1987 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
Centuries:	19th Century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years:	1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1987:

Events

January

• January 1 – United States Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphins and US Navy H-3 Sea Kings help rescue people trapped inside the Dupont Plaza hotel in Puerto Rico after a fire breaks out there late on December 31, 1986.
• January 3 – Varig Flight 797, a Boeing 707-379C, develops engine trouble after departing Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. It crashes while attempting to retrurn to the airport, killing 50 of the 51 people on board.
• January 7 – French Air Force jets attack the Libyan Air Force base in Ouadi Doum to avenge a raid by Libya against the French military three days before.

February

• British Airways is privatised.
• February 1 - Peoplexpress Airlines ceases operations.

March

• Grumman delivers the last of 712 Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighters produced to the United States Navy. Production has included 557 F-14A (of which 18 later were converted into F-14Ds), 38 F-14A+ (later redesignated F-14B), and 37 F-14D aircraft for the U.S. Navy and 80 F-14As for the Imperial Iranian Air Force, of which 79 were delivered to Iran and one retained by the United States after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
• March 10 – The Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121 Clipper Ocean Pearl, operating as Flight 125 with 245 people on board, experiences pressurization problems during climbout from London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom, and returns to the airport. An investigation finds that latching problems had allowed the forward cargo door to come ajar. A similar door problem will lead to a fatal accident aboard United Airlines Flight 811 in February 1989.
• March 29 – The United States Navy disbands United States Naval Reserve Light Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron 206 (VFP-206), its last squadron equipped with specialized photographic reconnaissance aircraft and the last equipped with any version of the Vought F-8 Crusader.

April

• April 2 – A Royal Air Force Vickers VC-10 sets a new record time between the United Kingdom and Australia, landing in Perth, Australia, after a flight of 16 hours 1 minute.
• April 4 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 035, a Douglas DC-9-32, strikes a pylon and crashes on approach to Medan-Polonia Airport in Medan on Sumatra in Indonesia. A fire following the crash kills 23 of the 45 people on board; all 22 survivors are injured.
• April 10 – Johan Åhling of Sweden introduces the "Mosquito", a foot-launched powered hang glider harness.

May

• May 4 – American Eagle Flight 5452, a CASA C-212 operated by Executive Airlines, crashes on landing at Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, killing both pilots. The other four people on board, all passengers, survive with minor injuries.
• May 9 – The LOT Polish Airlines Ilyushin Il-62M Tadeusz Kościuszko, operating as LOT Flight 5055 bound for New York City, catches fire due to an engine failure soon after take-off from Okęcie Airport and crashes into the Kabaty Woods nature reserve on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 persons on board.
• May 17 – In the USS Stark incident, an Iraqi Air Force Dassault Mirage F1 jet hits the United States Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) with two Exocet antiship cruise missiles, badly damaging her and killing 37 and wounding 21 of her crew.
• May 29 – To create an "imaginary bridge" between the Western world and the Communist Bloc and defuse tensions between the two, Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, makes an unauthorized flight from Helsinki-Malmi Airport in Helsinki, Finland, through supposedly impregnable Soviet air defenses and lands his rented Reims Cessna F172P adjacent to Red Square in Moscow in the Soviet Union. He is arrested. His flight results in the firing of many senior Soviet military personnel, including the Minister of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Sokolov, and the Commander-in-Chief of the National Air Defense Forces, Chief Marshal Alexander Koldunov.

June

• June 4 – In Operation Poomalai, five Indian Air Force Antonov An-32 (NATO reporting name "Cline") transport aircraft airdrop supplies by parachute into the city of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to aid Tamil Tiger rebels who have been besieged there by Sri Lankan government forces during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Five Mirage 2000 fighters escort the An-32s, but the Indian aircraft meet no opposition.
• June 21 – Air France pilot Partick Fourticq and friend Henri Pescarolo once again enter the record books, completing an around-the-world flight aboard a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar in 88 hours 19 minutes.
• June 27 – Philippine Airlines Flight 206, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748, crashes into Mount Ugu near Itogon, Benguet, in the Philippines, killing all 50 people on board. It is the second-worst aviation accident in Philippine history at the time.

August

• August 16 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 of Northwest Airlines operating as Flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan. The crash kills all but one of the 157 people on the plane, as well as two on the ground; only a seriously injured four-year-old girl survives. Among the dead is National Basketball Association player Nick Vanos. It remains the deadliest aviation accident with a sole survivor in American history.
• August 30 – Israel's government cancels the IAI Lavi programme.
• August 31 – Thai Airways Flight 365, a Boeing 737-2P5, crashes into the Andaman Sea while on approach to Ko Phuket in Phuket Province, Thailand, killing all 83 people on board.

September

• September 15 - A Eurocopter Panther sets new time-to-altitude records for helicopters in its class.

October

• October 20 – Attempting to make an emergency landing at Indianapolis International Airport in Indianapolis, Indiana, a United States Air Force A-7D-4-CV Corsair II crashes into the nearby Airport Ramada Inn. The pilot survives, but nine people in the hotel die.
• October 23 – The last F-104 Starfighter is phased out of West German Luftwaffe service.
• October 31 – British Airways accepts the airline's first women pilots.

November

• November 14 – Air Transat began airline operations.
• November 15 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 with 82 people on board, crashes while taking off from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, during a snowstorm. Twenty-eight people lose their lives and all 54 survivors are injured, 28 of them seriously.
• November 28 – South African Airways Flight 295, the Boeing 747-244BM Combi Helderberg, suffers a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area and crashes into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 people on board.
• November 29 – A bomb planted by North Korean agents explodes over the Andaman Sea aboard a South Korean Boeing 707-3B5C operating as Korean Air Flight 858, destroying the airliner and killing all 115 people on board.

December

• December 7 – David Burke, an angry former employee of USAir, the parent company of Pacific Southwest Airlines, shoots both pilots of Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, a BAe 146, while it is cruising at 22,000 feet (6,706 m) over the central California coast. No longer under control, the plane pitches forward and accelerates, crashing into the ground at a speed of around 700 mph (1,100 km/hr) near Cayucos, California, killing all 43 people on board.
• December 8 – A Peruvian Naval Aviation Fokker F27 Friendship chartered by the Peruvian association football club Alianza Lima crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the Ventanilla District of Callao, Peru, killing 43 of the 44 people on board. Among the dead are José Casanova, Luis Antonio Escobar, José González Ganoza, Alfredo Tomassini, Johnny Watson, and 11 other players; head coach Marcos Calderon and nine other coaches and team staff; eight cheerleaders; three referees; two Peruvian Navy passengers; and five crew members. The pilot is the only survivor.

First flights

February

• February 13 - Fokker 50
• February 22 - Airbus A320

March

• March 9 - Yakovlev Yak-141

April

• April 30 - Promavia Jet Squalus

June

• June 10 - Boeing Vertol Model 360
• June 24 - Grob/E-Systems/AlliedSignal Egrett

August

• August 31 – Mitsubishi H-60

October

• October 9 - EHI EH101

November

• November 24 - F-14D Tomcat

December

• AEA Maverick
• December 29 - Scaled Composites AT³

Entered service

April - Tu-160 in Soviet Air Forces (184th Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment in Pryluki)