WestAir Commuter Airlines De Havilland Canada DHC-6-200 Twin Otter
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1982.
Events
January
January 2 - Abu Dhabi opens a new airport. The old one at Bateen is replaced.[1]
January 8 – The Airbus A300 is certified, becoming the first wide-body airliner with cockpit accommodations for only two to be certified.
January 10 – A Gulfstream III, Spirit of America, flies around the world in just 43 hours 39 minutes and 6 seconds, becoming the fastest business jet to fly around the world.[2]
January 18 – While practicing a line-abreast loop at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field in Nevada, four T-38 Talons of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds air demonstration team crash, killing all four pilots. It remains the worst accident involving show aircraft in Thunderbirds history. The Thunderbirds' entire 1982 season will be cancelled, and their next performance will not take place until the spring of 1983, 18 months after their last one.
January 23 – Landing on an icy runway at Boston Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, World Airways Flight 30, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 carrying 212 people, is unable to stop before sliding off the end of the runway. Its pilots steer it off the runway, and it skids into Boston Harbor, where its cockpit and forward galley separate from the passenger cabin and three passengers seated in the first row are thrown into the water; two of them are never found. All others aboard survive, including actress Justine Shapiro.
February 9 – Japan Airlines Flight 350, a Douglas DC-8, crashes into Tokyo Bay while on approach to Tokyo International Airport, killing 24 of the 174 passengers on board. The probable cause of the accident was cited as a possible breakdown by captain Seiji Katagiri, who had mental problems. After this accident, a requirement was established for every airline pilot to undergo mental as well as physical testing.
March 19 – While Ozzy Osbourne's band bus is pulled over for repairs in Leesburg, Florida, during a tour, the bus's driver – a former commercial pilot – takes band members and staff up for joyrides in a Beechcraft Bonanza F35 he had taken from an adjacent airport without permission. On the second flight, he begins to make low passes over the tour bus; on the third pass, the Bonanza's wing strikes the top of the bus, causing the plane to hit a tree and crash into the garage of a nearby mansion, where it bursts into flames, killing all three people on the plane. Guitarist Randy Rhoads is among the dead.[5]
March 22 – In the Iran–Iraq War, Iran launches its Fath al-Mubin offensive. Until it winds down a week to ten days later, Iraqi and Iranian planes and helicopters support the ground forces involved, but are generally ineffective. Iraqi Air Force fighters fly up to 150 sorties a day.[6]
April 7 – Austrian race car driver and motor sports journalist Harald Ertl is killed when a Beechcraft Bonanza piloted by his brother-in-law suffers engine failure and crashes near Giessen, West Germany. Ertl's brother-in-law and niece also die, although his wife and son survive the crash.[5]
April 27 – CAAC Flight 3303, a Hawker Siddeley Trident 2E, crashes into a mountain near Yangsuo, China, while on approach to Guilin Qifeng Airport in heavy rain. All 112 people on board die. The Chinese media report that the plane, which had taken off in Guangzhou, crashed when the pilot attempted to fight off an armed hijacker.[9]
Iran begins a major ground offensive to recapture Khorramshar from Iraq. In fighting that lasts until May 24, Iraqi aircraft fly up to 100 sorties per day, but usually attack Iranian forces in groups that are too small and arrive too late to be effective.[11]
BAE Sea Harriers attack Falklands targets for the first time and shoot down two Argentine Mirage III fighters. They are the first air-to-air kills of the Falklands War.[14]
May 3 – Iraq shoots down an aircraft bound for Tehran, Iran, carrying Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Seddik Benyahia and 12 of his colleagues. The incident ends an Algerian attempt to mediate between Iran and Iraq and bring an end to the Iran–Iraq War.[15]
The British lose their first Sea Harrier of the Falklands War, shot down by anti-aircraft artillery during a bombing raid over Goose Green on East Falkland Island. The pilot is killed.[8]
May 12 – Facing bankruptcy and the threat of a pilots' strike, Braniff International Airways ceases operations and its president, Howard D. Putnam, announces that the airline has filed for protection under bankruptcy laws and grounded its fleet of 71 aircraft. The final flight in Braniff's 52-year history, Flight 501 from Honolulu, operated by a Boeing 747, arrives at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on the morning of May 13, bringing the airline's operational history to an end.
