Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 14

April 14


 * 2013 – The Syrian Air Force strikes the Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus, reportedly killing nine children. A Syrian jet also strikes the Kurdish village of Hadad in northeastern Syria, killing at least 16 people.


 * 2011 – Coalition jets strike Tripoli, Libya, targeting a military base and damaging parts of a university complex. Libyan government antiaircraft artillery in central Tripoli fires at them.


 * 2010 – Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption.


 * 2009 – A Turkish Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon from the 9th Air Wing flying from Balıkesir Airport on a routine night exercise crashes near the village of Muradiye Sarnıç, Balıkesir Province, Turkey killing the pilot.


 * 2007 – First flight of the Comp Air 12


 * 2004 – Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815, an Embraer 120ER, crashes while on approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport, killing all 33 passengers and crew on board; the cause is never determined.


 * 2003 – A Marine AH-1W SuperCobra 163940 of HMLA-169 crashes near Samarra, injuring both pilots. Helicopter was later destroyed.


 * 1994 – Black Hawk Incident (April 1994): Two U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters are mistakenly shot down by USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle jets while patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq, killing 26 personnel.


 * 1986 – US Navy jets attack Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon.


 * 1982 – A United States Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-4D Phantom II crashed on the Avon Park Range in Florida, both crew killed.


 * 1982 – A United States Army Bell UH-1 crashed near Fort Rucker, Alabama, four killed.


 * 1981 – Landing: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-1 at 18:20:57 UTC Edwards AFB, Runway 23, after its first test flight.


 * 1972 – Marine reserve pilot Capt. Anthony McCarthy is killed in Friday night accident when he ejects from his McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk after tire failure on landing at MCAS El Toro, California after flight from homebase at NAS Alameda, California. Although he clears the airframe before it veers off the runway and into a fuel truck, "authorities said the pilot bounced several times on the runway after ejecting."


 * 1968 – (14–19) Over 100 U. S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress sorties, 200 U. S. Air Force and U. S. Marine Corps tactical aircraft sorties, and numerous aerial rocket artillery missions strike enemy positions in South Vietnam's A Shau Valley.


 * 1966 – Pan Am places the first order for the forthcoming Boeing 747


 * 1965 – British United Airways Flight 1030X, a Douglas C-47, crashes on landing at Jersey Airport due to pilot error; of the 27 passengers and crew on board, only a flight attendant survives.


 * 1962 – First flight of the Bristol 188


 * 1960 – A Thai-C-54 Skymaster crashes into Mount Wu Tse after takeoff from Taipei, Taiwan. Eighteen people die, including the chief of the Air Force of Thailand, Air Marshal Chalermkiat Watanangura, and his wife.


 * 1958 – A USAF Douglas RB-66B-DL Destroyer, 54-422, c/n 44722, of the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, crashes in an open field four miles (6 km) from RAF Sculthorpe, UK, while making a blind landing as part of a routine training flight. All three crew KWF. The aircraft was receiving flight instructions from the radar control tower at Sculthorpe. Although the weather was good, the jet was operating under simulated blackout conditions.


 * 1955 – The first significant Nike Ajax missile accident occurs at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, on a rainy afternoon this date, when, at 1235 hrs., Battery C, 36th AAA Missile Battalion, located south of Maryland 602 (now Route 198), was "practicing Nike procedures" when the rocket booster on an Ajax which was being elevated on its launcher suddenly ignites and the missile takes off. Crewman Sgt. 1st Cl. Stanley C. Kozak, standing seven feet away, is caught in the flareback from booster ignition and suffers minor burns. Initial reports stated that the missile exploded about three miles away, "several thousand feet in the air." Later accounts state that the missile, which was not in the fully upright launch position when it unexpectedly left the rail, suffered structural damage as it took off, "coupled with rapid initial acceleration, rendered the missile aerodynamically unsound and led to the break up. The fact the crew had not removed the propulsion safety pin during the drill contributed to the failure of the sustainer motor to start. And, since the launch was unintended, the missile was not under radar control. Neither the missile nor the booster exploded in flight. The booster separated and fell onto Barber's Trailer Court more than a mile from the launch site. Fuel tank fragments fell on the Baltimore-Washington Expressway where the fuel and oxidizer caused a fire but little or no damage. The missile nose section was found 500 yards from the launcher with the guidance assembly still attached." The Army board of inquiry isolated the cause as an electrical short caused by rain water in the junction box on the outside rear of the launcher control trailer. This condition defeated the crew's pre-launch safety checks.


 * 1949 – First flight of the Aero Ae 50


 * 1949 – First flight of the Helio Courier


 * 1947 – First flight of the Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak


 * 1945 – (Overnight) – An Avro Lancaster on a night mission against Potsdam becomes the last British bomber shot down by a German night fighter during World War II.


 * 1943 – Two RAAF Bristol Beaufort torpedo bombers, in a flight of three, collided with each other over Jervis Bay. They were A9-27 and A9-268 from Base Torpedo at Nowra, Australia. They were carrying out a series of dummy runs and torpedo attacks on HMAS Burra Bra for a group of accredited War Correspondents on board the ship when the center aircraft of the vic pulled up, causing the left wing of the right-hand bomber to clip off its tail with both aircraft crashing.


 * 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.


 * 1943 – MV Empire MacAlpine enters service as the first British Merchant Aircraft Carrier, or “MAC-ship. ” Each of the 19 MAC-ships ultimately placed in service is a bulk cargo ship or tanker which continues to carry cargo while equipped with a full-length flight deck. Steaming within convoys, MAC-ships each operate three or four Swordfish aircraft for antisubmarine patrols. Although no MAC-ship’s aircraft ever sink a German submarine, no convoy containing a MAC-ship ever loses a ship, and none of the MAC ships are lost.


 * 1941 – 402 “City of Winnipeg” Squadron carried out the RCAFs first offensive patrol over enemy territory.


 * 1934 – The Wright Cyclone-powered prototype Polikarpov TsKB-12 is damaged when one of the landing gear legs collapses while taxiing. It first flew on 30 December 1933.


 * 1929 – Ed Link introduced a ground-based flight trainer. During World War II, half a million pilots received flight training in Link trainers.


 * 1926 – France and Germany sign an air treaty in Paris; since 1923, the Germans had seized 15 airplanes of the French-based airline CFRNA (now CIDNA) which were forced to land on German soil.


 * 1906 – In Dayton, Ohio, the Wrights send letters to the German, Italian, Japanese and Russian ministers of war offering to sell their airplane.


 * 1900 – The spectacular Paris International Exhibition opens. Clement Ader’s Avion III is one of the exhibits.