1989 in aviation
| Years in aviation |
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| 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
March
April
- April 30 - SOCATA Omega
May
July
October
- October 7 - Enstrom 480
December
- December 26 - NAMC N-5
Entered service
- October 27 - ATR-72 with Kar Air
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