This is a list of aviation-related events from 1985.
Events Lauda Air begins flight operations as a charter and air taxi service. It began scheduled service in 1987. Ryanair is founded, initially as a full-service carrier. Emirates is founded, with the help of the Government of Dubai and Pakistan International Airlines. January January 1 In the Iran–Iraq War, the Iraqi Air Force begins the year with a strength of 500 operational aircraft and 40,000 men including air defense troops, while the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force has 40,000 men but only 60 to 80 operational aircraft.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 217. Flying at night in poor weather, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980, a Boeing 727, crashes into Bolivias Mount Illimani at an altitude of , killing all 29 people on board. The wreckage was not discovered until 2016. The United States Governments Civil Aeronautics Board is abolished in accordance with the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. January 5 – Operation Moses – a covert, cooperative effort by the Israel Defense Forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Embassy in Khartoum, mercenaries, and Sudanese state security forces – comes to an abrupt end when Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres reveals its existence during a press conference, prompting the Government of Sudan to terminate it immediately. An airlift of Jews of the Beta Israel community who had fled a famine in Ethiopia and were living in refugee camps in Sudan, Operation Moses since its beginning on November 21, 1984, has evacuated about 8,000 Jews 200 or so at time in over 30 flights by Trans European Airways airliners, flying them from Sudan to Israel via Brussels, Belgium. January 18 – A Chinese Antonov An-24 turbo-prop airliner flying from Shanghai to Beijing via Nanjing crashes during an emergency landing at Jinan, China, south of Beijing. Thirty-eight of the 41 people on board perish. January 19 — 1985 Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin Il-18 crash January 20 – São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport officially opens in São Paulo, Brazil. January 21 – Galaxy Airlines Flight 203, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes immediately after takeoff from Reno-Cannon International Airport in Reno, Nevada, killing 70 of the 71 people on board and damaging a store and seven recreational vehicles parked at a dealership. The lone survivor is a 17-year-old boy who is thrown clear of the aircraft, landing upright on a city street still strapped into his seat. January 22 - a U.S. Air Force C-130A 56-0501 Hercules crashed into the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of Honduras whilst on visual approach to Trujillo airport, killing all 21 people on board. January 23 - AIRES Colombia Flight 585 hits a mountain killing all 17 on board.
February February 1 Trans World Airlines becomes the first airline to operate an ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) flight. The flight also makes it the first airline to operate a twin-engine jet on scheduled transatlantic services. The aircraft is a Boeing 767.TWA History Timeline globalsecurity.org ETOPS: Extended Range Operation with Two-Engine Airplanes Aeroflot Flight 7841 crashes shortly after takeoff, killing 58 people on board. February 11 – Record-setting hot-air balloonist Ben Abruzzo dies along with his wife and his other four passengers when the Cessna 421C he is piloting collides with the tops of trees and crashes at Albuquerque, New Mexico, after Abbruzzo becomes distracted by a baggage door that opens in flight.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1980s February 19 Iberia Flight 610, a Boeing 727-256 named Alhambra de Granada, strikes a television antenna on the summit of Mount Oiz in Biscay, Spain, and crashes, killing all 148 people on board. China Airlines Flight 006, a Boeing 747SP with 274 people on board, miraculously survives a plunge over the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco after an engine failure. Twenty-four people are injured, two of them seriously.
March In the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi Air Force aircraft carry out 158 sorties against Iranian cities over a three-day period.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 206. March 1 – The Boy Scouts of America officially ends powered aircraft flight in its Aviation Exploring program, citing difficulties with maintaining insurance coverage in the event of an aircraft accident. The decision affects 450 Explorer Posts and over 10,000 Explorer Scouts. March 4 – The Iraqi Air Force conducts its first raid against the Iranian nuclear reactor under construction at Bushehr.Cordesman and Wagner, p. 521. March 10–11 – Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force aircraft conduct the first air raid against Baghdad in months. The Iraqi Air Force retaliates with a raid on Tehran.Cordesman and Wagner, p. 202. March 11–18 – A fully committed Iraqi Air Force flies 150 to 200 sorties a day as Iraq turns back an Iranian offensive out of the Hawizeh Marshes. March 19–23 – Iraqi strike aircraft and helicopters join artillery in employing mustard gas to halt an Iranian offensive in the Majnoon area.Cordesman and Wagner, p. 203. March 22 – In Operation Joshua, also known as Operation Sheba, six United States Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft airlift around 500 Jews of the Beta Israel community who had fled a famine in Ethiopia and were living in refugee camps in Sudan. Taking the refugees aboard near Al Qadarif, Sudan, the aircraft fly them to Uvda Airbase in southern Israel. March 25 – The Emirates airline is founded in Dubai, UAE. March 29 – Ten service personnel are killed when two Canadian military planes collide at CFB Edmonton during a mass flyover. March 31 Kemayoran Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, closes. The city's new main airport, Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, opens simultaneously. Iraq claims to have hit about 30 ships in air attacks in the Persian Gulf since January 1, while Iran has hit seven over the same time period. Some estimates place the number of Iraqi attacks since March 1984 at 65 and Iranian attacks over the same period at 25.Cordesman and Wagner, p. 205.
