1999 in aviation#November

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{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2011}}

{{yearbox

|in?=in aviation

|cp=19th Century

|c=20th century

|cf=21st century

|yp1=1996

|yp2=1997

|yp3=1998

|year=1999

|ya1=2000

|ya2=2001

|ya3=2002

|dp3=1960s

|dp2=1970s

|dp1=1980s

|d=1990s

|dn1=2000–2009{{!}}2000s

|dn2=2010s

|dn3=2020s

}}

{{Portal|Aviation}}

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

Events

=January=

Five Iraqi Air Force jets violate the no-fly zone over southern Iraq and two others violate the no-fly zone over northern Iraq. The United States claims that Iraqi aircraft have violated the two no-fly zones a total of 70 times since Operation Desert Fox took place in mid-December 1998.

=February=

=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 (25,360 miles).
  • March 10 – Peru's flag carrier, Aeroperú, ceases operations due to financial difficulties. The airline will be liquidated in August.
  • March 23 – Air National Guard pilot and Cirrus Design test pilot Scott D. Anderson is killed in a plane crash while flight-testing a Cirrus SR20. The problem occurs when the plane's aileron jams during experimental stress-testing. He crashes into a vacant prison yard approximately 400 meters from the Duluth International Airport in Duluth, Minnesota.
  • March 24–25 (overnight)
  • At dusk, F/A-18 Hornets of the Spanish Air Force are the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planes to bomb Belgrade and perform suppression of enemy air defenses operations as NATO begins Operation Allied Force, a bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War[http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-041e.htm Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General, following the Commencement of Air Operations] involving 1,000 aircraft operating from air bases in Italy and Germany and from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier {{USS|Theodore Roosevelt|CVN-71}} in the Adriatic Sea.
  • Five Yugoslav MiG-29 (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum") fighters get airborne to oppose the NATO attack. U.S. Air Force fighters – one of them an F-15C Eagle – shoot down two of them, and a Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16AM Fighting Falcon damages a third MiG-29, which never flies again. Yugoslav air defense forces mistakenly shoot down a MiG-29 with a 2K12 Kub (NATO reporting name "SA-6 Gainful") surface-to-air missile in a friendly fire incident, and only one of the MiG-29s returns to base safely.{{cite web|url=http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |title=Yugoslav & Serbian MiG-29s |publisher=Acig.org |access-date=March 13, 2011 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214094718/http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |archive-date=February 14, 2014 }}
  • March 25
  • During a low-level attack on Kosovo Liberation Army positions in Kosovo, a Yugoslav J-22 Orao crashes into a hill, killing its pilot.{{cite web |url=http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Country-By-Country/Serbia_Montenegro.htm |title=Work In Progress |publisher=Ejection-history.org.uk |access-date=March 13, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612153549/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Country-By-Country/Serbia_Montenegro.htm |archive-date=June 12, 2010 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} Yugoslavia also loses a MiG-29 destroyed in a landing accident at Ponikve Airbase.
  • Two U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagles intercept two Yugoslav MiG-29s; one of the F-15s shoots down both MiG-29s.{{cite web|url=http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |title=Yugoslav & Serbian MiG-29s |publisher=Acig.org |access-date=March 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410044537/http://acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |archive-date=April 10, 2009 |url-status=usurped }}
  • March 27 – After Yugoslav air defense operators find that they can detect U.S. Air Force F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft using supposedly obsolete Soviet-made radars operating on long wavelengths, the 3rd Battalion of the Yugoslav 250th Missile Brigade shoots down an F-117 with an S-125 Neva/Pechora (NATO reporting name "SA-3 Goa") surface-to-air missile; its pilot ejects and is rescued by search-and-rescue forces near Belgrade. It is the first, and so far the only, time a stealth aircraft has been shot down.{{cite news | title =Serb discusses 1999 downing of stealth |work=USA Today | date =October 26, 2005 | url =https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x.htm | access-date =May 8, 2007 }}[http://dictionaryofwar.org/concepts/Safe_Distance Safe distance] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308143618/http://dictionaryofwar.org/concepts/Safe_Distance |date=March 8, 2015 }}, found footage from the cockpit of the shot down F117
  • March 29 – The Number Two RQ-4 Global Hawk prototype crashes at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California.

