2016 in aviation

January

During the month, the Government of Italy gives permission for armed U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to fly strike missions from Naval Air Station Sigonella on Sicily – where the United States has based unarmed surveillance UAVs since 2001 – against Islamic State targets in Libya, but only if they are "defensive," meaning that they are flown to protect U.S. special operations forces operating in and near Libya or rescuers attempting to retrieve downed U.S. pilots. Italy continues to prohibit U.S. offensive strikes from Italian territory, and also reserves to itself the right to veto any U.S. mission.

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.

3 January

Combat again breaks out at India's air base at Pathankot after security forces discover two militants still hiding on the base. Security forces reportedly kill the militants.

An official at the United States Embassy in Addis Ababa announces that by mutual agreement with the Government of Ethiopia the United States had shut down its military unmanned aerial vehicle base at Arba Minch Airport in Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia in September 2015. The two countries had agreed that the base, which had opened in 2011, was no longer necessary. It is the first public announcement that the base had been closed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

8 January

West Air Sweden Flight 294, a Canadair CL-600-2B19 Regional Jet CRJ-200PF (registration SE-DUX) on a domestic cargo flight in Norway carrying mail and packages from Oslo to Tromsø, suddenly goes into a steep descent after a brief Mayday call and crashes near Akkajaure, Sweden, killing its crew of two.

9 January

Four air-to-ground missiles launched by Russian Federation Air Force aircraft hit a building used as a court house and prison by the Nusra Front in Maarrat al-Nu'man in Syria's Idlib Governorate. The strike kills at least 57 people, including 23 Nusra Front members.

Tracey Curtis-Taylor completes a solo flight from Farnborough Airport in Farnborough, England, to Sydney, Australia, in the Boeing-Stearman Model 75 open-cockpit biplane Spirit of Artemis. During the 100-day, 13,000-mile (21,000-kilometer) flight, begun on 1 October 2015, she has flown over 23 countries and made 50 refueling stops. The flight recreates the 1930 Croydon-to-Darwin flight of Amy Johnson, the first solo flight between the United Kingdom and Australia by a woman.

10 January

As a show of force after a 6 January nuclear weapons test by North Korea, a Guam-based U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress flies to South Korea, where it circles over Osan Air Base flanked by a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Republic of Korea Air Force F-15 Eagle before returning to Guam.

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."

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.

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.

14 January

Air France officially retires the Boeing 747 from its fleet with Flight 744, a scenic flight by a Boeing 747-400 with 432 people on board, including 380 paying passengers, in formation with 12 Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets of the French Air Force's Patrouille de France aerobatic team. The airliner takes off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and makes a clockwise circuit that takes it over Lyon, Geneva, Marseille, Montpellier, Bordeaux, and Deauville before returning to Charles de Gaulle Airport, offering passengers scenic views of Mont Blanc, Normandy, and Mont Saint-Michel along the way. The Boeing 747 had been part of the Air France fleet since 1974 and the 68 Boeing 747s the airline had operated had carried 250 million passengers. In the future plans to use its Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s for long-haul flights.

Two United States Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 (HMH-463), each carrying six Marines, collide and crash in a fireball late in the evening over the Pacific Ocean north of Oahu just off Haleiwa, Hawaii, and crash, leaving all 12 Marines missing. The United States Coast Guard will call off the search for the Marines on 19 January, and the Marine Corps officially will declare them dead on 20 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.

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.

16 January

Speaking at the conclusion of a missile exercise at Skwierzyna, Poland, involving U.S. and Polish military forces, Polish Minister of National Defense Antoni Macierewicz says that the Government of Poland wants a permanent presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and U.S. military forces in Poland, including MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles.

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 (322 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

23 January

Air raids on Islamic State-held Khasham in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate kill 47 people. Observers in Syria suspect Russian aircraft of having conducted the raids.

26 January

A month-long Syrian government military campaign results in the seizure of the crossroads at Sheikh Miskeen, Syria, from rebel forces. Russian airstrikes have played a conspicuous role in the success of the campaign.

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.

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.

29 January

Turkey claims a Russian Federation Air Force Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name "Fullback") has violated its airspace near the border with Syria during the day, warning Russia of consequences if any further violations take place. A Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman denies any Russian intrusion into Turkey's airspace; he asserts that Turkish radar installations are incapable of identifying a particular aircraft's type or nationality and that no Russian pilot had received a verbal warning in either English or Russian, and he dismisses the Turkish claim as "pure propaganda."

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.

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 14,000 feet (4,267 meters). 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.

4 February

Russian aircraft support a Syrian government ground offensive which cuts a key rebel supply route to Aleppo. In what Syrian rebel fighters describe as one of the most intense periods of Russian airstrikes since the Russian air campaign in Syria began, Russian aircraft conduct 200 strikes over a 24-hour period.

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.

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.

Talking to the media in Ankara, Turkey, after holding discussions about the European migrant crisis, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel says that she is "not just appalled, but horrified" at the suffering cause by airstrikes – particularly Russian airstrikes – in Syria, while Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu says that "No one should excuse or show tolerance toward the Russian air attacks that amount to ethnic massacres by saying ‘Turkey takes care of the Syrian refugees anyway.’" 

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.

9 February

Testifying before a United States Senate committee, U.S. intelligence officials report that the Russian air campaign in Syria has turned the tide in the Syrian Civil War and made it more likely that the regime of Bashar al-Assad will remain in power.

10 February

Airstrikes in Syria near Aleppo hit two hospitals. The U.S.-led coalition blames Russia for the strike; Russia responds by blaming the United States, which in turn announces that the U.S.-led coalition made no strikes in the area during the day.

During a flight from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to Moscow with 355 passengers on board, an Orenair Boeing 777-200 (registration VP-BHB) experiences an engine failure and smoke in the cabin. The crew shuts down the malfunctioning engine, the smoke ceases, and the aircraft performs an emergency landing in Punta Cana during which a tire bursts and sparks appear. The passengers and crew evacuate via evacuation slides with no injuries.

The president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Paul Rinaldi, tells the United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that NATCA supports a United States House bill that would create a federally chartered corporation to operate the air traffic control system in the United States and transfer 38,000 U.S. federal government workers, including 14,000 NATCA air traffic controllers who work for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, to the new corporation.

11 February

At meetings in Munich, Germany, a group of 17 countries including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United States agree to a "cessation of hostilities" in the Syrian Civil War that is to take effect by 18 February. Under the agreement, Russia projects that it will cease airstrikes in Syria on 18 February except for strikes against the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, which it will continue, although it also ambiguously reserves to right strike any groups it deems "terrorists;" the agreement also includes humanitarian air drops of supplies in Syria that are expected to begin as early as 13–14 February, with Russia planning to use its aircraft to drop supplies in seven locations in Syria. After the agreement takes effect, a task force of countries headed by Russia and the United States is to establish geographic and other limits on airstrikes in Syria, adjudicate differences of opinion about which targets remain legitimate for airstrikes, and select targets for airstrikes, the first time the United States has agreed o do more than "deconflict" its air operations over Syria with those of Russia. Neither the Government of Syria or any of the rebel groups fighting against it take part in the meetings or are parties to the agreement.

12 February

Syrian government and Russian aircraft strike targets in rebel areas in many locations across Syria, including targets north of Aleppo in support of a 10-day-old Syrian government ground offensive seeking to surround and cut off rebel-held Aleppo.

15 February

Aircraft hit at least two schools and four hospitals in northern Syria with air-to-ground missiles, killing nearly 50 people. Russia responds to reports that its aircraft were responsible by blaming the United States for the strikes, as does the Government of Syria. The United States responds that no aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition was operating in the area at the time.

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.

17–18 February

Turkish Air Force jets bomb Kurdish camps in northern Iraq hours after a suicide car bomb killed 28 people in Ankara, Turkey, on 17 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.

