This is a list of aviation-related events from 1973.
Events
Don Taylor attempts round-the-world trip in his homebuiltThorp T-18, ended by a spate of really bad weather between northern Japan and the Aleutian Islands. His next attempt in the summer of 1976 is successful.
January
January 2
Attempting to land at Edmonton International Airport in Canada in blowing snow, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 3801, a Boeing 707-321C freighter carrying 86 head of cattle and a crew of five, strikes trees and power lines and then breaks apart as it crashes into a ridge. The cattle are thrown through an opening in the front of the fuselage, landing up to 100 meters (330 feet) away. The entire crew dies in the crash and ensuing fire.[1]
Released from a psychiatric hospital days earlier, Charles Wenige hides in a lavatory aboard Piedmont Airlines Flight 928, a NAMC YS-11, on arrival at Baltimore-Washington International Airport after a flight from Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. After the other passengers disembark, he emerges and points a stolen pistol at a crew member and demands to be flown to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After two hours of negotiations, he agrees to release the flight attendants in exchange for a meeting with Cardinal Lawrence Shehan and a psychiatrist. As U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Thomas Farrow escorts Wenige onto the airport apron for the meeting, he advises Wenige to tuck the pistol away in the cardinal's presence, and after Wenige does so, Farrow overpowers and arrests him. This was the last U.S. hijacking before mandatory security screening of airline passengers began.[2][3]
January 4 – As a Pacific Western Airlines Convairturboprop airliner prepares to take off from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with 18 people on board, passenger Christopher Kenneth Nielson draws a gun and demands $2 million in cash and to be flown to North Vietnam, threatening to blow up the airliner if his demands are not met. During negotiations, he releases everyone on board the aircraft except three crew members. Police then storm the aircraft and arrest him, finding that he is armed only with two toy guns.[4][5]
January 5 – The mandatory security screening of all airline passengers begins at all airports in the United States.[6]
January 9 – In the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon's administration permits American fighter aircraft to pursue North Vietnamese aircraft north of the 20th Parallel.[8]
January 12 – Flying a United States NavyF-4 Phantom II fighter of Fighter Squadron 161 (VF-161) off USS Midway, Lieutenants V. T. Kovaleski (pilot) and J. A. Wise (radar intercept officer) score the 197th and final American air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War. It is the 61st kill of the war for American carrier-based aircraft.[8][9]
January 15 – President Richard Nixon's administration orders a halt to all bombing and shelling of North Vietnam and all mining of North Vietnamese harbors.[8]
January 18 – Results of the U.S. Air Force A-X fly-off are announced, with the Fairchild YA-10 selected over the Northrop YA-9.
January 21 – Aeroflot Flight 6263, an Antonov An-24B (registration CCCP-46276) on a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Kazan to Perm, suddenly banks heavily right and then left at an altitude of 5,400 meters (17,700 feet), then spirals downward, reaching a speed of 1,000 km/h (620 mph). At an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,900 feet) it begins an upward loop, breaks up, and falls to earth near Petukhovo in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic's Bolshesosnovsky District. The crash kills 35 of the 39 people on board; the other four freeze to death in the −41 °C (−42 °F) temperature at the crash site before rescuers can arrive.[11]
January 22
An AliaBoeing 707-3D3C chartered by Nigeria Airways to fly Muslim pilgrims home to Nigeria from Saudi Arabiacrashes after the right main landing gear leg collapses while the plane is attempting to land in high winds at Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria. The plane skids off the runway and catches fire, killing 176 of the 202 people on board and injuring all 26 survivors. It is the deadliest aviation accident in history at the time and will be the deadliest of 1973.