April Frontier Horizon, a low-cost subsidiary of Frontier Airlines operating Boeing 727-100s, ceases operations. April 22 – Pan American World Airways sells off its Pacific routes to United Airlines for US$750 million. April 24 – LOT Polish Airlines resumes flights to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport. April 28 – Continental Airlines inaugurates its first scheduled service to Europe, flying from Houston Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, to Gatwick Airport in London, England. April 29 – In a ceremony at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, the United States Navy accepts its first IAI Kfir fighters into service for use as MiG-23 (NATO reporting name "Flogger") simulators in air-to-air combat training. The Israeli-built Kfir is one of only two foreign-designed aircraft to see service in significant numbers in the United States Armed Forces during the Cold War, the other being the British-designed AV-8B Harrier II.Polmar, Norman, "Stars of David and Red Stars," Naval History, February 2013, p. 12. Designated the F-21A in American service, the Kfirs will be operated by Fighter Squadron 43 (VF-43), a U.S. Navy "adversary" squadron.Polmar, Norman, "Stars of David and Red Stars," Naval History, February 2013, p. 13.
May 1 May – United Airlines partners with Air Wisconsin, Aspen Airways, and WestAir as United Express, the brand name for a new regional airline that feeds United's hubs at (respectively) Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Denver's Stapleton International Airport, and San Francisco's San Francisco International Airport. 3 May – A Tupolev Tu-134 operating as Aeroflot Flight SSSR-65856 with 79 people on board and a Soviet Air Forces Antonov An-26 with 15 people on board collide at near Zolochev in the Soviet Unions Ukrainian SSR, killing all 94 people on board the two planes. The cause of the collision is attributed to air traffic control errors. Among the dead are the Estonian table-tennis player Alari Lindmäe, two Soviet Army generals and Nikolai Dmitrijev, a Hero of Socialist Labor and one of the Soviet Unions most decorated civil airline pilots. Dmitrijev was the captain of the Tu-134. 13 May – During an armed standoff between members of the MOVE organization and officers of the Philadelphia Police Department at MOVE's house in the Cobbs Creek area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter drops two 1-pound (0.45-kg) bombs made of water gel explosive on a fortified cubicle on the roof of the house. The bombs start a fire that destroys the MOVE house, killing 11 people in it, and then spreads, destroying approximately 65 houses before it is extinguished.Account of incident from USA Today. 30 May – The Iraqi Air Force makes its first successful strike against the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island since June 1984. It will not attack Kharg Island again until mid-August.Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, , p. 209.
June June 12 – The Government of Cuba creates the Civil Aviation Institute of Cuba () as Cuba's civil aviation authority. June 14 – Two Amal guerrilla gunmen hijack Trans World Airlines Flight 847, a Boeing 727-231 with 151 other people on board, during a flight from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy. They divert the plane to Beirut International Airport, where 19 passengers are released in exchange for fuel. They then force the pilots to fly to Algiers, where 20 more passengers are released. They then return to Beirut, where they beat and murder United States Navy diver Robert Stethem, remove seven American passengers with what they believe are "Jewish-sounding" names to be held hostage in Beirut, and are joined by nearly a dozen more gunmen. They then force the plane to return to Algiers on June 15, release 65 more passengers and order the plane to fly back to Beirut on June 16. In Beirut they release Greek pop singer Demis Roussos in exchange for hijacking accomplice Ali Atwa on June 17, but remove 40 more people from the plane to be held hostage. The remaining 39 passengers and crew remain on the plane until June 30, when Israel agrees to free 700 Shiite prisoners. Flight attendant Uli Derickson plays a key role in maintaining calm aboard the airliner and negotiating with the gunmen. Mid-June – The Iraqi Air Force carries out its fiftieth raid on Tehran since the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War in September 1980. June 19 - A group of Islamic extremists blow up a section of the Frankfurt Airport. This is known as the 1985 Frankfurt Airport bombing. June 21 – A drunken Stein Arvid Huseby hijacks Braathens SAFE Flight 139, a Boeing 737-205 with 121 people on board, during its flight from Trondheim Airport in Værnes, Norway, to Oslo Airport in Fornebu, Norway, demanding that he be allowed on arrival at Fornebu to make a political statement and meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Kåre Willoch and Minister of Justice Mona Røkke due to his mistreatment in his incarceration. After the aircraft runs out of beer at Fornebu, Huseby trades his weapon for more beer and Norwegian police storm the plane and arrest him. It is the first aircraft hijacking in Norwegian history. June 23 – A bomb explodes at Narita International Airport in Japan amongst luggage intended for Air India Flight 301 to Bangkok, Thailand, killing two baggage handlers and injuring four. Fifty-five minutes later, Air India Flight 182, the Boeing 747 Emperor Kanishka, explodes off the Irish coast, killing all 329 on board; a terrorist bomb is suspected, but never confirmed.
July