Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April 8

April 8


 * 2010 – A Dassault Mirage F1 of the French Air Force was conducting the basic training of Rheims when it crashed about 1140 hrs. in a field near a highway, four miles (6 km) from the base of Orléans.


 * 2010 – A MFI-17 Mushshak of the Pakistan Army crashed in an open field, Nelavia area, near Peshawar's suburbs of Tagman.


 * 2009 – SA Airlink Avro RJ-85 ZS-ASW is substantially damaged when it jumps its chocks and subsequently collides with a fence then a brick wall at OR Tambo International Airport, South Africa.


 * 2008 – An Antonov An-26 operated by Vietnam's 918 Air Transport Regiment crashes near Hanoi. All five military pilots on board are killed.


 * 2008 – An Antonov An-26 aircraft on a training mission, possibly belonging to Vietnam's 918 Air Transport Regiment, crashed into a field in Thanh Tri District, Hanoi, Vietnam, killing five military pilots. It had taken off from Gia Lam Airport, and crashed on its way back. The cause of the accident was unknown.


 * 2003 – A-10A 78-0691 of 124th Wing/190th FS shot down by Iraqi Roland SAM; pilot survived.


 * 2002 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-110 at 20:44:19 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 8A: S0 truss.


 * 2000 – A Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor prototype, BuNo 165436, coded 'MX-04', of HMX-1, rolls over and crashes during a rapid descent to land at Marana Northwest Regional Airport, Marana, Arizona, United States, killing all 19 US Marines on board. Cause of crash was pilot losing control due to high vertical rate of descent causing vortex ring state. MV-22B, BuNo 165433, (which was also taking part in the exercise) landed heavily when the resulting explosion blew out its ground cushion. It was struck off charge on 16 July 2001. In 2012, Representative Walter B. Jones, Jr., (R-N.C.), seeks for the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps to issue a statement that "human factors" initially blamed for the accident were incorrect, and requests a statement exonerating Lt. Col. John S. Brow, pilot, and Maj. Brooks S. Gruber, co-pilot of the Osprey.


 * 1998 – A Swiss Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet crashes near Crans-Montana, Switzerland.


 * 1993 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-56 at 5:29:00 UTC. Mission highlights: ATLAS-2 science platform.


 * 1991 – Three Chinooks seen for the last time at CFB Edmonton.


 * 1988 – Pacific Southwest Airlines shut down operations and was integrated to USAir (now US Airways).


 * 1972 – Hawker-Siddeley Andover C.1, XS609, c/n Set 16, bound for the United Kingdom, carrying 18-man paratroop exhibition team, crashes on take-off at Siena, Italy, digging in starboard wingtip before skidding 300 yards across airfield and catching fire. Four killed, four injured, of 21 on board, most escaping before fuel tank ignited. Dramatic photo, distributed worldwide, showed aircraft at almost 90 degree angle from ground with wingtip digging in.


 * 1970 – Israeli Air Force F4 Phantom II fighter bombers carried out a raid on a school in Bahr el-Baqar Sharqia Governorate, Egypt. Of the 130 school children who attended the school, 46 were killed, and over 50 wounded, many of them maimed for life. The school itself was completely demolished, in what is called Bahr el-Baqar massacre.


 * 1968 – BOAC Flight 712, a Boeing 707, suffers an engine fire after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport; the plane makes an emergency landing at Heathrow, but five of 127 aboard die in the resulting fire.


 * 1967 – First flight of the Beagle Pup


 * 1959 – The Italian World War I ace and famed seaplane racing pilot Mario de Bernardi is performing aerobatics in a light plane over a Rome airport when he begins to experience a heart attack. He lands the plane safely, but dies minutes later at the age of 65.


 * 1954 – Construction of Pine Tree defensive line announced.


 * 1954 – South African Airways Flight 201, a de Havilland Comet flying from Rome to Cairo bound for Johannesburg, disintegrates in mid-air, killing all 14 passengers and seven crew; as in BOAC Flight 781, the cause is metal fatigue at stress risers at the corners of the square windows in the aluminum skin; subsequently, all pressurized aircraft windows are constructed with wide radius corners.


 * 1954 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 36 people on the aircraft and 1 person on the ground.


 * 1951 – A Douglas C-47D Skytrain (built as a C-47B-1-DK), 43-48298, c/n 25559, of the 123d Air Base Group, Godman AFB, Kentucky crashes ~eight miles NE of Kanawha Airport, Charleston, West Virginia, when it clips the top of a hill at ~1156 hrs.


 * 1950 – Soviet Lavochkin La-11 shoots down an American PB4Y Privateer over the Baltic Sea with all 10 crew lost.


 * 1946 – A Beechcraft C-45F Expeditor, 44-87062, of the United States Army Air Force crashes into Mount Diablo, California, killing both crew members.


 * 1945 – U.S. Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59442, Zebra 442, of VPB-108, based at Tinian, Northern Marianas Islands, is lost on aircrew search mission over the Pacific Ocean, crew becomes disoriented, ditches at 1800 hrs. Spotted by two PB4Ys on 11 April, crew is rescued from rafts by submarine USS Queenfish on 12 April.


 * 1945 – First prototype Rikugun Ki-93, '1', twin-engine fighter makes only flight from Tachikawa airfield, a successful 20 minute test of its low-speed handling characteristics, piloted by Lt. Moriya of the Koku Shinsa-bu (Air Examination Department) with 2nd Lt. Ikebayashi in the second seat. Unfortunately, pilot undershot the runway and touched down in soft soil, ground-looping airframe and tearing off port undercarriage leg, engine mount, and bending six-blade propeller. Repairs completed in four weeks, but the night before the scheduled second test flight, a B-29 bombing raid on Tachikawa destroyed the hangar housing the airframe.


 * 1944 – Fifth Fisher XP-75 Eagle, 44-32163, out of the Fisher Plant No.2, Cleveland, Ohio, crashes at Cleveland after pilot engaged in low-level aerobatics that reportedly exceeded the placarded limitations. Pilot Hamilton J. Wagner killed.


 * 1943 – 177 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft – 67 Aichi D3 A (Allied reporting name “Val”) dive bombers escorted by 110 Zeroes – conduct the largest Japanese air attack since the attack on Pearl Harbor, targeting U. S. shipping in Ironbottom Sound off Guadalcanal and Tulagi. They sink a U. S. destroyer, a New Zealand corvette, and a U. S. tanker. Seventy-six U. S. fighters intercept the Japanese, losing seven of their number while shooting down 12 Vals and an estimated 27 Zeroes. U. S. Marine Corps Reserve First Lieutenant James E. Swett shoots down seven Japanese aircraft, all Vals, during his flight.


 * 1943 – First flight of the Douglas BTD Destroyer


 * 1940 – The U. S. Navy places a contract with Grumman for two prototypes of the XTBF-1, later named Avenger, a chunky mid-wing monoplane that would become the U. S. Navy’s standard carrier torpedo bomber of World War II.


 * 1931 – Amelia Earhart climbs to a record altitude of 18,415 feet in a Pitcairn autogyro at Willow Grove, near Philadelphia.


 * 1920 – First flight of the de Havilland DH.18


 * 1913 – Lieutenants Rex Chandler and Lewis H. Brereton on training flight from North Island, San Diego, California, in Curtiss F floatplane, Signal Corps 15, with Brereton as pilot, crashes and Chandler is knocked unconscious and drowns.