Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 15

April 15


 * 2010 – Following the second eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, large areas of controlled airspace were closed, causing widespread suspension of services across Europe.


 * 2010 – A Westland Lynx helicopter of the South Korean Navy was on a routine patrol mission when it crashed in sea near Chuja Island 14.5 km southeast of Jindo, South Jeolla Province. One occupants was killed and three others are missing.


 * 2009 – The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency cancels the operating license of airline Elbrus-Avia.


 * 2008 – Hewa Bora Airways Flight 122, a Douglas DC-9, crashes into a market near Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people, including three passengers.


 * 2007 – Two British Aérospatiale Puma helicopters are involved in a mid-air collision near Taji, north of Baghdad. Both aircraft crash, with two personnel killed and one seriously injured.


 * 2002 – Air China Flight 129, a Boeing 767-200ER, crashes into a hill during a landing attempt at Busan, South Korea in misty conditions; of the 155 passengers and 11 crew, 38 survive.


 * 1992 – A U.S. Navy North American T-2C Buckeye crashes in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after launch from training carrier USS Forrestal, operating ~70 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida. Both instructor pilots eject but helicopter only retrieves Lt. Tim Fisher of VT-19, based at NAS Meridian, Mississippi, other pilot lost. This was the first training accident since the Forrestal became a training carrier on 4 February 1992.


 * 1981 – A United States Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-4E Phantom II of the 86TFW was shot down by another American Phantom and crashed near Tyndall AFB. The wingman mistook his leader for a drone.


 * 1971 – Entered Service: Hawker Siddeley AV-8 A Harrier with VMA-513 of the United States Marine Corps.


 * 1971 – Sergei Nikolayevich Anokhin, Russian engineer and former Cosmonaut (1 April 1910 - 15 April 1986), is injured in the crash of a Tupolev Tu-16 into the Aral Sea while the bomber was flying parabolas for zero-G tests of the engine of the Molniya Block L upper stage, to study why the stage was continually failing to restart in earth orbit.


 * 1969 – The EC-121 shoot-down incident occurred when a United States Navy Lockheed EC-121 M Warning Star on a reconnaissance mission was shot down by North Korean MiG-17 aircraft over the Sea of Japan. The plane crashed 90 nautical miles (167 km) off the North Korean coast and all 31 Americans on board were killed.


 * 1965 – U. S. Navy carrier aircraft strike Viet Cong positions at Black Virgin Mountain in South Vietnam.


 * 1965 – First flight of the Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma


 * 1962 – The United States Marine Corps' involvement in the Vietnam War begins when Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 362 (HMM-362), equipped with HUS-1 Seahorse transport helicopters, arrives at Soc Trang, South Vietnam, to begin Operation Shufly. It soon begins to airlift South Vietnamese troops.


 * 1960 – Twenty-four airmen escape with their lives when a KC-97G-23-BO Stratotanker, 52-0919, c/n 16612, of the 307th Air Refueling Squadron, 307th Bomb Wing, crashes and burns on take-off from Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, when the undercarriage collapses. The only casualties are two airmen who suffer leg fractures and 5 others who suffer minor cuts and burns.


 * 1958 – Two more Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers of Strategic Air Command suffer crashes.


 * 1952 – First flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.


 * 1952 – While making a maximum gross weight takeoff at ~ 0345 hrs., a Convair B-36B-10-CF Peacemaker, 44-92050, c/n 47, failed to become safely airborne and crashed off the end of a runway at Fairchild AFB. The aircraft was airborne briefly for ~ a quarter mile, when one starboard engine began backfiring and caught fire, followed by the shutdown of all six engines. The aircraft then skidded on its nose for another quarter mile, struck a ditch, and exploded. A "large heavy object (of highly classified nature)" tore through the front of the plane on impact, causing severe injuries to many crewmen. Later, amid several smaller explosions, a huge single explosion shook the ground. Seventeen men were aboard the plane; 15 were killed and two survived with major injuries. Joe Baugher states that the aircraft failed to climb out due to mis-set elevator trim which kept nose down on takeoff.


