Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 4

March 4


 * 2013 – Two minutes from touchdown at Goma International Airport, the Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Fokker 50 9Q-CBD crashes in bad weather in an empty lot in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing six of the people on board and injuring all three survivors.


 * 2012 – A Yemen Air Force Antonov An-26 transport plane destroyed by an explosion on the ground at Sana'a International Airport.


 * 2011 – The Libyan Air Force conducts occasional air strikes on Ajdabiya's weapon-storage area, with no reported casualties.


 * 2011 – Libyan opposition forces capture the Libyan airbase at Ra's Lanuf.


 * 2008 – An Iraqi military Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes south of Baiji due to a sandstorm, about 90 mi south of Mosul in northern Iraq, killing an American soldier and seven other people.


 * 2007 – US Airways and America West combine their reservations computer systems.


 * 2006 – The final attempt to contact Pioneer 10 results in no response, more than three years after the last contact was made from the spacecraft. It is considered to be the first human-built object to be on a solar system-leaving trajectory.


 * 2002 – Ansett (Mark II) permanently ceases operations


 * 1994 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-62 at 1:38:34 am EST. Mission highlights: Microgravity experiments.


 * 1993 – First flight of the Dassault Falcon 2000


 * 1987 – Northwest Airlink Flight 2268, a CASA 212 crashes while attempting to land at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Nine of the nineteen passengers and crew on board were killed.


 * 1983 – 4-5 – A Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin Il-62M strays off course and overflies important American buildings two days in a row.


 * 1981 – Two USAF McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs collide near Albacete, Spain, crash in flames, killing two of the four crew. The other two parachute to safety. Airframes involved were F-4D, serial given by one source as 66-755, but this may be only a partial, 'SP' tail code, of the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing, and F-4D-30-MC, 66-7620, 'TJ' tail code, of the 52d Tactical Fighter Wing. Both fighters were on a routine training mission from Torrejon Air Base near Madrid. The crash occurred ~130 miles SE of Madrid.


 * 1966 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 (CP402), a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-43, crashes on landing at Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing 64 passengers and crew; eight passengers survive.


 * 1962 – Caledonian Airways Flight 153, a Douglas DC-7, crashes into a jungle swamp at Douala, Cameroon, killing all 111 on board.


 * 1958 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126333, Sqn. No. 142 of VF-871, suffers an apparent brake failure while taxiing aboard HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22) and rolls off the carrier's deck. Pilot LCDR Brian Bell-Irving ejects as airplane falls, but partially opened canopy does not jettison, and Bell-Irving is knocked unconscious and severely injured as ejection seat smashes through canopy and slams into ocean surface. The damaged fighter jet catches fire and sinks; Bell-Irving is subsequently hauled aboard escort destroyer HMCS Haida (DDE 215) but dies from his injuries. This is the only operational ejection from a RCN Banshee.


 * 1958 – Royal Navy de Havilland Sea Venom FAW.22, XG732, 'B 440', of 891 Squadron, piloted by a pair of exchange pilots from the U.S. Marine Corps, lands on HMS Bulwark sans nose gear which refuses to extend. Airframe is repaired, but is lost in a ditching off of the same carrier on 9 May 1958.


 * 1957 – 4-15 – A US Navy airship sets a duration record for a non-rigid airship, traveling 9,448 miles (15,205 km) in 264 hours 12 min


 * 1954 – First flight of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter


 * 1946 – American Airlines begins using the Douglas DC-4 cross country on trips that lasted 13-to-14-hours.


 * 1945 – At precisely 0151 hrs., Junkers Ju 88G-6, Werknummer 620028, D5+AX, piloted by Hauptman J. Dreher, with a crew of three from night fighter unit 13./Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, becomes the last Axis aircraft to crash on British soil during World War II. Confused by auto headlights, fighter hits tree while attacking the airfield at RAF Elvington, crashing at Sutton upon Derwent, Yorkshire, all four KWF. Two other Ju 88s had crashed in separate incidents at 0137 and 0145 hrs


 * 1945 – Task Force 58 returns to base at Ulithi Atoll. During its two-week cruise to the Tokyo area and Okinawa its pilots have claimed 393 Japanese aircraft shot down and 250 destroyed on the ground, in exchange for the loss of 84 planes, 60 pilots, and 21 air crewmen in combat and 59 planes, eight pilots, and six air crewmen in non-combat incidents.


 * 1945 – Low on fuel after a raid on Japan, a B-29 Superfortress lands on Iwo Jima, the first of about 2,400 B-29 s to do so before World War II ends in August.


 * 1942 – Formation of No. 7 Manning Depot at Rockcliffe to process applications for Women’s Division.


 * 1942 – Aircraft from the U. S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) raid Japanese bases on Marcus Island.


 * 1942 – (Overnight) – Two Imperial Japanese Navy Kawanishi H8 K (Allied reporting name “Emily”) flying boats fly from Wotje, refuel from a submarine at French Frigate Shoals, and fly on to bomb Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, returning safely. The mission is unsuccessful because of heavy cloud cover in the Honolulu area. It is the first combat flight of the H8 K.


 * 1941 – Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, BuNo 0377, assigned to USS Lexington, but operating out of NAS North Island, San Diego, California, on a bombing training flight, suffers engine failure after making a practice drop, and ditches in the Pacific Ocean, sinking in ~100 fathoms ~5 miles W of Mission Beach, California. Pilot 1st Lt. (j.g.) W. A. H. Howland, AOM2c R. Rogers, and AMM3c O. A. Carter successfully deploy dinghy and are rescued after ~30 minutes by light seaplane tender USS Williamson.


 * 1937 – Entered Service: B-17 Flying Fortress with the United States Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group


 * 1936 – The last great passenger-carrying airship, a veritable behemoth in its day, takes to the air for the first time. The German dirigible LZ 129, the Hindenburg, is powered by four 1,320-hp Daimler-Benz DB 602 diesel engines. The Hindenburg makes its first Atlantic crossing in the record time of 64 hours 53 min on May 6.


 * 1936 – Authorization to form No. 6 (TB) Squadron at Trenton with Vedette’s.


 * 1928 – The Boeing Model 204 (B-1E), a four-seat civilian flying boat, makes its first flight. Ten are built and are the last aircraft Boeing built specifically for private ownership by civilians. Four built by Boeing Aircraft of Canada in Vancouver, British Columbia, are called “Thunderbirds. ”


 * 1918 – First flight of the Airco DH.10 Amiens


 * 1909 – President William Howard Taft approves Congressional Gold Medals for the Wright brothers.