January 26 – The first of two newAir Force Ones, VIP variants of theBoeing 747-200 for the use of the President of the United States and his staff, are delivered.
March 27 –TV Martí, aUnited States Government television station employing aircraft to broadcast its signal intoCuba, goes on the air for the first time, using anaerostat – nicknamed "Fat Albert" by people in the area – tethered overCudjoe Key,Florida, at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). AfterHurricane Dennis destroys "Fat Albert" in 2005, the broadcasting effort uses fixed-wing aircraft until May 2013, when budget cuts ground the last aircraft,Aero Martí.[2]
July 7 – The Portugueseregional airlinePortugália begins flight operations with a domestic flight inPortugal fromLisbon toPorto. Later in the day it operates a flight from Lisbon toFaro, Portugal.
July 24 – After over 29 years of accident-free flights logging over 281,000 flying hours since it began on February 3, 1961, theUnited States Air Force ends continuous airborne alert missions underOperation Looking Glass, although Looking Glass aircraft remain on continuous, 24-hour ground or airborne alert.
September 1 – TheGovernment of New Zealand establishesNew Zealand'sTransport Accident Investigation Commission. Initially responsible only for the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents, in will take on the additional responsibilities of investigating railway accidents in 1992 and marine accidents in 1995.
September 11 - aFaucett Perú 727 on a repositioning flight disappears over the Pacific Ocean with 16 people on board after they told the air traffic controller that they were going to ditch. No wreckage is ever found.
September 27 –United Air Lines is the first airline to introduce satellite communications for its aircraft.
September 30 - The New Zealand companyStraits Air Freight Express (Safe Air), operating cargo flights and a combined cargo-passenger service from New Zealand to theChatham Islands stops flying operations. It continues to operate as an aircraft maintenance and engineering company.[7]
Wishing to seekpolitical asylum in Taiwan, Jiang XiaofenghijacksXiamen AirlinesFlight 8301 during a flight fromXiamen Gaoqi International Airport inXiamen, China, toGuangzhou, China, demanding that it be flown toTaipei, Taiwan. When the pilot explains that the aircraft lacks the fuel to fly to Taipei and proposes that it fly to Hong Kong instead, Jiang insists on flying to Taipei. After a lengthy discussion, the pilot decides that he lacks the fuel to continue and opts to land at Guangzhou'sGuangzhou Baiyun International Airport against Jiang's wishes, and Jiang wrestles control of the aircraft from him moments before landing. The Xiamen plane sideswipes a parkedChina Southwest AirlinesBoeing 707-320B – injuring its pilot, who is the only person on board – thencollides withChina Southern Airlines Flight 2812, aBoeing 757-21B awaiting takeoff with 122 people on board, before flipping onto its back and coming to a stop. Eighty-two of the 102 people aboard the hijacked Xiamen plane die – including the hijacker – as do 46 of the 122 people aboard the China Southern plane, bringing the combined death toll to 128.
October 2–6 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrierUSS Independence (CV-62) operates in thePersian Gulf, demonstrating the feasibility of such operations as theCoalition build-up in the confrontation with Iraq over Kuwait continues.[8]
October 4 – On the day afterGerman reunification, East Germany's nationalcivil aviation authority, theStaatliche Luftfahrt-Inspektion der DDR (Public Department of Aviation of the GDR), is disestablished, and West Germany'sLuftfahrt-Bundesamt (Federal aviation Office) takes over all functions as the national civil aviation authority of unifiedGermany.
October 28
When the IraqitankerAmuriyah refuses to stop for inspection byCoalition warships enforcing anembargo againstIraq, the pursuit of her by Coalition forces includes low-level flyovers by U.S. Navy aircraft carrier-basedF-14 Tomcats andF/A-18 Hornets.[8]
December 21 – American aircraft designerKelly Johnson dies, aged 80.
December 28 –The Soviet airlineTransaero is incorporated. It is the first private airline approved to provide scheduled passenger service in theSoviet Union. It will begin passenger service inNovember 1991 and scheduled passenger service inJanuary 1993.
The deadliest crash of this year was an unusual incident: in theGuangzhou Baiyun aircraft collisions, which occurred on 2 October inGuangzhou, China, 128 people were killed when a hijackedBoeing 737 struck two other aircraft during an emergency landing in which the hijacker attempted to gain control of the aircraft. The deadliest single-aircraft accident wasIndian Airlines Flight 605, anAirbus A320 which crashed whilst attempting to land atBangalore, India, on 14 February, killing 92 of the 146 people on board.
