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2001 Master Index 2003

2002 Chronology of Aviation History
Major Aviation Events

2002 Events

  • 2002 — A depression in North American commercial aviation begins in the aftermath of an economic recession and the 11 September attacks of 2001. [1]

January 2002

  • 5 January — A Cessna 172 “Skyhawk” piloted by high-school student Charles J. Bishop crashes into the side of the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa, Florida, killing the teenager and damaging an office. [1]

  • 16 January — Both engines of a Boeing 737-3Q8 operating as Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 with 60 people on board flame out while the aircraft is flying through a thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail during an Indonesian domestic flight from Ampenan on Lombok to Yogyakarta on Java. Unable to restart the engines, the pilots attempt to ditch the aircraft in the Bengawan Solo River on Java. A flight attendant is sucked from the aircraft after it strikes a rock; she is the only fatality. [1]

March 2002

  • 4 March — Ansett (Mark II) permanently ceases operations. [1]

  • 8 March — A Portuguese Air Force 201 Squadron Lockheed Martin F-16 “Fighting Falcon” crashes in Monte Real while landing, killing the pilot. [1]

  • 31 March — Swiss International Air Lines begins operations, taking over many routes from bankrupt Swissair. [1]

April 2002

  • 9 April — A Portuguese Air Force 552 Squadron Aérospatiale “Alouette III” crashes, killing the three crewman. [1]

  • 15 April — Air China Flight 129 a Boeing 767, crashes at a mountainside near Busan. 128 of 166 on board are killed. [1]

  • 18 April — A Rockwell “Commander 112” crashes into the upper floors of the Pirelli Tower in Milan, Italy, killing its pilot and four people in the building. Sixty more people in the building and on the ground sustain injuries. [1]

May 2002

  • 4 May — EAS Airlines Flight 4226 a BAC “One-Eleven”, crashes shortly after takeoff in Kano, Nigeria, killing 75 people on board and 73 on the ground. [1]

  • 7 May — EgyptAir Flight 843, a Boeing 737-566, crashes near Tunis, Tunisia, killing 14 of the 62 people on board. [1]

  • 7 May — China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashed near Dalian, China, killing all 103 passengers and 9 crews. [1]

  • 25 May — China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200B, breaks apart in flight and crashes into the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 passengers and crew. An investigation blames the accident on metal fatigue caused by inadequate maintenance 22 years earlier. [1]

July 2002

  • 1 July — Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154 “Careless”, collides with DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, over Germany, killing all 69 on the Tu-154 “Careless” and the two pilots on the DHL 757. [1]

  • 1 July — The captain and first officer of America West Flight 556, an Airbus A319 with 132 people on board, are arrested at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, for being legally drunk just after push Back from the gate for a flight to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. They later are jailed. [1]

  • 2 July — Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. [1]

  • 4 July — An Egyptian-American man, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, opens fire on the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, killing two Israelis and wounding four other people before an El Al security guard shoots him to death. [1]

  • 7-14 July — The 15th FAI World Precision Flying Championship takes place in Zagreb, Croatia. The individual winners are:

    1. Lubos Hajek (Czech Republic, in a Cessna 152)

    2. Janusz Darocha (Poland, in a Cessna 152)

    3. Predrag Crnko (Croatia, in a Cessna 150)

    Team winners are:

    1. The Czech Republic

    2. Poland

    3. Croatia. [1]

  • 17 July — Midway Airlines suspends operations. [1]

  • 27 July — A Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker” fighter plane crashes into a crowd of spectators at an air show in Sknyliv near Lviv, Ukraine, killing 77. [1]

  • 29 July — Vanguard Airlines ceases operations. The next day it files for reorganization under Chapter 11 of United States bankruptcy law. [1]

  • July-December — Italian conservationist and pilot Angelo d'Arrigo guides a flock of 10 endangered Western Siberian cranes bred in captivity with a foot-launched powered hang glider 5,500 km (miles) from the Arctic Circle in Siberia across Kazakhstan to the shores of the Caspian Sea in Iran, avoiding Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he feared the birds would fall victim to the abundant guns there. [1]

August 2002

  • 10 August — US Airways files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [1]

  • 13 August — Midway Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [1]

September 2002

  • September 5 — As part of “Operation Southern Focus”, 100 American aircraft attack the main air defense site in western Iraq. [1]

October 2002

  • 18 October — Boeing reveals its “Bird of Prey” stealth technology demonstrator, which has conducted a number of flights during the period 1996 to 1999. [1]

