1999 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Centuries:	19th Century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1999:

Events

February

• February 16 – A Gulfstream II carrying film director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Men in Black II, and Wild, Wild West), slides off a runway at Van Nuys, California. Sonnenfeld is uninjured.
• February 24 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a field in Ruian, China, while descending to land at Wenzhou Airport in Wenzhou. All 61 passengers and crew members are killed.

March

• March 1 – The hot-air balloon Breitling Orbiter 3, with pilots Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, begins the first non-stop, round-the-world balloon flight. They will complete the flight on March 19, setting a new distance record for any type of aircraft of 40,804 kilometers (25,360hkgh miles).
• March 29 – Crash of #2 RQ-4 Global Hawk prototype at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.

April

• April 7 – Flying in bad weather, the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-4Q8 Trakya, operating as Flight 5904, a repositioning flight with no passengers aboard, crashes near Hamdilli in the Ceyhan district of Adana Province, Turkey, killing the entire crew of six.

June

• June 1 – American Airlines Flight 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (registration number N215AA) overruns the runway upon landing in Little Rock, Arkansas, and crashes, killing 11 and injuring 110.

July

• July 16 – A Piper Saratoga piloted by John F. Kennedy, Jr. – the son of President John F. Kennedy – crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, killing all three people on board: Kennedy, his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette.
• July 23 – Wielding a knife, passenger Yuji Nishizawa hijacks All Nippon Airways Flight 61, a Boeing 747. After he fatally stabs the captain, he is overpowered by the crew and the co-pilot lands the plane safely at Haneda, Japan.

August

• August 7 – TACV Flight 5002, a Dornier Do 228 chartered from the Cape Verde Coast Guard, crashes into a cliff on Santo Antão, Cape Verde, during poor weather. All 18 people on board die.
• August 10 – Two Indian Air Force MiG-21 fighters shoot down a Pakistan Naval Air Arm Breguet Atlantique maritime patrol aircraft, killing all 16 men aboard the Atlantique. The Atlantique crashes in the Great Rann of Kutch inside Pakistan, although India claims it had violated Indian airspace.
• August 22 – Mandarin Airlines Flight 642, an McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes on landing at Hong Kong during Tropical Storm Sam. Of the 315 people on board, three die and 208 are injured, 44 of them seriously.
• August 24 – Aboard a Uni Air McDonnell Douglas DC-9 over Hualien, Taiwan, a fire starts in an overhead luggage compartment after fumes from a bottle of household cleaner accidentally ignite. One person dies.
• August 31 – A LAPA Boeing 737 overshoots the runway in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and crashes into a golf course. Of the 103 people on board, 64 are killed, as are 10 people on the ground.

September

• September 4-12 – The 11th FAI World Rally Flying Championship takes place in Ravenna, Italy. Individual winners are: 1st, Krzysztof Wieczorek and Wacław Wieczorek (Poland); 2nd, Janusz Darocha and Zbigniew Chrząszcz (Poland); 3rd, Nigel Hopkins and Dale de Klerk (South Africa). Team winners are: 1st, Poland; 2nd, Czech Republic; 3rd, France.
• September 14 – Britannia Airways Flight 226A, a chartered Boeing 757-204 with 245 people on board, crashes on landing at Girona-Costa Brava Airport in Girona, Spain, killing one person and injuring 43, two of them seriously.
• September 23 – Qantas Flight 1, a Boeing 747, overshoots the runway upon landing in Bangkok, Thailand. None of the 410 people on board are seriously injured.

October

• October 11 – Chris Phatswe, a disgruntled and suicidal Air Botswana pilot, commandeers an empty ATR-42 airliner belonging to the airline and circles Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone, Botswana, for two hours before crashing his plane into the airline's other two ATR-42s, which are parked on the ground, killing himself and destroying all three airliners. The incident destroys three of Air Botswana's four planes and leaves it with no operational aircraft.
• October 25 – A Learjet 35 loses cabin pressure in flight, incapaciting everyone on board. It flies for almost four more hours, covering almost 1,500 miles (2,4015 km), on autopilot before crashing due to fuel exhaustion near Aberdeen, South Dakota. All six people on board die, including professional golfer and 1999 U.S. Open winner Payne Stewart and golf course architect Bruce Borland.
• October 31 – The co-pilot of EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 on its way Cairo, Egypt, deliberately crashes the airliner into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, Massachusetts, as a way of committing suicide. All 217 people on board die.

November

• November 9 – TAESA Flight 725, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes near Uruapan, Mexico killing all 18 on board.
• November 13 – The longest missing-aircraft search in New Hampshire's history ends after almost three years when the wreckage of an Aircraft Charter Group, Inc., Learjet 35A that had disappeared in fog and rain near Dorchester, New Hampshire, on December 24, 1996, finally is found near Smarts Mountain in Grafton County, New Hampshire, about 20 miles (32 km) from where it took off at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Its two-person crew had died in the 1996 crash.

December

• December 7 – Asian Spirit Flight 100, a Let L-410 Turbolet, crashes into a mountainside between the municipalities of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, and Cabarroguis, Quirino in the Philippines, killing all 17 people on board. The wreckage is not found until the next day.
• December 11 – A SATA International British Aerospace APT crashes on São Jorge Island in the Azores. All 35 people on board die.
• December 14 – The United States Border Patrol arrests the would-be "Millenium Bomber," Ahmed Ressam, when he arrives from Canada by ferry at Port Angeles, Washington, with timing devices and 130 pounds (59 kg) of explosives in his car. He had planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on the upcoming New Year's Eve.
• December 21 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, overshoots the runway in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and crashes into homes, killing 16 of the 314 people on board and two people in the homes.
• December 22 – Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509, a Boeing 747-2B5F cargo aircraft, crashes into Hatfield Forest near Great Hallingbury, England, shortly after takeoff from London Stansted Airport, killing its entire crew of four.
• December 24 – Five gunmen hijack Indian Airlines Flight 814, an Airbus A300 with 188 other people on board, over India during a flight from Kathmandu, Nepal, to Delhi, India. The plane lands at Amritsar, India, to refuel, but takes off again without refueling before security forces can immobilize it. It then refuels at Lahore, Pakistan, and flies on to Dubai, where the hijackers release a mortally wounded man they had stabbed and 27 other passengers. The hijackers then force the plane to fly to Kandahar International Airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where, after several days of negotiations, they release all the remaining hostages on December 31 in exchange for the release of three senior Islamic fighters held by India.
• December 25 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 310, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes into a mountain near Bejuma, Venezuela, killing all 22 people on board.
• December 31 – Fear of the Y2K computer bug and possible in-flight consequences for those planes flying during the night of December 31, 1999, and the early morning of January 1, 2000, spreads around the airline industry.

First flights

February

• February 8 – Tupolev Tu-334

March

• March 1 Hot air balloon Breitling Orbiter 3, with pilots Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, begins the first non-stop, round the world balloon flight. This sets a new distance record for any type of aircraft of 40,804 kilometers (25,360hkgh miles).

July

• July 28 – Rotary Rocket Roton ATV

September

• September 8 – NASA Helios Prototype