2016 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 2016:

Years in aviation: 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Centuries: 20th century · 21st century · 22nd century
Decades: 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s
Years: 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Events

January
2 January
  • Indian aerial surveillance platforms detect a group of gunmen entering an Indian Air Force base at Pathankot, India, and Indian Air Force security forces exchange fire with them in a housing area. Four of the gunmen and two Indian Air Force security personnel are killed. Gunfire erupts again two hours later, and Indian helicopters fire on gunmen in the base later in the day. Indian security forces finally declare the base secure in the late afternoon, 14 hours after the intrusion began.[2][3][4]
3 January
4 January
  • Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority suspends all civilian flights between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The move, which comes a day after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran, raises doubts about the future ability of Islamic pilgrims from Iran to visit Mecca and of Shiite pilgrims from Saudi Arabia to visit religious sites in Iran.[7]
  • John Boggs files suit against William Merideth for shooting down his unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Bullitt County, Kentucky, with a shotgun as the UAV hovered over Merideth's property, asserting that the drone was in public airspace when it was shot down and requesting $1,800 in damages and clarification as to how high above private property public airspace begins. Merideth had claimed the UAV was spying on his family and violating his privacy. The case promises to spur the U.S. judicial system to clarify where private property rights end and federal jurisdiction begins in U.S. airspace, with a significant potential impact on future private and commercial UAV operations.[8][9]
5 January
  • When two United States Air Force Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters attempt to evacuate wounded Afghan military personnel near Marjah, Afghanistan, one strikes a wall and is disabled and the other is ordered to abort the mission under heavy ground fire. One American is killed and two wounded in the incident; they are the first U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in 2016.[10]
7 January
  • Iran claims that an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition operating against rebel forces in Yemen struck its embassy in Sana'a overnight. Local residents and press observers report no signs of damage at the embassy.[11]
  • A report by the inspector general of the United States Department of Transportation to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expresses a concern that airline pilots have become so reliant on automation technology to fly their aircraft that they have lost the skills necessary to take manual control of an airliner in order to deal promptly and effectively with unforeseen events. The FAA responds that it will require enhancements in pilot training for the manual flight of aircraft, and the Air Line Pilots Association endorses the need for well-trained aircrew aboard airliners.[12][13]
8 January
9 January
10 January
12 January
  • An unarmed Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle flies near the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and directly over the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) as they operate in international waters in the Persian Gulf. Iran will announce the flight and release purported video from it on 29 January – implying that the video had been taken earlier that day rather than on 12 January – and a United States Fifth Fleet spokesman will respond by calling the flight "abnormal and unprofessional."[18]
  • An air-and-bus bridge begins operating as a pilot program to help 8,000 Cuban immigrants stranded in Costa Rica since Nicaragua closed its border to them on 13 November 2015 by allowing them to fly out of Costa Rica and reach Mexico, from which they can emigrate to the United States. The first flight of the air-and-bus bridge departs Liberia, Costa Rica, during the evening as part of regional agreement to help the Cubans bypass Nicaragua.[19]
13 January
  • An Israeli Air Force aircraft strikes a group of Palestinians – members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade – on a beach in the northern Gaza Strip near the Israeli border fence, killing one and injuring three others. The Israel Defense Force claims that they were planting explosives with which to target Israeli soldiers patrolling the border on the other side of the fence.[20]
14 January
15 January
  • A late-evening U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle-launched air-to-ground missile strike kills three suspected al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula members as they drive in a car in Yemen's Shabwa Governorate.[27]
  • SpaceX successfully fires the engines of the first stage of Falcon 9 rocket it had used to launch a satellite into orbit and then landed successfully on land in December 2015, the first time in a history a rocket stage had made a soft, controlled landing. The firing of the engines demonstrates the feasibility of reusing the rocket stage, an important step in the development of reusable rockets that make space launches less expensive.[28]
16 January
17 January
  • After successfully launching the Jason-3 satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket touches down on a landing platform in the Pacific Ocean 200 miles (320 km) off California softly enough to land successfully, but topples over when of its landing legs fails to lock in place and collapses. It is SpaceX's third attempt to land a Falcon 9 first stage at sea; the two previous attempts, both in 2015, also had been unsuccessful, although SpaceX had made history's first successful landing of a reusable rocket stage – also of a Falcon 9 – on land in December 2015.[28]
  • Just before midnight, aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition strike a police facility in Sana'a, Yemen, used by both security forces and the Houthi rebels as an assembly point, killing 26 people and injuring 15. The dead and wounded are all policemen and Houthi rebels.[30]
21 January
  • An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition against a rebel-held facility at Ras Isa on Yemen's Red Sea coast used to load tanker trucks with refined petroleum products for distribution in rebel-held areas of Yemen destroys trucks and starts a large fire, killing at least nine and perhaps as many as 16 people and injuring at least 30.[31]
22 January
  • Aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition strike targets across Yemen, killing dozens of people. Houthi rebels in Saada Governorate report that the strikes kill 26 people in Dahyan, including the driver of a Doctors Without Borders ambulance. Strikes against rebel weapon depots on the mountain of Nahdeen kill another 22 people, and strikes in Hodeida targeting trucks carrying smugged oil from the port there to rebel forces kill another 10 people. Strikes also target gatherings of Houthis and rebel Yemeni Army units allied with them in Al Jawf Governorate, Dhamar, ad Taiz.[32]
  • The United States Fish and Wildlife Service announces that after the 2016 season it will end its support of the use of ultralight aircraft to lead whooping cranes on their migration from Wisconsin to the Florida Gulf Coast each autumn in Operation Migration. A conclusion by experts in whooping crane biology that human intervention such as ultralight flights impairs the ability of the cranes to learn the parenting skills necessary to raise chicks in the wild prompts the decision to end support.[33]
26 January
  • The United States Department of the Treasury announces the lifting of major U.S. trade and travel restrictions on Cuba. The new regulations allow code sharing between U.S. and Cuban airlines, airplane-leasing deals in the United States for Cuba, and permission for U.S. airline crews to travel to Cuba.[34]
28 January
  • Iran agrees to buy 118 airliners – 73 wide-body and 45 narrow-body – from Airbus in a deal worth $27,000,000,000. The purchase consists of 12 A380, 16 A350-1000, 45 A330, and 45 A320-family aircraft. The deal is contingent on Airbus receiving export licenses from the United States, where 10 percent of parts for Airbus aircraft are manufactured. Iran, which first plans to focus on expansion of its airports and more urgent civil aviation needs, does not plan to take delivery of the airliners until ca. 2020.[35]

February
1 February
  • Two evening airstrikes by U.S. aircraft operating as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervention in Afghanistan level the Islamic State of Afghanistan "Voice of the Caliphate" radio station, knocking it off the air during its nightly illegal propaganda broadcast from Nangarhar Province's Achin District. The strikes combined with Afghan Army ground operations kill 29 Islamic State supporters, including eight who worked for the radio station and an associated Internet operation.[36][37]
2 February
  • Daallo Airlines Flight 159, an Airbus A321-100 (registration SX-BHS) with 81 people on board flying from Mogadishu, Somalia, to Djibouti City, Djibouti, experiences an explosion which sets one passenger on fire and blows a hole in the fuselage, through which the burning passenger is sucked from the plane at an altitude of 4,300 m (14,000 ft). The airliner returns to Mogadishu and lands safely. The burned body of the man sucked from the plane is found near Balad, Somalia; two other people on board the plane suffer minor injuries.
7 February
  • A strike by unidentified aircraft hits a medical technology college in Derna, Libya, killing four people. The area is held by a coalition of Islamic militant groups who have been defending it from the Islamic State.[38]
8 February
  • Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau announces that Canada will withdraw its six CF-18 Hornets from bombing missions against the Islamic State within two weeks, but will extend its non-combat air support to the U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State until 31 March 2017, using one CC-150 Polaris aerial refueling aircraft and up to two CP-140 Aurora reconnaissance planes.[39]
  • A panel of the International Civil Aviation Organization proposes history's first worldwide standards for carbon dioxide emissions for aircraft; the standards would apply to all new aircraft designs beginning in 2020 and to all newly delivered aircraft beginning in 2023. Environmental groups criticize the standard for not addressing emissions by existing aircraft or new aircraft designed before 2020 or delivered before 2023.[40]
10 February
15 February
  • Villagers and rebel forces in southwestern Somalia claim that a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has crashed in a village there. The United States responds that all of its UAVs have returned safely from their missions and are accounted for.[43]
17–18 February
18 February
  • The United States Government grants Boeing a license allowing the company to enter into talks with airlines in Iran about sales of airliners. Iran's aging airliner fleet and lack of Boeing 777s raises the possibility of significant sales for Boeing, although the company will require additional approval from the United States Government ensuring the legitimacy of any transactions before actually selling Iran any aircraft.[45]
19 February
20 February
  • The Government of Serbia claims that the 19 February U.S. airstrike in Sabratha, Libya, killed two Serbian diplomats. The United States Department of Defense responds that it does not believe the Serbians were at the targeted location during the airstrike and that the condition of their bodies is inconsistent with death in the airstrike.[49]
21 February
22 February
  • Russia requests permission to fly surveillance flights over the United States under the Treaty on Open Skies using Tupolev Tu-154 (NATO reporting name "Careless") aircraft equipped with new, high-powered digital cameras. The request prompts a debate within the United States Government over whether it is a small concession worth making in order to keep the treaty viable or a violation of the spirit of the treaty that would allow surveillance unintended when the treaty was signed in 1992. The treaty, signed by 34 countries, has been in force since 2002.[52]
24 February
25 February
  • In the morning, Turkish Army Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters attack a group of Kurdistan Workers Party personnel as they travel through a mountainous area near the İdil district of Turkey's Şırnak Province, killing nine of them.[53]
  • In the evening, Turkish Air Force jets based at Diyarbakir, Turkey, strike Kurdistan Workers Party logistical centers, ammunition depots, and shelters in northern Iraq,[54]
26 February
27 February
  • Airstrikes attributed to the Saudi-led coalition targeting advancing rebel forces hit a market area in the Nehm region outside Sana'a, Yemen, killing at least 30 people and injuring at least 30 more.[58]
29 February
  • An American tourist turns over to authorities in Mozambique what appears to be part of the skin of a Boeing 777 horizontal stabilizer found over the preceding weekend on a sandbar in the Indian Ocean just off the country's coast, raising expectations that it will turn out to be debris from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 missing since 8 March 2014.[59]
  • In the United States, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces that it has awarded a $20 million contract to Lockheed Martin to develop a quiet supersonic demonstration passenger aircraft using Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). NASA hopes that the new technology, which allows aircraft flying at supersonic speeds to make only a soft thump instead of a loud and damaging sonic boom, will prompt the development of a new generation of "low-boom" supersonic transports that can fly over populated areas at supersonic speeds.[60]
  • The United States has conducted 135 airstrikes in Yemen since its air campaign there began, five of them since 1 January. The strikes have killed more that 650 al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula personnel and 105 civilians.[61]

March
3 March
  • A man finds a 40-by-40-centimeter (about 15.5-by-15.5-inch) square-shaped piece of debris with a blue border on a beach on Réunion in the Indian Ocean in almost the same place he found a flaperon from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in July 2015. He turns it in to authorities the following day, raising hopes that it is also from Flight 370, missing since 8 March 2014.[62]
4 March
  • SpaceX successfully launches a satellite payload into space using an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, but its attempt to land the rocket's first stage on a floating platform – termed an "autonomous space port droneship" by SpaceX founder Elon Musk – is only partially successful: although the first stage lands on the platform, the landing is too hard for a successful recovery.[63]
  • The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) responds to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) November 2015 rejection of the NTSB's April 2014 recommendation that the FAA establish licensing requirements and safety standards for commercial balloon tour operators and make them subject to FAA safety inspections, regulating them in a manner similar to the way it regulates commercial airplane and helicopter tour operators. In its response, the NTSB informs the FAA that it finds the rejection unacceptable and that its recommendation remains open.[64][65][66][67]
5 March
  • A series of U.S. airstrikes by manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles against an Al-Shabaab training camp in Raso, Somalia, kills over 150 Al-Shabaab personnel.[47]
7 March
  • African Parks Network announces that the remains of its employee, American anti-poaching pilot Bill Fitzpatrick, have been recovered from a crash site in Cameroon. Fiztpatrick had disappeared on 22 June 2014 during a flight to a job in Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo. Local residents had discovered the wreckage of Fitzpatrick's plane in April 2015, but the remote site and dense vegetation in the area had made it difficult for helicopters to land there and bureaucratic procedures of the Government of Cameroon also had delayed the recovery of Fitzpatrick's remains.[68]
  • Boeing announces that it has filed a patent for a self-cleaning airplane lavatory which can sanitize itself in three seconds using far-ultraviolet light. The lavatory also features a hands-free faucet, soap dispenser, trash flap, toilet lid, toilet seat, and hand dryer, and Boeing reports that it also is designing a hands-free door latch and is studying the design of a hands-free system to lift and close the toilet seat so that all surfaces are exposed to the far-ultraviolet light during the cleaning cycle. Once Boeing offers the new lavatories to customers, it is expected to take years for airlines to update their fleets with them.[69]
8 March
  • U.S. Special Operations Forces conduct a joint U.S.-Somali helicopter raid against al-Shabaab in Somalia. The United States Department of Defense announces that U.S. forces play only an advisory role and do not accompany the Somali forces on the raid, although the helicopters employed are U.S. military helicopters flown by U.S. crews.[70]
9 March
12 March
  • A South African family announces that it contacted aviation authorities in South Africa during the previous week to report a piece of debris their teenaged son had found on a beach in Mozambique on 30 December 2015 which they had taken home to South Africa. Aviation officials plan to examine it to see if it is from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.[72]
  • In response to a rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip the previous evening, the Israeli Air Force conducts airstrikes against four Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip. In one of the airstrikes, an air-to-ground missile strikes a family home on the perimeter of one of the sites, killing two Palestinian children.[73]
13 March
  • As a result of the accident investigation into the 25 March 2015 crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, French aviation authorities call for stricter international monitoring of the mental health of pilots as well as guidelines under which doctors would be required to report pilots whose psychological condition might put flight safety at risk. In their report, the French also urge German authorities to limit the legal penalties imposed on doctors who breach patient confidentiality in good faith in order to report psychological problems among pilots and to clearly define the types of health issues in airline pilots that can represent an "imminent danger" to flight safety.[74]
14 March
  • In response to a suicide car bomb explosion in Ankara, Turkey, that killed at least 37 people the previous day, Turkish Air Force jets strike at least 18 Kurdistan Workers Party positions in northern Iraq, including ammunition depots, bunkers, and shelters.[75]
15 March
16 March
  • New United States Department of the Treasury regulations go into effect that among other things allow increased travel to Cuba by American citizens and allow U.S. airlines to open offices in Cuba. The changes are expected to improve the market for commercial air travel between the United States and Cuba.[82]
17 March
  • Saudi Arabia announces that its military coalition will scale back its operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen – maintaining only "small" teams of coalition forces on the ground to advise, train, and equip Yemeni forces – but will continue to provide air support to Yemeni forces battling the rebels.[77]
  • Boasting that Russia's 167-day intervention in Syria saved the regime of Syrian President Basher al-Assad from defeat at a coast of only $480 million, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia could restore its military presence in Syria in a metter of hours if necessary and will maintain a powerful surface-to-air missile force there. He warns that Russia will respond with force if any rebel group breaks the Syrian ceasefire and or any attacks against Russian forces still in Syria occur, and suggests that Russia will intervene militarily in Syria again if it believes the Assad regime is in danger of losing power.[83]
19 March
  • Flydubai Flight 981, a Boeing 737-8KN (registration A6-FDN), aborts two landing attempts in poor visibility at Rostov-on-Don Airport in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, making a go-around after each attempt. During its second go-around, it suddenly goes into a rapid descent from an altitude of 4,050 feet (1,230 meters) and crashes, killing all 62 people on board. It is the first fatal accident in Flydubai's seven-year history.
  • Unidentified aircraft strike Islamic State-held Raqqa, Syria, killing at least 39 – and perhaps as many as 43 – people and reportedly injuring at least 50 others. Different observers report the attacking aircraft as either Russian Federation Air Force or Syrian Air Force jets.[84]
  • Unidentified aircraft strike Islamic State targets in Palmyra, Syria, killing seven Islamic State personnel during a Syrian Arab Army offensive to retake Palmyra.[84]
21 March
  • A South African archaeologist finds a piece of debris on a beach in southern South Africa. The following day, Malaysia's Minister of Transport, Liow Tiong Lai, will announce the discovery and that the debris bears an aircraft engine manufacturer's and logo and will be examined to determine whether it is from the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.[85]
22 March
  • Two terrorist bombs detonate at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, Belgium, killing at least 11 people and injuring around 100 others. The airport will remain closed until 3 April, with flights re-routed to nearby cities. A third bomb later explodes at Maelbeek (or Maalbeek) metro station in the City of Brussels, killing another 20 people and injuring another 130. The Islamic State claims responsibility for all three bomb blasts.[86][87][88]
  • U.S. aircraft conduct a strike against an al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula training camp in the mountains of Yemen. The United States Department of Defense announces that the attack killed "dozens" of the group's personnel.[61]
27 March
  • Suspected U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle strikes hit courtyards in two villages in Yemen with air-to-ground missiles, killing eight al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula members. Later in the day, a U.S. aircraft bombs a former Yemeni government intelligence building in Yemen's Abyan Governorate that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is using as a base, killing 14 members of the group.[89]
  • The Portuguese regional airline Portugália is rebranded as Tap Express.
27–28 March (overnight)
  • Aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition strike rebel targets in the suburbs of Aden, Yemen.[90]
28 March
  • Unidentified aircraft thought to belong to the Saudi-led coalition strike rebel targets in Yemen's Hadhramaut region southeast of Mukalla.[90]
29 March
31 March
  • Heavy airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition support the beginning of an offensive by Iraqi military forces to take the city of Hīt, Iraq, from the Islamic State. Over the previous week, the coalition has conducted 17 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in the Hīt area in preparation for the offensive.[93]
  • An airstrike by a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle 32 km (20 mi) from Jilib, Somalia, hits a ground vehicle carrying senior Al-Shabaab leader and al-Qaeda member Hassan Ali Dhoore and two other Al-Shabaab members.[94]

