This is a list of aviation-related events from 1969.
Events The Canadian Snowbirds aerobatic team is formed. A fifth annual Harmon Trophy is created to honor the worlds outstanding astronaut of the year and is awarded for the first time, honoring the outstanding astronauts of 1968. Interflug begins operation of the Tupolev Tu-134, its first jet airliner.
January January 1 – Agrolet is renamed Slov-Air. January 2 A hijacker commandeers an Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6B during a domestic flight in Greece from Heraklion, Crete, to Athens and forces it to fly to Cairo, Egypt. Three hijackers take control of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Douglas DC-8 with 146 people on board flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Miami, Florida, and force it to fly them to Cuba. January 5 – The flight crew of Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701, a Boeing 727-113C, fails to extend the airliner's flaps while on approach to London Gatwick Airport in heavy fog. The plane crashes short of the runway, striking a house in Horley, Surrey, England, killing 48 of the 62 people on board and two people on the ground. All 14 survivors are injured, as is one person on the ground. January 7 – A male passenger hijacks Avianca Flight 654, a Douglas DC-4 (registration HK-1028) making a domestic flight in Colombia from Riohacha to Maicao with 60 people on board, and demands that it fly him to Cuba. After a refueling stop at Barranquilla, Colombia, the airliner continues to Cuba, landing at Santiago de Cuba. January 9 – Saying he hates the United States, loves the Soviet Union, and is on the run from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 21-year-old Ronald Bohle hijacks Eastern Airlines Flight 831, a Boeing 727 flying from Miami, Florida, to Nassau in the Bahamas with 79 people on board, and demands to be flown to Cuba. He holds a flight attendant hostage with a 7-inch (17.8-cm) switchblade until disembarking in Cuba, where he is imprisoned. January 11 Believing himself to be a key operative in a large conspiracy by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate Fidel Castro, Robert "Red" Helmey enters the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 459 – a Boeing 727 flying from Savannah, Georgia, to Miami, Florida, with 20 people on board – with a .38-caiber pistol and orders the flight crew to fly him to Havana, Cuba. The Cubans imprison him upon arrival, keeping him in solitary confinement for 109 days before allowing him to return to the United States. A hijacker takes control of an Aérolíneas Peruanas (APSA) Convair CV-990 Coronado flying from Panama City, Panama, to Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly to Cuba. January 13 With its cockpit crew so occupied with attempting to diagnose the lack of a nose gear green light that they inadvertently allow its rate of descent to increase while on approach to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, the Scandinavian Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62 Sverre Viking, operating as Flight 933 with 45 people on board, crashes in Santa Monica Bay short of the runway and breaks into three pieces, two of which sink immediately. Fifteen people die, and 17 of the 30 survivors are injured. Accompanied by his three-year-old son, Kenneth McPeek jams a sawed-off shotgun in the back of a flight attendant aboard Delta Air Lines Flight 297 – a Convair CV-880 flying from Detroit, Michigan, to Miami, Florida, with 77 people on board – and demands that it fly to Cuba. As the flight attendant informs the pilot of the hijacking, she closes the door to the cockpit, locking McPeek out. With McPeek not threatening anyone after that, the captain lands at Miami, where McPeek surrenders quietly. January 14 The United States Navy announces that the Grumman F-14 Tomcat has won the competition for a new long-range fleet air defense fighter.Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: A Premier Fighter", Naval History, April 2012, p. 13. Off Hawaii, a MK-32 Zuni rocket loaded on a parked F-4 Phantom II aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier explodes after being overheated by an aircraft start unit mounted to a tow tractor."Today in History", The Washington Post Express, January 14, 2013, p. 26. The explosion sets off fires and additional explosions across the flight deck, killing 27 and injuring 314 men and knocking the ship out of action until 1 March. January 18 – United Airlines Flight 266, a Boeing 727-22C, crashes into Santa Monica Bay off the coast of California four minutes after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport. All 38 people on board die. January 19 A hijacker commandeers Eastern Airlines Flight 9, a Douglas DC-8 with 171 people on board flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly to Cuba. Ten hijackers take control of an Ecuatoriana Lockheed L-188 Electra during a domestic flight in Ecuador from Guayaquil to Quito, demanding to be flown to Cuba. January 22 – The U.S. 9th Marine Regiment begins Operation Dewey Canyon – an operation dependent completely on helicopters – in South Vietnams Da Krong Valley. It will conclude on March 19, rated as the 9th Marines′ most successful operation of the Vietnam War.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 130. January 24 – A hijacker commandeers National Airlines Flight 424, a Boeing 727 flying from Key West, Florida, to New York City with 47 people on board, and forces it to fly to Cuba. January 28 Armed with a .38-caliber revolver and what they claim is dynamite, prison escapees Bryon Vaughn Booth and Clinton Robert Smith hijack National Airlines Flight 64 – a Douglas Super DC-8 flying from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Miami, Florida, with 32 people on board – and force it to fly to Havana, Cuba, where Cuban authorities arrest and imprison them. Armed with a single revolver, Everett White, Noble Mason, and Larry Brooks hijack Eastern Airlines Flight 121 – a Douglas DC-8 flying from Atlanta, Georgia, to Miami, Florida, with 113 people on board – and force it to fly to Cuba. To prevent panic, the captain does not inform the passengers that the airliner is diverting to Cuba. January 31 – A hijacker commandeers National Airlines Flight 44, a Douglas DC-8 flying from San Francisco, California, to Tampa, Florida, with 63 people on board, and forces it to fly to Cuba.
