Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 31

December 31


 * 2012 – EasySky Flight 735,While attempting to land at San Pedro Sula Airport, the aircraft veered off the runway and ran into a ditch about 130 feet off the runway before coming to a stop. There were no serious injuries among the crew of 2 and 17 passengers. The captain received minor injuries. The crew reported a problem with the brakes during roll out just before the aircraft veered off the runway.


 * 2012 – The Kachin Independence Army again claims to be under attack by Myanmar Air Force aircraft.


 * 2012 – Aleppo International Airport is closed due to fighting between Syrian government and rebel forces around the base of the Syrian Army force protecting the airport.


 * 1999 – Fear of the Y2 K computer bug and possible in-flight consequences for those planes flying during the night of December 31, 1999 and the early morning of January 1, 2000, spreads around the airline industry.


 * 1989 – First flight of the Sukhoi Su-30


 * 1985 – Singer-songwriter and actor Ricky Nelson and six others die in the crash of a Douglas DC-3 near DeKalb, Texas.


 * 1972 – Baseball player Roberto Clemente dies when his chartered DC-7 crashes into the ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, immediately after takeoff. Clemente was attempting to deliver relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after a massive earthquake on December 23.


 * 1970 – Jeanne Holm becomes the USAF's first female General


 * 1968 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-144


 * 1968 – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750, a Vickers Viscount, crashes in Australia, killing all 26 people on board.


 * 1967 – The Royal Air Force's V-bomber force begins to be dismantled, pending the deployment of the Polaris missile aboard Royal Navy submarines to act as Britain's nuclear deterrent.


 * 1967 – NASA begins initial talks to develop guidelines for a re-usable space plane.


 * 1958 – First flight of the Boeing C-137 Stratoliner


 * 1956 – A United States Air Force Lockheed C-121C, 54-165, crashed on approach to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia while flying UN troops into the Suez Canal zone. It was also carrying Hungarian refugees back to Charleston AFB, South Carolina. 12 of 38 onboard killed.[citation needed]


 * 1951 – The year-end tally showed that for the first time, total passenger flying miles exceeded that of railroad miles at 10.6 million.


 * 1944 – Entered Service: Grumman F8F Bearcat with the United States Navy


 * 1944 – University Air Training Squadrons were disbanded.


 * 1943 – Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft raid U. S. forces off Arawe, losing four aircraft.


 * 1943 – Since mid-December, when they began staging through Tarawa Atoll, U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators have dropped 601 tons (545,227 kg) of bombs on the Marshall Islands.


 * 1943 – Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai (“Violet Lightning Modified”), Allied reporting name “George”


 * 1942 – (Overnight) Guided by an Oboe-equipped Mosquito, eight Pathfinder Force Avro Lancasters bomb on sky markers suspended by parachute for the first time in a raid on Düsseldorf. Bomber Command previously had employed only ground markers, and the new capability allows British bombers to bomb through ten-tenths cloud cover.


 * 1942 – During 1942, the U. S. Army Air Forces' Eleventh Air Force has destroyed at least 50 Japanese aircraft in the Aleutian Islands campaign in exchange for the loss of 12 aircraft in combat and almost 80 to other causes. Japanese non-combat aircraft losses in the Aleutian Islands have been equally high. Since October 1, Eleventh Air Force aircraft have dropped 500000 lb of bombs on Japanese bases in the Aleutians.


 * 1940 – A Vickers Wellington IA bomber, N2980, R for Robert, of No. 20 OTU, out of RAF Lossiemouth, suffers starboard engine failure at 8,000 feet in a snow storm whilst on a training flight over Great Glen, Scotland. Pilot, Squadron Leader Marlwood-Elton orders crew of six trainee navigators and the tail gunner to bail-out, all escaping safely save the gunner whose chute fails to open. Marlwood-Elton and P/O Slatter (also reported as Slater) then notice a body of water and they successfully ditch in the northern basin of Loch Ness near the A82 road, both escaping before the airframe sinks. Discovered by side-scan sonar in 1976, the rare Wellington is raised on 21 September 1985, and restored at Weybridge where she was built. Now on display at the Brooklands Museum, it is one of only two known intact Wellingtons.


 * 1922 – The first German aircraft flies over Britain since the end of World War I, a Deutsche Luft-Reederei Dornier Komet


 * 1908 – Wilbur Wright wins a prize of FF 20,000 from Michelin for the longest flight of the year – 124 km from Camp d'Auvours.