This is a list of aviation-related events from 1967.
Events The Canadian Golden Centennaires aerobatic team is formed and performs all year to celebrate the Canadian Centennial year. Boeing opens its biggest factory (largest building by volume), the Boeing Everett Factory, in Everett, Washington. Pacific Air Lines launches a controversial marketing campaign devised by advertising executive and comedian Stan Freberg that highlights and spoofs passengers' fear of flying, including a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on April 28. Matthew E. McCarthy, Pacific's chief executive and biggest shareholder, explains the campaign by saying, "It's basically honest. We spoof the passengers' concern, but at least we admit they have it."Flight Safety Foundation newsletter, May-June 1988 - fear of flying articleZullo, Allan & Nelson, Kathy (2002), The Smile-High Club. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p.189 Retrieved August 17, 2009Airlines: Hey There, Sweaty Palms!. TIME, May 12, 1967. Retrieved August 18, 2009 - describes controversial 1967 ad campaign (alt. link) Philip H. Dougherty, writing in the Business and Finance section of the May 1 edition of The New York Times, describes the advertisements as "rather shocking". After stockholders raise objection to the unorthodox campaign at a May 1967 meeting, two Pacific Air Lines executives resign in the wake of the controversy.
January January 1 – The United States conducts a 48-hour standdown of air operations over Vietnam for the New Year holiday.Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, , p. 155. January 2 In the biggest air battle to date in the Vietnam War, seven North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") are destroyed by U.S. Air Force F-4C Phantom II fighters of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing in Operation Bolo. The contracts for the development of the Boeing SST supersonic transport and its engines are awarded. January 8 – Mackey Airlines merges into Eastern Air Lines. January 15 – The "Super Sights and Sounds" halftime show at the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game – retroactively dubbed Super Bowl I – at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, includes two men who emerge from giant foam footballs flying around the field with jet packs, witnessed by almost 62,000 people in attendance and a television audience of more than 51 million.
February February 1 – Braniff Airways absorbs Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra). February 2 – Pudahuel International Airport opens in Pudahuel, outside Santiago, Chile. February 7 – A lone hijacker commandeers a United Arab Airlines Antonov An-24 with 41 people on board during a domestic flight in Egypt from Cairo to Hurghada and forces it to fly to Amman, Jordan, where the hijacker surrenders to the authorities. February 12 – Operation Pershing begins against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units in Bình Định and Quảng Ngãi provinces in South Vietnam; it will last until January 1968.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 94. The U.S. Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) takes part alongside other U.S. Army, South Vietnamese Army, and South Korean Army units. February 13 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a six-day halt of American bombing raids over Vietnam during the visit of Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to London. February 16 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 708, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, crashes on landing at Manado on Sulawesi in Indonesia, killing 22 of the 92 people on board. February 21 – McDonnell Aircraft completes the 2,000th F-4 Phantom II.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 314. February 22 – 845 troops of the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade take part in Operation Junction City, the only paratrooper assault of the Vietnam War February 26 – U.S. Navy A-6 Intruders of Attack Squadron 35 (VA-35) drop naval mines in the mouth of the Sông Cái and Gianh rivers. The aerial mining of five North Vietnamese waterways will be completed by mid-April.
March The AGM-62 Walleye television-guided glide bomb is used in combat for the first time when U.S. Navy aircraft in Vietnam employ it in an attack on enemy barracks at Sam Lon. March 5 Varig Airlines Flight 837, a Douglas DC-8-33, crashes on approach to Roberts International Airport in Monrovia, Liberia, killing 51 of the 90 people on board and five people on the ground. A propeller fails aboard Lake Central Flight 527, a Convair CV-580, causing its blades to penetrate the cabin and sever control cables. The airliner crashes near Marseilles, Ohio, killing all 38 people on board. The second launch of the United States Air Force's Martin X-23 PRIME (Precision Reentry Including Maneuvering reEntry) experimental lifting body re-entry vehicle – designed to maneuver during reentry of Earth's atmosphere and be recovered in midair by a specially-equipped Lockheed JC-130B Hercules aircraft – takes place atop an Atlas SLV-3 launch vehicle at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The mission simulates a cross-range reentry taking the vehicle 654 miles (1,053 kilometers) off its ballistic track and banking at hypersonic speeds. The X-23's recovery parachute deploys properly for the first time and two of the recovery aircraft locate it, but its reefing cutters fail to actuate, making it dangerous to attempt to bring the X-23 aboard one of the JC-130Bs. The X-23 descends into the Pacific Ocean beneath its parachute and sinks when its flotation balloon sinks before a surface ship can reach it. March 9 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15, collides in mid-air with a Beechcraft Baron over Concord Township near Urbana, Ohio. All 25 people on the