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July 24 – All Nippon AirwaysFlight 61, a Boeing 747 was hijacked
by a passenger, Yuji Nishizawa, wielding a knife. After
fatally stabbing the captain, he was overpowered by the crew and
the co-pilot landed the plane safely at Haneda, Japan.
August 24 – On board a Uni
AirMcDonnell Douglas DC-9 a fire
starts in an overhead luggage compartment over HualienTaiwan. The
fire was cause by the accidental ignition fumes from a bottle of
household cleaner. One person died.
August 31 – LAPABoeing 737 overshoots the runway in Buenos Aires, Argentina and crashes into
a golf course. Of the 103 people on board, 64 are killed as well as
ten on the ground.
September
September 4-September 12 - the 11th FAI World
Rally Flying Championship in Ravenna, Italy. Individual winners: 1st
Krzysztof Wieczorek & Wacław Wieczorek (Poland), 2nd Janusz
Darocha & Zbigniew Chrząszcz (Poland), 3rd Nigel Hopkins &
Dale de Klerk (South Africa); team winners: 1st Poland, 2nd Czech
Republic, 3rd France.
September 23 – QantasFlight 1, a Boeing 747, overshoots
the runway upon landing in Bangkok, Thailand. None of the 410 people on board were
seriously injured.
October 31 – EgyptAirFlight
990, a Boeing 767
on its way Cairo, Egypt, was deliberately crashed
into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, Massachusetts by
the co-pilot as a way of committing suicide. All 217 passengers and
crew members on board were killed.
December 21 – A Cubana de Aviacon McDonnell Douglas DC-10
overshot the runway in Guatemala City, Guatemala and crashes into homes. Of the 314
people on board, 16 die as well as two people in the homes.
December 24 – Indian AirlinesFlight 814 was hijacked en
route to Delhi, India. After
stopovers in Lahore and Dubai, it landed in Kandhar (Afghanistan),
where after several days of negotiations, all the hostages were
released in exchange for the release of three senior Islamic
fighters held by India.
December 25 – A Cubana de Aviacon Yakovlev Yak-42 crashes into a mountain
near Bejuma, Venezuela
killing all 22 on board.
December 31 - Fear of the Y2Kcomputer 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.
March 1-19 - 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).