Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 5

March 5


 * 2012 – An Indian Air Force Dassault Mirage 2000TH crashed near Babanbas. The two crew ejected safely.


 * 2011 – An Antonov An-148 crashes at Garbuzovo, Alxeevsky Region, Belgorod Oblast, Russia following an in-flight break-up. All six people on board are killed.


 * 2011 – Opposition forces shoot down a Libyan Air Force jet fighter over Ra's Lanuf after it attempts to bomb the town, killing its two pilots.


 * 2005 – Steve Fossett completes the first non-stop, solo circumnavigation of the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, completing the trip in 67 hours and 2 min.


 * 2003 – At Saint-Forget, France a Socata Rallye MS.892 (registered as F-BLSO) collided midair with a Cessna F150 (registered as F-BSIQ) killing the instructor and student pilot in the latter aircraft. After investigation, the BEA called for obligatory use of transponders in a large zone around Paris.


 * 2000 – Southwest Airlines Flight 1455, a Boeing 737-300, overruns the runway in Burbank, California. Of the 142 people on board, 43 are injured, two seriously.


 * 1993 – Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301, a Fokker 100, crashes shortly after takeoff from Skopje Airport in Macedonia. 83 of the 97 passengers and crew on board die in the accident.


 * 1991 – Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 took off from La Chinita International Airport in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on a short-haul flight to Santa Barbara Ed-L Delicias Airport in Venezuela with 45 passengers and crew. Some minutes later the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashed on the side of a foggy mountain near La Valesa in the La Aguada sector of the Páramo Los Torres and burst into flames. All 45 people on board died.


 * 1981 – Venera 14, a Soviet space probe for intended to explore Venus, arrives at its destination. The aircraft has a twin-ship, Venera 13, which launched and also arrived 5 days prior.


 * 1979 – Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Jupiter at a distance of 172,000 miles.


 * 1978 – The Landsat 3 launches, third in a series of photo satellites. Its Earth-snapping work would last five years until March of 1983.


 * 1976 – The last flight of the second Concorde prototype aircraft to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at the Royal Naval Air Station, Yeovilton, England.


 * 1975 – Entered Service: Shin Meiwa US-1 with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.


 * 1974 – A USN North American RA-5C Vigilante crashes in the Gulf of Mexico 35 miles W of Tampa, Florida. Both crew eject, two chutes observed, but only the navigator is recovered, by a fishing boat.


 * 1974 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker of the 7th Air Refuelling Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, en route from Eielson AFB, Alaska to its homebase at Carswell AFB, Texas, suffered explosive decompression when a small window blew out at 35,000 feet at 1630 hrs. EST about 40 miles SE of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. One passenger of the 25 aboard died from the effects of the rapid decompression; others and eight crew okay. The tanker made an emergency landing at a Canadian Armed Forces Base at Edmonton, Alberta.


 * 1974 – A USAF Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, 57-1500, of the 91st Air Refuelling Squadron, 384th Air Refuelling Wing, crashed and burned shortly after take-off from McConnell AFB, Kansas, killing two of seven crew. Air Force spokesmen reported that the aircraft was carrying 136,000 pounds of fuel when it crashed 3,000 feet from the main runway, after it apparently lost power.


 * 1967 – Varig Airlines Flight 837, a Douglas DC-8, crashes while on approach to Roberts International Airport due to pilot error, killing 51 of 90 on board as well as 5 on the ground.


 * 1967 – Lake Central Flight 527, a Convair 340, crashes near Marseilles, Ohio after a propeller detaches and severs the fuselage, causing a loss of control; all 38 on board die.


 * 1967 – U.S. Coast Guard Grumman HU-16 Albatross, 1240, out of St. Petersburg, Florida, deploys to drop a dewatering pump to a sinking 40-foot yacht, "Flying Fish", off of Carrabelle, Florida. Shortly after making a low pass after the sinking vessel to drop the pump, the flying boat crashes a short distance away, with loss of all six crew. Submerged wreck not identified until 2006.


 * 1966 – For the first time, the United States employs the Alpha section (listing major fixed ground targets in North Vietnam) of a U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Rolling Thunder order.


 * 1966 – BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 bound for Hong Kong, crashes at Mount Fuji near Gotenba, Japan, killing all 124 passengers and crew.


 * 1963 – Country music star Patsy Cline and three others are killed in the crash of a Piper Comanche near Camden, Tennessee.


 * 1962 – A Convair B-58 (serial no. 59-2458) of the Forty-third Bombardment Wing breaks three records during a round trip between New York and Los Angeles in 4 hours 41 min 14.98 seconds. The fastest transcontinental crossing between Los Angeles and New York is accomplished in 2 hours 58.71 seconds at an average speed of 1,214.65 mph. The third record notches the fastest time between New York and Los Angeles.