19 February

Flying from bases in the United Kingdom, United States Air Force F-15 Eagles strike an Islamic State camp on the outskirts of Sabratha, Libya, killing Islamic State leader Noureddine Chouchane and 48 other Islamic State personnel.

A deadline established on 12 February for a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria except for strikes against those targets mutually agreed to by Russia and the U.S.-led coalition passes without the ceasefire going into effect. Russia and the U.S.-led coalition have been unable to agree on what constitutes a "terrorist" target, with Russia taking the view that all groups opposing the Syrian government are terrorists and the U.S.-led coalition limiting the definition of terrorists in Syria to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, leading to problems in determining which areas of Syria will be subject to Russian and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes after the "cessation of hostilities" begins; Turkey's insistence on targeting Kurdish forces in Syria adds to the disagreement over legitimate targets.

In a ceremony in a hangar in Mojave, California, Sir Richard Branson unveils Virgin Galactic's new VSS Unity, a SpaceShipTwo-class rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane.

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.

A day after the United Nations Security Council rejected a Russian draft resolution calling for an immediate end to Turkey's shelling of and other military actions against Syria, Russia's Ministry of Defense announces that five additional Russian Federation Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum") fighters and a Mil Mi-8MT (NATO reporting name "Hip") helicopter have arrived at a military base outside Yerevan, Armenia, and soon will be sent to Erebuni Airport outside Yerevan – only 40 km (25 miles) from the Turkish border – to reinforce the 18 MiG-29s and seven Mil Mi-24P (NATO reporting name "Hind") attack helicopters already based there. After assembly, the additional aircraft are expected to begin practice flights from Erebuni Airport in mid-March.

21 February

British Royal Navy test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown dies at the age of 97 at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, England. Surviving 11 plane crashes and the 1941 sinking of the escort aircraft carrier HMS Audacity (D10), he is credited with flying 487 different types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history, and with making 2,407 aircraft carrier landings, also a world record, as well as with making the first carrier landing in history, landing a de Havilland Sea Vampire aboard HMS Ocean (R68) in 1945. Although he had retired in 1970, he had continued flying until 1994.

22 February

The United States and Russia announce that they have agreed on a partial ceasefire in Syria under which they will establish a "hotline" which they will use to share informnation allowing them to delineate the boundaries of areas controlled by specific groups in Syria. They also agree to limit airstrikes to areas controlled by the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra, or any other group that the United Nations designates as a terrorist group. Other rebel groups in Syria and the Government of Syria have until 26 February to inform the United States or Russia that they agree to the terms of the ceasefire; if they do not, they run the risk of coming under renewed air attack by Russia or the U.S.-led coalition.

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.

24 February

Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter on a domestic flight in Nepal from Pokhara Airport in Pokhara to Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, crashes and burns near Dana in Myagdi District ten minutes after take off, killing all 23 people on board.

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.

In the evening, Turkish Air Force jets based at Diyarbakir, Turkey, strike Kurdistan Workers Party logistical centers, ammunition depots, and shelters in northern Iraq,

26 February

An Air Kasthamandap PAC 750XL (registration 9N-AJB) with 11 people on board crash-lands at Chilkhaya, Nepal, killing both crew members and injuring all nine passengers.

An Azur Air Boeing 767-300 makes a safe emergency landing in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, during a flight from Moscow to Phuket, Thailand, after an indicator shows low engine oil pressure.

A few minutes after a final Russian airstrike hits Kafr Hamrah, a ceasefire goes into effect in the Syrian Civil War. Under its terms, the U.S.-led coalition is to continue airstrikes against the Islamic State and the Russian Federation Air Force is to continue to hit both Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra targets, with the United States and Russia coordinating their understanding of the boundaries of territories held by the two groups so that strikes do not occur against any of the other groups in Syria unless they have been declared terrorist groups by the United Nations.

Solar Impulse 2, grounded at Kalaeloa Airport in Kalealoa, Hawaii, since 3 July 2015 due to battery damage caused by overheating during its attempt to become the first manned solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth, makes it first test flight after repairs. Taking off from Kalealoa Airport, Solar Impulse 2 flies over the Pacific Ocean for 90 minutes, reaching an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) before returning. The Solar Impulse team plans to resume the circumnavigation in late April 2016 with a flight from Hawaii to Phoenix, Arizona.

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.

Russia announces a 24-hour cessation of all Russian airstrikes in Syria, reserving the right to continue airstrikes targeting the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra.

28 February

On the second day of a planned two-week cessation of airstrikes in Syria, Russian aircraft based in northwestern Syria resume strikes in Syria, hitting six towns and villages in Aleppo, Hama, and Idib Governorates.

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.

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.

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.

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.

4 March

In a sudden change of policy, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe agrees to suspend construction of a United States Marine Corps air station at Henoko Bay, Okinawa, and settle out of court on three lawsuits related to its construction. However, he also says that he remains committed to closing Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, and moving its operations elsewhere and that Henoko Bay is the only practical alternative.

A series of airstrikes by U.S. manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles in Shaddadi, Syria, kills 13 Islamic State personnel, likely including Abu Omar al-Shishani.

Rebel groups in Syria complain that despite the ceasefire in the Syria Civil War – which excludes only groups deemed terrorist groups by the United Nations, notably the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra – that went into effect on 27 February, they are under attack by Syrian government forces supported by airstrikes they believe the Russian Federation Air Force is conducting. One rebel in Latakia Governorate in northwestern Syria claims that his group is "getting bombarded by 50 airstrikes a day by the Russians."

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.

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.

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.

7 March

Unidentified aircraft strike a rebel-held fuel depot in Syria's Idlib Governorate, killing at least 12 and perhaps as many as 15 people.

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.

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.

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.

9 March

A True Aviation Antonov An-26 cargo plane (registration S2-AGZ) carrying a cargo of shrimp suffers the failure of an engine shortly after takeoff from Cox's Bazar Airport in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and crashes into the Bay of Bengal five minutes after takeoff while attempting to return to the airport, killing three of the four people on board and critically injuring the only survivor.

Amazon.com announces that it has agreed to lease 20 Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft from Air Transport Services Group as a first step toward operating its own fleet of planes, part of a larger effort to reduce its shipping costs and its reliance on FedEx and the United Parcel Service.

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.

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 aistrikes, an air-to-ground missile strikes a family home on the perimeter of one of the sites, killing two Palestinian children.

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.

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.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin makes a surprise, unilateral announcement that Russia will withdraw the "main part" of its military forces from Syria beginning on 15 March. However, Russia is to keep its air and naval bases in Syria open after the withdrawal, and it is not clear that the withdrawal will mean an end to Russian airstrikes in Syria.

15 March

Aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition conduct two airstrikes on a busy market in Mastaba in Yemen's Hajja Governorate, killing at least 119 people and wounding 47.

Russian aircraft withdraw from Syria and return to Russia, where their crews receive a hero's welcome, at the time apparently bringing an end to the Russian air campaign there that began on 30 September 2015, although a Russian announcement on 18 March will clarify that Russian airstrikes in Syria continue and imply that a substantial number of Russian combat aircraft remain in Syria. The Russian armed forces also maintain an S-400 surface-to-air missile force in Syria and keep Russian naval and air bases there open after the withdrawal of the aircraft.

An Ecuadorian Air Force IAI Arava carrying 22 members of the Ecuadorian Army for parachute training and an air force crew of three crashes in Hacienda la Palmira near Shell Mera, Ecuador, killing all on board.

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.

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.

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.

