This is a list ofaviation-related events from 1990.

• Pan American World Airways andTrans World Airlines, both in financial difficulty, transfer their coveted landing rights atLondon Heathrow Airport toAmerican Airlines andUnited Airlines.

• January 4 –Northwest Airlines Flight 5, aBoeing 727-251 with 145 people on board, takes off fromMiami International Airport in Miami, Florida, for a flight toMinneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport inMinneapolis, Minnesota, with its forwardlavatory external seal improperly installed, causing a leakage which allows the starboard engine to ingest frozen chunks of lavatory fluid. The engine detaches from the aircraft at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) overMadison, Florida, an hour into the flight. The aircraft flies normally for another 50 minutes until the crew makes a safeemergency landing atTampa International Airport inTampa, Florida.
• January 11 – TheUnited States Department of Defense awardsBell Helicopter a $US 123 million development contract for theV-22 Osprey.
• January 20 –North American Airlines began operations.
• January 25 –Avianca Flight 052, aBoeing 707-321B, runs out of fuel and crashes atCove Neck,Long Island, New York, killing 73 of the 158 people on board.
• 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.

• TheGovernment of Vietnam resubordinatesVietnam′s nationalcivil aviation authority, theCivil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, from theMinistry of Defense to theMinistry of Transport.
• February 14 –Indian Airlines Flight 605, anAirbus A320-321, crashes on agolf course on approach toBangalore, India, killing 92 of the 146 people on board and injuring all 54 survivors.
• February 26 –Eurofly begins flight operations.

• March 6 – The last flight of theSR-71 Blackbird takes place, whenLieutenant Colonels Ed Yielding (pilot) and Joseph Vida (reconnaissance systems officer) fly U.S. Air Force SR-71A serial number 61-17972 fromPalmdale, California, toWashington Dulles International Airport inVirginia, setting a Los Angeles, California-to-Washington, D.C. world record time of 1 hour 4 minutes 20 seconds at an average speed of 2,124 mph (3,418 km/h). The aircraft is delivered to theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Air and Space Museum to be put on display.^[1]
• 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]
• March 29 – TheTransportation Safety Board of Canada is formed. It replaces theCanadian Aviation Safety Board.

• April 9 –Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2254, anEmbraer 120RT Brasília with seven people on board, and aCivil Air PatrolCessna 172 collide in mid-air overGadsden, Alabama. The Cessna crashes in a field, killing both its occupants; the Embraer, with its righthorizontal stabilizer torn off, makes anemergency landing atNortheast Alabama Regional Airport in Gadsden without injury to anyone on board.
• April 12 –Widerøe Flight 839, ade Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, crashes into theNorwegian Sea just after takeoff fromVærøy Airport inVærøy Municipality, Norway, when strong winds crack itstail rudder andtailplane, rendering it uncontrollable. All five people on board die. Værøy Airport is closed after the accident due to the danger posed by bad weather and replaced byVærøy Heliport farther to the south.
• April 21 –Aeritalia joins theAirbus consortium as a partner.

• May 11 – The center wing fuel tank ofPhilippine Airlines Flight 143, aBoeing 737-300 with 120 people on board, explodes as the aircraft taxis before takeoff atNinoy Aquino International Airport inManila, thePhilippines, killing eight of the 120 people on board. The plane catches fire, and the 112 survivors are evacuated.

• June 10 – ABritish AirwaysBAC One-Eleven operating asFlight 5390 bound fromBirmingham,England, toMálaga,Spain, with 87 people on board has awindshield blow out overDidcot, England, slightly injuring aflight attendant and severely injuring thecaptain, Tim Lancaster, who is sucked halfway out of the aircraft and then wedged against the windshield frame. Whileflight stewards hold on to him to prevent him from being sucked entirely out of the aircraft, thefirst officer lands the plane atSouthampton Airport in England, and the captain survives his ordeal.^[3]
• June 22 –Bombardier purchasesLearjet for $US 75.85 million

• July 1 –East Germany's national airline,Interflug, becomes a member of theInternational Air Transport Association.
• 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.

