List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Commercial Aircraft - 1971

1971

• January 22 – In the 1971 Surgut Aeroflot Antonov An-12 crash, an An-12 crashes due to icing while on approach to Surgut International Airport; all 13 on board are killed.
• June 6 – A United States Marine Corps McDonnell-Douglas F-4B Phantom II fighter jet collides with Hughes Airwest Flight 706, a Douglas DC-9, which crashes into the San Gabriel Mountains near Duarte, California, killing all 49 people aboard; the pilot of the Phantom also dies, while his radar intercept officer successfully bails out.
• July 3 – Toa Domestic Airlines Flight 533, a NAMC YS-11, hits Yokotsudake (Yokotsu Mountain) near Hakodate Airport, Hokkaidō, Japan, killing all 68 passengers and crew in the worst ever disaster involving the YS-11.
• July 30 – All Nippon Airways Flight 58, a Boeing 727-200, collides with a JSDF F-86 fighter jet at Shizukuishi near Morioka, Japan, killing all 162 passengers and crew; the JSDF pilot parachutes to safety, and is later arrested by local police on suspicion of colliding with a civilian aircraft.
• July 30 – Pan Am Flight 845, a Boeing 747-100, attempts to take off from San Francisco at the wrong speed, over-running the runway and colliding with approach lighting structures; the aircraft sustains damage to flight control and other systems, but becomes airborne, circles over the ocean to dump fuel, and lands back in San Francisco; of the 218 on board, 29 are injured, 10 seriously.
• September 4 – Alaska Airlines Flight 1866, a Boeing 727, crashes into a mountain in the Tongass National Forest near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 on board.
• September 6 – Paninternational Flight 112, a BAC One-Eleven, suffers dual engine failure just after takeoff and crashes onto the A7 near Hamburg Airport, killing 22 of 121 on board.
• October 2 – British European Airways Flight 706, a Vickers Vanguard, breaks up in mid-air due to corrosion and crashes near Aarsele, Belgium, killing all 63 passengers and crew on board.
• November 10 – In the 1971 Indian Ocean Vickers Viscount crash, a Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane crashes into the Indian Ocean off Padang, Indonesia in bad weather, killing all 66 on board.
• November 24 – A man reported as D. B. Cooper hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727, out of Portland, Oregon, releasing the passengers in exchange for US$200,000 and four parachutes; the crew takes off with Cooper on board, and he parachutes from the plane; Cooper is never found and his fate remains unknown, although a roll of bills from his ransom is found in a riverbed many years later.
• December 24 – LANSA Flight 508, a Lockheed L-188 Electra en route from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru, breaks apart in mid-air after being set aflame by lightning; it crashes in the Amazon Rainforest and 91 people die; one German teenage girl, Juliane Koepcke, survives after falling two miles (3 km) down into the rainforest strapped to her seat; she walks through the jungle for 10 days until being rescued by local lumbermen.