Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February 25

February 25


 * 2011 – A Brazilian Air Force Super Tucano crashed close to Porto Velho Air Force Base. The pilot, First Lieutenant Marcelino Aparecido Feitosa, ejected. He was rescued by a FAB's UH-60 (Black Hawk). He was talking during the rescue and he was kept under observation at the Army hospital.


 * 2010 – A United States Air Force General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon crashed during landing at Osan Air Base, South Korea. The plane became uncontrollable and the pilot bailed out. The jet was heavily damaged and crashed within Osan's boundaries.


 * 2009 – Turkish Airlines Flight Flight 1951 crashes short of the runway while on approach to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. A faulty altimeter on the Boeing 737-800 (TC-JGE) led to a decrease in the autothrottle to idle. Noticing too late, the crew was unable to recover, and the aircraft broke apart while landing in the mud. Among the 135 people on board, 85 are injured, 9 die, including the two pilots.


 * 2004 – OH-58D(R) Kiowa 97-0124 crashes in Iraq with 4th Squadron, 3d ACR, after striking electrical wires west of Baghdad, killing the two pilots.


 * 1991 – 63 U. S. Army Blackhawk helicopters lift the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) 155 miles (250 km) behind Iraqi ground forces attempting to retreat from Kuwait, cutting them off. This will allow Coalition aircraft and ground forces to annihilate the trapped Iraqi units on Highway 8 between Basra and Baghdad. Iraqi antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Marine Corps AV-8 B Harrier II southeast of Kuwait City, and also claims an American OV-10D Bronco and an American attack helicopter.


 * 1990 – Smoke-free flights become mandatory throughout North America for all US airlines.


 * 1988 – A US Army Boeing-Vertol CH-47D Chinook helicopter, 86-01643, of 2nd Platoon, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, 47th Hospital, 214th Field Artillery Brigade, 3rd Corps, Forces Command (FORSCOM), located at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, crashes outside Chico, Texas, killing 10 soldiers and injuring 8, most with burns. The helicopter caught fire mid-flight due to the failure and disintegration of the number two transmission and driveshaft, and the brave pilots attempted an emergency landing, but the billowing smoke and passenger movements made it impossible. The helicopter hit the ground at 150 mph, breaking apart in a sheet of fire. This was originally the first B-model Chinook, 66-19121, which was converted in 1986 to D-model status.


 * 1986 – A small fleet of American military helicopters evacuates deposed President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos and his entourage from Manila to Clark Air Force Base. The following day, he goes into exile in Hawaii.


 * 1984 – Retired: Republic F-105 Thunderchief


 * 1982 – American Airlines announces it will cancel its orders for 15 Boeing 757s.


 * 1975 – Brig. General Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, flies his final US Air Force sortie.


 * 1971 – Chapin Scott Paterson, an American citizen, hijacked a Seattle-bound US Boeing 747 from San Francisco, to Vancouver; he was turned over to FBI the same day.


 * 1970 – TWA becomes the first airline to fly a “Jumbo Jet” within the US, when it inaugurates a Boeing 747 service between Los Angeles and New York.


 * 1966 – First flight of the Alon A-4


 * 1965 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9


 * 1964 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 304, a Douglas DC-8 flying from New Orleans International Airport to Washington National Airport, crashes into Lake Pontchartrain, killing all 51 passengers and seven crew aboard.


 * 1963 – First flight of the Transall C-160


 * 1962 – In the 1962 Avensa Fairchild F-27 accident, the plane crashes into San Juan mountain on Margarita Island, killing all 23 on board.


 * 1960 – The 1960 Rio de Janeiro air crash was an aerial collision between two aircraft over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the crash, a United States Navy (USN) Douglas R6D-1, BuNo 131582, flying from Buenos Aires - Ezeiza to Galeão International Airport/Galeão Air Force Base collided with a Real Transportes Aéreos Douglas DC-3 registration PP-AXD, which was flying from Campos dos Goytacazes to Rio de Janeiro - Santos Dumont Airport, over Guanabara Bay, close to the Sugarloaf Mountain. Of the 38 occupants of the American aircraft, 3 survived. All 26 passengers and crew of the Brazilian aircraft died.


 * 1958 – United Airlines sets a record commercial Honolulu, Hawaii-to-San Francisco, California, flight time of 5 hours 43 min.


 * 1958 – During joint exercises with the US Navy at Naval Station Mayport, Duval County, Florida, a flight of four Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee fighters performs a formation takeoff but immediately flies into a dense fog bank; the rearmost aircraft, BuNo 126428 of VF-871, drops out of formation and vanishes. The airplane's nosewheel and pilot Lt. Barry Troy's helmet are later found floating in the ocean nearby, but no other signs of the missing aircraft or pilot are ever found.


 * 1945 – First flight of the Bell XP-83


 * 1945 – Carrier aircraft of the U. S. Navy’s Task Force 58 strike targets around Tokyo, but bad weather forces the cancellation of many strikes.


 * 1944 – German guided bombs sink the British destroyer HMS Inglefield off Anzio with heavy loss of life.


 * 1943 – (25-26) German aircraft attack Convoy JW 53 during its voyage from Loch Ewe, Scotland, to Molotovsk in the Soviet Union via the Barents Sea, causing no damage.


 * 1941 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Me 321


 * 1941 – Douglas B-18 Bolo, 36-446, c/n 1747, formerly of the 11th Bomb Group, crashes due to main bearing failure on port engine. The crew was rescued three days later. Since then, the aircraft has been sitting in a gulch on Laupahoehoe Nui LLC property, Hamakua, Hawaii. Acquired by Pacific Aviation Museum, the plan is to recover and restore the aircraft.


 * 1940 – The first RCAF unit, 110 Army Co-op Squadron, arrived in England.


 * 1935 – A Curtiss Y1O-40B Raven, 32-416, of the 1st Observation Squadron, 9th Observation Group, Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York, piloted by Don W. Smith, suffers major damage when it force lands due to engine failure at Floyd Bennett Field, New York City, New York.


 * 1933 – USS Ranger, the US Navy's first ship designed from the outset as an aircraft carrier, is launched.


 * 1932 – Russia’s civil airline changes its name to “Aeroflot” as we know it today.


 * 1930 – Ralph O’Neil lands in Miami on the first mail service of America airline New York, Rio and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) between Buenos Aires and New York after a difficult 6-day flight from Argentina.


 * 1929 – Curtiss XP-6 Hawk (fourth P-2, 25-423, converted with Curtiss V-1570-1 engine), of the 27th Pursuit Squadron, is destroyed in crash at Selfridge Field, Michigan, after structural failure in a spin/stall with only 80 flying hours, killing pilot Andrew D. Knox. This airframe had won the Pursuit Plane Race in the 1927 National Air Races with a speed of 189.608 mph.


 * 1929 – The world’s first major air evacuation comes to an end when Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) flies out the last of 586 civilians from Kabul to the safety to India. The airlift involves nationals of about 20 countries.


 * 1910 – Crew training begins for the Royal Navy’s first rigid airship, HMA No. 1, also known as Mayfly.


 * 1784 – The first balloon flight made in Italy takes place from the grounds of a villa owned by Chevalier Paul Andreani near Milanand uses a modified hot air design built by the brothers Charles and Augustin Gerli.