Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 31

March 31


 * 2011 – The United States turns over command of coalition operations in Libya to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).


 * 2011 – Coalition aircraft strike an eastern suburb of Tripoli, Libya, and attack Libyan government forces in Brega during the Third Battle of Brega.


 * 2010 – A Grumman E-2 Hawkeye aircraft of the United States Navy from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 121 crashed at approximately 1400 hrs. local time in Arabian Sea. It was returning to its ship, the USS Eisenhower, after conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom when it experienced mechanical malfunctions and the crew performed a controlled bailout. The pilot was killed. Navy 5th Fleet officials declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, but the Naval Safety Center’s Web site listed it as “an engine oil leak.”


 * 2009 – A Polish Air Force PZL M28 (Antonov An-28TD Bryza 1TD) crashes into trees on final approach to an airfield near Gdynia, Poland. The aircraft was a routine training flight simulating landing on one engine resulting to 4 crew fatalities.


 * 2008 – Aloha Airlines ceased operations because due to declaring bankruptcy and gave all flights to Aloha Air Cargo.


 * 2005 – An Lockheed MC-130H Combat Talon II, USAF 87-0127, c/n 5118, Wrath 11, of the 7th Special Operations Squadron, 352d Special Operations Group, RAF Mildenhall, departs Tirana-Rinas Airport, Albania, for a night training mission to work on terrain-following and avoidance skills, airdrops and landing using night-vision goggles. The aircraft was flying 300 feet (91 m) above the mountainous terrain when it was approaching a ridge. The airplane was not able to clear the ridge and stalled as the crew attempted to climb away. The aircraft struck the ridge, destroying the aircraft and killing all nine crew members on board.


 * 2003 – AH-64D Apache 84-24201 of C Company, 1–3rd Aviation Regiment crashes on landing in Iraq, injuring the two pilots. Helicopter was written off.


 * 2002 – Swiss International Air Lines begins operations, taking over many routes from bankrupt Swissair.


 * 1996 – The CH 136 Kiowa helicopter was retired from the CAF.


 * 1995 – TAROM Flight 371, an Airbus A310, crashes near Baloteşti, Romania, killing all 60 on board.


 * 1995 – First flight of the Grob Strato 2C


 * 1990 – First flight of the Robinson R44 helicopter.


 * 1986 – Mexicana Flight 940, a Boeing 727, crashes into high ground near Santiago Maravatío, Mexico. All 167 passengers and crew are killed in the worst ever air disaster involving the Boeing 727.


 * 1979 – The British government announces development and production costs for the Concorde supersonic airliner since November 29, 1962, when agreement was reached with France to design and built the aircraft. Through December 31, 1978, the French government spent a total of £920 million whereas the British spent £898 million. The total cost of £1.818 billion would increase by a further £163 million, before government funding ceased.


 * 1975 – Western Airlines Flight 470, a Boeing 737, overruns the runway at Casper/Natrona County International Airport and crashes into a ditch; all 99 on board survive.


 * 1975 – A specially modified Royal Canadian Air Force de Havilland CC-115 (DMC-5 Buffalo) makes its first flight carrying an inflatable air-cushion landing system beneath the fuselage.


 * 1974 – British Airways commences operations after BOAC and British European Airways merge to create the new airline.


 * 1972 – In response to the North Vietnamese “Easter Offensive” against South Vietnam which began on March 30, the United States begins a series of deployments code-named “Constant Guard, ” in which a large number of U. S. Air Force and U. S. Marine Corps squadrons return to bases in South Vietnam and Thailand and the U. S. Navy aircraft carrier presence at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin increases from two on March 30 to six by late spring.


 * 1972 – Twenty minutes after take-off from McCoy AFB, Florida, a USAF Boeing B-52D-80-BO Stratofortress, 56-0625, of the 306th Bomb Wing, suffers an in-flight fire in engine number seven which spreads to starboard wing; attempts emergency landing at McCoy, crashes one quarter mile short of runway, killing six on board and one civilian on the ground, injuring eight civilians on the ground, destroys four houses.


 * 1970 – Japan Airlines Flight 351, a Boeing 727, is hijacked to North Korea by a Japanese Red Army faction.hop and cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao; Japanese pop singer Mita Akira; and Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, who would become one of the world’s longest-serving physicians and educators.


