This is a list of aviation-related events from 1966.
Events
January The United States Army′s helicopter assault-oriented 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) begins Operation Matador to destroy North Vietnamese Army forces in Pleiku and Kon Tum Province, South Vietnam.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 60–61. January 1 – The U.S. Military Air Transport Service is redesignated the Military Airlift Command.Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN, p. 97. January 1–7 – The U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade and Australian troops carry out Operation Marauder, a combined helicopter and ground assault against Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam's Mekong Delta and the first time American units operate in the Delta.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 61. January 3 – The United States Air Force′s second North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) – reaches Mach 3.05 at an altitude of . January 4 – Avianca Flight 4, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crashes into the Caribbean Sea just after takeoff from Cartagena-Crespo Airport in Cartagena, Colombia, killing 56 of the 64 people on board. January 6 – A U.S. Air Force XB-70A Valkyrie remains in the air continuously for 3 hours 40 minutes, the longest flight ever by an XB-70. January 8–14 – In Operation Crimp, a U.S. Army 173rd Airborne Brigade helicopter and ground assault destroys a Viet Cong headquarters in the Ho Bo Woods in South Vietnam. January 12 – A U.S. Air Force XB-70A Valkyrie reaches , the highest speed ever reached by an XB-70. January 17 – A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain. Both aircraft crash, killing the entire four-man crew of the KC-135 and three of the seven men aboard the B-52. Two of the B-52's nuclear bombs rupture, scattering radioactive material over the Spanish countryside. One bomb lands intact near Palomares, and another is lost in the Mediterranean Sea. It is later recovered intact offshore. January 22 – The U.S. Air Force completes Operation Blue Light, the largest airlift of troops and equipment into a combat zone in history. Since the operation began on December 27, 1965, the Air Force has flown 4,600 short tons (4,173 metric tons) of equipment and over 3,000 troops from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, to Pleiku, South Vietnam. January 24 Operation Masher, later renamed Operation White Wing, a helicopter and ground assault by the U.S. Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and South Vietnamese Army and South Korean Army units, begins against North Vietnamese Army forces in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam. The operation concludes on March 6.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 61–62. The Boeing 707-437 Kanchenjunga, operating as Air India Flight 101, crashes on Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board; Indian nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear program, is among the dead.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1960s In 1950, Air India Flight 245 had crashed in almost exactly the same spot. January 28 – Lufthansa Flight 005, a Convair CV-440 Metropolitan, aborts its landing in heavy rain at Bremen Airport in Bremen, West Germany, then crashes doing a subsequent go around maneuver, killing all 46 people on board. Among the dead are actress Ada Chekhova, daughter of Olga Chekhova and mother of Vera Tschechowa, and seven swimmers of the Italian Olympic Team and their coach. January 31 – The United States resumes Operation Rolling Thunder over North Vietnam.Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, , p. 154.
February In the 1966 Defence White Paper, the British Labour government announces that the Royal Navy′s planned CVA-01 aircraft carrier will not be built because of its expense. It also declares that the traditional strike, reconnaissance, air defense, and airborne early warning functions of carrier-based aircraft can be carried out more cheaply by shore-based Royal Air Force aircraft, that the use of cruiser- and frigate-based helicopters would be a cheaper means of providing anti-submarine defense of ships, and that ship-launched anti-ship missiles could replace carrier planes in the anti-ship role.Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 27. February 2 Nicholas Piantanida launches from Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the balloon Strato Jump II, hoping to set a new world record for the highest parachute jump. He is forced to give up the attempt when he is unable to disconnect his oxygen system, and he detaches the balloon's gondola and parachutes safely to earth inside it. The flight sets an unofficial world balloon altitude record of 123,500 feet (, although the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale does not recognize it as official because he returns to earth in the gondola without remaining attached to the balloon. The record will stand until Felix Baumgartner's balloon flight on 14 October 2012. Pakistan International Airlines Flight 17, a Sikorsky S-61, experiences an oil leak, strikes a vulture, and then loses power and crashes near Faridpur, East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh), killing 23 of the 24 people on board and injuring the lone survivor. February 4 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 crashes into Tokyo Bay while on night approach to Tokyos Haneda International Airport, killing all 133 people on board. It is the worst death toll in a single-aircraft accident in history at the time, and will remain so until 1969. February 8 – Freddie Laker founds Laker Airways February 17 – Aeroflot Flight 65, a Tupolev Tu-114, crashes on takeoff in deteriorating weather at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, killing 21 and injuring at least 18, after its crew attempts to take off without realizing that snow has not been fully cleared from the runway and its wing strikes a sowban during its takeoff roll, forcing two of its propellers to strike the runway, after which it veers off the runway and catches fire. It is the only fatal crash involving the long-range turboprop Tu-114. February 28 – A National Aeronautics and Space Administration T-38 Talon crashes at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett, the prime crew for Gemini 9, scheduled to launch in early June.
