Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/January 16

January 16


 * 2013 – During a domestic flight from Yamaguchi, Japan, to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, All Nippon Airways Flight 692, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, makes an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport in Takamatsu after cockpit warning lights indicate a battery failure and the presence of smoke; one passenger is injured during the evacuation of the plane. Because of this incident and several others in recent days involving fuel leaks, a battery fire, a wiring problem, a glitch in the computer controlling the brakes, and a cracked cockpit window in various Boeing 787s around the world, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines both ground their Dreamliner fleets. Later in the day, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounds all Boeing 787s in the United States.


 * 2013 – An Agusta AW109 helicopter strikes the jib of a construction crane attached to St. George Wharf Tower in Vauxhall, London, England, and crashes in the street below, killing its pilot and one person on the ground and injuring 13 other people.


 * 2010 – UTair Aviation Boeing 737–500 VQ-BAC departed the runway on landing at Vnukovo International Airport and was substantially damaged when the nosewheel collapsed.


 * 2006 – AH-64D Apache 03-5385 from B Company, 1–4th Aviation Regiment shot down north of Baghdad, killing the two pilots.


 * 2003 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 at 15:39:00 UTC. Mission highlights: SPACEHAB; Loss of vehicle and crew before landing at KSC.


 * 2002 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 421, a Boeing 737-300, experiences a dual flameout after entering a thunderstorm, and ditches in the Bengawan Solo River. A flight attendant is the only casualty; 59 passengers and crew survive.


 * 2001 – Death of Constantin Balta, Romanian WWII flying ace, Post War high-ranking officer before entering the Civil Aviation General Authority.


 * 2001 – Shenzhou 2, 2nd Chinese uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft, is back on earth


 * 1991 – Eastern Air Lines is dissolved after 64 years of operation. Many of its remaining assets are parceled out to American and Continental.


 * 1984 – Death of Kenneth A. Arnold, American aviator and businessman. He is best known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported unidentified flying object sighting in the United States, after claiming to have seen nine unusual objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier, Washington


 * 1983 – Turkish Airlines Flight 158, a Boeing 727-2F2, lands about 50 m short of the runway at Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Turkey in driving snow, breaks up and catches fire; 47 passengers are killed, all seven crew and 13 passengers survive the accident with injuries.


 * 1981 – Death of Leo C. Young, American radio engineer who had many accomplishments during a long career at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory. Although self-educated, he was a member of a small, creative team that is generally credited with developing the world's first true radar system.


 * 1980 – British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.


 * 1979 – Death of Squadron Commander Christopher Draper, DSC Croix de guerre, English flying ace of WWI. His penchant for flying under bridges earned him the nickname "the Mad Major. "


 * 1975 – USAF sets new climb-time records with a stripped and unpainted McDonnell Douglas F-15 A Streak Eagle aircraft, operating from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota. The Streak Eagle reaches a height of 3,000 m (9,843 ft.) in 27.57 s., 6,000 m (19,685 ft.) in 39.33 s., 9,000 m (929,528 ft.) in 48.86 s., 12,000 m (39,370 ft.) in 59.38 s. and 15,000 m (42,2132 ft.) in 1 min. 17.02 s


 * 1972 – Death of Reed McKinley Chambers, American WWI flying ace who founded Florida Airways, which received the first private air mail contract awarded by the U. S. Government. He also gounded the US Aircraft Insurance Group, US first aviation insurance company.


 * 1969 – Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 docked, first-ever docking of two crewed spacecraft of any nation, and the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another of any nation.


 * 1965 – U.S. Navy LCDR. Dick Oliver crashes Grumman F-11A Tiger, Blue Angel Number 5, BuNo 141869, doing a dirty roll during practice, but receives minor injuries. The new aircraft 5 became BuNo 141859, which he flies on the European tour. Oliver will be killed in a crash during a performance at Toronto, Canada on 2 September 1966.


 * 1965 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 57-1442, c/n 17513, crashed after an engine failure shortly after take off from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, USA. The fuel laden plane crashed at the intersection of 20th and Piatt in Wichita, Kansas causing a huge fire. 30 were killed, 23 on the ground and the 7 member crew.


 * 1963 – Yvonne Pope becomes the first UK woman airline pilot to fly international routes, flying from Gatwick to Düsseldorf for Morton Air Service


 * 1962 – A South Vietamese Air Force C-47 Skytrain crashes at Pleiku, South Vietnam, killing 33.


