Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 12

February 12


 * 2013 – A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) airstrike on a village in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, kills 10 civilians.


 * 2012 – A Katanga Express Gulfstream IV crashes while landing at Kavumu Airport at Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing four of the seven people on board and two people on the ground and prompting the Congolese government to suspend Katanga Express's license.


 * 2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, flying from Newark Liberty International in New Jersey to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York crashes into a house in Clarence, New York at 10:17 pm local time; all 49 aboard the plane are killed, with one fatality on the ground.


 * 2004 – Exactly four years and one day after the launch of JetBlue, United Airlines responds to its low cost competitors by creating another airline called Ted.


 * 2002 – An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 hits high ground in the Sefid Kouh mountains during adverse rain, snow and dense fog, while descending for Khorramabad, Iran.


 * 2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.


 * 1991 – Continental unveils their blue and gray paint scheme.


 * 1990 – A USMC pilot died and a reconnaissance observer was hurt when they ejected almost simultaneously from separate aircraft during training missions at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Twentynine Palms, California. Capt. Thomas Kolb, 28, of San Diego, California, was killed after ejecting from his McDonnell-Douglas AV-8B-10 Harrier II, BuNo 163187, c/n 512109/103, from VMA-223, based at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, which crashed in a remote area of range N of Twentynine Palms. Aerial observer Capt. Jeffrey P. Schade, of Southold, New York, ejected from North American OV-10 Bronco, suffering minor injuries. The Bronco landed safely.


 * 1986 – US Navy aircraft carriers commence exercises in the Gulf of Sirte, off the coast of Libya, challenging that country's territorial claims to those waters.


 * 1986 – A USAF General Dynamics F-16A Block 5 Fighting Falcon, 78-0055, flown by a pilot of the 3247th Test Squadron, disappears from Eglin Air Force Base's radar tracking screens at 1230 hrs., crashing in the Gulf of Mexico ~30 miles S of Okaloosa Island, Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The body of the pilot, Capt. Lawrence E. Lee, 31, of Kokomo, Indiana, is retrieved from the water by two rescue jumpers from a Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk at 1350 hrs., said Eglin public affairs officer Lt. Col. Bill Campbell. A parachute is found floating nearby. The pilot is thought to have drowned after ejecting from the fighter. "There were no radio transmissions ... nothing to indicate there were any problems", said Campbell. "We found no wreckage, so we can't be sure at this time what caused the crash. I don't know if we'll ever know for sure." Hypothermia may have been a factor in the pilot's death. The Gulf's water temperature averaged between 55 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit . Lee was performing what was to have been the aircraft's last test flight before it was returned to the Tactical Air Command. The F-16 had been modified for use in weapons tests by Eglin's Armament Division, then restored to its original condition. Campbell stated that he expects the Air Force will try to recover the wreckage to examine it for clues into the accident, although he acknowledged that such a crash "doesn't always leave much evidence." Lee is survived by his wife, Maj. Terri Lee, assigned to Eglin's 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing. A memorial service is held at 1 p.m. on 14 February in Eglin Base Chapel No. 2.The aircraft was later recovered from the Gulf of Mexico where it was inspected to determine the cause of the accident.It was found that While flying over the Gulf of Mexico at approximately 2500 ft and Mach 1.5, Capt Lee was performing 9G wind up turns to stress the aircraft and weapon system. The engine exploded and departed the aircraft through the backbone. Capt. Lee ejected at over Mach 1 breaking both arms causing him to drown.


 * 1985 – First flight of the Aermacchi M-290 RediGO, an Italian turboprop-powered military basic trainer aircraft, originally manufactured by Valmet of Finland as the L-90 TP Redigo.


 * 1981 – Max Anderson and Don Ida make a failed attempt to circumnavigate the world by balloon. Their craft, the Jules Verne only covers 2,900 miles (4,667 km) from Luxor to New Delhi


 * 1979 – Air Rhodesia Flight 827, a scheduled civilian flight between Kariba and Salisbury is shot down by Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army militants using a SA-7 (Strela 2) surface-to-air missile soon after take off in similar circumstances to Flight 825 five month earlier; all 55 passengers and 4 crew are killed.


 * 1969 – The Mil Mi12, the world’s largest helicopter, establishes a number of load-to-height records.


 * 1967 – Operation Pershing begins against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units in Bin Dinh and Quảng Ngãi provinces in South Vietnam; it will last until 968. The U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) takes part alongside other U. S. Army, South Vietnamese Army, and South Korean Army units.