April
2 April
3 April
  • The Government of Australia announces that debris apparently from the interior of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 – a Boeing 777 missing since March 2014 – found by hotel guests on Mauritius during the previous week will be examined to ascertain whether or not it is from the missing airliner. It would be the first piece of the debris from the aircraft's interior to be recovered.[96]
  • Supported by Russian Federation Air Force airstrikes, Syrian Arab Army troops on the offensive against Islamic State forces retake Qaryatain, Syria.[97]
  • A U.S. airstrike against a senior al-Qaeda operational meeting in Syria's Idlib Governorate at the headquarters of Jund al-Aqsa, which fights alongside the Nusra Front in the Syrian Civil War, kills 21 Islamic militants, including senior al-Qaeda member Abu Firas al-Souri.[97]
  • On a limited basis, flight operations resume at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, Belgium, for the first time since the terrorist bombings there on 22 March. Only three flights, all Brussels Airlines departures, operate from the airport during the day.[88]
4 April
  • During takeoff from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, Batik Air Flight 7703, a Boeing 737-8GP(WL) (registration PK-LBS) carrying 56 people, collides with a TransNusa Air Services ATR 42-600 (registration PK-TNJ) being towed to a hangar with four people on board. The Boeing 737's left wing slices off the ATR 42's vertical stabilizer and outer left wing, and the Boeing 737's badly damaged left wing bursts into flames. All aboard both aircraft evacuate safely.[98]
  • Supported by heavy airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition targeting Islamic State forces and position, Iraqi government forces enter the city of Hīt, Iraq, a week after operations to retake it from the Islamic State began.[99]
  • The Syrian Arab Army releases video revealing that Russian Kamov Ka-52 Alligator (NATO reporting name "Hokum B") attack helicopters are operating in Syria. The video – purportedly the first video of the Ka-25 in combat ever made public – shows Ka-25s firing rockets at Islamic State forces in Syria near Qaryatain.[100][101]
  • A Bell 206 sightseeing helicopter crashes in the Smoky Mountains near Sevierville, Tennessee, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, killing all five people on board.[102]
  • Alaska Air agrees to buy Virgin America for $2,600,000,000; including debt and aircraft leases, the deal is worth about $4,000,000,000. The combined airline will have 1,200 daily departures and hubs in Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. Virgin America had operated since 2007.[103]
5 April
  • Traveling from his sanctuary in Turkey to mediate a dispute between the Nusra Front and other Islamist groups in Syria, Al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Refai Taha is killed by an air-to-ground missile fired by a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle when his car stops for fuel near Idlib, Syria.[104]
  • A surface-to-air-missile fired from rebel-held territory in Syria near Aleppo shoots down a Syrian Arab Air Force reconnaissance plane. Its pilot ejects.[105]
  • Morecambe Bay Community Primary School in Morecambe, England, launches a helium balloon carrying a toy stuffed dog named Sam, a GoPro camera, and a GPS navigation device from the grounds of a hotel in Morecambe as part of a school science project. Ascending at 6 metres (20 feet) per second, the balloon reaches an altitude of 24 km (15 mi) without incident, but bursts during its descent and plummets to the ground, landing in a field in Burnley, 48 km (30 mi) from its launch site, where the camera and GPS device are recovered. Sam is missing from the wreckage, prompting a search for the stuffed animal within a radius of 64 to 80 km (40 to 50 mi) of the landing site.[106]
6 April
  • A panel commissioned by the United States Government recommends that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration lift its ban on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or "drones") flying over people and issue new regulations that require only that UAVs fly no lower than 20 feet (6.1 meters) above people and come no closer to people than 10 feet (3.0 meters) while taking off or landing.[107]
7 April
8 April
  • After several unsuccessful attempts, SpaceX successfully lands the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a platform – which SpaceX refers to as an "autonomous spaceport drone ship" – floating in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida after a launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The landing occurs nine minutes after liftoff.[109]
  • Jetpack International vice president Nick Macomber crashes headfirst into the ground during a routine test flight of a jet pack he is flying in Denver, Colorado, falling 20 feet (6.1 meters) to the ground after the jet pack malfunctions. He is injured, but is released from a hospital the following day.[110]
10 April
  • Unidentified aircraft conduct airstrikes around Raqqa, Syria, killing dozens of Islamic State personnel and civilians.[111]
11 April
12 April
  • A Russian Mil Mi-28N (NATO reporting name "Havoc") attack helicopter crashes in Syria, killing its two-man crew. The Russian Ministry of Defense announces that the helicopter was not shot down and blames the crash on bad weather. The increasing number of reports of Russian helicopter operations in Syria since late March have led Western military analysts to conclude that Russia's supposed withdrawal of its military aviation forces from Syria in mid-March was in reality merely the replacement of some Russian Federation Air Force jets there with attack helicopters more suitable to the support of Syrian Arab Army ground operations against rebel forces.[101]
  • Russian aircraft fly in close proximity to the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) in the Baltic Sea for a second straight day. First, a Kamov Ka-27 (NATO reporting name "Helix") helicopter makes seven low circles around Donald Cook (DDG-75) in what the ship's commanding officer criticizes as an "unprofessional" manner. Forty minutes later, two Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name "Fencer") jets make 11 close-range, low-level passes which Donald Cook's crew assesses as fitting a simulated attack profile.[112]
13 April
14 April
  • United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announces that the United States will begin to send combat aircraft to the Philippines on regular and more frequent rotations and will conduct more air patrols jointly with Philippine forces in the South China Sea in order to help reduce growing tensions between the Philippines and the People's Republic of China over their competing claims in the South China Sea.[113]
17 April
18 April
  • U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announces that U.S. forces sent to assist the Iraqi armed forces in recapturing Mosul from the Islamic State will include AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.[117]
  • Making an implementation flight to test the route, ground operations, and handling, ahead of the beginning of scheduled airline services at Saint Helena Airport, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Comair for British Airways becomes the first passenger jet capable of seating 100 or more passengers to land on Saint Helena. High winds prevent the airliner from landing until its third attempt, indicating that wind shear conditions at the airport are dangerous for large commercial aircraft.[118][119]
19 April
  • Four United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II (nicknamed "Warthog") close air support aircraft of the 51st Fighter Wing fly a patrol over the South China Sea west of Luzon from Clark Air Base in the Philippines. The maritime patrol mission is an unusual one for the A-10, but the U.S. Department of Defense announces that it is only the first of a planned series of joint South China Sea air patrols by U.S. and Philippine forces with goals of "air- and maritime-domain awareness, personnel recovery, combating piracy, and [the] assurance [that] all nations have access to the regional air and maritime domains in accordance with international law." The People's Republic of China, which claims the areas to be patrolled as its internal waters, condemns the planned patrols as reflecting a "Cold War mentality."[120]
  • A pro-Syrian-government aircraft strikes the main market in Maarat al-Nu'man, Syria, with two air-to-ground rockets while it is crowded with people shopping for fruits and vegetables, killing at least 37 people. It is unclear whether the attacking jet belonged to the Syrian Arab Air Force or the Russian Federation Air Force.[121]
20 April
  • United States Central Command reveals that the authority to order airstrikes that might endanger civilians, originally given only to its top commander, has been delegated to its commander in Baghdad and his deputies.[122]
21 April
  • After a delay of almost 10 months, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) takes off from Kalaeloa Airport in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, bound for Mountain View, California, on the ninth leg of its round-the-world flight to resume its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using a drop of fossil fuel. The flight, with Bertrand Piccard at the controls, is expected to take about 62 hours. Solar Impulse 2 had been at Kalaeloa since completing the eighth leg of its flight on 3 July 2015, delayed first by repairs necessitated by damage caused by an overheated battery and then by the need to wait for spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when periods of daylight become long enough for the plane to charge its batteries in flight.[123][124]
  • The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismisses an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking access under the Freedom of Information Act to details of the Central Intelligence Agency's program of lethal airstrikes using unmanned aerial vehicles (or "drones") outside of the ongoing War in Afghanistan and Iraqi Civil War. The court finds that releasing such details to the public "could reasonably be expected to damage national security," and that "[t]he agency's explanations as to why the records are classified are both 'logical' and 'plausible' and uncontroverted by evidence in the record."[125]
  • Doug Hughes is sentenced to four months in prison for an unauthorized gyrocopter flight from Pennsylvania he made on 15 April 2015 that ended with a landing on the United States Capitol Building grounds in Washington, D.C. He made the flight to protest the influence of money in American politics.[126]
22 April
  • Syrian Arab Air Force raids on rebel-held parts of Aleppo kill at least 19 people. Additional government airstrikes in Idlib Governorate also kill people in areas under rebel control.[127]
  • U.S. Central Command announces that between 10 September 2015 and 2 February 2016 its airstrikes in Iraq and Syria killed 20 civilians and injured 11 more. The airstrikes killed two civilians in Kabisa, Iraq, on 10 September 2015; eight in Atshanah, Iraq, while hitting an Islamic State mortar position on 5 October 2015; one in Ramadi, Iraq, during a strike against Islamic State combat personnel on 12 November 2015; one near Raqqa, Syria, on 10 December 2015; five in Ramadi while hitting an Islamic State checkpoint on 12 December 2015; one in Tishreen, Syria, on 24 December 2015; one in Mosul, Iraq, on 11 January 2016; and one in Al Ghazli, Syria, on 2 February 2016. In a previous announcement, the United States Department of Defense had acknowledged killing 15 civilians and wounding 15 more during earlier airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.[122]
23 April
  • Syrian Arab Air Force planes strike rebel-held areas of Aleppo for a second straight day. They hit a residential area and a market in the city's Tareeq al-Bab district, killing at least 12 people.[128]
  • Piloted by Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 completes the ninth leg of its around-the-world flight attempt, landing at Moffatt Field in Mountain View, California, after a nonstop flight from Kalaeloa, Hawaii, of 62 hours 29 minutes, covering 4,086 km (2,206 nmi) at an average speed of 65.39 km/h (35.31 kn) and reaching a maximum altitude of 8,634 m (28,327 ft).[129][130]
24 April
  • Syrian Arab Air Force planes strike rebel-held areas in Aleppo for the third straight day, killing 16 people.[131]
  • Ground forces of the Saudi-led coalition begin a ground offensive against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula forces in southern Yemen, advancing toward Mukalla and surrounding areas. Coalition aircraft supporting the offensive strike targets in Mukalla, hitting the city's cultural center and Riyan Airport.[132]
25–26 April (overnight)
  • An air-to-ground missile strike suspected to have been made by a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle kills three prominent al-Qaeda leaders in Zinjibar, Yemen.
26 April
  • The Yemeni government announces that Yemeni ground troops have retaken Mukalla from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) forces, adding that heavy airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition combined with artillery fire had driven many AQAP members out of the city.
  • The Government of Saint Helena announces an indefinite delay to the opening of Saint Helena Airport to commercial traffic because of the problem the Comair Boeing 737-800 had encountered in landing on 18 April due to dangerous winds. The airport had been scheduled to open in May,[133] but scheduled commercial air service will not begin until October 2017.[134]
27 April
  • Airstrikes by unidentified aircraft against rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, collapse a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross, killing at least 50 people, including patients and at least six hospital staff members. A dentist and two medical doctors, one of them one of the area's last pediatricians, are among the dead.[135][136]
28 April
  • The Russian Ministry of Defense denies Russian involvement in the 27 April airstrike against a hospital in Aleppo, Syria.[135]
29 April
  • Airstrikes against rebel-held areas in Aleppo, Syria, by unidentified aircraft destroy a medical clinic and hit other targets. Airstrikes against rebel-held areas and rebel mortar barrages have combined to kill more than 200 people in Aleppo during the preceding week.[136]
  • Russia and the United States announce a renewed ceasefire in two parts of Syria where fighting in violation of the 27 February ceasefire has escalated during April and that it is scheduled to begin at midnight on 29–30 April. The Russian Ministry of Defense announces that the ceasefire applies to Latakia Governorate and will last 72 hours, while the United States Department of State later announces that it also includes East Ghouta outside Damascus and has no expiration date. The agreement excludes Aleppo, where the heaviest fighting since the 27 February ceasefire has broken out.[137]
  • A Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma helicopter (registration LN-OJF) operated by CHC Helikopter Service loses its main rotor in flight while carrying oil workers from the Gullfaks B oil field in the North Sea to Bergen Airport, Flesland, in Bergen, Norway, and crashes on Norway's Skitholmen islet between the islands of Turøy and Toftøy, killing all 13 people on board.
  • The commander of United States Central Command, United States Army General Joseph Votel, announces that a U.S. Department of Defense investigation into a United States Air Force airstrike against a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on 3 October 2015 did not amount to a war crime because American military personnel responsible for the strike attacked the hospital by mistake while attempting to support Afghan troops and U.S. Army Special Forces in combat against Taliban forces. The incident resulted in 16 American military personnel facing disciplinary action for their role in it, but the investigation found that their misjudgments did not involve any criminal intent.[136]
30 April
  • Nearly 30 airstrikes hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria. It is the ninth day of lethal bombardments in the city, and they have killed nearly 250 people since beginning on 22 April.[138]

May
3 May
  • With André Borschberg at the controls, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) arrives at Phoenix Goodyear Airport outside Goodyear, Arizona, completing the tenth leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using a drop of fossil fuel. The flight, begun on 2 May at Mountain View, California, covers 1,112 km (691 mi) in 15 hours 52 minutes at an average speed of 70.10 km/h (43.56 mph), reaching a maximum altitude of 6,706 m (22,001 ft).[139][140]
5 May
  • Amazon.com and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings announce a deal in which Amazon.com will acquire up to 30 percent of Atlas's stock and Atlas will acquire 20 Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft, lease them to Amazon.com for ten years, and operate them for Amazon.com for seven years via its Atlas Air subsidiary. Operations are expected to begin during the latter half of 2016 and grow to their maximum planned size by 2018. It is Amazon.com's second investment in an air cargo carrier – its first was announced on 5 March – and it doubles the size of Amazon.com's air cargo fleet from 20 to 40 aircraft, all Boeing 767-300s.[141]
6 May
7 May
  • Turkish Air Force F-4 Phantom II and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft strike Kurdistan Workers Party shelters, ammunition depots, and weapon positions in northern Iraq, including in the Qandil Mountains, where the group's headquarters is located.[144]
9 May
  • Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition against a rebel military camp in Yemen's Amran Governorate kill at least 10 Yemeni rebels and wound more than 15 others.[145]
11 May
12 May
  • Malaysia's Minister of Transport, Liow Tiong Lai, announces that two pieces of debris found in March – an engine cowling piece with a partial Rolls-Royce logo discovered on the southern coast of South Africa and an interior panel piece from an aircraft cabin found on Rodrigues – "almost certainly" are from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 missing since March 2014.[148]
  • After a Ugandan assault team comes under fire while attempting to secure an Al-Shabaab checkpoint west of Mogadishu, Somalia, suspected of being used by the group to extort money from travelers, a U.S. special operations team assisting the Ugandans calls in a U.S. airstrike against the checkpoint. The strike kills five Al-Shabaab personnel.[149]
  • Flown by Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) arrives at Tulsa International Airport outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, completing the eleventh leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using a drop of fossil fuel. The flight, begun on 11 May at Phoenix Goodyear Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, covers 975 miles (1,569 km) in 18 hours 10 minutes at an average speed of 53.67 mph (86.37 km/h)r), reaching a maximum altitude of 22,001 feet (6,706 meters).[150]
13 May
15 May
  • According to Turkish military sources, airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition and a Turkish Army artillery bombardment combine to kill 27 Islamic State personnel in northern Syria about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Turkish border as they prepare to fire rockets into Turkey. The strikes and bombardment destroy five "fortified defence posts" and two "gun posts".[153]
17 May
18 May
19 May
  • EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320-232 (registration SU-GCC) on a flight from Paris to Cairo, crashes into the Mediterranean Sea south of Karpathos, killing all 66 people on board.
  • In response to a U.S. Defense Department accusation on 18 May that Chinese fighter aircraft made an unsafe interception of a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea on 17 May, the People's Republic of China demands that the United States cease reconnaissance flights in the vicinity of China.[154]
20 May
  • Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu proposes that Russia and the U.S.-led coalition conduct joint airstrikes in Syria against Jabhat al-Nusra and against ground convoys carrying weapons and reinforcements into Syria from Turkey. The U.S. Department of State responds that no agreement to conduct joint airstrikes exists, and the U.S. Department of Defense informs the press that it has no plans to expand cooperation with Russia in Syria beyond existing flight-safety communications intended only to deconflict coalition and Russian air operations.[157]
21 May
  • A U.S. airstrike involving several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) hits a ground vehicle driving on a road near Ahmad Wal in Pakistan's Balochistan province, reportedly killing Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour and the driver of the vehicle. It is the first U.S. UAV strike in that part of Pakistan.[158]
  • An airstrike allegedly conducted by aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition flying into Syria from Turkey hits the Islamic State-held town of Arshaf, Syria, near Mare', killing seven members of one family and perhaps as many as 10 people in total.[159]
  • Flown by André Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) arrives at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio,[160] completing the twelfth leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using a drop of fossil fuel. The flight, begun early in the day at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[160] covers 691 miles (1,112 km) in 16 hours 34 minutes at an average speed of 41.72 mph (67.14 km/h), reaching a maximum altitude of 21,000 feet (6,400 meters).[160][161]
22 May
23 May
  • U.S. airstrikes support Iraqi military and security forces and militias allied with them moving into Fallujah, Iraq. A U.S. spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition announces that coalition aircraft have struck 21 Islamic State targets in and around Fallujah since 17 May.[163]
  • An Iraqi Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon destroys an Islamic State bomb-making factory in Fallujah, Iraq, and hits Islamic State rocket launchers in the city.[163]
  • The first two Dutch Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft – both Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A models – arrive in the Netherlands, landing at Leeuwarden Air Base. They are the first examples of the F-35 to arrive in Europe.[164]
24 May
  • Iraqi Air Force and U.S. aircraft strike Islamic State targets in and around Fallujah, Iraq.[165]
25 May
  • The brother of a taxi driver killed in the 21 May U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle strike that also killed Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour files a police report in Balochistan, Pakistan, requesting that his brother's death be investigated and noting that the United States claimed responsibility for the attack.[166]
  • Russia announces that is suspending airstrikes in Syria against Jabhat al-Nusra to allow rebels not affiliated with the group to distance themselves from it.[167]
  • With Bertrand Piccard at the controls, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) flies from Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio, to Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, completing the thirteenth leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using a drop of fossil fuel. The flight covers 649 miles (1,044 km) in 16 hours 49 minutes at an average speed of 62.17 km/h (38.63 mph), reaching a maximum altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 meters).[168]
  • U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator Peter V. Neffenger says in testimony before the United States Congress that a projected 740 million people will pass through TSA security checkpoints at U.S. airports during the 2016 summer travel season, 97 million more than the 643 million who did in 2013, that the 45,000-strong TSA workforce is not large enough to prevent excessively long lines at the checkpoints, and that the recent cancellation of plans to lay off 1,600 TSA employees and hire 768 more will be insufficient to reduce lines. He reports that he plans to convert part-time TSA employees into full-time ones and to increase the number of enrollees in trusted traveler programs from 9.5 million to 25 million as ways of reducing airport security waits.[169]
26 May
  • An airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Fallujah, Iraq, kills Maher al-Bilawi, the commander of Islamic State forces in the city.[170]
  • An American Airlines vice president, Kerry Philipovitch, and executives from the airport authorities of Chicago, Illinois, Syracuse, New York, and Tucson, Arizona, testify before the U.S. Congress asking it to take action to reduce security lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at U.S. airports. Philipovitch says, "We have never seen TSA wait times that affect airlines and passengers throughout the United States like we’ve seen in recent months...More needs to be done, and fast. Programs that had been in place to drive efficiency and increase security throughout were eliminated without adding commensurate resources required to support longer passenger processing times."[171]
27 May
  • Korean Air Flight 2708, a Boeing 777-300 (registration HL7534), suffers an engine failure during its takeoff roll at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, that results in a fire. The flight crew aborts the takeoff, and the 319 people aboard evacuate the aircraft. Twelve of them are injured in the incident.
  • The U.S.-led coalition has conducted 20 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Fallujah, Iraq, since 24 May, killing 70 Islamic State personnel.[170]
  • Russia warns that it will escalate its air campaign in Syria if the United States does not respond positively to its long-standing proposal to conduct joint airstrikes in Syria with the Russian Federation Air Force.[172]
  • A U.S. airstrike kills Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, Al-Shabaab's top commander, as he travels in southern Somalia.[173]
  • A Vietnamese man, Minh Quang Pham, is sentenced in New York City to 40 years in prison for providing material support to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in a 2011 plot to bomb Heathrow Airport in London.[174]
  • A World War II-era P-47 Thunderbolt crashes into the Hudson River off Edgewater, New Jersey, killing its pilot.[175]
  • SpaceX successfully lands the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a platform at sea, the fourth time it has made such a landing. The landing, made aboard a platform in the Atlantic Ocean 422 miles (679 km) off the coast of Florida after launching a communications satellite into orbit, is particularly challenging because of the distance the rocket travels to deliver its payload and the large amount of energy required, subjecting the first stage to extreme speeds and re-entry heating.[176]
29 May
  • Lufthansa announces that it will suspend service to Venezuela beginning on 18 June, saying that Venezuela owes it millions of United States dollars in ticket revenues and that Venezuela's currency controls make it difficult to convert ticket sales revenue to dollars that can be sent abroad. Lufthansa adds that it hopes to restore service to Venezuela in the near future.[177]
30 May
  • Intense late-evening strikes by three unidentified aircraft – reported by some observers to be Russian – against buildings around the National Hospital in Idlib, Syria, kill at least 23 and perhaps as many as 50 people and injure about 250 others. Over the preceding weekend, Russian Federation Air Force and Syrian Arab Air Force aircraft had conducted hundreds of strikes against rebel-held areas in Aleppo, Syria.[172]
  • LATAM Airlines Group announces that its subsidiary airlines will suspend service to Venezuela, making it the second airline company to do so. Venezuela's currency controls make it difficult for airlines to convert ticket sales revenue to United States dollars to cover their costs of operating in Venezuela. LATAM plans for its subsidiary airlines to cease service between Caracas, Venezuela, and São Paulo, Brazil, first, with suspension of service between Caracas and Lima, Peru, and between Caracas and Santiago, Chile, to halt by 31 July.[178]
31 May
  • The U.S. Transportation Security Administration reports that the major delays expected at its security checkpoints at U.S. airports over the 2016 Memorial Day weekend did not materialize. From 26 May through 30 May, wait times in security lines averaged less than 10 minutes in regular security lines nationwide, with the majority of the 10.3 million passengers having a wait time of less than 30 minutes. The longest wait was at Kansas City, Missouri, where passengers waited 75 minutes on 26 May.[179]

