2002 in aviation

Events

• A depression in North American commercial aviation begins in the aftermath of an economic recession and the 11 September attacks of 2001.
• The Government of Hungary creates the Civil Aviation Safety Bureau of Hungary as the agency responsible for the investigation of aviation accidents in Hungary.
• Air Djibouti ceases operations.

  January

• During January, the Indonesian airline Metro Batavia makes its first flights, operating between Jakarta and Pontianak, Indonesia. The airline later will be renamed Batavia Air.
• 1 January – Norway's Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation – the future Accident Investigation Board Norway – takes on the responsibility for the investigation of railway accidents in Norway and is renamed the Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation and Railways.
• 5 January – A Cessna 172 Skyhawk piloted by high-school student Charles J. Bishop crashes into the side of the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa, Florida, killing the teenager and damaging an office.
• 16 January – Both engines of a Boeing 737-3Q8 operating as Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 with 60 people on board flame out while the aircraft is flying through a thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail during an Indonesian domestic flight from Ampenan on Lombok to Yogyakarta on Java. Unable to restart the engines, the pilots attempt to ditch the aircraft in the Bengawan Solo River on Java. A flight attendant is killed after it strikes a rock; she is the only fatality.
• 27 January – A Russian Interior Ministry Mil Mi-8 helicopter is shot down and explodes near Shelkovskaya in Nadterechny District, Chechnya, killing all 14 people on board. The deputy interior minister, a lieutenant general, a major general, and three colonels are among the dead.
• 28 January – When the pilots of TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-134 registered as HC-BLF and named El Oro, fly an incorrect route in foggy conditions on final approach to Teniente Coronel Luis a Mantilla International Airport in Tulcán, Ecuador, the aircraft flies into the side of the Cumbal Volcano near Ipiales, Colombia, killing all 94 people on board.

  February

• 12 February – Iran Air Tours Flight 956, a Tupolev Tu-154M, crashes in Iran southwest of Tehran, killing all 119 people on board.

  March

• The Indonesian airline Awair suspends operations. It will not resume flights until December 2004, when it begins flying as an associate of AirAsia.
• 4 March – Ansett Australia permanently ceases flight operations for the second and final time due to financial collapse. Its final flight lands the following morning.
• 8 March – A Portuguese Air Force 201 Squadron F-16 crashes in Monte Real while landing, killing the pilot.
• 31 March – Bankrupt Swissair goes out of business. On the same day, the Swiss airline Crossair ceases operations as such and reconstitutes itself as Swiss International Air Lines, which immediately takes over many of Swissair's routes.

  April

• 1 April – Swissair's last flight, Flight 145, arrives in Zürich, Switzerland, from São Paulo, Brazil. The 71-year history of Swissair, during which it has carried more than 260 million passengers, comes to an end.
• 9 April – A Portuguese Air Force 552 Squadron Alouette III crashes, killing the three crewman.
• 15 April – Air China Flight 129, a Boeing 767, crashes on a mountainside near Busan killing 128 of the 166 people on board.
• 18 April – A Rockwell Commander 112 crashes into the upper floors of the Pirelli Tower in Milan, Italy, killing its pilot and four people in the building. Sixty more people in the building and on the ground sustain injuries.

  May

• 3 May – After the pilot of an Indian Air Force MiG-21bis fighter hears an explosion in the aircraft's engine and ejects, the MiG-21 crashes into a bank in Jalandhar, Punjab, India, setting the bank and an adjacent lumber store on fire, showering nearby homes with debris, killing eight people on the ground, and injuring 17 others. The pilot survives.
• 4 May – EAS Airlines Flight 4226 a BAC One-Eleven, crashes shortly after takeoff in Kano, Nigeria, killing 73 of the 77 people on board and 30 people on the ground.
• 7 May
• * EgyptAir Flight 843, a Boeing 737-566, crashes near Tunis, Tunisia, killing 14 of the 62 people on board.
• * China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes near Dalian, China, killing all 112 people on board after a passenger deliberately set the plane on fire.
• 20 May – The Republic of China removes the Aviation Safety Council – the government agency responsible for aviation accident investigation, with the purpose of analyzing causal factors and proposing flight safety recommendations in Taiwan – from the control of the Executive Yuan and makes it an independent government agency, as it had been from May 1998 to May 2001.
• 25 May – China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200B, breaks apart in flight and crashes into the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 passengers and crew. An investigation blames the accident on metal fatigue caused by inadequate maintenance 22 years earlier.

