Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 4

August 4


 * 2009 – Bangkok Airways Flight 266, an ATR 72-200 carrying 68 passengers crashes in severe weather on landing at Samui airport in the resort island of Ko Samui in Thailand, resulting in at least 1 confirmed death and 37 injuries.


 * 2007 – NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral, en route to a landing on Mars which would take place on May 25th, 2008.


 * 2007 – A suitcase containing US$800,000 in undeclared cash is discovered while being x-rayed at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, sparking an international rift between Argentina and Venezuela known as “Maletinazo, ” or “the suitcase incident. ”


 * 1992 – An Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, 85-801, "The Perpetrator", goes out of control after take off for a night training mission from Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Pilot Capt. John B. Mills of the 416th Fighter Squadron, ejects safely, suffering only minor cuts. Airframe comes down in sparsely populated area near a trailer park. Investigators believed that an improperly-reinstalled bleed air duct led to control failure.


 * 1973 – First of two prototype Boeing YQM-94A Compass Cope B long-range remotely piloted vehicles (RPV), possibly serial 70-1839, crashed during its second test flight. The USAF decides not to order the Compass Copes into production. Second prototype is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio.


 * 1971 – First flight of the AgustaWestland AW109


 * 1959 – The first medical evacuation by helicopter from a Mobile Army Surgery Hospital (MASH) team takes place when an S-51 helicopter flies out a casualty from a fire flight along the Pusan Perimeter.


 * 1954 – First flight of the English Electric Lightning P.1A.


 * 1952 – Off Korea, the explosion of an aircraft fuel tank causes a fire on the flight deck of the U. S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Boxer (CV-21) which kills nine and injures 30 men and destroys or damages 18 aircraft.


 * 1943 – North American XB-28A-NA, 40-3058, c/n 67-3417, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off California after the crew bails out. Project not proceeded with.


 * 1943 – F/L AA Bishop and crew in a Short Sunderland of No. 423 Squadron sank the German submarine U-489. The Sunderland was shot down; five crew were lost and six saved.


 * 1943 – The U. S. Army Air Forces’ Eleventh Air Force flies 135 sorties against Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, dropping 304,000 pounds (137,893 kg) of bombs.


 * 1943 – German aircraft again attack the harbor at Palermo, damaging the American destroyer USS Shubrick (DD-639).


 * 1929 – 4-16 – The first International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1929 in Paris, with 5,942 km race over Europe, won by the German crew of Fritz Morzik on the BFW M.23 plane.


 * 1924 – The attempt of the Royal Air Force team of MacLaren, Plenderleith, and Andrews to circumnavigate the world eastbound ends when they are forced down in the Bering Sea by fog and their Vickers Vulture amphibian is irreparably damaged. They taxi to safety at Bering Island in the Commander Islands. They had covered 13,100 miles (21,095 km) in 130 days.


 * 1914 – The United Kingdom enters World War I, declaring war on Germany.


 * 1908 – Wilbur Wright makes the first flight using stick controls near Le Mans, France. The flight lasts 1 min and 45 seconds.


 * 1908 – Count von Zeppelin takes the LZ4 on a 24-hour flight from Lake Constance, down the Rhine to Basel, then to Strasbourg and Mainz and back to Stuttgart, a total non-stop distance of 435 miles.


 * 1901 – Octave Chanute arrives at the Wright brothers’ camp at Kill Devil Hill and photographs their flight tests with the 1901 glider.


 * 1807 – Andre-Jacques Garnerin in Paris, France makes the first night ascent in a balloon.