Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 9

December 9


 * 2012 – An American unmanned aerial vehicle fires a missile into a house in Tabbi in North Waziristan, Pakistan, killing the al-Qaeda commander Mohammad Ahmed al-Mansoor.


 * 2012 – Ten minutes after takeoff, during a domestic flight in Mexico from Monterrey to Toluca, Learjet 25 N345MC, carrying Mexican-American singer and reality television star Jenni Rivera and six other people, loses contact with air traffic controllers, enters a rapid descent from 35,000 feet (10,688 m) to 9,000 feet (2,743 m), and crashes in a remote, mountainous area in Nuevo León near Iturbide, killing everyone on board.


 * 2006 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discoverys STS-116 at 01:47:35 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 12A.1: P5 Truss & Spacehab-SM, crew rotation.


 * 2005 – The Venus Express, the first exploration mission of the European Space Agency, launched from Kazakhstan. It arrived on Venus the following April, and is funded to continue to send back data until December of 2012.


 * 2004 – The U. S. Army issues a request for proposals (RFP) for the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH).


 * 2004 – AH-64A Apache 91-0012 from A Company, 1–151st Aviation Regiment hit a UH-60L Black Hawk 82-23668 from N Company/4-278th ACR on the ground at a Mosul base, killing the two Apache pilots and wounding four soldiers on board the Black Hawk. Both helicopters destroyed


 * 2003 – Two Belgian Air Force F-16A collide near Havelange. One pilot ejects safely, the other is killed.


 * 2002 – United Airlines files for Chapter 11 reorganization, the largest airline bankruptcy in US history.


 * 2002 – First flight of the Diamond DA42


 * 1999 – TAESA Flight 725, a DC-9 (registered XA-TKN), crashed a few minutes after leaving the Uruapan airport en route to Mexico City, killing all 18 on board. It was determined that the pilots had not completed the proper checklist prior to departure and became disoriented, raising the nose to a high attitude on takeoff. This caused a stall from which they were unable to recover.


 * 1999 – During a "Fast Rope" training exercise, a Boeing-Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter of HMM-166 departs the USS Bonhomme Richard and approaches the fantail landing pad of the USNS Pecos, cruising ~15 miles (24 km) WSW of Point Loma, California at 1316 hrs. The port rear landing gear leg of the helicopter snags a safety net on the deck edge and the chopper tips backwards into the Pacific, sinking within five seconds. Eleven of 18 on board escape and are picked up by Navy SEALS following the USNS Pecos in zodiac boats. The bodies of six U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy corpsman, from the 1st Force Recon, 5th Platoon, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Pendleton, California, are recovered from a depth of 3,600 feet.


 * 1999 – The last Classic 737 is rolled off the Renton, Wash., assembly line, ending a production run of 1,988 airplanes.


 * 1988 – First flight of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen


 * 1983 – Delta Air Lines receives the 1,000th production Boeing 737 at Boeing's headquarters.


 * 1982 – Aeronor Flight 304, a Fairchild F-27, crashes near La Florida Airport, Chile; all 46 on board are killed.


 * 1970 – Artem Mikoyan dies, aged 65


 * 1967 – Launch of the Apollo 4 mission, an unmanned Saturn V, the largest launch vehicle ever to fly successfully.


 * 1961 – USAF Major Robert M White takes the X-15 to a height of 30970 m.


 * 1958 – B-52E-85-BO Stratofortress, 56-0633, c/n 17316, of the 11th Bomb Wing, crashes near Altus AFB, Oklahoma, due to improper use of stabilizer trim during an overshoot. Returning from a routine night training mission, aircraft makes a GCA approach, requests climb to altitude for another penetration, experiences stab trim problems, crashes ~four miles from base at 2345 hrs. Pilot Major Byard F. Baker, 39, of Azle, Texas, ejects; eight other crew die.