DC-9 and the Beechcrafts sole occupant die. The accident leads the Federal Aviation Administration to place speed restrictions on aircraft flying below 10,000 feet (3,048 m) and contributes to its decision to create Terminal Control Areas. March 10 American aircraft attack the steel and iron works at Thái Nguyên, North Vietnam, for the first time. After the F-4 Phantom of his wingman, Captain Earl Aman, suffers damage from antiaircraft fire over North Vietnam and loses almost all of its fuel, U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Pardo has Aman lower his tailhook and pushes Aman's F-4 by maneuvering to place Aman's tailhook against the base of his own windscreen. With one of his own F-4s engines on fire, Pardo pushes Aman powerless plane for 90 miles (145 km), and all four men aboard the two fighters eject over Laos, where they can avoid capture, rather than North Vietnam.Wilkinson, Stephan, "Amazing But True Stories," Aviation History, May 2014, p. 33. West Coast Airlines Flight 720, a Fokker F27 Friendship, crashes on Stukel Mountain just after takeoff in a mix of snow and rain from Klamath Falls Airport in Klamath Falls, Oregon, due to icing of its wings and control surfaces, killing all four people on board. March 13 A former Soviet Air Force and Aeroflot pilot steals an Aeroflot Antonov An-2P (registration CCCP-04959) at Tuapse in the Soviet Union, intending to fly to Turkey. A Soviet Air Defense Forces Yakovlev Yak-28P (NATO reporting name "Firebar") intercepts the An-2P, and a Soviet Air Force MiG-17 (NATO reporting name "Fresco") later shoots it down over the Black Sea, killing the defecting pilot. The pilot of South African Airways Flight 406, a Vickers Viscount 818, suffers a heart attack while the airliner is on approach to East London, South Africa. The co-pilot is unable to regain control of the Viscount, and it crashes into the Indian Ocean off the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, killing all 25 people on board. March 30 - Delta Air Lines Flight 9877, a DC-8, crashes in New Orleans during a training flight, killing all 6 people on board and 13 on the ground.
April April 1 The United States Department of Transportation begins operations. The Federal Aviation Agency is renamed the Federal Aviation Administration and becomes a component of the new department, and its largest component. The Civil Aeronautics Board also becomes part of the new department. The United States creates the National Transportation Safety Board, responsible for civil transportation accident investigation, including aviation accidents and incidents. It takes over this function from the Civil Aeronautics Board, whose responsibilities henceforth are limited to the regulation of commercial airline routes and fares. April 6 – Trans World Airlines retires it last Lockheed Constellation from passenger service and becomes the first all-jet airline.TWA History Timeline April 7 – After a Syrian mortar attack against the Israeli farming community of Gadot escalates into a general exchange of tank and artillery fire all along the Syrian-Israeli border, Israeli Air Force Dassault Mirage III fighter-bombers conduct bombing attacks against Syrian Army positions. A large force of Syrian Air Force MiG-21 (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") fighters responds. Within minutes, the Mirages shoot down six MiG-21s and chase the survivors as far as the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, before breaking off pursuit.Hammel, Eric, Six Days in June: How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992, , p. 25. April 7–22 – The U.S. Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) conducts Operation Lejeune, a helicopter and ground assault against Viet Cong forces in Quảng Ngãi Province, South Vietnam.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 77-78. April 10 The chief of the Egyptian Air Force arrives in Damascus, Syria; the Premier of Egypt will join him there on April 18. Although their visit allegedly is to work out plans for a common stand against Israel by Syria and Egypt, the Egyptian officials actually warn Syria against further attacks on Israel.Hammel, Eric, Six Days in June: How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992, , p. 26. Gates Rubber Company acquires a controlling interest in Lear Jet Industries. April 11 – A Cessna Skymaster piloted by Whataburger co-founder Harmon Dobson crashes shortly after takeoff in La Porte, Texas, killing Dobson and a business associate. April 17 – Japan Air Lines (JAL) begins a Tokyo-Moscow service using four Tupolev Tu-114 (NATO reporting name "Cleat") airliners reconfigured to a two-class layout with 105-seats and a mixed Aeroflot-JAL crew that includes one JAL flight crew member and a cabin crew of 10, of which five are from JAL and five from Aeroflot. The service continues until 1969, when the airliners are returned to Aeroflot and to their Soviet domestic 200-seat layout. April 18 – Aeroflot and Japan Air Lines jointly inaugurate a Moscow-Tokyo service. April 19 – The third and final launch of the United States Air Force's Martin X-23 PRIME (Precision Reentry Including Maneuvering reEntry) experimental lifting body re-entry vehicle – designed to maneuver during reentry of Earth's atmosphere and be recovered in midair by a specially-equipped Lockheed JC-130B Hercules aircraft – takes place atop an Atlas SLV-3 launch vehicle at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The mission simulates reentry from low Earth orbit with cross-range maneuvers taking the vehicle 710 miles (1,143 kilometers) off its ballistic track. All systems work perfectly and the X-23 is recovered in mid-air by a JC-130B over the Pacific Ocean in condition to fly again, although no further X-23 flights take place. April 20 American aircraft attack power plants in Haiphong, North Vietnam, for the first time.