June
  • With international sanctions having largely prevented Iran from purchasing new airliners or spare parts for its commercial aircraft since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, 88 of Iran's 250 commercial aircraft are grounded due to a lack of spare parts.[180]
1 June
2 June
3 June
4 June
5 June
6 June
  • Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov announces that Russia will intensify its airstrikes in the area around Aleppo, Syria, in support of Syrian government forces defending against a Jabhat al-Nusra offensive there.[189]
7 June
8 June
  • Airstrikes against rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, kill 15 civilians.[191]
9 June
  • According to the Al Sumaria television network, an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on this date against an Islamic State headquarters in Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq near the border with Syria wounds the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and several other Islamic State personnel. The following day, a spokesman for the coalition announces that the coalition cannot confirm the strike or any injury to al-Baghdadi.[192]
10 June
  • Over eastern Long Island, New York, Luminati Aerospace's solar-powered VO-Substrata aircraft makes its first test flight open to the public, flying from an airfield at Calverton, New York, for about 20 minutes with a pilot at the controls, although it is also configured for unmanned flight. It is the prototype for a fleet of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles Luminati Aerospace hopes to build starting in late 2016 that will fly at altitudes of more than 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) and provide Internet service to over 4,000,000,000 people worldwide.[193]
  • United States Department of Defense officials announce that in late May 2016 President Barack Obama granted U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan expanded powers to assist Afghan military and security forces in combat against the Taliban. Among them is the authority to order U.S. airstrikes in support of Afghan offensive operations against the Taliban in limited circumstances in which the strikes are expected to have "strategic effect." Previously, U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan had been authorized only to defend U.S. personnel, protect Afghan forces facing serious danger, or conduct counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.[194]
  • The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II makes its international airshow debut when two Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A aircraft perform during the Luchtmachtdagen 2016 airshow at Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands.[164]
  • The United States Department of Transportation grants permission to six U.S. airlines – American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Sun Country Airlines – to provide the first scheduled airline service between the United States and Cuba in over 50 years, joining 46 non-U.S. airlines that already serve Cuba. The airlines are to provide 155 round-trip flights per week between five U.S. cities (Chicago, Illinois; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and nine Cuban destinations (Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo del Sur, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Santiago de Cuba). Flights are expected to begin in the autumn of 2016 and early in the winter of 2016–2017. A decision on flights by U.S. airlines to Havana is expected later in the summer of 2016. Although U.S. law still prohibits tourist travel to Cuba, it permits a dozen other categories of travel, including family visits, official business, journalist visits, professional meetings and educational and religious activities, and the United States Government has relaxed oversight of travel to the point that U.S. travelers are allowed to design their own "people-to-people" cultural exchanges in Cuba that in essence permit leisure travel under the guise of a cultural exchange.[195]
11 June
12 June
  • A man throws a homemade explosive device made out of a beer bottle at the ticketing counter in the check-in area of Terminal 2 at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at Shanghai, China; it explodes, injuring four people with flying glass. He then slashes his own throat with a knife, injuring himself seriously.[198]
  • An unmanned aerial vehicle operating without permission near Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, forces the airport to close for 69 minutes.[199]
  • Airstrikes ascribed to Russian aircraft hit Syria's rebel-held Idlib Governorate. A series of them against targets in Idlib, including one that hits a popular market, kills at least 21 people, while a strike in Maarrat al-Nu'man that collapses an apartment building kills six others.[200]
12–13 June (overnight)
  • An airstrike on a ground vehicle in Yemen's Shabwa Governorate kills three al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula members in the vehicle. The strike is suspected of having been conducted by a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle.[201]
13 June
  • The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) charges Amazon.com with shipping a hazardous material as air cargo, alleging that the company shipped a caustic drain cleaner without properly declaring, packaging, or labeling it, including emergency response information with it, or training employees in how to handle it, and that a package of the drain cleaner leaked at a United Parcel Service facility and came in contact with nine workers. The FAA asks that Amazon.com be fined $350,000 for the incident. The FAA alleges that Amazon.com violated hazardous materials regulations on 24 other occasions between February 2013 and September 2015.[202]
14 June
  • The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asks pilots in to avoid flying too low over walrus haul-out sites along the Chukchi Sea coast of northern Alaska because of the danger of frightening the walruses into stampeding and injuring and killing one another and nearby humans. Although the FAA says it does not plan to establish formal flight path and altitude restrictions on flights near walrus haul-out sites, it reminds pilots that harassing walruses is illegal under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Earlier in 2016, the FAA had instructed airplane pilots to fly no closer than 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to walrus haul-outs and no lower than an altitude over 2,000 feet (610 meters) and helicopter pilots to fly no closer than one mile (1.6 km) and no lower than 3,000 feet (0.91 km).[203]
15 June
  • The Government of Egypt announces that it has found and made images of the wreckage of Egyptair Flight 804 on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The Airbus A320-232 had crashed on 19 May 2016, killing all 66 people on board.[204]
  • After it successfully launches a satellite into Earth orbit, the first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket fails to make what would have been the fifth successful landing of a reusable booster rocket when one of its booster engines fails, causing it to descend far too quickly toward the floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida on which SpaceX intended it to land. The rapid descent causes it to make what SpaceX founder Elon Musk deems the "hardest impact" ever by a Falcon 9 first stage and results in its destruction – what Musk terms its "rapid unscheduled disassembly." Musk adds that upgrades to correct the problem could be in service by the end of 2016.[205]
16 June
  • The cockpit voice recorder from Egyptair Flight 804 is recovered from a depth of about 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) in the Mediterranean Sea.[206]
17 June
  • Two Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter aircraft scramble to intercept two Chinese fighters over the East China Sea near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands in China). In July, the People's Republic of China will criticize the Japanese pilots' actions during the encounter.[207]
  • Syrian Arab Air Force strikes on rebel targets in Aleppo, Syria, during the evening kill at least seven people, with one report placing the death toll at nine. According to Doctors Without Borders, one of the strikes puts Aleppo's biggest hospital out of service.[208]
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights releases images which suggest that the Russian Federation Air Force used cluster bombs in a raid against U.S.-backed Syrian rebels near Al-Tanf, Syria, earlier in the week that killed two people and wounded four. The images show what appears to be the tail section of a Russian RBK-500 cluster bomb.[209]
  • The flight data recorder from Egyptair Flight 804 is recovered from a depth of about 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) in the Mediterranean Sea.[210] Later in the day, the Government of Egypt announces that the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder had suffered extensive damage prior to their recovery, necessitating repairs that will delay processing of the information they recorded.[211]
  • At a conference of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Washington, D.C., National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator Charles Bolden announces plans for the X-57 Maxwell, a 14-motor, all-electric airplane. The program is intended spur the development of more energy-efficient and cleaner general aviation aircraft.[212]
18 June
  • Touring Fallujah, Iraq, the day after the Government of Iraq declared victory in its operation to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State, Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saedi, the Iraqi Army commander of the operation, tells the press that an estimated 300 to 700 Islamic State personnel had been in the city when the operation began and that most had been killed by airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.[213]
  • A U.S. Department of Defense spokesman announces that during a video teleconference the Department of Defense had "expressed strong concerns" to the Russian Miniistry of Defense about the Russian Federation Air Force's use of cluster bombs in a raid in Syria earlier in the week.[209]
19 June
  • Aircraft supporting a Syrian government ground offensive against Islamic State forces holding Tabqa air base strike the nearby city of Al-Thawrah, Syria, with cluster munitions, reportedly killed 10 people.[214]
  • During a parachute failure test, Blue Origin lands its New Shepard reusable space launch system in West Texas, the fourth time the same Blue Origin rocket has made a suborbital flight into space and landed intact. During the unmanned flight, New Shepard's capsule and rocket separate and controllers deliberately induce a parachute failure to test the capsule's ability to land safely after the failure of one of its three parachutes. The rocket, using wings and firing of its engine to make its descent, lands about seven minutes before the capsule, and both landings are successful.[215]
  • The Terrafugia Transition roadable airplane receives exemptions from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as a "light sport aircraft." The administrative action puts the United States on track to legalize a flying car for consumer use for the first time. Provided that their roadable aircraft overcome various regulatory barriers, manufacturers of such aircraft expect them to enter the consumer market over the next decade.[216]
20 June
  • With Bertrand Piccard at the controls, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) departs John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to begin the 15th leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using any fossil fuel. Plans call for the nonstop transatlantic flight to Seville Airport in Seville, Spain, to cover 3,564 miles (5,736 km) and take at least 90 hours.[217]
21 June
  • After a 10-hour flight from Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula, a Canadian Kenn Borek Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter lands at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station at the Geographic South Pole in Antarctica to evacuate two workers there who have fallen ill. It is only the third flight to the station to take place during the Antarctic winter during the 60 years since the station opened in 1956; generally, no flights to the station occur from February to October each year. After a layover at the Amundsen-Scott station, the plane makes a 10-hour return flight to the Rothera station the following day with the patients on board. It is only the third time that anyone has been evacuated from the South Pole during the Antarctic winter.[218][219]
  • The Obama administration releases U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or "drones") by hobbyists in the United States. They require drone pilots to keep their UAVs in sight, to operate them only in daylight, and to fly them no higher than an altitude of 400 feet (120 meters), and prohibit their operation over strangers. The regulations also require that hobbyists' UAVs weigh no more than 55 pounds (25 kg) and prohibit them from flying over the District of Columbia. The FAA reports that 2.5 million UAVs will be sold to hobbyists in the United States during 2016 and that 7 million will be sold in 2020. The new regulations require U.S. commercial UAV operators to be vetted by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and to pass an aeronautical knowledge examination administered at an FAA-approved test center, but do not address over-the-horizon operations by commercial UAVs; the FAA reports that there are 10,602 registered commercial UAVs in the United States and projects that 600,000 UAVs intended for commercial use will be sold in the United States during 2016 and that 2.7 million will be sold for commercial use in 2020.[220]
  • The Boeing Company announces a tentative deal in which Iran Air, which is seeking to upgrade its aging fleet of pre-1979 Boeing aircraft with new Boeing 737s and Boeing 777s, has signed an agreement expressing its "intent" to buy airliners from Boeing in the first major U.S. trade deal with Iran following a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and the United States. The deal is expected to face political and regulatory hurdles, but if it proceeds on schedule the first new Boeing airliners are expected to arrive in Iran in October 2016. Depending on the number of new aircraft purchased and the number of leased and older aircraft ultimately included in the transaction, the deal could be worth up to $25,000,000,000.[221]
22 June
23 June
  • Airstrikes combine with mortar attacks to kill eight people in Aleppo, Syria.[223]
  • Flown by Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) lands at Seville Airport in Seville, Spain, completing the 15th leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using any fossil fuel. The nonstop transatlantic flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, begun on 20 June, covers 3,890.5 miles (6,261.2 km) in 71 hours 8 minutes at an average speed of 88.0 km/h (54.7 mph), reaching a maximum altitude of 27,999 feet (8,534 meters).[224]
  • An Air Serbia Airbus A330 lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City after a nonstop flight from Belgrade, Serbia, inaugurating the airline's first transatlantic route and Serbia's first nonstop airline service to the United States by a local airline since Jat Airways, the national airline of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, discontinued the route in 1992.[225]
  • Aeroméxico announces that it is suspending service to Caracas, Venezuela, due to the complicated economic situation in Venezuela. It is the third airline to halt service to Venezuela. Venezuela's currency controls make it difficult for airlines to convert ticket sales revenue to United States dollars to cover their costs of operating in Venezuela.[226]
24 June
  • A U.S. Department of Defense spokesman announces that U.S. forces have conducted airstrikes against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan during the previous week. The strikes follow a decision by President Barack Obama earlier in June to expand U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan to assist Afghan forces in offensive operations against the Taliban.[227][228]
25 June
  • Airstrikes reportedly made by Russian planes kill at least 30 people in the Islamic State-held town of Qourieh in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate. One report puts the death toll a 46.[229]
26 June
27 June
28 June
  • A three-person suicide team armed with Kalashnikov rifles and suicide bombs attacks the international terminal at Istanbul Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, blowing themselves up in the terminal's arrival and departure areas and in a nearby parking lot. The attack kills at least 44 people and injures more than 230 others. All flights into and out of the airport are temporarily suspended after the attack, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounds all flights to and from Istanbul.[231][232][233][234]
29 June
29–30 June (overnight)
  • U.S. and British planes and Iraqi planes and attack helicopters attack two large convoys of ground vehicles carrying Islamic State combatant personnel and their families attempting to flee Fallujah, Iraq. The strikes destroy at least 150 vehicles and kill about 250 people; the Iraqi armed forces claim that the strikes destroy 798 vehicles including eight car bombs and kill hundreds of Islamic State combat personnel, with the U.S.-led coalition responsible for 117 of the vehicles and three of the car bombs and Iraqi aircraft destroying the rest. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition says that coalition aircraft attempted to avoid striking portions of the convoys it thought included civilians. The U.S. aircraft participating in the attack had been called away from supporting Syrian rebel forces attempting to capture Bukamal, Syria, from the Islamic State and, lacking air support, the Syrian rebels are defeated.[236][237]
30 June
  • United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announces that earlier in the week the United States offered to share intelligence with Russia to improve Russian targeting of terrorist groups in Syria if Russia agrees to cease airstrikes against civilians and against rebel groups that have agreed to a ceasefire and to use its influence with the Government of Syria to force the regime of Bashar al-Assad to sign on to the ceasefire. The United States offer does not include joint military planning, joint targeting, or coordination of Russian airstrikes with U.S. airstrikes or other U.S. operations in Syria.[238]
  • U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II aircraft deploy outside the United States for the first time when three F-35A aircraft of the 56th Fighter Wing land at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom after a nonstop transatlantic flight supported by a U.S. Air Force KC-10A Extender tanker.[235]