18 March

A Russian Armed Forces General Staff spokesman announces that Russia continues airstrikes in Syria, targeting Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra positions in support of an offensive by the Syrian Arab Army to retake Palmyra. Russia's 20 to 25 airstrikes per day are well below the 100 per day prior to the announced Russian withdrawal of its aircraft from Syria on 15 March, suggesting that Russia actually still maintains a substantial number of combat aircraft at Khmeimim Airbase in Latakia Governorate, its airbase in Syria.

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 (1,234 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.

Unidentified aircraft strike Islamic State targets in Palmyra, Syria, killing seven Islamic State personnel during a Syrian Arab Army offensive to retake Palmyra.

21 March

The Russian Ministry of Defense warns that it will act unilaterally against rebel groups it believes are breaking the ceasefire in Syria, with airstrikes beginning as soon as 22 March if the United States does not address Russian proposals for dealing with ceasefire violations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Russian airstrikes support Syrian government troops as they retake Palmyra, Syria, from the Islamic State.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announces that Russian forces have conducted 500 sorties in Syria since 7 March, hitting 2,000 Islamic State targets.

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.

28 March

Unidentified aircraft thought to belong to the Saudi-led coalition strike rebel targets in Yemen's Hadhramaut region southeast of Mukalla.

29 March

A man claiming to be wearing an explosive belt hijacks EgyptAir Flight 181 – an Airbus A320-200 (registration SU-GCB) with 61 other people on board on a domestic flight in Egypt from Alexandria to Cairo – and forces it to fly to Larnaca International Airport in Larnaca, Cyprus, which is closed to all traffic after the hijacked airliner's arrival. The man is arrested and no one aboard the airliner is harmed.

A chartered Aero Teknic Mitsubishi MU-2 flying in bad weather crashes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on approach to Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport in the Magdalen Islands in Quebec, Canada, killing all seven people on board. Canadian television commentator and former Minister of Transport Jean Lapierre, his wife, two of his brothers, and a sister are among the dead. They had been traveling to Lapierre's father's funeral in eastern Quebec.

30 March

Unidentified aircraft strike the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area east of Damascus, Syria, killing at least 23 people.

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.

An airstrike by a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle 20 miles (32 km) 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.

The Russian Ministry of Defense releases videos that reveal that Russian Mil Mi-28N (NATO reporting name "Havoc") attack helicopters are operating in Syria. The videos show the helicopters destroying Islamic State armored vehicles near Palmyra.

April

2 April

Since it began in October 2015, the U.S.-led coalition in Operation Tidal Wave II has conducted over 200 airstrikes against Islamic State oil wells, oil refineries, oil pipelines, and tanker trucks. Tidal Wave II is intended to degrade the Islamic State's finances.

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.

Supported by Russian Federation Air Force airstrikes, Syrian Arab Army troops on the offensive against Islamic State forces retake Qaryatain, Syria.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (19.6 feet) per second, the balloon reaches an altitude of 15 miles (24 km) without incident, but bursts during its descent and plummets to the ground, landing in a field in Burnley, 30 miles (48 km) 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 40 to 50 miles (64 to 81 km) of the landing site.

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 meters) while taking off or landing.

7 April

Two hours into a flight to search for a skiff missing in the Pacific Ocean with three men aboard, the crew of a United States Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol plane spots the word "HELP" spelled out on a beach on uninhabited Fanadik Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. It was created by the three men, who soon are rescued by a small boat from the island of Pulap.

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.

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.

10 April

Unidentified aircraft conduct airstrikes around Raqqa, Syria, killing dozens of Islamic State personnel and civilians.

11 April

Two Russian Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name "Fencer") jets make numerous low-level passes in close proximity to the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) while the ship is conducting deck landing drills with an allied military helicopter in the Baltic Sea, forcing Donald Cook to suspend flight operations until the Su-24s leave the area. The ship′s commanding officer criticizes one of the passes, made while the helicopter is refueling on Donald Cook′s flight deck, as unsafe.

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.

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.

13 April

A Sunbird Aviation Britten-Norman BN-2T Turbine Islander crashes 1 km (0.6 mile) short of the runway at Kiunga, Papua New Guinea, killing all 12 people on board.

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.

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 commercial air passenger service between Europe and Iran.

In the first incident of its kind in the United Kingdom, the pilot of a British Airways Airbus A320 with 127 people on board reports that an object that he believes to be an unmanned aerial vehicle struck the front of his plane at an altitude of 1,700 feet (518 meters) over Richmond Park, London, while his airliner was on approach to land at Heathrow Airport. On 21 April, British Minister of State for Transport Robert Goodwill will announce that the object the airliner hit may have been a plastic bag.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 2,206 nautical miles (2,537 miles; 4,086 km) at an average speed of 35.31 knots (40.61 mph; 65.39 km/h) and reaching a maximum altitude of 28,327 feet (8,634 meters).

24 April

Syrian Arab Air Force planes strike rebel-held areas in Aleppo for the third straight day, killing 16 people.

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.

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.

27 April

Airstrikes by unidentfied 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.

28 April

The Russian Ministry of Defense denies Russian involvement in the 27 April airstrike against a hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 691 miles (1,113 km) in 15 hours 52 minutes at an average speed of 43.56 mph (70.15 km/hr), reaching a maximum altitude of 22,001 feet (6,706 meters).

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.

6 May

A U.S. airstrike against a ground vehicle driving near Ar-Rutbah, Iraq, kills four Islamic State members, including the "military emir" of Anbar Governorate, Abu Wahib, notorious for his appearances in Islamic State videos. The United States Department of Defense will announce his death on 9 May.

For the second time, SpaceX successfully lands the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a platform floating in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida after a launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station which placed a Japanese satellite in orbit. The first successful landing had occurred four weeks earlier, on 8 April 2016.

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.

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.

11 May

In a freedom-of-navigation operation in the South China Sea, the United States Navy guided missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110) steams within 12 nautical miles (13.8 miles; 22.2 km) of Fiery Cross Reef, which the People's Republic of China claims as its territory along with adjacent waters which the United States views as international waters. In response, China scrambles three jet fighters, which join three Chinese ships in monitoring the destroyer.

Iran′s Minister of Defense, Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, announces that Iran has taken delivery of at least one S-300 surface-to-air-missile system from Russia, the first of five to be delivered under a 2007 contract.

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.

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.

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 (1,570 km) in 18 hours 10 minutes at an average speed of 53.67 mph (86.42 km/hr), reaching a maximum altitude of 22,001 feet (6,706 meters).

13 May

Airstrikes suspected of having been conducted by Syrian Arab Air Force aircraft reportedly kill at least 12 people in Idlib, Syria, and injure at least 38 others. One report places the death toll at 15. Additional strikes reportedly occur around Zaara, Syria. The Syrian government′s official Syrian Arab News Agency claims that the strikes targeted Nusra Front strongholds in Idlib Governorate and Hama, and that they killed 30 members of the militant group.

United States Air Force General Lori Robinson, previously the commander of the U.S. Air Force′s Pacific Air Forces, takes command of United States Northern Command, becoming the first woman to command a U.S. unified combatant command. She simultaneously becomes the commanding officer of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

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".

17 May

At least two Chinese Shenyang J-11 fighters intercept a United States Navy Lockheed EP-3 signals reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea in international airspace east of Hainan Island. The following day, a U.S. Department of Defense official says that the Chinese aircraft came within 50 feet (15 meters) of the EP-3 and that the interception was unsafe. China responds that its fighters maintained a safe distance.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announces that there were 764 reports of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or "drones") sighted near airplanes in the United States in 2015, and that it has begun a research program to explore ways of detecting (UAVs) that are operating near airports. It also announces that the initial investigation of drone detection technology had taken place earlier in May 2016 at New York City′s John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, employing a technology used by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The experiment tested the technology's capability to detect five kinds of UAVs, including common rotorcraft and more advanced fixed-wing UAVs.

