Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/October 6

October 6

• 2010 – Tajik National Guard Helicopter crash was an accident that occurred when a Mi-8 military helicopter from the Tajik National Guard crashed in the Rasht Valley close to Ezgand and Tavildara. The helicopter got caught in power lines and crashed while attempting to land. It caught fire; there were no survivors.

• 2008 – Deceased: Richard Heyser, 81, American U-2 pilot during the Cuban missile crisis.

• 2005 – A small aircraft carrying cargo for FedEx, including six vials of research viruses, crashes in downtown Winnipeg. The female pilot, the only occupant, is killed but there are no injuries on the ground.

• 1993 – Larry Walters, American “lawn chair” pilot dies. (b. 1949) He took flight on July 2, 1982 in a homemade aircraft constructed out of a patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. He reached an altitude of 16,000 feet (3 miles) and floated from San Pedro, California into federal airspace near Long Beah airport.

• 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-41 at 11:47:15 UTC. Mission highlights: Ulysses/IUS solar probe deployment.

• 1984 – First flight of the FMA IA 63 Pampa

• 1966 – First flight of the Bell OH-58 Kiowa (OH-58A)

• 1981 – NLM CityHopper Flight 431, a Fokker F28 Fellowship, is destroyed in flight by a tornado near Rotterdam, killing all 17 people on board.

• 1977 – The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.

• 1976 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, a Douglas DC-8, is bombed by anti-Castro militants and crashes near Bridgetown, Barbados, killing all 73 people on board.

• 1973 – Egypt and Syria launch air strikes on Israel, starting the Yom Kippur War. The conflict lasts 18 days.

• 1962 – The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy suffer their first helicopter fatalities in Vietnam when a Marine Corps UH-34 Seahorse crashes 15 miles (24 km) from Tam Ky, South Vietnam, killing five Marines and two Navy personnel.

• 1956 – A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star overruns runway while landing at Mitchel AFB, Long Island, New York, runs through perimeter fence, flips over, ending up on the Hempstead Turnpike. Pilot Maj. Daniel Kramer killed, three in an automobile are injured.

• 1955 – United Airlines Flight 409, a Douglas DC-4, crashes into Medicine Bow Peak near Centennial, Wyoming, killing all 66 on board.

• 1955 – First flight of the Convair CV-440 Metropolitan

• 1955 – McDonnell company test pilot George Shirley Mills bails out of McDonnell F3H-2N Demon over Carrollton, Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri after what appears to be a massive systems failure, including the J40 engine. Instead of crashing, fighter circles over two states for more than an hour sans canopy, ejection seat and pilot. It eventually impacts in cornfield near Monticello, Iowa, 250 miles (400 km) from ejection.

• 1954 – First flight of the Fairey FD.2.

• 1948 – United States Air Force Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, 45-21866, of the 3150th Electronics Squadron, crashed in Waycross, Georgia shortly after take off from Robins Air Force Base due to an engine fire. Of the 13 men aboard 9 are killed including 3 RCA engineers. Four parachuted to safety.

• 1944 – No. 6 (RCAF) Group sent 293 bombers to attack Dortmund, Germany. This was the largest force sent out by the Group.

• 1944 – Cancelled: Fisher P-75 Eagle.

• 1944 – Junkers Ju 90, G6+AY, blows two tires and crashes on landing at Tatoi Airport, Greece, after flight from Iraklion, Crete. Repairs prove impossible and the aircraft is set on fire by the crew to prevent capture by the British, who were about to occupy Greece.

• 1939 – First flight of the Curtiss SO3C Seamew

• 1927 – Western Canada Airways commenced contract airmail service between Lac du Bonnet, Wadhope and Bisset, Manitoba.

• 1923 – Curtiss R2Cs win first and second place in the Pulitzer air race, the winning aircraft setting a new airspeed record of 243.6 mph (392 km/h).

• 1922 – Lt John A. Macready and Lt Oakley G. Kelly set a flight endurance record of 35 hours 18 min in a Fokker T-2.

• 1912 – At Oppama, Japan, Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko makes the Imperial Japanese Navy's first flight, piloting a Farman seaplane for 15 min and reaching an altitude of 30 m (100 feet).

• 1908 – Wilbur Wright and a French writer make the first passenger flight of over one hour.