This is a list of aviation-related events from 2003:

Events

January

* 1 January **The

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

creates its Air Accidents Investigation Institute. It takes over the accident investigation competencies previously held by the Czech Republic's Civil Aviation Authority. **The airline Livingston is founded. It will begin flight operations in

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

. * 8 January ** The

Turkish Airlines Turkish Airlines ( Turkish: ''Türk Hava Yolları'') is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey. , it operates scheduled services to 340 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the largest mainline carrier in the ...

Avro RJ100 The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Manufacture by Avro International ...

''Konya'', operating as Flight 634, crashes in thick fog while on

final approach In aeronautics, the final approach (also called the final leg and final approach leg) is the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing, when the aircraft is lined up with the runway and descending for landing.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of ...

to land at

Diyarbakır Airport Diyarbakır Airport is a military airbase and public airport located in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Overview Diyarbakır Airport is home to the 8th Air Wing (''Ana Jet Üs'' or ''AJÜ'') of the 2nd Air Force Command (''Hava Kuvvet Komutanligi'') of th ...

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

, Turkey. The plane breaks into three pieces and catches fire, killing 75 of the 80 people on board and seriously injuring all five survivors. ** Air Midwest Flight 5481, a Beechcraft 1900D operating as a

US Airways Express US Airways Express was the brand name for the regional affiliate of US Airways, under which a number of individually owned commuter air carriers and regional airlines operate short and medium haul routes. This code sharing service was previously ...

flight, crashes into a

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon ...

hangar on takeoff from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport at

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board and injuring one person on the ground. The accident investigation determines that the crash resulted from improper maintenance and because the aircraft was overweight, Air Midwest having used

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

-approved estimated passenger weight tables that had not been updated since 1936, when the average weight of an American passenger was 20 pounds (9 kg) lighter than in 2003. * 9 January – TANS Perú Flight 222, a

Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional airliner, Fokker ...

, crashes near Chachapoyas,

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, while on approach to Chachapoyas Airport, killing all 46 people on board.

February

Fina Air Fina Air was an airline based in San Juan, Puerto Rico named after Josefina Canto who was the mother of Lazaro Canto. It operated charter flights to the Dominican Republic from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Rafael Hernán ...

begins services. * Cirrus Design Corporation delivers the

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft co ...

industry's first glass cockpit with the SR20 and SR22. * 1 February – The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrates on

reentry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the ...

after 16 days in space, killing its entire crew of seven. * 3 February – Air Arabia is founded. It will begin flight operations on 28 October. * 5–9 February – The

Aero India Aero India is a biennial air show and aviation exhibition held in Bengaluru, India at the Yelahanka Air Force Station. It is organised by the Defence Exhibition Organisation, Ministry of Defence. Organisers The Defence Ministry of India, Ind ...

show is held at

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. * 13 February – The

Government of Armenia A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, Executive (government), e ...

establishes the

General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia The Civil Aviation Committee ( hy, Քաղաքացիական ավիացիայի կոմիտե) is an agency of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure օf Armenia. Its head office is on the property of Zvartnots International Ai ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

's national

civil aviation authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

. * 19 February – An Iranian

Aerospace Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air and Space Force (IRGCASF; fa, نیروی هوافضای سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, niru-ye havâfazây-e sepâh-e pâsdârâ ...

Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comm ...

(

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...

"Candid") carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard from

Zahedan Zahedan ( Balochi and fa, , ' ) is a city and capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 587,730. The city was the site of a deadly crackdown in October 2022, with dozens citizens killed by pro- ...

Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, crashes 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of Kerman, killing all 275 people on board. The third crash of an Il-76 in Iran, it is the deadliest accident in history involving an Il-76 and the deadliest aviation accident on Iranian soil.

March

* 1 March –

Asiana Airlines Asiana Airlines Inc. ( ) is a South Korean airline headquartered in Seoul.Home
." Asiana Airlines. Retrieved 13 September 2 ...

joins the

Star Alliance Star Alliance is the world's largest global airline alliance. Founded on 14 May 1997, its CEO is Jeffrey Goh and its headquarters is located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. , Star Alliance is the largest of the three global alliances by passenger ...