18 May

A Silk Way Airlines Antonov An-12 cargo plane suffers an engine failure shortly after taking off from Dwyer Airport in southern Afghanistan and crashes, killing seven of its nine-member crew.

Saab debuts its new JAS 39 Gripen E fighter in a rollout at Linköping, Sweden.

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.

20 May

Russian Miinister 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.

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.

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.

Flown by André Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) arrives at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio, 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, covers 691 miles (1,113 km) in 16 hours 34 minutes at an average speed of 41.72 mph (67.18 km/hr), reaching a maximum altitude of 21,000 feet (6,401 meters).

22 May

Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi announces that Iraqi Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons are bombing Islamic State targets in Fallujah, Iraq, at the beginning of a drive by Iraqi military and security forces and militias allied with them to retake the city from the Islamic State.

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.

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.

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.

24 May

Iraqi Air Force and U.S. aircraft strike Islamic State targets in and around Fallujah, Iraq.

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.

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.

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 (1,045 km) in 16 hours 49 minutes at an average speed of 38.63 mph (62.20 km/hr), reaching a maximum altitude of 15,000 feet (4,572 meters).

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

A U.S. airstrike kills Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, Al-Shabaab′s top commander, as he travels in southern Somalia.

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.

A World War II-era P-47 Thunderbolt crashes into the Hudson River off Edgewater, New Jersey, killing its pilot.

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 (680 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1 June

The French Navy survey ship Laplace detects signals in the Mediterranean Sea believed to be from the flight recorder of EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320-232 which crashed on 19 May.

2 June

In an extremely unusual coincidence, two U.S. military flight demonstration squadrons suffer crashes on the same day. A United States Air Force Thunderbirds F-16 Fighting Falcon crashes in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just after the Thunderbirds perform a flyover for the 2016 graduation ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy; its pilot ejects safely. Hours later, a United States Navy Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet crashes in Smyrna, Tennessee, while practicing for an air show, killing its pilot.

3 June

The United Nations Security Council agrees to request formally that the Syrian government allow airlifts of food and medical supplies to civilians in besieged, rebel-held areas of Syria. Plans call for United Nations representatives to make the request in Damascus, Syria, on 5 June. The Syrian government has not permitted deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged areas despite a 1 June deadline set by an international task force for it to permit full ground access to the areas.

The U.S. Navy announces that Carrier Air Wing Seven aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) has begun launching airstrikes against Islamic State targets from the Mediterranean Sea during the day. It is the first time that aircraft from a U.S. aircraft carrier have struck targets in the Middle East from the Mediterranean since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.

4 June

Turkish officials sink a 36-year-old Airbus A300 in the Aegean Sea off Kuşadası, Turkey, to serve as an artificial reef and recreational dive site. The fourth aircraft sunk off the Turkish coast recently, it reportedly is the largest aircraft ever sunk for use as a reef or dive site.

5 June

During a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to London, England, Malaysian Airlines Flight 1, an Airbus A380 with 378 people on board, encounters severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal. Some passengers and crew suffer minor injuries. The airliner returns safely to Kuala Lumpur.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry warns the People's Republic of China not to declare to an air defense identification zone over the South China Sea, saying that to do so would be a "provocative and destabilizing act."

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.

7 June

Two Chinese Chengdu J-10 (NATO reporting name "Firebird") fighters intercept a U.S. Air Force Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the East China Sea in what the United States Pacific Command describes the next day as an "unsafe" manner. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responds that the Chinese pilots did nothing unsafe and protests what it calls "frequent close reconnaissance on China's coast by U.S. military aircraft."

In testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator Peter V. Neffenger says that it is reducing passenger delays at TSA security checkpoints at airports in the United States by focusing on speeding the processing of passengers at seven major airports (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas; Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia; John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City; Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California; Miami International Airport in Miami-Dade County, Florida, California; Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey; and O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois). He adds that the success of the program over the 2016 Memorial Day weekend has spurred TSA to expand it to airports at Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Houston, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco, California; and Seattle, Washington; and at New YorkCity's LaGuardia Airport. He informs the committee that he expects 768 newly trained TSA agents to join the lines during June, and, if the United States Congress approves it, will shift 2,784 part-time TSA workers to full-time work.

8 June

Airstrikes against rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, kill 15 civilians.

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.

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 (18,288 meters) and provide Internet service to over 4,000,000,000 people worldwide.

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.

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.

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.

11 June

An estimated 2,000 people gather outside Ramstein Air Base in Germany to protest the base′s alleged role in supporting the U.S. "drone war," the U.S. practice of using unmanned aerial vehicles to strike terrorist targets.

With André Borschberg at the controls, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) flies from Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, completing the 14th 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 flight covers 164.5 miles (265 km) in 4 hours 41 minutes at an average speed of 35.14 mph (56.59 km/hr), reaching a maximum altitude of 3,002 feet (915 meters).

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.

An unmanned aerial vehicle operating without permission near Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, forces the airport to close for 69 minutes.

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.

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.

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.

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 (0.8 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 (914 km).

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.

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.

16 June

The cockpit voice recorder from Egyptair Flight 804 is recovered from a depth of about 9,800 feet (2,987 meters) in the Mediterranean Sea.

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.

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.

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.

The flight data recorder from Egyptair Flight 804 is recovered from a depth of about 9,800 feet (2,987 meters) in the Mediterranean Sea. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (5,739 km) and take at least 90 hours.

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.

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 (122 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.

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.

22 June

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau announces that a piece of aircraft debris found in a pile of seaweed and wood in the Indian Ocean off Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia on 9 June is not from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 missing since March 2014 with 239 people on board.

23 June

Airstrikes combine with mortar attacks to kill eight people in Aleppo, Syria.

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 (6,265 km) in 71 hours 8 minutes at an average speed of 54.7 mph (88.1 km/hr), reaching a maximum altitude of 27,999 feet (8,534 meters).

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.

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.

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 pervious 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.

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.

26 June

A National Army of Colombia Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name "Hip") helicopter crashes in mountainous terrain in Caldas Department in central Colombia, killing all 17 people on board. Its wreckage is not found until the following day.

27 June

After the crew of Singapore Airlines Flight 368, a Boeing 777-312ER (registration 9V-SWB), sees an oil leak warning for its right engine two hours into a flight from Singapore Changi Airport, Changi, Singapore, to Milan–Malpensa Airport, Ferno, Italy, the crew opts to return to Singapore Changi. Upon landing there, the right engine catches fire, and the fire quickly engulfs the entire right wing. It is extinguished in five minutes, and none of the 241 people on board are injured.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sends an apology in writing to Russian president Vladimir Putin for the Turkish Air Force′s downing of a Russian Federation Air Force aircraft over Syria in November 2015.

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.

29 June

Iran announces that it has suspended all commercial flights to Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

After a nonstop transatlantic flight from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, three Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II aircraft arrive at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, making the first landing in the United Kingdom by any variant of the F-35. A Royal Air Force F-35B lands first, followed by two United States Marine Corps F-35Bs that accompanied it on the flight. Supporting the flight are two United States Air Force KC-10A Extender tankers, a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules tanker, and a Royal Air Force C-130J Super Hercules search-and-rescue plane.

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.

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.

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.

July

Tunisair inaugurates its first transatlantic service, operating between Tunis and Montreal.

1 July

A U.S. airstrike in southern Yemen kills two members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

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.

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.

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.

Airstrikes against rebel-held Jeiroud, Syria – suspected of being Syrian government strikes conducted in retaliation for the kiliing 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.

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.

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.

A U.S. airstrike in Yemen′s Shabwa Governorate kills two members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

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.