July
1 July
  • A U.S. airstrike in southern Yemen kills two members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.[239]
  • A Syrian Arab Air Force fighter aircraft crashes near Jeiroud in a rebel-held part of Syria during what the Government of Syria claims was a training flight. Rebels capture and interrogate its pilot, then shoot him to death.[240]
  • A Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Ilyushin Il-76 aerial firefighting plane (registration RA-76840) crashes in the Kachugskiy District near Lake Baikal in Russia while fighting a forest fire, killing all 10 people on board. Its wreckage will be found on 3 July.
  • The Obama administration releases a report claiming that between 2009 and the end of 2015 the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States armed forces have carried out a combined 473 airstrikes using unmanned aerial vehicles (or "drones") against terrorist targets in countries where it defines the United States as not being at war – not named in the report, but including Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen – killing between 2,372 and 2,581 "combatants" and inadvertently killing between 64 and 116 civilians. The report excludes deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, which are countries in which the administration deems the United States to be at war. Critics of the report claim that it underestimates civilian casualties; the Long War Journal puts the civilian death toll at 212, the New America Foundation estimates it at 219, and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism claims it is at least 325.[241]
2 July
  • Israeli aircraft strike four Hamas training sites in the Gaza Strip, damaging buildings but harming no one. The strike is in response to a rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip the previous day that damaged an empty kindergarten building without killing or injuring anyone.[242]
  • Airstrikes against rebel-held Jeiroud, Syria – suspected of being Syrian government strikes conducted in retaliation for the killing of a captured Syrian Arab Air Force pilot by rebels in the area the previous day – kill at least 25 people. One report puts the overall death toll at 31, and another report claims that seven medical personnel are among those killed in at least 40 air attacks against the town during the day.[240]
3 July
  • Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition support an offensive by U.S.-backed Syrian rebel forces against Islamic State positions near Manbij, Syria, but the Islamic State succeeds in repelling the rebel attack.[243]
4 July
  • China protests the "provocative actions" of two Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter aircraft on 17 June when they intercepted two Chinese fighters over the East China Sea near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands in China), claiming that the Chinese fighters were on a routine patrol when the Japanese aircraft locked onto them with fire control radar and adding that the Chinese planes took "tactical measures" before the Japanese aircraft left the area.[207][244]
  • A U.S. airstrike in Yemen's Shabwa Governorate kills two members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.[239]
5 July
  • Japan denies that its aircraft engaged in any provocative or dangerous activities while intercepting two Chinese fighters over the East China Sea on 17 June, adding that its aircraft scrambled to intercept Chinese military aircraft about 200 times between 1 April and 30 June 2016, up from about 80 times during the same period in 2015.[207][244]
7 July
8 July
  • On the last day of a three-day ceasefire declared by the Syrian Arab Army but widely violated, unidentified jets belonging to either the Syrian Arab Air Force or the Russian Federation Air Force strike rebel-held Darkush, Syria – a vacation spot for Syrians – during the Eid al-Fitr holiday weekend, killing at least 23 people.[246]
  • Islamic State forces shoot down a helicopter near Palmyra, Syria, killing two Russian pilots on board. Russia claims the helicopter was a Syrian Mil Mi-25 helicopter the Russians were flying on a training mission when they were diverted to take action against an Islamic State ground attack, which they thwarted before they were shot down by a U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW missile. News reports and independent experts, however, claim that the downed helicopter actually was a Mil Mi-35M attack helicopter belonging to the Russian armed forces and operating on a combat mission, and that whatever shot it down was very unlikely to have been a BGM-71 TOW.[247]
9 July
  • A U.S. air-to-ground missile strike by an unmanned aerial vehicle in Afghanistan targeting members of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province group kills five Islamist militants including Umar Narai, also known as Khalifa Umar Mansoor, a leader of the Tariq Gidar Group who masterminded a 2014 attack by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, that killed 148 people and injured 114.[248]
  • Supported by airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi ground forces recapture Qayyarah Air Base in the Qayyarah subdistrict of Mosul District in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq, from the Islamic State. The commander of Iraqi counterterrorism forces credits the coalition airstrikes with destroying 60 Islamic State car bombs. With a runway capable of handling heavy cargo planes and room for many helicopters, the newly captured air base promises to allow the support of further Iraqi advances into Islamic State-held territory.[249]
  • Using a plane chartered by the World Food Programme, the United Nations begins an airlift of humanitarian aid to an estimated 275,000 people in Syria's Al-Hasakah Governorate who have been cut off from food and other supplies for six months. The first flight delivers 40 metric tons of food, arriving during the evening at Kamishly Airport in Qamishli.[250] Plans call for the plane to make at least 25 flights between Damascus, Syria, and Qamishli over the course of a month, delivering over 1,000 metric tons of food, medicine, and other relief supplies to Kamishly Airport.[251]
10 July
  • Syrian government air raids strike a rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo and a diesel fuel market in Turmanin. The Aleppo strike reportedly kills 10 people, while the air raids on Turmanin set several tanker trucks on fire and kill at least eight and perhaps as many as 14 people.[252]
  • In a briefing ahead of the opening of the Farnborough International Airshow, the chief executive officer of Boeing's commercial aircraft unit, Ray Conner, says that his company is seeing strong interest among airlines in a new mid-range airliner that could seat between 200 and 270 passengers and have a range of between 8,300 and 9,400 km (4,500 and 5,100 nmi), creating a new, larger market beyond that of the Boeing 757 and Airbus A321neo. The first all-new Boeing aircraft since the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the new airliner would cost $10,000,000,000 to $15,000,000,000 to develop and be the company's biggest potential product development over the next 10 years.[253]
11 July
12 July
  • Fedor Konyukhov departs Northam, Western Australia, to begin an attempt to circumnavigate the world solo in a hot-air balloon. He will complete the journey on 23 July.[256]
  • After nearly 45 years, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation announces it has closed its investigation of the 24 November 1971 hijacking of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 by a man identifying himself as "Dan Cooper" – and misidentified by the press as "D. B. Cooper," the name by which he goes down in history – who parachuted from the airliner with $200,000 he had demanded and was never seen or heard from again. The "D. B. Cooper" skyjacking is the only unsolved American aircraft hijacking case.[257]
13 July
  • The day after the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled against the People's Republic of China in Philippines vs. China regarding a territorial dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea, two Chinese civilian aircraft fly to Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea, one each landing at Mischief Reef and Subi Reef. Both return to China later in the day.[258]
  • An airstrike hits a market in rebel-held Ariha, Syria, killing at least nine and perhaps as many as 12 people. Another airstrike targeting a market in rebel-held Al-Rastan, Syria, kills reportedly kills 16 people and wounds dozens.[259]
  • Flown by André Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) lands at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, completing the 16th leg of its attempt to become the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using any fossil fuel. The nonstop flight from Seville Airport in Seville, Spain, began on 11 July and passes over the Mediterranean Sea and portions of southern Europe and North Africa, covering 2,326 miles (3,743 km) in 48 hours 50 minutes at an average speed of 73.7 km/h (45.8 mph) and reaching a maximum altitude of 8,534 m (27,999 ft). Solar Impulse 2 passes over the Giza pyramid complex before landing at Cairo International.[254]
  • At a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, Russian diplomats propose to the representatives of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries that all aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea do so with their transponders on as a way of improving air safety. Although NATO requires all aircraft flown under its command to fly with their transponders on, the aircraft of NATO member countries do not always turn them on when flying separately from NATO control, and Russian aircraft also have flown with them off. The NATO representatives welcome the proposal and promise to study it.[260]
  • Citing a need to strike back against those responsible for terrorist attacks in France in January 2015 and November 2015, President of France François Hollande announces that the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will deploy to the Middle East to participate in operations against the Islamic State.[261]
14 July
  • A series of airstrikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo, Syria, reportedly kill 12 people.[262]
  • The Islamic State reportedly shoots down a Syrian Arab Air Force jet near the military airport at Deir ez-Zor, Syria, killing its pilot. The Islamic State releases a video purportedly showing the pilot's body strung up on a pole, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that his body had been crucified.[262]
  • United States Secretary of State John Kerry meets in Moscow with President of Russia Vladimir Putin to discuss a U.S. proposal supported by senior United Nations officials to "integrate" U.S. and Russian air operations against Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra targets in Syria and halt Syrian government and Russian air attacks against civilians and moderate Syrian rebel forces that are parties to a widely violated February 2016 ceasefire agreement. The proposal calls for Russia to pressure the Syrian government to ground all Syrian military aircraft and restrict Russian airstrikes to Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra targets, and for U.S. airstrikes against Jabhat al-Nusra – previously conducted only rarely to avoid direct U.S. involvement in the Syrian Civil War – to expand alongside strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. Under the proposal, Russia and the United States – via a Joint Implementation Group headquartered in Amman, Jordan – would share intelligence and strike planning for Jabhat al-Nusra leadership targets, headquarters, training camps, logistical depots, and supply lines, with other areas off-limits to airstrikes by either country, and a "liaison body" would ensure that Russia and the United States inform one another at least a day in advance of planned strikes against agreed-upon targets. The proposal calls for implementation of an agreement by 31 July.[263] The following day, Kerry and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov announce after day-long talks that the two countries have reached an agreement that could reduce civilian casualties and improve targeting of terrorist groups, but they reveal no details to the public.[264]
  • Airbus and Boeing experience their lowest airliner sales totals at the Farnborough Air Show in six years, securing deals for about 400 aircraft worth about $50,000,000,000, only half their sales at the previous year's show. American, European, and Persian Gulf carriers make almost no deals, and only carriers in Asia make large orders. No orders materialize for the Boeing 777, Airbus A330neo, or Bombardier C-Series, and Airbus A380 production rates are greatly reduced. Industry analysts blame the reduced sales on uncertainty over the future of the global economy and on the United Kingdom's 23 June 2016 vote to leave the European Union, popularly known as the "Brexit."[265]
15–16 July (overnight)
  • A group of military officers in Turkey – mostly from the Turkish Air Force, Turkish Army armored forces, and police and security organizations – attempts a coup d'état against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In Ankara, Esenboğa International Airport closes. In Gölbaşı, just outside Ankara, pro-coup military helicopters attack the police special forces headquarters, the police air force headquarters, and the headquarters of Türksat, leaving 42 dead and 43 injured. Pro-coup helicopters also attack the parliament building in Ankara; the Turkish government declares a no-fly zone over the city and a pro-government Turkish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon shoots down a pro-coup helicopter in the area. In Istanbul, pro-coup military forces move into Istanbul Atatürk Airport, forcing it to close and all flights there to be cancelled, and Turkish Air Force jets fly low over the city, generating sonic booms. In Marmaris, two or three helicopters attack a hotel where Erdoğan had been vacationing and discharge troops who exchange gunfire with police officers, killing two and injuring eight of the police. At Incirlik Air Base, from which United States Air Force aircraft are operating as part of the American-led intervention in Syria, authorities close all access and cut power to the base, but normal operations there are restored within 24 hours. The coup attempt soon is defeated, and one Turkish military Black Hawk helicopter, escorted by Hellenic Air Force F-16s, makes an emergency landing at Alexandroupoli Airport in Alexandroupoli, Greece, where Greek authorities arrests its eight occupants – who request political asylum – for making an illegal landing; their helicopter is returned to Turkey on 17 July.
17 July
  • Israel fires two MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles at an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that flies from Syria into airspace over the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The UAV turns away and flies back into Syria.[266]
  • According to Syrian rebels, the Syrian military conducts a rare air raid along the border with Jordan, striking the village of al-Shajara, Syria, held by Shuhada al-Yarmouk, group thought to be aligned with al-Qaeda.[266]
  • Libyan militia forces fighting against the United Nations-backed Government of Libya shoot down a French helicopter in Libya, killing three French soldiers on board. On 19 July, the Libyan government will announce that the helicopter had been shot down by an Islamist militia; on 20 July the Government of France will make its first public admission that French special forces are operating in Libya, and President of France François Hollande will announce that the three dead soldiers were carrying out "dangerous intelligence operations" when their helicopter was shot down.[267]
  • An experienced pilot is killed after crashing while performing at an airshow in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada. He was flying a North American T-28 Trojan.[268]
18 July
19 July
  • The U.S.-led coalition strikes Islamic State-held territory in northern Syria to help counter an Islamic State ground offensive against the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 56 civilians die in the strikes, while other reports put the death toll as high as 212; for example, the Islamic State claims that U.S. strikes kill 160 civilians in Tokhar, and the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates claims a strike by French aircraft against Tokhar kills 120 civilians. An SDF spokesman disputes the claims of civilian deaths, saying that the strikes have killed large numbers of Islamic State personnel, and that the Islamic State has simply buried them quickly and falsely claimed that civilian deaths have occurred.[270] The U.S. military announces that U.S. aircraft have conducted 18 strikes in the Manbij area over the previous 24 hours – out of 450 in the area since May – and that it is launching an investigation to determine whether the allegations of civilian casualties are true.[275][276] By late August, United States Central Command will report that it has concluded that the Tokhar strike – conducted by U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II and B-52H Stratofortress aircraft using 500-pound (227-kg) GBU-31 and GBU-54 laser-guided bombs to knock out a mortar position – killed 85 Islamic militants and 10 civilians, while Syrian activists claim that all or most of the 95 dead were civilians.[277]
  • Since the U.S.-led coalition's air campaign in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State began in August 2014, U.S. aircraft have carried out over 10,500 strikes and the rest of the coalition combined has conducted 3,200.[278]
20 July
  • A network router fails in Southwest Airlines′ computer system and back-up systems fail to activate, causing a 12-hour outage that cripples the airline's flight operations throughout the United States. Normal operations will not resume fully until 24 July, by which time Southwest will have cancelled about 2,300 of the approximately 19,500 flights scheduled during the period.[279]
22 July
23 July
  • Fedor Konyukhov lands near Bonnie Rock, Western Australia, setting a new world record for the fastest around-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon and becoming the second person in history – after Steve Fossett in 2002 – to pilot a balloon around the world solo. He also sets a new speed record for an around-the-world balloon flight, completing it in 11 days, breaking the record Fossett set during his 2002 flight by two days. Departing Northam, Western Australia, on 12 July, he has flown over Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean, South America, the Cape of Good Hope and the Southern Ocean before landing at Bonnie Rock, covering a distance of 34,820 km (21,640 mi) and reaching altitudes of 10,000 meters (33,000 feet).[256][280]
23–24 July (overnight)
24 July
25 July
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issues an "endangerment finding" – a scientific assessment describing a danger to the environment – that determines that emissions from commercial airplane engines including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide pose health risks to Americans and contribute to climate change. It is a first step in what could be a years-long process leading to the regulation of commercial aircraft engine emissions by the United States Government.[284]
26 July
  • A U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle-launched air-to-ground missile strike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province kills the Islamic State leader Hafiz Saeed Khan. The United States Department of Defense will announce his death on 12 August.[285]
  • Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world and the first aircraft to do so without using any fossil fuel. Flown by Bertrand Piccard, it completes the final leg of its journey, flying nonstop from Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, to Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates – where its round-the-world flight had begun on 9 March 2015 – covering 1,673 miles (2,692 km) in 48 hours 37 minutes at an average speed of 55.4 km/h (34.4 mph) and reaching a maximum altitude of 27,999 feet (8,534 meters).[286] Flown alternately by Piccard and André Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 has made the 42,428 km (26,364 mi) trip in 17 legs over 505 days, spending 558 hours 7 minutes in the air at an average speed of 76.0 km/h (47.2 mph) and reaching a maximum altitude of 29,114 feet (8,874 meters).
28 July
  • Syrian Arab Air Force aircraft drop leaflets over Aleppo, Syria, informing residents that the Government of Syria will allow them to escape the surrounded city via three safe corridors and that rebel soldiers wishing to lay down their arms would be granted safe passage through a fourth corridor.[287]
29 July
30 July
  • A hot-air balloon operated by the company Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides catches fire and crashes in a field in Maxwell, Texas, killing all 16 people on board. It is the deadliest ballooning accident in U.S. history and the second-deadliest in world history, exceeded only by a hot-air balloon crash in Egypt in February 2013 that killed 19 people.[64][65]
  • Skydiver Luke Aikins becomes the first person in history to jump from an airplane into a net on the ground without wearing a parachute. Jumping from an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters), he lands safely after a two-minute freefall in a 100-by-100-foot (30.5-meter-by-30.5-meter) net at the Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California.[290]
31 July
  • In response to a rebel offensive attempting to break the Syrian government's siege of Aleppo, Syria, that begins during the day, helicopters drop barrel bombs on the city's rebel-held neighborhood of Bustan al-Basha. Later in the day, jets – presumably of the Russian Federation Air Force or Syrian Arab Air Force – bomb rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city. During the day, people in rebel-held areas of the city burn tires to create plumes of black smoke in an attempt to interfere with visibility for attacking aircraft.[291]

