Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 30

May 30

• 2012 – A United States Navy T-45C of TW-2 crashes 40 miles southwest of Kingville, Texas; both occupants eject safely.
• 2009 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 668, an ATR 42-500, registration AP-BHO, departs the runway on landing at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Pakistan, resulting in a collapsed nosewheel and damaged main wheel.
• 2008 – A chartered 12-seater Pilatus PC-6 crashes in central Spain after shedding a wing, killing the pilot and a passenger. Other skydivers escaped.
• 2008 – British all-business class airline Silverjet ceases operations. It was the last business class airline in service.
• 2008 – TACA Flight 390, an Airbus A320-233, crashes in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, with five casualiies (two on the ground) and 65 injuries.
• 2007 – One of the last two remaining ATL-98 Carvair (N898AT) crashed at Nixon Fork Mine near McGrath, Alaska.
• 2005 – A Comp Air 7SL aircraft with the Iraqi Air Force crashes in eastern Iraq, killing four Americans and an Iraqi on board.
• 2003 – The final flight of an Air France Concorde takes place.
• 1996 – Retirement: Mirage IV-P Bombers of the Armée de l’Air are retired.
• 1995 – A McDonnell-Douglas F-15C-26-MC Eagle, 79-0068, c/n 0616/C137, of the 53d Fighter Squadron, 52d Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, crashes on take-off, killing pilot Maj. Donald Lowry, Jr., 36, who dies en route to hospital. The cause was cross-connected lateral and longitudinal flight control rods off of the mixer assembly. The U.S. Air Force, despite awareness of poorly coordinated color scheme for keeping the rods from being misconnected (identical cases in 1986 and 1991, which, fortunately, were detected before leading to accidents), subjects two mechanics to courts martial for criminally negligent homicide, punishable by four years in prison, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. The Air Force also engages in dirty tricks, intercepting the defendants' mail and holding it when they were contacted by a safety expert who wanted to assist them. One defendant committed suicide on 3 October 1995, the date the court martial was due to begin. On 13 November, the service, citing "justice and the interests of the Air Force", dropped its case against the other mechanic, in exchange for his decision to leave the military. Motivation for the scape-goating attempt by the service can be traced to criticism the 52d Fighter Wing received for not bringing up on charges pilots who were responsible for downing two U.S. Army helicopters over Iraq in 1994, killing 26. "The 53rd FS 'Tigers' never fully recovered from the dark blemish on their otherwise exemplary record. The only way the USAF could make the issue and the pain go away was by closing the unit. This was done on March 10, 1999, leaving USAFE with only one Eagle squadron for the next war in its theater."
• 1990 – Two USAF LTV A-7 Corsair IIs of the 175th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 114th Tactical Fighter Group, South Dakota Air National Guard, collide in mid-air and crash in a "ball of flame" over northwestern Iowa near Spencer, Iowa, during mock combat, both pilots and a civilian passenger eject safely. The flight consisted on an A-7D single-seater, 70-1050, and A-7K, 80-0292, c/n K-021, two-seater.
• 1988 – The first aircraft carrier to be built in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is commissioned into the Spanish Navy.
• 1982 – The Royal Australian Navy decommissions its last aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne (R21). Melbourne never fired a shot in anger during her career, having only peripheral, non-combat roles in relation to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation and the Vietnam War. She was, however, involved in two major collisions with allied vessels. The first occurred on the evening of 10 February 1964, in which Melbourne rammed and sank the RAN destroyer HMAS Voyager when the latter altered course across her bow. Eighty-two of Voyager's personnel were killed, and two Royal Commissions were held to investigate the incident. The second collision occurred in the early morning of 3 June 1969, when Melbourne also rammed the United States Navy (USN) destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in similar circumstances. Seventy-four American personnel died, and a joint USN–RAN Board of Inquiry was held. These incidents, along with several minor collisions, shipboard accidents, and aircraft losses, led to the reputation that Melbourne was jinxed.
