January 10 –Trans World Airlines (TWA) andAmerican Airlines announce that they have agreed to merge, with American acquiring almost all the assets of TWA, consisting at the time of 190 aircraft, about 800 daily flights, 20,000 employees, numerous routes and gates, and substantial maintenance facilities. Under the agreement, American is to employ almost all of TWA's employees and maintainSt. Louis,Missouri as a major air hub.[1] The merger will be completed inDecember.[1]
January 31 – TwoJapan Air Lines airliners – aBoeing 747-446 operating as Flight 907 and aDouglas DC-10-40D operating as Flight 958 –nearly collide overSuruga Bay,Japan, passing within 100 meters (330 feet) of one another. Aboard the 747, a hundred people are injured when the aircraft takes violent evasive action. Had the two planes collided, with a combined 677 people on board, it would have been the worst aviation disaster in history.
February 16 – American and British aircraft launch attacks against six targets in southernIraq, including command centers, radars, and communications centers, hitting only about 40% of the targets.[2] Incidents of planes enforcing theno-fly zone over southern Iraq inOperation Southern Watch thereafter exchange fire with Iraqi air defense sites on a weekly basis.
March 11 – A Russian flight is hijacked and flown to Medina airport. There, after negotiations fail, Saudi special forces storm the aircraft, inadvertently killed a flight attendant and another passenger. One hijacker is dead and the other two are arrested.[3]
TheRepublic of China places theAviation Safety Council, formerly an independent government agency responsible for aviation accident investigation with the purpose of analyzing causal factors and proposing flight safety recommendations inTaiwan, under the control of theExecutive Yuan.
On the 1st of August, a Saudi Airlines 747 is going from the maintenance area to the passenger terminal atKLIA, when the crew lose control of the aircraft. It goes into a ditch and it sustains a lot of damage. The aircraft is written off.[8]
August 13 – On a single flight, theNASA Helios Prototype sets the absolute world record for altitude by anunmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the world record for altitude for sustained flight by a winged aircraft, reaching 29,524 meters (96,864 feet). It spends 40 minutes flying above 96,000 feet (29,000 meters).
August 29 – Piloting aBell 47G helicopter on a solo training flight for a helicopterpilot's license,Australian singer and television presenterGraeme "Shirley" Strachan strays from the course laid out by his flight instructor and encounters severe turbulence that causes the helicopter's rotor to sever its tailboom. The helicopter crashes on a rugged mountainside near Australia'sMount Archer inQueensland, killing him.[4]
Ansett Australia ceases flight operations due to financial collapse.
September 15 –TAM Airlines Flight 9755, aFokker 100, suffers an engine failure over Belo Horizonte, fragments of the turbine blades break 3 windows and the passenger in Seat 19E is partially sucked out of the plane, the passenger does not survive, the plane makes an emergency landingConfins International Airport
British Airways drops its controversialethnic tailfins, which it had first adopted in 1997. It had initially slowed the process of adopting the tailfins in 1999; finally Chief ExecutiveRod Eddington decides that all aircraft will be painted with the newUnion Flag livery, which had been one of the "ethnic" designs.
November 19 – TheTransportation Security Administration, a component of theUnited States Department of Transportation, begins operation. It has broad responsibilities for and powers related to ensuring the safety of the traveling public in the United States, but the bulk of its efforts are devoted tocivil aviation, most notably the screening of passengers and baggage at over 450 airports in the United States.
November 24 – On approach toZurich-Kloten Airport inKloten nearZürich,Switzerland, in rain, snow, and poor visibility due to low clouds,Crossair Flight 3597, anAvro RJ100 (registration HB-IXM), crashes into a wooded range of hills near the small town ofBassersdorf about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) short of the runway, where it breaks apart and bursts into flames, killing 24 of the 33 people on board.Melanie Thornton, the lead singer of the Eurodance groupLa Bouche, and singers Nathaly(i.e.) van het Ende and Maria Serrano Serrano of the German pop music groupPassion Fruit are among the dead.[4] Singer Debby St. Maarten of Passion Fruit survives with severe injuries.
2001 remains the deadliest year for aviation in history. TheSeptember 11 attacks marked the deadliest ever act of terrorism; an estimated 2,977 people were killed along with the 19 hijackers who commandeered four aircraft in theUnited States and crashed them into targets including theWorld Trade Center inNew York City,The Pentagon inWashington, D.C., and inShanksville, Pennsylvania. Alongside the attacks, which changed aviation significantly in following years, there were many notable accidents both before and after September 11 that have left a lasting impact on the industry. The deadliest such crash took place whenAmerican Airlines Flight 11, the first aircraft hijacked in the September 11 attacks, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing all 92 people on board and at least 1,600 in the North Tower.
The deadliest non-terrorist crash took placeAmerican Airlines Flight 587, anAirbus A300, crashed inBelle Harbor, Queens, shortly after taking off fromJohn F. Kennedy International Airport on 12 November, two months and a mere few miles from the main site of the 9/11 attacks, killing all 260 people on board, as well as five on the ground. As 9/11 was a terrorist attack, Flight 587 is also the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the2000s decade.
