Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/June 21

June 21

• 2012 – An Indonesian Air Force Fokker 27 on a training flight crashes into a housing complex while on approach to a landing at Jakarta, Indonesia. Six of the seven people on the plane die immediately, and the seventh dies later of his injuries. On the ground, four people die and 11 are injured.

• 2012 – Syrian Air Force MiG-21 (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") fighter pilot Colonel Hassan Hamada defects with his plane to Jordan. Jordan will later grant him political asylum.

• 2011 – Libyan government antiaircraft fire shoots down an unmanned NATO MQ-8 Fire Scout helicopter drone on a reconnaissance flight near Zliten, Libya.

• 2010 – Aero Service CASA C-212 Aviocar TN-AFD crashed in the Republic of the Congo killing all eleven people on board, including Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot

• 2007 – Free Airlines L-410 crash occurred near Kamina en route to Lubumbashi DRC an overloaded Let 410UVP operated by the supposedly defunct Karibu Airways crashes inverted into a swamp shortly after takeoff, killing Mbuyu Mibanga, a member of the DRC parliament. 24 others survive.

• 2004 – SpaceShipOne is the first non-government built spacecraft to transport a person into space and return safely to earth.

• 2004 – Grumman F-14A Tomcat of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, flown by Capt. Darioush Yavari and Col. Ali Abou Ataa, crashes on approach to Shahid Baba'ie Air Base when Yavari, an experienced Northrop F-5 pilot qualifying on the F-14, misjudges his sink rate during a no-flaps landing, undercarriage strikes runway with enough force to flip the Tomcat onto its back, killing both crew. Cause is found to be premature rush to put pilot in the cockpit without completing simulator course. Commanding officer of TFB.8, Gen. Ahmad Mieghani (himself a former F-5 pilot) resigns, but investigative commission reinstates him, recognizing the true source of the problem.

• 1993 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-57 at 9:07 am EDT. Mission highlights: SPACEHAB, EURECA.

• 1986 – Air France pilot Partick Fourticq and friend Henri Pescarolo once again enter the record books, completing an around-the-world flight aboard a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar in 88 hours 19 min.

• 1985 – Braathens SAFE Flight 139, a Boeing 737, is hijacked by Stein Arvid Huseby, who demands to make a political statement; all crew and passengers survive.

• 1982 – Air India Flight 403, a Boeing 707-420, crashes at Sahar International Airport in Bombay, India while landing during a heavy rainstorm; 15 of 99 passengers and 2 of 12 crew are killed.

• 1982 – A United States Marine Corps CH-46D crashed into the Atlantic killing one of the crew.

• 1977 – AUSN Lockheed EC-130Q Hercules TACAMO III BuNo 156176, c/n 4280, of VQ-3, crashed in the Pacific Ocean after night take-off from Wake Island.

• 1972 – Jean Boulet pilots an Aérospatiale Lama to a new record altitude for helicopters, 12,441 m (40,820 ft)

• 1961 – June 21-22 – A Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan makes the first non-stop flight from England to Australia

• 1961 – First flight of the Aviation Traders Carvair

• 1960 – Retired: Boeing B-29 Superfortress

• 1954 – No. 428 Squadron was reformed at Uplands, Ontario, and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.

• 1954 – Three USAF B-47 Stratojets cross the Pacific Ocean in under 15 hours

• 1953 – Two crew of the 3200th Fighter Test Squadron, Air Proving Ground Command, Eglin AFB, Florida, are killed in a Lockheed F-94C-1-LO Starfire, 50-969, when it crashes at Fairfax Field, Kansas City, Kansas. Fighter had departed the airfield on a routine training mission for a flight to Scott AFB, Illinois, when the pilot attempted to return shortly after the 1330 hrs. CST take-off. Fighter struck a dike short of the runway, hitting ~10 feet (3.0 m) below the top, and caromed onto the runway. Radar operator was killed on impact and the pilot died later of injuries.

• 1951 – First flight of the Handley Page HP.88

• 1950 – RCAF’s 412 Squadron accepted Canadair C-5 VIP transport aircraft.

• 1945 – (21-22) The tenth and final Japanese Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves only 45 kamikazes. They sink a medium landing ship and the hulk of a decommissioned destroyer and damage two seaplane tenders and two smaller ships.

• 1944 – Lt. Donald A. Innis, U.S. Navy, out of the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California, flying over the Salton Sea in Southern California on a rocket firing flight, launches weapon but the rocket body explodes prematurely on his starboard wing. His F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo 40860, which was in a 15-degree dive at the time went into a slow spin and crashed into the sea.

• 1943 – The first airbase designed for use by B-29 Superfortress bombers in attacks on Japan, Shemya Army Airfield, opens on Shemya in the Aleutian Islands. However, B-29 s instead attack Japan from bases in China and the Mariana Islands, and only one B-29 – on a non-combat flight – visits Shemya during World War II.

• 1943 – (Overnight) 705 British bombers attack Krefeld, Germany, losing 44 of their number.

• 1942 – (21-22) In response to an erroneous report that a Japanese task force is threatening Nome in the Territory of Alaska, 55 U. S. Army Air Forces and commandeered civilian aircraft carry out the first mass airlift in U. S. military history, carrying 2,272 men, 20 antiaircraft guns, and tons of supplies in 179 trips from Anchorage to Nome over a 24-hour period. The airlift will continue until early July.

• 1941 – Lieutant Colonel Elmer D. Perrin, a native Texan, and the district supervisor, Eastern Air Corps Procurement District, since 1939, and Air Corps representative to the Glenn L. Martin Company, Baltimore, Maryland, is killed in a crash during an acceptance test of a Martin B-26 Marauder bomber near the aircraft plant north of Baltimore, coming down ~1/2 mile after take off and burning. The civilian company representative was also killed. In January 1942, Grayson Basic Flying School, Grayson County, Texas, is renamed Perrin Field in his honor, later Perrin Air Force Base.

• 1940 – Mitsubishi A6 M Zero (Allied reporting name “Zeke”) with the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 12th Combined Naval Air Corps

• 1940 – Six Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo bombers of No. 821 and No. 823 squadrons based at Royal Naval Air Station Hatston attempt to attack Scharnhorst as she steams from Trondheimsfjord, Norway, to Kiel, Germany. They score no hits, and two Swordfish are shot down.

• 1936 – First flight of the Handley Page Hampden prototype K4240.

• 1935 – A Curtiss Y1O-40B Raven, 32-416, repaired after being wrecked at Floyd Bennett Field, New York City, on 25 February 1935, now flying out of Brooks Field, Texas, is written off in a take-off accident at Hatbox Field, Muskogee, Oklahoma this date. Pilot is Charles A. Pursley.

• 1933 – Entered Service: Grumman FF with the U. S. Navy

• 1933 – First flight of the Supermarine Walrus

• 1929 – First flight of the Vought XF2U

• 1921 – First flight of the Bristol Ten-seater

• 1913 – 18 year-old Gergia “Tiny” Broadwick is first woman to parachute from an airplane jumping from 1,000′ over Los Angeles CA.

• 1908 – The first flight of the Aerial Experiment Association’s (AEA) promising June Bug biplane, their third machine, takes place in New York State. It has a 40-hp air-cooled Curtiss engine.

• 1907 – Romanian Trajan Vuia makes a flight in Paris of almost 66 feet, at a height of 16 feet, in his second machine which has a 24-hp Antoinette engine running on carbonic acid and has its wheels fitted with shock absorbers.