This is a list of aviation-related events in 2016.
Events
January 8 January West Air Sweden Flight 294, a Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200PF on a domestic cargo flight in Norway from Oslo to Tromsø, suddenly descended after a brief Mayday and crashed near Akkajaure, Sweden, killing both crew.
9 January Tracey Curtis-Taylor completed a solo flight from England to Australia, in the Stearman open-cockpit biplane Spirit of Artemis. During the 100-day, flight, begun on 1 October 2015, she flew over 23 countries to recreate the first solo flight by Amy Johnson between the two countries by a woman in 1930.
14 January Air France retired the Boeing 747 with a send-off formation flight with the Patrouille de France aerobatic team, which departed Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and made a clockwise circuit around France before returning. Air France has operated 68 747s since 1974 which carried 250 million passengers, and will be replaced by Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s on long-haul flights.
28 January Iran agreed to buy 12 A380, 16 A350-1000, 45 A330, and 45 A320-family aircraft from Airbus in a $27 billion deal but requires United States export licenses, where some Airbus parts are manufactured. Iran does not plan on delivery of them until ca. 2020 as airport expansions and more urgent civil aviation needs come first.
February
2 February Daallo Airlines Flight 159, an Airbus A321-100 flying from Mogadishu to Djibouti City had an explosion which blew a hole in the fuselage and ignited a passenger who was sucked out at altitude. The airliner returned to Mogadishu and the burned body was found near Balad, Somalia. Two others on board had minor injuries.
18 February The US government allowed Boeing to enter into talks with airlines in Iran. Replacing Iran's aging fleet would be a significant sale for Boeing, although the company requires additional United States government approvals before selling aircraft.
Sir Richard Branson unveils Virgin Galactic's new VSS Unity, a SpaceShipTwo-class rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane in Mojave, California.
22 February British Royal Navy test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown died at the age of 97. He survived 11 aircraft crashes and the sinking of an escort carrier, flew a record 487 different types of aircraft, and made 2,407 carrier landings, also a world record, and he made the first jet carrier landing, with a de Havilland Sea Vampire in 1945. Although retired in 1970, he continued flying until 1994.
24 February Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter on a domestic flight in Nepal from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport, crashes and burns near Dana shortly after takeoff, killing all 23 passengers.
26 February An Air Kasthamandap PAC 750XL crashes at Chilkhaya, Nepal, killing both crew and injuring all nine passengers. Solar Impulse 2 made its first 90-minute test flight over the Pacific after repairs following being grounded in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, on 3 July 2015 when the first manned solar-powered aircraft circumnavigation attempt stopped with damaged batteries. They plan to resume in late April 2016, continuing on to Phoenix, Arizona.
29 February Part of what appears to be skin from a Boeing 777 horizontal stabilizer is found on a sandbar on the Mozambique coast by a tourist, raising hopes that it is debris from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 missing since 8 March 2014. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced a $20 million contract to Lockheed Martin for a Quiet Supersonic Technology demonstrator to reduce sonic boom noise and damage, to allow "low-boom" supersonic transports to be supersonic over populated areas.
March
3 March A man finds a piece of debris with a blue border on Réunion on the Indian Ocean near where he found a flaperon from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in July 2015 raising hopes that it is from the same aircraft.
9 March True Aviation Flight 21, an Antonov An-26, suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff from Cox's Bazar Airport in Bangladesh, and crashed into the Bay of Bengal while attempting to return, killing three of the four on board and critically injuring the fourth.
12 March A South African family contacted authorities in South Africa the previous week to report debris their son found on a Mozambique beach on 30 December 2015 which they took to South Africa. Aviation officials will examine it to see if it is from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
13 March The accident investigation into the 25 March 2015 crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 leads French authorities to call for stricter international monitoring of pilot mental health and guidelines under which doctors would report pilots whose psychological condition might put flight safety at risk. The French also urge German authorities to limit legal penalties on doctors breaching patient confidentiality in good faith to report psychological problems with pilots and to define "imminent danger" to flight safety.
15 March An Ecuadorian Air Force IAI Arava carrying 22 Ecuadorian Army troops for parachute training and an air force crew of three crashes in Hacienda la Palmira near Shell Mera, Ecuador, killing all on board.
19 March Flydubai Flight 981, a Boeing 737-8KN aborts two landings in poor visibility at Rostov-on-Don Airport. During the second go-around, it crashes after an abrupt and rapid descent from an altitude of , killing all 62 occupants. It is Flydubai's first fatal accident in seven years of operation.
