Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 17

March 17


 * 2013 – Two inmates at a prison in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, Canada, escape by climbing a rope lowered from a helicopter. They are arrested later the same day.


 * 2011 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 approves a no-fly zone over Libya, authorizing military intervention in the Libyan Civil War.


 * 2007 – UTAir Flight 471 crashes short of the runway in Amara, Russia, while trying to land in poor weather. The Tupolev Tu-134 (RA-65021) hits the ground 1000ft short and rolls onto its back in flames, resulting in the deaths of 6 passengers among the 57 on board. Poor planning and handling of the foggy conditions brings charges of negligence onto the pilots for which the Captain and First Officer received 6 and 2 years respectively.


 * 2005 – A judge has found millionaire Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of conspiracy and murder in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people.


 * 2001 – A SAL Express Beechcraft 1900C (S9-CAE) crashes into a mountain in Angola during heavy rainfall, with only one survivor among the 17 on board.


 * 2000 – AeroPerlas de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter (HP-1267APP) crashes into a hill in Kuna Yala, Panama, killing all 10 on the aircraft while on a flight from Panama City to Puerto Obaldia.


 * 1997 – March 17 – May 28 – Linda Finch, pilot, aviation historian, and San Antonio, Texas businesswoman, flying a restored and specially equipped 62-year-old Lockheed Electra 10E, recreates the 1937 Amelia Earhart flight to circumnavigate the globe solo. Her attempt was successful, taking 73 days. She touched down in Oakland, California.


 * 1996 – A Navy pilot safely ejected from his McDonnell-Douglas T-45A Goshawk, training jet, BuNo 163645, 'B 245', of TW-2,[341] during an emergency landing at Cecil Field Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. The pilot, who was not injured, notified officials that two tires on the jet had blown out during take-off from the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, off Jacksonville. According to officials he had planned to land the aircraft at Cecil Field without the wheels, but ejected after the jet first made contact with the runway. After he ejected, the plane flipped over. The pilot was assigned to Training Squadron 22, of Kingsville, Texas. The squadron was doing routine training flights off the carrier and onto land.


 * 1995 – An Intercontinental de Aviacion McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 (HK-3564X) burns in Barranquilla, Coloumbia. Though the aircraft is completed destroyed in the fire, which begins after a short-circuit in the aft lavatory, all passengers survive.


 * 1994 – Iranian Air Force C-130 shootdown occurred when an Iranian Air Force C-130E military transport aircraft, carrying Iranian embassy personnel from Moscow to Tehran, was shot down by Armenian military forces near the city of Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area which had been under armed conflict since 1988. The 32 people (19 passengers and 13 crew) on board were killed in the crash.


 * 1988 – Avianca Flight 410, a Boeing 727, crashes into terrain near Cúcuta, Colombia after takeoff as a result of pilot error. All 142 people on board die.


 * 1985 – Southwest Airlines began flights between St. Louis and Chicago.


 * 1979 – Aeroflot Flight 1691, a Tupolev Tu-104, crashes near Vnukovo Airport while attempting to make an emergency landing after a fire alarm is reported, killing 58 of 119 on board.


 * 1976 – A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 makes the first non-stop flight from Tokyo to New York, taking 11.5 hours for the 10,139 km (6,300 mile) journey.


 * 1970 – Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320, carrying passengers from Newark to Boston was hijacked around 7:30 P. M. by John J. Divivo who was armed with a .38 caliber revolver. Captain Robert Wilbur Jr., 35, a former Air Force pilot who had only been promoted to captain six months prior, was shot in his arm by the suicidal hijacker. With a .38 slug in his arm and bleeding profusely, he flew his aircraft safely to a landing while talking to the tower, telling them his copilot was shot (but not himself) and needed an ambulance. His copilot, First Officer James Hartley, 31, was shot without warning by Divivo and collapsed. Divivo then turned the gun on the captain, causing his arm injury. Despite being fatally wounded Hartley recovered sufficiently to rip the gun from Divivo’s hand, and shoot the would-be hijacker three times before lapsing into unconsciousness, and eventually death. Although wounded and slumped between the seats, Divivo arose and began clawing at Captain Wilbur, attempting to force a crash. Wilbur hit Divivo over the head with the gun he had retrieved from the center console. The pilot was able to land the plane safely at Logan International Airport, and the hijacker was arrested immediately. On November 1, 1970, DiVivo hanged himself while awaiting trial at Charles Street Jail.


 * 1969 – First flight of the Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama


 * 1966 – First flight of the Bell X-22.


 * 1961 – North American A3J-1 Vigilante, BuNo 146700, c/n NA247-9, crashes over NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. Pilot Lt. Cdr. Grimes ejects safely.


 * 1960 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed L-188 Super Electra en route from Chicago to Miami, Florida, breaks apart at 15,000 feet (4,600 m) and crashes near Tell City, Indiana, killing all 63 on board.