. * 6 March –

Air Algérie Flight 6289 Air Algérie Flight 6289 (AH6289) was an Algerian domestic passenger flight from Tamanrasset to the nation's capital of Algiers with a stopover in Ghardaïa, operated by Algerian national airliner Air Algérie. On 6 March 2003, the aircraft o ...

, the

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

''7T-VEZ'', suffers an engine failure during takeoff from

Tamanrasset Airport Tamanrasset (; ar, تامنراست), also known as Tamanghasset or Tamenghest, is an oasis city and capital of Tamanrasset Province in southern Algeria, in the Ahaggar Mountains. It is the chief city of the Algerian Tuareg. It is located an alt ...

Tamanrasset Tamanrasset (; ar, تامنراست), also known as Tamanghasset or Tamenghest, is an oasis city and capital of Tamanrasset Province in southern Algeria, in the Ahaggar Mountains. It is the chief city of the Algerian Tuareg. It is located an alt ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, stalls, veers off the runway, and crashes, killing all but one of the 102 people on board and injuring the sole survivor. * 9 March – The

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

– responsible for the safety of the traveling public in the United States, with the bulk of its efforts devoted to

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

and the screening of passengers and baggage at over 450 airports in the United States – is moved from the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

to the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...

. * 14 March – A

Cessna 177 Cardinal The Cessna 177 Cardinal is a light single-engine, high-wing general aviation aircraft produced by Cessna. It was intended to replace the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. First announced in 1967, it was produced from 1968 to 1978.Christy, Joe: ''The Complet ...

crashes into Old Fort Mountain near Old Fort,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, after taking off from

Asheville Regional Airport Asheville Regional Airport is a Class C airport near Interstate 26 near the town of Fletcher, south of downtown Asheville, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, United States. It is owned by the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority. Th ...

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, North Carolina, killing author Amanda Davis and her parents. Davis is on a

book tour A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

to promote her first novel, ''Wonder When You'll Miss Me'', at the time of her death. Her father is piloting the plane when it crashes. * 31 March –

Lauda Air Italy Lauda Air S.p.A. was an Italian leisure charter airline headquartered in Milan and based at Milan Malpensa Airport.Livingston.

May

*The airline Livingston begins flight operations. * 1 May **The

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Sea Control Squadron 35 (VS-35)

S-3 Viking The Lockheed S-3 Viking is a four-crew, twin-engine turbofan-powered jet aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Corporation. Because of its characteristic sound, it was nicknamed the "War Hoover" after th ...

antisubmarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

aircraft ''159387'' brings

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

aboard the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

off

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where Bush gives his " Mission Accomplished" speech about

Operation Iraqi Freedom {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

. Bush becomes the first U.S. president to make an arrested landing aboard an aircraft carrier in a

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinc ...

. While the U.S. president is aboard, the S-3 uses the call sign "

Navy One Navy One is the call sign of any United States Navy aircraft carrying the president of the United States. There has only been one aircraft designated as Navy One: a Lockheed S-3 Viking, BuNo ''159387'', assigned to the "Blue Wolves" of VS- ...

;" it remains the only aircraft ever to have done so. **

Spanair Spanair S.A. was a Spanish airline, with its head office in the Spanair Building in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Until 2009, it was a subsidiary of the SAS Group; the same parent company in control of Scandinavian Airlines and held ...

joins the

. * 25 May – Boeing 727-223 tail number ''

N844AA On 25 May 2003, a Boeing 727, registered N844AA, was stolen at Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, Angola, prompting a worldwide search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). No trace of the aircraft ...

'' is stolen from

Quatro de Fevereiro Airport Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport ( pt, Aeroporto Internacional 4 de Fevereiro, sw, Uwanja wa Ndege wa Kimataifa wa Quatro de Fevereiro), is the main international airport of Angola. It is located in the southern part of the capital Lua ...

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

, Angola. Ben Charles Padilla, who is suspected of having been at the controls, disappears at the same time. Despite a worldwide search by police and intelligence agencies, neither the plane nor Padilla are ever found. * 26 May –

UM Airlines Flight 4230 Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines Flight 4230 was a chartered international Airliner, passenger flight, a Yakovlev Yak-42D operated by Ukraine, Ukrainian UM Airlines, which crashed in 2003. Flying from Manas International Airport, Bishkek, Kyrgy ...

