Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 12

April 12


 * 2011 – The Air France Airbus A380 F-HPJD collides on the ground with the Comair Bombardier CRJ-700 N641CA at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, spinning the CRJ-700 through 90°. The Airbus sustains slight damage, but the CRJ-700 is substantially damaged.


 * 2010 – A United States Navy Rockwell Sabreliner crashed in Morganton killing all four crew on board.


 * 2007 – An unarmed Panavia Tornado ECR of the German Air Force crashes in a rock face 46.550328°N 7.923805°E near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, killing the pilot. The weapons system officer ejects and is rescued severely injured from the rock face by a local helicopter rescue team. The crash occurs minutes after refueling in Emmen during an authorized navigation training in the Swiss Alps while returning to Germany from a long-distance flight to Corsica, France.


 * 2005 – A GT Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 100 aircraft crashes in Indonesia, all 18 on board die.


 * 2004 – MH-53M Pave Low 69-5797 of 16th SOW/20th SOS shot down by RPG near Fallujah, three on board are wounded. Helicopter was later destroyed.


 * 2001 – Magyar Légierő, Hungarian Air Force Mil Mi-24D, 579, collides with Mil Mi-24V, 715, while performing low-level formation flight over the range near Gyulafirátót, killing both crews.


 * 1990 – Widerøe Flight 839, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, crashes into the Norwegian Sea just after takeoff from Værøy Airport in Værøy, Norway, when strong winds crack its tail rudder and tailplane, rendering it uncontrollable. All five people on board die. Værøy Airport is closed after the accident due to the danger posed by bad weather and replaced by Værøy Heliport farther to the south.


 * 1989 – A British Airways Concorde loses a large piece of its rudder on a flight between Christchurch and Sydney


 * 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-D at 13:59:05 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments, first flight of a sitting politician in space, Jake Garn, first impromptu EVA of program to fix Syncom F3 (Leasat 3).


 * 1981 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-1 at 12:00:03 UTC. It is the first reusable orbital spacecraft flight and the first flight of Columbia.


 * 1980 – Transbrasil Flight 303 was a flight from São Paulo-Congonhas to Florianópolis. The aircraft was a Boeing 727-27 C aircraft, registration PT-TYS with 58 people on board. The aircraft crashed on approach to the Hercilio Luz Airport. Only three individuals survived. The aircraft was on a night instrumental approach to Florianópolis Airport under a severe thunderstorm. The aircraft went off course, struck a hill (Morro da Virgínia) and exploded. Probable causes are misjudgment of speed and distance, inadequate flight supervision, failure to initiate a go-around and improper operation of the engines.


 * 1975 – United States Marine Corps helicopters from the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LPH-10) and the attack aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19) evacuate the staff of the U. S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.


 * 1973 – A USN Lockheed P-3C-125-LO Orion, BuNo 157332, c/n 185-5547, of VP-47 and a Convair 990-30A-5, N711NA, '711', "Galileo", c/n 30-10-1, (formerly N5601G of American Airlines), belonging to NASA, collided while on final approach to NAS Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, California and crashed short of the runway. The planes fell on the Sunnyvale Municipal Golf Course and 16 of the 17 people aboard the two planes were killed.


 * 1971 – The US Air Force’s 3first Aerospace Rescue Squadron evacuate Charles Lindbergh and a group of scientists from Mindanao Island, Philippines, after their helicopter had crashed.


 * 1966 – U. S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses strike targets in North Vietnam for the first time.


 * 1966 – First flight of the Pilatus PC-7 (Prototype)


 * 1961 – Yuri Gagarin makes the first human spaceflight in Vostok 1, orbiting the Earth once, in 108 min.


 * 1951 – 48 USAF B-29 Superfortresses attack the Sinuiju Railway Bridge on the Yalu River.


 * 1945 – USS Mannert L. Abele is sunk by an Ohka


 * 1944 – Fifth Air Force aircraft again attack Japanese airfields around Hollandia.


 * 1943 – The Japanese conduct their largest air raid in the Southwest Pacific thus far in World War II, with 174 planes – 131 fighters and 43 medium bombers – Attacking Port Moresby, New Guinea. The raid causes little damage, and the 44 Allied fighters that intercept the Japanese shoot down five aircraft, all fighters, for the loss of two of their own.


 * 1942 – The Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard reports that due to German air attacks on Malta’s naval base “practically no workshops were in action other than those underground; all docks were damaged; electric power, light and telephones were largely out of action. ”


 * 1940 – RAF Bomber Command loses six Hampdens and three Wellingtons in a daylight raid against German forces at Stavanger, Norway. It is the last daylight raid by the two types of aircraft in northwestern Europe.


 * 1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England.


 * 1935 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim, a British light bomber, makes takes off from Filton, England on its maiden test flight.


 * 1928 – (12-13) Major James Fitzmaurice (pilot), Baron guenther Von Huenefeld and Captain Hermann Koehl made the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic in a Junkers Bremen. They flew from Baldonell, Ireland to Greenley Island, Canada in 37 hours.


 * 1918 – The final Zeppelin raid on England is carried out.


 * 1918 – The Loughead brothers fly their seaplane, the F-1, from Santa Barbara to San Diego.


 * 1918 – Captain H. W. Woollett of No. 43 Squadron RAF scores six victories in two sorties, including five Albatros D.Vs.


 * 1911 – Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop flight from London to Paris


 * 1911 – Lieutenant T. Gordon Ellyson became the Navy’s first pilot.