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Today in Aviation

2009 – Myanma Airways Flight 409, a Fokker F28-4000, registration XY-ADW, overruns the runway at Sittwe Airport, Myanmar. The aircraft is damaged beyond repair.

2004 – Alaska Airlines starts service between Denver and Anchorage and discontinues service between San Jose and Tucson.

1994 – China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, a Tupolev Tu-154M, breaks up in mid-air and crashes near Xian, China, killing all 160 on board. The deadliest airplane crash ever to occur in China is attributed to a maintenance error.

1992 – Copa Airlines Flight 201, a Boeing 737-200 Advanced, crashes near Darién, Panama, killing all 47 passengers and crew on board; a faulty attitude indicator is the cause.

1982 – Aeroflot Flight 411, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes after take-off from Sheremetyevo International Airport; all 90 on board are killed.

1982 – Westland Gazelle AH1 XX377 is shot down by friendly fire from HMS Cardiff during the Falklands War

1976 – The Double Six Tragedy, also known as the Double Six Crash, was a plane crash in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The plane, operated by Sabah Air, coming from Labuan crashed in the sub-district of Sembulan in Kota Kinabalu upon approaching Kota Kinabalu International Airport. The crash killed everyone on board the flight, including Tun Fuad Stephens, the Chief Minister of Sabah at that time.

1973 – The 1973 Paris Air Show crash was the crash of the second production Tupolev Tu-144 at Goussainville, Val-d’Oise, France, which killed all six crew and a further eight people on the ground. The crash, at the Paris Air Show, damaged the development program of the Tupolev Tu-144. One theory is that a French Mirage jet sent to photograph the aircraft without the knowledge of the Russian crew caused the pilots to take evasive maneuvers, resulting in the crash. Another theory is that in a rivalry with the Anglo-French Concorde, the pilots attempted a maneuver that was beyond the capabilities of the aircraft.

1971 – A United States Marine Corps McDonnell-Douglas F-4B Phantom II fighter jet collides with Hughes Airwest Flight 706, a Douglas DC-9, which crashes into the San Gabriel Mountains near Duarte, California, killing all 49 people aboard; the pilot of the Phantom also dies, while his radar intercept officer successfully bails out.

1970 – A USAF Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, 68-0212, c/n 500-0015, fifteenth off the production line, but first to be delivered to any operational Military Airlift Command wing, loses one tire and blows another on landing at Charleston AFB, South Carolina for the 437th MAW.

1967 – First transcontinental carrier-to-carrier jet flight. From USS Bonhomme Richard in the Pacific to USS Saratoga in the Atlantic, 03 h:28 m, in a Vought F8U Crusader flown by USN Capt Robert Dose & LCdr Paul Miller. Distance unstated.

1966 – Gemini 9 landed in the Pacific after 45 orbits of Earth during the 72 h 20 min flight.

1964 – Over Laos, Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Navy RF-8 A Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann. It is the first U. S. Navy aircraft and first American fixed-wing aircraft lost over Indochina in the Vietnam War era.

1964 – The historic aircraft collections of the Canadian War Museum, National Aviation Museum, and the Royal Canadian Air Force were displayed together for the first time at the Rockcliffe RCAF Station. The three collections together were designated the National Aeronautical Collection.

1964 – Silver City Airline announces that it has airlifted its one millionth car between England and continental Europe.

1945 – The Boeing B-29 Superfortress that led the first B-29 raid on Tokyo on 24 November 1944, 42-24592, named "Dauntless Dotty", of the 869th Bomb Squadron, 497th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force, departs Kwajalein at 0306 hrs. for the second leg of a ferry flight back to the United States, commanded by Capt. William A. Kelley, of Tifton, Georgia. Forty seconds after takeoff, the aircraft strikes the Pacific Ocean and sinks, killing 10 of 13 on board instantly. Co-pilot 1st Lt. John Neville, of Bradley, Illinois, tailgunner S/Sgt. Glenn F. Gregory, of Waldron, Illinois, and left gunner S/Sgt. Charles McMurray (also spelt McMurry in one source), of Memphis, Tennessee, are thrown from the wreckage and are recovered by a rescue boat after some 45 minutes in the water. A search for the lost airframe by the National Underwater and Marine Agency Australia has been proposed.

1944 – A huge airborne armada, nine planes wide and 200 miles long, carries American and British troops across the British Channel for the D-Day invasion of Europe.

1944 – Thirty-seven RCAF bomber, fighter and coastal squadrons took part in operations for the invasion of Normandy. The Allied invasion of France is spearheaded by paratrooper drops and assault glider landings. The Luftwaffe offers almost no resistance to the invasion.

1944 – First flight of the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning was on 6 Jun 1944 at the Lockheed Burbank Plant.

1943 – (6-9) Allied aircraft drop an average of 600 tons (544,316 kg) of bombs per day on Pantelleria

1942 – Flying 112 sorties, carrier aircraft from Enterprise and Hornet sink the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma as she withdraws from the Midway area, bringing the Battle of Midway to an end. Three TBD Devastators participate; it is the last combat flight of the Devastator.

1942 – Four U. S. Army Forces B-24 Liberator bombers led by Major General Clarence L. Tinker take off from Midway to attack the Japanese bomber base on Wake Island. Tinker’s plane disappears after take-off and no wreckage or bodies are ever found.

1939 – Adolf Hitler reviews 14,000 veterans of the Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion in Berlin.

1931 – Barker Field was opened at Toronto by Mrs. W. G. Barker and L/Col W. A. Bishop.

1927 – Canadian innovator Wallace Turnbull sells the parent of the variable-pitch propeller to Curtiss-Wright in the United States and Bristol in the United Kingdom. It will be successfully flight tested on June 29.

1917 – The world’s first landplane designed for use as a torpedo bomber, a Sopwith Cuckoo, is completed for the Royal Naval Air Service.

1915 – LZ 37 becomes the first Zeppelin destroyed in air-to-air combat when it is bombed by Flt Sub-Lt Reginald Warneford, RNAS.

1910 – Robert Martinet wins the first cross-country air race, between Angers and Saumur, France (27 miles), in a Farman; he takes 31 min and 35 seconds.

1905 – Gabriel Voisin flies along the River Seine in his float-glider towed by a motorboat.

1903 – After several stationary stability trials, Ferdinand Ferber makes the first full trial of his glider No.6. It fails to take off in Nice, France.

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