 * 1960 – A Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, 53-8152A, c/n 255, of the 12th Troop Carrier Squadron, 322d Air Division, Dreux Air Base, France, departed Adana, Turkey with 3 crew, 15 passengers and 7,614 lbs. of cargo, made a fuelling stop at Athens, Greece, departing at 1600 hrs. for Naples, Italy. Two hours into an expected 3:02 flight, the port engine began to over-speed. Attempts to cut off and/or feather the propeller failed and the aircraft lost altitude. The pilot elected to shut down the engine by turning off the fire wall shut off. The engine did stop, but the propeller shaft sheared with the propeller wind-milling at an increased rate. The aircraft began to descend at a rate of 500 feet per minute. Realizing that the aircraft will not reach the chosen emergency airfield, at Crotone, Italy, the pilot circled the aircraft over the small town of Botricello ordering the passengers and radio operator to bail out - all landing safely with only minor injuries. Pilot Harold Cliffton Hardesty and co-pilot Harry Francis Dawley, Jr. then landed the C-119 on the nearby beach at 1830 hrs. (dusk) with gear down, full flaps, landing light on, with an approach speed of 120 kts. and touch-down at 90 kts. The roll out was straight for 800-1,000 feet before the C-119 veered to the right and into the water, with the cockpit filling to about the level of the side window. The two crew evacuated through the top hatch, sliding off the left wing and swam ashore. Although the plane had stopped basically intact, the wave action overnight destroyed the airframe.


 * 1960 – Late pre-production English Electric Lightning F.1, XG334, c/n 95023, of the Air Fighting Development Squadron, RAF Coltishall, Norfolk, aircraft 'A', crashed near Wells-next-the-Sea after suffering complete hydraulic failure, resulting in loss of all control-surface power and hydraulic services. The pilot, Sqn. Leader Harding, ejected safely, descending near Syderstone, in North Norfolk. Total flights 34, hours flown 23 h 35 min. This was the first loss of the type. Extensive sea search around Roaring Middle Light failed to find any trace of the missing Lightning.


 * 1958 – Explorer 2 launches, but due to a mechanical failure, does not reach orbit.


 * 1958 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-28


 * 1957 – A Blackburn Beverley C Mark I heavy transport aircraft, XH117, c/n 1023, of 53 Squadron Royal Air Force crashed on approach to RAF Abingdon, England following engine failure due to fuel starvation. Eighteen occupants killed and two on the ground.


 * 1948 – First flight of the Curtiss-Wright XF-87 Blackhawk, the last Curtiss-designed aircraft


 * 1947 – RCAF accepts its first helicopter, Sikorsky H-5 at Trenton.


 * 1943 – First flight of the Gloster Meteor


 * 1943 – Twelve German Heinkel He 111 bombers attack Convoy RA-53 during its voyage from Murmansk in the Soviet Union to Loch Ewe, Scotland, but cause no damage.


 * 1943 – In the North Atlantic Ocean, the first U. S. Navy antisubmarine hunter-killer group begins combat operations, centered around the escort aircraft carrier USS Bogue (CVE-9) and the aircraft of Composite Squadron 9 (VC-9) embarked aboard her.


 * 1943 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command begins a bombing campaign against the Ruhr area of Germany with an Oboe-marked raid on Essen. Known as the Battle of the Ruhr, it will last until mid-July. The first raid destroys 53 buildings in the Krupp complex and destroys 160 acres (65 ha) of Essen


 * 1942 – The Civil Air Patrol begins maritime patrols off the United States East Coast.


 * 1937 – Imperial Airways opens a new flying boat base at Hythe, Hampshire.


 * 1936 – First Wapiti delivered to the RCAF.


 * 1936 – First flight of the Supermarine Spitfire. The single-seat fighter would play a major role in World War II, with over 20,300 being built over the following 10 years.


 * 1928 – First flight of the Beardmore Inflexible


 * 1923 – The great aeronautical pioneer Igor Sikorsky sets up the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corp. in the United States with the financial help of several important leading figures, including Sergey Rachmaninoff. Sikorsky left Russia in 1917 when revolution threatened his work and his life.


 * 1923 – Martin GMT (Glenn Martin Transatlantic), USAAS 62949, McCook Field project code 'P-87', loses power on one of two Liberty engines while en route to Chanute Field, Illinois, is unable to stay aloft on one only, crashes. Pilot Maj. Bradley escapes injury, but Lt. Stanley Smith is fatally injured.


 * 1906 – Traian Vuia begins testing his “Vuia 1″ at Montesson, France, by driving it as an automobile without its wings mounted. It is a high-wing monoplane powered by a carbonic acid gas engine, and is first aircraft with pneumatic tires. It has been described as the first man-carrying monoplane of basically modern configuration.