Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/November 4

November 4


 * 2010 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883, an ATR-72-200, crashes in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, killing all 68 on board in the joint worst ever accident involving the ATR 72 (at the time of the incident).


 * 2010 – Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380 "Nancy-Bird Walton" VH-OQA, suffered a substantial mechanical failure of its left inboard engine after taking off from Singapore Changi Airport. The flight turned back and landed safely. All the 433 passengers and 26 crew on board were safe. Cowling parts of the failed engine fell over Batam island.


 * 2008 – A Learjet 45 carrying Mexican interior secretary Juan Camilo Mourino and 8 others plunged into a Mexico city neighborhood, killing all on board and 7 on the ground.


 * 1993 – China Airlines Flight 605, a Boeing 747-409, overruns Kai Tak Airport runway 13 while landing during a typhoon. The 747 was unable to stop before crashing into Hong Kong harbor; all 374 aboard escape, with only 23 suffering injuries. The hull is written off as a total loss, making this crash the first loss of a Boeing 747-400.


 * 1982 – Pan Am inaugurates service from Los Angeles to Sydney; at 7,487 non-stop miles (11,979 km), it is the longest non-stop flight in the world.


 * 1981 – NASA aborted the second flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, 31 seconds before the launch due to a computer mis-match.


 * 1980 – Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer and the world's first female aircraft designer, died (b. 1905).


 * 1977 – Introduction: Dassault-Breguet/Dornier Alpha Jet


 * 1976 – A Bali Air Service Fokker F27 Friendship overruns a runway in Indonesia, killing 29 of the 38 on board.


 * 1972 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Ilyushin Il-14 diverts to Provdiv due to fog at the original destination. Without charts, however, for the diversion airport, the crew accidentally drives the aircraft into terrain, killing all 35 on board.


 * 1968 – First flight of the Aero L-39 Albatros


 * 1967 – Iberia Airlines Flight 062, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes at Black Down Hill, Sussex, United Kingdom; all 37 passengers and crew are killed.


 * 1964 – First ever automatic blind landing by a passenger aircraft when a British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident landed in dense fog


 * 1962 – The United States Air Force detonates a nuclear-tipped Nike-Hercules ground-to-air missile 69,000 feet over Johnston Island. It would be the last atmospheric nuclear test ever performed by the U. S.


 * 1958 – A United States Air Force Boeing B-47E-56-BW Stratojet, 51-2391, of the 12th Bomb Squadron, 341st Bomb Wing (M), catches fire during take-off from Dyess AFB, Texas, crashes from 1,500 feet (460 m) altitude. Three crew eject, okay: Capt. Don E. Youngmark, 37, aircraft commander; Capt. John M. Gerding, 27, pilot; and Capt. John M. Dowling, 30, observer and navigator. The crew chief was killed - no bail out attempted. Fire sets off single bomb casing on board, creating crater 35X6 feet. Some tritium contamination at crash site.


 * 1954 – A USAF Convair T-29A-CO, 50-189, on a routine training flight departs Tucson Municipal Airport, Arizona, after refueling for return leg to Ellington AFB, Texas. Shortly after departure, the pilot radios that he has mechanical problems and requests emergency return to Tucson. Aircraft strikes power lines on final approach and crashes into a perimeter fence short of the runway. All crew are KWF.


 * 1954 – Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, BuNo 135762, disintegrated in mid-air over San Diego Bay, California, during a demonstration for Navy officials and the press, killing Convair test pilot, Charles E. Richbourg. Pilot inadvertently exceeded airframe limitations.


 * 1953 – The Douglas DC-7 begins service with American Airlines, allowing the company to offer coast-to-coast, nonstop service.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Latécoère 631.


 * 1941 – The tail section of Lockheed YP-38 Lightning 39-689 separates in flight over Glendale, California, causing the plane to crash inverted on a house at 1147 Elm Street, killing Lockheed test pilot Ralph Virden. The home owner, who slept right through the crash, survived.


 * 1938 – In the 1938 Jersey Airport disaster, a Jersey Airways de Havilland DH.86 crashes on takeoff from Jersey Airport due to pilot error; all 13 passengers and crew die as well as one person on the ground.


 * 1936 – Soviet fighters see combat for the first time in the Spanish Civil War, dispersing a squadron of Italian Fiat CR.32 fighters escorting German Junkers Ju 52 s over Madrid.


 * 1933 – Brazilian airline VASP is established.


 * 1932 – First flight of the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing


 * 1927 – US Army Air Corps Capt. Hawthorne C. Gray succeeds in setting new altitude record in a silk, rubberized, and aluminum-coated balloon out of Scott Field, Illinois, reaching 42,270 feet, but dies when he fails to keep track of his time on oxygen, and exhausts his supply. The record is recognized by National Aeronautical Association, but not by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale because the dead aeronaut "was not in personal possession of his instruments." Gray is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his three ascents on 9 March, 4 May and 4 November.


 * 1927 – Flying a Macchi M.52 seaplane, Mario de Bernardi sets a new world airspeed record of 479.290 mi.


 * 1924 – Prototype Canadian Vickers Vedette was test flown at Montreal by F/O WN Plenderleith, RAF.


 * 1923 – Flying a Curtiss R2C-1, U. S. Navy Lieutenant Alford J. Williams, Jr., sets a new world airspeed record of 429.03 kilometers per hour (266.59 miles per hour).


 * 1910 – Welshman Ernest Willows makes the first airship crossing from England to France with Willows No. 3 City of Cardiff.


 * 1909 – John Moore-Brabazon makes the first live cargo flight by airplane when he puts a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane.


 * 1894 – German meteorologist Berson climbs up with an airship to 9,155 m.


 * 1884 – Harry Ferguson, Northern Irish aviator and inventor and the first person to fly in Ireland, was born (d. 1960).