7 July

The United States Department of Transportation announces that it has tentatively awarded eight U.S. airlines – out of 12 that applied for them – nonstop flights between the United States and Havana, Cuba, with the awards to be finalized at the end of July and service to begin during the autumn of 2016. The flights are: Alaska Airlines from Los Angeles, California; American Airlines from Miami, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina; Delta Airlines from Atlanta, Georgia, Miami, and New York City′s John F. Kennedy International Airport; Frontier Airlines from Miami; JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, and John F. Kennedy International; Southwest Airlines from Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida; Spirit Airlines from Fort Lauderdale; and United Airlines from Newark, New Jersey, and Houston, Texas. The flights will provide the first scheduled commercial air service between the United States and Havana since the early 1960s. Among rejected routes is a proposed United Airlines service from Washington, D.C.

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.

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.

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.

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 captyured air base promises to allow the support of further Iraqi advances into Islamic State-held territory.

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. 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.

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.

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 4,500 and 5,100 nautical miles (8,330 kilometers to 9,450 kilometers), 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.

11 July

With André Borschberg at the controls, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) departs Seville Airport in Seville, Spain, to begin 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. Plans call for the two-day nonstop solo flight to Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, to pass over the Mediterranean Sea, Tunisia, Algeria, Malta, Italy, and Greece.

A Portuguese Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft crashes just after takeoff from Montijo Air Base, Lisbon, Portugal, killing its entire three man crew.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (3,745 km) in 48 hours 50 minutes at an average speed of 45.8 mph (73.7 km/hr) and reaching a maximum altitude of 27,999 feet (8,534 meters). Solar Impulse 2 passes over the Giza pyramid complex before landing at Cairo International.

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.

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.

14 July

A series of airstrikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo, Syria, reportedly kill 12 people.

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 crucifed.

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. 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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

An experienced pilot is killed after crashing while performing at an airshow in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada. He was flying a T-28 Trojan.

18 July

Airstrikes against Islamic State-held areas in Syria by the U.S.-led coalition kill 15 people in Manbij and six people in nearby Tokhar. United States Central Command announces that during the day the coalition conducted 18 airstrikes, destroying 13 Islamic State fighting positions, two car bombs, and seven other Islamic State ground vehicles.

The pilot and copilot of Air Transat Flight 725, an Airbus A310 with about 250 passengers on board, are arrested at Glasgow Airport for being drunk as they prepare to fly the aircraft from Glasgow, Scotland, to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The airline suspends them the next day.

After launching a Dragon spacecraft, the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket returns to make a soft landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, landing about eight minutes after liftoff. It is only the second time a Falcon 9 first stage has made a successful landing on land, and it is the first such landing since 21 December 2015.

The Obama administration agrees to pay 2.6 million euros to the relatives of Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto, who was mistakenly killed in a Central Intelligence Agency unmanned aerial vehicle strike in Pakistan in January 2015. On 16 September 2016, United States Government officials will confirm the settlement publicly.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

22 July

An Indian Air Force Antonov An-32 with 29 people on board disappears over the Bay of Bengal during a flight from Tambaram, India, to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.

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 (21,623 miles) and reaching altitudes of 10,000 meters (32,808 feet).

23–24 July (overnight)

Syrian government airstrikes hit five medical clinics in Syria′s Aleppo Governorate – four in Aleppo and one in Atarib – and a blood bank in Aleppo. The strikes kill at least five people.

24 July

Flown by Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 (registration HB-SIB) departs Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, to begin the 17th and final 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 a two-day nonstop solo flight to Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where the journey had begun on 9 March 2015.

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.

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.

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 (2,694 km) in 48 hours 37 minutes at an average speed of 34.4 mph (55.4 km/hr) and reaching a maximum altitude of 27,999 feet (8,534 meters). Flown alternately by Piccard and André Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 has made the 26,354-mile (42,428-km) trip in 17 legs over 505 days, spending 558 hours 7 minutes in the air at an average speed of 47.2 mph (76.0 km/hr) 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.

29 July

According to the International Air Transport Association, commercial air traffic to and from Venezuela has dropped 30 by percent since the Venezuelan bolívar began a steep decline in value in 2013 despite a rapid increase in air travel almost everywhere else in the world. International air carriers have accumulated about $4,000,000,000 in almost worthless bolívars which the Government of Venezuela prohibits them from converting into hard currency, prompting various airlines since 2014 – including Aeroméxico, Air Canada, Alitalia, LATAM, and Lufthansa – to cease service to Venezuela and others to reduce flights or provide service with smaller planes; only Venezuelan airlines are permitted to pay for fuel with bolívars, all other carriers being required to pay in United States dollars. Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, long a major hub for airlines serving South America, has been replaced in that role by airports such as El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, which now handles three times as many passengers as Caracas, and Jorge Chávez International Airport in Callao, Peru, which has enjoyed a 35 percent increase in passengers over the previous two years. Caracas has become so dangerous that Copa Airlines crews are prohibited from leaving their hotel rooms when staying there, massive shipments of cocaine originating in Caracas have been interdicted in the airport′s terminal, and gunfights between police and criminals occur every few months in the airport′s parking lots.

A medical transport plane crashes in northern California in the United States. All four people on board the Piper PA-31 Navajo die.

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.

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 (7,620 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.

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.

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.

1 August

The Government of Singapore restructures its Air Accident Investigation Bureau to establish the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau as an independent government agency responsible for investigating aviation and marine accidents and incidents in Singapore.

Syrian rebels shoot down a Russian Mil Mi-8 (NATO reporting name "Hip") helicopter in Syria′s Idlib Governorate during fighting around Aleppo, Syria, killing all five people on board. Russia claims the helicopter was returning to its base after delivering a cargo of humanitarian goods to Aleppo. It is the deadliest single incident for the Russian military since it began its intervention in Syria in September 2015. Videos show rebels abusing the bodies of the dead Russian crew and passengers.

At the request of Libya′s Government of National Accord (GNA), U.S. manned and unmanned military aircraft conduct two strikes against Islamic State forces in Sirte, Libya, destroying a T-72 tank and two other ground vehicles. They are the first strikes requested by the GNA and the first direct U.S. military intervention in the Libyan Civil War. President Barack Obama approves the strikes, but United States Africa Command commander General Thomas D. Waldhausen receives the authority to approve future strikes. The United States Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1) is operating off Libya, carrying United States Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier aircraft and helicopters.

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.

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.

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.

3 August

After air traffic control at Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), instructs Emirates Flight 521 – a Boeing 777-31H (registration A6-EMW) arriving from Thiruvananthapuram, India – to abort its landing and conduct a go-around, the airliner instead crashes on the runway and catches fire. All 300 people on board evacuate the airliner with 14 suffering non-life-threating injuries. A firefighter dies during the rescue operation after the crash, and the plane is destroyed by the fire and a series of explosions that follow the evacuation of the passengers and crew; it is the first hull loss and most serious accident in the airline′s history. The airport closes for 5½ hours after the crash, and several incoming flights divert to Sharjah International Airport outside Sharjah, UAE, and Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali, UAE. Emirates flights experience widespread disruption throughout the airline′s system.

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,

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 gimmck 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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. Before the airline recovers, it cancels 2,300 flights over three days. 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.

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. The strikes begin a stepped-up effort by the coalition after five months of relatve calm in the air campaign in Yemen.

10 August

According to Syrian activists, Syrian government helicopters drop barrel bombs on rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, killing at least two people. 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. 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.

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.

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.

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announces that the Turkish Air Force will resume airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as par 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.

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. – 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 dffer) 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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Six people were killed in a small plane crash in Alabama, United States.

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 1,200-mile (1,932-km) flights from bases in Russia to strike Syrian targets, but the use of Iranian bases reduces the distance to 400 miles (644 km), allowing them to carry larger payloads and use less fuel and allowing Russia to intensify its air campaign against rebel forces in Syria. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

21 August

After a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip lands in Sderot, Israel, Israeli Air Force aircraft join Israel Defense Forces tanks in bombarding the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. As the evening progresses, Israeli aircraft strike at least 30 targets belonging to Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip. The strikes slightly injure two people.

