January 13 – After a fire breaks out in the No. 1 engine of anAeroflotTupolev Tu-104A (registration CCCP-42369) on approach toAlma-Ata Airport inAlma-Ata in theSoviet Union'sKazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, the Tu-104A begins orbiting the airport to burn off fuel. The fire spreads to a fuel tank, causing the fuel tank to explode at an altitude of 300 meters (980 feet). The airliner crashes 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) from the airport, killing all 96 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history ofKazakhstan at the time.[3]
March 4 – AnOverseas National AirwaysDC-8-63CF registration N8635 operating a cargo flight for French airlineUTA, crashed on approach toNiamey Airport in Niger, causing the deaths of two of the four crew and the write off of the aircraft.[13]
A hijacker commandeers an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727-281 during a domestic flight in Japan fromTokyo′sHaneda Airport to Sendai. The airliner returns to Tokyo, where the hijacker commits suicide.[16]
March 27 – TheTenerife airport disaster takes place: Attempting to take off in fog from Los Rodeos Airport (nowTenerife North Airport) atTenerife in theCanary Islands,KLM Flight 4805, aBoeing 747-206B registered as PH-BUF, collided withPan Am Flight 1736, a Boeing 747-121 registered as N736PA, which was backtracking the runway. All 248 occupants on board the KLM aircraft die, as do 335 of the 396 people aboard the Pan Am plane; all 61 Pan Am survivors are injured. American pin-up model, motion picture actress, and film producerEve Meyer is among the dead on the Pan Am flight.[1] With a combined total of 583 people killed, the crash remained the worst air disaster in historyuntil September 2001.
March 31 – The captain of aDouglas C-47 military transport plane operated by Swift Air Lines, a commercial airline in the southernPhilippines, opens fire in the cabin of the plane with anM16 rifle. The plane carried 34 Philippines soldiers on a charter flight fromZamboanga City, Philippines toSanga-Sanga Airport on the island ofTawi-Tawi. The pilot, Ernesto Agdulos, grabbed the rifle left in the cockpit, then opened fire, killing six of the soldiers and a flight stewardess, and wounding nine others.[19] After the pilot was disarmed and detained, the co-pilot landed the plane safely. The pilot initially claimed to have no memory of the incident.[20] He later admitted that robbery was his motive.[21]
After anIberiaBoeing 727 arriving fromMadrid,Spain, lands atRome′sLeonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, aLibyan man being deported from Spain who wants to return to Spain to see his fiancée threatens the flight crew with a knife and demands that the plane fly him back to Madrid immediately. He allows all the other passengers to disembark. While the airliner is still on the ground at Rome, one of the pilots disables thehijacker by activating afire extinguisher, and the hijacker is overpowered and arrested.[27]
May 15 – At the Biggin Hill Air Show inBiggin Hill,London,England, a sightseeing helicopter strikes the underside of ade Havilland Tiger Mothbiplane at an altitude of 200 feet (61 meters), shearing off the Tiger Moth'slanding gear. The Tiger Moth lands safely with no injuries to the two people aboard. Aboard the helicopter, five people die and one is injured.
May 16 – Motion picture directorMichael Findlay and two other passengers are instantly slashed to death by the rotors of aNew York AirwaysSikorsky S-61L helicopter after its landing gear collapses while they are boarding it on the roof of thePan Am Building inNew York City; another passenger boarding the helicopter is seriously injured and soon dies as well.[1] The rotors detach and disintegrate, and a woman walking on the street below is killed by falling debris. The accident prompts the closure of the rooftop heliport.[30]
July 22 – The Egyptian Air Force makes a full-scale attack on a major Libyan Arab Republic Air Force base atEl Adem, reportedly killing threeSoviet military advisers.[45]
July 23 - After threats of shutting down transatlantic air traffic, the U.S. and British governments reach theBermuda II accord, giving British airlines additional ports of entry in the United States and removing American airlines' rights to carry passengers beyond London and Hong Kong.
