This is a list of aviation-related events from 2012.
January
7 January
A hot air balloon on a scenic flight disintegrates and crashes just north of Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board. It is the second-deadliest balloon accident in history, the deadliest aviation accident in mainland New Zealand since July 1963, and the deadliest accident involving a New Zealand aircraft since November 1979.
In the Syrian Civil War, Colonel Afeef Mahmoud Suleima of the Syrian Army's aviation logistics division defects along with at least 50 of his men, ordering his men to protect protesters in the Syrian city of Hama from government forces.[1]
9 January
The European Union declares the financial aid Malév Hungarian Airlines receives from the Government of Hungary to be illegal. The European Commission soon orders the airline to pay back all of the subsidies it received from the Hungarian government between 2007 and 2010, a total of 38 billion forints (€130 million; $171 million), an amount equal to its entire 2010 revenue.
10 January
Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service launches a Twitter account for its helicopter force, allowing people to remain aware of the helicopters' activities. The police hope the service will cut down on the number of noise complaints they receive about their helicopter operations.[2]
After creditors seize two of its airliners at foreign airports and with total debts of 60 billion forints (US$270.5 million), Malév Hungarian Airlines ceases flight operations after 66 years in business.
4 February
Australian filmmaker Andrew Wight is at the controls of his private Robinson R44 helicopter with American filmmaker Mike deGruy as a passenger for a flight to scout filming locations when the helicopter crashes on takeoff and burns at Jaspers Brush near Berry in New South Wales, Australia. Both men are killed.[6]
The Metropolitan Court of Budapest in Hungary declares MALÉV Ltd., the parent company of Malév Hungarian Airlines, insolvent. The airline's assets will be liquidated.
The last departure of an official Continental Airlines flight takes place at 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time as Continental Flight 1267 departs Phoenix, Arizona, bound for Cleveland, Ohio. On 3 March, Continental Airlines disappears into United Airlines, completing the two airlines' 2010 merger.[7][8] Continental had operated since 1934.
A Syrian Armyattack helicopter pilot ordered to kill anti-government protesters instead fires all of his ammunition at a government military building in Aleppo and then defects, flying his helicopter to Turkey.[11]
An inexperienced military contractor operating an unarmed United States Air ForceMQ-9 Reaperunmanned aerial vehicle by remote control mistakenly makes the Reaper take off without permission from Seychelles International Airport on Mahé in the Seychelles, accidentally commands the Reaper's engine to shut down a minute later without realizing it, then forgets to put down the landing gear as he attempts an emergency landing at the airport. The Reaper bounces on the runway and crashes into the Indian Ocean along the edge of the airport six minutes after takeoff.[15]
A Bell UH-1H Huey II of the National Police of Peru is shot down during Operación Libertad, a campaign by Peruvian police and armed forces and police against drug producers and smugglers in the Apurímac and Ene valleys. The copilot and one passenger are killed.[17]
Slovenian pilot Matevž Lenarčič returns to Slovenia, completing a 62,000-mile (99,839-km) round-the-world flight in a Pipistrel Virus SW914ultralight aircraft, claiming to be the first person to circle the world in an ultralight without a copilot. The flight, sponsored as the "GreenLight World Flight," had begun from Slovenia on 8 January 2012 and had included passing Mount Everest at an altitude of 29,344 feet (8,944 meters), some 300 feet (91 meters) above the mountain's peak.[20][21][22]
Over La Guajira, Colombia, Colombian skydiver Jhonathan Florez sets four world skydiving records in single jump, setting the records for longest wingsuit flight in terms of duration at 9 minutes 6 seconds, highest-altitude wingsuit jump at 37,265 feet (11,358 meters), greatest horizontal distance flown in a wingsuit at 16.315 statute miles (26.272 km), and greatest absolute distance traveled while in freefall at 17.52 statute miles (28.21 km).[23][24]
A team of scientists and engineers stages an experimental crash of the Boeing 727-200XB-MNP in a desert near Mexicali, Mexico. The crash is filmed for a television documentary. It is only the second such experiment in history, the only previous one having been the 1984 Controlled Impact Demonstration.
A Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner crashes on Mount Salak on Java in Indonesia during a demonstration flight for airline representatives and journalists, killing all 45 people on board. Its wreckage is discovered on 10 May.
