Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 13

April 13


 * 2013 – Lion Air Flight 904, a Boeing 737-8GP carrying 108 people, ditches in shallow water off Bali 0.6 nautical miles (1.1 km) from the runway while attempting to land at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Indonesia. All on board survive, although 22 people are injured.


 * 2013 – The Syrian Air Force strikes Saraqib, Syria, reportedly killing 20 people.


 * 2010 – Aerounion – Aerotransporte de Carga Union Flight 302 operated by Airbus A300B4F XA-TUE crashed on approach to General Mariano Escobedo International Airport, Monterrey, Mexico. All five crew were killed, as was one person in a car that was hit by the crashing aircraft.


 * 2010 – Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 836 operated by Boeing 737–300 PK-MDF overran the runway at Rendani Airport, Manokwari, Indonesia. All 103 passengers and crew escape alive.


 * 2010 – Unable to adjust their thrust settings due to an engine malfunction, the flight crew of Cathay Pacific Flight 780, an Airbus A330-342 with 322 people on board, is forced to land at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, China, at 230 knots (265 mph; 426 km/h), 95 knots (109 mph; 176 km/h) higher than normal landing speed. The aircraft makes a successful landing, but 57 passengers are injured during the subsequent emergency evacuation.


 * 2010 – A Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet E122/F-TERD of the French Air Force (Patrouille de France) crashed near Plan de Dieu Airport (LF51), Vaucluse area. The pilot ejected and escaped with minor injuries.


 * 2006 – Eagle III MBB Bo 105 accident occurred at GRBC Rescue Heliport in Green Bay, Wisconsin during a post-maintenance flight of a MBB Bo 105 air ambulance helicopter operated by Eagle III. This crash claimed the life of James Vincent Jr, the sole occupant and an experienced pilot flying with Eagle III since 2004. This was the first accident for County Rescue's air ambulance service, which took delivery of its first helicopter in May 1998, and was also believed to be the first among the 12 or so air ambulance services operating in the state of Wisconsin. As of June 2007, the cause of the crash is still under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, but is believed to be caused by a mechanical failure of the tail rotor.


 * 1990 – First flight of the Sukhoi Su-34


 * 1989 – The first flight-tests of the Pratt & Whitney / Alison prop-fan engine are carried out in the U. S.


 * 1989 – Two U.S. Navy North American T-2C Buckeyes, BuNos. 156694, 'A 994' and 159724, 'A 996' of VT-19, suffer mid-air collision and crash near Macon, Mississippi, killing two crew of one, but two crew of other parachute safely.


 * 1984 – Landed: Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41-C at 13:38:07 UTC Edwards AFB. Mission highlights: Solar Max servicing (first satellite rescue by astronauts), LDEF deployment.


 * 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger.


 * 1967 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7966, Article 2017, crashed near Las Vegas, New Mexico, after a night refuelling devolved into a subsonic high-speed stall. Pilot Boone and RSO Sheffield eject safely.


 * 1966 – Royal Iraqi Air Force de Havilland DH.104 Dove 1, RF392, c/n 04032, crashes near Basra, Iraq on flight from Baghdad during a Haboob, killing all seven on board, including President of Iraq Colonel Abd-al-Salam Mohammad Arif (8 February 1963 - 13 April 1966), and two ministers. Some sources report this accident as a helicopter crash.


 * 1966 – Boeing announces in Seattle an order worth $525 million from Pan Am for 25 Model 747 jumbo jets.


 * 1963 – United States Marine Corps UH-34 Seahorse transport helicopters based at Da Nang, South Vietnam, airlift 435 South Vietnamese troops to attack a suspected Viet Cong stronghold in mountains along the Thu Bồn River. For the first time, Marine Corps helicopters receive attack helicopter escort in the form of United States Army UH-1 B gunships.


 * 1960 – The United Kingdom terminates ballistic missile research, preferring to simply purchase the US-developed Skybolt missile.


 * 1958 – A USAF Douglas C-133A-10-DL Cargomaster, 54-0146, c/n 44716 of the 1607 ATW crashed inverted during a local flight test out of Dover AFB, DE 17 minutes after takeoff near Georgetown, DE. 4 Fatalities.


 * 1944 – During a Naval Air Training Command (NATC) evaluation flight of Budd RB-1 Conestoga prototype, U.S. Navy NX37097, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, the aircraft crashed, killing one of the crew. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off, but the pilot reported that the stainless steel construction of the plane contributed to saving his life.


 * 1944 – After downing 3 planes on 8 April, Don Gentile was the top scoring 8th Air Force ace when he crashed his personal North American P-51B-7-NA Mustang, 43-6913, 'VF-T', named "Shangri La", this date while stunting over the 4th FG's airfield at Debden for a group of assembled press reporters and movie cameras. He buzzed the airfield too low, struck the rising ground, and broke the back of his fighter. Col. Donald Blakeslee immediately grounded Major Gentile as a result, even though his combat tour was completed, and he was sent back to the US for a tour selling War Bonds.


 * 1945 – The last Boeing-built B-17 is delivered.


 * 1943 – 188 Japanese planes from Rabaul raid Milne Bay, New Guinea, destroying one merchant ship and damaging others. Twenty-four Royal Australian Air Force Curtiss Kittyhawks intercept them, shooting down seven Japanese aircraft in exchange for three Kittyhawks.


 * 1940 – During the Second Battle of Narvik, a Swordfish floatplane from the British battleship HMS Warspite sinks the German submarine U-64 in Herjangsfjorden off Bjerkvik, Norway – The first time that a Royal Navy aircraft sinks an enemy submarine during World War II – spots gunfire for Warspite and ships accompanying her in Ofotfjord, resulting in the destruction of seven German destroyers, and finishes off one of the destroyers with a bombing attack.


 * 1940 – The Royal Air Force begins deploying sea mines around Germany's coastal waters.


 * 1938 – Ground was broken at Malton Airport, Toronto for the Aircraft Division of the National Steel Car Corp. The plant later became Victory Aircraft Ltd and Avro Aircraft Ltd.


 * 1935 – QANTAS and Imperial Airways provide regular connecting flights between Brisbane, Australia, and London
 * 1931 – First flight of the Boeing YB-9.


 * 1928 – The first non-stop flight across the Atlantic from East to West is made by Hermann Köhl, Baron Gunther von Hunefeld, and Major James Fitzmaurice (pilot) in a Junkers W.33 named the Bremen.


 * 1925 – First scheduled airfreight service begins in the US


 * 1925 – A Navy NB-1 was the first airplane using oleo-type hydraulic landing gear struts.


 * 1920 – First flight of the Nieuport London


 * 1919 – The Vickers Vimy Commercial, a civilian version of the bomber with an enclosed fuselage capable of holding a maximum of ten passengers, makes its maiden flight in Kent, England.


 * 1917 – Royal Naval Air Service flying boats begin flying “Spider Web” patrols over the North Sea in the vicinity of the North Hinder light ship to detect German submarines in the area. The new patrol pattern, resembling a spider web, allows four aircraft to search a 4,000-square-mile (10,000-square-kilometer) area in about five hours, only half the time it takes a surfaced submarine to transit the area. The flying boats make 27 patrols in the next 18 days, sight eight German submarines, and make bombing attacks against three of them.


 * 1897 – Werner Voss, German World War I pilot and ace, was born (d. 1917).