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1993 Master Index 1995

1994 Chronology of Aviation History
Major Aviation Events

February 1994

  • February 6 — In the wake of the Markale massacre the previous day in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Nations Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali formally requests that NATO confirm that it would carry out air strikes against Army of Republika Srpska positions around Sarajevo immediately. [1]

  • February 9 — NATO authorizes the Commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe, United States Navy Admiral Jeremy Boorda, to launch air strikes against Army of Republika Srpska artillery and mortar positions in and around Sarajevo that the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) determined were responsible for attacks against civilian targets. [1]

  • February 28 — In an incident near Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first combat operation in the history of NATO takes place when two USAF Lockheed F-16C “Fighting Falcon”s operating in NATO's “Operation Deny Flight” - enforcement of a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina - engage six Republika Srpska Air Force Soko J-21 “Jastreb” light attack aircraft which had just bombed Novi Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, shooting down four of them. [1]

March 1994

  • March 7 — The Japanese Nihon Aero Student Group's “Yuri I” makes the second human-powered helicopter flight in history and the first since December 1989, setting an endurance record of 19.46 seconds at Nihon University. [1]

  • March 12 — The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) makes its first request for NATO close air support in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a number of delays associated with the approval process prevent NATO aircraft from carrying out a strike. [1]

  • March 17 — Armenian forces shoot down an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Lockheed C-130E “Hercules” carrying Iranian embassy personnel from Tehran to Moscow near Ballica in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, killing all 32 people on board. [1]

  • March 23 — Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310-304, is flying with unauthorized people - the pilot's 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter - in the cockpit when the 16-year-old unintentionally disengages the autopilot without the pilots' knowledge, causing the plane to bank steeply, go into an unexpected nearly vertical dive, and crash into a hillside in the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range 20 km (12 miles) east of Mezhdurechensk, Russia. All 75 people on board die. [1]

  • March 23 — Two USAF aircraft - a Lockheed C-130E “Hercules” and an Lockheed F-16D “Fighting Falcon” - collide at low altitude over Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. The Lockheed C-130E “Hercules”later lands safely, but the two men aboard the Lockheed F-16D “Fighting Falcon” are forced to eject as the fighter begins to disintegrate. The unmanned Lockheed F-16D “Fighting Falcon” continues in afterburner and punctures the fuel tanks of a parked USAF Lockheed C-141 “Starlifter”, creating a fireball which, along with the Lockheed F-16D “Fighting Falcon's” wreckage, strikes a large group of United States Army 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers. The crash kills 24 and injures over 80 paratroopers in the division's greatest loss of life since the end of World War II in 1945. [1]

April 1994

  • April 4 — KLM “Cityhopper” Flight 433, a Saab 340, crashes on landing at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, killing 3 of the 21 people on board and seriously injuring nine of the 18 survivors. [1]

  • April 6 — A surface-to-air missile shoots down the presidential jet of Rwanda, a Dassault “Falcon 50”, as it prepares to land at Kigali International Airport at Kigali, Rwanda, killing all 12 aboard, including President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana and President of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira. Their assassination will spark the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. [1]

  • April 7 — Flying as a passenger, Federal Express employee Auburn Calloway attempts to hijack Federal Express Flight 705, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-30, by using claw hammers, sledgehammers, and a spear-gun to murder the crew, planning to crash the plane during a cargo flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to San Jose, California, killing himself so that his family could collect his $2,500,000 FedEx employee life insurance. Although badly injured, the three-man crew manages to restrain Calloway in a struggle during which the DC-10 reaches transonic speeds and flies inverted, then makes an emergency landing at Memphis International Airport. [1]

  • April 10-11 — The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) calls in NATO air strikes to protect the Goražde safe area in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two USAF Lockheed F-16 “Fighting Falcon”s respond, bombing a Bosnian Serb military command post near Goražde. It is the first time in NATO's history that its aircraft have carried out an air strike. [1]

  • April 14 — USAF McDonnell-Douglas F-15 “Eagles” enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq in “Operation Provide Comfort II” shoot down two United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 “Blackhawk” helicopters, mis-identifying them as Iraqi Mil Mi-25 “Hind D's”. All 26 people aboard the two helicopters die. [1]

  • April 16 — A Bosnian Serb “Strela 2” (NATO reporting name SA-7 “Grail”) surface-to-air missile shoots down a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm British Aerospace “Sea Harrier” over Goražde, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pilot later is rescued. [1]

  • April 26 — An Airbus A300 operating as China Airlines Flight 140 crashes just before landing at Nagoya International Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board. [1]

June 1994

  • June 2 — In the RAF's worst peacetime aviation disaster, an RAF Boeing-Vertol “Chinook” helicopter crashes on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, killing all 29 people on board. Among the dead are almost all of the United Kingdom's senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts. [1]

  • June 6 — In what remains the People's Republic of China's deadliest air disaster, the autopilot aboard China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, a Tupolev Tu-154M “Careless”, malfunctions, causing the airliner to shake violently, break apart in flight, and crash south of Xian, China, killing all 160 people on board. [1]

  • June 9 — An Antonov An-124 “Condor” carries a 109-tonne diesel locomotive from Ontario, Canada, to Dublin, Ireland. [1]

  • June 24 — A USAF Boeing B-52H “Stratofortress” crashes at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Spokane, Washington, when its pilot banks it too steeply during a go-around, killing the entire crew of four. [1]

  • June 30 — An Airbus A330-300 on a test flight crashes at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in Toulouse, France, killing all seven people on board. It is the first fatal accident involving an A330 and will remain the only one until 2009; it also is the first hull-loss of an A330. [1]