  June

• 1 June – An AirQuarius Aviation British Aerospace BAe 748-372 Srs. 2B on a mail flight misses its first approach at George Airport in George, South Africa, then crashes in the Outeniqua Mountains while maneuvering for a second approach, instantly killing its crew of two and its only passenger, South African cricket player Hansie Cronje. The crew had offered Cronje a seat on the mail flight after he missed his scheduled South African Airways flight.
• 12 June – Returning to the frigate after an exercise, the British Royal Navy Westland Lynx helicopter XZ256 suffers a double engine failure and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing two of the three people on board. The helicopter's observer, Jenny Lewis, is believed to be the first female Royal Navy aviator to die in service.
• 14 June – Estonian Aviation Museum was opened to the general public.
• 17 June – A C-130A Hercules airtanker engaged in aerial firefighting near Walker in Mono County, California, crashes after both of its wings fold upward and separate from the aircraft. The entire crew of three is killed.

  July

• 1 July
• * Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, collides with DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757 cargo aircraft, over the towns of Überlingen and Owingen in southern Germany, killing all 69 people on the Tu-154 and both people on the DHL 757. Forty-five of the dead aboard the Tu-154 are Russian schoolchildren from the city of Ufa in Bashkortostan on a school trip to the Costa Daurada area of Spain organized by the local United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization committee.
• * The captain and first officer of America West Flight 556, an Airbus A319 with 132 people on board, are arrested at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, for being legally drunk just after pushback from the gate for a flight to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. They later are jailed.
• 2 July – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world non-stop in a balloon.
• 4 July
• *An Egyptian-American man, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, opens fire on the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, killing two Israelis and wounding four other people before an El Al security guard shoots him to death.
• *A Prestige Airlines Boeing 707-123B crashes on final approach to Bangui Airport in Brazzaville, Central African Republic, killing 28 of the people on board. There are only two survivors, both of whom are injured.
• 7–14 July – The 15th FAI World Precision Flying Championship takes place in Zagreb, Croatia. The individual winners are 1. Lubos Hajek, 2. Janusz Darocha, 3. Predrag Crnko. Team winners are 1. the Czech Republic, 2. Poland, 3. Croatia.
• 10 July – Unable to land at Hamburg Airport in Hamburg, Germany, Swiss International Air Lines Flight 850, a Saab 2000, diverts to Tegel Airport in Berlin and then to Eberswalde Airfield in Eberswalde, but weather prevents those landings as well. Finally, the aircraft diverts to Werneuchen Airfield at Werneuchen, where it strikes an earth bank that stretches across a closed portion of the runway. The impact rips off its landing gear, and it slides to a halt on its belly on the runway, damaged beyond repair. One passenger suffers injuries.
• 15 July – The European Union's European Aviation Safety Agency is established. It will begin operations in September 2003.
• 16 July – The Sikorsky S-76A helicopter G-BJVX, operated by Bristow Helicopters, crashes in the southern North Sea during a flight between the gas production platform Clipper and the drilling rig Global Santa Fe Monarch, killing all 11 people on board.
• 17 July – Midway Airlines suspends operations.
• 18 July – A Consolidated P4Y-2 Privateer airtanker engaged in aerial firefighting near Estes Park, Colorado, crashes after its left wing folds upward and separates from the aircraft. Its crew of two is killed.
• 26 July – The Africa One Antonov An-26 9Q-CMC, declared to be carrying three tons of cargo but actually badly overloaded with dozens of tons, aborts its takeoff at Kinshasa-N'Djili Airport in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its landing gear collapses and it is damaged beyond repair, although no one is killed or injured in the accident.
• 27 July – During an air show at Sknyliv Airfield in Lviv, Ukraine, the two-man crew of a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter of the Ukrainian Air Force demonstration team, the Ukrainian Falcons, ejects after the Su-27s left wing strikes the ground. The Su-27 then strikes a parked Ilyushin Il-76 and cartwheels into a crowd of spectators, killing 58 adults and 19 children and injuring over 500 people.
• 29 July
• *Vanguard Airlines ceases operations. The next day it files for reorganization under Chapter 11 of United States bankruptcy law.
• July–December – Italian conservationist and pilot Angelo d'Arrigo guides a flock of 10 endangered Western Siberian cranes bred in captivity with a foot-launched powered hang glider 5,500 km from the Arctic Circle in Siberia across Kazakhstan to the shores of the Caspian Sea in Iran, avoiding Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he feared the birds would fall victim to the abundant guns there.