May 24, 1981 (Sunday)
- Jaime Roldos Aguilera, the 40 year old President of Ecuador, was killed in a plane crash, along with his wife, the nation's Defense Minister, and six other people. President Roldos was on the way to the town of Zapotillo for a ceremony when the Avro 748 crashed into the side of a mountain. In his 2004 book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, author John Perkins stated his belief that the crash was an assassination carried out after Roldos threatened the oil companies that operated in Ecuador.
- The body of Heather Scaggs, the last victim of "The Trailside Killer", was found in a remote part of the Big Basin State Park in California. Scaggs had last been seen alive on May 2, when she got in a car with her coworker, David Carpenter, and he became the prime suspect. Investigators linked his .38 caliber revolver to the murder of Scaggs, and six hikers who had been murdered over the previous seven months.
- Spanish commandos rescued all 70 hostages taken in the takeover of the Central Bank of Barcelona.
- Died: George Jessel, 83, American actor
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