=April=

=May=

  • May 2
  • The 3rd Battalion of the Yugoslav 250th Missile Brigade shoots down a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon near Šabac, Yugoslavia, with an S-125 Neva/Pechora (NATO reporting name "SA-3 Goa") surface-to-air missile. Its pilot is rescued.{{cite web|url=http://www.sponauer.com/a-10/index.html |title=John Sponauer – Hogs in a Hot Peace: The A-10 Since Desert Storm |publisher=Sponauer.com |access-date=March 13, 2011}}
  • A Yugoslav Strela 2 (NATO reporting name "SA-7 Grail") shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile heavily damages a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II over Kosovo, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Skopje "Alexander the Great" Airport in Skopje, Macedonia.
  • May 3 – Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand join the Star Alliance. They increase the Star Alliance's service to a total of 720 destinations in 110 countries with a combined fleet of 1,650 aircraft.
  • May 4 – Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down a Yugoslav MiG-29 (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum") at low altitude over Valjevo, Yugoslavia.
  • May 7–8 (overnight) – U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers of the 509th Bomb Wing flying directly from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, attempt to bomb a Yugoslav warehouse in the Belgrade district of Novi Beograd with JDAM bombs but, because the Central Intelligence Agency has provided incorrect coordinates, instead hit the nearby embassy of the People's Republic of China with five JDAMs, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring 20 people. The United States apologizes for the attack, which outrages China.{{cite web|title=Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|url=http://www.icty.org/sid/10052#IVB4|publisher=UNICTY}}{{cite web|url=http://congressionalresearch.com/RS20547/document.php|title=Chinese Embassy Bombing in Belgrade:Compensation Issues|access-date=April 8, 2010 |last= Dumbaugh|first= Kerry|date=April 12, 2000|publisher=Congressional Research Service publication}}
  • May 19 – A Piper PA-23E-250 suffers the failure of an engine after takeoff from Tucumcari, New Mexico. While attempting an emergency landing after returning to the airport, the pilot realizes that the landing gear is not down and initiates a go-around, but the plane stalls and crashes, killing both people on board. Jürgen Staudte, inventor of the quartz crystal for digital watches, is one of the dead.
  • May 23 – Austin–Bergstrom International Airport opens in Austin, Texas, and all commercial air carriers move to the new airport, having vacated Robert Mueller Municipal Airport on May 21. Mueller is permanently closed and subsequently redeveloped for non-aviation uses.

=June=

=July=

=August=

=September=

=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 15 – All Nippon Airways joins the Star Alliance.
  • October 19 – The Indonesian airline Lion Air is founded. it will begin flight operations in June 2000.
  • October 23 – While practicing autorotation with powered recovery in a Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter over the Lake Piru riverbed near Santa Clarita, California, American film actor Harrison Ford is unable to recover before the helicopter strikes the ground. Neither he nor his flight instructor suffer injuries, but the helicopter is seriously damaged.{{cite web|author=AirSafe.com, LLC |url=http://www.airsafe.com/events/celebs/ford.htm |title=Helicopter Accident Involving Actor Harrison Ford |publisher=Airsafe.com |access-date=2014-06-12}}{{cite web|access-date=May 23, 2008 |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20001212X19997&key=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030515230949/https://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X19997&key=1 |archive-date=May 15, 2003 |title=LAX00LA024 |publisher=National Transportation Safety Board |url-status=live |df=mdy }}
  • October 25 – A Learjet 35 loses cabin pressure in flight, incapacitating everyone on board. It flies for almost four more hours, covering almost 1,500 miles (2,415 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 – EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 on its way Cairo, Egypt, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, Massachusetts. All 217 people on board die, including Canadian journalist Claude Masson, in the deadliest aviation disaster of 1999.{{cite web|url=https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAB0201.pdf|title=Aircraft Accident Brief EgyptAir Flight 990 Boeing 767-366ER, SU-GAP 60 Miles South of Nantucket, Massachusetts October 31, 1999|date=March 2002|publisher=National Transportation Safety Board|id=NTSB/AAB-02/01|access-date=June 19, 2019|df=dmy}}

=November=

=December=

First flights

=January=

=February=

=March=

=July=

=September=

Deadliest crash

The deadliest crash of this year was EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S. on 31 October, killing all 217 people on board.

References

{{reflist}}

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Category:Aviation by year

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