Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 6

September 6


 * 2012 – A Russian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 crashed into a hill near Chilta in the Siberian Military District killing the pilot, all MiG-29 flying was suspended.


 * 2011 – Aerocon Flight 238 was a passenger flight which crashed in Trinidad, Bolivia. Eight of the nine people onboard died. The aircraft involved, a Swearingen SA.227BC Metroliner III, was operating Aerocon’s scheduled domestic service from El Trompillo Airport, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, to Teniente Jorge Henrich Arauz Airport, Trinidad. It crashed on approach, 29 km from Trinidad.


 * 2009 – A Canadair Silver Star Mk.3 (G-TBRD) crashed shortly after take-off at Duxford Aerodrome, Duxford, Cambridgeshire, UK. The facility is part of the Imperial War Museum Duxford and the privately owned T-33 Shooting Star in Royal Canadian Air Force livery (RCAF - 261) suffered a stall after rotation, clipping trees and crashing 1-mile (1.6 km) from the runway. The aircraft caught fire and was destroyed in the accident, the 2 crew escaped with minor injuries.


 * 2006 – Frontier Airlines operated a new airline named Lynx Aviation (United States).


 * 2005 – A small aircraft near Goma DRC, killing the pilot and injuring passengers.


 * 1997 – Royal Brunei Airlines Flight 238, a Dornier Do 228, crashes into a hill side in Lambir Hills National Park, killing all 10 on board.


 * 1985 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a DC-9, crashes after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin because of engine failure and pilot error. All 31 people on board are killed.


 * 1983 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.


 * 1981 – A United States Air Force Northrop T-38A-75-NO Talon, 68-8182, '1', of the Thunderbirds display team crashed on take-off at Cleveland, Ohio, United States following a bird strike. The team leader, Lt. Col. David L. Smith, was killed and the teams displays for the rest of the year are cancelled.


 * 1976 – Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Union defects to the West, landing his MiG-25 FoxBat in Japan.


 * 1971 – Paninternational Flight 112, a BAC One-Eleven, suffers dual engine failure just after takeoff and crashes onto the A7 near Hamburg Airport, killing 22 of 121 on board.


 * 1970 – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine orchestrates the Dawson's Field hijackings of El Al Flight 219 (Boeing 707), Pan Am Flight 93 (Boeing 747), Swissair Flight 100 (Douglas DC-8), TWA Flight 741 (Boeing 707), and (on September 9) BOAC Flight 775 (Vickers VC10); the unprecedented scale of the incident draws international outrage and plays a major role in instigating the eventual widespread implementation of air passenger screening, heretofore done only haphazardly and inconsistently; Flight 93 is the first loss of the Boeing 747.


 * 1965 – Flying an F-104A Starfighter, Pakistan Air Force Flight Lieutenant Aftab Alam Khan intercepts four Indian Air Force Dassault Mystère IV fighter-bombers strafing a train. He shoots down one of them using an AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile, the first air-to-air kill by a Mach 2 aircraft using a guided missile.


 * 1960 – A North American GAM-77 Hound Dog missile launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress over the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida test range at approximately 2 p.m. this date goes astray, coming down on a farm near Samson, Alabama.


 * 1952 – Prototype de Havilland DH 110, WG236, flown by John Derry and flight observer Anthony Richards disintegrates at the Farnborough Air Show during pull out from high speed dive, killing both crew, debris, including engines, falls among crowd killing 29 spectators. Another source cites 28 dead. It was eventually established that disintegration had followed structural failure of the wing (possibly weakened earlier), almost certainly resulting from violent tail flutter.


 * 1948 – A de Havilland DH.108 breaks the sound barrier, the first British aircraft to do so.


 * 1945 – Captured German Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V14, makes the first helicopter crossing of the English Channel when it was moved from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu


 * 1944 – Bell P-39 Airacobra #42-18290 crashes southwest of Victorville Army Airfield, Victorville, California. Pilot 2nd Lt. Pat L. Montgomery is killed instantly.


 * 1944 – First prototype (and only one completed) McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat, 42-11677, suffers fire in starboard engine during functional test flight at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Pilot E.E. Elliot manages to bring stricken airframe into Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, flames gut the fuselage, engine nacelle and wheelwell before fire fighters halt blaze. As the jet-engined project that will become the FD-1 Phantom is already on the horizon, the project is cancelled.


 * 1943 – P/O DF McRae and crew, flying a Vickers Wellington of No. 179 (RAF) Squadron, attacked and badly crippled the German submarine U-760. The submarine was forced to Vega Harbour, Spain, where it was interned.


 * 1943 – (Overnight) 180 Axis aircraft attack an Allied convoy anchored in the harbor at Bizerte, Tunisia, but a smoke screen prevents them from scoring any hits.


 * 1940 – The first production Douglas scout bomber (SBD) is delivered to the U. S. Navy. The aircraft is given the name “Dauntless. ”


 * 1936 – Italian aircraft arriving in Majorca establish a Nationalist bombing capability against Republican Spain.


 * 1929 – Flying the Wright XF3 W-1 Apache equipped with floats, United States Navy Lieutenant Apollo Soucek sets a world altitude record for seaplanes, climbing to 38,500 feet (11,735 m).


 * 1929 – Schneider Trophy race flown at Calshot Spit, UK. Won by Flt. Off. Henry Waghorn in a Supermarine S.6 at 528.9 km/h (328.7 mph).


 * 1916 – The Roland (Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH, or LFG) Adlershof, Berlin, Germany, aircraft plant burns, destroying seven complete aircraft, including the prototype LFG Roland C.III (and only one built), as well as ten fuselages. Assembly jigs and fixtures, models and some drawings are salvaged and production resumes a week later in commandeered Automobile Exhibition Hall.


 * 1914 – The first air-sea battle in history occurs when Imperial Japanese Navy Farman seaplanes make an unsuccessful attempt to bomb German and Austro-Hungarian ships in Kiaochow Bay during the Siege of Tsingtao.


 * 1912 – Capt. Patrick Hamilton and Lt. Wyness-Stuart of the Royal Flying Corps are killed when their Deperdussin monoplane breaks up in flight, crashing at Graveley, near Welwyn. The 60 hp Anzani-powered aircraft had been taken on strength by the army in January 1912.


 * 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.


 * 1893 – Claire Chennault, American pilot famous for commanding the “Flying Tigers” during World War II, was born.