Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 3

August 3


 * 2011 – The International Federation of Journalists condemns the 30 July NATO bombing of the Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation in an attempt to knock Libyan state television off the air, allegedly killing three journalists and wounding another 15.


 * 2010 – Katekavia Flight 9357, an Antonov An-24 crashes on approach to Igarka Airport, Russia, killing twelve people.


 * 2009 – Saha Air Lines Flight 124, a Boeing 707-3 J9 C, registration EP-SHK, suffers engine fires in both port engines shortly after take-off from Ahwaz Airport, Iran. The fires are extinguished and a successful two-engine emergency landing is made back at the airport. The aircraft is substantially damaged.


 * 2007 – First flight of the Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye


 * 2000 – First flight of the Boeing 737-900


 * 1995 – (Aug 3, 1995 – Aug Ai 16, 1996) Airstan incident was a 1995 international incident involving Russia and the Taliban of Afghanistan. Taliban-controlled planes hijacked a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 plane with seven Russian nationals on board to land not at their Kabul destination but at Taliban-occupied Kandahar. The men were held prisoner for one year before being able to overpower their captors. After restarting their plane they were able to fly to freedom.


 * 1994 – First Jordanian plane to fly over Israeli airspace (King Hussein pilot).


 * 1989 – Olympic Aviation Flight 545, a Shorts 330-220, crashes into Mount Kerkis in Greece. All 34 passengers and crew on board are killed.


 * 1984 – Terrorists set off a bomb at Madras Airport (MAA), killing 32 people.


 * 1981 – In the United States, Air traffic controllers affiliated with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walk off the job. President Ronald Reagan ultimately responds on August 5th, by firing those who ignore his order to return to work.


 * 1975 – The Agadir air disaster: an Air Maroc-operated Boeing 707 owned by Royal Jordanian Airlines crashes while on approach to Agadir, Morocco due to pilot error; all 188 on board die in the worst ever accident involving the Boeing 707.


 * 1967 – A USAF de Havilland Canada C-7B Caribou, 62-4161, c/n 99, 'KE' tailcode, of the 459th TAS, 483d TAW, plunges to earth minus its tail from low altitude after being hit by US 155 mm artillery "friendly fire" on approach to Duc Pho Special Forces camp, Vietnam. Three crew killed, pilot Capt. Alan Eugene Hendrickson, co-pilot John Dudley Wiley, and loadmaster TSgt. Zane Aubry Carter. Dramatic photo of plunging aircraft taken by Japanese combat photographer Hiromichi Mine, who was himself killed in the line of duty 5 March 1968 from injuries suffered from a landmine.


 * 1966 – The U. S. Navy ends aircraft carrier deployments to Dixie Station off South Vietnam.


 * 1961 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Lancaster aircraft photographed the largest non-nuclear explosion ever conducted at the time, at Suffield Experimental Station in Alberta.


 * 1955 – President Eisenhower signs the Civilian Airport Modernization Bill. The legislation establishes a long-term program of federal government aid toward the construction of airports in the United States.


 * 1954 – First flight of the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig (free flight).


 * 1950 – United States Marine Corps air operations over Korea commence, with VMF-214 flying strike missions from USS Sicily


 * 1947 – A Tushino air parade in Moscow, USSR, presents the newest Soviet jets including among others: Yak-19, La-150, La-156, La-160, Su-9, Su-11.


 * 1945 – First flight of the Kyushu J7W


 * 1940 – Seaplane Clare makes first British passenger flight to the US.


 * 1930 – The Imperial Japanese Navy practices dive bombing for the first time, using fighters to sink the retired protected cruiser Akashi with 4-kg (8.8-lb) practice bombs in Tokyo Bay.


 * 1926 – The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) began operations with Canadian Vickers Vedette flying boats, with a base at Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba.


 * 1921 – Lieutenant John A. Macready of the U. S. Army Air Corps finds a new use for airplanes when he sprays a patch of ground infested with caterpillars. This practice becomes known as crop dusting.


 * 1914 – France and Belgium enter World War I when Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France.


 * 1914 – The Imperial German Navy leases the cargo-passenger ship Answald for conversion into Germany’s first seaplane carrier, SMS Answald, designated Flugzeugmutterschiff I (Airplane Mothership I).


 * 1909 – The Silver Dart, Canada’s first aircraft, crash landed at Petawawa, Ontario.


 * 1904 – In a dirigible named California Arrow, Major Thomas Scott Baldwin carries out the first circular flight by an airship in America at Oakland, California. Powered by a converted motorcycle engine, it is built and dispatched by Glenn Curtiss.


 * 1861 – John La Mountain becomes the first balloonist to use boats for aerial operations in a military conflict. Using the Union tug Fanny, he ascends from its deck to a height of 2,000 ft. to conduct aerial reconnaissance of Confederate forces during America’s Civil War.