10 May
The women's international record-holder for number of flight hours logged as a pilot in a lifetime, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, dies at the age of 102. Between her first solo flight on 8 November 1944 and her retirement from flying in the mid-1990s, she had logged 57,635 hours (about 6+1⁄2 years) in the air, flying about 5,500,000 miles (8,900,000 km). Only one person, Ed Long (1915–1999), had logged more hours (over 65,000, or about 7 years) in the air during a lifetime.[28]
Using a wingsuit in a jump over Ridge Wood, Buckinghamshire, England, British stuntmanGary Connery becomes the first person in history to jump from a great height and land safely without deploying a parachute. Jumping from an altitude of 2,400 feet (730 meters), he reduces his speed from 50 to 15 miles per hour (80 to 24 km/h) by flaring his wingsuit about 200 feet (61 meters) from his landing zone: a 350-by-45-foot (107-by-14-meter) crushable "runway" up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) deep constructed with 18,600 cardboard boxes at Temple Island Meadows. His wingsuit begins to fly about three seconds after he begins his jump, and he travels nearly one mile (1.6 km) and reaches a maximum speed of over 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) during his flight.[29]
The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, completes the first leg of its first intercontinental flight, arriving at Madrid, Spain, after a flight from Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland. During the flight, it sets a world distance record for a solar-powered flight between pre-declared waypoints of 1,099.3 km (683.1 mi) and a world distance record for a solar-powered flight along a course of 1,116 km (693 mi). The second and final leg of the flight will take HB-SIA to Rabat, Morocco, the following month.[31][32]
26 May
Japanese wingsuit pilot Shin Ito achieves two new world wingsuit flight records, greatest horizontal distance flown in a wingsuit by flying 26.9 kilometers (16.7 miles)[33] and greatest absolute distance flown in a wingsuit by flying 28.707 kilometers (17.838 miles). Both flights take place above Yolo County, California.[34]
Allied Air Flight 111, a Boeing 727 cargo plane, overruns the runway on landing at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, and strikes a crowded minibus and a bicyclist on a nearby road. All four people on the plane survive, but the bicyclist and all 11 people on the minibus die.
3 June
On approach to a landing at Lagos, Nigeria, the crew of Dana Air Flight 992, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, reports engine trouble and declares an emergency. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft crashes into a furniture works and printing press building in the Iju-Ishaga neighborhood of Lagos, killing all 153 people aboard and ten people on the ground. Additional people on the ground are injured. It is the second-deadliest plane crash in Nigerian history and the deadliest ever involving an MD-83.
After a Libyan militia force takes control of part of Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, and demands the release of a kidnapped militia leader, a gun battle breaks out between the militiamen and Libyan government forces. Government authorities arrest 30 militiamen.[36]
5 June
The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, completes its first intercontinental flight, arriving at Rabat, Morocco, after a 19-hour flight across the Strait of Gibraltar from Madrid, Spain. The flight is the second and final leg of its intercontinental trip, which had begun on 25 May with a flight from its home base at Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland, to Madrid.[31][37]
The United Nations confirms for the first time that Syrian government helicopters have begun firing on rebel forces.[40]
21 June
An Indonesian Air ForceFokker 27 on a training flight crashes into a housing complex while on approach to a landing at Jakarta, Indonesia. Six of the seven people on the plane die immediately, and the seventh dies later of his injuries. On the ground, four people die and 11 are injured.
Three Syrian Army pilots defect, crossing the border into Jordan.[44]
25 June
Turkey accuses Syria of firing at a second Turkish Air Force plane while it is searching for crew of the F-4 Phantom II shot down on 22 June.[45]
28 June
The U.S. military announces that wreckage revealed by a retreating glacier in Alaska and discovered during June 2012 is that of a U.S. Air Force C-124A Globemaster II which crashed into Mount Gannett on 22 November 1952, killing all 52 people on board. Originally identified on 28 November 1952, the wreckage had become buried in ice and snow and had been lost for nearly 60 years.[46][47][48]
29 June
Six Uyghur men armed with aluminum crutches and explosives attempt to hijackTianjin Airlines Flight 7554, an Embraer ERJ-190 on a flight from Hotan to Ürümqi, China, with 95 other people aboard. The crew and other passengers resist them and foil the hijacking attempt. Two hijackers are killed and 13 people (two hijackers, two security officers, two flight attendants, and seven passengers) are injured, and the plane returns safely to Hotan.