May 21 – British ground troops begin landing at San Carlos on East Falkland Island, and the Argentinian Air Force begins a seven-day-long bombing campaign against British ships in Falkland Sound and San Carlos Water; it will be the Royal Navy's largest combat engagement since the end of World War II in August 1945. On the first day, the Argentinians sink the British frigateArdent but lose 16 aircraft.[19]
June 3 – A Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber returning to Ascension Island after completing Operation Black Buck 6 in the Falkland Islands runs low on fuel when a probe breaks while it attempts to refuel from a tanker aircraft over the South Atlantic Ocean. Its crew declares an emergency and flies the bomber into Brazil's airspace. Brazilian Air Force fighter aircraft of the 1° Grupo de Aviação de Caça based at Santa Cruz Air Force Base in Rio de Janeiro intercept the Vulcan and escort it to Galeão Air Force Base in Rio de Janeiro, where the bomber and its crew are interned. The Vulcan and its crew will be released on 11 June.[24]
Iraqi Air Force aircraft carry out a missile attack on the Greek 26,000-gross-tonbulk carrierGood Luck in the Persian Gulf off the Iranian port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, damaging her and killing some of her crewmen and beginning a pattern of sporadic Iraqi air attacks against ships calling at that port.[26]
Israel begins the 1982 Lebanon War against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Syria with Operation Peace for Galilee, an invasion of Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force supports the invasion with many attack sorties against little opposition. A PLO Strela 2 (NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail") surface-to-air missile shoots down an Israeli A-4 Skyhawk, the only fixed-wing aircraft Israel will lose in combat during the main part of the air war, which will last until June 11.[27]
June 7–8 – The Israeli Air Force encounters enemy air opposition for the first time in the 1982 Lebanon War and shoots down a Syrian Air ForceMiG-23 (NATO reporting name "Flogger").[28]
June 8–9 – In air-to-air combat over Lebanon, Israeli aircraft shoot down six Syrian MiG-23s over Beirut, Sidon, and Damour without loss to themselves.[30]
June 9 – The Israeli Air Force begins a large-scale attack over the course of several hours against the 19 major Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley equipped with 2K12 Kub (NATO reporting name "SA-6 Gainful") missile systems, destroying 17 of them along with several S-75 Dvina (NATO reporting name "SA-2 Guideline") and S-125 Neva/Pechora (NATO reporting name "SA-3 Goa") surface-to-air missile batteries and much Syrian antiaircraft artillery in only 10 to 20 minutes of active combat. Around 50 Syrian fighter aircraft attempt to defend the missile sites, and about 100 Israeli aircraft engage them, shooting down 22 or 23 Syrian fighters and damaging seven others without any Israeli losses.[31] In ground fighting, a significant number of Syrian attack helicopters and some Syrian fixed-wing aircraft attack Israeli ground forces in Lebanon.[30]
June 10 – The Israeli Air Force shoots down 25 Syrian fixed-wing aircraft and three helicopters during the day and destroys two more Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries deployed to the Bekaa Valley as reinforcements. By the end of the day, Israeli Air Force aircraft have shot down 65 Syrian MiG-21 (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") and MiG-23 aircraft in air-to-air combat, without any Israeli losses.[32]
June 11
Israeli Air Force aircraft shoot down 18 more Syrian fighters and attack aircraft, bringing the Syrian air-to-air losses to 79 to 82 aircraft in air-to-air combat without any Israeli aircraft being shot down by Syrian aircraft. Syria claims to have shot down 19 Israeli aircraft during the day despite its complete lack of success.[33]
June 14 – Argentinian forces on the Falkland Islands surrender to British forces, ending the Falklands War. During the war, the Argentines had lost 100 aircraft[35] and 34 aircraft were lost by the British. Figures include direct combat losses, aircraft captured and aircraft lost aboard ships that were damaged or sunk and accidents.
