Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 12

September 12


 * 2012 – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251, an Antonov An-28, crashes while attempting to land at Palana Airport outside Palana, Russia, killing 10 of the 14 people on board and seriously injuring all four survivors.


 * 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-21 Bison from the Bhatinda Airforce Station, Punjab, India crashed due to a technical fault near the village of Muktsar-Bhatinda in the Punjab Provence, Pakistan killing the pilot.


 * 2008 – British charter airline XL Airways UK, a subsidiary of the XL Leisure Group, ceases operations with immediate effect, due to a deteriorating financial position. 90,000 Britons holidaying abroad are left stranded. It had been the 3rd largest package holiday group in the UK. XL Airways France and Germany are sold and continue operations.


 * 1994 – Distraught over breaking up with his third wife, wanting to gain notoriety, and under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, Frank Corder steals a Cessna 150 from Aldino Airport near Baltimore, Maryland, and crashes it onto the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D. C., killing himself. The plane is undetected until seen over the White House lawn, prompting a change in security procedures at the White House.


 * 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-47 at 10:23:00.0680 a.m. EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab-J, Japan funded mission.


 * 1991 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-48 at 11:01:59 am EDT. Mission highlights: Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite deployment.


 * 1988 – An Grumman F-14A-95-GR Tomcat, BuNo 160409, of VF-143, (also reported as VF-124) suffers an all hydraulic system failure and crashes inverted into a hangar at Gillespie Field, a civil airport in El Cajon, California, San Diego County while attempting to return to NAS Miramar. The pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Barnett, 36, a flight instructor with 10 years of experience flying F-14s, managed to point the crippled jet towards the landing strip at Gillespie Field to reduce civilian casualties, and both he and his backseater, Lt. (j.g.) Randy L. Furtado, 27, a radar intercept officer who was undergoing training, ejected, suffering injuries. The RIO landed in power lines and suffered a fatal broken neck. The crash injured 3 on the ground and destroyed or damaged 19 aircraft and 13 vehicles.


 * 1987 – Comox Air Force Museum opens its doors to the public.


 * 1980 – In the Florida Commuter Airlines crash, a Douglas DC-3 ditches into the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas, killing all 34 on board.


 * 1971 – First flight of the Bede BD-5 N500BD


 * 1970 – After removing all hostages from them, PFLP members use explosves to destroy the four empty airliners at Dawson’s Creek and Cairo hijacked on September 6 and 9. By September 30, all hostages from the four planes will be recovered unharmed.


 * 1969 – Philippine Airlines Flight 158, a BAC One-Eleven, crashes on approach to Manila International Airport, killing 45 of the 47 passengers and crew on board.


 * 1961 – The Hawker P.1127 makes its first transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back


 * 1961 – Air France Flight 2005, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes on approach to Rabat-Salé Airport, killing all 71 people and 6 crew on board.


 * 1945 – Pilot 1st Lt. Robert J. Anspach attempts to ferry captured Focke Wulf Fw 190F, FE-113, coded '10', from Newark Army Air Base, New Jersey, where it had been offloaded from the HMS Reaper, to Freeman Field, Indiana for testing. While letting down for refuelling stop at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a faulty electrical horizontal trim adjustment switch goes to full-up position, cannot be manually overridden. Pilot spots small dirt strip, the Hollidaysburg Airport, S of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and makes emergency landing. Upon applying brakes, right one fails immediately, fighter pivots left, landing gear collapses, propeller rips away. Pilot uninjured, but Fw 190 is hauled to Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, and scrapped. Prop ends up on wall of local flying club. The press never gets wind of the accident, nor of the 19 August Messerschmitt Me 262 crash landing at Pittsburgh.


 * 1945 – On first flight of Northrop XP-79B, 43-52437, out of Muroc Army Air Base, California, aircraft behaves normally for ~15 minutes, then at an altitude of ~7,000 feet begins a slow roll from which it fails to recover. Pilot Harry Crosby bails out at 2,000 feet but is struck by revolving aircraft and his chute does not deploy. Largely magnesium airframe is totally consumed by fire after impact on desert floor.


 * 1943 – Benito Mussolini is freed in a daring rescue by Walter Gerlach in a Fieseler Storch


 * 1943 -The British escort carriers Attacker, Battler, Hunter, and Stalker fly off 26 Supermarine Seafires to operate from Paestum airfield in the Salerno beachhead, then withdraw to Palermo, Sicily, to refuel.


 * 1942 – After German Bv 138 flying boat snoopers draw away Hawker Sea Hurricane fighters from HMS Avenger, German Heinkel He 111 bombers attack Convoy PQ 18, sinking eight merchant ships with torpedoes.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Miles Messenger.


 * 1942 – Martin-Baker MB 3, R2492, prototype fighter crashes on its tenth flight after its engine seized shortly after takeoff from RAF Wing at a height of no more than 100 feet. A crank on one of the Napier Sabre II's sleeve valves had failed. While trying to land in a field, Captain Valentine Baker (Company manager, aircraft-designer and test pilot) was forced to turn to port to avoid a farmhouse, a wing clipped the ground, the fighter cartwheeled and burst into flame, killing him.


 * 1941 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious strike Glomfjord, Norway, sinking two merchant ships without loss to themselves.


 * 1939 – Polish LWS-3 Mewa, (reported in some sources as evacuated to Bulgaria at outbreak of war), crashed this date during evening landing near Przemyśl.


 * 1936 – First flight of the Nakajima Ki-34 (Allied reporting name “Thora”).


 * 1935 – Prototype Gloster Gladiator, KS200, suffers bad landing at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, ending up on nose, starboard lower wingtip crushed. Repaired, it will survive until late 1942.


 * 1934 – First flight of the Hawker Hind


 * 1934 – First flight of the Gloster Gladiator


 * 1930 – First flight of the Taylor E-2


 * 1926 – Curtiss XP-6, 25-423, the fourth Curtiss P-2 reengined with a Curtiss V-1570-1 Conqueror, suffers heavy damage in a landing that results in a ground loop at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, Michigan. Pilot was George C. Price. Repaired, the aircraft will finish second in the 1927 Pursuit Plane Race at the National Air Races, at 189.608 mph. To McCook Field, Ohio, with project number P-494. Will crash on 25 February 1929.


 * 1918 – 627 French and 611 US fighters are brought together for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. At the time, it is the largest force of aircraft assembled for a single operation.


 * 1916 – First flight of the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane


 * 1916 – The first pilotless radio-controlled aerial bomb was tested. It was actually a small biplane that could fly radio-guided for 50 mi with 308 lb of bombs aboard.


 * 1915 – A Royal Naval Air Service Short S.38, 65, and a Caudron G.III, 3282, collide at Eastchurch, both pilots killed.


 * 1908 – At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world record for flight endurance with a passenger (Army Major George O. Squier) of 9 min 6⅓ seconds.


 * 1906 – Jacob Ellehammer makes his first flight with his aeroplane “Danemark I” on the tiny island of Lindholm. The plane was attached to the ground by a rope and described a few circles.


 * 1900 – The Wright brothers arrive at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to begin their first season of glider experiments there.


 * 1886 – 12-13 – Frenchmen Hervé and Alluard achieve a Montgolfiere flight over 24 hours.