Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/October 2

October 2


 * 2009 – Swedish airline Feel Air is established.


 * 2009 – Boeing 737-4H6, registered 9M-MMR operated by Malaysia Airlines, is substantially damaged when the port main undercarriage collapses while the aircraft is parked at the gate at Kuching International Airport.


 * 2009 – Serbian airline Jat Airways resumes flights following the resolution of the dispute with their maintenance company.


 * 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Mexicana Cessna 182S Skylane (FAM-5498) crashes near San José Querendaro, Michoacán, Mexico. The aircraft on a reconnaissance flight from Morelia Airport crashed in the mountains of Michoacán with 3 crew fatalities.


 * 2009 – A Yemeni Air Force Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbed crashes during a low-flying exercise due to mechanical failure.


 * 2001 – Once known as the “Flying Bank” thanks to its exemplary financial stability, Swissair grounds its fleet after running out of cash. The failure is the culmination of a series of bad investments combined with the sales downturn following the September 11th attacks. Most of its routes and planes would eventually be taken over by Swiss.


 * 1997 – An Grumman F-14A-120-GR Tomcat, BuNo 161425, converted to F-14A+, later redesignated F-14B, of VF-101, based at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the North Carolina coast Thursday afternoon, moments after the two crew eject. "A Coast Guard helicopter later plucked the Tomcat's radar intercept officer from 4- to 5-foot seas, but rescuers were still searching for the jet's pilot after nightfall. The Navy declined to identify either of the crewmen...until their families were notified. The radar intercept officer was undergoing a medical examination at Oceana Thursday night, and was reportedly in good condition."The U.S. Navy suspends search for the missing aviator on 5 October. The cause of the crash was not known, the Navy said in a statement. A failure of left horizontal stab linkage—while the trailing edge was down—threw the plane into violent right-hand rolls. When the pilot put in corrective stick, the plane would pitch down violently due to a stuck left-hand horizontal stab. This flight condition was unrecoverable. The RIO pulled the ejection handle at 7000 feet. The mishap pilot died when his ejection seat failed.


 * 1996 – Aeroperú Flight 603, a Boeing 757, crashes into the ocean off Pasamayo, Peru, because of a maintenance error. All 70 people on board are killed.


 * 1990 – (2-6) The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62) operates in the Persian Gulf, demonstrating the feasibility of such operations as the Coalition build-up in the confrontation with Iraq over Kuwait continues.


 * 1990 – In the Guangzhou Baiyun aircraft collision, the hijacked Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301, a Boeing 737, clips China Southwest Airlines Flight 2402, a Boeing 707, during landing at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, and collides with China Southern Airlines Flight 2812, a Boeing 757, killing a total of 128.


 * 1984 – The US Navy awards McDonnell Douglas a $US 438 million contract to develop the T-45 Goshawk


 * 1981 – United States president Ronald Reagan restarts the B-1 program by announcing the order of 100 B-1Bs for the USAF.


 * 1980 – A Westland Sea King performs the rescue of 22 passengers from the Swedish ship Finneagle in the North Sea.


 * 1972 – An Aeroflot Il-18 crashes on takeoff in Adler, Russia, killing 109 people.


 * 1971 – British European Airways Flight 706, a Vickers Vanguard, breaks up in mid-air due to corrosion and crashes near Aarsele, Belgium, killing all 63 passengers and crew on board.


 * 1970 – In what is known as the Wichita State Crash, a Martin 4-0-4 aircraft crashes near Silver Plume, Colorado; it is one of two planes carrying the Wichita State University football team to Logan, Utah for a game; twenty-eight passengers, the plane's captain and a flight attendant die out of forty passengers on board.


 * 1969 – Introduction: Hawker Siddeley Nimrod


 * 1966 – First flight of the Grumman Gulfstream II


 * 1963 – Second of two Short SC.1 VTOL experimental testbeds, XG905, c/n SH. 1815, a compact tailless delta monoplane with five Rolls-Royce RB108 engines, one for propulsion and four for lift, crashes while attempting landing at Belfast, Northern Ireland. Gyros failed, producing false references which caused the auto-stabiliser system to fly the aircraft into the ground. The failure occurred at less than 30 feet, giving pilot J.R. Green no time to revert to manual control. Airframe impacted inverted, killing pilot.


