Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 16

December 16


 * 2009 – Scotland’s largest airline Flyglobespan enters administration and ceases all flights.


 * 2009 – Pakistan Air Force Dassault Mirage III fighter aircraft crashed during a training mission due to a technical fault. The pilot managed to eject safely, landing in the Durrab Lake, (Kallar Kahar) and was rescued by a boat.


 * 2006 – A Mexican Air Force Antonov An-32, 3103, of 3 Grupo Aero/EATP 301, crashes into the sea off the coast of Mexico, near Acapulco. The four crew members on board are killed.


 * 1997 – Air Canada Flight 646, a Bombardier CRJ200, crashes after a failed go-around attempt in Fredericton, New Brunswick. All passengers and crew survive.


 * 1994 – First flight of the Antonov An-70.


 * 1985 – McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, 84-0042, of the 3246th Test Wing, Armament Development and Test Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico, 53 miles SE of Eglin. The Armament Division commander, Col. Timothy F. O'Keefe, Jr., and Maj. Eugene F. Arnold, an instructor pilot with the 40th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin, eject safely.


 * 1982 – A United States Air Force Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crashed after take-off from Mather Air Force Base, nine killed.


 * 1980 – Douglas Campbell (aviator), American pilot dies (b. 1896). Campbell was an American aviator and World War I flying ace. He was the first American aviator flying in an American unit to achieve the status of ace.


 * 1979 – The British Airways Concorde lands in London after flying from New York in less than three hours (2 hours 58 min) at an average speed of 1172 mph.


 * 1969 – U.S. Navy Vought F-8 Crusader, BuNo 145611, of Detachment 19, VFP-63, crashes into the Gulf of Tonkin ~60 mi E of Đồng Hới, killing pilot Lt. Victor Patrick Buckley, of Falls Church, Virginia, while returning to the USS Hancock from a photographic reconnaissance mission. Cause of loss thought to be accidental.


 * 1960 – The 1960 New York air disaster: United Airlines Flight 826, a Douglas DC-8, and TWA Flight 266, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, collide in mid-air over Staten Island in New York; all 128 aboard the two planes and six people on the ground are killed. This was the first crash in which a flight recorder was used to provide details in a crash investigation.


 * 1958 – Convair B-58 Hustler, 58-1008, c/n 15, accepted and delivered to the 6592nd Test Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing, for pod and suitability testing during October: 1958. Crashed this date, the first Convair B-58 Hustler accident, 70 km NNE of Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, due to loss of control during normal flight when auto trim and ratio changer were rendered inoperative due to an electrical system failure. Air Force pilot Maj. Richard Smith killed; AF Nav/bombardier Lt. Col. George Gradel, AF DSO Capt. Daniel Holland, both survive.


 * 1957 – First flight of the Antonov An-12.


 * 1955 – Republic F-105 Thunderchief, 54-0098, the first prototype, crash lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Republic test pilot Russell M. "Rusty" Roth was forced to make an emergency landing after the right main landing gear had been torn away after having been inadvertently extended during high speed flight. Pilot uninjured. Although the airframe was returned to the factory, it was deemed too costly to repair.


 * 1948 – The Royal Australian Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, HMAS Sydney (R17).


 * 1945 – Second of two prototypes of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, 43-50225, on routine flight out of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., suffers in short order, a landing gear extension problem, failure of the port engine, and as coolant temperatures rose, failure of starboard engine. Maj. Hayduck bails out at 1200 ft, Lt. Col. Haney at 800 ft, and pilot Lt. Col. (later Major General) Fred J. Ascani, after crawling aft to jettison pusher propellers, at 400 ft - all three survive. Aircraft impacts at Oxen Hill, Maryland. Secret jettison-able props caused a problem for authorities in explaining what witnesses on ground thought was the aircraft exploding. Possible fuel management problem speculated, but no proof.


 * 1943 – (16-17) – Almost continuous unopposed Japanese air attacks on the landing force at Arawe damage and destroy various U. S. landing craft and small craft.


 * 1940 – (Overnight) For the first time, Royal Air Force Bomber Command conducts a raid focusing on attacking a city center rather than specific targets in Operation Rachel, a raid by 134 British bombers against Mannheim, Germany, in reprisal for the German raid on Coventry in November. Their bombs are dispersed widely, killing 34 people in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.


 * 1932 – During a routine practice flight, Capt. J. L. Grisham flying Fokker Y1O-27, 31-599, '2', of the 30th Bombardment Squadron, is unable to get the port main undercarriage leg to extend more than one-quarter down, makes emergency landing in San Diego Bay off of NAS San Diego, California. He and Sgt. Clarence J. King survive, aircraft salvaged, repaired and returned to service.


 * 1929 – First flight of the R100


 * 1929 – Tydeo Larre Borges is the first South American pilot to cross the South Atlantic Ocean.


 * 1921 – USS Wright (AV-1) is commissioned as the United States Navy’s first and only balloon ship. She is the only U. S. Navy ship ever to bear the “AZ” designation for “lighter-than-air craft tender. ”


 * 1919 – Construction of the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō begins. She is the second aircraft carrier in the world designed and built as such to be laid down, and will be the first to be completed.


 * 1914 – SMS Glyndwr is the first Imperial German Navy aviation ship to be commissioned. She serves initially as a seaplane pilot training ship.