February February 3 Armed with a paring knife and a can of insect repellent they claim is a bomb, 21-year-old Michael Peparo and his girlfriend, 18-year-old Tamsin Fitzgerald, hijack National Airlines Flight 73, a Boeing 727 flying from New York City to Miami, Florida, with 70 people on board, and demand to be flown to Cuba, where they hope to be together and work in the sugar cane fields. After the captain tells Peparo that the Cubans will imprison them for 25 years, they agree to land in Miami instead, where they release all the passengers. U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents then storm the plane and arrest them. Four hijackers commandeer Eastern Airlines Flight 7, a Boeing 727 flying from Newark, New Jersey, to Miami, Florida, and demand to be flown to Cuba. February 4 – The last surviving XB-70 Valkyrie – the U.S. Air Force's XB-70A Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – makes its last flight, a subsonic trip from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where it is retired and will be placed on display at what is now the National Museum of the United States Air Force. February 5 – A male passenger hijacks SAM Colombia Flight 601, a Douglas C-54G-1-DO Skymaster (registration HK-1065) with 47 people on board, during a domestic flight in Colombia from Barranquilla to Cartagena and forces it to fly him to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba. February 8 – Demanding to be flown to Cuba, a hijacker attempts to take control of a Douglas DC-6 airliner during a flight in Mexico from Mexico City to Villahermosa, but is subdued. February 10 – Armed with a pistol, Peter Alvarez takes a stewardess hostage aboard Eastern Airlines Flight 950 – a Douglas DC-8 with 119 people on board flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida – and demands that it fly him to Cuba so that he can be with his ailing father. The professional wrestler Larry "Abdullah the Butcher" Shreve, a passenger on the plane, moves to subdue the Alvarez, but steward Vincent Doccolo interposes himself between the two men and manages to talk Shreve out of it. After the plane lands at Havana, Cuba, its passengers are detained for five hours, but then are allowed to depart aboard the same plane – a break from the Cuban policy in the nine previous U.S. airliner hijackings in 1969 and most of the 14 such occurrences in 1968, in which Cuban authorities had required passengers to disembark and await transportation back to the United States aboard a different aircraft.Taylor, Charles E., "Airline Steward Was Hero on Hijacked Jet," United Press International, in The Times-News, Hendersonville, North Carolina, February 11, 1969, p. 3. February 11 – Three hijackers take control of a Linea Aeropostal Venezolana (LAV) Douglas DC-9 flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida, and force it to fly to Cuba. February 18 Four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack El Al Flight 432, a Boeing 720-058B with 28 people on board, with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades while it is preparing for takeoff at Zurich Airport in Zürich, Switzerland, mortally wounding the first officer and injuring six other people. An Israeli undercover security guard on the plane opens fire on the attackers from a cockpit window, then gets off the plane and continues to fire on them, killing their leader before Swiss police arrive and arrest him and the three surviving attackers. The incident reveals for the first time that armed security personnel ride aboard Israeli airliners. Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708, a Douglas DC-3, crashes into a sheer cliff face on Mount Whitney near Lone Pine, California, killing all 35 people on board. The planes wreckage will not be found until August 8. February 24 – Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 104, a Handley Page Dart Herald, suffers the failure of an engine and attempts to make an emergency landing at Tainan Airport in Tainan City on Taiwan. Before reaching the airport, the plane belly-lands in a clearing in a wooded area, skids into a creek, breaks into three pieces, and catches fire, killing all 36 people on board. February 25 – Shortly after takeoff from Atlanta, Georgia, a male passenger armed with a .22-caliber pistol hijacks Eastern Airlines Flight 955, a Douglas DC-8 bound for Miami, Florida, and forces it to fly to Havana, Cuba, where he remains after the airliner returns to the United States.
March During March, the Indonesian airline PT Sempati Air Transport begins flight operations, using Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In 1994 it will change its name to Sempati Air. March 1 The Republic-of-China-government-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), is established in Taiwan.Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the Worlds Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, , p. 72. The U.S. Armys 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) begins Operation Massachusetts Striker, a helicopter-borne assault against North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnams A Shau Valley. It will continue until May 8.Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 129-130. March 3 – The United States Navy establishes its Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar, California, to improve its fighter pilots′ dogfighting skills. The school will become popularly known as "TOPGUN."