United States Army Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend, the new commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve – the military command responsible for the U.S.-led coalition′s operations against the Islamic State – announces that U.S. and allied forces will intensify airstrikes against Islamic State targets in support of planned offensives by Syrian rebel ground forces against Raqqa, Syria, and by Iraqi government ground forces against Mosul, Iraq.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

The Turkish Air Force conducts airstrikes against Kurdish targets in Al-Amarna, Syria, south of Jarabulus.

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 (9,357 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.

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. On 29 August, the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia wioll announce that the first charter flights will take place on 4–5 September.

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.

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.

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 (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.

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 (9,842 feet).

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 (24.9 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 (122 meters), and fly no faster than 100 miles per hours (161 km/hr); 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.

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. 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.

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.

31 August

An airstrike in Saada, Yemen, by the Saudi-led coalition kills at least 16 civilians. According to one report, the dead are an imam and 15 members of his extended family.

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.

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.

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.

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. Mid-air collisions are rare in the United States and usually happen near airports.

September

1 September

Suspected Syrian government airstrikes kill at least 25 civilians in Syria′s Hama Governorate.

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. According to one report, the helicopter was Russian- or French-made and operated by the Syrian government, and two people aboard it were killed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

U.S. forces conduct two airstrikes in Tortoroow, Somalia, in defense of African peacekeeping forces that had come under attack by Al-Shabaab.

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.

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. The following day, medical workers claim that they treated 70 people for breathing problems and that two of them had died on 7 September.

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.

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.

A Syrian government airstrike in the rebel-held al-Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, kills at least 10 civilians.

8 September

Afghan attack helicopters support Afghan ground troops opposing a Taliban ground offensive in street-to-street fighting in Tarinkot, Afghanistan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Airstrikes from the day resulted in the deaths of over 100 people, all civilians, and the injuring of also more than 100.

11 September

As part of an effort to improve crowd control at the annual Hajj pilgrimage and avoid a repeat of a disastrous stampede that killed hundred of people in September 2015, authorities in Saudi Arabia deploy unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor pilgrims ascending Mount Arafat, east of Mecca, at the climax of the 2016 Hajj.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

18 September

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan comnducts 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.

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.

Iranian state television announces that Iran is reducing the number of airliners it agreed to purchase from Airbus in January from 118 to 112.

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. The following day, the U.S. Department of Defense reveals that its analysis has led it to conclude that a Russian Federation Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name "Fencer") conducted the strike; a Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman responds with a claim that a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle had spotted a pick-up truck armed with a large mortar in the convoy, implying that the convoy had provided cover for the movement of rebel combat forces, and Russian spokespersons later claim that no Russian or Syrian aircraft were in the vicinity, that al-Qaeda-linked rebel ground forces had attacked the convoy and warehouse during operations against the Syrian Arab Army, and that the United States was blaming Russia and Syria for the strike merely to distract attention from its own mistaken airstrike against Syrian Arab Army forces on 17 September.

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.

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.

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. At the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry accuses Moscow of inventing its "own facts" 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;" he calls for Russia and Syria to "immediately ground all aircraft" flying in areas of northwest Syria where the convoy was hit.

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.

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. 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." 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."

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.

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.

24 September

Syrian and Russian airstrikes against rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo, Syria, continue to escalate, reaching levels unseen previously in the five-year Syrian Civil War, with reports indicating at least 92 people killed since dawn. Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon suggests that the reported systematic use of incendiary weapons and "bunker buster" bombs may be a war crime.

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 humanintarian 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

"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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

Iraqi troops shoot down an Islamic State unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measuring about one foot (0.3 meter) long and one foot (0.3 meter) wide in Iraq and discover that it has an explosive attached to its top.

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.

Belavia retires its last two Tupolev Tu-154s from scheduled service, one of the last airlines to retire the Tu-154.

2 October

After Kurdish forces shoot down an Islamic State unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in northern Iraq, take it back to their outpost to examine it, and begin to take it apart, a bomb in the UAV disguised as a battery explodes, killing two Kurdish soldiers and injuring two French paratroopers. It is the first time the Islamic State succeeds in using a UAV to kill people.

Bulgaria's Civil Aviation Administration says that it is interested in beginning passenger service at the airports in Stara Zagora, Gorna Oryahovitsa, and Ruse, Bulgaria, in 2017, with a final decision on the service to be made in the coming months.

Bulgaria Air announces that it will add 10 ATR 72-500 airliners to its fleet to provide service on domestic routes, replacing the airline′s ATR-42s. The airline is to take delivery of its first ATR-72-500 in early 2017.

Argentina′s national airline Aerolineas Argentinas announces that it has converted its existing order for Boeing 737-800 airliners to an order for the Boeing 737 MAX variant.

In six flights flown by four C-17 Globemaster III and two C-130 Hercules aircraft provided by United States Transportation Command, the United States Navy evacuates about 700 spouses and children and a number of family pets from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, as Hurricane Matthew approaches Guantánamo Bay. It is the first major airlift of non-essential residents from the Guantanamo Bay base since September 1994.

3 October

In support of Afghan Army and security forces fighting against Taliban ground offensives in Afghanistan, Afghan Air Force aircraft conduct airstrikes around Kunduz, while in Lashkargah, U.S. aircraft strike Taliban forces and United States Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters operate in support of Afghan ground forces fighting to retake the city from Taliban insurgents.

The United States Department of State announces that it is withdrawing U.S. personnel from Geneva, Switzerland, who had spent several weeks there planning the coordination of U.S. and Russian airstrikes against terrorist forces in Syria. The withdrawal comes as the United States abandons its efforts to work with Russia in Syria because of heavy civilian casualties resulting from intense Russian Federation Air Force and Syrian Arab Air Force airstrikes against rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Syria.

Since the spring of 2015, U.S. aircraft have flown more than 1,000 aerial refueling sorties in support of Royal Saudi Air Force aircraft engaged in combat in the Yemeni Civil War, providing them with tens of millions of pounds of fuel.

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.

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. The S-300 and S-400 missiles give Russian forces the capability to shoot down aircraft at a range of up to 250 miles (403 km), covering almost all of Syria, all of Cyprus, and significant portions of Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

10 October

Airbus announces that its Chief Operating Officer for Customers John Leahy will visit Bulgaria in November, the first visit to southeastern Europe by an Airbus executive.

Air Madagascar announces the resumption services to China in 2017 with flights between Antananarivo, Madagascar, and Guangzhou, China.

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.

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.

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.

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 miles), fly below 500 feet (152 meters) to avoid commercial aircraft and drop packages to customers using disposable parachutes. Zipline plans to expand its operations into eastern Rwanda in 2017.

13 October

Airbus president Fabrice Brégier holds talks with Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov wants that the national airline Bulgaria Air agrees to possibility order for two next generation wide body airliners believed to be A350-900 worth up to $3,000,000,000. It is the first time that Brégier and Goranov should visit in Sofia, to begin in November. A cooperation deal is signed between Airbus and Bulgaria whereas the company's subsidiary head office is located in Sofia, with its renewal program of this new models.

Former Premier of Alberta Jim Prentice is killed in the crash of a Cessna Citation shortly after take-off from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The other three people on the plane also die.

14 October

Malaysia's Minister of Defense, Hishammuddin Hussein, announces that Malaysia will send fixed-wing combat aircraft and helicopters to the Philippines for the first time since March 2013. The aircraft will support nearly 100 Malaysian troops in operations on Mindanao against the Islamic State-affiliated Abu Sayyaf, Khalifa Islamiyah Mindanao, and Maute factions. The deployment awaits the completion of final negotiations.