 * 1948 – Newspapers all over the world publish pictures of a Boeing B-47 using jet-assisted takeoff.


 * 1948 – Pan Am Flight 1-10, a Lockheed Constellation, crashes while on approach to Shannon Airport; of the 31 on board, only one survives.


 * 1947 – Trans-Canada Air Lines inaugurated Transatlantic Service between Montreal Dorval and Preswick with the Douglas DC-4 North Star. Flight was 8 hrs, 39 mins.


 * 1947 – BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) opens its first regular service to Canada; it is a weekly flight by a Constellation from London to Montreal.


 * 1946 – Formation of the first post-war Auxiliary Squadrons was authorized – 400 (Toronto), 401 (Montreal), 402 (Winnipeg), 418 (Edmonton), 424 (Hamilton), 439 (Montreal), and 442 (Vancouver).


 * 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.


 * 1945 – (15-16) Task Force 58 launches fighter sweeps over Kyushu, claiming 29 Japanese aircraft shot down and 51 destroyed on the ground on the first day.


 * 1945 – (15-16) The third Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 165 kamikazes. They sink the destroyer USS Pringle (DD-477) and a minesweeper and damage the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11), three destroyers, a destroyer escort, a minesweeper, and a landing craft.


 * 1944 – Second prototype Dornier Do 335 V2, Werkenummer 230002, CP+UB, suffers rear engine fire while undergoing testing at the Erprobungsstelle Rechlin central Luftwaffe test facility just outside Rechlin, Germany, written off.


 * 1943 – The first production model Boeing B-29 rolls out of the Wichita, Kan., plant.


 * 1943 – Operation Flax is put into effect, the systematic targeting by Allied fighter pilots of Luftwaffe transport aircraft bound for North Africa


 * 1943 – The first encounter of the U. S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolt with enemy fighters occurs, as 335th Fighter Squadron P-47Cs shoot down three German fighters in exchange for a loss of three P-47Cs.


 * 1943 – During a single 12-hour period, the U. S. Army Air Forces’ Eleventh Air Force flies 112 sorties against Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands, dropping 180,000 pounds (81,653 kg) of bombs on Kiska and 4,000 pounds (1,814 kg) on Attu.


 * 1941 – CAMCO signs an agreement with the Chinese government to equip and administer the American Volunteer Group in China.


 * 1941 – A German reconnaissance aircraft with a camera and exposed film of Soviet installations crashes near Rovno in the Soviet Union, but no Soviet attention to preparations for a possible German attack results.


 * 1941 – No. 404 (Coastal Fighter) Squadron was formed in England.


 * 1936 – The first production North American NA-16, designated the BT-9, makes its first flight.


 * 1935 – The Douglas TBD Devastator makes its first flight. It is the Navy’s first all-metal monoplane.


 * 1934 – While flying the U.S. Mail, 1st Lt. Arthur Lahman's engine on his Douglas O-38B, 31-435, '22', of Headquarters Command, Bolling Field, cuts out on approach to Newark, New Jersey, and crashes in a field. Pilot uninjured but airframe written off.


 * 1925 – Ukvozdukhput begins services in the Ukraine


 * 1925 – The U. S. Navy begins a program of daily flights to an altitude of 10,000 ft. from the Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, DC. The main purpose of these flights is to obtain weather data and to test upper-air sounding equipment that collects information that could be used to forecast weather.


 * 1919 – The United States Navy selects the collier USS Jupiter for conversion into its first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3).


 * 1916 – RFC and RNAS aircraft deliver 13 tons of stores into Kut el Amara, Mesopotamia, while it was besieged by the Turks. This was the first time aircraft had been used for such a purpose.


 * 1909 – A crowd at the Centocelle Field, Rome, Italy, sees Wilbur Wright make a 10-minute flight in which he reaches an altitude of 98 feet.


 * 1892 – Theo Osterkamp, World War I and World War II German fighter pilot, was born (d. 1975). Osterkamp was one of only a few pilots to score victories in both World Wars.


 * 1875 – The scientific flight of the Montgolfiere "Zenith" up to 8,000 m ends in the death of two aeronauts and the deafness of Gaston Tissandier.