30 June
Eighty-four percent of U.S. domestic airline flights have arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time since 1 January, their best on-time performance since the United States Government began tracking their on-time performance in 1988 and an improvement from 77 percent between 1 and 30 January June 2011. They also set a record-low rate of baggage handling mistakes, misdirecting, damaging, or losing only three suitcases per 1,000 passengers on domestic flights between 1 and 30 January June 2012.[49]
July
1 July
Lauda Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Austrian Airlines since December 2000, officially merges into Austrian Airlines, with all Lauda Air aircraft transferred to Austrian Airlines on the same date. However, Austrian Airlines will continue to operate some of its flights under the "Lauda Air" brand until 31 March 2013.
The American deep-sea exploration vessel Nautilus discovers the wreckage of the Turkish Air ForceF-4 Phantom II shot down on 22 June and the bodies of its two-man crew on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of about 1,000 metres (3,300 feet). The Turkish armed forces announce that they have begun an effort to recover the bodies.[51]
5 July
Facing mounting financial difficulties and with its employees having gone on strike two days earlier, the Uruguayan airline PLUNA ceases operations. Its owner, the Government of Uruguay, announces plans to auction off PLUNA's aircraft and routes.
7 July
A video is released showing Syrian rebels claiming to have shot down a Syrian government surveillance aircraft and showing pieces of the aircraft. It is the first time that Syrian rebels have claimed to have shot down a government aircraft.[52]
Belarus fires its chiefs of air defense and of the border guards because of the illegal 4 July flight into the country by a Jodel biplane.[58]
Due to confusion among air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, two USAirways commuter jets take off into the path of a third USAirways commuter jet flying in the opposite direction and cleared to land on the same runway. Realizing their error, controllers order the inbound aircraft to take evasive action 12 seconds before it would have collided with the leading outbound jet. There are no injuries among the 192 people on the three aircraft.[59]
An Israeli airstrike halts an attempt by a group of gunmen to use commandeered Egyptian armored vehicles to ram their way through an Israeli border crossing from Egypt into Israel.[60]
Suffering engine trouble, an Aviatour AirPiper PA-34-200 Seneca Icrashes in the sea off Masbate in the Philippines, killing three of the four people on board and injuring the lone survivor. Among the dead is Philippine Secretary of the Interior Jesse Robredo, whose body will be recovered from the sea on 21 August.[65]
The Syrian Air Force makes heavy strikes against rebel forces attacking Syrian government positions in Abu Kamal.[68]
Caught in a sudden thunderstorm, a hot-air balloon carrying tourists on a sightseeing trip attempts an emergency landing in Slovenia's Ljubljana Marsh, but strikes trees, crashes, and catches fire. Four of the 32 people on board are killed and the remainder are injured.
Syrian rebels claim to have shot down a Syrian government attack helicopter, possibly a Mil Mi-24 (NATO reporting name "Hind").[69]
After a final flight from Denver, Colorado, to Lihue, Kaua'i, Hawaii, 83-year-old Ron Akana retires as the longest-serving flight attendant in history. His career, all with United Airlines, had spanned 63 years since he joined the airline in 1949, interrupted only by two years of military service from 1951 to 1953. He had flown about 200 million miles (322,000,000 km) and made about 10,000 trips over the Pacific Ocean.[70]
28 August
The University of Maryland's Gamera II sets a flight endurance record for a human-powered helicopter, remaining aloft for 65.1 seconds. During a flight later in the day, it sets an unofficial altitude record as well, reaching an altitude of 2.4 meters (7.9 feet).[71]
29 August
Syrian rebels claim to have attacked a Syrian government military air base in Taftanaz, Syria, damaging several government helicopters.[72]
30 August
Human Rights Watch alleges that in the previous three weeks Syrian government airstrikes and artillery fire have struck at least 10 bakeries in Aleppo as people lined up to collect bread, killing dozens, with one attack on 16 August alone killing 60 and injuring 70 people.[73]
31 August