21 March A South African archaeologist finds debris on a beach in South Africa. The next day, a Malaysia official announced that the debris bears an aircraft engine company logo and will be examined for any connection to Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
22 March Two bombs detonated at Brussels Airport in Belgium, killing at least 11 people and injuring around 100. The airport was closed until 3 April, with all flights re-routed. A third bomb later exploded at Maelbeek (or Maalbeek) metro station in the City of Brussels, killing 20 and injuring 130. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
27 March The Portuguese regional airline Portugália is rebranded as Tap Express.
29 March A man said to be wearing an explosive belt hijacks EgyptAir Flight 181 Airbus A320-200 during a domestic flight from Alexandria, Egypt to Cairo and forces it to fly to Larnaca International Airport in Larnaca, Cyprus. He is arrested and no one is harmed. A chartered Aero Teknic Mitsubishi MU-2 flying in bad weather crashed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on approach to Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport in the Magdalen Islands in Quebec, Canada, killing all seven on board. Canadian television commentator and former Minister of Transport Jean Lapierre, his wife, two brothers and a sister had been en route to Lapierre's father's funeral and are among the dead.
April
3 April The Australian government stated that hotel guests on Mauritius found the first debris possibly from the interior of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 Boeing 777 the previous week which will be examined to determine if it is from the missing airliner. Limited flight operations resume at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, Belgium, by Brussels Airlines who make three departures, following the 22 March terrorist bombings there.
4 April Batik Air Flight 7703 Boeing 737-8GP(WL) with 56 people collides during takeoff from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia, with a TransNusa ATR 42-600 as it is being towed with four on board. The 737's left wing catches fire as it severs the ATR 42's vertical stabilizer and outer left wing. Everyone is evacuated safely. Alaska Airlines agrees to buy Virgin America for $2.6 billion including debt and leases in a deal worth about $4 billion. The combined airline has 1,200 daily departures and hubs in Anchorage, Alaska, Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, California and Los Angeles, California. Virgin America began operations in 2007.
13 April A Sunbird Aviation Britten-Norman BN-2T Turbine Islander crashes just short of the runway at Kiunga, Papua New Guinea, killing all 12 occupants.
17 April Air France resumes flights to Iran after an eight-year hiatus with a flight from Paris to Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, beginning a three-times-per-week service. Air France joins Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines in providing air passenger service between Europe and Iran.
29 April A Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma helicopter 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 Norway, and crashes on Norway's Skitholmen islet between the islands of Turøy and Toftøy, killing all 13 occupants.
May
12 May Malaysia announced that debris from an engine cowling with a partial Rolls-Royce logo found in March on the coast of South Africa and an interior panel from an aircraft cabin found on Rodrigues were "almost certainly" from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
18 May A Silk Way Airlines Antonov An-12 cargo airplane had an engine failure taking off from Dwyer Airport in Afghanistan and crashed, killing seven of the nine crew. Saab debuts its new JAS 39 Gripen E fighter in a rollout at Linköping, Sweden.
19 May EgyptAir Flight 804 Airbus A320-232 crashed into the Mediterranean south of Karpathos due to a cockpit fire, killing all 66 occupants on a flight from Paris to Cairo.
27 May Korean Air Flight 2708 Boeing 777-300 aborted its takeoff due to an engine failure and fire at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan and during the evacuation twelve of the 319 people were injured.
28 May A World War II-era P-47 Thunderbolt crashes into the Hudson River off Edgewater, New Jersey, killing its pilot.
June
10 June The F-35 Lightning II makes its international airshow debut when two Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A aircraft perform at the Luchtmachtdagen 2016 airshow at Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands.
15 June The Government of Egypt announces the discovery and imaging of the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 804 Airbus A320-232 in the Mediterranean which crashed on 19 May 2016, killing all 66 on board.
16 June The cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir Flight 804 is recovered from a depth of about in the Mediterranean.
17 June EgyptAir Flight 804's second flight data recorder is recovered from a depth of about in the Mediterranean. They were badly damaged prior to recovery and required repairs before data could be processed. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator Charles Bolden announces plans for the X-57 Maxwell, a 14-motor, all-electric airplane at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Washington, D.C., to spur the development of more energy-efficient and cleaner general aviation aircraft.
21 June Boeing announced a tentative agreement for Iran Air to buy Boeing 737s and Boeing 777s airliners to replace its pre-1979 Boeings in the first major U.S. trade deal in Iran following the 2015 Iran-United States nuclear accord. It still faces political and regulatory hurdles, but the first new airliners could be in Iran in October 2016. The deal could be worth $25 billion, depending on how many are new or leased.
29 June After a nonstop transatlantic flight from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, a Royal Air Force Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II aircraft arrived at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, making the first F-35 in the United Kingdom.
July Tunisair inaugurates its first transatlantic service, operating between Tunis and Montreal.
1 July A Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Ilyushin Il-76 aerial firefighting airplane crashed near Lake Baikal while fighting a forest fire, killing all 10 on board. The wreck was found on 3 July.
10 July