Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 11

December 11


 * 2009 – First flight of the Airbus A400M Atlas


 * 2006 – CH-53E Super Stallion 164785 from HMH-465 carrying 21 personnel crashes in Al Anbar Province. The helicopter experienced a brownout killing 1 and injuring 17. Helicopter was written off.


 * 2003 – AH-64D Apache from 1–101st Aviation Regiment crash-lands due to the APU clutch failing and starting a fire in flight and subsequently is burned to the ground 15 mi south of Mosul. The pilots survived.


 * 2000 – The 18th Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165440, of VMMT-204, with only 157.7 flight hours, crashes in a remote wooded area ~10 miles from MCAS New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA, after a leak in a chafed hydraulic line causes an engine to fail and a glitch in the flight control software prevents the pilots from maintaining control of the aircraft; all 4 crew members are killed.


 * 1999 – A SATA International British Aerospace APT crashes on São Jorge Island in the Azores. All 35 people on board die.


 * 1998 – Thai Airways International Flight 261, an Airbus A310, crashes during poor weather near Surat Thani, Thailand. Of the 146 people on board, 102 are killed


 * 1994 – A bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines Flight 434, a Boeing 747, killing one passenger, in a prelude to the terrorist Bojinka plot. Despite subsequent difficulties in controlling the aircraft, the crew succeeds in making an emergency landing at Naha, Okinawa.


 * 1986 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle


 * 1981 – Spacelab 1 arrives at the Kennedy Space Center.


 * 1981 – First flight of the OMAC Laser 300


 * 1978 – 6 masked men bind 10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at John F. Kennedy International Airport, escaping with US$5.8 million in cash & jewellery.


 * 1969 – In the Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijacking, a NAMC YS-11 with 54 on board is hijacked by a North Korean agent and is diverted to North Korea; thirty-nine of the passengers were released in early 1970, but the seven remaining passengers, the crew, and the aircraft (which is written off) are never returned.


 * 1961 – The first American military aircraft are based in Vietnam, as the U. S. Army’s 8th and 57th Transportation Companies (Light Helicopter), arrive at Saigon, South Vietnam. They are equipped with 32 H-21 C Shawnee transport helicopters.


 * 1953 – A USAF Convair B-36D Peacemaker, 44-92071, upgraded from a B-36B-5-CF, crashed into the Franklin Mountains in El Paso, Texas, at 14:37 MST (2137 GMT), during conditions of light snow and low ceilings. The crash report points to pilot error as the primary cause, but confusing instructions from GCA might also have contributed. All eight of the crew were killed: Lt. Col. Herman Gerick, Aircraft Commander; Major George C. Morford, Pilot; Major Douglas P. Miner, Navigator; 1st Lt. Cary B. Fant, Flight Engineer; M Sgt Royal Freeman, Radio Operator; A/1c Edwin D. Howe, Gunner; A/2c Frank Silvestri, Gunner; 1st Lt James M. Harvey, Jr., 492nd Bomb Squadron Staff Flight Engineer. Also killed was a passenger 1st Sgt Dewey Taliaferro.


 * 1949 – North American F-51D-25-NT Mustang, 45-11353, of the 192d Fighter Squadron, Nevada Air National Guard, crashes at Reno Air Force Base, Nevada, during a mock dogfight killing Reno native 1st Lt. Croston K. Stead (19 March 1922 - 11 December 1949)[206] during training mission. Base is subsequently named Stead Air Force Base in January 1951 in his honor


 * 1944 – The sole Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket, BuNo 1442, is written off after a gear-up landing, this date.


 * 1941 – American John Gillespie Magee, Jr., serving with newly formed 412 (Fighter) Squadron, RCAF, activated at RAF Digby, England, on 30 June 1941, is killed at the age of 19 whilst flying Supermarine Spitfire, AD291, 'VZ-H', in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer from RAF Cranwell, flown by Leading Aircraftman Ernest Aubrey. The aircraft collided in cloud cover at about 400 feet (120 m) AGL, at 1130 hrs. over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in Lincolnshire. Magee was descending at the time. At the inquiry afterwards a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open, and died on impact. Magee is buried at Holy Cross, Scopwick Cemetery in Lincolnshire, England.


 * 1941 – The first landing attempt by Japanese pilots is made in their attempted attack on Wake Island in the Battle of Wake Island; it is to become the only failed World War II landing.


 * 1941 – U. S. Navy PBY Catalina flying boats arrive in Natal, Brazil, to begin patrols of the Brazilian coast and the South Atlantic Ocean.


 * 1941 – Four United States Marine Corps Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters on Wake Island play an important role in repelling a Japanese invasion of the island.


 * 1941 – The United States exchanges declarations of war with Germany and Italy.


 * 1937 – Consolidated PB-2A, 35-50, of Headquarters Squadron, 8th Pursuit Group, crashes at Langley Field, Virginia, killing Army Air Corps Major Alfred J. Waller, a distinguished World War I combat pilot. Waller Army Airfield, activated in Trinidad on 1 September 1941, (later Waller Air Force Base), is named in his honor.


 * 1917 – Katherine Stinson flies 606 miles from San Diego to San Francisco, setting a new American non-stop distance record.


 * 1913 – First flight of the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets.