January 1 – Norway forms the Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation – the future Accident Investigation Board Norway – within its Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Two French television journalists are arrested for trying to plant fake bombs – each consisting of a package containing molding clay, an alarm clock, wires, and the message "Congratulations! You have found our phony bomb!" – aboard three airliners at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City bound for Paris, France, as a test of airport security, planning that their colleagues will film the arrival of the packages in Paris. The charges ultimately will be dropped in 1994.[2]
March 22 – An Antonov An-225 Mriya sets a total of 106 world and class records during a 3-hour, 30-minute flight. Its total weight at take-off is 508,200 kg (1,129,370 lb).[3]
March 26 – The airline Binter Canarias, a subsidiary of Iberia, begins flight operations.
April 21 – U.S. Air Force Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird61–7974 Item 2025, outbound on an operational sortie from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, suffers an engine explosion and total hydraulic failure. The crew eject safely. It is the final Blackbird loss before the type is withdrawn from service.[5]
May 23 – First flight of the second and last Grumman X-29, American experimental aircraft that tested a forward-swept wing, canard control surfaces, and other novel aircraft technologies.
June 8 – A Soviet Air ForceMikoyan MiG-29 suffers a birdstrike during a display at the Paris Air Show. Pilot Anatoli Kvochur manages to prevent the plane from injuring anyone, and saves himself by ejecting at only 400 feet (122 m).
July 4 – Crash of an unmanned MiG-23 in Kortrijk, Belgium. The pilot had believed he was experiencing an engine failure shortly after take-off from the Soviet airbase near Kołobrzeg, Poland and had ejected, while the aircraft continued on autopilot for 900 km (559 miles), until running out of fuel. One 18-year-old teenager on the ground was killed in the crash.[7]
July 16 – European air traffic is halted due to industrial action by French air traffic controllers.
July 19 – United Airlines Flight 232, a Douglas DC-10, suffers decompression in and catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine, knocking out all its flight controls. In what is considered a prime example of successful crew resource management, the plane's crew manages to use engine throttles to fly the plane to Sioux City, Iowa, where it crashes on landing. Although 111 of the people on board die, the crew is credited with saving the other 185 by coaxing the aircraft to Sioux City..
August
3 August 1989: an Olympic Aviation Short 330, operating as Olympic Aviation Flight 545, crashed on a hillside in Samos island, Greece, while attempting a landing approach in thick fog. All 3 crew members and 31 passengers were killed.[8]
August 13 – Larkin I. Smith, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Mississippi's 5th Congressional District, and his pilot are killed when their Cessna 177 Cardinal crashes in a forest near Janice, Mississippi, while flying in hazy weather.[9] Rescuers must bulldoze their way through the forest to reach the plane's wreckage, delaying the recovery of the bodies until the following day.
August 18 – A QantasBoeing 747, the Spirit of Australia, flies non-stop from London to Sydney, setting a world record for a four engine jet, after having flown 11,000 miles in 20 hours.
August 21 – Rare Bear, a highly modified Grumman F8F Bearcat, sets a new piston-engined speed record of 528.33 mph (850.77 km/h).
August 23 – 1989 Australian pilots' dispute: All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign over an airline's move to dismiss and sue them over a wage dispute.
September
September 3 – The pilots of Varig Flight 254, a Boeing 737-241 with 54 people on board, enter an incorrect heading into the flight computer before taking off from Marabá, Brazil, for Belém, Brazil. By the time they discover their error, they have too little fuel to reach an airport; they belly-land in the Amazon jungle near São José do Xingu, Brazil, killing 13 passengers. Thirty-four of the 41 survivors are injured, many seriously; they are not rescued for two days.
September 8 – Vibration from an auxiliary power unit aboard Partnair Flight 394, a Convair CV-580 on a charter flight, spreads to the tail section, causing the rudder to jam to the left. The plane dives from 22,000 feet (6,706 m) into the North Sea off Hirtshals, Denmark, disintegrating during the dive and killing all 55 people on board.
September 19 – A bomb explodes in the cargo hold of UTA Flight 772, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, over the Sahara Desert. The DC-10 breaks up in mid-air and crashes near Bilma and Ténéré in Niger, killing all 170 people on board. Responsibility for the bombing is never determined.
September 20 – USAir Flight 5050, a Boeing 737-401 with 63 people on board, aborts its takeoff in low visibility on a wet runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York City and slides off the end of the runway into Bowery Bay, killing two people and injuring 21.
October
Hainan Province Airlines – the future Hainan Airlines – is founded. It will begin flight operations in May 1993.
November 6 – Braniff Inc.—the second airline to use the Braniff name, operating under bankruptcy protection since late September 1989—ends scheduled commercial flights and lays off most employees.
December 31 – U.S. airlines complete their worst ever recorded year for baggage handling: nearly eight suitcases per 1,000 passengers are reported lost, damaged, or misdirected during 1989.[14]