The United States, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam agree in Paris to a ceasefire in the Vietnam War, scheduling it to take effect on January 29.[13][14]
A ceasefire agreement between the United States, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam takes effect, ending U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. Since January 1962, the United States Armed Forces have lost 3,339 fixed-wing aircraft in Southeast Asia, 2,430 of them in combat. American aircraft have shot down 200 enemy aircraft in exchange for 76 of their own lost in air-to-air combat.[13] The United States has also lost 4,870 helicopters in Southeast Asia, 2,588 of them in combat.[15][16]
February 15 – Cuba and the United States sign the "Memorandum of Understanding on Hijacking of Aircraft and Vessels and Other Offenses," which goes into force immediately. Under the agreement, both countries agree to either prosecute or extradite any person who seizes or otherwise takes possession of an aircraft or oceangoing vessel and brings it illegally into the other country's territory, to treat airline hijacking as a crime, and to return any money taken illegally to its original owner. They also agree that a hijacker may be granted political asylum if the hijacker has no other means of escape and commits no other serious crime during the commission of the hijacking. Cuba and Canada sign a similar agreement the same day.[18]
February 19 – Making an instrument approach to Prague Ruzyně International Airport in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Aeroflot Flight 141, a Tupolev Tu-154 (registration CCCP-85023), crashes northeast of the airport 467 meters (1,532 feet) from the runway, killing 66 of the 100 people on board. At the time, it is both the deadliest accident involving a Tu-154 and the deadliest aviation accident in what would later become the Czech Republic.[19]
February 22 – A ceasefire in Laos immediately ends all U.S. Air Force strikes there by tactical aircraft. B-52 Stratofortress strikes will end two months later.[21]
An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18V on a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Dushanbe to Leninabad makes a 60-degree right turn, then banks sharply left. When the bank to the left reaches 90 degrees, the airliner goes into a spin and falls toward the earth, reaching a speed of 840 km/h (520 mph) before breaking up at an altitude of 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) and crashing 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ura-Tube in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. All 79 people on board die in what at the time is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Tajikistan.[22]
President Richard Nixon halts American minesweeping of North Vietnamese harbors because of North Vietnamese delays in releasing American prisoners-of-war.[23]
March 5 – Iberia Flight 504, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (registration EC-BII) with 68 people on board, collides with Spantax Flight 400, a Convair CV-990-30A-5 Coronado (registration EC-BJC) carrying 107 people, over Nantes, France. The Spantax airliner makes an emergency landing at Cognac-Châteaubernard Air Base without any fatalities among its passengers and crew, but the Iberia plane crashes, killing everyone on board.[28]
March 6 – American minesweeping of North Vietnamese harbors resumes, primarily employing helicopters.[29]
A passenger hijacks an AeroflotTupolev Tu-104B (NATO reporting name "Camel", registration CCCP-42505) with 57 people on board during a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Leningrad to Moscow, demanding to be flown to Stockholm, Sweden. The flight crew decides to return to Leningrad instead. When they lower the landing gear on approach to Leningrad, the hijacker sets off a bomb, killing himself and the flight engineer and blowing a hole in the right side of the airliner's fuselage, but the plane lands safely at Leningrad.[40]
A passenger with an explosive device hijacks an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B (registration CCCP-75687) over the Soviet Union, demanding to be flown to the People's Republic of China. His explosive device detonates while the airliner is at an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 meters), and it crashes in southern Siberia east of Lake Baikal about 97 kilometers (60 miles) west of Chita, killing all 82 people on board.[44]
May 25 – Over southern Siberia, a hijacker commandeers an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104 during a flight in the Soviet Union from Moscow to Chita.[47]
May 30 – Two men hijack a SAM ColombiaLockheed L-188 Electra with 93 people on board about 20 minutes after takeoff from Pereira, Colombia, for a domestic flight to Bogotá, demanding ransom money and the release of 140 leftist prisoners in Colombia. After the airliner refuels at Medellin, Colombia, they force it to fly to Aruba. During negotiations there, they release 31 passengers, after which they order the plane to take off again early on May 31 and fly to Lima, Peru. Technical problems force it to return to Aruba, but after repairs it takes off again on the afternoon of May 31 bound for San Salvador, El Salvador. Along the way, the hijackers change their mind and order the plane to reverse course and fly back to Aruba, where it arrives at late on May 31. After the hijackers receive US$50,000 from SAM Colombia, the Electra takes off again, refuels at Guayaquil, Ecuador, and proceeds to Lima, where the hijackers release another 14 passengers. It then flies to Mendoza, Argentina, arriving there early on the afternoon of June 1. After releasing the rest of the passengers, the hijackers order the plane into the air again. It stops at Resistencia, Argentina, and Asunción, Paraguay, before landing finally at Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 2 without the hijackers aboard; they had escaped, apparently at either Resistencia or Asunción.[48]
Flying a MiG Ye-155, Soviet pilot Boris A. Orlov sets a world time-to-height record, climbing to 20,000 meters (66,000 feet) in 2 minutes 49.8 seconds. On the same day, another Soviet pilot, Pyotr M. Ostapenko, sets two time-to-height world records in a Ye-155, reaching 25,000 meters (82,000 feet) in 3 minutes 12.6 seconds and 30,000 meters (98,000 feet) in 4 minutes 3.86 seconds.
