This is a list of
aviation-related events from 1983:
Events
January
- France agrees to supply Iraq with five Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard strike fighters capable of firing the Exocet anti-ship missile.
- January 1 – Eastern Air Lines makes its first Boeing 757 revenue flight.
- January 2 – In the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi Air Force aircraft in the Persian Gulf attack a convoy of merchant ships from the Iranian port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, setting fire to the Singaporean cargo ship Eastern and the Liberian cargo ship Orient Horizon, forcing them both to run aground.
- January 5 – United Airlines begins the first scheduled nonstop service between the continental United States and Maui.
- January 16 – The Turkish Airlines Boeing 727-2F2 Afyon, operating as Flight 158, lands short of the runway in driving snow at Esenboga International Airport in Ankara, Turkey. The plane breaks up and catches fire, killing 47 of the 67 people on board.
- January 18 – The Iraqi Air Force conducts a major raid against civilian and economic targets in Iran, claiming to have dispatched 66 sorties but actually sending more. The raid is made with inadequate fighter escort for attack aircraft and poor crew training in evading Iranian ground antiaircraft defenses, and some aircraft are lost due to insufficient maintenance or because they have been sent to targets that are too far away, causing them to run out of fuel on the way home.
- January 25–30 – The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force attacks civilian and economic targets in Iraq.
- January 30 – Sun Country Airlines begins operations.
- January 31