Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 28

September 28


 * 2012 – Sita Air Flight 601, a Dornier 228 carrying British, Chinese, and Nepalese trekkers to the Mount Everest region, strikes a bird shortly after takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, crashes on the bank of the Manohara River at Madhyapur Thimi 500 meters (547 yards) short of the runway while attempting to return to the airport, and burns. All 19 people on board die. It is the seventh fatal air crash in Nepal since August 2010.


 * 2009 – A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) NAMC YS-11 a twin-engined turboprop transport crashed while landing at JMSDF Ozuki Air Field in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. The landing in light rain, the aircraft suffered an overshoot of the runway and crashed through the airfield perimeter fence, crossing a service road and plunged nose-first into a rice field. The 11 JMSDF crew members of the aircraft were uninjured and the NAMC YS-11 aircraft suffered bent propellers.


 * 2007 – First flight of the Kawasaki P-1


 * 2000 – A U.S. Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor of VT-10 crashes in a hayfield in Baldwin County near Silverhill, Alabama, killing both crew. Navy flight instructor, Lt. James S. McComber, 31, of Apple Valley, Minnesota, and his student pilot, Air Force 2nd Lt. Alex Velkov, 23, of Mountain View, California, an Air Force navigator, were flying out of NAS Whiting Field when the afternoon accident occurred. "The plane looked like it was in trouble," said witness Danny Brand, who was questioned by investigators. "(The plane) began rolling to the right, tried to fire up the engine and then corkscrewed straight down to the ground."


 * 1992 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268, an Airbus A300, crashes near Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 12 crew and 155 passengers.


 * 1988 – First flight of the Ilyushin Il-96


 * 1981 – During a Navair weapons release test over the Chesapeake Bay, a McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18A-3-MC Hornet, BuNo 160782, c/n 8, out of NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, drops a vertical ejector bomb rack with an inert Mk. 82 bomb from the port wing, which shears off the outer starboard wing of Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk camera chase plane, BuNo 156896, c/n 13989, which catches fire as it begins an uncontrolled spin. Two crew successfully eject before the Skyhawk impacts in the bay, the whole sequence caught on film from a second chase aircraft. Video of this accident is widely available on the web.


 * 1980 – Jaromir Wagner was the first to fly the Atlantic standing on wing.


 * 1980 – Iraqi Tupolev Tu-22s land in Riyadh after bombing Iran


 * 1977 – Japan Airlines Flight 472, a Douglas DC-8, is hijacked after taking off from Mumbai, India by Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorists, who force the plane to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where they demand US$6,000,000 and the release of nine imprisoned JRA members being held in Japan; the Japanese government complies and all of the hostages are eventually released.


 * 1971 – A USN Lockheed P-3 Orion, on patrol over the Sea of Japan, is fired on by a Soviet Sverdlov class cruiser in international waters. The P-3 was checking a group of Soviet Navy ships cruising off the shore of Japan when crew members reported seeing tracer rounds fired well ahead of the Orion. Immediately following the incident, authorities recalled the P-3 to its base at MCAS Iwakuni, and all surveillance craft were pulled back five miles.


 * 1954 – Fourth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19310, c/n 4, on Navaho X-10 flight number 10, a structural test flight, successfully makes extreme manoeuvres at Mach 1.84. However automated landing system attempts to make landing flare 6 m below the runway level at Edwards AFB, California. Vehicle impacts at high speed and is destroyed. However the flight sets a speed record for a turbojet-powered aircraft.


 * 1952 – Nos. 416, 421 and 430 Squadrons flew in stages from Canada to their new base at Grostenquin, Germany, where they formed No. 2 Fighter Wing.


 * 1952 – First flight of the Dassault Mystère IV


 * 1934 – Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline flies its millionth customer.


 * 1933 – Lemoine sets a new altitude record of 13,661 m (44,820 ft) in a Potez 50


 * 1927 – Lt Dick Bently of the South African Air Force arrives in South Africa after having made the first solo flight there from England. He left London on September 1.


 * 1923 – Schneider Trophy race flown at Cowes, UK. Won by David Rittenhouse (USA) in a Curtiss CR.3 at 285.5 km/h (177.4 mph).


 * 1921 – Piloting the same United States Army Air Service Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11 fighter that set a world altitude record on February 27, 1920, Lieutenant John A. Macready sets a new world altitude record of 10,518 m (34,508 feet). Macready receives the Mackay Trophy for the flight.


 * 1920 – American pilot Howard Rinehart, flying a Dayton-Wright R. B Racer, becomes the first person to fly an airplane fitted with retractable landing gear.


 * 1912 – Wright Model B, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, crashes at College Park Airport, Maryland killing two crew, Lieutenant L.C. Rockwell and Corporal Frank S. Scott. On 20 July 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School is named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in this crash, and Scott Field, Illinois is named for the first enlisted personnel killed in an aviation crash. Scott Air Force Base remains the only U.S. Air Force base named for an enlisted man.