Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 25

September 25


 * 2012 – The People's Republic of China commissions its first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, at Dalian Port, China.


 * 2011 – Buddha Air Flight 103, a Beechcraft 1900D, crashes while attempting to land in dense fog at Kathmandu Tribhuwan International Airport, killing all 16 passengers and 3 crew members.


 * 1998 – PauknAir Flight 4101, a BAe 146, leaves Málaga but never reaches its destination in Melilla. All passengers and crew perish.


 * 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-86 at 10:34:19 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.


 * 1991 – First flight of the British Aerospace Jetstream 41


 * 1978 – PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides with a Cessna 172 over San Diego, California, United States; all 135 aboard the airliner, both pilots of the Cessna, and 7 people on the ground are killed, making this the worst aviation disaster in California history.


 * 1975 – A flight of four Lockheed F-104G Starfighters of the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (Italian Air Force) crash in formation into a field near the village of Ralingen near the border with Luxembourg, ~12 miles S of Bitburg, West Germany, shortly after take-off from Bitburg Air Base, killing all four pilots. The four jets flown by an Italian Air Force lieutenant colonel and three captains came down just five minutes after departing. The Bitburg control tower operated by the United States Air Force in Europe said that radio contact with the flight was lost almost immediately after they took off into overcast skies. "They crashed in line, the four craters being within an area of one square kilometer (about four-tenths of a square mile)," a German defense ministry spokesman said. The last crash of a formation of Starfighters occurred in West Germany in 1962 when an American pilot teaching stunt flying to three Germans led his formation in a dive into an abandoned strip mine near Cologne.


 * 1964 – The No. 412 (T) Squadron became the first Regular Force squadron in the Royal Canadian Air Force to complete twenty-five years of service and to receive its squadron standard.


 * 1960 – A U. S. Navy F4H-1F Phantom II sets a world speed record over a 100-km (62.1-mi) closed-circuit course, averaging 1,390.24 mph (2,237.27 km/hr). FAI Record File Number 8898.


 * 1959 – A United States Navy Martin P5M-2 Marlin, BuNo 135540, SG tailcode, '6', of VP-50, out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington on Puget Sound, is forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles (160 km) W of the Washington-Oregon border after fire in the port engine, loss of electrical power. A Betty depth bomb casing is lost and never recovered, but it was not fitted with a nuclear core. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Yocona, out of Astoria, Oregon, rescues all ten crew after ten hours in a raft. A Coast Guard Grumman UF Albatross amphibian directed the vessel to the crew. The press was not notified at the time.


 * 1958 – Boeing RB-47E-25-BW Stratojet, 52-276, c/n 450947, is written off when it veers off runway, landing gear collapses, port inner engine nacelle torn from mount, suffers fire. Post crash footage: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675022547_Boeing-B-47-Stratojet-bomber_crash-during-take-off_officers-examining_runway


 * 1958 – Supermarine Scimitar F.1, XD240, 'V-145', of 803 Naval Air Squadron, arriving aboard from RNAS Lossiemouth via RNAS Yeovilton, falls off the side of HMS Victorious at low speed into the English Channel off Portsmouth after failure of the No.1 arrestor wire upon landing. The pilot, Cdr. John Desmond Russell, the Squadron CO, is unable to open the canopy, and trapped in the cockpit, he drowns when the airframe sinks to the seabed, despite efforts of plane guard crewmen Lt. R. A. Duxbury from the rescue Westland Whirlwind. Members of the press had been invited along to watch 803 Squadron embark. Nose of aircraft and pilot's body recovered four weeks later.


 * 1955 – The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.


 * 1953 – The last Boeing B-29 Superfortress to be delivered, Boeing-Wichita-built B-29-100-BW, 45-21872, in September 1945, converted to a WB-29, was destroyed in a crash this date near Eielson AFB, Alaska, while assigned to the 58th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (Medium), Weather.


 * 1945 – First flight of the de Havilland Dove


 * 1943 – (25-26) Allied aircraft attack airfields on Corsica and ferry traffic between Corsica and Italy, and shoot down four German transport aircraft.


 * 1942 – S/L KA Boomer, CO of No. 111 Squadron, destroyed a Japanese Nakajima A6 M2-N (Ruff) fighter over Kiska, Alaska. This was the only RCAF air combat in the North American theatre of war.


 * 1940 – The bombers of the Corpo Aereo Italiano (Italian Air Corps) arrive at their base in Belgium to participate in the Battle of Britain. The fighters will arrive later.


 * 1939 – Nicola di Mauro of Italy sets a world seaplane altitude record of 13,542 m (44,429 feet) in a Caproni Ca.161Idro. This record still stands for piston-engined seaplanes.


 * 1939 – Blackburn B-24 Skua crewed by Lt. Bruce Straton McEwan, RN, and Petty Officer B. M. Seymour of No. 803 Squadron, launched from HMS Ark Royal (91), becomes the first British fighter to down a German aircraft in World War II when they attack a Dornier Do 18 flying boat over the North Sea.


 * 1932 – Lewis Yancey sets an autogiro (right) altitude record of 21,500 ft (6,553 m) in a Pitcairn PCA-2


 * 1918 – Chief Machinist's Mate Francis E. Ormsbee went to the rescue of two men in a plane which had crashed in Pensacola Bay, Florida. He pulled out the gunner and held him above water until help arrived, then made repeated dives into the wreckage in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the pilot. For his heroism, Chief Ormsbee was awarded the Medal of Honor.


 * 1912 – Charles Voisin dies and Raymonde de Laroche suffers serious injuries in an automobile accident near Lyons, France.


 * 1909 – French Army airship La République crashes over Avrilly, Allier, killing its crew of four. It was caused by a broken propeller which sheared through the envelop causing rapid leakage.  This crash marks the first military airship fatalities.


 * 1903 – The Wright brothers arrive at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to begin tests of their first powered aircraft.