Syrian rebels target government air bases, claiming to be trying to reduce the threat of air attacks on their forces. They reportedly shoot down a government helicopter in Sarmin, Syria.[74]
The Free Syria Army warns airlines to suspend service to Damascus and Aleppo, Syria, saying rebel forces could begin attacking airports in the two cities as early as the following week.[citation needed]
An American airstrike hoping to kill the senior regional al-Qaeda leader Abdelrauf al-Dahab, thought to be traveling by car on a road in Rada'a, Yemen, instead hits a pickup truck loaded with 14 innocent people, killing 12 of them. The Government of Yemen accepts blame for the mistake.[77]
5 September
Wearing a white costume designed to induce endangered Siberian cranes to follow him, President of RussiaVladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider in three brief flights over Russia's Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic, apparently the first time a Russian head of state has piloted an aircraft. Cranes follow him on two of the flights. His flights are part of the "Flight of Hope" project to increase the population of Siberian cranes by using ultralight aircraft to lead the birds on flights that teach them to migrate.[78][79]
A Syrian Air Force strike in Aleppo kills 11 people.[80]
14 September
Yousef Assad, a high-ranking Syrian Air Force officer and relative of Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad, announces his defection to the opposition in an online video.[81]
20 September
At least 71 people die in Raqqa, Syria, when a Syrian Air Force plane bombs a gasoline (petrol) station.[82]
A diamond formation involving 100 jumpers over Perris, California, sets a global record for the largest formation wingsuit jump. However, the record is set prior to the February 2015 establishment of judging criteria for official world record wingsuit formations by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and therefore will be retired, with records thereafter being recognized under the new criteria.[86]
The Syrian Revolution General Commission claims that its forces have destroyed 61 Syrian government helicopters and planes, mostly while on the ground during rebel raids, and that the heaviest Syrian government aircraft losses occurred in August.[95]
13 October
Syria bans Turkish civilian aircraft from flying over its territory.[96]
14 October
Human Rights Watch accuses the Syrian government of using Russian-made cluster bombs in air attacks on populated areas and near key battlefields.[97]
Turkey closes its airspace to Syrian civilian flights.[98]
In the Red Bull Stratos project, AustrianFelix Baumgartner balloon altitude record, ascending to 38,969 meters (127,851 feet) near Roswell, New Mexico. He then sets a new height record for a parachute jump, diving from a capsule suspended beneath the balloon at an altitude of 128,097 feet (39,044 meters; 24.26 miles; 39.04 km). The 9-minute descent includes a 4-minute-20-second free fall of 119,846 feet (36,530 meters; 22.7 miles; 36.5 km), during which he reaches Mach 1.24 (833.9 mph; 1,342.8 km/h), becoming the first person to exceed the speed of sound without travelling in a jet aircraft or spacecraft. He lands standing up. He breaks the skydiving altitude record set on 16 August 1960 by U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, who serves as Baumgartner's capsule communicator during the jump.[99][100]
Syrian Air Force jets destroy two residential buildings and a mosque in the rebel-held town of Maarrat al-Nu'man, reportedly killing at least 44 people.[102]
The Syrian Expatriates Organization claims that a combination of Syrian government airstrikes and a military blockade over the previous 130 days have destroyed 75 percent of the city of Deir ez-zor, Syria, killing over 3,000 people and causing 380,000 to flee the city.[103]
25 October
Independent United Nations human rights researcher Ben Emmerson announces plans to launch an investigation into unmanned aerial vehicle strikes and other targeted assassinations by governments that kill or injure civilians.[104]
28 October
Syrian Air Force aircraft strike rebel-held areas in the eastern Damascus suburbs of Arbeen, Harasta, and Zamalka.[105]
30 October
The Syrian Air Force carries out scores of airstrikes around Syria, the most widespread bombing in a single day since the Syrian Civil War began 19 months before, according to anti-government activists. Maarat al-Numan is among the hardest-hit places,[106] and air strikes level areas of Douma, leaving 18 people dead.[107]
Syrian Air Force Major General Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi is assassinated in Damascus, Syria.