June 30 – Aeroflot Flight 512, a Tupolev Tu-134A (registration CCCP-65668) aborts its takeoff from Amman Civil Airport in Amman, Jordan, and runs off the end of the runway. It travels 290 meters (950 feet) beyond the runway, sliding down the slope of a ravine, colliding with trees, striking a one-storey concrete building, and breaking into three pieces. The crash kills two of the airliner's seven crew members and seven people in the building, but the other five crew members and all 78 passengers survive.[56]
An AeroflotIlyushin Il-14 (registration CCCP-91534) begins its descent to Shakhtyorsk on Sakhalin island prematurely. Entering clouds, it crashes into 1,093-meter (3,586-foot) Mount Krasnov at an altitude of 950 meters (3,120 feet), killing all 18 people on board.[57]
July 15 – A Thailand-based A-7D Corsair II of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing flies the last U.S. Air Force combat sortie of the war in Southeast Asia over Cambodia. Since February 2, 1962, the U.S. Air Force has flown 5.25 million sorties over Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam, losing 2,251 aircraft – 1,737 to enemy action and 514 to other causes.[14]
July 25 – Flying a MiG Ye-155, Soviet pilot Alexander V. Fedotov sets a world altitude record with a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) payload, reaching 35,230 meters (115,580 feet). On the same day, with no payload, he also sets an absolute world altitude record for a jet-powered aircraft, reaching 36,240 meters (118,900 feet). During the latter flight, the engines flame out in the thin air at high altitude, and the aircraft reaches the apex of its climb following a ballistic trajectory, with its speed dropping to 75 km/h (47 mph) before it begins to fall back to earth.
August 16 – Armed with two guns, an intoxicated Libyan citizen, 37-year-old Mahmoud Toumi, enters the cockpit of a Middle East AirlinesBoeing 720-023B (registration OD-AFR) flying from Benghazi, Libya, to Beirut, Lebanon, with 119 people aboard while it is flying over Cyprus and demands that it fly to Lod International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Escorted by Israeli Air Force fighter aircraft, the airliner lands at Lod, where Toumi holds a press conference in which he states that he had hijacked the plane "to show that not all Arabs want to throw Jews into the ocean" and surrenders peacefully. He later is placed in an Israeli psychiatric hospital.[61][62]
August 22 – Flying in near-zero visibility, an AviancaDouglas DC-3A-228F (registration HK-111) crashes into a hill at an altitude of 480 meters (1,570 feet) near Yopal, Colombia, killing 16 of the 17 people on board.[64]
A lone hijacker attempts to commander a KLMDouglas DC-9 carrying 26 other people on a flight from Düsseldorf, West Germany, to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The airliner's passengers and crew overpower the hijacker, and there are no fatalities.[71]
October 4 – Israeli Air Force photography reveals that Egypt has massed tanks, artillery, and equipment for crossing the Suez Canal behind its infantry divisions along the canal.[72]
Shortly after beginning a planned daylong series of attacks on Egyptian air defenses along the Suez Canal, the Israeli Air Force cancels them and reverses its operations to blunt a threatening Syrian ground offensive that has almost reached the Jordan River. Although it suffers heavy losses to Syrian 2K12 Kub (NATO reporting name "SA-6 Gainful") and Strela 2 (NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail") surface-to-air missiles, it halts the Syrian offensive and over the next two days assists Israeli ground forces in pushing the Syrians back.[73]
Twenty-four hours after the Yom Kippur War began, the Israeli Air Force has lost 30 aircraft in combat with the Egyptians.[73]
October 9 – The Israeli Air Force bombs Damascus, Syria, allegedly in retaliation for Syrian 9K52 Luna-M (NATO reporting name "FROG-7") artillery rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets.[76]
October 10
The Soviet Union begins an airlift in support of Arab forces fighting in the Yom Kippur War with 21 Antonov An-12 (NATO reporting name "Cub") flights into Damascus, Syria. The Soviet airlift maintains a rate of about 30 sorties a day through October 12, after which it escalates to 100 per day. Before it ends, it will deliver 16,000 short tons (14,515 metric tons) of supplies and equipment in 935 sorties, with An-12s making deliveries to Syria and Antonov An-22s (NATO reporting name "Cock") flying to Egypt.[77]
Aircraft of the Israeli airline El Al, their markings painted over to prevent recognition, begin an airlift of supplies and equipment from the United States to Israel, with the first flight departing Norfolk, Virginia. El Al will deliver a total of 5,500 short tons (4,990 metric tons) in 250 flights.[78]
