1970
- January 6: Los Angeles-Honolulu-Tokyo service begins.
- April: Howard Hughes, Jr. purchases Air West, Inc. creating Hughes Airwest.
- April 23: North Central Flight 945, a DC9 departing Pellston, Michigan for Sault Ste. Marie, is subject to an attempted hijacking; the man demands to be flown to Detroit. He is evidently not a very smart man and is subdued by the flight attendant and the only other passenger on board.
- September 1: Chicago-Hawaii nonstop service begins.
- November 14: Southern Flight 932, a charter operated by a DC9-31 inbound to Huntington, West Virginia and carrying the Marshall University football team, impacts trees and a hillside west of the runway. All 71 passengers and 4 crew are killed.
- For the third year in a row, Northwest leads the U.S. airline industry in net profitability.
- Northwest offers the first Boeing 747 trans-Pacific service from the four major gateways of Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu.
1971
- January 22: NWA Flight 433 from Milwaukee to Detroit is hijacked by a lone man who demands to be flown to Algeria. During fueling in Detroit, the man is informed the Boeing 727 simply does not have the range to make it to Africa; he changes his mind and demands to be flown to Havana instead. The jet and its 60 passengers and crew fly to Cuba, drop off the hijacker, and return to the United States unharmed.
- June 6: Hughes Airwest Flight 706, a DC9-31 flying from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, is impacted by a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B Phantom jet fighter over Duarte, California. All 44 passengers and 5 crew are killed.
- September 1: Northwest begins nonstop Minneapolis – Boston flights.
- October 24: Hughes Airwest begins nonstops from Los Angeles to Eureka/Arcata, California, with continuing service to Eugene, Oregon.
- November 24: Northwest Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle is hijacked by a man calling himself D.B. Cooper. The flight lands in Seattle after inflight delays caused by preparation to fulfill Cooper’s demands, and all passengers deplane safely. The aircraft is refueled and departs southbound with Cooper and minimal NWA crew, ostensibly toward Mexico. However, Cooper deploys the 727’s rear airstair and parachutes out somewhere over Oregon, never to be found. The aircraft lands safely in Reno, Nevada, with no harm to crew. The FBI investigation lasts 45 years but yields no solid leads.
- December 24: Shortly after takeoff, a 25-year-old man on Northwest Flight 734 from Chicago to the Twin Cities brandishes a handgun and holds a flight attendant at gunpoint, claiming to have a bomb and demanding $300,000 and parachutes. The flight returns to Chicago, and while authorities deliver the money and parachutes, the 35 passengers and crew escape the Boeing 707. The man tries to shave his beard and pose as a hostage but is captured.
- Northwest is honored for noise abatement leadership by National Organization to Ensure a Sound-Controlled Environment.
1972
- The Douglas DC10 joins the Northwest fleet.
- June 29: North Central Airlines Flight 290, operated by a Convair 580, running from Green Bay to Oshkosh, collides with an Air Wisconsin Twin Otter over Lake Winnebago. All five aboard the CV-580 and all eight on the Twin Otter are killed.
- November 10: Southern Airways Flight 49 leaving Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked. Over the next 30 hours the three hijackers force the DC9 to fly to Toronto, Chattanooga, Havana, Orlando, and back to Havana, where they were finally arrested. The aircraft is damaged but repaired the next day and ferried out of Cuba. While all passengers are safe, Co-Pilot Harold Johnson is shot in the arm during the ordeal but recovers. After this incident and in response to other hijackings, the Federal Aviation Administration orders airports nationwide to begin baggage inspection and for passengers to undergo metal-detection scanning as of January 3, 1973.
- December 20: North Central Flight 575, a DC9, is cleared by air traffic control for takeoff at in heavy fog at Chicago O’Hare, while recently arrived Delta Air Lines Flight 954, a Convair 880, was instructed to taxi across the runway to a holding area. The DC9 clips the tail of the CV-880, and crashes back onto the runway, on fire. Ten of the 45 people on board the North Central DC9 are killed and 15 are injured; there are two minor injuries on the Delta CV-880.
1973
- Northwest goes “online” with computerized ticketing and reservations service to and from Asia.
- North Central is the first regional airline stock to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
1974
- June 1: Hughes Airwest begins Edmonton, Alberta – Spokane – Las Vegas – Los Angeles through service.
- June 7: Northwest resumes Edmonton service from Minneapolis, after a 12-year suspension.
- December 1: Northwest Flight 6231, a charter positioning flight enroute from New York JFK to Buffalo, operated by a B727-200, encounters icing conditions which give erroneous speed readings. The crew unintentionally stalls the aircraft and it crashes near Stony Point, New York. All three crew are killed.
- December 4: Southern Airways launches nonstop service from Miami to Grand Cayman Island in the western Caribbean Sea.
1975
- May 28: North Central officially retires “Old 728,” a Douglas DC3 that is then the world’s high-time aircraft with 84,875 hours (almost 10 full years) of flying time in its logbook. The aircraft flew in scheduled service through 1965 and spent its last 10 years with North Central as a company executive aircraft. Old 728 today is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. (albeit in Northwest colors following restoration paid for by NWA well after the Republic merger)
- Northwest is the U.S. airline industry profit leader for the fourth time.
1976
- February 16: Howard Hughes dies. His Summa Corporation holding company decides to not invest further in Hughes Airwest and starts shopping for a new owner.
- April: North Central’s first extended-cabin DC9-50 jetliners are put into service. The D95 would remain in reliable service all the way through the Delta-Northwest merger and not be retired until 2011.
- July 1: Northwest is the first airline approved by FAA to install coordinated flight crew training.
- October 1: M. Joseph Lapensky is named Northwest president; CEO Donald W. Nyrop takes on added responsibility as chairman of the board.
