Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 9

2009 – A Vietnamese People's Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M3/4 Fitter J/K crashes into a cornfield near Chieng Bay Hill, Thanh Hóa Province, Vietnam killing the pilot. The aircraft from the 923rd Fighter Regiment was on a routine training flight and suffered mechanical failure.

2009 – An Indian Air Force Antonov An-32 Cline transport aircraft crashes near a village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh killing 13 defence personnel. The aircraft crashed over the Rinchi Hill above Heyo village, about 30 km from Mechuka advance landing ground in the district located about 60 km from the Indo-Chinese Line of Actual Control. Among the seven IAF men and six Army personnel on board the ill-fated aircraft were two wing commanders, two squadron leaders and a flight lieutenant.

2005 – Logan Airport runway incursion: After air traffic controllers at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, give them clearance to take off simultaneously on intersecting runways, US Airways Flight 1170, a Boeing 737-3B7 with 109 people on board, and Aer Lingus Flight 132, an Airbus A330-301 with 272 people onboard, nearly collide on takeoff. Disaster is averted when the US Airways first officer sees the approaching A330, realizes the aircraft could collide if they both become airborne, and pushes the control column forward to keep the 737 on the ground until the A330 passes 170 feet (52 m) overhead. The 381 people on the two planes suffer no injuries.

1997 – Air Malta Flight KM 830, a Boeing 737-200, registration 9 H-ABF, named Zurrieq, was a flight bound for Istanbul with 80 passengers and crew on board when it was hijacked 20 min after take off and diverted to Cologne. The Air Malta aircraft was hijacked by two men, one of the men went into the cockpit and showed the pilot what looked like sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest. Once in Cologne they asked for a doctor, a Turkish interpreter and a television crew to release a statement. The hijackers demanded the release of Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca, who at the time was serving a life sentence in Italy after trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. However three hours after landing, the men left the plane with their hands in the air. German police found no explosives on the aircraft and all passengers were released unharmed.

1996 – Eastwind Airlines Flight 517, a Boeing 737-200, loses rudder control while on approach to Richmond International Airport and makes an emergency landing; no fatalities.

1995 – Ansett New Zealand Flight 703, a de Havilland DHC-8, crashes during a landing approach near the Tararua Range s, New Zealand, killing four of the 21 people on board and a dog.

1994 – An Antonov An-124 carries a 109-tonne diesel locomotive from London, ON (YXU), to Dublin (DUB), Ireland.

1989 – Jane Foster and Deanna Brasseur passed a course to become Canada’s first two female fighter pilots available for combat roles; possibly the world’s first.

1974 – The first flight of Northrop YF-17 experimental lightweight fighter is made. It is built to test what might be called the aerodynamics of agility, with all of the factors of weight, materials, and design geared to making it as agile as possible.

1964 – United Airlines Flight 823 was a scheduled flight from Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Huntsville International Airport, Huntsville, Alabama with 39 on board. At approximately 18:15 EST it crashed 2 miles northeast of Parrottsville, Tennessee after experiencing an uncontrollable fire on board, killing all 39. The fire of unknown origin initiated below the passenger floor and eventually involved the passenger cabin. One passenger attempted to abandon the aircraft through the No.4 escape window prior to impact but did not survive the free-fall. The ignition source was never determined, but it is thought the plane’s battery overheated or something in a passenger’s luggage caused the fire. According to NTSB investigators, lethal amounts of CO2 were present in the cockpit, explaining witnesses’ reports of the aircraft seen flying erratically. The fire eventually burned through the cockpit and it is likely the crew was unconscious by that time.

1958 – London Gatwick Airport opens after two years of extensive reconstruction. It is the first multimodal airport in the world, with direct rail connections from the main terminal to London and Brighton.

1956 – A Grumman F9F-4 Panther fighter jet of VMF-213, flown by a USMC Reserve pilot crashes into a row of houses near Wold-Chamberlain Field, striking the home at 5820 46th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In addition to killing the pilot, Maj. George E. Armstrong, the crash kills five and injures twelve on the ground, most of whom are young children. This is the second time in five days that a military jet operating from this airport crashes and kills multiple civilians on the ground.

1953 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-6 crashed at Praderes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1944 – Mid-air collision between two Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston-based Vought F4U Corsair fighters over Lewiston, Maine; both are able to land and crews are uninjured.

1944 – Allied land-based aircraft strike Japanese airfields on Peleliu, Woleai, and Yap.

1939 – The Heinkel He 100C V6, first flown in February 1939, after some test flights at the factory is flown to Erprobungstelle Rechlin on 25 April, where it spends most of its time as an engine testbed. On this date, the gear fails in flight, but the pilot manages to land the aircraft with little damage, and it is returned to flying condition in six days.

1938 – Nationalist aircraft bomb Granollers, Spain, a town without military significance, killing about 100 people. Most of the dead are women and children.

1938 – The Nicaraguan Air Force is formed as the Fuerza Aérea de la Guarda Nacional.

1936 – Sole Kellett YG-1 gyrocopter, 35-278, of the Material Division, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, acquired by the U.S. Army Air Corps for evaluation, is moderately damaged in a takeoff accident at Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Pilot was Erickson Nichols.

1928 – Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew make the first flight across the Pacific Ocean in the Fokker F.VIIb-3 m Southern Cross. They left Oakland, California on May 31 and reach Brisbane via Honolulu and Fiji. The flight takes 83 hours.

1916 – Lt.j.g. Richard Caswell Saufley of the U.S. Navy, designated Naval Aviator No. 14, is killed in the crash of a Curtiss Model E hydro-plane (seaplane), AH-8, over Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida at the 8 hr., 51 min. mark of an attempted long-duration flight. Saufley Field, north of NAS Pensacola, is subsequently named for him.

1916 – With an envelope capacity of 170,000 cu. ft. and an endurance of 11 hours, the first of 45 Coastal (C)-type, nonrigid British airships ordered for the Royal Naval Air Service makes its first flight from the airship station at Pembroke.

1914 – Using a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, French Navy Lieutenant de Vaisseau Jean de Laborde attempts France’s second airplane takeoff from a ship and the first by a French naval aviator, but crashes.

1908 – The Aeronautical Society of the United States is established in New York.

1861 – Two members of the First Rhode Island Regiment, James Allen and Dr. William H. Helme, make the first U. S. Army trial captive balloon ascent.

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