Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 20

20 February


 * 2011 – Death of Barbara Harmer, British airliner pilot, first qualified female Concorde pilot.


 * 2009 – Aerolift Flight 1015, an Antonov AN-12, registration S9-SVN, crashes shortly after take-off from Luxor International Airport, Egypt, killing all five crew. The aircraft is destroyed.


 * 2009 – 2 Tamil Tigers aircraft (Zlín Z 143 – single engine, low-winged monoplane, mainly used for training purposes) packed with C4 explosives en route to the national airforce headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in a kamikaze style attack.


 * 2008 – Two McDonnell-Douglas F-15C Eagles of the 58th Fighter Squadron, 33d Fighter Wing, Eglin AFB, Florida, collide over the Gulf of Mexico ~50 miles (80 km) S of Tyndall AFB, Florida, killing 1st Lt. Ali Jivanjee. Capt. Tucker Hamilton ejected from the other fighter and survived. Airframes involved were F-15C-26-MC, 79-0075, c/n 0624/C144, and F-15C-32-MC, 81-0043, c/n 0793/C226. Both pilots ejected and one was rescued from the Gulf by the fishing boat Niña, owned by Bart Niquet of Lynn Haven, Florida, which was guided to the pilot by an HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircraft. A 1st SOW AC-130H and an MV-22 Osprey were also diverted to the scene to help search as were five Coast Guard aircraft and two vessels. An HH-60 Jayhawk from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile lifted the pilot from the fishing boat and evacuated him to the Eglin Hospital. The second pilot was rescued from the Gulf by an HH-60 Jayhawk from CGAS Clearwater and also taken to the Eglin Hospital. One pilot subsequently died several hours later from his injuries. An accident investigation released 25 August 2008 found that the accident was the result of pilot error and not mechanical failure. Both pilots failed to clear their flight paths and anticipate their impending high-aspect, midair impact, according to Brig. Gen. Joseph Reynes, Jr., Air Combat Command's inspector general who led the investigation. This was the first crash involving an Eglin F-15 since a fatal crash on 30 April 2002.


 * 2005 – British Airways Flight 268, a Boeing 747-400, taking off from Los Angeles to London suffers fire in engine 2. The plane flies on three engines to Manchester, where it performs an emergency landing. None of the people on board are harmed.


 * 2003 – A Pakistan Air Force Fokker F-27-200, 10254, of 12 Squadron, crashes near Kohat, Pakistan when it strikes a ridge at the 3,000-foot (910 m) level (915 m) AMSL, obscured by clouds. All 17 people on board died, including Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir. PAF spokespersons said on 22 May that pilot error was to blame.


 * 1998 – TWA retires the last of its Boeing 747 “jumbo jets” The newer and more efficient Boeing 767 is now the airline’s main intercontinental aircraft.


 * 1996 – Death of Jeffrey Kindersley Quill OBE AFC FRAeS, British WWII RAF officer, RNVR officer and Test pilot. He test-flew every mark of Spitfire.


 * 1992 – Seventy-six passengers fall ill and one dies after consuming contaminated shrimp served on board Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 386, leading to improvements in aircraft disinfection procedures.


 * 1991 – Petty Officer J. D. Bridges is sucked into the port intake of a Grumman A-6 Intruder in a 0341.11 hrs. flight deck accident on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt as the attack jet powers up to move onto the catapult. He is saved when the pilot hears the crewman's helmet and safety goggles ingest into the engine and shuts down immediately. Bridges, who was caught momentarily in the intake, is saved by the pilot's quick reaction and is able to crawl out suffering various minor injuries. The US Navy now uses film of this incident as a training tool and revised deck procedures to avoid a recurrence.