, a chartered

Yakovlev Yak-42 The Yakovlev Yak-42 (russian: Яковлев Як-42; NATO reporting name: "Clobber") is a 100/120-seat three-engined mid-range passenger jet developed in the mid 1970s to replace the technically obsolete Tupolev Tu-134. It was the first airli ...

(

"Clobber") carrying Spanish

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United N ...

troops home from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Zaragoza Airport Zaragoza Airport ( Aragonese and es, Aeropuerto de Zaragoza; ) is an international airport near Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain. It is located west of Zaragoza, west of Barcelona, and northeast of Madrid. In addition to serving as a major cargo ai ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, crashes into a mountainside near

Maçka Maçka ( el, Ματζούκα, Matzoúka, the "club"; Laz: მაჩხა ''Maçxa'') is a town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The name derives from the medieval Greek '' Matzouka'', which was one of the pro ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, on its third attempt to land in dense fog for a stopover at

Trabzon Airport Trabzon Airport is an airport near the city of Trabzon in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. The airport opened in 1957. In 2009, it served 1,596,905 passengers, of which most (95%) were on domestic routes. In 2009, Trabzon Airport ranked 9t ...

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...

, Turkey. All 75 people on board die. * 29 May – A man attempts to

hijack Hijack may refer to: Films * ''Hijack'' (1973 film), an American made-for-television film * ''Hijack!'', a 1975 British film sponsored by the Children's Film Foundation - see Children's Film Foundation filmography * ''Hijack'' (2008 film), a Bol ...

Qantas Flight 1737 QantasLink Flight 1737 was an afternoon Australian domestic flight from Melbourne Airport to Launceston Airport, which was subject to an attempted hijacking on 29 May 2003. Hijack attempt Flight 1737 left Melbourne Airport at 2.50 pm on ...

, a

Boeing 717-200 The Boeing 717 is an American five-abreast single-aisle airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The twin-engine airliner was developed for the 100-seat market and originally marketed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95. It was a shor ...

with 52 other people on board, shortly after taking off from

Melbourne Airport Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...

in Melbourne, Australia, hoping to crash the plane into Australias

Walls of Jerusalem National Park The Walls of Jerusalem National Park is a national park located in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia. The park is located approximately northwest of Hobart, east of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, and west o ...

in Tasmania, which he believes will release the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

from his lair and bring about

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

. He injures two

flight attendant A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...

s before being subdued by other passengers. * 30 May **The final commercial flight of an

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

takes place. **

Iraqi Airways Iraqi Airways Company, operating as Iraqi Airways ( ar, الخطوط الجوية العراقية ''al-Xuṭūṭ al-Jawwiyyah al-ʿIrāqiyyah, Kurdish: ھێڵی ئاسمانی عێراق''), is the national carrier of Iraq, headquartered on ...

announce its intention to resume international service for the first time since the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

began in January 1991. It will do so in October 2004.

June

* 6 June – American screenwriter Jessica Kaplan and all three other people on board are killed when their Beechcraft Model A36TV Bonanza nose-dives into an apartment building just after takeoff from

Santa Monica Airport Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about from the Pacific Ocean (Santa Monica Bay) and north of Los Angeles International Air ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 2000s
/ref> * 26 June – The NASA Helios Prototype

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

breaks up in flight and crashes into the Pacific Ocean about west of

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

, Hawaii, during a remotely piloted systems checkout flight in preparation for an endurance test scheduled for July.

July

* 8 July – Sudan Airways Flight 139, a

, crashes at

Port Sudan Port Sudan ( ar, بور سودان, Būr Sūdān) is a port city in eastern Sudan, and the capital of the state of Red Sea. , it has 489,725 residents. Located on the Red Sea, Port Sudan is recognized as Sudan's main seaport and the source of 90% ...

, Sudan, killing 116 of the 117 people on board. A two-year-old boy is the only survivor. * 10 July – The

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n airline Wings Abadi Airlines – usually shortened to

Wings Air PT Wings Abadi Airlines, operating as Wings Air, is a scheduled commuter passenger low cost airline based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The airline operates out of Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar as well as several other airports aro ...

– begins flight operations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of

Lion Air PT Lion Mentari Airlines, operating as Lion Air, is an Indonesian low-cost airline. Based in Jakarta, Lion Air is the country's largest privately run airline, the second largest low-cost airline in Southeast Asia (after AirAsia) and the large ...

