Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/October 4

October 4

• 2008 –Two American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collide while trying to land in Baghdad. An Iraqi soldier was killed, while two Iraqis and three Americans were injured. Incident was due to mechanical failure.

• 2007 – Africa One Antonov An-26 crash: An Antonov An-26 (9Q-COS) from Africa One / El Sam Airlift and charted by Malift Air crashes shortly after taking off from the Kinshasa-N’Djili Airport, Congo. The airplane bound for Tshikapam crashed on the outskirt of Kinshasa killing 21 on board (1 crew survived) and at least 28 on the ground. This accident forced the Congolese minister of transportation to resign.

• 2004 – Retired: SpaceShipOne

• 2004 – Gordon Cooper, one of the original astronauts in Project Mercury, dies. (b. 1927).

• 2001 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812, a Tupolev Tu-154, is suspected to be shot down by a Ukrainian missile over the Black Sea. All 66 passengers and 12 crew members are killed.

• 1992 – El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747, freighter, crashes into high-rise apartment buildings in Amsterdam after two of its engines detach from the wing. Forty-three people, including the plane's crew of 3, are killed. The incident became known as the Bijlmerramp (Bijlmer disaster).

• 1984 – 61 year old Elaine Yadwin lands a Piper Cherokee Warrior II safely in Florida after her husband, the plane's pilot, dies during the flight.

• 1977 – First production prototype FMA IA 58 Pucará, AX-03, of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina, crashes during preparations for the 50th Anniversary of the Fabrica Militar de Aviones at Córdoba, due to pilot error.

• 1975 – A Cessna 310Q airplane crashes over Wilmington, North Carolina, killing the pilot and severely injuring several pro wrestlers affiliated with the NWA’s Mid-Atlantic promotion. One of the survivors is the legendary Ric Flair.

• 1968 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-154

• 1960 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Super Electra, crashes on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport into Winthrop Bay, after multiple bird strikes; 62 of 72 aboard die.

• 1958 – BOAC de Havilland Comet 4 G-APDB makes first the commercial transatlantic crossing by a jet airliner, from London Heathrow Airport to New York International Airport, Anderson Field via Gander.

• 1957 – Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite is launched into orbit

• 1957 – The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow rolls out from the Malton plant in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

• 1946 – The B-29 Pacusan Dreamboat sets a world nonstop, unrefueled distance record of 9,500 miles on a flight from Honolulu to Cairo, Egypt.

• 1943 – During Operation Leader, aircraft from the American aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4) raid German shipping along the coast of Norway, sinking six steamers and damaging four others, including a transport on which about 200 German troops are killed.

• 1933 – 4-11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith sets a new solo flight record between England and Australia of 7 days 4 hours. He flies a Percival Gull.

• 1924 – First flight of the Curtiss XPW-8 A, a predecessor of the XPW-8 B, prototype in turn of the Curtiss P-1 Hawk

• 1919 – A new altitude world record of 9,622 m (31,569 feet) is set by American pilot Rudolph Schroeder, flying a Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11.

• 1909 – More than a million New Yorkers watch as Wilbur Wright makes a flight along the Hudson River.

• 1784 – James Sadler (balloonist) becomes the first British aeronaut when he makes a flight in a Montgolfier-type balloon of a 170-foot circumference.