 * 1989 – Lockheed C-141B Starlifter, 66-0150, c/n 300-6176, of the 63rd MAW, Norton AFB, California, crashed in stormy weather four miles N of Hurlburt Field, Florida while trying to land, killing seven crew and one military retiree. The plane's crewmen were identified as Capt. Mark J. Chambers, 30; Capt. John F. Young, 30; Master Sgt. Robert E. Wright Jr., 37; Tech. Sgt. Ronald D. Grubbs, 29; Staff Sgt. Karl M. Kohler, 32; Airman 1st Class Scott D. Craig, 22; Staff Sgt. John W. Remerscheid, 33. Remerscheid was assigned to the 14th Military Airlift Squadron at Norton. The others were assigned to the 52nd Military Airlift Squadron. The eighth man on board was identified by Hurlburt Field spokeswoman as retired Air Force Capt. John G. Galvin of Jacksonville, Florida.


 * 1986 – Launch: Mir, Soviet (later Russian) space station, first modular space station.


 * 1981 – A Bell UH-1 of the Royal Thai Army crashed in southern Thailand, all 11 on board killed.


 * 1981 – An Indian Army Cheetah helicopter collided with a HAL Pushpak near Patiala airfield in India. Four crew killed (two in each aircraft) and a woman on the ground.


 * 1977 – Death of Cristoffel Johannes “Boetie” Venter, South African WWI fighter ace, Director-General of the SAAF durin WWI and later, director of South African Airways.


 * 1975 – U. S. Air Force Major R. Smith sets a new world absolute time-to-height speed record, flying a McDonnell Douglas F-15 A Eagle to 30,000 m (98,425 feet) in 207.80 seconds.


 * 1972 – A USAF Lockheed HC-130 H Hercules piloted by a crew commanded by Lt. Comdr. Ed Allison sets a new world record for unrefuelled flight by turboprop aircraft. It flies a distance of 14,052.94 km (8,732.5 mi.) between the Taiwanese base of Ching Chuan Kang AB and Scott AFB, Illinois.


 * 1972 – Birth of Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov, Russian air force pilot and cosmonaut.


 * 1971 – Last round-the-world flight for the CC-106 Yukon departed Trenton in support of Canadian Outposts. It returned to Trenton after 17 days having logged 91.5 hours in the air.


 * 1968 – A standard Learjet 25 sets a new “time-to-climb” record by climbing to 40,000 feet in 6 min 29 seconds.


 * 1967 – Death of Cecil Guelph Brock, Canadian WWI flying ace who participated at the dogfight which conducted to Manfred Von Richtofen’s death.


 * 1965 – Ranger 8 crashes on the moon. The spacecraft was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact.


 * 1963 – Austrian Airlines receives the first of five Sud-Aviation SE.210-VIR Caravelles, their first jet aircraft.


 * 1963 – Death of Harold Koch Boysen, American WWI flying ace.


 * 1962 – Piedmont retires the last of its DC-3 aircraft on the 15th anniversary of its first scheduled flight.


 * 1959 – The Canadian government cancels the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow.


 * 1958 – Death of Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft KCB, CMG, DSO, AFC, Britsh WWI pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps who went on to become a senior commander in the Royal Air Force.


 * 1958 – Introduction: Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.


 * 1957 – First Fiat G.91 prototype, NC.1, suffers serious problem was the elimination of aeroelastic vibrations, leads to its destruction on this date in a high-speed run at low altitude over Cavour, near Turin, Italy. Test pilot Riccardo Bignamini ejected successfully in a Martin-Baker seat. Although NC.1 was completely destroyed, all the recording equipment which Fiat had installed was salvaged from the crash site. The re-engineering work to cure the problem was very extensive and resulted in the second prototype being fitted with a larger tail, a 6 cm (2 in) higher canopy, a ventral fin and some other modifications.


 * 1954 – Birth of Vasily Vasiliyevich Tsibliyev, Ukrainian-Russian cosmonaut.


 * 1949 – Birth of Vladimir Yevgeniyevich Turovets, Russian test pilot.


 * 1945 – 25 German Junkers Ju 88 s attack Convoy RA 64 with torpedoes as it steams from the Kola Inlet to the River Clyde. Wildcats from the British aircraft carriers HMS Campania and HMS Nairana shoot down at least three of them.


 * 1945 – (Overnight) – 13 Japanese air raids strike at U. S. Fifth Fleet ships off Iwo Jima.


