Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 2

September 2


 * 2011 – A CASA C-212 Aviocar of the Chilean Air Force crashed into the sea off Robinson Crusoe Island. All 21 people on board were killed.


 * 2009 – Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister helicopter crash: A Bell 430 helicopter crashes at Rudrakonda Hill, India, killing all five people on board, including Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.


 * 2008 – ExpressJet Airlines ended operations as an independent carrier.


 * 2006 – A Royal Air Force Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 NATO reconnaissance plane, XV230, crashes near Kandahar, Afghanistan after a fire and explosion caused by a fuel leak. All 14 crew on board are killed.


 * 2003 – A soldier is killed as a UH-60L Black Hawk from 2–501st Aviation Regiment rolls over during a nighttime troop insertion southwest of Baghdad.


 * 1998 – Swissair Flight 111, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes into the sea near Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, because of an onboard fire. All 229 people on board perish.


 * 1998 – First flight of the Boeing 717


 * 1998 – A Permaviatrans Antonov An-26 was shot down by UNITA rebels over Angola. All 24 people on board were killed.


 * 1995 – RAF Kinloss Wing Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2, XV239, crashes into Lake Ontario, at Toronto, Canada, during the 46th Canadian National Exhibition International airshow, killing all seven crew of 120 Squadron. Video of this crash is widely available on the internet.


 * 1990 – The number of U. S. Air Force aircraft deployed in and around Saudi Arabia has risen to 400 combat and 200 support aircraft.


 * 1986 – Schweizer RG-8A, 85-0048, c/n 4, ex-civil registration N3623C, modified Schweizer SGS 2-32 motor glider for U.S. Army Grisly Hunter reconnaissance project. Crashed at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, killing two-man crew.


 * 1981 – Two Italian Air Force Fiat G.91PANs of the Frecce Tricolori collide over Rivolto during a team practice, team leader is killed.


 * 1975 – The unified Canadian Armed Forces merges its aviation services into a single command, the Canadian Forces Air Command.


 * 1966 – A USN Grumman F-11A Tiger, BuNo 141764, of the Blue Angels aerobatic team, Blue Angel 5, crashes on the shore of Lake Ontario during the International Air Exhibition at Toronto, Canada. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Richard "Dick" Oliver, 31 years old, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, is killed. Coming out of a knife edge pass, followed by a roll, 5 contacts the lake surface at ~500 mph and literally skis across the surface, striking a six-foot high sheet steel piling retaining wall on the edge of Toronto Island Airport and disintegrating. Wreckage (turbine) is thrown as far as 3,483.6 feet from point of initial impact.


 * 1958 – The 1958 London Vickers Viking accident occurred near Southall, London, killing all 3 crew on board and another 4 people on the ground.


 * 1949 – First flight of the De Havilland Venom


 * 1948 – The 1948 Lutana crash; Australian National Airways Flight 331, a Douglas DC-3, crashes into high terrain near Nundle, New South Wales, killing all 13 people on board.


 * 1947 – S/L CN Burridge and crew of the RCAF high speed rescue launch ‘Takuli’, completed a 7000 mile voyage from Patricia Bay, BC to Dartmouth Nova Scotia, via the Panama Canal.


 * 1947 – First flight of the Hawker P.1040 VP401


 * 1945 – At the conclusion of the surrender ceremony aboard the U. S. Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay, in which Japan formally surrenders to the Allies to end World War II, 450 Allied carrier planes and several hundred U. S. Army Air Forces aircraft perform a victory fly-by over the ships in the bay.


 * 1944 – In an experiment with the use of the F4U Corsair as a fighter-bomber, Charles Lindbergh—the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean—flies a bombing mission in an F4U as a civilian consultant with United Aircraft, dropping one 2,000-lb (907-kg) and two 1,000-pound (454-kg) bombs on Japanese positions in the Marshall Islands.


 * 1943 – U. S. Army Fifth Air Force aircraft attack the airfield and harbor at Wewak, New Guinea, sinking two Japanese merchant ships.


 * 1942 – The only test flight of the Soviet Antonov A-40 winged tank is partially successful. Although A-40′s aerodynamic drag forces the Tupolev TB-3 towing it to detach it early to avoid crashing, the A-40 glides to a successful landing and drives back to base as a conventional T-60 tank. The A-40 project nonetheless is abandoned due to the lack of aircraft powerful enough to tow it.


 * 1942 – First flight of the Hawker Tempest


 * 1941 – First RCAF night fighter victory was scored by F/O RC Fumerton and Sgt LPS Bing in a Bristol Beaufighter of 406 Squadron, over Bedlington, England.


 * 1940 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal conduct Operation Smash, a night raid on Cagliari, Sardinia. While some Swordfish drop parachute flares, others bomb an Italian military headquarters and aircraft parked on the ground.


 * 1939 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Me 210


 * 1939 – In anticipation of war breaking out with Germany, the Royal Air Force’s Advanced Air Striking Force deploys to bases around Rheims, France.


 * 1937 – First flight of the Grumman F4F Wildcat


 * 1930 – The first nonstop airplane flight from Europe to the United States was completed in 37 hours as Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley Stream, N. Y., aboard a Breguet biplane. (The plane was known as “The Question Mark” because it bore the image of the punctuation sign on its side.)


 * 1925 – The U. S. zeppelin the USS Shenandoah crashes, killing 14.


 * 1910 – Blanche Stuart Scott makes the first solo airplane flight by a woman in the United States subsequently recognized by the Early Birds of Aviation.


 * 1891 – The first parachute descent by a Canadian woman was made when Nellie Lamount jumped from a hot-air balloon during a fair in Quebec.


 * 1858 – Samuel King introduces the first dragline in America. It is a long rope attached to the basket, which helps to stabilize altitude by dragging on the ground when the balloon is flying very low.