A Sri Lankan man hijacks an AlitaliaBoeing 747-243B with 260 people on board flying from Delhi, India, to Bangkok, Thailand, claiming to have six accomplices on board and saying he will blow up the plane if he does not receive a US$300,000 ransom and is not reunited with his wife and child, who are in Italy. At Bangkok, he releases four passengers, then he releases another 139 when he is told that his wife and child are on their way to Bangkok; two additional passengers escape by jumping from the plane. After his wife and child board the plane and he receives the ransom, authorities allow the family to fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka, early on July 1. Sri Lankan authorities arrest the man on July 3.[38][39]
July
July 2 – In the Lawnchair Larry flight, the homemade Inspiration I, consisting of a patio chair attached to 45 eight-foot (2.4-m) helium-filled weather balloons, lifts off from the back yard of a home in San Pedro, California, carrying American truck driver Larry Walters, whose plan is to drift at an altitude of about 30 feet (9.1 m) for a few hours before using a pellet gun to shoot out some balloons and descend gradually. Instead, Inspiration I quickly ascends to an altitude of 16,000 feet (4,900 m). After drifting into controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport, he uses the pellet gun to shoot out several of his balloons before accidentally dropping the pellet gun overboard. He gradually descends, becomes entangled in power lines, climbs down safely, and is arrested.
July 6 – After the engine fire warning lights illuminate for two of their Ilyushin Il-62's four engines shortly after takeoff from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, the pilots of Aeroflot Flight 411 shut down the engines and attempt to return to the airport on their two remaining engines. The plane crashes in a field in Mendeleyevo, killing all 90 people on board. The engine fire warnings are later reported to have been false alarms.
July 9 – The Pan American World AirwaysBoeing 727-235 Clipper Defiance, operating as Flight 759, crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, immediately after takeoff from New Orleans International Airport, destroying six and severely damaging five houses. All 145 people on the plane and eight people on the ground die; a baby girl in one house survives in her crib, protected by debris from the fire started by the crash.
In response to PLO attacks on Israeli positions, Israeli begins a series of major air and artillery attacks on West Beirut.[40]
July 23 – During predawn filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie at Valencia, California, special-effects explosions damage the tail rotor of a Bell UH-1B Iroquois helicopter hovering 24 feet (7.3 meters) above actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. The helicopter crashes onto them, its main rotor decapitating Morrow and Dinh and one of its struts crushing Chen to death.[5]
July 23–26 – The Israeli Air Force conducts major air raids against PLO targets in West Beirut.[40]
July 27 – The Israeli Air Force escalates its air campaign against the PLO in Beirut by beginning attacks on PLO-dominated residential areas in West Beirut.[40]
July 28 – American contemporary Christian music pianist, singer, songwriter, and evangelist Keith Green is among 12 people killed in the crash of an overloaded Cessna 414 at Lindale, Texas. Green's two children and all eight members of another family are also among the dead.[5]
July 28-August 3 – The Israeli Air Force conducts constant attacks on West Beirut.[47]
July 31 – In air-to-air combat since the 1982 Lebanon War began on June 6, Israeli F-15 Eagle fighters have shot down 40 Syrian aircraft, F-16 Fighting Falcons have shot down 44, and F-4 Phantom IIs have shot down one, all without loss to themselves. About half the kills have been MiG-21s and the other half MiG-23s.[48]
August 10–11 – The Israeli Air Force launches major attacks against PLO targets in West Beirut in response to what Israeli Minister of DefenseAriel Sharon claims was a PLO artillery attack on Israeli soldiers besieging Beirut. The Israeli Cabinet disagrees and orders that no further Israeli Air Force attacks on Beirut take place without its authorization.[49]
August 30 – An Israeli MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missile shoots down a Syrian MiG-25 (NATO reporting name "Foxbat") aircraft flying above 70,000 feet (21,000 meters) at a speed of Mach 2.5.[51]
August 31 – The Israeli Air Force shoots down a Syrian MiG-25, raising the total number of Syrian aircraft lost in the 1982 Lebanon War to 88.[49]
September 11 – A United States ArmyCH-47 Chinook helicopter (serial number 74-22292) crashes during an air show at Mannheim, West Germany, while carrying British, French, and German parachutists who planned to jump when the helicopter reached an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 meters). All 46 people aboard die. The crash later is found to have been caused by an accumulation of ground walnut shells that had been used to clean the machinery.[54][55][56]
September 13
The Israeli Air Force again easily destroys Syrian 9K33 Osa (Sa-8 Gecko) and 9K31 Strela-1 (SA-9 Gaskin) surface-to-air missile batteries in the Bekaa Valley.[50]
The flight crew of Spantax Flight 995, a chartered McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 with 394 people on board, aborts their takeoff at Málaga, Spain, after feeling a vibration and loses control of the aircraft, which rolls off the end of the runway, strikes vehicles while crossing a four-lane highway, and bursts into flames in a field. Fifty people on board die, as do three people in vehicles on the highway; 110 people on board the plane are injured.
