1976 in aviation

yearbox
in?=in aviation
cp=19th Century
c=20th century
cf=21st century
yp1=1973
yp2=1974
yp3=1975
year=1976
ya1=1977
ya2=1978
ya3=1979
dp3=1940s
dp2=1950s
dp1=1960s
d=1970s
dn1=1980s
dn2=1990s
dn3=2000s

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1976:

Events

January

*January 1 - Middle East Airlines Flight 438, a Boeing 720, aircraft over Saudi Arabia when bomb exploded in the forward baggage compartment, aircraft destroyed killing 81.

March

* March 17 - A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 makes the first non-stop flight from Tokyo to New York, taking 11.5 hours for the 10,139 km (6,300 mile) journey.

April

* April 5 - Howard Hughes dies aboard a Learjet, aged 70.
*April 27 – American Airlines Flight 625, a Boeing 727, crashed on approach to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

May

* May 3 - A Pan Am Boeing 747SP makes a record around-the-world flight, taking 1 day 22 hours.
* May 24 - Three hijackers and seven hostages die as Filipino troops storm a hijacked Philippines Airlines Douglas DC-9.

July

* July 1 - Clive Canning arrives in the United Kingdom, having flown from Australia in a Thorp T-18 homebuilt aircraft.
* July 3 - Three Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules carry commandos to Entebbe, Uganda to rescue the 258 passengers of an Air France Airbus hijacked six days earlier. This is the operation Entebbe.

August

* August 1 - October 1 - After his 1973 RTW attempt was aborted by bad weather between Hokkaidō and the Aleutian Islands, Don Taylor of California successfully circumnavigates the world (Oshkosh eastbound to Oshkosh) in his Thorp T-18, the first aviator to do so with a homebuilt aircraft.

eptember

* September 6 - Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Union defects to the West, landing his MiG-25 FoxBat in Japan.
* September 10 - In the worst mid-air disaster to this point, the 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision, 176 people die when a British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex Adria Douglas DC-9 collide over Zagreb.
* September 14 - A F-14 Tomcat rolls off the deck of USS "John F. Kennedy" and sinks in international waters. A major salvage operation is launched to retrieve the fighter lest it fall into Soviet hands.
* September 18 - Death of legendary test pilot Albert Boyd
*September 19 - A THY Boeing 727 crashed into a mountain in Turkey killing 154.

October

*October 6 – Cubana Flight 455, a Douglas DC-8, bombed by Anti-Castro terrorists.

First flights

May
* May 19 - Utva 75 "53001"

July
* July 3 - Piaggio P.166 "I-PJAG"
* July 30 - HAL Kiran Mk II "U738"

August
* August 9 - Boeing YC-14 "72-1873"
* August 12 - Aermacchi MB-339 "I-NOVE"
* August 13 - Bell 222 "N9988K"
* August 27 - PZL-Mielec M-18 Dromader

October
* October 10 - Embraer EMB 121 Xingu "PP-ZXI"
* October 12 - Sikorsky S-72 "NASA545"

November
* November 7 - Dassault Falcon 50 "F-WAMD"

December
* December 1 - Ahrens AR 404 "N404AR"
* December 16 - Shuttle Carrier Aircraft "NASA905"
* December 22 - Ilyushin Il-86 "CCCP-86000"

Entered service

January
* January 21 - Concorde, with British Airways and Air France

August
* August 24 - Shorts 330 with Time Air

November
* Hawker Siddeley Hawk T1 with RAF