• 1979 – First flight of the Cessna Citation III
• 1975 – A USAF Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star crashes at Tyndall AFB, Florida, killing two pilots, one of whom had just completed a pilot training course the previous day. "Witnesses said the plane dipped into some trees short of the runway and apparently burst into flames. Wreckage was scattered throughout a wooded area adjacent to the base." KWF are 2d Lt. Frank Peffer, 24, of Anaheim, California, and 2d Lt. Michael Wesley, of St. Charles, Missouri, who had graduated from pilot training at the base on Thursday 29 May. This is the first fatal crash at Tyndall since the 19 October 1972 downing of a Convair F-106 Delta Dart which killed its pilot.
• 1974 – Entered service: Airbus A300 with Air France
• 1972 – Delta Air Lines Flight 9570 crashes at the Greater Southwest International Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, while conducting a training flight. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14, began to oscillate about the roll axis after crossing the runway threshold during a landing approach, then rolled rapidly to the right and struck the runway with the right wing low. This flight’s crash has been attributed to wake turbulence behind a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 that made a touch-and-go landing ahead of it. The plane’s occupants consisted of three pilots and an FAA inspector, all of whom were killed in the crash and subsequent fire. The resulting investigation prompted changes to the minimum distance that aircraft must keep when following “heavy” aircraft.
• 1972 – First flight of the Northrop YA-9
• 1972 – Lod Airport massacre: three Japanese terrorists attack passengers at Tel Aviv Airport
• 1971 – The American space probe Mariner 9 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a journey to Mars.
• 1966 – 300 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam.
• 1961 – Viasa Flight 897, a Douglas DC-8, crashes shortly after taking off from Lisbon Portela Airport. All 61 passengers and crew on board are killed.
• 1958 – First flight of the Douglas DC-8
• 1949 – Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft test pilot Jo O. Lancaster becomes first British pilot to save his life with an ejection seat when he bails out of experimental twin-jet flying wing Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, TS363, out of Bitteswell, using "primitive" Martin-Baker Mk.1 seat, when an oscillation in pitch set in during a shallow dive from ~5,000 feet.
• 1948 – First flight of the Martin P5M Marlin
• 1947 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 605 dived into the ground near Bainbridge, Maryland, during a flight from Newark, New Jersey to Miami. All 53 passengers and crew on board were killed. At the time this was the deadliest airliner crash in United States history.
• 1947 – First flight of the Boulton Paul Balliol
• 1944 – First flight of the Pilatus SB-2.
• 1943 – A B-17F-45-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5318, of the 464th Bombardment Squadron, 331st Bombardment Group, out of Casper Army Air Field, Wyoming, piloted by James O. Westbury, crashes into a mountainside NE of Covelo, California, while on a training flight to Eugene, Oregon, killing all six people on board.
• 1942 – The first 1000-bomber raid on Germany (Cologne), with four RCAF squadrons participating. One RCAF aircraft was lost in battle.
• 1942 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command carries out Operation Millenium, its first “thousand-bomber raid", in which 1,047 British bombers attack Cologne, Germany, killing 480 people and injuring 5,000 and destroying 13,000 homes and damaging 30,000. Forty-one bombers are lost. Fifty-seven more British aircraft operate as night intruders in support of the attack.
• 1942 – Since May 1, the Germans and Italians have lost 40 aircraft over Malta in exchange for 25 British planes lost in combat. The British have lost only six aircraft on the ground, 24 fewer than the previous month.
• 1941 – German bombers damage the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth as she retires after evacuating troops from Crete. Two more British destroyers also will be damaged before the evacuation is complete.
• 1940 – RCAF F/O A. B. Angus was posthumously awarded the DFC for becoming the first Canadian “ace” of WWII (RAF 85 Squadron).
• 1929 – Logan Field is opened at Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1924 – First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.8
• 1912 – Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever at the early age of 45. His death marks the end of his extraordinary partnership with his brother Orville, which culminated in 1903 with the first true powered flight in history.
• 1908 – The first European flight of over 15 minutes takes place. Leon Delagrange flies his Voisin-Delagrange in France.