This is a list of aviation-related events from 1981.
The deadliest crash of this year was Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 which crashed into mountainous terrain on the island of Corsica, France on 1 December, killing all 180 people on board. The second deadliest of the 1980s took place only 3 months before, when Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103, also a Boeing 737, was destroyed by a in-flight breakup over the Miaoli County west of Sanyi Township on 22 August, killing all 110 people on board.