August
  • During the month, Delta Air Lines sends a letter of protest to the U.S. General Services Administration, complaining that GSA's award to JetBlue Airways of the U.S. government contract routes from New York City to Dubai and from New York City to Milan, Italy, in 2015 violates the 1981 Fly America Act – which requires U.S. federal government employees, their families, and federal consultants and contractors to travel aboard U.S. carriers when on official business paid for by the U.S. government – because JetBlue has no aircraft that can fly that far and will book its passengers to those destination on its codeshare partner Emirates, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) airline based in Dubai. Delta joins American Airlines and United Airlines in arguing that they should be selected for such routes to reduce the disadvantage they face when competing with Emirates, the UAE's Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, and Qatar's Qatar Airways, all of which receive substantial subsidies from their governments. The GSA responds that JetBlue offers cheaper prices that Delta, American, and United and that its selection does not violate the Fly America Act, regardless of its use of foreign codeshare partners for the routes.[292]
1 August
2 August
  • IndiGo Flights 6E-813 and 6E-136 – each with at least 100 people on board – narrowly avoid a mid-air collision over Guwahati, India, when Flight 6E-813 goes into a steep dive to avoid Flight 6E-136, approaching from the opposite direction, 25 seconds before a likely collision. The emergency maneuver leaves six people on board Flight 6E-813 injured.[296]
  • Airstrikes attributed to the Syrian Arab Air Force or Russian Federation Air Force kill 11 people in Atarib, Syria. People in rebel-held portions of Aleppo, Syria, burn tires to create plumes of dark black smoke in an attempt to interfere with airstrikes.[128]
  • The United States Air Force announces that its first squadron of F-35A Lightning II aircraft – the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah – is combat-ready. The F-35A is the second variant of the F-35 to be declared ready for combat, following the United States Marine Corps's F-35B variant. The U.S. Air Force is the largest customer for the F-35, planning to buy 1,763 F-35A aircraft.[297]
3 August
4 August
  • A Pakistani helicopter manned by seven Pakistani civil engineers flying from Pakistan to Russia for routine maintenance crash-lands in Afghanistan's Logar Province. The Taliban takes either six of its occupants or all seven of them hostage, according to various reports. The Pakistan Army requests U.S. military assistance in recovering the captured Pakistanis,[298]
  • Amazon.com unveils Prime One, a Boeing 767 which is the first of the company's 40 leased cargo planes – all Boeing 767s – branded as "Prime Air," a new air cargo service tasked with delivering goods to Amazon Prime customers. Although Prime Air already is operating 11 of the Prime Air aircraft, Prime One is the first to operate in Prime Air livery. Its tail number, N1997A, is selected as an Amazon prime marketing gimmick because 1997 is a prime number. Prime One makes its first flight in the new livery the following day at the Seafair festival in Seattle, Washington. Amazon plan to phase the remaining aircraft into service over the next several years.[299][300]
5 August
  • ASL Airlines Hungary Flight 7332, a Boeing 737-476SF cargo aircraft, slides off a runway at Il Caravaggio International Airport in Bergamo, Italy, while landing in bad weather conditions. It crashes through a perimeter fence and rolls onto a four-lane highway, narrowly avoiding collisions with cars on the highway and destroying several cars in an adjacent parking lot. Both people aboard the aircraft are uninjured. The airport is closed for three hours after the crash, with incoming flights diverted to Milan–Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy.
  • Black Lives Matter protesters block a roadway into Heathrow Airport outside London, temporarily bringing ground traffic into the airport to a halt.[301]
  • In response to a July 2016 court order to release to the American Civil Liberties Union a May 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) document laying out the Obama administration's guidelines for airstrikes by unmanned aerial vehicles (popularly called "drones"), the United States Government releases a declassified, redacted version of the PPG. It requires "near certainty" that the terrorist target is at the targeted location, that no civilians be injured or killed in the strike, that the target poses a "continuing and imminent" threat to Americans, that capture of the target is not feasible, and that all relevant domestic and international laws are obeyed.[302]
6 August
  • The People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Air Force announces that it has conducted combat air patrols over disputed areas in the South China Sea – the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal, and nearby areas – "to enhance combat capabilities to deal with various security threats" as well as to protect China's sovereignty and maritime interests. It says the flights include bombers, fighters, early warning aircraft, and reconnaissance planes, and that at least some of the aircraft are capable of refueling in mid-air, but it does not say when the flights occurred. In July 2016, after a 12 July 2016 ruling against its South China Sea territorial claims by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, it also announced that it had made such flights and that doing so would become "regular practice."[303]
  • A series of airstrikes by unidentified aircraft destroy a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders in Millis in Syria's Idlib Governorate, killing 13 people and injuring at least six. A United States Department of Defense spokesman announces that U.S. aircraft have not conducted any airstrikes near Idlib Governorate.[304]
8 August
  • Delta Air Lines experiences computer problems that force it to cancel 451 of its nearly 6,000 daily flights, delaying tens of thousands of passengers.[305] Before the airline recovers, it cancels 2,300 flights over three days.[306] On 2 September, Delta will announce that the cancellations cost it $100 million in revenue, or two percent of passenger unit revenue, a metric for unit revenue as it relates to a carrier's flight capacity and distance flown which dropped 9.5% in August.[306]
9 August
  • The Saudi-led coalition conducts its first airstrikes in Yemen since a much-violated ceasefire in the Yemeni Civil War began on 11 April 2016. The coalition's aircraft strike a potato processing factory inside a Yemeni Army maintenance camp in Sana'a, killing at least 14 people working there. One estimate puts the death toll at 16. At least 10 other people are injured.[307] The strikes begin a stepped-up effort by the coalition after five months of relative calm in the air campaign in Yemen.[308]
10 August
  • According to Syrian activists, Syrian government helicopters drop barrel bombs on rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, killing at least two people.[309] Khaled Harah, one of the best-known members of Syrian Civil Defense for his rescue of a baby from a collapsed building in 2014 and his testimony before the United Nations Security Council about violence in Aleppo, is buried in the rubble of a building and killed. The following day, activists will claim that some people on the ground suffered breathing problems after the attack and allege that at least one of the barrel bombs contained chlorine gas; the Syrian government will deny that it used any chemical weapons.[309] On 13 August, the Syrian American Medical Society will claim that a bomb dropped by a jet during the day contained chlorine gas and killed three people.[310]
  • An Iraqi Air Force helicopter crashes in Iraq's Maysan Governorate southwest of Amarah while attempting an emergency landing after a technical malfunction, injuring all nine people on board.[311]
11 August
  • Airstrikes on Islamic State-held Raqqa, Syria, kill at least 20 civilians and perhaps as many as 24 civilians and six other people whose military or civilian status could not immediately be determined. According to Syrian activists, Russian Federation Air Force jets are responsible for the strikes.[309]
  • Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announces that the Turkish Air Force will resume airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as part of the U.S.-led coalition and offers to carry out joint operations against the Islamic State with Russia. Turkey had discontinued airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria after shooting down a Russian Federation Air Force aircraft in November 2015 and subsequently experiencing tension in its relationship with Russia.
  • JetBlue Flight 429, an Airbus A320 bound from Boston, Massachusetts, to Sacramento, California, encounters severe turbulence over South Dakota. It diverts to Rapid City, South Dakota, where 20 passengers and two crew members are hospitalized with injuries.[312]
12 August
  • Airstrikes against rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo, Syria, kill at least 18 people. The strikes – suspected of having been conducted by the Syrian Arab Air Force or Russian Federation Air Force.[310] – hit the only hospital for women and children in Kafr Hamrah, killing at least four people and burying at least 10 others who are pulled alive from the rubble; a market in Urum al-Kubra, killing at least six people; and the village of Hayan, killing at least 10 people. Prayers are cancelled for the day in Idlib because of the intensity of the airstrikes.
  • Mohammad Hassan Chaudhary, a 20- or 21-year-old (sources differ) schizophrenic man who allegedly has no flight training, steals a privately owned Piper PA-38 Tomahawk at Markham Airport in Markham, Ontario, Canada, and crashes it near Landsdowne Place mall in Peterborough, Ontario. The incident sparks concerns about security at private airports in Canada, as Chaudhary, wbo dies in the crash, stole the aircraft with relative ease, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigate the matter as a "national security issue."[313][314][315]
13 August
  • A member of the provincial council of Afghanistan's Helmand Province claims that an ongoing Taliban offensive to capture Lashkar Gah would have surrounded the city if not for the recent addition of U.S. airstrikes in support of Afghan forces defending the area.[316]
  • A Royal Saudi Air Force airstrike in northern Yemen hits a school in Sa'dah, killing 10 children and injuring 28 others. Local reports state that the children were students taking exams at the time of the strike, while a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition claims that the strike hit a rebel training camp and the children were rebel recruits.[308]
14 August
  • Aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition conduct airstrikes in support of an offensive by Kurdish peshmerga troops against Islamic State forces in Iraq east of Mosul that captures five villages. One of the strikes destroys a car bomb.[317]
  • Aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition conduct airstrikes in support an offensive by pro-government troops in Yemen against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula forces that captures Zinjibar and Jaʿār. The strikes kill more than 40 Islamic militants and destroy several of their ground vehicles.[318]
  • Boko Haram releases a video in which one of the girls the group kidnapped in 2014 from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, claims that Nigerian Air Force strikes against Boko Haram have killed some of the girls. The video also shows what purportedly are the bodies of kidnapped schoolgirls allegedly killed in an air raid.[319]
  • Reports 45 minutes apart of shots fired in two different terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, lead to a panic in which thousands of people are evacuated from the terminals and all air traffic at the airport is grounded. After police find no signs of any shots having been fired, a senior law enforcement official announces that it appears that loud cheering, clapping, and banging by people watching television coverage of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt competing in the 100-meter dash during the 2016 Summer Olympics had been misinterpreted as the sounds of a fight and gunfire.[320]
15 August
  • An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hits a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen's Hajjah Governorate, killing 19 people injuring 24. It is at least the fourth airstrike by the coalition against a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen since the Yemeni Civil War began in March 2015.[321][322]
  • Six people were killed in a small plane crash in Alabama, United States.[323]
16 August
  • Russian Federation Air Force Tupolev Tu-22M (NATO reporting name "Backfire") bombers fly from a base near Hamadan, Iran, to hit Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham targets in northern and eastern Syria. It is the first time that Russian aircraft conduct strikes against targets in Syria from bases in Iran. Russian fighters based in Syria join the bombers over Syria. The Russians inform U.S. military forces of the bombers' flight over Iraqi and Syrian territory in advance in accordance with an agreement to deconflict air operations over Syria with the United States. The bombers previously had made 2,000 km (1,200 mi) flights from bases in Russia to strike Syrian targets, but the use of Iranian bases reduces the distance to 640 km (400 mi), allowing them to carry larger payloads and use less fuel and allowing Russia to intensify its air campaign against rebel forces in Syria.[324] The following day, an Iranian lawmaker will confirm that Russian aircraft are using Iran's Shahed Nojah Air Basem adding that Russian fighter aircraft are using the base only to refuel.[325]
  • Syrian activists report an airstrike against a field hospital in rebel-held Daret Azzeh in Syria's Aleppo Governorate just after the hospital's staff and patients had evacuated it. Reportedly scoring a direct hit on the hospital, the strike injures one person.[325]
  • Air Djibouti relaunches flight operations, using a Boeing 737-400. It is the first time the airline has flown since 2002.
17 August
  • Unidentified aircraft conduct airstrikes against rebel-held Idlib, Syria, killing 17 people and injuring at least 30 others.[325]
  • Syrian Arab Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name "Fencer") aircraft conduct the Syrian government's first airstrikes against forces of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria's Hasakah Governorate near Hasakah, killing several Kurds. The bombs fall near U.S. and coalition special operations forces working on the ground with the YPG but inflict no casualties on them. As the strike begins, the U.S. military contacts Russian forces in Syria to inform them that U.S. aircraft would respond if forces of the U.S.-led coalition were under attack; the Russians reply that the Syrians are conducting the strike. Coalition forces on the ground are unable to contact the Syrian jets, and U.S. fighter aircraft scrambled to intercept the Syrians arrive as the Syrian jets leave the area. The incident prompts the U.S.-led coalition to maintain increased combat air patrols over the area and to warn the Syrian government not to interfere with coalition ground forces in the future.[326][327][328]
  • The Russian Ministry of Defense announces that Russian aircraft have conducted airstrikes against rebel targets in eastern Syria from bases in Iran for the second straight day, flying from a base southwest of Tehran.[325]
  • The Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander 10 hybrid airship makes its first flight, a 30-minute flight at Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire, England. Although larger airships existed in the early 20th century, the 302-foot-long (92-meter-long) Airlander 10 is the world's largest existing operational aircraft at the time of the flight.[329]
18 August
  • Doctors Without Borders announces that it is evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen, saying that the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of the area is "indiscriminate" and the coalition's assurances of protection for health workers are "unreliable." The group explains that airstrikes have continue to target its hospitals despite its provision of the GPS coordinates of its hospitals to the coalition and two meetings with high-ranking military officials of the coalition over the last previous eight months in which the officials promised that aerial bombing of hospitals would end.[322]
19 August
  • Two Syrian Arab Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name "Fencer") aircraft attempt to transit the area near Hasakah, Syria, where Syrian aircraft had come close to bombing U.S. and coalition special operations forces on the ground while attacking Kurdiish forces the previous day. Fighter aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition intercept them and, according to a U.S. Department of Defense spokesman, "encouraged" the Syrian aircraft to leave the area "without further incident."[328]
21 August
22 August
  • A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Afghanistan, announces that Embraer A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft flown by U.S.-trained Afghan pilots have deployed to Kunduz, Afghanistan, to operate against Taliban forces conducting an offensive to capture the city.[332]
  • A spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces that Iran no longer will permit Russian aircraft to use bases in Iran, apparently because of Iran's displeasure with the publicity given the Russian deployment of aircraft to Iran by Russia's public announcement of it. The spokesman says that the Russian use of Hamadan Airbase outside Hamadan, Iran, was "temporary, based on a Russian request" and was "finished for now," adding that "Russia has no base in Iran." Since beginning strikes against rebel targets in Syria on 16 August, Russia had operated Tupolev Tu-22M (NATO reporting name "Backfire") bombers, Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name "Fullback") strike aircraft, Sukhoi Su-30SM (NATO reporting name "Flanker C") fighters, and Sukhoi Su-35S (NATO reporting name "Flanker E") fighters from Hamadan, launching at least three strikes into Syrian territory.[333]
23 August
  • The Nigerian Army claims that "the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid" by the Nigerian Air Force against a village in the Sambisa Forest in northeastern Nigeria's Borno State on 19 August as members of Boko Haram met for morning prayers mortally wounded the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau – the fourth time Nigerian forces have claimed to have killed him – and killed three other top Boko Haram commanders. A separate Nigerian Air Force announcement claims that the strike killed 300 Boko Haram personnel. Neither of the reports can be verified, and later in the day Nigerian forces claim merely to have seriously wounded Shekau in the strike.[334][335][336][337]
24 August
  • Turkish Army forces enter Syria to assist Free Syrian Army troops in capturing Jarabulus from the Islamic State. Turkish Air Force and U.S. aircraft conduct airstrikes in support of the offensive.[338]
  • The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announce that they have cleared their forces of wrongdoing in two airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip that killed civilians during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. They find that a 20 July 2014 airstrike that killed seven members of one family at the refugee camp in Bureij was justified because the house was in use as a Hamas military command-and-control center and because the strike killed a senior Hamas commander and three members of the family who were Hamas members; that a 1 August 2014 airstrike against a house in Rafah that killed 15 members of one family also was justified because the house was in use by Hamas as a military command-and-control center; that international law permits attacks on houses used for military purposes; and that one of the dead family members in the 1 August strike was a senior Hamas commander. The IDF also finds that the deaths of 12 members of a family in Rafah on 21 July 2014 were due to Palestinian mortar fire rather than an Israeli airstrike.[339]
25 August
  • A weeklong search in the Federated States of Mirconesia for a couple aboard a missing sailboat ends when a United States Navy helicopter investigating a report from the previous evening of a light seen on uninhabited Fayu Atoll discovers a large "SOS" drawn in the sand and spots the couple waving. The couple is rescued by boat on 26 August.[340]
26 August
  • Russian news media report that the Russian government has asked the Turkish government for information on Turkish air operations over Syria. A spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense explains that Russia wishes to use the information "to prevent air incidents because it will be the first time when Turkish warplanes will intensively bomb targets in Syria and [they] may meet Russian warplanes in midair."[341]
27 August
  • Syrian warplanes attack a funeral in Al-Nayrab, Syria, with a barrel bomb, then return to strike with another barrel bomb after rescue workers arrive. The attacks reportedly kill more than two dozen people.[342]
  • The Turkish Air Force conducts airstrikes against Kurdish targets in Al-Amarna, Syria, south of Jarabulus.[343]
  • The left engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 3472 (registration N766SW) – a Boeing 737-700 flying from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Orlando, Florida, with 104 people on board – explodes at an altitude of 30,700 feet (9,400 meters), damaging the engine nacelle and tearing a gash in the airliner's fuselage. The aircraft makes an emergency landing at Pensacola, Florida, without injury to anyone on board.[344][345][346]
28 August
  • Russia lifts its ban on charter flights to Turkey. The ban had been in place since Turkey shot down a Russian Federation Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name "Fencer") near the Turkish border with Syria in November 2015.[347] On 29 August, the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia will announce that the first charter flights will take place on 4–5 September.[348]
  • Iranian state television airs video of a Russian-supplied mobile S-300 (NATO reporting name "SA-10 Grumble") surface-to-air missile system deployed around the nuclear site at Fordo, Iran. It is not clear whether the system is fully operational or that it will remain at the site.[349]
  • Just after police at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, detain a man in the terminal carrying a plastic sword and dressed as Zorro, a report of shots fired leads to a panic in which police evacuate terminals, people run onto the airfield, and flights to and from the airport are halted. The loud noises mistaken for shots turn out to be harmless, and the man dressed as Zorro, who tells police he had come to meet an arriving passenger, is released.[350]
  • American reality television personality Darrell Ward, a star of the television series Ice Road Truckers, and his pilot are killed when their Cessna 182 Skylane Skylane (registration N9936T) crashes on a highway and catches fire while trying to land at an airstrip at Rock Creek, Montana, at the end of a flight from Missoula, Montana.[351]
29 August
  • Iranian state television reports that Iran has put into operation the Nazir radar system, which it claims can detect radar-evading aircraft, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles flying at altitudes of over 3,000 meters (9,800 feet).[349]
  • The first nationwide regulations governing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (popularly known as "drones") go into effect in the United States. They apply only to commercial-purpose UAVs weighing 55 pounds (25 kilograms) or less including payload, and require that the UAVs fly only during daylight, remain within sight of their operators, not fly directly over people not involved in their operation, fly no higher than an altitude of 400 feet (120 meters), and fly no faster than 160 km/h (100 mph); operations outside these parameters require a waiver from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). They also require that UAV pilots pass a written test of aeronautical knowledge administered by the FAA to receive an FAA certification to operate UAVs – the FAA has received about 3,000 requests for such certifications – although UAV pilots are not required to possess a formal license. The regulations do not apply to privately owned UAVs operated by hobbyists. They also do not address the operation of UAVs over private property, although the FAA recommends that UAV operators receive the permission of property owners before operating UAVs over their property and specific permission to take photographs and videos over their property if the UAVs are to be used for those purposes.[352]
30 August
  • The Islamic State announces that its chief spokesman, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, has been killed in an airstrike. The U.S. Department of Defense reports that it targeted Adnani in a "precision strike" in Al-Bab, Syria, with an AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missile fired by an unmanned aerial vehicle but says it cannot confirm his death.[353] On 31 August, Russia will claim that a strike by a Russian Federation Air Force Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name "Fullback") killed as many as 40 Islamic State personnel on 30 August, one of whom was Adnani, but offers no evidence for its claim.[354]
  • Joe Sutter, the American engineer known as the "father of the 747" who served as chief engineer for the design and development of the Boeing 747 in the 1960s, leading a team of 4,500 people including 2,700 engineers, dies at the age of 95.[355]
31 August
  • An airstrike in Saada, Yemen, by the Saudi-led coalition kills at least 16 civilians.[356] According to one report, the dead are an imam and 15 members of his extended family.[357]
  • The first scheduled commercial air service between the United States and Cuba in over 50 years begins with JetBlue Airways Flight 387 – an Airbus A320 – making a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Santa Clara, Cuba. It is also the first scheduled commercial passenger jet flight between the two countries in history, propeller-driven airliners having been in use when flights ceased in the early 1960s. Among passengers on the first flight are United States Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and JetBlue Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes.[358][359]
  • The United States Department of Transportation announces that it has selected Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and United Airlines to provide scheduled airline service to Havana, Cuba, requiring them to begin service within 90 days. The airlines are to provide the service from Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; New York City; and Newark, New Jersey.[359]
  • A private Cessna aircraft hired by a woman so that her boyfriend could celebrate his birthday by seeing New Orleans, Louisiana, from the air and carrying the woman, her boyfriend, and a pilot, crashes into Lake Pontchartrain after flying into a rainstorm. The crash kills the woman's boyfriend and the plane's pilot, but her boyfriend pushes her from the plane moments before the crash, saving her life. A private boat rescues her from the lake and she is taken to a hospital.[360]
  • A mid-air collision over a remote area near Russian Mission, Alaska, between a Hageland Aviation Cessna 208B Grand Caravan carrying three people and a Renfro's Alaskan Adventures Piper PA-18 Super Cub carrying two people kills everyone aboard both planes.[361] Mid-air collisions are rare in the United States and usually happen near airports.[362]