. * 26 July – 3 August – The 13th FAI World Rally Flying Championship takes place in

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 2017 ...

, South Africa. the individual winners are 1. Nigel Hopkins and Dale de Klerk (South Africa), 2. Janusz Darocha and Zbigniew Chrząszcz (

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

), 3. Nathalie Strube and P. Sicard (France); the team winners are 1. South Africa, 2. France, 3. Poland. * 30 July **The

n airline

Citilink PT Citilink Indonesia, operating as Citilink, is a low-cost airline headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in July 2001 as a low-cost brand of Garuda Indonesia, it operates shuttle services between Indonesian cities. Since 30 July 2012 ...

becomes an independent business entity. Previously it had been a low-cost subsidiary of

Garuda Indonesia Garuda Indonesia is the flag carrier of Indonesia, headquartered at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport. A successor of KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf, it is a member of SkyTeam and the second-largest airline of Indonesia after Lion Air, operat ...

. **Scottish

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

racing champion

Steve Hislop Robert Steven Hislop (11 January 1962 – 30 July 2003) was a Scottish motorcycle racer. Hislop won at the Isle of Man TT eleven times, won the British 250cc Championship (1990) and British Superbike championship (1995 and 2002). Hislop di ...

dies when the helicopter he is piloting crashes near a remote farmhouse near

Teviothead Teviothead ( gd, Ceann Tìbhiot) is a small village and civil parish in Teviotdale in the Scottish Borders, known locally as ''Teviotheid''. It is located south of the River Teviot. The Border hero Johnnie Armstrong and his men were taken pris ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. * 31 July – Jumping from an altitude of 9,000 meters (29,527 feet),

Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as par ...

uses a wingpack to cross the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

in 14 minutes, covering over 35 kilometers (21.7 miles).

August

* The wreckage of an

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

Antonov An-12BP The Antonov An-12 is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed and produced by Antonov. It was produced in many customized variants for uses within the country and for exports. More than 60 variants were produced, each having a uniq ...

(

"Cub") that disappeared during a flight on 7 February 1968 with the loss of all 102 people on board is discovered an altitude of 17,324 feet (5,280 meters) on

's Dhaka Glacier near Chandrabhaga Peak 13. * 1 August –

Continental Airlines Continental Airlines, simply known as Continental, was a major United States airline founded in 1934 and eventually headquartered in Houston, Texas. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started o ...

resumes its non-stop service from

Newark International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark, New Jersey, Newark in Essex County, New Jerse ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It had suspended the service earlier in the year due to the outbreak of

severe acute respiratory syndrome Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''seve ...

(SARS) in southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. * 8 August – JAT Yugoslav Airlines renames itself

Jat Airways Jat Airways (stylized as JatAirways; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jat ervejz, Јат ервејз) was the national flag carrier and largest airline of Serbia, and formerly Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia. Founded in 19 ...

. * 11 August – '' The Spirit of Butts Farm'' completes the first flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled

model aircraft A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models. Aircraft manufactur ...

. The flight also sets two world records for a model aircraft, for duration (38 hours 53 minutes) and for non-stop distance (). * 26 August –

Colgan Air Flight 9446 Colgan Air Flight 9446 was a repositioning flight operated by Colgan Air for US Airways Express. On August 26, 2003, the Beech 1900D crashed into water offshore from Yarmouth, Massachusetts shortly after taking off from Barnstable Municipal Airp ...

, a

Beechcraft 1900D on a repositioning flight with no passengers aboard, crashes in the water off

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

, Massachusetts, immediately after takeoff from

Barnstable Municipal Airport Cape Cod Gateway Airport , also known as Boardman/Polando Field and formerly known as Barnstable Municipal Airport, is a public airport located on Cape Cod, north of the central business district of Hyannis, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts ...

Barnstable County Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 228,996. Its shire town is Barnstable. The county consists of Cape Cod and associated islands (some adjacent islands are in Duk ...

, Massachusetts, due to a maintenance error. The two-man crew dies.

September

Skip Holm Skip James Holm (born February 22, 1944) is a retired pilot who lives in Calabasas, California, USA. Holm claims to hold the world record for combat flight hours: 1,172. He retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1992, with the rank of lieutena ...

