330.
July 2 July – USAir Flight 1016, a Douglas DC-9-31 on approach in heavy rain to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, crashes, the victim of a microburst. Thirty-seven of the 57 people aboard die, and 15 of the 20 survivors are injured. 12 July – A Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules flies the 10,000th United Nations relief flight into Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. 19 July – Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901, an Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante, explodes shortly after departing Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport in Colón, Panama, killing all 21 people on board. Investigators determine that a suicide bomber probably brought the plane down, perhaps to kill 12 Jews who were aboard. A group named Ansar Allah ("Followers of God") claims responsibility, but is later found not to exist, and the bombing remains unsolved.
August Flight Lieutenant Jo Salter is posted to the Royal Air Forces No. 617 Squadron, which operates Tornado GR1Bs. She is the RAF's first female fast jet pilot. Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela (LAV) ceases operations as part of a Venezuelan government effort to reduce expenditures. The airline will not resume operations until January 1998. 5 August – In response to a request to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), two U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attack and destroy a Serbian anti-tank vehicle near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.U.S. Hits Bosnian Serb Target in Air Raid 17 August – President of the United States Bill Clinton signs the General Aviation Revitalization Act into law. It generally shields most manufacturers of aircraft that carry fewer than 20 passengers and aircraft parts from liability for most accidents involving their products, including those which cause injuries or fatalities, if the products are 18 years old or older at the time of the accident, even if manufacturer negligence was a cause of the accident. 21 August – Royal Air Maroc Flight 630, an ATR 42-312, crashes at Douar Izounine, Morocco, in the Atlas Mountains 10 minutes after takeoff from Al Massira Airport, in Agadir, Morocco, killing all 44 people on board, including a Kuwaiti prince and his wife. An investigation concludes that the pilot disconnected the autopilot and crashed the plane deliberately, although a flight union disputes the finding. At the time, it is the deadliest accident involving an ATR 42. 30 August – Lockheed and Martin Marietta announce their intention to merge. They will form Lockheed-Martin the following year.
September 8 September – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737-300, crashes into a hillside near Aliquippa in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, while on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing all 132 people aboard; among the dead is noted neuroethologist Walter Heiligenberg. The ensuring accident investigation lasts 4½ years – still the longest in aviation history.