Syrian rebels capture a Syrian government air base near rebel-held Abu Kamal, Syrian, meaning that the only air base the Syrian government holds in the Deir ez-Zor region is the main one near the city of Deir ez-Zor itself.[114]
Syrian rebel forces attack a Syrian government airbase 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) outside Damascus, and claim to have destroyed two helicopters on the ground.[120]
Fighting between government and rebel forces near Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, closes the road to the airport.[122] The airline Emirates suspends flights to Damascus, and an Egyptian airliner that has landed at Damascus International as scheduled and discharged its passengers safely is ordered to take off and return to Cairo without passengers if its pilot feels the situation is too dangerous to allow the plane to stay long enough to embark its passengers for the return flight.[123]
Syria announces that Damascus International Airport has reopened and is running scheduled flights after being closed for three days due to fighting between government and rebel forces in the area.[128]
3 December
The Turkish Air Force scrambles fighters to protect Turkish airspace after a Syrian Air Force plane drops two bombs on rebel positions in Syria about 300 yards (270 meters) from the border with Turkey, killing at least 10 people and causing Syrian civilians to flee across the border to safety in Turkey.[128]
Egyptair orders a Cairo, Egypt-to-Damascus, Syria, flight to turn back in mid-air because of concerns over the security situation around Damascus International Airport.[128]
A missile fired by an American unmanned aerial vehicle strikes a house near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, Pakistan, killing senior al-Qaeda leader Sheik Khalid Bin Abdel Rehman Al-Hussainan, also known as Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, while he is eating breakfast. The attack also mortally wounds his wife, and injures his daughter.[130][131][132]
9 December
An American unmanned aerial vehicle fires a missile into a house in Tabbi in North Waziristan, Pakistan, killing the al-Qaeda commander Mohammad Ahmed al-Mansoor.[133]
Ten Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan members attack Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar, Pakistan, with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, targeting Pakistani military facilities where attack helicopters are based and triggering a gun battle of over an hour with Pakistani security forces during which five of the attackers are killed. Three grenades strike airport property and two more land in adjacent neighborhoods. Four residents of the neighborhoods are killed and 30 to 40 injured. The five surviving attackers all are cornered and killed by Pakistani police the following day.[136][137]
Over a period of 17 minutes, three waves of Syrian Air Force aircraft attack the only bakery operating in Halfaya, Syria, where hundreds of people had gathered to buy the first fresh bread available in the area for days, killing dozens. Opposition groups estimate the number of dead at anywhere from fewer than 100 to as many as 300 people.[141]
The crew of an Air BaganFokker 100 with 71 people on board for a domestic flight in Burma from Rangoon to Heho via Mandalay mistakes a road for the runway while descending to land at Heho in heavy fog, hits power lines, and crash-lands either on the road or in a nearby rice paddy and burns, killing a tour guide and injuring eleven other people aboard the plane. A man on the ground riding a bicycle also is killed.[143]
An Antonov An-72 military transport aircraft belonging to the military forces of Kazakhstan carrying a crew of seven and 20 members of the Kazakhstan Border Guard Service crashes in bad weather about 20 km (12 mi) from Shymkent while descending to a landing there after a domestic flight from Astana, killing everyone on board. The acting Director of the Kazakhstan Border Guard Service, ColonelTurganbeck Stambekov, is among the dead, along with one of his deputies and a number of regional Border Guard commanders.[144][145]
Syrian rebels increase pressure against a government helicopter base and fight with government soldiers near Aleppo International Airport as they continue their offensive against government airbases. They claim to have surrounded four airports and airbases in the Aleppo Governorate, halting all activity at one and firing antiaircraft artillery at all approaching aircraft at another.[148]
The Syrian Air Force strikes al-Safira, killing 14 people.[148]
An airstike kills two suspected al-Qaeda members in Hadramawt province in southwestern Yemen. Local residents and Yemeni officials claim an American unmanned aerial vehicle conducted the strike.[149]
An airstrike, suspected of being by an American unmanned aerial vehicle, destroys a Toyota Land Cruiser outside Rada'a in southern Yemen, killing three al-Qaeda members in the vehicle and prompting dozens of al-Qaeda members to protest.[153]
Myanmar Air Force jets and attack helicopters strike rebel Kachin Independence Army forces in northern Myanmar. The Government of Myanmar at first denies the strikes, but eventually will admit to them on 2 January 2013.[154]
31 December
The Kachin Independence Army again claims to be under attack by Myanmar Air Force aircraft.[154]
Aleppo International Airport is closed due to fighting between Syrian government and rebel forces around the base of the Syrian Army force protecting the airport.[152]
Airlines in the United States have collected over $6,000,000,000 in baggage fees from passengers in 2012, the highest yearly total since the fees became common in 2008.[155]
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft N905A by NASA;[166] found to have few parts useful for the SOFIA aircraft, N905A is later earmarked for museum display at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
^ abMiller, Greg, "U.S. Set to Keep Kill Lists For Years,' The Washington Post, 24 October 2012, p. A8.
^Lamger, Emily, "Obituary: Evelyn Bryan Johnson, 102; 'Mama Bird', a Prolific Pilot, Flew More Hours Than Any Other Woman," The Washington Post, 14 May 2012, p. B4.
^Gurubacharya, Binaj (28 September 2012). "Everest Plane Crash Kills 19 Trekkers". (Huffington Post)Huffingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
^Associated Press, "Baggage-Fee Total Tops Last Year's," The Washington Post, 18 December 2012, p. A14.