• August 2–4 –Iraq invades and occupiesKuwait. At the time, theUnited States Navy aircraft carrierUSS Independence (CV-62) is in the northernArabian Sea; during the month, additional aircraft carriers will deploy to within striking range of Iraq and Kuwait, withUSS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) deploying to the easternMediterranean Sea and then theRed Sea, andUSS Saratoga (CV-60) departingNorfolk, Virginia, to deploy to the Red Sea.USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) relieves "Dwight D. Eisenhower" in the Red Sea in mid-August.^[4] Invading Iraqi forces captureBritish Airways Flight 149, aBoeing 747-136 with 385 people on board, while it is on the ground atKuwait International Airport nearKuwait City, Kuwait. The Iraqi detain the passengers and crew for use as "human shields" around important targets in Iraq; all survive and the Iraqis eventually release them before the onset ofCoalition attacks against Iraq in January 1991. The aircraft is looted and then destroyed. Iraqi government steals a number of Kuwaiti Airways planes and Kuwait Aircraft and takes them back to Iraq.^[5]
• August 6 – The United States issues its first orders deploying military forces in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, sending twosquadrons ofUnited States Air ForceF-15 Eagle fighters to thePersian Gulf region and several U.S. Air ForceB-52 Stratofortress bombers from thecontinental United States toDiego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.^[6]
• August 27 –Blues guitaristStevie Ray Vaughan and all four other people on board die in the crash of aBell 206B Jet Ranger helicopter nearEast Troy, Wisconsin.

• L'Express Airlines inaugurates its first service outside ofLouisiana, beginning flights toWilliam P. Hobby Airport inHouston,Texas;Birmingham International Airport inBirmingham,Alabama; andMobile Regional Airport inMobile, Alabama.
• Lauda Air Italy is established. It will begin flight operations in1993.
• 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]

• October 2
  • 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.
  • East Germany's air force, theLuftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee ("Air Forces of the National People's Army") is dissolved at midnight along with the rest of theEast German armed forces asEast Germany is reunified withWest Germany. Its aircraft, personnel, and facilities become part of the GermanLuftwaffe.
• 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]
  • Lufthansa begins service toBerlin. Prior to theGerman reunification five days earlier, it had been prohibited from flying to Berlin.
• October 31 – The Australianairline industry isderegulated. Airlines are allowed to select their own routes and set their own fares.

• November 14 – While attempting to land atZurich Airport in Zurich, Switzerland,Alitalia Flight 404, aMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, crashes into theStadlerberg mountain 8 km (5.0 mi) short of the runway due to a faultyinstrument landing system. All 46 people on board die.

• OceanAir – the futureAzores Airlines – is founded. It will begin operations as a non-scheduled carrier in 1991.
• December 3
  • 1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision, aDouglas DC-9-14 with 44 people on board, mistakenly taxis onto an active runway atDetroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport inRomulus,Michigan, in dense fog and is struck byNorthwest Airlines Flight 299, a departingBoeing 727-215 with 154 people on board. Eight die and 10 suffer injuries on the DC-9.
  • Continental Airlines files for its secondbankruptcy.
• December 19 –Northwest Airlines buys a 25% share inHawaiian Airlines.
• 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.

• January 10 –McDonnell Douglas MD-11^[9]

• February 11 –Denel Rooivalk^[10]
• February 19 –Scaled Composites ARES^[9]

• March 29 –Ilyushin Il-114^[9]

• April 13 –Sukhoi Su-27IB prototype
• April 20 –PZL-126 Mrówka^[9]
• April 27 –Gavilán G358^[9]

• May 1 –McDonnell Douglas MD 520N^[11]
• May 11 -Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4^[11]

• July 18 –EMBRAER/FMA CBA-123^[11]

• August 27 –Northrop YF-23^[11]

• September 29 –YF-22 Raptor^[11]

• October 10 –Learjet 60
• October 11 –Rockwell/MBB X-31^[11]

• November 14 -Air Tractor AT-802^[12]
• November 21 –K-8 Karakorum (Hongdu JL-8)^[12]

• September 30 –Piaggio P.180 Avanti

• October 4 – deliveries ofPiaggio Avanti to various operators commence

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.

• Lambert, Mark.Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1990–1991. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1990.ISBN 0-7106-0908-6.
• Lambert, Mark.Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1991–1992. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1991.ISBN 0-7106-0965-5.