 * 1965 – Death of John Hays Hammond, Jr., American inventor known as “The Father of Radio Control”.


 * 1965 – First hovering for the Dassault Mirage IIIV, VTOL version of the French jet fighter.


 * 1963 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by a Boeing 720 aircraft which broke up in midair and crashed into The Everglades shortly after take-off from Miami International Airport in a severe thunderstorm. The plane was destined to Portland, Oregon, via Chicago, Spokane and Seattle. All 43 people on board perished.


 * 1962 – The wreckage of the Avro Avian 5 ‘Southern Cross Minor’ is discovered in the Algerian desert. The aircraft crashed while piloted by Captain William N. Lancaster, who flew the aircraft from Lympne airfield on 11 April 1933 in an attempt to set a new London to Cape Town record. Lancaster’s body had been mummified, and his diary and personal effects had survived intact.


 * 1961 – Death of Frank Ormond “Mongoose” Soden, Canadian WWI fighter ace who stayed and served in the RAF until the end of WWII.


 * 1961 – Launch of Venera 1, first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union.


 * 1960 – A Delta Air Lines Convair 880 flies from San Diego to Miami and sets a transcontinental speed record of 3 hours 31 min.


 * 1959 – The last Convair B-36 bomber in operational USAF service is retired to Amon Carter Field, where it is put on display; Strategic Air Command is now equipped with an all-jet bomber force.


 * 1957 – 423 Squadron began flying their CF-100 Canucks from St. Hubert, QC to Grostenquin, France in order to join No. 1 Division.


 * 1947 – First flight of the Sikorsky S-52, an American 2 seater utility helicopter, first US helicopter with all-metal rotor blades.


 * 1945 – U. S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29 s bomb Iwo Jima. In this raid and their January 24 and 29 raids, they have dropped a combined total of 367 tons (332,940 kg) of bombs on the island.


 * 1942 – German dive bombers sink the British destroyer HMS Maori at Malta.


 * 1942 – The U. S. Army Air Forces activate the Tenth Air Force for service in China, Burma, and India.


 * 1942 – Nine Canadian squadrens (four bomber, four fighter and one coastal) took part in the chase of three German warships in the “Channel Dash”.


 * 1939 – Spanish Nationalist forces have 600 aircraft, compared to only 40 available on the Republican side.


 * 1935 – The US Navy's last rigid airship, the USS Macon (ZRS-5), loses its upper fin off Point Sur, California, sinks to the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a controlled crash, and is lost, although the inclusion of lifevests on board allows the saving of 81 of 83 crew. It takes with it the four Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawks, BuNos. A-9058/9061 carried aboard for fleet scouting. The airship's remains lie unfound until 1990 when a fisherman brings up a girder. Wreck is subsequently found by manned Navy submersible Sea Cliff.


 * 1928 – Lady Mary Hearth leaves Cape Town in an Avro Avian in an attempt to make the first solo flight by a woman from South Africa to England. She will arrive in Croydon on May 17.


 * 1926 – Death of Arthur Roy ‘Art’ Smith, Early American aviator, aircraft designer who also perfected the art of night time sky writing, WWI Instructor, and Airmail pilot, Killed in a crash on his airmail route in Montpelier, Ohio.


 * 1921 – The U. S. Army Air Service establishes the first in an expending series of airways – routes safely surveyed by the army civilian and commercial users linking towns and cities by air – by leasing land between Washington and Dayton, Ohio to facilitate a stopover.


 * 1917 – German Leutnants Peter and Frohwein, in a DFW CV aircraft, record the first night fighting victories when they shoot down two enemy bombers at Malzeville.


 * 1914 – Igor Sikorsky’s giant four-engined biplane, the Ilya Muromets N°107 flies in Russia with 16 passengers aboard. It is an improved version of last year’s Bolshoi Baltiskii.


 * 1903 – The world’s first successful heavier-than-air aircraft engine, which will power the Wright brothers‘ first airplane in December 1903, runs for the first time in Dayton, Ohio.


 * 1900 – Birth of Risdon MacKenzie Bennett, British WWI flying ace.


 * 1900 – Birth of Ioan Sandu, Romanian WWII flying ace.


 * 1898 – Birth of Paul Marie Raphael Santelli, French WWI Balloon buster.


 * 1898 – Birth of Eberhard Mohnicke, German WWI flying ace.


 * 1879 – Birth of José Luis Sánchez Besa, Aviation Pioneer and seaplane designer from Chile.