July 23–24 – Further Egyptian Air Force attacks destroy large numbers of Libyan aircraft before a ceasefire ends the war. Egypt admits the loss of two planes during the last two days of the war.[45]
August 23 – Piloted by racing cyclistBryan Allen, theGossamer Condor becomes the first human-powered aeroplane to make a fully controlled flight, flying a 1.35-mile (2.17-km) figure-eight course around two pylons 0.8 km (0.50 mi) apart atShafter,California, to demonstrate sustained, controlled flight. The flight wins its designer, Dr.Paul McCready, the£50,000Kremer Prize.[50][51]
August 31 – Soviettest pilot Alexander V. Fedotovzoom climbs the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-266 – a modifiedMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25RB (NATO reporting name "Foxbat") – to attain an altitude of 123,524 feet (37,650 meters) briefly, setting a new world altitude record for air-breathing aircraft.[52]
September 8 – ABurma Airways de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (registration XY-AEH) disappears during a flight toKengtung,Burma, with the loss of all 25 people on board. Its wreckage is discovered on Burma'sMount Loi Hsam Hsao on September 11.[56]
September 28 – FiveJapanese Red Army (JRA) membershijackJapan Airlines Flight 472, aDouglas DC-8 with 151 other people on board, after takeoff fromBombay,India. The hijackers force the plane to land inDhaka,Bangladesh, where they demandUS$6 million and the release of nine imprisoned JRA members inJapan. On October 1, the Japanese government releases six of the prisoners and exchanges them for 118 of the hostages aboard the plane on October 2. On October 3, the plane flies toKuwait City,Kuwait, andDamascus,Syria, where the hijackers release 11 more hostages. Ultimately, the plane flies toAlgeria, where it is impounded and all the remaining hostages are released.
September 30 – A man armed with apistol and ahand grenade hijacks anAir InterSud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle during a domestic flight inFrance fromParis′sOrly Airport toLyon. The airliner returns to Orly Airport. After eight hours of negotiations, police firetear gas grenades into the plane and storm it. The hijacker throws his hand grenade toward thecockpit and it explodes, killing one passenger. The police then exchange gunfire with the hijacker and arrest him.[59]
Free onbail after an arrest for a Septemberbank robbery, 29-year-old Thomas Michael Hannan draws a gun aboardFrontier Airlines Flight 101, aBoeing 737-200 boarding during the early morning atGrand Rapids,Michigan, for a flight toLincoln,Nebraska. He orders it to fly toAtlanta,Georgia, and demands the release from jail in Atlanta of his homosexual partner and co-defendant in the bank robbery, George David Stewart, as well asUS$3 million, twoparachutes, twomachine guns, two .45-caliberpistols, and other weapons. The airliner takes off with 30 of its passengers and four crew members aboard. When it stops to refuel inKansas City,Missouri, authorities tell Hannan it will not be allowed to take off again, but they relent after he releases the 15 women and children aboard as passengers, leaving 11 male passengers, two stewardesses, the pilot, and the copilot aboard as hostages. The plane arrives at Atlanta just after noon. During lengthy negotiations atHartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Stewart is brought from Fulton County Jail to plead with Hannan to surrender. During the afternoon, Hannan releases the two stewardesses, and he allows the 11 remaining passengers – one of them an old high school friend of his who helped negotiate the release of the hostages – to disembark during the evening. With only the pilot and copilot left aboard with Hannan, Hannan's lawyer in the bank robbery case boards the airliner to talk with him, and during the conversation, Hannan sits down and shoots himself to death.[63][64]
October 31 – The first British all-female airline flight crew makes the inauguralBritish Air Ferries service fromSouthend toDüsseldorf withHandley Page Dart Herald G-BDFE. The crew comprises Captain Caroline Frost, First Officer Lesley Hardym and stewardesses Liz Howard and Hildegard Donbavand.
TheTenerife airport disaster on 27 March heavily defined 1977 in aviation; it isthe deadliest accident in aviation history. TwoBoeing 747's collided on the runway atLos Rodeos Airport on the island ofTenerife,Spain in heavyfog; 583 people were killed, far exceeding the death toll of any previous accident and unbeaten since. This included all 248 people aboardKLM Flight 4805, whose pilot committed the main factor in the accident of taking off without a clearance; and 335 of the 396 people on boardPan Am Flight 1736, the other 747 involved in the accident. The crash is arguably the most famous of all time; it changed the history and training of aviation in the years that followed. The deadliest single-aircraft accident of the year wasTAP Flight 425 aBoeing 727 which overran the runway while landing atMadeira Airport inFunchalPortugal on 19 November Killing 131 out of the 164 occupants on board. Elsewhere, 1977 had relatively few accidents in comparison to the years immediately preceding and succeeding it.
^Mondey, David, ed.,The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 94.
^Mondey, David, ed.,The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 91.
^abBrogan, Patrick,The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990,ISBN0-679-72033-2, p. 23.
^Mondey, David, ed.,The Complete Illustrated History of the World′s Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 61.
^Guttman, Robert, "Dreams of Human-Powered Flight,"Aviation History, January 2017, p. 15.
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