 * 1965 – Iberia Airlines Convair 440 crashed into the sea on approach to Tangier killing 47 of 51 occupants.


 * 1965 – U. S. Marine Corps UH-34 transport helicopters escorted by U. S. Army UH-1 B helicopter gunships come under heavy Viet Cong ground fire while attempting to drop off 435 South Vietnamese troops in a landing zone 25 miles (40 km) south of Da Nang, South Vietnam. Thirty-five helicopters become involved; three are shot down and 19 damaged.


 * 1959 – BOAC commences its first scheduled around-the-world service


 * 1956 – Entered Service: A3D Skywarrior with VAH-1.


 * 1948 – One of two Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldivers, BuNo 83414, en route from Naval Air Station Tillamook, Oregon, to San Diego, California, crashes in woods near Rockaway Beach, Oregon, killing pilot Robert W. Smedley. Wreckage rediscovered by loggers on 10 March 2010.


 * 1946 – 435 Squadron disbanded at Down Ampney, UK.


 * 1945 – BCATP terminated.


 * 1945 – Twentieth Air Force B-29 s again raid Japanese airfields on Kyushu.


 * 1945 – A kamikaze damages the U. S. heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) off Okinawa, killing 9 and wounding 20.


 * 1944 – Task Force 58 aircraft strike Yap.


 * 1944 – A flying boat carrying Admiral Mineichi Koga, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy‘s Combined Fleet, disappears after taking off from Babelthuap; no wreckage or bodies are ever found. A second flying boat carrying Rear Admiral Shigeru Fukudome of Koga’s staff making the same trip crashes in a storm; Fukudome spends two weeks in the hands of natives on Cebu before being rescued.


 * 1943 – Since January 1, Royal Air Force Bomber Command has flown 12,760 sorties and lost 348 bombers, a 2.7 percent loss rate. German night fighters have shot down 201 of the bombers.


 * 1942 – An Imperial Japanese Navy task force centered around the aircraft carriers Akagi, Ryūjō, Hiryū, Sōryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku begins a very destructive raid against British forces in the Indian Ocean.


 * 1942 – Since March 1, the Luftwaffe’s Fliegerkorps II has flown 4,927 sorties against Malta. In addition to attacks on airfields and other facilities, they have sunk two British destroyers and a British submarine, damaged two other submarines, and badly damaged the light cruiser HMS Penelope.


 * 1942 – (Overnight) The Royal Air Force places the new 4,000-lb (1,814-kg) high-capacity “Cookie” bomb – Its largest bomb to date and its first “blockbuster” bomb – Into service in a raid on Emden, Germany. The RAF will drop 68,000 “Cookie” bombs during World War II.


 * 1940 – Total hours flown by the RCAF 69,472.50 hrs.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Miles Master production aircraft N7408


 * 1937 – (March 31-April 4) Supporting Nationalist forces, 40 to 50 aircraft per day bomb Ochandiano, Spain.


 * 1937 – A Spanish Nationalist ground offensive begins against the Basques, supported by 80 German aircraft based at Vitoria-Gasteiz and 70 Spanish Nationalist and Italian aircraft based elsewhere in northern Spain. Opposing them are 20 to 30 Basque aircraft. On the first day, German Junkers Ju 52 s conduct the first terror bombing and strafing of an undefended town in Europe, killing 248 people in Durango.


 * 1936 – During the Battle of Maychew, Italian aircraft bomb Ethiopian troops heavily, helping to blunt a major Ethiopian attack.


 * 1931 – A TWA Fokker F-10 Trimotor crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing all eight aboard, including University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.


 * 1912 – The world’s first hydroplane competitions, held in Monaco, were a runaway success for Farman biplanes. Belgian Jules Fisher is the overall winner. He is one of only two non-French pilots of the eight starters and flies a Henry Farman machine.


 * 1903 – Richard Pearse is reputed to have made a powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft, a monoplane of his own construction, that crash lands on a hedge. This date is computed from circumstantial evidence of eyewitnesses as the flight was not well documented at the time. The machine made a flight claimed to be around 150 feet (45 m) on his farm at Upper Waitohi, near Timaru in south Canterbury, New Zealand.