 * 1944 – The “Big Week” begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.


 * 1943 – Birth of Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov, Soviet cosmonaut.


 * 1942 – Flight to Arras (French: Pilote de guerre), memoir by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is published in the USA. It recounts his role in the French air force as pilot of a reconnaissance plane during the Battle of France in 1940.


 * 1942 – The first combat between carrier-type aircraft of the Japanese and U. S. navies takes place between Rabaul-based Japanese aircraft and fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) north of the Solomon Islands. The Americans lose two planes and one pilot, but claim to have shot down most of the 18 Japanese attackers; Lieutenant Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare shoots down five bombers to become the second U. S. Navy ace in history and the first in World War II.


 * 1941 – Death of Alfredo Fusco, Italian WWI & WWII pilot, Killed in action in his Fiat G.50 “Freccia” aver Albania.


 * 1941 – Death of Athos Ammannato, Italian WWII bomber pilot, missing in action over the Mediterranean sea.


 * 1940 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-4, a Soviet twin engine light bomber.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Douglas DC-5, the least known of the famous DC airliner series, 16-22 seat, twin-propeller aircraft intended for shorter routes than the DC-3 or DC-4.


 * 1939 – A squadron of twelve U.S. Navy aircraft, types not identified, but described as "fast combat ships", returning to NAS Pensacola, Florida, from a routine training trip on a Monday night, find the Gulf Coast socked in by a fog described as one of the heaviest ever witnessed in the region, and eight planes are lost with two pilots killed. Three aircraft piloted by instructors, and one other plane, are diverted by radio and outrun the fogbank to land safely at Atmore and Greenville, Alabama. "Six of the Navy's flying students bailed out in the darkness and reached ground safely in their first parachute jumps. Their planes were wrecked beyond repair. Lt. G. F. Presser, Brazilian Navy flyer, in training at the Naval Air Station, crashed and was killed at Corry Field. His plane burned. The fog was so dense that the intense glow of the burning plane could not be seen by attendants on the field. Lt. N. M. Ostergren, U. S. Navy, was found dead at his crashed plane near McDavid the next morning. Both men were married. Officers said the wreckage of the eight planes - they declined to estimate their worth, but aviation circles here said the fast combat ships would cost from $18,000 to $20,000 each - was the air station's second heaviest loss. In 1926 a hurricane wrecked planes on the ground, hangars and other equipment for a total damage of about $1,000,000."


 * 1924 – Three French Army officers make the first two-way aerial crossing of the Sahara Desert in a Breguet 14.


 * 1921 – Birth of Joseph Albert “Joe” Walker, American NASA test pilot and Astronaut.


 * 1919 – Birth of Squadron Leader James Joseph “Orange” O’Meara DSO, DFC & Bar, British Battle of Britain Spitfire Ace.


 * 1918 – Death of Wolfgang Güttler, German WWI flying ace colliding with another pilot of his squadron.


 * 1916 – During the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, Allan Loughead is allowed to launch an air service and flies 600 passengers across the bay during 50 days. The 10-minute flight costs $10 per passenger.


 * 1912 – Birth of John “Johnny” Milne Checketts, New Zealand WWII fighter ace, responsible for introducing the de Havilland Vampire to form the RNZAF’s first jet squadron.


 * 1908 – Birth of Grigorij Jakowlewicz Bachcziwandzé (Baratchivadzi), Soviet WWII flying ace.


 * 1892] – Birth of Paul Montange, French WWI flying ace.


 * 1888 – Birth of Benjamin Thomas ‘Ben’ Epps, American aviation pioneer and aircraft designer.


 * 1888 – Birth of Fred Parkinson Holliday, Australian WWI fighter ace who also served with Canada in WWII.


 * 1875 – Birth of Marie Marvingt, French athlete, mountaineer, and aviator, and the most decorated woman in the history of France. First woman to fly combat missions as a bomber pilot during WWI, a qualified surgical nurse, first trained and certified Flight Nurse in the world. She worked for the establishment of air ambulance services throughout the world.