1989 in aviation

Years in aviation
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1989:

Events

January

• January 4 - US Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23s
• January 8 - a British Midland Boeing 737-400 crashes on the M1 motorway near Kegworth, killing 32 people.

February

• February 8 - a misunderstanding between the crew of a Boeing 707 and Air traffic control leads to a crash on Pico Alto mountain on the Azores
• February 24 - a piece of fuselage detaches from a United Airlines Boeing 747 over Hawaii. Eleven people are sucked to their deaths.

March

• March 22 - an Antonov An-225 sets a total of 106 world and class records during a 3 hour 30 minute flight carrying a Buran orbiter. Its total weight at take-off was 508,200 kg (1,129,370 lb)

April

• April 12 - a British Airways Concorde loses a large piece of its rudder on a flight between Christchurch and Sydney

June

• June 8 - a Soviet Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 suffers a birdstrike during a display at the Paris Air Show. Pilot Anatoli Kvochur manages to prevent the plane from injuring anyone, and saves himself by ejecting at only 400 feet.

July

• July 4 - the pilot of a Soviet Air Force MiG-23 ejects shortly after take-off in Poland. The pilotless aircraft flies across Europe before crashing into a Belgian farmhouse
• July 16 - European air traffic is halted due to industrial action by French air traffic controllers.

August

• August 5 - Piedmont is merged into USAir.
• August 18 - Qantas Boeing 747, the Spirit of Australia, flies non-stop from London to Sydney, setting a world record for a four engine jet, after having flown 11,000 miles in 20 hours.
• August 19 - a United Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa after an engine explosion. 107 people are killed
• August 22 - Alexander Yakovlev dies, aged 84

September

• September 3 - a VARIG Boeing 737 crashes in Brazil killing 53 passengers. The pilots had not noticed an autopilot malfunction because they were listening to a football match.
• September 20 - a USAir Boeing 737 aborts a takeoff in New York and slides into the East River. Two people are killed.
• September 20 - a UTA DC-10 is destroyed by a terrorist bomb over Niger. 117 passengers are killed.

November

• November 12 - California Polytechnic State University flies the first human-powered helicopter
• November 21 - a British Airways Boeing 747 narrowly misses crashing into the Penta hotel near Heathrow Airport

First flights

January

• January 2 - Tupolev Tu-154
• January 11 - AASI Jetcruzer 450

March

• Yakovlev Yak-141
• March 19 - V-22 Osprey

April

• April 30 - SOCATA Omega

May

• May 28 - AIDC Ching-Kuo

July

• July 17 - B-2 Spirit

October

• October 7 - Enstrom 480

December

• December 26 - NAMC N-5

Entered service

• October 27 - ATR-72 with Kar Air