September
1 September
2 September
  • The Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Izzah claims to have shot down a "Russian helicopter" with a BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile during the day as the helicopter was landing outside Rahbat al-Khattab northwest of Hama, Syria.[364] According to one report, the helicopter was Russian- or French-made and operated by the Syrian government, and two people aboard it were killed.[365]
3 September
  • Iraqi Air Force fighter aircraft drop leaflets to residents of Shirqat and Zuwiyah, Iraq. The leaflets ask them to support and assist Iraqi forces and their allies advancing into the area during an offensive against the Islamic State.[366]
4 September
  • A U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle fires an air-to-ground missile at a gathering of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula members in Yemen's Shabwah Governorate, killing six of them.[367]
  • Supported by Russian Federation Air Force strikes, Syrian Arab Army forces close off the "Ramouseh corridor," completing an encirclement of rebel-held portions of Aleppo, Syria, and cutting them off from reinforcement and supply.[368]
5 September
  • Since 3 September, U.S. aircraft have conducted about 20 strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, centering on Nineveh Province and Mosul but also in Anbar Province; at least 25 strikes against Islamic State targets in northern and eastern Syria, at least 20 strikes against Islamic State targets in Sirte, Libya; and several counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan.[367]
  • U.S. forces conduct two airstrikes in Tortoroow, Somalia, in defense of African peacekeeping forces that had come under attack by Al-Shabaab.[367]
6 September
  • Visiting Laos, President Barack Obama pledges that the United States will provide $90 million in additional aid to Laos to help in cleaning up an estimated 80 million unexploded bombs remaining in that country after the U.S. air campaign there during the Vietnam War. Between 1964 and 1973, the United States conducted 580,000 bombing raids over Laos, dropping an estimated 270 million cluster bombs, in an effort to cut off supplies passing through Laos to Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces operating in South Vietnam.[369]
  • A Syrian government aircraft drops a barrel bomb containing chlorine gas on the rebel-held Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo. According to Syrian Civil Defense, 120 people are hospitalized with breathing problems after the attack.[370] The following day, medical workers claim that they treated 70 people for breathing problems and that two of them had died on 7 September.[371]
  • A Mexican police helicopter crashes in Mexico's Michoacán state, killing three police officers and the pilot, during a police operation to capture leaders of criminal groups and drug cartels in Apatzingán, including the Knights Templar Cartel. An initial report that the helicopter was shot down by a criminal group later comes into question, prompting an investigation into the cause of the crash.[372]
7 September
  • A U.S. airstrike near Raqqa, Syria, kills Islamic State minister of information Wael Adel Salman al-Fayad, also known as Abu Mohamed Furqan. The United States Department of Defense will announce the successful strike on 16 September.[373]
  • A Syrian government airstrike in the rebel-held al-Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, kills at least 10 civilians.[371]
8 September
  • Afghan attack helicopters support Afghan ground troops opposing a Taliban ground offensive in street-to-street fighting in Tarinkot, Afghanistan.[374]
  • An evening airstrike by unidentified aircraft against a meeting of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham commanders in the village of Kafr Naha on the western outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, kills commander Abu Omar Saraqib. The strike also reportedly kills or injures other senior members of the group, including the commander Abu Muslem al-Shami.[375][376]
  • A Diamond DA20C with two people on board collides with a Beech F-33A carrying only a pilot near West Georgia Regional Airport in Carroll County, Georgia, in mid-air killing all three people on board the planes.[377]
10 September
  • A series of airstrikes by aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition on a water well in Beit Sadaan, Yemen, kill at least 30 people and wound at least 17, according to the United Nations, although Houthi rebels claim that the strikes kill or wound 100 people. Later strikes in the sequence of air raids on the well reportedly kill first responders attempting to help the wounded from earlier strikes.[378]
  • In Geneva, Switzerland, United States Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov announce a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Russia intended to lead to a negotiated settlement that will end the Syrian Civil War. The ceasefire between the Syrian government and opposition groups is to begin at sundown on 12 September. If the ceasefire holds for seven days, the agreement as outlined by Kerry calls among other things for the protection of civilians in Syria from airstrikes, for the United States and Russia to make arrangements to conduct coordinated airstrikes in Syria against Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and the Islamic State, and for the Syrian Arab Air Force to resume combat missions only over yet-to-be-selected areas that contain no rebel forces.[379][380]
  • Syrian Arab Air Force jets strike a busy market in Idlib, Syria, killing at least 36 people, and various neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria, killing at least another 45 people.[379] Airstrikes from the day resulted in the deaths of over 100 people, all civilians, and the injuring of also more than 100.[381]
11 September
12 September
  • A ceasefire in the Syrian Civil War under an agreement between Russia and the United States goes into effect at sundown, but is almost immediately violated during the evening. Among the violations is a barrel-bomb attack against a neighborhood of Aleppo by Syrian government helicopters.[383]
14 September
  • Iraqi Air Force aircraft drop 7 million leaflets over Iraq's Nineveh Governorate – 2 million over the center of Mosul, 500,000 each over Hamdaniya, al-Ba’aaj, al-Hazar, and Talafar, and 250,000 each over Bashiqa, Hamam Alil, al-Shura, al-Mahaliya, al-Hmidat, Bartila, al-Namroud, Qahtaniyah, Til Abta, al-Ayaziya, and al-Qirwan. The leaflets inform civilians of a planned offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State and asks civilians in the governorate to stop fighting for the Islamic State, avoid Islamic State bases and help the anti-Islamic State coalition target the bases, and support advancing Iraqi troops and their allies.[366]
  • Based on the results of a United States Navy investigation into a fatal crash while the Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron was practicing for an air show on 2 June, the Blue Angels receive orders to eliminate the split S maneuver from their shows until further notice, put dive recovery rules with specific airspeed limitations in place, use a greater safety buffer between aircraft and the ground for the remainder of the air show season, and make positive radio confirmation with instruments that measure altitude prior to takeoff. The Navy also directs that after the conclusion of the current air show season a safety team review the Blue Angels' training, maintenance and culture; review their aerial maneuvers in order to increase safety; and determine adjustments to future air show schedules to allow more rest for pilots and support staff.[384]
16 September
  • The United States Air Force announces the grounding of 15 F-35A Lightning II aircraft – 13 belonging to the U.S. Air Force and two to the Royal Norwegian Air Force – due to "peeling and crumbling" insulation inside their fuel tanks. The insulation problem also affects another 42 F-35A aircraft still in production.[385]
  • Bulgaria's national airline Bulgaria Air announces that it will make commercial flights to the United States for the first time since the 1990s. It plans to begin its new transatlantic service in March 2017.
17 September
  • Believing that they are attacking Islamic State forces, aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition – which the Syrian government claims are two F-16 Fighting Falcons and two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs flying into Syria from Iraq – mistakenly strike Syrian Arab Army forces in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The strike destroys approximately six ground vehicles according to a United States Central Command estimate before Russia alerts Central Command that the strike is targeting Syrian Arab Army forces; the aircraft then cease fire and the United States express regret over the strike. Russia and Syria claim that the targeted forces were fighting against the Islamic State and that the strike killed 62 Syrian soldiers and wounded 100. It is the first combat engagement between the U.S.-led coalition and Syrian forces since the coalition began air raids in Syria in 2014. Arguing that the strike is a ceasefire violation that may be evidence of U.S. military support for the Islamic State in the Syrian Civil War, Russia calls an emergency Saturday-evening meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the incident.[386]
18 September
  • The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan conducts two airstrikes against a highway in Afghanistan's Urozgan Province on the outskirts of Tarinkot in support of Afghan forces in combat against the Taliban. Local officials claim that the strikes mistakenly kill eight Afghan police officers, with the second strike killing people who were attempting to help those injured in the first strike; the coalition does not comment on the allegation. The strikes are among several the coalition carries out during the day, including in Kabul Province.[387]
  • Warplanes – suspected of being Syrian Arab Air Force or Russian Federation Air Force aircraft – strike rebel-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo, Syria, killing at least one person and injuring several others. Another suspected Syrian or Russian airstrike in Syria's Daraa Governorate kills eight people.[388]
  • Iranian state television announces that Iran is reducing the number of airliners it agreed to purchase from Airbus in January from 118 to 112.[180]
19 September
  • The Syrian government declares an end to a week-long nationwide ceasefire in the Syrian Civil War and the Syrian Arab Air Force conducts at least 35 airstrikes and barrel-bomb attacks against rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo, Syria. One air raid strikes a ground convoy as it unloads aid packages at a warehouse operated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent west of Aleppo, Syria, hitting the warehouse, destroying at least 18 of the convoy's 31 trucks, and killing about 20 civilians, including at least 12 humanitarian aid workers, most of them truck drivers. The United States claims that only Russian Federation Air Force or Syrian Arab Air Force aircraft could have conducted the strike.[389]
  • United States Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James announces that the new bomber under development by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Air Force's Long-Range Strike Bomber program will be named the B-21 Raider. The B-21 is expected to reach initial operational capability in the mid-2020s.[390]
20 September
  • Bulgaria Air confirms the lease of 14 new Boeing 737 aircraft, which will replace the Airbus A320s currently operated by the airline. The deal is valued at more than $8,000,000,000.
  • A military helicopter belonging to the Libyan National Army crashes near Tobruk, killing all eight people on board, including the Libyan armed forces' commander-in-chief, Idris Younis.[391]
21 September
  • After the Russian Ministry of Defense claims that a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle was in the vicinity of the 19 September airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy and warehouse outside Aleppo, Syria, and implies that it could have conducted the attack, the U.S. Department of Defense responds that no manned or unmanned aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition were in the area at the time.[392] At the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry accuses Moscow of inventing its "own facts"[392] to explain the air attack, which the United States had blamed on the Russian Federation Air Force, adding that "We don’t get anywhere by ignoring facts and denying common sense;"[392] he calls for Russia and Syria to "immediately ground all aircraft" flying in areas of northwest Syria where the convoy was hit.[392]
  • The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control grants Airbus and Boeing licenses to sell airliners to Iran. Airbus's license covers the first 17 A320s and A330s that Iran agreed to purchase in a January; although based aboard, the company required U.S. Government permission because at least 10 percent of the airliners' components are manufactured in the United States. Boeing's license allows it to sell 80 airliners and lease another 29 new Boeing 737s to Iran.[180]
22 September
  • Throughout the day, suspected Syrian Arab Air Force and Russian Federation Air Force aircraft strike targets in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria; twenty-one people die in evening air raids on two Aleppo neighborhoods, and scores have died in airstrikes in the city since 19 September.[393] At the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry repeats his 21 September call for Syria and Russia to ground their aircraft in northeastern Syria, saying that "the only way" for the Syrian ceasefire to succeed is "if the ones who have the air power in this part of the conflict simply stop using it... . Absent a major gesture like this, we don’t believe there is a point in making more promises, issuing more plans."[393] The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, tells the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services that "I would not agree that coalition aircraft ought to be grounded...I do agree that Syrian regime aircraft and Russian aircraft should be grounded...There's no reason to ground our aircraft...We’re not barrel-bombing civilians; we’re not causing collateral damage."[393]
  • The World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that the European Union, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom have failed to halt illegal subsidies to Airbus that the WTO had ordered them to stop in 2011 despite reporting in late 2011 that they had done so. The WTO adds that the subsidies – which total $22,000,000,000 over ten years – have cost the economy of the United States tens of billions of dollars and cost Boeing nearly 400 potential airliner sales in 2012 and 2013 alone. The ruling is a sweeping victory for the United States and its aerospace industry, which has disputed European aircraft subsidies for 40 years and first filed a complaint with the WTO about Airbus subsidies in 2004.[394]
23 September
  • After the Syrian government announces an offensive against rebel forces in and around Aleppo, Syria, the previous evening, Syrian government aircraft pound rebel-held areas of Aleppo during the day, conducting more than 70 strikes and dropping at least 100 bombs. Observers describe the strikes during the day as the most intense of the Syrian Civil War. Targets include at least three of the four Syrian Civil Defense in the eastern part of the city; damaging fire trucks and ambulances; two of the centers are knocked out. More than 70 strikes have hit the Aleppo area since 21 September; since the collapse of the ceasefire in Syria on 19 September, airstrikes have killed scores of people, including at least 30 in Aleppo.[395][396]
24 September
25 September
  • Intense Russian and Syrian airstrikes in and around rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, kill at least 85 people, with observers claiming that attacking aircraft are employing white phosphorus munitions, cluster munitions, and incendiary and "bunker buster" bombs. Since 19 September, the strikes have destroyed so many ambulances that humanitarian aid workers and first responders have great difficulty responding to reports of casualties. At the U.N. Security Council, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power accuses Russia of "barbarism" and claims the strikes are a war crime, while the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, responds that the collapse of the ceasefire is due to transgressions by U.S.-backed rebel forces.[398]
26 September
  • In the first week since the collapse of the ceasefire in the Syrian Civil War, Syrian and Russian aircraft have dropped at least 1,700 bombs on the rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo, Syria.[399]
  • The Russian government announces that it has radio location data implicating the Ukrainian armed forces in the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 and has ruled out the possibility that a surface-to-air missile fired from territory held by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine shot the airliner down.[400]
27 September
  • The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration demonstrates its Next Generation Data Communications (also called "Nexcom" or "Data Comm") system – a component of its Next Generation Air Transportation System – to the media at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The system, already installed at air traffic control towers at 45 airports in the United States, is intended to replace the existing archaic U.S. system of communications between airline pilots and control towers – which requires printing out flight plans in towers, discussion by radio between towers and pilots, and pilots writing down flight plans by hand in the cockpit – with all-digital communications, allowing improved speed and efficiency. The FAA plans to install the system at 50 more U.S. airports before the end of 2016, and then to install it at en route air traffic control centers across the United States, with a goal of achieving voiceless, in-flight communications between air traffic controllers and airliner pilots throughout the country by mid-2019. The FAA estimates that the new system will save air carriers $10,000,000,000 over the next 30 years.[401][402]
28 September
  • An Afghan official announces that an early-morning airstrike against a residential building in the Achin District in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province has killed 13 civilians. U.S. military forces in Afghanistan acknowledge that they carried out a "counterterrorism airstrike" in Achin and aare investigating whether any civilian casualties resulted from it.[403]
  • The United States conducts a predawn airstrike in northern Somalia in defense of troops from Somalia's Puntland region who report that they have come under fire from al-Shabaab forces. Post-strike photographs show two burned-out armored vehicles and a number of badly burned bodies at the scene of the strike. A U.S. Department of Defense spokesman claims that the strike killed nine al-Shabaab members and a Puntland police officer says it killed more than a dozen al-Shabaab personnel, while officials of Somalia's Galmudug autonomous region claim that Puntland had tricked the United States into attacking Galmudug soldiers and that the strike had killed 22 of them. The U.S. Department of Defense announces that it will investigate whether the strike killed anyone other than al-Shabaab personnel.[404][405]
  • During the predawn hours, airstrikes hit two hospitals and a bakery in eastern Aleppo, Syria. Both hospitals are put out of action, and two patients are killed.[399]
  • The United States Department of State announces that the United States is making preparations to suspend all bilateral cooperation with Russia over Syria – including the sharing of information between the United States and Russia to support airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria via a "Joint Implementation Center" – unless Russia takes steps to end the ongoing Syrian and Russian ground and air assault against rebel-held eastern Aleppo and moves to restore the ceasefire agreed to on 12 September. The announcement states that in a telephone conversation earlier in the day with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry "made clear that the United States and its partners hold Russia responsible for the situation, including the use of incendiary and 'bunker buster' bombs in an urban environment, a drastic escalation that puts civilians at great risk" and "informed [Lavrov] that the United States is making preparations to suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria – including on the establishment of a Joint Implementation Center to coordinate [air]strikes on terrorist targets – unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities."[406]
  • A Dutch team investigating the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine in July 2014 announces that it has concluded that the airliner was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired by a Russian-made Buk missile system (NATO reporting name "Gadfly," U.S. Department of Defense designation SA-11) smuggled from Russia into an area of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists a few hours before it fired at the airliner and returned to Russian territory the following day. The Dutch team says that it has identified over 100 people linked to the firing of the missile and that it will continue its investigation – extended into at least 2018 – –in order to determine who ordered it fired. The U.S. Department of State notes that the Dutch team's findings match those of American investigators, while the Russian ministries of defense and foreign affairs dismiss some of the Dutch team's evidence and declare its investigation biased and Russian separatists in Ukraine claim they have no access to sophisticated surface-to-air missiles and blame the airliner's destruction on the Ukrainian armed forces.[400]
  • "Unauthorized...activity" by an unmanned aerial vehicle near Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), forces the airport to halt all arrivals and departures. Arrivals resume after about 35 minutes and full operations after about 67 minutes. The incident prompts UAE officials to announce plans to tighten the country's regulations regarding drone operations. A similar incident had caused the airport to close on 12 June.[199]
29 September
  • United Nations officials condemn the 28 September U.S. counterterrorism airstrike in Afghanistan's Achin District, saying it killed 15 civilians and wounded 12 others; they demand a complete investigation of the incident. Although the United States and the Afghan government claim that the strike targeted a residential compound used by Islamic State personnel, local Afghan officials claim that it killed and injured only civilians. U.S. military officials respond that they take "all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously" but add that the Islamic State continues "to put innocent lives at risk by deliberately surrounding themselves with civilians and dressing in female attire."[407]
  • The Government of Somalia accuses the United States Government of killing 13 Somali soldiers in its 28 September airstrike against al-Shabaab forces and demands an explanation from the United States.[405]
  • Russia responds to U.S. criticism of its air campaign in eastern Aleppo, Syria, by saying that the airstrikes are justified because the United States violated the ceasefire agreement of 12 September by failing to fulfill its promise to separate al-Qaeda- and Islamic State-linked forces from other rebel forces and because the ceasefire agreement had become unacceptable because it a;;owed "terrorist groups to take necessary measures to replenish supplies [and] regroup forces."[408]
30 September
  • Russian and Syrian aircraft conduct heavy airstrikes against rebel-held residential areas in eastern Aleppo, Syria, including the use of white phosphorus and cluster munitions; two more hospitals are among the targets hit during the day. The World Health Organization estimates that Russian and Syrian airstrikes have killed 338 people in Aleppo since 19 September. The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that Russian airstrikes have killed 3,624 civilians since they began on 30 September 2015, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that they have killed 3,804 civilians. A Russian government spokesman says that Russia has no intention of reducing its involvement in the Syrian Civil War and has no projected end date for its intervention.[409]
  • Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders summons the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands to a meeting in The Hague to complain about Russian Government statements criticizing the Dutch team investigating the July 2014 crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine. Koenders describes the Russian criticism as "unsubstantiated" and "unacceptable," adding, "Given the convincing nature of the evidence, Russia should respect the results that have been presented, rather than impugning the investigation and sowing doubt."[410]