During the preceding two weeks, aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition have conducted 66 strikes against Islamic State targets around Mosul, Iraq, in preparation for a ground offensive by Iraqi Army and allied forces intended to recapture the city.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Syrian government and Russian airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, Syria, kill at least 36 people.

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.

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.

19-20 October (overnight)

Turkish Air Force jets carry out 26 strikes against positions of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in three villages – al-Hasiya, Um al-Qura, and Maarat Umm Hawsh – northeast of Aleppo, Syria, that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had recently captured from the Islamic State. Turkey claims that the strikes destroy nine buildings, an armored vehicle, and four other ground vehicles belonging to the YPG. Reports of the number of casualties vary from 14 plus dozens wounded, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, to 160 to 200 killed, according to the Turkish armed forces.

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.

Kurdish peshmerga forces suffer increased causalties 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.”

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.

The European Union warns Russia that it could face sanctions if its bombardment of civilians in Aleppo, Syria, continues.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (10,973 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.

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. 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.

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 Venezelan 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.

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.

24 October

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines announces that Singapore's low-cost carrier Jetstar Asia Airways would consider developing Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport into an operational base in 2017. It will be the first foreign airline to set up a base in the Philippines. Ninoy Aquino International is also the base of Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, AirAsia Philippines, and Cebgo.

Airstrikes kill at least 13 people in Syria′s Idlib Governorate. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says that Russia is not planning another "humanitarian pause" in Syria anytime soon because rebel forces did not "behave properly" during the 20–22 October pause.

A Luxembourg-registered CAE Aviation Fairchild SA227-AT Merlin IVC (registration N577MX) on a surveillance mission for the French Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes crashes just after takeoff from Malta International Airport in Malta, killing its entire crew of five.

25 October

British Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling announces that the British government had decided to endorse the addition of a third runway at London′s Heathrow Airport after decades of delay. The construction project, under consideration since the 1970s and not expected to begin for years, will require the demolition of 738 homes in Harmondsworth, Longford, and Sipson and cost an estimated £17,600,000,000. Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a vote in Parliament on the matter until 2017, and the vote may not take place for as long as a year.

Disabled United States Army veteran Lisa McCombs, a sufferer of post-traumatic stress disorder, files a lawsuit against American Airlines for a series of incidents between 25 and 27 October 2015 at Manhattan, Kansas, and Dallas, Texas, while she was on her way to Gulfport, Mississippi, in which airline personnel refused to allow her to board aircraft operated by the American Airlines Group subsidiary Envoy Air with her service dog and publicly humiliated and intimidated her when she protested that her dog was pre-approved to travel with her aboard the planes.

Legendary American World War II, air show, and test pilot Bob Hoover dies at the age of 94.

26 October

Russian or Syrian airstrikes against a residential area, an elementary school, and a middle school in the village of Haas in Syria′s Idlib Governorate kill at least 26 civilians, 15 to 20 of them children.

Two Eritrean Air Force pilots defect to Ethiopia, flying their jet fighters from Eritrea to Mek'ele. Ethiopian Air Force fighters escort them to Mek'ele after they enter Ethiopian airspace. It is the first time that Eritrean pilots have defected to Ethiopia with their jets.

27 October

The Government of Turkey issues warrants for the detention of 73 Turkish military pilots – two colonels and 71 lieutenants – suspected of involvement in the 19 July 2016 attempted coup d'état in Turkey, bringing 45 of them in for detention, and arrests another 29 military pilots that already had been detained for their alleged participation in the coup d'état. Eighteen other military pilots previously detained are released, although nine of them are placed on probation.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 3452, a Boeing 737-700 (registration N278EA) serving as the campaign plane for the 2016 Republican Party nominee for vice president of the United States, Governor of Indiana Mike Pence, skids off the runway while landing at La Guardia Airport in New York City. The airport′s engineered materials arrestor system bed stops the plane before it reaches Grand Central Parkway. Neither Pence nor the other 47 people on board are injured.

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 (914 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 (914 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

31 October

An Alfa Indonesia PEN Turbo DHC-4T Turbo Caribou (registration PK-SWW) on a domestic flight from Timika to Ilaga, Indonesia, crashes into the side of Ilaga Pass near Jita in Indonesia′s Papua province on New Guinea at an altitude of 12,800 feet (3,901 meters), killing all four people on board. Its wreckage is found the next day.

November

1 November

China-based Donghai Airlines finalizes its order with Boeing for five Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner airliners.

2 November

Bulgaria′s Civil Aviation Administration announces that Plovdiv Airport will close to all commercial traffic temporarily for runway work beginning in February 2017.

The Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority announces a ban on Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on its flights due to safety concerns based on the 15 October ban the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration placed on them because of their tendency to catch fire or explode.

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. U.S. military officials will acknowledge on 5 November that the airstrikes inflicted casualties on civilians, but do not estimate the number of casualties.

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.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets have scrambled over 600 times since 1 January to monitor Russian military air traffic around Europe.

7 November

Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State forces near Ayn Issa, Syria, destroy six fighting position and seven ground vehcles, including two vehicles filled with explosives.

A United States Department of Defense spokesman says that the United States is ready to conduct more airstrikes against Islamic State forces in Libya if the Libyan Government of National Accord requests them. The United States has conducted over 350 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Libya since August, but none since 31 October.

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.

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.

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 estmate, bringing its estimate to a total of 119 civilians killed. It continues to investigate allegations of additional civilian deaths.

11 November

Bulgaria Air Chief Executive Officer Hristo Todorov requests that the wide body airliners candidate – Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 767-300 will yet to be selected before the launch of transatlantic service in 2017.

Taiwan-based TransAsia Airways officially ritires the Airbus A330-300 from its fleet.

Computer problems at Sabre Corporation cause check-in and flight delays on Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Virgin America.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 disr×upted Islamic State supply lines.

Spain′s national airline Iberia formally its last flight for the Airbus A340-300 from service.

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.

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.

The U.S.-led coalition has conducted over 16,000 airstrikes against Islamic State targets since beginning its air campaign against the Islamic State.

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.

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.

26 November

In the November 2016 Butig clash: Islamic State-affiliated militant organization Maute group which passes in the occupied town of Butig in Lanao del Sur, Philippines. Philippine Air Force SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 dropped 150 pounds (68 kg) bombs, all roads will close to the public.

27 November

Foreign Minister of Malaysia Anifah Aman says Malaysia will any deployment of both fixed wing aircraft and helicopters to the Philippines, including Basilan. The reach agreement will allow both Malaysian Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to launch an offensive in combat against Islamic State-affiliated Abu Sayyaf, resulting over the phase.

After a firefight begins between Islamic State-affiliated Syrian rebels and a reconnaissance unit of the Israel Defense Forces′ Golani Brigade along the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, the Israeli Air Force spots a ground vehicle armed with a heavy machine gun and destroys it with a rocket, killing four Syrian rebels. An Israeli military spokesman describes the incident as the “first substantial fight” between Israeli forces and an Islamic State affiliate in the Syrian Civil War.

Israel approves the purchase of 17 additional Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft.

28 November

The first scheduled commercial airline flight between the United States and Havana, Cuba, since the early 1960s takes place as an American Airlines jet arrives at Havana′s Jose Marti International Airport from Miami, Florida. JetBlue initiates Havana service later in the day with a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

LaMia Airlines Flight 2933, an Avro RJ85 (registration CP-2933), crashes in Colombia after its crew declares electrical and fuel emergencies. The crash kills 71 of the 77 people on board, including 19 members of the Associação Chapecoense de Futebol football (soccer) team, and leaves all six survivors injured. Prominent survivors include football team members Alan Ruschel, Jakson Follmann, and Neto. Their teammate Danilo survives initially but later dies in a hospital.

