Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 14

September 14


 * 2012 – Yousef Assad, a high-ranking Syrian Air Force officer and relative of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, announces his defection to the opposition in an online video.


 * 2011 – Angolan Air Force crash: An Embraer EMB 120 Brasília, operated by the Angolan Air Force, crashed just after takeoff from Nova Lisboa Airport, killing 11 army officers (including three generals) and six civilians. The accident occurred at 11:30 am at the airport, with a military delegation on board the flight at Albano Machado Airport.


 * 2011 – The Libyan rebel National Transitional Council reports that it has captured the Libyan government military airbase at Brak.


 * 2009 – Lufthansa Flight 288, a Fokker 100 operated by Contact Air, registration D-AKFE, makes an emergency belly landing at Stuttgart Airport, Germany, after the undercarriage fails to deploy correctly.


 * 2008 – Aeroflot Flight 821, a Boeing 737, crashes on approach to Perm Airport from Moscow due to pilot error, killing all 88 people on board in the worst ever accident involving the Boeing 737-500.


 * 2006 – A US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16CJ/D Block 50B Fighting Falcon, 91-0337, of the 22d Fighter Squadron, 52d Fighter Wing, based out of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, crashes in the nearby village of Oberkail after a landing gear failure prevents it from making a controlled landing. The pilot, 1st Lt. Trevor Merrell, ejects safely after aiming his aircraft towards a vacant cow pasture, where it crashes, causing no injuries.


 * 2004 – An McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet of VMFA-212 crashes at Manbulloo Station about 10 M SW of RAAF Tindal, Australia, during a day approach to landing. The pilot ejects and is injured.


 * 2003 – Opposing Solo Pilot, Capt. Chris R. Stricklin, in US Thunderbirds Number 6, an Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 32J Fighting Falcon, 87-0327, misjudges his altitude before beginning a Split-S takeoff maneuver at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, ejects in ACES II seat 8/10ths of a second before the aircraft impacts the runway.


 * 1999 – Britannia Airways Flight 226A, a Boeing 757, veers off the runway at Girona, Catalonia (Spain) while landing in a thunderstorm and comes to rest in a field, broken apart in two places; 43 on board are injured, two seriously, but a passenger initially diagnosed as "lightly injured" dies five days later of unsuspected internal injuries.


 * 1997 – A Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, 81-793, of the 7th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Wing, at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, lost its port wing at 1500 hrs. during a pass over Martin State Airport, Middle River, Maryland during the Chesapeake Air Show and crashed into a residential area of Bowley's Quarters, Maryland damaging several homes. Four people on the ground received minor injuries and the pilot, Maj. Bryan "B.K." Knight, 36, escaped with minor injuries after ejecting from the aircraft. A month-long Air Force investigation found that four of 39 fasteners for the wing's structural support assembly were apparently left off when the wings were removed and reinstalled in January 1996, according to a report released 12 December 1997.


 * 1993 – Lufthansa Flight 2904, an Airbus A320, crashes after overrunning the runway in Warsaw, Poland, killing 2 and injuring 68 of the 72 people on board.


 * 1986 – A bomb explodes in outside of Ginpo Airport, suburb of Seoul, South Korea, killing five and injuring twenty-nine.


 * 1984 – 14-18 – Joe Kittinger makes the first solo transatlantic balloon flight, from Carbon, Maine to Savona, Italy.


 * 1983 – The U. S. House of Representatives votes, 416 to 0, in favor of a resolution condemning Russia for shooting down a Korean Air Flight 007.


 * 1977 – ABoeing EC-135K, 62-3536, c/n 18519/587, converted from KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, part of the 8th Tactical Deployment Control Squadron, based at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, on a joint training mission, departs Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, after a refuelling stop, makes right turn, crashes into steep terrain in the Manzano Mountains, two miles S of the Four Hills housing development, killing all 20 on board.


 * 1976 – A F-14 Tomcat rolls off the deck of USS John F. Kennedy and sinks in international waters. A major salvage operation is launched to retrieve the fighter lest it fall into Soviet hands.


 * 1973 – Israel shoots down 13 Syrian MIG-21 s.


 * 1964 – First prototype EWR VJ 101C, X-1, an experimental German jet fighter VTOL aircraft (VJ stood for "Vertikal Jäger" – German for "Vertical Fighter"), crashes after a normal horizontal take-off, but pilot escapes using Martin-Baker Mk. GA7 zero-zero ejection seat.