October
1 October
  • Iran's Tasnim News Agency and Press TV report that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has built a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with lethal attack capabilities. Named "Saegheh" ("Thunderbolt"), the new UAV reportedly is similar to a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency RQ-170 Sentinel UAV that crashed in Iran in December 2011.[411]
  • Iraqi troops shoot down an Islamic State unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measuring about one foot (0.30 meters) long and one foot (0.30 meters) wide in Iraq and discover that it has an explosive attached to its top.[412]
  • Syrian Arab Air Force or Russian Federation Air Force aircraft bomb a major hospital known as "M10" in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Syria, for the second time in a week, killing or wounding more than a dozen patients. Doctors at M10 report that the attack includes barrel bombs, incendiary bombs, and cluster munitions. Syrian government and Russian aircraft have dropped nearly 2,000 bombs on eastern Aleppo in less than two weeks.[413]
  • Belavia retires its last two Tupolev Tu-154s from scheduled service, one of the last airlines to retire the Tu-154.
2 October
3 October
4 October
  • U.S. military officials in Kabul, Afghanistan, announce that one U.S. Army helicopter has fired at Taliban insurgent forces in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in defense of Afghan ground forces opposing a Taliban offensive there.[422]
  • Russia announces that it has added operational S-300 (U.S. DoD designation "SA-10," NATO reporting name "Grumble") surface-to-air missile systems to its air defense forces in Syria, where they join Russian S-200 (U.S. DoD designation "SA-5," NATO reporting name "Gammon"), and Buk (U.S. DoD designation "SA-17," NATO reporting name "Grizzly") already there.[423][424] The S-300 and S-400 missiles give Russian forces the capability to shoot down aircraft at a range of up to 250 miles (400 km), covering almost all of Syria, all of Cyprus, and significant portions of Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and the eastern Mediterranean Sea.[425]
6 October
  • Russia warns that it will view any airstrikes in Syria by the U.S.-led coalition against pro-Syrian-government forces as a threat to Russian military personnel and that its surface-to-air missile systems deployed in Syria would fire immediately at any aircraft appearing to pose a threat to them.[424]
  • Finland notes what it suspects are two separate violations of its airspace by Russian Sukhoi Su-27 (NATO reporting name "Flanker") fighters over the Gulf of Finland.[426]
  • At a meeting in Montreal, Ontario, Canada, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) overwhelmingly ratifies a 15-year agreement to curb global-warming-related emissions from civil airliners on international flights (domestic flights already are covered separately by the Paris Agreement of December 2015, set to take effect in November 2016) by an estimated 2,500,000,000 tons between 2021 and 2035; it is the first international climate-change-related pact to govern a single industry. Under the agreement, the maximum permissible emissions level permitted for commercial airlines beginning in 2021 will be set at the level of emissions in 2020; after that, and through 2035, airlines that exceed the 2020 limit will have to buy carbon credits from other industries to compensate for exceeding the emissions limit. Participation is voluntary from 2021 through 2027, then mandatory from 2028 through 2035. The agreement is expected to cost airlines $5,300,000,000 annually and as much as $23,900,000,000 in 2035. Each of the ICAO's 191 member countries still must act on their own to put the agreement's limits into effect; 65 countries – including China, the United States, and all 44 member countries of the European Union's aviation conference – have agreed to participate, while Russia plans not to participate in the voluntary phase and India has expressed reservations about the agreement.[427]
7 October
  • The Government of Finland announces its suspicions that Russian Sukhoi Su-27 (NATO reporting name "Flanker") fighters violated Finnish airspace over the Gulf of Finland the previous day. Russia responds by denouncing the Finnish claim, asserting that its aircraft remained over international waters.[426]
  • Estonia announces that a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 (NATO reporting name "Flanker") fighter violated its airspace for less than a minute earlier in the day.[426]
  • Russia ratifies a treaty with Syria which among other things grants it a permanent airbase in Syria at Khmeimim, effective retroactively to 26 August 2015, the date it was signed.[428]
  • The Russian newspaper Kommersant reports that a Russian military official said that Russian forces in Syria are under orders to "shoot to kill" if they come under attack, presumably by aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition.[428] It also reports that Russia is considering deploying Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO reporting name "Frogfoot") aircraft to Syria. Russia had withdrawn all Su-25s from Syria in March.[428]
  • United States Secretary of State John F. Kerry calls for Russia and Syria to face war crimes charges for bombing civilian targets in Aleppo, Syria. Russian officials condemn the idea.[429]
  • Qatar Airways announces that it has made a deal with Boeing worth up to $18,600,000,000 to buy up to 100 airliners. The deal includes purchasing 10 Boeing 777s and 30 Boeing 787s for a combined $11,700,000,000 and up to 60 Boeing 737s for as much as $6,900,000,000. The purchase of Boeing 737s marks the first Qatar Airways purchase of single-aisle airliners from Boeing since 2001. Qatar Airways had expressed frustration with Airbus over delays in the delivery of A320neo airliners it had ordered, but says it will continue to work with Airbus for delivery of the A320neos despite its Boeing 737 order.
  • Belarus′ national airline Belavia officially retires its last Tupolev Tu-154M (NATO reporting name "Careless") airliner.[430]
  • Bulgaria Air outlines Sofia Airport as its first international long-haul base, with flights to begin in March 2017 using a pair of Airbus A330-200s offering service to Beijing, China; Bangkok, Thailand; and New York City in the United States. Bulgaria Air also is contemplating service from Sofia to Mumbai, India, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
  • Airbus officials indicate that three unwanted SriLankan Airlines Airbus A350-900s may be delivered instead to Bulgaria Air.
  • Turkey's regional carrier Borajet signs a long-term lease agreement with AerCap involving five Embraer E-Jet E2s, consisting of three E190 E2s and two E195-E2s.[431]
8 October
  • The Saudi-led coalition conducts at least three airstrikes against the Grand Hall in Sana'a, Yemen, as mourners gather for the funeral of the father of a senior Houthi official, killing 140 people and injuring 534 others. It is one of deadliest single attacks since the Saudi coalition began its intervention in the Yemeni Civil War in March 2015. The Al-Arabiya satellite news network airs a report saying that various Saudi military officials deny that the coalition conducted the strike; Saudi Arabia often has denied involvement in airstrikes against civilian targets during its intervention in Yemen.[432][433]
  • Russia vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution intended to bring the Russian and Syran bombing of the rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo, Syria, to an immediate end.[434]
9 October
  • An Afghan Army Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name "Hip") helicopter crashes in Baghlan Province in northern Afghanistan, killing all eight Afghan Army soldiers on board. The Taliban claims to have shot it down, but the Afghan Ministry of Defense says the crash resulted from a technical failure.[435][436]
  • Saudi Arabia promises an investigation into the Saudi-led coalition's deadly 8 October airstrike against a funeral in Yemen, adding that it will invite U.S. experts to take part.[433]
  • The United Nations estimates that airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition are responsible for 60 percent of the estimated 3,800 civilian deaths in Yemen since the airstrikes began in March 2015.[433]
10 October
11 October
  • Airstrikes targeting the rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, kill at least 14 people, with one report placing the number of dead at 16. Activists report the use of "bunker buster" bombs during the strikes.[438]
  • A Piper PA-34 Seneca carrying a student pilot and his flight instructor crashes into a utility pole in East Hartford, Connecticut, and bursts into flames, killing the student and injuring the instructor, who tells investigators that the crash occurred after a physical altercation in the cockpit between the two men. The following day, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board announces that it believes that the crash was intentional and that it is transferring the crash investigation to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.[439][440]
12 October
  • China Southern Airlines finalizes an order with Boeing for twelve Boeing 787-9 airliners, becoming China's first Boeing 787 customer. The deal is worth up to $3,200,000,000, and China Southern is to take delivery of the airliners between 2018 and 2020.[441][442]
  • The U.S. startup company Zipline uses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to deliver blood to a remote hospital in western Rwanda. Plans call for Rwanda to officially launch the world's first nationwide UAV delivery service on 14 October, with Zipline's UAVs operating 24 hours a day to make up to 150 deliveries a day. The 31-pound (14-kg) fixed-wing UAVs, which have an operational range of 150 km (93 mi), fly below 500 feet (150 meters) to avoid commercial aircraft and drop packages to customers using disposable parachutes. Zipline plans to expand its operations into eastern Rwanda in 2017.[443][444][445][446][447][448]
13 October
14 October
15 October
  • The Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), an investigative body created by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, issues a statement that the coalition wrongly bombed a funeral on 8 October in Sana'a, Yemen, killing more than 100 people. The JIAT finds that the strike occurred because someone affiliated with the chief of staff of President of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi had incorrectly assured the coalition that the funeral was a gathering of armed Houthi rebel leaders and that the coalition's air operations center ordered the attack without the approval of the coalition command and without following precautionary procedures designed to avoid strikes against civilians.[451]
  • The Turkish Air Force conducts strikes against Islamic State targets in support of a ground offensive by Syrian opposition groups intended take Dabiq, Syria, from the Islamic State.[452]
  • Syrian Arab Air Force and Russian Federation Air Force raids hit rebel-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo, Syria, and an air attack probably by either Russian or Syrian aircraft in Termanin, Syria, kills at least eight people and injures dozens of others.[452]
  • A United States Department of Transportation ban announced the previous day on Galaxy Note 7 smartphones aboard any airliner flying within, to, or from the United States goes into effect throughout the country at 12:00 noon Eastern Daylight Time. Samsung Electronics already had recalled the Galaxy Note 7 because of reports of it catching fire or exploding.[453]
16 October
  • Airstrikes by the Turkish Air Force and international coalition strike Islamic State targets in Dabiq and Arshak, Syria, as Turkish-backed Syrian opposition ground forces capture Dabiq from the Islamic State.[454]
17 October
  • Aircraft and artillery of the U.S.-led coalition strike Islamic State targets around Mosul as a ground offensive to take Mosul, Iraq, from the Islamic State by Iraqi Army and police forces and Kurdish pesh merga forces begins.[455]
  • Syrian government and Russian airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, Syria, kill at least 36 people.[456]
  • The Russian government announces that Russia and the Syrian government will observe a unilateral cease fire from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on 20 October for a "humanitarian pause" to allow people to evacuate to Idlib Governorate from rebel-held areas in Aleppo.[456]
19 October
  • United States Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announces new rules to protect airline passengers in the United States. They include an eventual requirement for airlines to refund baggage fees when baggage is "substantially" delayed, rather than only when it is lost; a requirement likely to go into effect in January 2018 for airlines to report the number of mishandled bags as a proportion of checked bags rather than in relation to the number of passengers carried; a requirement likely to go into effect by the end of 2016 for online airline booking services to disclose any bias they have toward booking on particular airlines; an eventual requirement for airlines to include regional airlines that operate as part of their networks when reporting their on-time performance; and, for the first time, a requirement likely to go into effect in 2018 for airlines to report the number of wheelchairs they mishandle. Foxx notes that the U.S. Department of Transportation expects 700 million passengers to travel on 9 million airline flights in the United States during 2016.[457]
19–20 October (overnight)
20 October
  • Iraqi Army attack helicopters support ground forces attacking Islamic State positions in Bartella, Iraq, during the offensive to retake Mosul. Islamic State gunfire damages one helicopter, but it lands safely and its crew is evacuated.[459]
  • Kurdish peshmerga forces suffer increased casualties during the day in combat against the Islamic State during the Mosul offensive. A statement by the Kurdish general command ascribes the increase to a lack of air support, saying that support and air cover by the U.S.-led coalition "were not as decisive as in the past."[459]
  • Russia and the Syrian government begin a three-day pause in their bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Syria, to allow the delivery of humanitarian supplies and the evacuation of around 200 critically injured people. The ceasefire is longer than the eight-hour pause Syria and Russia had announced on 17 October, but less than the five days requested by international aid officials.[460]
  • The European Union warns Russia that it could face sanctions if its bombardment of civilians in Aleppo, Syria, continues.[461]
  • American Airlines reports a drop of 56 percent in net income during the third quarter of 2016, with net income between 1 July and 30 September of $737.000,000 representing a decline from $1,700,000,000 from the same period in 2015. Planes flying less full and increased labor costs are factors in the decline, as is a large tax bill. Overall revenue for the quarter was $10,600,000,000, a decline of 1.1 percent from the same period in 2015. American is the world's largest airline.[462]
  • The French start-up company Skylights releases the second iteration of its Bravo wearable headset device that allows airline passengers to view two-dimensional and three-dimensional movies and virtual reality entertainment content in their seats. The company has conducted trial runs of the technology over the previous year on European airlines, including Air France, KLM, and XL Airways, and hopes that rentable Bravo devices will become a mainstream form of in-flight entertainment aboard airliners around the world.[463]
21 October
  • A Skol Airlines Mil Mi-8 helicopter with at least 22 people on board crashes in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, killing at least 19 people.
  • Amid growing complaints by the Iraqi Army and Kurdish peshmerga forces of inadequate air support by the U.S.-led coalition for their ground offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq, from the Islamic State, the United States Department of State envoy to the coalition, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Brett H. McGurk, reports massive coalition airstrikes during the day in support of both forces. The airstrikes have involved aircraft ranging from attack helicopters to United States Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers. Iraqi ground forces also complain of insufficient aerial reconnaissance support by coalition unmanned aerial vehicles. The coalition's air power reportedly has been spread thin by the size and scope of the ground offensive.[464]
  • Bulgaria Air announces that it will begin round-trip service to Turkey, with flights between Sofia Airport in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport in Turkey commencing in January 2017. Turkish Airlines also will provide service between the two airports, with a codeshare partnership between the two airlines expected to come in May 2017.
  • Turkish Airlines announces that it has suspended services to Najaf, Sulaymaniyah, and Basrah, Iraq, because of the Iraqi and Kurdish offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State.
  • The Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden rules that unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with cameras are a form of surveillance device requiring a special surveillance permit to operate. The application process in Sweden for such permits is expensive, with no guarantee that a license will be granted, and the ruling causes consternation among UAV owners and the UAV industry in Sweden.[465][466]
  • Amid border tensions between Colombia and Venezuela, at least one and possibly two Venezuelan Air Force fighter aircraft approach Avianca Flight 011, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying at an attitude of over 36,000 feet (11,000 meters) over western Venezuela en route from Madrid, Spain, to Bogotá, Colombia, with 250 passengers aboard. The airliner makes a sharp turn off course to the north in order to reach Colombian airspace quickly. In the wake of the incident, Colombia suspends all flights by Colombian aircraft to and from Venezuela and orders its aircraft to avoid flying over Venezuelan airspace, and President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro orders an investigation of the incident.[467][468]
22 October
  • The humanitarian pause in the bombardment of Aleppo, Syria, that Russia and the Syrian government had declared on 20 October comes to an end during the evening as aircraft – presumably belonging to the Russian Federation Air Force or Syrian Arab Air Force – bomb rebel-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo.[469] A planned evacuation of injured people and of civilians from eastern Aleppo – the main purpose of the pause – did not take place during the pause.[470]
23 October
  • Following diplomatic talks between the Government of Colombia and the Government of Venezuela, Colombia lifts its suspension of flights by Colombian aircraft to, from, and over Venezuela. It had instituted the flight ban after at least one Venezuelan Air Force fighter aircraft approached an Avianca Boeing 787 Dreamliner over western Venezuela on the evening of 21 October, forcing the airliner to veer off course and into Colombian airspace.[468]
  • A Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff's Department helicopter monitoring a protest at a Dakota Access Pipeline construction site in North Dakota reports that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operated by the protestors has approached it in a threatening manner. Law enforcement officers in North Dakota open fire on the UAV with "less than lethal" ammunition, damaging it, after which its operator lands it. Protestors claim that police shot at the UAV because they do not want their activities filmed.[471][472]
24 October
25 October
26 October
27 October
28 October
  • The right engine of American Airlines Flight 383, a Boeing 767-300ER (registration N345AN), suffers an uncontained failure during the airliner's takeoff roll at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, with pieces of the engine flying from the aircraft; one of them strikes a United Parcel Service building 3,000 feet (910 meters) away, but no one on the ground is injured. The engine – a General Electric CF6 – then catches fire. The crew aborts the takeoff and brings the plane to a stop 3,000 feet (910 meters) before the end of the runway and all 170 people and a dog aboard the airliner exit via evacuation slides. Twenty people suffer minor injuries during the evacuation.[482][483]
  • Fedex Express Flight 910, a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10F cargo aircraft (registration N370FE), suffers a landing gear collapse as it lands at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida. The plane skids to a halt and a fire breaks out that destroys the left engine and wing. The aircraft's crew of three escapes.
  • The Government of Turkey announces that it expects the Turkish Air Force to take delivery of its first six Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters in 2018 and has decided to order more for delivery in 2021 and 2022; U.S. officials familiar with the deal say the second order will be for 24 aircraft. Turkey plans eventually to purchase a total of 100 F-35A fighters.[484]
29 October
  • An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operating without permission near Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), forces the airport to close for 84 minutes and prompts UAE authorities to close nearby Sharjah International Airport for a similar amount of time. It is the third time that an unauthorized drone flight has caused Dubai International Airport to close in 2016, previous incidents having occurred on 12 June and 28 September.[485]
  • Strikes by aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition targeting a security complex in Houthi-rebel-held Hodeidah, Yemen, kill at least 43 people and injure scores more; one report puts the death total at 60. Most of the dead are inmates held in prisons in the complex. The coalition says that the complex was a legitimate target because the Houthis were using it as a command-and-control center for their military operations.[486]
30 October
  • Airbus announces that the A320neo prototype could make to land in Bulgaria in November 2016, claims to be directly first to visit in southeastern Europe. The A320neo becomes the second leg of the European destination, after Finland.[487]
31 October

