Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/March 22

March 22

• 2013 – A Central African Republic government attack helicopter strikes a rebel column approaching Bangui, temporarily halting it.[1]

• 2011 – A U.S. Air Force F-15E Eagle crashes in Libya due to a mechanical failure; its two-man crew survives with minor injuries. Libyan rebel forces rescue one of them; the other is picked up by a United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey from the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), the first time an Osprey has been used to rescue a downed aviator.[2][3]

• 2010 – Aviastar-TU Flight 1906, operated by Tupolev Tu-204 RA-64011 crashed on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow. The aircraft was written off, the first hull loss for Aviastar and the first of a Tu-204.

• 2009 – A Pilatus PC-12 flying into Bert Mooney Airport outside Butte, Montana from Oroville, California crashed 500 feet (150 m) short of the runway, around 15:27 local time (21:27 GMT), killing fourteen[4] people.[5][6][7][8]

• 2003 – During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, two Royal Navy Westland Sea King ASaC7 AEW helicopters, XV650, 'CU-182', and XV704, 'R-186', collide in mid-air five miles (8 km) from their aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal while one had been leaving on a mission as the other returned from the same operation. One American exchange pilot on board, a former E-2C Hawkeye pilot formerly from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron One One Five, was killed.

• 2003 – Two Royal Navy ASaC.7 Sea Kings XV650 'CU-182' and XV704 'R-186' of 849 Squadron/A Flight collide over the Persian Gulf, killing six British crew members and one American.[9]

• 1998 – Philippine Airlines Flight 137, an Airbus A320, overshoots the end of the runway while landing at Bacolod City in the Philippines, plowing through several houses. None of the passengers were harmed, but three people on the ground were killed and several more injured.

• 1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-76 at 3:13:04 am EST (UTC −5). Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.

• 1992 – USAir Flight 405, a Fokker F-28, crashes on takeoff from New York because of ice buildup. Twenty-seven of the 51 people on board are killed.

• 1991 – A 36th Tactical Fighter Wing F-15 C again downs an Iraqi Su-22 with a Sidewinder. Another Su-22 accompanying the first one crashes while maneuvering to evade the approaching F-15C.

• 1989 – An Antonov An-225 sets a total of 106 world and class records during a 3 h 30 min flight carrying a Buran orbiter. Its total weight at take-off was 508,200 kilograms (1,120,400 lb).

• 1984 – Pacific Western Airlines Flight 501, a Boeing 737, suffers an uncontained engine failure during takeoff from Calgary; all passengers and crew were safely evacuated, but the plane burns to the ground.

• 1982 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-3 at 16:00:00 UTC Mission highlights: Shuttle R&D flight, first and only landing at White Sands, New Mexico.

• 1982 – First flight of the Valmet PIK-23 Towmaster

• 1982 – In the Iran-Iraq War, Iran launches its Fath al-Mubin offensive. Until it winds down a week to ten days later, Iraqi and Iranian planes and helicopters support the ground forces involved, but are generally ineffective. Iraqi Air Force fighters fly up to 150 sorties a day.[10]

• 1979 – First flight of the Lockheed CP-140 Aurora.

• 1975 – Hellenic Air Force LTV A-7H Corsair II, BuNo 159676, crashes near Souda, Greece, the first reported A-7H crash.

• 1965 – Avianca Flight 676, a Douglas C-47 (DC-3) crashes into Sugar Loaf Mountain shortly after departure from Bogota-Eldorado Airport in Colombia at an elevation of 7,200 feet (2,200 m). All 29 on the aircraft are killed due to the pilot continuing to fly by (VFR) Visual Flight Rules in unfavorable conditions.

• 1956 – Douglas AD-5N Skyraider crashes into Martinez Mountain in the Santa Rosa Mountains (California), killing all 3 Navy crew members from Squadron VC-35.

• 1955 – A United States Navy Douglas DC-6 hits a cliff in Honolulu, killing 66. It is the worst air disaster in the history of Hawaii.

• 1952 – A Douglas DC-6 (PH-TBJ) being operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crashes into a forest while navigating its approach to Frankfurt International Aircraft in Germany. There are 3 survivors among the 47 on board.