 * 1959 – Introduction: Northrop T-38 Talon


 * 1958 – Air Inter commences operations


 * 1957 – The official plane of the President of the Philippines, a Philippine Air Force C-47A-75-DL Skytrain, 42-100925, c/n 19388, named "Mt. Pinatubo", crashes on the slopes of Mount Manunggal, 35 km (21.9 mls) NW of Cebu, Philippines, at ~0140 hrs. killing Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others. The crash is blamed on metal fatigue - spindle shaft of the starboard engine carburetor snapped causing power loss; one journalist on board survives. See also 1957 Cebu Douglas C-47 crash. This aircraft had been stored at Norton AFB, California from ~ 14 February 1951 prior to going to the Philippine Air Force.


 * 1954 – Test pilot Joe Lynch is killed in the crash of the first North American TF-86F Sabre, 52-5016, when he performed a slow-roll on take-off at Edwards AFB, California.


 * 1950 – AFirst Mikoyan-Gurevich SI, prototype for the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 crashes.


 * 1949 – The Sunkist Lady flies an endurance record of 1,008 hours and 2 min or just a couple of minutes over 42 days. The flight was the duo’s fourth attempt at breaking the 726-hour record set in 1939 by Long Beach pilots Wes Carroll and Clyde Scliepper. Their first three attempts failed because of mechanical problems. The plan was for the Lady to travel from Fullerton to Miami and back. The Lady would then stay aloft over Southern California until the record had been broken. At airports along the route, the ground crew would land, board Willys Jeepsters, and race along the runway while the Sunkist Lady passed low overhead. Three-gallon cans of gasoline and food would then be passed up to the pilots.


 * 1948 – Lt. Roger L. Miller, flying a Marine Corps Vought F4U Corsair, crashes into the sea during dive bombing practice. His body was not recovered. He was the father of Roger L. Miller Jr. and his second son was born the following day. His name was Stephen. He was the husband of Genevieve (Slattery) Miller.


 * 1945 – Following an afternoon attack by two Arado Ar 234B Blitzs of 6./KG76 on the U.S. Army forces crossing the Rhine at Remagen, Uffw. Pohlmann is killed when his Arado, WNr.140180, is destroyed in a crash-landing at Burg following an engine failure.


 * 1947 – Al Soutar was granted the first Canadian commercial helicopter license (Bell 47 B-3, CF-FJA).


 * 1947 – First flight of the North American B-45 Tornado


 * 1947 – Cancelled: Vought XF5U


 * 1937 – Amelia Earhart flies a Lockheed Electra from Oakland, California, to Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii, on the first leg of an attempted circumnavigation of the world, making the flight in 15 hours 47 min.


 * 1936 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley prototype K4586


 * 1936 – Smoking in an airplane’s toilet is as serious an offense as smoking at school. An Imperial Airways passenger, caught red-handed while lighting up against airline regulations in a Handley Page HP.42 en route from Paris to London, is fined £10 in Craydon court, England.


 * 1936 – Ken Mattingly, American astronaut, was born. Rear Admiral, USN (retired) flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4, and STS-51-C missions. He had been scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but was held back due to concerns about a potential illness (which he did not contract).


 * 1935 – German authorities make the color-coding at vital aircraft parts obligatory; red for fire circuit-breakers, green for temperature regulators, yellow for throttles and brown for hydraulic circuits.


 * 1930 – James Irwin, American astronaut, was born (d. 1991). Irwin was a member of the Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and the eighth man to walk on the Moon.


 * 1924 – The four Douglas World Cruisers (DWC) built for the U. S. Army Air Service leave Santa Monica on the first leg of their flight around the world. The DWC was a modified version of the DT-2 torpedo bomber the company had built for the Navy.


 * 1923 – The US government authorizes Army aircraft to drop calcium arsenate on Louisiana's cotton fields in order to kill weevils.


 * 1921 – The first U. S. Marine airman to serve in the Pacific arrives on Guam with responsibility for supporting U. S. land and sea forces in the region. There, 10 pilots and 90 enlisted men operate seaplanes on reconnaissance duty as Flight L, Fourth Squadron, for 10 years.


 * 1920 – Nieuport 28C-1, U.S. Navy BuNo A5794, crashes on turret on takeoff from USS Arizona (BB-39). Obtained from Army after Armistice.


 * 1914 – A new system identified aircraft with one letter indicating aircraft class and a second letter defining aircraft type. Existing aircraft were redesignated alphabetically into the new system, with one exception. Since all landplanes were converted into hydroplanes before the new 1914 system, the AL designation was not assigned.


 * 1911 – U. S. Navy Lt. John Rodgers reports to the Wright Co. at Dayton, Ohio for flying instructions. On March 9, the Wrights had offered to train one Navy pilot if that service bought a Wright flying machine at a cost $5,000. The conditional offer was later replaced by one that provided unconditional free training for one would-be Navy pilot.


 * 1908 – AEA Red Wing is destroyed in a crash on its second flight.