July 1994

  • July 2 — USAir Flight 1016, a Douglas DC-9-31 on approach in heavy rain to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, crashes, the victim of a micro-burst. Thirty-seven of the 57 people aboard die, and 15 of the 20 survivors are injured. [1]

  • July 12 — A RAF Lockheed C-130 “Hercules” flies the 10,000th United Nations relief flight into Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. [1]

  • July 19 — Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901, an Embraer EMB 110 “Bandeirante”, explodes shortly after departing Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport in Colón, Panama, killing all 21 people on board. Investigators determine that a suicide bomber probably brought the plane down, perhaps to kill 12 Jews who were aboard. A group named Ansar Allah (“Followers of God”) claims responsibility, but is later found not to exist, and the bombing remains unsolved. [1]

August 1994

  • August — Flight Lieutenant Jo Salter is posted to the RAF's No. 617 Squadron, which operates Panavia “Tornado GR.1Bs”. She is the RAF's first female fast jet pilot. [1]

  • August 5 — In response to a request to the NATO by the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), two USAF Fairchild A-10 “Thunderbolt IIs” attack and destroy a Serbian anti-tank vehicle near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. [1]

  • August 21 — Royal Air Maroc Flight 630, an ATR 42-312, crashes at Douar Izounine, Morocco, in the Atlas Mountains 10 minutes after takeoff from Al Massira Airport, in Agadir, Morocco, killing all 44 people on board, including a Kuwaiti prince and his wife. An investigation concludes that the pilot disconnected the autopilot and crashed the plane deliberately, although a flight union disputes the finding. At the time, it is the deadliest accident involving an ATR 42. [1]

  • August 30 — Lockheed and Martin Marietta announce their intention to merge. They will form Lockheed-Martin the following year. [1]

September 1994

  • September 8 — USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737-300, crashes into a hillside near Aliquippa in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, while on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing all 132 people aboard; among the dead is noted neuroethologist Walter Heiligenberg. The ensuring accident investigation lasts 4½ years - still the longest in aviation history. [1]

  • September 12 — Distraught over breaking up with his third wife, wanting to gain notoriety, and under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, Frank Corder steals a Cessna 150 from Aldino Airport near Baltimore, Maryland, and crashes it onto the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., killing himself. The plane is undetected until seen over the White House lawn, prompting a change in security procedures at the White House. [1]

  • September 22 — In response to a request to the NATO by the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), two RAF SEPECAT “Jaguars I” and a USAF Fairchild A-10 “Thunderbolt II” attack and destroy a Bosnian Serb T-55 tank in Bosnia and Herzegovina. [1]

October 1994

  • October 1 — United Airlines creates a new airline named United Shuttle. [1]

  • October 25 — USN Lieutenant Kara Hultgreen, the first female aircraft carrier-based fighter pilot, is killed off San Diego, California, in the crash into the Pacific Ocean of an Grumman F-14 “Tomcat” fighter she is piloting on final approach to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). [1]

  • October 31 — An ATR-72 operating as American “Eagle” Airlines Flight 4184 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after a flaw in the ATR-72's deicing system leads to a buildup of ice on its wings. All 68 people on board die. [1]

November 1994

  • November 3 — Haris Kec, a Bosnian, hijacks a McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 operating as Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 347 en route from Bardufoss Airport to Bodø Airport in Norway with 128 people on board, and makes demands that the Norwegian government take action to stop humanitarian suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina. No one is injured in the incident. [1]

  • November 22 — During its takeoff roll at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in Bridgeton, Missouri, Transworld Airlines Flight 427, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 with 140 people on board, strikes a Cessna 441. There are no injuries aboard the MD-82, but both people on the Cessna die. [1]

  • November 28 — KLM Flight 1673, a Boeing 737-406 with 146 people on board, suffers a landing gear failure during its takeoff roll at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, veers off the runway, and crashes. All on board survive, but the aircraft is written off. [1]

December 1994

  • December 11 — A bomb planted by terrorist Ramzi Yousef explodes aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434, a Boeing 747-200 with 293 people on board, over Minami Daito Island, killing one passenger and injuring 10 other people. The aircraft lands at Okinawa without further incident. [1]

  • December 21 — Air Algérie Flight 702P, the Boeing 737-2D6C “Oasis ” leased by Phoenix Aviation, crashes in bad weather on landing at Coventry Airport in Coventry, England, killing all five people on board. [1]

  • December 24-26 — The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) hijacks Air France Flight 8969 at Algiers, Algeria, killing three passengers. Intending to crash the plane into the Eiffel Tower, the hijackers allow it to fly to Marseille, France, where the French Gendarmerie's GIGN unit storms it and kills all four hijackers. [1]

  • December 29 — The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-4Y0 “Mersin”, operating as Flight 278, crashes in driving snow while on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport in Van, Turkey, killing 57 of the 76 people on board. [1]

1994 Aircraft First Flights

  • February 15 — Eurocopter EC.135. [1]

  • March 27 — Eurofighter “Typhoon”. [1]

  • June 12 — Boeing 777. [1]

  • September 13 — Airbus “Beluga”. [1]

  • October 25 — Bell 430. [1]

  • December 16 — Antonov An-70. [1]

1994 Aircraft Entering Service

  • December — Tupolev Tu-204. [1]

1994 Aircraft Returning from Service

  • 1994 — Lockheed P-2 “Neptune” by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. [1]

Works Cited

  1. Timeline and History: Wikipedia. 1994 in Aviation

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