1992 in aviation

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Years:	1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1992:

Events

• The European Commission approves three new regulations to liberalize air travel within the European Union. EU airlines are gradually given unlimited rights to serve airports in other member states, with the final round of reforms complete by April 1997.
• The operations of Australia's two government airlines, Australian Airlines and Qantas, are merged in preparations for Qantas's privatisation, which will happen in 1995. Australian Airlines ceases to exist as a separate airline until 2002, when it will re-emerge as a low-cost airline flying to destinations in Southeast Asia.
• The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration initiates the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) program to develop technology to help revitalize the slumping general aviation industry.

January

• January 10 – Trans World Airlines files for bankruptcy.
• January 11 – The United States Federal Aviation Administration approves a helicopter rating for a pilot based solely on flight simulator performance for the first time.
• January 15 – The United States Air Force loses a Lockheed U-2 in the Sea of Japan.
• January 18 – The United States Armed Forces retire the last F-4 Phantom II from front-line service.
• January 20 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes in the Vosges Mountains near Barr, France, while circling to land at Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board. Facing tough competition from French high-speed TGV trains, Air Inter had encouraged its pilots to fly at high speeds at low altitudes, and had not installed ground proximity warning systems on its airliners because such systems generated too many nuisance alarms during high-speed, low-altitude flight. It is the deadlisest accident in Inter Air's history.
• January 28 – An Azerbaijani Air Force Mil Mi-8 transport helicopter is shot down near Shusha, Azerbaijan, killing all 44 people on board.

February

• February 14 – Passengers aboard Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 386 – a Boeing 747-287B en route from Lima, Peru, to Los Angeles, California, with 356 people on board – are inadvertently fed an in-flight meal that includes shrimp tainted with cholera. Seventy-six people become ill, and one of them dies.

March

• Two United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses visit a Russian Federation Air Force base near Moscow, the first visit by American military aircraft to any place that had been part of the Soviet Union before its dissolution in December 1991.
• March 22 – USAir Flight 405, a Fokker F28 Fellowship, cannot gain lift after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City due to icing of the wings and airframe. It crashes into Flushing Bay, killing 27 of the 51 people on board and injuring 21 of the 24 survivors.
• March 24 – The United States Department of Transportation announces that it will sign "open skies" treaties with any countries that wish to reciprocate. The first "open skies" treaty is signed between the United States and the Netherlands later in the year.

April

• April 7 – Azerbaijan Airlines is established.
• April 22 – The YF-22 prototype of the F-22 Raptor is damaged beyond repair.
• April 24 – A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying out an anti-narcotics mission over Peru is attacked by Peruvian Air Force Sukhoi Su-22s.

May

• S7 Airlines started operations.
• Two Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-95s visit Barksdale AFB in the United States
• May 8 – excavations begin at Devonport Naval Base, near Auckland, in search of two Boeing seaplanes supposedly buried there in 1919 – the first two aircraft built by that company. The search proves fruitless.
• May 16 – the 2,000th C-130 Hercules rolls off the production line.

June

• June 1 – The United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command is disestablished and replaced by United States Strategic Command.
• June 6 – Following faulty instrument readings during a night flight, the crew of Copa Airlines Flight 201, a Boeing 737–204 Advanced, unwittingly dives the airliner into the ground in a jungle area of the Darién Gap in Panama. The plane strikes the ground at 400 knots (460 mph; 740 km/hr), killing all 47 people on board. It remains the deadliest accident in the history of Panamanian aviation and the only fatal accident in the history of Copa Airlines.
• June 7 – American Eagle Flight 5456, a CASA C-212 operated by Executive Airlines, crashes into a swamp on approach to Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in heavy rain, killing all five people on board.
• June 8 – GP Express Flight 861, a Beechcraft Model 99, crashes into a wooded ridge in Calhoun County, Alabama, while on approach to a landing at Anniston Metropolitan Airport in Anniston, Alabama, killing three of the six people on board.

July

• July 6 – The final F-4 Phantom IIs are retired from Royal Air Force service.
• July 24 – Attempting to land at Pattimura Airport on Ambon Island in Indonesia during a heavy thunderstorm, Mandala Airlines Flight 660, a Vickers Viscount 816, crashes into Mount Lalaboy, killing all 70 people on board.
• July 30 – The flight crew of Trans World Airways Flight 843, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar with 292 people on board, aborts their takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, and the plane crashes and is destroyed by a fire. Passengers and crew evacuate in only two minutes; there are no fatalities, and only 10 people are injured.
• July 31 – Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310-304, crashes in Langtang National Park while on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 113 people on board.
• July 31 – China General Aviation Flight 7552, a Yakovlev 42D, crashes into a pond just after takeoff from Nanjing Airport in Nanjing, China, killing 108 of the 126 people on board and injuring all 18 survivors.

September

• September 4 – A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber drops a bomb for the first time.
• September 28 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268, an Airbus A300B-203, crashes into the southern slope of the Chure Hills on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 167 people on board.

October

• October 4 – El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747–200 cargo freighter, crashes in the Bijlmermeer neighborhood of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, after takeoff, killing all four people on board and killing 39 and injuring 26 people on the ground.
• October 16 – Flight Lieutenant Nicky Smith, graduates from 89 Course at Shawbury, England, to become the Royal Air Force's first female helicopter pilot.

December

• December 21 – During a thunderstorm, Martinair Flight 495, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, makes a hard landing at Faro Airport in Faro, Portugal, collapsing the starboard main landing gear, setting the right wing fuel tank on fire, and breaking the fuselage in two. The crash kills 56 of the 340 people on board and badly injures 106 of the 284 survivors.
• December 22 – Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103, a Boeing 727-2L5, collides with a Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 while Flight 1103 is on approach to land at Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya. Both aircraft crash, killing all 157 people aboard the airliner and both crewmen of the MiG-23.
• December 27 – U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down an Iraqi Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 in southern Iraq's "no fly zone."

First flights

March

• March 26 – Saab 2000

April

• Sikorsky Cypher

July

• July 8 – Bede BD-10

August

• August 20 – HAL Dhruv

November

• November 2 – Airbus A330

December

• December 18 – McDonnell Douglas MD-90