Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 30

June 30

• 2012 – Eighty-four percent of U.S. domestic airline flights have arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time since January 1, their best on-time performance since the United States Government began tracking their on-time performance in 1988 and an improvement from 77 percent between January 1 and June 30, 2011. They also set a record-low rate of baggage handling mistakes, misdirecting, damaging, or losing only three suitcases per 1,000 passengers on domestic flights between January 1 and June 30, 2012.[1]

• 2009 – Lithuanian airline Star1 Airlines commences operations.

• 2009 – Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310-300 flying from Sana'a, Yemen to Moroni, Comoros, crashes into the Indian Ocean with 153 people aboard; one 12-year-old is found clinging to the wreckage.

• 2007 – A pilot attempting to return to the air after his small plane ran out of room on a wet runway slammed into a house in Arkansas Saturday, killing himself and a woman inside the home.

• 2007 – A small plane SABRE Lithium matriculation XASMR of ten seats, originating of Monterrey Nuevo Leo’n, piloted by its proprietor Daniel Reedbeds Insipid, confused to a flank of the airport Plan of Guadalupe.

• 1999 – A NAS Whiting Field, Florida, flight instructor bails out of a Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor and parachutes to safety moments before the plane crashes near East Brewton, Alabama.

• 1994 – Airbus A330 test flight crash at Toulouse France (7 killed).

• 1989 – First flight of the Boeing 737-500

• 1985 – 39 remaining hostages from Flight 847 are freed in Beirut.

• 1978 – First flight of the Rutan Defiant

• 1977 – US president Jimmy Carter cancels the B-1 Lancer program

• 1975 – The United States Navy reclassifies all of its “attack aircraft carriers” (CVA) as “aircraft carriers” (CV); “nuclear-powered attack aircraft carriers” (CVA(N)) become “nuclear-powered aircraft carriers” (CVN).

• 1972 – The American 1972 bombing campaign against North Vietnam has destroyed 106 bridges, all of the country’s oil depots, and the pipeline running south to the Demilitarized Zone.

• 1971 – The crew of Soyuz 11, Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov, are killed after undocking from space station Salyut 1 after a three-week stay. A valve on their spacecraft accidentally opens when the service module separates, letting their air leak out into space. The capsule reenters and lands normally, and their deaths are only discovered when it is opened by the recovery team. Technically the only fatalities in space (above 100 km).

• 1968 – First flight of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy

• 1967 – Thai Airways International Flight 601, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes into the sea on landing at Kai Tak Airport, killing 24 of 80 on board.

• 1962 – Aeroflot Flight 902, a Tupolev Tu-104, is shot down by a missile near Voznesenka, Krasnoyarsk Krai; all 84 die in Russia's worst air accident at that time.

• 1959 – 1959 Kadena Air Base F-100 crash, A U. S. Air Force North American F-100 Super Sabre fighter suffers an in-flight engine fire over Okinawa. The pilot ejects safely, but the F-100 crashes into Miyamori Elementary School and surrounding houses in Uruma, killing 11 students at the school and six other people in the neighborhood and injuring 210 others, including 156 students at the school.

• 1956 – The 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision between United Airlines Flight 718, a DC-7 and TWA Flight 2, a Lockheed Constellation, over the Grand Canyon, kills all 128 aboard both planes; operating under Visual Flight Rules, the planes fail to see each other; the Federal Aviation Administration is created in the aftermath; the FAA establishes new rules for passenger carriers, among them the requirement to operate under Instrument Flight Rules, even in good weather.

• 1953 – A SNCASO S. O. 4000 (prototype of the Sud Vautour fighter-bomber) becomes the first European aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in a shallow dive.

• 1951 – United Airlines Flight 610, a Douglas DC-6, flies into a mountain in Larimer County, Colorado due to navigational error; all 45 passengers and 5 crew members are killed.

• 1951 – The second prototype Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor, 46-681, had an engine failure during takeoff from Edwards AFB, California. Republic Aviation test pilot Carl Bellinger escaped from the aircraft just as the tail melted off; total flight time was a mere ninety seconds. By the time fire apparatus arrived, driving seven miles (11 km) across the dry lake bed, the tail section had been reduced to ashes.

• 1950 – A Royal Canadian Navy Lt. Mervin C. “Butch” Hare of the 803 Naval Fighter Squadron departs from Montreal, Quebec in Hawker Sea Fury FB.11, TF997, but fails to arrive at home base of HMCS Shearwater, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Despite a massive international air search, nothing is found. In February 1968, two foresters discovered the wreckage in a remote area of Maine. The Sea Fury had struck a tree on top of the ridge with its port wing root and struck the ground within about 150 feet. The force of the impact dug a 15 foot diameter crater and the aircraft broke up and scattered, within a 50 yard radius. There had been several small fires. Lt. Hare’s parachute harness pieces were later found near the crater, ending an initial speculation that he had bailed out and perished somewhere else in the Maine woods.

• 1950 – P-51 Mustangs of No. 77 Squadron RAAF are sent to Korea as part of Australia's contribution to the war.

• 1947 – First flight of the Avions Fairey Junior

• 1947 – First flight of the Vickers Valetta

• 1943 – U. S. forces land on Rendova Island. A sweep by 27 Japanese Zero fighters over the area accomplishes little and almost is wiped out, and 43 U. S. aircraft bomb Munda Airfield. In the evening, a Japanese torpedo strike by 25 Mitsubishi G4 Ms (Allied reporting name “Betty”) escorted by 24 Zero fighters sinks an attack transport, with 17 of the G4 Ms shot down by U. S. Marine Corps F4U Corsairs and antiaircraft fire.

• 1943 – Since November 1, 1942, Italy has lost 2,190 military aircraft and suffered another 1,790 damaged.

• 1943 – Since June 1, the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Eleventh Air Force has flown 407 sorties against Japanese forces on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. U. S. Navy PV-1 Venturas have made additional night bombing attacks on the island.

• 1943 – Royal Air Force Bomber Command has lost 3,448 aircraft – About 1,600 of them to German night fighters – And about 20,000 aircrewmen on night raids since the beginning of World War II. Since April 1, Bomber Command has lost 762 aircraft, 561 of them to German night fighters.

• 1941 – No. 410 (Night Fighter) Squadron and No. 412 (Fighter) Squadron were formed in England.

• 1941 – German fighter pilot Werner Mölders shoots down five Soviet bombers, bringing his aerial victory total to 82. He becomes the first pilot to surpass the World War I record of 80 victories set by Manfred von Richthofen in 1918 and the highest-scoring ace in history at the time.

• 1930 – U.S. Navy Douglas PD-1 flying boat, BuNo A-7989, of VP-6 in the Hawaiian Islands, is lost in the Pacific off Hawaii, only six months after delivery. Airframe had only 42:40 hrs. flight time.

• 1926 – Alan Cobham sets out on a round trip from England to Australia in a de Havilland DH.50. He will arrive back in London on October 1 and receive a knighthood for his accomplishment.

• 1920 – A provisional establishment of 1340 officers and 3905 airmen for the CAF was authorized by Order-in-Council.

• 1911 – The Curtiss A-1 seaplane is tested for the first time by Glenn Curtiss.

• 1910 – The first airplane bombing tests are made as Glenn H. Curtiss drops dummy bombs from his own Curtiss biplane on the shape of a battleship marked by flagged buoys on Lake Keuka, New York.

• 1901 – At enormous personal risk, Herr Berson and Professor Süring of the Berliner Verein für Luftschiffahrt establish the first ratified altitude record for balloons. Their 8,510-cu. ft. balloon Preussen (Prussia) ascends to 35,435 feet.