29 November

Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul call upon more than a dozen U.S. surveillance aircraft – including MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper – and 43 U.S. combat planes – including United States Air Force B-52H Stratofortresses, F-15 Eagles, and F-22 Raptors and United States Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers – as well as electronic warfare aircraft and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters for support against Islamic State targets. The aircraft fire more than 80 precision-guided munitions and destroy four car bombs, four mortar systems and an Islamic State compound, among other targets.

United Airlines begins service between the United States and Havana, Cuba, with a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey.

30 November

Bulgaria Air officially announces that it will discontinue its wet-lease agreements for aircraft in 2017.

December

1 December

A ski-equipped Lockheed LC-130 Hercules of the New York Air National Guard′s 109th Airlift Wing evacuates Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, from the South Pole after he falls ill while there with a tour group. The LC-130 flies him to McMurdo Station on Antarctica′s Ross Island. He then flies on a Safair cargo plane to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he arrives on 2 December for hospitalization.

Delta Air Lines makes its first flight to Cuba in 55 years. The flight departs Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, and arrives at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana. Later in the day, Delta inaugurates additional U.S.-Cuba routes with flights to Havana from New York City′s John F. Kennedy International Airport and from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.

The United States Department of Defense announces that it has identified 54 additional civilian deaths attributable to airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria between 31 March and 22 October 2016, bringing to 173 the number of civilian deaths the United States claims have been the result of coalition airstrikes since the air campaign began in June 2014. The announcement revises a July 2016 Department of Defense announcement of 55 civilian deaths during the air campaign and a United States Central Command finding announced on 9 November 2016 that the campaign had killed 64 civilians.

2 December

Bulgaria Air announces that it will start service to Bangkok, Thailand, from Sofia Airport in Sofia, Bulgaria, starting in April 2017. It will become the first Bulgarian airline to offer service to Southeast Asia.

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.

5 December

A Russian Naval Aviation Sukhoi Su-33 (NATO reporting name "Flanker D") crashes into the Mediterranean Sea after an arresting cable snaps while it is attempting to land on the Russian Federation Navy aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. The pilot survives. It is the second aircraft Admiral Kuznetsov has lost since beginning combat operations off Syria; the first was a Mikoyan MiG-29K (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum D") which crashed in November.

6 December

Bulgaria Air announces that a dry-lease term contract with White Airways to buy two Boeing 777 aircraft starting in 2017 to supplement the existing four Boeing 767-300. Foreign Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva claims that the Bulgaria – Portugal bilateral agreement negotiations will be announced in spring 2017.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump tweets that the United States Air Force contract to replace the fleet of aging Boeing VC-25 aircraft that operate as Air Force One with two new aircraft based on the Boeing 747-8 at a cost of $4,000,000,000 is too expensive and should be canceled. The U.S. Air Force and Boeing counter that the old aircraft are in need of replacement and that the special requirements for presidential aircraft inevitably lead to a high price for them.

The United States Department of Justice approves the purchase of Virgin America by Alaska Airlines.

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

After U.S. pilots drop leaflets warning the drivers of Islamic State tanker trucks of the impending attack, United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft destroy 168 of the trucks near Palmyra, Syria, as part of Operation Tidal Wave II.

10 December

Stara Zagora Airport in southern Bulgaria announces that much as paving the way for a potential commercial passenger service will begin in May 2017.

Bulgaria′s Civil Aviation Administration awards this Air Operator's Certificate to Stara Zagora, Gorna Oryahovitsa, and Ruse with bring to start in 2017. Bulgaria Air said it will add five ATR 72-500s converted from ten airliners, many as possible order for an ATR 72-600 to be leased initially.

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, Russin 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.

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.

12 December

In the wake of the 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.

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.

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.

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 January 20th [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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

18 December

Flying in poor weather and low cloud cover, an Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules carrying 12 metric tons of food supplies and cement crashes on New Guinea′s Mount Lisuwa while on approach to Wamena Airport in Wamena, Papua, Indonesia, killing all 13 people on board.

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.

22 December

After over four years of airstrikes against rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, by he 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.

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.

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."

23 December

Two men claiming to be supporters of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and to have a hand grenade hijack Afriqiyah Airways Flight 209, an Airbus A320 (registration 5A-ONB) with 118 people on board, during a domestic flight in Libya from Sebha to Tripoli and force it to fly to Malta International Airport in Malta where they demand political asylum in Europe so that they can establish a political party that represents the former Gaddafi regime. They surrender to Maltese authorities and no one is injured in the incident.

Vesna Vulović, the sole survivor of the crash of JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, dies in her apartment in Belgrade, Serbia, at the age of 66. After the airliner exploded and broke into two pieces at an altitude of 33,330 feet (10,159 meters) over Czechoslovakia, she fell to earth in the aircraft′s tail section, setting a record for surviving the longest fall without a parachute which still stands at the time of her death.

Returning from a book-promotion trip to the United Kingdom, American actress and writer Carrie Fisher suffers a major heart attack aboard United Airlines Flight 935, a Boeing 777-200 making a 10-hour-58-minute nonstop flight from London to Los Angeles, California. She will die on 27 December at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles without ever regaining consciousness.

25 December

The Government of Malaysia says that conducting airstrike in the southern Philippines – mainly Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao by the Islamic State-affiliated Abu Sayyaf won′t captures of Basilan and Sulu. However, the two governments as with the Philippines (Malaysia′s neighboring border) discuss to a decision will be made.

A Russian military Tupolev Tu-154 (NATO reporting name "Careless") transport aircraft crashes into the Black Sea just after takeoff from Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, for a flight to Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia, Syria, killing all 92 people on board. Sixty-four members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, better known internationally as the "Red Army Choir" – including its director, Valery Khalilov – traveling to Syria to perform for Russian troops are among the dead, as are nine journalists, three each from Channel One Russia, NTV, and Zvezda. Also killed is Russian humanitarian Elizaveta Glinka, commonly known in Russia as "Doctor Liza," making the trip to accompany a shipment of medicine to a hospital in Syria.

Bulgaria Air announces that reducing sixteen to twelve flights (five out of Sofia Airport, four out of Varna Airport and three out of Burgas Airport) with unspecified date scheduled for 2017. Bulgarian Transport Ministry′s spokesman said that the ticket sales will be added, and the Sofia Airport will be the long haul operational hub.

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.

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.

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.

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.

First flights

29 January - Boeing 737 MAX 8 - N8701Q

6 February - Enstrom TH180 - N180TH

9 February - Airbus A321neo - D-AVXB

2 March - AgustaWestland AW109 Trekker - I-AGGR

4 April - Skyleader UL-39 Albi - OK-UUH 01

22 April - Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin - 51-0001

28 April - Kamov Ka-62 - RA-62002

17 May - Diamond Dart 450 - OE-VDA

23 May - Embraer E190-E2 - PR-ZEY

31 May - HAL HTT-40

21 July - Tecnam P2012 Traveller - I-PTFC

17 August - Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander 10 - G-PHRG

4 November - Bombardier Global 7000 - C-GLBO

21 November - Stratos 714 - N403KT

24 November - Airbus A350-1000 - F-WWIL

17 December - Gulfstream G600 - N600G

20 December - Boeing BTX-1 - N381TX

20 December - Avicopter AC352

Entered service

25 January – Airbus A320neo with Lufthansa

28 June – Comac ARJ21-700 with Chengdu Airlines

15 July – Bombardier CS100 with Swiss Global Air Lines

2 August – Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II with the United States Air Force

14 December – Bombardier CS300 with airBaltic

Retirements

14 January

The Boeing 747 from the Air France fleet.

23 November

The Airbus A340 from the Iberia fleet. The last flight is by an A340-300 registered EC-GUP.