 * 1958 – U.S. Army Major General Bogardus Snowden "Bugs" Cairns was killed instantly when his Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter crashed minutes after takeoff in dense woods northwest of Fort Rucker, Alabama headquarters. He was en route to Matteson Range to observe a firepower rehearsal in preparation for a full-scale armed helicopter display. He was commander of the Aviation Center and Commandant of the Aviation School. Ozark Army Airfield at Fort Rucker was subsequently renamed Cairns Army Airfield in his honor in January 1959. H-13 was taking off from field site when it hit a wire extended between two tents causing pilot to lose control and fly into trees.


 * 1957 – Introduced: Lockheed C-130 Hercules.


 * 1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board; the wreckage is located several months later. Aboard were four members of the Canadian Football League Saskatchewan Roughriders, and former Iowa Hawkeye Outland Trophy winner Cal Jones.


 * 1955 – A USAF Republic F-84F-45-RE Thunderstreak, 52–6692, based at RAF Sculthorpe, suffers flame-out and after several failed attempts at a relight, the pilot, Lt. Roy G. Evans, 24, ejects at 3,500 feet. The fighter comes down on the Lodge Moor Infectious Diseases Hospital on the outskirts of Sheffield at 1700 hrs., striking two wards, killing one patient, Mrs. Elsie Murdock, 46, of South Road, Sheffield, and injuring seven others. Fires are under control by 1930 hrs.


 * 1951 – First flight of the Fiat G.80, Italy's first true jet.


 * 1944 – No. 664 (air observation post) Squadron was formed at Andover, England. The flying personnel came from the Royal Canadian Artillery and other personnel from the RCAF.


 * 1942 – (9 – 18) U. S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses conduct the first major air strike against the Japanese airfield at Munda Point on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. Air strikes against the airfield become routine thereafter.


 * 1940 – No. 2 Squadron was formed at Digby, Lincolnshire, England on the renumbering of No. 112 (AC) Squadron.


 * 1937 – PO3/c Kanichi Kashimura, of the 13th Air Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, downs a Curtiss Hawk Model 75 over Nanchang, China during combat in a Mitsubishi A5M, '4-115', then collides with another aircraft (an unknown type that could have been either Chinese or Japanese), tearing off the outer third of his port wing. Through skillful piloting, he brings damaged aircraft back to base at Shanghai, China, and makes four landing attempts. On final approach, the fighter violently somersaults onto its back upon ground contact, tearing off its tail, but pilot walks away unscathed. Local news reporters dispatch the story back to Japan where Kashimura gains instant fame as "the pilot who returned on one wing."


 * 1937 – (9 & 22) Air battles take place between Imperial Japanese Navy and Nationalist Chinese aircraft over Nanchang on December 9 and December 22, during which the Japanese claim the destruction of 29 Chinese aircraft in the air and 25 on the ground.


 * 1936 – A KLM Douglas DC-2 crashes on takeoff from Croydon Airport; 15 of 17 on board die.


 * 1932 – Wolfgang von Gronau and crew in a Dornier Wal complete the first flight around the world by a seaplane. Their flight takes a mere 111 days.


 * 1930 – First airline flight from New York to Panama.


 * 1925 – The 111th Observation Squadron, Texas National Guard, suffers its first casualties when Capt. Emil Wagner and Lt. Luke McLaughlin put a Curtiss JN-6H, 38105, into a steep dive whereupon the port wing collapses and the airframe plummets to the ground at Ellington Field, Texas. Both crew survive the impact but die later in a Houston hospital.


 * 1909 – American Dr. Henry W. Walden makes the first flight with his triplane known as the Walden III. It is powered by a three-cylinder, 22-HP Anzani engine and takes off from Mineola, Long Island, N. Y.


 * 1904 – The Wright brothers discontinued trials with Flyer II after completing 105 tests and 80 brief flights since they began flying the new machine in May. Wilbur Wright flies for five minutes, four seconds over Huffman Prairie, Ohio, flying just under 3 miles.