, flying the modified

P-51D Mustang Over twenty variants of the North American P-51 Mustang fighter were produced from 1940, when it first flew, to after World War II, some of which were employed also in the Korean War and in several other conflicts. Allison-engined Mustangs NA ...

'Dago Red', sets a new closed-course piston-engine speed record of 507 mph (816 km/hr) at the

Reno Air Races The Reno Air Races, officially known as the STIHL National Championship Air Races from 2016, is a multi-day event tailored to the aviation community that takes place each September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, Nevada. A ...

outside

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

, Nevada. *14 September – The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Thunderbirds flight demonstration teams No. 6 solo aircraft crashes into the tarmac at

Mountain Home Air Force Base Mountain Home Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) installation in the western United States. Located in southwestern Idaho in Elmore County, the base is southwest of Mountain Home, which is southeast of Boise via Interstate ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, while attempting its initial maneuver at the Gunfighter Skies 2003 air show. The pilot ejects safely just moments before impact. Although the desert terrain is similar, the ground elevation at Mountain Home Air Force Base is over 1,000 feet (305 meters) higher than at the Thunderbirds home base at

Nellis Air Force Base Nellis Air Force Base ("Nellis" colloq.) is a United States Air Force installation in southern Nevada. Nellis hosts air combat exercises such as Exercise Red Flag and close air support exercises such as Green Flag-West flown in " Military ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, and pilot error (insufficient altitude) is determined as the cause. The pilot is reassigned to the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

. *28 September – The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

European Aviation Safety Agency The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monitorin ...

begins operations.

October

*1 October **

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

creates its Air Accident and Incident Investigation Board. **The

reactivates the

Eighteenth Air Force Eighteenth Air Force (Air Forces Transportation) (18 AF) is the only Numbered Air Force (NAF) in Air Mobility Command (AMC) and one of the largest NAFs in the United States Air Force. 18 AF was activated on 28 March 1951, inactivated on 1 Janu ...

. It had been inactive since 1 January 1958. *15 October –

Yang Liwei Yang Liwei (; born 21 June 1965) is a major general, former military pilot, and former taikonaut at the People's Liberation Army. In October 2003, Yang became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program. This mission, Shenzh ...

becomes the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

's first man in space. *16 October –

Belavia Belavia, formally Belavia Belarusian Airlines ( be, ААТ «Авіякампанія «Белавія»; russian: ОАО «Авиакомпания «Белавиа»), is the flag carrier and national airline of Belarus, headquartered in Minsk ...

signs a leasing agreement for its first

Boeing 737-500 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, ...

airliner. *24 October – The

makes its last scheduled commercial flight. *26 October –

LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally incorporated as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. Established in 1928, LOT was a founding member of IATA and remains one of the world's oldest airlines in operation. Wit ...

joins the

. *28 October – Air Arabia begins flight operations. It first flight is from

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...

in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

Bahrain International Airport Bahrain International Airport ( ar, مطار البحرين الدولي, ''maṭār al-Baḥrayn al-dwalī'') is the international airport of Bahrain. Located on Muharraq Island, adjacent to the capital Manama, it serves as the hub for the nat ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

November

*The

Air Traffic Organization The Air Traffic Organization (ATO) is an air navigation service provider in the United States of America. The ATO is the operational division of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). ATO provides air navigation services to private and comm ...

is formed as the operational arm of the U.S.

. It manages air navigation services for aircraft over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and well out into the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

oceans. *10 November – The

n airline

Sriwijaya Air Sriwijaya Air is an Indonesian airline with its headquarters and base located at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. History In 2003, Sriwijaya Air was founded by Chandra Lie, Hendry Lie, Andi Halim, and Fandy Lingga, ...

makes its first flight, offering service between

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

and

Pangkal Pinang Pangkal Pinang is the capital and largest city of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province in Indonesia. It is located on Bangka Island's east coast, the city is divided into seven districts (''kecamatan'') and has 42 wards (''kelurahan''). It cov ...

. *19 November –

Atlantic Coast Airlines Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) was an airline based in the United States owned by Atlantic Coast Holdings, Inc. It operated as United Express for United Airlines and Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines. It was headquartered in the Dulles area o ...

announces plans to become a

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

under the name

Independence Air Independence Air was a low-cost airline, owned by FLYi, Inc., headquartered in the Loudoun Gateway Corporate Center in Dulles, Virginia, United States (near Washington, D.C.) that operated from 1989 until 2006. Its route network focused on the e ...