 * 1963 – First flight of the Mitsubishi MU-2


 * 1963 – Sikorsky HSS-1N Seabat, BuNo 147632, c/n 58-1150, coded '142', ex-'H-6', of 8 Squadron of the Koninklijke Marine, is heavily damaged while being moved by elevator to the flight deck aboard the Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman. Repairs undertaken by Henschel.


 * 1961 – The 1961 F-84 Thunderstreak incident, was an incident during the Cold War, in which two Republic F-84 F Thunderstreak fighter-bombers of the JaBoG 32 of the West German Luftwaffe crossed into East German airspace because of a navigational error, before landing at Berlin Tegel Airport. The two planes successfully evaded a large number of Soviet fighter planes by finding cover in a heavy layer of clouds, but also by the actions of the corporal at the USAF flight control at Berlin Tempelhof Airport who ordered the planes on to Berlin rather than forcing them to turn around and face the pursuing fighter planes. The event came at a historically difficult time in relations between the two Germanies. Only a month before, the Berlin Wall had been built, which completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. It also came three days before the West German federal election, held on 17 September 1961.


 * 1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.


 * 1955 – USAF Douglas A-26B-45-DL Invader, 44-34126, loses starboard engine on take off from 5,142-foot-long runway 12/30, Mitchel AFB, Long Island, New York, runs through perimeter fence on southeast side of field, comes to rest on the Hempstead Turnpike. Port undercarriage leg collapses, port prop blades bent. No injuries.


 * 1948 – Retirement: Brewster F2 A Buffalo by the Finnish Air Force.


 * 1944 – The first successful flight into the eye of a hurricane was made by a three-man crew flying a Douglas A-20 Havoc. They demonstrated that valuable scientific information can be obtained in this manner, which is still done today.


 * 1944 – Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, concludes. Penetrating as far as 120 miles (190 km) inland, carrier aircraft from British and American escort aircraft carriers supporting the operation have lost 16 aircraft in combat—all to German ground fire—and 27 to non-combat causes while conducting armed reconnaissance flights targeting German ground forces and providing observer services for naval gunfire. The escort carriers never come under attack from German forces.


 * 1944 – 28 Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster bombers operating from Yagodnik airfield in the Soviet Union attack the German battleship Tirpitz in Altenfjord, Norway, with 12,000-lb (5,443-kg) “Tallboy” bombs. They score only one hit, but it so badly damages Tirpitz that she never again is seaworthy.


 * 1943 – The Allied Northwest African Air Force conducts large strikes against German ground forces around the Salerno beachhead Off Salerno, An American Liberty ship becomes a total loss after a German guided bomb hits her.


 * 1943 – (Overnight) U.S. Army Air Forces transport aircraft drop 1,900 more U.S. Army paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division into the Salerno beachhead.


 * 1942 – Chief of Staff of the United States Army General George C. Marshall informs Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King that he is directing the establishment of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command.


 * 1942 – In the first U.S. strike from Adak, the U.S. Army Air Forces fly the first combined zero-altitude strike by fighters and bombers of World War II. Twelve B-24 Liberators, 14 P-38 Lightnings, and 14 P-39 Airacobras attack Japanese forces at Kiska. Flying 240 miles (390 km) at wave-top level and attacking at an altitude of 50 feet (15 m), they sink two Japanese ships and set three on fire and destroy three midget submarines, several buildings, and 12 Japanese floatplane fighters, and kill over 200 Japanese soldiers.


 * 1941 – An escort aircraft carrier deploys for combat for the first time, as the Royal Navy’s HMS Audacity puts to sea to escort her first convoy. It is the first time that an aircraft carrier has been committed directly to convoy defense, and the first operation by an aircraft carrier against Axis forces attacking convoys in the Atlantic Ocean since mid-September 1939.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Bristol Bolingbroke


 * 1939 – First flight of the Sikorsky VS-300, the first helicopter to enter mass production.


 * 1939 – The first two RCAF casualties of WWII were lost in a Northrop Delta in New Brunswick. The wreck was recovered 1958.


 * 1938 – The Graf Zeppelin II makes its maiden flight. A number of events, including the Hindenburg disaster and a United States refusal to provide helium, prevented the most technologically advanced airship of its day from fulfilling its role as a passenger transport. 19 months later it would be scrapped.


 * 1923 – The 1923 Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.34 crash occurred when a de Havilland DH.34 of Daimler Airway operating a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Croydon to Manchester crashed at Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire killing all five people on board.


 * 1918 – The British aircraft carrier Argus is completed. She is the world’s first aircraft carrier with an unobstructed flight deck from stem to stern.


 * 1917 – First flight of the Fairey III.