 * 1962 – A Strategic Air Command (SAC) Boeing B-47E Stratojet of the 380th Bomb Wing, Plattsburgh AFB, New York, on low-altitude bombing run training mission, is reported overdue at 0700 hrs. Last radio call was at ~0200 hrs. After four day search, wreckage is spotted in the Adirondack High Peaks. Bomber clipped the top of Wright Peak (16th tallest mountain in the Adirondacks, at 4580 feet) after veering 30 miles off course in inclement weather, high winds. Aircraft Commander 1st Lt. Rodney D. Bloomgren, of Jamestown, New York, copilot 1st Lt. Melvin Spencer, navigator 1st Lt. Albert W. Kandetski and observer A1C Kenneth R. Jensen KWF. Pilot, copilot remains found after ~a week, navigator found later. Observer's remains never recovered. A memorial plaque was erected on a rock near the summit by the 380th Bomb Wing.


 * 1957 – Operation Power Flite, USAF mission, five B-52 B aircraft of the 93rd Bombardment Wing of the 15th Air Force took off from Castle Air Force Base in California with two of the planes flying as spares to demonstrate that the USA had the ability to drop a hydrogen bomb anywhere in the world.


 * 1955 – Birth of Jerry Michael Linenger, M. D., M. S. S. M., M. P. H., Ph. D., USN Officer and NASA astronaut.


 * 1952 – Birth of Lloyd Blaine Hammond, Jr.,Gulfstream test pilot, USAF officer, and NASA astronaut


 * 1950 – A new record is set by a 412 Squadron North Star for a flight from Vancouver to Halifax: 8 hours 25 min.


 * 1948 – Birth of Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.


 * 1946 – Birth of Michael Lloyd Coats, USN Pilot, engineer and NASA astronaut,


 * 1945 – Task Force 38 aircraft strike Hong Kong, Hainan, and Canton and sweep the coast of China from the Liuchow Peninsula to Swatow. Hampered by bad weather, they sink two merchant ships and damage four others and destroy 13 Japanese planes in exchange for the loss of 22 U. S. aircraft in combat and five to non-combat causes.


 * 1945 – The new British Pacific Fleet departs Ceylon for Australia.


 * 1945 – (16-20) The U. S. Army Air Forces Fourteenth Air Force destroys over 100 Japanese planes on the ground in and around Shanghai, China.


 * 1945 – U. S. Navy escort carrier support to the Lingayen Gulf landings ends. During 12 days of support, their aircraft have flown 6,152 sorties and claimed 92 Japanese aircraft destroyed in exchange for the loss of two aircraft, both FM Wildcat fighters.


 * 1943 – (Overnight) British bombing accuracy is poor in a raid on Berlin, which is beyond the range of the Gee and Oboe navigation aids. British bomber losses are small.


 * 1942 – TWA Flight 3, a Douglas DC-3 returning to California, crashes into Potosi Mountain 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Las Vegas; all 22 aboard die, including actress Carole Lombard and her mother.


 * 1941 – 60 German dive bombers make a massed attack on the dockyard at Malta in an attempt to destroy the damaged British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, but she receives only one bomb hit. Incessant German and Italian bombing raids will target Malta through March, opposed by only a handful of British fighters.


 * 1936 – Death of James "Jimmy" Armand Meissner, American WWI flying ace who organized the Birmingham Flying Club, nicknamed the "Birmingham Escadrille", which became Alabama's first Air National Guard unit and the 7th in the USA.


 * 1933 – Jean Mermoz and crew make a non-stop flight from Senegal to Argentina, across South Atlantic, in 17 hours 27 min.


 * 1929 – Lady Mary Bailey complete her return flight from Cape Town to London in her de Havilland DH60 Moth.


 * 1926 – Death of Jean Georges Bouyer, French WWI flying ace, in the crash of his Hanriot.


 * 1922 – Death of Alan John Lance Scott, New Zealand WWI flying ace. He has been Winston Churchill's flying instructor.


 * 1920 – The Western Canadian Air Service Association was formed at Calgary, Alberta.


 * 1919 – Maj A. S. C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley arrive in Delhi, completing the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500


 * 1916 – Byron Q. Jones sest a new duration record of 8 hr 53 min in San Diego with a Martin Tractor Biplane.


 * 1913 – Death of Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe, also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, American Civil War aeronaut.


 * 1911 – Birth of Major Floyd Bruce Parks, WWII USMC Pilot.


 * 1910 – Birth of David McCampbell, American WWII fighter pilot, US Navy all-time leading ace.


 * 1900 – Birth of Giovanni Monti, Italian soccer player and aviator.


 * 1894 – Birth of Konrad Mettlich, German WWI flying ace.


 * 1888 – Birth of Alfred William Saunders, Irish WWI fighter ace


 * 1886 – Birth of Reinhold Platz, German aircraft designer and manufacturer in service of the Dutch company Fokker.


 * 1866 – Birth of Percy Sinclair Pilcher, British inventor and pioneer aviator, foremost experimenter in unpowered flight.