  • 25 October — United States Senator Paul Wellstone and all seven other people on board die in the crash of a Beechcraft “King Air A100” into dense forest two miles (3.2 km) short of the runway as it attempts to land at Eveleth, Minnesota. [1]

November 2002

  • November — The United States Navy's new Boeing F/A-18E “Super Hornet” fighter-bomber sees combat for the first time, when F/A-18Es of Strike Fighter Squadron 115 (VFA-115) flying from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) strike surface-to-air missile sites and command-and-control targets near Al Kut, Iraq, during “Operation Southern Focus”. [1]

  • 3 November — An American CIA General Atomics MQ-1 “Predator” unmanned aerial vehicle hits a vehicle in Yemen with an Lockheed Martin AGM-114 “Hellfire” missile, killing five al-Qaeda members in the vehicle, including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi and Kamal Derwish. [1]

  • 6 November — National Airlines, already operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, permanently ceases operations. [1]

  • 18 November — American Airlines and British Airways announce plans to code share some transatlantic flights, but the partnership is heavily restricted by US regulators. [1]

December 2002

  • December 9 — United Airlines files for Chapter 11 reorganization, the largest airline bankruptcy in US history. [1]

  • December 23 — An unmanned aircraft is involved in air-to-air combat for the first time when two Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 “Fishbed” “Floggers” attack a USAF General Atomics RQ-1 “Predator” unmanned aerial vehicle experimentally armed with AIM-92 “Stinger” air-to-air missiles and patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq in an attempt to bait Iraqi Air Force fighters into combat during “Operation Southern Watch”. After neither Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 “Fishbeds” achieves a lock-on, an Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 “Foxbat” of the 1st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron scrambles to assist. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 “Foxbat” and General Atomics RQ-1 “Predator” fire missiles at one other; the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 “Foxbat” is out of range of the Predator's “Stingers”, but it shoots down the General Atomics RQ-1 “Predator”. [1]

2002 Aircraft First Flights

  • 15 January — Millennium Jet “SoloTrek XFV”. [1]

  • 15 January — Airbus A318. [1]

  • 23 January — IITB PADD Micro airship. [1]

  • 11 February — Airbus A340-500. [1]

  • 16 February — WD D5 “Evolution”. [1]

  • 19 February — Embraer 170. [1]

  • 27 February — Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign. [1]

  • February — Socata TBM 700C2. [1]

  • 4 March — Van's RV-9. [1]

  • 7 March — Aviat “Husky Pup”. [1]

  • 28 March — AATG AT-10 airship. [1]

  • 4 April — Sikorsky MH-60R “Seahawk”. [1]

  • 21 April — Irkut A-002. [1]

  • 26 April — Extra 500. [1]

  • 29 April — Saab AB JAS 39C “Gripen”. [1]

  • 18 May — Tomair “Cobra Arrow”. [1]

  • 22 May — Zlin Z 400 “Rhino". [1]

  • 22 May — Boeing X-45. [1]

  • 29 May — Aceair Aeriks A-200. [1]

  • 31 May — Toyota TAA-1. [1]

  • 1 June — Aero L159B. [1]

  • 22 June — Tupolev Tu-214VSSN. [1]

  • 28 June — CAC J-10. [1]

  • 30 June — 21st Century Airships SPAS-R1. [1]

  • 1 July — Pilatus PC-21. [1]

  • 9 July — CargoLifter “Scala”. [1]

  • 11 July — Adam A500. [1]

  • 18 July — Boeing YAL-1A Airborne Laser (ABL). [1]

  • 31 July — Boeing 747-400ER. [1]

  • 1 August — Scaled Composites “White Knight”. [1]

  • 5 August — BAE Systems “Hawk NDA”. [1]

  • 20 August — KAI T-50 “Golden Eagle”. [1]

  • 26 August — Eclipse Aviation “Eclipse 500”. [1]

  • 31 August — Learjet 40. [1]

  • 18 September — GE90-115B, world's most powerful jet engine. [1]

  • 20 September — BAE Systems “Harrier GR.Mk.7A”. [1]

  • 9 November — MVEN MVEN-1 “Fermer”. [1]

  • 30 November — Sauper Aviation “Papango”. [1]

  • 9 December — Diamond “Twin Star”. [1]

  • 12 December — Grob G 140TP. [1]

2002 Aircraft Entering Service

  • 2002 — Airbus A340-600 with Virgin Atlantic Airways. [1]

  • 18 March — HAL “Dhruv” with the Indian Coast Guard. [1]

Works Cited

  1. Timeline and History: Wikipedia. 2002 in Aviation

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