John F. Kennedy International Airport

History

The airport was first known as Idlewild airport, as crews began to build it partly on Idlewild Golf Course. Construction of the airport began in 1942, and at that time, they thought they would need only 1,000 acres (4 km²) to build it: however, as aviation grew, so did Idlewild, and since then, 4,000 acres (16 km²) have been added.

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July 1, 1948 was the date the airport saw its first commercial flight. It was dedicated as New York International Airport on July 31 of that same year, although the name "Idlewild" remained in common use and the airport's IATA code was IDL.

Related Topics:
July 1 - 1948 - July 31 - IATA code

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On December 24, 1963, the airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport to honor the memory of the late President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated on November 22 of that year. The airport then received the new IATA airport code of JFK.

Related Topics:
December 24 - 1963 - John F. Kennedy - Been assassinated - November 22 - IATA airport code

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The Beatles were welcomed into the United States in 1964 at this airport, creating a historic moment in time both for music and the airport.

Related Topics:
The Beatles - United States - 1964

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The Concorde SST, operated by Air France and British Airways, provided scheduled trans-Atlantic supersonic service to JFK from 1975 until 2003, when Concorde was retired by both carriers, ending civilian supersonic travel. JFK had the most SST operations annually of any airport in the world.

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After the September 11th attacks in 2001, JFK was one of the first airports to be temporarily closed.

Related Topics:
September 11th attack - 2001

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Disasters

JFK has been the site of several notable air disasters.

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• December 18, 1954 - a Linee Aeree Italiane Douglas DC-6 crashed on its fourth approach attempt to land at Idlewild, after circling for 2.5 hours. 26 of the 32 passengers on board were killed.
• December 16, 1960 - a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collided with a TWA Super Constellation on approach to the airport; the United jet crashed in a Brooklyn neighborhood, the TWA plane on Staten Island, killing 127 people on board and five on the ground.
• March 1, 1962 - an American Airlines Boeing 707 crashed on takeoff from Idlewild after its rudder separated from the tail. All 95 passengers and crew were killed.
• November 30, 1962 - an Eastern Airlines Douglas DC-7 crashed into the ground during a missed approach.
• February 8, 1965 - an Eastern Airlines Douglas DC-7 crashed off Jones Beach after takeoff when the pilots found themselves on an apparent collison course with an inbound PanAm Boeing 707 and made evasive maneuvers.
• June 24, 1975 - Eastern Airlines Flight 66, a Boeing 727 on final approach from New Orleans, crashed into the runway lights short of runway 22L, killing 112 passengers and crew. The cause of the crash was wind shear during a heavy thunderstorm.
• January 25, 1990 - Avianca Flight 52, a Boeing 707-321B, crashed at Cove Neck, Long Island, after a missed approach at JFK and subsequently running out of fuel.
• November 12, 2001 - The most recent disaster at JFK was American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 that crashed while en route to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. During takeoff, the aircraft lost most of its vertical fin due to wake turbulence (and the pilot's subsequent overcontrol of the rudder) and crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens. The crash killed all 260 persons on the plane and five people on the ground.

Other disasters involving JFK include:

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• Sabena Flight 548 (1961), outbound from JFK, crashed while trying to land in Brussels, Belgium
• Eastern Airlines Flight 401 (1972), outbound from JFK, crashed while trying to land in Miami, Florida
• Pan Am Flight 1736 (1977), originated from JFK, collided with another 747 at Tenerife
• Korean Air Flight 007 (1983), originated from JFK, shot down off the coast of Sakhalin
• Pan Am Flight 103 (1988), bound for JFK, with continued service to Detroit, exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland
• TWA Flight 800 (1996), outbound from JFK, crashed off the coast of Long Island
• Swissair Flight 111 (1998), outbound from JFK, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia
• EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999), outbound from JFK, crashed off the coast of Nantucket
• Air France Flight 4590 (2000), a Concorde bound for JFK, crashed in Gonesse, France

Several aircraft based at JFK were also targets of the failed Project Bojinka terrorist plot in 1995..

Related Topics:
Project Bojinka - 1995

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