. It will make the change in June 2004. *22 November – A

Fedayeen Fedayeen ( ar, فِدائيّين ''fidāʼīyīn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign. Etymology The term ''fedayi'' is derived from Arabic: '' ...

commando unit fires an

9K34 Strela-3 The 9K34 Strela-3 (russian: 9К34 «Стрела-3», 'arrow', NATO reporting name: SA-14 Gremlin) is a man-portable air defense missile system (MANPADS) developed in the Soviet Union as a response to the poor performance of the earlier 9K32 Str ...

(

USDoD The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

designation "SA-14",

"Gremlin") shoulder-launched

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

at a

DHL Express DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...

Airbus A300B4-200F The Airbus A300 is a Wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Airbus. In September 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a lar ...

just after it takes off from

Baghdad International Airport Baghdad International Airport , previously Saddam International Airport ( ar, مطار بغداد الدولي, Maṭār Baġdād ad-Dawaliyy) is Iraq's largest international airport, located in a suburb about west of downtown Baghdad in the ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. The missile strikes the aircraft's left wingtip, starting a fire and causing a complete loss of the aircraft's

hydraulic Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...

flight control systems. The three-man crew nonetheless manages to return the aircraft to the airport and make an emergency landing; the crew members are uninjured even though the aircraft veers off the runway. *26 November – The last – "retirement" – flight of the

takes place.

December

*4 December – A

Mil Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (russian: Ми-8, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. It is now produced by Russia. In addition t ...

(

"Hip") helicopter of the

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...

's 36th Special Aviation Regiment carrying the

Prime Minister of Poland The President of the Council of Ministers ( pl, Prezes Rady Ministrów, lit=Chairman of the Council of Ministers), colloquially referred to as the prime minister (), is the head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland. The responsibi ...

Leszek Miller Leszek Cezary Miller (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 July 1946) is a Polish politician. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2019. From 1989 to 1990 was a member of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Pa ...

, suffers a failure of both its engines due to icing. Its pilot performs an

autorotation Autorotation is a state of flight in which the main rotor system of a helicopter or other rotary-wing aircraft turns by the action of air moving up through the rotor, as with an autogyro, rather than engine power driving the rotor. Bensen, Igor ...

and lands the helicopter in a forest near

Piaseczno Piaseczno is a town in east-central Poland with 47,660 inhabitants. It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship, within the Warsaw metropolitan area, just south of Warsaw, approximately south of its center. It is a popular residential area and ...

. There are no fatalities, but 14 of the 15 people on board are injured, including Miller. *15 December **The Smithsonian

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia. It holds numerous ...

opens at

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Eastern United States, loc ...

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. **Award-winning American film and television music composer Steve Kaplan is killed when the propeller of the Cessna 421C Golden Eagle he is piloting fractures due to

metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striations on some parts o ...

shortly after takeoff and the plane crashes into a home in Claremont,

. *17 December **The 100th anniversary of the first flight of the Wright Brothers in the

Wright Flyer The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft—an airplane—on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown b ...

is celebrated as the 100th birthday of aviation. **

SpaceShipOne SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (900 m/s, 3240 km/h), using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "feathering" a ...

becomes the first privately built, manned aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound. *18 December –

FedEx Express Flight 647 FedEx Express Flight 647 was a flight between Metropolitan Oakland International Airport (OAK), Oakland, California and Memphis International Airport (MEM), Memphis, Tennessee that crashed during landing on December 18, 2003. Aircraft and flig ...

, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10F, crashes while landing at

Memphis International Airport Memphis International Airport is a civil-military airport located southeast of Downtown Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is the primary international airport serving Memphis. It covers and has four runways., effective Au ...

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, killing two of the seven people on board. *25 December –

UTA Flight 141 UTA Flight 141 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Guinean regional airline Union des Transports Africains de Guinée, flying from Conakry to Dubai with stopovers in Benin, Libya and Lebanon. On 25 December 2003, the Bo ...

, a severely overloaded chartered Boeing 727-223, fails to become airborne during its takeoff attempt from

Cadjehoun Airport Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport is an airport in the Cadjehoun neighborhood of Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, in West Africa. The airport is the largest in the country, and as such, is the primary entry point into the country by air, with fligh ...