September 14 – G-BDIL a Bell 212, crashed into the North Sea near the Murchison oil platform while on a nighttime search and rescue mission.
September 18 – The first BAC One-Eleven assembled in Romania, a Series 560, flies for the first time.[57]
September 22 – Armed with a knife, 37-year-old Igor Shkuro, who had been denied a visa to enter Algeria and was being returned to Italy, forces his way into the cockpit of Alitalia Flight 871 – a Boeing 727-243 with 109 people on board flying from Algiers to Rome – and hijacks the plane about 20 minutes after departure from Algiers. Holding the knife to the flight engineer′s throat, he demands to be flown to Malta, but after authorities deny the airliner permission to land there, he agrees to allow it to land at Catania, Sicily. After about 30 minutes, he allows the passengers and five of the eight crew members to disembark. Later, remaining crew members attack him and overpower him with the help of the police.[39][58]
September 28 – The reverse thruster on the No. 1 engine of Aeroflot Flight 343, an Ilyushin Il-62M (registration CCCP-86470) with 77 people on board, fails to deploy as it lands at Luxembourg Findel Airport outside Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. The airliner yaws to the right and runs off the runway 1,300 meters (4,300 feet) past the runway threshold, strikes a 1.3-meter-tall (4-foot-tall) building, and slides down a ravine before coming to rest 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) past the runway threshold and 200 meters (660 feet) to the right of the runway's centerline and catching fire. The crash kills seven people aboard the airliner, which is destroyed.[59]
October 17 – EgyptAir Flight 771, a Boeing 707-366C (registration SU-APE), strikes the ground 50 meters (160 feet) short of the runway while attempting to land at Cointrin Airport in Geneva, Switzerland, bounces, skids off the runway, rotates 270 degrees, and slides to a stop backwards after its right wing detaches. All 182 people on board survive.[60]
November 23 – American minister, humorist, television personality, and author Grady Nutt is killed along with the other two people on board a charteredBeechcraft Baron 55 when it crashes on takeoff in rain and fog at Vinemont, Alabama.[5]
The deadliest crash of this year was Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727 which crashed just after takeoff in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. on 9 July, killing all 145 people on board, as well as 8 on the ground.
^ abcdCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran–Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1330-9, p. 533.
^ abCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1330-9, p. 159.
^ abHastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 127-131.
^ abcHastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983, no ISBN, p. 345.
^Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1330-9, p. 139.
^Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN0-87021-295-8, p. 258.
^Crosby, Francis (2006). 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. p. 46. ISBN978-1-84681-000-8.
^Brogan, Patrick (1990). The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 253–254. ISBN0-679-72033-2.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 136.
^Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1330-9, pp. 143, 533.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 138.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 139.
^Hastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 279–283, 345.
^ abCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973-1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 142.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, pp. 142, 193, 202. The reference to 29 Syrian aircraft being shot down on p. 142 contradicts the more detailed information on p. 202 describing 22 to 23 Syrian planes shot down, and apparently reflects the total of Syrian aircraft shot down through June 9 rather than the number shot down on June 9.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 143.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, pp. 144, 202.
^Miskimon, Christopher (January 2015). "Bloody Showdown at Stanley". Military Heritage. p. 47.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 144.
^ abcCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973-1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 147.
^ abcCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973-1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 220.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, pp. 193, 249.
^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, ISBN9781846810008, p. 44.
^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, ISBN0-8133-1329-5, pp. 153, 202.
^ abCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-1330-9, p. 534.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 377.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 103.
Mondey, David (1982). "Chronology: June 1, 1981–June 22, 1982". In Taylor, Michael J. H. (ed.). Jane's Aviation Review 1982–83. London: Jane's Publishing Company. pp. 11–24. ISBN0-7106-0216-2.
Taylor, Michael J. H. Jane's 1983–1984 Aviation Review. London: Jane's Publishing Company, 1983. ISBN0-7106-0285-5.