October 11 – Three men opposed to the regime of President of the PhilippinesFerdinand Marcos hijack a Philippine Air LinesBAC One-Eleven with 58 people on board during a domestic flight in the Philippines from Davao City to Bacolod. During a refueling stop in Manila, they exchange the other 48 passengers for Philippine Air Lines president Benigno Toda Jr. With Toda and the airliner's seven crew members aboard, the hijackers force the plane to take off and fly to Hong Kong, where they surrender to the authorities.[80]
October 13
The United States begins to transfer aircraft to the Israeli Air Force. The total of aircraft transferred will reach 36 F-4 Phantom IIs, 20 A-4 Skyhawks, and 12 C-130 Hercules during the Yom Kippur War.[81]
Aeroflot Flight 964, a Tupolev Tu-104B (registration CCCP-42486), suffers an electrical power failure and goes into a steep downward spiral from an altitude of 1,300 feet (400 meters) while on approach to Domodedovo Airport in Moscow in darkness and poor weather. It crashes 17 kilometers (11 miles) northwest of the airport, killing all 122 people on board. The crash is the deadliest involving a Tu-104 and at the time is the second-deadliest aviation accident in history on the territory of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.[82]
October 14 – A massive U.S. Air Force airlift to Israel begins, including the delivery of tanks by C-5A Galaxy transports. Making 14,000-mile (22,544-km) round trips, they will deliver 22,400 short tons (20,321 metric tons) of supplies and equipment in 564 sorties.[83]
October 18 – Upset by the launch of the French-Italian comedy film The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob promoted by her husband, French film producer and publicist Georges Cravenne, because she views it as anti-Palestinian, Danièle Cravenne uses a .22-caliber pistol to hijack an Air FranceBoeing 727-228 (registration F-BPJC) with 110 people on board making a domestic flight in France from Paris to Nice, demanding that the movie not open, that all motor traffic in France be halted for 24 hours, and that she be flown to Cairo, Egypt. The captain talks her into letting him land at Marseille, France, to refuel. After the airliner lands at Marseille-Marignane Airport, Cravenne lets all the passengers and most of the crew disembark, after which several French police officers disguised as maintenance personnel board the plane and shoot her to death.[84][85]
October 20 – Four hijackers commandeer an Aerolineas ArgentinasBoeing 737-287C with 57 people on board during a domestic flight in Argentina from Buenos Aires to Salta. They force the airliner to fly to Tucumán, Argentina, where they demand that it be refueled so that they can fly to Lima, Peru, and then on to Cuba. After authorities refuse to allow the plane to be refueled at Tucumán, the hijackers order it to take off again. It flies to Yacuiba Airport in Yacuíba, Bolivia, where the hijackers release 38 passengers. They finally surrender at Yacuíba on October 24 after receiving assurances that the authorities would allow them to leave Bolivia.[86]
October 23 – VASP Flight 012, a NAMC YS-11A-211 (registration PP-SMJ), loses power during takeoff from Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its crew aborts the takeoff immediately, but braking action is poor, so the crew retracts the landing gear. The airliner slides on its belly into Guanabara Bay, killing eight of the 65 people on board.[87]
October 24 (October 25 in the Middle East) – In response to a Soviet threat to intervene militarily against Israel in the Yom Kippur War, President Richard Nixon puts the United States Armed Forces on alert at Defense Readiness Condition (DEFCON) 3, which includes a minimal redeployment of U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses and other bombers as a preliminary preparation in case of a strategic nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.[88]
October 25 – A ceasefire ends the Yom Kippur War. Israel has lost 103 fighters and six helicopters during the 18 days of fighting.[89]
October 31 – A hijacker commandeers an AvensaDouglas DC-9-14 during a domestic flight in Venezuela from Barquisimeto to Caracas. He shoots and seriously wounds himself and is arrested after the airliner lands at Caracas.[90]
November
November 2 – Four hijackers commandeer an AeroflotYakovlev Yak-40 during a domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Bryansk to Moscow, demanding money and to be flown to Sweden. After the airliner lands in Moscow, Soviet security forces storm it and bring the hijacking to an end. There are two fatalities.[91]
The number three engine of National Airlines Flight 27, a Douglas DC-10-10, explodes while the aircraft is over New Mexico. Fragments penetrate the fuselage, causing one passenger to be sucked from the plane; his body is found two years later. The aircraft lands safely.