• 1952 – A Maritime Central Airways Douglas C-47 disappears two hours after departing St. John’s Airport in Newfoundland, Canada with four people on board. The wreckage is found almost a year and a half later on August 27, 1953.

• 1950 – ATwo North American F-86A Sabre fighter jets attached to the 81st Fighter Group at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, crash in Emmons, West Virginia, just outside of Charleston. They had landed in Charleston the previous day due to low fuel on a cross-country flight. After fuel was delivered from Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, the pilots, Lt. Col. A. F. Reinhardt, 43, and Capt. George Evans, 28, took off this date in morning marginal weather with low clouds and rain. A few minutes later, both aircraft nose-dived into the side yard of local landowner. Both pilots KWF.

• 1950 – AFuerza Aérea Argentina Avro Lincoln B.Mk. II, B-019, c/n 1495, lost in storm over Tierra del Fuego, eleven killed. Wreckage finally found on a glacier on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego in 1983.

• 1945 – USS Enterprise (CV-6) is damaged by a flight deck fire caused by American antiaircraft fire, and Task Force 58 retires from Japanese waters. During its strikes on Kyushu and the Inland Sea it has claimed 528 Japanese aircraft destroyed; Japan admits to 163 aircraft lost in air-to-air combat and additional Japanese planes destroyed on the ground.

• 1942 – The Second Battle of Sirte takes place between Royal Navy and Italian forces in the Mediterranean. The Italians fail to prevent a convoy of four Allied cargo ships from arriving at Malta, and an attack by Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 torpedo bombers is ineffective.

• 1938 – The Nationalist Aragon Offensive resumes. Bombing and strafing German, Italian, and Spanish Nationalist aircraft play a large role in terrorizing and routing Republican ground forces for the remainder of the offensive.

• 1937 – Late in life Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, became interested in aviation that she claimed gave her some relief from her constant tinnitus, although she eventually became totally deaf. On 2 August 1929, she departed on a record-breaking flight of 10,000 miles (16,000 km) from Lympne Airport to Karachi (then in India) and return to Croydon Airport in eight days. She was accompanied in her single-engined Fokker F.VII (G-EBTS, named “Spider”) by her personal pilot C. D. Barnard and mechanic Robert Little. On 8 April 1930 she made her first solo flight, in her DH.60G Moth (G-AAAO). On 10 April 1930 she embarked on a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to Cape Town, in the “Spider”, flying 9,000 miles (14,000 km) in 100 flying hours over 10 days, accompanied by C. D. Barnard. The duchess died in 1937, aged 71, after leaving Woburn Abbey in a DH.60GIII Moth Major (G-ACUR), that crashed into the North Sea off Great Yarmouth; her body was never recovered. 1937 – Spanish Nationalist leader Francisco Franco orders his National Aviation (Aviación Nacional) force to begin a bombing campaign against the Basques in northern Spain.

• 1935 – Prototype Grumman XF3F-1, BuNo 9727 (1st), c/n 257, company model G.11, disintegrates when pulled sharply out of a terminal velocity dive, the tenth and final such test in six flights, killing pilot Jimmy Collins. G-forces in this dive estimated at 12-13, wrenching wings off, engine torn from mount. 9727 serial applied to three Grumman prototypes, two of which crashed.

• 1934 – A Pan American Grace Airlines Ford 5 (NC407 H) crashes in Lima, Peru, killing 3 of 15 on the aircraft.

• 1927 – Western Canada Airways pilots Bernt Balchen, J. R. Ross and F. J. Stevenson flew the largest airlift of freight (17,894 lbs) from Cache Lake to Churchill, Manitoba.

• 1926 – On its seventh test flight during tests at Taura Beach, Yokosuka, Japan, the Kaibo Gikai KB experimental flying boat is seen in a glide with both engines stopped, which steepens until it strikes the water in a near-vertical attitude, killing all four crew. Cause attributed to a malfunction of the flight control system.

• 1925 – A Zakavia Junkers F-13 (R-RECA) crashes in Tiflies, Georgia, killing all 5 aboard.

• 1919 – The first regular international commercial route opens between Paris and Brussels, flown by an F.60 Goliath from Farman airlines.