November
1 November
2 November
3 November
  • Airstrikes supporting Afghan government troops fighting to push Taliban forces out Kunduz, Afghanistan, reportedly kill 30 civilians and injure 25 others in and around the city. One report puts the death toll at up to 100 civilians.[490][491] U.S. military officials will acknowledge on 5 November that the airstrikes inflicted casualties on civilians, but do not estimate the number of casualties.[491]
5 November
  • Bulgaria Air announces that the Airbus A320neo as its next generation candidate of narrow body airliners, Airbus said in a directly press statement. French foreign trade minister Matthias Fekl says renegotiations with the Balkan carrier as its order for up to six aircraft, any not it finalizes agreement.
  • Philippine Airlines announces that it will withdraw the Airbus A320 from its fleet beginning in 2017.
6 November
  • Slovakia-based Go2Sky announces it will add an Airbus A320 to its fleet in late December 2016, becoming the first Slovak operator of Airbus aircraft. The A320 will become the fifth aircraft in the Go2Sky fleet.[492]
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets have scrambled over 600 times since 1 January to monitor Russian military air traffic around Europe.[493]
7 November
8 November
  • Seven airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition targeting six Islamic State tactical units near Ayn Issa, Syria, destroy three fighting positions, a ground vehicle, and a car bomb facility.[496]
9 November
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that a strike by the U.S.-led coalition in Heisha, Syria, kill at least 20 civilians and injure 30 others. The coalition says it will investigate the claim of civilian casualties.[497]
  • United States Central Command announces that it has reexamined its estimate of the number of civilians its airstrikes have killed in Iraq and Syria since its air campaign against the Islamic State began in 2014 based on allegations by activist groups and that has added 64 deaths to is estimate, bringing its estimate to a total of 119 civilians killed. It continues to investigate allegations of additional civilian deaths.[498]
11 November
13 November
  • Airstrikes targeting rebel-held areas in western Aleppo Governorate in Syria knock out a Syrian Civil Defense center in Atareb and kill three people. In northern Idlib Governorate, an airstrike kills a woman and her four children. In the western Ghouta region outside Damascus, an airstrike on a mosque in Khan al-Shih kills two people. And an explosion attributed to an airstrike at a crossing point between Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin District and rebel-held parts of Aleppo Governorate kills at least eight—as perhaps as many as 12—people.[500]
15 November
  • Syrian government and Russian forces renew their offensive against rebels in Syria. Heavy Syrian government airstrikes hit rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Syria. Russia denies that it has struck Aleppo during the day, but announces that Russian aircraft and land-based and ship-launched cruise missiles have struck Islamic State targets and positions of an al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria's Homs Governorate and Idlib Governorate, claiming that the targets were industrial sites the groups were using to manufacture toxic substances used in weapons of mass destruction. A Russian aircraft carrier sees combat for the first time in history during the day, when the Russian Federation Navy carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, launches Sukhoi Su-33 (NATO reporting name "Flanker D") aircraft which strike targets in Syria.[501]
  • Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, closes to commercial traffic for several hours – although a United States Government aircraft carrying prison inmates to a federal inmate transfer center is allowed to land – after a former Southwest Airlines employee who had been fired in 2015 uses a rifle to kill another Southwest Airlines employee just outside the airport, then shoots himself to death.[502][503]
  • At Centennial Airport in Denver, Colorado, Boom Technology unveils the engineering design for its XB-1 Baby Boom supersonic technology demonstrator aircraft, a scaled-down version of a 45-passenger supersonic airliner it hopes to produce and place in service by 2023. The Baby Boom is expected to make its first flight in 2018.[504][505]
16 November
  • Syrian government airstrikes pound eastern Aleppo, Syria, badly damaging the city's last remaining children's hospital; Russia denies any involvement in strikes against eastern Aleppo, claiming to have conducted none there since 18 October. At least 87 people are killed in Aleppo Governorate during the day. Russian air and cruise missile strikes continue in Idlib Governorate, where 34 sites have been hit and six people killed and dozens wounded since 15 November.[506]
19 November
  • According to officials in Afghanistan, an airstrike by an unmanned aerial vehicle in Nangahar Province in eastern Afghanistan kills eight Islamic State personnel including Mullah Bozorg, a top Islamic State commander.[507]
20 November
  • After a U.S. military unmanned aerial vehicle spots Islamic State personnel beheading and shooting civilians in the Mosul, Iraq, area, a U.S. laser-guided bomb is used to scatter the executioners.[508]
  • Bulgaria Air confirms to acquire at least four Boeing 767-300 aircraft in giving instead of Airbus A330-200 already to enter service in 2017. In addition, the airline agrees to ten Airbus A320 family in anticipation to join the fleet with bringing the operator of A320 family to fifteen.
21 November
  • The United States grants a license to Airbus to sell 106 airliners to Iran; it will announce that it has granted the license the following day. Airbus required the license because at least 10 percent of the airliners' parts are manufactured in the United States. Previously, Airbus had had a U.S. license to sell only 17 airliners to Iran.[509]
22 November
  • Approximately 250 pilots who fly cargo aircraft for ABX Air go on strike, claiming the airline is violating their contract by giving them too many flight assignments. ABX Air says it views the strike as illegal. The strike affects package deliveries by ABX Air's two biggest customers, Amazon.com and DHL Express, as the 2016 Christmas shopping season begins.[510]
  • The Government of Canada announces that it will buy 18 F-18 Super Hornets from Boeing as a stopgap measure and begin a process of as long as five years to determine how to replace its aging fighter fleet, which consists of 77 McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornets, a decline from what once had been a force of 138 CF-18s. The announcement is a blow to Lockheed Martin, which had hoped to sell Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighters to Canada. Although Canada plans to remain one of the countries contributing to the development of the F-35, it has backed off its earlier plans to purchase F-35s.[511]
23 November
  • An airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition "disables" the fourth of five bridges across the Tigris in Mosul, Iraq, leaving only one bridge intact. Airstrikes had destroyed another bridge earlier in the week and two in October. The destruction of the bridges has disrupted Islamic State supply lines.[512]
  • Spain's national airline Iberia formally its last flight for the Airbus A340-300 from service.[513]
  • A U.S. federal judge in Cincinnati, Ohio, orders ABX Air pilots who had gone on strike the previous day to return to work. Their union says that it will obey the judge's order.[514]
24 November
  • Turkey agrees to send a large firefighting aircraft to Israel to assist in aerial firefighting efforts against major wildfires burning there. Russia, meanwhile, agrees to send two large firefighting aircraft to Israel. Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy have sent a combined seven aircraft to Israel to assist in firefighting.[515]
  • The U.S.-led coalition has conducted over 16,000 airstrikes against Islamic State targets since beginning its air campaign against the Islamic State.[516]
25 November
  • The watchdog group Airwars announces that air and artillery strikes by the U.S.-led coalition have combined to kill between 84 and 87 civilians and wound more than 160 other civilians in and around Mosul, Iraq, since the coalition's ground offensive to clear Islamic State forces from Mosul began on 17 October. A United States Central Command spokesman responds that "the liberation of Mosul is an operation that is an order of magnitude larger and more complex than" operations to liberate "any of the previous cities that have been liberated" from the Islamic State, adding that U.S. military forces extensively review proposed strikes, using intelligence and surveillance to verify targets before launching them and noting that coalition strikes have destroyed dozens of Islamic State car bombs and tunnels in around Mosul.[517]
  • A U.S.-based Evergreen 747 Supertanker—the world's largest aerial firefighting aircraft, based on the Boeing 747-400 – arrives in Israel to assist in battling major wildfires that have been burning for four days. Azerbaijan also sends a firefighting plane and Egypt sends two helicopters to help battle the fires.[518]
26 November
27 November
28 November
29 November
30 November
  • Bulgaria Air officially announces that it will discontinue its wet-lease agreements for aircraft in 2017.[525]

December
1 December
2 December
4 December
  • Airstrikes in Syria's Idlib Governorate kill at least 50 people during the day, with one report putting the death toll at 52. Observers suspect the Russian Federation Air Force or Syrian Arab Air Force of having conducted the attacks. Dozens of the deaths occur in two strikes which target rural marketplaces in Kafr Nabl and Maarrat al-Nu'man.[529]
5 December
6 December
7 December
  • After its pilot reports the failure of one of its engines, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661, an ATR 42-500 (registration AP-BHO), crashes near Havelian, Pakistan, killing all 47 people on board. Pakistani recording artist, television personality, fashion designer, actor, singer-songwriter, preacher, and televangelist Junaid Jamshed is among the dead.
8 December
10 December
11 December
  • Islamic State forces retake Palmyra, Syria, from the Syrian government. Unlike in March, when Russian Federation Air Force strikes played a key and effective role against the Islamic State in the Syrian government's recapture of Palmyra, Russian airstrikes on 10 and 11 December are ineffective in stopping the Islamic State advance. Although human rights organizations have accused the Russian Federation Air Force of intensive bombing of civilian targets during the Syrian Civil War, Russia claims that its pilots were unable to respond effectively to the Islamic State's advance on Palmyra because Russian pilots were unwilling to endanger civilians.[535]
  • Iran Air finalizes a deal to buy 80 airliners from Boeing at a cost of $16,600,000,000. The deal includes 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, and 15 Boeing 777-9s. Iran Air plans to take delivery of the first planes in 2018, with deliveries completed over the next decade.[536]
12 December
  • In the wake of 7 December crash of its Flight 661, Pakistan International Airlines grounds the five ATR 42 and ATR 72 airliners in its fleet after the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority decides to conduct "shakedown tests" of the airline's entire fleet of ATR aircraft.[537]
  • Supported by Syrian government and Russian airstrikes, Syrian government ground forces reduce the rebel-held portion of Aleppo, Syria, to a small sliver of territory that is no more than a tenth of what they used to control in the city, leaving the Syrian government poised to reconquer the entire city.[538]
  • After hours of delay due to fog at their departure point outside Milan, Italy, the Israeli Air Force's first two F-35 Lightning II fighters, flown by U.S. pilots, arrive at Nevatim Airbase in Israel. Plans call for Israeli pilots to fly them for the first time the following day. Israel plans to acquire 50 of the aircraft at a total cost of around $5,000,000,000.[539]
  • U.S. President-elect Donald Trump tweets that the F-35 Lightning II's "cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after 20 January [2017]," the day of the United States presidential inauguration. The stock price for the F-35's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin falls over 4 percent at one point after Trump's tweet, and closes for the day down 2.47 percent.[539][540]
13 December
  • A United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashes in the Pacific Ocean off Okinawa after a hose connected to it during an aerial refueling exercise breaks and damages one of its propellers. Its five-man crew is rescued, two of them with non-life-threatening injuries. It is the first crash of an Osprey in Japan. Following the crash, the Government of Japan calls for an end to Osprey flights in Japan, and on 14 December the U.S. military will ground all Ospreys in Japan.[541]
  • The chairman of Pakistan International Airlines, Azam Saigol, resigns for "personal reasons." He had been under pressure to resign due to concerns about the airline's safety record following the 7 December crash of Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661.[537]
14 December
  • A ceasefire agreement to allow Syrian rebels and civilians to evacuate the last part of Aleppo, Syria, that the reels hold breaks down almost as soon as it begins, and, after a heavy storm clears the area, airstrikes in support of Syrian government forces resume.[542]
  • Bulgaria Air says a finalize its agreement to buy four aircraft (via freighter configuration) for establishing the cargo revenue operations with maiden flights scheduled for 2017. The cargo unit will be called Bulgaria Air Cargo, which played a key role for logistics and mail support for Europe and Asia from a hub at Sofia Airport. It also announced a cargo handing service should be being consideration.
  • For the first time, Amazon.com makes a delivery to a customer using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The Amazon Prime Air delivery takes place in the United Kingdom. The customer's order – for an Amazon Fire TV device and a bag of popcorn – arrives 13 minutes after it was placed.[543]
15 December
  • The Chinese Ministry of Defense reports that China's first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, had completed its first live-fire exercises "a few days" earlier. During the exercises, which included air interception, sea-based attacks and air defense, reconnaissance, early warning and anti-missile defense, Liaoning's Shenyang J-15 jets reportedly carried live ordnance and successfully fired missiles at targets.[544]
18 December
20 December
  • Bulgaria Air announces that sixteen additional regular, charter or seasonal destinations will be introduced in 2017 with its arriving of wide body aircraft. Sofia Airport Chief Executive Officer Hristo Shterionov said that the Sofia hub should potential new long haul destinations to include the US and Asia.
  • Since the coalition air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria began in August 2014, coalition forces have conducted over 16,000 airstrikes at a cost of $12.5 million per day, killing an estimated 50,000 Islamic State personnel. The coalition has launched an average of 56 strike sorties per day since the campaign began.[508]
22 December
  • After over four years of airstrikes against rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, by the Syrian Arab Air Force and Russian Federation Air Force, the Syrian government declares that its forces have retaken the entire city. Targets for the airstrikes have included residential areas and hospitals.[546]
  • An intoxicated Russian man, Ruslan Nurtdinov, rams his car into the terminal at Kazan International Airport outside Kazan, Russia. Pursued by security personnel on foot, Nurtdinov drives his car through the terminal, passing check-in desks, a baggage carousel, security checkpoints, and departure gates before coming to a halt at a railway platform, where he is arrested. He claims that he is trying to meet his girlfriend, who was scheduled to arrive at the railway platform.[547]
  • U.S. President-elect Donald Trump tweets that he might reconsider the purchase of the F-35 Lighting II due to its expense and cost overruns and seek a cheaper alternative, and that he "has asked Boeing to price out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet."[548][548]
23 December
25 December
26 December
  • Bulgaria Air announces that its first Boeing 767-300 will be delivered in March 2017, followed by three more to follow in May 2017.
  • Air Moldova announces that it will procure two more Airbus A320s which will enter service in 2017, bringing the airline's fleet of A320s to four.
29 December
  • U.S. military officials report that a coalition airstrike targeting a van in a hospital compound parking lot in Mosul, Iraq, carrying Islamic State personnel who had just left a recoilless rifle position may have killed an undetermined number of civilians inadvertently. They announce that an investigation of the incident will follow.[555]
  • A Cessna 525 Citation corporate jet (registration N614SB) with six people on board crashes into Lake Erie during its initial climb after takeoff from Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio. The United States Coast Guard will call off the unsuccessful search for survivors on 31 December.[556]
31 December
  • Bulgaria Air announces that the next candidate of the 2017 Best Airline in the Balkans and it is expected in April 2017. The airline's Chief Executive Officer Hristo Todorov said it will begin interview on ch-aviation.
  • Philippine Airlines announces that the accepting to join the Oneworld airline alliance in the future. It will become the second airline in southeast Asia to join the alliance, following Malaysia Airlines.
  • Coalition aircraft have destroyed over 1,200 Islamic State tanker trucks since October 2015 in Operation Tidal Wave II.[534]
  • According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Saudi-led coalition has conducted 3,936 airstrikes in Yemen during 2016.[557]
  • U.S. airlines have cancelled only 1.17 percent of their flights during 2016, their best annual performance in the 22 years the United States Department of Transportation has collected data on the issue; their previous record low had been 1.24 percent in 2002. They also have lost or misplaced luggage at a rate of 2.70 bags per 1,000 customers, the lowest rate since the Transportation Department began collecting data in 1987, and have "bumped" ticketed passengers from overbooked flights at a rate of 0.62 per 10,000 passengers, the lowest annual rate since the Transportation Department began tracking the issue in 1995. U.S. airlines also have shown improvements over 2015 in on-time arrival rates and in the number of customer complaints in 2016.[558]

First flights

January

February

March

April

May

July

August
  • 17 August – Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander 10 – G-PHRG[329]

October

November

December

Entered service

Retirements
14 January
23 November

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  195. "US airlines to start scheduled flights to Cuba".
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  213. "Inside Fallujah, Iraqi forces dodge snipers and car bombs in final fight for the city".
  214. "Syrian forces advance on IS-held air base".
  215. "Reusable rocket clears fourth trial run at Bezos space-exploration firm".
  216. "Flying cars just took a big step closer to being legal".
  217. "Leg 15: New York to Sevillerk". Solar Impulse.
  218. "Plane takes off from the South Pole in rare, risky effort to rescue sick workers".
  219. "Rescuers succeed in evacuating sick workers at the South Pole".
  220. "Before feared spike in drone crashes, White House sets new rules".
  221. "Boeing reaches tentative plane-sale deal with Iran in first major post-sanctions outreach".
  222. Westcott, Ben. "Officials: Australian plane debris not from MH370". CNN.
  223. "US-backed forces enter IS bastion in Syria amid clashes".
  224. "Leg 15: New York to Seville". Solar Impulse.
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