 * 1957 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126403 of VF-870, suffers flight control problems during carrier qualifications on HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22) off southeast coast of Nova Scotia. Commanders order pilot Lt. Howard Cooper to return to naval air station HMCS Shearwater, Nova Scotia 30 mi (48 km) north for repairs, but Cooper flies out to sea and runs out of fuel; a second Banshee pilot had determined the errant aircraft's approximate heading by tracking Cooper's radio signals, but the missing aircraft and pilot are not found after 4 days of intensive searching. On 2 June: 1964, Canadian fishing trawler Barbara Dawn snags a wrecked jet in her nets 70 mi (113 km) southwest of Sable Island; fishermen briefly observe entire aircraft before forward half breaks off and sinks, tail section is recovered, and RCN investigators are able to identify wreckage as 126403 based on serial-numbered parts.


 * 1956 – First flight of the Hughes TH-55 Osage


 * 1948 – In the Bukken Bruse disaster, a Det Norske Luftfartsselskap Short Sandringham flying boat, crashes upon landing in Trondheim, Norway; 19 are killed; Bertrand Russell is among the 24 survivors.


 * 1946 – The AFHQ selected Avro design for a new all-weather jet fighter to be named XC-100.


 * 1946 – First flight of the Vought F6U Pirate, a prototype of the F6U Pirate


 * 1945 – A U.S. Navy Martin PBM Mariner flying boat carrying Rear Admiral William Sample and eight others disappears near Wakayama, Japan while on a familiarization flight. The wreckage and their bodies will not be discovered under 19 November 1948.


 * 1944 – No. 435 (Transport) and 436 (Transport) Squadrons were formed in England.


 * 1944 – A B-25D bomber #41-30114 crashes in the Mojave Desert while on a pilot training mission. The plane stalls, spins and crashes into the ground, killing pilot 1st Lt George D. Rosado, copilot WASP Marie Michell Robinson, and crew chief S/Sgt Gordon L. Walker.


 * 1943 – Second prototype Arado Ar 234 V2 crashes at Rheine near Munster after suffering fire in port wing, failure of both engines, and various instrumentation failure, the airframe diving into the ground from 4,000 feet (1,200 m), killing pilot Flugkapitän Selle.


 * 1941 – Heini Dittmar sets a new airspeed record of 1,004 km/h (624 mph) in a Messerschmitt Me 163A. The record is unofficial because the flight (and the Me 163 programme) is kept secret.


 * 1940 – The first ground-radar-controlled aerial victory at night takes place as the Luftwaffe’s dunkele Nachtjagd (“dark nightfighting, ” abbreviated as Dunaja) technique – In which ground-based radar is used to control night fighters until they come within visual range of a target – has its first success. A Freya radar is used to coach the Dorner Do 17Z-10 night fighter of Leutnant Ludwig Becker to within visual range of a British Vickers Wellington bomber over the Netherlands, allowing him to shoot it down.


 * 1938 – First flight of the Dewoitine D.520


 * 1934 – A Hillman's Airways de Havilland Dragon Rapide crashes into the English Channel off Folkestone, Kent due to pilot error, killing all 7 on board.


 * 1929 – First flight of the Acme Sportsman


 * 1926 – An Air Union Blériot 155 catches fire in mid-air and crashes at Leigh, Kent while the pilot attempts to make an emergency landing at Penshurst Airfield. Both members of crew and all five passengers are killed. This is the first in-flight fire occurring on an airliner.


 * 1923 – First flight of the de Havilland Humming Bird


 * 1920 – U.S. Navy Lt. Cdr. William Merrill Corry, Jr. (5 October 1889 – 6 October 1920), of Quincy, Florida, designated Naval Aviator No. 23 in March 1916, while on a flight from Long Island, New York, with another pilot, the aircraft crashes, with Corry earning the Medal of Honor "for heroic service in attempting to rescue a brother officer from a flame-enveloped airplane near Hartford, Connecticut. On 2 October 1920, an airplane in which Lieutenant Commander Corry was a passenger crashed and burst into flames. He was thrown 30 feet clear of the plane and, though injured, rushed back to the burning machine and endeavored to release the pilot. In so doing he sustained serious burns, from which he died four days later." In 1923, Corry Field, a new satellite airfield for Naval Air Station Pensacola, is named in his honor. Three U.S. Navy destroyers have been named USS Corry, a Clemson-class in 1921, a Gleaves-class in 1941, and a Gearing-class, in 1945.


 * 1918 – The Kettering Bug pilotless airplane being developed by Charles F. Kettering makes its first successful unmanned flight test, albeit for only nine seconds.


 * 1910 – The first mid-air collision takes place near Milan. Both pilots survive, but one is badly injured.