January 31: JAL Flight 907 and JAL Flight 958 (Boeing 747-400 JA8904 and DC-10-40 JA 8546, respectively) come within 300 feet of one another at a height of 39,000ft over Shizouka, Japan. The error, caused by air traffic control error, forces the 747 to dive in order to avoid a collision. Had they crashed, it might have killed 677 people.
February 14: Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros)
March 7: A Skymaster Airlines Boeing 707-331C (PT-MST) crashes in Sao Paulo, Brazil after a hard landing. The cargo flight had three crewmembers aboard, all of whom survived, although the aircraft was ultimately written-off.
March 17: A SAL Express Beechcraft 1900C (S9-CAE) crashes into a mountain in Angola during heavy rainfall, with only one survivor among the 17 on-board.
March 23: Russian Mir space station is crashed into the Pacific during a controlled re-entry.
March 26: A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Fokker F-27 (PK-MFL) crashes on landing during a training flight after completing 8 touch-and-go’s throughout the day. The aircraft mysteriously banks to the right and struck the ground moments from touching down.
March 29: An Avjet charter flight, a Gulfstream III jet with 15 passengers and 3 crew, crashes on approach into Aspen, CO, killing all on board.
April 7: The robotic spacecraft Odyssey launches on its mission to orbit Mars, arriving at the planet the following October. The craft later collects data that would guess water to be on the plant. This is later confirmed by the Phoenix lander in July of 2008.
April 24: A Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV takes off from Edwards Air Force Base for a nonstop flight to Australia in 23 hours, the longest ever flight by an unmanned aircraft and the first UAV to cross the Pacific.
May 6: The Russian Soyuz capsule, returning from the International Space Station (ISS), touched down right on time, carrying Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist.
July 21: First flight of the XCOR EZ-Rocket, flown by Dick Rutan.
August 24: Air Transat Flight 236, an Airbus A330-200, en route from Toronto to Lisbon with 306 crew and passengers, made an emergency landing in the Azores without engine power due to fuel starvation over the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft safely landed at Lajes Air Base, on the island of Terceira. The aircraft was evacuated in 90 seconds. All 306 passengers on board survived. An investigation revealed that the cause of the accident was a fuel leak in the number two engine which was caused by an incorrect part installed in the hydraulics system by Air Transat maintenance staff. The part did not maintain adequate clearance between the hydraulic lines and the fuel line, allowing vibration in the hydraulic lines to degrade the fuel line and cause the leak. The aircraft involved in the incident was repaired and remains in service with Air Transat.
September 11: Airplanes are used as WMD on the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. Combined with people on the ground, killed a total of 2,993 people.
September 13: Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States following the terrorist attacks two days earlier.
September 24: 13 days after 9/11, US Airways decided to terminate all flights from MetroJet.
October 2: Once known as the “Flying Bank” thanks to its exemplary financial stability, Swissair grounds its fleet after running out of cash. The failure is the culmination of a series of bad investments combined with the sales downturn following the September 11th attacks. Most of its routes and planes would eventually be taken over by Swiss.
October 4: Siberian Airlines Flight 1812, a Tu-154 (registered RA-85693), is struck by an errant Ukranian missile, sending it crashing into the Black Sea, killing all 78 on-board.
October 8: A SAS MD87 was taking off from Milan's Linate airport in Italy for a flight to Copenhagen when it collided with a Cessna Citation on the fog-shrouded runway. The airliner then crashed into a nearby hangar and caught fire. All six crew members and 104 passengers on the airliner were killed, as were the four occupants of the business jet and four airport workers on the ground.
November 12: American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 crashed in the Belle Harbor neighborhood of New York City due to separation of the vertical stabilizer. All 260 people aboard the jetliner and 5 people on the ground were killed.
December 1: Trans World Airlines ceases operations (absorbed into American Airlines).
December 22: American Airlines Flight 63, flying from Paris to Miami, is the target of a failed bomb plot when a passenger, an Islamic fundamentalist named Richard Reid, attempts to ignite plastic explosives hidden within the sole of his shoe. Flight attendants and passengers subdue and restrain the man, who is later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the attempted attack.
