EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd., trading as EL AL is an Israeli airline and the nation's flag carrier. Since its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in September 1948, the airline has grown to serve almost 50 destinations, operating scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights within Israel, and to Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and the Far East, from its main base in Ben Gurion Airport.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1985.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1972.
In September 1970, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound for New York City and one for London. Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field, a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa, Jordan, formerly Royal Air Force Station Zarqa, which then became PFLP's "Revolutionary Airport". By the end of the incident, one hijacker had been killed and one injury reported. This was the second instance of mass aircraft hijacking, after an escape from communist Czechoslovakia in 1950.
In December 1973, a terrorist group executed a series of attacks originating at Rome-Fiumicino Airport in Italy which resulted in the deaths of 34 people. The attacks began with an airport-terminal invasion and hostage-taking, followed by the firebombing of a Pan Am aircraft and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight.
Kish Airlines is an airline operating from Kish Island, Iran. It operates international, domestic and charter services as a scheduled carrier. Its main bases are Kish International Airport and Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran.
Saha Airlines is an Iranian airline based in Tehran that operates scheduled domestic flights.
Mehrabad International Airport is an airport serving Tehran, the capital city of Iran. Prior to the construction of the larger Imam Khomeini International Airport in 2007, Mehrabad was Tehran's primary airport for both international and domestic traffic, but now serves only domestic flights. Despite this, in 2016, Mehrabad Airport was the busiest airport in Iran in terms of passengers, handling 16,678,351 passengers in total. The airport is also used by the Government of Iran and is one of the bases of the Iranian Air Force.
Aria Air was an airline based in Bandar Abbas, Iran. It operated international and domestic passenger service. Officially, its main base was in Bandar Abbas, but the headquarter was located in Tehran.
Operation "Wooden Leg" was an Israeli airstrike on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Hammam Chott, near Tunis, Tunisia, on 1 October 1985. With a target 1,280 miles (2,060 km) from the operation's starting point, this was the most distant publicly known action undertaken by the Israel Defense Forces since Operation Entebbe in 1976. On 4 October, the airstrike was condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
Sabena Flight 571 was a scheduled passenger flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv via Vienna, operated by the Belgian national airline, Sabena. On 8 May 1972, a Boeing 707 passenger aircraft operating that service, captained by British pilot Reginald Levy, DFC, was hijacked by four members of the Black September Organization, a Palestinian terrorist group. Following their instructions, Captain Levy landed the plane at Lod Airport. The hijackers demanded that Israel release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages. The standoff was ended by an Israeli commando raid in which all of the hijackers were killed or captured.
TWA Flight 840 was a Trans World Airlines flight from Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome, Italy, to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, that was hijacked on 29 August 1969. There were no fatalities although at least two passengers were lightly wounded and the aircraft was significantly damaged. Two hostages were held for two months.
On 2 October 1990, a hijacked Boeing 737, operating Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301, collided with two other aircraft on the runways of the old Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport while attempting to land. The hijacked aircraft struck parked China Southwest Airlines Flight 4305 first, inflicting only minor damage, but then collided with China Southern Airlines Flight 3523, a Boeing 757 waiting to take off, flipping onto its back. A total of 128 people were killed, including seven of nine crew members and 75 of 93 passengers on Flight 8301 and 46 of 110 passengers on Flight 3523.
El Al Flight 426 was an El Al passenger flight hijacked on 23 July 1968 by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), setting off a wave of hijackings by the PFLP. Scholars have characterized the hijacking as significant in the advent of modern international air terrorism.
Aeroflot Flight 3739 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Irkutsk to Leningrad with a stopover in Kurgan. On 8 March 1988, after the Tupolev Tu-154 operating the flight had left Kurgan, it was hijacked by the Ovechkin family, whose members sought to defect from the Soviet Union.