March United States Navy A-4 Skyhawk bombers become the first aircraft to use the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile in combat, targeting guidance radars at surface-to-air missile sites in North Vietnam. United States Marine Corps Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 164 (HMM-164) arrives in South Vietnam with 27 Boeing Vertol CH-46A Sea Knights, becoming the first unit to make a combat deployment with the CH-46.Polmar, Norman, "It's a Plane...a Helicopter...a Phrog!", Naval History, October 2016, p. 64. March 4 – Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 402, a Douglas DC-8, strikes the approach lights and a seawall during a night landing attempt in poor visibility at Tokyo International Airport in Japan and crashes on the runway, killing 64 of the 72 people on board. March 5 After taxiing past the wreckage of Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 402 at Tokyo International Airport, Boeing 707-436 G-APFE, operating as BOAC Flight 911, disintegrates in severe clear-air turbulence and crashes near Mount Fuji in Japan shortly after take-off, killing all 124 people on board. The two crashes kill a combined 188 people, a record total at the time for aviation accidents in a 24-hour period. For the first time, the United States employs the Alpha section (listing major fixed ground targets in North Vietnam) of a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Rolling Thunder order. March 7 – France withdraws from the military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, although it remains a political member of the alliance. March 10 – In order to rescue a downed U.S. Air Force A-1E Skyraider pilot, U.S. Air Force Major Bernard F. Fisher of the 1st Air Commando Squadron lands his own A-1E on an airstrip in South Vietnams A Shau Valley after the airstrip had been overrun by North Vietnamese troops. Fisher later receives the Medal of Honor for this action.Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN, p. 98. March 18 – United Arab Airlines Flight 749, an Antonov An-24 (registration SU-AOA), crashes about short of the runway while attempting to land at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing all 30 people on board. March 19 – A United States Air Force North American XB-70A Valkyrie reaches , the greatest altitude ever achieved by an XB-70. March 27 – The flight engineer aboard a Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin Il-18B (registration CU-T831) shoots and kills the on-board security guard during a domestic flight in Cuba from Santiago de Cuba to Havana and hijacks the plane, demanding to be flown to Florida. The captain pretends to be flying to Florida but actually lands the airliner at José Martí International Airport in Havana. Seeing an Aeroflot airliner on the tarmac and realizing that captain had tricked him, the flight engineer shoots the captain dead and tries to initiate a takeoff, but the copilot shuts the engines down. The flight engineer jumps out of the plane and flees; he will be apprehended several days later.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description March 31 – The U.S. Air Forces Strategic Air Command retires its last B-47 Stratojet. The first all-jet strategic bomber, the B-47 had served since 1951.
April The U.S. Navy moves Yankee Station northward in the Gulf of Tonkin. Pan American World Airways signs a contract with the Boeing Company for the construction of 25 Boeing 747 airliners. It is the worlds first order for wide-body airliners.Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the Worlds Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, , p. 58. Tunisair inaugurates service between Tunis, Tunisia, and Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany. It had last offered service on the route between October 1961 and March 1962. April 12 U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses strike targets in North Vietnam for the first time. The U.S. Air Force's second North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) – reaches a maximum speed of Mach 3.08 and maintains it for 20 minutes. It is the highest Mach number ever reached by an XB-70. April 13 – President of Iraq Abdul Salam Arif dies in the crash of a Royal Iraqi Air Force de Havilland DH.104 Dove 1 in southern Iraq. April 19 – U.S. Navy aircraft strike the coal port of Cam Pha, North Vietnam, only from North Vietnams border with the People's Republic of China. April 22 – American Flyers Flight 280, transporting Army recruits who had just completed basic training from Ford Ord, California to Fort Benning, Georgia crashed on approach to Ardmore Municipal Airport, Oklahoma . Eighty-three of the 98 passengers and crew on board died as a result of the accident. April 23 – American aircraft encounter MiG fighters in large numbers over North Vietnam.
May Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s start to appear in the skies over Vietnam. May 1