November 25 – Three young members of the Arab Nationalist Youth Organizationhijack the KLMBoeing 747-206BMississippi, operating as Flight 861 with 264 people on board, over Iraq. The plane first flies to Malta, where the hijackers release eight female flight attendants and most of the passengers, then proceeds with 11 passengers on board to Dubai, where the hijacking ends without further incident.
Landing in light rain and fog, Eastern Airlines Flight 300, a Douglas DC-9-31 (registration N8967E) overruns the runway while landing at Akron-Canton Airport in Green, Ohio, crossing 110 feet (34 meters) of unpaved ground and plunging over a 38-foot (12-meter) embankment before coming to rest. All 26 people on board survive.[94]
November 29 – During a commercial fight, an airliner strikes a Rüppell's griffon vulture at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,000 meters) over Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the highest bird strike ever recorded. The airliner loses power in one engine but lands safely.[95]
December 7 – Landing at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, Aeroflot Flight 964, a Tupolev Tu-104B (registration CCCP-42503), slides off the runway into snow and catches fire, killing 16 of the 75 people on board.[97]
December 17 – Between six and 10 Palestinian terrorists attack the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport terminal in Rome, Italy, with automatic firearms and grenades, killing two people. They then throw grenades through the open doors of the Pan American World AirwaysBoeing 707-321BClipper Celestial, operating as Flight 110 with 177 people on board, just as it is preparing to taxi for departure; 30 people aboard the plane die and 20 are injured. Five other gunmen storm a LufthansaBoeing 737, bringing aboard 10 hostages and taking the crew of four on board hostage as well. On December 18, after 16 hours on the ground, during which time they murder one and injure another hostage, they dump the injured hostage and the body of the murdered one off the 737 and order it to fly to Athens, Greece; the plane then spends another 16 hours on the ground in Athens before proceeding to a landing at Damascus, Syria. Finally, the 737 flies to Kuwait, where the five hijackers release the 12 remaining hostages and are given free passage off the plane.
December 23 – An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-124V (registration CCCP-45044) suffers an engine failure, fuel-line rupture, and in-flight fire shortly after takeoff from Lviv-Snilow Airport in Lviv in the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It crashes near Vinniki, killing all 17 people on board.[101]
The deadliest crash of this year was the Kano air disaster in which an AliaBoeing 707 chartered by Nigeria Airways crashed while attempting to land in Kano, Nigeria, on 22 January; 176 of the 202 people on board were killed. The second deadliest of 1973 took place only 5 months before, when Varig Flight 820, also a Boeing 707 which crashed near Orly Airport on 11 July, 123 of the 134 people on board were killed
^Mondey, David. ed., The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc, 1978, ISBN978-0-89009-771-7, p. 61.
^ abcdNichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 161.
^ abElward, Brad, and Peter Davies, U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom II MiG Killers 1972-1973, Oxford, U.K.: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2002, ISBN978-1-84176-264-7, p. 90.
^ abNichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, pp. 163, 167–168.
^ abcMelia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777-1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991, ISBN978-0-945274-07-0, p. 109.
^Melia, Tamara Moser, "Damn the Torpedoes": A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777-1991, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1991, ISBN978-0-945274-07-0, pp. 99–100.
^ abcdeCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973-1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN978-0-8133-1329-0, p. 25.
^Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Hermes House, 2006, ISBN978-1-84681-000-8, p. 42.
^Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973–1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN978-0-8133-1329-0, p. 29.
^ abcMets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, p. 96.
^Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973–1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN978-0-8133-1329-0, pp. 25, 30.
^Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973–1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN978-0-8133-1329-0, p. 30.
^Mets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, p. 104.
^Mets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, pp. 104–105, 106.
^Mets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, pp. 104, 106.