Cotonou Cotonou (; fon, Kútɔ̀nú) is a city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The ci ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...

. It runs off the end of the runway and crashes on a beach along the

Bight of Benin The Bight of Benin or Bay of Benin is a bight in the Gulf of Guinea area on the western African coast that derives its name from the historical Kingdom of Benin. Geography It extends eastward for about from Cape St. Paul to the Nun outlet of t ...

, killing 141 of the 163 people on board. All 12 survivors as well as two people on the ground are injured. Newspaper reports create rumors that the Boeing 727 involved is ''

'', which had disappeared after being stolen in May, but the rumors prove unfounded; the accident aircraft is ''3X-GDO''.

First flights

February

* 1 February - HAL Cheetal (

Turbomeca TM 333 The Turbomeca TM 333 is a turboshaft engine manufactured by French company Turbomeca and designed for helicopters weighing 4-5 tonnes. It first ran in August 1981 and was introduced commercially in the mid-1980s. It was the first Turbomeca engin ...

powered version of

Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama The Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama is a French single-engined helicopter developed to meet hot and high operational requirements of the Indian Armed Forces. It combines the lighter Aérospatiale Alouette II airframe with Alouette III components and p ...

0/> *23 February -

Northrop Grumman X-47A Pegasus The Northrop Grumman X-47 is a demonstration unmanned combat aerial vehicle. The X-47 began as part of DARPA's J-UCAS program, and is now part of the United States Navy's UCAS-D program to create a carrier-based unmanned aircraft. Unlike the B ...

March

* 7 March – Bell/Agusta BA609 * 7 March –

HAL HJT-36 The HAL HJT-36 ''Sitara'' ( Sitārā: "'' star''") is a subsonic intermediate jet trainer aircraft designed and developed by Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) and built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force an ...

. * 29 March – Ullmann 2000 Panther prototype ''N202KT'' * 29 March - Wüst Seahawk ''OK-IUU 2''0/>

May

* 20 May –

(first captive flight, unmanned)1/> * 29 May –

Van's Aircraft RV-10 The Van's Aircraft RV-10 is a four-seat, single-engine, low-wing homebuilt aircraft, homebuilt airplane sold in kit form by Van's Aircraft. It is the first four-seat airplane in the popular RV series.Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircr ...

prototype ''N410RV''1/>

June

* 4 June – EM-10 Bielik1/>

July

* 28 July – Adam A700 AdamJet1/> * 29 July – SpaceShipOne (first manned captive flight)

August

*1 August – First successful supersonic flight of the HAL Light Combat Aircraft's (LCA's) first technology demonstrator, TD-1. *7 August – SpaceShipOne (first free-flight)1/> * 8 August - Margański & Mysłowski EM-11 Orka1/> *25 August -

CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder The CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder ( ur , جے ایف-17 گرج), or FC-1 ''Xiaolong'' (), is a lightweight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China and the Pakistan Aeronautical ...

December

*3 December -

Honda HA-420 HondaJet The Honda HA-420 HondaJet is a light business jet produced by the Honda Aircraft Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Original concepts of the aircraft started in 1997 and were completed in 1999. It took its maiden flight on De ...

*13 December -

Guizhou JL-9 The Guizhou JL-9, also known as the FTC-2000 Mountain Eagle (), is a family of two-seat supersonic advanced jet trainer and light combat aircraft developed by the Guizhou Aviation Industry Import/Export Company (GAIEC) for the People's Libera ...

*17 December – SpaceShipOne (first powered flight) *18 December -

ShinMaywa US-2 The ShinMaywa US-2 is a large Japanese short takeoff and landing amphibious aircraft developed and manufactured by seaplane specialist ShinMaywa (formerly ''Shin Meiwa''). It was developed from the earlier Shin Meiwa US-1A seaplane, which was ...

*22 December -

Mil Mi-38 The Mil Mi-38 is a transport helicopter designed by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and being developed by Kazan Helicopters. Originally intended as a replacement for the Mil Mi-8 and the Mi-17, it is being marketed in both military and civil versio ...

Entered service

* Beriev Be-103 Bekas ("Snipe")

July

* 31 July – Beriev Be-200 Altair

Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (russian: Министерство Российской Федерации по делам гражданской ...

(EMERCON)

References

* {{Aviation timelines navbox Aviation by year