1977
- January 3: North Central begins Detroit – Boston nonstop service.
- April 4: Southern Flight 242, a DC9-31 inbound from Huntsville, Alabama to Atlanta, encounters a severe thunderstorm with wind shear and massive hail. The hail disables both engines and shatters the cockpit windshield. The crew attempt to land on a rural highway but the aircraft crashes catastrophically. 60 passengers and 2 crew are killed, but 21 passengers and 2 crew survive. 8 people on the ground are also killed.
- May: Southern Airways receives its first Swearingen Metroliner II mini-turboprop, with which it intends to replace its old Martin 4-0-4 piston propliner fleet. The Martins are retired by 1978 but the Metros are not received well by passengers or ground crew, and are underpowered for their mission and suffer frequent maintenance issues. The Metros would not be replaced until after the Republic merger, however.
- May 8: Northwest Flight 22 from Tokyo to Honolulu, flown with a Boeing 747, experiences an attempted hijacking with the man demanding to be flown to Moscow. Crew and passengers subdue the hijacker and all 262 aboard land safely.
- June 8: NWA begins nonstop service from Chicago to New Orleans and Tokyo.
1978
- The Airline Deregulation Act abolishes economic regulation of U.S. airlines, enabling them to enter and exit domestic routes without government approval. North Central, Southern, and Hughes Airwest eagerly take advantage of the new opportunities.
- June 9: North Central begins 3-per-day Bismarck – Fargo – Minneapolis/St. Paul service in direct competition with Northwest, using their flagship DC9-50 jetliners.
- July 25: North Central Flight 801, operated by a Convair 580, departs Kalamazoo, Michigan in fog, and strikes a bird almost immediately, losing power in its left engine as a result. It crash-lands into a cornfield east of the airport. Of the 40 passengers and three crew on board, 2 passengers and a crewman have serious injuries, but there are no fatalities.
- August 1: North Central launches Detroit – Baltimore nonstop service.
- September 5: North Central begins 4-per-day nonstops from Detroit to Atlanta. The Milwaukee – Cincinnati service is also extended east to Philadelphia.
- October 12: NWA expands service to Fairbanks, Alaska.
- November 23: North Central Flight 468, a DC9 preparing to depart Madison, Wisconsin for Milwaukee, is subject to an attempted hijacking. The airplane is stopped; law enforcement boards and apprehends the man. All 23 aboard are safe.
- December 15: North Central launches nonstop service from Detroit to Houston’s Hobby Airport and the Florida points of West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Sarasota/Bradenton. The Twin Cities – Denver route is extended west to Tucson, Arizona. And service is also started from Milwaukee to Tampa and Miami, and from Chicago to West Palm Beach.
- In their last year of operation as independent entities, North Central Airlines serves 103 cities in 20 states and two Canadian provinces with 4,500 employees and major hubs in Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul; Southern Airways serves 50 cities in 17 states and the Cayman Islands with 4,500 employees and major hubs in Atlanta and Memphis.
1979
- January 1: President M. Joseph Lapensky is named chief executive officer.
- January 20: During the first full year following passage of the Airline Deregulation Act, Northwest embarks on substantial domestic route growth. On this day, nonstop flights are added from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and Cleveland; Orlando-Philadelphia; Twin Cities-St. Louis; and New Orleans-Tampa.
- February 1: Northwest also adds service on Boston-Detroit, Boston-Tampa, Boston-Philadelphia, Boston-Washington Dulles; Philadelphia-Ft. Lauderdale; Newark-Pittsburgh; New Orleans-Miami; Chicago-St. Louis; San Francisco-Las Vegas, and San Francisco-Portland.
- February 9: Northwest launches its first trans-Atlantic cargo route — New York-Boston-Glasgow, Scotland.
- March 2: NWA adds cargo service to Copenhagen.
- March 31: Northwest enters the trans-Atlantic passenger market, launching service to Copenhagen and Stockholm from the Twin Cities, Detroit and New York.
- April 29: North Central expands service to Houston’s Hobby Airport with a nonstop to Chicago O’Hare.
- April 29: NWA begins service to Glasgow, Scotland’s Prestwick Airport from Boston with thru service to Minneapolis and Seattle. The Glasgow flight also continues to Copenhagen.
- June 5: A Northwest 747 operating a military charter from Seattle to Japan is alerted to an engine fire shortly after departure and lands safely at CFB Comox, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 386 passengers were aboard.
- June 6: Northwest and all other DC-10 operators are ordered to ground their DC-10 fleet by the Federal Aviation Administration, as a result of vulnerabilities found in the aircraft’s tail-engine and hydraulics arrangement following the May 25 crash in Chicago of American Airlines Flight 191. Corrective actions are communicated and modifications are undertaken; the fleet is allowed to return to service on July 13.
- June 8: NWA starts Los Angeles – Seattle nonstops.
- June 25: North Central begins twice-daily nonstop service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Washington, D.C.’s National Airport.
- July 1: North Central Airlines and Southern Airways merge. The combined company is called Republic Airlines, Inc., and is headquartered in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The combined route systems of the two companies meet at 11 cities, but do not overlap on a single route.
- July 1: Northwest begins two transpacific nonstops: Seattle-Seoul and Honolulu-Osaka.
- September 12: NWA Cargo launches two additional transatlantic routes: New York JFK – Manchester, England – Amsterdam; and JFK – Boston – Prestwick, Scotland – Amsterdam.
- November 15: Minneapolis – Phoenix nonstops begin on Northwest.
- December 18: NWA starts service to Ft. Myers, Florida via intermediate Florida cities.
Timeline Navigation
Click on the links below or use the top navigation to read through the Northwest Family history, decade by decade:
